Thank god today is almost over

I've had an exhausting day to say the least. I thought it would be fun to take the kids to the zoo and I decided to take them to Linton zoo - it looked ok on the website. My tale of woe beings on the M11. Ok I popped out to the docs in the morning for a quick chat about cholesterol testing. I got home and the 2 older kids were up and almost ready go - which is amazing, so I though great start we can actually leave on time for the zoo. So we set off, sat nav programmed and ready to do its job, and we started driving. Everything went fine, we got onto the M11 and just before our junction exit the traffic slowed down a lot. Thinking it was just busy we sat patiently as we crawled the last mile to the exit, and then I started to see police cones and though uh-oh an accident. Yep I was right - both southbound lanes closed. Ok not too bad at this point we were at our exit anyway and after getting off the M11 we still had a little way to go.

We arrived at the Zoo and instantly I could tell that this was not a big place. But hey ho we were there so i drove in, queued, paid (ok lied about Emily's age so I didn't pay £5 for her and glad I was about that too!), parked, toilet, got kids out and entered the Zoo. Ok it was a damp day so I was expecting some mud - that I can deal with. Some smelly cages/animals I can deal with. Park being really small is disappointing - that I can deal with. Some empty cages - ok not great I thought. Emily not really interested in the animals and more interested in the picnic hamper - ok funny. Emily starting to whine - not great. The Tapir's let us stroke them - I thought that was cool, and I was even delighted when the female Hornbill took great interest in us and even let me poke my finger through the cage and stroke her wing! Then I read the sign on the cage "Carnivore - likes to eat insects and worms" - I quickly removed my little finger from cage! But she was beautiful with lovely eyelashes.

We stopped for lunch at 12.30 , by which time both the older girls were almost turning blue with cold - being typical 12 year olds they had dressed for day out in the town shopping rather than a cold and damp day at the zoo. Seeing the 2 of them so cold I decided to end the trip to the zoo. And we headed back to Cambridge deciding to go to the cinema instead.

Arriving at the Firestation we stopped in to see the Dude at work and the chance to grab a quick cuppa to warm myself up. Then we had a quick look at the cinema's websites to check film times.

Decided the best times were at a cinema a little drive out of town, so off we set, drove to the leisure park, parked the car, got our ticket, walked to the cinema, got into the queue only to find out it was sold out - sigh. All back into the car, paid £1 for parking, drove back to the Firestation and we decided to go and get some cake in town.

Get's better (NOT)! Walked into town only to find shop after shop, bank after bank shut! I stopped at one bank and asked someone standing in the doorway what was going on - "power cut apparently!" he said. Wow how strange - we had one at work last week but only for 1 second. Ok this was not turning out to be a good day at all. I was going to let the 2 older girls wander around Cambridge on their own and possibly do a bit of shopping and I was beginning to feel that Karma was against me to have any sort of fun or half decent family day out. We walked on and luckily found a coffee shop in the town centre open, so at least we managed to get some cake. And luckily Lloyds bank was open so I was able to get some cash out and let the girls go and wander. Emily and I trundled through town randomly wondering around some shops when some stupid kid not looking where he was going just turned right and walked right into Emily's buggy almost toppling himself and Emily over. I managed to put my hand out to stop him from tumbling on Emily - and did he apologise? Nope he and his sister or friend just giggled and walked off quickly. They thought I hadn't clocked them as they tried to hide in a shop doorway - they were still giggling which I found really annoying but I just walked off and left them - I couldn't be fecking arsed by this point.

We trundled on around town a bit more and then headed to meet the girls back at Pizza Hut. I checked with them first that they had power and could take credit cards and thankfully they did. The girls arrived not long after and we sat together. I was starting to get edgy as my blood sugar was low and my fingers were blueish. We waited ages before I got the hump and asked them take our order - at that point the place had started to fill up and I thought nothing about it. Order taken,we got our drinks and I started to relax but then after 20 more minutes we still not had our startes and we noticed everyone else was already on their main course and they had arrived after us. So not one for sitting around I went up to the bar and asked for our food . The waitress turned to the cooks and asked if they had seen our order to which the cook only shrugged - ok NOW I'm pissed off! I asked for our food to be brought out quickly as we've been waiting too long

The garlic bread arrived and the waitress apologise, said they were busy - really I hadn't noticed! Pizza arrived but it was almost cold - of for f*cks sake. I'm starting to really loose the plot and I felt like bursting into tears and having a hissy fit saying what a rubbish day we were having. I gritted my teeth - ate pizza. And accepted their offer of a free desserts (only for the girls ! -mm why thanks , don't I get any compensation?)

But hey ho - off we go to get ice cream only to find the machine was broken - I mean what more could go wrong today??? eh come on! Give me a freaking break.

The waitress said she would bring over the bowls of ice cream, then changed her mind and said to send the girls up to her and she would give them the bowls so they could still help themselves to the toppings and sauce. "OK "I thought and I returned to the table and said to Phoebe over the throng of people to go and get the 3 (I said THREE) bowls of ice cream - when one of the other waitresses said "it's not free". I said "oh yes it is if your pizza is 30 minutes LATE" - can you tell I'm more than a little bit annoyed? I did also think of telling her I said 3 and not free - *hiss*

Ok - we got ice cream and the girls enjoyed it ! Emily loved the chocolate covered raisins and smarties. But she did have a mega feast of food by this time. Getting our jackets on I looked around to see if I could get my bill - but I quickly gave up when I spotted people at the main bar paying their bills. So I wondered up with Emily in the buggy and the other girls in tow. Finally being served I asked for my bill, paid and left.

Never , ever, ever am I going to Pizza Hut again