Arnside, Panto and the Zoo

On the shore at Arnside

In the water

Wednesday was a lovely day again - blue sky and not much wind.  We decided to take Mum and Dad to Arnside as they like the sea and you can go for a longish walk on the sand there.  The weather stayed good and as we got there early we managed to squeeze into a cafe for coffee before heading out for a walk.

Mum did amazingly well with the walk, which included some clambering on rocks and jumping over riverlets in the sand.  We managed to get all the way to the Knott walk, which was fab.  The light was strong, the tide on its way out and the scenery looked lovely in the haze, almost ethereal.  It certainly was looking its best.

Morecambe Bay in the sun

We walked back and then went in search of lunch, it wasn't looking great to start with, the pub was full and two cafes full, but then we found another shop with a small cafe in it which was empty so we settled in.  The service was very slow and the food OK, but at least it was warm and there was no other choice.

Afterwards we went up to the Knott car park.  Matt, Tom and Dad climbed to the top of the Knott and got some fabulous views over the Bay, whilst Mum and I did a quick circuit by the car park.  Lovely day out.

Thursday was a day we have been looking forward to for ages - Panto time - Peter Pan.  I had booked us all tickets for the pantomime in Bradford.  We decided to go to one of the big pantos this time as the one in Lancaster is quite amateur and I wanted to be entertained as well as Tom!  The choice was either Bradford or Blackpool, Bradford was slightly cheaper, and more importantly had more seats available when I booked in September.

Can't say I had heard of the 'stars'.  The main man was someone called Billy Pearce - I didn't know of him but he was brilliant.  The panto was his, he has starred in it for many years, he carried the whole show and was very very good at it!  All the usual panto things happened, the shouting, flying, singing, dancing, jokes etc.  In addition to all that there was a 3d under the sea cinema bit which was amazing - I jumped more than once as sea monsters tried to eat me.  Tom wouldn't put his glasses on as he was too scared!  I heard Mum and Dad laughing all the way through it.  It was certainly worth the money - we must remember to book early again next year.

We went to the matinee which of course meant that we entered Bradford's streets in the early evening.  We needed feeding, what else can you eat in Bradford but curry?  We headed to the Kashmir and had a feast for next to nothing as usual.  The Cocony still is the best dish they do.  We then headed back to the train station and Skipton.  A good day out - Mum and Dad especially enjoyed the panto - it has been quite a few years since they last went to one.

Oh, I got a phone call from my Consultant today with the results from the CT Scan I had earlier in the month.  They have found the cysts left behind on my liver (when I saw him, he knew nothing about them!).  They look unchanged which is good.  However, they have found something else on my liver: a haemangioma which is an area of dilated blood vessels.  He said that it was nothing to get excited about - not cancer or anything like that and plenty of people have it.  They also found a 9mm cyst in my pelvis. He has spoken to Preston and they suggested I should have an MRI scan of both areas just to check everything is what they think it is.  If it is, they said I would not require any further investigation.

Snow leopard scowl

Friday Mum and Dad wanted a day off, to recuperate as we had been working them hard, so we decided to take Tom to the zoo - not sure Mum would be able to manage it with all the hills, especially after a week of being on the go.  The zoo is actually free to enter at this time of year, so there were a lot of people around (and some interesting displays of parenting on show!), the zoo had changed again, lots of things were closed or barricaded off as they sort things out for the summer, but all the big cats were out and about so we were happy.  The star attraction was the snow leopards, they had had 3 cubs earlier in the year and they were all out and about and playing - think we spent a good half hour just watching them - Matt used up half a camera battery snapping away.

Sleepyhead

We went for lunch and bumped into some friends from school which was a bonus, and then went to see the rest of the animals - I saw my favourite the giraffes.