07.08.2016
The fun continues in this - very inconsistent - British Summer.
I know it’s called Summer, however I’ve been struggling to consider it as such until the last couple of weeks. I understand why the British talk about weather so much - it seems there is always something to talk about because it changes so often. This year there has been so much rain and cold weather over summer that the shops have been having sales because there clothes are not selling (I feel like I’ve mentioned this before - the weather obsession must be contagious here).
Finally though, I’ve actually got a bit of brown skin and have broken a sweat more than once in the last 2 weeks. Yay!
Last weekend we went to Camp Bestival for 3 nights with some friends of ours who have two young kids. Camp Bestival is a festival held at Lulworth Castle close to the Jurassic Coast in Dorset. Going in to it I had no idea the size of the gathering - 30,000 people descending on the grounds of this stark old castle with a huge amount of kids activities, fields of food and music and port-a-loos.
J had an absolute ball, playing with a good friends almost her age for most of the time. He is 4 and she calls him ‘Chase’ from the show Paw Patrol that they both watch regularly. He was her favourite thing about the festival which is really saying something.
We arrived and parked in a field about 2-300metres from the campsite (along with hundred of other revellers) on the Thursday afternoon. Our car was packed full of camping gear and with the help of a Volvo car promotion it was driven closer to the campsite. Thank you Volvo!! (You see, that promotion really worked).
We got our wristbands and set up camp. I say “we”, but really I was spared most of the heavy lifting (thank you pregnancy) and was very well looked after by Rich and his mates the whole weekend.
The next few days were spent dragging the kids around in a trolley we hired, dressing up in costume for the Saturday night, seeing a fantastic brass band and dancing around with the kids, and staying up late on Saturday night to see a DJ named Fat Boy Slim - still with the kids in tow. It was super fun.
Sunday we pulled down our camp and after a few final hours of wondering around and seeing a few things we’d missed, we set off home. All in all it was a great fun weekend… and the weather was amazing I have to admit.
This weekend, we’re off again. A few days in Dartmouth and then to St Ives Cornwall for 5 nights.
Dartmouth is a small and very popular old fishing village, now quite classy small town, in Devon. There is a little harbour opening out to the sea, a hell of a lot of seagulls and lots of nice shops, cafes and restaurants. This is where Rich’s parents have a small townhouse for holidays. We are staying there, right in the middle of town and a block from the sea.
Tuesday we’ll head to Cornwall and I’m so excited to go there. Looking forward to more good weather, some family time, and a white sandy beach!
Sending lots of love,
A xo
