Santa Safari - Hawkstone Park & Follies

Last year we went to Lapland just before Christmas so this year we decided to go all out for Santa and just do one 'special' visit rather than a few at local fairs/town centres etc. We decided upon Hawkstone which is just north of Shrewsbury.  It is £17 per adult and £18 per child during daylight hours and £20 per adult, £22 per child during twilight. We decided to go during daylight as I thought I may get better photos but actually the majority of it was in the caves so it would have been nice during twilight.

You meet at the hotel for a cup of hot chocolate and get taken by land rover to the caves up at the top of the hill. You pass under the wishing arch and arrive at the top to be greeted by elves. I do feel the car ride could have been made to feel more festive. It would only take a few small touches such as playing Christmas songs in the car, the driver could have been dressed more festive, perhaps some tinsel in the car etc. It didn't feel the 'magical adventure by Land Rover' that they market it as.

Once you are at the top an elf gathers you together and runs through some health and safety. There are two reindeer in a small wooden box which I thought was a little odd as they looked a bit cramped and we were told you couldn't touch them. I felt a bit sorry for them, they could have had a bigger area to wander round in.

Families were staggered when entering the cave so that everyone didn't go through at the same time and there be a queue for santa. This was a nice touch.  As you walked through the caves there were different festive/wintery scenes such as Winnie the Pooh and friends, Minions where the children could have a go at remote control ice skating with them, Trolls, Unicorns & Fairies and Mario Kart where they had a little car race track and podium for the children to have a go with. At each section an elf greeted you and chatted to the children, leading you on to the next section of the cave again making sure everyone was staggered.

You came to a bench surrounded by festive trees where you waited for Santa behind a closed door.  Again an elf came to the door and lead you through to Santa who was sitting in a lovely big sleigh.  Everyone could sit in the sleigh and he had a box in front of him the children could sit on so they didn't have to sit on his lap if they didn't want to.  He was a fabulous santa, gave them a present but perhaps could have done with spending a little longer talking to the children though. 

You are then lead out of the back of the caves where you are met by a wonderful view of the Shropshire countryside.  Down a path (which was nicely lit and would look lovely during twilight) and back to the land rovers to take you back.

Overall it was something a bit different, the caves were fabulous, it could just do with a few extra touches here and there to make it worth the money as it is expensive when you have to pay so much for the adults too.  I am not sure it is worth the money? However it is a different experience you wouldn't get anywhere else.

Sportsdirect.com £5 Christmas Challenge

I decided to put myself forward to take part in the Sports Direct #sdfiverchallenge Christmas Challenge.  Which is basically finding Christmas presents for under £5. I do struggle to find little stocking fillers that are good quality but also a little unusual too.  I like to shop online and it’s difficult to get ideas.

On Sports Direct’s website you can visit this page: https://www.sportsdirect.com/christmas and then select a price range.  You can also select who you are buying for – male, female, child etc.  I just filtered for under £5 and included all types – I was a bit disappointed to start with as it brought back lots of football gifts and nobody in our family likes football (not uncles, in laws, hubby – nobody!)  However, once I scrolled past these there was a lot more choice, something for everyone from toolkits to chocolates to wrapping paper and even jumper debobblers!  

I was surprised at some of the children’s toys, quite a lot of Disney there – I bought the following:

Disney Up games are £4.99 and you can buy Princess, Cars or Frozen – I bought a Cars one and a Princess one for relatives.  These are great little games and are decent quality for the money, they are a great price and I couldn’t find cheaper elsewhere – Sports Direct claim they are usually £9.99 however I found them on Amazon for £6.89 as part of Prime.

The Spirit Of Christmas 13in1 Hammer Tool was £4.99 and an ideal stocking filler for hubby who is always looking for tools!  This hammer is a real hammer and includes pliers, wire cutter, knives, screwdrivers, a saw, a bottle opener, a wire bender, a file, and a nail puller.  Quality seems brilliant, knives are sharp and it is a nice heavy item.  He will probably keep it in his car as sometimes needs tools with his job but doesn’t want to carry a toolkit round with him. 

My daughter is only a metre tall and she is on her knees - very small marble run!

I also bought Marble Mountain Game for my daughter, I can remember having one of these as a child and having great fun making different tracks and racing the marbles, the price was £4, claiming it was usually £8.  I have to say I was extremely disappointed with this product, considering it should have normally been £8 the quality is absolutely shocking – the plastic is really brittle.  The whole thing is tiny and the connectors don’t fit together well – the slightest knock and it falls to pieces, my daughter dropped a marble and knocked it over, one of the connectors chipped on the edge and it was not a hard knock at all.  This is not worth the money so I would avoid buying it.

Loop the loop doesn't fit flush and keeps falling apart

I do think Sports Direct are expensive when it comes to delivery as it is £4.99 flat rate and it wasn't free over a certain amount, even if you have it delivered to store it costs £4.99 although you do then get a £5 voucher to spend in store. So you do have to take this into account as it may not be worth ordering if you only have one or two items, however if you are buying several items it isn't so bad.  In future I will probably also stick to the branded gifts like the Disney games, the unbranded marble run was shocking quality and I am glad it wasn't a gift for a relative as it really wasn't worth the £4.

So all in all it is a great place to do some Christmas shopping at good prices and to get some gifts that you perhaps don't see every day.

This post is an entry for BritMums #sdfiverchallenge Christmas Challenge, sponsored by Sportsdirect.com. https://www.sportsdirect.com

Quality Street Christmas Advert

You might not know that I have my animals signed up with an agent for media work. I have been working the animals for about 12 years or so.

