Sunday, 17 February 2013

The Chill Factor, bad belaying, the Trafford Center and the Beach

Last weekend we decided to go to the Chill Factor in Manchester. Primarily the reason was to get my ski and Mel's snowboard legs ready for our trip to the Porte du Soleil, however, it also seemed like a great idea to see how Mya took to the white stuff.

The Chill Factor opens at 10:00hrs on a Saturday, we arrived at 10:30hrs and the near car park was full. So, numerous trips back and forth with baby and kit ensued.

Once inside things improved - we got good service from the booking staff and were booked in for 11:00hrs. That left us 20mins to get ready, my mistake.

The Chill Factor is really very well set up and all equipment comes included in the price of the lift pass. 
We took our own as we wanted to get it serviced at Snow and Rock, however, they have a 2 week waiting list as they service all the Chill Factors equipment, added to this no ski technician is available on a Saturday!

To be able to take Mya into the snow play area we were told we needed to
have their boots on and a pair of gloves. We left Mya's gloves in the car, so, I opted to buy a pair for £5 (the only bit of kit that isn't free) rather than run back to the car again. 
I was told that the reason you can't wear your ski boots in the snow play area is in case you slip over (this is a place where people are learning to ski, this normally means people fall over at speed!) Heath and safety gone crazy again.

I then joined the queue to get some snow boots, while counting down the valuable seconds to 11:00hrs when our time started.
As those who already know me well, I'm not that good at queuing and this part was frustrating to say the least. Watching my snow play and ski time rapidly drift away meant that Mya is now versed in the Ditchfield method of queue dodging, which I'm sure will stand her in good stead later on in life.

To others who would prefer to queue my advice would be to give yourself an hour to get yourself and child ready, especially on a Saturday. 
Once in the snow play area I saw many children and parents wearing their own footwear. Mya decided not to wear her gloves, so, overall I was a little bit disgruntled thinking about how I'd queued to get boots I didn't need and buying gloves Mya didn't wear.

We did have fun though once on the snow which was the important part.
We played on sliding penguins, bum boards, doughnuts and scrambling under the ski queue barriers!

Once finished in the snow Mya and I took a look at the climbing wall and I was horrified to see some potentially dangerous belaying by one member of staff. 
This involved him belaying a young child up the wall while spending time typing something into the cash register not looking at the child and then crime of all crimes he placed his hand firmly over the top of the GriGri2 (effectively preventing it form working) while the young child struggled to make his next move.

If anyone senior from the Chill Factor reads this please implement an observation system for the climbing staff if you don't already have one.
Apart from this exception all the Chill Factor staff were really friendly and helpful.

After we'd finished at the Chill Factor we headed to the Trafford Center for some lunch and a shop. 
We ended up eating at Zizzi which was great. They gave Mya a set of wax crayons and a picture to colour in. We all loved the food too even if mine was highly spiced.

A week has gone by since our trip to Manchester and today I took Mya to our local beach in Pensarn.
We were blessed with lovely sunshine and a decent low tide. It actually felt like spring was eventually gracing us here in North Wales.
Mya loved running on the sand and also her visit to the cafe afterwards.





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