Life in general...

So. Life.

It has a funny way of moving on before you even realise it doesn't it?!

The good news, in brief, since my last post - I got my driving licence back for another year - wahoo. I also saw Prof Webster at Moorfields in August and he's happy that the RP isn't progressing much at all at the moment, which is a massive relief. There's no results from the Genomes Project yet but that's the same for everybody so he wasn't concerned. Hopefully we'll hear more about that by the time I go and see him again in 18 months time.

The bad news.

There seems to be so much of it around at the moment doesn't there? I'm struggling to comprehend the world a little bit at the moment - there seems to be so many atrocities and far too many innocent lives being lost just now. 

I was so, so sad to hear about the Paris attacks - don't get me wrong, the similar attacks in Beirut, Raqqa and Mali are equally as tragic but I, perhaps like many others, can relate so easily to the Paris attacks that it feels a bit more real somehow. I've been there several times, I recognise the streets and monuments, I feel at home there and speak a little of the language.

In all honesty, I don't really understand any of it. Oh, I know about the power, the 'religion', the revenge etc etc 

But how can we do this to each other? How can we willingly cause so much pain and destruction? 

Essentially, it's all down to greed. We want what someone else has or just something 'more'. 

If we were all kinder to each other and shared some of the wealth around, none of this would happen. Too simplified? Obviously. But true perhaps.

As an ex colleague pointed out this week, none of this has anything to do with race. In reality there isn't really such a thing as multiple races. Ethnic origin, yes. But does it matter whether you are black, white, brown, yellow, blue? No. Colour is irrelevant. Religion is irrelevant. 

We are all one race. Human. 

If only we remembered that sometimes.

Anyway, enough pondering. I'm going to go hug my child, tell my family I love them more often and be kinder to the people I meet in every day life. 

Just because I can. And I should.

AFUK x

Disneyland Paris Trip report - last day!

Friday 14th February - last day :(

We all got up showered, dressed etc and struggled out of our room with all of our cases at about 9.30ish - there was no EMH so there was no rush and we wanted to do the Studios this morning anyway. We left all of the luggage at the hotel storage room ready to be transported to the train station later and then started our wander towards the village, waving goodbye to the Hotels Santa Fe and Cheyenne as we went (literally - I'm sure other people must have thought we were loons waving and shouting goodbye to everything on the way!!).

The main aim of being in the studios this morning was to meet Mushu - E had not stopped talking about him since we missed him earlier in the week so it was today's 'must do' item and I was busily crossing everything I could that he would actually appear!! We were a bit early for the characters in Production Courtyard so we went over to one of the shows, Animagique, to see if we could watch that instead; sadly it had just started so we couldn't go in and the next show wasn't for another 45 minutes so we left that and headed past Crush's Coaster (only a 30 min queue - I need a trip on my own to do the rides!!) and went to see which characters were are out for Meet & Greets. It was Mickey Mouse on his own so E waited 5 minutes to see him again and we took a few snaps. Buzz wasn't out yet so we decided to wait as there was no queue at the time - there was just one English family in front of us on their first ever trip so we spent the next 20 minutes chatting to them about our trips and what they had done, whilst their son and mine compared autographs. I love how you can just chat to complete strangers as if you've known them all your life and it not be weird at Disney!!

Buzz came out to great fanfare and high five'd our boys on his way past as they were at the front of the queue and the Cast Member kindly stamped their autograph books because Buzz can't sign personally (big hands!!). E had a great time meeting Buzz again, he really loved the interaction and trying to copy his poses!

That done we wandered back to Production Courtyard to wait for the characters to come out. It was really damp, windy and overcast today & that horrible cold that seems to sink right down into your bones. We waited for five minutes and there was no sign of any characters yet so E got in the buggy and I wrapped him up in the little blanket I keep in it and I headed over to the little snack stop next to the Tower of Terror ride to buy hot chocolate & coffee for L and I. We spent some time looking at all the giant posters and E was talking a lot about Maleficent, pointing out all her pictures everywhere - as I mentioned he's scared of lots of things but for some reason he's really taken with her, even though we've never seen the film and to me, she looks quite terrifying!

