February

February was quite a busy month all in all.  

Teachers are striking at the moment.  First day was the first Wednesday of the month.  QES, as usual, took the easy option.  They just closed the whole school, said they would set work in advance as striking teachers can't set work when striking.  Tom's work was: read a book, draw a picture, watch the news.  What a cop out.  They said to take photos as evidence, but we all knew they wouldn't ask for them.  We decided to have a day out.  It was a horrible rainy day so we took the bus to Skipton £2 each way, had lunch at Dales Cottage, did a bit of shopping and then came home again - a good use of a miserable day!  There weren't any other children in Skipton, we were quite surprised, but then found out that all other schools were open, it was just QES that couldn't be bothered to work out a Plan B like all other schools.  Just glad Tom isn't in Year 11 or 13, otherwise I would be upset! 

The first Friday of the month saw me accompanying Steph and Christine to the Craven Awards in Skipton.  Gingerbugs had been nominated for best Independent Retailer.  Clare (the other Gingerbug) couldn't make it so Steph knowing that I had a posh dress, make up at the ready etc asked me if I would like to come along as it was a black tie do - of course I would!  I know how to dress up now!!  So my dress has had two outings already.  It was a posh night, but all a bit strange.  Food was questionable and the winners we figured were done on a geographical basis - so 1 for Ingleton, 1 for Settle, 1 for Grassington, a couple for hamlets and all the others for Skipton.  The OPO won for Ingleton so the other 3 didn't, but considering Ingleton is only a village it had a huge representation.  Gingerbugs didn't even know about the awards until they received an email saying they had been nominated. Anyway it was a good and free night out for me so I enjoyed it.  Nice to be asked.

Inspired by a friend who took her daughter to Liverpool shopping and stayed at the YHA, we decided a night in a YHA would be fun.  Also, this year the government have introduced £2 single fares on the bus network.  This works really well for us as bus fares up here are astronomically expensive - so much so that it doesn't make any financial sense to use them - let alone the infrequency of them making them inconvenient.

So, we decided to get the 555 double decker from Kendal to Keswick - it goes right through the Lake District.  This meant we had to leave the car overnight in Kendal and we spent ages trying to work out where we could do so - no car parks seem to allow you to leave your car overnight, however, on the way in we found a residential road with no limitations and space and not that far from the town centre so we parked and headed in.

After a mooch around the shops in Kendal (poor place is looking unloved, shopping centre is almost empty of shops now and there are so many empty shop units in the town as well it's beginning to look quite impoverished), we had lunch in our favourite place Brew Brothers which just happened to be opposite the bus stop.  We got on and got the best seats - yay.  It was a rainy day, but it really didn't matter and we all enjoyed the trip up to Keswick. 

We had a good look around Keswick, did a bit of shopping and found a rather quirky (but full) pub to try out.  It is doing much better than Kendal - no empty units, plenty of people around, buzzing and thriving I would say.  It is one of these towns that punches well above its weight of population - so it had a swimming pool, a big Booths, a huge public park and it all looked very well looked after.

We checked into the YHA - we had a private room - which was a bunk bed with a double on the bottom and single on top with an ensuite.  They provided duvets, pillows etc we just needed towels.  Not cheap - still £100 for a night, but cheaper than any hotel in the area by quite a way.  Anyway, I showed Tom around, the communal kitchen etc.  We had a chill out afternoon and then headed in for tea and found ourselves a rather good tapas place which was so good that we ordered 3 times!  

It was still raining when we finished so we headed back to the hostel which had a big lounge bar, and spent the evening playing Trivia Pursuit.  The questions were from the 1980s - talked about East and West Germany, which put Tom at a disadvantage, however, there were junior questions which were at just the right level for Tom. We all filled our cheeses, but Matt won at the end! 

We had a pretty good sleep, packed up and found a place for breakfast.  We then decided to climb Keswick's nearest hill - Lattrigg, which looked worse than it felt.  It was a beautiful day - clear and sunny, if a bit frosty and cold.  We weren't really prepared for a hill walk - I was in skirt and town boots, but it wasn't that bad and we got to the top before we knew it.  The view from the top was just gorgeous, looking down over Derwentwater.

