Hastings diaries : On the buses !

As both my dad and my sister have a free bus pass (with a handy plus one for Emily), the bus worked out as quite a good way of getting out and about when we were over. I paid for a one day travel card, and we could go exploring wherever we wanted. (My mum stayed at home to take advantage of the peace and quiet !)

We decided to start off with a bus ride to Battle Abbey, where, back in the year 1066, the armies of King Harold and William the Conqueror clashed at the Battle of Hastings.

We took a few photos of Battle Abbey from the outside, but didn't want to pay the full price for the English Heritage entrance fee, so we headed down the side instead.

We started off by revising our history on the William The Conqueror Trail noticeboard.

Then we turned our backs on Battle Abbey and headed off down a little country road to see what we'd discover.

This led us away from the town part and into the countryside, literally just a couple of hundred metres away.

Down the back lane, we instantly stumbled across a historical artefact and spent a while trying to decide what it was for. A cooking pot?  A bell? 

The second object that we found was easier to describe : a monument to the Battle Bonfire society, with a picture of J. D. Sellings in front of the abbey.

We soon noticed that the public footpath led you straight through the field of cows, so we decided to go and explore.

We wandered some way down the path looking at the inhabitants, before deciding to head back round and continue the way we'd first started, into Battle town centre.

The farmer was very friendly and told us not to worry about the cows as we wandered along the path.

We headed back down the way we had first come.

This brought us back to where we had started our little trip, and we decided to head to the supermarket for some sandwiches, before going any further.

With full bellies, we were ready to explore the goodies on offer in the little charity shops, before jumping back on the bus for our second part of the day.

We went back into Hastings and got on another bus, which took us along to the Sovereign Centre, along towards Bexhill. This was as far as we could go on our bus tickets, but that was fine for us.

Heading through the tunnel brought us straight out to the beach and some traditional painted beach chalets.

We wandered back along the beach towards Hastings, taking note of the dry cliffs. We kept an eye out for fossils, but didn't manage to find any !

It was a really peaceful bit of beach and, apart from us, there was nobody there.

The sea had gone out quite a way, leaving some expanses of rock for us to explore. We lost count of how many winkles and cockles we saw !

We followed the path along to the bridge over the railway, then waited for our final bus back home. Phew !

The August Degustabox review

Just as I was battening down the hatches and getting everything ready to send the kids back to school, the doorbell rang and ... oh yes, it's the end of the month, that means it's time for the latest Degustabox to be delivered !

Without further ado, I sat down and unpacked everything, calling the kids to find out what was hiding in the box. This month's box has a  Back to work / School theme, as well as a #degustabreakfast section with the breakfast products. So, are you ready? Let's find out what was hiding inside !

First up, these two bags of LioBites, in both Mango & Coconut and Mango, Banana & Passion Fruit Smoothie Bites. These 100% natural food crisps count as one of your five a day, have no added sugar, they're vegan and also gluten free. More to the point, they're very tasty.

Moving on, Illy Instant Coffee - unfortunately, nobody at The Madhouse is a coffee drinker at the moment, so I'll take this to work.

Good Hemp is an unsweetened, dairy free milk substitute that is a source of omega 3. For now, I've put it in the cupboard. (For more information, head over to https://www.goodhempfood.com/.)

Spectacular Grains is a blend of raspberries and apple, with toasted spelt and pepped buckwheat. Each 45g portion contains 172 calories (9%), 3.3g fat (5%), 0.5g saturates (3%), 7.9g sugars (9%) and 0.17g salt (3%) of an adult's reference intake and 100g of product typically contains 382 calories. This might put you off eating another bowlful because, if you just go on taste alone, it's pretty tasty !

Next up, we have two products from Maggi : their Three Minute Noodles, in Chicken flavour, and their Sticky Hoisin Duck Fusian, which contains a mixture of noodles, veggies, spices and sunflower oil. Both are very tasty for adding to a main meal or for eating as a swift lunch option.

The drinks in this month's box were all things I'd never heard of before, which is a good thing in my view. 

