61. Never judge a book by its cover [Gallery Oldham]

Never judge a book by its cover: don’t let bad roads and cheap boozers put you off a visit to Gallery Oldham

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60. Ask a stupid question [The Garden Café, St. Ann’s Well Gardens, Hove]

Let’s get one thing straight: there’s no such thing as a holiday once you’ve had kids. You can wave bye-bye to all those long, lazy brunches; and forget reading the papers or lounging around in cafes. Family travel means one thing: demands for 24/7 entertainment, toddler-style.
Or so we thought.
We’ve spent a few days with Milo [...]

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59. The baby and the bathwater [Urbis, Manchester]

Why Urbis Manchester remains one of our favourite family travel outings

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58. Let this be the last time [Queen’s Park Playground, Loughborough]

Trips with children – this time to Loughborough Park

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57. Skeletons in the closet [Kings Road Park, Brighton]

We are walking along the seafront, Milo screeching into the wind, Simon trotting after with a bemused ‘yes-my-son-is-loud- but-isn’t-that-marvellous’ expression on his face. I am on the phone to Mum and Dad.
‘I used to go to Brighton a lot when I was a kid,’ says Dad.
This is news to me. Despite being a [...]

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56. Playing merry hell [The Roundhouse, Chalk Farm, London]

The day doesn’t start well. Being from Up North, we’re clearly not used to hot weather: Milo demands a drink every few minutes, draining his juice as if he were a contender in the Marathon des Sables. We clamber onto a London train; Milo climbs onto his Daddy’s lap and sits there contentedly, looking out [...]

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55. Getting their own back [Our house, Chorlton]

Any doubts I had about Mum and Dad buying the Delamere house are no longer relevant: the house is theirs and this weekend sees them begin the slow process of packing up and heading North. So perhaps for the last time, Mum and Dad have come to stay for the weekend. Thus far, they have:

Slammed [...]

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54. If you go down to the woods today [Station Café, Delamere Forest]

After weeks of rain, the sun has come out. Seeing as the slugs have destroyed anything vaguely attractive in my garden (they’re efficient buggers, I’ll give them that), we head out to Cheshire for a dose of sumptuous, shimmering countryside, all golden fields and emerald grass.
Milo is asleep within seconds, which is probably just as [...]

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53. Sleeping beautifully [The Old Bakery, Robin Hood's Bay]

Time was, my baby didn’t sleep. Not just the odd night waking here and there: he was awake, and bawling, every two hours. All night. Every night. For twelve months.
When I asked advice from the health visitor, she suggested ‘sleeping when he sleeps’. Silly cow, I thought, he doesn’t bloody sleep. Not even during the [...]

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52. You couldn’t make it up [Dunham Massey, Cheshire]

‘Waters. Waters wheel,’ says Milo, splashing in his bath after a day out at a Cheshire stately pile.
He says it with a slight furrowing of the brow, making it apparent that he’s not talking about the murky waters he’s splashing about in.
‘You mean today?’ asks Simon. ‘The water wheel we saw today?’
Milo grunts and nods [...]

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