Model Railways

The beloed fiddle yard

Today was model railway show day. We'd been looking forward to this for a while, and we were lucky that it went ahead - there were rumours the then-developing coronavirus situation might see it cancelled.

Anyway, we got up far too early and met Katie and Rebecca at Ribblehead station. The train from Leeds arrived bang on time (!) and trundled up to Carlisle with hardly anyone board. An hour's whizz up to Glasgow took us to the SECC, where the exhibition was being held, as was the Scottish Wedding Show. Very easy to see who was going to which show - somewhat different attire.

The show itself was pretty much what we expected - lots of retail stalls and even more layouts, some of which were hugely impressive. Some people take this stuff extremely seriously, mostly men of a certain age. Tom, as ever, spent more time looking at the fiddle yards than at the layouts themselves, some which had amazing attention to detail.
Still, Tom and Rebecca were suitably entranced, and they got on very well, better than when we went to the Direct Rail Services open day last summer. Tom went there with a fistful of dollars thanks to his recent birthday, but in the end, he only spent £60 on three more Pullman coaches, complete with carriage lights. He was planning to buy scenery stuff for the new upper deck of his model railway, but as soon as he saw the coaches, it was a done deal. To be fair, it was a bit of a bargain.

Lunch was very average - a cheese and onion pasty and a bottle of Irn Bru, sat on the corridor outside the hall, just by the loos. Hey ho, exhibition food. Katie and Rebecca had brought sandwiches of course, and I was slightly envious of them. They looked much nicer than our greasy fare.

I think we timed it spot on. By the time we'd seen everything in the show, from huge steam powered locos to tiny T-gauge (1:440 scale) layouts, our feet were staring to ache and it was almost time to head back to Central Station for our train to Carlisle.

The journey home was just as easy as the journey back, and we got back to Ribblehead all smiles, especially as I had time for a couple of quick halves in the craft beer pub on the platform at Carlisle. The girls were excellent company, and Katie gave me a hilarious account of the more interesting parts of her past. Gave me a good laugh. I reckon we may think about doing it again in the future.

Half Term

This half term started on Friday with the Blezards arriving after a week at Center Parcs in Warminster.  Was half the price of the Penrith one being far away from Scotland!  They arrived 5 minutes after we got home from the climbing club meet up.  We had make your own pizza and then the boys then played back to back pool whilst we sat in the kitchen and drank copious amounts of alcohol.  Didn't get to bed till late and we were all a little hung over in the morning.

Saturday was a truly awful day with storm Dennis bringing rain and wind.  We went to Wensleydale for lunch and a cheese shop and then returned home.  Matt and Neil went out to see Thorton Force, the boys played countless numbers of games of pool whilst Sharon and I sat and chatted about nothing in particular.  We then went and did a lap of the village (whilst leaving the boys playing pool), a quick beer in the OPO and then back home for a lamb stew, more pool for the boys and then early to bed as we were all tired after our over indulgence on Friday night.  Typical Sunday, although windy was a nice day, but they had to go home for school tomorrow, so we waved them off and then headed to the Station Inn at Ribblehead for lunch and onwards to Horton to walk to Hull Pot to see if there was a waterfall there - there was.

Then back home, a cuddle up on the sofa whilst watching James Bond and then early to bed all round.

Monday - Tom went for a mini adventure on the bus with Sierra and Emily to Settle.  Steph and John were keen for Sierra to get the bus but with someone.  Half term is the easiest time to do it.  At the last minute one of Sierra's friends wanted to go too, so we waved the three of them off from Ingleton on the 11 o'clock bus with enough money for lunch.  So good to give them freedom, but you do worry!  They had a good time, went to The Folly for lunch: Mrs Jeffery, a TA from school works there and greeted Tom as he walked in.  Emily's cousin also works there, so they were in good hands. They went shopping around the town (Tom bought a really annoying voice changer - oh joy!) before returning home.  Sierra and Emily got off the bus at Austwick as they went to Emily's house for the afternoon whilst Tom came home.  We then went to Caitlin's to deliver her a birthday card - she was in, so we ended up spending a couple of hours there, playing a very silly game: Throw Throw Burrito which Tom won (his throwing skills coming into play against Rich!).

Tuesday - we headed to Manchester for the day.  The plan was to go to the Chinese Consulate to get our visas - but that obviously isn't happening now!  We had booked train tickets to Manchester, so we decided to go anyway for a day out.  The trains were on time, arrived around 11am, did some shopping - very successful: new trousers and a bargain cheap winter coat for Tom, a T-shirt for Matt and a new file for me (rock and roll hey!).  We then headed to Northern Soul for lunch (as recommended by Rich yesterday).  They do grilled cheese sandwiches and macaroni cheese.  The boys went for Mac cheese, I went for a grilled goats' cheese sandwich.  Mine was good, but the mac cheese was out of this world! We then decided to walk the mile or so to the Museum of Science and Industry to try to get our digestion going - not sure it did, but it was good to get some exercise.  We discovered a new hall full of airplanes which Tom enjoyed (sadly the red arrows simulator was out of action - only £3 a go which is very reasonable).  We then watched a science show and stopped in a cafe for a drink.  At this point I heard from Karen who was heading to the museum, so we met up for an hour or so which was good.  Then back to the station and home.  Soup for Matt and I (the cheese was still sitting in our tummies!) and a pasta ready meal for Tom (pig!)

Wednesday we played host to Ellis for most of the day.  He came round at 10am, he and Tom went to the pump track together for an hour or so, then played pool and scalextric before we all headed to Inglesport for lunch (soup for me and curry for Matt and Tom, however there were mushrooms in the curry, so I had curry and Matt had soup!).  We came back home for a game of Ticket to Ride (did I mention the weather was atrocious - went, grey and cold!), then Craig came to pick up Ellis and we settled down for a film.

