Our Disneyland Adventure

It's been a bit of a week to say the least. A press junket trip to Disneyland Paris, an out of date passport, a film premiere, a 40th birthday and all in the space of three days. That's hardcore even by my standards.

So Disneyland… my very first visit, our very first visit. I traveled with my girls, Biba and Betty and my good friend Rosie and her daughter LJ. We were there as guests of Disney for the premiere of their new movie Wreck-It Ralph and to spend the weekend enjoying ourselves in the park.

We travelled by train, direct to Disneyland which was as stress free as travelling with three tween girls  can be. We dropped our bags at the vast Disneyland Hotel and hit the ground running by heading straight to the park.

To say that the girls were excited would be an understatement but then to be fair, Rosie and I were pretty excited too. The Disney magic was in the air, bizarre as it sounds, you could actually feel it.

Due to the out of date passport induced trauma I'd suffered the day before, it soon became apparent that  I hadn't researched the park in any way, shape or form, so with map in hand we strolled down main street before being totally wowed by the iconic Disney Castle.

The sheer scale of it is difficult to take in but it's truly amazing and magical. After just half an hour in the park I'd morphed into a Disney Princess and I just couldn't get enough of the vibe.

We were on a pretty tight schedule as the Wreck-It Ralf screening was that evening but we managed to squeeze in a couple of light rides.

A storm in a teacup! Rosie hates having her photo taken!!

A quick change back at the hotel and we were off to see the movie. Wreck-It Ralf doesn't come to UK screens until February 15th next year but it's set to become a absolute classic. 

Set in the 'off duty' world of arcade game characters it cleverly mixes different animation genre's resulting in a film for the whole family to enjoy.

I loved it, we all loved it and after having the opportunity to grill the producer about the whole creative process I cannot wait to see it again with my new found behind the scenes knowledge.

A full review is coming soon but take a look at the trailer...

On Saturday we went over to Walt Disney Studios and enjoyed a few more tame rides, (Betty's not a thrill seeker so everything we went on had to be pre-approved by her).

Fast Track tickets are an absolute must if you want to skip the queue's and we totally took advantage of ours. They reduced our waiting times down from over an hour to around 25 mins and just 10 mins on a couple of rides.

Nightfall brought a fabulous dinner with friends and a fireworks display at the castle. It was magical. We all donned our illuminated Mickey ears as we watched the sky come alive.

Back at the hotel we managed to squeeze in a quick Google + birthday hangout with some of our blogger friends back home before I totally flaked out. The excitement of turning 40 was just too much for me!!

The Disney experience was truly magical. I was enchanted from the moment I stood in front of the park gates. I'm not sure how they do it but I'm now totally sold on the need to visit Disneyland at least once in your lifetime.

Finally.... 

Can I please apologise to the non bloggers in carriage 4 of the 3.40pm Eurostar back to London? Rosie Scribble, Super Amazing Mum, Slummy Single Mummy and our seven rather boisterous, sugar fuelled children were rather loud... especially when they started singing happy birthday to me... everytime we hit a tunnel. There are quite a few tunnels...

Biba's written about her Disneyland Adventure too...

We spent two nights at the Disneyland Hotel with three days access to the park. Our accommodation, travel and expenses were kindly covered by Disney.

For information about Disneyland Paris please visit their official website. You can also follow the fun on the Disneyland Paris or Disney Mums Facebook pages.

Visiting the home of Stokke

I really wanted to join in this weeks Gallery but the theme wasn't working for me. We have never been into Halloween and as I was on a plane home from Norway when the kids turned into their alter ego's last night, I totally missed my opportunity, so instead I bring you the stunning town of Alesund in Norway. The spiritual home of Stokke (who I have worked for since 2003). This was my first visit as my meetings are usually in Oslo, but what an amazingly beautiful place. I am in love.

My first view of Alesund

View from my window at Bosundet Hotel

I wonder if I will ever stop taking pics of random Tripp Trapp's?!

Or Stokke pushchairs?! Here the new Stokke® Crusi, first one I've seen on the street!

Alesund is simply stunning. I hope that I get to go back next year with my family. They would love it.

Travel Trauma Part 3 (being blonde was not an issue)

I am beginning to wonder if my travel problems will ever come to an end.....

On Wednesday evening I had a call from my brother. He had just returned from visiting our parents in Cornwall and he suggested that I should go down and see them, like ASAP.

Our mum has been ill for at least 20 years. She has emphysema due to a non tipped Player no 7 habit teamed with the fact that she worked as a machinist at the Chad Valley soft toy factory for ten years. Her lungs are pretty much dead. She spent year after year inhaling fluff off the teddy bears that are now collectors items on top of the self inflicted smoking damage.

To her merit she did give up smoking when I was pregnant with No 1 son (who will be 19 at Christmas), but only after the doctor warned her that she would be dead within two years if she didn't. That all seems a long time ago now though and since then we have thought that we were going to loose her each and every year as the winter chills set in, her problems made worse by the super bugs that seem to be her best friend.

