Friday July 18th.
One week to go. Rah rah rah.
I have just checked my blog and discovered that I missed out
last weekend and West Side Story! I will take steps to rectify that omission
before embarking on this weekend’s entry.
Phew, that has taken until Tuesday morning. Still,
procrastination is the thief of time! The nettle stinging event reminded me of
the time Mum had to tend to me after the wasp sting incident. I am not good at
avoiding stings it seems!
Today was more of the same for our household. Callie was
walked first thing with a dishevelled looking wild woman in charge of her.
Well, that was how I felt. I don’t know how the car drivers who pass me in a
morning view me. I do spot the same vehicles every day and now most of the
drivers give me a little wave. (This is on the stretch up Cockshutts Lane to
Hill Top, which is a surprisingly busy road.) When I come back down Lumb Lane
if I see any vehicle at all I can put out the flags as the Onseacre Road is
definitely very under used.
Back home Callie was fed and we drove off to the pool for
our swim. As usual, afterwards, we had a chat with Sarah the duty manager and
she asked us what our plans were for the weekend. I told her we planned going
climbing if the weather stayed good. There are no theatrical things on the
cards apart from on Wednesday when we are off to see “Mansfield Park” at the
Crucible. The Lyceum has closed for a while as it is undergoing a
refurbishment. This is the last of the ladies’ dining club meetings but we
decided to do something a bit different as most of us are away during August
and so there won’t be a gathering then.
After swimming we had breakfast, second showers and a wee
bit of friskiness which meant we were late for our flexi-time at work, by about
15 minutes. We didn’t mind though, when passion takes you it is better to
respond than hold back, isn’t it? Work itself was pretty ordinary, as usual, no
new dramatic cases on the books. I ended up doing more digitising of files, a
task which, at first was quite enjoyable, but lately has become quite tedious.
I think the reason for this is the fact I seem to be stuck in the midst of old
financial cases which are dull, dull, dull!
After work we whizzed home and had an earlyish meal so that
Lollster could zoom down to Dominic’s de bonnne heure. I finished my Sarah
Paretsky novel and then pottered about in the garden, dead heading the flowers
until it started to rain! Boy did it rain! I hoped it wasn’t wild and woolly
for us tomorrow as that would hit the climbing on the head. It was still
pelting down as I collected Laura from the restaurant and I decided to let
Callie have her final walk in the field behind the house while I watched her
from the greenhouse. Lazy dog walking in the extreme!
Saturday 19th July
Call from Australia first thing (Skype) around about 5.30
our time to finalise the plans for our journey and to make sure we weren’t
flying with Malaysian Airlines. I have only caught glimpses of the news so I am
not up to speed with what has happened apart from the fact it looks like Putin’s
dirty fingerprints are all over the murderous action. I was able to reassure
Suze (and the nieces who also crowded round) that we were flying Emirates (as
usual) and we flew over no war zones as far as I am aware. They were very
relieved to hear it. I did remind Suze that we had all flown MH17 when we were
younger at least twice. She said she didn’t want reminding.
After the call I took Callie out in the rain! I wore my
riding coat and wide brimmed hat and guess I must have looked like a female
version of Clint Eastwood in one of his spaghetti westerns. The dog was
drenched when we got back but luckily being a short haired puppy she dries in
next to no time with a trust old towel. We whizzed off to the pool and did our
usual 100 lengths. There were no gossipy chats this morning as Sarah wasn’t
working today. I do enjoy our little silly conversations in the morning.
After breakfast we took an executive decision and decided
not to go rock climbing. Even if the rain stopped everything would be soaked! I
know, I know, I am a fair weather climber. I don’t mind admitting it. I can’t
see the point in getting physically wet as well as sweaty wet and run the risk
of slipping on wet surfaces. I asked Laura if she fancied a trip to the seaside
instead. We could probably dodge the rain and have a fish supper strolling
along a promenade somewhere. This is what we did.
My secret scheme got us to Scarborough by about 10.30 and I
asked the fair girl if she fancied going to a cricket match. She groaned but
said she would and we headed to North Marine Road for the first day of
Yorkshire against Middlesex. I hadn't planned this as an unusual event for Laura but was a bit discouraged by the groan I got. Once we arrived at the
ground, I'd parked up the road a bit, she started to get into the atmosphere.
The
game itself didn’t start until 12 noon (something to do with a fixture on
Friday) so I was able to find a decent seat up the north stand to the right of
the pavilion as you look on to the ground. I then unpacked my goodie filled
rucksack. A flask, a box of sandwiches, some biscuits, two pairs of binos, my
Playfair Cricket Annual for 2014, a blanket, two sunhats and a pair of small
camping mat to be used at seat pads. On the way to the ground we bought the
Yorkshire Post, which I added to the Times and The i which I had brought with
us.
I repacked the non-essentials and began to tell her about
the times I had been here before. I first came across in 2011 and was enchanted
by the place. There is something quite homely about the ground. It feels very
friendly and not at all intimidating. As if to prove this we got into conversation
with a woman and her husband who were sitting just next to us (by a discrete
gap of one seat). They asked if we were Middlesex supporters as our accents
obviously weren’t from Yorkshire. I didn’t go into too many details but told
her we were from Sheffield and I used to be scorer for the University side
where Dad taught and then at my own University when I went up in 2006. She
seemed very impressed. I explained that it was Laura’s first ever cricket
match. This brought a lot of reminiscences from not only the lady (Norma, and
Bob – her husband) but from quite a few of the people around who had obviously
been listening to our conversation and then joined in. Like I said, it is
friendly!