Thursday, guess what, it rained again.  So much so that we were worried we might get cut off.  Tom was due to go to Dallam for cricket with Luca and Ethan but the roads were filling up and we were beginning to worry whether our Civic would make it.  Luckily Luca's parents have a tall 4x4 so they offered to take them.  It was a good job that they did as even they had trouble getting through the floods and had to detour a number of times.  Matt and I stayed at home, I worked on building up my chocolate stock whilst Matt did some translating.  Matt then left early to pick them up.  Luckily the rain had stopped and around here the floods tend to disappear almost immediately the rain stops, so he got there in good time.  He got them all back no problems.

Friday, guess what...it rained all day!  We gave up - didn't even try to leave the house.  We pottered around, played plenty of pool and then snuggled down in the afternoon to watch Yesterday.  Tom was in bed nice and early as he and Matt were due to have a long day out tomorrow.

February

Dentdale from Deepdale

So the first half term of 2020 has gone in a whizz.  Can't say much exciting has happened, Matt was out of action with a horrible cold after going back down to Bristol for a 'conference' again.  That took him out of action for a while.  Tom and I managed to avoid it but neither of us were 100% either, so when it came to weekends, Tom did his football on Saturday morning and then we were recovering from busy weeks and getting homework done.  Sedbergh cricket has started again on Thursday nights and Ingleton cricket on alternate Saturday evenings.  Homework has been ramped up - Tom has been bringing workbooks home for Reading, SPAG and Maths with significant amounts to do.  We have come to blows over it - Tom's idea of homework is to do it as quickly as possible, whilst my idea is to do it as accurately as possible.  His Reading homework has lead to us falling out - he seems to think it is ok to read a long passage once and then answer questions about it by memory only...I mean really????!!!!  I ended up showing Mrs Clements his original answers out of sheer frustration and she was shocked.  If I tell him he has anything wrong or to relook at an answer a red mist descends, he becomes sulky, answers back,  puts on an annoyed voice and no amount of reasoning will work - he digs in and refuses to listen to reason.  Not sure if that is due to not wanting to do homework, hormones, pure attitude or just hates me telling him he's doing something wrong.  Haven't worked out how to deal with it yet.

Tough-looking ponies

We also had Tom's school report and parents' evening.  No surprises for either of them.  The usual really - he could do well if he concentrated better and took time over reading the question correctly before answering it.  At parents' evening she spent most of her time justifying why he has dropped down from 'performing higher than expected' to 'performing at the expected level'.  We weren't that bothered about that - as long as he is where he needs to be we are happy.

I had an extraordinary number of cakes to do in January, mainly via Casterton School...the boys' boarding house has found me and the mums are trying to 'keep up' with each other meaning I'm getting lots of orders.  Strange it is the boys' boarding house and not the girls' - but I'm not complaining, they are generally mid week cakes as well, so bonuses.  I also had to catch up on chocolate work for Gingerbugs as I got cleared out over Christmas, there was pretty much nothing left meaning my shelf got filled with other goods until I could get enough made again.  Something to remember for next year - get lots of xmas stuff done in September.

Ewe lot

Because of illness, sports, homework and bad weather, we haven't had many days out.  Matt and I managed a nice walk two weeks ago on a Friday around Deepdale - great walk, really hard going, very cold but gorgeous blue skies and views.  We also went to the cinema one Sunday to watch Dr Dolittle which was fun - was almost as if the writer had been to our house as it was full of soppy animals - a polar bear who was constantly cold, a gorilla who had a 'bankie' because he wasn't brave, etc etc - at the moment we have a soppy polar bear and the mammoths now have to have bankies at night time - I know, I know we are soft and stupid around toys, but hey ho, that's how we are!

Oh and the Coronavirus put paid to our plan to go to China at Easter. Luckily we hadn't bought flights (very unusual for us not to be organised -we were faffing around deciding what to do / tell the school etc).  We now need to decide where to go for our summer holiday and maybe a quick somewhere for Easter.  We have had many suggestions so now we can't decide...

Eleven

The first frame

The 10th of February came and Tom turned 11.  Everyone says it every year about their children - but how time flies.  He is certainly turning into a young man, getting tall (he only just fits under my chin), hormonal attitudes etc but he is still loving and affectionate and good company.

As usual he didn't know what he wanted for his birthday.  Matt and I left it till the last minute and then decided to get him a pool table.  He does like playing pool in pubs and watching snooker with his grandparents, so we figured it would get used.  We got him a 5ft table which fits in the lounge fine and flips up when we need it to so we get our space back.  We also have caved in to peer pressure and got him a phone - when I say got him a phone - we got him a £6 monthly contract on one of our old phones (£6 a month gets him unlimited texts, 1,000 minutes of phone calls and 2GB of data which is way more than he will ever need)  I didn't want him to have a phone until high school - but we discovered that all the boys in his class have one already and he was being left out because of it!  Hate the idea of a phone and mainly social media - but hoping he will be sensible with it and of course we will have every control over it we can.

The gang

Anyway we set up the pool table in the lounge ready so he could play it straight away and wrapped up a chocolate phone and the pool balls.  He got through his presents quite quickly (thank you everyone - thank you cards will be on their way shortly) then we asked him if he was disappointed with what he had got from us - it hadn't registered that we hadn't got him much.  Matt handed over the pool balls and then we said to him to look around the house to see if he could find anything to go with them.  He found it in the lounge (couldn't really hide it!) He was very happy and asked to skive off Boxfit so he could come home and play on it straight from school.  Think I was made to play about 20 games with him!  

