Time to go home - Monday

I woke up at about 7am when my alarm went off on my phone. I got up and put Moyles on the radio. I wanted to savour the last few hours of our holiday instead of sleeping and didn't want to rush round like a maniac doing all the cleaning up to leave the caravan as we found it.

Once the children were up and fed we made sure we hadn't left anything before leaving the caravan and taking in the key. The gentleman on reception was the same one that I saw when I checked in. He was very friendly and asked if we had enjoyed our holiday and if the caravan was OK. I was very impressed.

We took one last walk over to the restaurant where we stayed for breakfast. DS had the full cooked breakfast. I had Sausage butties and DD had Bacon butties. When we were all finished I called a cab to the station and before long we were sat on the train on our way home. We were earlier than I had planned and instead of an hour wait at York we had just 5 minutes.

We were home before 3pm. We were all tired and hungry so I got down the menus from the kitchen and we ordered food in.

So that was our first ever holiday away together as a little family unit. It was brilliant and we will definitely do it again in the next round of Sun holidays. Maybe not Scarborough though, I would love to go somewhere more South.

Day 3 - Sunday

Again I was woken by seagulls at about 6am but I went straight back to sleep.

The plan for today was to relax in the morning. The children wanted to go swimming and I wanted to just sit and read my book and not have to do anything too energetic. However once they had been gone about half an hour, I got restless.

Derby were live on Sky so my plan was to go over to the bar around 1pm for lunch and then sit and watch the game. Instead I left the caravan about 12ish and wondered over to see if I could see the kids in the pool. DD had categorically told me I wasn't allowed to watch and in no uncertain terms was I too take any pictures of them in the pool.
Well I couldn't see them in there anyway so I had a little play in the arcades and then decided to go sit in the bar for a quiet drink.

When they were done swimming, DD & DS joined me and we had a small lunch. I did quite fancy the Sunday Carvery lunch but as they both just wanted a lite lunch I agreed we would all have Onion rings.

After lunch DD and I made ourselves comfotable on the leather sofa in front mof the giant screen to watch the game.
Derby were crap we lost 2-0 a good waste of 2 hours...

The children asked if they could go back into Scarborough. I didn't really want to go back and wander the arcades so they got on the bus and went by themselves. The last bus back was 7pm so they just had a couple of hours.

I wanted to find where the beach was. On the map it said 100 yards away. It wasn't wrong. Only what it didn't tell you on the map was that it was down a steep hill which of course means back up a steep hill to come back. It was breath-taking views though so I was so glad I had taken the walk.







The other thing that was breath-taking was the icy cold wind so I didn't venture onto the beach. I can imagine in the height of summer that this is a right little sun-trap.

I wandered back to the caravan and sat to read my book. I have to say Moyles is absolutely hilarious. I had the door to the caravan open and I bet people were wondering what was going on as I was crying with laughter yet again.

The children returned about 7.30pm and we decided to spend our last night on the park taking advantage of all the entertainment available.
We got takeaway and took it into the club. It was nearly 8.30pm and the place was deserted. There were about 6 kids on the dancefloor and about 20 tables of people.
The first part of the evening for the kiddies was a little play - Sparkey's New Clothes -


I loved it! I know I shouldn't but I did. It is great just to be a kid for a few moments. After the little performance was our last chance to see Jinx! It was tough work for them as there were few people in the room but they were brilliant. A holiday camp is the perfect place for them as they tailor their performance and their set perfectly.
The final piece of entertainment for the night was the Party dances with the Teamstars.
DS was straight down there to try and win a prize. They did his favourite dance "The court of King Caractacus" I noticed even DD was dancing away in her seat. I didn't join in visually but I was doing the dance mentally in my head.

DS did win this time - A certificate of achievement in recognition of PARTY DANCES. How proud was he?!!!

We stayed right to the end of the evening and I couldn't believe that this was it, more or less our holiday was over.
We got rid of the last of our change in the arcade and headed back to the caravan to pack.

Day 2 - Saturday

I was woken at about 6am by birds on the roof of the caravan. Mainly Seagulls I imagine as I could hear them squawking overhead too. I really felt like I lived on the ground floor of an apartment block. I lay there for a little while and eventually dropped off again. The bed was amazingly comfy. I must had got the best sleep I have had for a long time as once I did get up, I felt really good!

I got up at 9am and sat and watched Hider. I know that is a daft thing to do on your holiday but I felt well rested and ready for the day ahead.
I had brought some Eggs and Bacon so that we could have a fry-up and we all tucked into Bacon and Eggs before heading off to get the bus into Scarborough. Its only a 10 minutes journey on the bus so we were there before 12.

As we had a good 7 hours in the town, we decided to go have a look round the shops and DD needed to send a postcard to her friend.
I realised as we headed down towards the front that Stupidly I had left my camera in my suitcase so I decided to pop into Argos and treat myself to a new one. It is only a cheap little thing but it would do me for the rest of the weekend. Mind you It would have helped if I had read the specs and the instructions a bit more before I started firing it off.

I took this one picture of the front with the Castle in the background which I am sure is exactly the same as the one I took last time I was there.

I took a couple of pics of DS on the beach too but they seem to have disappeared. Told you I should have read the manual first.

When we left the park in the morning it was really cold and overcast so we were all dressed for winter but by about 2pm the sun was out the Sky was blue and people were striping off all over the place. We couldn't let the occasion pass without going on the beach and we stood out a mile in our big coats, jumpers and trainers. Of course it didn't bother DS as his trainers and socks were off and his trouser legs were rolled up and he was paddling in the sea.

