Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 9:36 pm
Well we weren't meant to be setting off back until tomorrow morning....but believe me that would have been far too long to wait!
Okay so we arrived there on Monday evening and found to our minor annoyance that we were in a room where you have to go up two flights of stairs. Fair enough we hadn't specified that we wanted ground floor (we booked it online and didn't see anywhere to specify that) so we figured we'd put up with it. Still a tad annoying as they did know that we were coming with an infant, but anyway nothing major.
Tried to find out where the dinner hall was....it was a pretty long walk (a good 10 minutes) outside. This wouldn't have been so bad if the weather hadn't been utterly and completely freezing. They had forecasted nice sunny weather, but nooooo, we got overcast and FREEZING weather the entire time we were there. Unfortunate for me who had only packed summery tops and one very thin jacket! I should have known, this is England after all! Ironically apparently it's been gorgeous in Leeds all week. Typical!
Anyway the next day both Phil and I started to get a bit of diarrhoea. We thought maybe it was just something specific we had eaten that didn't agree with us, and that it would pass. Phil took some Immodium (diarrhoea relief) capsules, although I didn't take anything with being pg. Lydia didn't seem to be suffering the same though, she seemed fine.
Anyway, as for ALLLLL these activities that they supposedly have for children....what a load of b*llo*k! For older kids yeh, maybe, but the whole thing was just like one giant gamblers arcade. They had one armed bandit machines, bingo halls, pool tables, slot machines.....everything for you to spend spend spend.
They had a cinema true enough, but Lydia wouldn't have liked that.
Other than that, they did have a little soft play area for kids, which she enjoyed, but to get to it you had to walk through a smoky bingo hall, and then through a big slot-machine arcade - again very smoky.
There was a little funfair outside, which only had maybe 1 or 2 rides for her age. Other than that there was a bouncy castle but you had to pay for it, and she didn't seem fond of it anyway.
The highlight of the place was a little nursery that we took her to. It was there so that parents can leave children for 2 hour sessions at a time so they can bugger off and do other things. We didn't want to do that, but we did think she might like interacting with the other children, so we booked her into a half-hour trial slot and then watched from behind a window as she played. She's never been to a nursery before so we weren't sure how she'd react, but she totally loved it and cried bucketloads when it came to take her out!
Also there were some little cars on a fixed track (a little ride thing) that she liked going on. She really thought she was steering bless her - you should have seen the concentration on her face as she turned the steering wheel to go round corners lol. She had no idea the car was moving by itself
Other than that, there was more or less nothing there. They had little shows for kids in the evening but they were mainly geared at older children, although last night they did one with lots of singing and dancing that Lydia enjoyed watching. For adults (other than gambling!) there was nothing to do at all, it was rubbish.
So getting back to the diarrhoea....yesterday it seemed to get progressively worse for both Phil and I, so we opted to spend money and eat in a pizza restaurant for lunch instead of risking the dinner-hall food. This was all very well and good, but by evening time, both Lydia and I were hungry again so I thought we'd try the dinner-hall one last time. Lydia still seemed to be well so I really assumed it was something I'd eaten on the first day that was still making my tummy poorly.
So last night I was in the shower, and Phil called me out of the bathroom..........Lydia had thrown up violently all over the bedroom. Poor little girl had no idea what was going on. She just kept crying and saying "fallen down" "fallen down"!
We calmed her down and cleaned her up.....and then it happened again, and again, and again.....
I was getting really worried. I left the room and went to the office where we checked in initially to see if there was a doctor or something. It was locked.
I walked as fast as I could down to the main 'entertainment' bit and grabbed two security guards that were strolling around. I asked them for a doctor and they told me there were no medical people on the camp! They wrote me down the number of NHS direct and told me to phone them.
So I got back to the room where Phil informed me that Lydia had been sick again, so I phoned NHS direct. They kept me on the phone for ages and basically told me a load of b*llo*k. They told me to look out for spots on her belly, or aversions to light (doh, like I don't know that anyway) and more or less concluded that there was nothing that could be done. They even said to carry on feeding her as normal and to give her milk.
Now I'd always heard that you're not supposed to give milk to somebody who has an upset stomach?
Anyway we managed to get her into bed eventually at around 11.30pm. We gave her a bottle of water instead of milk. She went to sleep until 1.30am when she woke up again and started crying that she was "falling down" so I rushed her into the bathroom where she was sick again.
Then about half an hour later she was violently sick again in her cot - just water this time. It was pouring out of her mouth.
So I stripped the cot and changed the sheets and she did then go back to sleep and slept through the night.
Righty, so meanwhile, I went back to bed and found that I couldn't sleep....my stomach was feeling queasier and queasier. Sure enough at half 8 this morning I stood up to go to the loo and I immediately needed to throw up.
Thus began my 7 hour session of vomiting!
I must have thrown up at least 10 times in total. Oh god I felt so unwell!
Meanwhile Lydia, who had previously seemed alright again all morning, also violently threw up at around 2pm this afternoon just after her nap....and what did she throw up? The entire contents of her bottle of MILK that we'd given her for her nap. So much for still giving her milk! Thankfully that was the last time she did.
Phil was the only one who escaped the vomiting.
Anyway I was lying on the bed after my very last session of vomiting - at around 3pm - and I felt like I needed to fart........I didn't need to fart I completely emptied my bowels all over the bed. Sorry for the TMI........it was 100% liquid - like peeing out of my butt!
That was the last straw, we waited another hour for my stomach to calm down again and then I hobbled to the carpark to move the car nearer to the chalet.
We piled all our stuff in the car and left.
I rang the emergency doctor before leaving to ask if I could take Immodium tablets, and he said no, and he also told me not to drive anywhere. I couldn't have given a stuff, I was not staying there another minute!
So we left.....unfortunately with me being the driver it was very hard going. It's about a 2 and a half hour journey in good conditions...unfortunately we missed our turning very early on and ended up going this long winding way which added about half an hour onto the trip.
We had to stop halfway because I was so achy and shivery and couldn't go on any longer.
Anyway we arrived home just over an hour ago. I'm feeling a little better I have to say. I'm not feeling so sick anymore, and the shivering has stopped. I'm still very achy but I plan on going to bed very soon (I just wanted to pop online first like the internet addict that I am!!) Lydia is asleep with her bottle of WATER. I'm feeling pretty hungry but I'm not risking eating anything right now.
The baby has been kicking around LOADS today, which is a good sign, but I pity the poor little mite he must have been suffering inside me
So, thus concludes the holiday that I was so very much looking forward to.....never ever again! You couldn't pay me to go back there!
is there any other holiday groups that are worth trying? centreparcs is too dear. i wanna spend under £150