We had Japanese curry for tea (after having curry in Settle with Grannie and Grandpa on Sunday and also curry on Saturday with Julie and Kevin!) and then more pool before bed.  

Boy and cake

Tuesday Tom had his party which was the same as previous years - film in the lounge with huge amounts of pop corn followed by burgers and hot dogs and a loud game of hide and seek.  It really is the easiest thing to organise and mostly goes really well.  Tom did cry at one point as he got trampled on during hide and seek - but with 9 boys running around it was going to happen, but of course he isn't used to it being an only child! Tom's cake of choice this year was a Norwegian Flag and troll - nice easy one for change.  

The party ended at 7, then just Ellis was left as there was no-one at home for him, so Tom and he played Monopoly for an hour.

I think he had a good time - but sometimes it really is hard to tell!

  

January Weekends

Our start to 2020 hasn't been great!  Both Matt and I got colds (we stopped taking our nightly whisky!) which meant that after busy weeks at work neither of us was up to much.  Tom, however, has been fine.

Friday was a bit of a landmark - after an accident whilst bouldering with cubs (he fell off the top and landed on his head) he hasn't wanted to go climbing or bouldering no matter what.  On speaking to Debby who runs the climbing club at the wall on a Friday she told me to bring him along and she would get her boys to spend some 1:1 time with him to try to get him to relax and give it a good try.

He wasn't happy about it.  He didn't want to do it because he was afraid.  I told him he can't stop doing things because he is afraid but that he needs to face his fears to overcome them.  In the end I managed to get him to agree to try climbing for one full term.  If he still hated it after that then he could give up.  I got a lot of 'why are you forcing me?!' 'I hate climbing' etc etc, but once he agreed (mainly due to us saying it will help his cricket because it will strengthen his arms and legs), I held him at his word.

We took him along to climbing club on Friday, he was reticent.  We left him to it (he's better at these things when we aren't around)  When we picked him up an hour and a bit later, we found a buzzing little boy who leapt up to the top of the bouldering walls and apparently had made it to the top of the climbing wall 2 times.  He came hopping and skipping shouting, "I don't like climbing, I LOVE it!" in his strongest Northern accent.  It was a success.  Debby even said to us that he should move up to the next session with the older children as he was too good for this session.  Wowzers.    The downside to this is that we have now lost our Friday evenings - no more Friday night dinners for us - poo!

Chilly Ingleborough.

Saturday was a day of sport for Tom - he had football training in the morning and double cricket training in the evening (Ingleton cricket club training - All Stars and older Development Cricket training - Tom was delighted.)  

That was pretty much it for the weekend.  As I said both me and Matt were feeling a bit under the weather.  We watched a film I made a hearty stew and we settled down to watch the start of the sumo.

The following weekend we did even less.  Tom had football training on Saturday morning which didn't go too well - we think because he didn't eat enough yesterday after climbing - note to selves, make him eat pudding after climbing next week.  Then after a pit stop at Inglesport he got the bus to Settle to see Grandpa and Grannie and watch the snooker.  Matt and I went on a walk around Chapel le Dale to try to get rid of our colds, it was a lovely sunny but cold day, there were plenty of walkers around and it was a lovely walk with lovely wintery colours including a sprinkling of snow on Ingleborough.  

The Ingleton Bumps

We then went out for dinner in Kirkby Lonsdale.  We started off a the Royal Barn for a drink and then ended up at Avanti for tea (we tried No.9, although it was pretty empty, apparently they were fully booked for the evening).  We had a nice tea with a bottle of red wine (gave both of us headaches - so not the best) and were back at home at 8.15pm - rock and roll - we know how to have a good night out!  Forgotten how 'posh' Kirkby is. We felt a bit out of place, think Ingleton is more our sort of place, so glad it has some decent eateries now.

Sunday we picked up Tom, had lunch at Goat Gap, a quick stroll around Storrs Common and then Tom did his homework whilst we did chores.  Tom has new homework now - SATS workbooks - I personally think the work is quite difficult.  Tom did his usual thing of doing it all too quickly and getting most of it wrong, so we made him do it again with workings out etc and he did much better.  We had sulks along the way, but he did ok in the end.  He is getting much sulkier recently, doesn't take much to get him into one.  I have to send him away to do something else because once he is in a sulky mood then the whole world is against him and we get tears, he calls himself 'stupid' which I have to counter, basically he goes into a downwards spiral which is really hard to reverse. 

We had teas on knees and then an evening of sport on the telly: sumo and snooker!

Brizzol

So on Sunday morning we received Tom back from his grandparents.  It was a cocky, cheeky version of Tom that came through the door very happy though - so thank you.

After a quick repack and a stressy moment with my edible printer (it had gummed up which is 'normal' for an edible printer, I had watched a video on how to take the print head out and wash it - which I did but I couldn't get it back in.  Matt couldn't get it back in either.  We both studied the video - we both couldn't get it back in.  We tried and tried with no result.  Then suddenly Matt got it in, but he didn't know how he did it and said he wouldn't be able to do it again!)  I ALWAYS get stressed when it comes to IT problems, I just hate it when things don't work properly - can't help it - it is my natural reaction.  Matt is much calmer and more capable and generally sorts everything out for me, but that doesn't stop me being stressy, which means I have to apologise profusely once it is sorted.  Thank you Matt x

Once I had delivered some choccies at Gingerbugs we headed to Lancaster train station.  We were heading down to Bristol to meet with Hiromi tomorrow, she's in Bath visiting Sachiko.  It is a bit of a journey by train - get the train to Birmingham New Street and then another to Bristol Temple Meads. It took 4 hours but was pretty uneventful (except some trespassers on the line which delayed us a little bit in Cheltenham Spa)

Our hotel was directly opposite Temple Meads (Holiday Inn Express) so we checked in, had showers and headed out in search of food.  Temple Meads, I knew was in the business district of Bristol and as it is a Sunday, nothing was open.  We took a quick walk up and over the river and found ourselves at Brewdog - phew.  We aren't allowed to walk past a Brewdog Bar so a we popped in and had a couple of drinks: I had to have a "Mulled Elephants on Ice" just because of the name (it was a mulled cider and very nice too) whilst Matt had a couple of beers he's not tried before.

