Once again I can't quite remember what we got up to this week. The thing is with lockdown, we have slowed down and really don't need to have a 'thing' to do every day. Before lockdown, we would all be climbing the walls but things have changed, we have slowed down and don't 'need' an activity a day!
We had been looking forward to Tuesday for over a month, we were heading over to Chester Zoo with the Wilkinsons. Paul owns some car dealerships over in the Harrogate area and offered to get a 7 seater to take us all over there. What a great idea. They arrived at our house complete with coffees, the kids were on the back seat, me and Matt in the middle and Nicky and Paul at the front. It wasn't the best of days, but tickets for the zoo were like gold-dust - we booked these in July and they were the pretty much the last ones left for the summer holidays.
Must say it was lovely being chauffeur driven, we got to the zoo dead at 12.00 which was good as that was when our tickets were for (no full day tickets were left when we booked). It was pretty busy as we arrived, so staff were directing people where to go - we ended up going to a part of the zoo we didn't even know existed - exotic islands, where we found lots of animals we hadn't heard of, including the rather splendid warty pigs. We then grabbed a hot dog each before exploring the rest of the zoo. None of us knew our way round, there weren't any maps being given out (transmission hazard) so we just followed our noses. The weather took a turn for the worse and it started to rain, so we looked for areas with indoor areas where we could escape - masks went on and off many many times. Some animals were on form: sea otters, hornbills, meerkats, zebras, eastern bongos.
Some animals were very lazy: lions & tigers (didn't even see a tiger!).
Oh, when we were queuing up to see the lions, we started talking about teeth. One of Tom's canine teeth came out about a week ago - it had been hanging on by a thread for ages. We were whinging about the fact Tom tends to shy away from pulling his teeth out when they are hanging on a thread. At the same time, Florrie offered Tom a toffee eclair which he took. He then picked out the eclair with his fingers, and embedded in it was another tooth!????! None of us could quite believe what we could see. Tom says it wasn't even wobbly - he was as confused as we were. Oh well, at least that one didn't hang on by a thread for weeks like all his others. The tooth fairy has been busy in this house this month.
We went into the Tropical Realm to get out of the rain - got waylaid by some rather splendid hornbills. When we came out, the zoo was deserted - everyone had gone home because of the rain. Oh well, we are tough northerners so it didn't worry us! We did keep getting lost because of the lack of maps, decided not to do the ape house (so no orang-utans, chimpanzees etc for us) as the queue was over an hour long. We did get to the elephants though. On arrival, they were all in their house, but the zoo volunteer radioed to the elephant team to find out if they were coming out again - they were. We went to get ourselves a coffee (well the adults anyway!) and when we got back we got a great view of them - plenty of babies being very cute.
By then it was 5pm, the zoo was about to close and we had aching feet and were wet through. It was time to go. However, the shop had to be visited first - Tom had birthday money than needed spending with him. He selected a very lovely looking anteater which he named Anthony. Florrie also seemed to purchase a soft toy (or two). It's what you do when you are 10/11!
Paul then drove us home. He stopped off at Booths in Clitheroe so that he could get some cheese for tea. Matt went in, got some ready meals for us and then he and Nicky also bought beer for us to drink in the car. How luxurious. We also got Paul a bottle of red wine to say thanks for all the driving. The rest of the journey home was very pleasant. We didn't get back until after 8pm. It had been a good day!
Wednesday, Tom and I met up with Clare, Isaac and Jack. I have got quite friendly with Clare who is the joint owner of Gingerbugs. I didn't realise that she lived in Ingleton and that she has 3 boys, the youngest of which, Isaac, is in the same school year as Tom! He went to Leck School, which is why we weren't aware of him or them. Isaac is following his older brothers in to QES. When the emails came out saying what class children were in, we checked with each other...Isaac and Tom were in the same class. Clare immediately suggested that we needed to meet up before school started, so they would know each other. One of Isaac's friends from Dent School (they used to live in Dent) was also going - Jack and in the same class. Jack was the only child from Dent going to QES. Guess what...we looked round the school with a boy called Jack who was in a Dent school jumper, so we sort of knew him. Clare is divorced and in a sharing arrangement with her boys - so one week they live with her, and the next they live with their dad, this carries on through the holidays, so it can be quite a task to get together, but we found a date we were all free. Jack spent the day with Clare and Isaac and then we headed round and went for a walk down by the metal bridge. Isaac had found fossils there last time they had visited and Tom was keen to know where they were. It was a little awkward to start with as Jack and Isaac know each other really well, so they were chatting whilst Tom was with me, but as soon as we got to the river, Tom and Isaac were straight in the river, making dams etc. Tom went tribal as he found some brown clay that dissolved in the water - and marked himself up with it! Jack, on the other hand became a little bit of a loner - not sure messing about by the river is his thing. Oh well, at least they all know each other now.
The evening saw us at Netherfield for an under 11s cricket match against Netherfield Girls. It was cold and gloomy, but the Ingleton side did well and won comfortably with pretty much everyone getting a wicket and boundary.
Can't remember what we did on Thursday and Friday - but I'm sure it involved cricket!
Saturday, after cricket training in the morning we were wondering what to do, when Matt got a message from a translator friend, Victoria, in Clitheroe, asking us if we thought it would be a nice day for the waterfalls walk. The answer of course is no. The waterfalls walk at the moment is horrible, crowded with people who don't social distance and litter the place (a sweeping generalisation I know, but that's how it feels sometimes!). He suggested they come anyway, and we would show them somewhere else which is less crowded but just as beautiful. They have two daughters: Willow (3) and Scarlett (6) oh, and Red the Dog. They arrived and after introductions, we drove over to Kingsdale to do the Cheese Press Stones. 
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