April - A Busy Month

Well, I've had a busy time recently, albeit it in a good way, but very busy and tiring nonetheless! The sunshine has inspired me!


14th April
Me and the hubby took our 8 year old son, David and my 9 year sister, Latisha out for the day. We took them to see Megamind 3D with the Sky Kids 3D Club at Cineworld which they really enjoyed and for £6 for all for of us - it was a bargain trip out. After that, in the afternoon, we went to Otterspool Park here in Liverpool, it is not our nearest park, but it is very beautiful and also has a lovely play area for the kids. On top of that, there is the lovely promenade with a gorgeous view, so worth the extra distance and besides, we all had saveaways which are tickets that can be used all day on the buses and trains in our local area which cost a little over £10 for all 4 of us! In the evening, we went to something called Shiverpool - which is a ghost tour of Liverpool's haunted spots as well as some interesting history/stories along the way. I got a coupon on LivingSocial and it only cost £15 for a family ticket instead the usual £50 I think it is! It was really good fun and the kids loved it equally. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see a ghost, but really good fun anyway!

David & Tisha at Otterspool Park

17th April
Me and the hubby took David and Latisha to the World Museum in the morning which was really brilliant - we only had enough time to visit the Space section, Ancient Egypt section and Aquarium though. Then we went to something called Pirates Ahoy at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall using tickets I won - it was not something I would have normally thought to go too, but the kids really enjoyed it. It's basically an introduction to classical music for children, but it was really, really fun and I have to admit, I found it quite entertaining too. In the evening, we all went to Jungle Rumble which was mini adventure golf and cost £20 for all of us for 1 game, but it was very fun and entertaining - it's something that's amazing for adults and kids!

David playing mini golf

Pirates Ahoy

19th April
Me and the hubby went to London - the Cineworld at the O2 in Greenwich to be precise - for the UK premiere of the film Arthur. Neither of us have been to a premiere before but it was really amazing! We got a great spot right at the front where the celebs first arrive right next to the red carpet! Russell Brand, Dame Helen Mirren and Greta Gerwig were all close enough to touch! Stupidly, we forgot to take a pen and something to get signed, so we missed out on all of the autographs :( Got some brilliant photo's though. We also got pics of Katy Perry, Noel Gallagher, Jason Winer and David Baddiel! It was truly amazing! I'm so grateful to Cineworld on Twitter as that's where I won the tickets and the admittance to the red carpet audience. It cost a lot of money (around £150 in total!) but it was worth it. We were going to go by coach, but we hired a car in the end - it took a little over 4 hours to get there. We got home about 6am by the time we'd gone for something to eat and had stopped a couple of times to get some coffee. Hubby was amazing as I don't drive so it was  a long drive overall for him there and back. A special thanks to my Mum who looked after David for us while we went.

Noel Gallagher

Dame Helen Mirren

Geraldine James

The film was amazing - if you haven't seen it yet, you should go out and see it. Russell Brand is as outrageously funny as ever - I'm not just biased having been a fan of him for quite some time either - there are so many laughs - it's not often in a comedy film that I laugh, but I was laughing through a lot of the film. I think it shows how versatile and talented as an actor Russell is as well, because you also get to see a more serious side to him too. All of the stars were very approachable and nice too, which very much surprised me - not at all rigid and in a dash as I was maybe expecting them to be. Russell enjoyed a snog with Dame Helen Mirren too at the premiere which was quite funny! I've not seen the original Arthur film, but it is half as good as this one, it must be great! Russell really does a fantastic job of playing Arthur - he was made for a role like that. I think Dame Helen Mirren plays Hobson brilliantly too - she makes at least as many laughs in the film as Russell - she is an excellent actress. The film has loads of laughs, but also some very sad moments too. I'd say more, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. All I will say is, you'll love the first Darth Vader mask scene and also the magnetic bed scene!