We then headed across the road to the Old Fish Market - a rather nice looking Fuller's pub for some food.  It was quite busy, nice atmosphere and had some good sounding food on offer.  Also there was live jazz starting at 7 and they had dominos.  What's not to like?  Matt got me some local cider - one which was rhubarb, very sweet and quite frankly revolting, luckily he also got me a dry cider, so by mixing the two together I was able to drink them.  Tom and I had good meals, Matt didn't do so well - receiving the thinnest sparsly covered pizza he has ever seen.  Oh hum, as I said the atmosphere was good and we even enjoyed the jazz.

We headed home via a Tesco Express to get Matt some more food.

Saturday, after a rubbish night's sleep (too hot?  bed too small?   pillows too uncomfortable?  too much alcohol the night before? we got up to have breakfast - hotel was a bargain £45 for bed and breakfast for the 3 of us!  We then walked up to Park Street to Pinkmans Bakery where we met with Hiromi and Kyokho.  It was a good meeting - they were well and happy.  Hiromi wouldn't let us pay for anything at all - think we were in the bakery (a typical hipster artisan bakery - the likes of which didn't exist when we lived in Bristol) a good 2.5 hours, food was good - had a very lovely lunch of mushrooms on toast, Tom had cheese and ham toastie which had a flood of cheese in it and Matt a meat frittata which he said was good.

We walked down Park Street together and took photos of Hiromi and Tom - trying to recreate a photo from 6 years before of Hiromi tickling Tom!  We then said our goodbyes, it started to rain so we got the bus to Temple Meads, only just making our train on time - bus took an age to get to the station.  We then sat on two more trains home.  A long way for a lunch, but Hiromi and Kyoko are worth it.

Back to work and school tomorrow - got loads to do...

Independent Traveller & Leeds Mini Break

So, on Friday Tom did his first bit of independent travel. He got the bus from Ingleton to Settle with an overnight bag as he was staying with Grannie and Grandpa for two nights.  He was completely up for it, barely looked back at us and was more than happy getting his ticket, finding a seat etc.  We (of course) were more nervous and were happy to get the call from Grandpa saying he had arrived safe and well.  He was supposed to walk to Grannie and Grandpa's house by himself as well, but we think Grandpa couldn't help himself and met him at the bus stop.  He was super excited to have done it.

Problem we have is that Tom doesn't have a phone, we don't really want him to have one yet (the whole social media thing is very scary and anyway, he's never wanted one).  However, there are very very few public phones these days, so if something did go wrong, how would he contact us?  I'm guessing we will have to get him a phone sooner rather than later...

Matt and I of course took advantage of Tom being away to have a little city break.  We did a quick scan of hotel prices and settled on Leeds - got a room at Malmaison for £65!  As soon as we knew Tom had arrived safe and well we hopped on a train.  This was going to be a eating and drinking break (neither of us are good shoppers).  First stop was little Bao Boy for lunch - lovely buns filled with asian spiced meats and tofu with loads of siracha.  Got the lips tingling, was super tasty.

We then went off to do our chores - post office for Matt, Bravissimo for me.  Then an attempt to do some sales shopping - lasted all of half an hour, bought a new vacuum cleaner (we are sooooo middle aged!), then a quick drink (pot of tea!) and then a return to the hotel for a relax before heading out on the town for the night.  We were determined to try somewhere new this time, and decided on Jamaican - never been to a carrabean restaurant before.  On the way we stopped off at Bundobust for a quick tipple.  It was mega busy, but we found space and enjoyed some rather nice craft beers.  Got talking to a couple with a small baby - only turned out to be the owner of the chain!  He was on his way home, but as he left he ordered us some more beer - result!

WE then went in search of a light festival near the town hall - was supposed to be happening until 4th January - we searched and searched for it - but couldn't find it so headed to Turtle Bay for our carrabean feast.  We sort of went mad! Had starter, main course and cocktails throughout!  Matt had goat curry and I had brown chicken stew with plantain.  Was all very very tasty - think I would like to visit the area now - pretty sure I will love the food.

We ate so much that the cocktails didn't really affect us.  We walked slowly home and then lay on the bed with our bellies aching with the food inside - why do we never learn?!

We had a better sleep than we thought we would considering the volume of food and drink consumed.  After having a lovely lie in, we struggled up, checked out and headed to a pub up the road which we noticed did a cheap breakfast (breakfast at Malmaison was over £20 per head!)  Matt had a double sausage and egg muffin for £5 and I had avocado and poached egg etc for £3.50 - delicious and an absolute bargain.

We then attempted some shopping for a bit, and then decided to get the earlier train home.  Although it was Saturday, it didn't feel as such.  Matt decided to catch up on some work, so I tempered some chocolate as I have nothing in the shop at the moment and am therefore probably missing out on sales.

