Meet up with Chananja in London

I got the train down to London, tube across to Golders Green (not been there since my interview for the kibbutz back in the 1990s) and checked into my hotel, Hotel Unique, above a pub.  Was a strange set up, I never saw any staff - but I had a decent sized, triangular room on the main road, opposite the overland tube but there must have been special glass in the windows as it was almost silent in the room and it was spotless. 

I dumped my stuff and then went out to find Chananja's hotel, I was just on google maps trying to find them when I heard an 'accent', looked up and there was Chananja, Raimo, Reni and Roan.  They were coming to find me! 

So, we hooked up, and went for dinner at a middle eastern restaurant as everyone was starving after travelling all day. 

I then went to see their room - wow, it was very cramped - with 2 double beds and an ensuite and no room around or between them.  I was glad of my room in the other hotel.

The next morning we met up, grabbed some bacon butties and then headed into London for a sightseeing day.  We were lucky in that the weather was good: clear blue skies but very cold!

We headed into Charing Cross and then walked to Trafalgar Square, to Pall Mall waited to see the changing of the guard - new one for me, I had never seen it before.  A good bit of English ceremony but we did hang around for ages to see it.  

Then across St James Park to Westminster Abbey - another new one for me - never been there before.  

Then Big Ben and back up past Downing Street (all completely closed off these days with armed guards, not a chance that Joe public can get near the PM these days - in a 'democracy' - I'm sure there is some irony there.  

We saw the horse guards at Horse Guard Parade and then back to Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square where we had lunch.  I had to wrack my brains to try to remember English history - Battle of Trafalgar etc - thankfully there is always Google, discovered that I sort of know about mosts things, but not in any sort of detail and everyone was full of questions. 

It was Raimo and Roan's first trip to London so they were curious about everything - which is great, but I didn't know everything - for example why are the soldiers in grey and not red - I hadno idea!!!!

After lunch we headed up Regent's Street to Hamleys to enjoy the toys.  Roan was looking for some specific figures that he collects and Raimo wanted some Pokemon goodies - both of which I had no knowledge, but we enjoyed wandering around the store and of course all of the soft toys.  We then headed up to Oxford Street where we went to the Disney Store - there aren't any Disney Stores in Holland, so they have to visit when they see one.  Chananja as expected bought some toys - including Chip and Dale in silver coats which she split and gave me one - Dale a memory for me of our time in London.  

By now we were flagging, so we headed back to Golders Green for a spruce up and then some tea.  We decided to  go for a longer walk down the road to find another restaurant, but they got more and more Jewish.  We decided to try one out, but boy it was the most unfriendliest of welcomes we got - the family next to us glared at us and the waiter didn't really treat us with any warmth.  The prices were on the heavy side as well.  After a little debate, we decided to up and leave - funnily no-one tried to stop us.  We were obviously tourists but really there is no need to be so unwelcoming - our money is as good as others!  

So we ended up back at the same restaurant we went to the night before.  They seemed to like us more.  

The next day, the kids had requested a good old English fry up for breakfast, not the easiest thing to find in Golder's Green, certainly nothing on Google, so I got up early and walked around the neighbourhood to see if I could find anything - bingo, there was a greasy spoon place just outside the station.  It wasn't the absolute classic fry up, but the best I could find.  They seemed happy enough.

 We then headed back into London.  This time we were exploring further East - so The Tower of London (we didn't go in as it is so expensive) and Tower Bridge which we did go into, cost £5 each must be the cheapest tourist attraction in London!  It was interesting, you get to walk along both sides of the bridge at the top and you can visit the pump rooms too.  We all enjoyed it - especially the bit where you can walk on glass above the road.

We then walked alongside the Thames to Southwark Cathedral where Chananja lit a candle to remember her Dad.  She does this everywhere she goes.  I looked into it - you have to pay to enter Westminster Abbey, St Paul's, well pretty much everywhere.  Southwark was the only place which was free.  It was a nice place too.

