Happy Bank Holiday Weekend!!

Its the last Bank Holiday of the summer, so I expect we will have rain to finish the season. I really don't mind, we had such nice weather on holiday it just doesn't matter!

Today I am playing the waiting game. At the end of last year we replaced our sofa and chairs in the living room. We decided to not spend a fortune so we bought from Ikea. It wasn't their cheapest range, but they came with all their expertise and a years guarantee, so we were happy enough. 

A few weeks ago I was hoovering when I noticed a loose spring, so we tipped the sofa up and found three springs had detached themselves from the frame. I called Ikea and they sent a man out to examine it. He looked and said it couldn't be repaired, there had been a batch with manufacturing defects and we had got one of those. They were happy to replace the sofa, but the colour was no longer being produced. So we have chosen another colour to try, if it doesn't work, they will have to replace the whole lot.

One of the great things about our recent holiday was that we were right next door to a theme park!! There were a few really high adrenalin rides and a fair few tamer ones, a good mix really. This year I had a go on The Falcon, which is a roller coaster that goes upside down and corkscrews, I am undecided if I like it or not. I had one go before Carl arrived and thought that would be the one ad only go. We were front row and going up to the first drop the whole carriage tips you onto your back so you are looking at the clear blue sky!!! Very scary, you can't tell when you reach the top, when you do its too late you are on the way back down! It only lasts about 40 seconds. Once Carl arrived he persuaded me to try it again. It was oddly better the second time. In total I rode it five times including once when it was pouring with rain and we got drenched! 

Beth loved these little boats, she came down a big slide and sped to the bottom stopping just short of a crash mat. Not everyone did stop short some of the bigger blokes piled into them!

This year there was a new roller coaster, billed as a family coaster. It was also advertised as the 'biggest coaster in the park' Not too difficult as there were only three coasters in total in the park! It was a good ride with a couple of jumpy drops and twists. It was such a contrast to the likes of Disney where there are loads and loads of attendants, Duinrell generally had one attendant on each ride, no one controlling the queues or checking at the start that the children were tall enough. It worked fine though, people queued up and managed to find an empty carriage without being directed by anyone, children not tall enough were turned away by the attendant at the ride if they had chosen to ignore the height warnings at the start of the queue. The only ride that had two attendants was Falcon. I think that had been set up that way, one checking the seats were locked and the other watching and dealing with the carriage that was already on the track. We never saw any queue problems it all worked very well.

For me the best ride in the park was the Mad Mill. It is a HUGE swing that spins on itself, that perfect mixture of stomach churning spins and weightlessness when we reached the peak of the swing, it was fantastic!! It was also the one ride in the park where the poor attendant had to be armed with a bucket and mop. We saw many people being sick once they got off.  

Beth had a near nasty experience when a man sitting next to her went very green and started to heave, luckily we were coming into land and he managed to keep a grip until he was able to get off and puke off the ride!!!

Its a fantastic ride I am so pleased I was able to go on it!!! I have no idea where there is another one, I would make a trip to any park with one in this country!!

MMmmmmm Ikea are not impressing me, I have been up since 7am as they gave us a 7am to 1pm delivery slot, they have still not phoned to give me my one hour advance notice of arrival and they are 30 minutes past their delivery slot. I can feel a phone call coming on. 

Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend.

Just back from my holiday

We have just had a fantastic two weeks in SUNNY Holland!! For the first time in a long time we have been so lucky with the weather, we did have some rain but it was mainly at night time. That was good for me, nothing better than lying in bed with the rain hammering off the roof of the caravan! This time it went a step further and we had thunder and lightening as well. One night it rained, but not too much else until around 2am when the most enormous clap of thunder rattle the whole caravan and woke everyone up with a start. Thank goodness Hunny was with dad, she hates thunder!!On the few days were it was drizzly during the day we visited nearby towns and had a look around.

This year we seemed to visit far more MacDonald's than we usually do, this was more to do with their free wifi rather than their outstanding gourmet contributions. MacDonald's always seem to have a meal deal offer on which had a free Coca Cola glass, so again this year we have come home with another colourful set of coke glasses! Debbie our travelling companion and her family were keen for news from their son who is on a school trip to Borneo, unfortunately the only likely way they were going to hear was via Twitter and even then that depended on the group leader actually posting something. Up until now they hadn't so Debbie checked in every time we got near a hot spot 'just in case' . I really felt for her because Borneo is a long way away and although no news is good news, its very frustrating to see other groups being mentioned while her own group was missing in action. I think the school should have made sure there was at least something to reassure the parents all was well. So here we are in MacDonald's in Leiden!!

We stayed at Duinrell, a superb park in Wassenaar in Holland. We have been a few times before. This time was different for me, as I could now go on some of the rides I had previously only looked at! The Chair-o-Planes were a throw back to my childhood. We used to go to Butlins at Clacton and part of that deal was a free funfair, I remember spending all my days on the waltzer and chair-o-planes, endless goes, staying on and enjoying the attention of the young male workers!!! So this ride really took me back to those days. Best thing is as soon as you get off the ground with the wind in your hair its FANTASTIC!!

I even managed a quick selfie as we were being launched into the air in the rain!

One night we had a 'super moon' this is not the best of photos as its blurry and you don't really get a true indication of the size but it appeared to bigger than usual, we only saw it for a short while before the heavens opened and we had a very wet and lively night!

My hand is starting to heal, in fact the scar has disappeared. I am still left with some swelling which should get better over the next six months or so. I have been doing my exercises and on advice of the surgeon I have resumed 'normal' activities (by normal read resume crocheting!!) So far so good and I have been able to sleep without a brace on my hand, so its all good news.

I'll update with some more photos during the week. Have a nice week whatever you are doing.