New Year

New Year's Eve, I suddenly got the urge to clean and tidy the house.  Matt and Tom were dispatched to the tip with lots of cardboard, whilst I got out the cleaning stuff.  I tidied and then scrubbed down the kitchen, then went into the lounge to attempt to re-claim it.  Dvds were scattered across the floor, so I went through them in an attempt to get rid of some.  Matt and Tom came home at that point so I made them go through them too - we got rid of 2 big bags.  It felt good, but somehow the Dvd shelves don't seem any emptier?!  Oh hum.

I carried on my quest - tidying, laundering, washing up etc until I was happy.  Matt and Tom sat down to do some lego (building the landrover from Uncle Martin) and I started to do some computer work just as the Komorovskis arrived.  Oh well.

Only 3 of them came (Leia is 12 going on 16 and didn't want to come as she would be bored (she was is probably right)  They came through the door announcing that they wanted a walk.  Perfect, so we headed straight out, did a large lap of the village, then Storr's Common and then popped in to see the Holmans as they were having a house warming.  We did think we would only stay about 30 mins, but Adam and especially Karen are pretty sociable and we ended up staying for a couple of hours, helped by the fact that Rosa made friends with Lily dog meaning she was very happily occupied.

Got back home and had to sober up in order to cook dinner!

We didn't have a riotous New Years, but a happy, social night chatting with friends.  Tom did a good job of keeping Rosa company (she can be quite demanding) and didn't even mind when she was obviously cheating when playing a game.  Didn't get to bed until after 2am.  I would say that was pretty good going!

New Year's Day - the Komorowskis headed home after brunch, so we went off for a walk.  Decided to see if the squirrels were out playing at Snaizeholme.  They were, in very good form, think we saw a good 9 or so of them playing.  By the big house one spent a good 10 minutes collecting nuts from us and burying them in the lawn.  They are very cute and very busy - very very difficult to get a decent photo of them - although Matt (of course did).  It was a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon.  We then went up to Wensleydale for a spot of cheese, but it was closed, so we came back home and had a lazy afternoon / evening.  Well deserved after yesterday!

On the 2nd Matt decided to do some work, so Tom and I went for a lap of the waterfalls - to get some fresh air if nothing else.  It wasn't the nicest of days but it didn't rain so can't complain.  It wasn't particularly busy and we did it quite quickly.  Tom was suffering from VD (verbal diarrhoea) so kept me occupied for most of the trail.  We decided to have lunch at INglesport where we bumped into the Perkins which was nice.  Janine then got in touch and told us to drop by afterwards which we did.  Didn't get home until 4pm, and we had a dinner date at the Fosters so we just had time for a shower each before heading out again.  Now, with the invitation being from Anne, we decided we couldn't turn up on time, so we decided half an hour late would be about right - which we did.  Think she went the other way and thought that as it was us we would arrive exactly on time and had things ready for us before we arrived - lol!

Anyway, we had a fabulous night hanging out with them.  Such a a lovely family, lots of chatter and a new game (Mexican Train) which we got the hang of quickly, even though only the children seemed to win?!  It was a good night out, didn't get back until after 11pm!

Between Xmas and New Year

28th December
Matt decided he needed to get some work done.  I had great ideas of a day out with Tom, however, we have arranged for him to spend a couple of nights with Grannie and Grandpa in the New Year and Tom was demanding that he go by himself by bus.  Great that he wanted to, but I figured that I should do a dry run with him so he knew what to expect.  So, off to Settle we went.  I'm glad that I did go with him as the bus went a very funny route into Settle - ie it went past Settle and then doubled back into it and then went a weird way to the market square.  Tom admitted that he would have got a bit worried if he had done it by himself for the first time.

We then had 2 hours in Settle to kill.  We decided to head to Watershed Mill - as there are model train accessories on sale and we could get lunch there.  We walked down were there about 2 minutes when Grannie and Grandpa walk in - what a surprise.  We spent the rest of our time having lunch with them  and catching up after Christmas.  It was a good use of the 2 hours.

We came back, went home so I could put the massive lump of cheese that was part of my Christmas present (fondue set) into the freezer, before heading straight out again to run some errands in Ingleton.

By the time we got back Matt had finished work for the day so we cosied up and got the mulled wine out.  Matt and Tom did some landrover work whilst I cooked ready for New Year's Eve.  Was a really nice, chilled afternoon.

29th December

Today we had arranged to go for a walk with the Mannings.  John was keen to do a walk with a cafe involved, this is always an awkward time to rely on cafes etc being open, but Matt suggested the Barbondale walk as there is a pub and a cafe in Barbon - both of which said they were open.  It's not a long walk, but a pleasant one and, of course it includes the magic chocolate tree.   We didn't see the kids for the duration of the walk - they basically ran the whole thing.  We didn't even get to see if the magic chocolate tree bore any fruit but apparently it did...there were two chocolates for everyone and then Sierra said and I got an extra one...hum 3x2+1=7.  Surely that is one for each of the kids and adults - oh hum!!!!!

We got to Barbon a little too early for lunch, we did another little circuit walk before arriving again and heading to the pub for lunch.  At the pub we managed to take over a whole cubby hole with roaring fire in the grate.  They had mulled wine on offer too so we settled in, kicked our boots off and enjoyed the company, environment and food.  We were a little reluctant to leave in the end, but leave we did.  We walked back along the route, loads of trees have been felled which give the walk a completely different feel - used to feel we were in a deep dark forest, now it is open air - and therefore not as interesting.  Oh hum.  We got back to the bridge.  The kids, as usual were way in front of us.  They had decided not to use the bridge but to dam the river and get across on stones.  They were very industrious working on the project for a good hour or so.  Then they came across.  Tom first - his boots went under the water line and he got wet - oh well, once you are wet you might as well keep going so he did.  Sierra was next, she got wet feet too.  Jack wasn't one for getting his feet wet, so Tom and Sierra went back to help him across and to be fair they did a good job, he got damp rather than wet.

