V 4 Value

 

Camping - 10 reasons why it's good for you

Some of my friends and family look at me as if I am mad when I tell them I am taking the family camping. They just don't get it. And I get that. It isn't always easy to explain why camping is so good for all the family so after returning from two (possibly three, if you count putting the tent up in the garden - see below) camping trips this summer (latest trip to Tyn Y Mur Touring and Camping Park, Abersoch, Wales review here)  I thought I would try to make sense of it all. Obviously, the way to do that is by making a list. So here is my list of all the goodness that a camping trip provides:

Health 
1. You do more physical stuff. The kids are out from dawn to dusk in a safe environment, got to be good for them - and you!
2. You sleep better if you are knackered after a day doing the physical stuff.

Knackered, after a day doing the physical stuff!

3. Good old fashioned fresh air - well, its better than the toxic smog 86% of UK kids are usually inhaling everyday right?
4. Sunshine is a good thing, vitamin D and all that. I am a classic fair weather camper, no doubt about it, so I definitely see a lot more sun than rain when I go!

Less stress
5. Ditch the tech for a few days and you will feel better - you can live without email, Facebook, Instagram, You Tube, Twitter and the rest. At least for a few days. Obviously making sure the kids have plenty of it in the car though for those long journeys!
6. Getting the tent up before a storm blows in will definitely take your mind of your day-to-day tasks. Which reduces stress. But not at the time you are putting the tent up as fast as you can and the kids want to jump on the tent. And you. That is very stressful. But after it is up, the kids are off playing with new friends, you can relax with a cold one. That helps all the life crap float away for sure.

Build Relationships
7. Family Bonding  - Doing stuff together helps families bond, and that's a good thing. Family bonds help kids to develop healthy behaviours and better self-esteem. Camping naturally brings families together to do stuff together, embrace it.

Sometimes you can do the simple things together that you don't usually have time for

 8. Create Memories - All the things you share on a good camping trip will create memories for a lifetime. From seeing a 6 year old's expression when her donut was stolen out of her hand by a seagull to finding the showers are all full so you all have a family shower together, these silly, daft things will be the funny family memories to share for a lifetime.

8. Nurture them with nature - cooking outdoors as the sun sets, watching the stars come out, pretending you know the constellations and their names to impress the kids. Being with the kids as they see their first shooting star. Watching them trying to catch the rabbits or feeding the sheep. Making bow and arrows and dens in the woods, finding new flowers all helps to get them interested in nature. And its fun for everyone.
9. Do new things, learn new things - this summer's new skills learnt include tent putting up, foraging for seafood, crabbing, cooking, body boarding, rounders and how not to kill each other on a 7 hour car journey thank you A30!

Fun. Pure and simple fun.

10. It's FUN! Most of all camping is just fun - watching the kids making new friends and playing outside all day long, making your own adventures and memories, trying and seeing new things as a family, laughing, sharing, playing and, yes, squabbles too that are soon forgotten as the next adventures start.


PS After two camping trips this summer, what do the kids do? Put up the tent in the garden and go camping again!

The kids putting the tent up in the garden

Where we went camping in 2019:

Tyn Y Mur Campsite, Abersoch, Wales
See my review here

Reasons to be Hopeful for Joe Root and England cricket fans

As England prepare for the second test at Lords following the drubbing in Birmingham it is easy for the naturally pessimistic England cricket fan to fear the Ashes are lost already. To bolster the optimism here are 5 reasons for Joe Root and England to be hopeful:

1. England lost the first test because they batted second. The Aussie top order is as dodgy as England's and would have equally struggled batting last at Edgbaston.

2. Joffra Archer is going to play in the 2nd test at Lords and the lad is fast. No doubt England will miss Jimmy Anderson but the new fast bowling sensation has that ability to get wickets that only fast bowling sensations ever have.

3. Chris Woakes loves Lords. He is one of only five men to have taken five wickets in an innings and 10 in a match  at Lord's, and scored a ton.

4. England didn't panic with the squad selection, wholesale changes would have played into the Aussies hands.

5. Smith is due a failure (possibly wishful thinking here!).

Crabbing, punching and general thievery - a traditional day out at the British seaside

School holidays, kids are bored, bit of sun forecast - obviously lets head off to the seaside for a bit of traditional British wholesome family fun.
North Wales is easiest for us to get to so head off on a two-stop strategy - Conwy for crabbing combined with Llandudno for the pier and kids fun.
Crabbing at Conwy was hopeless, apparently if you go there at low tide there is no sea and consequently no crabs to catch. Didn't stop us trying though. And it didn't stop the gulls trying to nick the bait. We won this battle against the gulls but it wouldn't be long before they got their revenge!

