Book Review: Maestra by L S Hilton

Posted on by Libby Price

maestra

“THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER
WHERE DO YOU GO WHEN YOU’VE GONE TOO FAR?
Fatal Attraction meets The Talented Mr Ripley, and soon to be a major Hollywood film – prepare for this year’s The Girl on the Train
By day Judith Rashleigh is a put-upon assistant at a London auction house.
By night she’s a hostess in one of the capital’s unsavoury bars.
Desperate to make something of herself, Judith knows she has to play the game. She’s learned to dress, speak and act in the interests of men. She’s learned to be a good girl. But after uncovering a dark secret at the heart of the art world, Judith is fired and her dreams of a better life are torn apart.
So she turns to a long-neglected friend.
A friend that kept her chin up and back straight through every past slight.
A friend that a good girl like her shouldn’t have: Rage.
The Talented Mr Ripley meets Gone Girl in this darkly decadent and compelling new thriller that asks:
Where do you go when you’ve gone too far?”

First things first – this book is VERY sexually explicit.  The prologue is set at a sex party, and the C word (the really rude one, not Christmas) is used in a gynaecological sense on page 2.  This sets the tone for the book, so if that’s not your bag, I would suggest you don’t even start reading this book.

It follows Judith (although she has other guises too) as the central character – but I have to say, I didn’t really like her.  I’m not sure I particularly liked anyone in the book at all!  Which does tie in with people comparing it to Gone Girl (although I’m not sure that was the reasoning for the comparison on the cover #everyoneisunlikeable)

The book jumps between fabulous locations – London, the French Riviera, Lake Como, Rome, Geneva, Paris – and you could almost see it being made a film (and I believe the film rights have already been sold).  Lots of the characters have fabulous lifestyles (materialistically at least #deep)with the author describing art in a very knowledgeable way – along with the clothes Judith wears – almost with a similar reverence.

I haven’t read 50 Shades (deliberately!) but from what I’ve heard (and who hasn’t heard) I think this seems to be trying to be a more cultured version of that – but with just as explicit sex scenes – wrapped up in a more highbrow arena, and with a female protagonist.

I was intrigued to find out what happened next and how the story developed – but I didn’t love this book.  I found the sex scenes a bit forced, almost as if they’d been written separately and slotted in to the book at various points to tick that box.  I also felt like the author was a bit ‘superior’ just in little things such as calling the Mona Lisa ‘La Gioconda’ – now, I know that’s the painting’s real name (although only because we went to see it in October!) but it’s not what people usually call it.

I also wouldn’t say it was a ‘thriller’ really – it was interconnecting stories of altogether not very nice people, with the link being artwork…….

All in all the book was ok – but I think has been totally over hyped in the press, and is a bit disturbing to be honest.

There is a sneak preview of the next book (it’s going to be a trilogy) at the end – and Judith is now masquerading as Elisabeth (with an S – like me!) – but even that may not tempt me to read it…….

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contacts, contacts everywhere…..

Posted on by Libby Price

I have 4 children (some would say 5 if you count the husband!) and that’s a lot of social lives to organise.  Because I rarely do the school run (God bless our nanny) I’m a bit rubbish with the names of the parents of my younger 2’s friends.  In fact, the older 2 have started new schools and get themselves to and from school once they’ve been dropped at the train station – so I’m quite rubbish with the parents of their new friends too!

I started saving all of their friend’s parents’ (generally Mums) names in my phone with a cross reference to the child’s name.  But now the kids have friends with the same names.  So I have to put in:

The Mum’s name
Their child’s name
The name of my child to whom this friend relates

Honestly – it’s logistically crazy, and my contacts are overflowing!

 

 

Losing at footwear ownership….

Posted on by Libby Price

Earlier this year I posted about Winning At School Shoe Shopping and was quite smug about the whole thing.

Yep – well strike that smugness based on the last week.

First, the boy managed to lose his boot bag containing a pair of rugby boots and 2 mouth guards, leaving them at the school playing fields after rugby training.  We tried both visits and calls afterwards and they couldn’t be found – so with an impending match on Friday, we did a post school dash to buy boots and a new mouthguard last Thursday night.  Law of sod – the original boot bag turned up on Friday!

On to Friday.  He got changed into his kit at school to head off to an away game (which they won!) but when he came home it was apparent he’d lost his school shoes and coat.  He ‘thought’ they were at school – but couldn’t be sure – so the weekend saw a trip to the local shoe shop to buy another pair (he already had a spare coat from a previous incident) – on the basis that a spare pair may well prove useful in the future even if the original ones turned up (which obviously they did on Monday morning).

