After my birthday celebrations are over I often feel a bit flat, I’m a big kid like that. I always want them to go on for as long as possible but this year, to be honest, I was fine. Perhaps I’m growing up? (Thirty two is quite old I suppose!) Or perhaps it’s more to do with the fact that I still had lots of exciting things to come?! On the day of my actual birthday unfortunately Jonny had to work so because my Mum was coming down to babysit in the evening she just came super mega early and the three of us (me, her and Florence) went down to my lovely best friend Eve’s house in Wimbledon to see her, her Mum and her two children. Actually it’s Eve’s parent’s house and Eve doesn’t live there anymore but my Mum and her parents are also friends so it seemed like a good idea to meet at their house and as they have a pool and it is supposed to be summer we thought it might be nice to sit in the garden and have a swim. We typically ended up sitting in doors and going in the garden with our girls only very occasionally as and when the sun decided to appear from behind a cloud but it was still a great day even though it wasn’t warm enough to swim. I was so touched, they made me a wonderful birthday tea and Eve even made me a birthday cake with candles, perfect for the big child Ruth! In the evening my Mum did everything with Florence for her tea and bath time while I got myself dolled up and then she baby sat while we went out on the town! Now Jonny and I don’t go out in London that often, having all our family living outside of the M25 it’s kind of hard to arrange baby sitting on a regular basis so we decided to splash out. Usually we would go to Pizza Express with Tesco Club Card vouchers, money is quite tight so we like to be thrifty but we (or should I say Jonny) saved up and we went to Bistroteque in Hackney. It was nice food, not amazing but nice enough and then a ‘tranny cabaret’ as they bill themselves, The Lipsinkers who were very amusing. The best bit of the night was the cocktails, we drank quite a few passion fruit Caipirinha’s and we enjoyed every last penny of their £8.50 value. We had a brilliant evening  and it was really nice to have some time to ourselves. As it doesn’t happen often it seems even more special when it does happen and we really made the most of it and Florence was fine with my Mum, only asked for me a couple of times apparently so that made me feel much better on one of my two phone calls home  during  the night! (I’m getting better, time was I’d have been on the phone every half hour – that was if I went out in the first place!)

On the Monday after the weekend I decided to go up to Norfolk with Florence and my Mum on her return home. We were going to be in Norfolk the following weekend anyway so I thought I’d have a bit of a break with her in the week. Get some sleep in the afternoons and see my friends. It’s been really relaxing and really nice to just do nothing most of the time. When we’re home in London we go out every day to some sort of group so when we’re at my Mum’s we just like to relax. We do occasionally pop to a baby group near my Mum but this time we just played in the garden, went to the park and caught up with people we haven’t seen in a while. Utter bliss! And on Friday night Jonny drove up ready for this weekend’s   hive  of activity, a theme park and Lee Evans at Norwich’s theatre Royal. See, I told you I still had lots of lovely things to come, it’ll be after this weekend that I get my proper flat!

I chose to write about days out with children because, bottom line, I love them. Before I had children I relished going out to theme parks and zoos and anything else children love going to. I think, like with the fact that I enjoy birthdays so much, a child’s day out is just up my street because that part of me never grew up. There is still a little girl inside of me jumping up and down with excitement every time I plan to go anywhere so writing about this topic was an obvious choice. It’s certainly no hardship being invited to theme parks and when the lovely people from Pleasurewood Hills in Suffolk said come on down and see us for the day I was just as excited as I would have been given the opportunity aged seven!

So, yesterday morning Jonny, Florence, my sister Phoebe and I set off for Suffolk and a day at the county’s leading attraction. Phoebe is ten years old and utterly wonderful with Florence, they just beam at each other which is  great to see. Because Phoebe suffers with a mild form of Cerebral Palsy and has had to endure horrible operations it’s especially pleasurable to take her out for a treat because she thoroughly deserves one! We set out at 10am and typically the heavens were open and showed no signs of closing. I feel like the whole of this summer I have been writing about the rain, it’s quite depressing isn’t it? We had one or two absolutely scorching days in April and then the soggiest summer I can remember in a long time – and that’s saying something! Last week when looking at the forecast I’d almost decided to abandon the Pleasurewood Hills plan in favor of a more indoor activity but then as I was worrying that Phoebe would be looking forward to it and not wanting to disappoint her I realised that actually I was looking forward to it and I would be disappointed so I thought to hell with it! Rain or no rain, we’re going…  And boy did it rain! Thankfully I’d bought Florence what is apparently known as a puddle suit which was an excellent purchase for our summer season of wet and the rest of us donned our wellies and rain coats! Talk about the Great British Summer!

