Planning Update

So we had an interesting and useful phone conversation with the lady at the Planning Office at the council today.  Turns out that the paperwork for the development isn't in order and more importantly they haven't paid the fee, so as far as the council are concerned the matter isn't currently live.

We have lodged our many objections anyway.  The lady we spoke to said that we were very early in objecting as this was the first time she had received objections so early in the process.  However, she has accepted them and told us that if we think of any more, to send them on to her.  We've done as much as we can for the moment, but will keep our ears and eyes open.

Back to school

Tom started school again on Tuesday.  I was going to spend the week tidying, clearing and re-organising the house, but one of my best customers came by and ordered a cake for pick up on Friday, so the house didn't get the huge tidy it was scheduled.  Nevermind - it was an interesting cake to do.

Tom had his first swimming lesson in the next group up on Wednesday and didn't look out of place in it - in fact he was out in front sometimes with his speedy laps.  He was pleased with himself as were we.

Thursday we had a visit from Tom Brown Senior - he is wanting to put 25 houses in the field behind us with the access point being the side of our house.  Hummmmm.  He mentioned that they are having difficulty with the access point as it isn't very wide.  One of the solutions is to demolish this house?!!!!!!  He suggested that maybe we would like to swap this house with one on the development.  Looking at the plots on the development, there aren't any big enough to fit this house and its grounds in, PLUS he didn't have any info on what sort of house it would be?  No-one in their right mind would say yes to this would they?  Not a great evening for us.

Training Trophy Winner

We had a quiet weekend as Matt was in Cambridge and the weather was awful.  Saturday Tom went to football in the scout hut.  He did really well - in fact he won the training trophy for 3 awesome goals so that was great (problem was he got bashed on the nose right at the end of training, meaning he was crying as he got the trophy - didn't quite get to enjoy the moment!).  We came home, had lunch, then I had a wedding cake consultation, so Tom watched telly whilst I talked cake with a bride and groom.  By the time they had left it was getting on for 3pm.  We had a think of what to do - we needed to get some food in for dinner, so decided to head to Booths in Settle and tell Grannie and Grandpa so we could meet up in a cafe for tea and a bun.  We did exactly that - Tom gave them his thank you card and showed them his trophy etc.  A hyper and fun 45 mins.   We said our goodbyes and then did a quick once round the town before shopping at Booths and then heading home.

Sunday was an awful day, weatherwise also Matt called from London stating that he thought we had miscalculated the due date for objections to the housing development.  We thought we had until next Saturday, but actually it was Monday, so we did a mad scramble to write a letter of objection.  Poor Tom ended up watching a bit of telly whilst I got something together.  Within a couple of hours we had a 4 page letter with references to government policy, Conservation Areas along with all the other usual objections - felt quite pleased with ourselves - espeically as we were working independently from each other, the internet and wifi are wonderful things when they work properly.

Tom and I went to Inglesport for lunch between hail storms - just to get out of the house and then headed to Lancaster to pick Matt up.  Then a pub tea on the way home.

Making the most of grey days

Wednesday
Another dreary grey and rainy day.  We decided to head into Lancaster to try out a new Japanese restaurant that had just opened.  We did a spot of shopping first (mainly in Atkinsons - Matt wanted some coffee beans for his new coffee mill).  We then headed to Nami to find they were only doing sushi.  Sushi was the last thing we wanted - it was cold, we were cold, so we headed round the corner to the Sun Hotel and had a rather lovely lunch.  This is the best pub in the city we think - good service, nice ambiance and very good food.  We all ate up well.  We then decided to go looking for a corner unit for the lounge in a furniture warehouse in Morecambe, but got caught up in a lot of traffic and didn't find what we wanted.  Not a great trip, but a nice lunch!

Thursday
Thursday morning, Tom and I went swimming again at Stacksteads, and once again Tom was really good - his swimming really is coming on.  We came home and all went to Inglesport for lunch.  Tom and I then went to the Ellwoods for the afternoon - consisted of me and Alice trying to catch up whilst marshaling Charlie, Harry and Tom.  There were quite a few tears - mainly from Tom as Charlie was 'forcing' him to do things he didn't want to do.  Not a great success!

