Cuckfield Recreation Ground (& paddling pool) - review

We made an awesome discovery this summer, Cuckfield Rec Ground has a lovely park with a big paddling pool!  It wasn't too busy either despite being the holidays so was a good hidden find about half an hour drive away from Uckfield, we had a little trouble finding the way in but if you manage to get there it's worth taking a picnic to spend the whole day.

Tinkers Park Steam Rally, Hadlow Down - review

We had another busy weekend after Granny had flown back to Malaysia.  My in-laws came for the weekend as it was Nik's last weekend of studying all hours before his exam.  It was lovely for the kids to see them again as they'd been away the whole time Granny was here so we enjoyed a lovely weekend at home and had a couple of outings as well as getting some more work done at home and in the garden (thanks Dadaji)!

Saturday turned out to be a lovely day after a cloudy start and we enjoyed a brilliant morning at the Traction Engine Rally at Tinkers Park in Hadlow Down.  We'd never been before so weren't sure what to expect but there was lots going on and the twins loved it.  Unfortunately we did run out of cash pretty quickly as the entry fee of £24 for three adults took half our cash (they don't accept cards and we'd forgotten to go to the cash machine) so we only stayed for a couple of hours before we had to go for lunch elsewhere.

We did manage to have some fun on the rides but the majority of our remaining cash was gone on just two rides though as the twins wanted to go on the vintage carousel with Ma & Dadaji so that was a tenner for a fairly short ride.  They loved it though and the vintage style fair looked beautiful.  They had a turn on the little vintage cars (£4 for two of them) which they thoroughly enjoyed in their cute little yellow car.

As for the steam engines themselves, there were so many to see with their dedicated owners polishing and oiling them as well as plenty of real vintage cars and tractors to delight Kalyan.

We had just enough cash for some ice-creams and a few toy cars for their rainbow collection (which inspired me to finally finish building their display shelves (tutorial to follow soon, I promise!)

And luckily a few pennies left to donate for a ride or two on the miniature railway.

And met some lovely friends for a quick catch up too.

The Steam Rally would be a great full day out if you remember to take enough cash for the things you want to do/buy/eat.  We really enjoyed our morning there and would have stayed longer had we been more prepared for all the costs but we had a lovely lunch in town at Hartfields.

Hempstead Park, Uckfield - local park review

Hempstead park is one of our favourites in Uckfield.  It's at the end of Hempstead Road, next to the Guide HQ, and has a car park right next to it which I've never had a problem parking in.  Again, it's got the usual things you'd expect - see-saw, swings, climbing frame (they actually have two - a little one and a bigger one), roundabout (again, two of these in different designs) but it also has a tunnel in a little hobbit hill with tree stumps to balance on, a webbed net climbing frame which also spins, a large webbed swing for multiple kids to swing together and a springy jeep and it's all enclosed and has spongy flooring covering most of it, although the bit by the jeep tends to get very muddy.  There's also a big green area next to it which has a very tall slide, a zip line, adult exercise machines and a big rotating swing set.  Kalyan loves to push me on the roundabout and make me feel dizzy!  

The following photos have all been taken over the last year but clearly on different days.