Middlesex won the toss and put the Tykes in to bat. This
could have been an error as in a disrupted day (we didn’t escape the weather
altogether) Yorkshire made 211 for 6 with Lyth being the last man out for the
day on a very handy 117. That seemed to me to be a quite decent score out of
only about 75 overs.
Laura and Norma chattered for most of the game, TBH and we
found the tea stand under the west seating area after my flask ran out. At
lunch we took our sandwiches and crossed the road from the ground to sit on one
of the seats overlooking North Bay. Laura was entranced by the view and by what
she had seen as we drove through the town to get to the car park so I told her
we could come and stay for a few days when we get back from Australia (after
the cricket season is over).
The afternoon wore on without boring my girl to death, she
soon worked out the routine of reading the newspaper between each delivery and
seemed be enjoying the event. At stumps, I did what I had promised and we
walked down to the South Bay front to buy fish and chips to eat as we walked.
This is actually incorrect, we found a bench and scoffed in a seated position.
We couldn’t get over the cheek of a lot of the men (boys really) who, on
passing, tried to cadge chips from us or tried to get us to accompany them
along the front. Naturally we declined handing out any food and joining them
for a stroll.
Once we had finished we walked around to the harbour and had
a look at the boats moored there. We kept getting regaled with what may pass as
wit in Yorkshire but isn’t worthy of repetition here as we promenaded arm in
arm in the evening air. After a refreshing cup of tea at another establishment
we strolled up the path by the castle and back to the car park. I drove us past
the cricket ground and then down on to north bay. We rode around north bay,
quite slowly, past the headland and road works into south bay and then finally
we headed for the hills and home.
I told Laura that when we went to Aus, most of the beaches
and resorts would have under 5% of the people we had seen today. She couldn’t
quite grasp that but I told her she would. As we pootled down the M1 from the
A64 Laura said she had quite enjoyed the day. She wasn’t sure she would ever
become a fan of cricket in the way I was but she had thought the unexpected treat had been
a good one. (She’s even going to follow the match in the newspapers until
Tuesday!)
Result.
Sunday 20th July
Laura woke me up this morning! Doesn’t sound too much of an
event does it? It was 6.45 and I was still out for the count. I don’t know why
I was so tired? The sea air maybe? The cricket? I am at a loss.
The weather was better than yesterday but I wasn’t keen on
climbing and neither was Laura so we decided to stay put.
That got put on hold when we had a call from Phil who
invited us round to lunch. This being quite unusual we decided to go. The
cheeky bastard! He had invited us round for lunch and as a thank you could we
babysit for a few hours as he and Jane had an engagement in the evening 6.30 to
9.30! I almost said no to the lunch and would have headed straight off home but
Angela gave me a big eyed stare from the hallway as we arrived and I agreed.
Laura didn’t see why I was annoyed but I was a livid.
I suppose it was the deception I didn’t like. Why couldn’t
the twat just have said, "could you babysit for us tonight, there’s a lunch in it
for you if you do?" That would have been the normal person’s way of doing stuff.
I could kick him where it hurts sometimes.
However, maybe sensing there may be trouble ahead the
pillock headed brother had got his hot tub cleaned out and working which also
added an incentive although, again, lack of planning on his part meant we hadn’t
brought our cossies with us so we had to try and manage with one of Jane’s each.
We actually fared better when she found some old bikinis in the back of her
wardrobe which fitted us quite well – I was almost bursting out of my top and
Laura had problems keeping hers on!
Lunch was very good. Roast pork and all the trimmings. Hot
for a hot day but the promise of the hot tub made up for that. We spent ages in
and out of the thing. It really was very enjoyable even if it made my fingers
(and I assume my toes) go all wrinkly. Angela let slip that they were going to
have a swimming pool, so Daddy had to explain that he had applied for planning
permission to have a pool built at the end of their garden along the boundary
wall with Mr Shaw’s sheep field. His contacts with the solar panel company have
meant he has got a deal on the pool installation (if he gets the PP) and he
will use solar electricity to heat it.
I didn’t ask the obvious question (how much was it going to
cost?) because I knew that was they very question he wanted to be asked. He was
almost bursting to spill the beans but I pre-empted him by telling him that I
didn’t want to know the price. There is nothing I like better than not
responding to the little games he tries to play.
We had an early tea for the kids mainly, and at 6.30 P &
J set off for their Rotary function. Rotary! That made it even worse! Still, we
had fun with Peter and Angela. We watched “How to Train your Dragon” (for about
the three millionth time) and then played a few games. Sophie needed changing
almost as soon as Jane had left, but she then slept soundly until P & J
came back. We hopped in the hot tub some more and I could see that having a
pool to occupy my nephew and two nieces would be a boon in years to come. We
were still in the hot tub when the flash git brother returned. He was very
thankful and Jane was lovely (as she usually is). I think she may have been
embarrassed by the game playing that Phil has to indulge in with me rather than
just be straight about stuff.
I was a bit reluctant to get out of the water as I had grown
gills I think but we knew we had to get back and take Callie for her last walk.
She had been driven to distraction by not being allowed to get into the hot tub
with us. Laura, as I suspected she might, had a major wardrobe malfunction on
climbing out of the tub but luckily Phil and Peter had already gone into the
kitchen. I suggested I walked behind her with my hands covering her boobs as we
went inside to get dried. Jane thought that would probably make Phil have a
heart attack so reluctantly we didn’t.
Back home, later on, we tried the idea on the way from our
shower to the bedroom but you know what? I could just keep my hands still, I
had to gently massage her nipples. There is no need to put what happened next.
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