We returned to the cars and poured the river water out of their boots.  It had been a good afternoon - paddling in December - whatever next?!

30th December
Panto day - yay!!!!!!  This year we were off to Blackpool.  We decided to make a day of it and headed to Barton Grange first as we had been told that they sell the Lemax stuff off cheap after Christmas.  They probably do, but we were far too late, the garden centre had been cleaned out of most of its items, there was hardly anything left on the shelves at all. Oh well, we went to the cafe and had tea and a bun instead - very lovely it was too.

We then headed to Blackpool - had a slight misfunction trying to find a car park - but got there in the end.  Went for a little walk along the prom, lost a £1 each at the amusements, got some sarnies from Boots and then headed to the theatre.  This year Tom Brown (our ex next door neighbour) was staring as Captain Hook in Peter Pan.  We saw him here doing the same about 4 years ago.  Anyway he was brilliant and the show was brilliant.  There were no celebrities (other than Tom and he's a minor celeb these days I think) meaning no egos on stage and everyone could dance and sing.  We got a shout out at the start and then Tom spotted our Tom in the audience when it came to the water cannons and Tom got a soaking - ha ha!

In fact Tom was really engaged, at one point he was clapping, singing and stamping the floor!  Never seen him so involved and lost in the moment before.  He certainly enjoyed it.  We headed straight home at the end of it.  When we got home, Matt saw a message from Tom Brown asking us if we were still around - think we may have got invited back stage.  Oh well, we had a good time without that, so it didn't really matter.  Certainly a great day out.

Christmas

Welsh Hills

Monday - we didn't have the best night's sleep last night - too much drink and also Tom was up with ear ache.  I ended up calling the Dr at 8am and got him a 9.30am appointment at Bentham.  We went along, the Dr had a look and his ear was red and inflamed - she gave us some antibiotics - just in case it burst and went horrible over Christmas.

One show off!

We then packed the car and headed towards North Wales.  I drove (Matt was still over the limit!) The roads were surprisingly clear, meaning we had a pretty easy journey across.  Stopped at Chester services and found a noodle place for lunch.  Tom and Matt had chicken katsu curry and were happy boys.

Farming boy!

We got to Jude and Craig's in very good time, did the mammoth unpack and then went for a quick walk around the block before being treated to a very good shepherds pie and ice-cream - perfect food post walk and for a hangover.  We didn't stay up late!

Matt's new friend

Tom's ear did go bang last night (around 12.30) but he seems fine now so decided against giving him antibiotics.  Had a nice lazy morning, then did a 7 mile walk from Jude and Craig's house to a pub for lunch and back was pretty sunny for the majority of it.  Involved lots of mud, hills and quarries.  The pub was welcoming and doing hot food which was good.  We then walked home, I managed to fall over and down a muddy slope and covered myself in mud - luckily not too far from home - if anyone was going to do it, it was going to be me!  Got back, put everything in the washing machine (we didn't bring many clothes with us as we had so many presents filling the car!) had a shower and relaxed.  A nice, easy and relaxed Christmas Eve.  That was until about 9pm until a small boy came down...his other ear was hurting...he couldn't get to sleep.  We gave him pain killers, he still couldn't get to sleep...then he started crying in bed...he was a very unhappy chappy!

In the end I had to get in bed with him and hug him to sleep.  He finally nodded off around 11.45pm - phew.  I was worried what would happen if it got to midnight and he was still awake.

Christmas Day - Tom came in to see us at 6am - his other ear had gone bang and there was stuff over the pillow case.  We told him to turn the pillow over and go back to sleep.  He told us Santa had been - we were very happy about that!

At a more reasonable hour, Tom came back in with his stocking - he had a lot of great things - Santa really is on the ball - what with a DVD of a Japanese train, bath bombs, puzzles, new scouts woggle, chocolate orange and another Eddie Stobart truck.  How does he know?

He was happy with his lot.  We had a nice lazy late breakfast of smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels and then opened up all the pressies.  We were all spoiled.  Tom especially so, with an electric guitar and walrus onesie from us and a huge lego Landrover from Uncle Martin as well as loads of other amazing things. Matt and I did well too.

I am the walrus

At 1pm we headed down the road to Jude and Craig's local pub (minus Craig who was in the kitchen cooking goose for lunch).  It was very jovial and pretty full (it isn't a big pub).  There is a pool table in the pub and Tom was desperate to have a go.  It was monopolised by men though who looked like they were there for the afternoon.  However, Tom, if he wants something, will not be put off by anyone, and went up to them and asked for a game.  They told him he would have to wait.  So he waited and waited and then he went up and watched them...they then came over and said he could have a go.  They played hard with him - no leniency for being a child, but he was happy - he got his game, that was all he wanted (didn't pot even one ball bless him!)  We then headed back to the house as Jude was worried about Craig needing help and being alone.

Christmas Dinner was then served - wowzers.  The goose was amazing, lovely soft, juicy meat with lots of sides of of which were wonderful and of course he is famous for his gravy - and yes it was lovely.  We ate and ate - far too much, but then it isn't Christmas if you don't eat too much.

The rest of the day was spent playing with new toys and then we had a game of Wonders of the World which took us to bed time.

Christmas hats!