After descending we stopped at a cafe for a drink and snack, and then headed to a curious little place called puzzling world, which was full of illusions.  It was quirky and fun.  The best place was the room where you were either a giant or tiny.  I of course had to get my own back on Tom and got a lovely photo of me looking massive next to tiny Tom.  Something I will treasure - it takes illusions to be bigger than him these days.

After that we got the bus home in the sun.  Once again we got the best seats in the bus, so enjoyed it lots.  We got quite stuck on the Ambleside to Windermere road, so really were quite glad someone else was driving!  We felt like we had been away ages when we got back.  Thanks Steph for the inspiration.

The following week, it was Tom's birthday.  He had been a pain about it this year - couldn't think what he wanted present wise, cake wise, 'to do' wise! So sorry for all the vague present suggestions!  3 days before his birthday he told me he wanted a Langwasser Viaduct cake (from our holiday in Switzerland) thanks Tom!  I was finding it hard to find my cake mojo for him, but it all finally came together on his birthday and the cake was ready when he came home.  

Bob came round on the Friday night and we all went to La Tavernetta for tea - very lovely by the way - Mum and Dad, request a visit next time you visit!  Then Tom had climbing.  On Saturday two of his friends came: Tom and Zach, we all went to Bollywood Cottage - which is Tom's birthday tradition and then they had a sleepover.  So, the sleepover, they went to bed when we went to bed which was almost midnight...at 4.30 I went to the loo and could still hear them talking.  At breakfast I asked them how the night went, they hesitated, so I said I could still hear them talking at 4.30...turns out they went to sleep at 5.30 and woke up at 7.30!  Luckily they were smart enough not to be loud and keep us awake!  Tom had a football match that day and scored twice!  Don't know how he did it.  Apparently Zach had a bath and then did nothing on getting home and our Tom was incapable of anything too!  

So, Matt has been following this 5ft bear on twitter, called Hunslet who is a mascot for a train maintenance depot in Birmingham.  He is cute - always looking for jaffa cakes and lollypops in the trains that come in to be fixed.  Anyway, last year he kept us going when things weren't going too well for us.  At Christmas we sent him a Lily Pad Christmas bar with jaffa cakes in it to say thank you.  This month the depot got in touch to see if I would be willing to make Hunslet chocolates for them.  

So, I got straight back into my sales patter and produced a proper business document with info about me, what I can do, possible issues and possible solutions.  They got back and said they were really impressed with my professional document and want to work with me - how exciting.  They want me to sell on their behalf - so everything goes through my website, which hopefully might drive lots of new sales for me too.  How exciting. I now have to come up with some ideas...

Oh, Tom's end of half term report was very good - he did very well in his exams (including science where he got 33/38) and the teachers were full of praise for all the revision he obviously had done, which was good.  His effort grades had also gone up considerably.  Well done Tom.

Wedding

On the 21st January we had our first wedding in ages.  All very exciting, it was between an old friend of Matt's from Uni and his bride's best friend is an old friend of mine from Wokingham - all very bizarre and coincidental!

The wedding took place at Seckford Hall near Woodbridge in Suffolk.  It was a bit of a mammoth drive to get down there and back - 6 hours each way, however, we had an easy run both ways (dread to think how long it could have taken with heavy traffic)  We were a bit naughty and pulled Tom out for his last lesson of the week to help beat the traffic and were very glad we did so.  

We got there in good time, we hoped to find a pub on the way for tea - no pubs.  We hoped to eat at the hotel on arrival (no space) so ended up at KFC - first one in donkey's years.  But when you have no idea where you are and you pass one - you just have to do it - as we had no idea if we would find anything else.

On return to the hotel we met up with some of the wedding crowd in the Hall - including my friend from school - Katherine, we had major hugs (can you believe it we forgot to take photos of us together!).  Was so good to see her again.

The Saturday of the wedding was just glorious - it was cold, but clear blue skies.  We all got dressed up (what a faff it had been to get ready for this weekend - involving lots of on-line dress shopping and being dragged around Leeds by Anne to get make-up / hair stuff etc and of course something for Tom)  It was worth it as (I think we looked good!)

