Another Bank Happyday

It’ll be back to work on Tuesday after the Bank Holiday weekend of course, and I’ve valued the long weekend with family in the sun, er um mild weather…

Work has been particularly hectic, but after another trip to the famous Environmental Fayre (which we go to every year),,, time to brace myself for another short working week.

Our Family At The Museum

I will only be working two days this week, but I can’t be bothered to sign on again – it really is too much hassle.  Instead I’ll try make the most of the time available, by job hunting and spending time with Mrs. W and our boys… Half-term holiday has arrived.

One planned outing involves the cinema, timed perfectly to coincide with half term with zillions of children wanting quite rightly some care and attention from their parents. Maybe they’ll take time to play with their toys, zap or punch baddies on computer games or watch Pink Panther or Garfield on Boomerang. What they will not be keen to do, will be the chores, any homework or food or charity shopping something us grown ups have to do. No 1 on our boys hit list over the next few days is the film ‘Night At the Museum 2’ – even though the reviews of this aren’t particularly glowing. It’s been panned as neither fun nor exciting, but is stuffed with the expected special FX. If I can convince everyone to wait 6 months or so,  we’ll see it on dvd or put it on the Christmas list.

Saturday however, I did a car boot sale and promised that the profits would help pay for cinema tickets, for us all. I better keep my part of the bargain.

To make the week a go with a blast, I propose we do our very own Museum experience… Surely I can, after seeking appropriate permissions, organise a family outing to the National History Museum and Science Museum – (for free of course) and have a glorified sleepover – with our sleeping bags, torches, toothbrushes, video cameras and vivid imaginations. When morning comes we will contact the papers with our stories…

That should do it…

The Day After

The day after Bank Holiday Monday, (Not yet a movie) saw zillions of parents and their littleuns take to the streets in large numbers.

Maybe local residents had heard something I hadn’t and were making their way out of the city.

The traffic was more constipated rather than congested but I stayed calm. Had our car radio worked I would have tuned into any traffic updates. But alas.

Of course nothing particularly odd had actually happened, this was simply the day after Bank Holiday, the day when the likes of Milly, Wayne, Lily, Flopsy, Tabatha, Prince, Stacey, Jordan, Chelsea and (very possibly) Jade returned to school. The roads appeared to be snarled up with people carriers, which were delivering their precious cargo’s to school. The tinted windows added to the air of mystique. Not that i’m jealous.

I got as far as a set of  traffic lights showing amber. The car in front, clearly a law abiding citizen, slowed then stopped in the middle of the junction. The lights had changed to red, and she clearly didn’t want to budge. Some gentle persuasion in the from of my bellowing horn and a bus bearing down on us both prompted her to shift. I’m not convinced she understood why she had to.

Later on, in dead slow traffic, I foolishly wanted to turn right off the main road when my health and safety was once again jeapardised by another Tuesday morning fool deciding to pullout at moderate speed in front of me. Her actions left me bewildered and the driver of yet another (?)  bus less than impressed.

Grrr… It got worse. It is my understanding that it’s a tad unsafe, indeed highly dangerous to be in the driving seat of a moving vehicle while in charge of a mobile phone, or for that matter a thermos flask, a make up mirror or lucious lashes and lipstick. Worse still, was the sight of a mum, heavily pregnant and in a hurry, pushing her firstborn across a main road oblivious to the dangers of being struck by a two tonner.

Thankfully, without witnessing, or being involved in a serious accident I got to my destination, where I hit upon a brilliant idea – driving lessons!

My own driving as you I hope appreciate, is near perfect and I consider myself something of a special case. Naturally.

50 Things to do on a Bank Holiday

1 Wash the car
2 Wash the kids
3 Go to work. Double time after all!
4 Look for work – (A legitimate way to meet the bills)
5 Take a walk, on the wild side
6 Take a short walk to the corner shop or the off licence
7 Shop
8 Go shopping again. You forgot something after all.
9 Go to the bank. Er, maybe not
10 Pass Go. Don’t pick up £200/
11 Wash the car
12 Wash someone elses car. They might pay you for it.
13 Mmm A Bar BQ. Yes, just the thing for a Bank Holiday
14 First cut the lawn
15 Check the weather forecast
16 Look out the window
17 Get better soon. You’ve caught the lurgy
18 Call NHS Direct. they confirm it’s not serious.
19 Not even a hint of Pork Flu
20 Fix that bookshelf that fell down in 2005
21 Get someone else to fix the shelf
22 Cut the front hedge
23 Write an email
24 Who’s available on Facebook?
25 Lets go to the Park
26 Or LegoLand if your feeling flush
27 Er the toilet beckons, briefly.
28 Visit a National Trust property
29 Watch a film on television. Even though you’ve seen it before.
30 Go badger watching
31 How about a picnic?
32 Or a trip to Maccy Dees
33 Ah, the washing!
34 The ironing!
35 A gig?
36 Is there a Sale on somewhere?
37 Play with the kids
38 Trip to the seaside?
39 A spot of decorating maybe
40 Or go for a drive. Nowhere in particular. Dream of owning a Camper Van.
41 Visit a friends or relatives. In your own car.
42 or both
43 Eat crisps. Lots of them. At least 3 packets should do it.
44 Drink Cola Coka, or something similar.
45 Chocolate
46 Time to visit the gym
47 Maybe go inside
48 Threaten to seek a ban on neighbours from lighting bonfires on ‘Washing’ days
49 Stay indoors and wonder how to spend the day
50 Write something on your Blog, hope someone reads it.