This evening I get a phone call from eldest daughter to say that she’s lost one of her shoes on to the TRAIN TRACK at the station.  Needless to say I was less than impressed (although apparently she wasn’t messing about, it just fell off her foot when she tripped up and it ended up going over the edge all by itself ……..)  So the husband did a mercy dash with her to the shoe shop again (thank goodness they’ve had 10% off for Black Friday deals all weekend, so it’s marginally less painful).School shoes

 

This isn’t a photograph of her school shoe – but I’m thinking maybe she should be threatened with this option if she loses another one……….

I need to record things like this that make me *quite cross* so that I can reminisce about them fondly in the future.  Just not quite yet!

 

 

 

Book Review: Hurrah for Gin: A book for perfectly imperfect parents by Katie Kirby

Posted on by Libby Price

hurrah-fro-gin

“This book is not a how-to-guide. It won’t tell you how to get your baby to sleep, how to deal with toddler tantrums, how to be a good parent, a cool parent or even a renegade parent. It is a book about parenting that contains absolutely no useful advice whatsoever.
Instead it shares beautifully honest anecdotes and illustrations from the parenting frontline that demonstrate it is perfectly possible to love your children with the whole of your heart whilst finding them incredibly irritating at the same time.
From pregnancy to starting school, Hurrah For Gin takes you through the exciting, frustrating, infuriating and wonderful whirlwind of parenthood, offering solidarity and a friendly hug after a tough day.
Best served with gin.”

As a mother of 4 kids ranging in age from 13 down to 5, I suspect that both my kids and I are slightly older than target market for this – but I’ve enjoyed following ‘Hurrah for Gin’ on Facebook and Twitter and so bought the book as soon as it came out!  For once I bought an actual physical hard copy as I wasn’t sure how the illustrations would work on a Kindle (does anyone know???)

Between buying the book and actually getting chance to read it (back to those 4 kids again) I decided to take a huge step back in my drinking (as I’d recognised that daily imbibing was probably not good for my health, waistline or parenting) and so I was concerned that the book might have me reaching for the gin in solidarity – and whilst the blurb does conclude ‘best served with gin’ – I can confirm that it is not entirely necessary and the book is still very enjoyable.

As the blurb also says, this is not a ‘how to’ guide – this is not going to tell you when your child should be sleeping, how they should be swaddled, when you should eat, the routines you should have at each week change etc (not naming any names here – but I reckon many of you will guess!!) – but it does give you an honest account of what it’s like to be in charge of small human beings – and the fact that they can drive you to booze!

NOTHING like this existed back when I had my eldest – but I was very lucky to have friends who also had kids at a similar time who also admitted that sometimes things were a bit sh*t.  Now – with the internet being much more widely used for blogs etc (honestly – I make it sound like I had my eldest daughter in the stone age – but there was no Sky+ and no handy pouches of food for goodness sake – let along proper social media to tit about on during a night feed) I think people generally do share more – and Hurrah for Gin is one of the stars of this – and this book is an extension of that.

Some of the content in the book I’d already seen on Hurrah for Gin’s social media pages – but there was plenty of new stuff to entertain as well.  So much of it had me nodding in agreement – and reminiscing (potentially through slightly rose tinted spectacles) about the newborn years (although not enough to make me consider having a 5th!)

There were also sections that made me weep, proper upset tears not just reminiscing tears, although there were those too.

The stick character illustrations are great and add to the anecdotes brilliantly.

Overall I really enjoyed this and would concur whole heartedly with Katie that it is possible to love your children with the whole of your heart whilst still finding them incredibly irritating at the same time.

This would make a PERFECT present for a new Mum – so that she knows she’s not alone.  Perhaps with an accompanying bottle of gin?!

 

 

 

 

Book Review: We Were On A Break by Lindsey Kelk

Posted on by Libby Price

we-were-on-a-break

I had seen this book around (probably Red Magazine and Twitter – but those are guesses, just my usual sources of book advice) and was v keen to read it just because of the title as:

a) It’s one of the most memorable ‘Friends’ quotes ever
b) I was the other party in a ‘they were on a break’ issue back in 1999 after having a holiday dalliance (holiday ‘romance’ would be pushing it) with a guy who was ‘on a break’ from his girlfriend.  She is now his wife and mother of his children, and I am happily married with my own gaggle of children, but even 17 years on she can’t speak to me and struggles to even look at me.  #awkward

Anyway, my dealer (of books rather than any other substance) offered me a copy to take to Disneyland Paris with me – which sounded like a very good plan (anything to dilute Disney is a good plan).

