Half Term

On Ilkley Moor

Monday we had a very easy day: a slow morning, then we went to Kirkby Lonsdale to do the river walk, followed by lunch at Country Harvest and then back home to crash on the sofa and watch Big Hero 6.  He's better today, but crashed around 1.30 and really recover.

His illness isn't helped by the fact he has about 4 wobbly teeth at the moment, including two of which are hanging on by threads.  He doesn't want to loose them so gets really upset about it all especially if they catch or bleed.  It is having an effect on his eating, he won't eat anything hard or sharp and it takes an age for him to eat anything as it all has to go in the side of his mouth and be chewed at the back.  He can't cut anything at all with his front teeth.  We have had a lot of tears, we can't wait for them to come out.

Cow and Calf Rocks

Tuesday, Tom was feeling a bit better which was good because he was due to spend a day with Grannie and Grandpa - after all that is why they have moved up here, to spend more time with him and I'm sure they have more fun with him if we aren't around.  They decided to head to Skipton Castle with him, so we dropped him off and then headed further East.  We had planned to go to Brimham Rocks, but the traffic was very slow (still road closures from the floods) so we decided to stop at Ilkley and discover Cow and Calf Rocks instead.  However, it was lunch time when we arrived in Ilkley, so we decided to have a little explore and find a tea room first.  It is quite a well-to-do town, it has charm, and the feeling of lots of money, although there were quite a few charity shops (all very nicely presented).  It even has a satellite of Betty's Tea Rooms - and seeing the prices they charge, it really does need to be a well to do town!  We found another tea room - Cafe J and had a rather nice lunch at a reasonable price.

After lunch we headed up onto the moor (both of us singing On Ilkla Moor Baht' at - well it's hard not too!)  We found a place to park and clambered up on the moor and found the cow and calf rocks.  We tried using our imagination to turn the rocks into a cow and a calf, but didn't manage it.  Anyway a good time was spent clambering, even though it was very very windy.  Luckily there was a pub very near by so we had a restorative drink before heading back to Settle and picking up a very happy Tom - seems like he and his grand-parents had a great time without us.

Tea was fun (not!)  Tom's very loose tooth was causing him grief, as a result it took a very long time for him to eat anything.  We had risotto as I knew he would have difficulty, but it was quite ridiculous.  Problem is that he refuses to touch his tooth or wobble it out - so it is hanging on by a thread.

Tom and Lord Hinton

At bedtime I asked to see inside his mouth to find his tooth had gone!  The thread must have snapped during tea time and he must have ate it.  Oops.  Tom cried when I told him it had gone (silly boy) but managed to recover himself to write a letter to the tooth fairy to apologise for eating it, so he could get his reward.

Wednesday morning Tom and Matt headed to Settle to get their train tickets for a 'Boys Day Out' on Saturday whilst I put together a cake for a lady in the village (normally I don't do cakes during the holidays, but this is for a lady who has cancer and children at the school - I figured I should make time to do something nice for her).  Matt and Tom returned back to in time for lunch so we headed out to Inglesport, we then had a quiet afternoon.

In The Cavern

Thursday we figured we really should do something this half term, so we decided to head out to Liverpool to go to The Beatles Story as we had vouchers for it.  We decided to go a different route to normal (via Ormskirk) and arrived in a cold but clear Liverpool.  The first leg of the journey was popular with the boy. It was an old-fashioned engine-pulling-coaches type train, and the engine doing the pulling (pushing actually) was the same class as the super-duper digital locomotive he now has on his train set.
First stop was lunch, unfortunately Etsu wasn't open so we headed to Miller & Carter instead for a light steak bite (if there is such a thing).

Heading to America

Then to The Beatles Story which was good.  They focused on the people that made the Beatles: Brian Epstein, George Martin etc, and recreated The Cavern and The Yellow Submarine.  It was very interesting - but I would have loved a bit more about the music.  The museum was pretty empty which we were really surprised by, in fact Liverpool was pretty empty, we could only assume that it wasn't half term there, great for us though, we had expectations of overcrowding so were very pleasantly surprised.

We all live in a Yellow Submarine!

We finished off the museum visit with a 'Beatles Cookie' and a drink and then walked over to the Pier Head to the second museum where we enjoyed a 4d film involving the Beatles music (and a Ringo Starr with very rolly eyes).

Psychedelic Tom

We then decided it was time to head home before Tom got too tired.   We went home the traditional way, stopped off at a pub in Hornby for tea.