We had a good day - the Watsons were there too - we hadn't seen them since they had returned from China, so we had plenty to catch up on.  I flicked between them and Katherine and her crowd, but she had lots of duties to do being Helen's best friend.  The actual wedding was lovely, reception was good fun, then in the evening there was a casino (perfect for teenagers) and dancing - Tom was NOT GOING TO DANCE, no matter how much I pleaded - just as well the Watsons have 3 girls who do like a dance!

Anyway it was a good weekend - just a flog to get there and back!  

Disastrous Christmas

So, the rest of the Christmas holidays didn't go well.  Matt and I came down with a horrible cold.  Matt came down on Christmas Eve and I came down on Christmas Day.  I had it for 2 weeks and Matt for over 3 weeks - he really was quite ill with it: couldn't speak, deaf ear and generally feeling rubbish.  Much worse than Covid!!!

So, not much occurred for the last week of the holidays, there was a lot of bed rest, watching of films, playing of Wingspan, but we hardly left the house.  We did have plans with others, but we cancelled all of them.  Wendy and Ryu were supposed to be coming over for Christmas Day / Boxing Day, but Wendy came down with a cold too and cancelled.  Bob came over for Christmas Day and thankfully didn't pick anything up from us, but apart from that we were a unit of 3 not doing much.  Tom was so bored that he eventually arranged to do something with a friend - his girlfriend!  Georgie's mum brought her round the first time and stopped for a brew.  We paid for them to go to Inglesport for lunch and then they came home and watched a film.  She came a second time too - this time her mum didn't stop.  They spent most of the day in the van.  Georgie stopped for tea and had Kedgeree for tea - I was really surprised as it isn't 'normal' food - but she had 2 helpings and enjoyed it.

Tom then went back to school just as Matt and I were feeling better.  He went straight into exams.  To be fair to him (we think) he did a fair amount of revision - well he spent a decent amount of time in his room anyway.

Christmas Holidays

So, I got to the end of my orders, Matt got to the end of his translations and Tom got to the end of school all at the same time - phew!

We were in desperate need of family time together as we have all been working so hard, with a week to kill before Christmas we started to plan some treats - especially as the weather was looking to be quite horrible.

Saturday we went to the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal to see the Lancashire Hot Pots.  They were as good as every - they really know how to work the crowd and get a rapport going.  The venue was very small - only 300 and standing only, so it was pretty crowded but it was a good atmosphere - every one was there from babies in arms to 90 years olds in walking frames.  They played most of their big hits and some Christmas songs too - so a good sing along was had.  A good start to destressing for Christmas.

Sunday we stayed in (didn't get to bed until after 1am and we are old now and unable to cope with late nights out!).  We are supposed to meet up with Bob at Goat Gap for lunch, but it was snowing in Settle and Bob didn't want to risk it - fair enough, we didn't want him to risk it either!  We had a game of Wingspan and then watched the new Gihbli film: Earwig and the Witch (didn't understand it?!)

Monday we had a useful day.  Matt went to see Bob, I did some cleaning and tidying and Tom did some revision (he has exams as soon as he goes back to school!). We had a game of Wingspan, and then spent the afternoon on the sofa with a duvet watching Elf - first time I've seen it all through - it was fun.  In the evening we went to the Wheatsheaf for the Xmas quiz - came third - arghhhhh!

Tuesday we got up at a reasonable hour and got the train from Ribblehead to Carlisle.  Matt and Tom went off to do useful things - new school shoes (Tom's have died after 1 term!) and some other bits and pieces, whilst I went round the shops desperately trying to find last minute things for Christmas. We then met up at the Last Zebra for lunch (one of our favourite restaurants and it didn't disappoint).  Matt had 2 pints which then meant we had a fun time shopping afterwards - we somehow ended up with two new duvet sets with Highland Coos on them!  

Wednesday - we went into Lancaster - we needed to go to Honda to get new batteries in our car keys.  We then went into the town centre so that we could get new school shoes for Tom (couldn't get them in Carlisle as they offered to replace them but needed the old ones to swap for new ones).  Tom got a steam train necklace from Georgie for a Christmas present but it didn't have a proper clasp on it, so Tom was unable to wear it - we found an independent jewellers who attached one on it for him - awwwwww!  We had lunch at the Chinese Noodle shop - yummy and then headed to Barton Grange to see Polar Express on the big screen.  It was very enjoyable.  The cinema is super comfy (we were front row and had a cosy chair and pouffe each) and the animation so much better and clearer on the big screen.  Found it very very lovely indeed - will happily do that every Christmas!

