mybigadventures.com

Happy new year everyone. We went bowling on new year's eve but upon our arrival it turned out we had gone to the wrong place. Hollywood bowl were very good though and transferred us across rather than making us go to the correct centre. We hadn't played for ages but had a fun couple of games - I even managed a couple of strikes! We did a bit of shopping before heading back to finish off the side table that we made on Sunday. We did actually finish it on Sunday, but decided it was a bit tall so it needed a bit more work. It's our first experiment with copper pipe and uses one of the old table leaves for a top. We're pretty pleased with it really. We had steak frites for dinner which has become something of a tradition before seeing in the new year with fireworks on the TV and outside.

After a bit of a lie-in today, we headed out to National Trust Polesden Lacey. It was very busy and we were told as we queued in the car on the way in that both the main and overflow car parks were full and it was one-in-one-out. In reality, it turned out there was loads of parking (although we were directed in to a bit where it said no entry). We started with some lunch at the cafe, which, despite being very busy, seemed to be working better than most National Trust cafes we've been to and shared a cream tea and a sandwich. We decided to have a wander around the garden which was typically bare for this time of year, though we were impressed by the clever touches that included a Polesdon monopoly game that you could play and over by the bees, mini stockings as "even the bees have been caught up in the Christmas buzz".

We also got timed tickets for the house, going in for the last entry at 3. It was decorated up for a 1930s Christmas with at least one Christmas tree in each room, and an impressive tree in the entrance hall. There was lots to see including some amateur dramatics with several actors dressed up in period costume performing fictional scenes from the time period with some talk of the abdication of King Edward. We finished off our visit with a wander around the shop, before heading home for a bit of New Year bake off on the TV.