No. 5 – Cressing Temple & Kum Ba Yah

Sister Y had the spiffing idea of heading to Cressing Temple this week.  Again, somewhere we have been with the kids several times.  We have done a few Halloween Spooky Fun days which we’ve always enjoyed on the whole (I say on the whole as we cannot lie – there is a fairly dire puppet show which Sister Y and I have endured on more than one occasion.  We think the puppeteer must be a relative of the organisers – either that or he does it for free … you have been warned!) and I have taken mine to the Christmas/Santa one which was fab but we have never thought to just go at any other time.  In fact, I didn’t even know you could go on non-event days but it’s completely free to visit and wander around – okay, it might not be the most exciting place if you’re not into the history of the region and ancient farm machinery but the barns and buildings are very impressive and the Tudor walled garden is lovely – the whole place has a very serene quality.  They also sell their own organic honey and beeswax candles and, on this occasion, had lots of pumpkins going begging for a voluntary donation.  We have always given the café a swerve because it has been absolutely rammed on the event days so this was a good opportunity to check it out.

The Barns is another owned by Wilkin & Sons.  Personally, whilst I prefer the setting of the Heybridge Basin site, I preferred the tea room itself and thought that the staff were friendlier.  It is quite large and bright and was easy to manoeuvre the buggy around.  Having said that, there was only one other table occupied on what was a very rainy, grey day.  However, they were doing a fantastic offer of tea/coffee and either chocolate fudge cake (yes please!!) or fruit cake for £3.95 – very reasonable.  The Sisters both went for the fruit cake, which they said was yummy.  I could not knowingly refuse chocolate fudge cake and we all tucked in with relish, so much so that we had gobbled half of it before we remembered to take a photo.

This week we were catching up after Half Term so their were lots of tales to be told of family holidays.  Let’s just say that the lesson here my friends is to be careful what you wish for. I’m always rather envious when others say that they are going away on big family get togethers i.e. grandparents, siblings, cousins etc all sharing a lovely old cottage somewhere, all mucking in and participating in quality family time.  However, it transpires that it may not always be the joyous, relaxing, bonding experience one had hoped for.  Not so much Kum Ba Yah and gathering round the log burner in a warm, fuzzy glow of family harmony as Baby Shark on repeat, sniping and simmering sibling tensions … oo-er … who needs Eastenders, hey?!

Being back on the school run also led us to be lamenting the frustrations of getting the children ready on time in the mornings and we hit upon a fantastic idea.  You know how, in Islamic countries, they have the call to prayer?  We were thinking, ‘call to school’!  A great idea, no?  It would save hundreds and thousands of parents from losing the plot every morning after having asked for shoes and coats to be put on 5 times only to find their children still wandering around the hallway, shoeless and coatless, in a daze trying to make the highly important decision of which toy to take for break time.  The commanding voice of their Headmistress/Headmaster over a tannoy at 8:30am would surely galvanise them into action …. maybe …  We can but dream, cake lovers! xx