How we spent 4 days in London for £584.47

We certainly have started to get a thrill out of traveling on a budget and we wanted to share how we had a 4 day / 3 night break in London on a budget a couple of weeks ago. The reason we wanted to go to London was to go to an attraction Kidzania and we created everything around that.

We are going to give you a breakdown of what we spent and how we did it, hopefully inspiring you to travel on a budget especially as staycations this year are ridiculously overpriced.

Let’s start with the total we spent: £584.47

Here’s the breakdown:

Petrol- £75.00

Hotel – £93.97

Hotel Parking – £0

Kizania- £110.00

Attraction Parking- £12.00

Underground Tickets- £38.00 x 2 days

Food for packed lunches- £25.00

Food out and about over 4 days- £192.50

Here’s how we did it part 1:

Hotel

Let’s start with the hotel, Travelodge have been doing some fantastic nights away for £29.00 a night. We actually went away last year for a few nights in Nottinghamshire when the eat-out to help-out was on.

We managed to find the same £29 a night deal in London which was just 3 miles away from Kidzania (our main location target). We started at the London Park Royal for 3 nights, one of the staff members was so very helpful on our arrival and gifted us the car parking which would have cost us £18. This hotel is also outside of the congestion charge area.

An amazing bonus was that we were a 5 minute walk from the nearest underground which meant we could go into the centre of London.

Food for packed lunches

We initially spent £25.00 at our own local supermarket on bread, ham, cheese, crisps, fruit, drinks, treats, UHT milk, mini cereal boxes and snacks. Our plan was to have breakfast and packed lunch on each day meaning we would only need to fund one meal a day. We got into the mindset of camping but in a hotel room and we are out most of the day so we only need to be at the hotel for sleep. It happened to be very hot the weekend we went away and so our plans are to take a cool box with us the next time we do this.

If you are buying food on the go we noticed from our break away that the prices didn’t differ much in the chains like Tesco, Asda, Costa, Boots etc.

What we couldn’t change:

The attraction tickets, parking and underground tickets were all set in stone, but we accepted this and we adapted our break so that the other days were filled with adventure. We will go into that in how we did it part 2 further down.

Kidzania

What an amazing experience this was and highly recommend it to anyone with children under 14 years old. It’s a city run by kids and the idea is that they need to work for their money which is loaded onto their cards, they can spend their money on non-work-related activities or in the small gift shop at the end.

Our children enjoyed being police officers, firefighters, nursery nurses, hotel staff, radio hosts, flight crew, window cleaners, delivery drivers, shop assistants and more.

Here’s how we did it part 2:

Two of the days were spent traveling into the centre of London and there is so much to do without spending money on attractions. As you know we are Geocachers, so this played a big part in our adventures and made us find out about London in a completely different way.

We managed to visit, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, China Town, Covent Gardens, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace and Marble Arch.

Let’s start with Trafalgar Square because we loved visiting there, not only because of the lions but because there was so much to do here. We loved the art installation which actually had a webcam in the drone for us to find ourselves on, it was a part of a Geocache. If you have no idea about Geocaching, the fun never ends and it’s almost like a worldwide treasure hunt, download the app for free. We also completed an adventure lab around the area as well as find traditional Geocaches. Adventure labs require you to be close to the clues to solve them in a sequence and after you’ve solved 5 areas you claim the find, it means you find out about the history and have to be observant.

We found GC7B73B Virtual Reward : The Fourth Plinth, GC5A7DW Trafalgar Square and Trafalgar Adventure Lab Cache.

We walked onto Leceister Square and had our lunch here, it was Sunday and it was rather quiet so we had plenty of choice on where to sit. We started another Adventure Lab here which took us all around the West End and ending in Covent Gardens, it was such a fun walk and the kids really enjoyed discovering everything.

Believe it or not we started another Adventure Lab when we got to Covent Gardens. This trail took us to London’s oldest restaurant as well as a hidden ear in the wall which was a cast of an artist who hid his ears around London back in history (we would have never noticed this if it wasn’t for Geocaching). We even got a bonus cache to go and physically find which was so much fun in the middle of a busy London.

