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| Y7 and Y8 photos - he has certainly grown! |
Only years 8 & 10 were in school today. I think school will feel very very different tomorrow when everyone is in and the whole school will be moving across the school after every lesson. Think Tom had a slow and easy introduction to High School last year and as a result he didn't 'mature' as quickly as he might have. Could be a different story this year...
On Friday morning we packed up and drove to Carol and Tony's for a brew. We then headed down the motorway, had lunch at Tebay and got home around 2pm. We then spent the rest of the day unpacking and doing the laundry. We had pizza for tea from Elaine's and called it a wrap. We were zonked, but it had been a good holiday.
Saturday was a day of chores, Tom and I went to Austwick to post Granma's parcel, then we picked up some duck eggs from Anne's. After going to Inglesport for lunch (yay, at last it is open and it is as good as always) Tom and I spent a couple of hours washing and cleaning the van. Tom then headed across to the field for a couple of hours of cricket nets with Ethan and Luca.
Sunday, we carried on with laundry and tidying. Alice came round for a brew, and then after lunch Matt went across to the field to play cricket - last game of the year. Tom had a date with Annabel at the swimming pool but then came to watch the match. The sun was out and although there were a thousand jobs I could have been doing, we decided to stop and watch the match in the sun. It was a good match too - Ingleton looked defeated but clawed themselves back and managed to win.
Monday was Tom's last day off - he wanted to go to Barton Grange for crazy golf, so we arranged with Liz and Annabel to meet up. However, they had a covid scare on Sunday and were awaiting PCR test results so we had to go alone. We had a really good time. Bumped into a number of people from Ingleton there. Tom won by a couple of strokes.
On our way in we had noticed a crazy pool area, I had never seen that before, so we had a go. It was novel and fun, but the golf was better. We had lunch in the garden centre cafe, bought Matt some bread flour and came home. A nice day out.
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| Cairn |
Scotland is much better than us at putting brown tourist signs on the road pointing out places of interest. We stopped at a cairn which was a prehistoric grave with standing stones and then to a second one which had a stonehenge type arrangement. Then to a ruined castle - it was closed because of Covid - but still nice to wonder around
We then stopped off at Gatehouse of Fleet for a wander, really really nice town. Much more affluent than Newton Stewart, all the houses were well looked after, there were some nice shops and an absolutely cavernous cafe which turned out to be amazing. They had a great display of cakes, so we decided to have 11s, they tasted as good as they looked, although we were stuffed afterwards as the portions were enormous.
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| Chocolate Goatie! |
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| Concentrating hard |
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| Chocolate bear! |
After a morning of sweet treats, we stopped at the chocolate place for lunch. Matt and I decided to go halves on soup and haggis nachos. The soup was great, but the haggis nachos were just insane - i.e. about double the size we were expecting - it overwhelmed us. Tom had macaroni cheese and immediately regretted it as he couldn't finish it either! Oh hum, that will teach us to have cakes in the morning!!!! Luckily there was a massive outdoor play area which we went into afterwards. We were the only people there, so all 3 of us had a good play (been a while since I've been in a children's playground and I did feel a bit like a giant) it did us all good - stretching legs after such a big lunch.
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| Whisky o'clock |
We then headed to our campsite as we could check in from 2pm. We had booked at a place called Hoddom Castle. Completely different to the other campsite we stayed at - it was huge: full of static caravans, glamping pods and cottages and then a couple of tents and a number of camper vans and motorhomes and touring caravans. By now it was gorgeously hot and sunny - we are talking 25 degrees again. We arrived, set up and Tom was off on his bike instantly. We went for a walk along a river (I spent more time paddling in the river than anyone else - might be something to do with lots of flat rounded pebbles on the river banks that made great skimming stones)
We finished off the river walk and headed back to the campsite. Tom bought himself a soft ball in the shop so we played a hybrid game of volleyball / keepy uppies before enjoying lovely hot showers in a huge spotless and empty toilet block, then to the site pub for tea. The tea was pretty average - I had veggie curry which was basically a mush of wet vegetables with curry powder mixed in served with rice and naan bread. Not great, but it was hot and I didn't make it so that's a bonus.
We got back to the van around 9pm, had a game of uno before bedding down for the night. Had the best night's sleep so far in the van (Matt and I used to sleeping in smaller beds this holiday has probably helped!)
It dawned a beautiful morning, clear blue skies. We were up quite early for us to be ready for the start of the session at 10am (was a 40 minute drive away at Loch Ken) We (of course) got there too early, but as it was so sunny we enjoyed bathing in the sunshine by the lock until they were ready for us. First job was to get a full wetsuit on, not the easiest thing to do, especially as they were still wet from previous use. No one could zip mine up, I had to get an instructor to help me (of course they don't make wet suits for womanly figures so it took a bit of squeezing!
We then took the paddle boards to the loch and were given a demonstration on how to mount them - kneeling to start with when in the shallows. I just about managed - but was in full wobble mode - as expected. Tom and Matt (especially Tom) were straight on no bother!
We had about 15 mins of getting used to that, when the instructor took us out deeper and showed us how to stand up. Tom was straight up no problem at all, Matt managed it first time...I, of course had trouble. The first two times I tried it, I went into severe wobble mode and had to kneel down again very quickly to save myself. I was doing better than the other middle aged lady on the course - she fell in first time! I did eventually manage to get to standing - but knew that if I moved either foot I would be straight in so stayed planted exactly where I was. I stayed up for about 20 minutes and then tried to change direction - bad mistake - I went straight in! Tom was delighted! I was worried about being able to get back on board the paddle once I fell in, I wasn't able to do it myself and the instructor had to come over and help. I decided to stay sat down for a while, was much easier and safer!
We played a couple of games and went for a mini tour of the loch, but mainly we were just paddling around, enjoying the calm of the loch.
Tom on the other hand fell in once, got back on the board no problem and then of course he was in countless times as it was more fun to 'fall' in than stay stood on it! He was the wettest of the group and had a cheeky grin on his face for the whole session (3 hours). It was definitely his sort of thing. There was another kid about the same age as Tom in the group too, once he had fallen in once, he decided it was more fun to 'fall' in too, they egged each other on and I think spent more time in the water than on the board. They were showing off, doing 'walk the plank', front flips, spins etc etc as they 'fell' off.
I in the mean time tried to stand up again. I got up but knew one foot was in the wrong place. I tried to move it, and woosh, I fell in again! This time the instructor was quite a way off, but Tom came to my rescue and helped me back on it again. I managed to stand up again, feet in the right place and for the rest of the session (about 30 mins) I stayed stood on it - I was very pleased with myself, as I was still wobbling a bit! I even managed to kneel down from standing at the end when I got off it, so was very pleased.
Matt finally fell in at the end of the session when the instructor showed him some tricks to attempt. Jumping up and down and then 90 degrees - the 90 degrees got him. Another one was to walk back on the board, 4 tiny steps and he was in. I knew my limits so didn't even try to attempt it. Tom of course could do it all!
Tom and the other lad had to be dragged out of the loch in the end, he certainly had a good time as did Matt and I, maybe something we do in the lake district in the future, but I would want a full wetsuit as the water wasn't half as cold when you are wearing one. I would happily have gone for a swim in it.
