Busy Bank Holiday

Last Monday was a public holiday in the UK so I booked Tuesday off work and headed up to Cumbria for a four day weekend. I was busy the entire time, it was great! On Saturday, me and mam went into town to pick up supplies for making an apple and blackberry pie. I picked the blackberries myself from the wild and the apples were from mam and dad’s friend’s garden, so the only thing we paid for was the pastry!

On Saturday night, me, mam, dad and Sonja all headed to the pub to watch a local band called Faction who were amazing. They didn’t just stick to the normal stuff that covers bands do like Stereophonics, they also did Stone Sour, Queens of the Stone Age and Slash, and to a very good level! Sonja had me on the dance floor for Queens of the Stone Age but I forgot I was wearing 6″ stilettos and almost fell over; everyone probably thought I was just drunk! It was a good night with everyone there and we had a lot of fun messing around :o)

On Sunday, dad drove us over to Silloth for the market, fish and chips and a walk along the beach. We also had a look around a craft fair where mam bumped into an old friend who she hadn’t seen for over 40 years! Crazy stuff.

Sunday evening I went to the pub and met up with some friends I hadn’t seen for ages. The last time I saw Jenny and Karen was Christmas Eve 2008 so it was great to catch up with them. Rachael is due to give birth any day now and she was there with her husband, and Rosie was there with her husband. We had fun catching up but by 10:30 there was only me and Karen left! I was quite pleased that we managed to find enough to talk about until the pub closed at 1am. That’s a big achievement for me, a one-to-one conversation is a nightmare situation for me, I find it difficult and stressful trying to think of things to talk about with one person. So that was another good night out :o)

On Monday, we all headed over to Whinlatter visitor centre for another day out; the weather stayed lovely all weekend which made a big difference. There was me, mam, dad, Sonja and her two daughters Isabel and Eleanor. We learnt about the ospreys and the red squirrels and how they’re protecting them and had fun playing on the play equipment. Have some photos.

Dad on a slide; he flew off the end so fast he hurt his leg!

Various peoples on a comfortable swing that I could easily fall asleep in.

This was a fun stand-up swing :o)

Beautiful Meg.

Three wise monkeys; dad, mam and me

Mam gets a new boyfriend, much to dad’s bemusement.

The fun we had last weekend made me really miss the place and all the people in it :o( It would be great to have a dog walking business up there with all the beautiful places to walk them. Dad’s actually thinking of doing it himself! It’ll be really good if he can do it, he’s getting up at 5am at the moment for Royal Mail to work him into the ground and he’s 61; he’s had enough! Dog walking would be much better for him.

Jay wanted to go to Birmingham yesterday to buy some new work shirts and clothes for our holiday. He ended up buying nothing so we went to Brewdog to try some interesting beer and ended up getting home at midnight! We hadn’t planned on staying out that long, lol.

Speaking of holiday, as it’s now September that means we’re going to Florida this month! Eeeeee, four weeks today and we’ll be there! :o) We already have tickets for the two Universal Studios park, Wet’n’Wild and the Kennedy Space Center (sic). Me, mam and dad have been before, but last time I was there was six years ago and Jay’s never been so it’s going to be great. The other thing we’re planning is something none of us have done before which is swimming with wild manatees. It’s going to be ace, I can’t wait :o)