Strider Bike Racing Attempt 2!

Last time we took Macy Strider racing she was a bit too young at just under 2 she couldn't really push her bike over the bumps, so I thought now she is a bit more confident on her bike and a bit stronger she will enjoy it more.

We were lucky with the weather as it was dry and sunny and quite warm for November!  Macy went out on the track for practice and was flying round, she was absolutely loving it and coped a lot better with the bumps.  Her first race she finished 2nd but didn't do so well in her other two heats.  There were some fathers there who were really shouting at their children but it really freaked Macy out as she thought they were shouting at her and that she had done something wrong, every time someone shouted she stopped!  And the worst was they would stand right at the finish so she didn't want to finish as it meant riding at these people who were really shouting!!  She was leading the one race but didn't want to finish because everyone was gathered there screaming at their children. 

It was a shame really as she loved riding her bike and she just wanted to go round again and again.  Next time perhaps she can switch off a bit more to the shouting and not let it bother her so much?  I would like her to do well as she was the only girl in her age group, would be nice to see her beating the boys and she could do it, but really I want her to enjoy it.  Here are some photos I took of her:

Cafe Rouge - Les Enfants

I love French food and have only ever dined at Café Rougeonce, only reason being that we don’t really have one particularly close, Birmingham is probably about 45 minutes on the train.  I also had never thought about taking Macy as it isn’t somewhere you really associate as being particularly child friendly, am not really sure why, you just don’t expect a nice restaurant to cater for children.  So when the opportunity came up to try their childrens’ menu via Mumsnet I was straight on to them to volunteer our services!

When we arrived at the Bullring restaurant for dinner on Friday night we were warmly welcomed and shown to our table, Macy was brought her highchair and straight away brought some stickers (which are her favourite things in the world!  Sorry the photos are a bit blurry she was just so excited!), a multi coloured colouring crayon and also the menu which doubled up as a colouring activity sheet.

The childrens menu is £6.95 for three courses and a drink which is good value, however for younger children like Macy it would have been nice to have been able to just have starter and main and drink for perhaps a couple of pounds less.  She just can’t manage three courses yet and dessert is normally the course she leaves the most of.  A spoonful of something we are having is enough.  So I do feel they could do with that option for perhaps under 5s.

There was a good choice of drinks, we always feel a little hard done to with things like this as Macy drinks water, she doesn’t have fizzy drinks or squash so when we saw milk on the menu we were really please, there was a good choice of juices and fizzy drinks also.  What we did like was that her starter was brought out straight away, before ours so that it kept her quiet and she wasn’t sitting there getting frustrated because she was hungry.  There wasn’t a choice for starter, it was artisan bread with cucumber, carrot, tomato and a tomato dip (the menu stated it came with butter but we didn’t get any?) – she loved it, she really enjoys little bits of different things so this was ideal for her and she polished it all off!

For main course there was a good choice of a couple of chicken dishes, burger, sausages and mash, fishcake, pasta, cheese toastie.  I didn’t feel it was a very French choice, would have been nice to have a bit of a better fish dish with some nice veg – Macy loves fish, it’s healthy and would have been lovely in some garlic butter.  We ended up ordering the breaded chicken because it was one of few dishes that came with some veg – in this case peas and sweetcorn.  However the meal arrived and there wasn’t any veg to be seen, only salad!  We spoke to the waiter and the bowl of veg arrived quickly. 

For dessert there was more of a ‘French’ choice including crepe, profiteroles, also fruit salad, ice cream and ice lolly.  It was a bit of a cold day so I didn’t fancy ordering any ice lolly or ice cream and she eats loads of fruit so we went for the very French profiteroles – also I knew she wouldn’t eat many and they are one of my favourites!  Lovely profiteroles filled with crème patisserie and a little dish to dip them into which was nice instead of drizzling the chocolate on top.  As I suspected Macy only really managed one so I had a couple and they were lovely.

I have to say they really looked after Macy, couldn’t do enough for her and our waiter was fantastic with her and she loved all the attention.  They brought her out her own cutlery on a napkin placed beside her and she thought that was great and felt very grown up!  The only reason I wouldn’t return is that she really doesn’t do the three courses justice just yet so I feel it is a bit of a waste, perhaps in a year’s time. 

 

An opportunity to learn a bit of French on the activity sheet

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While I am reviewing I will say that the menu for adults was lovely also:

Champignons a l'ail - mushrooms in a cepe & garlic cream sauce on grilled rye & caraway bread - really tasty decent sized portion with plenty of sauce.

Crevettes - king prawns in garlic & smoked chilli butter with baked in house baguette - really tasty but it was a little tricky de-shelling the prawns in a very hot sticky butter.

10oz rib eye - this was served with garlic butter and cooked as required perfectly, just could have done with some veggies or grilled tomato?

Boeuf Bourguignon - slow-cooked beef in red wine with smoked bacon, mushrooms, baby onions, green beans, carrots and herb mash - this was beautiful, so rich and tasty, the beef melted in my mouth, however there just wasn't enough beef, I counted about 6 pieces!

We had the chocolate ganache to share for pudding and did find the chocolate, chilli and lime sorbet rather vile!  We have eaten at plenty of nice restaurants with Michelin stars etc so are not unaccustomed to unusual flavour combinations but this was really horrid, the ganache was lovely though!

Strider Bike Race Birmingham

Part of the reason for choosing the Strider Balance Bike was to join the Strider Community, it seemed that Strider really encourage the children to be active and hold events and races for the children to take part in.  They are huge in America and it looked like it could be really popular in this country also.  So we jumped at the chance to take part in the first Strider racing in Birmingham.

