Easter

Smardalegill Viaduct

Easter is early this year, so the children didn't break up until the Thursday before Good Friday.

Good Friday
Desparate to get out walking again, but with the weather not at its best and our legs not the fittest they have been (especially me as I've managed to pull a groin muscle - no idea how - but it hurts a lot!) we decided to explore a new part of the Dales, along an old train line, so we knew it would be flat.  It is a walk we saw on the telly - Tony Robinson did it: Smardalegill, it near Kirkby Stephen, quite a drive in fact, but well well worth it.

Smardale Bridge

We parked up, and luckily two ladies passed by who told us where to go (just as well as there was no signage anywhere!)  It was a beautiful walk and flat which was great and even had the odd pile of snow left over from last weekend meaning I could chase Tom with a snowball.  It took us past old quarries, into the Dales full of sheep and abandoned buildings to a lovely huge brick built viaduct from the 1860s spanning a tiny river and which we could walk along - hurray!  If only we could do the same with the viaduct in Ingleton, oh hum!!!

Anyway it was a lovely walk, and we managed to turn it into a circular as we could see a track on the other side of the river to follow back.  Lovely 15th century pack horse bridge to walk over, shame the 15th century pub wasn't still there too!  We got back around 1pm, with rumbly tummies, however, we met a lovely man on the way back who told us of 3 nearby eateries, so we jumped into the car and headed to one of his recommendations - The King's Head in Ravenstonedale.  Wow, there is some money round here - this was the 'poorer' of his recommendations, and it was very posh.  Tom had macaroni cheese which was made with smoked cheddar (yuck! I HATE smoked cheese), he was very happy with it, Matt had a full chicken dinner with haggis and whisky sauce so he was in seventh heaven.  I chose unwisely: wild mushroom risotto which had sooooo much cheese in it it was basically cheesy rice and therefore very greasy - oh hum, the boys were very happy with their choices, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.


We got back, had showers etc and then headed out to the Wheatsheaf as it was Sheafstock (basically Ingleton music festival) this weekend and Matt was on the bar.  Tom and I joined him, so burgers for tea with a healthy smattering of some great live music (Thr33 in particular were a great band - played Pink Floyd, Beatles, Peter Gabriel - stuff that all 3 of us enjoy so we were very happy).  Didn't get home till late.

Easter Saturday

Biker's lunch

Tom had requested a Bike Ride, so we put on the bike carrier and headed to Bull Beck car park.  Tom had requested the Lancaster canal and Morecambe prom ride with lunch at the Shore Cafe so that is what we did.  Of course last time we did it, Tom had a much smaller bike, with his new bike his wheels are on par with ours and with added gears too, there were some places where I couldn't keep up with him.  Yep, it has happened, poor Mum is at the back struggling to keep up.  Pants!  Luckily Tom is still nervous overtaking others which slows him down, giving me the opportunity to catch up with him.  We got to the Shore Cafe in no time at all so had an early lunch.  Tom opted for carb loading - having potato and broccoli cheese bake with chips.  Enough for all 3 of us to eat, just as well Matt and I ordered much smaller meals so we could help him.

At Sheafstock

We continued on to the stone jetty, then through Morecambe and along the old railway line back to the river, across the bridge and back under the aqueduct to the track we started on.  Tom did start to tire here, so we stopped at Crook o Lune for a drink and snack before finishing off at Bull Beck.  It was a 20 mile ride all together, albeit mostly flat, but my legs were screaming at the end and ached for the rest of the day.  Oh hum, we got home, had a quick tea and headed back to Sheafstock were we managed to get a table in the music tent so sat down for the night, made new friends and enjoyed the music.

Easter Sunday

New engine at Millerbeck

We thought we would have a slow day today and found out that Millerbeck was open, so we headed over.  It was a lovely day, blue skies but freezing cold.  We got there just after it opened and were shocked to find the car park almost full and the place heaving, we think word has got out now, we have never seen it so full.  Never mind - we joined the queue and waited patiently for our turn on a train.  We all managed a trip on Alf (a diesel), then Tom and I had a ride on a rather lovely looking Canadian Pacific train (a diesel) and then Matt and Tom had a ride on Geoff (yet another diesel).  We bumped into Rebecca and her family whilst there as well - Rebecca is in the year above Tom but an avid train fan, and although they know of each other, they haven't spoken at school at all which is a little silly.  We have arranged something with both of them later in the week in the hope that they make friends and be train geeks together.

Atop Gummer's How

After Millerbeck we headed to the car museum cafe for lunch, it was rammed, but didn't take that long for the food to come out which was as good as ever.  Then we decided to head to Gummer's How for a mini walk to the top to take in the splendid view of Windermere.  It was as lovely as we remembered.  Always a good walk, not much effort required for huge reward.


We headed home, had another quick tea and then headed over to Sheafstock again for the last night.  Wow, the place was rammed, with all the families from school - there were children everywhere.  We thought it would be great for Tom, loads of children for him to play with, but no, I think there were just too many children, and he clung to me and got teary?! Oh hum, he had had lots of late nights, so I think they were catching up on him.  The families did seem to leave after an hour or so, then Tom started to play with those left and relaxed.  We came home a little earlier, and vowed a slow day for Monday.

Easter Monday
Easter Monday was a horrible day: windy, rainy and cold.  There was no incentive to leave the house so we didn't!  We snuggled up on the sofa and watched netflicks - Tom chose Free Willy which we all really enjoyed (although it did get Tom going on a number of occasions).  We then headed to Ireby for lunch, before returning home.  We had a game of Ticket to Ride (Daddy won again - one day we will beat him!), then an episode of Planet Earth before tucking into a full roast dinner.  Very satisfying, and what else to do on a horrible day?

Man of the Match and Squirrels

Man of the match

So, we were feeling 'normal' again and decided to get going again with doing things, especially walking to get some fitness back.

