Trains and bikes

Where to stash naughty boys

We've had an unseasonal 3-day weekend as I decided to take Friday off so that we could all go and play trains on the Severn Valley Railway without the weekend hordes in attendance - a good decision as it turned out. The SVR had its annual diesel gala and ran a huge number of trains on the day (9.00am until after 11.00pm), and we counted at least 13 preserved diesel locomotives in use, some of which were in amazing condition given their age. A huge green engine called "Atlantic Conveyor" won our prize for being "Wow Train" of the day. There wasn't a speck of dust on it, inside and out - a real credit to whoever looks after it. We kept remarking that Tom's grandfathers would probably have enjoyed the day too.

"Western Courier"

Tom kept going very well all day -  the only slight panic coming when the (extremely loud) exhaust note of "Western Courier" (big maroon engine in photo) spooked him. Otherwise, he spent most of the day pointing shouting "train", "coach" or "truck" as appropriate. It was also quite a good exercise in getting him to learn his colours as the engines and coaches came in a real variety of shades. We had regular trips to the buffet to keep ourselves fed and watered (it's hard work, this playing on trains). As is often the case on days like this, he was asleep within a minute of getting in the car to come home. Not much doubt about what he was dreaming about on Friday night.

"Defiance"

Given what an exciting time we all had on Friday (especially Nik, who went out drinking with pals in Ironbridge in the evening) and the fact that the weather forecast had (correctly) predicted a nasty day, we decided to have a quiet Saturday. We headed into Wellington so that Nik could stock up with cake ribbons at the market. We made a fundamental error by walking through Wellington station and not hanging around long enough to see a train - cue grumpiness, crying and a refusal to walk from you-know-who. We eventually convinced him to be a bit less petulant, ran various errands, had an early lunch in the pub and drove home via Wylie & Holland, my local motorbike dealer. It's normally a bustling, lively place full of bikes of every kind, but the showroom looked terribly bare and lifeless this time. Perhaps the recession has hit them. If so, I hope they manage to weather the storm - I've always had excellent service there and I do like drooling over all the new Triumphs in there. Nik was out babysitting Mae (Tom's girlfriend) in the evening, so I had a quiet evening in - sadly, not even an old cat for company these days.

Today looked like being a nicer day, so we decided to get some fresh air at Attingham Park - our nearest NT property. There's a good playground that Tom always enjoys charging round and we thought it was high time he got to grips with his Triumph Daytona balance bike that we got him last Christmas. Up to now, he's been a bit scared of it as it (obviously) falls over when he lets go of the handlebars. So, we allowed him to get his courage up in the playground, which he did to excess as you can see from the video - I've never seen him so dizzy. We must have been in there for almost an hour, but it worked, because as we took a stroll through the woodland walk, he finally realised that riding a bike is great fun. We still had to hold the back of the bike, but he did all the steering himself and kept going for long stretches - maybe 100 yards at a time - grinning from ear to ear. So, a great success all in all. We now need to take the bike with us when we go out, as frequent practice should cement his new-found ability and enthusiasm.
We had a quick lunch at Sam's Cafe at Long Lane, our greasy spoon of choice. Tom demolished a sausage sandwich (smothered in ketchup), but Nik and I held back as we're going out for dinner at the excellent Miller & Carter in Wolverhampton tonight - I recently hit another work-related milestone, so this is our treat for reaching it.