Half Term Fun at The Shops | Cabot Circus Bristol

Turns out the antidote to cabin fever during half term doesn't have to be a theme park or a holiday. We had a very busy Saturday (Pumpkin Patch) and Sunday (Wild Place) so we had PJ days Monday and Tuesday. Come Wednesday and the need to escape - the multiple boxes of four walls humans call rooms - was strong. The kids were feral and I was drooling so off we trotted. Except I wasn't wholly generous in my quest to take them out of the house. A whole host of reasons aligned like planets do on a day of astrological significance. The signposts to get out were abundantly clear. Firstly Tuesday night I saw on BBC weather that Wednesday was to be sunny all day. Secondly, the postman in his infinite wisdom delivered a jiffy envelope to us Monday - right door number, wrong name AND road. I wasn't about to forego my PJ day to drop it round (sorry I am a Christian but I too have my limits). Turns out I couldn't be persuaded to do that Monday OR Tuesday but by yesterday my conscience was SCREAMING at me. Thirdly, like a bunch of people who'd been snowed in (we hadn't but I wish as Aaron hasn't seen snow in years and is desperate too given that he doesn't remember it) we'd run out of bread AND milk. Finally, Aaron's wellies are too small AND his trainers (for PE and football) are too small AND his casual shoes are too small scruffy. It was getting to the stage where he'd have to leave the house in barefoot or slippers. He even went to the farm Saturday in his garden shoes (looky likey Crocs).

So it was set, we were to leave the house. Except I had no bus fare (and in Bristol they even charge kids bus fare so odd after London where it was free) so we'd have to walk passed several bus stops for me to go to the cash point and I had MBT Gotis on, and boy were they working my calf muscles - uphill!!! Anyway, this was just simply too exciting as they haven't zipped up on me in years. Even as a slim teenager I couldn't wear knee high boots as I have always been blessed cursed with my Mum's huge calves (despite her being a size 12 all her life - we used to *sniff* share clothes before I piled on the pounds).

So off we trotted except being an Instagrammer and a Blogger (when did the former overtake the latter?!?!?!?) I had to get an Autumnal pic of the two of them. Funnily enough my spell check recognises Blogger yet not Instagrammer, but boy is it a thing. Thanks to breastfeeding it's also become MY thing. The above is a recreation of a pic I took of Aaron sans Charlotte a few years ago on the way to meet blogger friend Carolin and funnily enough we are meeting her tomorrow.

Anyway, on to the bus. Except while I was at the cash point I decided to buy us each a bag of crisps as I knew it would occupy some of the journey and shorten the length of time I'd have to restrain Lottie on my knee as she no longer stays in the buggy on buses. In all my life a driver has never ever enforced the no food and drinking thing and given I don't drive I've been on a lot of buses. He said they'd end up on the floor, he didn't have a dustpan and brush and therefore we were prohibited from eating them. Ggggggrr I was cross, so I let Aaron eat his out of sight and had to spoon feed them to Lottie as she has indeed developed a very recent penchant for throwing the second half of the bag on the floor, as she did Sunday at Wild Place much to Daddy's dismay.

Thankfully town was a whole lot more fun, starting with getting GORGEOUS boots in Deichmann. Lottie's above, Aaron's below. You'll see they are a big improvement on the battered shoes in the Autumn pic above that he's been wearing since Christmas Eve. They've lasted well - they were Clarks' after all.

Deichmann was a shop I had never frequented or heard of before but came highly recommended by people I know from church. Aaron's boots were £14.99 and Lottie's £17.99. I then had the cost of a McDonalds in addition to the bus fare as by this point we were starving and had rushed out without eating lunch. They are very well behaved in Mc Donalds so this wasn't at all a chore, only we were disappointed that none of the tablets worked.

After Maccy Ds we had to shoot to a black hair care store as Lottie is always losing her bobbles and I prefer it styled than out loose. I've got NOTHING against an afro except when hers is out loose she looks like a lil Grandma rather than a lil girl. The bunches, for some reason, take decades off her LOL.

It's funny, despite not owning a weighing scales I KNOW I have lost a lot of weight and fitting into my boots confirms it, yet I don't at all look slim in this pic below that Aaron took for me. I think this jumper is just Mumsy and not very flattering. I'll have to just wear it round the house from now on although that leaves me very short for clothing options as since becoming a stay at home Mum all my pennies are spent on the kids. I'd like to get a bit more frequent and professional with my blogging as maybe, just maybe that could be a source of income. After all, had I stayed at it, it should be by now. I did get my highest ever paid campaign recently so I just need to up the frequency of that and get my blogging and youtube game as good as my Instagram which is coming along nicely. But it is my go-to breastfeeding happy place so no wonder. As we always said in yoga "where your attention goes your energy flows"!

After that the only reason we went into Cabot Circus was to use the loos as I had no way of getting the buggy upstairs in McDonalds. So in we went except there are great interactive screens to play with directly outside the loos - you'll remember them from my Mark Warner competition entry youtube video. Anyway once Lottie was bored of those - which trust me took quite some time - she RAN into Smiggle. I ended up seeing their Advent Calendar and despite its cost couldn't go home without it. I had visions of doing a YouTube unboxing spoiler video except I put a poll on Instagram stories late last night (meaning it should still be there just about) and everyone (more or less 78%) voted that Aaron should open it as normal in December so now, decisions decisions decisions...... He does after all have a Lego one already that I bought weeks ago in Costco as I was worried they would sell out and that they did. Anyway loo or not, thank God we popped into Cabot Circus as we got to experience the AMAZING new seating in there:

In the pic above Lottie is playing with the character we got in Smiggle free of charge. Basically you get one if you spend £15 or more and the calendar was *coughs* £25 BUT there is £40 worth of product in there yay! And who doesn't love stationery.

The journey home was tough as Lottie had to be entertained the whole time. Actually strictly speaking that is not true as the buggy next to her had a little girl in it so they played together for the 1st half of the journey meaning I only had to bounce her on my knee for the second half. Only trouble was she had her nap after she got in and got breastfed meaning it was an evening danger nap, which meant my girl who is normally asleep by 2000 hrs every night went to sleep at 23:30 last night by which time I was spent. Before she was asleep I was exhausted and ready to sleep myself but the adrenaline required to try to get her to sleep woke me right up so after I finally got them both off I ended up watching Walk to Mickey on Netflix on my phone in the bedroom. I could have used that time to blog what I am blogging now except I wanted to Netflix and Chill in the true sense of the word. That movie was tender but quite light watching. Just perfect really and this is a blog post I wasn't obliged to do, so I wasn't exactly going to stay up late to do it. I am going back to old school blogging where you just blog what you get up to, like I did for years and years before it all got too serious and zoned me out. So despite name dropping some brands they were all things we bought, paid for and enjoyed yesterday. Look I've even blogged quickly and am blogging in real time not playing catch up for once. Blogging about Wild Place on Monday, when we'd only just been the day before, seemed to wake up my blogging muscle. I have to have an instinct and inclination to blog as I am not one of those who fake it till they make it, or God forbid do a media planner or schedule. No, I blog when I blog, unless you cross my palm with silver then schedule me as much as you like LOL. This is me. Bye for now.