Holiday generosity

We were blessed with the generous gift of the holiday, and once the accommodation was booked, the practicalities associated with same, became something of a temporary focus and distraction. Decisions such as what to take, would it actually fit in the car, and could we afford it, came to mind. There was little doubt that we were in need of the break and were confident that we’d continue to be provided for.

Before we set off on our travels we prayed as a family, for good travelling, good health and the provision of all we needed, particularly food and petrol money. Our National Trust membership would ensure we would not be bereft of ideas for days out. Before we left home, I received a phone call totally and completely out of the blue one morning promising us a cheque – this prompted huge smiles all round. God indeed was looking out for us. This £500 was part of His wonderful provision. Thank you M and G.

In addition, our good friends J and L generously contributed to our ice cream holiday fund, and the envelope remained unopened for a few days in our kitchen. We were eventually, rather gobsmacked to find that their generosity would actually translate to each of us enjoying up to twenty five ice creams each during our week away! In this regard we were failures, not even managing to gorge more than four each as it happens. We did however take full advantage of the wafers, cones, chocolate flakes, and syrups on offer. Maybe now home, we should now book Cholesterol tests?

In addition to eating, we made the most of our time in the region and took in Cragside House and Gardens, Howick Gardens, Wallington, Bamburgh Castle and beach, and the railway at the Ford and Etal, snapping pictures where we could. We also drove miles into the surrounding (and stunning) Northumbrian landscape, and twice made our ‘pilgrimage’ to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne…

(See also North by North East)

North by North East

The weather prospects for Northumberland over the Easter weekend were rain but we knew that alone wouldn’t stop us enjoying ourselves. On the A1(M) some real ‘lads’, got road users attention as they showed off their penchant for dangerous driving and did well to avoid ending up in oblivion.. I suspect their driving techniques were fuelled more by stupidity than their desire to meet their maker before the rest of us.

Once at Seahouses, the car park was rammed with holiday makers, blast, our secret holiday location was no longer secret. We asked S to pray to God for a parking space, acknowledging that His track record for answering our pleas was pretty good, (apart from the full-time job for Daddy that is!). God graciously answered, not only with a parking space near the RNLI station but with a free parking ticket that would last us all day.

After an hour or so, wandering aimlessly around the gift shops, we moved lock and stock into our holiday accommodation,  a two bedroomed bungalow in Beadnell, the sleepy neigbour to Seahouses.

Inside number 77 the decor was welcoming, the kitchen appeared smart, the bedrooms well presented and comfortable, (I should be an estate agent!) and the kitchen cutlery upon its usual holiday inspection was dirty at best, so out of a sense of hygienic duty I delved deep into the cutlery drawer. (Not literally you understand).  I quickly found the missing forth fork along with a plethora of well used and well soiled pizza slicers, a rusty knife, cheese graters of various sizes and grades, and scissors that must have disappeared from sight before Indiana Jones had set an intrepid foot anywhere. These were then unceremoniously emptied into the washing up bowl to be sterilised, so as to be ready for ‘service’.

Problem. No hot water.
Both the kitchen and bathroom taps were tried and the timer switch settings checked. Thankfully the kettle worked so I was sorted, coffee-wise at least. The problem was reported at 4pm to Mrs K our ‘hosts’.

While waiting for the owner (Let’s call him Mr K) to arrive, I trotted off to catch our evening meal, fish and chips, which were freshly cooked and possibly freshly caught. After twenty  minutes someone ahead in the queue who had ordered haggis was called to the counter. This, as it happened also indicated that my order was on its way.

Back at base, I sat down to watch ‘Final Score. Chelsea had taken a commanding 4-0 lead over Bolton only to mysteriously then concede three goals in quick succession. At least ‘we’ didn’t lose. Sadly other main contenders for the Premiership crown this season also won,

Fish and chips demolished, our two boys started rigorously dancing (if dancing be the correct expression) to Leftfield which made us smile. The whirling dervish display thankfully concluded without injury moments before our special visitor, (Mr K) arrived at 8.20pm with his tool kit.

He’d been in the Cheviot hills when the call got to him, and was unable to respond immediately, but joined us now to ‘see what he could do’. He duly fiddled with fuses in the kitchen and garage then disappeared into the loft space to fiddle with something else… The net result was… that he would spend much of his Easter holiday weekend, tracking down a new heating element for the water tank and preparing to fit it. I added further to his woes when I advised him that the dvd player in the lounge was kaput, with the disc tray jammed shut. Nothing to do with us guvnor, honest. He apologised profusely and trundled home.

Mr K had reacted rather well for a man who’d spent the whole of his day walking in the hills, and was obviously tired and drained. Later, during the weekend we were offered by way of compensation a few days extra day holiday. Sadly we needed to get the boys back to continue their education on the Monday, so we had to declined their initial offer. As an alternative, they contributed sixty pounds to our holiday funds, which would prove to be a great help. After the Bank Holiday weekend, Mr K with a plumber would return.

Meanwhile, we would have to smell, and hopefully anyone who came within range of us would take kindly upon our families personal hygiene issues. By the end of Wednesday we were back in hot water, literally, the broken element and split hot water tank had been replaced and hot water was available for the first time on holiday. Hurrah, baths for everyone! Well done Mr K.