Noticing AI posters everywhere

I use Facebook to keep up with local events, and something I've noticed recently is that almost every event poster has been created using AI. I didn't realise it at first, but once you spot one you can't miss it. Now I notice AI posters all over the place - as well as social media they are all over the local noticeboards and this year the school has begun using AI for event flyers. 

Many people hate these AI generated posters. Personally what I dislike most is that they are stuffed with unnecessary information - I saw one for a local Pokemon Go meet up group that had the name of the town on it five times. Sometimes it's difficult to find key information like date, time and location. 

The posters also often have the same layout and similar graphics, which is particularly noticeable when you see two or three displayed together. Additionally they can be very misleading, with inaccurate images and depictions of activities. Who can forget the disastrous marketing for the Willy Wonka Experience! 

However even though I'm not really a fan, I can fully understand why people are using them.

I volunteer with a local community group, and like many other small organisations we aren't going to be using our donated funds to pay for a graphic designer. Also, to people who haven't grown up with the internet (and who are often the ones that take the time to organise community events) AI technology really is very impressive.

I gave ChatGPT some minimal details for a potential upcoming event for our organisation, and this was the poster that it produced for me:

My children may scoff, but I can understand why most people would be impressed. The poster took literal seconds to produce, it's bright, colourful and it contains all the key information. It is unoriginal, especially amongst a sea of AI posters, and some of the details are a little sketchy on close inspection. But it does the job and most people would be very happy with it.

I don't think that many people even realise that these posters are made with AI, and those that do really aren't bothered. I wonder whether their use will decline once the initial excitement wears off, or whether the AI will evolve and it will no longer be as noticeable.

I do think I like my second version of the poster better, can you spot the subtle changes?!

I'd love to know what other people think about the AI poster proliferation!

Boarding the Railway 200 Inspiration train - a free and fascinating exhibition train celebrating 200 years of the modern railway

2025 marked the 200th anniversary of the modern railway, inspired by the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. Under the banner of Railway 200 there have been nationwide celebrations throughout the year and beyond, to celebrate how the railway shaped Britain and the world.

Inspiration is a free, family-friendly exhibition train which has been travelling all over the country, and last weekend it made it's way down to Worthing in West Sussex. Tickets were free, although due to limited availability they had to be booked in advance, and I knew that it would be something that would appeal to our family.

The Inspiration train was parked at Worthing station for two days. The exhibition is spread out over several themed carriages, showcasing some of the groundbreaking innovations in railway history, a Wonderlab which offers hands-on exhibits, and information for people that might consider a career in rail.

I found the information about the history of the railway really interesting, and there were plenty of models and displays that really brought everything to life. There were games to play, like trying to prioritise train schedules to fit in with special events, and balancing and construction toys.

My favourite part of the train was definitely the interactive exhibits. Perhaps they were aimed at a slightly younger crowd than mine, but they were still a lot of fun for adults! We enjoyed trying to work out the best configuration for train wheels to roll along a curved track, and I loved a sandpit table which had train tracks and roads projected on it - you could move the sand around to create safe routes and then watch little trains and cars move around them!

There were plenty of friendly staff on board to help with any questions, and we really enjoyed our visit!

While the train has now departed from Worthing there are plenty more stops scheduled across the country. Have a look at the timetable here to book your free tickets - Upcoming 2026 Inspiration tour dates and destinations.

Our first family escape room

At the weekend we treated Harry to an escape room for his birthday treat. This was the first time that we had tried such a thing as a family, although my husband and I had both separately completed an escape room before. A few years ago my parents and I did Time Lock: Mission Berlin in Worthing. We were terrible at it! I don't know if the room was particularly difficult or if we just weren't very good, but we were constantly asking for help, and even then we only just made it out in time!

The escape room that we did at the weekend was another of the three in Worthing, which are all run by the same company. Smugglers Ruin is inspired by local history, as you attempt to retrieve a precious barrel of gin from the town hall. Once booked, all of these escape rooms are exclusive to your group, which was a big plus point for me.

I was a little apprehensive as to how we would get on. Harry can get overwhelmed quite quickly, especially when there is a time pressure, and Mia can get frustrated if she doesn't understand something. I was worried that I'd be spending the whole time trying to keep everyone happy, rather than actually solving puzzles! But in the end I needn't have worried, as we did brilliantly. We solved the room in just 43 minutes, and we didn't need a single hint!

Obviously no spoilers, but we were helped massively by the fact that Harry has a particular knack for a certain type of puzzle that I think would have taken the rest of us much longer to solve. We all worked really well as a team finding all the things that we needed for the puzzles, and we all chipped in with our own ideas which helped us to solve them together. We had an enormous amount of fun, and were talking about it for days afterwards. 

