Voyage to the bottom of the sea...and the squirrel sanctury

I’ve been away this weekend, sans laptop, and have missed much of the furore over ‘that article’ although the hotel we were staying at just so happened to have free copies of The Independent in reception, and Laura (who by the way was misquoted) has kept me abreast of developments via text message. Just so you all know I love blogging, ‘cos well I just do, simple as. I’ve come across some great people, many of whom have me in daily fits of laughter and I feel part of a community. Whoever made the comment that blogging isn’t some kind of online art form I salute you, never a truer word spoken. Any haters can stick it in their pipe and smoke it, inarticulate moi?

This weekend my family have had the benefit of mummy’s full attention and it’s been great. Regular readers will be aware that my son Joel loves octopuses so we made a pilgrimage to Blue Planet aquarium near Chester where they boast of an octopus themed adventure playground. To be completely honest it wasn’t very good and certainly not worth the entrance fee. We stuck Louie in the pushchair so that he could pass for being under 95cm, thus saving us £10.50. Much of the aquarium looked dated, a bit mucky and some of the tanks appeared to be empty. I don't imagine it’s had a lot of investment since her Royal Majesty the Queen visited it in 1998. There were far too many pick ‘n’ mix outlets for my liking and the octopus adventure was a bit of a let down. There were no octopuses in any of the tanks, poor Joel still hasn’t got to see a real, live octopus but he took it well and totally enjoyed himself. He is now the proud owner of several plastic octopuses from the gift shop and Louie made us purchase a huge Sponge Bob helium balloon that lasted all of 2 hours. I heart octopuses!
Louie takes Sponge Bob for a walk

On Monday we visited the squirrel sanctuary at Formby and saw absolutely no squirrels, not one. Last time we visited there was loads of them but Joel was throwing a tantrum so we had to go home. This time the lazy little buggers were a no show, they must have been having a kip in their nests or burrows or where ever it is they live. According to the husband, who appears to be some what of a squirrel expert, they don’t come out for damp nuts.

The beach at Formby is lovely, it’s a long expanse of sand (forgive me for stating the obvious here) with relatively few people on it. Much nicer than Blackpool or Southport and without being densely populated by commoners swigging lager. The tide was coming in quickly but the boys had the chance to have a little paddle and even I dipped my toes into the Irish Sea. The boys paddle quickly turned into more of a wade resulting in all of their clothes being saturated, knowing them as I do I’d brought spares. I sometimes think other parents are looking at me and thinking why on earth is she letting them do that? When they are adults I want their memories to be packed full of happy childhood holidays and day trips. I want them to make the most of every carefree day they have. This is why I let them wade into the sea fully clothed and then let them roll down the sand dunes.

We finished our little jaunt by visiting the seafront at Southport, in the words of their tourist board ‘a classic resort with affordable fun for everyone’. In my opinion it’s a bit of a dump. We visited the fairground where there were at least 3 chavs per square metre. Joel was desperate to go on a big ride so we took him on a mini roller coaster which I fear was being operated by a drunken Eastern European gentleman wearing half-mast trousers. Fortunately he pressed the right buttons and we survived. I just hope the local authority regularly carries out vigorous safety checks.

Once in the car the boys slept for the entirety of the journey home. They were shattered and so were we!