Thursday - we had a useful morning, then headed to Hawes for lunch.  A game of Wingspan, a weigh in at Slimming World (I've put on 3.5lbs this week - oooops!) and then the Bickerstaffs came round, so we opened mulled wine and the sloe gin.  A bit of a merry evening was had!

December

           

Even though we were mega busy in December, we managed to have some fab weekend breaks.

The first weekend saw us in Doncaster at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park for their winter illuminations.  This was Matt's 3rd attempt at a 50th birthday present from his folks.  The first atttempt was a cricket match that got rained off and the 2nd attempt was a Diesel train driving day that got delayed because of Covid and then canceled due to rising energy costs.  I had a sudden light bulb moment and suggested this to Matt at Bob's request to get something sorted and Matt was very happy at the thought.  We had seen the illuminations advertised, they looked good, so we got tickets and booked a night at the new on-site hotel.

  

     Well, the illuminations blew us away - they were amazing.  We were expecting something good, but this really was excellent, loads and loads of illuminated animals, including polar bears (Matt's favourite), frogs (yay) and well pretty much everything else.  It stayed dry for us, so we were very happy, spent a good 3 hours looking round and enjoying them all. We went in to the park the following day to see the real animals and had a great time - the polar bears did us proud by coming up to the fence to say hi, dig a hole and sit in it!  I have a feeling this will become an annual trip - they were 1000x better than the Blackpool illuminations.

The next weekend we were visited by Martin, Vanessa, Ben and Mia from Australia.  Apparently last time they came to England and stayed with us they remembered that staying with us the best bit as it was like a proper holiday - what a compliment!  No pressure!!!!!  I managed to get ahead with my choccies to be able to spare a day to clean and tidy the house up (it was a tip!) and they arrived Friday evening.  It was cold and the next morning to all of our surprise we found a thick layering of snow on the ground.  We were in the midst of a Winter Wonderland!  They haven't seen snow in years and years so were very excited.  We had two days out with them - on Saturday we visited Bob and then went to Malham for a walk to the cove (we ran out of daylight to do anymore)  Ben (who is now 21) and Tom had a 2 hour snowball fight as we went round (you wouldn't have known there were 8 years between them!) We had the place more or less to ourselves.

On the way home, we thought to go and visit the Highland Coos on the high road.  The roads were pretty much all clear, so we thought it would be all right.  We were wrong.  The bottom of the road was ok, but it turned into a skidding rink and Martin's hire car ended up across the road.  No damage but it took a while for us to work out how to get it turned round and down again - we could barely stand up on the road - it was so slippery.  Luckily there was a grit bin just where we got into trouble (hummmm!) so we scooped up loads to put down by the wheels and then Matt gradually got the car down and turned around.  A little adventure to add to the day!

The next day we decided to go to Morecambe for a walk by the sea (they live a long way from the sea in Oz!)  It was a wonderfully clear day - blue sky and sunshine, just lovely.  We ambled down the prom, had lunch on the Stone Jetty and ambled back.  We had to stop at the amusements for a go.  Martin and Vanessa introduced us to a whole new way of playing the 2p drops.  They loaded the machine and put loads of coins in at speed, this then meant that they won big time too, never seen anything like it.  They won loads of tickets which translated into bags of 'cheap' lego which we got and donated to a local charity for Christmas.

On the Stone Jetty

It was a lovely day - just ambling, talking about nothing in particular, just being friends together.  Ben and Mia have grown into lovely adults.  Last time we saw Mia, she was quite difficult, refusing to eat pretty much anything and not joining in with anything, well just being awkward.  All that has gone now, she was a delight to hang around with. Oh we all said hello to Eric - got this funny photo of us all!

Bring me sunshine (Matt's the golden child!)

We drove back home, the boys went sledging and then we bought ourselves a Christmas tree to set up and decorate.  I got out all the Christmas hats, put on Christmas music and got ourselves in the mood. I had made a gammon, so we had (sort of) Christmas dinner with crackers etc.  Made loads and it pretty much all went (the gannets!).  It was a good weekend, couldn't have asked for better weather for them.  Our turn to visit them next!