1940's Ingleton with the Watsons

Sentries

So this weekend was 1940's weekend, and the village fills up with people in Home Guard, Resistance, vintage Army, Air Force and Navy uniforms along with some Nazis.  They wonder around the village, dance to 1940s tunes, etc etc.  It's a fun weekend, especially the Sunday when most things happen.  This year they had gone one better with a vintage fair in the Community Centre car park - which included dodgems. and a bar in the square run by the Old Post Office.

Friday, we decided to get in the mood and headed to The Old Post Office before cricket.  We took all our gear and headed out for our 5pm table.  For 1940s weekend, the food goes French, so we had a racilette tart, french onion soup and 'rations' picnic platter.  All very good too.  We also took part in a competition where we had to count the number of artifacts hidden around the bar (we only went and won it - little us who never win anything - although, you never know,  we may have been the only people to enter it)

We then went to cricket for the evening before heading home.

George Formby

Saturday dawned a gorgeous morning.  Tom wanted to go swimming and we had Ali the alligator for him to play with.  I did a quick ask around to see if anyone was free and the Cronshaws came back saying yes.  Fantastic, so Ali got his first outing with Evie and Tom - who were cautious at first, but pulling each other off and on it by the end.  The sun came out, so we sunbathed, taking advantage of it.  We all ended up going to Inglesport for lunch.  Had a really good morning in the end, they are a lovely village.

Around 3pm, the Watsons arrived.  Unfortunately they brought rain with them, but didn't bring jumpers or coats!  Believe it or not, we actually managed to kit them all out - not bad considering they have 3 girls of 13, 10 and 7!  We thought we would do a lap of the village to see what was happening.  Answer: a big fat nothing!  The rain had stopped play and everyone had retired back to their accommodation.  In fact the place was a like a ghost town, we didn't see one other person there. Oh hum...we went for a look at the fair and found that was open, so the children had a go.  Tom wanted to have a go on the dodgems.  They were old, decrepit dodgems, but he jumped in and wouldn't let me join him!  The only people on it were us and The Watsons, and they all had heaps of fun.  Don't think I'm ever going to be allowed to go on the dodgems with Tom ever again - he did a good job driving himself and deliberately bumping into the others.

On the ferris wheel

 We were going to have a BBQ, but by the time we got home, the rain was horizontal.  We gave up, and cooked in the oven.  Oh hum, it all got eaten.

Sunday morning, a lovely day, we were going to go down to the pool, but the Watsons had forgotten their costumes, so we had a lazy morning instead, did a quick walk around Storrs Common and then headed back into the village.  This time it was buzzing, full of people in costume.  We had tea and a bun, whilst reading up on wartime recipes and then headed back to the vintage fair for another go on the dodgems.  This time Tom asked me to go on as well - not in the same car but in a different one so he could bump me.  Oh my, it was so much fun, I was literally crying with laughter the whole time.  The dodgems were completely random, meaning you ended up slamming this way and that.  Put it this way, I discovered my pelvic floor isn't as strong as I thought, however, it didn't really matter as it was so so so so so much fun.

Eyes on the road

We then headed back into the village to see the big parade, but it got delayed (these things always run late!), so much so that we had to call it a day as the Watsons had to head back to Chester.  They are on a mad schedule at the moment as they are heading to Shanghai for 3 years in August - they only had 2 months notice!  We were impressed that they found time to come to visit as they have been frantic with paperwork getting themselves and their house ready in time.

Maggie on a mission

We got back just in time for the end of the parade.  We then grabbed ourselves some burgers and watched the parachute team display.  As there was a bar in the village square, we decided to patronise it and sat there watching the dancing and singing until it was wrapped up at 5pm.

A good weekend.