Spa Days: Volair Spa, Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park

Despite a promise to look after myself a bit better this year, beauty treatments and spa days have been pretty thin on the ground. Other things and other people come first, which as a mum is how it should be, but it was definitely my turn for a bit of TLC. Real life friend and fellow blogger Liz from Expression and Confession and I hopped in the car for a day at Volair Spa at Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park. We had been invited to the spa for the day to check out their facilities and to find out more about the treatments they offer.

Volair Spa at Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park

We arrived at Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park and not being locals we had no idea what to expect. It is a large, very modern leisure centre. It’s an interesting state of the art building, filled with sculptures, interesting art works, the biggest swimming pool I’ve seen in a while, a gym, squash courts and lots more.

We headed upstairs to the Volair Spa. We were greeted by Hayley who gave us fluffy robes and slippers to change into. Once we’d got changed we sat in the relaxation room and chilled out with a cup of herbal tea while we waited for some more people to arrive. This is a really restful place, with soft mood lighting, scented candles and comfortable chairs or beanbags to sit on.

Volair Spa at Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park

After a short welcome and health and safety talk we were shown downstairs to the Thermal Suite. I love thermal suites, they are always my favourite part of a spa. The thermal suite at the Volair Spa was small but perfectly formed. It had one steam room, a sauna and a jacuzzi. Everything looked new, scrupulously clean and very very tempting.

We were given some Lycon Spa Essentials exfoliating sugar scrub to scrub ourselves all over with before we began. There were lots of different scrubs to choose from, but I went for the pomegranate. We scrubbed and showered, and with fresh glowy skin we slipped into the jacuzzi to let the de-stressing process begin.

Volair Spa at Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park

We had an hour in the thermal suite, and we tried out the sauna, steam room and jacuzzi. We felt deliciously relaxed and reluctant to leave for lunch. A two hour session in the thermal suite costs just £9.50, or two people for £15 which is excellent value. If I lived locally I could happily spend the day here, swimming for an hour or so, then unwinding in the thermal suite for a few hours.

Volair Spa at Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park

After a light lunch and a glass of fizz we found ourselves in the capable hands of Beauty Therapist Hayley. Hayley gave us a fascinating hands on workshop on how to take our make up off and give ourselves a lovely home facial. My skin already felt pretty fantastic after applying the AromaWorks facial cleanser, toner and facial oils.

We were then ushered into one of their treatment rooms. The rooms are quiet, lit softly and are lovely relaxing spaces. I volunteered to have a Crystal Clear Micro-Dermabrasion treatment. It works by gently exfoliating the outer layers of the skin and gives immediate results for a range of skincare niggles including fine lines and wrinkles, open pores, blackheads, pigmentation, blemish scars and acne scars. I have pretty good skin for my age, but they promised to blast out some of my stubborn blackheads, clean my open pores and give me a general freshen up.

The Crystal Clear Micro-Dermabrasion didn’t hurt at all. Ultra-fine crystals are blasted onto your skin, but it feels quite gentle, just a little bit like someone is gently pushing your face with something like the rubber end of a pencil (that’s the only comparison I could think of, I’m sorry). It took around 20 minutes and afterwards my skin was moisturised. When I got home I took a photo…

Volair Spa at Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park

… and I was impressed by how fresh and glowy my skin looked. It was visibly cleaner (yes I do wash every day) and brighter. Everyone who has clapped eyes on me since has remarked on how well I’m looking too.

We had a thoroughly relaxing day at the Volair Spa at the Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park. It’s a lovely, modern spa with good facilities, great treatments, a restful atmosphere and free parking. It was so good we’ve booked to go back next month!

The Volair Spa is at Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park, Longview Drive, Huyton, Merseyside, L36 6EG Tel: 0151 443 2580

We were invited guests of Volair Spa, but all images and opinions are our own. We were under no obligation to blog about our spa day.