On the second day we didn’t do as much Geocaching but we got to see the sites and had a rare treat of seeing the Queens Guards on horses going from Buckingham Palace through Hyde Park. We were pretty tired after all the Geocaching adventures but it didn’t stop us from having fun.

We were pretty impressed with how much we got to see on a small budget but had so much fun, the kids are still talking about it now.

Looking back we believe we could have saved more money on eating out by planning where we would like to eat in advance, it takes a little more organisation but it will be worth it. Having three kids you never know what you might have to buy on the go but we can safely say we didn’t hold back, for example when we were in Hyde Park we all enjoyed an expensive ice cream. What we are trying to say is that we didn’t feel like we were holding ourselves back to purposefully stick to a budget but be mindful on our spending.

We would love to know if this has inspired you to travel on a budget, do let us know where you end up. It is possible to travel this way if you find a hobby like Geocaching, go to local free attractions and explore the local history.

I wonder where our Geocaching adventures will take us next.

The Gilmours

Marvel Cinematic Universe Quick Review

Something a bit different on our blog today but after sharing online in a couple of spaces that I was about to delve into watching the Marvel films, I had messages and comments from MCU fans wanting to know how I got on.

The important thing to note here is that I had seen some of the films, all the Iron Man films, Ant Man, one Captain America and one Thor. However these were once and far between so I had no idea of how they knitted together as part of the MCU.

I decided to watch them in an order suggested on the AMC article with an added Black Widow entry placement thanks to my friend Tim Lewis. I actually managed to get this in at the right time as I was just a couple of movies away as I approached it in the sequence. The sequence is one that is a thematic structure to help the viewer and I would certainly recommend it.

Rob joined me on the journey, he was watching the Loki TV series as we went through this 3-4 week venture. We have rated them out of 10 for a quick review.

Here we go…

1. Captain America: The First Avenger ✅ 7/10

2. Captain Marvel ✅ 7/10

3. Iron Man ✅ 8/10

4. Iron Man 2 ✅ 4/10 

5. The Incredible Hulk ✅ 3/10

6. Thor ✅  5/10 

7. The Avengers ✅ 7/10

8. Thor: The Dark World ✅ 4/10 

9. Guardians of the Galaxy ✅ 9/10 

10. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 ✅ 9.5/10

11. Iron Man 3 ✅ 6/10 

12. Captain America: The Winter Soldier ✅ 6.5/10

13. The Avengers: Age of Ultron ✅ Jen says 4.5/10 Rob says 5/10

14. Ant-Man ✅ 8.5/10

15. Captain America: Civil War ✅ 7/10

16. Black Panther ✅ 6/10

17. Spider-Man: Homecoming ✅ 9/10

18. Doctor Strange ✅ 6.5/10 

19. Thor: Ragnarok ✅ 9/10

20. Ant-Man and the Wasp ✅ 7/10

21. Black Widow ✅ 7.5/10

22. Avengers: Infinity War ✅ 9/10 

23. Avengers: End Game ✅ 9/10

24. Spider-Man: Far From Home ✅ 6.5/10 

With all the movies watched it is now time to delve into the TV series.

I hope you enjoyed reading through, we’ve been Geocaching since as the weather has gotten better but this is certainly a great idea for the wet days.

Jen

Sophie’s review of Skycircus by Peter Bunzl

I wrote this book review last year and have got around to typing it up for you to enjoy.

Skycircus is the third book in the series, the first is called Cogheart and the second is Moonlocket. You may want to read these first as this review may contain spoilers.

Skysircus starts with a ticket for a circus and Lily’s mum’s notebook which was discovered at the beginning of the story. Lily ends up going to the circus and everyone knows it’s her birthday she receives free gifts. she watches the show, but as she is about to exit, she gets surrounded by Security and they carry her to a cell-like room (while she is non-conscious)  with some of the performers. Lily picks the locks in the cell to break free and makes a plan to escape. Lily’s friend Robert nearly dies because he got punished by Mr. Slimwood who is the bad guy, Robert tries to balance on a tightrope high over some tigers and bears and ends up falling onto the ground. In Paris, their plan goes as expected, they end up escaping Mr. Slimwood and Madam Lions-Mane as they were very wanted criminals for stealing Lily’s papa’s papers.

