Recently in Out n About Category

Jilly, Evie and I joined Kieran and Holly in a leisurely drive to Anthony Gormley's 'Another Place' just outside Liverpool on Saturday.  We met Deb and Kev, and Julie, Ged and Sarah Mabel, and had a brief walk along the beach admiring the Gromley statues (it has to be said that Evelyn admired them a little too closely at times).  Due to the surprising number of vehicles on the road, we had to abandon our planned trip to see the red squirrels in <a href="http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-formby-2.htm" target="_blank"><strong>Formby</strong></a>, and decided to head into Crosby for a bite to eat and a hot drink before heading off to Deb and Kev's.

Debbie had prepared a beautiful chicken pie for dinner which we all enjoyed before settling down to a quiet family quiz night on the Wii (which <strong>Team Holly/Webby</strong> won despite having a reputation for being profoundly stupid!).  On Sunday (the day before Jilly's birthday), I was treated to the opportunity to help Kev with a little back-breaking physical exercise, digging up and moving 100 cubic metres of soil the length of their considerable garden (I may be exagerrating a little), while Debbie abd Jilly prepared a lovely birthday buffet tea.

On Jilly's birthday, Jilly and I organised the day off and, at Jilly's request, went to Ikea in Birstall.  We'd originally planned to see a film at the nearby cinema, but soon ran out of time having spent so long looking at all the lovely things and planning - amongst other things - buying Evelyn a beautiful day bed and moving Evelyn back into the small bedroom.  We drove home and 'vegged' at infront of the telly watching a new movie before collecting Evelyn from school (don't tell Evelyn we had the day without her, or she'll have a meltdown.  When I collected Evelyn from the out-of-school club, Emma told me that, when she'd seen Evelyn before she was due to start at the club, Evelyn had told her that she might not be going to the OOSC because Jilly and I might be coming to collect her early because it was Jilly's birthday!  Emma added that Evelyn had become <em><strong>too upset</strong></em> when we hadn't turned up to collect her!  Aaaarrgghh! I felt dreadful!)

I took Evelyn home to her mum, then we all got ready for a slap up Birthday Pizza dinner with Kieran and Holly at Pizza Hut where an excellent feed was had by all.

I'll add links to birthday weekend piccies just as soon as I can get them off my phone/get them from Kevin! 

What an EXCELLENT WEEKEND!

Absolutely physically knackered, Jilly, Evelyn and I returned from a brilliant weekend at the Deer Shed Festival (Topcliffe, near Thirsk) this afternoon.

Driving to Topcliffe in convoy with the Harrisesses, and with Kempy 'on-board', we arrived yesterday morning, just in time to erect the tents before one of very few the light shower began. We were able to chill for a little while before seeing out first band on the Obelisk Stage, 'Black Diamond Bay'; then, during 'Young Rebel Set', the Drurysharks and Pitchfords announced their arrival.

All of us who were drinking were all a little disappointed to hear an announcement (at around 7.30) that the festival had run out of bitter and I, for one, became a little 'hangry' (sic) when it became apparent that the festival's fast food stalls were running out of food!

And, I had a lovely surprise while at the Deershed Festival, bumping into an old colleague from NTL. Soon after arriving, Paul Staines tapped me on the shoulder and gave me a massive hug as he confirmed I was who he thought I was (Paul was my line manager at NTL until he was very rudely made redundant from his job). Paul and I did a load of catching up before seeing other bands, but we kept bumping into each other throughout the day and exchanged numbers...excellent!

Unfortunately, I forgot my digital camera, and only had the presence of mind to take a few photographs using my mobile phone when I was at the Deershed Stage watching Miles and Erica...d'oh!

As Jilly was off work with Evelyn today, my beaudeeful ladies met me for a lunchtime picnic this afternoon. As the sun beat down on us, we made our way to the freshly mowed playing fields in the park up the road from work.