Toys: Captain America Civil War Blaster Reveal Shield

When the small boy and his friends play together, these days invariably they pretend to be superheroes, usually fighting a baddie and saving the world. To begin with it was mainly Spiderman and Batman, but increasingly different characters are being brought into play. Lately Iron Man and Captain America have been putting in an appearance, so the boy was delighted to be given a Captain America Civil War Blaster Reveal Shield to put to the test.

Captain America Civil War Blaster Reveal Shield

The Captain America Civil War Blaster Reveal Shield is, well, it’s a Captain America shield with a hidden Nerf blaster. It’s a smaller, but faithful replica of Captain America’s actual shield, but made of plastic.

The Captain America Civil War Blaster Reveal Shield is really easy to use. Just press the star button and the shield opens revealing a hidden blaster. Slip the darts into the slot, pull the trigger back and press the button on the handle to fire. The shield has space to store two extra darts for when you are doing battle.

The shield comes with two Nerf darts, which isn’t enough, but they are widely available and we picked up an extra pack from our local toy shop for a few pounds.

Captain America Civil War Blaster Reveal Shield

It is made from plastic and seems to be pretty robust. It’s survived some fairly rough play over the past week or so. The worst that has happened to it is we’ve lost some of the darts, but that’s poor aiming, not poor construction.

The Captain America Civil War Blaster Reveal Shield comes in a sturdy cardboard box and is well secured with ties which an adult should remove with scissors. I always end up having a bit of a fight to get toys out of their packaging. At least you know it’s not going to fall out of the box and get bashed about in the toy shop. The shield does require an adult to attach the handle securely, but once that is done it is good to go.

The Captain America shield is for children aged 6+ and my nearly 6 year old and his slightly older cousin really enjoyed playing with it.

Captain America Civil War Blaster Reveal Shield

Interestingly, although they enjoyed the blaster element, they played with the shield, just as a shield as much, if not more. I think the retractable shield is a really cool feature and their faces lit up every time they pressed the star button.

This is our first Nerf product, I’ve always been wary about having Nerf in the house (partly for fear of being a target) because I was concerned about people being hurt, but the darts are quite soft and fairly innocuous. We tried firing them at ourselves and it felt like someone was flicking you fairly gently. I wouldn’t like to take a dart to the face so we drummed in a health and safety message to be sure, and there is a warning on the box too.

The small boy and his friends have great imaginations. It’s interesting how a superhero toy like this Marvel Civil War blaster can really enhance their play and help bring it to life for them. I like that the shield isn’t just a shield, that it has the hidden blaster and when it retracts it’s pretty cool. What I like best about it is that it encourages my son to dodge the baddies, save the world and run about, far far away from a TV screen or iPad.

Disclosure: We received the Captain America Civil War Blaster Reveal Shield for the purposes of writing this review, all opinions and images are our own. Contains Amazon affiliate links.

Curry Night with Patak’s Frozen Curries

Earlier this year Patak’s launched their new range of frozen curry ready meals. The meals in the Patak’s Frozen Curries range are beef madras, chicken korma, chicken vindaloo, king prawn balti, vegetable jalfrezi and chicken tikka masala. We were send some Patak’s frozen curries to put to the test.

One of our favourite takeaways is curry. The small boy really enjoys a chicken korma and I like a saag paneer. A takeaway curry for the three of us is about £25 and that’s a big chunk of money out of our weekly budget. We just can’t afford to spend that on one meal at home, so when we were asked to try the new Patak’s frozen curries we thought it’d be an interesting alternative.

Patak's Frozen Curries

We tried the chicken korma, king prawn balti and the vegetable jalfrezi. These are priced at £2 each and they are currently only available at Tesco.

The ready meals weigh 425g and consist of a portion of curry and a portion of rice. The Patak’s frozen curries can be pinged in the microwave or cooked in the oven, they are meant to be cooked from frozen.

In terms of calories ready meal curries are probably a bit healthier than takeaway curries. The chicken korma contained 604 calories, the king prawn balti contained 478 calories and the vegetable jalfrezi 501 calories. We bought some naan bread to have with ours to make it feel more like a takeaway treat.

