Been a long time

Well it's been a while since I last wrote anything on here! What's been happening: well not a lot if I'm honest lol I've become a recognised union rep for my place of work so that should bring some fun my way, the family haven't really done anything else! 

I'm off to Brighton this week with work so there will be a hotel review later this week, then next week the family and I are off back to Butlins so there will be a review for there as well. 

REVIEW: Cadbury World

I'm going to start this review with just saying I wasn't expecting much from this trip, It didn't sound the most exciting place when reading about it, but I am happy to proved wrong.

This was an absolutely brilliant day, the whole family loved it.

You start the tour with a lovely assistant giving you a free Crunchier & free Curly Wurly bar one for each of the party.

You then go into a tunnel and learn about Cocoa Beans and how they originated.

You then proceeded and eventually get to the packaging factory which unfortunately was in operation the day we went :-(

You then get to a part called the mixing area where there is little white pots of melted chocolate for you to eat :-)

You then move onto another area where you are given a Dairy Milk bar again one each for the whole party :-)

You then move on and eventually come out in The Worlds Biggest Cadbury Shop where I have to admit there is a lot of chocolate :-) 

From here you can then go into another part called Essence this is where you learn about how they came up with Dairy Milk. Once this is done you are able to put 1 option from rice Krispy, marshmallow, jelly babies, wine gums, white chocolate buttons or crispy biscuit bits in with some melted chocolate to try.

Once you leave here there is a kids play area which is another good addition.

All in all this was 100 times better than I thought it would be. 

Would I recommend it yes absolutely everyone should go here :-) even if its just for the free chocolate :-)

REVIEW: Twycross Zoo

We have just come back from our little break to Birmingham, now our first day was spent in Twycross Zoo! What can I say about this!! To start with I use the word zoo loosely. It was more like a park with a few animals in it. The dinosaur valley was all robotic dinosaurs which was good and excellent for the kids.we had read a few reviews that said it was full of wasps well I would estimate 500 wasps there!! It was silly you couldn't go anywhere without being bothered by at least one wasp! So make sure you take some wasp repellent.

Now the food! We had 2 x rolls, 2 x drinks, 2 x packets of crisps, 1 x child's chicken nuggets and chip and one plate of chips and it came to £18 now for what there was it was silly pricing.

Would I recommend this to people I would as long as you have never visited Colchester zoo because this place is nowhere near the standard of that zoo.

Update!

It's been a while since my last post an update on what I've been doing recently.

In one word work! I have been very busy at work organising courses & meetings with people.

Today, I have reorganised some of the living room to make more space for my kids to play in.

We have also recently sold some stuff on eBay making a grand total of £40 to put towards clothes for the holiday.

I love eBay it is a brilliant place to seek unwanted items that would otherwise be collecting dust.

Ouch!

Since my last post I have broken a toe! I took the kitchen door on in a fight & the door won :-( 

On a happier note for our quick trip to Birmingham we have found out hat we can visit the local Zoo for free using our Colchester Zoo Passes meaning will be saving another £43.85 which brings the total savings for the quick trip to £75.39 which is a big saving in these times :-) 

The family are very excited about our trip with Alison (my better half) still helping me find other ways to save money :-)

Last couple of days!

I haven't done a post for a couple of days now as I have been busy at work. I am still trying to work hard on my journey to a million and am trying hard to think of things to post about. Anyone out there who wants me to write about something or review something then let me know :-)

REVIEW: Colchester Zoo

Colchester Zoo is a Zoological garden situated in Colchester, Essex, England. The zoo opened in 1963. It received 801,643 visits in 2011. It is home to many rare and endangered species, including big cats, primates and birds.

Colchester Zoo is supported by Action for the Wild, which assists conservation projects worldwide through both financial and technical assistance.

The zoo celebrated its 50th anniversary on the 2nd of June, 2013.

The family and I are Gold Pass holders for the Zoo and went there today :-)

 

When we first got there we were greeted with a queue of about 200 people however we did smile as we was able to go to the front as we are Gold Pass holders.

As you go through the main entrance you are greeted with an outdoor wooden play area, the yellow brick road and a few members of staff one dressed up as a lion. This is an excellent way to start with my 3 year old loving it already.

This is also where we saw their new enclosure with bears in it, the bears looked very well looked after & the kids loved seeing them.

We then went round to a jam packed indoor play area and decided to come back! So we then headed off to find the Elephants. However I got hungry on the way so we sat and had our picnic at the Hot Dog Bar in Otter Creek. Now, I do have one slight issue here and that is that you have to spend your picnic being surrounded by geese and ducks not the sort of thing you need with two hungry children.

We then moved on to the Giraffes of which my 3 year old managed to feed one J this is another great experience for children and he loved it.

Then in the same enclosure as the Giraffes you have the Rhinos, Zebras and Ostrichs these are all lovely animals that my son loved seeing.

Then opposite the Giraffes you have the Elephants which again my son loved, you could feed the elephants but the queue had got so big that no more were allowed to join it L

We then moved on to the Hippo’s where the Zoo have had a new addition recently, I must admit I was surprised to see how shiny the Hippo’s skin is.

Then onto the Lost Madagascar Train, now due to the little one being asleep the girlfriend & eldest son went on the train on their own so I can’t really comment on this.

Next was the long walk up the hill, not the easiest part of the day I must admit.

We then went back into the indoor play area and let the 3 year old have a run around just to make sure he was worn out. This is very well managed with two members of staff monitoring at all times and making sure that the big kids don’t hurt the little kids, there is also 2 area one for under 3’s and one for 4’s and over.  My son appeared to love it in here.

Now my overall experience of the Zoo is it is a well maintained and very clean Zoo the only issue according to my girlfriend was the women’s toilet where someone had clearly had a bad curry and left the toilet with a rather nasty smell, although my girlfriend’s face as she came out was brilliant. So I would suggest some air fresheners in their toilets lol.

Other than that the Zoo is highly recommended.