After there we headed to Borough Market for lunch - everyone chose their own meals and then we all headed to the crumble wagon after I explained what it was, however, there was a huge queue so gave up.  We continued walking up the South Bank, across the wobbly bridge to St Paul's.  Then after a drink break we headed over to Leicester Square for a look around the Lego Store before arriving at Her Majesty's Theatre to see Phantom of the Opera.  Chananja has been trying to see Phantom of the Opera for many years.  She went to New York to see it, but there was a writer's strike so all theatres were closed.  It has now closed in New York and she was worried it would close in London too, which is why she came across to London.  It was a good production - some magic occurred, but it was quite difficult to follow - I wonder what Raimo and Roan made of it.  They both said that they completely lost the plot in the second half of the production - I wasn't surprised.  I'm still a Les Miserables girl.

We then went straight back to our hotels. 

The next morning we met up for breakfast and then we all got the tube together.  I headed to Kings Cross whilst the others went to the Natural History museum which they enjoyed, especially as Chananja and Raimo were coming back to the UK for their Spring break to go looking for fossils in the Jurassic Coast.

Was a lovely break - and even though I don't know Reni or the boys very well, we had a lovely time, the boys were easy to get on with, it was time well spent.

Half Term Holidays

So half term came upon us, just as well as we were all getting quite shattered!  Tom has a lot of sporting activities after school - he wouldn't have it any other way and it is expected these days if you apply to Uni that you have taken part in a lot of after school actives - being just academic doesn't win you places anymore.  When you think about it, kids at private schools are doing the equivalent in after school activities every evening until 5/6 pm, so it isn't unusual, but it does mean that by the end of a half term he is shattered.

On Saturday he took the bus to Hornby to meet up with Georgie after she finished work at the shop there.  This was to celebrate their 4 month anniversary.  They had lunch out and then came back late afternoon.  In the evening Bob came round for tea, we all went out to The Wheatsheaf as we were off on Sunday.  In fact Bob was off on Sunday too - for a mini tour, to meet up with friends.

Sunday saw us heading over to Wales to see Jude and Craig.  We set off in good time so we could do a walk with them after lunch.  We had lunch at Hawarden Estate Farm Shop, which we have been to a number of times before, and always been impressed.  Not so this time, everything was mega expensive and the quality not great - Matt got brown water instead of coffee, not a great start, and the bacon / sausage sandwiches were £8 each and not exceptional.  Not sure we will be back.

We then headed to Gwernymynydd and Jude and Craig.  We got our walking stuff out and headed off on our walk.  It was a 6 mile walk around their local area, not too strenuous (except a very long flight of steps and their driveway!) but nice nonetheless, the scenery around there is very lovely.  It was also helped by the fact that there were 2 pubs en route which we tried out.  I went for a pint of shandy each time...both times I lost half of each to Mr Tom who suddenly got a taste for it!

In the evening we went to a very lovely Indian and stuffed ourselves with very lovely food - 3 courses for £15 can't ask for more - and it was all fresh, aromatic and well, just very nicely cooked and then spent the night playing Monopoly (Matt won, I lost everyone else was in-between)

The next day we hung around a bit waiting for the Beluga to come, it came, we could hear it clearly, but unfortunately the clouds were too low, so we didn't see it until it had circled round and come back to land. Next time...

We then headed towards Bala, we stopped at Aldi in Ruthin for a stock up of sugar and chocolate for my cakes, we then, on the advice of J&C headed to Rhug Estate, a bison farm, for lunch.  We were expecting Bison burgers etc, but it was stuff on toast - so Matt had Welsh Rarebit, I had mushrooms and Tom had a bacon sarnie.  When we left we discovered a take out area where you could get bison burgers etc.  The whole place is a bit of a building site at the moment making it hard to navigate your way round.  Oh well, next time.

We then headed towards Bala.  We got there a bit on the early side (we couldn't check in until 4.30).  It was raining, so a walk on the lake was out.  We went into the town, found a nice butchers and bought some meat for the week.  Then a visit to the Co-op to buy the other bits and pieces to go with it all.  We did a circuit of the lake in the car - it was still raining, so we ended up in a pub playing cards until 4.30 when we found our lodge and moved in.  