Amazon appears to be scant on blurb – so this is from the back of the book (which means I actually have to type it and not cut and paste #commitment)

“There’s nothing worse than the last day of holiday. Oh wait, there is.  When what should have been a proposal turns into a break, Liv and Adam find themselves on opposite sides of the life they had mapped out.
Friends and family all think they’re crazy; Liv throws herself into work – animals are so much simpler than humans – and Adam tries to get himself out of the hole he’s dug.  But as the short break becomes a chasm, can the find a way back to each other?
More importantly, do they want to?”

Heads up – I absolutely LOVED this book from the off!  It is told from both Liv and Adam’s points of view (and this confused me the first time it switched – but there may have been wine involved) and I really liked both characters.

It is funny, well written, emotional, true to life and with really relevant reference points (I’m assuming it’s true that you’re more likely to be murdered by your Uber driver home than the internet date you’ve met in a bar?!)  The supporting cast of family and friends are great too – all very different but well fleshed out and interesting, and not predictable. In a ‘style of Bridget Jones’ you expect that David the veterinary nurse will turn out to be Liv’s gay BFF – but he most definitely isn’t (despite the Kardashian love / hate) – and one of her best friend’s Cass, is something of a ‘smug married’ but then ‘goes the full 2007 Brittany on the situation’ (which is a quote I hope to use in the near future as it’s so excellent!).

It reminded me very much of the style of Mhairi McFarlane whom I have sworn allegiance to before (and from a small amount of Twitter stalking it would appear that Ms Kelk and Ms McFarlane were recently out together with Giovanna Fletcher too #welljel #Iwanttobeintheirsquad)

The book twists and turns and keeps you interested in what is going to happen to Liv and Adam and Daniel Craig (the cat, not the actor).

I am suffering with the worst ever cough (I’m blaming Mickey Mouse for the germs and wondering if Lionel Messi is also suffering) – but the one benefit of being unable to sleep and having to sit up all bl**dy night is that I’ve been able to read this fantastic book.  I am DELIGHTED that there is a plentiful back catalogue of other books by Lindsey Kelk and proposed downloading many to my Kindle right now!

 

 

 

 

 

Book Review: Of Marrigeagable Age by Sharon Maas

Posted on by Libby Price

 

of-marriageable-age

“A spellbinding story of forbidden love. Three continents, three decades, three very disparate lives:
Savitri, intuitive and charismatic, grows up among the servants of a pre-war English household in Madras. But the traditional customs of her Brahmin family clash against English upper-class prejudice, threatening her love for the privileged son of the house.
Nataraj, raised as the son of an idealistic doctor in rural South India, finds life in London heady, with girls and grass easily available… until he is summoned back home to face raw reality.
Saroj, her fire hidden by outward reserve, comes of age in Guyana, South America. When her strict, orthodox Hindu father goes one step too far she finally rebels against him… and even against her gentle, apparently docile Ma.
But Ma harbours a deep secret… one that binds these three so disparate lives and hurtles them towards a truth that could destroy their world.”

I read a previous book by Sharon Maas last year and really enjoyed it, and downloaded this not long afterwards – but it has sat on my Kindle since then, and I finally started reading it recently.

As with the Small Fortune of Dorothea Q, the previous book I’d read by this author, it’s set across multiple time periods and locations. Having friends of Indian and Guyanese heritage this really appealed – especially learning about some of the massive racial tensions there were in Guyana between different factions and religions.

It was evident early on that there were to be connections between the 3 different stories that were being told – but right until the end of the book these don’t become totally clear – and it really kept me intrigued.  I kept thinking I was so clever I had it all sussed, for there to be another twist or turn.

I enjoyed the book both as a stand alone story book of family life, love, career and choices – but also I found that I enjoyed being educated about different cultures, time periods and experiences.  It was beautifully written really evoking the different settings geographically.  India has long been on our ‘to visit’ list, and I might just have to add Guyana to that list now too!

 

 

Disneyland Paris – day 5!

Posted on by Libby Price

Our last day in Paris – and the husband’s birthday!  He got to wear a Disney badge proclaiming this all day!!