You know time really goes fast as you are in and out of arcades and by 3.30 I realised how hungry I was. We found a lovely little fish restaurant and sat down for lunch. DD ordered the cheese salad and DS went for the most expensive thing on the menu, the Crab salad. Well when they came you would think that this was their last supper, there was enough on 1 plate for the 3 of us. I am glad I just opted for the Baked potato with Prawns as I got enough salad with that.


God knows how much money we poured into those arcade machines but I did end up with a nice little keyring booty that I won out of them. That is where the excitement lays. If there were machines that had no gifts, I would miss them out.

I realised that time was moving on and we should make a start back up to the bus stop. Not before DD got herself some Donuts though and DS got himself some crabsticks to take back.

It was about 6.30 when we got back and I had blisters on my feet from all the walking. #
By about 8 though we were ready to go out again and walked down to the club.

Even though it was Saturday night, there was even less people than the night before. I had expected it to get a lot busier and was surprised that we could get a table right at the front. I treated the children to a big cup each that could be refilled each time we come back.

Saturday was Party in the dark night at the club. So all the children were encouraged to bug their parents to buy flashy things.
We watched Sparkey's Funtime and then resident band Jinx with different outfits and a whole different set to Friday night.
The guest act Saturday night was a girl duo called Insomnia - most aptly named as they would be the perfect cure for it. They were really rubbish and I would have preferred another set from Jinx rather than them so I suggested we go get Pizza and take it back to the Caravan. There was a great little takeaway in the complex that did Pizza, Burgers, Kebabs, Chips, Chicken etc...

The Pizzas were gorgeous. I got a Ham and Pineapple one and a veggie one so that we could share them between the 3 of us.

We all got snuggled up in our duvets and watched TV for a it before finally getting to bed about 1amish

Hi-De-Hi Campers

Back in January I received a priority booking form for The Sun's £9.50 holidays. At first I said to myself "Yeah Right" but then I thought that surely I could scrape together the £38 and if it is only a weekend, we wouldn't need that much money.
So I collected the tokens and sent in me form and paid the money. I had put mostly April dates so that we had longer to save up and although I had to break my rule of not taking the children out of school, Luckily we got this last weekend.

So Friday afternoon off we went to catch the train to Scarborough. (Changing at Leeds). Unusually for us everything went smoothly. There was a little delay but not that we really noticed.

We got to the caravan park around 5pm and made our way to the check in point in the club room.
I was so nervous. I have never done this before. At my age you would think I had booked a holiday before but I hadn't.
As we were late in the day, there was no queuing. I got my welcome pack and my key within 5 minutes of arriving.

We were certainly given a perfect start to our break. The caravan was just a minute's short walk from the entertainment complex and right next door to Reception as well as 2 minutes from the bus stop into the town.
Our Caravan was also much more than we could have asked for. 3 bedrooms which meant that the children wouldn't have to share after all (according to my reservation we should have been in a 2 bed) There was heaters in all the rooms as well as a seperate toilet and shower.
The kitchen had a microwave and a Forman grill and the lounge area had a DVD player as well as Freeview and built in radio. It was obvious that we had secured a privately owned unit as there were a selection of games in the cupboard and little ornaments scattered about the caravan.

Our Caravan

To the left of the caravan

To the right.

Once we had got ourselves settled and sorted out the linen etc... We took a walk down to the entertainments and shop to take a look around. As it is just the beginning of the season, it was very quiet. We had a go on the Arcades and then went for some tea in the restaurant. The children both opted for Lasagne and I had Scampi.

We made our way into the Clubroom at about 8.30pm and it wasn't even half full so we were able to get a good table near the front.

As in most of these places they more or less stick to the same format of entertainments. No Rory and Bradley this time though. Park Resorts have their own characters. Firstly the hero of the hour is Sparky the rabbit along with his slightly more intelligent girlfriend Sparkle.

The other character though was by far our favourite, he is Naarky the Nardvark

(OK my pictures aren't the best)

We had arrived in time for Sparky's funtime. The children had to do daft thing to compete for point which would ultimately lead to -Yes you guessed it-Prizes

Halfway through, Naarky appeared to spice up proceedings as he caused mischief and mayhem distracting the children and going round knocking chairs over. What fun that must be. I would love to play Naarky.

DS' favourite next as the Teamstars came out on stage to do the Party dances. DS was straight down to the front as prizes were mentioned for the best dancers etc...He wasn't a winner on this occasion but he would have more chances later on.

The next entertainment was the resident cabaret who are a band called Jinx. They are a family consisting of Dad on Bass, Son on Drums and the 2 daughters doing all the singing.
I thought they were terrific. They did a huge variety of covers from Kylie/Lily Allen/Charlotte Church to Take That and even Black Lace. They kept the children on the dancefloor and intigrated them into the act and even had COMPETITION TIME half way through the set where the children had to go and fetch a parent to dance with and the girls would pick the best dancer to get a prize (T-shirt, Certificate, medal) Of course it was never an adult that won.

As well asJinx on every night, There was also a guest act. The act Friday night was a male comedian and I didn't fancy that so we went out into the arcades. It waqs probably about 10.30 went we went back to the caravan but we watched a bit of TV and went to bed as it had been a knackering day travelling.