June

5th June

Bowling...

trying hard

Tom had his first cricket match at Sedgwick.  Once again the Ingleton under 11s is made up of mainly younger children - we only have one person who is 11, one who is 12, Tom and Charlie who are 10 and then the rest are 8!  It is a handicap, but it doesn't bother the boys and they put up a good fight.  That was, until they came up against a Cumbria team member who was a fast bowler and didn't take any prisoners.  He got his eye in and got 4 wickets in 4 balls - the two facing him: Tom and Charlie - they didn't know what had hit them!  You don't get 'out' in Under 11's - you loose 5 runs (each team starts with 200 runs) and you stay in for 4 overs.   To be fair the boys didn't give up even though they knew they were beaten.

8th June

A small, intimate affair

giant alien thingy

Today we headed to Manchester for the night as we were going to see Muse at the Etihad Stadium.  Once again it was a cold and rainy day.  First stop though was the airport pub so Tom could do some plane spotting.  It wasn't as good as last time because the runway we were at was only for landing, not for taking off!  Oh hum, he still enjoyed it though and the food there is good.  We also checked out the Runway Visitors Centre where there is a good vantage point, a cafe, a shop and some displays.  Might come here next time.  We then headed to Karen's (Adam was away in Mexico).  We had time for a bit of a chit chat, before leaving Tom behind (dynamics between the girls have changed.  It used to be that Tom would play with Leia and the two would ignore Rosa.  But now Leia is at high school - she is way too mature for Tom, so he now plays with Rosa (7).  I wonder what will happen when Tom is at High School?!)

We headed on the tram to the Etihad Stadium and met up with Jo and Mark for a pint before finding our seats.  It was freezing - so cold that drinking a pint made us too cold to contemplate another - this is June!  Anyway it didn't rain and Muse put on a stinking show - Matt Bellamy didn't miss a note, the staging was fantastic and the set list amazing.  It went quickly and was a fab night out.

9th June
We rushed back on Sunday morning to Kirkby Lonsdale as our friends from Japan were over.  Not for a good reason - Wendy's Dad died in a tragic caving accident last weekend.  She posted on FB that her Dad had died in a cave at the same time as CRO posting that they had been involved in an attempted rescue in a cave that ended in a fatality.  We put two and two together and realised it was her Dad they were talking about.  Such a shame, we met him - infant he came to ours for tea last time Wendy came to visit.  He was a very pleasant chap.

Ryu, Ryoki and Tom

Anyway she is an only child, so came over to sort out the funeral, say her goodbyes etc.  She came with her two sons (one a bit older and one a bit younger than Tom) and husband.  Her Dad lived in Bradley (just the other side of Skipton) so we suggested that if she needed to get away from it all and the boys wanted a play to meet up.  Sunday was the only day she could do, so we got up early in Manchester and headed back to spend the afternoon with them.  We did a walk around Kirkby Lonsdale, visited the new very good ice cream parlour for massive ice creams and then headed up to Ribblehead for a walk to blow the cobwebs.  We had a really lovely time with them and Tom and the boys got on fine.  Wendy only speaks to her boys in English so they are more than able to understand everything, but they refuse to speak in English so reply in Japanese.  It didn't seem to bother Tom - he realised he could speak to them in English and they would understand and they more than likely spoke back to him in English when we weren't there to hear them!

16th June

Is this a red squirrel?

...or is this one?

Wanting to get out in this awful weather - we decided to pay a visit to our red squirrel friends in Snaizeholme.  It (of course) was raining, so we togged up in our waterproofs and headed over.  Initially it didn't look good - we couldn't find any and we were being eaten alive by midges so headed back to the car.  On the way we came across one red squirrel who was happy to play with us - he was good value too - spent a good 10 minutes scampering around, so we left happy.

18th June
Today was the North Craven Primary Schools Cross Country event.  Tom wanted to do it, so we took him along - to Settle again.  It was pretty scary as most of the runners in Year 5 and Year 6 were club runners - there were only 3 from Ingleton Year 5 (at this point most pupils have stopped volunteering for sporting events unless they really want to do it!).  I was worried Tom would be down the field as how is he expected to compete against those who do it week in week out in the fells, doing races most weekends?  Matt told me he would be fine.  I just hoped he wouldn't come last.  They started off and Tom was in the middle of the field as they went out of sight.  When they came back into sight, I couldn't believe it - Tom was in 9th place - he was easy to spot as Ingleton is the only school in red and Lucas and Finn the other 2 were in 2nd and 3rd - ahead of him.   He kept up his pace and finished in 9th - out of 35 - we were very proud and to be fair Finn and Lucas both went up to him to congratulate him.  I wonder how well he would do if he did do training?  Something to consider if he wants but it would mean he would have to give something else up.  Anyway Ingleton Year 5 boys came 4th - only needed one more point to come joint 3rd - not a bad show!

23rd June

Olden days on the railway

Sunday saw us having a day at the Hatherthwaite Railway.  We were going there because we had free tickets which we won in a raffle.  However, when we dug the tickets out - they were out of date!  Oh hum!!!  We had already arranged with Rebecca that we would have her for the day - so we went ahead anyway.  As usual we were attacked with an onslaught of train chat. For the whole day.  It didn't stop.  I don't think Tom or Rebecca took a breath!  We had a lovely lunch at the station - really good, interesting menu for a small attraction then took the train to Lakeside.  Hung around there for a while, had an ice cream and then headed back again.  All the while Tom and Rebecca were chatting train and having 'train wars' (Rebecca is a steam fan and Tom a diesel fan).  All good humoured and meant that Matt and I didn't have to entertain at all - in fact they entertained us!

Train nuts!

24th June
The Ingleton Under 11s had another cricket match at Netherfield.  They did much much better here.  No-one g

ot out which was a first.  They ended up loosing by 3 runs.  Once again they came up against a Cumbria player - this time a batsman who was last one in and smacked 4s and 6s from our bowlers.  Once again, not their fault - just a way superior player who we couldn't touch.  Only 3 runs, one of the Dad's couldn't look he was so nervous.  It was a good display and once again our team was much younger than theirs so they did really well.

27th June

Eye on the ball... 

...whomp!

Thursday saw us back in Settle for a school rounders tournament - it only made sense for Tom to be in the Year 5/6 team considering he plays with me at the lady's practise every Tuesday.  The Ingleton team had a good team spirit - but were a little lacking in skill.  Tom was trying too hard to slog the ball and missed it every time in the first game.  He made up for it with throwing and catching though and after a couple of games was happily hitting the ball too.  We didn't think Ingleton did that well but they ended up second so obviously didn't give them their dues!  Oh and during the match we met up with Bob and some old neighbours from Shrewsbury who were staying for the night.