Sleep over

Well, we survived our first sleep over! No major dramas, no midnight runs home, nothing but some early morning cuddles required!

The little mans been wanting a sleep over for ages, but we've not be sure if its a good idea. Anyway, we thought we'd go for it and it turned our alright. The pair of them didn't sleep till nearly 10 though and were still up at 8, so could have tired bairns tonight. Next time I think were going to swap the otherway, somehow I think we might end up with a midnight run to pick the little man up.

Trouble is,even with the little man having a sleep over, there's still the young lady to deal with!

Family holiday - the highs and lows

I know its been a while since we got back from holiday but I though I would write a short post about the holiday highs and lows. This was our first real family holiday, as in a holiday that didn't involve staying at one of the parents/grandparents houses. Yes we've done a holiday where we met my parents at a holiday home in Oxford, but we spent the whole week with them, so I don't really count that as a family holiday in the same way.

So what were the highs and lows of the holiday?

Ill start with the lows, mostly as they were not many of them. The main low was one that ran through most of the holiday, the temper tantrums. Now, the little man isn't really one for tantrums, we've be lucky with that, most tantrums were caused by tiredness. On the holiday they became a regular thing, be it wanting to the TV or ipad (Grandma's I might add), not wanting to eat lunch/dinner, not wanting to do what we were planning, not getting to play with the bigger boys or being left behind. Pretty much everything invoked a tantrum at some point or another. Since we've been back, the tantrums have disappeared again, which is good. Whether it was just the change of scenery or routine that caused it, I don't know but it was a pain at the time. The other low point that sticks in the mind, is some of the vocabulary that the little man picked up! Some of the other kids (read older boys) were, well, typical older boys, bigger and more boysterous and with some questionable vocabulary. A few of these words appeared to rub off on the little man, although again he seems to have forgotten all about them.

In reality, there were not many lows to the holiday, which was quite surprising. There were quite a few highs though. Pretty much everyday held a high point of some sort or another. Seeing the bairns playing with new children and experiencing new things, such as the aquarium. The activities played on Toby the holiday place were also pretty good, some more so than others. Pond dipping and survival skills were real hits, bat watching ( too late at night), low ropes (still to high!) and team games less so (mixed ages groups and parents taking over/cheating, not in a bad way, just a little to enthusiastic).

Watching the pair of them getting so excited over the little creepy crawly bugs during the pond dipping or seeing how enthusiasticly they collected branches for shelters building was really amazing, almost as amazing as watching them toasting marshmallows over a fire for the first time. Some of the other activities we did in the afternoons were also just as good, crabbing on Plymouth harbour, where we caught several crabs, was another high point I wobt forget in a while.

It was in many senses a trip of firsts for the bairns, although I think the little man will have got more out of it, as I'm not sure how much the young lady will remember.

Overall, I think the trip was a massive success and were planning another trip next year, although we won't be going as far as we did this time!

Hire cars

As some of you may have noticed, I'm a bit of a car nut. I like cars, both in terms of driving and designers, although my main taste is older cars. We hire cars pretty regularly as we fly south quite often, usually when my wife has work south and as a result we end up driving all sorts of cars, although they are usually medium to large family cars, focus to mondeo size.

Over the years we've had various cars, from memory the ones I remember are; Seat Ibiza ( older style, not very good), Vauxhall Astra (various mk's, all rubbish) Vauxhall Insignia (petrol's rubbish, diesel is quite good), VW Polo (gutless but comfy), Kia C'eed (alright), Hyundai i30 (newer version, very good on several occasions) Nissan Quasqui (unmemerable, as in I remember we had one but I remember nothing about it!). I'm sure there have been a few others, cutoff the top of my head I can't remember. Both my wife and I have driven various others cars over the years too; Ford Focus ( both types), Toyota Avensis and Auris, VW Fox (cracking little car), Vauxhall Zafira, plus a few others that escape me. There is of course the Rover 25, both MG ZR's Andy current MG ZS to add to the list, but they were all fabulous cars ( ok, so I'm slightly bias).

So whatscthe point in all this? I'm not trying to brag about all the cars I've driven, just saying I've driven a few, so when I say the Vauxhall Mocka and the 2wd Toyota Rav4 are crap cars, you know I'm basing it on having driven lots of cars and not just because there not the same as my car. So;

THE VAUXHALL MOCKA AND 2WD TOYOTA RAV4 ARE CRAP CARS.

Don't worry, I am going to justify my opinion. We'll start with the Rav4, and ill start with the positives, which there are a few.

The forward sidewards vision is great, mostly due to the height of the vehicle and it is a conftable and very spacious car. We managed the 4 of us with all our luggage for 2 weeks with no problems at all. The engine was great to, if I remember rightly it was the diesel version. For these reasons alone I wanted to like the car. However, there were 2 major drawbacks, namely rear vision was not great, I might have gotten use to it in time, but the killer was the ride quality. On a flat straight road it was very comfy, but the moment you hit a bump you'd been better off on a bouncy castle! And ill not go in to the whole driving down county lanes. When a car is bouncing and wallowing down the road, it doesn't inspire any confidence. I don't know how well it would have handled as I never had the confidence to push it. Now, I know its no sports car, but even so, ill not be hoping for another one, which is a shame as it does have a lot going for it. As a simple plod arounfmd town car it would be great, but I'm a driver and its not a drivers car.