First thing we did on arriving was go straight on the old fashioned carousel. A ride for all of us and Florence thought it was fabulous. It was raining, we were wet, but we were gonna enjoy ourselves. Everything is of course, as you make it so we decided to have a good time and that was that! In the best way possible Pleasurewood Hills hasn’t seemed to have changed much, a few rides have gone, I was particularly upset to realise the amazing Death Slide is no longer and new rides have come. Bigger, better rides than they had in my youth. Things that turn upside down and could hold their own in the more well known centrally located theme parks of Britain. But, all in all Pleasurewood Hills is as it was, It’s old fashioned, It’s shiny but not in an all guns blazing kind of way, It’s a step back in time and It’s worth a visit. Obviously yesterday was utter downpour so unfortunately we didn’t get the best impression of the park I feel. A few rides were closed and it wasn’t very buzzing with visitors (although that meant we didn’t have to queue much) but we still had an absolutely amazing time and we did everything we wanted to do from getting even wetter than we were already on the log flume to jumping on Enigma, the runaway train as soon as it opened late in the day.

There’s lots of places for picnics which as I’ve said before and I’ll no doubt say again is my absolute must for a day out with the family! Because of the rain there weren’t that many places to sit in the dry but there’s an old steam train in the park which used to be a restaurant. It’s now a bit vacant but they’d left the doors open, I suspect as a rain shelter, so we ate on that and no one seemed to mind. That in itself was a bit of an adventure, sitting in the buffet car of an old steam train and watching the world go by out of the windows as we ate our lunch, choosing which rides to go on and in which order while we perused the park map. I loved the fact, by the way, that it’s not jam packed and wall to wall rides at Pleasurewood Hills. You have time to breathe as you walk round. There’s absolutely enough there but there’s ample room in the grounds for other things, nature spotting and casual strolling. They also have a sea lion show which we didn’t make, a parrot show which was great fun and a shelter from the rain and a circus show this year which is really quite good. The break dancers in particular were excellent!

At points in the day I got enormous senses of deja vu. I hadn’t been to Pleasurewood Hills in a good 10 years but I grew up in Norwich which is an hours drive away and it was THE place to be when I was a child. It was absolutely my day out of choice for a very long time and I have such strong and fond memories there that it would be hard for me not to love it. At my Grandma’s funeral I spoke about my time with her and the things we used to do together and Pleasurewood Hills was right at the top of that list for she must have taken me countless times over my childhood. I realised while I stood watching my husband and sister on the rattlesnake, a very sedate roller coaster, that I must have been to Pleasurewood Hills at one point or another with all the people who have been the most dear to me. I’ve been with my parents and grandparents, my first boyfriend, my best friends, my brothers, my husband and now my sister and daughter. This place holds so many memories I didn’t even comprehend that before yesterday. I actually got a tear in my eye as the ghosts of my amazing Grandparents came to my mind throughout the day. I remembered things like the day I went with my school and my Grandpa came too. A girl in the year above me called Maria was scared to go on the pirate ship so my big Grandpa went on with her and as she came off she said ‘I wish I had a Grandpa like yours’. I’d forgotten that, it was nice to remember and it was good to remember him. But it did make me feel very old! I mean, I remember the Rattle snake when it was painted like a Ladybird and it’s been a Rattle snake for a good twenty years so… But it also made me feel really good and I hope that in many years to come Florence has a similar kaleidoscope of memories as I’m sure she will!

I really can honestly say it’s not just me looking back with rose tinted spectacles, if anything when you go back somewhere as an adult a place can lose its charm seeming smaller and less exciting than your memories but Pleasurewood Hills really doesn’t. It’s lovely. My sister went on all the rides, even the really big one! I would have gone on all the rides but realized when you’ve got buggies and bags someone’s gotta stand with them and now I’m the Mum that role adopted me (though I did go on the big one three times), my husband went on almost all the rides and Florence had a whale of a time on everything that was suitable for her which surprisingly was quite a lot. There were ‘little’ rides dotted about all over the place as well as a specific area with them and a couple of small children play areas (though it was too wet for that yesterday). I suspect Pleasurewood Hills caters for the small child in a way that bigger parks may not have thought of? Like I said, the whole experience is more old traditional than your regular theme park and little ones most certainly have a place here. That’s not to say you won’t have as good a time here as you may somewhere else because in my opinion what’s not to like? It’s a different pace than you might expect. Much like the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk compared to London. They jog along a bit and may not have the same finger on the pulse as the metropolis but if you take your time you’ll have a blast anyway! I’m going to go back in a few weeks to experience a day there in the sunshine and see it in all it’s glory but if you choose to go on a rainy day because once a child has been promised (or me) you can’t go back on that promise you will still have a great day out!

Tickets for Pleasurewood Hills start at £14 for a child between 3 and 11 years old, £16 from 12 years to adult and under 3’s or under one meter tall go free. There are various on line and group discounts so for a full range of prices, opening times and all other park information check out their website   www.pleasurewoodhills.com. I feel it’s worth just mentioning that Pleasurewood Hills is extremely buggy friendly and if you have any walking disabilities it’s a very friendly place to be. Even on a rainy day like ours!