Brizzol

So on Sunday morning we received Tom back from his grandparents.  It was a cocky, cheeky version of Tom that came through the door very happy though - so thank you.

After a quick repack and a stressy moment with my edible printer (it had gummed up which is 'normal' for an edible printer, I had watched a video on how to take the print head out and wash it - which I did but I couldn't get it back in.  Matt couldn't get it back in either.  We both studied the video - we both couldn't get it back in.  We tried and tried with no result.  Then suddenly Matt got it in, but he didn't know how he did it and said he wouldn't be able to do it again!)  I ALWAYS get stressed when it comes to IT problems, I just hate it when things don't work properly - can't help it - it is my natural reaction.  Matt is much calmer and more capable and generally sorts everything out for me, but that doesn't stop me being stressy, which means I have to apologise profusely once it is sorted.  Thank you Matt x

Once I had delivered some choccies at Gingerbugs we headed to Lancaster train station.  We were heading down to Bristol to meet with Hiromi tomorrow, she's in Bath visiting Sachiko.  It is a bit of a journey by train - get the train to Birmingham New Street and then another to Bristol Temple Meads. It took 4 hours but was pretty uneventful (except some trespassers on the line which delayed us a little bit in Cheltenham Spa)

Our hotel was directly opposite Temple Meads (Holiday Inn Express) so we checked in, had showers and headed out in search of food.  Temple Meads, I knew was in the business district of Bristol and as it is a Sunday, nothing was open.  We took a quick walk up and over the river and found ourselves at Brewdog - phew.  We aren't allowed to walk past a Brewdog Bar so a we popped in and had a couple of drinks: I had to have a "Mulled Elephants on Ice" just because of the name (it was a mulled cider and very nice too) whilst Matt had a couple of beers he's not tried before.

We then headed across the road to the Old Fish Market - a rather nice looking Fuller's pub for some food.  It was quite busy, nice atmosphere and had some good sounding food on offer.  Also there was live jazz starting at 7 and they had dominos.  What's not to like?  Matt got me some local cider - one which was rhubarb, very sweet and quite frankly revolting, luckily he also got me a dry cider, so by mixing the two together I was able to drink them.  Tom and I had good meals, Matt didn't do so well - receiving the thinnest sparsly covered pizza he has ever seen.  Oh hum, as I said the atmosphere was good and we even enjoyed the jazz.

We headed home via a Tesco Express to get Matt some more food.

Saturday, after a rubbish night's sleep (too hot?  bed too small?   pillows too uncomfortable?  too much alcohol the night before? we got up to have breakfast - hotel was a bargain £45 for bed and breakfast for the 3 of us!  We then walked up to Park Street to Pinkmans Bakery where we met with Hiromi and Kyokho.  It was a good meeting - they were well and happy.  Hiromi wouldn't let us pay for anything at all - think we were in the bakery (a typical hipster artisan bakery - the likes of which didn't exist when we lived in Bristol) a good 2.5 hours, food was good - had a very lovely lunch of mushrooms on toast, Tom had cheese and ham toastie which had a flood of cheese in it and Matt a meat frittata which he said was good.

We walked down Park Street together and took photos of Hiromi and Tom - trying to recreate a photo from 6 years before of Hiromi tickling Tom!  We then said our goodbyes, it started to rain so we got the bus to Temple Meads, only just making our train on time - bus took an age to get to the station.  We then sat on two more trains home.  A long way for a lunch, but Hiromi and Kyoko are worth it.

Back to work and school tomorrow - got loads to do...

Independent Traveller & Leeds Mini Break

So, on Friday Tom did his first bit of independent travel. He got the bus from Ingleton to Settle with an overnight bag as he was staying with Grannie and Grandpa for two nights.  He was completely up for it, barely looked back at us and was more than happy getting his ticket, finding a seat etc.  We (of course) were more nervous and were happy to get the call from Grandpa saying he had arrived safe and well.  He was supposed to walk to Grannie and Grandpa's house by himself as well, but we think Grandpa couldn't help himself and met him at the bus stop.  He was super excited to have done it.

Problem we have is that Tom doesn't have a phone, we don't really want him to have one yet (the whole social media thing is very scary and anyway, he's never wanted one).  However, there are very very few public phones these days, so if something did go wrong, how would he contact us?  I'm guessing we will have to get him a phone sooner rather than later...

Matt and I of course took advantage of Tom being away to have a little city break.  We did a quick scan of hotel prices and settled on Leeds - got a room at Malmaison for £65!  As soon as we knew Tom had arrived safe and well we hopped on a train.  This was going to be a eating and drinking break (neither of us are good shoppers).  First stop was little Bao Boy for lunch - lovely buns filled with asian spiced meats and tofu with loads of siracha.  Got the lips tingling, was super tasty.

