House of Manannan

Tom the Viking

Ewwwww, what a nasty and horrible day!  Luckily we knew it was going to be horrible, but we didn't realise it was going to be this horrible: freezing cold with a strong wind and lashings of rain.  We didn't rush to get up!  We did have a plan in place.  After extensive research into all the activities and museums on the isle, we discovered that there are only 2 museums open at this time of year and pretty much no activities.

Oh hum.  One of the museums is quite close to us, in Peel, so we headed over.  It was a museum about Manx Heritage and we were expecting lots of boxes with things in, but no we were wrong, very wrong.  It was in fact one of the best museums I've been in for a long time.  Basically it took you through early human settlement to fisherman fleets of the early 1900s.  Started off with Celtic man, then Christians, then Vikings (who were made out to be friendly?).  We got to sit in a Round house, see a Christian burial, learnt about Celtic crosses, dressed up as Vikings, saw a Viking replica boat that was sailed from Norway to Isle of Man in 1979, made some fish to leave in a net, got to explore a fishing village, complete with sound, kippers smoking etc and then got to see the various ferries that have sailed between the Isle and the UK.

Dressed to kill

In addition to that, there was a Lego trail going on, where little figures had been hidden amongst the exhibits to find.  We were in there for a good 2 hours if not longer.  Well worth the £10 entry fee.   Matt went into shopping mode when he entered the shop and came away with 2 posters, a flag and a pin badge.  We then dashed back to the car to unload our wares, get extra clothing as it was very very cold and find somewhere for lunch.  We ended up in a pub called The Creek which didn't look much from the outside, but we entered to find the whole of Peel in it, we luckily got the last table and sat down for a hot lunch just to warm up: burger made from the local Manx breed of sheep Loaghtan which was very lamby, lasagne for the boy and veggie Thai curry for me.  It was good food and a nice atmosphere.  We sat opposite a window watching the rain lash down across the port, it really was a terrible weather day!



After lunch we togged up in all our outdoors gear and headed into the town.  There wasn't much going on. Not many shops were open, but we found a small supermarket to get the essentials and then headed back to the car.  We went past a museum of crime which was closed, but there was some info on the outside all about birching which carried on until the 1970s, the Isle of Man was the last territory in Europe to ban it.  However, did you know the Isle of Man was the first place to give women the vote?  Progressive and non progressive at the same time.

Longboat

We then drove home, Tom almost fell asleep in the car so went for a rest whilst Matt and I caught up on work emails etc.  Then a hot bath to warm up again - this cottage doesn't warm up very well, I guess we are very spoilt with our house in Ingleton, we are used to all consuming heat 24/7 whilst here the radiators are trying to banish the cold, but it is only warm if you are on top of the radiators.

We won't be going far the rest of the day, across the road to the pub for tea most likely.  Weather looks better for tomorrow, we are planning to go down to Port Erin to visit Uncle Geoff.

3 Walks, 3 Environments, 3 Tired People

Playing on The Cronk

So, today dawned grey, however, Matt did his weather check and was confident that the day was going to get better and better as it went along.

After breakfast of toast for me and toast and black pudding for the boys we headed out to explore Ballaugh.  There isn't much to it - the pub across the road and a Spar around the corner.  The Spar was ok - has the essentials, but considering it is much bigger than the Co-op in Ingleton, it didn't seem to have much variety.  I guess I have become, in part an 'Ingletonian'!

A beach of many stones

We brought the slow cooker and a hunk of meat from the freezer with us along with all the veggies in our fridge, so I put together a stew and then we headed out.  First stop was our local beach, The Cronk.  It was a fantastic beach: a bay of a good couple of miles, sandy with loads of big rocks scattered along it, and a good collection of rocks too - all sizes, shapes, colours and make up.  In fact we all came home with a pet stone as we found them so interesting (mine, I think has evidence of fossils on it).  It was very windy, the water was grey and angry, but it was a good walk, against the wind to a huge pile of rocks which had obviously been put on the beach to stop the fields above from eroding further.  It was hard work but rewarding.

