The Golden Eagle

Some people back home have asked what we actually do every day, especially in the summer holidays when there aren't many people around. In some ways, it's not so different to how we fill our time in the UK, but in others it's totally different....

Running around in temperatures of 30+ degrees is not my idea of fun but try telling Olivia and Angus that! They want to be outside all the time so on Wednesday, I relented to Olivia's nagging and took them to the Golden Eagle Outlet Mall, one of the only places nearby which has an outdoor playground (I use the term playground loosely as it consists of just 3 slides and a climbing thing but they like it....) As well as the play area, there are trampolines and a carousel for the kids and a small supermarket which sells some imported food, a Costa Coffee, a Dairy Queen, a bakery, a toy shop and many, many clothes and shoes shops which don't sell anything that would ever fit me. This all means that we can easily while away an hour or two here and we have become regulars over the last couple of months. However, it still doesn't stop Olivia and Angus being the centre of all attention when we're there though... 

On this particular day, Olivia was followed around the play area by a Chinese boy of around 9 years old for about 10 minutes as his Mum tried to get a photo of them together. Olivia was totally oblivious to him and the poor boy clearly didn't even want to be photographed with her but his mother was insistent and after she finally got a picture she was happy with, she made him sit down and look through them all on her mobile phone! Then, as we ate our lunch on a bench outside (purchased from the bakery), we were surrounded by 5 older ladies out on a shopping trip who stopped and watched us until the children finished eating. It was uncannily like being an animal at the zoo as they oooh-ed and ahhh-ed at every mouthful that Angus took. Not at all normal in my eyes but my kids are now completely unfazed by such behaviour so we must be getting used to it!!

Olivia enjoys playing despite the heat!

On a different note, the current "theme" at the Golden Eagle is the Olympics and there are hundreds of Union Flags around the place. I know it's a cheap shot but I couldn't help but giggle at the inscription that has been incorrectly spelt on each and every one of them: