Sun & seaside

Another very busy weekend (aren't they always!)  It didn't start too well.  I asked Tom what he wanted to do on Friday and he said cycling in Morecambe.  So I swore blindly whilst loading the car with my and his bikes and drove to Morecambe.  We parked up and cycled to the stone jetty for lunch.  Tom did really well, we both really enjoyed ourselves racing along the prom.  We parked up at the Stone Jetty and he was given his choice of lunch for being such a good boy on the bike.  He had a sausage sandwich whilst I had a jacket potato.  This is where the mood changed, Tom was very very very slow at eating his sandwich - it took an hour of constant nagging before he finished it.  

We finally got back on our bikes and cycled back towards the car.  It was all going well until we saw Eric, then Tom got it in his head that he couldn't pedal past him - something about not being able to pedal past a bush next to him????!!! From that point on it was hard work getting him to pedal - he whinged and whinged and whinged.  To be fair it was cold and a little windy but as I kept telling him - he would be warmer if he cycled than not.  In the end he completely gave up!  He sat on his bike and cried.  He wouldn't come off his bike and he wouldn't cycle.  I gave him time out to sort himself out, but that didn't work.  We were both getting cold.  In the end I had to prise him off his bike, then walk with his and my bikes, down the prom, leave them against a bench, walk back, pick him up (he was also refusing to walk!) carry him past the bikes, sit him on a bench further down the prom, walk back to the bikes move them further along the prom past Tom who was still crying and so on - much fun was had as you can imagine.  

In the end a little old lady with a dog and a walking stick took pity on me, ditched her stick, and wheeled Tom's bike whilst I wheeled my bike and carried Tom back to the car.  Thank goodness for kind people, but how embarrassing - she must have been 85 plus!  As  you can imagine he was in disgrace for the rest of the day.  I thought he might fall asleep on the way home as he had cried so much, but no - so he wasn't tired.   I think he was cold, but if he had kept pedalling he would have been ok, I tried to explain to him many many times that was what he needed to do, but he just wouldn't have it.  Oh hum, he was suitably contrite back at home, didn't ask for the telly and sat and did jigsaws by himself all afternoon.  We then went out for a curry in Kirkby Lonsdale, didn't start too well - restaurant not open when we arrived and slow service, but it turned out the staff come from the other side of Keighly (over 70 miles away!) and got stuck in traffic.  They apologised and were quite pleasant, so we will try them again sometime.

Throwing stones in Dent

Saturday dawned beautiful - clear blue sky.  Tom had been told to be on his best behaviour and was in good cheer in the morning.  We asked him what he wanted to do - he said he wanted to go to the Dales, so we decided to explore Barbondale.  This is one of Matt's most favourite places in the world so it was a real test for Tom - would he like it?  We hoped so.  We needn't have worried, he had a fab time, as did we.  We had a kick around near the river and then went for a walk along the river back towards Barbon.  Think we did about 3 miles in the end.  It was a really good walk - not too steep and the walk was fenced in, meaning Tom could kick a football along it.

A model's pose

We found out that if we continued down the path we would have ended up at a pub in Barbon (something to do next time we have a nice day).  It really was beautiful, I could have walked for ever, however, we had a small boy with us who was in good cheer but would need feeding before too long, so we turned round and headed back to the car.  Oh AND we met a lovely old couple with a lovely old labrador which Tom stroked!!!!!  We then went to Dent and had lunch at the Sun Inn, which included pudding (of course) and then a play in the playground and a walk around the village which included a period of throwing stones in the river before heading back home.  Tom fell asleep in the car, he had played hard.

Sunday was a miserable day.  We headed into Kendal to take Tom swimming.  It didn't start well, after looking at the website we thought we could turn up any time, but on arriving just after 10am we found out that they run hourly sessions on a Sunday on the hour, and the learner pool was full.  We thought we would sit in the cafe and wait for the next session, no joy, the cafe was closed.  So, we went into Kendal and did some shopping.  We were too early - most shops weren't open yet!  Not great!  We ended up having a drink in the Booth's cafe and then tried again.  Success, the shops were open.  We then got to the pool for a 12 start, we were the first in, and the pool was pretty empty.  Phew!  It wasn't a great start in the pool, Tom started whinging as soon as we got there, he clung to me and was acting really scared.  In the end I gave him a talking too, it seemed to work, suddenly he started to relax and enjoy himself.  In fact he had a ball.  He swam all over the place, splashed us and himself, jumped in - yes JUMPED IN again and again and again and even asked me to pour water from a watering can all over him.  It was a complete success - we were very proud of him.  Once we were done, we went in search of lunch and ended up at Kitridding Farm for cheese scones.  Tom almost fell asleep in the car on the way back, but not quite.  This wasn't good as in the afternoon Auntie Jude arrived.  We could all tell he was tired but he would not admit it, he was in full fidget mode, wouldn't listen to us etc etc.  We ended up putting him in his bed, but he cried and cried and cried.  His stamina was amazing, there was no way he was going to let up.  I went to lie down with him, he still wouldn't relent.  In the end Matt did a deal with him, come out and be good, or straight back to his room.  He came out and was good.

The Tower and lovely sky

Monday morning Tom and I took Jude for a tour of the area including Kirkby Lonsdale (no Church cat Bob this time unfortunately) and Ingleton including Neptis for lunch (this is becoming a regular tour for visitors staying with us)  We returned home and then all piled in the car for Blackpool.  It is the illuminations at the moment - they end on 5th November.  It is really busy this week as it is darker earlier now the clocks have gone back.  We parked up and went to explore the North Pier.  It was full of tacky shops and amusements (didn't disappoint), we even saw that someone had written a huge Tom in the sand below us (added bonus) and then had a drink in the bar at the end.  The bar was pumping out some really loud cheesy music.  Tom liked it and started bouncing on me.  In the end we did a full dance routine. he loved it.  So nice as normally he tells me to stop if I even hint at a dance!  Matt got it on video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7RhvF_F7c8&feature=plcp

Pirates

Daleks

We then headed off to the lights.  We were a little early, we thought they came on at 5.00, but it was 5.15.  Once they came on they were great.  I was a little worried what Tom's reaction would be as recently he has been saying that he doesn't like lights, but he was mesmerised by it.  "Lots of lights" "Too many colours to count" "Blue, green, white, red, yellow - 29 colours!"  There was definitely lots to see.  In the end he walked 3.25 miles along the prom looking at them.  There were big lights with moving parts, nursery rhymes, haunted lights, daleks, Basil Brush, Noddy, Postman Pat, Romans, Egyptians, pirate ship, big rocket, and a huge display about recycling.  It was fabulous and Tom was really engaged by them.  On top of all that the illuminations were next to the tram line, so there was a lot of tram spotting going on.  Some of the trams were illuminated themselves, one was illuminated as a steam train (really really good) and two as boats - one which was very noisy: tooting and honking its way along the tracks.

A good time was had by all

We finally got to the end of the lights and went in search of a chippy.  We found the biggest chippy we had ever seen.  Queued not long and got served very very quickly.  Fish and chips for Matt and me and scampi and chips for Jude and a bit of everything for Tom all served with bread and butter.  Tom demolished his portion and ate half of the bread and butter.  He had his first chip butty - it went down very very well.  Think I may have started something bad!!!!!

We then got a tram back to the pier.  We had to wait ages and then were crammed on, but Tom didn't mind.  He was so well behaved for the whole trip, Matt and I were really proud of him.  We carried him back the last couple of minutes to the car and then headed home.  He stayed in good cheer for most of the trip before nodding off.  He went straight to bed when we got back, Matt, Jude and I weren't far behind