Car safety, things I pack to avoid catastrophe

Recently a blogging friend Sara-Jayne over "Keep up with the Jones Family" at had a terrible experience with her car. After a breakdown, late in the evening, on a busy motorway with no safe place for her to get away from traffic she found herself faced with a wait for the AA.

Due to the nature of the breakdown the lights on her car failed and she was left waiting in the increasingly dark night in a really dangerous location.

The AA did not arrive for hours and during that time she was understandably distressed.(Read more on her twitter here)

Her experience made me reassess my own car safety procedures.

I carry a spare tyre, (not all cars come with one so it's worth checking!) and I know where my spare tyre is, and I check it is roadworthy at each MOT and service - that's important as newer cars do not need an MOT so it can escape being checked for several years.

I regularly check tyre pressures. If you've not done this it's a great idea to find out how to on a day you are not in a hurry and don't have an obviously soft tyre.

I make sure my screen wash is topped up - a seagull once crapped all over the windscreen, and it took a lot of water to clear it enough to see! (and don't ask me about the fox blood and guts incident)

I know where the dipstick is (jokes about him being a SAHD can be inserted here) and I can check the oil, and know where to add more too.

I have always carried a first aid kit and a 'life hammer' (the thing that can break car windows and slice through seat belts to release people in an emergency)

And after reading about Sara-Jayne and her horrible experience I'm investing in some hi-vis vests to keep in the boot of the car, in case we need to get out an walk anywhere if the car breaks down.

And also a warning triangle (they are essential when travelling in Europe anyway, and a great idea to give advanced warning if you have to stop the car unexpectedly)

I am even tempted to get a battery operated hazard light after thinking about electrical failures meaning the car lights could fail at night!

What do you carry in case of emergency? Have I missed anything? Or am I over prepared? What do you think?

Easter Plans

It's nearly Easter holiday time! If you are a stay at home parent for any reason you might not feel the same frisson of excitement that I do, but this year I've booked a week off work and so I'm free to stay in bed until noon, drink cava for breakfast and have sex in the garden all afternoon  spend more time with the teen and the husband.

Said teen is a studious soul and currently studying for her GCSEs so I fear she'll be revising a fair bit but I'm hoping I can lure her out for some fun at least once or twice.

I have a few things that I have been wanting to do for a while, and while I know I won't be able to do them all I thought I'd list them so I don't forget and also so that if you had input on whether they were good or bad ideas you could tell me! Ditto if you have reviewed any of them in a blog post - please share! (You can't share here, I switched comments off, but let me know via Twitter or my Facebook page - that would be great - thanks)

First choice for me is Marwell Zoo. We have visited several times now as a family and always love it - even in the cold and rain, though I admit it's better on a dry day so the weather may play a part on this decision. We always learn something new, the cages and environments for the animals are really nice, I especially love watching the giraffes. It's about a 2 hour drive, so takes a bit of planning, but now that we no longer have the dogs at least we don't have to rush home to them.

I am sort of tempted to make the even longer drive to Longleat to drive the safari park, but I'm not sure that DH would stay sane all day in car with DD and me. I do love to watch the large carnivores in the park, particularly the wolves, but DH tends to get twitching and want to be getting on with things, I imagine we would be ill-matched on a safari park visit. I think that might need to be a trip we do when we visit family (who live closer to the park) or when we can camp or stay nearby so we are in the car less of the day.

Next is the Winchester Science Centre. DD and I were there for a blogging conference and so had no time to explore but enough time to whet our appetites. It's easy to get to, has lots of parking and is spacious inside. It didn't look too busy when we were there, but I'm not sure that would be true during a school holiday. Still DD really wants to go, she loves experimenting with stuff, I do wonder though if there is enough there for a day with a teenager? Maybe I could combine it with a trip into Winchester? Have you been? What did you think?

