Butlins 2009. A Weekend Of Fun, Fights and Fires
18 February 2009 4:36 pm
The short break away was very good indeed. It was well needed and all seemed to enjoy it een if we all came home completely exhausted. There were 9 of us in our holiday party. Myself, bf, our 2 boys, bf's sister, my parents and my grandparents.
We got there early after almost 3 hours of travelling as we did a detour to collect bf's sister and had a little problem booking in. Our details and keys were not there. We had to wait around a little but all was sorted out fairly quickly. They were working under a new system for 2009. What with this being the first busy weekend of the year there were a few teething problems.
Matthew was amused the whole time as he played in the indoor soft play area. James was happy just having a bottle and a little tour of all the bright colours, flashing lights and lovely new sounds.
Rather than make it a diary event of what happened when I'll just make it a list of highlights from here on.
Matthew did not know we were going until we got there and then he was SO excited. That excitement started all over again when my side of the family arrived. He had already been on the play area, some of the indoor rides and some of the funfair rides including the "rolling boat" and some trampolines. Later on in the holidays, bf took him on the bumper cars which he loved just as much.
The entertainment was fantastic. The first night we had a Basil Brush show which was incredibly funny and although there was alot of it aimed for the children, it had some underlying adult humour which was very very clever. Clever enough for the kids not to ask questions anyway. We also saw a wrestling show on the Saturday. It featured a star of the 2008 UK Gladiators called Goliath and he won. It was very good to watch, again contained humour and the adults loved it as much as the kids. On the final night we saw a panto of Sleeping Beauty, again well aimed at for the kids but there were a few risque comments in there too and a good variety of songs and dancing. That was followed by a rundown of popular songs by the band who were very very good and the final show we saw was a Michael Jackson tribute act. Matthew absolutely loved it and despite it starting at 11pm, was the only child dancing on the dancefloor trying to copy Mikky Jay's (as he was known) moves. It was so sweet and funny at the same time. I am so PROUD of that kid. He was absolutely perfect on this break. So much so he was able to go off on his own and mix with other kids without me having to worry about him getting too rough like we've had previous years.
We saw a couple of the kids shows including Bob The Builder and Barney which were the typical characters song and dance routines.
We only went in the swimming pool once. It's the first time I've taken two boys swimming and even with bf and his sister there it was a lot of effort getting the 2 boys ready as well as myself. The boys loved the pool. Matthew went on the slides and water play areas with bf and I looked after James. He loved it in the wave area. The rest of my family just watched from the viewing area. Bf's sister went off on her own to go on the "space bowl" water flume.
Bf went on it before, it's very fast and basically works like you are being sucked down a plug hole. You spin round and round the bowl before being spat out of the hole at the bottom. However, Bf's sister landed awkwardly and had to be rushed off to the first aid area. Her nose was cut badly and we think she broke her nose as she hit the water. She spent over 30 minutes in the first aid room being checked for concussion and any serious head injuries. 3 hours later she still had a nose bleed and she began to bruise but thankfully was ok. It was worrying at the time though and she was really shaken up by the experience.
That same evening, which incidentally was valentines day, we saw a big fight between one couple. She was being mouthy, swearing and throwing things at the man she was with as we were leaving the dinner hall. The man on the table next to them got showered with a cup of water and had a go as well. I got the kids outside and out the way despite it being really tempting to stay and watch. So we moved out and stopped, they moved out too and stopped right in front of us. He pulled her about really roughly and she had a go saying he tried to hit her which he didn't and if he did, after all the times she'd hit him and thrown things at him in the canteen, then it may have been understandable to an extent. Security soon came along and separated them and the action was over. It was after that we went to watch the wrestling. We'd already seen the warm up. Hehehe.
The next morning was also funny. We went into the supermarket on site and straight away I said I smelt smoke and laughed that the bakery didn't seem very good. It seemed to be getting stronger but no smoke was seen. I went for a walk and was hanging around the bottles of wine near the tills when I happened to look down at the rubbish bin beneath the microwaves for takeaway pizzas and coffee to see flames!!! It was a covered bin but I saw through the gaps alot of orange so I called over to the man on the cigarette counter "Excuse me, your bin is on fire!!!!" It was quite exciting and I was pleased that I found it. After I shouted about the fire, the alarms started going off. We were all evacuated and the burning bin was taken outside and extinguished out. It was just a bin bag in a cardboard box so it burnt pretty fast.
The weekend flew by so quickly and I am sure I've forgotten things but there wasn't a night Matthew went to bed before midnight and sadly, poor Matthew ended up being sick all the way home. We put that down to a weekend of fizzy drinks and treat that we normally try to keep to a minimum at home. He was a little poorly yesterday but that's down to a nasty cold.
There will be some photo's but I don't have them all just yet. My mum and bf's sister took the most so when we have access to those I will do a photo entry.
Oh, and being so busy Saturday me and bf forgot all about valentines day and bought our cards for each other home so we will have our valentines another day when it suits us. :)
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