Boxing Day was a horrible grey drizzly day.  What to do?  No point staying in the house, so we went to Broughton to the cinema there. We saw Spies in Disguise which was an average kids film.  Had some laughs in it for the adults and wasn't that bad a film, however, the children sat next to us were pretty annoying - not sure how many times they got up and filed past us but it was near to 10 times!  They were dressed to impress, but had no manners at all.  Why go to the cinema if you spend all your time not watching the film?  Pretty pointless and a waste of money.  Didn't seem to have any adults with them, which was, I think the main problem.  Oh hum, it was still a good use of a miserable day.

We got back to Jude and Craig's to find a kitchen smelling delicious.  Craig was making a lamb curry from scratch, it smelt amazing.   It was amazing.  We were all in 7th heaven eating it - think we ate more of that than we did of the goose - it was so good.  Loads of accompaniments too: home made naan bread, onion salad, dhal, raita, chutneys, rice etc etc.  There wasn't a huge amount left at the end.  Thank you Craig.  The evening was spent playing Monopoly, which Matt won easily.  Was good fun though and no sulks from anyone.

And that was Christmas.  On the 27th we drove back home - pretty uneventful drive, then the unloading of the car, followed by laundry etc etc and an easy afternoon.

Thank you Jude and Craig for a very pleasant Christmas.

Last weekend before Christmas

Saturday, Tom had a birthday party (Ellis').  This consisted of a train ride from Bentham to Morecambe and watching the latest Star Wars film.  There were 5 boys altogether (all from IPS)  Ellis is at QES in Year 7, but has stayed true to his routes so far and has the same friends now that he had last year.  Sam took them on the train, but then they sat through the film by themselves (she didn't fancy it - don't blame her).  She then took them to Frankie and Benny's for tea - what a treat and although Tom isn't into Star Wars, he said he really enjoyed the film.


Matt and I had the best part of the day to ourselves - yay!  I spent the morning bagging up any spare choccies I had and taking them to Gingerbugs as they were running low.  Then once Tom was on his way, we headed to Elaine's at Feizor for a proper lunch.  We then did a 5 mile circular walk - a different one this time which took us almost to Knights Stainforth.  It was a lovely walk, lots of lumps and bumps, cairns, sheep, cows and donkeys.  It was nice to get out and exercise, enjoy the fresh air and not be preoccupied with work!

We got back, had a shower, relaxed and then went to pick Tom up from Bentham.  We spent the evening lounging on the sofa including 'teas on knees' of beans on toast.

Sunday we spent the morning finishing Christmas chores and then we headed round to the Ellershaws for an afternoon of board games and drinking.  The drinking seemed to take precedence - it was a bit of a session.  The kids, as usual played well together. leaving us adults to drink and eat lots and lots of crisps, dips and other really healthy things.

Nothing much happened but we had a really good afternoon of chatting, drinking, eating - oh and we did play some board games but not that many to be honest!  We staggered home around 8pm and struggled to stay up until 10pm and bed.

Skating and sledging

Saturday we had a quiet day, Tom was displaying signs of being tired, and I was pretty tired too and needed a day of doing not much.  Matt headed to Leeds for the day as he had a translators' Christmas lunch / social to go to.

Look at that blue sky!

It was a nasty nasty day and as a result football training was cancelled which I think was a good thing.  We had a quiet morning in, then mushrooms on toast for lunch, followed by a snuggle on the sofa watching Polar Express - Tom's favourite Christmas film.  We then headed to the village for late night shopping / skating rink / Santa.  This is an event the village has held in various forms since we moved here - one year it was amazing with fake snow machine and lots of stalls selling food etc.  Since then it has sort of died.  This year they hired a skating rink - it was only small, but it got people into the village, and for children that have never been skating before (Tom being one of them) it was great fun.  It only cost £2 for 30 skating, which was very good value.  Tom began to get the hang of it and managed to slide a little bit.

Snowball fight

There was a poorly attended lantern parade and then Santa arrived on his sleigh.  The newly formed village band was in the square playing festive tunes.  There was then supposed to be a ceilidh, but nothing happened.  We hung around for ages, but nothing took place.  Oh hum, Tom did go to see Santa though (we have given up trying to call him Father Christmas as everything now seems to be branded Santa!) the present he was giving out was desirable (squidgy frogspawn stress reliever which lights up).  As the ceilidh didn't take place we headed home for tea.

Herbert was happy!

We were then supposed to pick Matt up from Clapham, but his train got cancelled in Skipton.  He then got another to Ribblehead.  Tom and I headed out to Ribblehead to collect him, however, there had been a big hail shower meaning the roads were loaded with balls of ice.  Hum, I drove up to the end of the one way system.  The car was slipping and sliding all over the place - there was no way I would be able to get it up to Ribblehead, so we headed home.  A couple of phone calls to Katie up in Ribblehead and she arranged for Jon (who was at work at the Hill Inn) to drive back to hers, get the Land Rover, pick Matt up from the pub and drive him down.  Turns out that i did the right thing as one car smashed into a wall just outside the Hill Inn.  There was lots of black ice on the road, Jon struggled in the Land Rover - the Civic wouldn't have made it.  Anyway, it all got sorted and Matt got home!

Happy boy

Sunday we woke up and there was white stuff everywhere.  Not only had it snowed but it was deep.

Dry stone wall and Whernside

Sledge!

Only one thing for it - sledging at the Hill Inn.  Normally the slopes of the Hill Inn are crowded with folk from Ingleton when it snows, so we were expecting to join the crowd.  No, we were the first to get there, so we made our tracks.  Still no-one came.  Very strange.  We carried on but to be honest in the end we got a bit bored, much more fun to sledge with others than by yourselves.  We gave up and decided to head to the pub.  The Hill Inn was closed, so we headed to the Station Inn (the road had been gritted by this point).  There we had a drink and a mince pie each (sledging is hard work - struggling up the hill at the end of every run).  We then decided, that as it was such a lovely day, to do the Ribblehead circular walk - which we did.  We then had a lunchtime dinner at the Station Inn which was remarkably good (this pub used to be awful, but the owners booted the last lot of tenants out and now it is much much better).  We then headed back down into Ingleton - still not many people on the slopes of the Hill Inn - not sure where everyone got to - maybe Christmas shopping again?

