WSVG
Taken at a Bedgebury forest. The ones above are of my dog, Jazz, who decided half way down the slide it wasn't fast enough! The second is inside a very good version of one of those forts, and it has a carved wolf standing guard of the other end of the tunnel. Good, eh? Some of the equipment there is excellent - lots of grown-up adventure playground climbing frames and swinging rope-bridges etc for the big kids in us (though a lot of people go there for the great cycling tracks, and to take in the wonderful forest views).
Changing subject completely...
One event that I shouldn't miss mentioning was last weeks World Series of Video Games (WSVG) UK Gaming Championship. We only saw it on CBBC's Newsround on Thursday or Friday, and I really hadn't planned on going... but... well, my lovely enthusiastic son had other ideas! Saturday was out, because I was feeling shite from flu. By Sunday I hoped he'd forgotten -course he hadn't!! :-(
First thing Sunday morning, I sneaked down to get myself a cuppa, without waking anyone up, but lo and behold! There they all were... waiting for me with big, fawn-eyes... Fair gave me the shivers. Imagine the golden-haired children from the 'Village of the Damned' : "You are going to take us to the Trocadero in London today, aren't you mummy? You said you would. If you don't, we will consider your witholding the treat as a direct form of harm, and you will have to go and do something very unpleasant to yourself as a retalliation. Perhaps you will destroy years of family history research... "
Anyway, I wasn't risking it! So, into the car we jumped and sped on up to London. Luckily it's only about an hour and a half to my favourite station (Morden underground has a brilliantly placed carpark next to the safeway as you come out and turn left, which has free parking on a Sunday :-) and very reasonably-priced parking the rest of the week)
A tube journey, and a cut across Trafalgar into Piccadilly, and the Trocadero loomed across the street. Of course the event wasn't on the ground floor - it was on the top three floors (good views as you go up though)
Point is, once we'd made the epic journey, signed in and put on wristbands, we got button-holed at the door to go do the Lego competition. The 'usher' was enthusiastic, and the moment I wavered she was rushing off for an entry form. Didn't realise there were only 6 entries (including us), and I didn't ask what the prize was. She said (oh so casually) that we could come and go as we wanted...
So, tub of bricks, and some base-boards and away we went. Have to admit, I didn't even look at the other entries until after we finished. I was simply too busy finding the pieces that my two youngest wanted for their creation. (And later I discovered why I couldn't find any of those darned pieces, even though apparently everyone had the same! The other contestants (who were there before us, and who had actually planned what they were going to build :-( had nabbed all the pieces they needed, and we were left with a box of all the cast-offs!!! ) Regardless, we had 3 hours of absolutely brilliant fun (though my head ached a bit under the pressure of it all, when the youngsters disappeared to explore, and left me to it!) The other entries were superb (and ours was passably brilliant considering the lack of planning :-))
And equally regardless to say, we didn't get to see many video games. After queuing up to play on the giant 3 foot joystick for 20 mins, we just got to the front of the queue when C spotted the Lego Star Wars game in action on the xbox 360 and ran off! Two seconds later R joined him, and that was that- even throughout the reward ceremony, which was held in the same room!!! :-)
As for the video-gamers -never seen such a dazed lot of people with half-smiles... talk about happily zombified - Shaun and his Dead would've been proud.
One event that I shouldn't miss mentioning was last weeks World Series of Video Games (WSVG) UK Gaming Championship. We only saw it on CBBC's Newsround on Thursday or Friday, and I really hadn't planned on going... but... well, my lovely enthusiastic son had other ideas! Saturday was out, because I was feeling shite from flu. By Sunday I hoped he'd forgotten -course he hadn't!! :-(
First thing Sunday morning, I sneaked down to get myself a cuppa, without waking anyone up, but lo and behold! There they all were... waiting for me with big, fawn-eyes... Fair gave me the shivers. Imagine the golden-haired children from the 'Village of the Damned' : "You are going to take us to the Trocadero in London today, aren't you mummy? You said you would. If you don't, we will consider your witholding the treat as a direct form of harm, and you will have to go and do something very unpleasant to yourself as a retalliation. Perhaps you will destroy years of family history research... "
Anyway, I wasn't risking it! So, into the car we jumped and sped on up to London. Luckily it's only about an hour and a half to my favourite station (Morden underground has a brilliantly placed carpark next to the safeway as you come out and turn left, which has free parking on a Sunday :-) and very reasonably-priced parking the rest of the week)
A tube journey, and a cut across Trafalgar into Piccadilly, and the Trocadero loomed across the street. Of course the event wasn't on the ground floor - it was on the top three floors (good views as you go up though)
Point is, once we'd made the epic journey, signed in and put on wristbands, we got button-holed at the door to go do the Lego competition. The 'usher' was enthusiastic, and the moment I wavered she was rushing off for an entry form. Didn't realise there were only 6 entries (including us), and I didn't ask what the prize was. She said (oh so casually) that we could come and go as we wanted...
So, tub of bricks, and some base-boards and away we went. Have to admit, I didn't even look at the other entries until after we finished. I was simply too busy finding the pieces that my two youngest wanted for their creation. (And later I discovered why I couldn't find any of those darned pieces, even though apparently everyone had the same! The other contestants (who were there before us, and who had actually planned what they were going to build :-( had nabbed all the pieces they needed, and we were left with a box of all the cast-offs!!! ) Regardless, we had 3 hours of absolutely brilliant fun (though my head ached a bit under the pressure of it all, when the youngsters disappeared to explore, and left me to it!) The other entries were superb (and ours was passably brilliant considering the lack of planning :-))
And equally regardless to say, we didn't get to see many video games. After queuing up to play on the giant 3 foot joystick for 20 mins, we just got to the front of the queue when C spotted the Lego Star Wars game in action on the xbox 360 and ran off! Two seconds later R joined him, and that was that- even throughout the reward ceremony, which was held in the same room!!! :-)
As for the video-gamers -never seen such a dazed lot of people with half-smiles... talk about happily zombified - Shaun and his Dead would've been proud.
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