I would also love to make a trip to London. That's a 2 hour train ride away and therefore expensive, I may have to buy a railcard to make some sort of saving, especially since now that DD has turned 16 she counts as a grown up and has to pay not only on the train, but on London transport too - gone are the days of cheap days out to London. If we all go, and if we want to be in London before lunchtime it will cost us over £100 on tickets alone, so anything we do there will have to be free! I have thought about Tate Modern, DD and I have visited and really enjoyed it, DH has yet to experience it so that would be nice. If the weather was good a walk in the parks or by the river would be nice too. I am also looking at driving a large chunk of the way and parking just outside the centre, have you done that? I need to investigate parking and where is cheap, easy and safe! What other free London activities can you think of?

It's been a while since I've been to Brighton as a tourist and so I might think about doing the 'seaside day visitor' thing, with fish and chips on the pier, a walk along the promenade, a trip to the Marina and maybe the Pavilion. I could even squeeze in some shopping in the Laines or Churchill Square - particularly if I don't spend all my money on a trip to London! I know that lovely DD aka the teen, needs some new clothes for college in September and we did promise her a new 'college capsule wardrobe' (ooh there's a blog post just waiting to be written) so that would take up a day by itself.

During the entire week of course I will be drinking more alcohol than usual, staying up later, sleeping in longer and eating more chocolate than usual. It is a holiday after all. What will you be up to?

Come and chat over on Twitter or my Facebook page I'd love to hear from you

A day out at Marwell Zoo

Marwell zoo is quite close to us, just under a 2 hour drive anyway, which in America would be about 140 miles but here in the UK is closer to 50 miles.

So we go a few times a year, we've thought about an annual pass but it's not quite a saving yet. At under £50 for the three of us for a day it's not a cheap day out but not totally crazy either, and the quality of the day's fun is high! And so many animals.

We hadn't visited so early in the year before, usually waiting for a hot day in August but in May on a sunny day it was lovely. Cooler so more animals were out and about and also slightly less crowded.


I was most excited to see the fossa, my favourite animal of all time, it's like some weird mad scientist crossed a dog, a cat and monkey; all slinky muscles and evil teeth. So I was thrilled to read they have a new male there and hope to breed them soon, a baby fossa! I simply cannot wait.

Husband is more a fan of the warthogs and rhinos, and his absolute favourites have always been the capybara, although after this visit he says that maybe his allegiance has changed to the coati , who are great fun to watch, hunting insects in the grass and bushes, pouncing into the clover and snapping at the flies, and they are great climbers too.

Darling Daughter is a fan on giraffes, and meerkets. But her total favourite is the tapir, for the whiffling noses and the cuteness of their babies - we did see the tapir but sadly didn't get any photos of them...they were whiffling though.

So here is a selection of photos from our day.

Penguins

Train

Giraffe

Meerkat

Stilt

Ibis

Coati (pronounced Ko-ah-tee)

Gibbon

Fossa

Fossa

Fossa (definitely male)

Fossa, (yes I took a lot of pictures of him)

Mini crocodile

So we had a great day out and I'd really recommend it for a family trip, there are lots of animals to see, a climbing and play area for the kids, and a good cafe (we had a burger each from the Barbecue and they were delicious) We like it as the animals seem happy and have interesting and appropriately sized enclosures, I love seeing the giraffes gallop about!

Find out more at the website https://www.marwell.org.uk/zoo/ where you can also buy your tickets to jump the entrance queues!

Day out to London, China Town, Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year! This year is the year of the sheep, I'm not sure if that is auspicious or not as I have no knowledge of western horoscopes never mind Eastern ones! I am a snake, DD is a rabbit and that's about all I know.

The last time we went to China Town DD was about 8 and it was the year of the rat, I think she still has a lucky red rat somewhere that we bought there.

This year we tool a leisurely train trip and a wander to China Town. We strolled from Victoria past Buckingham palace, being in the right place at the right time to see a royal palace coach drive by.

We walked through Green Park , then on past The Ritz, and took a look at Eros in Piccadilly before exploring Soho, DD was wearing tight skimpy shorts and has legs to die for so no surprise we got a lot of catcalls, stares and general hassle. I think she was torn between terror and pride. A whole education at each sex shop window, a discussion as to how sticky a 'private viewing booth' might be and then we escaped to China Town.

 We went to a little restaurant we had had recommended to us and I had some dim sum (best spicy dumpling soup ever!) and Dd had lemon chicken, her favourite Chinese dish.
I avoided some of the more unusual items on the menu...

