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Jurassic-Tastic!

Blog: Norfolk Single Dad
Posted by: Eddie2sox Saturday 26th May 2007, 8:32pm
Last edited 26/05/2007 8:32pm by Eddie2sox

For some reason, we decided on Friday night to go to a dinosaur park on Saturday....

......so what a good job there is one about 40 miles away! We went to Dinosaur Adventure (It's Time You Came-N-Saurus) halfway between Fakenham and Norwich and had a fantastic time - but more of that later.

My Manic Friday

I'm not surprised I wasn't looking forward to Friday, but in hindsight it was all pretty good. The two hours wielding mop and duster, and expertly guiding Henry into all the nooks and crannies, went as quick as I can remember it doing so, and the place looked luvverly when I departed for home, a quick wash and brush-up then....

....off to my voluntary shift. Four hours there again went quickly, with a "steady" workload, and nothing too heavy for a Friday morning! I also took the chance in between calls to write Sam's birthday party invitations, which I later delivered to nursery and asked the girls to send home with the relevant tots. So, 2 p.m. and I zoomed off to see my alcohol counsellor, who is still really chuffed that I only drink two days a week nowadays. He was particularly impressed with how I dealt with being shafted over Sam access in Half Term. Good for me, good for Sam! And then home, to put my feet up for.......fifteen minutes, it was bliss.

Sam And Daddy's Friday Night

Soon enough I headed out of the door again, this time to collect Sam for his weekly overnight stay at our flat. In the morning post had been a missed delivery card addressed to Sam - and he was delighted and excited when I handed it to him outside nursery. As I thought, it was Sam's latest save-up-and-buy purchase, a Lego Recycling Lorry. He is now a confirmed fan of money-saving, which is a good lesson to have learned at his age! On the way back we stopped for Saturday pickernicker food, and of course the regulation chips for Chip Butty Friday Tea. We go to Denny's chippy, which is near the Gaywood clock, and the mad-as-a-hatter Chinese lady in there has taken a real shine to Sam (show me any woman he has ever met who hasn't). Sam always gets a lolly, and somehow this bonkers bird invited herself out with us on Saturday - all in jest of course but Sam absolutely loves it.

Bathtime came soon enough, and the major talking point was my new song and dance, which had Sam crying with laughter. Ever seen the Vimto advert with the "dad's pants in the middle of his roll" line? Well, Sam thought it was hilarious to see his Daddy dancing round the bathroom, yanking his "pants" (boxers actually of course!) out of the top of his jeans singing "I've got MY PANTS in the middle of me jeans, MY PANTS in the middle of me jeans, MY PANTS in the middle of me jeans.....and I can smell poo-poo". Guess it's funnier if you're three years old. And if you're tempted to perform it yourself, take time in between repeat shows to reposition your undercrackers to their original place, as significant-to-severe goolie-crushing can occur. Probably. Sam went off to sleep nicely in his eucalyptus oil scented bedroom (clears the sinuses AND helps relaxation allegedly - seems to work!).

Saturday Morning - More Archaeology!

Sam came into my bed at 3.28 a.m. and immediately went back to a peaceful sleep. We bounded out of bed at 6 and spent the usual few hours pottering, playing, breakfasting, "Dad's Pants-ing", our normal, comfy, happy routine. Balamory featured a monster truck rally and parade, which was the cue for us to head off and hold our own lorry parade in Sam's bedroom.

We had to pop into town to get some money for our day out, and of course we went to investigate the earth banks in The Walks on the way. More interesting things were found! A seashell (Sam, this whole place used to be under the sea long ago), pieces of clay pipes (people used to smoke tobacco in these things a very long time ago), and something that may or may not be metallic, but is slightly triangular and pointy. We're going to use the Internet to look in a bit more detail at these things next week....we brought them home and put them in a bowl of water to clean up a bit.

Dinosaur Adventure

And then we were OFF! As we'd been stopped by Sam's mum from going to the Monday banger racing, which we'd had planned since February, we had our Bank Holiday outing on a Saturday instead. It took about an hour to get to Dinoland, but a three-quarters empty car park and a few spots of rain were good news for us! The pic attached to this blog is me, taken on my phone by Sam, his first published work. It cost us £16 for the two of us, which I thought was a little steep - but on reflection I am more than happy with it. Going to the cinema would cost a tenner for a ninety minute film after all, and you can stay all day in Dinoland. So, what did we do? I'll just write a little bit as I remember it!

