Sunday – FoH Day two

The weather started well which was a bonus and so I sat and painted my nails while drinking my first cup of tea instead of being more urgent about packing up. I’d said I’d be happy to get to FoH for midday and we were nearly a whole hour earlier than that so we still did very well.

The older four children went off to the playpark while the adults took down tents and Alison took BB there a while later leaving just Chris and Helen and Ady and I still taking down tents and packing up. Scarlett slept in late and only really woke once I’d packed everything else in the tent up around her. Taking down the tent works quite well if I do most of it while Ady loads it into the car and faffs around with the kitchen area. When Scarlett was up and dressed and realised she was the only remaining child she was understandably upset so I decided it would make sense for Ady to drive her to the park (too far for her to walk alone, twice as quick to drive there as it was quite a way to walk there and back) and take the shower key back to get our £10 deposit refunded at the same time while I carried on.

Unfortunately he was over half an hour when I’d expected it to take no more than 10 minutes. He had reasons – there was a car boot sale on which prevented parking so he’d had to go all the way out of the park, to a roundabout and queue to get back in, then take Tarly to the playpark. But in the meantime the sky had turned black and I’d reached a point where I could do nothing more for fear of the rain starting and me having nowhere to put all the stuff I’d taken down and packed up. Coupled with that the tent pegs were in so very hard that I was struggling to get them out too.

Ady finally returned and I took the whole tent down by myself including stuffing it into the bag. Anger can make one very strong I find ;).In the end we all left together and collected the children from the park and went almost in convoy to FoH. This time there was no traffic at all and we went straight in.

Our plan for the second day had been to get to the fool again, maybe a couple of the reenactments, particularly the WW2 one and maybe the jousting, which we’d enjoyed last year.

We ended up meandering about for a bit without really doing or seeing anything and both children were a bit hard work to try and engage in anything. Eventually we gave up and sat down infront of the Agincourt Battle area to eat some lunch. It was good timing as a few minutes later the Battle Part 2 started and we watched that. I’m not at all sure how much went in but it was high drama and plenty of noise so enjoyable regardless I think. It was time for Punch and Judy by then so we went back to the sandpit. I left Ady there to fetch my coat from the car as it was clearly not going to brighten up and get too hot and I wanted to use the loos in the carpark too. When I returned we saw Bob who kindly waited for Davies aswell as Libby to direct him over to us watching the Henry VIII play.

Neither Davies or Scarlett were interested in going up to participate but both enjoyed watching it and shouting along with the rest of the audience. We spent much of it all four of us under the umbrella as it rained throughout a lot of it but we stayed dry huddled together while I had a glass of wine and we all ate pistachio nuts so it didn’t seem so bad :).

The rain stopped so we bought the children an ice cream and bumped into Alison. Ady decided he needed coffee so he went and got that while the children and I bumbled about the EH gift shop, watched a Tudor Band (with a hey and a ho!) and then we all made our way over to the jester / fool.

From watching the show the day before I had some idea of what to expect and made sure we stood in what I’d thought would be a ‘safe’ place to watch. Wrong! He parted the crowd right next to us and selected a tall man to be part of his act. The man flatly refused and when he picked him up to carry him into the circle said to him in a very low and menacing tone ‘I recommend you put me down RIGHT NOW!’ so he did.

And chose Ady instead 😆

Ady was a star, had to stand topless while he was laughed at, kissed by the fool and finally laid down and supported him while he did a handstand surrounded by a quartet of small children all laying on and around him 😆

Oh I was proud 🙂

As I said to Ady afterwards at least once that was over he could watch the remainder of the act knowing he was safe from being picked on any more 😉

We went to watch the jousting next but it was incredibly slow to start. Ady was itching to watch the WW2 stuff and in the end he and Davies went off to get good seats for it. Scarlett and I stayed with Alison and co, and then Bob and Katy aswell but the jousting took so long to get going and I was starting to feel really tired I finally persuaded Scarlett to watch just 10 minutes of it (it had started half an hour late) and then try to find Ady and Davies.

We didn’t find them as they had indeed got excellent seats right at the front but we saw all the good bits at the end and then found them when the crowds dispersed.

The heavens opened almost on cue and after a brief look around the stalls we decided that actually the weather wasn’t going to pick up and we were close enough to the end of the day to feel ready to head for home rather than try and eke out any more from the weekend.

I’m glad we did as it was another lengthier than expected journey with an original arrival time on the satnav of 738pm but we actually didn’t get home til 830pm. I felt quite ropey for most of the journey but it would appear to be solely down to tiredness as I’m fine today after a good nights sleep.

Once home we fed the children, I read them some story while they ate and Ady unpacked the car. I helped put stuff away and clear up and then had a bath. Dinner wasn’t ready til midnight by which point I’d gone past being ready for anything other than my bed so I ate a little and went to bed, where I fell straight asleep and didn’t know a thing until about 9am this morning.

It really was a fab weekend. Wicksteed park is a great campsite I think. It’s cheap, the facilities are basic but perfectly adequate. We have our portapotty anyway but actually the portaloos this time were really clean and fragrant. The showers are clean, hot and well worth the £2 a night charge (for all four of us!). It did fill right up on Saturday night and probably wouldnt be somewhere you’d want to be camping without a group to distract you from the proximity of neighbours, but pitched in our own little circle we were fine.

We love Wicksteed park and getting in on Tesco vouchers made it a real treat we couldn’t usually afford and made a real weekend out of it too. The FoH was great and I feel like we got so much out of it this year. Again Tesco vouchers paying for EH membership made that a real bargain at just £36 for the two days. It was great to see friends, both campers and day trippers and I thought the weather was mostly really on our side too. Really enjoyed it :).