We then went off to do our chores - post office for Matt, Bravissimo for me.  Then an attempt to do some sales shopping - lasted all of half an hour, bought a new vacuum cleaner (we are sooooo middle aged!), then a quick drink (pot of tea!) and then a return to the hotel for a relax before heading out on the town for the night.  We were determined to try somewhere new this time, and decided on Jamaican - never been to a carrabean restaurant before.  On the way we stopped off at Bundobust for a quick tipple.  It was mega busy, but we found space and enjoyed some rather nice craft beers.  Got talking to a couple with a small baby - only turned out to be the owner of the chain!  He was on his way home, but as he left he ordered us some more beer - result!

WE then went in search of a light festival near the town hall - was supposed to be happening until 4th January - we searched and searched for it - but couldn't find it so headed to Turtle Bay for our carrabean feast.  We sort of went mad! Had starter, main course and cocktails throughout!  Matt had goat curry and I had brown chicken stew with plantain.  Was all very very tasty - think I would like to visit the area now - pretty sure I will love the food.

We ate so much that the cocktails didn't really affect us.  We walked slowly home and then lay on the bed with our bellies aching with the food inside - why do we never learn?!

We had a better sleep than we thought we would considering the volume of food and drink consumed.  After having a lovely lie in, we struggled up, checked out and headed to a pub up the road which we noticed did a cheap breakfast (breakfast at Malmaison was over £20 per head!)  Matt had a double sausage and egg muffin for £5 and I had avocado and poached egg etc for £3.50 - delicious and an absolute bargain.

We then attempted some shopping for a bit, and then decided to get the earlier train home.  Although it was Saturday, it didn't feel as such.  Matt decided to catch up on some work, so I tempered some chocolate as I have nothing in the shop at the moment and am therefore probably missing out on sales.

New Year

New Year's Eve, I suddenly got the urge to clean and tidy the house.  Matt and Tom were dispatched to the tip with lots of cardboard, whilst I got out the cleaning stuff.  I tidied and then scrubbed down the kitchen, then went into the lounge to attempt to re-claim it.  Dvds were scattered across the floor, so I went through them in an attempt to get rid of some.  Matt and Tom came home at that point so I made them go through them too - we got rid of 2 big bags.  It felt good, but somehow the Dvd shelves don't seem any emptier?!  Oh hum.

I carried on my quest - tidying, laundering, washing up etc until I was happy.  Matt and Tom sat down to do some lego (building the landrover from Uncle Martin) and I started to do some computer work just as the Komorovskis arrived.  Oh well.

Only 3 of them came (Leia is 12 going on 16 and didn't want to come as she would be bored (she was is probably right)  They came through the door announcing that they wanted a walk.  Perfect, so we headed straight out, did a large lap of the village, then Storr's Common and then popped in to see the Holmans as they were having a house warming.  We did think we would only stay about 30 mins, but Adam and especially Karen are pretty sociable and we ended up staying for a couple of hours, helped by the fact that Rosa made friends with Lily dog meaning she was very happily occupied.

Got back home and had to sober up in order to cook dinner!

We didn't have a riotous New Years, but a happy, social night chatting with friends.  Tom did a good job of keeping Rosa company (she can be quite demanding) and didn't even mind when she was obviously cheating when playing a game.  Didn't get to bed until after 2am.  I would say that was pretty good going!

New Year's Day - the Komorowskis headed home after brunch, so we went off for a walk.  Decided to see if the squirrels were out playing at Snaizeholme.  They were, in very good form, think we saw a good 9 or so of them playing.  By the big house one spent a good 10 minutes collecting nuts from us and burying them in the lawn.  They are very cute and very busy - very very difficult to get a decent photo of them - although Matt (of course did).  It was a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon.  We then went up to Wensleydale for a spot of cheese, but it was closed, so we came back home and had a lazy afternoon / evening.  Well deserved after yesterday!

On the 2nd Matt decided to do some work, so Tom and I went for a lap of the waterfalls - to get some fresh air if nothing else.  It wasn't the nicest of days but it didn't rain so can't complain.  It wasn't particularly busy and we did it quite quickly.  Tom was suffering from VD (verbal diarrhoea) so kept me occupied for most of the trail.  We decided to have lunch at INglesport where we bumped into the Perkins which was nice.  Janine then got in touch and told us to drop by afterwards which we did.  Didn't get home until 4pm, and we had a dinner date at the Fosters so we just had time for a shower each before heading out again.  Now, with the invitation being from Anne, we decided we couldn't turn up on time, so we decided half an hour late would be about right - which we did.  Think she went the other way and thought that as it was us we would arrive exactly on time and had things ready for us before we arrived - lol!

