Let's pack a picnic...

I'll cut to the chase here. I'm not very good at picnics. I really want to be but I find myself either not packing enough food or just finding the whole experience rather irritating.

It was reading Malory Towers books that mae me think picnics were a good idea, I remember reading about Darrell's family coming to visit and taking her out for a wonderful picnic that contained things like, cold roast chicken, fat pickles, crisp green salad, hard boiled eggs, pork pies, victoria sandwich and not forgetting the ginger beer. All comsumed while sat on a cliff top over looking the sea, the whole thing just sounds idyllic.

We try and do picnics but all I can ever manage is sandwiches, crisps and maybe some homemade cake. I'd love to be able to make all those wonderful things that you see in food and high end supermarket magazines but I can never be bothered. It all seems a lot of hassle for something that is essentially just a packed lunch, which to me is something you have on a school trip (I think years of working in schools and being a nanny has made me detest the preparation of a so called picnic, which always seems more hassle than it's worth!)

A friend of mine is fabulous at picnics, when a group of us went out with our children, she was the very organised person who had one of those wonderful picnic baskets you can get in the Adnams shop or John Lewis filled with delicious fare, she always packs far too much so always very generously shares it out. (Why can't I be more like that?) I had to buy a jacket potato from the cafe that day due to not having any picnic suitable items in the house. After lunch her husband pulled out a flask and teacups and served everyone cups of tea! I think I exhausted myself by making cupcakes for everyone that morning to take with us, thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

There is another reason why I have worken up and felt the need to post this, we are due to go for a picnic today. We found out yesterday that this delight was to be inflicted happening and thats not enough time to prepare! I only went shopping on monday, I don't want to go out to shopping AGAIN to buy picnic fare as the only choice is the high end supermarket which is so expensive. Yet I feel pressured into buying more stuff in order to sit on a rug somewhere to try and cut up a pork pie with a plastic knife and spear cherry tomatoes with a plastic fork, also am I buying to share or buying just for us?

Another thing with picnics is very much of the traditional picnic fare is deemed unsuitable for pregnant women. These include

• pate- which I can't bear as I think it tastes like feet so thats not an issue for me.
• cured and deli meats
• selection of cheeses- such as brie, camenbert, some goats cheeses etc
• some pre packaged salads

Most of those things I love so that just leaves me with the humble sandwich and crisps.
I don't get this whole picnic thing I really don't, mainly cos I am too lazy to prepare the fare for something that needs to be packed up to be taken elsewhere then once consumed taken back home to be thrown/put away.

So yes, who knows what I am going to come up with but I know one thing... I'd much rather go to the pub over the road for a nice meal.

Life in general...

Well as I said in my last post we won't be attending Camp Bestival next year because we cannot afford it :( especially with me now not working.
It's a shame cos even with the payment plan (which is a FANTASTIC idea and more festivals should take heed!) we can't commit to it.
So we will be living more of a frugal life from now on so I will be posting about soaking chickpeas and stockpiling food in the garage. And looking out for all the free festivals that we can attend with our children!

Camp Bestival Review

Yes, yes I know. It's been a while. Various stuff going on but here I am.

We attended Camp Bestival on the 28th, 29th, 30th ,31st July. As previously mentioned on here we haven't been to a festival for 6 years and it was the first time with the girl.

We were going to set off very early on Thursday morning but then a few days before hubby suggested we stay in a Travelodge on the wednesday so that we could take a leisurely drive down. So we managed to book one in Basingstoke for £30.

Best thing we did cos we then got up and set off at around 10ish and got to Lulworth at around lunctime. We were in traffic jams through villages and on roads before we actually got nearer to the site. It took about an hour of queuing to get in.

We were conviently parked up the top of a hill which we had to walk down and then up another to get to the wrist band exchange, on a very hot day when 4 months pregnant with a toddler in a pushchair this was hard work but one of those things. We got set up and then went and wandered round the site.

