Week at home

Monday

Tom and Harrison

Tom has been missing his friend Harrison, so I contacted his mum to arrange a day out.  It turns out that they (all 6 of them) have been staying with Harrison's Dad's parents in their 3 bed house in Lytham since holidays started.  They were planning to go into Blackpool today for the second day of airshow so invited us along.

We thought it a good idea so headed in.  We parked up at Bispham so we could get the tram down to the centre of Blackpool (very important!)  I went laden with all types of clothes as it wasn't looking good: grey skies, rain and wind.  We got on the tram in rain and got off it 10 minutes later in bright sunshine - it was going to be that type of day.  I was worried that the airshow wouldn't happen as there was a lot of low, thick cloud.

Love heart left by one of the planes

Anyhow, we got to the main drag and went to M&S for lunch (the healthiest option I could find), a quick dash into Primark to get Tom some jumpers (all his are getting short on him) and then headed to the Central Pier.  We went into the amusement arcade, changed £1 into 2ps and spent a good 15 minutes loosing it!  Although we did have some luck - I won a charm which says 'teacher'? and Tom got a plane kit after collecting what we thought were lots of tokens (we took our tickets to the kiosk - the lady looked at me with disbelief that I had dared to come to the window with just 20 tickets - I realised afterwards that the others in the queue had hundreds!!!!!)

Tom on the beach

We then met the Ward family - complete with Aunt and 2 grandparents and found ourselves a space on the prom to watch the airshow from.  At this point the sky cleared and the wind dropped.  Perfect conditions for an airshow.  Not so great for us as we had no suncream (we weren't expecting sun).  The Wards didn't have any either!  Luckily Tom had his sunhat so he was ok - but I came home looking a little red in the face.

The airshow was great.  Yesterday was all the fighter jets, today was all the vintage planes.  All the action took place between the Central and Northern piers.  We had a Spitfire, Hurricane, Messerschmitt, a number of helicpoters, bi-planes, stunt planes etc etc.  The red devils did a parachute drop and there were wing walkers.  A great show - it went on for 3 hours and it was free!!!!!!  The boys ended up on the sand making sandcastles and playing cricket (well one boy played cricket - guess who?!)  A good day was had by all!

I unfortunately forgot to put my card back in my camera - so was unable to take any good pics of the planes, just these I took with my phone.  The sea air certainly had an effect on Tom - he slept the whole way home!!!!!!!

Tuesday

Today was the Lunesdale Show which is held in Kirkby Lonsdale.  We haven't been to an agricultural show since we moved here, so I thought it would be a good idea.  I don't think I chose well.  The whole show was badly badly organised - I spent the whole day frustrated.

First of all I stupidly decided to follow the signs to the show which took you past Kirkby Lonsdale, though a whole load of back roads and back into the town.  There I hit a traffic jam and had to wait 45 minutes to get into the show ground.  There was not one person on the road managing the queue!  When I got to the top of the queue, I noticed that the queue of cars coming from Kirkby Lonsdale town centre was 3!  I drove further for no reason.  That put me in a bad mood to start with, although I was slightly cheered by the fact the ancient person on the gate got confused with the entrance fee, meaning Tom got in free.  Normally I would point out a mistake like that and pay up - but I figured it was pay back for the long queue!

We went to look around the animals in the show - but as a visitor it was pretty much impossible to get to them.  There were show rings, but once again as a visitor it was really hard to get to see what was going on in them as there were cars parked all around and all the action took place where you couldn't see very well!  More frustration.

There were a lot of stalls, so we spent a while looking round them, bumped into some people we knew etc.  Then Tom said he was hungry.  Now I hadn't taken any food - hoping to get some farm produce here, and also wanting to contribute to the local economy.  Oh no!  There were only 2 catering vans, and both had huge long queues!  We ended up having cake for lunch from one of the stalls, sat by a show ring were we could see horses in the distance!  Humpfh!

The afternoon faired a little better - we managed to find ourselves some space squeezed between some tent pegs to watch some Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling.  Quite good fun and bizarre outfits.  In the end Tom was too hungry to concentrate on anything, so we left very disappointed by the whole thing.  I'm sure if you are a farmer showing your animals it is a great show because you are in with the animals but as a visitor it was really bad.

We went to Booths, got ourselves the last sandwich on the shelf and gobbled it up before heading home.  Luckily Dad had finished work so we had a fun afternoon - I was baking and Tom and Daddy playing football.

Wednesday

On Wednesday Katherine, an old school friend of mine who I got re-aquainted through via FB and one of Matt's friends (long story full of coincidence) and her family came for the day.  They were renting a cottage in Ambleside and thought it a good idea to meet up for the day.  I gave her the choice of a Lake District or Yorkshire Dales day - they wanted to come here so we brought them here for the day.

Before photo

Wow, they chose a good day!  It was hot, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and no wind either AND it was clear.  This happens about 5 days a year!!!!!!!  They arrived around 11am with picnic already packed, so we gave them a choice of the waterfalls trail or climb Ingleborough - leaning towards the Ingleborough climb because it was such a perfect day for it.  They submitted so off to Ingleborough we went.  We did our classic climb - so parked at the Hill Inn and climbed up and over, ending at our house.  We slapped on the sun cream and strode off.  Having 3 children helped - they egged each other on.  When we got to the really steep bit - Edward and Lily zoomed off up - they were both like monkeys scaling the wall - whilst Tom's legs are still a little bit short so he still needed help up.  We made it in good time and the view was absolutely glorious - we could see for miles and miles - the coast was clearly visible and the Lake District mountains.  We had a picnic on the top and then headed back down.  There was a little moaning from Lily - but we got home in good time and in good spirits.