First up, we discovered Gunna and their two offerings : on the left, a "sparkling blend of natural gingers & cola tonic" and on the right, a "sparkling blend of natural ginger and aromatic flavours". Promising a mixture that is low in sugar but offering a great taste, I sampled one of the cans and I wasn't disappointed.  

There was also a can of Crooked Beverage Co Alcoholic Soda, in Dayglo Skies, which is Raspberry & Lime. This tastes very similar to the other Alcopops that I've tried in other Degustaboxes - a nice, refreshing, fruity drink that can be drunk in the middle of a Sunday afternoon.

There was also a tin of John West Infusions Salad Tuna Fillets with a Chilli & Garlic Extra Virgin Olive Oil Dressing. This is a natural source of protein and can be mashed up and eaten in sandwiches or served on top of a salad.

Rowntrees Randoms offer the great 100% fruity flavour with 30% less sugar, but they still taste plenty sweet enough for us. 

And finally, Boka Choco Mallow and Apple Cinnamon Cereal Bars both look very tasty and have been hidden away for me to take back to work next week. Each 40g bar contains under 100 calories and just 1 or 2% of the fat, sugar, saturates and salt. The perfect way to stay on track when I go back to work.

 There were two money off vouchers in this latest box - £1 off your next purchase of Illy Instant Smooth Taste and 50p off Crooked. 

This month, you're given the chance to take part in the Degustabox photo context and win a free Degustabox. Get your entries in by the 15th September !

A subscription to Degustabox costs £12.99 per month including delivery, with each box having a value of much more than that, but the great news is, I have a discount coupon code for you which means you'll get the first box for just £7.99 - enter code 0BS6T at the checkout.

for more information :

http://bit.ly/DBhomepage - website

http://bit.ly/DBUKfacebook - Facebook

http://bit.ly/DBUKTwitter - twitter

Also now on Instagram @DegustaboxUK

Disclosure : We received the box in order to write an honest review. As a Degustabox blogger, I receive all of the products that go into the monthly boxes, but subscribers may not get exactly the same selection.

What's Cooking at The Madhouse? menu plan 2018 week #36

This is it, it's back to school week ! Monday is a bit of a weird day this week - I'll just be working in the afternoon so I should have time to grab lunch with the kids before heading in to work - but from Tuesday onwards, it's each to their own, because I'll be at school anyway. Wish me luck !

Monday 

lunch - sausages, rice and a bag of mixed veggies from the freezer

dinner - chicken stir fry with noodles & loads of veggies in the sauce (onions, peppers, mushrooms and hopefully some leftovers from lunchtime)

Tuesday 

dinner - Kalops beef stew, which is a Swedish take on the dish, with potatoes, onions, carrots and - all importantly - all spice berries. I think I have some in the spice rack, but if not, it'll just be regular beef stew - shhh !

Wednesday 

lunch - bacon cheeseburger meatloaf with chips and onion rings

dinner - I think there will be leftovers to use up - if not, spaghetti carbonara should hit the spot perfectly !

Thursday 

dinner - Escudella barrejada, a pasta/meat/veg soup-like dish that sounds perfect for clearing out the fridge !

Friday  

 dinner - chicken chow mein, with as many different veggies as I can find in the fridge

Saturday

lunch - kids' choice of fast food (I'm guessing it will be McDonald's)

dinner - time to use up the leftovers before going shopping again - or if there aren't any, I'm sure I'll find something in the shop !

Sunday

lunch -  roast dinner - chicken I think, with potatoes, carrots, mushrooms and gravy

dinner - fridge grazing or leftovers

***Click on my Menu Plans tag to see all my other weekly menu plan blogposts.***

Ravensburger 3d Puzzle : Planetary Solar System Set review

It doesn't seem more than two minutes ago that we were saying "Aaaaah, we're on holiday ! What are are we going to do over the next couple of months?" but, somehow, we're at the final weekend before going back to school. This weekend, we were looking for a final pre-school challenge to take part in, and Ravensburger had just what we needed. With their set of 8 different 3D puzzles, you can build and create the Solar System in miniature. Perfect !

