Center Parcs in the snow

Time for another Center Parcs trip - being going here for about 25 years, usually in January for two reasons, mainly because there's a lot of family birthdays, and also because its cheap!  Booked a villa with a hottub, steam and sauna suite and a games room, and set off on Monday to meet our 6 friends who were joining us. arrived early and had lunch in Strada, then went off to find the villa. There was a lot of snow!

Whilst the men sorted the cars out, me and Jane went to hire a couple of bikes. The bikes were a bit buried:

Luckily there were some undercover so we didn't have to dig them out. we were told to keep only to cleared paths, and bring the bikes into the villa to thaw the brakes out before using them. The view from the villa was stunning

and we didn't go out for the rest of the day, just unpacked - we hadn't coordinated bringing drinks, and I think we all brought enough for all of us! Good job the games room had a long shelf.

Had a great afternoon and evening playing pool, drinking Prosecco  in the Hot Tub, and having a lovely home made meal.

Woke up on Tuesday to bright sunshine, there had been no wind, so the snow was still on the tees. this was the view from our bedroom window, taken whilst having a lovely coffee in bed.

Our garden had been visited in the night by a largish animal, the paw prints were too big for a fox, so we thought it might be a badger. We decided to go for a walk, round the edge of the forest, everywhere we went we saw beautiful frozen ponds and trees.

Eventually we reached the bird hide

Sat for a while watching the birds feeding, and I loved the trees which are full of little patches of different colours

We showed one of the rangers a photo of the pawprints we'd seen in the morning, and she confirmed that they were from a badger, and that there was a set near our villa. Then we walked back through the forest, which was beautiful.

Had coffee and lunch at The Pancake House overlooking the completely frozen lake, then back to Villa, and straight back into the hot tub!

Then we went bowling, the the bright, neon lit bowling alley. It's fair to say some were better than others, but we had a fun time anyway!

Back to the villa for another home cooked meal, beginning with champagne and canapes. Then we made our own entertainment - lots of pool was played. Stuart mixed cocktails - mainly banana daquiris and white russians. We played games, including doing a couple of pub quizzes and some board games. The hot tub got some more use, and two of us stayed in it till the early hours, hoping to catch sight of the badger, for whom we'd left food out. Needless to say, we didn't see him!

Latest project

I thought I'd try something different now the dolls house is nearly finished. Saw this on eBay:

and thought, how sweet. It said that it was all self assembly, but that didn't worry me. Until it arrived. Everything has to made from scratch. Unpacked the box today and had a look:

Even the chairs have to be assembled and upholstered, all the material cut out, even the crockery has to be made by hand. Oh well, I took a deep breath, opened the instruction booklet and thought I'd start:

And yes, I know it's upside down, but I can assure you it makes no difference at all. I think I may just have bitten off more than I can chew.....

Dolls House Christmas

I had a great time decorating the Dolls House for Christmas. I started with some trees - plain green ones bought from various places. I used small beads, glitter, sequins and tinsel to decorate them. In total I did 5 of various sizes - here's three of them almost finished.

I bought an assortment of mini decorations, and also made a lot, then set to work on the house. i've always wanted a big hallway with a tall tree with lots of presents under it, so that was first:

The kitchen had a small tree, and some mincepies and a Christmas cake on the table

The living room had lots of decorations, as well as an array things to eat on the coffee table, including the Christmas bowl of nuts, and a couple of g and ts

On the next floor, the hallway had a bright ponsettia, holly and door wreaths, as well as fibreoptic tree which had red lights - one of my bargains from Poundland!

I decided to do the music room blue and silver, and it became my favourite room. The silver tree was also fibre optic and glowed blue.

The dining room was decorated in green and gold with a big swag on the fireplace with gold roses, which I made using the roses I'd decorated candles with at our wedding 10 years ago. I knew they would come in handy again....

There was also a feast set out with a boars head, a turkey, crackers, Christmas cake and even a bowl of brussel sprouts!

The hall on the third floor had some simple white and silver decorations

and the nursery had some old fashioned paper lanterns and some small decorations - had run out of ideas by the time I got up here - will try harder next year.

The games room in the basement had a tree and a Christmas table with sweets, cakes, wine and fruit.

The two clusters on the back wall are a pair of my Christmas earrings!
Phew. All taken down and packed away now for next year.

SCCRAG

Meeting of SCCRAG tonight - Sheffield City Centre Residents Action Group. Ever since we moved into the City Centre 16 years ago I've been involved in various forums about living here, but SCCRAG is the first properly constituted action group. Formed early last year we've done a lot. We've got a committee and officers, a website, Facebook and Twitter accounts and funding from Sheffield NHS and Sheffield City Council. Currently we're working with Sheffield Hallam University on a survey of Sheffield City Centre accommodation - we want to know who lives where, and how do we make contact with them. There's somewhere between 18,000 and 20,000 people living in the CC, compared with several hundred when I first moved in, and 4,000 10 years ago.