The lodge is nice and big, warm, loads of storage space, but with very very flimsy walls, the most flimsy walls we've ever had.  Not a problem though.  We were straight into the hot tub which was lovely, then a game of Wingspan (of course we had brought it with us), tea, another dip, and bed.  A good start.

Tuesday was a murky day - so not raining, but thick cloud.  I had found out about a place called Fforest Park near Betws-y-coed where there was a 1km toboggan to play on.  We decided to head over.  It was one of these big adventure centres with treetop zip lines, trampolines, the toboggan, something called the plummet, and a sky ride thingy.  

We booked in on the toboggan, it was a lot of fun, made even better in that you sat in the toboggan and it took you to the top, so no climbing involved. At the top it stopped and then you pulled a lever forwards to go faster and backwards to slow down.  Simples.  You got 3 runs for your money, the first run I was a bit of a girl, braking as I went round as I didn't know what to expect.  The second and third times, I just whizzed down (I discovered that if you don't brake, the toboggan automatically brakes anyway!).  It was fun, lots of fun.

 

We all had video taken on our last run, we looked at the footage and decided I had the most fun expressions so we got it: 

We then had lunch in their caffi.  Very good it was too and the cheapest one yet.  We had discovered that the centre was doing £5 February, so if you had paid for the toboggan, you could do another activity for £5.  We decided on the 'tree hopper' which was a zip line / obstacle course up in the trees.  I was a little nervous before we started, you never know how it is going to go, but it was fine.  I loved the zip line bits.  I kept up with the boys until we reached one obstacle which I couldn't fathom - I kept getting stuck, at that point they just left me for dead.  Oh well, I'll happily do that again, even go for the bigger course next time.  By the time we had finished that course it was late afternoon, so we decided to head home.  Got back, had a dip, played Wingspan and then had the most delicious meal of lamb rump with potato croquettes and stir fry veg.  Restaurant quality, not bad when it was cooked in a gas oven.  We went to bed happy.

Wednesday was a grizzly, drizzly day.  It wasn't going to get much better, so we decided to head on a train to Llandudno Junction so we could spend the day at Conwy.  It was a slow, but scenic ride on the train, think we were the only English speaking people onboard!  We got to a grey Conwy, and immediately found ourselves a very local cafe for lunch - which was very cheap.  Matt discovered a new favourite sandwich: bacon, rosti, jack cheese - he was a very happy boy!

We then went to the castle. Conwy castle is a good one in that most of the walls still exist and it has plenty of turrets, so you can get a good clamber going.  In fact Tom was playing hide and seek in the turrets with us! After a good hour discovering every nook and cranny, we found a cafe to refresh in and then we headed out into the town to do a circuit of the town walls and see if we could do any souvenir shopping.  

The first shop we found had a huge array of red dragons, Tom fell in love!  Yes, we now have Llewellyn the red dragon to add to the mad house!  He is a fire breathing dragon too - and likes to scorch things.  Oh joy!!!!! We got the train home and headed straight into Bala to get ourselves fish and chips for tea.  We were going to eat out out, but we all wanted to get back to the hot tub, so fish and chips seemed the better option, it was good too, all freshly cooked to order.

Thursday dawned bright and clear - yay!  We had decided to stay local for this day.  There is a mini heritage train that goes around one side of Bala lake, so we walked to the station to get it and then thought we would walk over the hills back to the campsite.  It was a glorious day so away we went.  

   

The railway was cute and it was an enjoyable ride over and a glorious walk along the lake back to our accommodation.

Friday, we cleared out early and headed over to Chester to stay with the Watsons for a night.  We then split up.  I headed to London to meet up with Chananja and Reni and Matt and Tom went home - as usual Dutch and English holidays didn't match up.

 

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!

September to December: a bit busy

So, we have lost September to December when it comes to the blog!  What with Tom back at school, and all his after school clubs, work starting up again and Bob to look after, it got a bit busy and the blog was the last thing on my mind.  We didn't really do that much as we couldn't leave Bob on his own for too long, so there wasn't really that much to write about.  Tom had a trial for the under 15s District cricket team and to his and Matt's surprise got in (the others according to Matt all looked huge compared to Tom!)  So, that means training in Sedbergh every Tuesday night - 8.00 to 9.30 - pretty late for our Tom who likes his bed!)

