Six on Sunday - loving Lagos

We just went on our first European holiday as a family and all had a whale of a time. We got a great deal on 5 nights to Lagos in Portugal and I wanted to share the highlights with you all so here's six things we loved about Lagos:

1. Our hotel

We stayed at Carvi Hotel and though it wasn't the most kid friendly place (the pool is 1.25m at the shallow end and I don't remember ever seeing any high chairs in the dining room), the service was excellent. The staff were so friendly and helpful and were great with little J. It's nicely decorated and the breakfast buffet was great. The best thing about it though has to be the location - on a cliff top overlooking Dona Ana beach. There are steps down to the beach right by the hotel and several other great beaches within 20 mins walk. The Old town with all it's restaurants is only 10-15 mins walk away as well.

 

2. The beaches

Not only were we staying next to one of the world's most beautiful beaches but there were 3 or 4 other great beaches all within 20 mins walk of our hotel. 

Praia Dona Ana

Praia Don Ana isn't great for building sand castles as it's quite grainy but it's a beautiful place to relax and you can also take a boat trip to see the grottos and the other beaches hidden along the coast line as far as Ponta De Piedade. 

Praia Do Batata is a beautiful sandy beach located right in the heart of town - a great place to relax just before/after trying the restaurants in town. 

Praia do Pinhao looks lovely but the access to it isn't great - down a lane covered in graffitti followed by a lot of steps with no railings to stop you from tumbling down the sheer drop! We just admired this one from the cliff top and decided not to venture down the steps.

Our favourite beach was Praia do Estudantes (pictured at the top of this post). It was a great sheltered cove with tunnels in the rocks leading to other coves either side. There was also an Italian/seafood restaurant up on the hillside behind the beach which was a great place to grab lunch or enjoy the view while having a few drinks. There were plenty more great beaches nearby that we didn't get chance to see so you really are spoilt for choice!

3. The food

We ate some pretty amazing food at very reasonable prices. 

Quay Lagos is a lovely bar/bistro run by Brits and located right on the marina. It's nicely decorated and has a great view of the marina so is a lovely place to have a few drinks and watch the world go by. The staff were so friendly and welcoming - always happy to chat and great with our little boy. The food was amazing! My lamb just fell off the bone and hubbys pork and clams was in a great tasting sauce. We barely had room for pudding but managed to share a lemon tart and were so glad we did. It was home made and served with luxury vanilla ice cream and oranges in a cardamom syrup which little J devoured eagerly. 

Next door to Quay Lagos is Crema Di Gelato ice cream parlour which serves some of the most amazing home made ice cream. Their generous one scoop cone costs only 2 euros so is about the same price as a Mr Whippy back home but bigger and waaaaaay better!

The Green Room is a cute little Mexican place run by a Kiwi. It's pretty small and the menu is basic but what they do serve they do very well with good size portions at reasonable prices. Their quesadillas were amazing, burritos the size of your head and the chocolate brownie was great too. We got a starter, 2 mains, pudding and drinks all for just over 25 euros!

The Garden

The Garden is an open air BBQ restaurant with a great atmosphere. Owned by a south African and with very friendly staff, they serve a mixture of BBQ and Morrocan food as well as some great freshly made pasta dishes. The food is nothing spectacular but is freshly made with good quality ingredients and cooked right in front of you on a big BBQ grill. What really makes this place is the unique atmosphere. Where else can you eat dinner sat on hay bales and then curl up in a hammock with a few cocktails after?! They even provide blankets for when the evening gets cooler.

4. The people

The place is full of expats living there and lots of different nationalities seem to visit too. So instead of it being full of Brits on package holidays we got to meet Aussies, Kiwis, Americans, Dutch and South Africans. Everyone was so friendly and ready to chat and everyone seemed to agree Lagos is a great place to holiday!

5. The old historic town

A great place to wander round with cobbled streets, plenty of specialist shops and a wide choice of restaurants.

6. The boat trips

Boat trip to Ponta De Piedade

There are plenty of boat trips and watersports on offer as well as shark fishing and dolphin watching. We went on one of the boat trips to the grottos and enjoyed getting to see the rocky coastline from the sea. The best way to see the grottos has to be the kayak tour that allows you to kayak right inside the caves. We decided taking a 1 year old and a pregnant lady in a kayak for 3 hours wasn't a smart idea but if we go back when the kids are older this is top of our list of things we want to do.

Never fly with a one year old! (and the reasons I'll never fly American Airlines again)

Due to my hubby's family all being thousands of miles away, it was inevitable that we were going to have to take our little one on a plane eventually. Ever since he was born we've been debating over the optimum age to take him to the states to meet the rest of his family.

Well, we finally did it and I can safely say 14 months old is certainly NOT the best age for long haul air travel! The cheeky monkey decided to learn to walk during our travels and so during our five hour lay over in Chicago all he did was run around the airport non stop! He ran into areas he wasn't allowed, stole some guy's phone, unplugged one kid's Nintendo DS and tried to run off with one lady's suitcase.