I felt like I had to keep turning the pages to find out what was going to happen, I couldn’t put the book down.

I recommend it to people who like fictional books with adventure and danger.

I rate it 3 out of 5 stars. I rated Skycircus this because it doesn’t have Robert’s mum and sister in it, I had become attached to those characters in the previous book. It did have action and kept me wondering what was going to happen which is what I enjoyed the most.

Written review by Sophie Gilmour!😍🤪

The best gift for a Geocachers Birthday!

Wondering what the best Birthday gift is for a Geocacher? Well… now I know exactly what it is after a surprise and shock I had last week.

I recently converted two friends (Tristan and Louisa) to Geocaching, they are connections I have made through the lockdown and in the world of Clubhouse. We are all self-employed and I shared my love for the hobby and how it helps us escape the workload at home which feels more like escapism for us. Tristan and Louisa have dove straight into Geocaching and got the addiction. They have only been Geocaching 36 days based on their stats and delivered the BEST Geocaching gift ever.

The night before my Birthday, Tristan sent a message with the Geocaching map of our local area, his message read “OMG Did you see this this…??”. To be fair, it was past midnight so I overlooked it thinking they have only just seen the Geocaches in our area and fell asleep.

I received another message early on Saturday morning, my Birthday, it read “Looks like there’s a special cache….”. If you look closely at the screengrab above you can see a cache titled No Time Like The Present (GCJRSRR).

They had gotten my attention and I said to Rob “I didn’t know you could do limited time Geocaches? Did you?” I found it mildly frustrating that they had discovered a new type of Geocache that we had never heard of. We are meant to be the more educated considering we have been caching since 2017. Anyway, I typed in the GZ code on my phone and it didn’t appear with anything, I thought it must have only just been published so I grabbed my laptop and booted it up but still no luck. I messaged in our group conversation to say it doesn’t seem to work and Tristan replied “Good job I screen grabbed 😉“. I was sent further screengrabs and was told all the clues are in the images so we can get going with it, it was only available until 12pm.

It was at this point I knew this wasn’t a ‘real’ Geocache, it wasn’t on the app. I noticed the GC code was infact our family initials – GCJRSRR (GCJenRobSophieRileyRobyn) – very clever. Tristan and Louisa had used their amazing photoshopping skills to create all of this, although this didn’t answer any questions as to what I was meant to find. Rob had no idea about any of this either so we both enjoyed figuring out the puzzle.

The first section of the puzzle was quite easy and this was the answer to the tool we needed for the next section. For the first section the answer was a number which then had to be linked to that number of the alphabet. EG, the first question was: 26 – month of Jen’s Birthday = 23 = W. Once we had figured out the answers it read “What 3” and I knew the app they were referring to immediately as we have it on our phone’s in case of emergency whilst out Geocaching= What Three Words.

Now we are cooking on gas but I have to be honest we slowed down at this point, we had to figure out the words to put into the app.

1= Another word for prevents

2= These could be computer / nail / paperwork

3= Like caches when not visible they are ____

We got 2/3 straight away but it was the second one that got us stuck for quite some time. Rob and I were in our PJ’s trying to figure this out and in the end we had to ask for the optional hint which made it nice and easy. However, we spent around 45 minutes on all of this because we didn’t want a hint at all.

Once we had the words, it was time to pop them into the map, I still had no idea what on earth was going on and what we needed to find. The What Three Words app displayed a pin at the Park Street Performing Arts Centre, this offered no answers, Tristan and Louisa reminded us we had until 12pm. It was still early in the morning and Riley had gone onto his virtual dance class with DanceWise Studios, so we didn’t rush to get ready which we regret now.

