Chester Zoo

Over the weekend we also went to Chester Zoo. We had a fabulous day.

There were loads of animals (obviously) and various other things for the kids to enjoy. We were lucky enough to visit while they had a dinosaur exhibition on at the time.

There is a lot of walking to be done and our feet hurt by the end of the day! There are suggested walks of varying lengths marked on the free map they give you. There are signposts all over the place to help you find the animals you are after.

It was very easy to find via road and we had no problems getting there. Overall a thoroughly enjoyable day out. Great value and fun.

We didn't actually manage to get around all the animals so I can say with certainty that you can easily fill in a whole day there!

Alton Towers

We went to Alton Towers over the weekend, partly as a birthday treat for my son David.

Although it was quite fun, I think it is drastically overpriced. A lot of the day you spend queuing up for rides. One of the rides had a queue of over a hour and a half! I feel that for the price you pay a lot of your day is wasted standing around.

We went on several rides throughout the day and enjoyed them all. I didn't get to go on the super fast scarey rides that I'd've liked to have done as I am the only one in the family that enjoys that sort of thing.
I was impressed when David said he'd go on the Runaway Mine Train as it is a fairly fast ride. He enjoyed it, as did I. It is quite fast but has no sudden drops which I don't think he'd've liked.

We all enjoyed the Sealife Centre and all the fish and assorted marine creatures. There was an excellent clear tunnel and the sharks and stingrays swam right over your head. It was much bigger than it looked like it was going to be, which was great. You could even put your hands in with the shrimps and let them eat dead skin off your hands.

The funniest bit of the day was seeing David's face in the photo from "The Flume". It was taken on the largest drop and he just looked so scared.

Overall we enjoyed the day but felt it was very expensive. And then on top of that they then charge you for parking!

Competition Win Comic Heroes #8 (ends 31st October)

 I am pleased to announce that I am running my first competition, for fans of my blog!

I have a great prize for any comic fans: Comic Heroes Issue 8, containing free collctable gifts.

To win this fabulous prize you must:

1. Follow this blog
2. Follow me on twitter @VeggieDadBlog 
3. Leave a comment to tell me you've done this, make sure you leave me a way to contact you. Email address or twitter username are fine.

Up to 3 more additional entries can be gained by:

1. Comment on any other of my posts then comment here to tell me which one
2. Like my Facebook page.
3. Tweet "Want to #win Comic Heroes issue 8: http://bit.ly/ndY0E2 #comp from @VeggieDadBlog"on Twitter

You must be in the UK to be eligible to win. All entries must be completed by 23:59 on Monday the 31st of October 2011

Pennant And Cap & T-shirt

Today I received two prizes. :-)

I got a Dr Pepper pennant from their Pepperhood promotion.

As well as that I got a t-shirt and a cap from @Connect2Media on Twitter.

A Freebie Chinese Lantern

I got a free Chinese lantern from @CPBrandUK looking forward to launching it soon :-)

Twitter Account

I've just set up a new Twitter account just for this blog: @VeggieDadBlog. Get following. I'll do a competition this week :)

Heads Of Ayr Farm Park

We went to the Heads of Ayr Farm Park on our recent holiday to Scotland. Which was nice but drastically overpriced. It was a ten minute walk from the caravan in Craig Tara Holiday Park we were staying in.  We drove, however, so our coats and picnic were nearer.

We got there good and early and the kids played on the adventure playground before it got busier on the equipment later on. The kids found special tokens in the sand to get a prize from the gift shop. David optimistically wanted a £15 wolf teddy but it was only choccy coins on offer.

They had all the animals you'd expect and you could feed most of them. Then there were the smaller ones and they could hold a few. And they had this fantastic Guinea pig town with dozens of pigs living in little buildings.

All quite fun but we paid less than £10 for all of us at the Acorn Farm in Kirkby A few weeks ago. But being right next to a holiday park I can't imagine many families not going to it...

Dean Castle and Country Park

We went to Dean Castle and Country Park which was great and free.

 

It had animals and even a big pile of fallow deer, the buck would even eat out of your hand - we only had grass for him.

 

You could only go in part of the castle but there was armour and weapons for the kids to try on. It absolutely tipped down on our way back to the car which, I suppose, was good timing :-)

 

Free Cinema Tickets

Today I received my cinema ticket win. Its two tickets for cineworld. It is a win from Dr Pepper's Pepperhood promotion. I'm going to have a look and see what I can take the Mrs to see. We've got until March next year to decide.

Received My Bin From made.com

I won a voucher from @made_com on Twitter a little while back and I just received the bin I ordered from them. It senses when you wave your hand over it and it opens automagically and closes afterwards.

I Won A Book: "Son of Perdition"

Today I received a book I won from @midaspr on Twitter. It sounds like an interesting conspiracy thriller and I am looking forward to reading it...