Flying with a kid is certainly a lot different than flying without. Usually I'd watch at least two films on the way to the USA but with little J constantly turning my screen on and off it took me nearly 4 hours to watch one film. And if you thought it was difficult to eat your dinner on one of those tray tables normally, try doing it with a small child on your lap who insists on sharing it all with you.

In the last three weeks we have been on 5 flights, two 5 hour bus journeys and two 4 hour car journeys. The boy has coped pretty well considering and we have learnt a few things along the way that I thought I would share with you.

1. Sticking to normal routine was really helpful. I was dreading how Josiah would handle jet lag and sleeping in weird places. We managed to book flights that worked well around his nap time, took his teddy bear and used breast feeding him to sleep as my ultimate sleep aid. (Breast feeding during take off and landing also stopped him from yelling due to his ears popping.) During the travel, I kept to his usual nap routine according to UK time and then when we got to USA I kept him awake until his normal bedtime by USA time. The result was he slept all the way through the night from day one instead of waking up at 2am like I expected.

On the way home we had an over night flight and little J was awake for all but the last hour of it! We arrived in Heathrow at 8am all looking pretty shocking and red eyed. Even though we all just wanted to sleep, we instantly reverted to normal UK routine and went for breakfast. We kept Josiah awake until the start of our 5 hour bus journey home which nicely coincided with his usual nap time. We all slept on the coach home but were still so tired when we got home that we had no trouble falling asleep at our usual UK bedtimes.

2. Take plenty of snacks. We all get grumpy when we're hungry right and eating is a great way to cure boredom too. I took what I thought would be way too many snacks and the boy munched through them all. Don't give too much sugar to a small child confined on a plane though! On car journeys I found the best snacks were ones he can feed himself (bananas, fruit pouches, oaty bars) to save keep reaching over to him.

3. Book 'sky cots' way in advance. We were told to just ask when we checked in. When we got there we found there was only one sky cot available on our flight of over 200 people and it had already been booked! If you're wondering if your child is able to use a sky cot, they are usually fine up to 24lbs, but check with your airline to be sure.

4. Pick the right airline. During our travels we flew with three different airlines. Before having kids all airlines seemed much alike to me apart from some having slightly better movie choice. This time around I noticed a massive difference.

British Airways gave us seats near the front and over to the side so we had more space. They even moved the lady who was supposed to sit next to us so Josiah had his own seat. As soon as we arrived at the gate they ushered us through to priority boarding and got us on ahead of everyone else. US airways were equally good at allowing us to board early and offered us sandwiches for Josiah even though we hadn't paid for a seat for him.

American Airlines however, really don't know how to handle kids! No announcement that passengers with kids under 5 years old can board first (though when we did push to the front on the recommendation of another passenger the lady did let us through). Our seats on both flights were shockingly bad. First flight we were right at the very back, furthest away from any fire exits and last to get off. The engine noise was really loud and we were totally unable to hear any announcements (not sure they even did a safety briefing!). The second flight was an 8 hour over night flight and for some reason they decided the best place to seat a wriggly one year old would be in the middle of a row of 5 people so he can annoy not only his parents but several passengers either side. The poor guy next to me was trying to sleep and Josiah was trying to lean over and poke him and work out what the face mask he was wearing was all about. The seats all had TV screens in the back and Josiah wanted to lean over and see what the other passengers were watching too. It was a very looooong flight!!

Next time we fly I will definitely ask for more details about where our seats are when we check in and try to switch if needed. To find out about the layout of your flight and the best seats for your family, you can use this handy little site.

Despite all the challenges of travel with a little one, we did have a great time. Little J had all kids of adventures - riding tractors, chasing puppies, meeting new friends, staying out past bedtime and running around getting used to the freedom of walking. It was definitely worth the effort :)

Christian Skaters Conference 2008

Just got back from a great weekend in Scotland and thought I'd tell you guys all about it. We set off for Dundee at 9am on Thursday and headed to Bristol to pick up Sarah. After a quick coffee break we were back on the road. The drive to Dumbarton was pretty smooth and uneventful. In Dumbarton we stopped at Unit 23 skatepark for 'skate church'.

Every Thursday evening kids show up for a free skate session and a 15min gospel talk. We went on our way to Dundee last year and I was amazed by what is going on there. The team just share their love for Jesus in a simple and honest way - no multi media presentation, nothing flashy, just simply share their heart. And the kids there really respect that. For more info have a look at http://www.deepercall.co.uk/ Please pray for the owner of Unit 23. He's not a Christian yet but is very supportive of skate church. He's having financial struggles which has led to him having to charge more for church to happen there. This meant that church had to stop for a while and now numbers have dropped from 120 to 20. Please pray that things will pick up again and the team won't get too discouraged.