Then earlier this year we found out that she had breast cancer. 

Due to the state of her lungs, surgery is not an option and so she went onto yet more medication to try to shrink the lump.

This year the winter bugs hit her in June and she spent the whole summer in hospital whilst her grandchildren came and went as they do each year. They moved to cornwall nine years ago for the sea air and every summer since their place has been a hot bed of family visits.

Mum and dad love having the kids around and I do often wonder if they did the right thing by leaving us behind and moving on but they have made a happy new life for themselves in a beautiful part of the world.

Her summer spell in hospital has not been good for her state of mind - but then who would enjoy being stuck in what is officially the worst hospital in the UK whilst the sun is shining and the birds are singing?

So when I had the call from my brother last week I felt terribly guilty for not being in touch as much as I should and also a little worried that I wouldn't ever see her again.

As it was our half term I decided to take the children down to see her. FunnyGirl had a dance festival the following day but we could leave after that and be there for bed time.

FunnyGirl was amazing as usual, in fact all of the kids in the Junior group were amazing. 
Their first performance together and after just six rehearsals they took the Silver Medal. Another proud parenting moment.

She is bottom right, seated in the picture and at least 4 years younger than everyone else in the group.

Off we went in my little Mini, packed to the rim and bursting with lots of stuff that we didn't really need - but I am not used to being the long distance driver. Yan always drives and I always tweet and sleep and by the time we hit the torrential rain in Bristol I was wiped out. And I knew that I had at least two hours work to do before I went to bed.

After a family discussion it was decided that we would stop at the next services, sleep in a hotel and set of first thing in the morning.

The excitement of my children knew no bounds..... 

A Travelodge...... what joy of joys?!

Now, we have stayed in some pretty swanky 5* hotels in Thailand, so I have to ask - Why, oh why, oh why did they find that manky Travelodge (without even a bar of skin striping soap) so exciting?

They all went straight off to sleep and I got on with the editorial that I had to write. I must add at this point that I HATE the fact that hotels rip you off with their internet access fees. £10 for 1 hour!

Thankfully I had my dongle, but it really gets to me that they charge for wireless access. Just put the price of the room up and be done with it.

So the rest of the outward journey was un-eventful. The kids had a great time. Dad says that our visit really cheered mum up. We had fish and chips and crabbed of the harbour in Mevagissy (an essential in any seaside visit for us!).

Friday was home time. I wanted to leave early ish as I was going to see Morrissey in Birmingham that night. Was I excited? had I been waiting since the gig was cancelled in May? Yes, Yes.

Well we didn't leave early - mainly due to fact that the girls spent far too long on the jewellery stall at the antique fair that we visited but hey ho.

So we left Cornwall at 11.20am. Journey time home on a good day is four hours, leaving me plenty of time to get showered and changed and off to the gig.

3pm - not even reached Bristol. Stuck on the M5, road works and accidents have us at a standstill.

4pm - still not reached Bristol.

5pm - I am resigned to the fact that I am NOT going to get to the Morrissey gig. Gutted.....

5.30pm - The traffic starts to move and FunnyGirl needs a wee. Not funny........

6pm - I come off the M5 at Evesham due to sign saying more congestion on M5 due to another accident. Problem.... everyone else decided to do the same thing. Now this road is at standstill.

6.30pm - Loosing the will to live we decide to sing Morrissey songs until we get home.

6.35pm - Battery on iPhone dies.

6.40pm - Battery on ModelGirls iPod dies

6.45pm - Battery on FunnyGirls iPod dies...

6.50pm - Reach the junction for the M6 - accident and delay warnings......

Perleeeeze - I just want to get home!

We go another way..... we arrive home at 7.45pm. Journey time 8 hours and 25 minutes - an actual record!!!

I really am going to give up travelling now. I hate it.

Tomorrow.... my poor cat:(

Yes I am blonde - Travel trauma's part 2

If the truth be told when I wrote the last post on my travel trauma's I truly didn't intend for there to actually be a part 2 but here I am writing once again of my total inadequacy as a lone traveller.

So on Wednesday I was flying to Cologne to go to the large nursery trade show there. I've been a specialist nursery PR for the last nine years but I have always managed to get out of going over to the show as the flights are rubbish.

My quip to my clients is totally true... I work for myself so that I can be at home for my children and not away for days at trade events.

OK, so things haven't really worked out like that this year and I've been away more than I have ever before. This Cologne, however - there was no getting out of it. So I booked my flights, one of my clients sorted out my hotel (thanks G, you are a star and looking mighty fine with that big baby bump too..).

Tuesday night came and Yan dutifully booked my meet and greet parking at the airport. I was packed and ready to go.

Wednesday morning arrived. I took the kids to school and drove straight to the airport giving myself plenty of time to before they flight.

On arrival at the airport I handed my car over to the nice man and went into the terminal. I had a good look at the board but there were not flights to Cologne - or even Germany for that matter listed at all.