After packing, breakfast and checking out we decided that the one thing we hadn’t done were any of the shows at Walt Disney Studios – so after a quick Fastpass on Ratatouille (yet again, it’s the youngest’s favourite!) and the magic carpets we headed to Moteur – Action!  Stunt Show Spectacular – and the name was very correct – it was really spectacular.  The 11 year old in particular really enjoyed it.

stunt-show

It was supposed to last 35 minutes – so we hoped to whizz straight from there to Disney Junior Live (run in English and French at different times).  However time was ticking by so the husband and girls tried to escape leaving me and the boy there – but the French security team were having none of it.  There was lots of Gallic shrugging – and ‘computer says no’.  I assume it was health and safety (although goodness knows why, as the way out was nowhere near the vehicles!)  Anyway – that meant we missed Disney Junior which prompted a 4 year old’s strop!

Thankfully we spotted that Stitch Live was on and so attempted to placate her with that (again it runs in English and French throughout the day).  It was actually surprisingly good!  Stitch was animated, but there was a real life person in the room being his assistant.  Initially I assumed that there were standard questions Stitch would ask – but it was actually really clever, and the person voicing him could obviously see the audience – and deviated with different conversations – and all in all it was really impressive!  A surprise hit with the Price family.

Then we let Daddy chose the restaurant – and we went to Bistro Chez Remy right by the Ratatouille ride – and supposedly the rat’s restaurant and you magically became smaller as you went in (or as the 4 year old pointed out ‘they’ve just made everything else seem really big’!!)

cork

The food – and drinks – were great!  And the whole family were content as the grown up food was delicious, and there were fries for the kids #winwin.  They made a fuss of the birthday boy – and even wrote a special message on his pudding (happy birthday – not anything else – that would have been weird!!)

On the way out the 6 year old was given a Minnie Mouse balloon by a random couple – still not entirely sure why (she was given sweets by a man on the train the day before, so she must have a face for gifts!!)  As we were about to head off to the airport we couldn’t really take it with us – so the kids asked if we could send it up to the sky to Nanny Carol (my mother in law who passed away in 2002).  It seemed like a particularly apt thing to do, given 45 years ago Nanny Carol had been giving birth to their Daddy (cue hysterical weeping from me!!)

balloon

And that’s pretty much a perfect way to end our few days in Disneyland Paris.
Creating magical memories with my family has been wonderful.

 

 

 

“Disneyland” Paris – day 4!

Posted on by Libby Price

Actually we can drop the Disneyland today – as it was a trip out to Paris for us.

We’d arranged the trip through Disney and had to traipse across to another hotel after breakfast to be picked up on a coach.  Which was late (and we had to wait right by some very smelly, noisy building work – nice!)  The coach dropped us in the centre of Paris where we were given our tickets for the Hop On, Hope Off Big Bus.  We’d also bought tickets for The Louvre from our on coach guide (22 Euros, when it turned out they only cost 15 Euros there – but it did mean we bypassed the big queue, so I guess we can forgive him the mark up!!)  We ended up walking down to the Louvre rather than wait for the bus – and of course, once we were in there we headed for the star attraction – the Mona Lisa.

the-louvre

It’s quite a trek – and we saw lots of willies and boobs on statues and paintings on the way there, much to the children’s amusement!  We had to wait quite a while to get to the front, but did in the end – and then obviously the teenager had to apply Snapchat filters to possibly the most famous painting in the entire world……..

the-mona-lisa

Then we walked a bit more to pick up a bus – but it was along the banks of the Seine, so felt quite exciting!!  The kids all enjoyed ‘helping’ with the map reading!

map-reading

But one of the roads was shut – seemingly for no reason – but it was causing loads of traffic chaos.  There was LOTS of car horn hooting – like that was going to make any difference?!  After being stationary for about 15 minutes we decided to get off to walk some more.  The kids were not quite as keen as we were – and piggy backs / shoulder rides had to be done (I think those steps should count double on my Fitbit?!)

We then found another bus stop and got back on the route up to the Trocadero – the views down over the Eiffel Tower were amazing – and all the standard stupid poses were done by the kids as well as most other visitors!!

trocadero-jumping

Nutella crepes provided some much needed energy to carry on with the bus tour.  It took us down to the tower itself (the teenager moaned it was not shiny – somewhat reminiscent of her father moaning about the Golden Gate bridge not being golden and the Sydney Opera house looking dirty not bright white!)  We had to wait for about 20 minutes to get through security – you can’t get in without a bag search and metal detector – and there are armed police / soldiers everywhere.  We planned to go up (despite it being foggy) but didn’t think the kids would cope with the steps (and having had jelly legs after climbing Sydney Harbour Bridge I suspect I would have struggled too!!) but the queue for the lifts was about 2 hours, so we decided not to bother and do it another time (as I’m writing this I’m stressing that I said the same about the World Trade Center in New York in late 2000……)  At this point we had 90 minutes before we needed to meet the coach home (and suspected the coach out of Paris at 6pm would not be fun!) so decided to get the train back to the park after the next leg of the Big Bus.

