We're All Off to a Summer Festival- Camp Bestival Blogger 2014

Longtime readers of this blog may recall that, four years ago, when Littlest was still in a buggy and Mini, well, actually Mini was still Mini, daft as a brush and prone to Diva tendencies, our family went to Camp Bestival on behalf of Johnsons.

We loved it, and have always meant to go back again.

You know me though readers- organisational skills of a house brick, so it didn't happen.

I then spotted a tweet from the Camp Bestival team themselves, inviting bloggers to apply to cover the event and review it for them. 

I didn't think I'd be lucky enough to be chosen but I applied mid way through last year. Then, as I'm famous for, forgot all about it.

Until last night, when an absolutely brilliant and completely unexpected email dropped into my inbox. It seems that the Lazy Girl household is off to Lulworth Castle again to see the likes of Sinead O'Connor, De La Soul, James and Sophie Ellis Bextor, not to mention cracking comedy and shows fit for all ages.

Yippee!

For the third time last week, I did a little happy dance. The Brats jumped up and down screaming (God knows what they'd do if we did a "We're going to Disneyland" advert on them. I think they'd faint). Elder immediately said he was going to bagsy front row for De La Soul (to recapture his lost youth no doubt and bust some questionable moves- if you watch this video, he's the one dancing in a dark jumper from the start with long hair, circa 1989). 

Camp Bestival is the brain child of DJ Rob Da Bank, and is so great for families its been voted best festival year in, year out. It can be difficult to take two kids to a festival due to it being busy and muddy and not at all child friendly, but Camp Bestival caters to the kids from newborns to even the most uneasily pleased teens.

Mr Tumble will be there, along with a fun fair, a kids Catwalk (which no doubt we will have to pry Mini off of daily, if not hourly), and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Roald Dahl releasing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, there are a number of events surrounding the book. Mini is especially looking forward to the likes of Jo Whiley reading excerpts from the book at bedtime over the three days.


We will be hopefully blogging from the event itself, so look out for tweets and the like from July 31st to August 3rd.


Fancy the event yourself or want to see who we'll be rocking to? Then head on over to the Camp Bestival website for more, or follow their tweets at Twitter.

The "M" Word (No, Not That One, The Other One)

By "M" word, and before you all start going off and buying hats, I'm referring to the current, within the top 3, reason for giving me untold stress- Moving.

I bloody hate moving.

There I was, until I was 17, living in the same house from birth onwards. Then I moved once or twice, still within the same town I'd grown up in, surrounded by everyone I knew and with a good knowledge of the bus and train routes.

Cut to 2007 and we decided to move to Berkshire. 

Admittedly, the area I'm from had been neglected and gone rapidly down hill, up until I'd had Mini I didn't mind it. But pushing my daughter in a pram and having to avoid scores of crackheads hiding round corners was enough to make me make the leap out of my hometown.

It was definitely a form of "grass is always greener". We didn't put any thought into it, but plumped for the area where Elder's family lived en masse (save for one in Croydon and one in Bexley Village). We had been there twice. It looked OK.

We hadn't put any thought into house prices, or schools, or anything much.

I do regret moving here though. I think life has been a disaster since we did move, and looking back, we'd have been better thinking a bit more than we did and perhaps looking at other factors and areas first.

Now, and for some time, I've felt horrifically trapped, lonely, and disillusioned. Meanwhile, rental prices have gone up- when we first moved here, a two bed house with garden went for around £800-900 a month. Now it's more like £1,250-1,600 or more for a two bed even flat, with no garden.

So, we are priced out, and we know we are, we know we have to go and we're not that bothered. Or I'm not that bothered, such is the lack of feelings I have towards the place.

I know it's wrong to associate bad luck with an area. We have had a run of it since coming here, what with my accident in the first house, to Littlest being born early, and the like. 

This is where our issue lies though.

Where do we go to?

I am 100% behind going, not so much home, but to within a reasonable train distance from it. I miss my pals loads, most have now had babies and are Mum's themselves. I kind of also feel that I've let them down a bit by not being there for them, and likewise, when I've been through a bad time I have wished they were down the road and not three hours away. I also want to be near enough to London that it wont cost an arm and a leg to get to events.

Elder, meanwhile, wants to go anywhere but Kent, and would happily stay here even. He has been looking at Plymouth, where Nursey sister is going to in 2 years, or Cornwall again.

Now, I don't want to be mean about areas I don't know, but both of these have the same issues. We know no one, we know nothing about the area, its miles from London. All the same issues bar the London distance that we found on moving to where we are now.

It'll be over £100 to get to London as well, which is ridiculous for train fare but I don't drive and to be frank I wouldn't give me a car to drive. I know my limitations and driving is definitely one of them.

Its causing untold annoyance in our house. 

I just want to go where I know isn't that posh or that great, but is affordable- a better the devil you know situation. Elder also wants cheaper prices but nice area. Can we have both? I doubt it.

So, at the moment I feel pulled in all directions and it sucks. I want to stand my ground over Kent but feel there are possibly people who feel they are helping by suggesting to us not to go to Kent who feel they are doing right by us but who maybe should let us decide as a family?