Anyway, we had a fabulous night hanging out with them.  Such a a lovely family, lots of chatter and a new game (Mexican Train) which we got the hang of quickly, even though only the children seemed to win?!  It was a good night out, didn't get back until after 11pm!

Between Xmas and New Year

28th December
Matt decided he needed to get some work done.  I had great ideas of a day out with Tom, however, we have arranged for him to spend a couple of nights with Grannie and Grandpa in the New Year and Tom was demanding that he go by himself by bus.  Great that he wanted to, but I figured that I should do a dry run with him so he knew what to expect.  So, off to Settle we went.  I'm glad that I did go with him as the bus went a very funny route into Settle - ie it went past Settle and then doubled back into it and then went a weird way to the market square.  Tom admitted that he would have got a bit worried if he had done it by himself for the first time.

We then had 2 hours in Settle to kill.  We decided to head to Watershed Mill - as there are model train accessories on sale and we could get lunch there.  We walked down were there about 2 minutes when Grannie and Grandpa walk in - what a surprise.  We spent the rest of our time having lunch with them  and catching up after Christmas.  It was a good use of the 2 hours.

We came back, went home so I could put the massive lump of cheese that was part of my Christmas present (fondue set) into the freezer, before heading straight out again to run some errands in Ingleton.

By the time we got back Matt had finished work for the day so we cosied up and got the mulled wine out.  Matt and Tom did some landrover work whilst I cooked ready for New Year's Eve.  Was a really nice, chilled afternoon.

29th December

Today we had arranged to go for a walk with the Mannings.  John was keen to do a walk with a cafe involved, this is always an awkward time to rely on cafes etc being open, but Matt suggested the Barbondale walk as there is a pub and a cafe in Barbon - both of which said they were open.  It's not a long walk, but a pleasant one and, of course it includes the magic chocolate tree.   We didn't see the kids for the duration of the walk - they basically ran the whole thing.  We didn't even get to see if the magic chocolate tree bore any fruit but apparently it did...there were two chocolates for everyone and then Sierra said and I got an extra one...hum 3x2+1=7.  Surely that is one for each of the kids and adults - oh hum!!!!!

We got to Barbon a little too early for lunch, we did another little circuit walk before arriving again and heading to the pub for lunch.  At the pub we managed to take over a whole cubby hole with roaring fire in the grate.  They had mulled wine on offer too so we settled in, kicked our boots off and enjoyed the company, environment and food.  We were a little reluctant to leave in the end, but leave we did.  We walked back along the route, loads of trees have been felled which give the walk a completely different feel - used to feel we were in a deep dark forest, now it is open air - and therefore not as interesting.  Oh hum.  We got back to the bridge.  The kids, as usual were way in front of us.  They had decided not to use the bridge but to dam the river and get across on stones.  They were very industrious working on the project for a good hour or so.  Then they came across.  Tom first - his boots went under the water line and he got wet - oh well, once you are wet you might as well keep going so he did.  Sierra was next, she got wet feet too.  Jack wasn't one for getting his feet wet, so Tom and Sierra went back to help him across and to be fair they did a good job, he got damp rather than wet.

We returned to the cars and poured the river water out of their boots.  It had been a good afternoon - paddling in December - whatever next?!

30th December
Panto day - yay!!!!!!  This year we were off to Blackpool.  We decided to make a day of it and headed to Barton Grange first as we had been told that they sell the Lemax stuff off cheap after Christmas.  They probably do, but we were far too late, the garden centre had been cleaned out of most of its items, there was hardly anything left on the shelves at all. Oh well, we went to the cafe and had tea and a bun instead - very lovely it was too.

We then headed to Blackpool - had a slight misfunction trying to find a car park - but got there in the end.  Went for a little walk along the prom, lost a £1 each at the amusements, got some sarnies from Boots and then headed to the theatre.  This year Tom Brown (our ex next door neighbour) was staring as Captain Hook in Peter Pan.  We saw him here doing the same about 4 years ago.  Anyway he was brilliant and the show was brilliant.  There were no celebrities (other than Tom and he's a minor celeb these days I think) meaning no egos on stage and everyone could dance and sing.  We got a shout out at the start and then Tom spotted our Tom in the audience when it came to the water cannons and Tom got a soaking - ha ha!

In fact Tom was really engaged, at one point he was clapping, singing and stamping the floor!  Never seen him so involved and lost in the moment before.  He certainly enjoyed it.  We headed straight home at the end of it.  When we got home, Matt saw a message from Tom Brown asking us if we were still around - think we may have got invited back stage.  Oh well, we had a good time without that, so it didn't really matter.  Certainly a great day out.

Christmas

Welsh Hills

Monday - we didn't have the best night's sleep last night - too much drink and also Tom was up with ear ache.  I ended up calling the Dr at 8am and got him a 9.30am appointment at Bentham.  We went along, the Dr had a look and his ear was red and inflamed - she gave us some antibiotics - just in case it burst and went horrible over Christmas.

