Six down

 I can’t believe that we’re in July already. How quickly is this year passing by? And, more importantly, how is little Miss approaching the end of another academic year?

This time of year always gets a little chaotic with school events, and the excitement of the impending holidays. Last week, it seemed the chaos had started. I wasn’t feeling 100% anyway, despite the relaxing weekend prior. I developed some problem with my left eye, it kept pumping water out and felt like there was pressure in it. It was annoying, so I visited the pharmacist who recommended some treatment for dry eyes. As a daily computer user, glasses wearer and allergy sufferer you can guarantee I’ll always have some issue with my eyes.

Tuesday was Little Miss’ school sports day. She’s inherited my sporting ability and, like me, makes up for it with humour, although she’s much more of a character than bookish little me was! 

Thursday evening she was invited to her friends birthday party at a local Italian restaurant, Florios. I decided that, rather than taxiing all evening and trying to grab snacks in the middle, I’d book a table for me and Mum. Even for a Thursday night it was bustling! The tables were constantly full.

As always, I overindulged. In my defence, I didn’t realise that the Calzone or the puddings would each be so large. It was all delicious but I did feel uncomfortably full afterwards. I consistently find myself promising not to over indulge again after each experience but, it seems when faced with a menu all willpower disintegrates. 

It was a long day for little Miss but she loved it.

Saturday afternoon we were off to York to meet up with some very good friends of ours. The chap met us at the train station and we walked up into town to meet them at Thor’s tipi. It was surprisingly breezy, and the game of cards that the children were trying to play was abruptly ended by a gust of wind that launched the cards across the tipi.

We grabbed some snacks, and then wandered off to the Minster. York Minster is always a joy, whether you’re religious or not there’s so much to appreciate here. 

After perusing and wandering we set off to get a drink. York is an odd place on a Saturday because you have Saturday shoppers and tourists thrown in with hen parties, stag parties and all day drinkers. By the time 5 o’clock comes it’s absolute chaos, and trying to find somewhere to enjoy a beer as a family group can be quite a challenge. That’s why I didn’t hesitate to jump into Blue Heaven as we passed by, it looked delightfully calm and chilled, and they serve cocktails.

So, I finished my day out with an espresso Martini of course. I had fancied a classic martini but it wasn’t on the menu. The little people enjoyed bowls of ice cream and we spent the last hour of the day mostly laughing. It was amazing fun. 

Thankfully the train journey home was far less crowded than the one to York, given many of party goers heading from Scarborough earlier in the day were likely still out. 

Sunday morning I met the chap for breakfast in Thornton-le-Dale. We brought both Thelma and Bruno with us and had a lovely walk around the village after our hearty full English breakfasts.

There was even a craft fair for us to check out too. The rest of the day was spent catching up on household chores ready for the week ahead, but what a fabulous weekend it was.

Saturday scorcher and slow Sunday

After a week of record breaking heat, I was surprised when Saturday arrived and it was still blazing hot. Any normal person would have just gone to the beach for the day, and I probably would have done that but it was Armed Forces Day, and because we have so much going on at the seafront on Armed Forces day it’s a crazy place to be. So, we decided to wander off to Helmsley instead.

I took the opportunity to wear my new outfit. It’s so comfortable I think it will be a summer staple! Unsurprisingly Helmsley wasn’t too busy, just incredibly hot. I’ve written about Helmsley many times on here, so I won’t bore you too much but essentially, it was a day of sipping iced coffees and wandering.

Sunday was starting to cool a little, and thankfully we had no plans aside from having a restful day. Several weeks ago I bought a set of 6 paint by numbers sets from DIY art club. Mum and little Miss had both had an opportunity to start one, but I didn’t until now. I set up the garden table and me and little Miss spent a couple of hours painting.

I think these kits are fabulous. I’ll definitely be buying more, and it was such a relaxing way to spend the afternoon.

My Boston Terrier

Little Misses Pug

Aside from that, we had a nice chicken dinner, early baths and a generally chilled day. Not something I can often say, so it’s much appreciated when it does happen.

Fair Weather

Wow! They weren’t lying when they said a heatwave was coming were they? It’s been glorious. 

Sunlight streaming in at the Cosy club

Casting my mind back into the depths of the week before last, before it got quite so warm, I had a day of team workshops in York. I say not so warm, but it was still pleasant and spring likeAfter a productive day, we all went for a team meal at The Cosy Club. The curry I had was delicious, even if I do have to whip out my fan everytime I have spicy food these days. I rarely get to socialise with my team, we’re scattered about between York and London and many of us work from home a lot, so it’s always nice when we come together for these occasions once or twice a year.

Saturday arrived, and with it the sunshine. We were off to enjoy a local village fair in Scalby. We almost always go if it’s nice weather, and they usually manage to plan it so that it is. I was itching to use my new film camera, which is what I’ve used to take the majority of these photos. Waiting for them to be processed is why this post is a bit later than usual. It’s good fun to use but the flash is temperamental. Sometimes it fires, sometimes not. It’s part of the charm though so I’m still happy with it and to be honest, I am over the moon with these photographs.

