• Bake off is back and I’ve had various conversations about it already.
• Our littlest turned one year old and she is absolute chaos. One of the memories I’ll take with me of her first birthday is her guffawing loudly at her cake and then reaching in with both hands to grip the sponge.
• Following an intense few hours on Friday at my keyboard I smashed closed my laptop and immediately speeded to join the family in Center Parks. I haven’t been since being a teenager but basically it’s the same premise as 30 years ago. Nature-themed-ode-to-capitalism, with just a sprinkling of good holiday cheer to make you keep coming back.
• As I ran the perimeter of the park (something I didn’t do as a youth) i did feel a bit intensely farmed, as outside are never ending fields of pig farms that drew my attention further than the razor wire topped fence. I also spotted rolling perimeter security adding to the uneasy feeling.
• The villas haven’t changed since I were there last, shabby, damp, dark interiors acting like the hand of a gentle giant, pushing you back outside, where you can eagerly spend your money on nature adjacent activities.
• Oh, next time you go, which you will. Take or hire bikes, And take an aeropress and coffee. There was not a single good coffee the whole weekend and it would have made the experience much better.
• while I was sat, by the side of the false waves, holding our sleeping youngest. I mused the why’s of the subtropical swimming pool. I noticed that there was a twinge of good vibes about centre parcs that I’d initially missed. The people bopping balls to each other, squirting their tattoo’d dad with a water gun, laughing with their friends about their experiences on the waterslides. It became obvious that there’s some magic in the faux-tropical swimming, the plastic coated nature of how easy it all is. It was raining outside but still felt sunny and warm, but not in a weird way. It lets you feel like you’ve gone on a proper holiday when you’ve just been away a few days. I didn’t mean to write a review of center parcs, but here it is. It’s kinda guaranteed good times.