After about another 10 minutes we saw some movement behind the gates and out came Ariel - our first princess :) E was happy because we met her when we queued at the Princess Pavillion last year (he refused to do it again this trip - 'it hurts my feet waiting that long for a princess Mummy') so he thought that she must remember him! She was lovely and really spent time chatting to him whilst she drew bubbles in his autograph book. Just as we were leaving Ariel, Mushu arrived - thank goodness for that!!! We rushed over and were right near the front of his queue line - E was over the moon and couldn't stop grinning. He kep telling L that Mushu isn't much bigger than him so he must be four too haha. Mulan was there too but E said he didn't want to meet her but L really wanted to see Mary Poppins and Bert so we queued for them and they were really talkative with E, spending quite a bit of time with him and asked if he lives near London as that's where they're from etc (good job he doesn't understand accents yet, they were decidedly un-English lol).

We spotted Aladdin and Jasmine over near Tower of Terror so we rushed over but the Cast Member said that he had closed their queue line but that they'd be back in 20 minutes time. By now E was absolutely freezing - whilst waiting for Buzz earlier on he had been running his hands up and down the railings in the rain water so his woollen gloves were soaked and by now his hands were blotchy and red they were so cold. A couple of days previously he'd spotted some giant Mickey hands for sale inone of the shops but I'd said he couldn't have them (meany Mummy strikes again), so L said that as he was so cold we'd go to the shop and she'd buy him some to warm him up so we headed into Studio 1 for some retail therapy. Two pairs of fleece gloves (one for E and one for L who realised she'd packed her gloves in her case), one pair of giant Mickey hands, a huge fleece blanket, a Peter Pan toy set, a long life Mickey bag and some sweets later we finally left the shop laden down with bags!! Sadly cuddly Sven and Kristoff were not to be on this trip, much to our disappointment but it did mean that we could buy some other stuff instead so there's always a silver lining.

We headed back outside and E was showing off his giant hands to anybody that happened to walk past, much to their amusement! The characters were all having a break for now so we went to test out the scream machines at the Monsters Inc set and E gave Mike his traditional cuddle plus an extra one for a friends little boy back home . We wandered down to show E the Moteurs, Action, Stunt show area to see if he would give it a try later on (well, you never know!!) but of course it was a no! I was excited to finally find the raining umbrella though (a prop outside one of the shops that actually rains!) but it's not raining, presumably because it's winter and there was enough of it falling out of the sky already! Back we went to see which characters were out and as we walked back we saw Gaston from Beauty and the Beast striding across the courtyard to Aladdin and Jasmine's spot, right by us. We've never seen him before so we waited and were second in the queue; E was a little bit nervous - Gaston was huge and of course talks in this big, booming voice. When It was our turn, Gaston shouted to E 'come here boy, what are those ludicrous hands - are you a mutant?!' at him, E and I were in fits of giggles (not sure what L thought at this point haha) as he ran over and got his book signed. Gaston was AMAZING!! He is my favourite face character by far now, he was so so in character and the cast member playing him obviously loves his job. He got E to pose with his giant hands in the air to show everyone and then as we were getting ready to leave he said to E 'who is that ridiculous woman with you, shoo, go on, take her away' - I haven't seen E laugh like that in ages and I had a huge lump in my throat, close to tears it was so so special. Since we got back he keeps telling all of his friends about Gaston telling mummy she was ridiculous and needed to shoo lol.

As we were putting the autograph book away Aladdin and Jasmine wandered over with their Cast Member who had a little tiff with the cast member with Gaston as he'd 'stolen' their space - Aladdin and Jasmine didn't seem to care and wandered off underneath the portico (the bit with the chairs and tables) to find their own space and their cast member ended up chasing after them! They found a great spot in front of the arches, looking back into the courtyard - I think they should just leave it to them to find a suitable spot next time haha. When it was our turn Aladdin chatted to E whilst Jasmine signed his book and then they swapped - but disaster, the pen runs out! Argh, clearly had too much use this week lol. Aladdin asked the cast member if he could have another pen and he wouldn't let E leave until it was signed, which I really appreciated. They then showed him how princes and princesses pose in Agrabah so he could copy them.

