Things that go thump in the night!

here we are at Center Parks, Sherwood Forest with our granddaughter Izabella.  We arrived yesterday and after walking into our villa we were pleasantly surprised.  We had booked an executive one as this included daily maid service. The villa was in a choice spot, for which we had paid another £30 on top of the cost of an exec villa. The setting was perfect.  Geese and ducks plus squirrels were coming up to our patio door and looking in and the lake was only yards away, perfect, or so we thought.

We unloaded everything and put away kitchen things and I loved the wine cooler, no, i don't drink wine but for the copious amount of bottled water we get through when away from our home in West Yorkshire it was so lovely to keep it all chilled. Light, modern and airy the feel of the whole villa was very pleasing and the situation it was in could not be bettered.

On going into Izzys room she was really pleased to see she had her very own bathroom and was very excited, helping me to put her things away in the correct places.  Then I noticed it, the first of many wasps, one after the other and the other, talk about one wasp two wasp three wasp four, five wasp six wasp seven wasp more!  It was impossible to get rid of them all.  We rang the office thinking they would give us a spray but they needed the conservationist team to come and look the next morning.  We decided that there was just no way could Izzy sleep in there so Colin slept in there whilst Izzy  and I had the other room.

After falling asleep I was woken by three thumps, one after the other.  Not sure what it was I decided it was just a strange place but no, the thumps became more regular and repeated all night.  I went into the other bedroom to see Colin with a sting on his arm and a rolled up magazine waving it wildly around killing wasps, so many I couldn't believe what I was seeing!   Morning arrived and there were wasps, dozy ones, walking round the kitchen floor so we all had to put our shoes  on.  Colin felt there had to be a wasps nest and it seemed he was right,

After breakfast was over there appeared on our doorstep two lovely guys who came for a look around and confirmed that yes  there was a wasps nest but they wanted to keep it, just block up the ways they were using to get into our villa.  The chemicals were not friendly to humans, let alone one with lung problems so we had to move out,  problem though in that they only had two more properties available.  I was taken to see both.  Number one, no go, one bathroom way too far away for me in the middle of the night when my legs just won't work and the second bedroom had no bathroom and was too far from our bedroom.  The second  villa had  three bedrooms, we only need two, dirty kitchen and a sauna. PH patients do not do saunas.  We had no choice though but to accept this one though in a very inferior part of the park.  I was told they would ring and we would discuss a bit of a refund.

The original refund was a joke.  We had paid an extra £30 for the situation our preferred villa was in and a further £120 for the executive one , hence £150 .  The villa we were offered cost much less than the villa we had chosen yet they offered us £100  as a gesture of goodwill.  I told them this was a
terrible gesture as they were, in actual fact, making money off us cos we had to move!  Anyway after
a bit of argy-bargy we decided on a better settlement and I refused to take it in coupons for food etc.   now we can start to, hopefully, enjoy our holiday after a day spent re- packing, moving, and unpacking again.

Wednesday. Our day began well.  We were going on a nature walk as we are always trying to teach Izzy about nature and to respect it.  We sensibly chose to take my mobility scooter as the park is large and I wanted to enjoy my day.  We set off doing really well but the terrain in places was rather hard for my scooter and it began to run out of power after all it's valiant struggles.  There was no way we wanted it to run out of battery on one of the trails so Colin started to push it to help up the hills and stop it struggling.  The battery light was flashing dangerously red and so we decided to get Izzy to sit on the scooter and for me to walk at the side helping to steer it whilst Colin continued to push until we got to the top of the hills and the battery could cope better.  We made it!  Thank goodness but the look on the people's faces as they saw me walking at the side of the said scooter when they had previously seen me riding on it!  I didn't bother to explain, after all as we with Ph know we look too well to be poorly don't we so no sense in explaining that there was nothing wrong with my legs, hence that is why they now saw me walking after seeing my riding!

The nature walk was a huge success and my trusty scooter limped home to be quickly put on charge ready for its next adventure.  I walked into the village as it's not very far and we had some light lunch before heading back to the villa for Izzy to prepare for her horse riding session.  It became obvious that there was no way I could go, the battery had not recharged sufficiently for my scooter  and there was just no way I could make my way to the horse, time  for a nice sleep instead for me and I certainly needed it as I slept till they both returned  after a lovely pony experience.  Then time for them to collect their swimming things and away again!

Just before they left Izzy stood by the patio door and a huge swan saw her and rushed over to bite her, not realising of course that she was behind glass! The swan was huge, almost  coming to the top of Izzys head so thank goodness she was behind glass and thank goodness we always keep the patio doors closed, would be a bit scary to come across one of these standing by the settees! What an amazing time we have had up to now at Center Parks, will we return, yes we will.  When the cure is found for ph I shall be doing so many of the brilliant activities they have going on here, I won't need a scooter and shall be  rushing from one to the other as there are so many I want to do but know I just can't manage.  PH you won't beat me, I know the cure will be coming fast now and  I just can't wait for the trials to begin, I shall be at the front of the queue.