We weren't sure what to expect when we pulled the cover off the box, but inside, you get eight different puzzles in separate bags, plastic bases for the planets, a roll of string and some pieces of paper. The 3D puzzles are scaled to represent the different sizes of the planets, so Saturn and Jupiter are represented as 108 piece puzzles, Uranus and Neptune as 72 piece, Earth and Venus as 54 piece and Mars and Mercury as 27 piece puzzles, totalling 522 pieces in all. 

We started off with one of the smallest planets and tipped the pieces out into the box. Each puzzle has curved, high quality plastic pieces, which are numbered on the inside for easy assembly.

It only took a few minutes and ... ta-da ! ... our first puzzle was complete !

It only took about an hour for us to complete the remaining puzzles, but we were constantly using the numbers on the back to keep us on track !

We've tried out several of the Ravensburger 3d puzzles before and we always work as a team, with one person finding the pieces and laying them out in order and the other one putting them together. (I bet you can guess which job I had - yep, you've guessed it, I had to lay them out in order!)

It took about a hour for us to put all the pieces together. Pierre usually asked me to fiddle about and put the final piece in on each puzzle, but apart from that, it was all fairly simple.

Each planet comes with its own stand and the whole set can either sit on the colourful Solar System poster (which includes facts about each of the planets), or be suspended by thread.

Pierre was happy enough for us to leave it on the stand, as it takes up quite a bit of space, but I may look at putting it all in his room at a later date.

We read all the facts and figures on the poster, oohed and aahed about the wonders of the world, then tried to fit it all back in the box. Oops, that turned out to be impossible, which was a shame. We'll have to undo the bigger planets but, for now, Pierre wanted to keep them all whole.

 The set also includes a kit which assembles into a sun mobile, and a fact-filled information leaflet for all budding astronomers out there. The kit is suitable for ages 7 years and up. 

for more information : https://www.ravensburger.org/uk/products/3d-puzzle/shaped-3d-puzzle/planetary-solar-system-3d-puzzle-11668/index.html

Disclosure : We received the product in order to write an honest review.

#MySundayphoto #SundaySnap 2/9

On holiday in Hastings, Sussex

Fab freebies of the week 1/9

This is it ! *sob* - I'm going back to school on Monday (well, training day was Friday) and I'll be pushing the Madhouse kids off to their new school-desks on Monday too. To be fair, it's about time we started learning again, but the break has been lovely. In the meantime, here's the last roundup of UK freebies before we get back on track !

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Soap & Glory is giving away free samples of their Snooze Socks for your feet.

Sunescape is on the lookout for new visitors - fill it all in then you should get a free Illuminating Body Tint sachet

Give the Insiders a chance to find out more about their Felix FunSauces

From Allumi on facebook :

Purity (noun): "Freedom from adulteration, contamination or immorality".

Try our newest fragrance for yourself. Order today at www.allumi.co.uk, or DM us for a free sample ❤️🕯 #purity #dictionary #candle #fragrance #beauty #home #orchid #mimosa #gardenia #jasmine

CRAFT IPA BEER SHAMPOO BAR - FREE SAMPLE

You can get yourself a free sample of delicious Nestle Mobilis vanilla milk shake from their website.

Free L’Occitane Overnight Reset Serum via Sopost

Claim your Free Sample of DryNites, plus £1 OFF any pack

Get a free sample of S5 Balance Fluid skin cream

TRY THE GILLETTE PROGLIDE FLEXBALL RAZOR - SIMPLY PAY £1.99 P&P

Try your luck at the Soundcore giveaway - Prizes are 30 Flare+, 70 Flare, 200 Mini 2, and 3700 discounts on Soundcore audio products.

Request a free sample from DKNY perfume (delivered by Sopost)

You can see previous weeks' freebie roundups by clicking here but be warned, many of the offers are only valid for a short time. Let me know if any have expired and I'll remove them from the roundup.

You may also like to enter my current giveaways :

Giveaway #689 : Win a three-month supply of the Proceive Women & Men Dual Pack (worth over £130) - closing date 31/8

Giveaway #690 : Enjoy #RubiksSummerScrambles with a trio of Rubik's puzzles - closing date 10/9

Giveaway #691 : Win a #TermReady hamper of back to school essentials with Vosene Kids - closing date 15/9