Saturday we were back to football, this week they had a match against Settle at home thankfully, the first time they have played at home for ages due to flooding / snow etc.  We all wrapped up warmly and headed down.  It was warm, we all had to strip off - no wind, which was blissful.  One of the regular first team players wasn't available today so Tom got to start the match in mid field.  Wow!  Today he actually played really good football - he was in it from beginning to end, switched on, he tackled, he defended and he almost scored a couple of goals.  It was a joy to watch (we normally get really frustrated with him as he switches off and refuses to tackle), he looked like he belonged in the team and he even got pats from his team mates.  Parents on the line were even commenting on him.  Wow!  He stayed on for the whole of the first match.  He then get subbed off for the first half of the second match, but got subbed back on for the second half of the second match.  Here it went wrong, he obviously put his all into the first match he was lack lustre and didn't really know what to do and then when a tackle went wrong he burst into tears!  Oh dear, we couldn't placate him!  He got subbed off.

Tufty

He was still miserable when the match ended, but he got called over for the end of match chat and then got made 'Man of the Match', this helped to cheer him up.  As part of Man of the Match he got a chocolate bar, he said he wasn't hungry and didn't want to eat it, we told him to eat it, he ate it, he cheered up immediately!  Ooops - his sugar levels were obviously low.  Need to remember that for next time if he plays a whole first match take chocolate to boost his sugar levels.  Also, of course, because we haven't been active that much at weekends, his fitness levels aren't quite as good as they normally are.



We got him home, put him in the shower, and took him to a cafe for lunch which sorted him out.  We then headed over to Settle as it was Scoutrail - a model railway exhibition run by the scouts at Settle Junior School.  I went shopping in Booths!  We then headed to Grannie and Grandpa's as it is Bob's birthday next week and we were going out for tea, so we hung out for a while and then went to the Talbot Arms for tea.  It was bustling, but we managed to get a table and had a nice dinner.

Rusty

Nik's best piccy!

Sunday morning Tom wanted to head to the pump track so off we went.  He was the only one there and after a couple of circuits was happy to head home.  Matt suggested we head to Snaizeholme to go and hunt for red squirrels, an excellent suggestion, so off we went. We parked the car down the bottom of the track and walked up, where we met with some visitors from Liverpool who were heading in the wrong direction, so we turned them around and then sort of hung out with each other.  We saw some squirrels in the first set of trees, so were happy.  We then saw some in the viewing area scampering along the assault course that has been put up for them, so we were very happy.  Then we headed to the open area by the holiday cottage to see if there were any in the garden.  Oh my, not only were they in the garden but they were very tame.  The Liverpudlian couple had some monkey nuts with them and the squirrels were hand feeding!  Fantastic.  There were 2 in particular who were out playing, we named them Rusty and Tufty and they played and played and played.  It was a joy to watch (although very difficult to photograph as they are so scatty and very very fast!)

Think we stayed a good hour or so just delighting in watching them.  We then headed back to the car (tummies rumbling) and went to Hawes for a very late lunch.  A very good day out.

Then when we got home, we had the Mannings over for roast: horrible gammon.  Had a lovely evening with them all, the kids all get on beautifully so the adults can relax - yay!

It was the flu

So, it was the flu!  Matt went down with it really badly, I got a lesser form of it.  The next couple of weeks were spent surviving rather than thriving.  We got thorough each day but only just.  The downside to running your own business is that you have to carry on regardless as you can't phone in sick!  Matt would do a couple of WOSAs and then lie down to recover and I slogged through my cakes trying not to make any silly mistakes and we were all in bed for 9pm every night.

Poor Tom!  Both parents ill and grumpy.  Weekends were spent literally lying on the sofa watching films and going to bed early - we didn't do anything interesting at all.

It took until the beginning of March before either of us was feeling any better.  Luckily we both had light work weeks that week, and Tom had a long school trip to Beamish, so we both took the day off and I booked us a day in a local spa.  We spent the day in saunas, steam rooms, jacuzzis and in an outdoor hot bath, ate healthy food and had an hour's massage.  It did us wonders - from that day on we felt much much better.

Hot tubbing

That weekend was Mother's Day and we were invited to Liz and Dave's to pod, and we actually felt up to it which was great - we got the newest pod which was wonderful and we spent Mother's Day morning in their hot tub under blue skies in wonderful scenery which did us all good.

So that was February and the beginning of March - we didn't do any fun things at all.  We all lost our fitness as well.  I haven't done a run for months, get out of breath at the most ridiculous things and Matt is pretty much the same, so we spent the end of March trying to get fit again.

The weather hasn't been particularly good to us - we've had lots of snow, Tom had a day off school, which is apparently unheard of in Ingleton.  We lost a couple of ridge tiles off the house during the 'Beast from the East Storm' which was pretty wild.  Very few houses in Ingleton were unscathed.  Friday was actually the worst day, luckily the school re-opened and Tom couldn't wait to go as he was worried the house was going to blow away.  We took him in the car as there was so much debris in the air we were worried he might get hit by something.  Loads of kids didn't turn up as parents deemed it too unsafe to leave the house because of the wind.

When it hasn't snowed, it has rained.  So we would have been pretty much stuck inside anyway.

I've also had the busiest Jan, Feb and March ever - normally a good thing, but this year with bad weather and illnesses it would probably have been better for it to be quiet!

Anyway, enough tales of woe, I will start the blog again when things were on the up...

Bad cold or the flu?

So we all woke up late this morning.  Unfortunately Matt seems to have gone backwards and was looking quite bad on Sunday morning, he was aching all over as well which is a bad sign and could mean he now has the flu?  I was feeling quite ill as well - but with a cold not the flu!  Oh joy!