We found a shady spot beneath a tree and began eating lunch. Careful that Evelyn didn't dirty the picnic rug, Jilly asked Evelyn to remove her shoes as she walked around it. As Evelyn removed her shoes, she noticed that she'd stood in something that looked suspiciously like dog 'waste'. Evelyn removed her shoes (placing them away for our lunch) and continued eating.

As my lunch hour finished, Jilly reminded me that it was time for me to return to work. As she stood, Jilly pointed out...

"Aaarrgghh! I've got grass all over my legs!"

As I looked down to discover that I, too, was covered in the freshly cut grass, Evelyn answered her mum,

"And I've got shit on my shoe!" [Her face remained perfectly straight]

Obviously, as the responsible parents we are, we immediately smothered our laughter and reminded Evelyn she she mustn't use language like that!

"But I have, look, here it is!, Evelyn told us as she held her shoe out to Jilly.

Or the HOtley Show, as Jilly referred to it with comic genius...

Having recently discovered that it was the 201st Otley Show this weekend, Jilly thought that, given some reasonable weather, the show might make a nice day out for the three of us. Who could ever have guessed quite how glorious a day it would be?

We arrived in Otley at a little after 09:00am and, after making an hasty dash to the port-a-loos (apparently installed by one of Jilly's patients), Jilly and I made our first purchase of the day at a real ale stall selling Glastonbury Ales. Of course, they came highly recommended by the stall holder, but Jilly remembers drinking them on her many visits to the music festival, so we bought four bottles of their finest...

We had an excellent time in the glorious sun. We watched as many animals were shown and judged, including the Aberdeen Angus, many breeds of sheep, hamsters, goats and Shire horses. Inevitably, Evelyn was a little disappointed as we explained to her that there was no pig competition.

Just before lunch, we all gathered around a small enclosure to watch ferret racing. Four ferrets were inserted into steaming hot tubes and the winning ferret was the one who first popped out (entirely) from its tube. Now that's summertime fun!

Usually anxious around dogs, Evelyn surprised and thrilled Jilly and I by (very literally) getting amongst the beagles and fox hounds in the main field as children were invited to spend some time with the animals. Evelyn was very excited about being with the dogs, particularly the beagles, and was surprised at how soft they were!

We all enjoyed Jason Smythe's Adrenaline Tour, and there were more than just one or two gasps of astonishment from my liddle ladies.

Further gasps of astonishment were barely stifled by Jilly as we watched a couple of tug-of-war bouts. In truth, the day was getting on and I - for one - was becoming weary under the sun, so we I decided it was time to leave, and I dragged Jilly away from the flexing biceps for the tug-of-war teams.

Jilly, Evelyn and I had a lovely time, this weekend, visiting Deb and Kev.

We last saw them just before Christmas when they stayed over at ours on the way to Grimsby. Our return visit was a very relaxed affair which involved, essentially, being driven crazy by Evelyn insisting that Kev and I played on the Wii with her, and her beating us both (quite convincingly) at bowling, before putting Evelyn to bed so that us adults could enjoy one or two relaxing drinks. Fantastic!

Our lovely weekend also involved me helping Kev to move 50+ 20Kg floor boards put on to the first floor of their on-going (and really quite impressive) extension. Quite how I've come to this - I don't know - but helping Kev with this (what was really quite hard work), made the weekend all the more enjoyable. Anyone reading this could be forgiven for thinking I must have experienced some sort of head trauma in the past!

Anyway (and I hope - and am sure - that Deb and Kev won't mind), I wanted to post a couple of photo's of Deb and Kev's impression erection...er...extension, that is! I know, I know, but I couldn't help myself...I'm weak, and it was toooo easy!

Irritatingly enough, I found myself too busy to take any photograph's of the inside of the extension, but I'm sure Deb and Kev will be taking loads as the work proceeds. Fantastic!

I'd like to say another big 'thank you' to Deb and Kev for the lovely weekend. We were all a little sad to come home...especially Evelyn.