Once we had caught our breath, we walked back, collecting plastic as we went (thanks to David Attenborough, all children seem to be aware of the plastic problem now).  The sun came out right at the end, making all the stones shine in the sea spray.  All very lovely.

Fantastic (working) beer taps

As it was pre-lunch time still, we decided to head to Ballaugh Curraghs, which we had read about: a wetland area where you can go spotting wild Wallabies.  In the 1970s some Wallabies escaped from the nearby Wildlife Sanctuary and have adapted and bred well.  Now there are over 100.  The area was hard to find, there were no signs on the road, and the back roads to get to it were full of pot holes.  However, we finally got there and found a way marked route through the Nature Reserve.  It was a really interesting area: think mangrove swamps, but in cold, temperate Isle of Man.  The land was very very boggy, the trees, thin with gnarled roots and trunks, covered in green moss.  Weeds growing in the water, moss everywhere and a real mysterious feeling about the whole place.  Add mist to the area and it would be very eerie.

A wild wallaby. In the Isle of Man. In winter!

I wouldn't have been surprised to see a crocodile or snakes etc.  However, we were here to see Wallabies.  We didn't really expect to find any, but luckily Matt saw something bounce out of the corner of his eye...we looked hard and we saw one.  Yay.  It blended in with the trees very very well, however, it didn't move, so we got brave and got closer to it.  As we got closer a whole load of Wallabies which we hadn't seen bounced away - a good 4 or 5 of them.  Matt managed to get a good picture of one of them.  We were very happy.

We carried on with our walk through the reserve, we didn't see any more but it didn't matter.  By now, it was quite late, so we decided to find somewhere for lunch.  We headed to Sulby where Matt knew of a pub on the TT circuit.  The Sulby Glen Hotel, which is located on the Sulby Straight which is the fastest bit of track on the circuit.  It was big and empty, which didn't matter: lots of TT memorabilia to look at, a friendly bar man who turned out to be the older brother of Dan Sayle who is a very well known side car passenger on the island (6 time winner).  We chatted quite a bit and had lunch: jacket potatoes for me and Tom and a spicy chicken baguette for Matt.  There was a pool table so the boys played a game.  Tom has got better in that we are pretty sure he wouldn't ruff up the baize, but he still needs work on his shot.

Looking towards England

Snow Angel

We then headed up the mountain road to The Bungalow from where there is a steep mile climb to the top of Snaefell which is the tallest mountain on the Isle. It was frosty, then icy and then snowy, and windy but it was worth it.  The sky was blue and the views amazing.  From the top we could see the peaks of the Lake District and the coastline of Northern Ireland.  It was truly beautiful.

Panorama

Atop Snaefell. Chilly

There was also quite a bit of snow at the top, so Tom and I had a snowball fight, Tom made a snow angel and we were generally quite silly whilst Matt took arty photos. Problem with that is we both got a bit cold and wet, but it was worth it.  We walked down and then headed home.  It was after 4pm when we got back - a proper full day of exploration, and we didn't go further than 5 miles from our house.  I wonder what we will discover tomorrow...

On arrival home, I got on the mulled wine and Matt ran a bath.  He's still feeling quite ill from his lurgy and needed to warm up quickly.  He's off alcohol again, which is always a sign he is properly ill.  Then we watched some of the Winter Olympics before having stew followed by pancakes - it is Shrove Tuesday after all!

Off on holidays

On the Ben-my-Chree

We had a easy morning today.  We did our packing, ran around the house looking for last minute things - mainly Matt's goggles which had gone missing.  We turned the house upside down looking for them, no-one could understand where they had gone as we had all seen them on the chest of drawers recently.  I flippantly said, to Matt that it would 'be funny' if he had packed them but forgotten.  I checked - guess what, they were in the suitcase.  All 3 of us spent ages looking for them too!  We had better go swimming now or there will be trouble.

