So…. the weekend came. We were heading to Kent. Why add Kent to our trip to Disneyland?
Well the children had been asking loads about Mumma and Daddy and our pasts: where we went to school, college, university; what we liked as children; what we wanted to be when we grew up; which houses we had lived in; what games we liked to play and so forth. They have been to Cardiff loads and seen where Daddy lived at whilst he was at uni, but they haven’t seen anything of Mumma’s uni past. Mumma studied at the University of Kent, Canterbury, but had worked for a train company in Ashford, so I had spent a lot of time in Ashford too.
So we had booked to stay at the Travelodge in the Eureka Business Park for 2 days and then a Premier Inn by the Dartford Crossing the night before we were due to travel on the Eurostar from Ebbsfleet. I haven’t review these hotels because they are Travelodge/Premier Inn hotels; basic, you know what you are and aren’t getting, once you have stayed in one…
We travelled down after Bruce had finished work on the Friday – the idea was that we could then have a full day to explore on the Saturday. We arrived late, got into our room and then slept where we dropped. And had a good, *ahem* hearty, *ahem* makeshift breakfast in our room. Safe to say, I didn’t get mych chance to eat vegan on this trip…
Saturday we had a good explore around Canterbury, having breakfast at one of Mumma’s regular student haunts – the good ol’ Thomas Ingoldsby (‘Spoons in student lingo). Which was followed by a walk amonst the cobbles until we could get into the Fudge Kitchen; if you haven’t ever had their fudge, you need to, I hate fudge. I love Fudge Kitchen fudge though. And then an explore up to the University to see the campus, the student village etc. And before heading back to our hotel, a circular tour of all the houses I had lived in – I made it clear it was where I had lived, not where I had slept. In the least promiscuous way possible, I slept in a lot of houses at Uni! It answered a lot of the children’s questions and made them happy.
The next day, we got up early (ish) – normal sort of time for us in all honesty and headed to Bluewater Shopping Centre for a bit of a wander before heading to our hotel at Dartford. Again, I won’t review, I’m not a fan of shopping, and a shopping centre is a shopping centre – I will say it had ample parking, good signage and was clean and was set amonsgt some beautiful scenery, but that’s all I can muster. It was more so the children could go to the Disney Store and the Lego shop and kill some time.
The kids then spent the afternoon in the bath – they hit up Lush at Bluewater, so cue a and incredibly damp, but wonderful smelling bathroom in the hotel room. And we just took a well earned break – lying on the bed listening to the children’s laughs and games echoing out from the bathroom.
It was nice to explore in Kent, I lived there for 3 years and became an actual adult there (not by age, but you know, maturity) so it does feel like Kent is a part of me in some ways. It was never home, but is always going to be part of my puzzle. So it’s always nice to go back.
A Pleasant Chaos 