Becoming Domestic

Goodness me it’s been nearly a fortnight since I last wrote. Time flies when you’re suffering from a mysterious virus which makes you sleep all the time at the same time as four year old twins struggle through chicken pox!

I’ve been looking at the photos I took BEFORE I drenched my beloved camera with sparkling water and realise that I’ve got a few bits and pieces to post  (before looking through the pics I thought I can’t write ‘Got up, unloaded dishwasher, gave small people breakfast, had cup of tea, got dressed, opened post, put washing machine on….’ and thought perhaps my days of blogging my passage towards becoming fully domestic had perhaps finally ended).

Anyway, the photo which caught my eye was the one below which reminded me to share the new found knowledge that a teeny weeny wet suit on a teeny weeny body can bring joy for the whole family as nobody is left having to deal with blue, shivering, whimpering children after 10 minutes of splashy play at the beach on a windy day instead everyone can have lots of fun for hours in the waves (while Mummy eats most of the picnic snacks and reads) and stay nicely warm.

We rented these suits for the day for £2.50 which seemed to be a bargain. I’m now looking on eBay for similar long sleeved wetsuits (rather than shorties) so the kids can continue to enjoy traditional British seaside for the rest of the summer AND not get sunburnt in them either. I won’t be buying new because (a) I tend not to anyway (b) kids grow fast and at least one of them will be too small next year).

A lovely birthday present to me from Bealers this week was an hour spent on this blog installing a spam filter & ensuring that any email sent to the ‘becomingdomestic.co.uk’ domain now gets to me.

I was really shame-faced when he discovered at least 5 or so comments from lovely readers asking questions or just wishing us well that I’d not seen amongst the thousands of stupid email/comments I was getting from automated spam sending programs. Aaaggghh. I’m so sorry Merry, Giles, Jax, Clint and others. I’m so happy that you’ve been in touch but so sorry I never read your emails or replied (I will do now!).

The good news now though is that thanks to Bealers hard work I won’t get 100+ daily emails about p0rn or pen1s extensions but I will get actual comments from actual people! What a cool present to receive.

Today we ate:

(Kids) Warmed up left over cheesy pasta for lunch, tea was toast with peanut butter and marmite (together - much more delicious than it sounds) and fruit chunks for desert.

(Grown-ups) Bacon and butter bean casserole (from Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries)

Soak 500g of dried butter beans overnight or during the day. Before today I had never soaked my own beans - can’t quite believe that for someone who is now 35, loves home cooking, being thrifty and is a big fan of pulses. Usually always used tins. Drain and boil in UNSALTED water for an hour.

Fry 2 roughly chopped onions with 4 x whole cloves of garlic (peeled though) in a casserole, add a roughly chopped carrot, two tins of plum tomatoes, a tablespoon of paprika, black pepper and salt and the beans and their liquor. I added a couple of bay leaves as the recipe called for thyme but I had none. Bung a joint of bacon in the middle and stick in the oven (180deg)while you bath the kids, read them their story and get them tucked in. 1 hour or so later you have a yum one-pot feast and a huge slab of bacon from which to make endless sandwiches over the coming weekend.

It’s going to be hard to write this post as I’m keen not to offend anyone especially those lovely people who were happy for us that we were off for a week’s holiday at Center Parcs and assumed we’d really have a fabulous time.

The official line is that we really did not enjoy our holiday at Whinfell Forest Center Parcs and wish that we’d done something else with Bealers’ precious week off work, away from the office.

There isn’t one specific thing that we are grumbling about but a number of things which we found weren’t for us so probably best if I just list out the good things vs the not so good things and let others make up their own minds. Please don’t feel I am dissing you if you have been to Center Parcs and had a lovely time. I hope the following opinions help others to decide for or against going to CP for a holiday.