I would love to do a few more escape rooms but unfortunately it's not a cheap hobby. I can understand  why it's expensive - only a few people can take part at a time, it takes a long time to run the room and to set it up each time, and once someone has done a room they won't be coming back even with a different group of people. It was worth it but was definitely a treat rather than something that we'll be able to do regularly, even though we all loved it! There are plenty of others to try locally, so I'm hoping that we will be able to do another one together soon.

Have you ever tried an escape room?

Some Worthing street art and murals

I've been living in and close to Worthing for over twenty years now, and during that time it has definitely become a much cooler town. Lots of people have moved down from London over the years and it has also attracted a lot of people who can't afford to live in Brighton, meaning that it has become a bit more fashionable, more diverse, and just generally a more interesting and vibrant place to live.

I don't head into the town centre that often these days, but as the children's school is quite central I sometimes take myself for a walk after I've parked nearby and recently I've been noticed how much amazing street art there is on my route! I took the photos below on a short loop within half a mile or so of the school, and according to this article - Where to find the best Worthing street art - there is plenty more to find.

I've put this one first because it's the one that I see every day as I approach the road that I park in. It's a portrait of Simon Mayo and from the article above I can see that this and most of the street art that I've discovered are are by an artist called Horace, who can be found on Instagram @the.horace

This is another that catches my eye, it's on the wall of a charity shop where I'm often dropping off donations and I love the sentiment 'Don't watch the news'!

Next to it is this amazing cat mandala in gorgeous shades of blue.

I also love this portrait by the same artist on the wall of a pub.

Of course it wouldn't be Worthing without a seagull!

Finally I think this this work on The Libertine Social is by a different artist, I love the bright cheerful flowers.

Reading the article above has inspired me to go hunting for more street art as it looks as though Worthing is quite a hotspot for it!

Our village yarn bombers Easter Trail

This afternoon we spent a lovely hour following the Easter trail that has been set up in our village by the local yarn bombing group. There were twenty different knitted and crocheted creations to spot, found along a short walk through the village.

I had printed out a trail map for the children to fill in as we went around. I did wonder if they might be getting a bit too old for this sort of thing but they very kindly went along with me and took part enthusiastically (perhaps spurred on by the promise of a sweet treat at the end).

I loved seeing all the Easter decorations, it really brings the village to life. The local crafters have gone to so much effort to bring a smile to people's faces.

We finished by admiring the obligatory post box topper, complete with chicks and daisies! Such a lovely way to enjoy the sunshine.

A cold January morning run along the beach

When I find myself doing the school run in the morning I often like to combine it with stopping for a run on the way back. Here are some photos that I took on a very cold morning last Friday along Goring and Worthing seafront.

I started in the Goring area of Worthing and headed towards town. The sun had just risen and everything was bathed in a lovely golden light. Below is one of the fishing boats at Goring. There is a hut here where you can buy fresh fish, although I don't know how much of it is caught from this actual boat!

I love the beach huts which are all the way along the seafront in Goring.

As you head towards town you pass the Waterwise Garden which demonstrates how gardeners can reduce water consumption with plants that don't need much water. It's been established for a few years now and it's a nice place to stop and look out to sea. 

Finally on the outskirts of the town centre, here are the palm trees on the seafront, all wrapped up to keep them warm over the winter!

It's so nice having such a lovely place nearby to go for a run!

Ad - The Lego Brick Animal Trail at WWT Arundel

We received complimentary admission to WWT Arundel and lunch in exchange for this blog post.

This weekend we headed over to WWT Arundel to explore the wetlands, and to take part in a Lego brick trail adventure. There are currently 14 giant Lego brick animals to find, as well as other Lego related activities. The Lego trail is included as part of the normal admission price, and Lego Brick Workshops can be booked for £10 each, which includes a Lego owl model to take home.

Our first stop was the hand feeding bay, where for just 20p you can buy a generous handful of bird feed. There was plenty for both children to have fun feeding the ducks and spotting all the different types of birds. We also found our first Lego animal, an appropriately located mallard duck! To help you find the Lego animals as you go around the centre you can download the Lego Brick Trail Map in advance, and we easily managed to find them all!

Next we headed for the Wetlands Discovery Boat Safari. This guided electric boat takes you on a ride through a watery wetlands trail. We saw dragonflies and damselflies, plenty of fish, as well as ducks and swans. It was really interested to learn a bit about the history of the area, and our guide was happy to answer our questions.

The Lego animals scattered throughout were fascinating to see as we are a house of Lego fans, and as well as information about the creature depicted there were also interesting facts about the models, like the number of bricks used and the time taken to build.