As we didn't have any friends to bring in the New Year with, Tom went to bed at the usual time (with a little sulk) and we sat down wondering what to do.  Matt ended up doing some colouring in with his new Japanese themed colouring books and I googled.  Very Rock and Roll.  Matt did some channel hopping and surprisingly came across an interesting programme on BBC Alba - the ABC of Gaelic cooking.  It was strangely compelling, so we settled down in front of it.  The next programme was a sort of social history of the Highlands, charting the life of a lady who started life on Harris, then moved to Skye, living in crofts all the way.  It turned out that she's an actress in a Gaelic soap opera.  Again, it was strangely compelling. After that was a programme of Gaelic whisky drinking songs.  As we were drinking whisky it seemed sensible to keep it on.  By the end of that it was 11.30 and they had a live Ceilidh going on.  Having had a look at the guest list for Jools Holland, we decided we would remain loyal to BBC Alba and watched that.  Think we were probably the only ones in Ingleton watching the channel, but we enjoyed it.  Think we must have seen nearly all 45,000 Gaelic speakers throughout the night.

Friday

Freezing on the top of the Howgills

It wasn't raining - hurrah, so we decided to make the most of it and head out.  Matt suggested the Howgills (near Sedburgh) the last time we had tried these, Tom was a baby - he objected to the wind and we had to abort.  This time he was much better.  It wasn't a long walk, but it was a steep walk and it was FREEZING at the top - with a biting wind.  It would have been nice to go further for views etc, but there was no way, the wind was cutting.  Tom did very well, he was wrapped up in layers and didn't really feel the cold.  We had a quick picnic on the driest bit of grass we could find and then headed back down.  As we had done so good in horrible weather, Matt suggested we then drive to Dent - the home of great puddings, so we did and scoffed a sticky toffee pudding as a reward for being good girls and boys. We then took the gated road back to Ingleton.  The best use of a 'sort of' OK day.

Saturday

Indian Selfie

The day of the Matt Young Translations Christmas party - we had decided to head to Bradford, to try out a new restaurant we saw on the telly: The Sweet Centre.  We got the train, walked through a dodgy looking neighbourhood, to find it.  The restaurant was good, the service attentive and the food fine, but somehow it just didn't cut it - I think we are in love with The Kashmir - even though the service there is very rough and ready.

After lunch we went in search of a Asian food shop and found two - one full of Indian food stuffs and the other full of oriental food stuffs so we were in our element and found quite a few things we couldn't live without.  We then went to see the new Westfield shopping centre which has just opened up and were pretty underwhelmed by it.  We had a coffee and then got the train home.

Playing Trombone (apparently Tom is a natural!)

Sunday
We headed up North to Dollar to see Neil, Sharon, Rory and Lewis.  It's  a 3 hour journey, but a lot of it is very scenic, so it goes quite quickly.  We stopped off in Moffat and found a rather lovely tea room for lunch, then continued up.  We got to Dollar around 1.30.  Lewis and Rory were out at the pantomime, so Tom had full reign with their toys.  The whirlwinds arrived around 5 - the rest of the evening was a bit of a blur.  The boys got on fine, we had a fantastic roast courtesy of Neil, and were up past midnight drinking wine and eating huge amounts of cheese.  

Monday

Soggy men

Soggy bottom boys

We managed not to be too hungover, both of us managing a decent sleep.  It was a wet and miserable day but we managed to get ourselves to Campbell Castle in Dollar for a run around.  It was cold and wet, but the boys didn't mind, it wasn't until the adults were drenched that we decided enough was enough and we left.  Then lunch at the Blezard's (soup of course - we are in Scotland after all) and then we headed home.  We went home via the Kelpies - huge statues of horses, set by the canal, at 100ft tall they were very impressive - even with grey skies and cold cold wind.

Large horse

What a big snout!

We stopped off at Moffat again on the way home for tea and a bun and some whisky shopping before heading south again.  Got home in good time, had tea, Tom went to bed and I struggled through Boxercise - which surprisingly was cure for my hangover!