Can't remember what we did for the rest of the day - hot baths and a bit of relaxing I'm assuming.

Carol Service

On Wednesday we went to Tom's last Christmas Carol concert - awwwwww.

Getting ready to play

It was lovely - last year we had very bad seats and couldn't hear or see anything (we were there 30 minutes early too!)  This year we got there 45 minutes early and got some great seats (we weren't the first to arrive by any means!) 

It was a lovely evening, lots of traditional carols, some new ones including the Teachers' Twelve Days of Christmas which was such fun '(6)Hand Sanitiser....(5)When's it half past 3?...(4)Don't waste the glitter...(3)Decorate the tree....(2)Learn all the carols....and (1) You still have to do your homework!!!!!

Who told the dirty joke?

Tom did a guitar recital (Shallow) which made Sal Ellershaw who was next to us cry!.  They all did a couple of poems and a song.  The head boys and girls did readings.  It was just lovely.  A really good atmosphere and a lovely evening.  We will miss it next year.

Mum and Dad Visit

Mum and Dad came up for their annual visit.  Of course, as soon as they arrived it clouded over and started to rain.  It got sunny just as they left!  Oh hum!

They came just in time for the school Christmas Fair on Thursday.  This was the first time I wasn't running it - it was such a lovely experience.  We went round all the stalls, spent huge amounts of money and had fun interacting with the teachers and pupils.  All the year 6 pupils were running stalls, Tom was (as usual) doing what Charlie told him which was a rather complicated bowling alley type thing - lots of rules and regulations which kept changing!  Mum won 5 packs of Haribo!!!!!  Think we did every stall going and soaked in the atmosphere  - sat down had tea and a bun and just really enjoyed ourselves, much nicer than running around on PTA stalls, I'm so glad I have taken a back seat.

Tom (driving?) a train

Friday evening we headed to the OPO for drinks and then went for tapas - was a good evening - everyone enjoyed themselves.

Trains!

Saturday the boys headed to York to go to the National Railway Museum and I took Mum on a bit of mystery tour - she knew were were going out but not where or what...







First stop was a garden centre to go hunting for Christmas presents and then I took her to the Midland Hotel in Morecambe for Afternoon Tea.  Mum and I very rarely have any quality time together, this was lovely, so nice to be able to treat her.  We were both very relaxed and enjoyed the view of the bay and the cakes and sandwiches.  On choosing her tea, Mum went straight for Prosecco - go girl - I teased her, but really I was pleased that she was up for mid afternoon booze!

Mum drinking in the afternoon!

Tea for 2!

At work!

Unfortunately the weather was awful - the plan had been to walk along the prom at Morecambe afterwards, but it was driving rain and wind, so we gave it a miss and headed home.  It was a lovely afternoon.

Sunday we had a quiet day as Mum and Dad had been rushing around a bit since arriving up here.  Don't think we left the village.  However, I was still able to put them to work.  Matt and Tom went out to Ireby to pick up a Christmas tree and Tom, Mum and Dad were put to work decorating it - with Christmas music in the background and Christmas hats to wear.  In fact we got all the decorations out - found lots (as usual) that we had forgotten about including 2 new sets of lights.  I spent a while twisting the new lights around the bannisters - up and down each spindle - once done it looked lovely and festive.

The day ended with a proper roast in the evening - don't think Mum and Dad would know what to do if roast wasn't served on Sunday evening?!!!!

Snuggled up together - 3 peas in a pod!

Monday the sun came out and they headed home!  Was a shame the weather was rubbish and also that I was busy with work, so couldn't spend much time with them on the week days,   Oh well, they have promised to come in the summer next time...

Super Sunny Weekend

Stone Jetty

Wow, we had a super sunny weekend - it was cold, but not too cold, the sky blue and not a whisper of a breeze.  We had to make the most of it...

Looking good in the sun!

Saturday after football we headed out and had lunch at Archers Cafe - the place was empty?!  Very strange as it is never empty, you always have to queue!  Must be that people have started Christmas shopping!  Oh well, it was to our advantage. so we decided to eat big - very delicious it was too, always good food there.


We then drove to Morecambe, parked up at the bottom of the prom and went for a walk up to the stone jetty - the light was beautiful so Matt was busy snapping away.  Certainly a glorious day and it lifted all our souls.

Looking down over Morecambe Bay

Sunday we headed to Grange-over-Sands for the day as I wanted to take Matt on a walk Tom and I did with Steph and co a while ago to The Hospice (a stone tower with fire grate etc for lost, weary walkers).  You get great views from up there and I knew Matt would enjoy it.  I was right - once again he was snapping away, because, again it was a wondrous clear day, we could see for miles.  We spent a while up there, before heading back to the village, having lunch in the Hazelmere cafe.

Arneside Viaduct

We were all in need of something sweet - so I had a crumble, Tom had a huge mince pie and Matt had 2, yes 2 cakes!  We then went for a stroll along the prom so the boys could see some trains before heading home.

Hills

Next on the agenda was to go to Kingsdale at 6pm to see the ISS pass over us.  Matt wanted to take an arty photo of it.  Tom and I went for the ride.  We saw it and Matt got a decent photo of it.  However, it was cold, so we were all very happy to return home to a good hearty stew.

ISS from Kingsdale