free tickets family travel show

The Family Travel Show is the UK’s first ever event totally dedicated to family travel adventures, and you know how I love a family adventure.

Whether you’re looking to embark on a chilled family beach break, an all-inclusive exciting cruise-holiday or something a little more adventurous, from skiing in Austria to wildlife safaris in South Africa or a culture-driven holiday in Asia, there will be something to suit all the family at the Family Travel Show. I’m guessing they’ll be lots of lovely competitions and freebies too, which is always ace.

free tickets family travel show

The Family Travel Show will give you the chance to get face-to-face with the best family holiday providers and specialist operators all under one roof, take advantage of exclusive show-only offers, gather impartial advice and inspiration, and of course quiz the experts on those all important questions.

SAVE THE DATE – 31ST OCTOBER – 1ST NOVEMBER 2015

For more show information please visit www.familytravelshow.com

free tickets family travel show

I have two pairs of tickets to give away – that means two lucky people have the chance to win a pair of tickets each to the show! Under 16s go free, so you can take as many of those as you like.

Just answer this simple question in the comments below:

Where is The Family Travel Show taking place?
– Olympia
– NEC
– Manchester Central

free tickets family travel show

The comeptition will close on October 25th at midnight. Over 18s and UK only. Winners will be chosen at random. Competition winners will receive their tickets ahead of the show.

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I’ve not had a competition for a little while.

I’m not sure why really – I think I’ve just been really busy and not very good at organising myself. I’ve been so busy lately in fact that I’ve become one of those annoying people who tell everyone how jolly busy they are.

See? I just did it there. I meet friends for lunch and sigh heavily and tell them how many evenings I’ve had to work. It’s really dull. I need to stop it before people start wanting to punch me in the face.

So, anyway.

I have a competition today, and everyone I’ve annoyed this month, either by complaining or ignoring them, is allowed to enter. Oh, except probably family, which rather spoils the point. Hmmm. I didn’t think that through really did I?

Oh well, you can enter even if I’ve not annoyed you, so it’s all good.

The prize is a rather lovely £50 Love2Shop voucher, which you can spend at all sorts of high street shops throughout the UK, plus a bundle of goodies from Bennetts for Babies. If you don’t have a baby, don’t worry, you can just keep the voucher and give the hamper part to a friend and pretend you bought it for them as a thoughtful gift, so everyone’s a winner. View Post

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I’ve always been a fan of Trunki.

I saw them first on Dragons’ Den of course, but then worked for a few years in the nursery industry and got to know the team pretty well. I’ve whizzed down the slide in their offices, and enjoyed the odd glass of wine, (*coughs*), with them at international trade shows. They’re good guys.

I’m really pleased then to have a lovely giveaway from them today, to celebrate their new project with Gatwick Parking. It’s the perfect partnership because let’s be honest, have you been to an airport in the last few years and not seen a Trunki? I haven’t.

In collaboration with Gatwick Parking, Trunki have put together a promotion to try and get over that horrible back to school feeling – you know the one where you’re made to spend £45 on school shoes that your ungrateful child will have grown out of in three months? The idea is to share you holiday snaps for a chance to win Trunki goodies, thus reliving those happy times and generally feeling less sulky as a result.

You can find out more about that competition here. View Post

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When I meet people in person, a lot of them ask me why I have ‘slummy’ in my blog name. I expect they are disappointed that I don’t have bits of scrambled egg in my hair, or odd shoes on, or something like that.

True story as a quick aside – I did actually wear odd shoes out the other day. In fact, I had actually bought odd shoes, not noticing that one was a matt orange colour and the other a shiny red. It’s because I mainly looked at them through Instagram filters rather than in real life, and it was confusing.

Can you tell?? View Post

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“That’s not a towel,” said my fiancé, “it’s a scarf.”

“It is a towel,” I assured him, “from Hammamas, but you can use it as about a million other things, like a beach blanket, or a sarong, or even a table cloth.”

“Or a scarf,” he said, winding it around his neck. “This one is mine.”

And so that was that.

Hammamas towel review View Post

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win free sky movies

Belle loves to share facts. She has a QI book on her Kindle, and every so often she reads them out. While we were away last weekend, she told us one about popcorn.

“Did you know,” she asked, “that £30 of popcorn kernels resells in cinemas for £3,000?”