Jilly invited the Wassocks to ours for Sunday lunch today and, as there is still plenty of snow around to be enjoyed, we arranged to meet for a play in the snow before eating.

We all met in the playing fields at New College and it was obvious that Dom, Tilly and Evelyn were pleased to see each other. While preparing to share a sledge ride, Evelyn and Dominic passed some time discussing their future together...

"When we are married, Dominic, can we have some dogs?"

Rather than confirm or deny that he and Evelyn would, inevitably, marry, Dominic simply replied, "I don't really like dogs!"

Not deterred, Evelyn followed up, "Oh! We'll have cats, then, instead!", and climbed aboard the sledge.

Ski Sunday from jim harris on Vimeo.

We had an excellent time and no-one ate any yellow snow! Result!

Evelyn was almost as excited as Jilly tonight when I met them in town to watch as Patrick Stewart (a.k.a. Captain Bald-head) turned on the Christmas Lights.

Captain Bald-head (as he will always be known in our house), was very entertaining (particularly when he reminded Barry Sherman that he was, in fact, from Mirfield and not (as Barry told the audience), from Huddersfield). For me, things did seem a little uncomfortable when he adopted a rather strained 'Uddersfield accent, but it was something of a treat seeing that he did seem to genuinely enjoy turning on the lights in his 'home town'.

Something else that seemed a little embarrassing (or unnecessary, certainly) was the number of apparently (very) 'random' people that seemed to appear on stage as it was time to 'plunge' the plunger to turn the lights on.

As the town match was being televised by Sky today, the club offered season ticket holders the chance to take a friend-for-a-fiver to see the match against Wycombe Wanderers (currently languishing in the bottom position in League One).

John Sharpe and I went to see the match (as he's been a season ticket holder since 1994), and I was stunned to see Town trample all over Wycombe, beating them six-nil (though Town had enough chances at goal to have scored 10). What was most exciting for me was that I've never actually seen Town win a match before (though I have only ever attended four or five games in the past), so to see them win a game so convincingly was brilliant.

Deb and Kev invited us to theirs for this Hallowe'en weekend (of course, Kieran didn't come with us), where we had an excellent time. Jilly went to great lengths to make sure we were dressed in a Hallowe'enie stylee. Naively, Jilly initially encouraged me to devise my own costume but, as I'm not very imaginative, Jilly had to bail me out in the end with this quickly improvised 'red devil' outfit. I am a ginga, I suppose!

Debbie and Kev provided a house full of Hammer House of Horror wannabes with a lovely Hallowe'en dinner, and an excellent time was had by all! Typically, after a few glasses of full bodied Transylvanian red, I was largely incapable to taking any photographs of the evening. D'Oh...they'll stop inviting me soon!

Some time ago, Jilly suggested that we might like to take Evelyn to Blackpool to see the lights.

Astonishingly, we made the 70 mile trip to Blackpool in an hour and a quarter door-to-er...car park (I'd forgotten that the M55 goes practically all the way to the centre of Blackpool). Jilly pointed out that the trip was so easy that we could, conceivably, make it every weekend (I told her that I'd consider her suggestion!)

Given that it is the end of September, the weather was great and Jilly, Evelyn and I had an lovely day walking along the promenade, visiting all three of Blackpool's piers. Evelyn enjoyed many of the rides and games on the piers and, with Jilly's help, won a baby 'Shrek' on the hook-a-duck game. Evelyn even managed to convince Jilly to take her on the big wheel on Central Pier. Unfortunately for Jilly (and exactly as the computer predicted) the wheel stopped with their car at the very top...oh dear!

We enjoyed some excellent fish and chips at the Harry Ramsden restaurant (after queueing outside for almost an hour), before walking along the illuminations. Evelyn seemed quite unimpressed by the lights, though she was a little tired by this time. We caught the tram back to the South Pier before returning to the car and beginning the journey home.