Free tickets to Alton towers

Availability:
12,13,14 September mini break £275
29th September onwards - 3 nights £275, week at £395 for accommodation near Alton Towers during Scarefest, half term and Fireworks 

Back in the spring sometime we purchased The Sun newspaper every day for a week just in order to apply for our free Alton Towers tickets.  We hadn't realised the dates would be so restricted and were really pleased that we managed to get tickets in August.  The date was put in our diaries months ahead. Exciting - a jolly day out to our local theme park.

Then the date starts to hit our radar and the week fills up with millions of clashing activities. How strange that even though we had known about this day out to Alton Towers for a long time, by the time the date came around it didn't fit into our schedule all that well.  Add to that my failed intention to find another child to come along too.  It was going to be just me and my 8 year old boy.

Nemesis is too much for us!

In the end we were dropped off at Alton Towers at 3pm on a beautiful sunny day on which the rides were closing at 6pm.  Neither of us has graduated to the likes of Nemesis yet so we headed off to the wet rides and the runaway train.

The mother and daughter who shared our bathtub on the log flume had forked out for the fast track ticket and were faintly smug about the fact they had done two rides in the time we'd taken to queue (staff were being truly incompetent but that is another story).  In contrast to us she had planned her trip to Alton Towers and it had remained a priority in her diary - so for her the fast track upgrade was a really great idea.  As far as we were concerned we had nipped to our next door village for three hours of free entertainment completely accepting the fact we were only going to go on our four favourite rides.

We spent a lovely time together on a sunny day.  Funnily enough the highlight was not one of the rides but squirting water at each other on the pirate ships.  We left Alton Towers soaking wet and within 10 minutes we were home and dry with the kettle on!  Perfect.

Our thanks to The Sun and Alton Towers - we enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

'Ola' sang the holiday cottage guests to Pickle

We have had a lovely Spanish family staying in the holiday cottage.  They stayed for two weeks, the first of which rained daily.  I really wanted them to see the Churnet Valley in all its summer glory so thankfully the second week of their stay was glorious and one sunny day the children walked onto the ridge and flew their kites.  Three kites fluttering high in the clear blue sky was a magical sight.

My Spanish is hopeless.  I made a joke that I only know how to order two beers and it turns out that every time I've been to a Spanish bar I have been ordering 'two heads'. Oh dear!  Our guests, of course, had a much more impressive command of English. The children played with our son and another child from the village and they just get on with it.  The language of football is international and my son learned a few more vital words, like goal and strawberries.  Even Pickle seemed confident in Spanish, responding with a wag of her little tail when the children sang out, 'Ola Pickle'.

I have been sent some gorgeous pictures of their stay in the UK.  They visited Leek and Ashbourne, Trentham Gardens, Mow Cop, Peak District villages .... but they didn't bother with Alton Towers because there is so much to do and see around here.  Love it!

Bilberry Season

In June 2008 I read an article in The Guardian newspaper about the Bilberry, aka Winberry or Blueberry, and its northern roots. link: http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,2284528,00.html#article_continue

Apparently this superfruit is sold in Morrisons in its northerly outlets; I wonder how much for. Curiously, readers of this Guardian article were advised that the season is August and September - maybe that is so in the north. Here in the Midlands, however, it is prime bilberry season in early July.

Favourite uses in our household are bilberry and strawberry jelly and freshly collected bilberries on our breakfast cereal.  I trek into the woods first thing to gather them for breakfast (double health benefits from this).

Personally I am not keen on them when they become over-ripe.  There is something about the smell of processed bilberries that can be off-putting, especially in cartons of juice and bottled squash.  They have to be fresh from the woods for us.

Bilberry Tourism to Churnet Valley

From Walking the Moorlands - Walks around Barks Holiday Cottage

There are some woods and moorlands around our holiday cottage that are full of bilberry bushes.  In the spring the woods are buzzing with bees visiting the bilberry flowers (pictured above).

This is a popular area with walkers as it is, but in the July bilberry season we become a tourist destination for bilberry fans. Some stop for a chat and seek permission to pick these super-fruits.  Walkers are such polite people.  Really keen pickers come with those comb-like bilberry pickers that really speed up the fiddle of the picking.  I slightly regret not buying a bilberry picker when I saw one during our holiday in Norway.  But on the other hand it doesn't take long to pick a breakfast worth.  Some local friends make wine - I have yet to try it.

Two thoughts for eager, younger pickers: don't eat too many when out picking or you'll get purple poo (!) and please could you mind the walls with your purple fingers when you get back to our holiday cottage!?

Apart from that, enjoy foraging for these fruits of the forest and connecting with the spirit of our hunter-gatherer ancestors.  Bilberries are very therapeutic for so many reasons - physical and spiritual.

Alton Towers

Went to Alton Towers to get literature for the holiday cottage and was reminded about the smart way to book tickets for the theme park. The best deals come via offers and promotions from retailers - Woolworths have/had an offer so look out for similar deals. Next best is to check the website and the most crazy, expensive way is to poll up on the day when you have to pay approx £24 per adult.

Alton Towers theme park is a good family day out. And Splash Landings is a fun way to spend a morning or afternoon.