We'd had an amazing morning in the studios but we took E's pen running out as a sign to leave and headed back to the main park to find somewhere warm for lunch. Lots of goodbye waves to everything again as we leave!

It was about 1pm by this point and we were all a bit cold and damp so we decided we needed somewhere nice to sit and enjoy lunch. We settled on Plaza Gardens, which is a buffet restaurant at the end of Main Street - for some reason it's never really appealed to me before but I am so glad we tried it, it was lovely! We queued for about ten minutes and then paid the cashier, before being shown to a table by the waiter who took our drinks order to get. We had a fabulous lunch at the buffet, there was so much to choose from and E loved watching a man carving pictures into watermelons in the central section. I wasn't sure if refillable drinks were included in the price but L and I both asked for another drink expecting to pay for it but we weren't charged for them so presumably they were.

We spent just over an hour in there and would definitely go back again, shame we didn't try it before really! We then had a final wander round the lands (to wave goodbye obviously!!) and did some last minute shopping in Main Street before saying a sad farewell to the park. We went to the village to grab some drinks and snacks (brownies) for the train ride home from Earl of Sandwich and had a last look round the shops, trying on fabulous ears / hats in the Disney Fashion store and then that was it, time to head to the train station to collect luggage and board the train home :(

So, it had it's ups and downs but despite the illnesses we still had a fabulous week - it didn't stop us too much and looking back, it was nice to come home a little rested instead of completely exhausted for a change!! There were lots of things that I wanted to do that we didn't manage (Dreams & Stars and Cars to name just two - trying not to be too gutted about that!!) but, we have never ever seen so many characters out and about and had such fantastic interaction with them all so really, really can't complain.

Now to plan the next trip ;)

AFUK x

Day 5 - Disneyland Paris Trip Report

Good grief, where on earth has the last month gone?!! So sorry for the unintentional sabbatical, I'll carry on with the trip report now and try not to be gone so long this time!!

Thursday 13th February - Day 5

Sadly another terrible nights sleep for me - my ear was so so painful I couldn't get comfortable at all. I had some of those little hand warmers that you get from £1 shops and kept putting them on my ear as it was helping a little - I had to sneak the kettle into the bathroom so I could use it to reset them without waking anyone else up, would have been hilarious to watch I'm sure!! I gave up trying to sleep at 4am and started reading a book - had finished the whole thing by 8am when the others woke up lol. At this point I suddenly remembered that I'd popped some anti inflammatory tablets in the bag at the last minute but they were in a different pocket to the 'medicine bag' so took some of those and within an hour my ear started to feel better - couldn't believe it!!

Anyway, a quick look out of the window showed that it was absolutely pouring with rain - literally, throwing it down in bucket loads so we decided not to rush and have a lazy morning. When the cleaners arrived we were all still in pyjamas reading books, playing games and slowly starting our packing - they must have thought we were complete nutters being at Disneyland and vegging about in our pj's!!

We got washed & dressed and made our way to the parks at abut 11ish and the rain had all gone. We saw Goofy in his usual M&G spot and E wanted to see him again so we wandered over and hiding behind him was Donald Duck - yay, so so happy! Great photo ops here as Donald is so mischievous and was dancing with E. We then saw Goofy straight away - he is just brilliant, he pretended he was leaning on E's head but when E moved away he stayed in that position pretending not to notice he'd gone and then 'fell over' when he realised, just magical!!

We decided to take L over to Discoveryland next as we hadn't been there yet - the Autopia ride was shut (as usual, never seems to be open on my trips!!) and E is scared of the Buzz's Laser Blast ride so we hadn't really made much effort to visit up until that point. We had a good look round and then did a little shopping at one of the shops. We received a text from one friend to say that they were in the park too so we arranged to meet them at the Hakuna Matata restaurant in Adventureland in 20 minutes time.  We wandered via central plaza in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle and I asked a cast member if there was anything special happening for Valentine's Day tomorrow - sadly not he said, which was a shame. It started to rain again at that point so when we met our friends we had to huddle under a doorway to avoid a drenching! Was so nice seeing them - had a quick chat with them about what we had all been up to and E told them all about his character meets! Was such a shame that we'd had to change most of our dinner plans due to illness and couldn't spend more time with them this time.

