Extremely crabby

My son claims today was the highlight of his holiday. We went to a Dorset Wildlife Trust event at Kimmeridge Bay: eco-friendly crabbing.

When we arrived there were loads of families and it was a tiny cost of £3 each to get a crab line. These crab lines have a small bag that bait is put into rather than hooks so the crabs aren't harmed. The volunteers were wonderful: really friendly, helpful and knowledgeable.



My son loved clambering over the rocks to find the best pools. It's a great past-time for kids as you have to learn patience whilst waiting for the crabs to scuttle from below the rocks in search of tasty morsels.



And we were successful! We managed to catch or observe five shore crabs, one blenny and two shrimp. Every time we caught, or nearly caught, something the volunteers from Dorset Wildlife trust came up to help land the creature and give a lot of fascinating detail about the animal.









I thoroughly recommend these events and, as they all survive to see another day, I guess the crabs do too.

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Location:Kimmeridge Bay

Boats, bikes and beating Hitler

So, we've been very busy for the past few days in Dorset. Sadly the fabulous Swanage Regatta finished on Sunday but we enjoyed going to watch a display by a mountain bike display team. They were, frankly, bonkers and did mad tricks that had me wincing and my son in raptures.



They were really lovely and let all the kids have a go on their presumably extremely expensive bikes.



Yesterday we went on a boat trip from Swanage to Poole along the World Heritage site Jurassic Coast . The cliffs at Swanage are chalk and the youngest on the coast with the gorgeous stack and arch of Old Harry Rocks (sorry about the fingers at the top...)




Today we went to Portland Castle which was holding a special WW2 day for kids. My son got to learn rifle drill, made a gasmark, learnt about the Dunkirk evacuation and watched the least politically correct Punch and Judy show ever - Mr Punch versus Mr Hitler. It was hilarious, mind. I also found out information that I hadn't known: that Churchill had expected the Dunkirk evacuation to rescue at best 45,000 troops and in fact 338,000 were brought back. Worth the trip for that context alone.















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Location:All over Dorset

An irrepressible urge to hum the Dambusters' March

Swanage Regatta might just be the best free fun it's possible to have in this day and age. Today we sat on the beach at Swanage Bay whilst my son played in the sea and then got to watch the Red Arrows. I've not seen them since childhood and I'd forgotten just how amazing their tricks are. It was brilliant. And, if you know Swanage, the perfect amphitheatre with the bay sweeping around and the Isle of Wight in the distance.








Afterwards we watched the start of the adult wheelbarrow race (fancy dress, via a load of pubs with a pint/shot at each) and then had a gorgeous Italian meal. Finally we watched some music on the Promenade.

I am promising myself right now that I'm going to try to get to Swanage Regatta every year from now on and also attempt to get to Camp Bestival for the first weekend. Plan.


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It was this big...

My son has turned into Bear Grylls over the past week. Firstly he was trying to catch fish in the sea by catching them between two pebbles and then, when that failed (who would have guessed?) he came up to me and asked "Mummy, can I kill a bird?". The answer to that was no in both senses.

However, we went to Wareham river with his little fishing net and he did catch some minnows. Which survived the ordeal and got put back into the utterly beautiful river.











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Location:Wareham

A 1970s childhood

I am at Swanage Regatta today having a brilliant time and remembering something about my childhood that, until I'd come here, I'd completely forgotten about: summer fetes and competing in mad races. The races are brilliant, an obstacle race; a rescue race where the kids have to carry a stretcher over an obstacle course to save a teddy; a sedan chair race; a slow bike race - the slowest without putting their foot down and the wheelbarrow race. And look who won the wheelbarrow race....




The final race was madness: one child dressed in a bin bag and the other one threw a raw egg to them. The winner was the pair of kids that threw the egg the furthest without it breaking. My son loved it.

And it was one of those afternoons that was simple, cheap and wonderful fun. Whilst I love my foreign adventures sometimes a truly British afternoon of kids' races is a real joy.

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Life's a beach

I am really blessed that my parents have lived in wonderful places for the past few years. They recently moved from the Algarve and are now back in Dorset. All my childhood summers were spent here and now my son is getting to come here too.

Our first afternoon was spent on Swanage beach where the girls pictured tried chatting my little boy up - which he was embarrassed and thrilled by in equal measure.




We also went for a lovely walk at Durlston Country Park.





Today we went to the famous Lulworth Cove and sat in the blazing sun whilst he played in the sea. At one point we got to watch a live action version of 'Seaside Rescue' as a bunch of mad young things got caught out in a rowing boat and dragged back in by some very annoyed police.




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What doctor?

This weekend we had the sort of treat that only a very special sort of person can truly appreciate. Now, how you emphasise that word 'special' very much depends on whether you know who Steven Moffat is and how you spend the early evening on Saturday nights and teatime on Christmas day. In this house Steven Moffat is revered and we never ever miss an episode of 'Doctor Who'.

Today my son and I went to see The Crash of the Elysium at Salford Quays in Manchester.

We had to sign in and sit in the really impressive new BBC buildings at Media City. Now, second only to Doctor Who in our house is the wonderful Horrible Histories so my son was also really excited to see this



and to get to disembowel a mummy and stick lungs etc in a canopic jar whilst being timed. No really.

We also got to meet a truly iconic villain



But the main event was The Crash of the Elysium



Which was described by its writer as follows:





So, what happened? I'm not going to tell you. It's a TOTAL secret and I don't want to ruin the immersive experience because I think every one of the 11 million people who watch it each week ought to go. All I'm going to say is you get to run and there is a fez. Fezzes are cool.


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