Holidays - Week 5

Oops - got majorly behind again - so this is going to be a short summary.

Saturday, Tom as usual had cricket training.  He then hung around the field playing with the others.  In the end we suggested Luca hang back and spend the day with Tom, so Julie headed home and we had Luca for the day.  When I say we had Luca for the day, what I really mean is that Tom and Luca were playing cricket on the field all day.  They came back to the house for lunch, and then went back to the field again.  This summer has certainly been a summer of cricket.  We took Luca back around 4pm as he had a trampolining zoom meeting, otherwise they would have been over there until they collapsed!

Sunday was a quiet day.  We had a calm morning and then Matt played cricket for Ingleton in the afternoon so Tom and I went over to watch.  Always a pleasant way to spend the afternoon, wrapped up in a blanket on a bench overlooking the Dales, watching men in white throw a ball around.  Also means we have mushroom pasta for tea, which is a winner for both me and Tom.

Monday
Today was supposed to be Tom's first ever cricket match for South Lakes.  It was in Whitehaven and we had to be there for 9.15.  Ouch.  Whitehaven is 90 miles away, and not a quick 90 miles.   We were up mega early, and were out of the house by 7.15!  We zoomed up the M6 and as we got to Penrith I got a message saying the match had been called off due to bad weather.  What to do.  It was 8am.  We decided to find a cafe in which to have a second breakfast.  We walked all around the town centre, nothing was open.  Quite a few shops had closed down which was sad to see (haven't really visited a town high street since the pandemic struck - we have used all the local shops to us as much as we can).  Most cafes weren't due to open until 9 or 10, we had an hour to kill for those.  Luckily a google search sent us to a cafe that was open on the edge of town, so we headed over there and managed to get a bacon sarnie / avocado on toast etc.  By the time we had finished, the regular shops were open.  We had passed an Aldi on the way in, so I made a beeline for that to stock up on cake ingredients whilst the boys went to find the car and bring it over.  Tom and I then headed to Sports Direct to get some football boots for school whilst Matt went to get a slow puncture in one of the car tyres mended.  So, all in all a useful morning.  We were back in Ingleton before lunch! Shame Tom's match was cancelled, but can't control the weather.

Tuesday
Another really gloomy, rainy day.  What has happened to summer?!  We decided to use this day wisely and equipped with Tom's equipment and uniform list from QES we headed to Kendal resolving not to leave the town until we had EVERYTHING we needed.  

First stop was Clarks for shoes...I had looked on their website and they said they preferred you to book an appointment before arrival.  I do so, we turned up exactly on time and found complete chaos, there was no queuing, no social distancing, people everywhere, children running around and no organisation.  It was awful.  Took a deep breath, got Tom's feet measured - they said he was a size 5, no way, he was size 5 a year ago.  We looked at the styles, there was one slip on, one velcro, two with laces.  He didn't want slip on, didn't want to be faffed with laces.  So, we found a pair of velcro ones in a 5.5, got someone to do the squidge test on him: they fitted well.  We queued up to pay and got out of there as quickly as we could.  Quite simply the worse shopping experience since the pandemic struck - I was quite shocked at the lack of organisation.  Some shops quarantine shoes for 3 days after trying them on, this Clarks just had shoes everywhere, people trying them on left right and centre, lots of hands and feet touching them.  If we could have gone somewhere else, we would have done!  After that experience, everywhere else was a breeze.  

Believe it or not WH SMITHS didn't have any sensible pencil cases, but we picked up all stationary needs in Asda, along with socks etc.  School bag was chosen quickly and was half the price on the label so that was a success.  We tried to go to Brew Bros for lunch, but it was full with a queue, so we went to Greggs for a sandwich / sausage roll instead. And that was Tuesday done.  

Wednesday - Tom met up with Ethan and Luca for 3 hours and played cricket nets for the afternoon.  This meant that I could make choccies for Gingerbugs.  

Thursday - South Lakes were down to play Barrow at Burneside and Tom was playing.  

We had to borrow Luca's whites as we didn't have any and didn't think we would be able to get any in Scotland.  Turns out that Barrow are leagues better than the other 3 districts in the area.  They all looked about 2 years old and physically strong.  OMG.  Obviously Tom had never played a game South Lakes before, he didn't know much about how the others played, and we didn't even recognise most of the other South Lakes players - where did they come from?  None of them were from training - all very strange.  The South Lakes coach wasn't there either - so a bit of a shambles, but at least Tom was there and able to play.  He got to bowl at the first change and got the first wicket of the game with his second ball.  Dad was understandably very proud, especially as the guy had been hitting 4s and 6s all over the place.  In fact his first over was a wicket maiden - which was much better than the bowlers that went before him - Matt was very quick in pointing this out (rightly so!).  

It was a lovely sunny day (bit windy) and we enjoyed sitting out in our very comfy chairs taking it all in.  Tom did us proud with his bowling.  He also took a good catch but unfortunately it didn't count because it was a no-ball.  Batting, he scored a 4, but then got out.  Doesn't sound great, but he actually scored more runs than most of his team mates!  For a first game he did well, and his score card showed him to be a valuable member of the squad.  Matt was very proud.

Friday, I had to go to Settle Tourist Info office to restock my choccies, so took advantage of the fact we were in Settle and popped in to see Grannie and Grandpa.  Tom and I attempted to teach Grannie and Grandpa how to play cribbage.  Grandpa picked it up pretty quickly, Grannie decided that sorting out lunch was more important (she has a point) and before too long pizza and salad were on the table for us.  

Saturday I'm afraid I can't remember what we got up to.  Most likely that Tom did cricket training and probably hung around the cricket field for the rest of the morning and I'm assuming we either had a quiet afternoon or went for a walk?

Sunday, Matt and Tom bike did a bike ride to Sunderland point whilst I stayed at home and put together a cake for Grandma Jan.  It was Phil's 70th birthday: Rolling Stones themed with the iconic tongue on the top and chocolate guitars around the edge.  Matt and Tom didn't quite make it to Sunderland Point, the tide was in and the roads flooded.  They had a good time though.