We left them as they headed off to Walts Restaurant and we were going to go to the Toad Hall counter service restaurant, via the Aladdin photo op, to share some fish and chips as it had been open the day before - when we get there though it was shut, boo :( They have little signs up now though that show which counter service restaurants are open instead and really the only one near us was Chalet au Marionette, which I've never been to before. We locked up the buggy and headed indoors - it was raining a lot so it was packed inside but we queued up and were served fairly quickly. There weren't many seats so we ended up sharing a large bench seat / table with another English family. I was very pleasantly surprised by the food - L and I both had the half chicken and chips meal deal and E had a children's meal, the food was nice, hot and plentiful and we all enjoyed it. I think it cost approx 40 euros. When we left it was still pouring with rain and there was hardly anybody about - was a bit eery actually seeing it so quiet! The Flying Dumbo's were closed, presumably because of the weather so we headed to the Mickey Mouse M&G - it's indoors so thought it would be a good place to keep warm and dry for a bit.

The wait was 30 minutes (I think everyone had the same idea lol) but it flew by as there is a huge cinema style screen with fantastic traditional cartoons shown on it - E was belly laughing watching them and has kept asking about them since we returned home. We had a lovely time meeting Mickey and when we left it had stopped raining and the sun had come out with a beautiful rainbow stretched over Fantasyland - it looked so special and like it had been put there especially for the magical effects :)

Time for another ride on IASW, where I managed to hang onto all of my possessions this time haha. Time was getting on a bit now and we wanted to see Descent of the Stairs in the Disneyland Hotel (sort of a mini character procession down the main staircase) as we had missed it on our arrival day due to the late train. It wasn't too busy when we first arrived but the crowd soon built with everyone waiting patiently at the bottom of the staircase - for some reason though the characters didn't come down it and there was no music like usual, they just wandered out of a door next to the lifts instead. Bit of a shame but still lovely. Today's characters were Tweedle Dee & Dum, Mickey, Tigger, Eeyore, Goofy and Gideon (from Pinocchio) - we've met all of them on this trip except Gideon so we rushed over for a photo and autograph and then decided to leave as it was busy and we wanted to get a space for the parade. A friend of mine booked the same deal as us for the same dates but because of all the illnesses (her and her children were poorly too!) we hadn't managed to meet up yet - I text her to let her know where we were and realised that she was in the hotel meeting characters, we had literally just missed each other, so frustrating!!

We waited about 45 minutes for the parade - it had stopped raining and the sun was coming out but was now freezing cold with a biting wind. It doesn't matter how many times you see the parades at Disney, they are still just as magical and L said she thought it was better than the one she saw in Florida a few years ago.

 It was our last evening so I was desperate to stay and see Dreams, the night time show, but L and E were cold & all of our feet were hurting at this point so we agreed to head to the hotel for an hour to warm up and return later. We stopped at City Hall to see if we could bring our Cafe Mickey booking forward so we could eat instead of going to the hotel but they were fully booked until 10pm. Once back at the hotel, everybody was tired and wanted to rest before dinner. I was the only one who wanted to go back and wait for Dreams (E is still scared and doesn't want to watch - L is worn out!) so we didn't go back to the park and I STILL haven't seen it - more than gutted.

We walked back to the village for our 8pm reservation at Cafe Mickey and there was a huge queue however a lot of people hadn't reserved a table and were turned away - such a shame but really shows you need to book dining reservations before you go! We were seated upstairs, which is a first for us but it was really lovely, our table felt like it had more space round it and there was a great atmosphere. The usual characters were present - Mickey, Minnie, Tigger, Eeyore, Goofy & Pluto - who were all brilliant and really interacted with E, coming back to our table several times; he was bouncing off the walls with excitement. Pluto was also very happy to have a 'selfie' photo taken with us, which seemed to amuse everyone!! L and I didn't want the set menu but E had the children's one. We ordered a garlic pizza bread to share as a starter between the three of us (E wasn't fussed on the soup or salad option on the kids menu), L and I both had the fish and chips, E had pizza and we all had drinks - it was really very tasty and we couldn't eat all of our main course, probably shouldn't have had a big meal at lunchtime too! Total cost was 78 euros, which I was very pleased with as it can be very expensive to eat at Disneyland.