In October we went to Blackburn to see The Proclaimers which was good - they can certainly belt out the tunes, not much engagement with the audience though.  

I had my usual run around trying to find Christmas marshmallows - found them in the end in B&M in Blackburn and bought as many as I could.  They came out mid October, were exclusive to B&M this year. I bought 150 snowmen, 50 penguins and 40 rudolphs and ran out of snowmen quickly as Di Handly ordered 50 in mid November!  We tried everywhere to buy more and failed, so next year buy 200 snowmen as soon as they come out.

For October half term we met up (finally) with Mum and Dad at a cottage near Nantwich.  Even that was disjointed as Tom and I went down on the Friday, then I left him there on Sunday, came back to help look after Bob and then on the Tuesday Bob moved back to his house and Matt and I went down to Nantwich for the rest of the week.  

Also Mum wasn't in a good way - she was having chemo cream on some skin cancer on her face and was right at the end of her treatment and not doing well - she didn't really move for the first 2 days, but got better as the week went on.  We all managed to go out for dinner out on the last night - which was good.  Maybe next time we will do better.  It was a case of really bad timing, but if we didn't meet up then, it would have been over a year since we saw each other!

October to December was then the big grind of Christmas orders: marketing everywhere I could think of and then fulfilling orders.  I did an Open House: invited friends for mulled wine and cakes on the Friday night and opened up to the village on Saturday morning (11th/12th November)  Then I went to Cross Leigh Stores for a market.  Note to self: DO NOT DO A CHRISTMAS MARKET - people don't buy my goodies, mainly because there is food and drink at the market run by the organisers and people are loyal to them rather than buying from me.  I made £12. What a waste of time.  This is why I do an open house - much more lucrative!  I got lots of early orders this time, I also got quite a few cakes, so a lot of juggling.  I need to work out whether  it is better to say no to all cakes and just concentrate on chocolates?  I had to put out of stock on my website pretty early, plus the school broke up really early this year (16th December) which didn't help, along with Royal Mail postal strikes, I basically had to stop taking orders from the 12th December.

Tom had 2 really horrible colds - one in the first half term and one in the second half term - both lasting about 3 weeks.  They were evil and completely drained him.  Somehow Matt and I didn't catch them which was good - although both of us were getting headaches and rumbling sore throats so I guess it was in our system!

Tom has also had his 4 immunotherapy injections at Manchester Children's Hospital - fingers crossed they work for him in the summer.

Bob has been getting better and better, going back to his house gave him a new lease of life, and within days he was able to walk (he was still hopping at ours), he was out on the mobility scooter and getting stronger and stronger.  We found him a home help so we were able to relax knowing someone was visiting every day and doing any awkward jobs for him.  He even held a Christmas party for his friends which was fab. 

Tom has had to choose his options.  We went to the Options evening at school - first time we have been invited to the school as parents.  It was wholly confusing - came out completely confused as did every other parent we asked.  QES is an Academy of two schools: the main school and the studio - the Studio does practical courses such as engineering, art, DT, performing arts, PE, land management etc etc, but we came out not knowing what sort of qualifications you get, if they are recognised by HE/FE establishments, if you take one of these 'pathways' it takes up the time of 2 GCSEs but does the qualification equal 2xGCSEs?  We managed to talk to a teacher afterwards to get some questions answered (she told us that the Land Management doesn't lead to any qualification - surely that is something we need to know?!)  Also afterwards, we found out that if you want to take a science at A Level, you have to take all 3 separate sciences at GCSE.  Another thing they failed to tell us!  I tell you that school is just rubbish at conveying information to parents!

Talking to Tom, he was absolutely adamant that he didn't want to do any studio school courses as 'all the idiots are going to studio school".  There is a good engineering course in the studio school where you have to be top stream science and maths to qualify, but he still refused, nothing I said would change his mind.  So his choices:

1) Separate science, 2) French, 3) Modern History, 4) iMedia 5) PE (GCSE version not the studio version)

I'm sad that he has dropped geography, but was very careful not to influence him too much.  Modern History is a bit of an anomaly, apparently all history courses have to include a medieval element - so he has to do 1066 and medieval medicine, but the rest is 1900+.

