H is for Holiday

About a month ago we decided to book a midweek break at CenterParcs.  This was our third break with CenterParcs.  Last time we visited Elveden Forest, this time we returned to Sherwood Forest and despite the one day of rain we had a fab week, we opted for a New Style Woodland Lodge in the middle zone.  Our lodge was a stones throw from the water and Mimi had a great time watching all the wildlife from the living area.   We had a problem with our cooker on the first night so we rang guest services and within 5minutes someone had come round to fix it for us.

The main living area.

There was so much to look at.  Mimi was so excited all week.  My Mum leant her some Winnie the Pooh bed covers which made bed time much easier.  I was a bit nervous about bed time.  About 10 days ago Mimi decided she didn't want to wear a nappy to bed, I was just so fed up with the fight that I relented.  Bearing in mind that she is still only two I fully expected to be up in the middle of the night changing bed covers.  It didn't happen, she woke me up to tell me she needed the toilet then she went straight back to bed.  Going away to CenterParcs made me a bit paranoid so we took the plastic sheet with us and some disposable mattress sheets.  As it happens we didn't need them.  Touch wood we have not had one night time accident since Mimi decided she didn't want to wear a nappy! 

We had such a good week.  CenterParcs is so well set up.  We got a babysitter to come in one evening so that we could go swimming and have a drink.  Then with all the other facilities on site we ate out at Strada one evening and drank coffee most mornings in Starbucks.  

A night out at Strada

Coffee in Starbucks

We went out on our bikes and saw a Heron and marvelled at the amazing (but expensive) tree houses.  

We ended our fab week with a visit to Mikes Aunty and Uncle, a traffic jam on the M25 and a Mcdonalds Happy Meal at the flithy Clacket Lane Services operated by Roadchef.  If you need to stop don't stop here.  It is disgustingly dirty, there were rats running around the car park, the toliets looked like they were in need of a deep clean and the chair I wiped in Mcdonalds after Mimi spilt her drink came up a different colour.

Needless to say none of this has helped my weight loss.  Weight watchers weigh in earlier today saw a gain of a pound and half!!!

  

sshh don't tell Mimi

We have just enjoyed a fab (although not cheap) trip to Venice which very conveniently coincided with my birthday.   Mimi on the other hand has had a lovely action packed holiday at Grandma & Pa's.

I booked it a few months ago using the secret hotel's on lastminute.com - we were really lucky and got a the lovely 4* Papadopoli Hotel in the main part of the city about a 5min walk from the bus station. I booked our flights separately with easyjet.com

We stayed overnight at Gatwick the night before in the Marriot Courtyard.  This proved very useful as it included our parking and was walking distance to the airport.  The hotel had amazing sound proofing as we were right under the flight path for taking off and landing planes and we didn't hear a thing.

Gatwick proved to be a bit of a nightmare when we went through to departures.  We haven't flown since we came back from our gap year around the world back in 2004 so we felt a bit out of sink with the procedures.  I had got a bottle of relatively expensive conditioner and a few other bits of toiletries which I had to throw into the bin.  In my flustered state I then didn't realise that I then had to put all of my other toiletries in a clear bag so when I got to the counter the woman was really stroppy with me, then in my panicked state I managed to drop everything all over the floor.  Then she made me remove virtually all my clothes including my boots.  Mike was equally flustered and forgot to take his phone out of his pocket which resulted in a near strip search.  All of this on my Birthday at 6.30 in the morning!  Eventually we made it through to departures and safely on to Venice.

Our lovely room in Venice looked similar to this.

We didn't do very much however it was lovely to just be able to amble about freely without having to worry about Mimi either running off or pulling everything off the shelves.  I love the ability to just wander in and out of lovely little shops and cafes that take my fancy - I had forgotten how good that feeling is.

We went to the top of the Clock Tower in St Mark's Square on Thursday afternoon which was beautiful.  Friday it rained quite hard for a while so we made a trip to the Fondazione Querini Stampalia to look at some of Carlo Scarpa's work.

I came across this beautiful bag company Officine 904.  They have the most gorgeous bags which I was seriously tempted with.  However I thought they were a bit pricey at 300e and struggled to convince Mike.  Additionally it took us about 36hours of back tracking before we eventually came across the shop again.  Only to find it was closed!!!

The O'bag:  Truly gorgeous!!!  

On Saturday we took the Vaporetto out via St Mark's Sq to the Lido, Burano & Murano.  

Cute fishing village - Burano

We were fairly lucky with the weather and whilst it was wet it was not too wet to enjoy our weekend.  The city was on flood alert yesterday morning and as we left the raised walkways were out and the water was starting to lap up on to the pavements.  I was well aware of the possibility that it might flood as when I previously visited the city back in November 2002 the water in St Mark's Sq was up to my waist.

I visited Venice when I was at University as part of my Architectural Diploma back in 2002/3 and I was quite amazed at how it has changed.  It felt much more commercialised.  Designer shops, expensive restaurants & café's although it was good to see No Costa Coffee or Starbucks!   Piazza S.Marco was a little disappointing as there was lots of renovation work going on to the Clock Tower and there was a stage and hundreds of seats set out for a graduation ceremony which meant that the sense of space couldn't be fully appreciated.  However how amazing would it to be able to say that you graduated from the University of Venice in Piazza S.Marco!

Also this week:

I have finished Mimi's new hat.

Mimi is still obsessed with dressing up as an Angelina Ballerina/Scary Tiger combo!

Mimi applying her own war paint!!!

Not sure what happened to the tiger here:
She looks more like a member of the army!

Also I would like to mention the Brit Mums Big Sister Mentor programme.  I have been very lucky to have been teamed up with www.muddlingalongmummy.com.