Ray's birthday picnic

Today we had a lovely if slightly rainy picnic for ray's final birthday celebration.
Ingeniously we ate in the bandstand for a bit of shelter!

Rays birthday

Today we went to the comic book store, then to old town to rays ice cream parlour for turkish delight.
Then to the skate park to see the grafiti and then to buy door letters.

Then back to town for a family meal.
Somewhere in all that I wiped my phone... so I only have pics from dinner.

It was still an ace day!

Early birthday surprise

It's BBQ time!

We're finally having a BBQ! The novelty of this is awesome!  5 years of living in a flat without a garden was pretty tough. No fireworks in winter and no BBQs in summer ( Traff did once try and have a BBQ in our parking space but the neighbours were less than delighted). So, here is our first Wiltshire BBQ.  Fingers crossed it's the first of many.

Jay's Birthday cake

Blanket for pregs and kelly's baby

I have put my Crochet skills to good use once again to make a baby blanket for my colleague. I started this almost a month ago whilst he was on his paternity leave and it's still not finished! If I don't get a move on the baby will be too big to fit in it!
Still, I'm sure the thought will be appreciated. It was a whole department effort with Phil, Tina, and Suzi crocheting bits too.
I have just been left to complete the project. That may have been an error...

Josh's birthday do

Josh, Katie, baker, jay and I went for lunch in spoons for josh's 30th. Maybe not so adventurous but opeions are a bit limited when your time is constrained by a flight!

It was really good to see everyone and catch up on the news.

Sushi making with Hayley

For my Birthday Traff got me a sushi making voucher (following Kirstie's rave review of the workshop!).
He hadn't had Sushi before and I got him to try some in Munich- which he hated.
He really doesn't like fish, and apparently the sea weed noori is too "fishy" for his delicate tastes, so he suggested I take someone else with me instead.

Hayley was more than happy to take his place! The workshop was awesome and we made a mountain of sushi.
We stayed afterwards and had some for lunch, and we still ad a box and a half each to take home- I'm going to have mind for lunch tomorrow at work. :D
Monday treats!

My Birthday

Centre Parcs for Dad's 60th Birthday & Mothers day

Upon arrival John, my mum and my dad were waving at us from the balcony like crazy people! We unloaded the car and I played my Dad at pool- and WON!
I never win at pool- admittedly he potted the back but that isn't the point! He won the next game and practically cleared the table before I'd potted anything. John and Traff played him next and also lost.

I was really impressed with the accommodation- it's pretty much brand new as the park hasn't even been open 18 months yet. I love the big tree prints on the wall and the open spaces and wooden floors. please may I live here?
I especailly loved the chalk boards, massive kitchen games room and sauna!

When ray finally arrived Mum made dinner for us all- we had chilli from the hairy bikers cook book and tortilla baskets- made by baking tortillas in a mould. This is a new discovery on my mothers part and she'd never made them before so we were pleased they came out ok!

Whilst dinner was in the oevn my mum sent my dad out on a fools errand to collect something from the car that wasn't in the car in the first place- this gave us time to decorate all the space and embarrass him ready for his birthday tea- look! the bunting had pride of place!

Dad came back just in time to help Traff serve up dinner.

And there was birthday cake for afters with fireworks, not candles- for future note, they're probably not for indoor use and one really is plenty!

After dinner we had drinkies and watched the comic relief coverage on the TV- wearing our red noses!

Tis was the sun rising through the trees behind the log cabin on Saturday morning- it's so pretty! I was up really early on saturday- I think I was still running on work time!

We had a cooked breakfast all together- which was a bit of a mission- after cleaning and tidying up from cooking we had a few games of pool to let our food go down before we headed out to the swimming pool.

We were ready to go swimming, and my parents went out for a morning stroll to take in all the views and find the spa for the afternoon. They said they'd meet us in the water.
Unknown to us we arrived as the pool opened- it was already pretty busy but we did manage to go round the rapids a few times just the 4 of us before anyone else managed to find them- and we had a go on quite a few slides before it got really busy (Just as my parents joined us!) my dad loves slides- we could have left him there all day!

After swimming we went for lunch in Cafe Rouge- my top tip for centre parcs would be to avoid major meal times- eat a bit late lunch, save money by eating on the lunch menu and completely avoid all the exhausted families with very hungry small children!
I love the croc monsieur from cafe rouge! It's awesome. It's also massive- you might not beleive me but I genuinely didn't have rom for a whole pudding- I had an earl grey and a mini lemon tart. tooooo fullllll.

Traff did the best in the pudding stakes- this is the baked cherry tart and it looks too good. I wished I had had enough room to eat Traffs pudding too.

After dinner Mum, Ray and I went for a walk- this is our chalet as we walked past it- I couldn't get over the size of the accommodation, it's just like a really fancy eco house with a sauna in the garden. I'll move in now please!
The whole park is hidden by the trees, you can't see it from the road at all- we almost drive past it- and it keeps the noise right down.
It does feel like being in sweden on in the alps or somewhere continental and much more exciting than Bedfordshire.

After our walk we went to the spa for all our yummy spa treatments, Ray had a Madagascan mud body scrub and masage, my mum had a float treatment, my dad had a mens massage and facial (Which he loved far too much!) and John had a swedish massage. Traff and I had a couples massage which was a bit of a joke on rays part, because we don't usually do anything couply and we never do massagy spa type stuff.
It started off really well and was really good, all relaxing music and shoulder massage. Then my massage therapist said that she needed to step outside for a scond- I assumed that she'd run out of something. the next thing we know theres a massive thump and people come running and then more people came running and lots of commotion- Fair play to the massage therapist working on traff- she looked a bit rattled but carried on all the same- very pro. Then the manager came in to speak to me and said that the therapist had fainted and offered to rebook the session for the following day, and asked the lady doing traffs back to do mine too- so I got a 10 minute back massage and he got 40 minutes back and legs.
After the massage we used the spa and sauna rooms for a bit. Traff farted in the sauna and it stank. I escaped from him and had a relax with ray in one of the sensory rooms.

After the spa we went to the sports bar for cocktails and they sell bite sized deep friend macaroi cheese. I'm in love!

We headed back through the park in the dark to the chalet for gin cocktails. I went to bed about 10pm because I was super exhausted!
Eveyone else made it to 1am.

Traff and I got up super eraly on Sunday as Ray assured us that the pool opened at 7am- we were up, dressed and ready to go at 8am- only to find it' didn't open till 10!

We went to the shops instead and got pain au chocolait and paper to make my  mum a new mothers day card- I wrote one but I don't know where it went!

I Think it fell out of the hole in my back pack.

:(

We had bacon sandwiches and patries for breakfast (Which traff and I ate in our swimming things!) and then went swimming at 10 am when the pool opened- we got on all the slides before the queues!

Awesome.

After swimming we went for a segway experience. I've decided that I like segways! I can't understand why you can't ride them on normal roads! they go faster than mobility scooters.

In the afternoon Traff and I went bac to Aqua Sana for our reschedules massage- we had the bliss dual massage and it was AMAZING.

Traffs a complete massage convert now. he's very keen to go for another spa weekend. about now.

We had dinner in Strada- I had another "speck" pizza like in sicily but without pears this time. I think it was better with pears!

Maybe next time I can add them as an extra!

Home made photo bunting!