We didn't get up in a rush, and decided to head to new Bernies for brunch as we had no food in the house.  New Bernie's opened up on Thursday so we thought we should give it a go.  It was ok - but the breakfast was a lot more expensive than before and there wasn't as much choice.  However, saying that, I sound like a grumpy Ingletonian, obviously they are finding their feet and we will carry on trying them out to see how they are doing.  They are now essentially a caving cafe so are making fair for caving customers - i.e. hot stews etc.  They seem to have a lot of mushrooms on the menu which obviously is good for me and Tom, not so for Matt.  Inglesport is now the only proper greasy spoon in town and Bernie's a half way house.

Anyway, we all had an appetite so that was a good sign.  We went to the Co-op and I bought food for a proper roast tea in an attempt to get some good nourishment into us.

The rest of the day was a bit bland.  Tom washed the car, Matt had a long bath, we watched The Lion King 2, Matt and Tom made a Lego bridge together (Science homework from school) and then I made roast dinner.  We all went to bed early:  Tom at 7 and us at 8.30.

The longest day

Our herd at Point of Ayre

So today was another clear and sunny day and much less windy than yesterday which was ace. It was always going to be a long day today.  There are only 2 ferries a day between the Isle of Man and the mainland.  They both leave at 8.15.  The morning one went to Liverpool so really the only choice we had was to get the 8.15pm to Heysham.  We didn't rush to get up and then we cleared up and packed the car.

We had decided that today we would explore the North of the Isle.  First stop - Point of Ayre - the very top of the island, which has 2 lighthouses and a big set of fog horns.  The island flattens out up here and the beach was 100% pebbles, all small, flat and rounded.  We had a good walk around, threw plenty of stones into the sea, watched fishing boats and ferries skirting around the Isle and generally enjoyed being out in the open air away in the sunshine and not being blown apart.

After we had got our fill, we headed back to the car and headed back to Ramsey.  We had a little wander around the town, much nicer than the evening before as it was light and we could see the lay of the land, AND it was much warmer.  As we were walking around, I saw a van pull up which said Connor Cummins on it.  Connor is a very well known local TT racer and sort of related to Great Great Uncle Bob - Bob did suggest a number of years ago that we should try to meet up with him next time we were on the island as he comes from a small family and apparently would welcome any tenuous family members - but I thought it a bit weird to go up to someone who is a complete stranger and ask him if he knows of a 80+ year old Bob Cubbon in Southport?  We are certainly 2 non blood relations away, how tenuous can you get?  And then what?!  Anyway, we were satisfied to have caught a glimpse of him.  He was made even more famous a couple of years ago when he had a spectacular accident during the TT from which he was lucky to recover.

Lady Isabella - biggest water wheel in the world

We found the sea front and went for a wonder along the harbour walls in the sunshine to boat spot again.  We then went for lunch.  Now, after almost a week on the island we hadn't come across a restaurant that served Queenies which was disappointing as I do like them.  Anyway, we found a place in Ramsey that served them so that's where we went.  Matt ordered himself a calzone and Tom pasta bolognaise, we were all happy with our choices and the food was good.  The restaurant itself was fine as were the staff, but the clientele - well put it this way, we all felt very very young.  Matt and I were a good 40 years younger than anyone else, Tom obviously helped to bring down the average age, but it was essentially where old ladies had their weekend gossips.



Next stop after the restaurant was Maughold on the North Eastern side of the Isle.  We had discovered in one of the museums that there were old Celtic sites here so we thought we would explore.  We parked in the village in front of a church that wouldn't have looked out of place in the Wild West, walked through the huge graveyard (all graveyards are huge on the island, so much so that I did wonder if there was a crematorium on the island.  There is, but only in Douglas, so I'm guessing that if you don't live in Douglas you probably end up buried in a graveyard).  We walked to a headland, and discovered another lighthouse but no Celtic remains, however, we saw something in a field that looked like Celtic burial mounds so we went to investigate, unfortunately we couldn't get in to the field to investigate properly.  Oh hum...

Next stop was Laxey this is where you can find the largest working water wheel in the world.  Well, between Easter and October.  It is still there now but you can't go up to it and it isn't working.  Matt was a little naughty and legged it over the railings so he could take a photo "I haven't come all this way not to take a photo..."  They hadn't made it that difficult to get in - anyone who wasn't a fatty could squeeze through the locked gate, I'm guess they may have done that on purpose?

Wild West Church

We went for a wonder in Laxey and ended up in a pub which had a bar which had been made to look like a railway carriage.  That is because the electric railway comes here (in season). We had a much needed sit down and drink before heading back to the car.  Before we knew it we were in Douglas, it was only 3pm so much to early.  We headed out again to Fairy Bridge, then back to Douglas head where we went for another ramble and found another lighthouse and tried to spot the ferry on its way in.

Believe it or not petrol isn't that expensive on the island, so we filled up (we have no petrol station in Ingleton at the moment as they have demolished it and the Co-op to build a bigger and better one).  I took advice on where best to have tea and was directed to a pub on the Prom.  It was a nice pub with a good looking menu - but they didn't start serving until 6pm which was too late for us - we had to be at the ferry port for 7pm.  We then tried to find somewhere else, but failed.  The Isle of Man doesn't seem to be part of the food revolution that has hit the mainland.  Pub food tends to be poor to OK - but nothing more than OK, there doesn't seem to be many types of restaurants other than pubs or fish and chips except for the odd Chinese take away.  We only saw Indians in Douglas.  Certainly no bistro pubs and nothing modern.  Considering it costs more to eat out here than at home, it didn't really feel worth it.  In the end we cut our losses and decided to wait until we were on the ferry as the food on the ferry is actually not too bad.

Our cabin on the Ben-my-Chree

We checked in and headed to Costa in the port for a sit down and drink.  It was then I hit upon the idea of seeing if we could get a cabin on the way back.  We were all tired from a long day out and the thought of being able to lie down for a couple of hours on cabin beds rather than sit in uncomfortable seats in the bar was too good not to investigate.  Matt went to the ticket desk to ask and was told that there were cabins free we could book them on board from the shop for £53.  Sounded good to us.  We grabbed ourselves some sandwiches and drinks for tea to give us maximum time in the cabin.