We packed up the car - it is a rule of packing, that you fill whatever container you have.  This time it was the car, and yes the car was full to brimming, including 3 big highland cows: they were very excited to have a holiday away.

Sunset on the Irish Sea

We stopped off at Kirkby so I could deliver some marketing material to the card shop there - I had an interesting conversation with the owner there when I popped in for Tom's helium balloon - the cake shop in Kirkby has recently closed down and people are always asking him who to go to.  He knew of me, in fact I did an order for him a couple of years ago, but I think now he has met me properly I might get some more business from them.  Lets hope anyway!

Our strangely shaped house

Then down the link road to Heysham where we had lunch at the Half Moon Cafe overlooking the seaside and then to the port. It was raining so we stayed in the car until we boarded the ferry.  The ferry was full, full of Brits going on holiday for the half term.  We were lucky to get seats together and even more lucky that we got seats next to a family of 3 including a 10 year old boy, George.  Inevitably they started chatting and kept each other amused for pretty much the whole voyage.  Result.  We also bumped into Auntie Kathy on board - we knew she would be there, and the boat isn't that big.  We arranged to meet up sometime during the week, mainly to say hi to Uncle Geoff.

It was an event free crossing, a little swaying, but clear enough and clam enough to go out on the deck from time to time to see the bright lights of Douglas get nearer and nearer.  We arrived on time and drove straight to Ballaugh to our little cottage.  It is little in that it is very narrow - not much wider (if at all) than a railway carriage.  However, it goes back and back and back, so you get the feeling of space.  Anyway I'm sure we will be more than happy here.  Especially because we are directly opposite a pub.  We, of course had to go to investigate, it was full of TT photos (we are right on the course here), it did craft beer and has a decent enough menu.  Result.

Chores

After the busy, busy day yesterday we all needed a rest.  AND the house was a tip, so it needed sorting.

Matt and Tom filled the car with cardboard and took it to the tip in Settle whilst I cleared the garage back and put everything back where it belongs, AND I vacuumed it!

Then I hit the kitchen, whilst Matt hit his office and Tom hit his bedroom.  We had 3 stereos playing different music blasting out, just what we needed to get in the mood.  We broke for lunch - headed to the Penny Garth Cafe in Hawes, just to get out of the house.  There was a thin layer of snow on the ground, but not loads and certainly not enough for sledging.

We had our greasy spoon lunches and then headed back home for another hour or so of tidying.  Tom did an 'ok' job, but was a little overwhelmed with the mess and how to sort it out, so I helped him out.  Eventually he got a tidy bedroom, but there is probably another 2 hours of sorting and tidying to do on his shelves: he has an insane number of books, not sure what to do with them all.

We decided at 3 that we all deserved some time off, so came together in the lounge to finish off the Lion King from yesterday and then watched another episode of Planet Earth from Tom's Christmas haul.

Then we had a cupboard tea: left overs from the week with toast whilst watching Dad's Army.  Then an early bedtime for Tom and for us.  A boring but necessary day.

9!

So today Tom turned 9.  9!  NINE.  A proper proper age.  It is scary.  He is now his own person - he thinks for himself, is responsible for himself and can do more and more for himself.  We think he is turning into a lovely young man: he has compassion, is articulate (when he wants to be),  can think for himself, is quizzical and caring.  Lets hope he keeps developing so.

The new bike

He managed to wait until 8am before he came in to see us.  We had a good bundle of presents to give him (mainly from other people)  We had got him a reading book, a notebook, a fact book and a puzzle.  That was it.  We asked him if he was happy with what he got?  He said yes.  When I pointed out to him that we had only got him a couple of books and a puzzle, he said he was still happy with what he had - what a sweetie.  We thought we would take him down to breakfast - there he found a helium balloon floating behind the kitchen island, and attached to it...a brand new, massive 26 inch wheeled bike.  He was overjoyed and bouncing up and down all over the place.

