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Recharging
10 years ago
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I spent last week on holiday with my household, the four of us going to a woodland resort called Center Parcs. It's a place we've gone a few times before and always enjoyed, and the week was blessedly relaxed and gentle and carefree. It's one of the first times we've been able to take a proper holiday just the four of us without other concerns or people setting the tone and pace of things. It felt very much like something we all desperately needed, and I think we're all feeling quite a lot more capable of facing normal life for it. We've each got our own reasons for needing a recharge; for my part I've been struggling with some mild depression the past couple months and this has helped considerably with it. Good times with the family just being together and enjoying one another free of stress.
As for Center Parcs, the resort is a really fun place. It's made up of a bunch of semi-detached lodges in the middle of a pine forest, connected to one another and a few central areas by footpaths and small paved roads. It's all walkable but many people cycle and we brought our own. My husband's Sinclair C5 of coursed turned many heads and started many conversations as it always does. The central areas of the resort have various amenities including shops and restaurants, among which is an American-themed place called Huck's which is always a favourite. Makes my expat nostalgia go a bit nuts, and we had a particularly nice time there. One of the big attractions is the 'subtropical swimming paradise,' a massive indoor water park with a wave pool, a lazy river, and assorted waterslides. Good fun for relaxing and splashing around, particularly for folks like myself with water dragon leanings. There's also a very nice spa where we spent three hours of our last evening relaxing and exploring various saunas and steam rooms. Apart from this we played a bit of pool and snooker but otherwise just relaxed and took things at our own pace.
All it all it was a really lovely time, and definitely something we'd been needing. Tomorrow it's back to work again but for my part I'm feeling quite a bit less ragged about it than I was.
As for Center Parcs, the resort is a really fun place. It's made up of a bunch of semi-detached lodges in the middle of a pine forest, connected to one another and a few central areas by footpaths and small paved roads. It's all walkable but many people cycle and we brought our own. My husband's Sinclair C5 of coursed turned many heads and started many conversations as it always does. The central areas of the resort have various amenities including shops and restaurants, among which is an American-themed place called Huck's which is always a favourite. Makes my expat nostalgia go a bit nuts, and we had a particularly nice time there. One of the big attractions is the 'subtropical swimming paradise,' a massive indoor water park with a wave pool, a lazy river, and assorted waterslides. Good fun for relaxing and splashing around, particularly for folks like myself with water dragon leanings. There's also a very nice spa where we spent three hours of our last evening relaxing and exploring various saunas and steam rooms. Apart from this we played a bit of pool and snooker but otherwise just relaxed and took things at our own pace.
All it all it was a really lovely time, and definitely something we'd been needing. Tomorrow it's back to work again but for my part I'm feeling quite a bit less ragged about it than I was.
Which location did you go to, if you don't mind me asking - only been to the Sherwood Forest one, and wondering if other ones are equally as good!
We tried out the newish Woburn Forest one this time, as it's quite close to where we live. It was quite nice and we've no complaints, but in the past we've also been to Sherwood Forest and Elveden Forest. Of the three, we think Sherwood's actually our favourite and probably where we'll go back to in the future. Woburn was very nice, and the spa there I think is a bit bigger than the others, but we felt like the spa at Sherwood has a few more of the rooms we all actually like best so it suits us a little better. Woburn's got a nice layout but is a bit on the hilly side, so some of the biking and walking gets a bit more strenuous for some of us. The swimming paradise I think is a bit smaller too and didn't have any hot tubs where Sherwood did.
Elveden felt like a smaller layout all around, which was both good and bad. You could more quickly and easily walk everywhere, but it made bikes kind of unnecessary and we really enjoy the cycling to get around the place a bit. What left us a bit cold (literally) about Elveden though was that the water in the swimming paradise felt noticeably colder, which detracted somewhat from our enjoyment of it. Might've just been unlucky. All told though, we've had a lot of fun at all three of them and they're all lovely and have most of the same things, it just comes down to fiddly little details and personal preferences.
Anyway, I'm glad you took the time to relax - a happy Dorey science-dragon is a more useful one! *Hugs*
And yep, the Sinclair was a real hit. XD With some careful wiggling and the rear seats folded down, it just barely fits in the back of Zel's Citroen Xantia. We were trying a pretty new location that Center Parcs just started that's only about 20 minutes from where we live, so that made it possible to take a few trips for the bikes. Azzy and I just have normal traditional upright bikes which fit in a carload together, but Zel's Sinclair and Tark's recumbent tricycle both make a pretty full carload each on their own. They will fit in a large hatchback or station wagon, but not with too much cargo room to spare. ;)
Glad you're feeling less stressed, fwend!
I think part of my trouble is that I insist too much on comparing how things are going for me to other people. For all that I might be feeling a bit down and rough around the edges, I still feel like most things in life are going far better for me than for a lot of people, so I feel bad making a fuss. :P That and it's really rather desperately important to me to not be 'that guy' who always feels like he's got a storm cloud over his head and is bringing everybody down around him with negativity. So when I've got problems I bury them deep and deal with them on my own terms, especially when it's this kind of thing that nobody else can really do anything about anyway. If it's something someone can help with I'll chirp up about it and accept the help that's there, but if it's just Doreybrain suffering known issues for which no external fix exists, I don't wanna inflict crankiness on people.
But anyway! Yeah the holiday was a wonderful time, and the swimmy place at Center Parcs is so friggin much fun. Especially for water dragons and partial water dragons like myself. ^^ Happy splashy flail times. And it always makes me think of both you and Kiry.
So you are Doran huh? You seem pretty awesome. *shakes paw* Hi I'm Kurra, I'm a #@≈$!%ß&hole. :D I don't think we've met XD
*I* am the biggest guy with a cloud over his head, youuuuu don't need to worry. You are not negative from what I know of you, the most negative you get is prolly when you're doing algebra. :p
Your brain is suffering issues, for SHURE. ;p ;) Because if you think the answer is just sitting on your brain quietly when you're like that you... need to stop... sitting on your brain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENYhfn0i44w&t=0m46s
AND THEN WE HAD LIGHTININGY PSYCHOLOGY MAN-WRESTLING.
*smells like smoke, or smells smoke, likely both* yah... you can complain to me more. Love and friendship isn't only about get help when it fits, it's give company and help, period. :>
Though hey, brain lightning seems cool, we can give that a try too. ;D
But yes, thank you hon. I will keep this in mind. :) I may indeed need to whine at somebody now and then, much as I try not to, and I will keep you in mind as a shoulder for such things. *hugs tightly*