He also has his first school trip coming up...to France!  They go to the D-Day beaches, Paris and Parc Asterix.  5 days, £800!!!!!!  It isn't until July - but at last a trip!!!!!!!!!

Oh and Tom has a girlfriend - Georgie (one of Evie's friends from Caton)!  We haven't met her yet, but they are texting each other all the time (all quite benign and quite sweet).

Lastly, I have managed to loose 2.5 stones.  I have slowed up recently due to circumstances, but plan to get down to 10.5 stone in January - just half a stone to go (assuming I don't put on for Christmas / New Year!)

First Week Back

The first week back has been a bit of a whirlwind.  Getting Tom ready to go to school, sorting out Bob and getting work done as well.  It all got done, just have had to get used to a new routine and working out the best way to do things.

We got back on Friday evening, Jon Radda picked us up and dropped us off at home.  We then made various phone calls to Jude and Bob to find out what had happened.  Bob was still in hospital, and quite immobile as his leg is in a cast and he was finding it hard work to get around with a walker and impossible with crutches.  He was also very short of sleep and in pain.  After a restless night worrying about him, I said to Matt that the only solution was to have Bob here.  If he was to be here we don't need to worry about him at home, we can stay as a family and he can be looked after, have company and not worry about all the humdrum of running a home.  Matt agreed, offered our home to Bob, who then said the hospital were happy to let him out to come to live with us.  So, Matt went to collect him, whilst Tom and I changed the guest room round to give him as much space as possible.

It was a bit of a trauma to get Bob into the house, no matter which way you enter the house there are steps to negotiate, the only way Bob can do steps is on his bum and as it was his first time and Matt and I had no idea what to do, it was a bit of a fumble, but we got him in.  Poor Bob was very sleepy, couldn't eat much, and really just a sorry sight.  He asked to go to bed at 8pm, once again it took quite a while to get him up the stairs, but we got there and he went to bed fully dressed - too exhausted to change!

Sunday Matt and Tom went to play cricket for the afternoon - so it was just me and Bob.  Bob spent most of the afternoon snoozing, I spent the afternoon making sweet peas for a wedding cake going out on Friday.

Monday - Tom's last day of holiday.  We still haven't been able to get him any new PE uniform.  We discovered on Sports Day last term when kids went to school in their PE uniform that his was all too small - he looked like a 1980s football player!  I was hoping to get second hand, but had failed in my quest, so reluctantly took Tom to Preston to get some.  Always a pain going to Preston - I don't like the place and find the roads extremely confusing.  I know where the main car park is, but find it so difficult to get to.  Had the same problem again this time, the centre of Preston was dug up and the sat nav tried to take me down a bus lane!  We then followed signs to a car park for it to be permit holders only.  I then stopped a postie for advice - we could see the car park, but he said that I would have to go right round the centre to get to it.  Oh joy - I drove in a random direction hoping I would find some sort of car park, it worked, we found a multi-storey and it wasn't that far from the high street - a normal stressy beginning to shopping in Preston.

We got to Monkhouse and I bought the biggest PE uniform I could get away with.  Then we headed to M&S to get some underwear for all 3 men, as we were looking it up, Tom noticed that there was a Mowgli next door - oooooooh!  We do love Mowgli.  Preston suddenly looked better...we went to Mowgli, got in and ordered yoghurt bombs, sticky wings and fenugreek chips - we were in heaven.  The conundrum now was - do we tell Matt or not?  We knew he would be upset to find out we had been without him, but we didn't know it was there...  No matter it was a perfect end of holiday treat for Tom.

We bought the underwear and then I decided to check out a shopping centre we hadn't been to before...inside was a Kawaii shop - called Kenji - full of Japanese cutie products - wowzers, Preston is even better.  I got myself a froggy tape measure for my cakes.  Perfect.

We came home, confessed to Matt about the Mowgli trip - seems he is keen to join us on school uniform shopping trips now!

Home!