But I did have some fried squid and chilli sauce.

After lunch we went to the half term hell that was Hamleys. and then staggered to a Turkish coffee shop for coffee, hot chocolate and the prettiest little macaroons (which I totally forgot to photograph but were delicious)

Then home on the train with only a tiny visit to Paperchase first.

The train was absolutely packed and I had to use my Southern Rail Priority seat card to ask someone to give me a seat - DD joked "what if they have a hidden disability too? Does it become like disabled Top Trumps?" I think she may be on to something! And thanks to the deaf man that stood so I could sit down. And to the lady that offered to stand too.

Home exhausted by 9pm

A Day out on Brighton Pier

The last few days of my annual leave and we decided to visit Brighton Pier. It's only a half an hours drive away and we always sort of forget it's there!

We parked up near Kemptown where the all day charge is £5 (unlike on the seafront where it's £15) and walked down to the sea via flea markets and charity shops, browsing as we went. Lots of taxidermy but none created such a desire to own them as the moose head I'd seen in Lewes the day before (I now have a serious moose head obsession - I think the hallway needs a moose head)

 After a nice lunch in a Kemptown cafe/restaurant (lovely plaice and chips for me, disappointing burger for DD, cheese sandwich for DH ...maybe wine...yes yes there was wine!) we wandered down to the pier.

Don't Blink

 Brighton pier is free to walk on, and there are free deckchairs too. So on a warm or sunny  day (it wasn't cold but neither was it sunny on the day we visited) it's a great cheap way to 'people watch'. There are all the usual seaside fun things to do, buy food (whelks, cockles, prawns etc or donuts, waffles, frozen yoghurt with fruit, rock) or buy souvenirs (sunglasses, jewellery, temporary tattoos, cuddly toys) There are stalls to win things (tiny crap cuddly toys unless you win 1000 times!) by flinging balls at cans or shooting arrows from a bow, or even as easy as hooking a duck.

 There are amusements, all the usual fun of the fair, fortune telling machines, coin shove games, air hockey (including a new one that throws load of pucks onto the table at once! It looked awesome!), slot machines, shooting and driving games.

 There are places to have your picture taken peeping through comedy pictures, and then, finally, at the far end, the fun fair rides.

I can't praise Brighton Pier highly enough. The rides are great fun and a wrist band for UNLIMITED rides is only £15 - after 4 rides the rest are 'free' - The rides are priced by 'token' - a token is £1 and the number of tokens varies but to ride all of the adult thrill rides would cost £42 in tokens.

DD and I got wristbands and were suitably terrified on the Crazy Mouse (each corner looks like you will be flung into the sea), looped the loop on the Turbo Coaster, DD nearly wet herself in terror on the Horror Hotel, but no one would have noticed as we had wet backsides from the Wild River log flume! We rode the dodgems (ace driving by me obviously) and had several rides on the amazingly fun Galactica, we even had a ride on the golden horses of the Carousel.

We were really impressed with the rides and the price, lots more choice and cheaper than Butlins (our next closest 'theme park' style location. We are already planning a full day there to make use of the unlimited rides.

DD finished off the trip with a waffle.... on a stick.

The great British seaside day out wins!

A day out in Sussex, with goats

Yesterday we had a rather cute and cheap day out at the Aldingbourne Country Centre. It's a farm and horticultural centre with cafe, that gives opportunities to adults with learning disabilities.

It has a slightly odd pricing structure, at £3 per child (aged 3-15), children must be accompanied by an adult, and then the adults have to pay £3 too....adults can visit the cafe and garden centre area for free as long as they have no children with them!

Any way we were 3, two adults and a child and we paid £3 each so we could do all the things included in the admission price, crazy golf, visit the animals (we forgot to visit the bees!) do the treasure hunt, wander the gardens etc

We even managed to pop into the cafe for coffee and cake, and had a look at the upcycled furniture.

All in all it was a lovely day and very good value. It's right next to Fontwell in West Sussex. Close enough to Eartham woods for a walk there too, or trips to the Roman Villas at Bigor and Fishbourne too.