It is our last day today, so we packed everything up and loaded up the car. Ethan and I then went swimming at the Subtropical Swimming Paradise. We mixed it up and had Pancakes for lunch today, lemon and sugar. We then had a round of Puttify at The Hive. We had a great time playing an interactive crazy golf. I managed to come 7th of the day overall which i was pleased with. We then headed back to the car and drove home, this time it only took us just over 4 hours.
Ethan and I started the morning off with a swim at the Subtropical Swimming Paradise before heading for lunch at Starbucks with Rachel. We then had a long walk to the Outdoor Activity Centre for the Golf Driving Range, which was great fun, didnt know if we were doiing it right but we all had fun doing it. I then walked back to the lodge to get my skates and some dry swimming kit before heading to The Sports Plaza for Roller Skating, Ethan is getting so much better and was going round great, i had a good time with some good music on. We then went to Dexters Kitchen for dinner and we had burgers. Ethan and I then went night swimming for a few hours and got back to the lodge for 8pm to watch The Traitors.
This morning Ethan and I went for a swim at the Subtropical Swimming Paradise and then met Rachel for lunch at Starbucks. We then went on the Family karts, which is so much fun, we had a time trial in which i got round in 19 seconds and the. we had some races. We then headed to The Hive to go in The Arena, which is an interactive room, where the floor and the walls are touch screens, we played lots of games and had a great time. In the evening we went to Bella Italia for dinner and I had a nice pizza.
Today Ethan and I started the day off with a swim at the Subtropical Swimming Paradise which was great fun. We then went to Starbucks for some lunch before heading to Squash Family Ball Wall, which after 45 mins we were exhausted. We then headed back to the lodge for a rest. In the evening we went to The Lakeside Inn for dinner and Rachel and I had the cavery.
This morning we got in the car and headed to Center Parcs Whinfell Forest, a drive that should have took us 3 hours 30 mins, ended up taking over 6 hours as the M1 was closed and we diverted to the M6 which then ended up having a closure too. We finally made it though about 4pm. We unloaded the car into the lodge before Ethan and I headed off to the Subtropical Swimming Paradise for a swim. We went straight from the pool to Hucks for dinner and i had the fajitas which were lovely. We then headed back to the lodge to finish unpacking.
After I forged the knife it still needed a handle, so we took a piece of old hardwood my Dad salvaged and cut it into strips. I then cut out the rough handle shape, drilled the holes to match up with the ones on the knife and then epoxied them on with also putting some pins through the holes. Once that was dry i sanded the wood down to the same shape as the knife handle. I then ran a rounding router bit over the handle and then sanded it smooth. To finish it off i sealed the wood and then using a grinding wheel and stone put an edge on the blade.
Dad and I went to Oldfield Forge for a knife making session which was my birthday present from my parents. I had wanted to do knife making for years and i was really excited to do it. We started with a blank and had to forge the handle curves and then thin the blade out with the hammer and then finally drifting a hole. This process took us the morning and then after lunch we worked on brinding the blad and then quenching it in oil before grinding back the blade part. I am really pleased with how it turned out, it still needs a handle putting on it but I will do that at home.
Today we went to Malt Kiln Farm for Pumpkin Picking. We went with Rachels sister and cousin and their children which was nice. There was some really interesting shaped and coloured pumpkins in the field. We ended up getting a really small one and then one that Ethan could decorate.
Ethan and I went back RC racing tonight, we had a really good time and got back into it. Ethan did really well and got moved into the A final and ended up coming 2nd with me winning.
Today we started off with breakfast in the hotel and then a few games of table football. We then went to the Lego store so i could get a new set of Brickheadz which got released today. We then had a look round the shops, then went for lunch. I had a nice KFC and everyone else had a Starbucks. In the afternoon we went to Volcano Falls Mini Golf, going on 2 of the 3 courses, Volcano Valley and Carnival Golf which were great fun. We then headed home and it was a great Birthday weekend.
Today we went to Milton Keynes to celebrate my birthday. We had a look round the shops in the morning and then checked into The Moxy hotel. Ethan and I then went to Gravity Rocks climbing at Xscape, we had a good time, it was quite warm though! We went back to the hotel afterwards for a bit of chill before heading out for dinner at Las Iguanas. I had the fajitas which were lovely! We then went back to the hotel and i had a cake and we played table football.
Its my 43rd Birthday today and i got lots of great Lego Brickheadz sets, a nice Loungefly Card holder and some lovey cards.
Having had the summer off from RC racing we needed to fix our cars before we could race again. We needed new bumpers, shells, tyres and Ethans needed some soldering. We went to my parents today to get the shells sprayed, I went for Hot Pink and Ethan went for Lime Green. They turned out really nice, i got all the wheels fitted and the tyre protectors all glued on so we are ready to race now.
It was Sams 40th birthday today and my Sister had arranged him a surprise birthday party at The Glen Parva Manor. It was nice to see his family as well as my own.
Today Dad came over and we worked on getting some of the last work done on the garden. We started by trimming all of the trees back near the shed and house border. We then moved onto fitting the seats around the circle, we got a nice tight fit but also added some expanding glue to really help them not moved. We then worked on moving the bin store and then cladding it in the 6x1 to match the shed. We had to do some work on the doors to make everything fit but it turned out really well, like a mini version of the shed. We then got all the rubbish left over and took it to the tip. I gave the hedges on the front a cut and Ethan helped me clean up and then Rachel and Ethan put down some grass seeds in the bold patches.
Today Rachel, Ethan and I went to AirHop Warwick. We had never been before but it had trampolines, slides, foam pits, dodgeball court and a soft play. We had a great time jumping and going on the slides. In the evening we made pizzas which turned out lovely.
It has been 16 years since Rachel and I went on our first date, so we decided to go out for dinner together tonight. We went to Zizzis and had a lovely meal. We couldnt decide on dessert so we nipped to the shops on the way home and got some.
Today Dad, Ethan, Thomas and I went to the Brampton Valley Way in Northampton for a bike ride. It was once a disused railway but now can be used as a bike way. The ride was good, the tunnel was closed and we were sent on a diversion, which we then got lost trying to follow the signs and ended up riding all the way through Market Harborough, in the end we had to turn around and head back the way we came, in the end we nearly did 15 miles. Afterwards we went to McDonalds for some lunch and in the evening we went to Nandos.
I started my new job at The Learning Pool today. They had sent me a new M5 MacBook Pro which I got up and running with my setup after the upgrade. I had a day of meetings and forms to fill out. I am looking forward to new challenges.
Dad came over today to help on the garden. We started off by laying all of the new boarder blocks and then haunching all of the blocks that we had laid before to stop them from moving. Dad then relayed the slabs while I cut out all of the dead grass and replaced it with new turf. We also lowered the manhole that was sticking up in the garden so we don't trip over it.
Ethan and I went to March House farm today to go on their 165m slip & slide. We had a fantastic hour going down the slip and slide on 1 person rings, 2 person rings and bodyboards. The sun was out so we didn't get too cold either, we would definitely go again.
Today we went to the Cosmic Golf Experience at Leicester Golf Centre. The course was quite new and had a dyed river running through it. Once of the holes was really cool as you got to hit the ball into the stream and then it would be filtered out near the hole.
When building the pergola I had ran some 4 core armoured cable, so today I mounted 2 5.25inch Herdio outdoor speakers and ran the cable to them, I then got that cable into the garage and wired it up to a 300 watt rack mounted amplifier. I tested it out and the speakers sound great.
I ran an armoured power cable to the pergola and mounted a waterproof double socket to it so that we can have lights there. I also wired up some lights in the soon to be seats. Once I had connected the cable up to the existing outdoor armoured cable I gave them a test and they all worked.
For my new role I will be using a Mac, so I needed to update the cables in my office to support mostly USB-C. I ran 3 new USB-C cables to the monitors and then a 4 port hub for the microphone, webcam, external graphics card and the 2.5gb network dongle. Getting all the cables in the wall was difficult but with the help of my cable rods, I got them all ran. I also got myself a new black Apple Magic Mouse and an Apple Magic Keyboard with TouchID.
Dad asked if Ethan and I wanted to go with him and Thomas to Click City Action Park in Nottingham to go on all of the slides. We had a 1.5 hour session and we got to try every slide once and then choose our favourite ones to go on again. You get a mat which you take with you onto every slide and there are some which you take off a ramp at the end which are really fun.
As it was our last day we were up early to pack our suit cases and after dropping them off at reception we walked into EPCOT. We first went on Journey Into Imagination With Figment as we hadn't been on it yet this trip and then had lunch in Starbucks. Our final ride of the trip was Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros as the queue was small and we enjoy it. We walked back to the hotel, got ready and then got a taxi which had a TV in the back so we could watch a film while heading to the airport. I had a burger from Shake Shack before getting on the plane and flying home.
It was our last day in Magic Kingdom and we hadn't been on its a small world, so we did that first. We then went on Pirates of the Caribbean, had some lunch before going to Mickey Mouse at Town Square Theater for a photo. We then headed back to the hotel to enjoy the pool for a few hours. In the evening we were back to Magic Kingdom to the The Crystal Palace restaurant. We then went on Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger Spin, where I got nearly 1.8 million and got a Galactic Hero badge. We then had a night time photo. Ethan and I stayed in the park, went on Haunted Mansion, had a Rapunzel Lantern photo, then a photo with the castle before going to the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor show.
It was our last day at Hollywood Studios so we had an entrance photo, followed by Meet Disney Stars at Red Carpet Dreams photo. We then went to the For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration, then Ethan and I went on Star Tours – The Adventures Continue before having lunch. In the afternoon we went on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, then just made the last performance of Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! In the evening we went to Magic Kingdom and then caught the monorail to Chef Mickeys at Disneys Contemporary Resort which is where we had dinner. We took some nice photos of the sunset before heading back to the hotel for some swimming.
We walked to EPCOT this morning and went on Remys Ratatouille Adventure, we then had a look in the Japan store and then had some photos. We had lunch and then went on Spaceship Earth. We went back to the hotel and Ethan and I went in the pool with our goggles so we could explore the pool more. In the evening we went back into EPCOT and had dinner at the Garden Grill Restaurant. After dinner we had some night time photos, went on the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros and then watched the show Luminous The Symphony of Us.