Incoming!

Smallest house in Great Britain: where do they poo dad?

Onto Llandudno and time to show the kids how to have fun without PS4s and tablets. First stop, good old Punch and Judy and get the kids properly grounded in the Victorian values of beating anybody you like repeatedly over the head with a truncheon.

 Suitably pumped up we moved onto the pier and found a modern day battery powered inflatable donut version of the old dodgem cars. At 3 tokens for 3 minutes or as you might say £3 for 3 minutes, or £60 per hour, they were comfortably more expensive than renting a Mercedes for £29 a day  They did look fun though and if there wasn't a big sign saying "No Adults" I would have had a go myself! The kids thought they were free as they were only using tokens and they weren't even too upset at dropping the odd token onto the rocks through the gaps in the pier. Until I made them walk all the way back off the pier, along the beach onto the slippery, jagged rocks and look for the tokens for two hours until the tide came in (not really, but I did think about it!).

"Can I have another go dad?"
"Not until you've got a job son"

By now the tide had really come in and MBW went back to the car to get the crabbing kit whilst I took the kids into the amusements for a proper lesson in finances. Armed with a tenner each they set about losing it with gusto. The good old tipping point games were the main focus mixed in with a bit of air hockey and it wasn't too long before they were back looking very pleased with themselves but asking for more cash. Rebuffed on the cash front they were keen to show me how much they had won with a handful of red tickets, about 40 each.

So we headed of to cash them in and immediately they were eyeing up all the big stuff on the top shelves. I pointed out that a small teddy bear was about 1,000 tickets and they would need to look on lower shelves. As their eyes went down shelf by shelf looking at how many tickets they would need they eventually arrived at the lowest shelf in the display counter in front of us and saw the smallest packets of sweets that Haribo make. I know from making goody bags for their birthday parties these are about 10p each from the discount shops. They counted their tickets (again) and realised they could have 2 packets each.
To say they were crestfallen is to understate it more than a tad. And to rub it in, er... I mean help them understand the value of money I asked how much they had spent to get those tickets and what they could have got with that money instead. Slowly, the er... penny dropped and they realised, momentarily at least, that they could have got many more teeth rotting goodies for their money elsewhere. To cheer them up and show them adults are rubbish with money too I bought 4 donuts with no filling for £3. You can get 10 custard filled donuts at our Coop for £1, you know.
Smiles were slowly returning as the admittedly yummy, warm and fresh donuts were gobbled up. Unfortunately, we weren't the only ones who appreciate a warm, fresh donut and a one-legged seagull swooped to snatch half of Emily's clean out of her hand. To say she was shocked and upset, not to mention hurt where the gull had nipped her finger, is to put it mildly. However, finishing her mother's half eaten donut seemed to take her mind off it.

10 CUSTARD donuts for £1 in our local Coop

A devious one-legged donut fan

 Judging by the considerable crowds and difficulty in parking at both Llandudno and Conwy the British seaside resorts aren't completely dead just yet. All in all a fun day was had by all, possible less so for the crabs that MBW finally caught after the errant tide came in  .....

We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing

We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. Apparently. According to George Bernard Shaw. And he probably had a point. Overall, I feel very lucky having two young children who never let me stop playing and a fun loving wife who wishes I could play more.
Sometimes, however, life bowls you a googly that requires some nifty footwork to deal with. One of those moments just occurred as I returned home from the school walk. A "we tried to deliver ...." card had been pushed through the letter box with "over the gate" written as a clue to its current location. Assuming it was yet another package for my wife I noticed with some surprise it was addressed to me. Oooh, I thought, something nice I must have ordered and completely forgotten about - not a rare occurrence these days. All excited, I ripped open the parcel and total confusion as to what it might be quickly gave way to slight amusement and shock when I realised what it was, which in turn gave way to complete horror when I realised the consequences of what it meant.