We got called back to the car, lined up for the ferry and then waited and waited and waited.  Apparently they were doing a drill on board.  It took a while, so long that we didn't board until after 8pm, so we were late leaving.  We went to the shop and got a cabin.  Very comfy it was.  Tom took a top bunk, Matt and I a bottom one each.  Tom was asleep within the hour and Matt and I snoozed.  The ferry made up time meaning we got to Heysham early (so early that I was in the shower when they announced for passengers to go back to their cars, just as well I can get ready quickly!)

We then proceeded out of Heysham, down the link road home.  It took about 30 mins which was fab. We all went straight to bed.

Bus Odyssey

This morning dawned blue skies and much less windy than yesterday - hurray.  Today we had decided to buy some Bus Rover tickets and go for a wonder. The bus stop is literally outside our front door, so we got the 9.47 towards Douglas.  We had packed our swimming stuff as we discovered the National Sports Centre in Douglas on the Internet: it has 2 x 25 meter pools and 2 flumes, a jacuzzi, fountains etc etc.  Right down a certain young man's street!  He was very happy with us and to be fair it was a really good set up, very reasonably priced so we were happy too.  We did some runs on the slides, some messing about in the junior pool, then some lengths in the adult pool before playing on the slides again.

One boy and his cow.

We spent a good hour or so messing about and only got out because we were all getting quite hungry. We found a cafe in the reception area which was doing very cheap yet lovely homemade food.  Result, we tucked right in.  The facility really is very good, they had huge indoor halls, a running track, squash courts, hard outside courts etc etc.  Way better than anything we have nearby and considering their population is roughly the same as Craven, it makes you wonder how they do it?  Also they have Post Offices in pretty much EVERY little settlement here.  How?  What have they got that we don't?

We got a bus from the Sports Centre into Douglas, did a little souvenir shopping (well the boys did - I didn't find anything!) and then we went to the Manx museum to finish off the Lego trail that we started in Peel on Wednesday.  Another very good and very large museum.  Not as child friendly as the House of Manannan but good non the less and free.  As we were tired from the swimming we didn't really take in much from the displays but we found the Lego figures, so Tom is entered in the competition - if he wins he will have to come back for a photo shoot!

We then went for a walk along the prom.  It was earlier than we thought, so instead of hanging around Douglas which seemed quite boring - one shopping street full of the usual stores, nothing different, nothing new, no obviously interesting restaurants, so we decided that as we had a Rover ticket on the buses to get a bus to Ramsey and see what restaurants we could find there, that way we would do a full lap of the island by bus.

We had to chop and change buses to be able to do so, but we were successful and got the bus up to Ramsey.  The place was dead, it is Friday night?  Oh hum, we found a chippy in the end and had fish and chips.  I still haven't managed to get any queenies, so tomorrow will be all about that!

We got our last bus back to Ballaugh, had our nightly game of Rummikub (Tom won today for the first time ever!!!!) and slobbed.  Unfortunately Matt has been ill for most of the holiday (today is the first night he has had a beer in the evening) and now I'm coming down with something.  Seems to be the theme for February holidays as we had similar last year albeit much worse!

House of Manannan

Tom the Viking

Ewwwww, what a nasty and horrible day!  Luckily we knew it was going to be horrible, but we didn't realise it was going to be this horrible: freezing cold with a strong wind and lashings of rain.  We didn't rush to get up!  We did have a plan in place.  After extensive research into all the activities and museums on the isle, we discovered that there are only 2 museums open at this time of year and pretty much no activities.

Oh hum.  One of the museums is quite close to us, in Peel, so we headed over.  It was a museum about Manx Heritage and we were expecting lots of boxes with things in, but no we were wrong, very wrong.  It was in fact one of the best museums I've been in for a long time.  Basically it took you through early human settlement to fisherman fleets of the early 1900s.  Started off with Celtic man, then Christians, then Vikings (who were made out to be friendly?).  We got to sit in a Round house, see a Christian burial, learnt about Celtic crosses, dressed up as Vikings, saw a Viking replica boat that was sailed from Norway to Isle of Man in 1979, made some fish to leave in a net, got to explore a fishing village, complete with sound, kippers smoking etc and then got to see the various ferries that have sailed between the Isle and the UK.

Dressed to kill

In addition to that, there was a Lego trail going on, where little figures had been hidden amongst the exhibits to find.  We were in there for a good 2 hours if not longer.  Well worth the £10 entry fee.   Matt went into shopping mode when he entered the shop and came away with 2 posters, a flag and a pin badge.  We then dashed back to the car to unload our wares, get extra clothing as it was very very cold and find somewhere for lunch.  We ended up in a pub called The Creek which didn't look much from the outside, but we entered to find the whole of Peel in it, we luckily got the last table and sat down for a hot lunch just to warm up: burger made from the local Manx breed of sheep Loaghtan which was very lamby, lasagne for the boy and veggie Thai curry for me.  It was good food and a nice atmosphere.  We sat opposite a window watching the rain lash down across the port, it really was a terrible weather day!



After lunch we togged up in all our outdoors gear and headed into the town.  There wasn't much going on. Not many shops were open, but we found a small supermarket to get the essentials and then headed back to the car.  We went past a museum of crime which was closed, but there was some info on the outside all about birching which carried on until the 1970s, the Isle of Man was the last territory in Europe to ban it.  However, did you know the Isle of Man was the first place to give women the vote?  Progressive and non progressive at the same time.

Longboat

We then drove home, Tom almost fell asleep in the car so went for a rest whilst Matt and I caught up on work emails etc.  Then a hot bath to warm up again - this cottage doesn't warm up very well, I guess we are very spoilt with our house in Ingleton, we are used to all consuming heat 24/7 whilst here the radiators are trying to banish the cold, but it is only warm if you are on top of the radiators.