Sweep got the call for 2 days filming in London for a Christmas advert - I never say anything at the time as am not sure what I can and can't say so it's best not to say anything!  Now the advert is out I can tell you it was for Quality Street. I was pleased to hear it was a 2 o'clock start so we missed rush hour traffic into London which can be horrendous.

These things sound glamorous but they are far from it, there is an awful lot of waiting around and standing about in the cold.  Sweep didn't actually get called onto set till about 5pm on the first day and nearer 6pm on the second day.

We had been training him to jump and catch sweet wrappers falling from above but they changed the plan on the day - another thing that happens quite frequently - you can prepare yourself and your animal as much as you can but on the day it can all change and you have to be prepared for this. 

I had been concerned about how slippy it would be if he was jumping, they were using pretend snow but it wasn't slippy at all - it was a paper substance not wet at all, completely dry.

Instead of him jumping at the sweet wrappers they wanted him to run into set towards the actors and then to start jumping at the wrappers - I did say I couldn't see him doing this as I had to hide behind a hedge so he is hardly going to know what to do.  So I let them see what would happen as this is usually the best way to give it a go and then they can see for themselves.  I got Sweep to run on to set and run about a bit but I couldn't get him jumping at the wrappers from a distance - the wrappers were floating slowly in the air and it wasn't that easy to see them.  So I got them to stand me on a box rather precariously just out of shot and I could then get him to jump at his target stick.

The other shot was that he had to walk off lead down a street with an actor so we loaded him with sausage and a tennis ball, Sweep was happy enough to go off with him then!  They wanted him running in the street happily doing his own thing but near enough to the actor, the actor was squeaking his ball in the pocket so Sweep easily ran round excited then!

Sweep was a good boy and worked well, he is completely focused and despite all the commotion going on round him he concentrated all evening.

This is the actual advert, watch out for it, I believe it has been shown quite a few times between prime time programmes:

Then there is the behind the scenes video which shows a bit more of Sweep and of myself and Mark who came with me to give me a hand:

Knorr Stock Pots

I was sent some knorr stockpots through Mumsnet. The idea was to test the stockpots by using them with leftovers from Christmas Day. Knorr sent some recipe cards through but some of them were a bit complicated and had ingredients I didn't have or like. Having a young baby who keeps me busy I can't be bothered with long winded recipes or recipes that contain an endless list of ingredients!

So the first recipe I used was Goodtoknow's Turkey Stew:

Ingredients

2tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

2 chillies, chopped

900g turkey, cut into bite-sized chunks

1tbsp tomato puree

285ml vegetable stock

2 bay leaves

Method

Heat the oil in a casserole dish, add the onion, garlic and chillies and fry gently until softened (about 5 minutes).

Add the turkey pieces, increased the heat, and fry until browned.

Stir in the tomato puree, then pour in the vegetable stock and add the bay leaves, and season.

Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 40 minutes, until the turkey is tender.

I halved the recipe for the two of us as the above feeds four. Also at the same time I added the stock, I added some left over veg from

Christmas Day - brussel sprout, carrots, green beans and mange tout!

I of course used Knorr Vegetable Stockpot for my stock. It was such an easy meal to make, I didn't bother browning the turkey so literally just threw all the ingredients in my wohl and left it. Served with mashed potato. It was lovely, very tasty and most of the taste must have been down to the stock as there weren't many other ingredients. The chilli added an extra kick which you could leave out it you don't like anything spicy but I enjoyed it.

A lot of the recipes suggested by knorr didn't use up all my leftovers so I again found another on the Goodtoknow website, this time it was "Slimming World's turkey risotto"

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 large onion, chopped

2 leeks, trimmed and chopped

1 red pepper and 1 yellow pepper, deseeded and chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

710ml / 1¼pt chicken stock

227g/ 8oz dried Arborio rice a few strands of saffron

454g/ 1lb lean cooked turkey, skin removed

salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp chopped parsley

Method

Put the onion, leeks, peppers, garlic and 284ml/½ pint of the stock in a large heavy frying pan. Cover the pan, bring to the boil and boil for 5-10 minutes. Uncover the pan, reduce the heat and simmer for about 25 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and syrupy.

Stir in the rice and cook gently for 2 minutes. Add some more stock, together with the saffron, and bring to the boil.

Reduce the heat to a bare simmer and cook very gently for about 15-20 minutes, adding more stock and stirring as necessary.

Add the cooked turkey after 10 minutes and heat through in the rice. The risotto is ready when the rice is plump and tender, and all the liquid has been absorbed. Season to taste and serve sprinkled with parsley.

It's quite a labour intensive recipe but all done in one pot on the hob and you can throw all your leftover veggies in too. It was very tasty, I ended up using two Knorr Chicken stock pots plus the liquid. 

Finally I used the Beef Gravy pot with some mash, veggies & a beef pie. I must admit I couldn't really taste much difference to gravy granules such a bistro. You had to make the gravy by putting the stockpot in warm water then bringing to the boil in a pan. I expected it to be super tasty, I think I will just stick to granules.

So to sum up, would I buy the stockpots? Yes. Would I buy the gravy pots? No.

I am a member of the Mumsnet Bloggers Network Research Panel, a group of parent bloggers who have volunteered to review products, services, events and brands for Mumsnet. I have not paid for the product or to attend an event. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity.