Our Center Parcs holiday ended early with DDWT Junior having been taken ill – cultimating is us making the decision to bring him home early. He seems to be suffering from all of the symptoms of tonsilitus, but not being a doctor, I’m not really in a position to judge really am I.
We got home around 23:30 – the journey having taken longer than expected due to the A36 being closed and the enforced diversions. The TomTom really showed its worth at this point by providing us with a quicker, more direct route than the diversions in operation.
Our St. David’s Day had started well – the weather was the best of the week thus far and being up early we thoroughly enjoyed a greasy spoon breakfast (bacon, eggs, sausages, etc). We then decided to go for a long bike ride, during which time DDWT Junior was very touchy and niggly – which is usually the case when he’s overtired.
However, upon returning to the villa it quickly became apparent that he wasn’t ok. We thought initially it was exhaustion and the recent bouts of flu finally taking their toll on him, but he started complain about his ears hurting and was very sleepy. He then spent the best part of the next 4-6 hours sleeping on and off. It was after he woke around 6pm and appeared to be getting worse that we made the decision to come home.
As for the earlier part of the week, well here’s a rundown of events – with pictures.
~ Monday ~
We arrived at Center Parcs at about midday, having thankfully left the heavy rain behind us near Pyle (which isn’t a case of hemorrhoids – it’s a village near Bridgend). Once we got to the plaza DDWT Junior headed off in search of the vast amounts of Koi fish that are in the various pools – one of which is shown below.
After having lunch and then unpacking everything in the villa – we spent the rest of the day enjoying the lovely sunny weather and walking loads and spending a considerable amount of time near the Cascades – a wooden walkway intermingled with streams (shown below).
We spent our first evening down in the Jarden De Sports (CP’s very own sports hall) with DDWT Junior enjoying himself in the play pit area. This is also where he met Abigail and Isabelle – two young ladies (about 6 years old) whom took an instant shine to him and vice versa. DDWT Junior (all 3 years of him) seems to have this knack of getting on better with older women than he does with those his own age – he also appears to live the blondes – which is definately something I disapprove of as I’m into brunettes *smile*
Both Mrs DDWT and I got even more concerned though when he said to both girls “You want to see my bedroom?” – referring to the yellow tunnel they are all scurrying through whilst in the play pit!!! Kids don’t half grow up quick these days *wink*
After all this excitement, we were all tucked up in bed by 21:30 feeling absolutely zonked.
~ Tuesday ~
The weather wasn’t very good I’m afraid – prolonged thundery showers. We decided the first thing on our agenda would be to hire some bikes. Well bike actually, as I’d erm managed to find a stranded CP owned mountain bike all on its lonesome the previous evening and thought I’d save myself £18 (midweek hire price) in the process!
So whilst Mrs DDWT and DDWT Junior took the land train (shown below) to the bike centre, I took the opportunity to do some cycling (for the 30 minutes) and put my ‘find’ through its paces.
We met up at the cycle centre, where I then hired a Mongoose mountain bike and Burley trailer (£32 for the both for a midweek break hire + £30 refundable deposit). DDWT Junior choose a trailer over a bike seat – which I was at first surprised by, however after cycling around for a while afterwards I quickly realised why he preferred it – it was more comfortable, dry, warm and ultimately he could see more.
After lunch we spent several hours in the main plaza pool, trying out all of the various slides and even getting DDWT Junior to have a bash at swimming. Thankfully he follows his mam and loves the water, whereas I find it most boring (well swimming anyway).
For a complete change we decided to treat ourselves and head off to Huckleberry (an American BBQ themed restaurant) for our tea. Whilst the service was excellent and the food ok – I felt it was overpiriced (£35 odd) for what I would call standard fare tbh. A semi-plateful of anaemic chips didn’t exactly help matters either. Disappointing to say the least, especially at that price.
We then spent the rest of the evening building Lego blocks, watching the Swans via teletext (why do they always seem to play when I’m in CP) and having a few tins of strongbow.
What a lovely relaxing way to end another relaxing day. Now that’s my kind of holiday.
~ Wednesday ~
Once again we were faced with heavy downpours and even the odd shower of hailstones. Undeterred by the weather however, we headed off down to the lake by the Jardin Des Sports (JDS) to feed the ducks and fish (as is our usual ritual or should I say DDWT Junior’s).
Any spare bread we had (after this) ended up on the villa patio and we took great pleasure in watching the wildlife enjoy their new found feast. We saw wood pigeons, squirrels, robins, chaffinch, coal tits and great tits (albeit not at the swimming pool I hasten to add) – much to DDWT Junior’s amusement (the wildlife I mean).
In the afternoon we went out once again on the bikes and spent quite a lot of time just riding around enjoying ourselves – in between the showers. Our evening walk down to the JDS saw us clock an abundance of rabbits – it must be true what they say about “being at it like rabbits”.
The rest of our evening was spent trying to improve our artistic talents in the form of animal drawings with pencils, etc. I can honestly say that I now know why neither myself or Mrs DDWT ever got a job in art & design. DDWT Junior on the other hand appears to have at least some idea!
Being the anorak that I am, I finally gave in to my technology cravings and fiddled with the GPRS settings (for email/web purposes) on my mobile phone – with limited success I hasten to add. However I did give up on my meddling, when Mrs DDWT pointed out that I was on holiday and as such should be ‘incommunicado’ for the week!
The only other noteworthy item was that I finally finished reading Sir John Stevens autobiography – ‘Not for the Faint Hearted‘. I like books with detail in them and this one certainly fitted the bill (no pun intended) but I felt that it dwindled too long on the early stages of his career and not enough on the more ‘juicy’ items such as Northern Ireland and the Met itself. Still it was worth persevering with and is a good (if long – over 470 pages paperback) read on the whole.
As for Thursday, well here we are and you know what’s happened – and besides it’s now way past my bedtime.