There are a couple of play areas to keep the children busy, with fun and challenging equipment in lovely natural settings. 

We took a lovely walk along a boardwalk through the reeds along wooden decks and bridges. It was really peaceful and we enjoyed following the rustling noises in the undergrowth and seeing what we could spot.

We finished our day with some pond dipping at the Pond Explorer Station. We were greeted by a friendly guide who explained what we needed to do, and we had fun dipping our nets and seeing what we could find. There were pots and magnifying glasses to examine our finds further, along with identification guides to help.

We had a really lovely day out at WWT Arundel, there was lots to do and the Lego brick animals definitely added to our fun. I'd really recommend a trip here if you are looking for a family outing!

The Lego animals will be at the centre until the 1st September, so you have plenty of time left to plan a visit over the school holidays.

The Angmering Garage Sale Trail 2018

Last year we really loved taking part in our community garage sale trail, and so I was definitely keen to take part again this year! Around 60 houses took part, and everyone was published on a map so that the shoppers could find us all. I do declutter regularly so I didn't have a huge amount to sell, but we sorted through the children's rooms and they came up with a tables worth of bits and pieces each to sell. They were really excited to be joining in.

Like last year I made a big batch of brownies and cookies to sell. To be honest it probably cost nearly as much in ingredients as we made selling them, but they were very popular and hopefully enticed people over to view our wares! I split to proceeds between the children and they were very happy with that.

I also had a big box of free stuff to put out - things that weren't quite good enough for the charity shop but were too nice to throw away. The vast majority of it went and one couple even gave me some money for it - hopefully I managed to save some things from landfill.

There was a steady stream of visitors, not nearly as many as you'd get at a car boot sale but it felt much friendlier and it was lovely to meet and chat to so many people. I didn't make a fortune but I got rid of nearly everything that I had, including lots of crafty bits and pieces, and the children sold some of their larger things too.

I also put out a big tin of painted rocks for people to take, and we'll be hiding those left behind around the village over the next few weeks, I'm looking forward to seeing if people share their adventures.

It was a really lovely community event and I hope that I'll be able to take part again next year!

Our craze for this summer - rock painting

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

The last few summers have been marked by various crazes. There were the loom bands, the fidget spinners and then those Sainsbury's Lego cards. This summer we are jumping on board with a craze that has been around for a while but has only just reached us locally - rock painting. The idea is to decorate stones and them hide them, with instructions on the back for finders to share a photo on social media. There might be a hashtag, or the details of a Facebook page. If you find a rock you can keep it, but it's more fun to re-hide it for someone else to find.

A local group has recently been set up for our village, and so I've been busy collecting stones for us to paint. I find that Posca pens (affiliate link) are brilliant for decorating the rocks - the come in lots of really bright and vibrant colours and are very easy for the children to use. When decorated they then need to be sealed to protect them. You can use clear nail polish, varnish or a sealing spray, we've been using this one - Plastikote Fast Dry Project Enamel (affiliate link) - which is working well.

To start with I let the children have a go and these are the ones that they produced - they obviously liked the idea of giving the rocks faces!

While they were at school I could resist having a go myself. There is so much inspiration online, and I used this Unicorn rock painting tutorial to get me started, I think that a new Pinterest board is in order!

One of our rocks has already been found and shared on Facebook which was very exciting. I'm not quite sure how well we should be hiding them or whether it's better to leave them somewhere obvious like on a wall or post, some of ours may be hidden a little too well and need to be moved! I'm hoping it's going to help get us up and out over the summer, and we'll be looking out for them wherever we are now around the country, in case we spot one that we can help to travel a bit further!

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

Normans and Crusaders at Arundel Castle, April 2018

This weekend we visited Arundel Castle for the Normans and Crusaders event taking place over the Easter weekend. This is the first event of the season for Arundel Castle, and it's a chance to get a glimpse into 12th Century life.

With a few drops of rain threatening, we started our visit in the craft tent. Children had the choice of a crown, shield or catapult, and Mia went with a sparkly crown while Harry chose to make a catapult. Mia spent ages decorating her crown with pens and jewels...

...and it didn't take Harry long to put together a catapult and practice firing small projectiles at a fantastic toy castle.

Luckily after that it brightened up a bit, and so we explored the rest of the attractions outside. There was a cooking demonstration, birds of prey, and lots of other interesting things to see. Harry also had a go at archery!

Throughout the day there were lots of different displays in the arena. We really enjoyed the weapons and armour demonstration, with real historical figures represented and lots of fascinating information about the clothing, weapons and also the castle itself.

You can see a short video below showing some of the fun that we had at the event!

We also spent time exploring the castle rooms and keep - you can read more about what else there is to see at Arundel Castle in my blog post from last year - Arundel Castle, West Sussex.