The Fab Six

Once again Tom had a problem with a very wobbly tooth (one of his big upper front teeth).  He had ordered macaroni cheese, but even this was causing him grief.  He had a mouth full of blood!  I asked him if it was ready to come out, he said yes, so I asked him to pull it out.  To my astonishment, he grabbed it and gave it a quick pull, it came out.  Hurray!!!!!!  I wrapped it up in a serviette and put it in my bag.  Well done Tom!  At last - we've been waiting ages for these to come out and at last he had the courage to pull it out - phew!  He ate up the rest of the pasta and then we headed home and he went straight to bed.

Gappy Tom

Friday - another quiet day, so Tom could recover from Liverpool.  The morning was spent writing Thank You cards, then we went to Ireby for lunch and returned home to watch films and play on the model railway.  Not a fun day, but necessary to try to get Tom well enough for school again next week.  Oh, and Tom has been actively wobbling his other loose tooth today - hurray, maybe this one won't take as long to come out.  He is looking very gappy now though!

Poorly Boy

King Tom

So Tom enjoyed his last day at school as a Fairytale King, by all accounts, they didn't do any work, just lots of activities and a Grand Ball in the afternoon.  We asked who he danced with, to which the answer was "Lucas OF COURSE".  Silly us for asking the question!

He was pretty happy, but we figured he was tired so asked him what he wanted to do for tea - answer was Fish and Chips - so we headed off to get some.  He ate a monster portion of them.  He may be pale and tired, but his appetite was fine.

Saturday morning we asked if he wanted to play football - he did, so we took him along.  He then had a football party directly afterwards, which once again he was insistent he wanted to do.  When he came home he had a shower and then went for a lie down in bed until Karen, Adam, Leia and Rosa arrived around 2.30 - they were visiting for the night.  He was in good spirits and played happily with them.

Tom and Leia

They went to bed around 9pm, but at 2am he was up with a hurting ear, then again at 4 and again at 6.  In the morning he was inconsolable, crying and crying.  Why do these things always happen at the weekend?!  We discovered that there was an out of hours surgery at Kendal Hospital, so the Komorowskis' visit came to an abrupt end and we took him to the hospital.  We were lucky, there was no-one in the waiting room, so we got seen straight ahead.  The doctor said he had a very ANGRY ear, so gave us some penicillin.  We then went for lunch at the Motor Museum (as requested by Tom) and headed back home.

Not a great start to the half term, but I'm not surprised, he was 'on the edge' all last week!

The Best Narrator

Narrator Tom

Thursday was a big day for Class 3, it was their annual show.  Instead of a nativity this year, their teachers decided to do a Fairytale with a difference.  The show consisted of children from years 1 and 2, each child in year 2 had a speaking part (the first time for all of them as in previous nativities - all they have done is sing and dance).

Tom had the privilege of being a narrator.  I was very pleased as it meant that I didn't have to come up with a costume as he just had to be smart.  A friend had given us a smart shirt, tie and waistcoat outfit which was perfect, Tom was very excited to be wearing a tie.  They had two performances: 9.30 and 6.00.  Matt and I went to both, Bob to the morning one and Pat to the evening one.  

The play had been written by Tom's teacher and was Cinderella with a difference - from the viewpoint of Prince Charming and with a host of fairytale characters in it. 

The cast

As we thought it was just lovely.  Each child was wonderful, they all shone.  Obviously we are biased, but we thought Tom was wonderful, he had quite a few lines, but had learnt them all off by heart, however, he had been given a book to read from - just in case he got lost.  He also had lots of jobs to do: he had to clean up after the ugly sisters, put an extra bit of stage on for Michael Jackson and was the programme seller at the start of the show etc etc.  He had a very loud voice and spoke slowly so every word could be understood.  We were very proud.  In the morning performance he even delivered a line with his back to the audience whilst climbing up some staging as the other narrator had started whilst he was doing a job on the stage.  The line was delivered clearly - so it didn't really matter that he had his back to us all.  (This didn't happen in the 6pm performance as the first narrator waited for him to return to his seat before delivering her lines).

I can't say he was belting out the songs, but he still did us proud.  In the evening performance he had to run off and get some flowers and give them to the teachers, which he did without a hitch.  

Tom was absolutely buzzing on the way home saying he wants to do it every day. I just wish we could have recorded it so we could be reminded of it and show those who weren't there.  A pure gold day - we all went to bed happy.

7

 So it happened, Tom has turned 7.  I've not been looking forward to it as I think 7 is a proper age - I can remember being 7.  He really is growing up!  We celebrated the day by getting up at 6.30, so he had enough time to open all his presents, be excited and play with some of them.