It was less than 8 Euros for an adult, and half for the kids – and we got to go on a double decker train which was very exciting. It only took 45 minutes to get back to the train station at Disney Village – so we were back before we’d even have got on the coach in Paris.  If we ever come again (IF!) then I would definitely consider hopping on the train and going into Paris unaccompanied. #bigandbrave

As it was about time for an early tea we headed to the Rainforest Café before the hoardes (as you can’t book).  Kids were happy with nuggets and chips – adults food was very very disappointing – but hey ho!

Then back to the hotel to chill out and pack for travelling home tomorrow night.  So absolutely no Disney parks done at all today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disneyland Paris – day 3!

Posted on by Libby Price

Day 3 started with another Messi breakfast (and again we didn’t let the 11 year old get a photo or autograph – and the pressure was starting to build from friends and family back home about what cruel parents we were)!  Thankfully there were characters galore – Gepetto, Pinocchio, Mr Smee, Pluto and the big 2 – Minnie and Mickey Mouse.  All very exciting.

mickeyminnie

Then we magic houred it into the park for the husband and big 2 to do Space Mountain whilst I took the little 2 on Buzz Lightyear.  And here comes whinge 1:

We paid 60 Euros when we arrived for all of the photos from the photographers out and about around the park and for the photos on the rides.  This has proved to be quite a rubbish investment.  In our 3 days thus far we haven’t seen a single photographer out and about!  We’d hoped for a Price family photo in front of the castle, but have had to make do with a rubbish selfie rather than a professional one.  Today on Space Mountain we had a photo taken, and it could be viewed after the ride, but the shop was shut and so it wasn’t possible to get the photo.  All seems a bit rubbish – and miss-sold.

Whilst I am in whinge mode (some would say I’ve been firmly in that mode for 42 years?!) – smoking!  People wander round the parks cigarettes – traditional and e cigs – in hand.  Theoretically there are smoking areas and the rest of the park is non smoking, but this rule does not appear to be applied at all. It truly is gross, compounded by the fact it would appear many more Europeans than Brits smoke *based on no research whatsoever, just the gut feeling I’ve got from our travels!!

Our concierge had booked lunch for us at Planet Hollywood (it seemed safer to book, as Rainforest Cafe was turn up and wait – and the only prerequisite from the kids was it was a restaurant with chips!!) But we were early and so went on Panoramamagique – a tethered balloon ride that takes you 100m up above the park.  On a clear day you can see the centre of Paris and the Eiffel Tower – but it wasn’t a clear day!  However, it did give you a feeling of the scale of the parks and the huge number of beds the hotels in the surrounding areas must provide.  The autumnal colours of the trees were also amazing.  Half of the kids were scared, the other half were trying to rock the balloon to scare them further – you’ve got to love siblings!

We popped in to the Lego shop then, which the 4 year old was excited about as the boy she loves from school is a big Lego fan – so we took her photo in front of the Toy Story characters made out of Lego to send to him!!

lego

Planet Hollywood was the same as Planet Hollywood the world over (although disappointingly no zucchini fries on the menu here!) – but the decor right down to the loos, is the same no matter which branch your in.  Anyway – there were chips, so the kids were happy.

The back to the hotel for a power nap (for Daddy anyway!) and we got to see some of the Halloween parade from our balcony.  At afternoon tea the 11 year old’s dreams came true and we let him ask Lionel Messi for a photo (when he wasn’t with his kids) – sod Mickey, this was the highlight of his holiday – possibly life to date (he had a photo with Arjen Robben last New Year’s Eve, so is doing pretty well for world famous footballers on holiday recently – apparently only Ronaldo or David Beckham will top this #pressure)!

messi

 

We headed off to the Buffalo Bill Wild West show in the evening.  You are divided into 4 teams – this time we were blue (last time we came 6 years ago we were green and after kicking around the house for the best part of 5 years, we’ve only just chucked out the hats!!)  It’s a great horse / buffalo / bison show (cue rubbish joke – what’s the difference between and buffalo and a bison???  You can’t wash your hands in a bison
(this is better if you’re from the Black Country (West Midlands rather than being racist in any way) as bison sounds more like basin then!!)