We've engaged with the licensing committee, including participating in a review of licensing, and also discussed changes to health services in the CC, air quality, and plans to green more of the CC. Some of us met the Chief Executive of SCC to discuss our concerns over the lack of progress with the Sevenstone Development, and the condition of part of The Moor. At each of our meetings we discuss priorities for PACT (Partners and Communities Together), where the local police and safer neighbourhood teams agree with us what local priorities are going to be. For example, recent ones have included inconsiderate behaviour by taxis, noise, street drinkers, litter, and more recently policing of the Christmas and new year period.

Planning applications and licensing applications are often looked at and we have raised a number of objections, particularly where the quality of life of CC residents is likely to be affected. A recent proposal to allow opening of bars located under a residential block into the early hours of the morning was successfully opposed. We have to make sure we don't come across as NIMBYs :-)  All of live in the City Centre because of its vibrancy, proximity to entertainment and shops, and we all expect to have more noise etc. But, if SCC is serious in promoting CC living, then a balance has to be struck between the needs of residents, and the preservation of the CC atmosphere and local businesses. Hopefully the CC Masterplan which is currently being reviewed will address some of these issues.

Devonshire House update

Can't believe how long it is since the last dolls house update! Have been quite busy over the last few months and not had quite as much time to spend on it, but still a lot has been done.

Just after the last update I went to Miniatura, a miniature exhibition at the NEC. I was like a child in a sweet shop! Hundreds of stalls selling all manner of small things. I had intended not to buy much, but came back with quite a stash!

One of the things I thought I'd try was making furniture myself from plywood kits - this bathroom table was my first attempt, and I also made everything on it

I've also done some work on the games room, putting a billiard (snooker, pool not sure which!) table in, and I made the settle at the back from a kit which I stained and distressed!

Unfortunately, I had a bit of help with this room, when my cat Ruby found she could get in it, and started playing with the accessories!

I decided I wanted to change the attic, and put a door in the dividing wall, which I did, and also wallpapered the wall - much easier to do when it's not attached to anything!

I chose some paper for the nursery which had fake wood paneling on, but when I got it, found that it didn't fit as the attic rooms are lower than normal ones, so I had to do some creative cutting and rejoining to make it look OK.

The house looked a bit sad for a while as I had to take the roof off as I wanted dormer windows in the attic. I made the dormer windows myself from a kit, but didn't trust myself to cut the holes in the roof for them, so a friend did that for me. Then I had to work out how to get the roofs of the dormers to look the same as the tiles on the main roof. So, I took a picture of the tiles, and experimented with printing them until I got them the right size, then stuck them on. Genius!  I'd like to say it was my idea, but another friend suggested it to me.  I think the result is pretty good. The dormer roofs look a different colour on the photo, I think that's how the light is reflecting as they look fine on the house. The house looks so much better now, and you can see light coming from the attic rooms, as well as seeing into them.

While the rook was off I decorated the attic. One room became a bedroom - for a teenage girl I think. Haven't quite decided who lives in the house yet.  Someone asked me recently how much I had to do to each room. Well, here's "before", without the dividing wall, but you can see my pencil marks of where it's going:

Well, not quite before as I've painted the ceiling and the edges. The tape on the floor is covering the wire coming up from the light in the room below. This is after:

The nursery on the other side is also almost finished, and you can see all of the attic here:

So, every room is now decorated, but the beauty of dolls houses is in the detail, so lots more things to add. Of course, I decorated it for Halloween:

And for Christmas, but that will have to be another post!

Godless trip part 2

Monday we got on a boat and went for a trip down the Thames.

I love the view you get of London landmarks from the Thames, and of course, many you can't see any other way.

We stopped off at North Greenwich and had a look round the O2 Arena Square which is looking really good

and then got back on the boat to Greenwich where we went round the Cutty Sark.

I
t's had a huge restoration programme, and has been lifted up 3m to create a hall under the hull which is very impressive.

From there we walked to the Royal Maritime Museum which was hosting an Ansel Adams exhibition.

Ansel Adams took beautiful black and white photographs, and this was a stunning display of landscapes from the mountains and the sea. Then it was a steep wall up the ill to the Royal Observatory, and I couldn't understand why the parkland in front of the Naval College was all being reseeded, until I was reminded that it had hosted all of the equestrian events during the Olympics.
The view over London from the Observatory is stunning, and you can just see the reseeding in the bottom of the picture

Of course, you have to take the obligatory picture of the Prime Meridian, which I am reliably informed also runs through Cleethorpes. Lots of tourists having their picture taken standing on it, but I've not seen that happen in Cleethorpes.

Then it was back on our boat, back to the Embankment, and a quick tube journey back to the hotel.

We were off to the theatre again, so grabbed a meal in the Massala Club - a thali of mixed curries, very nice. Then off to the Theatre Royal to see One Man, Two Guvnors. A comedy set in the early sixties, but based on a Commedia Dell'arte play from 1743. It was hilarious. One of those plays where you are desperate for the interval so you can stop laughing. Well worth seeing.

Tuesday morning we went to the Museum of London, which we'd not done before. Lots of really interesting stuff about the History of London, including the plague, the great fire, the Blitz and how the city has developed. well worth a visit.

Then we checked out of the hotel walked to St Pancras where we took advantage of the shops to do a bit more Christmas shopping, and a very relaxing journey home