However, no matter how bad the Rav4 was, the Mocka was in another league of rubbish! Ill be kind and start with the positives, um...... Well with that done we'll move to the negatives. Ready? Rear vision is rubbish (thank good for parking sensors), wing mirrors are rubbish, cabin space is rubbish for such a big car and boot space is just laughable, you can't fit a fold away child buggy across ways and leave your large cases at home, there's only just room for a couple of small cases if you want to leave the parcel shelf on. The 1.4 turbo engine is possibly the worst engine I've ever had the pleasure of using, its pretty gutless at any speed and has no grunt, we were I first on many occasions when going up the steep country lanes as you had to keep the engine screaming to get any it to move at anything other than a snails pace. Yes I know that turbo engines work better at high revs, but this one had nothing below about 3000rpm and above that it had very little, you had to properly flog it to get it to go. Not really what you want when trying to join a motorway at 70!

Friends of ours bought a Mocka when they first came out, think theirs was a diesel one, anyway they swapped it after less then a year for a BMW X1.

So, the 2wd Rav4 isn't great (I assume the 4wd isn't much different) and the Mocka is just rubbish but what about good cars? Ill leave out the MG's as I'm defiantly bias there, I will however praise two cars, the VW Fox, its just a shame they replaced it with the UP, and the Hyundai i30 which was a very present surprise when we hired it.

We had a VW Fox for several year and we went all over the country and a trip round the Republic of Ireland, all without any dramas. Granted, there was little to shout about with the car, but it did everything we ever asked it to do and never gave a moments trouble. It is the perfect car for any young driver, cheap but with the VW build quality. The Hyundai i30 on the other hand was a surprise. When we first got it we thought it was going to be rubbish, but very quickly we realised that it wasnt, we've had a few over the years and even the 1.4 petrol is a good car, a little gutless on the motorway but not like the Mocka! The 1.6 diesel is an excellent little car, so much so that we very nearly bought one. We didn't in the end as we got given a Toyota Auris by the inlaws, as they were going to get rid of it. I would have brought the Hyundai but a free car is a free car, next time were in the market for a new car though, it'll be an i40 we'll be looking at.

Wedding

Some of might have gathered from my last post that we were recently at the wedding of a friend, in fact its the reason we actually came on holiday. Why, well to start with its at the other end of the country, quite literally, so popping down for the day certianly wasnt an option, but i'll talk about that some other time, what i want to talk about is the wedding, or more speciffically what the wedding was for my wife and I.

Apart from being an obvious reminder of our own wedding, it was probably the first time we had really been to anything of such nature without the children in tow! We popped in to town for a few last minute bits before the wedding, which turned in to the wife getting her hair and make-up down, something she hasnt done in years. This did mean that we were slightly rushed getting ready at the holiday home, by rushed i mean she got back half an hour before we were supposed to be there, luckly with having had hair and make-up done and the venue being about a 2 minute walk up the road, it wasnt actually that much of an issue! The wedding itself was lovely, quite a small affair, with a fair few uniforms around (he's in the army) and the reception was great fun, and even involved a boat ride around the harbour, well, it was a lot quicker than the hour plus drive around the river it would have been otherwise.

The main thing for us was that this was the first time we had left the kids with my parents and been out, just the two of us. We've done a couple of swift half's down the local pub before, but we've usually put the kids to bed before we've headed out. This time we left them about 10am and didn't see them again until we got home around 1am. We were a little nervous as the last time we tried this with my parents, the little man was about 9 months and it didn't go well. This time however, it went really well. They went to the aquarium and then got ice cream and they both went to bed without much fuss, although I think there were lots of stories involved!

Our night out was also a success, although it was strange. Were so use to the bairns being around that it feels weird without them, I kept expecting one of them to come charging over at any moment, or have to go and prize them off the sweets in the corner! Even with out the kids I still didn't drink much, in my younger days I'd have got wasted, as shown by my best mate who is still a bachelor and got wasted! Its not that I couldn't but I just didn't, I defiantly can't drink like I use to, both in amount and speed but I just don't want to. The wife has never been a big drinker, so I dont think it makes much difference to her.

It was nice to be out together though, something I do miss, just the two of us being able to mess around and act like a couple of silly teenagers without having to watch the kids. It was a well deserved night out and one we plan to repeat, especially as we know the bairns will be fine without us.

Well, I think I've waffled enough and I'm not really sure I've actually made a point, at least not a sensible logical one anyway. Oh well, never mind, I'm sure someone out there will get what I'm trying to say!

Home at last

Well, were all home safe and sound. I had been hoping to post up a few more posts while we were away and I've a few half complete posts in the draft box but it was such a full holiday, combined with the weather that most evenings all we did was collapse in bed! Ill get the posts finished and up as soon as I can.