Play-and-Stay Blog

You know what makes a man? A good hat is what makes a man. My colleague, nemesis and fellow Play and Stay® blog contributor, Gore, knows the value of a good hat more than most.

You see dear reader, hats keep your head warm, they protect you from the ever-present threat of falling bird doings and they look good. People should wear more hats, particularly hats that are made of LEGO®!

Impossible you say? No gentle reader, ’tis not. You see in the wacky world of catwalk fashion, a world where girls in desperate need of a Jammy Dodger dictate next season’s trends, LEGO seems to be en vogue.

Designer, Jean Charles de Castelbajac displayed some LEGO® inspired outfits at a fashion show recently. Behold, ladies and gentlemen….the future of fashion!

If your retina survived the onslaught of primary-coloured goodness then congratulations, you have seen the future! Join the revolution, tonight I shall be making a pith helmet for day to day wear and a LEGO deerstalker for you know, special occasions.

As you are all aware, winter is quickly approaching and the top theme parks are laying on a trove of special events. LEGOLAND® are laying on an impressive LEGO® Star Wars™ Fireworks display, Alton Towers are holding Scarefest and THORPE PARK are once again holding Fright Nights.

Theme park they are not, but Warwick Castle also have their own events running: The Christmas Tree Forest and Halloween at Warwick Castle.

The Christmas Tree Forest looks set to be a brilliant adventure for both brave knights and little princesses alike with a menagerie of magical creatures, a 600 strong Christmas Tree forest and a stunning display of ice effect sculptures.

As well as this, there is Story Time with the Snowflake Fairy, The Christmas Tree Forest and Jack Frost’s Hunt for the Fairytale Princess. And what Christmas event would be complete without An Audience with Santa? None, you’re right. Christmas looks set to be an enchanting affair at Warwick Castle, and something that I am eagerly awaiting.

If you can’t wait that long to visit the nations favourite castle, then maybe you should check out the Halloween events being held. Perfect for both children and adults alike, Warwick Castle have got three separate events running over the period. The Haunted Castle is perfect for all ages, The Evening Package is aimed at slightly older guests whilst Warwick Ghosts & Ghouls - Alive! is set to be one hell of a spine-tingling event.

Many of these events carry extra prices, so it might be best to check out Warwick Castle’s Own site for a full run down.

Have a spooktacular Halloween and an enchanting Christmas - I know I will!

We’ve been focussing so hard on ‘Project Dylan’ recently that I feel I have been neglecting the LEGOphiles among my readership. I feel I owe it to you to do a good, old-fashioned LEGO® themed blog. So here it is, this week’s Tenuous LEGOLAND® based blog of the week.

As readers of this blog will know my three great (non-human) loves are; LEGO, comics and video games. Pretty geeky loves I know, but I came to terms with my geekdom long long ago (in a galaxy far far away). My great loves have recently been united in what can only be called a holy trinity of wonderfulness. LEGO and video games have been partners for quite some time but only recently have developers added the magic ingredient, comics.

Some of you might have played the LEGO video games that have been available for quite some time, LEGO Star Wars has been out for ages and is pretty fun. LEGO Indiana Jones is also good, not as good as LEGO Star Wars but that was always going to be the case. It’s not either of those games I want to talk about today though, it’s the upcoming one, LEGO Batman.

The trailer for this game looks undeniably fun but you know what? I’m not going to buy it. This is not to say that it’s not going to be good, providing it follows the model for the other LEGO games I’m sure it will do very well indeed. The problem is not with the game itself per-se, it’s with Batman. You see ladies and gents, I have quite strong feelings about Batman. My main issue with the dark knight is that HE IS NOT A SUPERHERO. He is just a regular hero, albeit a very rich and technologically advanced one.

He, to me at least, comes under the same category as Iron Man. I don’t like either, they annoy me with their lack of actual powers and their excessive ‘edgy brooding’. Personally, I’m waiting and praying to the comic gods that the people who make the LEGO games make LEGO X-Men. Alas, people these days seem to prefer Batman (despite his lack of superpowers). Maybe there are more people like me, people who think the X-men are more deserving of LEGOfication than Batman. Of course there might not be, I might be alone in this one, just like the time I thought the world needed hexagonal bread.

Here’s the trailer for LEGO Batman so you can make your own minds up. After watching it if you, like me, think Batman does not deserve the honour of being immortalised in LEGO please let me know.

As promised, here is yet another blog tenuously linked to LEGOLAND^® because its about LEGO^®. This particular installment is also about Radiohead, a band who I’m sure are big fans of LEGO, thus indisputably making this blog about LEGOLAND.

Recently, Radiohead released a rather progressive and potentially eye-damaging music video that was shot with lasers (or something along those lines) rather than cameras. This process was explained far more eloquently than I could ever manage by the production people behind the whole space agey affair.

