Holidays - Week 2

Monday

Handsome herdy

The boys went out train spotting whilst I spent a good 9 hours tidying and cleaning the house (it had got into a bit of a state over the last couple of weeks) I didn't stop, but unfortunately the place didn't look that different after all the hard work.  Why is it always impossible to tidy your own house quickly.  I went to Boxercise in the evening whilst the boys had a pub dinner.  Oh well, I guess I did quite a bit of exercise today!

Yes, it was a boys' train day out today. We drove to Carnforth in time for the morning locomotive-hauled service to Barrow, pulled today by "Avro Vulcan", which arrived bang on time and then limped into the carriage sidings and promptly broke down. Poor old thing. Those engines are 55 years old. We then caught another '37' (the ubiquitous Mary Queen Of Scots) up the Cumbrian coast to Ravenglass, where we had a nice lunch at the miniature railway station before heading into the hills behind 'Northern Rock', a magnificent old steam engine. The train wasn't that full, and we sat in an open-sided carriage where we were befriended by a lovely black Labrador called Jack, who gave Tom and me a big lick up the face each. Not so long ago, that would have resulted in meltdown from T, but he actually enjoyed it this time.

Tom and Mary at Barrow

We chuffed slowly up Eskdale enjoying the scenery and fields full of herdies - it really is a beautiful ride. We had about 20 minutes at the terminus before heading back to Ravenglass (in a fully open carriage this time). We had enough time for a quick tea and a bun and a mooch round the little museum before Mary Queen Of Scots returned to take us back to Barrow. We had about 40 minutes there before a boring Northern train back to Carnforth. We were both quite peckish by this point, and Tom asked to have tea at the Bridge Inn in Tatham, so we did. It was as nice and as friendly as always. I'm not sure I know anywhere where you get a warmer welcome. It was a fun day out with the lad - he was good company and behaved really well all day.

Tuesday
A day of rain so I decided to have a useful day and took Tom to Kendal to do the Back to School run. First stop was Clarks for shoes and then into Kendal to Waterstones for some holiday books, then White Stuff for me (finally spent the vouchers), lunch at a place of Tom's choice (Brew Brothers which was a very good choice), WH Smiths for a quiz book for Tom and then Fat Face for me.  Last was a trip to Asda to get all the uniform - red polo shirts, black PE trousers, shorts and jumper, white t-shirts, grey socks, pants (we have suddenly realised Tom doesn't have many pants - we have no idea where they all are?!)

We then headed home.

Wednesday
Another rainy day.  Matt went to Leeds on his bike to get something done to it.  We didn't have much planned, but ended up having a good day out.  We dropped off some old walking boots to the Ellershaws (they were pink) and then went to the Library to register for the reading challenge.  We got some Lego out.  Tom played with it until lunch when he requested a smoked salmon sandwich at Ireby, so off we went.  We then dropped in to see the Holman's as I had a cheque for the camp out.  We then decided to head to the Foster's to pick up some duck eggs.  As we were picking some up, Anne popped her head round the corner and invited us in.  We ended up staying a good 3 hours and got home after Matt!  Always good when a day with no plans ends up rushed because of chance meetings.

Thursday
Another grey, rainy day.  We had no plans again today, but Tom was still tired from last week and happy to play Lego (he was remaking his camper van) so he did that whilst I did chores.  Matt came down to see what we were doing for lunch, we didn't have any plans.  The bad weather was getting him down, so he suggested the new Courtyard Dairy which we thought a great idea (another cheesy restaurant).  We headed across and had a lovely lunch - I thought Matt might go for the fondue or raclette, but he was quite restrained with a ham and cheese toastie.  The rest of the day was spent doing Lego (Tom) catching up on Facebook for Lily Pad Bakery (me) and cooking tea (me and Tom). Not an exciting day, but I really enjoyed it.

Oh, met up with Liz to try to sort out the School Camp Out in the evening.  A couple of hours in the Old Post Office followed by an hour in The Masons, a good evening.

Friday
We had tried to meet up with Matthew and Lynne over this week, but failed, however, I offered to have Matt on Friday morning as she was cleaning her holiday cottage.  We met at Stacksteads, Lynne dropped Matt off with me and we went swimming.  The kids played really well together, so much so that i was able to swim lengths for an hour whilst they were playing.  Matt had brought Snappy a blow up crocodile with him, Tom and Matt were allowed to play with him whilst they were the only people in the pool, they were incredibly conscientious with him, taking him out whenever anyone else got in.  I didn't need to direct them at all.  Happy days.  After two hours in the water, I decided it was time to get out (they would have stayed in all day if I had let them).  We got dressed (guess who forgot her bra and knickers!!!!!), went straight home, so I could rush upstairs and get myself sorted and then headed to Inglesport for lunch (Matt came with us).

On the way back home, we decided to head to the park, Tom and Matt played well together and then Finn and Kieran turned up.  We ended up spending 3 hours there - the kids really enjoyed themselves.  In the end, Lynne and Martin came to pick Matt up as they were meeting up with friends in Ingleton for dinner.   We got ourselves ready and headed down to the Masons Arms for tea with the Holman's.