We took a slow walk back to the Hotel Santa Fe at 9.45pm (still big queues to get into Cafe Mickey at that point!!) - all completely shattered but we finished our packing and headed to bed sad that it was our last night :(

AFUK x

Disneyland Paris - trip report!

Apologies for the radio silence - we've carried on the illness theme here, feels like it's been going on all winter!!

So, we've been back from Disneyland Paris for two weeks now - the time has flown by! I thought I'd share a trip report and some photo's with you so I can relive a little bit of the magic. It's a day by day account so you might not find it very interesting (sorry!) but, if you're into anything Disney or are planning a future trip, you might find it a little helpful :)

Cast - Me, Little Man (E) and my mother in law (L) on her first ever trip to the Paris parks

We travelled by Eurostar from Ashford International train station and stayed at the Disney Hotel Santa Fe (budget hotel).  

We left home just after midday on Saturday 8th February and headed down to Ashford, we had a room booked at the Premier Inn at Eureka Park and have stayed here twice before so knew what to expect. We were checked in within minutes and headed to our room whilst hubby turned the car around and headed back home as he had decided not to join us on this trip - says he's 'Disney-d out', honestly how is that possible haha?!

Had a lovely meal in the Beefeater next door although E was getting a bit grumpy towards the end - we've both been really poorly leading up to this trip as you know and haven't had a lot of sleep but thankfully we were both feeling much better today so wanted to get back for an early night.

E is asleep by 7 so L and I just chat, read and watch tv until we decide to get some sleep too. At about 2.30am I hear some 'revellers' come back to their room but nothing major and I go back to sleep. At 4am they are right outside our room and are very drunk - not abusive at all but just that drunk way in which you have no idea of time & volume control lol. L wakes up and we have a little giggle at the grown man almost crying like a toddler at his friends because he's lost his socks and nobody likes him! Half an hour later they're still going and now E is awake so I'm not finding it quite so amusing - I stick my head out the door and ask them politely if they could move away a little bit as they've woken us all up. They were all very apologetic in their slurry way and decided that it might be a good idea to go back to their room. Nice and quiet again and E and L go back to sleep but I'm wide awake, grr. I decide to read until the others wake up at 7.30 and then we head down to breakfast, which was fab as always.

I'd asked the hotel to call a taxi for us to go to the train station and when we checked out they asked how our night had been - we had a little chuckle and told them about the drunk people but weren't complaining at all; it was a Saturday night in a Premier Inn after all, I imagine they see much worse things but they immediately said that they were going to refund the cost of our room - very impressed as hadn't even thought to mention it to them and was only a passing comment as they'd asked!

Anyway, taxi arrives and we have a hilarious driver - really sweet older man who gives us lots of tips about what to do at the station (didn't like to tell him we've done it several times before, bless him!) and asks E lots of questions about who he's going to see.

Straight through at the station and no other passengers at security so we're really early but get a drink and snack to pass the time. I decide to ask at the Disney Express desk if we can pay here for our luggage to be taken to the hotel or if we have to wait until we arrive - the staff member says that we have to pay on arrival but if we confirm that we want it he'd take our details and phone ahead to have our tickets and documents sent over to the station so we can go straight to the parks, I never knew this part of the service existed so we were very happy about that and gave our details over.

At this point it's obvious that E needs the loo (he's dancing on his toes, he's that desperate!) - now on our November trip to Disneyland he developed a complete phobia of the automatically flushing toilets in the park. Sadly, it's stayed with him and he is now terrified of public toilets. Not great at all. We have lots and lots of tears as he is desperate but wants to try and wait until we reach the hotel - obviously, not an option and by now I'm worrying that he's going to give himself an infection trying to hold it in! In the end I literally have to pick him up, take him into the disabled toilet (thought there'd be less stress with nobody else around) and stand and wait for him to go, whilst he fights me trying to get away - it was very, very stressful and I was almost in tears watching him be so scared. Thankfully he went and was then very proud of himself - I can't even imagine what everyone else in the departure lounge thought of us, him in tears and me walking him back and forth to the toilets trying to coax him into going in!!!

