On our trip to Tenerife last year, I was keen to do three things. Relax, enjoy Siam Park and do some snorkeling. I am pleased to say I did all three.

There are loads of snorkeling trips you can take in Tenerife but when there is a family of five it gets quite pricey. Personally I liked the sound of the kayaking tours that took you out to see turtles but there were a few issues with this. Firstly, some operators feed the turtles bread which isn’t good for them. Secondly, the sea is really choppy, making kayaking quite hard. And last but not least, one of my boys is scared of fish swimming around him. It’s their eyes that freak him out I think.

So in the end we decided to buy some cheap snorkels which are sold in all the beach side shops and just have a snorkel in the sea. I have to say I was actually really impressed and you can find loads of beautiful fish around the edges of the bays.
The easiest place we found to snorkel was Playa de puerto colon. This is a calm bay where there is an inflatable park to one side for the children. As you walk into the shallow water you can see shoals of small fish around you. However, if you spend some time around the edges and around the rocks you will see an array of beautiful fish.



We also tried our nearest beach playa del bobo. Here the water was much rougher making the water less clear. However, up against the rocks at the side there were again some beautiful fish to see. You just needed to be careful not to hurt yourself on the rocks. One thing that did amaze me here was seeing a little puffa fish swimming around by himself I’m the calmer water.

I could have spent hours snorkeling and looking at the beautiful fish. If we had hired a car, I would have traveled further north as I believe you are more likely to see turtles there. However, if you are off to Tenerife and fancy some snorkeling, just grab a five mask and have a look. You will be amazed at the beauty underneath the sea.

Do you recommend anywhere to snorkel in Tenerife?

We visited Siam Park at peak holiday time in August. I have to say I was reluctant after reading the negative reviews on Tripadvisor.  They mainly focused on the lengths of queues and not being able to get on any rides without a fast pass for an additional 18 euros. Now when you are a couple that’s not too much but another 18 euros x 5 onto an already expensive entry fee, food and locker. Well let’s just say I didn’t really want to pay it. I have been to the Merlin parks in the UK and have never really needed to buy fast passes so decided we would see how it went.

View from Bouganville Playa, Siam Park waterslides can be seen in the trees in the distance,

We arrived early. Around 9.15. This is a must. We were lucky as it was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel (Iberostar Bouganville Playa.) It gets you into the park and hiring a locker easily. The queues for the lockers at around 11 were insane. We then went to wait to ride Singha as I wanted to go on the rollercoaster style ride the most and knew that the one we had done at volcano bay had massive queues so assumed this would be the same.

We managed to ride it really quickly. It was fab. But it broke before my husband got
on it. One of the biggest issues we had with the park was the need to find extra people to ride with. Pretty much all rides were 2’s and 4’s. Infact a family of 3 in the fast pass queue for the dragon we’re about to be turned away before I leapt across and said I would ride with them. Most operators would let you wait until a space came up though.

We managed a good few rides without queues. Then had a really long queue for the dragon. But it was worth it. We then went to the wave pool.

We then did a more slides and queues went down massively after 4. Fast passes aren’t essential but if you can justify them they do make the queues less.

the tower of power and the lazy river aren’t on fast passes and you should do these first if you buy a fast pass. The lazy river was so busy we couldn’t go through the tunnel
with fish.

We had a great time at Siam Park and I would go back if we went to Tenerife again. I probably wouldn’t buy fast passes but would buy the bounce back tickets instead. That way you could have a more relaxed couple of days and make sure that you did the rides early and late when the queues are small.

Have you need to Siam park? Did you like it?

Then we had breakfast before packing our bags. The plan for my birthday was to go pony riding, paddle in some hot springs and then go for fish and chips with a birthday beer in Reykjavik. 

As we got in the car and headed toward the stables and I wondered what on earth we were doing. It was raining, it was cloudy, it was miserable and cold. Once we got to the stables the girls doing the ride were a breath of fresh air. I had booked the mountains and meadows tour from Icelandic Horseworld. We just had to accept that there were probably mountains and meadows around us! They offered us more waterproofs and gloves and got us kitted out so we could enjoy ourselves whatever the weather. Whilst we had no view, we had lots of fun. We even braved a tolt. A lovely birthday treat.

Our plan for day three was a trip down the south coast to Vik. We woke up to beautiful blue sky and stopped to stroke Icelandic ponies on the farm that we were staying in.

