It is almost a week into October and I am only just getting around to writing about our summer. That should tell you the kind of time I’ve been having the last few months. August and September were both busy months. The Summer holidays took over August, and September saw the return to school and Clem starting year 1. Plus we had a trip to Italy for a wedding.
Clem didn’t actually break up from school until the last week of July which made the holidays go quickly I think. They certainly weren’t as bad as I was expecting. We celebrated her birthday early with a party in July for her school friends. Then on her actual birthday we headed to the Theatre Royal in Brighton to see a stage production of Tabby McTat which was really good. The same production company are back in December with Stick Man and we will definitely be getting tickets to that.
After Clems birthday Nanny came to visit for a week. The weather wasn’t that great but we still managed to get out and about. One of the things we did manage to do was take a trip on Volks electric railway Running along Brighton seafront from the Palace pier to Black Rock near the marina, it is the oldest electric railway in Britain. A new visitor centre was opened at the stop near the pier, which tells you all about the history of the railway. We decided to do a return journey, stopping off halfway on the way back for a play in the park. The journey doesn’t take long, about 15 minutes each way. Returns were £4.90 for adults and £3 for children, under 3’s were free.
We also headed down to Devon for a few days to stay with Clem’s grandad. It was nice to get away and spend some time in the countryside. We spent our days walking in the fields and picking apples straight from the tree. On one of the days we went for a walk on Exmoor. Despite growing up in the area I had never been to Heddon valley before. It was a really nice walk. We also went to Broomhill for a look at the sculpture garden and dinner.
The food was really good, and if you are ever in the North Devon area I can highly recommend visiting.
Although do check the opening times for the restaurant as I know the times vary during the week. It was also great for kids, Clem had a huge bowl of pasta which was served before ours which I always appreciate as it stops her getting bored.
At the end of August I headed along to the Brighton Open Air Theatre to check out a Riptide show. It was my first time, and definitely won’t be my last. I really enjoyed it. Wrestling isn’t something I am super into but I do enjoy it when I go to a show. They have 3 shows coming up the first weekend of October which they still had tickets available for last time I checked.
September came along and brought a lot of changes with it.
School started back in the first week of September and Clem is now in year one. We fell back into the routine fairly quickly. There wasn’t any settling in for her, it was straight back to learning. As usual I have no idea what she has been doing as she never tells us. But we have a parents evening next month where we will hopefully find out more.
Just before Clem headed back to school we had a mummy/daughter day where we did all the things Clem wanted to do. So obviously that included a trip on the pier to try and win some tickets. We also headed to the Artbox cafe for some ice cream. I will admit I was actually a little disappointed with my ice cream, it was more like a runny sorbet. However Clem picked chocolate and it turns out you can never go wrong with that. Her one was tastier and less runny than mine.
At the end of the month we had a weekend away in Italy with some friends for another friends wedding. It was lovely to get away, especially with friends and child-free. We headed to Turin which was completely different from our trip to Rome last year. Compared to Rome, Turin is definitely less touristy. I didn’t feel like we were being ripped off whenever we went out to eat. I will be writing a whole post about Turin so keep an eye out for that in the next few days.
Now it’s October, the leaves are turning and the heating has gone on. The shops are full of Halloween and Christmas things. I’m looking forward to the next few months.