Add to that smoked salmon and cream cheese on toast for breakfast and the day was going pretty well.  Oh and he got a West Bromwich Albion Kit from Grannie and Grandpa, a pencil case & clothes from Granma and Pop Pop and the Lion King x 3 and The Railway Children from Simon and co as well as lots of money and interesting pressies from his classmates. 

Mountain biking with Finn and Lucas

It was a pretty damp morning, but the rain eased off to give him a chance to take his new bike to the waggon park for a test ride.  He looked good on it so we then headed to the pump track.  He killed it straight away.  The bike is MASSIVE compared to his old one (he now has the same size wheels as Matt) yet he looked a natural which is great.

Once he was tiring, we headed home, parked the bike, had a rushed visit from the Bickerstaffs and then headed to Inglesport for a drink and cake.  We then packed the car with our biking stuff and headed to Giggleswick Mountain Bike track which we had hired for an hour.  Tom had requested we went there again for his birthday as he enjoyed it so much when we went in January.  He didn't know he would have a new bike!

The rain was beginning to get heavy again so we were beginning to worry about it, but luckily it never reached Settle.  It was damp and grey but it didn't rain as such.  The track was mega boggy and mega muddy though and we all got very very dirty.  We had arranged for a couple of his friends to join us: Finn and Lucas who both have mountain bikes and are more than capable riders (most of the other boys in his class aren't).  I didn't realise that Finn and Lucas are very very close friends so to start with they just went off and left Tom by himself.  Unfortunately although I could see it happening, Tom was so fast on his new bike that I couldn't catch up with him to keep him company, so he went around on his own and then got upset that the others weren't including him.

The traditional birthday curry.

We stopped and waited for the others to do another lap and then I asked them to go round together, which they did (with some adult supervision to make sure it happened)  Tom still got a little left behind but at least Kate was with him, encouraging and helping him. It was really hard work in the mud and we were all plastered in it but they had fun.  After 3 laps the boys decided to walk their bikes to the top and ride down a couple of times (takes the muscle burn out of it) then everyone was spent.  We headed back to the cars for hot drinks and cake (although the boys weren't interested and decided to play football instead)

We took a very tired, very dirty boy home.  We all had showers to get the mud off, put the washing machine on and collapsed on the sofa in front of the Lion King.  We then got dressed and headed back to Settle to see Grannie and Grandpa and then on to Gargrave for birthday tea at Bollywood Cottage - yup curry is still number one!  They set up the table with a helium balloon, confetti and birthday banners which was ace.  He ate up well considering he was absolutely exhausted.  In fact we all ate up well considering we were all exhausted.  Butter chicken for Tom, Drunken Duck for me - the most tender duck I have ever had.  Matt had the Bollywood special, which had a bit of everything.

He rolled into bed on our return, Matt and I weren't that far behind him (just needed to put a second load of muddy clothes into the washing machine first)

Anyway a successful birthday I hope...

Birthday Tea

So, on Friday after school, we picked up all the boys from Tom's class and brought them back to ours.  It wasn't my idea for sure, but Tom wanted everyone home to watch a movie and they are pretty good boys so we couldn't come up with a good enough excuse not too.  We did limit the boys to his year though, some of the boys in his class (which is different to his year) are a nightmare.

The Year 4 boys

They were high spirited but good on the way home, they put the keyboard on as soon as they got in and they were all dancing away to the various tunes they found.  All very well natured, they took turns and were generally being quite silly but in a good way.

I had made a huge bowl of popcorn and a jug of juice and luckily had just enough plastic bowls and beakers for them all, they made themselves at home and dug in.

We had bought Zootropolis for them to watch - we have seen it before, but it is great - set in a world populated by all types of animals, where a rabbit wants to join the police, but normally you need to be a 'big' animal: bull etc to be a cop, so he has to prove himself.  Of course he does, though adventures etc.  There are some great scenes with sloths who run the bank v e r y  s l o w l y who I think are the best characters.  Anyway, whilst the phone was on the boys were completely quiet - there were 7 of them in the lounge and you could hear a pin drop.  In fact there was so little work involved that I ended up catching up on my sewing!!!!!