Patak's frozen curries

The small boy had his usual chicken korma. It looked and smelt good and there were good chunks of chicken breast in the curry. He didn’t complain that it was different to what he normally had, and he presented me with a clean plate at the end. The chicken korma was a success.

Hubs went for the king prawn balti. The sauce was flavoursome and complemented the sweet prawns well. He did say that it wasn’t as hot and spicy as he thought it should be. It was a medium strength curry, but he said it was quite mild. There were a good number of prawns in the curry as well as some small pieces of vegetables. I think £2 for a prawn curry is great value.

I had the vegetable jalfrezi. I thought the portion size was good, I struggled to completely finish my meal which is always a sign of a hearty portion. Again mine was a medium curry and I braced myself for a hit of spice, but found none. It was probably the mildest jalfrezi I’ve ever had. Which may disappoint some, but I was fine with that level. The vegetable jalfrezi had lots of interesting veg including sweet potato, green beans and peppers. I would probably prefer chunkier pieces of vegetables but other than that I enjoyed it.

I often find that homemade or ready meal curries, though usually nice, they’re not quite the same as a takeaway curry. I thought these were really good value, at £2 each, especially compared to what we would pay at our favourite takeaway and with the chicken korma a roaring success we’d be happy to try the rest of the range to find our favourites.

Patak’s Frozen Curries are available from Tesco’s at £2 each.

We were sent our curries for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

What’s it like being an Emotional Empath?

There are people in this world who will take advantage of your kindness and care. As an emotional empath there are certain kinds of people who pick up on that and take advantage of my sensitive, caring and giving nature.

I identify as an Emotional Empath, if you’ve not heard that term before, Karla Mclaren defines it here –

An ‘emotional empath’ is “someone who is aware that he or she reads emotions, nuance, subtexts, undercurrents, intentions, thoughts, social pace, interactions, relationship behaviours, body language, and gestural language to a greater degree than is deemed normal.”

Being an emotional empath means I am attuned to other people’s feelings and sensitivities on a level above and beyond the average. All my life people have said things like I’m a good listener, or I give great advice. People find it easy to open up to me and tell me their deepest darkest secrets. It can feel like a real honour to be the one person someone feels able to confide in.

The downside is that sometimes people can overburden me with their problems. Sometimes people can be a real drain on my emotional energy and it’s exhausting. It’s easy to burn out emotionally when someone leans on me too hard. I just have to take a step back, I can’t be the emotional crutch for the world.

Emotional empaths are highly attuned to the emotions of the people around them. Often instinctively knowing that there is more to a story than meets the eye. We are emotionally drained by crowds, noise, smells and being talked at or bombarded with text messages, and we need time alone to recover ourselves.

I am very open with my feelings, I talk about them to everyone, I cry in public. I am highly sensitive, probably too sensitive and I pick up on so much around me. It can be exhausting.

I have learned to manage it to a degree. When I recognised that I was an emotional empath a few years ago, I read around it, spoke to a few people and I began to understand myself a bit better. I understood why I act and react the way I do and why I attract emotional vampires (people who instinctively see the empath in me, and take advantage of that) and how I can take steps to stop that happening.

I see my heightened empathy as a gift and a curse. I can’t imagine being any different. It’s a nice thing to be able to be there for people when they need someone to care and listen. But it can be overwhelming to be constantly aware of everyone else’s emotions swirling around me.

I used to think I was too sensitive for my own good, but in so many ways it’s good to be sensitive. Learning to listen to the intuitive voice inside me makes me a better person. It can be exhausting, but being an emotional empath is a powerful gift, and one I wouldn’t change.

emotional empath

ParkLives Manchester: Body Conditioning in the park!

Yesterday I attended my second Walking Workout session at Fletcher Moss Gardens in Didsbury, Manchester. I was expecting a very similar session to last week, but due to the awful storm the night before and the unusually heavy rain parts of the park were flooded or too churned up with mud to use. So instead of walking we had a body conditioning session, and I can really feel it this morning!

