It’s a Blog ! Not a Log !

Was in my opinion the shittest Giant Bradley Day I’ve been to . . .

This year they decided to hold it on the football field and charge everyone £1 to get in, so why was it shit ?, well apart from the 4 food stands, 1 beer tent (not even being run by a Market Weighton Pub), 6-7 tombola stands, a small funfair, the live music and Punch & Judy there was fcuk all else to keep you interested for the 5 – 10 minutes it took you to walk round the field, though we did hear that the birds of prey would be on again this year, but as I say after 5-10 minutes you’d seen everything, so you could either go away and come back later on just sit around twiddling your thumbs until the time came for them to come on.

There was’nt even a Fun Day Dog Show this year, which was a big disappointment for us and a few other dog owners . . .

I think we stayed for about 20 minutes which was more than enough time to see the “Sights” and then we drove back to Manchester, what a wasted journey that was, just thankful my mum still lives in Market Weighton, so at least the 160 mile round trip was’nt a total waste of petrol.

Why they ever decided to take the celebrations off the High St I’ll never know, but if they want it to be a success they really need to be doing a bit more to make the new site of the event a little bit more than a Tombola meet or bring it back to the High St

We won’t be going next year

Only a couple more hours left of our holiday in Whitby, wishing we were here for another week to be honest, its been a good time at Squirrel Acres Cottage, had enjoyable evenings just sat on the sun terrace/veranda listening to the sounds of the wood and its many inhabitants, I’ve even shared my breakfast with a few of them.

I think I can say me, Mel and Blue have enjoyed the cottage more than the days out, its been so relaxing here, definatly helped recharge our batteries and destress from work, I’ll take home some nice memories, even the ones that involve being awoken every morning by the dawn chorus at 4:30-5:30am.

We spent our last full day here exploring the coast to the North of Whitby and found a very dog friendly beach at Sandsend and an even dog friendly pub the Hart Inn, which by the way serves the nicest piece of Gammon I’ve had the pleasure to consume in a very very long time, well presented as well.

After Sandsend we spent the last few hours of yesterday wondering round the shops of Whitby once more to see if we could pick up any last minute bargains, which I’m happy to say I did, and once again they were all from the local charity shops, I managed to get hold of a few graphic novels, some DVD’s and a couple more computer games, all of which were priced between £1.99 to £2.50.  In total I’ve come back from my hols with 3 graphic novels, 2 DVD’s and 6 computer games and I’ve spent a sum total of about £12, whicch aint bad considering most of these games were originally £20 odd pounds each, and they are’nt even that old, maybe a year and half at the most.

Think my mum has the right idea about charity shop bargains and I will now be sure to check them out more often

Anyway where do we go from here, well were heading to my mums in Market Weighton for Sunday’s Giant Bradley day celebrations, where we’ll be entering Blue in the Fun Dog Show and hoping that she gets another top 3 place like she has for the past 2 years, then on Sunday night we’ll probably head back across to Manchester for one last day of chilling and then alas on Tuesday its back to work, but less thinking of that and more thinking about booking this place again next summerb

P1060571, originally uploaded by BagRat.

Well were now into the 4th day of our holiday and we’ve managed to cram in visits to :

Whitby Abbey, which was a pleasant couple of hours spent walking round the remains of what at one time must have been a very imposing structure (still is I suppose) for such a small coastal town of the times, the views from the hill its built on give you some very good panoramic views over Whitby and the surrounding area.

Filey which once you’ve seen it you’ve seen it

Goathland, again a pleasant little village which seems to be making a living off the back of Heartbeat, just about every shop there is a gift shop, which is a shame, as I’m sure it would be nicer/quainter if it actually had some proper shops.

Becks Hole, home of what must be Britains smallest Pub, The Birch Hall Inn, nice place to stop off in for a beer and one of their hearty sandwichs and home made Pork Pies, dogs are welcome as well.

Grosmont, the place where the steam engine line starts and home of the steam engine workshops, you can go for a ride on one of the locally restored Steam Engines and experience a time gone by, theres also a nice little pub there just by the railway crossings that serves a very nice Beer battered Cod and Chips.

Pickering, which is a quaint little Market Town and also the end of the line for Grosmonts Steam Railway, theres a rather nice little bakery there that does lots of home made sweet and savoury pies.
The day we went there was a flea market on which had quite a few nice antique stalls for those who like that sort of thing, you’ve also got the remains of Pickering Castle, which sadly we did’nt get to explore as it not open on a Monday or Tuesday.

Probably going to have a drive to Scarborough today as it looks like its gonna be a sunny day indeed . .

Its a sad week I’ve had  . . .  my dear and trusted friend Mr Beamer has been diagnosed with terminal engine failure . .  we’ve had a good 5-6 years togeather me and Mr Beamer, but alas the long journeys and heavy usage have finally taken there toll, and its with sad eyes I must bid my BMW goodbye.

He’s been a good friend over the years taking us to 2 Big Chills, a journey round Ireland, 2 holidays to Cornwall, a holiday in Dorset, a couple of trips to the Lakes, he’s even been to Essex, but all those miles he’s clocked up just brought this day a little bit closer.

All being well he’s being replaced with a newer friend also called Mr Beamer, though this one’s a 2002 model rather than the 1996 model I’ve been driving round, so he’s only 8 years old, rather than 14, it’s going to be quite strange saying my final farewell’s to the old boy . . , but hopefully someone else will take over on his final journet to either spare parts heaven or scrapheap hell.

You were a good old car Mr Beamer and for that I salute you, I’ll always have our time-lapse car journeys to look back on fondly . . .  goodbye dear friend . .