The cake!

I cooked sausages and burgers for tea - didn't bother with veggies - kept it really easy.  They ate up and then disappeared upstairs to play hide and seek.  All high volume, but they didn't go in rooms they were told not to and nothing got broken or damaged even, not bad with 7 of them going great guns.

They came back down for the cake (West Bromwich Albion badge: chocolate and cherry flavour) and then went back to play hide and seek pirate zoo thingy.  This involved them all dressing up (or down), arranging all the soft toys, getting out swords / light up things and generally being loud.  All good fun.

It was 7.30 by the time we managed to get them bundled into the car and on the way home.  It went so well that I might even do it again next year and I never thought I would say that...

Dirty Dancing

Me with painted nails?!!!!

So, Matt was away this weekend, on one of his translator jaunts.  He says its work - but really its a chance to eat and drink and catch up with work friends.  He's not fooling anyone.

Ectoplasm face pack!

Saturday Tom had football training in Burton as the school field was under water again!  It was cold and raining (what's new) I dressed up, ready for it, but Tom's coach sent me home - I wasn't going to argue!  I collected Tom at 11, delivered some cakes to the Badminton jumble sale and put Tom in the bath to warm up.

We then had lunch, went for a walk round the village and then settled down on the sofa to watch The Jungle Book.

I then took Tom over to Meadow Falls at 5pm, he was having a sleep over there and I was having the girlies over here.  Only 3 could make it in the end: Janine, Liz and Sam, but it didn't matter, we had a ball.  We watched Dirty Dancing and painted nails (yes - mine are bright red!) and wore face packs and drank.  We got through copious amounts of gin and tonic, wine and malibu.  We played the Dirty Dancing drink game and sang along, finishing with a dance at the end.  By then we were all having a ball so put on music videos via you tube and were dancing until 2.30am!

Tom and Annabel's den!

More face packs

It was the best night.  It only ended when Janine collapsed on the sofa.  She woke up after half an hour and then barffed in spectacular fashion, so much so that she needed a shower.  We had to convince her to stay over.  Actually in the end she and Liz stayed over, so I had a full house.

We were awake again at 7.30, Janine got up early to sneak home before her boys woke up and found her absent.  Liz and I got up at 9, and headed round to Meadow Falls where Dave cooked us a proper English breakfast.  Turns out that Tom and Annabel had made a den and slept in it for the night.  It was tiny so I'm not sure how they did it!  They woke up at 4am thinking it was 7am and started talking.  Dave had to go in and tell them to go back to sleep!

We then came back home, cleared up the mess - there were empty tonic cans a plenty before heading to Lancaster to pick up Matt.

We then went to Archers cafe for a hangover lunch, a quick trip to Aldi to stock up on cake ingredients and then home.  As we were all tired, we cuddled up on the sofa and watched Chicken Run before a cupboard tea and early bed.

A good weekend.

Thursday - we took Tom to the opticians as he announced over tea one day that one of his eyes is really blurry.  I sat with him in the room as he was put through his test and was surprised and shocked to find that he could only read the top line of letters on the opticians chart with one of his eyes.  Turns out he has a lazy eye and it is too late with him being 9 to do anything about it.  Glasses won't make any difference now, as his brain has reprogrammed itself to see properly with the lazy eye.  She was surprised it didn't get spotted when he was a toddler at nursery - but I guess we were moving house and we never saw the health visitor here and in Telford they were behind with visits and when we did finally get the 2 year old check at 2.5 years we were so concerned about his lack of speech, that is all we talked about we never thought to take him to an optician!

