Friends old and new

On Saturday we had a date with the Watsons who are over from China.  She grouped her 'Northern friends' together and we thought a group meet up would be better - even though we didn't know each other.  They were on their way from Chester to Cameron's family in Scotland and thought a meet up with us would break the day up nicely.  

Anna, Aofie, Maggie, Tom, Jenny, Tamsin and Libby!

We arranged to meet at Low Sizergh Barn which always does nice food.  As is usual with any meet up somehow I got to be the lucky one to do all the arranging! How come it is always me???!!!  Anyway, I managed to get the cafe to reserve us a table of 12 even though they don't reserve tables.  We arrived on time and then we had to wait for the others.  Lisa got lost and Sinead and her family were late - but there were 5 of them.  Poor Tom was very much outnumbered: The Watsons have 3 girls and Sinead's family have 4 girls, 3 of whom came today.  He didn't seem to mind.  

Beautiful flowers

Tom the Sloth

Sinead and her family were very easy to talk to so it turned into a very enjoyable afternoon.  After lunch we went for a walk around the farm, and then headed to Sizergh Castle for a go in the Wild Trail and ice-cream.  The kids all got on very well, most of them are tom boy type girls and were climbing trees etc, Tom to our surprise joined in and didn't do too bad a job, becoming a sloth at one point and just having fun.

The two older girls: Maggie and Libby were ace too, sat with us adults and were actually very interesting to talk to.  We asked them many many many questions about China, which they enjoyed, apparently staying with their friends in Saughall, no-one has been that interested, preferring to talk about congestion rather than all their adventures.  Maggie is a completely independent adult now - it is very safe in Shanghai so she can happily get the subway by herself or with her friends.  Their school is amazing and they are all doing really really well, getting prizes here there and everywhere for academic stuff (Maggie) and sporting achievements (Tamsin).   Jenny was her usual quiet self - think I managed about 2 words out of her!!!!

Libby, Sinead's eldest who is 14, has been to Malawi for 2 weeks to do voluntary work and she has a job as a social media expert for one of the Yards in Kendal (whatever happened to a paper round?!). She is enterprising and interesting and lovely to talk to.  Not something you can say for every 14 year old. 

It was actually a shame to say goodbye to everyone.

Sunday morning saw us in Burneside for Tom's last cricket match of the season against Burneside Girls.  Silly us we were expecting girls, we got there and the first person to arrive was very much a teenager, then another and another and anaother.  Ouch our team had 1x 11 year old, 1 x 10 year old, 2 x 9 year olds and the others were 7 or 8!!!!!!!  Not exactly fair!!!!!

The lovely surroundings of Burneside CC

Our team started batting, oh - the standard of the bowling wasn't amazing, in fact it all went OK.  Charlie and Luca got quite a few boundaries.  Tom's batting was on fire during practise but he was really unlucky and didn't get many chances to bat, always being at the wrong end of the wicket.  Think he was bowled to about 6 times out of 5 overs!  When he was bowled to, he did OK.

They scored 280 which was good, then they went into field.  Tom did well with his bowling and little William (aged 7) got two wickets with his bowling which was amazing.  It was looking good until the two eldest girls came into bat, they hit boundary after boundary and ended up scoring 50 between them.  After the match we found out that they play for Cumbria Ladies under 13s - meaning they were 14!!!!!!!!!  They beat Ingleton by 40 runs, so I think we can say it was a successful match.

We came home to watch Matt play cricket for Ingleton at home.  We went to see him bat.  Normally when I watch he gets out really quickly.  This time was different, he was in for ages, did really well but Tom and I had a cake to make and it was 4pm by the time he got out and we could get back home.  We had entered the 'Small Yorkshire Show' at school - Tom wanted to enter a big vegetable cake.  I googled recipes and we decided on chocolate and beetroot.  Stupid me didn't look at the method when we decided on the cake - it was the most involved, complicated cake I've ever made - there was no way Tom could have done it by himself.  It involved whisking yolks to a froth, making a meringue mixture, lots of folding etc etc.  He did weigh everything (I didn't check) and did what he could, but really - must check methods whilst choosing recipes. 

It took forever to bake too.

By the time we got it in the oven, Matt was home from the cricket.  So we made tea and watched the sumo.  Then bedtime for Tom - he fell asleep in the car on the way back from cricket - a sure sign he is tired.