I arrived at the Visitor’s Centre and waited for the instructor and other participants to arrive. Despite the dramatic storm the previous night it was warm, really too warm and I knew I would be a puddle by the end of the session. The park was partly flooded and some of the paths were slippy and not ideal. We went into the Botanical Gardens and the instructor decided that instead of a cardio session that we would do some body conditioning instead.

body conditioning

She handed round some resistance bands, and in an area shaded by a wisteria covered pergola we worked our whole bodies in a series of exercises. Some were tougher than others. We did a lot of quite intense leg work and I think every muscle in my legs is screaming at me today.

It was a tough workout and she offered suggestions for making the exercises easier or harder if need be, and encouraged us to drink lots of water and stay in the shade. It was hellish hot and I was in part glad to not be walking around in the hot sunshine.

Next week when the flood waters have receded I think the session be back to normal, part walking workout, part body conditioning. I did enjoy it and the soreness I’m feeling today is just reminding me what a lazy bones I’ve been this year. It feels good to be doing something again and I’m hoping I’ll start to see as well as feel a difference soon.

ParkLives Manchester offers free and fun activity sessions across the city and is now in its second year in Manchester. There are a huge range of activities available, from multi-activity fun camps for families, walk to run sessions, buggy fit and more.

There are hundreds of activities listed on the ParkLives Manchester website and you can quickly and easily book yourself in for an activity session in advance.

For more information on ParkLives Manchester, or to book and activity visit the website.

Just So Festival Accessibility – put to the test

In August we went to the Just So Festival for the weekend. I was incredibly excited and a little bit apprehensive about going for various reasons. We were camping together as a family for the first time, and for me that felt like a bit of a challenge, as I have chronic pain and nerve damage which means I can’t really feel my feet and legs.

Just So Festival 2016

I’m used to it now and ordinarily I am able to manage it to the point that most people can’t tell until I walk on an uneven path or down some stairs or a hill where I have to concentrate hard and maybe hang on to something or someone for stability.

The pain and the medication I take to manage that mean that I get tired more easily and need to rest regularly. I was worried about managing my pain levels, being able to rest, struggling to walk and stay on my feet for longer than I ought to and having somewhere I could relax, take my pills and stretch out for an hour.

I try not to let my pain and funny legs stop me from doing much, but the thought of camping for a whole weekend was challenging for me. Happily the people behind the Just So Festival are the most amazing, accommodating and helpful people I’ve probably ever encountered.

They have a very detailed information page on their website with pretty much everything you need to know about Just So Festival accessibility for people with additional needs or who are disabled. They’ve thought of almost everything, from wheelchair charging, fridge space for medication, dedicated quiet spaces and advice on how to make the best of some aspects of the festival, like the famous lantern parade.

I decided to apply for an accessible camping space, this area is located next to the main entrance and has a wheelchair-accessible shower, accessible toilet and a water point within 50 feet. In this area you are also able to park next to your tent. Just So reviewed my application and allocated us a spot. I was really pleased as I knew being closer to the entrance would really help me manage myself better over the weekend.

The next challenge for me was sleeping in a tent. I stiffen up overnight and I wasn’t sure how I’d get on with sleeping on the floor. We thought long and hard about it and decided to buy an airbed. We had a tent which we used a few times before my accident, so we decided to give that an airing and camp in that. The small boy was beyond himself with excitement!

When we arrived on the first day, the accessible camping area was already filling up. We were welcomed by Callum, the Safeguarding and Accessibility Manager who was really helpful. We managed to pitch our tiny 3 person tent in the rain and head off to enjoy the festival.

Close to our small tent were a toilet and shower cubicle as well as a Mobiloo, a small truck which looked spotlessly clean. The Mobiloo is a place where disabled people can use the loo and have a wash in comfort and warmth. I didn’t use the Mobiloo, but I can vouch for the disabled toilet which was emptied each night and was pretty clean and tidy. I remember hideous festival toilets of the 90s and these were a world apart.