Not a great start to the trip but it's one hurdle over and done with so I think the day can't get any worse. Wrong. We head to the lift to get down to the platform and head to our carriage. We get all the luggage on the train, sit down and then there's an announcement to say that only one of the tunnels is operating so we can't leave Ashford until at least 11.45 - it's currently 11 o'clock :( Disappointed groans all round but we play games and chat to the very friendly people in front of us and then the train leaves at 11.45 - hooray!! Or not. The train manager announces that we're only going as far as the tunnel and then we have to wait again - for another half an hour :( Boo hiss. By this time, the lack of sleep and the stressful morning are starting to catch up with me. E and all the other kids in our carriage are behaving brilliantly, they really were stars. We finally get into the tunnel but there's speed restrictions so takes approx 35 minutes to go through (normally only about 20 minutes) and then we are finally on our way, We arrive at Marne La Vallee train station, which is just outside the park entrance, 95 minutes late but we're here!!

Bit of light reading to pass the boredom on a delayed train!

We head upstairs to the Disney Express desk and it's chaos - everyone from our train is trying to leave their luggage whilst the people due to go home on the direct Eurostar service are trying to collect theirs and check in at the same time. Anyway, we find the right desk to collect our tickets and pay our fees to have the luggage taken to the hotel (16 euros per adult) and then escape the station.

We head to the main park and I'm expecting the parks to be heaving as it's a Sunday but it wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared. We go to see the castle and E just doesn't seem very excited to be here at all, which is really unlike him (it's his third trip). I ask him if he's ok and he starts to cry saying that he has earache and doesn't feel well :( We head to It's A Small World (IASW) to see if that will cheer him up as it's his favourite ride - it's a little boat ride that meanders along a river, through different countries of the world, with appropriate scenery - but he is very quiet and is crying again by the time the ride ends. It's dry but very windy in the park and the wind is bitterly cold so we decide we'll go to the hotel and write off today, only it's parade time and we can't get out easily through the crowds waiting to see it! We eventually find our way out though thankfully. By this time E is sobbing as his ear hurts so much . We head to the bus stop to get our hotel shuttle and wait for ten minutes, the crowds are huge and he's really, really upset so we give up and decide to walk instead - back through security we go! It feels like the longest walk ever with a poorly, crying boy but we eventually make it to the hotel and collect our key - we stayed at the Hotel Santa Fe, which is a budget Disney onsite hotel and has recently been refurbished in a Cars (the film) theme, so there's lots of little touches of that around like traffic cone lamps and Lightning McQueen pictures etc. After checking in, we go to get our luggage from the store room but the shuttle bus has just arrived and there's a huge queue so we decide to leave it and come back later. I had emailed the hotel the week before we left to see if we could have a room near reception and a kettle (so English haha!) - the hotel is set out in blocks, like an American style motel I think and we were in block 53, which is down by the river but we did have a kettle so were very happy about that! Poor E is cold and tired now so I pop him in a warm bath whilst L goes back to get the first lot of luggage - she can't carry / drag it all at once and E is being very clingy to me so I can't instead so she has to make two trips, this day is getting better and better lol.

Anyway, finally we have all the luggage and E is warm again and after cuddles he is feeling a bit better. We have a 7pm reservation at Chuck Wagon Cafe, at the Hotel Cheyenne next door (well, just across the river) so head over there. I've never been to the Cheyenne before and I just love the theming - it's a Wild West / Cowboy set up, great fun! Sadly, the food was awful :( The chicken was undercooked and still raw in the middle, potatoes were very dry, the bread stale but the chocolate dessert was fab - I think it was just the end of a very bad day and we gave up trying anything else so all just ate copious amounts of pudding! 

I was exhausted and now felt really ill myself, we just all needed to get to sleep so back to the Hotel Santa Fe for more baths / showers and then early nights all round.

So that's the end of day 1 - I will post day 2 soon :)

AFUK x