We hadn't planned any activities while we were at centre parcs for the week but we had decided on using their babysitting service one night. So we did! We booked a sitter for three hours (at 6.20 an hour - probably cheaper than it is at home) so that Clare and myself could go out while a stranger sat in with Number one son and number two son. Our sitter was called Dodo and was very nice, an ex nurse who had been babysitting at centre parcs for 24 years. We knew our boys would be no trouble, but I'm sure every parent has told her that. We put the boys to bed and then left her with them as we sprinted off to the sports cafe. There's not much nightlife in Centre parcs as far as I can make out, but there was food and beer and pool tables so seems like the best option.
We ordered our food, got our drinks, and sat, and then I thought to check my phone. Two missed calls since we'd left the lodge, one voicemail, and no signal so I can't pick it up! We stressed and discussed for a while and tried to call back to our lodge. The system / staff in these circumstances were hopeless, guest services were closed, and though there was a phone in our lodge the staff in the sports bar did not know how to call our lodge nor if we could use their phone anyway.I decided to walk back to the lodge, just in case it was our babysitter calling, though it probably wasn't.
It wasn't. As I got to the lodge I got signal, and it turned out to be an answerphone voicemail from over a year ago just turning up.
The edge had been taken off our evening to be honest, but I didn't have a great time. I wolfed my burger so as to run back to the lodge, and then the beer was rubbish. Same Hobgoblin as before but cold and tasteless. This is probably why Clare won the pool, three games to two.
Paul Clarke's blog - I live in Hythe in Kent. Married + dad to two, I'm a full stack web engineer, + I do js / Node, some ruby, other languages etc. I like pubs, parkrun, eating, home automation and other diy jiggery-pokery, history, genealogy, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, and TIME TRAVEL.