We were provided with a family press pass in exchange for sharing our visit on social media and on my blog.

A flight on the British Airways i360 observation tower in Brighton

At the weekend it was Ram's birthday, and as part of a day out in Brighton we were welcomed aboard the British Airways i360 observation tower to enjoy a flight above the city.

The British Airways i360 opened in August 2016, and the 138 metre high observation tower has quickly become a distinctive and popular landmark attraction on the seafront. The observation tower raises visitors above the city in a fully enclosed and spacious glass viewing pod, with plenty of space to walk around and enjoy views across Brighton, out to sea, and over the South Downs.

You need to arrive for your flight about 20 minutes beforehand to pass through security. In the waiting area there is a really interesting video showing the tower's construction, and plenty of information about the tower. You can watch the pod as it descends from the previous flight, and then it's a smooth process to board.

The pod inside is really big, with plenty of space to make sure that everyone can enjoy the views. There's also a bar on board - it would be lovely to enjoy a celebration with a glass of champagne.

It was a bit of a gloomy day when we visited so I was a bit apprehensive about what we'd be able to see, but it wasn't a problem at all and we still had a brilliant view.

We are quite familiar with Brighton seafront from the ground but it was fascinating to see it from above, it's surprising how compact Brighton is and how high rise some of the buildings are. The ride is really smooth, and it's not in the least claustrophobic because the pod is so roomy.

It was really interesting to be able to see so far out to sea. We had a good view of the Rampion Wind Farm which is currently under construction, a much better look at it than you can see from the beach.

We downloaded the free app for our phones which Harry loved using. There's a viewing guide which you can match up to your surroundings to help you spot the landmarks, and a treasure hunt with different things to spot and photograph around the pod.

I loved how some of the buildings like the Brighton Metropole hotel close by had decorated their roof - I'd definitely do that if I owned a roof nearby!

The ride lasted just over 20 minutes, with a long stop at the top giving you plenty of time to enjoy the highest view in all directions. There was a member of staff on board to point out landmarks and answer any questions. When you leave the tower you have the chance to buy photographs of your group, and there's a souvenir shop with some lovely Brighton and beach themed gifts. We really enjoyed our trip and I'd definitely recommend it, whether you are local to Brighton or travelling from further afield!

We received complimentary tickets to the attraction in exchange for this review.

Go Ape Junior at Tilgate Park, Crawley

At the weekend we were invited to try out Go Ape in Tilgate Park, Crawley. I completed the adult course there last year for my Dad's birthday and enjoyed it very much, so I thought that it was time for the children to have a turn. We've seen similar courses in several forest locations recently and so they knew what to expect, and as they've both really come on lately in confidence we thought that they would be able to manage and enjoy it.

Go Ape Junior is aimed at children aged 6 - 12, although younger children can take part as long as they are over 1 metre tall and accompanied around the course by an adult. We had decided that the children were old and confident enough to go around the course by themselves and it was the right decision - I think that if one of us had been up there with them there might have been a few more wobbles, but as it was they just had to get on with it!

We booked for the 11am session on a Saturday in the school holidays. After we had signed in and run through some written safety instructions with the children they were fitted with their harnesses. They were both very excited, although Mia in particular was a bit nervous which surprised me as she's usually the most confident of the two! 

They were shown how to attach their harness to the cable on a small practice area, and they had a go at moving around it. This was really good as it gave them the chance to get used to the process of moving along the cable, and they were then very excited to get started. You are given a full hour to spend on the course, and your time starts from when your safety briefing has finished. 

There are two courses at Tilgate. Course 1 is quite short and a lot easier. Course 2 is a fair bit longer and has more more tricky crossings to navigate. Both courses end with a zip wire. Harry breezed through both courses, but Mia found Course 2 a little more difficult. There were a couple of moments when she hesitated, I could see her lip trembling a little bit and I was wishing that I was up there with her. But then with encouragement from Harry and the other children, and us on the ground, she steeled herself up to it and finished without any problems. She had such a big smile on her face when she finished a crossing that she had found challenging!

The time that they started was written on their wristband and they could go around as many times as they liked within their hour. Harry managed Course 1 three times and Course 2 twice, Mia finished Course 1 four times and Course 2 once. They both found that they had plenty of time.

The zip wire was definitely the best bit of the course, even though neither of them really mastered the act of a smooth landing!

Both children had such a sense of achievement when they had finished the course, it was really good to see how they had challenged themselves, as well as having a lot of fun.

Here's a short video showing the course in action!

Our Junior Go Ape experience was complimentary in exchange for this review. At time of writing a child's adventure on Go Ape Junior at Tilgate costs £18.