Weekend

Grim day in Skipton

So now Tom is in Year 2, we have decided to give him some pocket money.  We have introduced him to the world of football stickers - buying him what we thought was the 2015/16 album and some stickers to start him off in Devon (only to find that it was the 2014/15 season - poo!)  We have decided to give him £2 a week - which gives him a chance to buy 4 sets of stickers, or 2 sets of stickers and some sweets or whatever he wants.   He doesn't get the money for free - he has agreed some rules - so he has a couple of jobs to do (empty cutlery in dishwasher / do recycling etc) and some behavioural points to think about (go to bed nicely, brush teeth nicely, hang wet towels over the banisters etc).  It seems to be working so far.  We gave him his first £2 on Saturday and he immediately said he wanted to put it in the bank.  I was impressed, but thought I should explain fully the concept of pocket money, once I did he didn't want to put it in the bank but save it up for a new Bruder toy.  We will see what happens...

Nervous newsreader

Saturday morning was horrible - rainy and windy.  It was the first session of the Craven Wanderers football season.  At one point I thought it would be cancelled, but as 9.30 neared, the rain and wind eased.  Tom wanted to go, but when he got there, he went all quiet and said he didn't like the wind and didn't want to play.  As I was trying to reason with him, something caught his eye and suddenly he was off????!!!!   Phew!!!!!  It was a bit of a shame that only one other child in his age group turned up (Lexi from his class), none of the boys turned up.  This means that the under 7s team (they have proper matches against local villages and towns) is going to be made up of Tom, Lexi and a whole lot of 5 year olds.  I have been trying to convince other boys to come along, but of the 7 boys in Tom's class, 3 hate sport, 1 is so good he plays in the under 8s team and the others don't really care.  I will try to encourage them, but it is like beating a head against a brick wall!

Reading the news

Anyhow, as I said the rain stopped as soon as we got there and it stayed away for the whole training session.  It started again just as we walked home.  Tom had had a good session, he loves the coaches and the atmosphere is very warm - focusing on having fun, there is no pressure.  Perfect for him to find his feet and grow.

Climbing Pendle Hill

Matt didn't go to the football, feeling rubbish with cold.  When we got back home he suggested a train ride to Bradford and a curry.  We didn't argue.  We drove to Skipton and had tea and a bun at the new farm shop.  We then headed to the train station and got the direct train to Bradford.  First stop was the media museum to look around.  Tom had a go being a newsreader on the BBC News, and did a pretty good job considering the autocue was very fast.  Before too long our tummies were rumbling, so we headed over to the Kashmir for another fantastically cheap quality curry.  We had a freshly cooked plate of onion bhaji, 2 curries, rice, naan, 2 chapatis, poppadums, chutney etc and soft drinks for £14.  How do they make any money?  It all went and it was all delicious.

We headed back home with happy bellies.

Ingleborough in the distance

Sunday was a  lovely sunny day.  We decided to go for a walk and settled on Pendle Hill near Blacko (on the way to Colne / Nelson etc).  We were expecting the hill to be in the middle of no-where but found some very lovely villages on the way, including Barley where there was a car park for the Pendle Hill walkers (full of TV crews and catering vans so they are filming something here - we didn't see anything though), a cafe in the car park which was full.  We had a picnic with us though so we walked past that and 2 very lovely looking pubs to the hill.  The hill was a good climb especially if you are full of cold (all 3 of us) so we huffed and puffed our way up to the top.  We were rewarded with a fantastic view of the area and enjoyed it as we ate our picnic, with about 100 other walkers - it was a busy day - but it was clear and warm, and local to a large population so can't really complain.

Flying Tom

We decided to do a full circle of the hill so left the throngs and finished off the walk by ourselves.  We then had to try out one of the pubs for a drink before heading home (it was a lovely pub too - must go back for food one Friday evening).

Altogether a lovely day.  Tom's walking was ace.