I always knew that cinema popcorn was a rip-off, but blimey, that a bit much. If ever you needed a reason to stay home and watch a film instead, then that’s it really isn’t it? Pop down to Tesco, pick up a bag of Butterkist, stick on Sky Movies, job done. View Post

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This isn’t a sponsored post, it’s literally me walking to Tesco and buying you a voucher, I just wanted to make a small gesture to say ‘Guys! The summer holidays are nearly upon us! I FEEL YOUR PAIN!’

Truth be told, the summer holidays are a lot easier for me now than they were a few years ago – a 12 year old takes far less looking after than a toddler in practical terms. What does tend to happen though is that you fall into that trap of leaving them staring at an iPad for seven hours at a time, or let them stay in bed until midday every day, and really that’s not very wholesome is it?

Entertaining children is expensive though, which is why I thought it might be helpful to have a little something extra to go into the summer holiday kitty. Perhaps you could spend it all on treats for a picnic, or maybe some games for the garden? Crafts are popular with children, so I’ve heard, or maybe just buy a huge bottle of gin and drink the holidays away. View Post

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Hello! It’s Bee again. I know what you’re thinking, thank God, a break from all the wedding talk, time to talk about something real, something relevant.

You may remember my last post about pizza and you may remember ordering a Domino’s right after reading it. Anyway, continuing along the theme of delicious but probably not that healthy foods, I’m going to be talking to you about Jelly Beans!

So if any of you read my actual food blog, you will probably know that I have taken a little break recently due to starting a new job and moving house and all that, basically becoming a fully grown adult over night (terrifying). Well on the last day of living in halls at uni I checked my postbox just in case someone had sent me something, although I wasn’t expecting anything.

The reception desk lady proceeded to bring out the most humongous parcel. I was excited but also slightly annoyed that that was one more box I had to pack into my friend’s mum’s car and then carry up two flights of stairs to the new flat. I got it up to my almost empty room and when I opened it I felt about five years old. It was mounds and mounds of jelly beans from The Jelly Bean Factory, in boxes, tubs, packets, tubes and glass jars. I worked out that there must have been about 4kg of jelly beans in that box. It was glorious. View Post

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I had a little sad moment this week about my living room carpet. You know how you can get sometimes, where you focus on one random thing and let it really bug you?

“Waaah!” I wailed. (Not out loud, but in my head for sure.) “I hate this carpet! My living room is never going to look pretty with this carpet in in!”

I have to check myself, as I once went a little bit mad over a bad carpet, and had to move house. It’s good to keep perspective.

To cheer myself up, I made a Pinterest board full of lovely pictures of living rooms and velvet sofas and wooden tables. This is exactly how my own living room would look if it wasn’t for the carpet obviously.

Casa Bella Pinterest View Post

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Would you rather have flowers or chocolates delivered to your door?

It’s a bit of a different dilemma to those posed by John Burningham isn’t it? Did you read that book as a child? Would you rather be embarrassed by your dad coming to school and dancing in front of your friends or by your mum having a row in a cafe? Would you rather live with a gerbil in a cage or a fish in a bowl?

I’m not asking you to cover yourself in jam or spend the night in a haunted house to enter, all you have to do is do your thing with the Rafflecopter widget at the bottom of the post. You know the drill.

The prize is your choice of either a rose basket or a chocolate hamper. I know, I spoil you don’t I? View Post

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Who doesn’t love Marks and Spencer?

They’re one of those fantastic shops of your childhood aren’t they? My Gran would always buy her ‘bits’ from Marks and Spencer, and even after she had a stroke we would take her over to Taunton from Bridgwater every Saturday to stock up on rich tea fingers, ready to bake cauliflower cheese and other M&S essentials. Of course in the good old days you couldn’t buy things like Marmite – it was M&S brands only – but I guess as you get older you have to accept that things change.

*sigh*

win marks and spencer vouchers View Post

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I have to be totally honest and say that I only came across the British Summer Time Hyde Park festival very recently, but blimey, what a line up! It’s ten days of absolutely amazing stuff, from Taylor Swift to Blur, Kylie to The Who. Seriously, it looks immense. There’s loads of free events happening too, so do take a look.

On the final day, June 28th, there’s a special family event with an equally impressive collection of family friendly acts and entertainers. The day includes the legendary Justin Fletcher, aka Mr Tumble, TV favourites Dick and Dom, boy band Union J, the hilarious Horrible Histories and loads more.

Union J at BST Hyde Park festival View Post

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