We were planning on doing some caching for my Birthday so I thought we would be quickly stopping by, I thought perhaps it was a parcel drop-off point and it seemed the most logical answer. We drove straight into the front drive of the place and I tried to go into the building but it was locked, I tried knocking but there was no answer, I retreated back into the car and tried to call the landline of the building and no answer. I gave up again and messaged Tristan and Louisa to ask if I was in the right place, they said yes but to go around the corner, I went the wrong way at this point and ended up going back to the car AGAIN. I felt we were on a wild goose chase and it was around 11.20am, I started to think that perhaps this wasn’t the end. Thankfully Tristan and Louisa messaged us with a clue to say we were in the right place and to check the sign post.

I got back out the car and started to investigate the sign, maybe it was a real cache I thought, I looked in the obvious places but couldn’t see anything there. I made funny faces at Rob and the kids who were watching me and Rob said to keep looking. I then stepped back to look at the sign as a whole and looked around to see if there was anything else around… there were two people holding boxes looking right at me! I have to confess it took a few seconds BUT it was Tristan and Louisa, I couldn’t believe it and shouted “NO WAY”. We’ve never met in person before and this was the last thing I thought of but I have to say I haven’t been this suprised in a while.

A work trip broought them here and how to kill two birds with one stone! I was honestly so shocked and surprised and am still talking about it a week later.

Tristan and Louisa could do this as a Geocaching Birthday/Anniversary/Event experience because it was so much fun and I had no idea, truly talented with photoshop and certainly made it a memorable birthday. Thank you so much.

Tristan is @ImTristanG

Louisa is @ImLouisaMay

What was in the boxes? Well they had both spoilt me…

There was something in there for us all to enjoy and the kids were super excited about opening the boxes and having a rummage around. Louisa had written us a lovely letter which was a really lovely personal touch. We can’t wait to go caching with them on their home turf, hopefully they will have some Geocaches left that they haven’t found.

Jen

Log a trackable that’s on Mars!

We’ve just discovered a trackable that’s out of this world with our much-loved hobby of Geocaching. In fact, it’s on the Mars Perseverance Rover. I don’t know why but it felt rather special discovering this trackable and we didn’t need to fly out and get it, it wasn’t exactly handed out on a plate either.

What is a trackable?

Trackables are physical game pieces that move from geocache to geocache. Types of trackables include: geocoins, tags, t-shirts, and more!

We have a few that are travelling around the world, our best one is TB8BRQF which has travelled over 13918 miles!

How do I discover the Mars Perserverance Rover trackable?

Geocaching.com has handed everything we need on a plate but we have to still discover it ourselves. The trackable code is physically on the Mars Perseverance Rover and you have to use images on the Nasa Raw Images page to find it. Don’t worry, there may be over 600 images right now but there are clues on how to find the code and it didn’t take us too long.

Check out the trackable page with full instructions on how to discover it at TB5EFXK.

Once you have discovered it your Geocaching account will unlock a new souvenir. Souvenirs are virtual pieces of art that can be collected and displayed on your profile. They’re generally awarded for caching in a particular location, on a particular date, or during one of Geocaching HQ’s souvenir challenges like Goodbye 2019 Hello 2020.

Happy Caching

The Gilmours

When we were rescued by Grandad

We were on a roll with our Geocaching, spring is here and the Goecaching season has begun for us. We decided that we would go out on two consecutive days after a couple of weekends of dedicating just the Saturday to our hobby. The plan was to go on a short walk just for an hour or two and I had located what I thought was a little loop.

The walk was titled Circular Walk and so it seemed perfect, I could see it was part of a larger loop but thought I could see that we could cut through the middle and do a smaller section. We usually do this on larger trails with the three kids because it does tire them out. We started at Geocad17 – Circular Walk 7 (GC5KTEG) and we spent some time trying to find it but with no luck, usually when this happens we have a feeling on how the rest of the day is going to go. The funny thing is, I did ponder on which way to start the walk, should we go left or right? We decided on going right because it was such a lovely eye pleasing little walk. We walked next to a stream and passed quite a few other walkers.

We carried on our merry way and was enjoying our loop after finally finding Geocaches at Geocad22- Circular Walk 6, Geocad21 – Circular Walk 5, Geocad20 – Circular Walk 4, Geocad19 – Circular Walk 3, Geocad18- Circular Walk 2. By this point we had bumped into a couple of people on horses which weren’t pleased to see it, so we hurried past quietly. I took a photo (funnily enough) of where it went wrong and I took this picture because of the name, my maiden name is Jarratt and you don’t often see it spelt this way. I had planned this to show my dad as our ancestors owned some land.