One show off!

We then packed the car and headed towards North Wales.  I drove (Matt was still over the limit!) The roads were surprisingly clear, meaning we had a pretty easy journey across.  Stopped at Chester services and found a noodle place for lunch.  Tom and Matt had chicken katsu curry and were happy boys.

Farming boy!

We got to Jude and Craig's in very good time, did the mammoth unpack and then went for a quick walk around the block before being treated to a very good shepherds pie and ice-cream - perfect food post walk and for a hangover.  We didn't stay up late!

Matt's new friend

Tom's ear did go bang last night (around 12.30) but he seems fine now so decided against giving him antibiotics.  Had a nice lazy morning, then did a 7 mile walk from Jude and Craig's house to a pub for lunch and back was pretty sunny for the majority of it.  Involved lots of mud, hills and quarries.  The pub was welcoming and doing hot food which was good.  We then walked home, I managed to fall over and down a muddy slope and covered myself in mud - luckily not too far from home - if anyone was going to do it, it was going to be me!  Got back, put everything in the washing machine (we didn't bring many clothes with us as we had so many presents filling the car!) had a shower and relaxed.  A nice, easy and relaxed Christmas Eve.  That was until about 9pm until a small boy came down...his other ear was hurting...he couldn't get to sleep.  We gave him pain killers, he still couldn't get to sleep...then he started crying in bed...he was a very unhappy chappy!

In the end I had to get in bed with him and hug him to sleep.  He finally nodded off around 11.45pm - phew.  I was worried what would happen if it got to midnight and he was still awake.

Christmas Day - Tom came in to see us at 6am - his other ear had gone bang and there was stuff over the pillow case.  We told him to turn the pillow over and go back to sleep.  He told us Santa had been - we were very happy about that!

At a more reasonable hour, Tom came back in with his stocking - he had a lot of great things - Santa really is on the ball - what with a DVD of a Japanese train, bath bombs, puzzles, new scouts woggle, chocolate orange and another Eddie Stobart truck.  How does he know?

He was happy with his lot.  We had a nice lazy late breakfast of smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels and then opened up all the pressies.  We were all spoiled.  Tom especially so, with an electric guitar and walrus onesie from us and a huge lego Landrover from Uncle Martin as well as loads of other amazing things. Matt and I did well too.

I am the walrus

At 1pm we headed down the road to Jude and Craig's local pub (minus Craig who was in the kitchen cooking goose for lunch).  It was very jovial and pretty full (it isn't a big pub).  There is a pool table in the pub and Tom was desperate to have a go.  It was monopolised by men though who looked like they were there for the afternoon.  However, Tom, if he wants something, will not be put off by anyone, and went up to them and asked for a game.  They told him he would have to wait.  So he waited and waited and then he went up and watched them...they then came over and said he could have a go.  They played hard with him - no leniency for being a child, but he was happy - he got his game, that was all he wanted (didn't pot even one ball bless him!)  We then headed back to the house as Jude was worried about Craig needing help and being alone.

Christmas Dinner was then served - wowzers.  The goose was amazing, lovely soft, juicy meat with lots of sides of of which were wonderful and of course he is famous for his gravy - and yes it was lovely.  We ate and ate - far too much, but then it isn't Christmas if you don't eat too much.

The rest of the day was spent playing with new toys and then we had a game of Wonders of the World which took us to bed time.

Christmas hats!

Boxing Day was a horrible grey drizzly day.  What to do?  No point staying in the house, so we went to Broughton to the cinema there. We saw Spies in Disguise which was an average kids film.  Had some laughs in it for the adults and wasn't that bad a film, however, the children sat next to us were pretty annoying - not sure how many times they got up and filed past us but it was near to 10 times!  They were dressed to impress, but had no manners at all.  Why go to the cinema if you spend all your time not watching the film?  Pretty pointless and a waste of money.  Didn't seem to have any adults with them, which was, I think the main problem.  Oh hum, it was still a good use of a miserable day.

We got back to Jude and Craig's to find a kitchen smelling delicious.  Craig was making a lamb curry from scratch, it smelt amazing.   It was amazing.  We were all in 7th heaven eating it - think we ate more of that than we did of the goose - it was so good.  Loads of accompaniments too: home made naan bread, onion salad, dhal, raita, chutneys, rice etc etc.  There wasn't a huge amount left at the end.  Thank you Craig.  The evening was spent playing Monopoly, which Matt won easily.  Was good fun though and no sulks from anyone.

And that was Christmas.  On the 27th we drove back home - pretty uneventful drive, then the unloading of the car, followed by laundry etc etc and an easy afternoon.

Thank you Jude and Craig for a very pleasant Christmas.