A Week Of Good Weather? Must Mean It's My Birthday Very Soon

I'm on leave this week as it's my birthday on Friday and I always try to avoid working on my birthday. Also I've noticed over the years that this week often will be one of the hottest and there is nothing like sitting in an office full of hot, thermometer-watching, grumbling civil servants to completely kill the birthday feeling which is another incentive for not going into the office.

Unfortunately Si hasn't got as much leave left so I've had this time off alone. Which has been great really, ok it's not as good as if Si had the holiday time but I've been able to bimble around at my own pace, flick through a thousand CDs in HMV without worrying about the time and daytime TV is mine all mine. Ok I'd probably alone in my fight for the remote when it comes to satellite day time telly but I've been enjoying the re-runs. Well... actually I've been marvelling at how bad the first series of Star Trek: Next Generation was. Not so much the acting the main cast could/can all act but the plots and script was plodding, sexist, patronising and some the special effects would have looked shoddy in the original Star Trek.

The other thing I've been enjoying now the sun has come out, (for overseas readers - we've had a miserable summer so far this year) is Schweppes' Diet Summer Punch Lemonade - it tastes a lot like Pimms except it's non alcoholic, very nice indeed in a non alcoholic way. Would make a great mixer for gin ;-D

Bugger, Bastard Power Cuts

I did have a really good blog post almost completed saying how fab the last 9 days had been, TX meeting up with Clarissa, Jo and Valerie for dinner (Tracey and Connie should have been there as well but Tracey was under the weather so Connie did the fond and romantic thing of staying home with her) and then meeting Cyanne and Katya and Tidy and Anna for the first time and seeing Shannon, Mini and Pia and Jo and then I had gone on to say how great our holiday in the Algarve was and how we had really enjoyed it.

Bloody bastard power cut has just happened about 3 spellings before hitting "Publish"

So instead I'll just have to point you at this

And point out that I looked rather good for 5 seconds on Saturday Night

Photo as what was taken by that rather talented Becky

We're Baaaack!

Got loads of things to sort out, like find some decent pictures to put up on Flickr, blogs to read, washing to do etc. But in the meanwhile here is a short film, not the best sound quality because of the wind I'm afraid but enjoy nethertheless.

Brrrr

So it's finally turned a bit parky, the Indian Summer has turned into grey lowering clouds, driving persistent rain and gusty winds, deep joy. It isn't actually that cold in my living room 20C but my hands feel cold and there is an unpleasant draught playing on my spine. Good excuse to ensure the central heating is still working, bleed radiators, that sort of thing. Well it does and there is no air in the system.

It's this sort of weather, wet, dreary and damp that makes one realise that summer holidays abroad happen at the wrong time of year, you don't need to go to Cyprus in summer it's warm enough here. So OK the sea is a sort of dirty green here, cold and smells slightly of pee and it's warmer in the Mediterranean but that's just being picky. NO the right time to go abroad for a summer holiday is now, which is exactly what Bex and I are doing we are vacating Goth Towers and EnVérité Acres for the duration to go to Portugal, the Algarve to be exact. I will be the first member of my family to visit Portugal since my Grandfather walked there from Dunkirk in 1940.

I think it may have changed.

Hull, Hell and Huddersfield.

Although the weather was poor when we were on our trip it did not ruin the holiday. Even in the rain the hills were so beautiful and when the sun did come out the variation of the light on the hills constantly highlighted different features of them. I could have sat watching them change for hours.

Being up in the lake district made me feel homesick for the North, even if we were on the wrong side of the Pennines. I miss the hills I miss the moors, the pints with a decent head on them. When I lived in Sheffield I liked it that in certain parts of the city centre I could look up above the buildings and see the moors. Here I look above the buildings and see only sky. Yes we have "big skies" here in East Anglia but when it rains the landscape just looks soggy. The moors, in the rain, look threatening, majestic, intimidating choose your adjective. I can understand how the Brontes were influenced by them and how the moors run through some of their most read books.

It's not that all of East Anglia is uninspiring, there are parts of Norfolk that are really nice and Norwich is a lovely city, it is just it isn't Yorkshire.

The title to this post was inspired by watching C4's 10 Best And Worst Places In Britian and Hull once again is Britian's numero uno most awful place.

Lake District

My mother booked the holiday as a birthday treat for me. She had stayed at the hotel in June with my Aunt Jane and had really enjoyed it. The hotel was very comfortable and the staff were exceptionally helpful. The food was good too, in an English style.

I think it was built as an hotel because they still had the bells hanging from when room service couldn't be summoned by telephone.



This gruesome artifact was hanging in the bar.



You can see a photo of a running fox by the side of it, I assume it is the same fox, The local hunt used to gather outside the hotel. I know that they are vermin but I am glad that foxhunting has been banned it always struck me as a very barbaric form of pest control.

There was also a fascinating copy of an old hotel bill from 1773 hanging up in one of the corridors.



Unfortunately it is not quite clear but the bill read as follows

Tea and Coffee ............£1 6s 0d
Wine and Porter ...............4s 0d
Rum, Brandy and Gin .....16s 6d
Servants Eating and Ale ..10s 0d

Total..........................£2 16s 6d

What really struck me was how expensive the tea and coffee were compared to everything else. For those not familiar with British pre decimal currency click here for further information.

It was all very comfortable and the views from my bedroom and bathroom were stunning.




It is such a shame that the weather was so poor. More on what we did later.

I have uploaded a some photos from my holiday you can view them here.

Holiday Hell

Well actually it was very nice if exceptionally damp I've got a load of things to sort out including oddles of photos.

Lake District

I'm off to the Lake District tomorrow won't be back until Friday we are staying in a hotel very near Derwent Water and Keswick.














photo from Lake District Desktops

It will be my birthday on Wednesday which is why we are going, I hope the weather is nice but I'm not that hopeful, currently it looks like I will be packing warm clothes rather than the swimming cossie.

Yeah I'm On Holiday

I'm in a really good mood, for the next 9 days I do not have to think about work for one second unless I'm really bored. Hopefully I won't be, because I'm going up to the Lake District for a couple of days with Mum next week, where we will do a little culture, walk a little, do a bit of window shopping and eat and drink a comfortable amount. It's not the stuff of wild extreme adventure but that's not Mum's thing and to be honest it isn't really mine either. I can do adventure but not all the time and I've run out of ideas for adventure at the moment.

The rest of the time I shall be back home I will potter about, blog a bit, maybe even do a bit of tiling if I can muster up the energy.