Oh and Tom got his half yearly school report.  We were very surprised because it said that he concentrates well and he got an excellent for effort for writing - he's not had either before.  He seems to have slipped with science though, but because he does that with his afternoon teacher, he only got a grade and no narrative, so not sure what is happening there.  We won't find out at parent's evening either because it is the 'other' teacher.  Hopefully next year he will have one teacher for everything and we will get a proper all round report.

Model Railways

Another gloomy Saturday.  The morning was spent football training, I got out of the first hour waiting in for a cake collection.  Tom came home had a shower to warm up and then we headed to Bernies for our last meal there - it is about to shut to be taken over.  Matt really likes their chicken curry so the chef had written the recipe out for him and saved some spice mix for him - he was very touched.

Sunday was yet another gloomy day we all slept in late.  We decided to head out to Staveley to Wilf's for brunch.  On the way back, Matt decided to head through some back roads to see where we would come out, luckily for him we came out somewhere which had a sign directing us to the sports centre for Kendal's model railway exhibition.  We have been before, it is quite good and as we had nothing planned for the rest of the day we decided to head to it.  Well that was the day sorted.  Tom, as you know loves watching model railways, well correction: model railway fiddle yards.  If it was up to him, he would have stayed there all afternoon, but I thought 2.5 hours was long enough.  There were some good displays with lots to see, but really once you've seen a train run up and down, that's it. We did bump into some Ingleton friends though which was a bonus.

Tom was a happy (and lucky) boy.

50th in Manchester

Saturday morning Tom had football training in Ingleton, he then had a shower, packed his back and we took him over to Settle, where he was staying with Grannie and Grandpa for the night.  Why?  Well, Adam was having his 50th birthday party (yes - it has started to happen, our friends are turning 50!).  It was being held in a pub and was strictly adults only (even though he has two young daughters!)  Oh well, great excuse for us to have a weekend away.

Tom was having lunch with Grannie and Grandpa, so we dropped him off and then headed down towards Manchester in the rain - yes it was grey and gloomy and rainy again!  We stopped off at the Moor Cock Inn in Blacko which we have been meaning to go to for a long time.  Very good it was too, certainly better food than at Booths in Barrowford which is where we would normally stop on that route.  Lots of very interesting menu items - both as lite bites and main courses.

We then headed into the gloom and to Manchester.  We had booked a Premier Inn in Salford, not far from the pub where the party was being held, it was surprisingly quiet despite being right in the centre of town which was good.  We headed out into the city to do some shopping, didn't do very well, and were astounded by the number of homeless people around, I ended up giving a gift voucher I had to one of them as it was so cold, I couldn't imagine sleeping rough in that weather.  I just hope the shop would allow him in to spend it.

The MYT Xmas party

As usually happens, Matt and I got quickly bored shopping so decided to go to a pub instead.  An app suggested somewhere nearby so we went along and were pleasantly surprised to find a fantastic pub in what looked like a very dodgy street.  We got ourselves some craft beer and a table and spent a very pleasant hour drinking.  We then looked at the menu and decided to stay for tea.  We were going to go to Bundobust, but the food here looked amazing and we have been to Bundobust before.  We both opted for spit roast suckling pig.  I had it with salad and Matt had it with chips and gravy.  It was amazing, perfect beer food too.  Think we will be back.  This doubled up as Matt's Christmas works party as we didn't get round to doing anything before Christmas.  It was a good choice.  We returned to the hotel quite merry and with very happy tummies.

We quickly got dressed and headed out to the pub.  It was an interesting pub...with interesting clientele.  We could see immediately why it was no children.  Whilst ordering our first drinks, the staff were dealing with someone who had crashed to the floor in an inebriated pile and was bleeding from his head.  I think we have become quite snobby when it comes to pubs as both of us struggled to find anything we liked to drink.  I went for G and T to start with - was given a half pint glass with some Gordon's and tonic in it - filled to the top, warm with no lemon.  I guess the craft gin revolution hasn't made it to inner Salford!  It was horrible.  I then tried the warm white wine which made my hair stand on end.  In the end I settled on bottled lager - but that was pretty terrible too - in fact both of us sobered up during the party as the drink was so bad.