Not-So-Good Things About Center Parcs:

• We live in the countryside so all the beautiful forest environs with rabbits, pheasants and woodpeckers were a little bit wasted on us. We’re spoilt. If we still lived in East London I personally would have paid good money to stay in a house so close to nature.
• Our kids were still a bit too young. At 4 years old we couldn’t leave them alone to cycle, swim, play outside whereas families with older kids were able to kick back while the kids did their thing.
• Neither Bealers or myself are herd followers. We like doing our own thing and really hated the fact that we were on a campus with limited things to do and everyone else was doing it too. In fact we went off-site several times and had some great days out exploring the lake district and local small towns. We felt that this was very much frowned upon. ‘They’ make it hard for you to leave (the car park is quite a way from the lodges) and there is a very obvious lack of any tourist information about local attractions. ‘They’ clearly have no interest in families spending their cash anywhere other than C.P.
• It was extremely overpriced/poor value for money. We’re not used to spending £60 on an average (sub-average Bealers would say) meal for two people. The activities and spa treatments are way above market prices and as a result we didn’t do loads of them (a bonus of the kids being little was that they were happy to blow bubbles & splash puddles in the woods behind our lodge for hours on end). We resented spending so much money on so little.
• NOTHING to do with the kids in the evening other than eat at one of the 5 restaurants or go to the bowling/amusement arcade. The one thing we all really loved on our last foreign holiday was the nightly disco for the children which meant they could get dressed up and ‘dance’ (run around like loons) with a nice Spanish childrens’ entertainer for a couple of hours while the grown ups cheerfully knocked back gin & tonics. An added bonus to this nightly treat was the fact that the children had a daily siesta by the pool after staying up so late. At Center Parcs we were pretty much doing what we’d be doing at home - the kids in bed and us downstairs cooking, reading, writing or watching a film together. Boring! In fact it made me wish I was at home as I was missing my computer.

Good Things about Center Parcs

• The lack of cars really was wonderful. It was a joy to walk & cycle around knowing we were safe from fatal injuries.
• The accommodation was smashing - really spotless, well equipped kitchen and lovely clean, new furnishings. Admittedly we’d decided to go for the grade above basic (Executive?)
• The wildlife. Brilliant having totally tame rabbits and pheasants in the garden constantly.
• The quietness whilst lying in bed at night (no traffic, druken yobs walking past
• The swimming pool - I didn’t get to see much of it but the area for very small children was bath temperature which meant parents could look after the tots for ages without getting hypothermia. They also had loads and loads of great water slides. Even in the smaller kids area were two blessed slides which looked small but still exciting. Beautiful planting made it a nice place to spend time. The changing rooms were really clean, well planned, plenty of family changing rooms, lockers and 4-people body driers which meant you could get everyone nice and dry really quickly.
• The Aqua Sana - wow, fantastic! Beautiful place with lovely lovely treatments, treatment rooms, waiting areas, changing rooms (all oak fittings with Elemis products everywhere) but again overpriced and hard to really enjoy a facial when you feel you’re being ripped off and you are one of many who are being ripped off.

There. Center Parcs wasn’t for us. Bealers especially wishes he’d spent the same amount of money on a week in Morocco or by the Red Sea. My attitude is that I can see why some families love holidaying in Center Parcs but I think I could have the same holiday with my family in a rented cottage and using the time together to visit local attractions, nice restaurants and have nice pampering things at a local spa place.

Anyway - as my Dad said to me, you live and learn.

Here is Bealers version of the same holiday…

I’m putting this list together as a reference tool as I often forget the things the whole family likes to eat. The girls in this house will eat anything put in front of them (especially salads and things made from chick peas) but the Beale boys are a little more discerning…

At some point I’ll type the recipes that we use out.

• Pork and cider casserole
• Crudites, crackers, dips, cheese and ham
• Curries
• Roast dinner
• Meatloaf, mash, broccoli/cauliflower cheese and peas (any left over mash, caul cheese and peas can be made into cauli-cheese burgers when mixed together and coated in breadcrumbs)
• Sausages
• Spaghetti & meatballs
• Hungarian goulash
• Home made pizza using the breadmachine for the dough
• Poached chicken and vegetables
• Lamb stew/Lancashire hotpot
• Veggie sausages in a roll with fried onions
• Noodles with clear chicken broth and thinly sliced veggies (pepper, chilli, onion, mushroom, brocolli)
• Falafels
• Baked potatoes with houmous; cheese and homemade coleslaw, cheese and baked beans
• Potato wedges
• Risottos (actually that’s a lie as its only us girls who love rice)
• Omlette with ham, onion, tomatoes, mushrooms and cheese
• Chilli con carne
• Tomato, bacon and cheese pasta
• Tortillas with cheese, pepper, onion etc inside heated on a frying pan