We thought going on thursday would give us a really big advantage and in some ways it did, we got a good camping spot in a quiet area near the edge and we had pleny of room but we noticed the people who came on friday ended up being not only parked nearer their campsite but were nearer the main arena.

We had a long walk to the main arena, well to be fair it wasn't terribly far but it was a walk down a hill and up another to get there which for a pregnant lady was quite hard and often I would get to the top and feel sick and dizzy and be out of breath. This couldn't be helped though because it was just the countryside!

As for the main arena, there wasn't really one. Ok so the campsites where separate from where the main action took place but there wasn't an area where you got your wristbands twanged and your bag searched which in some ways was nice cos it meant you could take a few of your own cans of beer in (which my hubby did) but it also meant that unruly teenagers (and there were many) could get in with stuff and get away with being louts. (they never caused a problem for us but people on the forum had bad experiences in certain campsites with them)

The entertainment and tents in the arena reminded very much of Glastobury with so much stuff going on everywhere and something for everyone. I never got to go to the Heavenly Healing area to do pilates and we didn't make it into the House Of Fairytales :(

My biggest issue was the capacity, ok so I had never been before but it just seemed very, very busy and you couldn't really find a place to just sit without feeling in the way. This would be the one thing that would put me off going in the future because it just seemed too overcrowded.

Ok so here are my best bits or I'll be here forever just recounting the whole weekend.
Music- ABC, Groove Armada, didn't really see much music but we heard lots.
Watching the girl charge around the Bollywood tent
Watching the River Cottage guys prepare mackeral in a variety of ways
Seeing Mr Tumble and the Zingzillas
Listening to Howard Marks talk about his life- very interesting man
The food was outstanding
The campsite was like being on a proper campsite, everyone was so civilised.
The WI tent.

Downers-
The cost of fairground rides :(
The queues for everything- not good when you have an impatient two year old!
The crowds
The price of food and drink
The amount of walking Could not even get in the kids craft tent due to pushy mummies pushing their child forward and yours out the way :(

The question is was it worth it? yes it was, I am so glad I went, really enjoyed it but wish we could have seen more, tiredness and crowding put paid to this. Would we go back? I'd go next year but we can't justify the cost, even with the payment plan maybe in the next few years we will be back with two children!

Long time no post!

I've been busy posting for http://www.festivalkidz.com/ and on behalf of the lovely Rachel at http://www.firebirdretro.co.uk/ while she was away. So I admit I have abandoned this a little...

ok a lot...

Anyway, Camp Bestival has been and gone and we are back in one piece and virtually back to normal. (The girls sleep patterns are still sorting themselves though)

I thought, while it's still fresh in the my mind the things that we felt worked well for us while festivalling with a toddler.

• Taking lots of little snacks that will be eaten with no - Ella's Kitchen Smoothies, Humzingers, mini cheeses, crisps and raisins were among the only things she would eat (apart from some pizza from a stall) also mini bags of Haribo were good bribes for sitting back in the pushchair! Also Capri Sun drinks were very handy and saved a few quid on buying her lots of drinks.
•  Pre packed meals for the girl- Organix, Hipp, although these had mixed success, they will last in the cupboard for a bit so it's not a waste.
• Meals for us- we decided to cater for breakfast and took a huge pack of rolls, some mushrooms, pre sliced onions and a huge pack of bacon and had bacon rolls everyday (although I was sick of them by sunday so taking a break from bacon now) I did two evening meals, both from the freezer, lamb curry and veggie mince chilli.
• Preparing the girl by putting up the tent for her to play in and letting her sleep in her ready bed before the event. We had no problem with putting her to bed and she was usually the last up!
• Make sure the zips of the tent zipped high up out of reach so that she couldn't reach them and
  escape.
• BUBBLES- as my husband said he wished he had bought her a bubblegun as felt bad when he saw lots of kids dads with bubble guns and we only had poundland bubble swords (but it was better than nowt!)

I'll be posting a review of the festival in due course along with some photographs.