However, the party was OK, we didn't know many people, but got to make some acquaintances and heard lots of good stories about Adam.  We got back to the hotel around 12.30 and had a good night's sleep.  We were at the end of a corridor and didn't hear anyone, in fact it was so quiet that we didn't wake up until 9.40am - a record for us.

We decided to head out to Spinningfield for breakfast and found a great looking bagel shop, Beastro.  Matt had an eggy bread cheese and bacon toastie which he said was amazing, whilst I had a bagel with pesto, rocket, avocado, chilli and poached eggs which was indescribably yummy (in fact I have made it to eat myself at home at least 4 times now it was soooooo good!).  We then went for a quick look around the People's History Museum which was really good - would like to go back there by myself one day to have a proper look round as I love social history and would love to know more, especially with a Northern bent as I am a 'surrogate' Northerner now.

We then headed back to the car and to Settle to pick up Tom who was not delighted to see us - he was having fun at G and Gs watching the snooker and was not pleased to be disturbed.  Ho hum, it is good that he likes being away from us, but would be nice to get a welcome too.

We had a quiet rest of the day and most likely a cupboard tea.

Mammoth Bike Ride

Above the Lune

Saturday was a horrible grey, rainy day.  Tom went to Skipton with the Durkins as he was playing football there.  We stayed behind so we could meet up with Diane to discuss how we are going to object to the most recent planning application for homes behind us - yes he is at it again, although this time it is for 13 houses, not the 25 he planned last time.

Diane doesn't even live in the affected area, but her parents do, she has no partner or children, so this is her little project, also she seems to hate Mr Brown.  She has found a useful map by English Heritage or Historic England as they are now called showing the area to have Heritage Assets.  Can only be good.  She is going to print some flyers to get people to object.  We will see what happens.

Beach statue near Hest Bank

The rest of the day was a bit of a washout.   We went to Bernies for lunch and then watched some nature documentaries on the telly.



Sunday dawned bright and sunny, hurray.  We decided to head to Bull Beck with the bikes.  The plan was to ride to Morecambe, up to Hest Bank and back to Bull Beck via the viaduct.  A ride of 16 miles.  Now, considering we haven't cycled much recently, we were worried that it might be a bit on the long side.  Oh no.  Even though Tom's bike is quite small, he shot off and didn't stop.  Don'/t think he even got out of puff!  I'm now worried for when he gets a bigger bike as I could only just keep up with him this week.  With bigger wheels, he is going to have to wait for me to catch him up.

The Lune Aqueduct

It was a really good ride, not only because it was a very sunny day, but because the ride had a bit of everything: canals, rivers, seaside, viaduct, a stop in a vintage milk bar, and a couple of hills.  We did it in no time at all, my legs were shot by the end though!  A good day, need to find some longer, more challenging routes for the future (gulp!)

Dalton Zoo and Washing Cars

Tiger and Tom

My favourite the gibbons

So, it was the last day of the holidays (pooooo!)  Matt was working so I told Tom he could do whatever he wanted.  His main wish was to wash the car, so I had to push him to come up with something.  In the end he decided he wanted to go to Dalton Zoo - it is still free entry, and it wasn't set to rain so we headed over.

Hippo

Obviously the Cumbrian schools were back at school as the zoo was pretty much empty - there were a few babies and toddlers, but no children there at all.  We did our usual circuit: said hello to the bears, then to the big cats, gibbons, monkeys etc, to the giraffes.  Then a lunch stop in the restaurant before doing another circuit of the big cats, saying hello to the penguins, another walk through the animal infested lands before heading home.

Tom and Loris

Washing the car at last!

Of course we couldn't leave without a purchase: Tom spent some of his Christmas money on a Red Panda he named Loris.

We then came home and Tom was straight outside to wash the car.  It was cold, but he didn't care and he spent quite a bit of time out there doing it.  Matt even gave him some money for doing it.