The Brochure : When you pay to get in you're given a booklet for the children. This actually turns out to be a vital part of interacting in the park. One page is called "Dippy's Passport To Adventure" (Dippy is the mascot dinosaur). This passport has eight blank boxes, into which you can insert different ink stamps that are "hidden" all round the park. GREAT idea! There's a map in the centre pages, but most of the rest is made up of puzzles, facts about exhibits etc. Including....

Dinosaur Trail (aka Track T-Rex) : When you approach the Dino Trail there is a message from the Head Ranger asking you to help him track down any pesky T-Rex's that may be in the area....and you ink stamp the "check-in" box....the trail winds hither and thither and is full of life-size models of an incredible assortment of dinosaurs. After a while you "find" the Ranger's Land Rover, but no sign of the man himself! There's a radio in the back of the vehicle which, when the child presses a button, plays a message from the Ranger asking your kids to help him track the T-Rex's. It's a recorded message of course, but Sam didn't know, and the following exchange happened:

"Ranger to Land Rover....."

"Hello!"

"Ranger to Land Rover!"

"I said HELLO!"

"Are you receving me?"

"I said hello, shut UP!"

Sam stropped out of the vehicle, much to the amusement of the gathered parents, and we pressed onward. We soon found Field Station 1, with another written message from the Ranger, that he had been called away and could you carry on looking please....we did. We spotted a T-Rex too! And then found another written message, something like "please find the next field station and report what you've found to the Ranger". Field Station 2 contained a battered old radio, and Sam had another "conversation" with the Ranger, who thanked him for his help. Charmingly, the Ranger finished "Over and out", and Sam replied "Over". HOW CUTE! We did find the other T-Rex's in the end, but what a fantastic half an hour's fun for kids (little and big varieties).

Raptor Racers : Being pedal cars with rear-wheel steering. Naturally, anything involving cars and racing is heaven on earth for Sam, so he had five goes on the Raptor Racers throughout the afternoon! He was pretty good with the novel steering too, AND also had the most spectacular crash that I saw all day. Don't tell his mummy.

Jurassic Putt : Crazy Golf with a dino theme. Eight holes, kiddie size putters, and a chart in the brochure to record your scores (again, how well thought out). Hole 3 seemed to require that you whack the ball up a dinosaur's ass, and watch it come out of its mouth, most chucklesome if you're Sam! The last hole is a smoking volcano. This was Sam's first ever attempt at proper crazy golf and he adored it. So much so that he got four rounds in.

Animal Handling Fun Barn : Lots of the more common animals such as goats, rabbits and the like, but lots of different ones too, water dragons, wallabies, iguanas (look how long his tail is Daddy!), snakes, stick insects etc.

A-Mazeing - Hidden World Trail : This is a lovely (simple) maze, with lots of pseudo-gory dead ends, with people's feet sticking out of mud pools etc, rope bridges, cavemen, and one of those elusive ink stamps of Dippy's.

Adventure Play Area: My only regret about today was not going earlier. We had a good few hours, but I couldn't let Sam spend as much time as he would have liked exploring the huge, imaginative, bloody brilliant adventure playground. He did explore quite a bit, and had a couple of trips on the long, fast rope slide (which he fell off ON PURPOSE, cheeky monkey). Next time we go, we'll be going in when the park opens....

So overall we had a bloomin' marvellous time. I'd recommend this small-ish park to anyone, if only for the well thought out interactivity which Sam absolutely loved. Soon enough we were back in the car park under our flat, with only ten minutes before Sam was due back at mummy's. Sam amazed me with this little chat:

"Daddy, I really miss the Dinosaur Park."

"Me too Sam, it was good wasn't it."

"Do you feel sad when you are here on your own Daddy?"

"Yes I do Sam, not seeing you makes me feel sad."

"I feel really sad too Daddy, when you leave me all on my own at mummy's."

He's my little, shining star.

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