wild-west-show

My highlight is that you are told your meal deal includes a soft drink – and they offer beer to the adults #beerisasoftdrinkinFrance!! The horse show is great (and I remembered to take an antihistamine this time!!) and the children enjoyed it loads.  The ‘highlight’ was Daddy being a volunteer – so he got to go down into the arena and go in a coach and then be tied up with a woman from Liverpool (standard night out?!)

tied-up

The 6 year old was hysterical the entire time thinking Daddy was actually going to be hijacked – but in true Disney style the bad guys were defeated and all was well – phew! Quick visit to the ‘World of Disney’ en route back (shockingly badly staffed again – Paris really is the antithesis of Orlando) and then back to the hotel room for turn down chocolates, room service wine and potentially the fireworks for a third consecutive night (re-setting them each day must be a task)

Tomorrow is Disney free (yay!) as we’re off in to Paris for the day to see the sites.  I’ve never done the proper tourist thing in Paris – I did a quick driving tour once with a Deloitte partner when I was considering a transfer to the Paris office (I told him I could only come if I had red wine on tap, as it’s the only way my French is any good – it did not seem that this was impossible!  I was also a bit of a Princess and told him to slow down whilst speeding through the underpasses #PrincessDianareference!) so I am looking forward to seeing all the sites / sights – it should also minise the chance of characters being punched, and improve the quality of food on offer. #winwin

Disneyland Paris – day 2!

Posted on by Libby Price

Day 2 of the Disneyland Paris adventure started with a character breakfast – which ended up being more exciting than expected.

This was not due to the arrival of Tigger and Eeyore – but more to do with the fact that Lionel Messi (world famous footballer) and his family were sat at the next table.  The 11 year old was beside himself, but we were killjoy parents and didn’t let him go and interrupt Mr Messi’s breakfast to get a signature or a photo – he had to make do with the Winnie the Pooh characters providing both!!

tigger

Then, as we’re staying in one of the Disney hotels we are allowed to access the Disneyland park 90 minutes before the general public, so we headed in to try and get on some rides that we couldn’t Fastpass later – Dumbo being the first one, and then the carousel.  Much fun was had.

After that the Disney classic ‘It’s A Small World’ beckoned. We then went on Pirates of the Caribbean – which starts as a similar boat ride, but then has a couple of drops like a sedate-ish log flume.  The whole ambience down there is quite scary, and the 6 year old had her head inside her Dad’s coat for the entire ride.

At that point I realised I’d left the vouchers for our Princess lunch back in our hotel room – so I had to power walk back to get them (annoying – but the silver lining was the additional steps for my Fitbit workweek hustle #competitive)  Back at the park we got the 4 year old ready for lunch in her full on Cinderella garb – her plaits even had to be replaced by a bun.  The food at Auberge de Cendrillon was amazing (although again the 6 year old refused to eat anything as it was too ‘French’ and, ironically, with no option of French fries!!  The one thing the French totally have right over the Floridians is that you can get booze in Disneyland Park whereas Magic Kingdom is dry – the Disneyland branded champagne was a great addition to the prepaid lunch!  We got to see LOADS of characters (and I didn’t punch any!).  I’m not sure if the husband seeing Ariel or the 4 year old seeing Cinderella was the most exciting?!?

ariel

cinderellas

After lunch we headed across from park 1 to park 2 – Walt Disney Studios.  Ratatouille and Slinky Dog were revisited #deepjoy.  Even kids rides make me want to hurl….

slinky-dog

Then back to the hotel for a swim in the pool.  The hotel room provides children’s bathrobes as well as adult ones – although the 4 year old was still almost drowned in hers (and she reckoned she looked like Master Shifu from Kung Foo Panda #nonDisneyreference)

spa

Due to rubbish eczema (and a hatred of swimming) I stayed in the room and did some ‘important work’ (although spent most of the time cursing the slow wifi – why can’t hotels have decent wifi?!?!?)

The final excursion of the evening was out to the Disney Village area (where the restaurants were as rude as ever).  Small toys were purchased for small girls, and I headed back to the room with them – where they had their best meal thus far (pizza and fries on room service!) and the husband and big 2 did a couple of roller coasters at the Studio Park whilst the queues were less.  Being able to park hop, and come and go to the hotel is such a massive bonus.

So day 2 has been survived.  Wondering which international superstar can be at breakfast tomorrow to make sure the big 2 can keep their Snapchat stories exciting!!!