We all made it to the top!

The children wanted to have a splash in the swimming pool, so after a brew and some cake we headed off.  The pool was full.  It has never been full.  Not a problem though - the children went off to play in the stream.  After half an hour I asked again and we were allowed in.  The children jumped in immediately, whilst Katherine, Pete and I sat sunning ourselves on the terraces.  Pete got made to go in by the children and spent the best part of an hour being strangled by them - with very good humour.  Katherine and I chatted and drank cold drinks whilst enjoying the last of the sunshine.

We eventually headed back - the BBQ was out - at last.  We spent all evening outside - the children playing with water balloons and the adults sitting and drinking wine / beer etc.  It was a lovely evening and once the BBQ was ready everyone ate up well.

3 icons of Yorkshire

It really was a lovely day out - the children got on really well - like old friends, which was great because they had only met once before for dinner, Pete, Katherine's husband was incredibly easy to get to know and chat with - feel like I've known him all my life - although he is remarkably similar to Tim Milburn in looks and manner (a bit taller though) which is slightly eerie.  It was a warm day - from both sunshine and friendship - one to remember, don't think it could have been any more perfect.  They eventually left around 9pm - a bit late but we were having such a lovely evening I don't think any of us wanted it to stop!



Thursday

Prairie dog

Loopy giraffe

Thursday was Tom's treat day.  We said he could choose a day out for getting a good school report.  He said he wanted to go to the zoo.  He was a little tired from yesterday - but today was the only day we could fit it in.  We negotiated 2 traffic jams to get there so were a little frustrated on arrival - especially as we thought we were being clever by going the back way to the car park, only to find they had moved the car park!  We knew they were changing the layout of the zoo, but we were completely astounded by how much it had changed since last time we were there.  Not only had the entrance moved, but most of the animals had moved.  In fact at the beginning we were a bit lost and it took us quite a while to get our bearings.

It's all been done well though and the zoo is way way bigger than it was back in Easter.  In fact even though it was a lovely sunny day, the place didn't feel packed (although that might be because some people gave up in the road works).  We happily walked around saying hello to the animals.  The big cats didn't give us much of a show (the snow leopards, I think had melted as we couldn't find them anywhere!), the lions were crouched with their backs to us, the Sri Lankan Leopards were no where to be seen, the jaguars were up and out though and came over to say hello to us - but even they were melting in the sun and looked quite gormless.

American vulture

The best animals by far were the giraffes!  They were out with the rhinos in a huge field.  A group of them were up by the restaurant, so we decided to stop for tea and bun and had them outside where we could watch them.  The dominant male was doing a weird thing with his tongue, slapping it about from side to side.  It was almost as if he had had a dental injection in it and was trying to get it back in his mouth but failing, it was all over the place and quite comical to watch.  There were also some baby giraffes to watch - always a bonus.

After tea and a bun we explored the rest of the zoo and Tom had a ride on the much extended zoo train.  It was a lovely day, so sunny too - that's two sunny days in a row - almost a record!

Parrot

We were all quite tired from being out in the sunshine and also as a result of a very busy Wednesday so we made our escape back home.  Tom slept in the car which meant that he was refreshed enough to play football with the village children in the evening (they meet every Thursday evening).  Matt and I took him down and settled down to watch.  It was so much fun.  Tom did really well, being one of the highest scorers and showing some great skills.  He still doesn't like tackling much - but he did do some and certainly didn't disgrace himself - quite the contrary.  Everyone knows his name now.

Friday

Well I said we aren't allowed more than two glorious days in a row - this morning it was chucking it down.  Thick grey, angry clouds and rain, rain, rain.  Of course it is Friday swimming lessons.  We went down to the pool and found very few people down there!  It always surprises me when this happens, because you are going to get wet in the pool anyway aren't you, so why worry about a little bit of rain on the way down to the pool?  Also when it is cold and rainy, the pool water feels lovely and warm.  However, it was to our advantage because it meant Tom's lesson only had 3 children in it rather than 8.  (One lesson went ahead with only one child!).  They did some serious swimming bits and then the teacher showed them how to do underwater somersaults and handstands - fab, Tom lapped it up.  The teacher helped him with the handstands and got kicked in the stomach as a reward - oops.  He came out shivering but happy.

When we got home we headed over to Ireby Cafe for a big hot lunch.  There we bumped into our old next door neighbours which was a lovely surprise.  We then had a lazy afternoon.  Tom went to bed for a nap without a protest and slept for over an hour and a half.  There was a reason - we have tickets to see the outdoor theatre production of Oliver Twist at Williamson Park.  It doesn't start until 7.15 and finishes around 10.30 - another very late night.

Two flat capped boys waiting for Oliver Twist.

Luckily the rain stopped.  We headed to Williamson Park with chairs, blankets and a picnic and made ourselves comfortable for scene 1.  We were very very glad to have brought chairs, as the ground was soggy and wet - we would have suffered from numb bums on picnic blankets.  The production was very adult and not a musical, and set in the woods, but apart from that more or less stuck to the original story.  The fact that we moved from place to place within the park with every scene and that they had dressed up the woods to look really pretty, meant that Tom didn't get bored - plus there were actors doing things all over the place all the time - so there was plenty to look for.  He said he didn't understand much but enjoyed it never the less.  We did get cold when the production was right at the top of Williamson Park (it is on top of a hill) and the wind whipped around us - but with blankets over us we were fine and it was quite novel sitting out in the dark with blankets wrapped around us.

Note for next time - take a BIG picnic - a usual picnic isn't enough - we were all still hungry after eating it, and if it has been raining or might be cold - go for the chair and blanket option: a lot to carry, but definitely worth it.