Fuertaventura February 2015.

February and time for our annual "Centre Parcs" holiday. This year we went to Correlejo. It was a volcanic island,as are all the other Canary Islands. It is also very,very windy. 

However, the house was lovely. As we've all got older we like to have a bit more space around us and we all like to have our own bathroom. This house had 4 bedrooms all with their own bathrooms. Perfect! Lorna and Ray had the master suite and they had their own terrace. Very posh indeed.

Breakfast room. Lovely sheltered place to eat.

           

      

               

             Very posh inside.

             I don't think Fuerteventura could ever be called attractive. Most of it is very barren with precious little natural greenery.

It is very mountainous and apart from a few scraggy goats we don't think the landscape supported any other animals.

 The area we were in is famous for its sand dunes 

The sand blows across this road, completely covering it. It's a bit disorienting and feels as if you are driving through the dessert.

                     

   

   This dune was the size of a small hill .It was all very amusing to slid down it until everyone realised how hard it was to get back up.!

 

                                    Lady down!

                               

      The weather was a bit naff one day so we had a drive back to the place we stayed at before. It was much windier there. We planed to have a bit of a walk until we saw this...........

   

 The spray was like fog

 We left there a bit sharpish!!

We went to a place called Cotillo. Where the lava had reached the sea it created little lagoons. The water looked very inviting as it was so shallow

                 

   

There isn't really very much to look at so they tend to " big up" what there is.

This place is a marine park. Basically a lighthouse, lots of black rock and weird little piles of pumice stone made into fancy shapes

        

                           

   It wasn't that heavy!

                    As it is always so windy ,people make little shelters from the rocks. If you can get one to yourself and there aren't that many, laying on the beach can be very pleasant 

                     

                    

       We found this beach bar and decided to have lunch there one day

Unfortunately, the day we went it was cloudy and a bit chilly.

        

      

The main reason for going to this bar was the "happy hour", 2 drinks for the price of one. Problem was it was only mojitos or beer. I tried a mojito but it wasn't for me, so I gave it to Val. The regular price for a cocktail was only €4 so I ordered a Mai Tai. It came in this enormous vase sized container 

It tasted all right but was a gungy green colour and took me about 2 hours to drink.

      

On Sunday we went to a market. Val and I were looking for little cardigans for our grandchildren. We didn't think it would be too difficult, but there were none to be had anywhere. Val bought one for her granddaughter and Charlotte decided to buy one for Ollie, her grandson. Unfortunately this was his reaction.

 

Not a success!

  We had a drive one day to a place called Oliva. It was once the municipal centre for the island. We expected a bustling little town with lots to see and do.

This was as bustling as it got!

It was quiet season, maybe it's busier in the high of the summer. We shall never know!

Crystal Palace and glitter 16/2/15

I get a certain amount of stick from Emma and Jo about my lack of concern regarding glitter. The kids love it and to be honest glittery carpets look quite good when the sun shines on them. Sparkley dust

 really. Very pretty. 😉

Madelyn loves doing craft,especially with glitter.

How can I refuse 💕

It eventually goes up the Hoover anyway.

To distract her so that we could clear up  go out I got her to pose for Aunty Vic wearing her Christmas present

She has a band of decorative sticky paper round her forehead to make her look pretty! 

We eventually got de glittered and went to Crystal Palace park to see the "monsters"

                              

  

             

A little bit concerned that they would go "Raaaah"

           

   By the waterfall.

     When we go to Crystal Palace we usually just wander round the bit with the " monsters " but this time we took a different path and found a maze, too muddy for us today but we did see the ruins of where the original Palace was. It was huge. When we were kids we could run around in the old buildings but that was before "elf and saferty" came into force. 

     

        

 

The TV tower

                

  This was probably the main road into the exhibition halls.

             

This is what happens when you give a little girl your phone to play with in the car! A selfie. So that he wasn't left out,doggie had to have his photo taken too📷

    

The next day was beautifully sunny so we went to Tilgate Park. They have a children's zoo, not many animals unfortunately,but this worried Meerkat made us chuckle 

      What do these little dudes think is going to happen??

    

Playing in the adventure playground

         

We had a great day xx

Leeds Castle February 8th 2015

While Emma and Nick have been having a fabulous time in Hong Kong, me and the old boy have been in charge at Aldrich Towers. The kids have been absolutely wonderful and have organised us very well. We have managed to get everyone to school and clubs on time and  remembered to feed the quinea pigs every 10 mins, such greedy little animals!. 

It was bright and sunny today,so this afternoon we went to Leeds Castle. There were loads of birds looking for food

 These black swans were very persistent 

          

Very brave.

                                 

Moved just as I took the shot, so no head! Looks a bit like a caterpillar.

            

The sun was just beginning to set as we were going home. 

                   

                        

     The castle

        

                                           

                                                 Lovely kids