Craven Wanderers Awards Night

Craven Wanderers U9 Team 

Another lovely weekend.  It was supposed to rain all day on Sunday but it didn't, how good is this weather we are enjoying?!

Eye on the ball...

So Saturday was the last day of football.  It finished with a tournament at Ingleton.  As it was good weather, everyone was in a good mood and the children played well although, as has become  usual in these events, they started off loosing games and once warmed up started to win.  It was too late though as they didn't get through to the semi finals.  The mums got chatting about the night, it was the Craven Wanderers Awards night and who would get what trophy.  The general consensus was that Tom would get 'Most Improved Player'.  It hadn't crossed my mind, I thought he might get the 'wooden spoon' trophy - think they call it 'Sportsmanship' but it always goes to the weakest player in the team.  Tom has improved but he still isn't at the level of the others, but as the mums said, he has noticeably improved and the others haven't...  It is a pretty boring night as they have to go through 7 teams, acknowledge every player on them and then hand out 4 or so awards.  It takes hours!!!!  The kids run riot because it is too long for them and the parents speak over the coaches handing out the awards and the whole thing is a bit of an effort to get through.  We have discovered the best way to go about it is to get a table near the bar and sit with friends and steadily drink ourselves into a stupor where we don't care anymore.

Most improved player

Now Matt was supposed to be playing cricket in the afternoon in Coniston, however, it had rained in the night over there and the pitch was waterlogged so we had him for the rest of the day which was good because I had visions of having to sit through it on my own.  We headed to the Community Centre got ourselves a table near to the bar and sat with the Mannings and as planned drank ourselves into enjoying it.

Between us we did well, Jack Manning got the Coach's special award and Tom did get most improved player.  Was lovely to see him on stage, think this is the first time he's won anything - he was buzzing!!!!!!  Once they had finished the presentations and drawn the raffle it was after 10pm so we headed home and put the telly on to see the remainder of the Eurovision Song Contest (normally a night of cheese and wine whilst chatting to Chananja).  We got some cheese out and caught up on it.  Needless to say the UK did as badly as usual but it was fun to chat with Chananja.

Our favourite place in Leeds

Sunday both Matt and I were slightly hung over and it was supposed to rain so we decided to head to Leeds on the train - means that the boy is entertained without us trying too hard.  As I said earlier, it didn't rain, but never mind.  We headed to Bundobust for lunch (of course) and then did some shopping, spent quite a while in Waterstones reading before heading home via Wasabi for some sushi.    Then home to watch the sumo - yep the next sumo tournament has started so it is 2 weeks of teas infront of the telly watching our favourites fight each other.  We all want Tochinoshin to win this time...

Feizor, Steak and a Night Walk

Me and my boy

A beautiful weekend - this sunshine is a good thing.

Tom had football practise in the morning and instead of shivering on the touchline it was lovely to stand and watch them play and enjoy the feeling of sunshine on the skin.  Was nice not to have to wear wellies and jump up and down to stay warm!

After football we decided to go for a walk as it was so nice and headed up to Feizor. First stop was lunch and we had it outside which was a joy.  Everyone is so much happier and smilier in the sunshine.  Instead of doing the usual Oxenber Woods walk, we went in the opposite direction and did a full circuit around some hills, almost taking in Knights Stainforth.  It was a good walk with lovely views and nice to go and do something different for a change.  On arriving back in Feizor we went back to the tearooms for a cold drink (me and Matt) and an ice-cream - Tom.

The 3 amigos

Just as we were leaving we bumped into Rebecca and Xander who were doing the usual Oxenber Woods walk.  So lots of excited jumping up and down for a while and we left them to get on with it.  We headed home and had a BBQ for tea.  It was too nice not to!

Sunday and another wonderful sunny day.  Today we headed up to Pabold and Miller and Carter where we met up with Jude and Craig as they didn't want to send me my birthday present in the post. It was a glorious day, the roads were empty so we even managed to enjoy the trip over.  We all ended up having 3 courses for lunch including steak - they do do a good steak so we were feeling pretty heavy for the rest of the day.

After the handing over of presents and a bag of rhubarb (lovely) we headed on the back roads to Settle where we dropped Tom off with his Grannie and Grandpa: they wanted him on Sunday night so that he could stay up late and watch the snooker final (they have got him into snooker - it naturally appeals to him as it has a lot to do with numbers etc)  We left him there and headed home.

Lambulance

As we were home alone, we thought we would do a night time walk, so we had a small tea (still stuffed from lunch) and then headed up to Ribblehead and did a new walk over towards Katie's bunk house through the nature reserve, back to the Station Inn (stopped for a quick drink), down to Katie's farm, then back up the long way to the road where we had left the car.  It was a little longer than we expected so it got quite dark, however, the stars didn't come out as much as we were hoping for but we did see lots of sheep and got a good long stretch.  Don't think we got home until after 10pm - what dirty stop outs we are!

Monday was a quiet day.  Matt went for a bike ride in the morning to Leyburn.  Tom got delivered back to us just after lunch.  We didn't really do that much in the afternoon, Tom was tired and hayfevery and the sun was out so we just pottered around and enjoyed having the day off together.

Run of the Mill Weekend

So we didn't set the world on fire this weekend, but managed to enjoy ourselves never the less.  Saturday started with Craven Wanderers training, so Tom went along and we caught up with him at the end (although I popped to see Janine so missed most of it!).  We chucked Tom in the shower when we got home and then headed out to Settle to Lay of the Land for lunch with Pat and Bob before heading to the Victoria Theatre to watch Roald Dahl Revolting Rhymes.  This was  a show put on by the juniors of Settle Operatic Society and we knew a few children in it. It was supposed to be raining this afternoon so thought it would be a good way to spend the afternoon.  It didn't actually rain in the end but we enjoyed ourselves.  Think we were the only ones there who didn't have family in the production, but it didn't matter - there were some great performances, a lovely atmosphere and a bar selling interesting beer - what else is needed?  We popped in to Pat and Bob's afterwards, for a quick inspection of their new room before heading home.

Cubbing

Sunday was St George's Day parade with Cubs.  Instead of the usual Church parade we walked through the village to Storr's Common where the leaders did a play and the children renewed their promises and played a game.  We then headed back to the Scout hut to watch another performance from the leaders and be fed with hot dogs (Tom had 3 the gannet!)  It was 1pm before we left, it was a gloomy day and we had just found out that it is the Scout's jumble sale next weekend, so we spent the day baking: Tom made his lemon drizzle cake, I made banana cupcakes and we both made some flapjacks - that should keep them going.  Then mushroom pasta in front of the Dukes of Hazzard (Matt was playing cricket) before bed.