What would you do? Do you know Plymouth or Cornwall? What are they like when the holiday season ends?

Right to Chose Bill- How Do You Feel?

The top news story on the TV this morning (before Diane Abbott tweeted her sweeping and racist generalisation about white people) was the committee exploring the case for assisted suicide in terminally ill patients.


It's something that divides opinion in most people, with the yes vote insisting a person has a right to choose and the no vote saying that its not assisting someone to die but murdering them.

Writing Workshop: A Sisterhood of Sorts

This weeks writing prompt over at the fab Sleep is for the Weak is SISTERHOOD. And, as someone who has inherited sisters from Elder, its a post that I wanted to write.

Now, as you all know from a previous post, I do have a sister of my own, but due to circumstances we no longer have any form of relationship at all. 

But I am lucky enough to have three lovely, but very different sister in laws from Elder. They're all older than Elder himself, as he's the baby, but they quite simply rock, but for different reasons.

Sister number 1 is the Eldest of the the 3. 

She is the kind of person who someone my age can look up to, for her ability to triumph despite adversity. She is also The Nephews mum (so for that alone she deserves a medal). Even though she brought The Nephew up as a single Mum, she managed to do that whilst running her own business as well, making a success of her life rather than moping around. She met someone else and now has another two children, and she's definitely the "Mother" figure of the family. When Elder and I were pretty skint before Mini was born, she literally spent loads of weekends making sure we had everything we needed and then some. She even came with Elder and I when Mini was born, and outside of us both was the first person to hold her.

The coolest thing though: she can silence Elder from a rant with one look! 

Sister Number 2 lives right near us. She is hardworking, has two of the most well behaved kids ever (one of them is a teenage girl who is so clued up you'd think she was 21). She is patient and kind, and generous beyond belief- knowing that I'd never seen Take That, she bought e a ticket last year, wouldn't let me pay for anything and I had one of the best days out ever. She is a right giggle, and likes pretty much the same bands and films as I do. I wish she'd grow a couple of inches in height then I could steal her clothes. 

Even when I had my breakdown, she put up with me, giving me hugs when I needed them, and supporting Elder too. 

Sister number 3 is the youngest. She is very straight talking, and practises tough love. Sometimes she can be taken the wrong way, as she is very direct, but shouldn't we all use a bit more honesty? Another single mum, she's getting married again next year. But she put herself through college and is now a Nurse, even though some people (Elder) raised a skeptical eyebrow when she first told us about her plan. I love how she is the female version of Elder.

She's cool as even though she was right near her finals when Littlest was born, she still drove me over and back until I was a little less shell shocked and a little more able to make the journey to SCBU by myself.

They may not be my blood sisters but with those 3, it doesn't matter, I know I can rely on them whatever.

THE GALLERY: Holiday

This week's theme at Sticky Fingers is HOLIDAY and what with this unusual British sunshine weather we are experiencing as a welcome change to the usual rain, its getting about the time we start thinking about our hols.

I don't have many holiday pics to be fair, almost none from when I was a kid, but here is one that I find funny.

Here I am, near on exactly nine years ago, on the first "outside of Kent" trip Elder and I had ever been on together. We had met a year before, so I am 19 in this, and he is 32. Although we both look scarily younger. You can see that the ends of my hair are blonde-thats the left overs of the pink and orange I had when I met him!

We are sitting in Elder's friends back garden in Berkshire, long before the move up here became permanent. It was the first time I met Elder's family, so I was really nervous!

But it was the first time that I saw what it was like up here, and began to question why I had never moved on from Kent when I had the chance.

I'm glad I did, although it took a few more years before it happened!

And here's one from 1993(!)

This was the year when my Dad decided to help show his friend how to pitch a tent on the local field, the Great Lines. 

That's him in the green shirt and I'm the one in the glasses and dodgy fringe and cycling shorts. I can't recall whether my Mum took it, or perhaps Gemma's Mum (she's the other girl in the photo). They lived opposite us in Copenhagen Road for years, and Gemma was in my class at school. Her Dad and elder brother are trying to look like they know what my Dad is going on about. Whilst my Dad (knowing he was about to be photographed) tries to look busy and knowledgeable. And yes, I do quote him directly from the time!

It reminds me of the trailer tent hols we had when I was a kid. I was really jealous of everyone else who was going not just to hotels, but abroad, while I would be stuck with the inevitable crap weather and museums trips. I do recall playing snap though, or when the hedgehog crawled in my Mum's Sleeping Bag. 

So there we are, two holidays! 1993 aged 11, and 2001, aged 19.

Oh and while you're here, thinking of booking your trips here, there and everywhere, think about giving about of your spends to a very worthwhile cause:
 

Denise Bryan is fundraising for Mind - The Mental Health Charity - JustGiving

 

Regular followers will know that I myself have suffered bouts of depression, so well done to Denise and Andy, who are walking a blister inducing 192 miles coast to coast. Good luck to them both, and you can follow more about their mission at their blog, Whitefriars Wanderings