In terms of Just So Festival Accessibility, the festival is largely set around proper hard paths, with some firm bark chipped paths in the woods. It rained a lot during the weekend and this had churned up lots of mud. The festival organisers managed this by putting straw down which made the paths much easier to walk on.

There’s not much seating around the site, so I took my own camping chair which was lightweight enough for us to carry around and plonk down for me to rest on when I needed to. This is an essential for me, without my chair I couldn’t have managed more than a couple of hours each day.

There are lots of information points and volunteers around if you need any assistance, as well as a first aid point staffed with qualified first aiders. I felt very comfortable, secure and relaxed. The Just So Festival is so easy going and for me, as a person who at times struggles with mobility I just felt welcomed and not like I was being treated differently to everyone else.

just so festival accessibility

The only thing I’d change would be our tiny tent and constantly deflating airbed. The tent was very bijou and a bit too cosy with us all in it, but we had lots of fun and midnight giggles, so we would definitely camp again, just in something a bit bigger.

I think that the adaptations and considerations the festival organisers made in terms of Just So Festival Accessibility were seamlessly woven into the fabric of Just So. It’s a truly accessible event. And that’s exactly how it should be for everyone, everywhere.

For more information about Just So Festival Accessibility visit their website.

Read our review of the Just So Festival 2016 here.

How the playground makes my social anxiety worse

I’m sorry my social anxiety makes you feel uncomfortable. I am a huge introvert with an anxiety disorder, it’s the perfect storm which makes social situations a real challenge for me. I know I’m not the only one who struggles, but sometimes it can feel that way.

Walking into any social situation makes me anxious. Even if I’m meeting good friends for a drink I can be anxious and struggle to speak. Busy places and crowds make it worse. Going out is a real love/hate thing for me and I suspect working from home and the social isolation that brings probably makes that worse.

Last week I went out for a drink with a friend, our children go to school together. We had a very lovely evening with minimal social anxiety. Later that week I bumped into her in the playground and something awkward in my brain kicked in and I could hardly speak or make eye contact with her. It’s not deliberate, it’s something inside of me.

Doing the school run and being in the playground is a real challenge for me. As soon as I turn the corner to go to the school at hometime I start to feel incredibly anxious. I know my mission – to locate and extract my child as quickly and safely as possible without me getting spoken to by his teacher, without him running off and without either of us causing a scene.

I try and time it just so, so I am there half a minute before he leaves the building and I’m positioned so I can grab him and leave. There are a few mums I get on really well with, but in the confines of the playground I suddenly become near mute and struggle to make conversation with them.

I usually wear sunglasses, partly because I don’t want wrinkles and partly because it means I can avoid eye contact. Eye contact means conversation, conversation means realising I can’t speak and I end up looking and feeling like an idiot. I also have terrible eyesight, so if you’re more than a few metres away from me then you’re just a fuzzy shape and it can look like I’m giving you the stink eye. I’m not.

I know my behaviour probably marks me out as weird, I don’t know what I can do about that. When I first got to know some people I told them about my social anxiety and that it was me and not them, so most of my good friends know that on a one to one basis I’m usually fine, and that I’m fun and I can string lots of sentences together. In a social situation – the playground, a party, whatever, not so much.

I don’t think it’s the sort of situation I can easily manage. The playground will typically have a hundred or more people in it, you never know who you will see there so you can’t mentally prepare and run through the list of small talk questions you might have if you were going for a coffee with one of them.

So I appear at the last minute. I wear my sunglasses so no one can look me in the eye. I fake some confident person in a rush body language and I extract and escape with the small boy as quickly as I can. It’s the only way I know to survive the school run and the crippling social anxiety it brings me.

It’s pretty uncomfortable knowing that almost daily I’m in a situation where I can hardly make eye contact with or speak to my friends, let alone anyone else. I know that my trying to keep my head down has made some people feel like I’m anti-social or stuck up, but it’s very much the opposite. So I’m sorry if my social anxiety has made you feel uncomfortable, it’s pretty uncomfortable just being me.

