There’s no doubt that the Square Peg and his family love to live La Vida Loca and this weekend was no exception. So, we dragged ourselves out of the house at 6.30am on Saturday morning and travelled for four hours up to Shropshire so that Matthew and Daddy could take park in The Queen Victoria Cyclo-cross race at Blists Hill Victorian Town. We decided to make a day of it and have a day out in the town.

Matthew loving the Victorian Merry-go-round

Saturday turned out to be BOILING!! So we were melting walking around the town. The thing is, the Square Peg doesn’t seem to be affected by the heat and still ran around like a crazy thing, this meant that we then had to chase him ALL day. Mummy Square Peg was getting a little bit hot and bothered.

A TV series that I really love is Back in Time for Dinner, being able to go back in time and experience the living conditions is an incredible experience and I would seriously love to be able to do that. So I was buzzing that I could experience Victorian life at Blists Hill. I was amazed to see the grocery store, the chemist, the post Office etc. My favourite part of the day was the Victorian school lesson. As a school teacher myself, I was fascinated to compare Victorian schooling to modern schooling. Calling left-handed students ‘misfits of society’ would never be tolerated today.

We sign on for the Cyclo-cross race at 3pm and leave to check into the Premier Inn. By this time Mummy Square Peg was really cranky so I was so relieved to get back to an air conditioned hotel room and cool off.

The Queen Victoria Cyclo Cross Race 2019

We get back to Blists Hill at 5pm and by this time the weather had gone very hot and muggy. Edward and I found a table outside the cafe and I decided that this was the perfect place to watch the race from….Edward had other ideas and thought that it would be much more fun to keep running into the cafe and out of the other side, he must have done this around 50 times when he came to me and said ‘I sweaty.’

Matthew’s race gets under way and oh my goodness it is brutal, some very steep hills, some with steps where he had to get off his bike and push, difficult terrain and fast downhill sections. Matthew did really well and finished in 6th place.

Then it was time for Daddy’s race, so not only did I have Edward to chase after I also had Matthew who loves to annoy Edward. So I spent the whole time shouting at them to stop messing around and come back to within a 30 metre radius of the cafe. By this time which was around 9pm I was rapidly losing the will to live (Bit of a running theme going on here…that I was grumpy) Poor Daddy didn’t get to finish the race as he had two punctures….my response….’great! Let’s go!’

Shrewsbury Sunday

Only 15 minutes away from Blists Hill was a road race that we thought Matthew could do. Different weather condition from the previous day, it was a lot cooler and much windier. Matthew was obviously still a bit tired from the cyclo corss the previous evening and finished in 5th place. We went for a lovely pub lunch afterwards and Edward successfully ate a delicious bread and butter sandwich. #winning

As you can probably tell from this post that Mummy Square Peg was exhausted from the start so this made me grumpy all weekend. Edward had absolutely ZILCH sympathy for me and he was relentless. I was constantly chasing him round for everything….’Edward, come and sit here’…..’Edward come and eat something.’…..’Edward come and have a drink.’…..’Edward, come and have your nappy changed.’ Every time I have to chase him and physically carry him and this is draining, particularly in the heat.

So whilst it was a fun weekend, the combination of heat, general exhaustion and having to chase Edward around meant that I could have quite honestly done without going. This weekend however, I am looking forward to chilling out at home and trying to straighten house up that Edward likes to destroy.

Look, a button code!