After our stop in Dumbarton we continued on to Dundee and very welcome nights sleep.
The conference ran from Friday til Sunday. There were about 35 of us from around the UK and even some from USA too. It was great to see old friends from last year and meet some new people too. I love that the conference is so small -it creates a beautiful intimacy and a real sense of family. It was a really good few days of worship, prayer, seminars and of course skating!!! The seminars where on subjects like fundraising, project development, discipling skaters and running successful events and competitions.

On the Saturday night we ran a skate comp at the park and one of the guys gave his testimony at the end. As far as I know no-one made a commitment to follow Jesus that night but we did have a couple of people come and ask questions after. Please pray for the seeds that have been sown there.

On Sunday morning we joined with a local church to hold a church service on the skate park. Was great to be able to worship God together. Sunday lunchtime was the end of the conference and time to begin the looooooong drive home. It was wet and windy and seemed to take forever. And it didn't help when the sat nav took us round and round and all over the place looking for a petrol station!!

We stopped off at Overtoun house on the way home. It's a castle in Dumbarton that a church is converting into games rooms, dorm rooms, bed and breakfast, sheltered housing for women in crisis and so much more. To see more details about this amazing project look at http://www.overtounhouse.com/ Perhaps you or someone you know would be interested in going up there for a week or two to volunteer your skills to help with the renovations?

Well, we finally got home at 2am on Monday morning. I'm still very tired and feel like I have a lot to process.

For more about Christian Skaters UK go to http://www.christianskaters.co.uk/ a little later this week to see the brand new website!!!

My little roadtrip

I think I've fallen in love with photography. I went for a little roadtrip the other day to do some research and get some time to sit and think and dream. I took a few photos while I was in Lyme Regis. What do you think?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/staceyhollamby/

Stupid car :(

Grr. So my car had it's MOT at the start of January and cost me just over £100 by the time I'd had a collection of little things done to make it pass. Then about 10 days later I went to drive it and the electrics worked but the engine was dead as a dodo. Thankfully I have a very nice mechanic friend who came and towed it away to take a look. The earth cable had sheared off and was shorting out the electrics to the engine so that was fixed pretty easily. But then Jon couldn't get the lights to work?! Turned out one of the relays had mysteriously gone missing. How do you lose one of those? It's not like it can just fall out - it's in a case! Anyway, on monday night Jon drove Mary Jane (my car) back to mine and gave me my keys back. Crisis over - hooray! Then I got in to drive her again the next day and she was dead as a dodo once more - argh!! That meant a half hour walk up to the youth cafe to get to work. A walk which I would have to do twice more that day. I guess it gave me plenty of thinking time though so that was nice. Last night I got an update on Mary Jane's condition. It's officially an alternator problem and she's going to need a transplant. So there goes another £100. Why are cars so expensive?!! Oh well. God knows that I really need my car for work so he'll sort out the cash I'm sure. It's all good :)

Some people shouldn't be allowed on the road!!

After almost a year of incident free driving I had my first near death experience on my way to visit my folks in Kent. I was merrily driving along the A303 enjoying the sunshine. I'd reached one of those annoying single lane sections but, though the road was busy, the traffic was still moving at a constant 60mph. To my right was a junction with some cars waiting. It seems that the driver at the front of the queue was a bit sick of waiting and so decided to try to create his own gap by pulling right out in front of me while I was doing 60!!!! I had to do an emergency stop (and embarrassingly stalled in the process!) and thought I'd just missed him. As I slammed on the breaks I quietly prayed "please God don't let me hit them, I really don't wanna lose my no claims bonus!!" Thank God the person behind me was paying attention cos they were very close to going into the back of me. I can't believe what an idiot this driver was!! But I feel very awestruck and humbled by the way God protected me.

Unfortunately, it seems I did actually hit the other car (not that he stopped to check!!!). When my Dad got home from work he said "why is there a big puddle under your car?" Looks like I've got a small crack in the radiator :0( So please pray that I'll get back to Yeovil ok and that it won't cost too much to fix!!!

A weekend in Brum

Well, had a great time in birmingham over the weekend. Was really nice to see a few old friends. Money's been a bit tight recently and I was worried about spending too much while away so had second thoughts about going. I'm so glad I decided to go and it turned out to be one of the cheapest weekends ever!! Had a great time at Epic - nice to finally see that place! Kinda wish I'd taken my skates though. I'm such a wuss about skating when there's lots of people around haha! Was nice to see Rich again. The sweaty hug after he'd been skating for 2hrs wasn't so nice though haha!

I had a very nice morning with Clare - sat chatting for hours about life the universe and everything. Don't you just love those kinda friendships where you can lose touch for months and then when you see each other again it's like you've barely been apart.

Big thanks to Rob for driving me up there and keeping me amused for the long drive with his interesting music taste and random questions (hmm, how would I spend £130 million???.......)