Katy Perry

Russell Brand

Russell Brand

22nd April
Me and the hubby took David and Latisha to the World Museum again to finish off were we left off last time - this was the duck hunt they wanted to do as well as visit the DNA section, a chance to visit the Planetarium (which was a show about the stars and the planets which is a very unique experience). They also bought a duck each in the Liverpool Duck Race which cost £2 (go and buy one - it's for a good cause and you might win £2k!), but it is for charity (Cash For Kids, Claire House in association with Radio City and Merseyside Fire & Rescue Services) and the owner of the duck that wins, also wins £2,000. We are going to take them to watch the duck race on 9th July at the Pier Head which will make another fun day out for them, I'm sure! Then we went to the Walker Art Gallery to see some of the wonderful pictures and sculptures.

Paul and me

David & Tisha sitting on a monument at St John's Gardens

24th & 25th April
Hubby and I went to Edinburgh for the weekend which was really nice. We don't often get time to ourselves. Hubby had won some first class train tickets from @TPExpressTrains on Twitter so we chose to go to Scotland. We booked a night in Travelodge Haymarket which only cost £15 on special offer and the room was actually quite nice - check-in was quick. It was only a 5 minute bus ride from Waverley Station as well which was magnificent. The train ride took from 11:22 until 16:14 - although it was not flawless - both the TP Express website and on the phone on the day told us it was 1 change at Leeds when in reality, some of the TP services were not running and were replaced with bus services, so in actual fact we shouldn't have got the train to Leeds - instead spending around 8 hours to get from Liverpool to Edinburgh as it included some bus routes. Fortunately, we came across a very nice train manager on the train we were told to get, which turned out to actually be a Virgin train, who was very kind and didn't want to spoil our weekend so let us on anyway - which I'm sure was risking his job, so we were very, very grateful. Rather annoyed at TP Express, however. I know it was free as Paul had won the tickets, but we were only going for 2 days/1 night, so it simply would not have even been worth going with the 8 hour journey. Not to mention, if that kind train manager had not let us on, we'd have spent 2 hours getting to Leeds, only to have to spend 2 hours coming back to Liverpool, by which point we'd have missed the other train we should have been on and probably missed out entirely, even if we had wanted to spend approximately 8 hours getting there! But we got there and found out which buses we could get, checked into the hotel and had a cup of coffee in our room. Then we headed out to see some of the sites at night and take some photo's - we also got some souvenirs from a late opening souvenir shop. The hotel room was nice - spacious and the bed was really comfy - we had a kettle and TV in the room, clean towels and a nice shower and separate toilet - an absolute bargain for £15.

Paul

I love this sinister looking photo of Paul outside Holyrood House at night

Edinburgh Castle

Scottish Parliament

The next morning we got up at 7am and headed out to see the sites in daylight and take some more photo's (of St. Giles Cathedral, Scotts Monument, The Queens Gallery, Scottish Parliament, Holyrood House etc.). We stopped around 10am for breakfast at a lovely little café on the Royal Mile - I had a standard breakfast (egg, bacon, toast, sausage, beans, potato cake and tomato) with a latte and Paul had a vegetarian breakfast (eggs, toast, potato cake, beans and tomato) with a cappuccino - the latte was the most delicious cup of latte I have ever tasted - overall, it was quite expensive for what it was though at over £16! Would have gone to McDonald's but they didn't do any vegetarian breakfast items for Paul. After that we went to the Museum of Edinburgh which was delightful - I'm sure I saw a ghost though! I couldn't find any reasonable explanation for what I saw as I checked all reflections and there was no other displays in the room either! It was a woman in really old fashioned clothing with long ginger hair - I was taking a photo of a scene display and could see it through my camera on my phone, but it didn't show up in the picture and it was gone once I put my phone down and I could not find any reasonable explanation as to what it could be otherwise! Weird! After that we went to Edinburgh Castle which is a truly amazing site to behold, and even better if you buy tickets to visit inside like we did. We were there in time to see the guns being fired at 1pm. We saw the cannons, visited the old prison cells, saw the breathtaking views from the viewpoints of the castle, visited the great hall, war memorial - so much to see and do actually - we actually ran out of time before needing to catch our train home at 4.15pm. I wish we could have stayed longer! It was really nice to get some time together with Paul as it's been quite some time since we last did! We got to enjoy going to the places we wanted for a change instead of what David wanted to go to - we love him very much, but it was a nice change - I'm sure other parents know what I mean! A very big thanks to my Mum who looked after him again.

Scotts Monument

St. Giles Cathedral

The Queens Gallery