Road Trip to Center Parcs Eleveden Forest - Day One - Premier inn, Thetford

Day One - Home to Premier Inn Thetford

So the day started as every Sunday should with a lie in until 9am, which was good as I didn't get to bed until well after one last night, blogging and trying to watch the end of "I Know Who You Are"a brilliant Spanish drama on BBC Four. I still have one episode left just couldn't sty up any longer.

Even better, Tony made a fantastic brunch of a traditional English but with turkey burgers not bacon. Bacon makes me so thirsty and didn't want to be like that while driving, drinking - stopping for a wee etc., etc., etc.! Simply Turkey burgers (Morrisons and some Sainsbury's) are peppery and delicious and low fat, great for a barbecue, you can use them to coat Scotch Eggs and they're only half a syn each.

Then it was packing overdrive, ironing and list checking like crazy, until eventually I got the car packed, as you can see - everything but the kitchen sink! Yes, it's really just two of us and only for a mid week stay.But, I have packed lots of healthy food as well as roller skates and swimming stuff and really whether you are going for a couple of days or a couple of weeks there's still a lot of basic things you need to take, like at least 3-4 pairs of shoes each!

Once packing was complete an amazing thing happened, I mentioned we ought to have a drink and a snack before we left, but I'd still got a couple of jobs to do. Imagine my surprise when Lauren came in carrying a black coffee and some toast and butter. Now I know this is a syn heavy option but Lauren will never make coffee and for her to make toast is a miracle and what's more it was served with a very big smile!

Things took a terrible turn though when there was a sudden bang against the living room window. When we rushed to see what it was, we saw a little gold finch lying on the grass. We we ran outside and Tony said he thought a sparrow hawk or something similar had flown into the garden and spooked it.

Lauren picked up the poor little mite, but after a minute it closed it's eyes and it was gone. Such a sad little moment one minute it was there and the next it was gone. Obviously Lauren went into over drive and insisted on burying it before we set off.








We were away by half past two though and the most difficult bit was getting Tony's tank of a car off the drive but once we were away we were driving like a dream. We had a Now 96 play list on the radio, we had a bag of Skittles (I can't sleep if I've had Skittles) and we were cruising! Well for half the the journey we were anyway, the A11 and A14 we were mostly crawling in traffic but by 17:40 we had arrived at the Premier Inn, Thetford. As we pulled in several bike laden cars were in front and behind us, telling me one thing - the hotel was full of people also going to Center Parcs tomorrow.

An hour later we were off to dinner, starving of course. There was a good choice at the Warrener, the pub attached to the hotel. There were some salad options but salads in pubs are usually quite poor, very bitter, incredibly small and totally disappointing and there was no way I was going to spend £11.50 and then have to eat something back at the room! Also, it's the first night of our holiday, tomorrow we can try slimming world friendly cooked in our apartment.

As you can see from the main picture Lauren is riveting company when we go out for a meal together, I got excited when I realised there was no internet available and just as I leaned in to start a really important conversation she pulled a fresh book out of her bag and buried her head in it!

So I had a Chicken Burger and Lauren had Salmon Wellington. My burger was one of the best I've had for ages, the chicken was very thick and juicy and super crunchy on the

outside. the salad was fresh and even the fries which I'd meant to swap to sweet potato as I don't like thin fries, were delicious. It helped that they had been very freshly cooked and obviously brought straight out to us, this made up for the fact that they initially brought me the wrong drink.

Because I am weak, I let Lauren talk me into first night pudding. Well there was a baked cheese cake on the menu. or the second time this week I didn't enjoy it, which tells me unless it something super amazing I should give up on puddings as they always seem to be a disappointment. Lauren had a warm brownie with ice cream which she polished off, but I tried a small piece and thought it was utterly tasteless.

After dinner we decided on a walk to burn off some of our indulgence, we walked around the  modern housing estate where the hotel is set, bordered by some forestry on a circular path.
Instead of going straight back we passed in front of the hotel and walked towards Thetford town and round a nearby 70's estate, heavily wooded with Scott's Pine and Willow trees, but Lauren got spooked by a flickering street light, so back we came for a good nights sleep, well hopefully as the room is red hot and then we can wake up bright and refreshed for the start of our holiday proper tomorrow.

As luck would have it Harry Potter was on ITV so a nice end to a long and interesting day.

P.S. Thank you for all your kind words after yesterdays blog, I will be back to slimming world food good and proper as soon as we get home on Friday, in the meantime I will do what I said I would which is try and not go too mad, do lots of excercise and enjoy my holiday and keep at least the back of my mind on Slimming World things and try and ignore Lauren when she says "for Gods sake mum we're on holiday!!"