Summer Holiday 2022 - Part One - Seeing Texas!

 At the end of June we had booked a week off, and I purposely booked the week off before the school holidays begin. First of all, because I don't want to be charged extra for it, be surrounded by screaming kids and stressed parents. I just want to say to them, why did you bother to do this? You're all clearly having a really shitty time. Call it a day and go home and learn to love staying at home. Secondly, I also don't think it's fair for me to. If there was something in particular I wanted to do or see, then yes I would. But I think as someone without kids, it wouldn't be fair for me to possibly cause a parent childcare issues if they weren't able to get the week of.

I'm not excusing unorganised people who can't get their holidays' booked off, that's for sure. Where I work, holiday requests have to be done in September/October for the following financial year. Don't come to me in May asking me to swap the week off I have booked in June unless it's an emergency. And even then I can't always, it would then mean James has to change his holiday, and possibly swap with colleagues where he works. I'm always happy to try and help, but it's got to be reasonable. Sorry, I'm ranting again. But anyway, I don't have kids, so I don't want time off in the school holidays. There we go. I feel like I could have condensed this down a bit!

Anyway, getting back on track, I had a week off at the end of June, and we decided to have a bit of a more mixed holiday this time, with something new, and something familiar. 

We began with something familiar, we headed over to Swindon, and had some lunch at the Studley Grange Butterfly World, where we enjoyed seeing the butterflies in the heat being much more active than normal. Still couldn't get a good shot of them, they were all too fast for me! Not for James though, they all seemed to stand still and pose for him!

There's a wide range of animals there, from chickens and meerkats...

...to very over friendly goats who just love to be fed. One of them even stood there licking James's fingers long after the food had all been eaten!

They've also got a fantastic koi carp pond, who you can also feed. Food is available at the ticket desk. Entry costs £9.45 for adults, which I think is really reasonable considering how much there is here. Head to their website at Studley Grange for more information, and to see what else there is there.

Then we headed over to the National Arboretum at Westonbirt. They do these most fantastic open air concerts there, with the forest surrounding you. It's so energetic yet peaceful at the same time. We had been a couple of years previously to see Tom O'Dell, but this time, we were here to see Texas. Again, probably showing my age a little bit here, but Texas were huge a few years back. I remember as a kid listening to their music, my dad had an album of theirs and often had it on at home or in the car. I was enthralled by their music, my favorite song is "Summer Son". It is such a fantastic song, with such a catchy tune and emotive lyrics. 

And wow, what a show they put on for us! The opening act had been very slow and dreary, yet Texas came on, and it just exploded with enthusiasm and energy. Sharleen Spiteri, the lead singer, has an incredible voice, really agile and you can hear her soul in her voice. Not many singers can do that. She's also Glaswegian, with a terrific sense of humour and quite the potty mouth. When we weren't singing along, she had us in hysterics. It was truly one of the best concerts I had been to, up there with Poli Genova and Abba Voyage. 

The only thing I will say, is take camping chairs, we had a picnic blanket the first time and it was not very comfortable. This time we had lawn chairs and umbrellas. This is England, it literally could rain at any moment! And it's a bit of a scrum to leave at the end, there was cars everywhere, and no one seemed to quite know what was going on. We were sat in the car with a spotify playlist of Texas going, so we were quite happy! But it took an age to get out. Make sure you pee before being stuck in the traffic for an age!

There are concerts in the summer at Westonbirt, follow this link through to the events page of Forestry England, there can be quite a range of events planned. All I will say is if you see something you like, book it quickly, tickets can sell out very fast! Forestry England Events is your place to see what's on! 

We stayed overnight nearby, before doing the long drive to Yorkshire the next day. We've done it several times, but it still always seems to take forever!

But we soon got to the lodge where we were staying, after stopping for the afternoon at the York Designer Outlet to stretch our legs and do some retail therapy. Gotta love a bargain! We then checked into the lodge where we were staying, and I treated myself to a nice glass of wine. A nice glass of wine makes any situation better!