Days Out: Visiting The Blackpool Tower

As a child I spent a lot of time in Blackpool. Living in Manchester it was our nearest bit of seaside and we had family there, so it was a regular haunt. We thought Blackpool was probably the most amazing place on earth. We never really did the Pleasure Beach, but Blackpool Tower, with its beautiful ballroom, circus and million mile views was somewhere we seemed to visit quite a lot.

Over the Bank Holiday weekend we took the small boy to Blackpool. Our first stop was SEA LIFE Blackpool, which was brilliant. After we’d left SEA LIFE he was keen to hit the beach, but I wanted us to have a quick trip up the Blackpool Tower before we all got covered in sand.

Blackpool Tower

Although the Blackpool Tower is home to several famous attractions including the Ballroom, the tower circus, the tower dungeon and Jungle Jim’s, what we really wanted to see and do was the tower itself.

As Merlin Card holders we showed our cards and got into the lift up to the Blackpool Tower Eye. This is a fairly recent addition to the tower. The first stop was the obligatory before attraction photograph. I always say yes to having these taken out of politeness, but we never buy them and they always look awful and/or really unnatural. The people in front of us declined, so we decided to as well and we were just waved through.

We joined a short queue for the 4D cinema experience. There are no seats in this cinema, so be prepared to stand for the short showing. The short film shows you the history of the tower and is a whistle-stop tour/flight around Blackpool complete with wind through your hair and foamy bubbles being blown at you. I found it quite exciting, the small boy wasn’t quite as keen. I think he was a bit nervous about going up the tower.

Once you’ve watched the film you join the queue for the lifts up the tower. We had already decided to stay on the glass SkyWalk platform rather than climbing the stairs to the top. Both of my boys are a bit windy about heights and we thought we could go back another day and push it a little bit further with them.

They were very brave and both eventually managed to step out onto the 5cm thick glass. To be fair, the tower is 380ft tall and it is very strange standing on glass and being able to see all the way down.

Blackpool Tower

It was a gloriously sunny day, the sky was a beautiful blue and you could see for miles and miles. On a clear day you can apparently see the Lake District, Liverpool and across the Irish Sea to the Isle of Man.

Blackpool Tower

We spent quite a bit of time walking around on the SkyWalk platform, admiring Blackpool and beyond from all angles. We talked about going even higher up the tower, but we decided to leave that for another, slightly braver day.

I would have liked to have spent more time exploring the attractions at the tower, but the boys were very keen to get on the beach, but we will be back another day soon for a proper look around.

For more information visit the Blackpool Tower website.

What’s On: Manchester Science Festival 2016

With the summer holidays now a dim and distant memory, the programme of events for the Manchester Science Festival 2016 has just been revealed. For ten days in October and throughout the October Half Term they have a jam-packed programme filled with fun and (mostly) free, hands-on family activities for all ages!

Produced by the Museum of Science and Industry and supported by Siemens and the University of Salford, the Manchester Science Festival 2016 runs from Thursday 20 October to Sunday 30 October.

Manchester Science Festival 2016

There are a whole host of events for all the family. Family highlights at the Museum of Science and Industry include: the Virtual Reality Playground for gaming fans and tech loving tots and teens featuring the very latest in VR devices, offering a unique and hands on insight into what the future holds; the Manchester Megapixel which offers visitors the chance to see themselves as pixels and to take part in a giant megapixel installation to be revealed in full on the Festival’s closing day; and Robot Orchestra Live where Manchester’s exclusive robot orchestra – formed entirely from recycled instruments, electronics and junk – perform alongside human musicians at the museum for the first time. This unique musical experience will be conducted by Graphene, a life-sized robot built by Manchester Science Festival 2016 Sponsors Siemens.

Across town, family highlights include the annual Science Jam at the media city campus at the University of Salford. Pop in over the Festival’s opening weekend for a chance to experience life among living machines and venture into a “forest of curiosity” where writers, poets and actors team up with scientists, naturalists, geographers and environmentalists to embark on an interactive journey of discovery.

