Category: Journal

Over the last weekend we travelled up to the lake district for a family holiday at the Oasis / Center Parcs resort in Whinfell forest, near Penrith. The location was fantastic – set deep into the forrest, it really did feel like we were miles away from anywhere. This did mean that it was difficult to get a mobile phone signal, though, which made it a bit tricky for folk to meet up after doing separate activities.

Arriving on Friday I was impressed by the reasonably swift check-in process (I think we beat the rush by about half an hour), and the villa we had been booked into was ace. It really was a lovely, log-cabin-esque place to stay for the weekend, with the only downer being the lack of access for my stepfather Steven, who cant walk very far. The girl who took the booking in the call centre obviously had no idea about the location, other than a layout map, so although it was reasonably close to the facilities, it was probably the worst villa available for disabled access. Fortunately that was sorted out with a courtesy electric buggy thing after my mum made a couple of fiesty phone calls. The initial oversight did seem to be the vibe for the whole villiage, though, with disabled access at the pool complex being either non-existant or ill thought out.

After all the unpacking and some food had been sorted out, we ventured to the swimming pool to get a taster of what was available. Disappointingly quite a lot of the pool area was shut down, due to lack of lifeguards, so it got a bit dull after a short while, with only a wave machine and a couple of tame slides on offer. There was also a pair of flumes, but the tubes were pitch black inside, and I don’t mind admitting to being the big fraidy cat – these things were not pleasant at all… I felt like a frickin’ turd being flushed! You couldn’t see a thing, and being swept from side to side as you plunged into the darkness was more horrible than fun.

Fliss has successfully passed her driving test at the first attempt today – answering that age old question posed by The Cars. Well, for me anyway.

I’m quite looking forward to all the things I’ll be able to do now that she’s automotively enabled… namely getting lashed while she doesn’t!

Anyhow, I’m dead pleased for Fliss, especially as she didn’t sleep too well last night for worrying about it, so well done to her. :o)

Hey… I wonder if we can get Sky+ now with the money saved on those lessons…?

I bought myself a new shaver at the weekend, after years of relying on a fairly poor re-chargeable Philips one that was wrecking my skin. After a lot of deliberation, I chose a nice blue three blade one – the new fancy kind that dispenses shaving gel directly onto the blades. At ?100 it was quite steep, and I would never have stretched to that if it hadn’t been for ?30 in gift vouchers I had been given. ?70 didn’t seem so bad for a ?100 item, though.

To be honest I was pretty skeptical about the gel dispensing feature, although I was sold on the idea of being able to use it in the shower, figuring it would help lessen the wear and tear on the skin. Turns out the gel is pretty darn fine in practice, though – on first use this morning it was great… felt a little metrosexual initially, but once I realised how easy it was to shave with it I was quite pleased.

Fliss seems pleased with the results, too – and is hoping I’ll shave more often than the once or twice a week habit I’d gotten into with my crappy old shaver.

Anyhoo – bottom line, these new fangled gel dispensing electric shavers are pretty neat. :o)