“The Geometric Informatics scanning system employs structured light to capture detailed 3D images at close proximity, and was used to render the performances of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, the female lead, and several partygoers. The Velodyne Lidar system uses multiple lasers to capture large environments in 3D, in this case 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute, capturing all of the exterior scenes and wide party shots.”

Still not making a great deal of sense? I had a nosebleed after reading that so don’t worry. It all becomes much more clear when you take a peek at the video for yourself, here you go. Radiohead’s House of Cards for your enjoyment.

I know what you’re thinking, this has literally NOTHING to do with LEGO. Bear with me, I’ve not let you down yet have I? No, no I have not. Sit tight ladies and gentlemen.

In their infinite wisdom Radiohead decided to make the data gathered by their lasers public. This allowed anyone and everyone to have a go at recreating the video however they saw fit. Ian McKinnon’s efforts resulted in…………LEGO RADIOHEAD! Behold ladies and gentlemen, one of the greatest bands of our time made out of LEGO.

Ok I admit it, I misled you slightly. Technically it’s just Thom York made of LEGO and it is a bit blurry. It’s still pretty cool though yeah?!

As ever, if you have any LEGO based news, pictures, videos please feel free to send them our way, and please feel free to comment. We like to hear from you.

Even when I am not at work, I still try and find the best things to do with the family.

In my hard earned week off from writing copy, I spend much time (and even more money) on going out with the family to the best family friendly locations in Kent and Sussex.

The highlight of the week for me was Groomsbridge Place and Gardens. If I had to sum this place up in one word, that word would have to be enchanting.

It’s not the cheapest place in the world at almost £10 a head for adults and around £7 per child, but once you are inside you can understand why it costs so much. The first thing you see is the Formal Gardens and Drunken Gardens which we left until last. As a result, I will leave this part of the entry until last.

The first part of the trip involved a stroll past the Raptor Centre, the place where they hold the birds of prey. Among the collection of birds is a great Bald Eagle; a truly magnificent and beautiful creature. They perch on their stands throughout the day and await the chance to show off in front of the crowds twice daily. We are told (by manner of an adjacent sign) that they are free to fly off and come back by choice. We weren’t in time to watch today’s morning show so we head off up hill towards the Enchanted Forest and the adventures that it promised.

My wife is eight months pregnant making this part of the trip pretty hard going. The initial up hill climb through the vineyards almost brought on a premature birth, but the perfectly placed bench at the top of said hill not only provided amazing views across the valley, but also came as a welcome resting point before carrying on.

The adventure trail was next and took Stan and I along a half mile course of bridges, ladders, tunnels and rope swings. This trail was unsuitable for my wife so we left her to walk the long way round, stopping to see the wild deer en route.

Next came the bit that I was most excited about: The Swing Trail. The Swing Trail consists of approximately ten swings hanging from the trees. Unsuitable for children under ten and pregnant women, I had to oblige and have a play.

The ropes of the swing were approximately 30 ft long (maybe longer? - have a look at the pictures) and made the swing almost impossible to maneuver. Taking a long run up and leaning back with all your weight really doesn’t work on these things. I spent the best part of 20 minutes leaning to and fro, trying my hardest to employ all the swinging techniques that I have learned in my 26 years of life. It didn’t work, and whilst I was left a little disappointed by my outing on the swing, it was still good fun nonetheless.

After the excitement of watching me swing for the last 20 minutes, the rest of the family were keen to check out the rest of the Enchanted Forest. We wandered through many different parts of the woods and stumbled across ancient caravans, a teepee with a couple of actors talking about gunpowder, a peculiar clearing with a Mysterious Monolith in the centre and a collection of freakishly large rabbits.

There are dragons and dinosaurs lurking in the water and a cool adventure playground suitable for younger members of the group. All in all, this part of the trip took just over an hour to complete. At the end of the trek, there is a smaller tree swing that you can get away with putting the kids on. Stan loved it and stayed for even longer than I had on the first set of swings.

Having escaped the forest in one piece, we were able to catch the last of the bird display and watched in awe as the Bald Eagle swooped above our heads in a highly entertaining and informative show.

The last thing to do was to sit and enjoy a delicious slice of carrot cake in the gardens and try not to get attacked by the over friendly resident peacocks (I’m pretty sure that watching Hitchcock’s Birds the day before didn’t help). We wandered through the Formal Gardens which were impeccably kept and the Drunken Gardens which were like something out of an Arthur Conan Doyle book. There aren’t many words to describe these areas, so check out the pictures below for a little imagery.

We left late in the day and headed back home for supper. Groomsbridge Place has a certain effect on the visitor. Mystery, adventure and romance were all found in this beautiful setting and definitely left an impression on me. In the past, I had cited Bedgebury Pinetum as one of my favourite places to escape to, but now, and until I find something better, Groomsbridge Place and Gardens is the place to be.

Groomsbridge Place is located just a few miles from Tunbridge Wells and is open throughout the summer from 10:00 until 17:30.