This is the point where we turned right which appeared to be a signposted footpath but when we got part way things didn’t feel right. I couldn’t see how we were going to make our way across to the car, we could see the bridge near where we parked but not the path through. I changed my view on my phone to see if I could see the trails on the Geocaching app, Rob and I were both looking at this point and I convinced him that we must need to give it a wide birth. This is when the promise of McDonalds came for the kids as it was just past 12pm and we had already been out way longer than expected.

We carried on walking and mole hills seemed to appear but I was convinced it was going to meet round. I can safely say now, it didn’t! We ended up by the side of the A63 next to the Pulse & Cocktails adult store! Oh my word, what were we going to do? We were pretty tired and Rob had said he wanted to get back for the LFC match at 2pm. Do we turn back and walk 3/4 miles?

Ring ring… ring ring… My dad picked up the phone, he agreed to come and rescue us and take us back to the car. We knew it was going to be a good half an hour wait and was thankful that there was a garage to buy some snacks for the kids. Yes, the guy at the garage did ask me “Is that your children out there?” and I did try to explain but what were we meant to do?

The kids were so well behaved and really enjoyed looking out for Grandad whilst all the drivers going past were wondering why there was a family of five at the adult store. I imagined headlines in the local news paper and we did all have a giggle. The kids didn’t ask much about where we were but we had instilled that we were stuck on the A63. Eventually it turned cold and we were waiting for my dad to save the day.

Grandad arrived and rescued us, the kids cheered with joy! We were all so very happy to see him and get warm in his car.

It’s the first time we have ever gone wrong on our Geocaching adventures but we know to trust our instinct and we will look back and giggle with this story. The kids enjoyed telling their friends at school what had happened and the blame firmly lay with me.

I guess the question is, where did the walk meet up? Did it meet up at all? I’m sure we will find out when we go back to discover the caches we haven’t found.

Have you ever gotten lost? Or taken a wrong turn? We can’t be the only ones.

Jen & co.

Getting Crafty this Half Term

It’s been a while since we have blogged and it isn’t a surprise that lockdown 3 has been a part of that. We haven’t gotten out to go Geocaching for a while and it’s certainly taking its toll on us.

But, thanks to Crafty Cat Events for gifting the craft kits the kids have been entertained and have created some moveable figures and money banks.

Robyn got first dibs on which kit she wanted and by surprise she went for the moveable figures. They are automatic windup toys but without any personality, it was Robyns job to bring them to life.

Riley picked the car money bank with paint and foam, he couldn’t wait to get started.

Sophie was left with what she would have chosen anyway, a bear money back and only foam to decorate it with.

Cup of tea in hand, we left the kids to it, they didn’t need any help at all.

Riley and Sophie certainly took there time and the final result is beautiful and colourful. You can see Robyn’s creations in the YouTube clip and on the header, she had created aliens and a colourful mouse.

There was plenty of the silk and foam clay left, Robyn decided to use it on a spare money back that we had been given by a friend. It made for some more time of creating and we can only describe it as an Elmo inspired sheep, you know that multicoloured elephant?

Thank you again to Crafty Cat Events & Kits for these wonderful kits, we had so much fun creating with them. You can find the Moveable Figure Kits on their website along with a super creative range of arts and crafts. Perfect as an alternative or addition for the upcoming Easter holidays and as a way to support small during this time.

We have some more blog posts lined up with the thanks to our eldest Sophie who is now 11. Don’t forget to follow us so you get notified of our new adventures.

The Gilmours

Colin the Camel

We were asked to film a Christmas Drama for the Christmas Eve Zoom service for Tower Hill Methodist Church. It was pieced together with other segments from other members.

Here’s Sophie, Riley and Robyn with Colin the Camel. Enjoy this two minute clip which has a slight panto feel to it.

