Trainspotting

The country's least needed station map?

The local paper here printed special vouchers for a £10 ticket for the day to go anywhere on the Northern Rail network.  The boys didn't have to be asked twice, so they went off for the day.  I tried to do some shopping in Lancaster, but quickly gave up (I really do hate it) and returned home in time to go to the Scouts jumble sale - I got Tom some shorts and another Encyclopedia and headed home.  Alice (Charlie's mum) has just gone back to school (she's an English teacher) and phoned up asking if I wanted to pop round for a catch up.  Fantastic, so I popped round and ended up there for about 3 hours finding out all her gossip - by all accounts she's loving it despite all the barriers the government put up - did you know English GCSE isn't graded as A,B,C etc as of this year, but 1, 2, 3 etc, but the government haven't released what the numbered grades will mean, which puts teachers in the difficult position of having to grade work without knowing what the grades are?  How ridiculous?!  I could never work in the public sector, it would drive me mad!

I got home, made tea, ate tea and then went to collect the boys who had had sushi on the way home (lucky things).  They had had a good time.

HST at Doncaster

Yes, Tom and I decided to do a grand tour of Yorkshire on Northern Rail trains. Nik dropped us off at Ribblehead and we got the usual train down to Leeds, pausing only to wave at the Highland cattle at Hellifield. We had about 45 minutes to wait for our next train, so we disappeared into Marks & Spencer to get our lunch. Prawn sandwiches for him (surprise surprise), some healthy sandwiches for me, and we also shared a part of fruit and a packet of beetroot and sweet potato crisps. He wanted to down them straightaway (before 11 o'clock), but I insisted we waited until we got to Doncaster, our next stop. We arrived there around noon, his prawn sandwiches were gone by about five past, and we then spent an hour watching a variety of passenger and freight trains passing through the station. It is a busy line there.

Sushi demolition

Our next voyage was a fast train to Hull, which stopped only at Goole on the way. Tom thought the station was called Google. This was my first visit to Hull, which is another of those northern cities with a very fine Victorian railway station. Not on the same scale as, say, York or Newcastle, but very attractive nonetheless. I noticed that there was a shopping centre next door to the station, so we toddled in, fortified ourselves with doughnuts, and had a look round the shops, where Tom was delighted to find a toy shop full of Top Trumps packs. Two sets were duly purchased (creatures of the deep and Deadly 60), which provided him with ample entertainment on our next to legs, Hull to York and York to Leeds.

Mummy going down

Leeds turned out to be just another food-purchasing interlude, as we headed straight to Wasabi to pick up some sushi for the train back to Ribblehead. Again, someone wanted to get stuck into his on the platform. I again insisted he waited until the train actually left the platform, and I think half his bento had been consumed before we were clear of the station points. The whole lot had gone before Shipley, our first stop. His capacity for sushi is truly extraordinary. Still, I think it's great. Not many British kids his age would even consider trying it.
We arrived back in the Dales bang on time, to find Mummy waiting, and we all headed home to tell her about our little adventure.

Swinging

Tom was really excellent company today. I don't recall saying a single cross word to him (other than "no you can't eat it yet"). Anyway, these cheap days out happen two or three times a year, so will have to think about where to explore next time.

Sunday
In the morning Matt and Tom went across to the Community Field to help put the cricket pitch to bed (i.e. shovel a tonne and a half of loam, sand etc on it).  Tom came back fine, Matt came back shattered.  We went to Inglesport for lunch and then drove over to Sizergh Castle for the afternoon.  We walked around the grounds, did a quick 'spot the object' quiz in the house, had tea and a bun and then walked their wild trail which was really rather good.  Lots of obstacles made from trees etc to tackle, rhymes to read and solve and a trail to follow.  We all had fun.  Then back home for tea.  School tomorrow and at last some cakes for me to make, back to the old routine.