Decided to take Blue round the Millennium Nature Reserve by the Manchester Ship Canal today and it seems like everyone else and their dog did to, the place was overflowing with every sort of dog breed you could think of (cue people commenting on breed of dog that weren’t there).

After spending about an hour there we headed to PetAtHome to do Blue’s weekly food shop, 12 Cans of dog food and 1 big bag of dry mix, oh and a bag of gravy bones (her favourite snack), also tried on a few of the dog coats to see if they’ve finally got some in that will fit her, but alas again the only one that does is the Del Boy sheep skin coat, which to be honest doesn’t do her justice, so again we left disappointed.

Now just sat at home wondering how to spend the rest of Sunday, thinking maybe catchup on a few episodes of Supernatural or White Collar then listen to a few tunes with a beer . . . , would’nt have minded going out for the day somewhere in the car instead, but money’s a bit tight at the moment so can’t really be wasting money, maybe next weekend, just have to wait and see.

Oh nearly forgot it’s Valentines Day today so suppose I’d best show you the home made card I made for Mel

Its amazing what you can do with post it notes a biro and a mirror

Thats what we were after visiting the Valentines Market in Piccadilly Gardens today, it was really just the Farmers Market with a few extra stall’s, nothing you’d want to write home about, though the Farmers Market in itself is fine, why try and dress it up as something else.

Anyway after spending about 1/2 looking at stalls we’ve previously seen we went for a bit of a wander round Manchester doing window shopping, no spending money this month, to skint for any of that malarky, we headed to Chorlton and Electriks for a Latte and a beer, as usual Blue got lots of compliments from the clientele old and new, it’s nice how Blue gets people talking to each other and it’s pretty cool have everyone say shes such a beautiful dog (I sound like a proud father, maybe I am in a dogchild sort of way).

Spent about 2hrs there surfing the net and just generally people watching, Mel saw a friend from work so had a bit of a natter with her then headed home so I could catch up on last nights LOST, which by the way gets more and more confusing every Season and with this being the penultimate season its getting even weirder . .  whats with the crossed reality’s bit . . just gonna have to wait and see how it pans out I suppose.

So not to much of an exciting day today I’m afriad, but at least we got out of the house thats the main thing, can’t be staying in on one of your days not at work can you . .

Time for bed now so sweet dreams and all that other bollox people say before going to bed and farting the night away . .

As mentioned earlier headed across to Chorlton to take Blue round Ivy Green, met up with Luke at Electriks then headed across to Ivy Green, anyways decided to head along the Mersey to Jackson’s boat for a beer, absolutely stunning views with everything totally whited out by the snow, like being in another country.

Met a few other dog owners along the way and just generally enjoyed the walk and then it happened . . . Blue headed for her favourite bend in the Mersey, where she usually goes for a drink of water, but the edge was all iced up and Blue being Blue didn’t bat an eyelid, just went storming onto the ice, well ice and a 7.5 stone dog don’t exactly miss and the next minute there’s the sound of ice cracking and Blue disappears into the inky black water of the Mersey to reappear a few seconds later out of the ice hole she’d just created.

Soon as I saw her disappear I dropped my camera and dived down the rivers bank trying to get to her, she was a couple of feet out, way beyond my reach, but luckily for her and me there was a fcuking big branch log just laying nr the bank, so used this to smash through the ice and create a passage for her to get to the side, scariest 60 or so seconds I’ve experienced in a long time while smashing that ice I can tell you.

So managed to get her to the side and she was back to her normal self in a few minutes, though slightly damp for her ordeal, she soon shook it off, then headed to Jackson’s Boat so she could warm up and me and Luke could get a beer.

Apart from the unexpected dip in the Mersey it was a pretty good afternoon, nothing like trapping through snow and cold bracing fresh air to make you feel alive, finished the afternoon off with some very tasty French Onion soup at electriks, now at home watching Blue chilled out on the bed with Mel pampering her.

Might head out that way again tomorrow, but this time stay away from the ice . .

and all I’ve done is take Blue for 2 walks round Chorlton and chilled the rest of the weekend away, though I have spent about 4hrs geotagging alot of my flickr photo’s, so now at least people can see where they were taken, also started to make a few sets out of our Cornwall and Dorset holiday photo’s as they were a bit messy to be honest.

Also watched the movies Moon and Pandorum, the Moon is well worth seeing, but Pandorum’s just a basic SciFi scarer, nothing special, also got hold of District 9 which I hope to get around to watching sometime tomorrow evening, look pretty good and the reviews I’ve heard of it seem to agree, anyway work in the morrow so sorry its a crappy post, but its been a quiet weekend.

Nite nite

Sky, originally uploaded by BagRat.

Took these photo’s on the way home from work last night, stopped because there was a Rainbow, so took a few shots of that, then as I turned round to go back to the car saw the way the Sun was shining down this road and thought it would make a pretty decent photo

Just got back from an afternoon walk with some friends, had a nice leisurly walk round Ivy Green, took a few photo’s then had a swift one at the Horse and Jockey, closely followed by Bangers & Mash at electriks Bar.

Luke turned up 1/2 way through the meal and got introduced to his younger brother Will and his missus, Will’s down here for a showdown sort of thing between the Cowdry brothers and the Frietags, so should be an interesting afternoon/evening for those attending the bar today.
Would have loved to have stayed, but its Sunday and got work tomorrow so it’s a definate no no I’m afriad, will no doubt see Luke twittering about it later.

Going to spend the rest of the evening watching some more of Cold Case Series 1, did’nt really watch it when it aired on TV, but now I’ve managed to watch a few of them back to back getting quite into it, anyway managed to get hold of  Series 1-4, so going to be some serious watching over the next week or so.