Well the school holidays are speeding by and Livvy will be back at school in next to no time.
Last week she went off on a PGL mini break with her close friends Flossy & Martha to the Hillcrest Centre in Herefordshire. Livvy and Flossy are old hands now at these type of holidays having been to the wonderful Mill on the Brue down in Somerset last year straight after our camping trip to Porthcurno. As it was Martha's first time away from home on her own they just went for a four day multi activity holiday to ease her into the idea.
Needless to say they had an absolutely wonderful time, the centre at Hillcrest is perfect for "first timers" as it is fairly small.
Here they are all looking somewhat tired:
Apparently the absolute best part was the zip wire:
They had to climb a tree to access it and if they managed to reach the tyre and grab a £20 note inside they got to keep it! Sadly none of them quite managed that but they loved it.
Here is the zip wire in front of the Abseiling Tower, well you might just be able to make out the wire very faintly!
They got to do loads of other activities too; orienteering, raft building, rifle shooting, quad biking (although they were all not too sure about that one), plus loads more I can't even remember now!
PGL have lots of different centres around the UK and in other parts of Europe, whilst the holidays are not particularly cheap they do seem to have quite a few special offers and promotional codes.
So much so that we are sending the girls off to the PGL Little Canada centre on the Isle of Wight for the half term week in October - I have every faith that we shall have an Indian Summer here in the UK but there is plenty to do even if the weather isn't on their side:
Here they will be staying in these little huts:
I just love these, they remind me of the summer camp in the movie Dirty Dancing - such a great film!
And how about this for proximity to the sea:
Secretly we are so jealous and would love to go too.
We managed to get a really really good deal - the cost of the week for the girls is £149 each, a huge saving on the listed price of £359 each. The insurance and escorted travel from the train station does add another £64 to the bill but we could so easily spend that entertaining them here in London for a week. Plus that does mean us adults get a child free week thus saving a fortune in babysitting costs etc.
Anyone wanting further details of the promotional code just drop me an email, via the link on the left hand side bar.
So whilst the girls were away I took the opportunity to spend the day in Brighton with a couple of girlfriends. The trip from Chiswick is just so easy on the train and only takes about an hour and a half door to door.
We enjoyed a lovely leisurely lunch at the Regency seafood restaurant as recommended by Rick Stein:
A spot of sunbathing on the beach, overlooking the strangely beautiful remains of the West Pier:
Look how blue the sea and sky are ........
Of course we had to visit the East Pier, yes we know it is a little tacky but we loved it .....
The three of us even had our tarot cards read in a little gypsy caravan by a chap called Ivor, not something any of us had ever done before but it was fun despite the fact that I kept veering from the feeling of wanting to burst into tears to having to stop myself from giggling helplessly like a naughty girl in the headmaster's office!
I'm still not sure if I really believe in all this kind of stuff but my friends did think his reading of me was pretty accurate - not sure whether that was a compliment or not girls :) Actually we all had some aspects which were pretty similar but I guess that would be the case as we are all three pretty creative etc.
Finally we headed off to enjoy a bottle of wine and enjoy the sunset in one of the beach bars. It's amazing how just one day away with friends, not having to worry about pleasing anyone other than yourselves rejuvenates you, even when you do have to break up a fight between two drunken brawling idiots on the train journey home ........ a couple of late teens with more pride than sense.
Oh, and thank you to the lovely teenagers we met on the train who thought none of us was a day over 30, bless!
