It turns out, the best way to survive half term on a budget is to go and stay with the grandparents, where you are fed lots of food and looked after.
All you have to do is get there. Dan very generously offered me his car, deciding that if he walked from the sofa to the pub that would be sufficient for the week. The other car languishes by the side of the road waiting for pay day when it may once more drive again.
Instead, I managed to use the same London Midland "Great Escape" deal that I used to travel to London to get to Liverpool for £20. Before that we visited a local garden centre which had a soft play area for £1.50 while I met some mums for a sanity saving coffee. As they stayed for lunch we went for the train and ate packed lunch on the journey.
Today I used my underused National Trust membership to follow a real with the children. We avoided the coffee shop and gift shop. Despite the best efforts of most of the retired guides, the National Trust had really done everything to make families welcome recently. Most properties have some sort of treasure hunt and many have p lay areas and picnic areas, often close enough to a coffee shop or outdoor kiosk and close enough together to combine those activities in the most civilised fashion.
The children have been dosed up to the eyeballs with refined sugar, apples that I "don't cut properly" and pancakes that are also"better than"mine. And I slept til 9 o clock, albeit that when I woke up, there was a snoring toddler in bed beside me. I even made some phone calls and marked some essays.
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