Home again

Well, we have returned from our short sojourn to the wonderful Clacton on Sea, and I say that in a completely non-ironic way as it was actually really lovely.

We were staying on a holiday park not far away in St Osyth, and were expecting a caravan only to arrive and find we had been allocated a little detached bungalow/chalet! Not the most auspicious of properties, but certainly good enough for our little stay. Spent the first afternoon/evening wandering around the campsite, strolling along the seafront, nipping into the clubhouse, and generally getting our bearings, before a relatively early night after the days travelling.

Saturday dawned bright and beautiful so we decided to bite the bullet and head for Clacton itself, which was a great call. The beach is great and the pier is huge, and the actual seafront is really pretty, it was much better than I expected and nicer than many typical seaside towns. We spent a great day there, with gorgeous sunshine on the beach and then a fabulous time in the funfair part, with X getting her groove on the trampoline thingies and the mini water Zorbs. Watching Bridey on the jungle top type climb thingy will probably go down in history as one of my funniest times, although possibly one of her traumatic times! The evening was topped off with a night in the clubhouse playing bingo (we didn't win!) and watching the cheesy entertainment whilst I introduced Bridey to the delights of Cherry Lambrini! A slightly drunken couple of mum's, and 3 sober kids headed to bed late, after a good time by all!

Sunday brought with it a little more cloud so we headed to the inside swimming pool for the morning, which was good, although slightly disappointingly the log flume wasn't in action, and after deciding not to shower before swimming I then forgot the shampoo/conditioner/shower gel needed to shower after! However, the sun started to come out as we were leaving, so after a quick shower back at the pad it was time to hit the outdoor play area and the sunshine, and a few hours later the kids (the bigger two anyway) were back in the swimming pool, although this time the outdoor one! Yes, in England, in April!!! Another relatively quiet evening, after an hour of discoing in the clubhouse, as we were visiting Colchester Zoo the next day before the long drive home.

So off we set on Monday, getting to the Zoo just as the weather picked up, and had a fabulous time there. The zoo is absolutely gorgeous, and both of us felt it was probably the best one we'd been to. The animals all had great pens and enclosures, lots of which you could actually walk through and if the animals were close they were close! It really felt very interactive, and despite being really busy was clean both in the enclosures and out. I would definitely recommend it for anybody who is going to be in that part of the world! We stayed until about 5pm before setting off for home (via McDonalds) and enjoyed every minute of it.

All I need to do now is pick up the bags from where we dropped them when we came in, empty them, get a long bath and an early night before work again tomorrow...!