Wednesday Top Tip: Parking in a new place

When visiting a new town or city and parking in the streets it can be hard to remember where you put your car. There was a story in recent months about a lady who lost her car for several weeks as she forgot where she had parked it... My simple solution is to photograph the street name so that you can check it when you need to get back to your car. You can even then just type it into Google Maps and i will tell you how to get there! It works in big car parks too as you can just photograph the floor/bay numbers for easy reference (maybe even the name of the car park if you are as scatterbrained as me...):

#usefultips for days out... when street parking photograph the street name so you remember where you’ve left the car when it’s time to go home!

A post shared by Becky Willoughby (@lakessinglemum) on Jul 24, 2018 at 1:06am PDT

Do you have any useful parking tips when visiting places?

8 top tips for when your child is in hospital

Having had an unexpected over night stay with my daughter at the Lancaster Royal Infirmary here are my top tips for surviving a similar experience! These are either the things I did right or the things I wish I couldn't do as I was caught on the hop:

1) Money

You will need some for food for you as well as car parks and possibly for hospital TV. I was lucky that my mum had £5 cash on her when she had come to our rescue and driven us to the emergency unit! I was lucky that there was a parents' room which had some microwavable porridge for my breakfast.

2) Safety cups

For health and safety hot drinks have to be drunk in lidded cups. So if you are able to take one with you it will be useful. Then you can keep yourself going but be able to sit by your child's bed. At the LRI they had a few available to buy for a donation but you might not be so lucky.

3) Headphones

We had just worked out how to get the TV working when it went into speakers off mode and the ward had run out of headphones! Entertaining a child stuck in bed whilst waiting hours for a doctor is a lot easier when the technology works..

4) Phone charger

I was caught out without my charger as we out and about when we had to dash to the hospital. My phone battery went not along after we transferred to Lancaster which left me feeling cut off. Through the bedside TV I managed to get the phone number of the bed to my mum but it costs 50p a minute to call on the phone... Luckily in the morning another mum lent me her charger so that I was able to use my phone again.

5) PJs

Sleeping on a camp bed next to my child I really wish I had a nice warm pair of PJs to keep me snug! You want to feel comfy and not worry about flashing your bits to any medical staff that may pop into the cubicle overnight!

6) Earplugs and eye cover

Wards are noisy places with some lights on all night to allow medical staff to move around safely. If like me you are a light sleeper you may want to take things with you to reduce the noise and block out the light...

7) A book

There was an awful lot of sitting around waiting and twiddling of thumbs. Having a book would have saved me from having to read Hello! magazine...

8) Wash things

The RLI has a parents' shower room so if I'd known I could have taken shower gel and a towel to freshen up in the morning. I am sure that most children's units have similar facilities.

Have you got any more tips to add?

#CountryKids at Legoland Windsor with our top tips!

As we had been staying in Ascot at the weekend we finally had a chance to use the half price Happy Meal vouchers for entry to Legoland Windsor on Monday. There are so many ways to get discounted entry into the park I am surprised any one pays full price (unless like me on a previous visit you didn't read the small print...):

• Kellogs cereal packets and Wotsits have buy one get one free
• Tesco and Sainsbury's reward points can get you in free
• Buy in advance from the web site and get reduced prices

Based upon previous experience we got to the park at just after 9 and so were able to get parked up easily. You can get your entry tickets at this time without a long queue but then have to wait to be allowed in through the barriers at 9:30. Once through the barriers we headed to the top of the path down to the side of the park we wanted to go to first. They don't let you past this point until 10 but if you are near the front then you are in a prime spot!

Whilst waiting we discussed which were the must do rides that we wanted to do first. Being organised and prioritising is the best way forward. As soon as the lady let us through my kids (despite me telling them no to!) ran down the hill to the first ride Viking River Rapids. We were the first people on the ride so had to wriggle aimless through the queuing system and duck under barriers to get there!

By the time we got off the ride we were pretty damp despite having taken waterproof coats to wear on the wet rides. So as a family we decided we might as well do another wet ride straight away! Therefore the Pirate Falls Treasure Quest was ride number 2. This time we had to wait a little while but the queues still hadn't built up. As per usual on this ride the grown up at the back gets the wettest...

Once off the ride we headed to the nearby Dragon and my son went on for the first time ever (he was 3 last time we went). I think the fact he hadn't seen the ride first meant he wasn't scared! After that we encountered our first slightly longer wait for the Dragon's Apprentice but I opened up the cool bag to give everyone a snack whilst we were waiting for our turn:

5 Tips to improve your photography

I am writing this whist waiting to be photographed by my local paper for taking 2 years of daily photos on Blipfoto. Here are my 5 tips for improving your photography as an amateur:

1. Always take your camera/camera phone: if you haven't got it with you then you may miss out on a great photo opportunity! I use my iPhone so 95% of time I have it on me. For big trips I also take my digital compact.
   
2. Join photo sharing sites: sites such as Instagram, Flickr and Blipfoto are good ways to see what others do and to get tips and advice on how to make your photos better.
   
3. Keep your eyes peeled: when you are out and about look around for things that are either lovely to look at or quirky.
   
4. "Collect" a series: I took a whole series of post box photographs trying to get one for every monarch since Victoria. It makes for a challenge to try and spot new ones.
   
5. Take lots of photos: with digital technology you can take 100s or 1000s of photographs in a day and then you have plenty to choose from!

What are your 5 tips?