Okay so here’s the crash course for those readers who thought I would be at home moving house this weekend.
Back in May, FuelMyBlog were offering a competition for 25 Bloggers to win a trip to Butlins, I thought I would enter on the off chance because it would be something to do and would encourage my writing a bit more. This was a problem when I won CJ decided on this weekend and we decided we were going to go. No problem so far. CJ reorganised his cover and stuff for the youth group and we were off.
By the middle of May we had a technical hitch with our living situation and so some bits had to change – we found a new place to rent and the original moving date was the 20th June – no problem again we could move house then go on holiday – it would be okay.
Then there were some more hitches with the lady who was renting the house we are moving too. The ceiling collapsed in the house she was moving to and it had to be delayed till this weekend. Okay so this was the hiccup – do we move Butlins to a different date and move house or do we move the moving date and still go to Butlins? My Mum then suggested that her, Dad and my Brother would move us and we could still go away. My Mum pointed out that this could be my only proper holiday all year and so it made sense that we went anyway and she’d deal with the moving. (Yes people I owe my family a MAHHOOOSIIIVVVEEE hug amongst other favours etc)
We exchanged keys this afternoon and headed off to Butlins – usual Friday traffic so it was a little bad on the motorway and we ended up coming a diverted route (At one point I was convinced that we were in Kent and Surrey rather than Sussex as we were meant to be!)
In the end we arrived and found our accomadation. The signposts from the main road onto the site were pretty clear and easy to work out (although I nearly tried to turn up the Day Visitors Entrance rather the main entrance.
We arrived at the gate and there is a barrier and we stopped to chat to the guard on the gate – he gave us directions but I missed half of where we needed to go so we parked in one place and had to walk a little way across the site to get to Guest Services.
Part of the Bognor site is currently a building site as they are expanding the complex – there is a Considerate Construction site so I feel a little put at ease about that and we are practically the other side of the side from the building work so that means that we’ve not got builders waking us up early. (Had enough of that at home with the roadworks that have been going on in the street!)
We arrived at Guest Services and the guy there was friendly and very helpful. He pointed out where our accommodation is and where we go for the inclusive meals. We found our “apartment” (I’m not really sure how to describe it – I think I’ll come back to it!) – each apartment is assigned a parking space but some had adopted ours and so we ended up adopting someone elses (I think the “apartment” is empty so it should be okay. We had a bit of a fight with the door as it wasn’t the easiest thing to open (You had to hold up the handle then turn the key then push down the handle – talk about slightly confusing!)
We got in and abandoned everything in the living room and went to explore the apartment. I got out my Mac so I could start this post – I wanted to get as much as I could do down in writing before my head went pop or before I went and did other stuff and forgot about it.
CJ had a more through explore of the accomadation (he pointed out that the soap smells nice and that I should try the body lotion – I don’t use body lotion at home, am I going to use it while away?) Like you have in a hotel we have a little workspace with a kettle and tea/coffee facilities. I don’t drink tea or coffee but CJ pointed out that the tea is Fairtrade and the Coffee might be but it’s not clearly labeled so he suspects that it isn’t fair trade.
After hanging out here for a few minutes we decided to go for a explore around the site. We headed to the Skyline Pavilion as this is where most things are – we hovered near the Skyline Stage and watched the end of the kids show. We went and grabbed some food at Burger King. We had stopped at Burger King on the way because I was about to keel over and the meal I was going to have was £4.99 (Again Burger King isn’t really the cheapest) when we went to the one on site – that same meal is £5.49 – or maybe even £5.99! Thats a lot for Chicken bites, chips and a drink. Thats like a proper sit down meal rather than a fast food chain meal. (Does that make sense?!)
After food we went for a wander to see what was around. We went to the Center Stage where there was a variety Performance as such on – there was a group singing various different songs. There was a Medley from Oliver – One of the girls sang “As Long As He Needs Me” – I was a little disappointed with the performance (then again I used to be a performing arts student and I adore musical theatre) overall it was good but some bits didn’t seem totally together.
There was a break where there was miniture disco happening near the DJ booth and a pub quiz on the over head (There were various spelling mistakes and stuff like that, that we kept spotting)
CJ stood and appreciated the lights – he said it was good but the balance was off.
Overall our first evening has been good I’d say like a 9 out of 10 for the accommodation, 8 and a half ish for the entertainment – it’s good but could be a little bit more together.
(I’ll be back with links to more bits and some more information about the apartment tomorrow :D)
