Food glorious food

On bank holiday Monday, James and I headed for Castle Howard. It’s one of Britain’s finest historic houses (according to the publicity). It’s so famous that the address is just “Castle Howard, York, North Yorkshire” – how cool is that? It’s actually nearer Malton than York, but that’s the post office for you.

It was a beautiful sunny day if a little breezy. Well, ok, extremely windy. There was a food festival on, which was great and we got the chance to taste loads of stuff – cooked fish, strawberries, sausages, asparagus, olives, curry sauce, pickles, lamb burgers, sloe gin, pork pies, chocolate, cheese, real ale, smoked trout, to name but a few. And yes, it was mostly in that type of order – strange, but surprisingly pleasant.

We sat in on 2 cookery demonstrations. Firstly several types of fish were filleted, explained and cooked (yum, we are definitely trying that at home) and then the Castle Howard head butcher showing how to dissect a whole lamb into all the various cuts of meat (don’t think we’ll try that at home).

We then joined a tour of the walled garden and potager (Victorian kitchen vegetable & fruit garden) and then took a look inside the house (sadly no inspiration for my own home, but always worth a look).

A full day, with loads to do and see, and a great way to spend a bank holiday, rounded off with a visit to James’s parents farm 10 minutes away. We finished our outing with a walk around the lakes and a look at the sheep and then back for tea and home-made cake. Do we really have to go back to work tomorrow?

Singing and beer

Another bank holiday weekend. Yippee! Not such great warm weather this time, but today has at least been bright and sunny (unlike the wet weather down South!). I managed to get some gardening done, got my hanging baskets planted up and should be able to get my veg planted out now. The rainbow chard which I planted last year had continued to grow over winter, so I've left them in as they look so weird!

Saturday morning we started the day at James’s house in Lincolnshire and we popped into Scunthorpe in the morning. I’d never been before, but it seems I hadn’t missed much. We decided to stop for a coffee, but I was unimpressed by the look of most of the cafes. We then saw one which looked a bit posher. We discussed how expensive it might be, but decided as we were in Scunthorpe it couldn’t be too bad. As we walked upstairs to the café, signs on the walls showed that it was also a beauty salon. On poster offered a special offer on “eyebrow, lip and chin wax”, together with a reminder that you could get toast and tea. Mmm – says a lot for the type of people that might use the salon? We ended up with 2 lattes and 2 full breakfasts for a total of £6 (no, not each – all together!!). We passed on the chin wax, but thought we’d got a bargain on our brunch. It even tasted good!!

We then headed into Beverley for a Sea Shanty festival. Ok, maybe it’s not near the sea, but they had moored a couple of barges and a sailing ship in the beck and the signs suggested singers in a few of the beckside pubs. Unfortunately, there was a bit more interest in football than in the shanty singers, so they had been relegated to the garden while lots of excited drunken blokes (and women) stared at a big screen TV inside. Not being football fans, James and I braved the chilly wind and listened to a couple of songs outside. Sea shanties tell great, funny stories, and a very appreciative audience !! (not!)

We then headed back to Driffield and after dropping Liddi back to Beverley for a party, we headed to The Tiger for their micro brewery beer festival. I was hoping to sample some real ales in really tiny miniature glasses…..but apparently it wasn’t that type of micro beer ! Had a few beers and then headed off to The Bell to see if anything had changed. I used to be a barmaid there but hadn’t been in for about a year. Actually, nothing had changed. I don’t just mean in the last year, but probably in the last 50 years or so! We were probably the only people under 60 (apart from a weirdo who doesn’t count).

Any dream will do

It’s been a while, but last Saturday I got my Joseph fix. The amazing techni-coloured dreamcoat was on stage in Hull performing to an enthusiastic full house – no doubt boosted by the recent TV show ‘Any Dream Will Do’. In fact Hull’s Joseph was not the show’s winner, but was one of the runner’s up, Craig Chalmers. I think one of the other runner’s up – the one with the teeth – was playing the part of Benjamin. There was supposed to be yet another of the runner’s up as the narrator – the young Scottish one that worked in Tesco’s, although he’d obviously been called in for Saturday night shelf stacking so we got a Nancy instead, or rather one of the girls from the current TV show for auditioning for Oliver. Anyway, it was a great spectacle as always, and I managed to sing along to all the songs and didn’t even manage to make the people in front leave!! Now, where did I put that Joseph CD?

Sunny & warm bank holiday - strange but true

On May Day bank holiday Monday, James and I wanted to have a day out exploring somewhere new. We decided to visit Lincoln as it's only about 30 miles from James's house in North Lincolnshire. I knew it had a cathedral and a castle, but knew little else.

After a long winter, we appeared to have a strange, large, yellow warm sphere high in the sky. It took us a while to accept that it could possibly be a sunny, hot, summery day especially as that is usually unheard of on a bank holiday!

We brought a packed lunch and started our day sat relaxing by the river watching the boats go by. Then, we headed up the hill to the Tourist Office to get our essential item - a map! A sign said that a 'walking tour guide' was just about to start, so we booked our ticket and found that we were the only 2 in the group, so we had a very personal and brilliantly interesting tour of Lincoln. The guide was a font of all knowledge on Lincoln, Cathedrals, and...well...just about everything else! After an hour and a half we had learnt a lot and managed to catch a bit of sunburn on the back of our necks!

Lincoln is a very beautiful city steeped in history with a wealth of gorgeous buildings, cobbled streets, river, green spaces, modern sculptures, art galleries, cafes, modern shops (which we didn't visit), and just about everything to make a great day out. Because it's a bit out of the way, it doesn't attract as many tourists as say, York or even Leeds, so, with loads to see and without the crowds on a very sunny and warm bank holiday Monday, it was the perfect way to spend a day!

Doh!

Last week I got a new debit card for mum’s bank account (for which I have power of attorney). This has become a bit of a saga (which I won’t bore you with), but basically I had one previously which then got cancelled before I could use it! It’s with Lloyds TSB (same as my own personal account) and I kept the old card until I got the new one. I put a red sticker on the card for mum’s account so I could easily tell the difference between hers and mine in my purse!

I was trying to organise things a bit at home - sorting paperwork, etc. I unstuck the new debit card from it’s letter, and decided it was time to destroy the old card. To be extra secure, I stuck it through my cross-cut shredder. Just as the shredder was struggling with the final corner – a cold shiver went down my spine as I realised I had put the wrong card in! I managed to shred my own debit card!! I was then left with an old card for mum’s account which was unusable, and a new debit card for mum’s account, which as it turns out doesn’t work either!!

I rang Lloyds customer helpline and was luckily only kept on hold for about 12 minutes. I spoke with a very nice Scottish man and said I needed a new card. He asked if my card had been lost, stolen or damaged. I answered ‘damaged’. He then asked for the “long number across the middle” (why do they do that like they are asking a primary school pupil?) I had to come clean and explain what I had done, and exactly how damaged the card was. After he stopped laughing, he asked me further security questions and then said a new card would be sent. He then started laughing again and said that his ‘script’ said that he had to now tell me “I can still use my existing card for 5 days or until the new card is received”. Well, we both agreed that clearly I couldn’t!! He then started a bit of chatting (hang on….who was paying for this call?!) and asked what I was doing for the weekend – to which I replied “something that doesn’t cost any money!!”.

On a final note, despite the fiasco that is ongoing with the card for my mum’s account – Lloyds did manage to order me a new debit card on Tuesday which arrived today, Wednesday. That’s what I call good service!