On the ICE in Basel

We are home!  We had a pretty much stress free journey home.  On arrival to the station in Luzern, we found out that our scheduled train to Zurich was cancelled - argggghhh!  However, Swiss railways being sensible allowed us to cut the corner and get a train to Basel which meant that we could pick up our train to Frankfurt in time.  We did this, and the rest of the journey was perfect.  We think that the DB timetables changed on 1st September which helped us out.  

Beer o'clock

We were sad to say goodbye to Switzerland, we had had a good (and expensive) time there. The part of Germany we passed through was dull and flat, but the trains ran on time and were fast so we can't complain and we had reserved seats.  We managed to grab some pretzels for lunch in Frankfurt station as we switched trains.  We arrived in Brussels on time and our hotel was directly outside Brussels Midi which was good.

We dumped our luggage and had a little bit of down time before tea.  At the same time, Matt got a text from Bob saying he was in an ambulance after falling off a ladder which was a bit alarming! He was supposed to be picking us up tomorrow, so we quickly got in touch with friends and made alternative arrangements and then kept in touch with Bob and Jude as he went through A&E etc.

In the meantime we headed out to Le Bistro, just up the road from the hotel.  We went there last time we were in Brussels and knew it to be good.  It was again.  We had a fab night - a HUGE lasagne for the boy, chicken kebab for Matt and rabbit & beer stew for me.  It was a lovely end to the holiday.

Didn't get much sleep that night as we were worried about Bob, turns out that he has broken his ankle in 3 places and was admitted to hospital.  

On the catwalk

The journey from Brussels to home was uneventful.  We arrived in London on time, took our suitcases to the Premier Inn we stayed in on the way out - they were happy to look after them for us for a small donation to Great Ormond Street Hospital and then we headed to Camden Market for a look round and lunch.  We were starving because we had got up very early, plus the hour's difference!  Most eateries were still getting ready, however, we did find one which was ready, it did chicken karage, gyoza and noodles so we ordered a bit of each and were very very happy with the result - it was the best meal of the holiday.

We then headed back to Kings Cross and got the train to Leeds and then another to Ribblehead, where Jon met us and drove us to our house.  

We had a great holiday - well travel experience, it wasn't restful like some holidays, but completely worth it - we saw and did loads.

Le Bistro

Notes for future similar trips:

+ Take swimming stuff and goggles for the boys (they are lost without their goggles).  European swimming pools are much better on the whole than ours!

+ Quick dry materials are best for clothes

+ Sandals are essential, don't take many socks!

+ If an hotel offers to do a basket of laundry for a set price jump at the chance.

+ We don't actually need that many clothes, just one jumper.

+ All local transport in Swiss towns are free of charge if you are staying in a hotel - make sure you ask about this everywhere you go.

+ Tom can't cope with going to bed at the same time as us - he gets too tired.  He can only get to sleep if all lights are off, so if there is a bar use it, if not, it is early to bed for us too with a silent phone to play on!

Hotels we used - these were mainly 3 star hotels, all very different and on the whole very good:

+ Zurich - Hotel Bristol, quite basic, but clean and friendly staff.  Laundry service was amazing and cheap

+ Interlaken - Chalet Swiss, fab place, two storey room, with loads of space, we enjoyed this one a lot.

+ Montreux - Bon Porte, very very basic: no wardrobe even in the room, very noisy with restaurant on top and extremely hot.  They had taken the knobs off the room fan to stop you putting it on a higher speed, boiled eggs at breakfast were grey?! The guy behind reception wasn't great!

+ Zermatt - Jägerhof - lovely hotel - huge room, lovely bar / restaurant area, lovely staff, couldn't ask for better

+ St Moritz - Laudinella - huge room, huge hotel, huge bar / restaurant area, free entry to amazing pool across the road.  Great experience, although full of US tour groups!

+ Lugano - Hotel Walter au Lac - 2 rooms for the price of one, lovely staff, freebies in the room, air conditioning, right on the lake, beautiful view, breakfast overlooking beautiful view.  What else can you need? 

+ Luzern - Hotel de la Paix - happy staff, great location, comfortable room and good breakfast.

Would happily use all hotels again except for the one in Montreux.