Holidays - Week 3: Liverpool and Cricket

Liverpool waterfront

So on Monday, Grannie and Grandpa came to pick Tom up.  They were having him for 2 days.  Matt and I were taking advantage and having a night away.  Trying not to predictable, we had booked ourselves a night in a hotel in Liverpool.  This is a city that has been growing on both of us, we were keen to explore it further.  We booked ourselves a night at the Pullman hotel, just south of Albert Dock.

We decided to go by car as you can't easily get to Liverpool by train and our hotel was some way from a station.  Not sure if it was the best decision as we got caught in traffic on the motorway and then somehow took a wrong turning into Liverpool, meaning we went through loads of dreary neighbourhoods and got stuck by red light after red light after red light.  After what seemed forever, we finally got to the riverside and found our hotel.

Beautiful ice cream van

We headed straight out for lunch, we were starving so headed to the Albert Dock and sat in the first restaurant where they had room for us.  We shared a chilli platter which went down really well as we were both starving.  We then went for a wonder along the waterfront.  There was a summer market at Pier Head - lots of wooden cabins selling treats of all kinds, we went for a look around the Beatles Shop and got Tom a dangly thing for his school bag and just generally took in the atmosphere in the sunshine - yes sunshine, it wasn't raining - hurray!!!!!!  Of course we had jumpers and raincoats with us so ended up carrying all our spare clothes with us everywhere.

Manly drink

We strolled back to the hotel, freshened up and then headed out for tea.  We had decided on a tapas bar which had come recommended by the owner of The Old Post Office, we weren't disappointed.  We then found a secret bar which Matt had also told us about, which was directly opposite the restaurant.  It was painted black with no signage what so ever, with the blinds pulled down.  We went in, through a heavy velvet curtain and found a really lovely jazz bar.  A waitress came to us with some old style books - within which were stapled a menu, a cocktail menu.  She came over in hushed tones and talked us through it all.  It was great, a nice atmosphere and interesting and tasty cocktails.  So nice that we had two each.  We could have stayed there all night, however, we decided to call it a day and walked back to the hotel, where we had a quick night cap before rolling into bed.

Tuesday, another warm and sunny day - hurray!  We went to Reubens in the Albert Dock for breakfast - it looked interesting and reasonably priced.  Unfortunately they were either overwhelmed or understaffed as it took what seemed like forever before our order arrived.  I had a bagel with cream cheese on it and I kid you not, I think there was the equivalent of 2 family packs of cream cheese on the bagel.  So much that I actually ended up taking most of it off and even then it was too much.  Oh hum, guess I'm not such a diary guzzler as I used to be.  Matt and I then split up - he went to do a walk along the River Mersey whilst I went to Bravissimo to get myself a swimsuit (although I have lost a lot of weight I still don't fit in high street cossies.)

Boats on the Mersey

We then went to find a Whisky Shop we had been told about last night at the Jazz bar (Whisky Business), but were met with a snooty staff member who wasn't too keen on serving us - so much so she wouldn't allow us in the Whisky room and told us to wait whilst they found someone to accompany us (she then hollered for someone who didn't come).  We decided we didn't want to stay somewhere we obviously weren't welcome but then found we were locked in, and had to ask to be let out!  Not a great experience and we won't be back, physically or on-line.   To cheer ourselves up we went to Etsu for lunch.  We were welcomed and had a lovely lunch full of our favourite Japanese tit bits.  Thank you Etsu.

We then walked slowly back to the hotel and headed home.  It had been a lovely city break, felt so much longer than 24 hours, I really do like Liverpool.

Enjoying the water 

Hanging around

Wednesday, I went in the morning to Settle to pick up Tom.  He had had a great time with Grannie and Grandpa and didn't want to come home!  On arrival we headed to the Folly coffee shop which they were keen to show to me, then after some DIY shopping we headed off to Oxenber Woods for a picnic and walk.

Cows on an afternoon stroll!

It was a nice day, and we met some nice ladies with some lovely dogs on the way which made the walk much more fun.  We sat and ate our picnic on the top of the hill and then headed down to the river where Tom had a paddle before heading back.  Matt then climbed Ingleborough with John Manning whilst Tom and I headed over to Lynne's for a pizza tea.

William, Emma and Tom playing cricket

What a day Thursday was!  The cricket club was going to organise a coach to Cockermouth to take all the All Stars Cricketers for a special PCA Masters match.  However, hardly anyone was interested, so we made our own way there.  We took Tom's little friend William with us, what a ball of energy and fun he is!  He was very excited and chatted the whole way from Ingleton to Cockermouth (over an hour and a half) plus a lunch stop at Tebay (where he 'accidentally' threw his baseball cap on top of some rafters! I had to get a cleaner to bring out a broom to knock it down again - was one of those things that if you tried to do, you would never succeed!)

Ben Stokes signed our bats!

All Stars children

We arrived in Cockermouth around 1.30 and found our way to the cricket ground, where we met up with Emma Hughes and her family who were the only other people to go.

So today was all about Ben Stokes who is basically the world number one cricketer at the moment.  He is from Cockermouth and wanted to do something to give back to his home club.  He was going to donate, but then someone suggested a PCA Masters match and they went from there. We weren't that sure what to expect.  We brought mats to sit on with us, so laid them out and made a base.  The cricket pitch was open to anyone who wanted to play cricket, all the Hughes were there so it wasn't long before Tom and Will were playing cricket too.  They spent a good couple of hours playing cricket.  We also did some celebrity spotting.

With Ben Stokes - a nice guy

On my travels around the ground I found some miniature cricket bats for sale.  We got one each for the children and then they went hunting autographs.  Tom and Will both managed to get an autograph from Ben Stokes, which was fab.   The game then started, it was Cockermouth vs the PCA Masters which includes lots of ex England players including: Mark Ramprakash, Graham Onions, Steve Harmison, Mal Loye, Alex Tudor, Mark Alleyne, Owais Shah.  The masters batted first and looked good, however Cockermouth fielded well and didn't look at all outclassed.

At half time, all children who are in All Stars were invited on the pitch to show off their skills.  Tom, Will and Emma got stuck in, with their bare feet (they kicked their trainers off very early on!).  They did well.  Ben Stokes came over to have a look.  Tom got to bowl to him and he got a high five from him as well as a photo.  He came across as a really lovely guy, even though he had herds of children and TV cameras following him all day, must have been really annoying!  We also managed to get a photo of him and Will and I think Emma got a photo with him too.

The next half had the Masters fielding and the children were able to distract those near the boundary to autograph their bats.  They didn't show any lack in confidence going up to them and we think some fielding may have gone astray because of them.  Certainly the Masters ended up loosing, but it was tight: Cockermouth won by 5 wickets with 2 balls to spare.  Tom ended up with 7 autographs including Ben Stokes, not a bad haul.

Getting autographs (Mal Loye)

The match didn't end until 7.30 so we headed straight back.  Will fell asleep almost immediately but Tom stayed awake, he fell into bed though when we got back.  It had been a long and exciting day!

Friday was a bit of a nothing day.  I slept like a log, meaning I was really drowsy when I woke up and never really got going.  Tom was pretty zonked too.  In the morning we did some chores in the rain, threw stones in the river, went to Ireby for lunch (mainly to get Matt out of the house) then did some more chores and then watched the Lego movie.  The evening saw us round the Mannings for yet another pizza tea - was a good night though spent with them and the Durkins.  We all stumbled into bed pretty late - again!!!!!