Merry Christmas from The Gilmour

Geocaching in Edwinstowe

Just over a week ago we had a mini-break in Nottinghamshire, we felt we needed to have some time away with the lockdown ease. We did everything on a very low budget but knew we needed this time for our family’s mental health, we needed to feel like we weren’t trapped and needed that different scenery.

Nottinghamshire is only an hour and a half away from us, it was just enough of a distance for us. We decided to go here because Rob is called Robin and our youngest is called Robyn, Robyn’s gamer tag includes RobynHood. Obviously, Sherwood Forest was going to be a focus, I hadn’t been for years and I remember going as a child with school. Rob doesn’t remember ever visiting and the three kids hadn’t visited either. Everyone was excited and once we looked at the Geocaching map to see what was around, we knew we were going to have a great time.

Edwinstowe

Our first find was near what we remember as a historical irrigation system and it had some of its original fixtures in place. Weir is it (GC42KVJ) You may be able to see the cache on the cog if you look closely. A nice easy find for our first find on our break away and we have to say the village had a historical trail with signposting for knowledge. We did stop to read some of the information.

It was a dull day with a mist that got us wet, but we weren’t going to let it dampen our spirits. We walked to the next cache which was a church micro and we loved how the sign point had a voice-controlled by turning the wheel. St Mary’s is said to be where Robin Hood and Maid Marian got married. Church Micro 1526… Edwinstowe (GC495FC) took us a while to find but with Daddy’s undefeated attitude he put his hand within the frame of the sign which was amongst spiders and other creepy crawlies and found the cache.

One reason we stopped in Edwinstowe was that we wanted to find the Robin Hood and Maid Marian statue but it wasn’t there, apparently, a car had collided with it and so it had been removed for repair. It means we will have to visit again in the future. We couldn’t find all the Geocaches in the area either, so we have some to return for.

We also found Going East (GC4J4PX) which felt like a bit farther from the others with the three kids and next to the main road, but we did find it. Edwinstowe is lovely to walk around and worth a visit for the historical reasons and also some light Geocaching.

We will be sharing our finds and adventures of Sherwood Forest soon. Make sure you follow our blog so you don’t miss it.

Jen, Rob & The Gilmour Kids.

 

Scrummy cake through our letter box

It was a good day when we had some scrummy cake arrive through our letterbox. Dale’s Handmade Ltd had sent us one of his subscription boxes as a gift.

Once the kids had realised that cake had arrived they rushed over to try and claim their piece. The hard part was which piece was going to be who’s, especially as mummy has a sweet tooth.

Carefully wrapped, you could see that a lot of thought had gone into making sure everything survived the postal system. We were impressed that 100% biodegradable bags were used to individually wrap each treat.

Alongside the thoughtful presentation, we liked that there was a selection to choose from. There was something for everyone and we didn’t have to worry about someone not been able to join in.

Robyn and daddy got their mouths round the bourbon biscuit replica cake, their faces said that I should have had one of those. Robyn enjoyed tucking in and Daddy says it was like a bourbon biscuit but leveled up. A mouthwatering treat that will leave you wanting more.

bourbon biscuits

Sophie and Riley went for the traybake and again it didn’t last long, they wolfed it down, speaks volumes for them especially as I suddenly heard “mmmmm” “ooooh”. It wasn’t dry, which is something I thought could happen because of the travel it made. Everyone couldn’t believe just how fresh everything was.

Which only means one thing, it was my turn to enjoy something and I went for the marble cake. It was delicious and I could have eaten more, the only thing I think we should have done is popped it in the refrigerator as it was a hot day and the cake was warm. It just means that we will have to do that with our next order and not let our sweet overcome us. The box didn’t last ten minutes for us as a family of five and it left us wondering what the other boxes would be like. There’s a brownie one we have our eyes on.

You can buy a trial subscription box for just £12 and this includes shipping. The price after that is £15 and again including shipping. For a handmade product with the selection you receive, we think this is a reasonable price.

Dale’s Handmade Ltd sends other items through the post like a homemade brownie dessert kit, a mixed pack of 6 brownies and a pack of 3 mini loaf cakes.

I think any of the cake by post items are perfect to send to a friend or family member to list their spirits or for an occasion.

Jen & co.