I took out my paper work and guess what????

I was at the wrong airport! My flight was leaving from East Mids and here I was car less and about 35 miles away in Birmingham...

I called the parking people back, who were by the way totally fantastic (NCP if you are interested). They brought my car straight back to me, without so much as a snigger from the driver. They also issued a full refund to my card and they were total stars!

I jumped into the car and they opened the car park barriers without me having to ask - thought I can only imagine how they were laughing in their office.

Luckily its was just a case of me jumping onto the M42 and getting to Easy Mids as quickly as I could.

As I arrived a check in a guy joined the queue behind me.

He asked me if I was going to the show in Cologne and I told him that I was. He then asked me if I would check in one of his bags for him as he was going to be over the weight limit.

Was he serious? With the morning that I was having! I could almost hear the tick tock coming from inside his case!! Which with all probability was my own heart that was still threatening to stop at any minute from my self inflicted blonde adrenalin surge!

I only have baby clothes in there he assured me. Ummm, well with all honesty I would say that too if I was about to blow up a plane but for once the timing was perfect and I jumped forward to check in leaving the crazy man behind.

Adventure behind me, I am now back at the airport with out any problems waiting for my flight home.

I'll report back to let you all know that I make it in one piece!

Yes I am blonde - Travel trauma's part 1

It's been whirl-wind of a couple of days. I got up at 3am yesterday catch my flight to Holland.

A very hot and sunny day met me in Amsterdam, my flight was a bit late and I knew that the meeting that I was supposed to be at had already started.

The meeting was at a lovely boutique hotel called Hotel Arena, the meeting was in full flow when I got there breakfast had already finished so I just sat down, grabbed a coffee and got out my mac.

These team meetings are always hard going. The team is based across Holland and the UK, so we don't get together very often and when we do - there is so much to get through.

By the time we broke for lunch I was starving but I still had some finishing touches to put to my presentation and loads of press emails that needed answering.

The afternoon went really quickly and my presentation on how as a brand we should be using social media was really well received - even though most of my colleagues thought that I was talking a foreign language!

By the time the meeting wrapped we only had ten minutes until we were being picked up by cab to go on to our guided walk of the city.

I quickly checked in and dropped off my bag. The hotel room was stunning. Set out over two floors, with bathroom and study downstairs and a spiral staircase leading up to the bed room. Two large flat screen TV's and full wireless access.

I was gutted that (1), my hubby wasn't here and (2), that all I had time to do was dump my bag and run.

The idea of the tour was great - as we usually fly in to wherever. Have our meeting and then leave without actually seeing outside of the hotel. But in reality, most of us had been up since 3am and I hadn't eaten a thing.

When we sat down to dinner it was 8pm and by the time we got back to our hotel it was 12.30am. It was in the taxi back that we heard about poor Michael Jackson.

I ordered a room call for 3am to get back to the airport, giving me enough time to make my 7am flight home.

I was so tired when I got up. It was quite possible that I had just a little too much wine last night and I really could have done with a full twelve hours sleep. I shared a taxi with one of the guys, who didn't look any better than me.

It was at this point that I realised that I had been looking my flight times to Norway - and not home from Holland. My flight wasn't till 9.40am!

What an idiot - I could have had a decent sleep and I felt really rough. Who ever said that PR was glam?

When my flight was finally called I got up to make my way to the gate. I went around the corner, following the signs for gate H.

Next sign: Gate H - walking time 45minutes. I looked at my watch. It was 9.15am.

What a nightmare. I had been at the airport for five hours and now I was looking at missing my plane. Around the next corner was another passport control. I had already been through one but this one was heaving, there must have been at least a couple of hundred people waiting. At this point panic started to set in! I pushed to the front of the queue making excuses for being so rubbish and got through quite quickly.

Next sign: Gate H 30 minute walk. Time to takeoff 15 mins.....

What makes it even worse is that I have a problem with my legs. I broke both of them badly a number of years ago. One of them is fused at the ankle and I can't run and they were killing me. Coupled with the fact that I had been made to walk around Amsterdam for two hours and I hadn't had any sleep. it wasn't looking good.

I was moving as fast as I could - then there was another security check.......

Laptop out, jacket off, liquids out. Laptop away, jacket in bag (by this time I was more than a tad hot).

Next sign: Gate H 15 minutes. Take off 5 mins.....

I got to the gate bang on 9.40am, and then I had a huge flight of stairs to get down. All I could hear was can passenger.. please come to Gate H - you are holding up the plane. No shit.....

They were just about to pull the steps but I had made it. The whole plane full of people were staring at me and shaking their heads.

I can't believe how big that airport is! There is no way on earth that we would have made it if we had been with the children. So please take note: If you are traveling from Amsterdam back to the UK - give yourself an hour to get to the gate!

All in all it was a totally blonde day. Lets hope that Sunday's trip to HQ in Norway goes a little better.