We won't be going far the rest of the day, across the road to the pub for tea most likely.  Weather looks better for tomorrow, we are planning to go down to Port Erin to visit Uncle Geoff.

3 Walks, 3 Environments, 3 Tired People

Playing on The Cronk

So, today dawned grey, however, Matt did his weather check and was confident that the day was going to get better and better as it went along.

After breakfast of toast for me and toast and black pudding for the boys we headed out to explore Ballaugh.  There isn't much to it - the pub across the road and a Spar around the corner.  The Spar was ok - has the essentials, but considering it is much bigger than the Co-op in Ingleton, it didn't seem to have much variety.  I guess I have become, in part an 'Ingletonian'!

A beach of many stones

We brought the slow cooker and a hunk of meat from the freezer with us along with all the veggies in our fridge, so I put together a stew and then we headed out.  First stop was our local beach, The Cronk.  It was a fantastic beach: a bay of a good couple of miles, sandy with loads of big rocks scattered along it, and a good collection of rocks too - all sizes, shapes, colours and make up.  In fact we all came home with a pet stone as we found them so interesting (mine, I think has evidence of fossils on it).  It was very windy, the water was grey and angry, but it was a good walk, against the wind to a huge pile of rocks which had obviously been put on the beach to stop the fields above from eroding further.  It was hard work but rewarding.

Once we had caught our breath, we walked back, collecting plastic as we went (thanks to David Attenborough, all children seem to be aware of the plastic problem now).  The sun came out right at the end, making all the stones shine in the sea spray.  All very lovely.

Fantastic (working) beer taps

As it was pre-lunch time still, we decided to head to Ballaugh Curraghs, which we had read about: a wetland area where you can go spotting wild Wallabies.  In the 1970s some Wallabies escaped from the nearby Wildlife Sanctuary and have adapted and bred well.  Now there are over 100.  The area was hard to find, there were no signs on the road, and the back roads to get to it were full of pot holes.  However, we finally got there and found a way marked route through the Nature Reserve.  It was a really interesting area: think mangrove swamps, but in cold, temperate Isle of Man.  The land was very very boggy, the trees, thin with gnarled roots and trunks, covered in green moss.  Weeds growing in the water, moss everywhere and a real mysterious feeling about the whole place.  Add mist to the area and it would be very eerie.

A wild wallaby. In the Isle of Man. In winter!

I wouldn't have been surprised to see a crocodile or snakes etc.  However, we were here to see Wallabies.  We didn't really expect to find any, but luckily Matt saw something bounce out of the corner of his eye...we looked hard and we saw one.  Yay.  It blended in with the trees very very well, however, it didn't move, so we got brave and got closer to it.  As we got closer a whole load of Wallabies which we hadn't seen bounced away - a good 4 or 5 of them.  Matt managed to get a good picture of one of them.  We were very happy.

We carried on with our walk through the reserve, we didn't see any more but it didn't matter.  By now, it was quite late, so we decided to find somewhere for lunch.  We headed to Sulby where Matt knew of a pub on the TT circuit.  The Sulby Glen Hotel, which is located on the Sulby Straight which is the fastest bit of track on the circuit.  It was big and empty, which didn't matter: lots of TT memorabilia to look at, a friendly bar man who turned out to be the older brother of Dan Sayle who is a very well known side car passenger on the island (6 time winner).  We chatted quite a bit and had lunch: jacket potatoes for me and Tom and a spicy chicken baguette for Matt.  There was a pool table so the boys played a game.  Tom has got better in that we are pretty sure he wouldn't ruff up the baize, but he still needs work on his shot.

Looking towards England

Snow Angel

We then headed up the mountain road to The Bungalow from where there is a steep mile climb to the top of Snaefell which is the tallest mountain on the Isle. It was frosty, then icy and then snowy, and windy but it was worth it.  The sky was blue and the views amazing.  From the top we could see the peaks of the Lake District and the coastline of Northern Ireland.  It was truly beautiful.

Panorama

Atop Snaefell. Chilly

There was also quite a bit of snow at the top, so Tom and I had a snowball fight, Tom made a snow angel and we were generally quite silly whilst Matt took arty photos. Problem with that is we both got a bit cold and wet, but it was worth it.  We walked down and then headed home.  It was after 4pm when we got back - a proper full day of exploration, and we didn't go further than 5 miles from our house.  I wonder what we will discover tomorrow...

On arrival home, I got on the mulled wine and Matt ran a bath.  He's still feeling quite ill from his lurgy and needed to warm up quickly.  He's off alcohol again, which is always a sign he is properly ill.  Then we watched some of the Winter Olympics before having stew followed by pancakes - it is Shrove Tuesday after all!

Off on holidays

On the Ben-my-Chree

We had a easy morning today.  We did our packing, ran around the house looking for last minute things - mainly Matt's goggles which had gone missing.  We turned the house upside down looking for them, no-one could understand where they had gone as we had all seen them on the chest of drawers recently.  I flippantly said, to Matt that it would 'be funny' if he had packed them but forgotten.  I checked - guess what, they were in the suitcase.  All 3 of us spent ages looking for them too!  We had better go swimming now or there will be trouble.

We packed up the car - it is a rule of packing, that you fill whatever container you have.  This time it was the car, and yes the car was full to brimming, including 3 big highland cows: they were very excited to have a holiday away.

Sunset on the Irish Sea

We stopped off at Kirkby so I could deliver some marketing material to the card shop there - I had an interesting conversation with the owner there when I popped in for Tom's helium balloon - the cake shop in Kirkby has recently closed down and people are always asking him who to go to.  He knew of me, in fact I did an order for him a couple of years ago, but I think now he has met me properly I might get some more business from them.  Lets hope anyway!