There in front of me was a clear plastic bag about 8 inches long full of a slightly opaque liquid with "Braun" printed on it. Something to do with shaving - that's what Braun do, right? - I pondered, totally puzzled. A new balm perhaps? I looked for some information and found a leaflet which had the word enema written in bold across the top. At this point, my mind now in total denial, had a wonderful conversation with itself,
"Enema? That's something to do with women giving birth."
"No, no, no, that's epidural."
"Enema......, enema....., I've heard of that. Ah, got it - Irish singer, popular in the late 80's."
"No, that's Enya. Try again"
"Enema......, enemaaaa....., enem...... oh mother of all things that are good, please say it isn't"

A full read of the enclosed leaflet revealed the brutal truth and the memory of that letter from last month, that I had safely and happily forgotten about, came roaring back into focus with all the energy of a seven year old  ripping into their presents at quarter past 4 on Christmas morning.
I have an appointment in two weeks for bowel scope screening which is a good thing. Apparently. Even if the NHS seem overly delighted in pointing out that it is only necessary as I am now 55. Ageist or what? The enema is to be performed an hour before I go which makes sense but surely the whole thing would be more accurately performed by an x-ray. Or a CT scan. Or an MRI. Night vision goggles perhaps?
The mother of my two children mentioned, after she had stopped laughing, something about giving birth, smear tests, fuss about nothing and being a bigger baby than the 5 year old. What does she know?

So there it is, my weekend ruined and my last two weeks as a virgin have started.
There is nothing else to do but realise how lucky I am to have a fantastic family and a free health service that not only offers these amazing services but also informs you when they are needed. I don't know about you, but I feel great and I am going out to play.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/bowel-cancer-screening/

Bowel cancer

10 down 10 to go

Hi, my name is Tim and I'm a ..........? What exactly am I? Well, not an alcoholic which is definitely a plus but I am, as you might have guessed, 55 and a half years old. For most of those 50 odd years I successfully managed to dodge the double bullets of marriage and children. Until I met My Beautiful Wife that is. Now at this tender age I find myself both happily married and a father to two wonderful (most of the time) children and my view on life has been turned well and truly upside down, as you might expect having your first child at 47. But at least I am in good company as I ponder the question: am I too old to be a father?
A free wheeling, carefree, lifestyle under the tropical sun with nothing to worry about and the most taxing issue of the day might be deciding which beach bar to watch the sunset from has been replaced with an empty bank account, sleepless nights and issues on a daily basis that might well effect the rest of the lives of the two little ones (not to mention their mum and dad) and all under the grey skies of northern England. And I couldn't be happier.
But, and of course there is always a but, some things are always swirling around the day to day chaos of teeth brushing, homework and taxiing the kids:

• Age - I'm no spring chicken despite what I tell myself
• Weight - the wonderful cooking of MBW combined with my woeful lack of will power has resulted in a fantastic spread. 
• Money - in case anybody hadn't noticed, kids are expensive.
• Health - let's face it after hitting the big Hawaii 5-0 your health is like driving down a one way street the wrong way - you can still have fun but you know sooner or later you are going to hit something hard
• Family, relationships, people, friends - how the hell do you bring up kids? How do you keep family relationships strong that are separated by half the world and two cultures and languages? How do you have time for a social life?
• Any other business - a catch all category to describe all the random stuff that comes along to stop you sorting out or dealing with the more important stuff

This blog is how to survive being over 55.
But why am I going to write about all this stuff in a blog for the world (well, probably just me and our "pet" fox who has just strolled past the door) to see? I have some vague idea of it helping me to clarify my thoughts or possibly provide a record for prosperity. And possibly help me to get to, at least, 60 not out in one piece.
But one thing I really hope it will do is provide me with extra motivation to sort out the size of "daddy's big tummy" as the kids call it.

Since getting married to My Beautiful Wife who loves cooking and adores food, but somehow manages to stay slim, and growing into family life, predictably my stomach has grown (it wasn't small in the first place) even faster than the kids and the overdraft. My weight rapidly ballooned to over 90 kilos - an astonishing weight for a small guy and presumably classed as obese but with my classic ostrich style I always avoided checking what the actual definition of obese is.

An ostrich doing what an ostrich does best

In the last three months, however, I have really dieted hard and achieved, by my pathetic lifelong dieting standards, some great results. I have lost 10 kilos in weight, or 22lbs in old money, which is fantastic and I am really pleased but just recently I have noticed I am slipping back into some bad old habits. If I start putting all this out in the public domain surely it will help with the motivation to stick with the diet and hit my target of losing another 10 kilos? Let's see.
Feel free to add any comments below.