Amazed we made it through the maize

Yesterday Callum, my sister Katie and I headed out to The Great Maze near Braintree, Essex. We'd decided that it was something different to do and would burn off some of Callum's never-ending energy supply and walk off some of our booze drinking and sweet eating from the weekend (notice the booze drinking was by Katie not me!!! LOL).

Getting there was meant to be easy, gets on the M11 and then when you get to the A120 (I think that was the one) it'll be sign posted. Yeah right! We ended up having to back-track on ourselves on the A120 and just guess which turning we needed to take. Needless to say we thankfully found a garage where the helpful assistant gave us better instructions and we were properly on our way.

We were lucky to arrive nice and early (even given our little detour on the roads) and the sun was shining brightly and there was a nice cool breeze. On their website they boasted of having 10 acres of maize maze which they change each year, this being their tenth anniversary. Also added bonus you can buy a map but it's in a sealed envelope and if you don't open it you get the money back for it. We lasted 30 minutes before Callum begged us to open it, we'd had quite a lot of "which way now Callum?" moments.




As well as making our way through the maze there was a competition going on where they had placed imitation caged animals around the maze for you to find and on top of the cages were what their names were and you wrote these down on the entry form and first prize is £100! We found all but two of them but the kind ladies at the kiosk desk gave Callum the names of the two we couldn't find. Here is one we did find though!

Mike the Magpie

At the beginning of the maze Callum had volunteered himself as our leader and we had to follow him which was fun and he made good choices when it came to which way now as crossroads.





Although he did on occasion try to leave us behind:




But we did make it to the middle of the maze and the "tower" to view the whole maze.



And eventually to the end.



All in all it took us I think 1 hour 23 minutes but 30 minutes of that was before we opened the map and don't forget we made sure we tried our best to find all of the caged animals. I don't think that's too bad going. Thank you Katie for a wonderful day out.

Say "Cheese!"

The other month Daz asked if I could get a more recent (and nicer) photo of Callum and I together for him to have at work on his computer. You'd think this would be a simple task wouldn't you? Well it isn't!




Firstly I can't find my remote control for my camera so I have to either rely on the in-camera timer which in all honesty doesn't give you much time or I have to try and work out an angle that fits both Callum and I in together in the frame while I myself am holding the camera, as you know not necessarily the easiest of tasks. Also add to this that doing the second method Callum then sees his reflection in the lens and so keeps moving to getting just all of his face in the frame. But apart from all of this it's been fun! I think we're still hunting for the "perfect" photo but we've sure got some funny ones and as our friend Cindy said: "You can tell how much fun you two had taking these."




So for your eyes here are a select few of the shots taken. Currently we've had to "shoots" and no doubt there will be plenty more to come BUT I am determined to get this photo and get it by taking the photo myself.

All photos can be seen here.