Our second day in Iceland started well. Firstly, with the most gorgeous (if somewhat small) coffee and then the knowledge that my bag had finally made it to Iceland. Whoop whoop! 

We therefore decided that with the help of my husbands clothes we would make it through the day. Whilst not ideal we would do the golden circle in trainers. Our bag (with all the hiking gear) would meet us at our next hotel in Hella at the end of the day.

I was slightly concerned as it was raining in Reykjavik as we left but luckily the weather was kind and mainly dry. We decided to start our trip with the historical Thingvellir national park which was the site of the first parliament. We had a lovely walk and pictured some waterfalls before heading to try a hotdog at a gas station. It was the cheapest thing we ate in Iceland and I had all the recommended toppings. I had been concerned that lamb hot dogs would taste funny but they tasted like hot dogs so all was good.

Planning our recent trip to Iceland has kept me occupied for the last few months. I am pleased to say that all the planning was worth it and we managed to do everything we wanted. I therefore thought I would share our trip, for others planning to go.

As we were visiting Iceland with our children, we needed to carefully think about what they would like and enjoy, as well as me and my husband. We decided to hire a car and book a hotel in Hella on the South coast to minimise the amount of driving. We did, however, chose to miss out diamond beach and Jokulsarlon as the drive would just be too much for our boys to enjoy.

After much umming and arrhing we decided to book the blue lagoon for our first day. Our flight was due to land at 8.30 and we booked the 11-12 time slot. This was perfect. What with a lost bag and a queue at the hire car company, it worked perfectly. We arrived 20 minutes early and walked around the back of the lagoon. The colour was beautiful.

The Blue Lagoon, Iceland

Two continental plates

Bridge between continents, Iceland

The Sun Voyager

Hallgrimskirkja in Reykjavik

 Disclaimer: We received gifted tickets to DNA VR but all opinions are my own

When an e mail invite to DNA VR arrived in my inbox, I did what any technophobe middle aged mother would do. I asked my boys what it was all about and if its something they thought we would enjoy. Middle man immediately went into some speech which didn't make a lot of sense but the upshot was they liked the sound of it.

We looked at the main website and Hammersmith is our nearest branch (there is also Battersea and Camden.) We then looked at what you could do there. I liked the idea of the escape game, but the boys through the VR arcade would suit us better. As I didn't really have a clue I took their advice.

If you are travelling to Hammersmith by car, you can park on Yeldham Road which is right next to Assembley where DNA VR is located. It is free on a weekend and you pay on Ringo in the week depending on the time of day. It is also a short walk from the station.

We arrived and sat in the waiting area. Here we were introduced to the controls before being hooked up in our own little cubicles.

If you see a blue grid in your game that shows you that you are next to the wall. Yes I did manage to hit the wall on a couple of occasions.

Middle man was very keen that we all play Superhot to start with. This is a solo game, but we were all hooked up so we could hear each other which I felt made it more social and was also helpful with tips on what to do. I got stuck on level  here as I couldn't work out how to throw a bottle at my attackers.

We then played a multiplayer game called Ragna Rock. Basically you hit your drums to the discs coming towards you to power your viking ship. We all liked this and once I got the hang of it I was a clear winner to everyone's shock and surprise.

We then played Skyfront which is a flying shooting game. This one was marmite. The older two boys loved it and I spend most of my time respawning before they killed me again. I didn't like it at all. I suffer from motion sickness and this made me very dizzy.

I then had to try out work simulator as the boys had been raving about it. It was a very funny game. I chose office worker. This meant I drank virtual coffee and ate virtual doughnuts! As my colleagues at work would confirm, I am not the best with technology and this was the case here too as I was unable to turn on my virtual computer. Turned out you needed to plug it in first!

I then had 10 minutes left so tried out some fruit ninjas (harder virtually than on the ipad and back to Ranga rock as I just loved it. The hour went very quickly. Too quickly for my boys but for me it was just right as my forehead was starting to hurt.

I wore my contact lenses to play which on the whole was fine. I asked about wearing glasses and was advised that it may be a bit uncomfortable so it is worth noting if you are a glasses wearer.

I was really impressed with the experience. It is not something I would have thought of doing normally but is perfect for teens and tweens. It is something I would now consider as a birthday treat for the boys.

If you are interested in finding out more, you can check out the DNA VR website here.