Lots of presents

As usual he got a good haul.  His main present from us was a digital controller and train for his train set.  The digital train is all singing, all dancing, in that it lights up and makes really realistic sounds.  It also starts and stops really smoothly.  It has been an immediate hit, which is good because his interest had been waning.  Matt is really excited about it too.

Bruder - hurray!

He also got some more Bruder, other vehicles, loads of clothes, money, jigsaw and lots of other bits and pieces.  For breakfast he had the last of a packet of smoked salmon which I had been saving  - how spoilt!!!!

He went happily to school for the day - they were doing a dress rehearsal of their show today for the whole school - which he was really looking forward to - because he got to wear his tie!  He came bouncing out of school - but was worryingly pale.  We took him home and fed him some snacks to try to perk him up.

A good haul

Grannie and Grandpa came round about 3.45 with their presents and he received calls from Granma and Pop Pop and Jude before heading out for birthday pizza at Kirkby Lonsdale with Grannie and Grandpa (delicious - he ate a good half of the garlic prawn pizza) before his swimming lesson.  We could tell he was tired as he was much slower than usual at swimming - we were in two minds whether to go or not but he was insistent that he was OK.

We came home and he went straight to bed, happy but very very tired.

Birthday tea in Avanti

Foot Golf Birthday Party

Foot Golf

Today was Tom's birthday party.  We had taken a risk and booked an outdoor activity - Footgolf.  Essentially booting a football around a golf course, where the holes are football sized.  Tom had chosen 8 friends, all the boys from his class and Lily and Lauren.

The party was complete chaos, there were rules, which we tried to follow for the first hole (wait for the ball to stop before kicking it, counting the number of kicks, no dribbling etc etc) but it descended into complete chaos, and in the end it was easier and less stressful to just go with the flow. 

It was very windy, but the rain held off.  Various children whined and whinged (the less sporty ones) but I think on the whole they had a good time.  Certainly a nice walk for the adults with some good views over the Lune.  We whizzed round the course (they were all running and dribbling with the ball by the end) and came back to the club house where they were busy serving up pizza and chips for everyone.  Nice food too!  

Party food!

The kids were very very loud and there were some snooty old ladies out for a genteel Sunday round of golf who weren't too happy to share the course with us and then were probably devastated to have to have lunch in a very noisy room as well.  They didn't get much sympathy from us as they were so snooty to us on the course!

Hamish the Highland Cake

Tom was very pleased with his Highland Cow cake (he requested it ages ago), so much so that he kissed it and shouted "Don't kill the cow" as I cut into it.  No one seemed to have trouble eating it though!

Once it was over, both Matt and I crashed.  We headed to Sizergh Barn for tea and a bun, and then back home where we collapsed.  Matt then treated me to a platter at the Old Post Office as I was not in the mood to cook.  It was a good idea. 

Then back home to bed - Tom has a very busy week this week, what with his birthday and his school play!

First Goal

Goal reward

So Saturday saw us in Skipton at 9am for a very cold and rainy football match against Embsay.  We thought we might be in with a chance for a win as they had been thrashed by Settle and Grassington - by more goals than us.  It wasn't to be though.  They played on AstroTurf, the only place we can play at the moment with this weather.  It was a good game (i.e. a good atmosphere) but Craven were well and truly beaten.  However, Tom scored his first goal for the team.  Matt was so so proud and I don't think Tom could believe it! (Matt: it was a cracking goal - right into the corner, from a long way out)

We celebrated by heading to Keelham afterwards.  I got Tom into some warm dry clothes and we bought him a big mug of hot chocolate to warm him up.  Then a little bit of shopping before heading home via the Highland Cow road.  We mooched around for a while before heading out to Inglesport for a large lunch - chilli for Matt and I and a jacket potato for Tom.

Flying Scotsman

Despite the horrible weather, Tom and I (Matt) headed up to Ribblehead before tea to see Flying Scotsman's delayed first run along the Settle and Carlisle line since refurbishment. The crowds were amazing, around 2 miles of parked cars along the B6255, but we timed it absolutely perfectly, parking the car about 10 seconds before the train started to cross the viaduct. It was a fine sight, and I was more than a little jealous of the people in the Pullman dining cars, who had paid £400 a head for the experience.

Pie and Peas

The evening saw us in Eldroth Village Hall for a musical evening.  The Shults had invited us and the Bickerstaffs.  It was a really good night.  Most of the audience were old ladies but the band played music from our University days so we were belting out the tunes with them and the children were up the front dancing away.  Jack, Seth and Isabella are all natural dancers and were dancing care-free.  Tom was up there through peer pressure, but he had a good time.  Tea was pie and peas, and then a bit more dancing before we headed home - shame I could have stayed all night.  Was some very good people watching to be had, but essentially the wine was good, the company good and therefore the mood good.  Didn't get home until almost 11pm!  What naughty late night stop outs we are!