Harry Potter Fans are in for a rare treat with The Philospher’s Scone. Enjoy an afternoon tea with a difference at Harvey Nichols Manchester. Enjoy miniature cakes and pastries inspired by the world of Hogwart’s most famous student as author and journalist Roger Highfield explains how magic really works. There will also be a screening of Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone. Fancy Dress is a must!

Manchester Science Festival 2016

Little explorers and crafty kids can partake in Artist Sundays and Big Draw at the Whitworth to create take home colourful art works inspired by the gallery’s collection; uncover the mysteries of space in the Big Science Telescope Show at Jodrell Bank; go Hunting for Infections at Quarry Bank Mill; Play with oversized orgami, twisted vines and massive paper sculptures at Nightshade at the Gallery Oldham; join in Messy Science at the University of Bolton and in the Science Spectacular at Manchester Museum; have a go at 3D modelling at Z-Arts or silver ring soldering at Manchester Craft and Design Centre – a mere handful of the many drop in and largely free activities taking place throughout the Festival.

Manchester Science Festival 2016

Manchester Science Festival 2016 marks the end of the city’s year-long role as European City of Science, and runs throughout half-term from Monday 20 October – Sunday 30 October.

For more information and full event listings for the Manchester Science Festival 2016 visit their website.

Theatre Review: David Walliams Gangsta Granny

This summer the Birmingham Stage Company are touring the UK with their theatre production of the popular David Walliams Gangsta Granny book. We went along to The Lowry Theatre in Salford Quays watch it.

We’ve yet to read the book, but we’ve watched TV adaptations of David Walliams’ Mr Stink and Gangsta Granny and we knew to expect silliness, smells and a heartwarming message underneath it all.

The book was originally published in 2011, and went straight to number 1 in the children’s book charts. David Walliams Gangsta Granny was later adapted for TV and was shown on BBC1 in 2013, starring David Walliams and a host of other popular personalities.

David Walliams Gangsta Granny

David Walliams Gangsta Granny tells the tale of schoolboy Ben who is sent to stay with his Granny every weekend so his parents can go out ballroom dancing. Ben thinks she is the boringest Grandma ever. All she wants to do is to play Scrabble and eat cabbage soup, but what he doesn’t know is that his Granny was once an international jewel thief known as “The Black Cat”. Very soon Friday nights are the highlight of Ben’s week, as together they plan a daring raid on the Crown Jewels.

The two stars of the show, Ben played by Ashley Cousins and Granny played by Gilly Tompkins are fabulous. Granny, although small, stooped and grey steals virtually every scene. Her occasional cabbage trumps have the audience of small children and their parents giggling – all it needs is a cabbage scented scratch and sniff card to complete the effect.

Ben’s parents are meant to be annoying, and they are. His whiny, self-centred mum especially so, though I did enjoy the almost Mr Bean-like performance from Benedict Martin who plays both Ben’s Dad and nosy neighbour Mr Parker.

David Walliams Gangsta Granny

The supporting cast help to keep the pace up, Umar Malik is notable as penny-pinching but wise shopkeeper Raj and slimy dancer Flavio, and Louise Bailey as the Queen who is rather partial to cabbage soup and doesn’t mind the unfortunate side effects.

Gangsta Granny is full of glorious slapstick humour, it’s colourful, glittery, drab, funny, serious, silly and sad in equal measure. I wasn’t quite expecting to come away so affected by the moral of the story – just because someone is old it doesn’t mean they are invisible.

Loneliness, especially in old age is a terrible thing, and it’s something I’m particularly mindful of. If Gangsta Granny encourages more people to speak to and check up on their elderly relatives and neighbours, then that’s a very excellent thing indeed. You never know, the nice old lady next door might have been an international jewel thief with a million pounds worth of treasure in a biscuit tin in her kitchen!

David Walliams Gangsta Granny

We thoroughly enjoyed Gangsta Granny, there were laugh out loud moments all the way through, lots of slapstick, funny smells and a thought provoking moral to the story – what more could you want?

The Birmingham Stage Company are currently touring David Walliams Gangsta Granny around the UK. You can find the tour dates here.