Half term has flown by once again. It’s been an odd one as we seem to have been in the minority compared to the rest of the country and some places (Chessington and Hampton court for example) have quite frankly missed a trick on that one I think.

Another week and some more saving as well as comping was on the go here. I used to enter loads of giveaways but since the pandemic they have been low on the ground and I hadn’t won anything for ages. However, I entered all the Thorpe Park advents this year on Instagram and won 2 tickets and 2 pick n mixes. Whoop whoop!  The boys are now fighting over who gets to go. I’ve said we will all go and I’ll use some of my Tesco clubcard points to buy the extra tickets. This win has given me the buzz to start entering giveaways again. It is also the reason I have gone slightly over budget this week. I popped to Lidl primarily to do a shop so I can enter a prize draw (well after another 3 shops there in the next 2 weeks.) Whilst I probably won’t be a winner it has highlighted to me that shopping around has its benefits. I usually do a weekly shop at Tesco online. I know prices are higher but it’s convenient. However, some of the savings I made a Lidl will make me look at going for a quick shop now and then to stock up.

So whilst I was around ten pounds over budget this week, lets look at savings I made. Two half sides of salmon (which can be frozen) at £12.58 was a saving of £2.12 from the current price at Tesco. A large cheddar saving 31p and chorizo saving 31p. I did lose out though by picking up an organic cucumber my mistake. I’m not used to checking these things now I shop online! Food for thought at least. It does mean that this week I will be looking to spend less on the shop by using more food from the freezer. We also have lots on including tutoring, karate, the dentist and drama. So small and quick meals are the way to go.

Sunday: Homemade pizzas

Monday. Spaghetti carbonara and garlic dough balls from last week pancetta from freezer

Tuesday: Smoked salmon bagels


Wednesday: Cottage pie batch cooked from a few weeks ago

Thursday: Beef kebabs and naan bread

Friday: Ribs, wedges and corn on the cob.

Saturday: Salmon and potatoes

Do you shop around for your weekly shop?

 As I mentioned last week, I have set myself a little challenge to try and keep the shopping bill to around £100 a week. With three hungry growing boys in the house this is a bit of a challenge but last week, I was pretty much on track. I will have gone slightly over it this week as I decided to shop in The Spicery sale. I got some of their kits for Christmas and I decided that a lot of the time I can make a really delicious curry using the kits, rather than spend out on a takeaway. We also got a date night subscription for Christmas and this too is fantastic. If you want to try them out you can use my referral code LOUISE-104132 which will give you 10% off your first order over £20 and would give me £5 into my account.

Our date night in Corfu kit

Anyway, I digress, but as you will see from this weeks meal plan I am once again using The Spicery kits. It may be a risk with the tagine as I have no idea if the boys will like it. Worst case, they have a microwave pizza instead.

Talking of pizzas, the homemade ones last week worked really well and will be appearing again soon!

So what are we eating this week?

Sunday: Roast chicken with pigs in blankets

Monday: Chicken Fajitas 

Tuesday: Filled pasta with pesto and garlic dough balls (guess whats on offer in Tesco at the moment.)

Wednesday: Duck salad

Thursday: Chilli Jacket potatoes

Friday: Methi Chicken using a kit from The Spicery.

Saturday: Lamb tagine using a mix from The Spicery

I don't know about you, but our food bills have soared recently. With a combination of the effects of COVID on the shopping bill and 3 boys with huge appetites has made the food bill astronomical. I have therefore decided to get back to meal planning. My theory is that I will only buy what we need for a few weeks. Use up what is in the freezer, and when I have a bit of extra time, I will do some batch cooking and freeze that. Last week I made 2 cottage pies at once. One for dinner and one for a few weeks time. I bulked out the meat with some grated courgette and carrot. The boys didn't even notice.

So here are the meals I am planning for this week

Sunday: Roast beef and all the trimmings

Monday: Chicken or beefburgers from the freezer

Tuesday: Salmon with pak choi and noddles

Wednesday: Sausage and mash

Thursday: Courgette fritters for lunch,   homemade pizza for tea

 Friday: Beef stew with puff pastry

Saturday: My husband and I are having a date night kit from The Spicery and the boys can have my cheats sweet and sour chicken.

Do you meal plan? Have you found your shopping bill soar? What tips do you have?

Everyone loves a good game that all the family can get involved with over the festive season and the #upsidedown challenge ticks a lot of my boxes on this.