We checked in and all of the children received a number plate for their bike along with a little strider bell.  All children had to wear knee and elbow pads as well as a helmet for safety.  The races were split by ages, 2 year olds, 3 year olds etc.  The 2 year olds race was the first on however all of the children were allowed to practice first.  I personally felt this was a bit much as the track was quite narrow and for my not quite 2 year old she found it a bit scary with some of the older children who were flying round the track.  A better way to do it would have been to have 20mins / half an hour practice for each of the age groups before their races so that it doesn’t get quite as manic.

Macy didn’t end up racing as she found it too much – she struggled to get up the hills on the track, she hadn’t quite got the strength and the older children flying behind her and having to stop while she got up a hill really put her off and upset her. It was a shame as she looked fab in all her gear and hopefully next year when she is a bit bigger she can withstand the boisterousness of the older children.  The older children did have a whale of a time and it was a great atmosphere, I think all the children that took part got a medal.

Grand Designs NEC & George Clarke!

Some of you may know we are knocking down our very damp, very small bungalow in the new year and rebuilding a larger dormer bungalow – hoorah!!  We visited the Grand Designs show last year but we were quite a way off the project and really only looked as windows etc, we got more out of the renovation and build show in the spring following as Grand Designs doesn’t have a lot of build information, more the finishing off.

We visited the show on the Friday so we could have a good look round the show concentrating on kitchens and bathroom really.  We had the VIP experience and had access to the Miele Lounge all day which was fab!  It was so nice to go and have a sit down away from the hustle and bustle of the show.  Breakfast consisted of croissant and pastries with a range of coffees and juice as well as prosecco.  We made sure we were back for some soup at lunch time (although a VERY small portion, more like a shot) and back again later for afternoon tea – beautiful warm fluffy scones with jam and butter as well as some cake.  We got lots of ideas for the kitchen and spoke to one company in particular – Princess Kitchens in Sutton Coldfield who gave us some great ideas and we have since been in to see them.  We also got some great ideas for home automation after we watched one of the theatres.  There are several theatres at the show covering various different topics from cooking to building your home.

Our biggest highlight was attending on Saturday for our on stage consultation with GEORGE CLARKE!!  I entered a competition via Grand Designs to win one of the slots available and we were lucky enough to be selected.  Saturday was packed, I am so glad we had attended on Friday as we could hardly move Saturday.  They were running sessions where self builders took their plans up on stage and discussed them with a celeb architect – Friday was Charlie ???? and Saturday George Clarke.  There was a couple who went up before us and then it was our time.  George was lovely and stopped to have his photo taken with everybody asked.  He gave us some great ideas and really got enthusiastic about our plans so we are really excited to get started.  He even signed our plans so we are going to get those framed and put up when we have finished! :)

It’s a great show, even if you aren’t really doing anything and are just thinking about wallpapering a new room.  There are some great ideas, new tech and also rooms for the garden and garden furniture etc.  It is so easy to get to by train – 5 minute undercover walk from Birmingham International.

Crufts - The World's Largest Dog Show

My favourite event, I love Crufts, always have done, always will! I remember as a child watching it on tv every year and always wanting to go. As soon as my mum gave in and let me have a dog at the age of 15 I started to copy the agility and make jumps in the garden out of flower pots and canes! Anyway to cut a long story short a few years later we were actually competing at Crufts and every single one of my dogs (I have four) has since competed.  My dogs are now too old to compete or illness doesn't allow them to.

I still love Crufts, the atmosphere is like nowhere else, full of excitement and hope that a ribbon will be accompanying them on the way home or even a trophy. I am not 'into' showing dogs, it's not really my thing. I prefer something a bit more exciting, my background is canine freestyle, agility and flyball. 

Someone who has never been before does have the expectation that it is just dogs walking round a breed ring but it's far from it. Yes breed showing is the main reason Crufts exists and yes it all culminates in Best In Show but the other dog activities also now take a lot of ring time up. They used to just be there as a little bit of entertainment but now it's serious stuff and people compete across the country and even across Europe to qualify so we have THE best dogs at Crufts.

Crufts spans several halls of the NEC and it's so easy to get to by train or car. We usually go by train as the station is Birmingham International and the station is virtually in the NEC! Car parks have shuttle buses to and from the halls.

There are several rings, of course you have many breed rings and depending on which day you go depends on which breeds are showing so check the website. There is the main ring where all sorts happen from agility, flyball, canine freestyle, displays and Best In Show.  The YKC ring which is for the youngsters in the dog world and you will see future stars in all disciplines - this was my world when I was younger :). There is the Good Citizen ring where demonstrations take place from dogs which have completed the Kennel Club's Good Citizen training courses take part in displays - a great scheme for pet dogs. Finally there is the Dog Activities Ring where you can go if you want to get involved with any of the disciplines as there are people there who have competed in and trained in their chosen discipline.

Another major part of Crufts is Discover Dogs where you can meet every single breed registered with the KC. Great if you are thinking about a new dog as you can ask the owners loads of questions to find out if they are right for you.

Finally there is the shopping, wow! So many things you can by for your dog, for you and for any dog loving friends!

Tickets are cheaper if you buy online so get buying now ready for March 6-9!! Crufts is great for all the family, something for everyone! To learn more and buy tickets, visit:

Http://Www.crufts.org.uk/ticket-office

Here was me in the YKC ring with my little rescue collie, Cas (now 14):

And in the main ring:

With Ember my sheltie:

With Rum, my welsh sheepdog cross collie:

Marco Pierre White Steakhouse Bar & Grill Birmingham

Have a look at my review: Food Fascination - Marco Pierre White