Summer dressing at the fair

Fed up with spending good money on bad food lately, we took a pack up with us and enjoyed it whilst sat watching some of the entertainment acts.

We didn’t have BBQ but we did have cake

In fairness the food there didn’t look bad, but pizza or noodles wouldn’t really have appealed to us that day, so we were glad of our cheese sandwiches and quiche.

Stacking our hats in the coffee shop

Little Miss got to go on the bouncy castle, and we got to peruse lots of craft and bric-a-brac stalls. I managed to bag a Star Wars trilogy box set of DVDs for 40p, so everyone was happy. We settled down with a drink in the sunshine, with some lively dance music being played and it was a vibe. That’s why we were so disappointed when they shut it off at 4.30pm and declared the fair closed. I think they missed a trick, keeping that vibe into the early evening would have been great.

Sandsend

The next day I met up with the chap. We intended to head north to Runswick Bay and onto Staithes. Once we got past Sandsend though the cloud seemed to get increasingly lower and the fog seemed to creep in closer and closer. We decided to turn around, heading back initially to Sandsend for a coffee and a wander.

I tried something called a dirty chai and honestly, that’s opened up a whole new world for me. A chai with a shot of espresso in it! Perfection. I’ll never not get excited by new ways to enjoy my caffeine fix. 

There are only a couple of shops at Sandsend, but one of them is Bertie’s of Bay which sells beautiful, good quality, nautical inspired clothing and accessories. The sort of things you can wear and repair for decades. The chap bought a rather lovely leather bracelet in there. 

Sandsend is one of those places that, even though there isn’t much there, it’s a really relaxing and nice place to spend time. After a little wander, we got back in the car and set off back to Whitby. 

We parked up at a different end of Whitby to usual, walking in to town from a different point. As we reached the infamous whale bone arch, a sea fret was moving in. It looked so spooky creeping across the Abbey on the cliff.

 

Whitby is so atmospheric sometimes, I can understand how it inspired Bram Stoker. 

We wandered down to town, stopping off for dinner at the Quayside restaurant. I had salmon and new potatoes. It was delicious.

Despite the fog coming and going, it stayed warm. We wandered across the swing bridge to the shops. There’s one called Squid Rock where I always fall in love with something and today was no different. I ended up buying this amazing set. I thought it was a skirt but discovered when I got home it’s actually trousers. It’s fabulous. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent perusing shops and stalls, before spending a bit of time in one of the arcades trying to win things from the 2p machines for little Miss.

We finished up sharing donut balls on a bench back up by the whalebones, before heading for home. It was a fantastic day out. 

Zoo Tales

 Saturday’s weather was a complete let down. The heat and sunshine that the weather folks had lead us to believe we were getting never materialised. I don’t know if it’s just me but you can check 3 different sources, get 3 different weather outlooks and none of them will be correct. That’s what happened Saturday when, instead of sunshine and a gentle breeze, it was grey, with a chilly wind. 

Unsure how to spend our day, we opted for a trip to Filey zoo. We hadn’t visited before, but I’d passed the sign on the way home from the Steampunk festival a few weeks back.

The zoo itself is very quaint. It’s close to Scarborough and has plenty of parking, and isn’t too pricey either. We were there by mid-afternoon.

There’s a mix of small animals. Farmyard birds, including a massive turkey. Meerkats, lemurs and little Miss’ personal favourite, an Asian Leopard Cat.

There were donkeys and wallabies and a rather brazen looking Alpaca. You can buy a bag of feed with your ticket, we did and it was lovely feeding the animals, but especially the donkey who took the feed so gently.

It remained breezy all day, so we took a break in the cafe, enjoying some sandwiches and a hot cup of coffee before making our way back outside for a wander around the gardens. It’s a small zoo, probably only an hour or so to walk around and see everything, have a brew and visit the play park, but even so it was pleasant.

Afterwards we drove towards Bridlington, which always seems further than expected. We wandered around but it was late afternoon and so, there wasn’t an abundance of things to see. We decided to grab some dinner in a fish and chip restaurant, one we’d been to before and thought was a safe bet. It most definitely wasn’t and we walked out mostly leaving the food we’d bought, hard chips and rubbery frozen fish fingers don’t really do it for us. We set off home, and while the food had been disappointing, the day itself was lovely. We vowed to take a pack up more often on our day trips! 

Sunday morning I had to nip to the locker to pick up my latest Vinted purchase. A delightfully cheap point and shoot film camera. I remember Mum taking our holiday snaps on cameras like this one in the late 80s and early 90s. It was very cheap and everything appears to be working. I’ve not run a reel of film through it yet but I’m really excited to.

With a collection of 5, invariably old cameras now, I wonder if I have a bit of a problem. I just love the imperfection and realism of film and older digital cameras that aren’t 75 megapixels with built in filters. Everything isn’t rendered perfectly and that’s what makes it so appealing. To me at least. 

The rest of the day was spent catching up on housework. A dull, but necessary endeavour. This week has been so far unremarkable. I really do hope for some brighter weather and energising adventures soon.