Spokeswoman

So Monday was the Parish Council meeting, we went along to make our objections in person.  It was a strange experience.  We (or rather Matt) were told that not everyone could talk so a spokesperson was needed.  I decided to do it as I have done so much research on it and had made a crib sheet of the main objections.  How I was supposed to voice all the objections of the other people in the meeting who I had only just met I don't know so I opened it up to everyone else when I had finished - I guess I did an OK job as no-one had any other points to make.  The council agreed with all I had to say and said that they would make their objections known to the District Council as long as I forwarded all my info to them.  That is the best outcome I could expect.

As I left, people came up to say well done and afterwards, Matt got an e-mail from a school Governor who was there saying I did good.

The meeting was very much the reserve of retired men.  There was one woman who didn't say anything, and one guy our age, but everyone else was of retirement age.  When we walked into the meeting the Chair spoke to Matt about arranging a spokesperson and a number of people who turned up to object told Matt what a good letter he had written.  Matt had to explain that it was me who had done it.  Sexism isn't dead here!

The meeting was badly run by the Chair, who seemed unable to wind up any discussion or steer people towards action points. No wonder nothing ever gets done here.  Apparently the Parish Council have been given £110,000 by the District Council to spruce up the village.  No-one knew what was happening or how much of the money had been spent, this coming from people on the steering team?  I don't quite understand how that can happen.  Anyway for sure the needs of young people and middle aged people aren't met by the council.

Anyway we have a week left to gather more evidence and make our objections known to the District Council...

Another grey weekend

It was another grey, miserable weekend.  I had a cold for it so the weather suited me just fine!

Tom spent the morning at the scout hut playing football again as the fields were waterlogged again.  He then spent the afternoon with Matt and Grandpa at a model railway exhibition in Kendal whilst I stayed home and felt sorry for myself.

Trainspotting

The model railway exhibition was very good - some very impressive layouts, but Tom showed little interest in the actual scenery of layouts, and much preferred standing behind the layouts watching the operators do their stuff in the "fiddle yards". Why does this nor surprise me?

Sunday, we had more of the same weather so we decided to get the train to Bradford for curry.  We went back to our old favourite - The Kashmir where the service was a little more enthusiastic than usual.  It was still quite cheap, although Tom had his own curry this time, so it was over £20!  We spent the rest of the day feeling bloated, so much so that neither Matt nor I had tea.  Tom did though - and he ate the same amount of curry as we did!

Miserable rainy weather!

Our Craven Wanderer

We were back to grey, miserable weather again this weekend.  Boo!  First up on Saturday was a trip out to Grassington as Tom had a match there.  His team lost, but it was to be expected, they haven't played on grass for over 8 weeks now due to water
logged fields at the school, so they were out of practise.  That being said, they all did well, everyone got a game and they seemed to enjoy themselves.  Tom's not ultra competitive, so doesn't mind when they lose.

Moo

We decided to take advantage of our location and head to Keelham Farm Shop for lunch and a quick shop (our freezer seems to be full at the moment).  We then went home via the Highland Cow road so we could say hello.

Sunday was horrible again, so we decided to go on a train trip.  We drove to Carnforth and got the train to Grange-Over-Sands.  We had lunch at a rather lovely tea room: Hazelmere Cafe where they bake lots of artisan breads.  We then went for a walk in the drizzle before getting the train home.  Not an exciting weekend I'm afraid.

Snow!

Zooming down the slope

We had snow this weekend!  We didn't get to play in it on Saturday, but we did on Sunday.  We were one of the first to get to The Old Hill Inn and we spent a good 2 hours sledging up and down the slopes.  Half of Tom's class were there too, so there was a really good atmosphere.  Note to self though, we need another sledge as Tom wants to go by himself now, so Matt and I have to wait AGES to have a go.

Happy, rosy cheeks!

After 2 hours we all had freezing cold feet, so we decided to leave everyone to it and head up to Hawes in search of food.  We figured we had been good active boys and girls so we headed to the Penny Garth cafe in search of their fab chips.  It was a great morning, Tom would have stayed all day if he hadn't got cold feet!  As we drove back past the slope, we saw loads and loads of people on it - we definitely did good by doing the morning slot - fresh snow and more space!






You Tube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVJOHP8adbM