Boredom vs Budget - Week 5

Wait a minute... Week 5?... already??! Only another week and a bit and school starts back. (And actually as I write this we're half way through Week 6, where does the time go?!) Our first experience of the 'big' school holidays, unlike my vision of them stretching endlessly on and on, have in fact raced by. I'm almost sorry to see the end of them in sight. *sigh*

But I'm not wishing them away just yet.

Week 5 began with some morning sunshine on Monday, so we went for a walk/scoot round to the library to take some books back as part of the StoryLab Kids summer reading challenge. We were thwarted in our libary visit, however, as I'd forgotten that it doesn't open until lunchtime on a monday, but a stop at the swingpark on the way home was a happy substitute.

I had set myself a mini-challenge at the start of the holidays, to only go to a softplay once all summer - there's so much else to do, and cheaper, sometimes it seems like a lazy option. Today was our first softplay visit of the holidays, and it was reasonably quiet, so the thought of too much noise combined with hyper children and overpriced coffees didn't materialise (the coffees weren't too bad either)

Money spent: softplays are never a cheap option, but we'd had lunch already so only needed a bit of juice and a snack.

Energy used up: the usual sweat lashing off his neck and the red face was evidence of a funpacked, energy-filled trip.

Tuesday and with the sun out, we headed to Edinburgh Castle to put our recently bought Historic Scotland membership to good use. I must have been to the castle as a child, but have no memory of it and certainly haven't been as an adult, so it was a whole new experience for both B and I.

I'll not try and do a visitor's guide to Edinburgh Castle, if you want that you can go here. Instead, B and I's best bits were:

Mons Meg - over 550 years old, one of the world's oldest  and biggest canon guns

image credit: www.edinburghcastle.gov.uk

The very loud One O'clock Gun

Smoke from the just-fired One O'Clock Gun

The ramparts and the views across Edinburgh

We were there for about 4 and a half hours, and could have easily spent the day there (if B was at all interested in actually reading any of the information on display...) Will definitely go back even if it's to fill an hour or so. Might wait until it's not Edinburgh Festival time however, as it was just a teensy bit busy...

Money spent: as I've said before, the Historic Scotland membership came into its own today, with normal prices costing us £25 for the 2 of us to get in, we're paying £4 a month. So it's worth at least 6 months worth of membership alone. And you can queue-jump to get in!

Top tip: be prepared for lots and lots of people, in festival time. Having said that, there's lots of open spaces and places to explore within the castle grounds, so even when heaving there's space to move around.

Wednesday was a quiet-ish day. B was heading to his gran's again in the afternoon, so we spent the morning on bits and pieces, cutting out and making an Ironman mask and having a picnic-in-the-house lunch.

I braced myself for the inevitable surge of emotions once he'd gone, luckily I seemed to manage them a bit better than the previous week so work on the thursday was managable without a self-inflicted sore head to contend with!

Money spent: none. woohoo!

No. of 'i'm bored's: none. double woohoo!

Week 5 in brief:
Money spent: reasonable. thumbs up for the Historic Scotland membership!
Energy used: plenty of fresh air and activities to use up 5year old energy tanks.
Boredometer: minimal, close to the red zone on wednesday but Ironman pulled us back from the brink.