Our strangely shaped house

Then down the link road to Heysham where we had lunch at the Half Moon Cafe overlooking the seaside and then to the port. It was raining so we stayed in the car until we boarded the ferry.  The ferry was full, full of Brits going on holiday for the half term.  We were lucky to get seats together and even more lucky that we got seats next to a family of 3 including a 10 year old boy, George.  Inevitably they started chatting and kept each other amused for pretty much the whole voyage.  Result.  We also bumped into Auntie Kathy on board - we knew she would be there, and the boat isn't that big.  We arranged to meet up sometime during the week, mainly to say hi to Uncle Geoff.

It was an event free crossing, a little swaying, but clear enough and clam enough to go out on the deck from time to time to see the bright lights of Douglas get nearer and nearer.  We arrived on time and drove straight to Ballaugh to our little cottage.  It is little in that it is very narrow - not much wider (if at all) than a railway carriage.  However, it goes back and back and back, so you get the feeling of space.  Anyway I'm sure we will be more than happy here.  Especially because we are directly opposite a pub.  We, of course had to go to investigate, it was full of TT photos (we are right on the course here), it did craft beer and has a decent enough menu.  Result.

Chores

After the busy, busy day yesterday we all needed a rest.  AND the house was a tip, so it needed sorting.

Matt and Tom filled the car with cardboard and took it to the tip in Settle whilst I cleared the garage back and put everything back where it belongs, AND I vacuumed it!

Then I hit the kitchen, whilst Matt hit his office and Tom hit his bedroom.  We had 3 stereos playing different music blasting out, just what we needed to get in the mood.  We broke for lunch - headed to the Penny Garth Cafe in Hawes, just to get out of the house.  There was a thin layer of snow on the ground, but not loads and certainly not enough for sledging.

We had our greasy spoon lunches and then headed back home for another hour or so of tidying.  Tom did an 'ok' job, but was a little overwhelmed with the mess and how to sort it out, so I helped him out.  Eventually he got a tidy bedroom, but there is probably another 2 hours of sorting and tidying to do on his shelves: he has an insane number of books, not sure what to do with them all.

We decided at 3 that we all deserved some time off, so came together in the lounge to finish off the Lion King from yesterday and then watched another episode of Planet Earth from Tom's Christmas haul.

Then we had a cupboard tea: left overs from the week with toast whilst watching Dad's Army.  Then an early bedtime for Tom and for us.  A boring but necessary day.

9!

So today Tom turned 9.  9!  NINE.  A proper proper age.  It is scary.  He is now his own person - he thinks for himself, is responsible for himself and can do more and more for himself.  We think he is turning into a lovely young man: he has compassion, is articulate (when he wants to be),  can think for himself, is quizzical and caring.  Lets hope he keeps developing so.

The new bike

He managed to wait until 8am before he came in to see us.  We had a good bundle of presents to give him (mainly from other people)  We had got him a reading book, a notebook, a fact book and a puzzle.  That was it.  We asked him if he was happy with what he got?  He said yes.  When I pointed out to him that we had only got him a couple of books and a puzzle, he said he was still happy with what he had - what a sweetie.  We thought we would take him down to breakfast - there he found a helium balloon floating behind the kitchen island, and attached to it...a brand new, massive 26 inch wheeled bike.  He was overjoyed and bouncing up and down all over the place.

Add to that smoked salmon and cream cheese on toast for breakfast and the day was going pretty well.  Oh and he got a West Bromwich Albion Kit from Grannie and Grandpa, a pencil case & clothes from Granma and Pop Pop and the Lion King x 3 and The Railway Children from Simon and co as well as lots of money and interesting pressies from his classmates. 

Mountain biking with Finn and Lucas

It was a pretty damp morning, but the rain eased off to give him a chance to take his new bike to the waggon park for a test ride.  He looked good on it so we then headed to the pump track.  He killed it straight away.  The bike is MASSIVE compared to his old one (he now has the same size wheels as Matt) yet he looked a natural which is great.

Once he was tiring, we headed home, parked the bike, had a rushed visit from the Bickerstaffs and then headed to Inglesport for a drink and cake.  We then packed the car with our biking stuff and headed to Giggleswick Mountain Bike track which we had hired for an hour.  Tom had requested we went there again for his birthday as he enjoyed it so much when we went in January.  He didn't know he would have a new bike!

The rain was beginning to get heavy again so we were beginning to worry about it, but luckily it never reached Settle.  It was damp and grey but it didn't rain as such.  The track was mega boggy and mega muddy though and we all got very very dirty.  We had arranged for a couple of his friends to join us: Finn and Lucas who both have mountain bikes and are more than capable riders (most of the other boys in his class aren't).  I didn't realise that Finn and Lucas are very very close friends so to start with they just went off and left Tom by himself.  Unfortunately although I could see it happening, Tom was so fast on his new bike that I couldn't catch up with him to keep him company, so he went around on his own and then got upset that the others weren't including him.

The traditional birthday curry.

We stopped and waited for the others to do another lap and then I asked them to go round together, which they did (with some adult supervision to make sure it happened)  Tom still got a little left behind but at least Kate was with him, encouraging and helping him. It was really hard work in the mud and we were all plastered in it but they had fun.  After 3 laps the boys decided to walk their bikes to the top and ride down a couple of times (takes the muscle burn out of it) then everyone was spent.  We headed back to the cars for hot drinks and cake (although the boys weren't interested and decided to play football instead)

We took a very tired, very dirty boy home.  We all had showers to get the mud off, put the washing machine on and collapsed on the sofa in front of the Lion King.  We then got dressed and headed back to Settle to see Grannie and Grandpa and then on to Gargrave for birthday tea at Bollywood Cottage - yup curry is still number one!  They set up the table with a helium balloon, confetti and birthday banners which was ace.  He ate up well considering he was absolutely exhausted.  In fact we all ate up well considering we were all exhausted.  Butter chicken for Tom, Drunken Duck for me - the most tender duck I have ever had.  Matt had the Bollywood special, which had a bit of everything.

