What can you say? He likes to entertain us…
Friday, July 29, 2011
Annual Family Camping Weekend at…Standlake
We had our annual camping weekend away with Nikki, Gaz, Katie & Emily, and this year we went to Standlake which is only 25 mins drive from our house which is ideal. I haven’t been there for a couple of years as we’ve rotated where we go with them but this is the best place really as the facilities are great and right on the lake makes it perfect all round.
Gaz and Nikki had the day off so had been there since around midday but we didn’t turn up until after work and had set up our tent, got organised, sat down relaxing with a beer within an hour! Not bad… by 6.30pm it felt like we’d been there all day and the working week was forgotten about.
Great dinner, a walk around the lake and then into the club-house to finish the night off being entertained by what can only be described as a Wagner look-a-like on the karaoke. Unique and memorable are about the nicest description I can perhaps use…it was actually a good laugh and he was talented but it was still quite surreal. In fact it did bring back memories of visiting the Labour club with my parents on a Sunday night and hearing Neil Diamond songs and the like. You had to be there!
Saturday morning, huge great fry-up, nothing more to say – perfect start to the day!
What a great feeling to get up at 8.00am and know that there is simply nothing planned at all with no pressure to do anything or ‘use my time wisely’, it doesn’t happen often but that’s exactly how the day panned out. Sue came over around midday and brought Lewis over as well, he’d stayed at home on Friday night having gone off to a party and seen his girlfriend as well before she’s off on holiday. The kids all then went on the Ringos around the lake which they loved.
Sad news though was that we heard Amy Winehouse had died, only 27, and most likely an overdose but we couldn’t get details and even at the time of writing no one really has confirmed how it happened. Great shame though.
Was up at 6.00am on Sunday morning – God knows why – so stayed up and we sorted out the tent as were packed up by 10.00am so pottered around the lake once again before leaving, it was boiling hot today and we could have stayed there all day again but we had things to sort for the coming week, it’s only a week before holiday to the States and with my work there is so much I need to get sorted, so we were home by 1.00pm. A fantastic weekend in which we all felt like we’d been away for an age.
Camping is certainly made by the weather, when there’s no rain it really is perfect – although it’s crap if you suffer back-pain! I am stiff as a board!
“Can we play bat and ball?”
I have never heard that phrase uttered by Jack so many times in one weekend than this one. ‘Demanding’ is certainly an apt description for him when it comes to remaining active, he won’t sit still and sees no reason for anyone else to do so either, and now my throwing arm is killing me.
Mind you, his hand-eye coordination is excellent and with the baseball bat he hardly ever missed a strike, really quite impressive, I need to get him into cricket for certain! I think he’d be up for that as he’s been playing with the older lads in the village so perhaps he’ll take it up instead of Lewis who has no interest.
More photos are on this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliandark/sets/72157627185283607/
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Cornbury Festival
Two weeks after the event I have finally got round to writing up the blog, sadly it’s not going to have been worth the wait for this posting!
Last year I managed to get a day at the festival to pick Charlotte up but this year we decided to go
the whole hog and camp and stay for the weekend, so pleased that we did, but even then we didn’t stay as long as we could have done so next year…who knows.
Lewis, Dan and I met up with John Bampton and his mate Ashley and between us we set up our tents on the Thursday night, we ended up putting 8 tents up, Holdy turned up by the time we’d finished his! Reluctantly I took Lewis and Dan home leaving John & Ash to savour the atmosphere and have a few drinks…
I had Friday off so Lewis and I got there 1.00pm and wandered round with a few beers, and slowly everyone else started turning up, Wayne, Kez, the girls (and their friends), Tash and Jack and Charlotte & Maisie and everyone was excited and enjoying everything that was on offer in the tents and that.
Unfortunately,the beers were flowing a bit too much…drank too much and made a fool of myself so that was a shame! No more to say on that episode…
Serious hangover following morning so everyone just left me in the sweltering tent until midday..up in time for lunch, beers and more importantly…Deacon Blue! They
were the band I was looking forward to all weekend and they didn’t disappoint. I got to within 6 rows from the front and it was fantastic, looking round it was just middle-aged men jumping up and down singing along, they played for an hour and all the favourites were run through. I could have gone home after that as I was happy!
We then went over and watched Sophie Ellis-Bexter and she got the crowd going during her stint as well.
On the Sunday we packed up (didn’t have to as we could have stayed the night and come home on Monday) and that took ages to sort out but once done we then wandered round again and watched more music, The Straits (Dire Straits) and then what all the kids really wanted to see – Olly Murs – he went down a storm and was actually pretty good even for the grown ups! That was then 7.30pm so we made our way home – exhausted.
Everyone had a fantastic time, total freedom to come and go as they pleased and just chill, relax, eat and drink. If tickets were available now for next year I’d buy them right now, so hopefully we’ll make it for longer as the Sunday would have been nice to stay the night as well.
Here is a link to some more of the photos from the weekend: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliandark/sets/72157627023156369/
Last year I managed to get a day at the festival to pick Charlotte up but this year we decided to go
the whole hog and camp and stay for the weekend, so pleased that we did, but even then we didn’t stay as long as we could have done so next year…who knows.Lewis, Dan and I met up with John Bampton and his mate Ashley and between us we set up our tents on the Thursday night, we ended up putting 8 tents up, Holdy turned up by the time we’d finished his! Reluctantly I took Lewis and Dan home leaving John & Ash to savour the atmosphere and have a few drinks…
I had Friday off so Lewis and I got there 1.00pm and wandered round with a few beers, and slowly everyone else started turning up, Wayne, Kez, the girls (and their friends), Tash and Jack and Charlotte & Maisie and everyone was excited and enjoying everything that was on offer in the tents and that.Unfortunately,the beers were flowing a bit too much…drank too much and made a fool of myself so that was a shame! No more to say on that episode…
Serious hangover following morning so everyone just left me in the sweltering tent until midday..up in time for lunch, beers and more importantly…Deacon Blue! They
were the band I was looking forward to all weekend and they didn’t disappoint. I got to within 6 rows from the front and it was fantastic, looking round it was just middle-aged men jumping up and down singing along, they played for an hour and all the favourites were run through. I could have gone home after that as I was happy!We then went over and watched Sophie Ellis-Bexter and she got the crowd going during her stint as well.
On the Sunday we packed up (didn’t have to as we could have stayed the night and come home on Monday) and that took ages to sort out but once done we then wandered round again and watched more music, The Straits (Dire Straits) and then what all the kids really wanted to see – Olly Murs – he went down a storm and was actually pretty good even for the grown ups! That was then 7.30pm so we made our way home – exhausted.Everyone had a fantastic time, total freedom to come and go as they pleased and just chill, relax, eat and drink. If tickets were available now for next year I’d buy them right now, so hopefully we’ll make it for longer as the Sunday would have been nice to stay the night as well.
Here is a link to some more of the photos from the weekend: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliandark/sets/72157627023156369/
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