A Great Great time in Southport

Small boy, long pier

On Saturday we finally got ourselves down to Southport to visit Shelm and Bob - they are the last of Nan's generation on either side of my family.  Shelm and Bob have always been young at heart, with a great sense of fun.  We know that Shelm has been unwell recently (one reason why we haven't visited them in the last year) so we were expecting to see a frail version of her.  We were wrong.  She hadn't changed at all.  Bob was a bit thinner and a bit huskier, but apart from that they were the usual Shelm and Bob.  They really are very easy company and conversation flowed.

Tom didn't show any shyness at all and made himself at home immediately on their thick carpet with his cars (he brought a bag full of toys as I told him he was going to a house without toys).  This meant we were able to chat and they were able to enjoy watching him enjoy himself.

We went to Southport for lunch at a pub overlooking the pier and shore where Matt tried out the macaroni cheese burger (otherwise known as heart attack on a plate), Tom carried on being quite well behaved and ate his meal (pizza) nicely.  Shelm then suggested we went for a walk on the pier.  We were all quite surprised at this as the pier is a good length.  She said she was fine but we would have to go at her pace.  I was quite pleased at this as I had rather overdone it at Cobra Fit on Friday and was suffering from very achy legs, her pace was about as fast as I could manage!  We walked down the pier.  This is a perfect pier for Mr Tom as it has a tram running up and down it.  We called it the Southport Bullet Tram - it went so fast that Tom could outrun it without much effort.  In fact I think Bob and Shelm could out run it as well if they wanted it to.  Anyhow, it was a vehicle on tracks and that's all that counts when Tom is involved.

At the end of the pier

At the end of the pier is an amusement place with old machines that only take old pennies.  As Tom is now an expert in amusements, we got him a handful of pennies to play with.  We lost them in record time, not helped by the fact that many of the machines weren't working properly, so when we should have won, nothing came out!  We tried to educate, Tom telling him that the pennies were old pennies etc but he wasn't interested, so we kept one to take home with us.

We then walked back down the pier to the cars - Tom racing the tram as we went.

We then parted company for a while.  We decided to have a quick look around the shops (we were in the big city after all), however, as soon as we got in to the shops we realised that actually we don't like shopping and as there wasn't anything we needed, why on earth were we doing it?!  As a result we walked back to the car and drove back to Shelm and Bob's.  Here we were treated to ham sandwiches and scones - a proper 'high tea'.  We then said our goodbyes and headed home.  It was almost 6pm before we left.  We had a really lovely day, it was lovely to spend some time with them and to see that they are just the same old Shelm and Bob - a couple who obviously love each other deeply and have a wicked sense of humour - a perfect combination.  A fantastic example for us all.

The Conqueror

We thought Tom would fall asleep on the way home, but he was buzzing and instead talked at us all the way back!

By Jubilee Cave

Sunday, we didn't really have any plans.  It was a dry day so we decided to go for a walk.  We headed to Settle, parked up in the market place and then did a 5 mile circular walk up in the hills.  It was a great walk, within a mile we were completely in the middle of no-where with no signs of habitation and just the odd sheep for company.  We were right in the middle of bumpy limestone landscape with funny shaped hills and caves all around.  It was a truly interesting walk, we had lunch outside a cave and did a little exploring afterwards, but we didn't have hard hats, so it would have been foolish to do any more.

Surprised Swaledale

We got back to Settle around 3pm thirsty so headed for a pub to revive ourselves.  We found a good one too, The Lion - very cosy and a very good looking menu: we will have to revisit one Friday night.  We then headed to Booths to find something for dinner and headed back.

It was another busy weekend, but we all had fun and Tom was a star.