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.