He rolled into bed on our return, Matt and I weren't that far behind him (just needed to put a second load of muddy clothes into the washing machine first)

Anyway a successful birthday I hope...

Birthday Tea

So, on Friday after school, we picked up all the boys from Tom's class and brought them back to ours.  It wasn't my idea for sure, but Tom wanted everyone home to watch a movie and they are pretty good boys so we couldn't come up with a good enough excuse not too.  We did limit the boys to his year though, some of the boys in his class (which is different to his year) are a nightmare.

The Year 4 boys

They were high spirited but good on the way home, they put the keyboard on as soon as they got in and they were all dancing away to the various tunes they found.  All very well natured, they took turns and were generally being quite silly but in a good way.

I had made a huge bowl of popcorn and a jug of juice and luckily had just enough plastic bowls and beakers for them all, they made themselves at home and dug in.

We had bought Zootropolis for them to watch - we have seen it before, but it is great - set in a world populated by all types of animals, where a rabbit wants to join the police, but normally you need to be a 'big' animal: bull etc to be a cop, so he has to prove himself.  Of course he does, though adventures etc.  There are some great scenes with sloths who run the bank v e r y  s l o w l y who I think are the best characters.  Anyway, whilst the phone was on the boys were completely quiet - there were 7 of them in the lounge and you could hear a pin drop.  In fact there was so little work involved that I ended up catching up on my sewing!!!!!

The cake!

I cooked sausages and burgers for tea - didn't bother with veggies - kept it really easy.  They ate up and then disappeared upstairs to play hide and seek.  All high volume, but they didn't go in rooms they were told not to and nothing got broken or damaged even, not bad with 7 of them going great guns.

They came back down for the cake (West Bromwich Albion badge: chocolate and cherry flavour) and then went back to play hide and seek pirate zoo thingy.  This involved them all dressing up (or down), arranging all the soft toys, getting out swords / light up things and generally being loud.  All good fun.

It was 7.30 by the time we managed to get them bundled into the car and on the way home.  It went so well that I might even do it again next year and I never thought I would say that...

Dirty Dancing

Me with painted nails?!!!!

So, Matt was away this weekend, on one of his translator jaunts.  He says its work - but really its a chance to eat and drink and catch up with work friends.  He's not fooling anyone.

Ectoplasm face pack!

Saturday Tom had football training in Burton as the school field was under water again!  It was cold and raining (what's new) I dressed up, ready for it, but Tom's coach sent me home - I wasn't going to argue!  I collected Tom at 11, delivered some cakes to the Badminton jumble sale and put Tom in the bath to warm up.

We then had lunch, went for a walk round the village and then settled down on the sofa to watch The Jungle Book.

I then took Tom over to Meadow Falls at 5pm, he was having a sleep over there and I was having the girlies over here.  Only 3 could make it in the end: Janine, Liz and Sam, but it didn't matter, we had a ball.  We watched Dirty Dancing and painted nails (yes - mine are bright red!) and wore face packs and drank.  We got through copious amounts of gin and tonic, wine and malibu.  We played the Dirty Dancing drink game and sang along, finishing with a dance at the end.  By then we were all having a ball so put on music videos via you tube and were dancing until 2.30am!

Tom and Annabel's den!

More face packs

It was the best night.  It only ended when Janine collapsed on the sofa.  She woke up after half an hour and then barffed in spectacular fashion, so much so that she needed a shower.  We had to convince her to stay over.  Actually in the end she and Liz stayed over, so I had a full house.

We were awake again at 7.30, Janine got up early to sneak home before her boys woke up and found her absent.  Liz and I got up at 9, and headed round to Meadow Falls where Dave cooked us a proper English breakfast.  Turns out that Tom and Annabel had made a den and slept in it for the night.  It was tiny so I'm not sure how they did it!  They woke up at 4am thinking it was 7am and started talking.  Dave had to go in and tell them to go back to sleep!

We then came back home, cleared up the mess - there were empty tonic cans a plenty before heading to Lancaster to pick up Matt.

We then went to Archers cafe for a hangover lunch, a quick trip to Aldi to stock up on cake ingredients and then home.  As we were all tired, we cuddled up on the sofa and watched Chicken Run before a cupboard tea and early bed.

A good weekend.

Thursday - we took Tom to the opticians as he announced over tea one day that one of his eyes is really blurry.  I sat with him in the room as he was put through his test and was surprised and shocked to find that he could only read the top line of letters on the opticians chart with one of his eyes.  Turns out he has a lazy eye and it is too late with him being 9 to do anything about it.  Glasses won't make any difference now, as his brain has reprogrammed itself to see properly with the lazy eye.  She was surprised it didn't get spotted when he was a toddler at nursery - but I guess we were moving house and we never saw the health visitor here and in Telford they were behind with visits and when we did finally get the 2 year old check at 2.5 years we were so concerned about his lack of speech, that is all we talked about we never thought to take him to an optician!

Oh and Tom got his half yearly school report.  We were very surprised because it said that he concentrates well and he got an excellent for effort for writing - he's not had either before.  He seems to have slipped with science though, but because he does that with his afternoon teacher, he only got a grade and no narrative, so not sure what is happening there.  We won't find out at parent's evening either because it is the 'other' teacher.  Hopefully next year he will have one teacher for everything and we will get a proper all round report.

Model Railways

Another gloomy Saturday.  The morning was spent football training, I got out of the first hour waiting in for a cake collection.  Tom came home had a shower to warm up and then we headed to Bernies for our last meal there - it is about to shut to be taken over.  Matt really likes their chicken curry so the chef had written the recipe out for him and saved some spice mix for him - he was very touched.

