Sunday Evening And Happy

Despite the horrific weather in Cumbria , the end of my holiday has left me feeling good. I have experienced some things I never want to again , but grateful with the knowledge that I came through without wrecking the hire car or injuring anybody especially me and Fiona.

Today I saw my youngest daughter and her fiance who have moved to a new house , and it was wonderful having a catch up.

The last couple of nights I have slept like the proverbial log , only waking between eight and nine in the morning . I hope I don't sleep through the alarm.

Needled

Tomorrow I have a six month diabetic review , slightly worried because my blood sugars have rocketed despite no change to my eating or exercise, we shall see what comes out of it.

Still I feel good , I have my friends and am looking forward to whatever happens this week , which I am sure will be fine.






Rod Stewart's output was consistently excellent until after "Atlantic Crossing" but he still produces some corking songs like "She Makes Me Happy"   which does genuinely make me happy and that can't be a bad thing can it?

Go on , do something that makes you happy and spread the love darlings

Some More Things That Make Me Happy

I was quite pleased that this post here has started to get some more views . It is important to me because it reminds af things that bring a smile to my face and just make my heart leap a little. Todauy I am lucky to be home having managed to escape the worst of the Cumbrian Weather and Lorry crashes , but still the journey took an extra two hours on a 90 minute journey., details here on the BBC site.

It's a friend's birthday today and I always try and post a mybe appropriate song on Facebook , and while this song is not a birthday song , it always brings a smile to my face (as do a lot of Big Daddy covers) . Their cover of Once In A Lifetime is a total delight

Music can always lift you but other things can do to such as:

You Know What To Do

• Reading A Book
• Meeting A Friend
• Watching A Film
• Going For A Walk
• Visiting A Museum
• Going To The Theatre
• Socialising
• Anything that puts a smile on your face

Smiling is contagious , you start doing and others will soon follow suit.

So tomorrow smile lots and make this world a better place

Seven Days In Orton Cumbria

I came up with the name for this blog as a travel blog about places I'd stayed, which maybe is a bit ambitious as I don't travel very far. I detest flying , not for the actual flight , but for the endless queuing and excuses for delays, plus the fact the flight is usually a miniscule part of the journey unless , say, I were going to Australia.

Anyway the place we were it was Orton in Cumbria, just off the M6 but very quiet and very relaxing. It is also about a mile away from the Tebay / Westmorland Farm Services which are the benchmark for Motorway Service Stations. The now have one on the M5 and one on the M74 planned. While the prices are Motorway Service Station levels, the service, location and food on offer is the best you will find on a Motorway (In this case the M6).

The cottage is a converted barn and can be seen here , and has everything you need although the village is still waiting on broadband and the mobile signal is a little erratic. This meant that for the first time I ran out of data on my EE contract , and due to the stipulations and expense of buying extra data I decided I didn't need it. Of and after 2 messages with a URL to buy the extra data , their app then stops letting you see your data information so you couldn't buy any if you wanted! But it wasn't a major hassle , there are lots of places that let you hook into wifi including the aforementioned Westmorland Farm Services and the excellent Kings Head at Ravenstonedale, which sounds like somewhere from Game of Thrones.


We ate at the excellent Black Swan which is well worth a visit if you are ever in the area, this is one of the meals I had , runny scotch eggs, gammon , garlic cheese potatoes, tomatoes and green stuff. There's also images of the giant meringue on my instagram feed if you want to try and fine it.



The countryside is very relaxing and great for just walking and doing not much out of contact from mobile phones and the like, and the great thing about staying in Orton is that it has a post office that sells 99% of stuff that you actually need, then there's the George Hotel which does food and drink and the people are really pleasant in there, and then you have Kennedy's Chocolate factory where you can buy almost anything made of chocolate , including boxes of chocolates made out of chocolate.

I thought a suitable tune was Lindsey Buckingham's Holiday Road from National Lampoon's Vacation , the guy is a total musical genius , and that is the best of the vacation films.

So that's some short thoughts on my week away, now I'm back home and the weather is looking very good.. Have a fantastic Sunday everybody

December Starts Quietly

...or it has for me. A week in Cumbria was very relaxing , alogh driving past Ullswater was scary , butA mbleside was superb visiting the excellent Lucy On A Plate , seeing the actual first Lilliput Lane Cottage and going for a drink in the pub on the cover of Half Man Half Biscuit's CSI Ambleside.

Appleby was interesting veering from discussions on extreme violence , to excellent coffee shops and superb architecture . The village is wifi'd up as well but our cottage was just too far out to benefit.

Rheged was an interesting shopping centre with so quality stuff on sale , an excellent restaurant and an interesting art gallery , and it's all under grass!!!

I know this is a short post but needed to get December started . Holiday pictures are here.

By the way the Dail Mail and Express have been forecasting Armageddon again because it's a bit cold and windy!!