Busy Weekend

My favourite animal

Saturday dawned bright and dry - at last a decent day.  Unfortunately we had some official business to do first for the house.  So off we went to Morecambe to get myself a Rangemaster Oven.  We seem to have a habit of buying houses from people that move their oven as well as everything else.  It happened to us in Telford, and again here.  The hole being left in Ingleton is 90cm - ie a range sized hole, so I have had to do some serious research into range cookers - a real chore as I'm sure you can imagine.  I have taken advice from my cakey friends and regular friends and decided on a Rangemaster with induction hob (there is no gas on the property I'm afraid).  It costs a fair amount of money, but I've been told it is worth it, I'm certainly looking forward to having 2 ovens to cook in.  Just need to buy some new pans now as our current ones don't work.

That done, we then went to Dunelm mill to buy a curtain rail (the owners are taking absolutely everything with them!) this took far too much deliberation.  Problem is that we need to buy a new bed (ours is on its last legs).  Not knowing what bed we are going to have, means we didn't know what colour curtain rail to buy.  This being our 'forever house' we want to decorate properly, not our usual haphazard - 'oh that will do for now' style.  We decided on a dark metal in the end, and just hope it works with whatever we end up choosing.  Not sure I / we are cut out for interior decoration!

One of the naughty bears

By 10.30 we were done shopping and got on with enjoying the day, so we headed for Grange-Over-Sands and did a quick bike ride on the prom.  Then lunch at the Motor Museum before heading off to South Lakes Animal Park - this is the last weekend it is free.  We thought it good last time we went so thought we would go again before they start charging again.  Many other people had the same idea - it was packed.  However, we were able to find space to enjoy ourselves.  I think we saw all the animals.  The giraffes were definitely the best, with one youngster deciding to run around his enclosure - I wouldn't say he was elegant, he was skidding and slipping all over the place and his neck was rippling in the air, but it certainly was fun to watch.  I even got to feed a giraffe some carrot which was fun.  We also saw a funny display between some Andean Bears and a Tapir.  They were in the same enclosure, we watched the Tapir break the ice in the pool and then poo in it.  The bears came over immediately, we thought in anger towards the Tapir, but one of the bears fished out some poo and then rolled his head in it????!!!!!  The other bears then came over and got very agitated and fights broke out.  All very engaging and interesting, but not really sure what was going on at all!

Tom had a great time, he was bouncing all over the place, we particularly enjoyed him telling us what he thought each animal ate for lunch, here's his list:



Tigers: cheese on toast
Leopards: grass
Lions: straw
Baboons: beef stew & dumplings
Reindeer: mud
Giraffes: porridge
Penguins: bread
Pythons: water

We stayed until almost closing time and then headed home via Booths to pick up some dinner.  Got home just before 5 - that was a very long, very expensive but very enjoyable day out.


Sunday dawned miserable, very grey, not quite raining but it was in the air.  We decided to try out the swimming pool at Hornby - they have a young family session on a Sunday morning.  I have taken Tom swimming by myself a couple of times during which he has really improved.  Matt was suitably impressed with both of us when he saw Tom in the water!  It has got to the stage now where Tom told me today that 'I don't need you to hold me Mummy!'.  He is very content in his armbands swimming whole lengths - up and down and up and down.  He still doesn't like jumping in, but his confidence has grown significantly.  I guess the next stage is to get the armbands off him - not sure how we do that.  I've been thinking about getting him to do some swimming lessons soon as he can now follow instruction and as I said is getting more and more confident AND enjoys it.  We had a really good session so rewarded Tom with lunch at Carnforth Station.  Not sure why because it was hard work getting him to eat it!

The Kent estuary at Arnside

Now it is getting lighter in the evening, we decided to go back to Arnside for the afternoon.  We had a walk along the shore in the mud, clambering over stones etc and then back for tea and a bun in the very good cafe there.  Tom was a star once again with his walking, not a whinge at all, he really does genuinely enjoy it.

Unfortunately when we got to the cafe we discovered that Tom had had an accident and not told us about it.  It was a big accident - he was soaked.  He has been getting lazier and lazier recently with his toilet.  He had a mini accident at Carnforth and another yesterday at the zoo.  We think that if he is really enjoying himself, he doesn't tell us he needs the toilet because he's worried the fun will come to an end.  We have tried to explain to him that this isn't the case, but need to be on our guard.  Oh hum, at least it is better than doing a poo - thankfully he hasn't done that for a long time.

We drove home, had dinner (curry) and then a quick shower and bed, Tom must have been tired, he didn't stop all day.