and others were also awake but not getting drunk and giggling me and Barbara were doing just that!
Yesterday morning we dashed about collecting parcels from the post office (quite strangely two of the same Rainbow resources catalogue which has taken 3 months to arrive from the states and I now have two of!), having long mobile conversations with Ady about in car dvd players and visiting a couple of places to try and purchase one which was out of stock.
Managed to be all packed and ready to leave with kids lunches and completely hyped up for going to ‘Ben’s house’ (with apologies to the rest of the Raine’s for it being termed as such as I am sure he is the not payer of the mortgage 😉 ) and I actually gave myself a sore throat from shouting at them so much 🙁 Anyway, Ady’s quest to get the dvd played in time for the journey to Sheffield made him over an hour later home that I’d expected (and was fruitless anyway so we are still debating…) which meant instead of leaving at 1pm ish and easily arriving for 6pm we actually left closer to 2.30pm and arrived around 8pm. Both kids fell asleep (eek!) and were refreshed and ready to play again when we arrived instead of being tired and ready to sleep 🙁
Jax was happily still at Barbara’s so we were able to have an all too brief catch up and chat before she headed off into the night with Big and Small. Various who is sleeping where type negotiations then took place with Beth and Ben falling asleep fairly quickly but Davies and Tarly still being downstairs with us while we ate Barbara’s famous lamb stew and couscous (a brand new culinary experience for me, but very nice 🙂 ). Ady finalled persuaded them to sleep around 10.30pm after which he and Chris hung around long enough for Vienetta before heading off to bed themselves around midnight leaving me and Barbara with half a bottle of the big blue wine still to drink and a further three and a half hours ahead of us!
Barbara brought out some of the treasures uncovered from her boxes in the garage foraging and we chatted, sank pretty much the whole bottle between us, moved on to tea and finally called it a night around 3.30am.
Fairly tired today (unsurprisingly!) but we went off to Castleton and some underground caves accessed via a boat and 105 rather steep, wet and slippery stone steps. Very impressive and kids enjoyed being bumped off the sides of the tunnel in the boat and listening to the guide talk about how 10 year olds had been sent down there years ago and the lead miners had blown out the tunnel and mined for lead with a tallow candle held between their teeth for hours each day. Got very cold wet toes though!
We left there and enjoyed a cream tea and chips in a pretty little tea shop before heading back here for kids to play in the garden, Ady and Chris to watch sport on TV (I believe!), Barbara to get dinner on and me to have a quick internet fix 🙂 Have pictures which I’ll blog when we get home.
Planning a slightly less party animal style evening tonight although the first glass of wine or two might change such good intentions 😉 and a barbecue with some other locals is on the agenda for tomorrow before heading for home late tomorrow afternoon.
As always when we come to this part of the country we are reminded of how it feels so different to the pace of life down south, how pretty it is and how well located for so many things. I don’t think we are on the verge of any sort of life changing move but it’s nice to keep options open and keep an eye on what we would get for our money in different parts of the country.
Are you coming to puddlers then?
Comment by jax — 28 August 2005 @ 4:39 pm
Nah, just caught up with the days, you’re probably on your way home now aren’t you 🙁
Comment by jax — 28 August 2005 @ 4:40 pm