Sunday was yet another gloomy day we all slept in late.  We decided to head out to Staveley to Wilf's for brunch.  On the way back, Matt decided to head through some back roads to see where we would come out, luckily for him we came out somewhere which had a sign directing us to the sports centre for Kendal's model railway exhibition.  We have been before, it is quite good and as we had nothing planned for the rest of the day we decided to head to it.  Well that was the day sorted.  Tom, as you know loves watching model railways, well correction: model railway fiddle yards.  If it was up to him, he would have stayed there all afternoon, but I thought 2.5 hours was long enough.  There were some good displays with lots to see, but really once you've seen a train run up and down, that's it. We did bump into some Ingleton friends though which was a bonus.

Tom was a happy (and lucky) boy.

50th in Manchester

Saturday morning Tom had football training in Ingleton, he then had a shower, packed his back and we took him over to Settle, where he was staying with Grannie and Grandpa for the night.  Why?  Well, Adam was having his 50th birthday party (yes - it has started to happen, our friends are turning 50!).  It was being held in a pub and was strictly adults only (even though he has two young daughters!)  Oh well, great excuse for us to have a weekend away.

Tom was having lunch with Grannie and Grandpa, so we dropped him off and then headed down towards Manchester in the rain - yes it was grey and gloomy and rainy again!  We stopped off at the Moor Cock Inn in Blacko which we have been meaning to go to for a long time.  Very good it was too, certainly better food than at Booths in Barrowford which is where we would normally stop on that route.  Lots of very interesting menu items - both as lite bites and main courses.

We then headed into the gloom and to Manchester.  We had booked a Premier Inn in Salford, not far from the pub where the party was being held, it was surprisingly quiet despite being right in the centre of town which was good.  We headed out into the city to do some shopping, didn't do very well, and were astounded by the number of homeless people around, I ended up giving a gift voucher I had to one of them as it was so cold, I couldn't imagine sleeping rough in that weather.  I just hope the shop would allow him in to spend it.

The MYT Xmas party

As usually happens, Matt and I got quickly bored shopping so decided to go to a pub instead.  An app suggested somewhere nearby so we went along and were pleasantly surprised to find a fantastic pub in what looked like a very dodgy street.  We got ourselves some craft beer and a table and spent a very pleasant hour drinking.  We then looked at the menu and decided to stay for tea.  We were going to go to Bundobust, but the food here looked amazing and we have been to Bundobust before.  We both opted for spit roast suckling pig.  I had it with salad and Matt had it with chips and gravy.  It was amazing, perfect beer food too.  Think we will be back.  This doubled up as Matt's Christmas works party as we didn't get round to doing anything before Christmas.  It was a good choice.  We returned to the hotel quite merry and with very happy tummies.

We quickly got dressed and headed out to the pub.  It was an interesting pub...with interesting clientele.  We could see immediately why it was no children.  Whilst ordering our first drinks, the staff were dealing with someone who had crashed to the floor in an inebriated pile and was bleeding from his head.  I think we have become quite snobby when it comes to pubs as both of us struggled to find anything we liked to drink.  I went for G and T to start with - was given a half pint glass with some Gordon's and tonic in it - filled to the top, warm with no lemon.  I guess the craft gin revolution hasn't made it to inner Salford!  It was horrible.  I then tried the warm white wine which made my hair stand on end.  In the end I settled on bottled lager - but that was pretty terrible too - in fact both of us sobered up during the party as the drink was so bad.

However, the party was OK, we didn't know many people, but got to make some acquaintances and heard lots of good stories about Adam.  We got back to the hotel around 12.30 and had a good night's sleep.  We were at the end of a corridor and didn't hear anyone, in fact it was so quiet that we didn't wake up until 9.40am - a record for us.

We decided to head out to Spinningfield for breakfast and found a great looking bagel shop, Beastro.  Matt had an eggy bread cheese and bacon toastie which he said was amazing, whilst I had a bagel with pesto, rocket, avocado, chilli and poached eggs which was indescribably yummy (in fact I have made it to eat myself at home at least 4 times now it was soooooo good!).  We then went for a quick look around the People's History Museum which was really good - would like to go back there by myself one day to have a proper look round as I love social history and would love to know more, especially with a Northern bent as I am a 'surrogate' Northerner now.

We then headed back to the car and to Settle to pick up Tom who was not delighted to see us - he was having fun at G and Gs watching the snooker and was not pleased to be disturbed.  Ho hum, it is good that he likes being away from us, but would be nice to get a welcome too.

We had a quiet rest of the day and most likely a cupboard tea.

Mammoth Bike Ride

Above the Lune

Saturday was a horrible grey, rainy day.  Tom went to Skipton with the Durkins as he was playing football there.  We stayed behind so we could meet up with Diane to discuss how we are going to object to the most recent planning application for homes behind us - yes he is at it again, although this time it is for 13 houses, not the 25 he planned last time.

Diane doesn't even live in the affected area, but her parents do, she has no partner or children, so this is her little project, also she seems to hate Mr Brown.  She has found a useful map by English Heritage or Historic England as they are now called showing the area to have Heritage Assets.  Can only be good.  She is going to print some flyers to get people to object.  We will see what happens.

Beach statue near Hest Bank

The rest of the day was a bit of a washout.   We went to Bernies for lunch and then watched some nature documentaries on the telly.



Sunday dawned bright and sunny, hurray.  We decided to head to Bull Beck with the bikes.  The plan was to ride to Morecambe, up to Hest Bank and back to Bull Beck via the viaduct.  A ride of 16 miles.  Now, considering we haven't cycled much recently, we were worried that it might be a bit on the long side.  Oh no.  Even though Tom's bike is quite small, he shot off and didn't stop.  Don'/t think he even got out of puff!  I'm now worried for when he gets a bigger bike as I could only just keep up with him this week.  With bigger wheels, he is going to have to wait for me to catch him up.

The Lune Aqueduct

It was a really good ride, not only because it was a very sunny day, but because the ride had a bit of everything: canals, rivers, seaside, viaduct, a stop in a vintage milk bar, and a couple of hills.  We did it in no time at all, my legs were shot by the end though!  A good day, need to find some longer, more challenging routes for the future (gulp!)