A Few Days In Robin Hood's Bay

Just back from a a short break in Robin Hood's Bay. This place is a triumph of inventiveness, and not a place to drive for the faint hearted. There's virtually nowhere to park , nowhere to turn round , some of the "streets" can be spanned with the outstretched arms.

I made the mistake of driving down to drop off our case and ended up with option of driving into the North Sea or manoeuvering the car on the slipway to get back to somewhere safe.

Our cottage was excellent and like almost all buildings in this village is over three storeys reached by a ladder like stairways. This is not a place for anyone who needs a walking aid or wheelchair, that's not plotically incorrect it's just the nature of the village.

Well worth a visit , but park your car on the Bank Top Car Park and walk the rest of the way. You'll be glad you you did given the potential for gridlock in the village itself.

Amazingly there's a plethora of shops , including Muir Head stores which do cash back. There's three excellent pubs , The Bay , The Dolphin and The Laurels , the best food being at the Dolphin , and the atmosphere in The Laurels and the best views in The Bay . Also theres an excellent fish and chip shop of a street near the slipway which is worth visiting.

The cottage we stayed in is Beare Cottage , details of which are here.

This Panic Nation

Now its Swine 'flu' , and the government are going to issue leaflets about how to deal with this pandemic that's going to kill us all. Remember Bird 'flu' ? Didn't think so.

Google Streetview , well that's a burglars and paedophile's gold mine according to your Daily Mail and Talk Radio pundits.

Then there's the credit crunch and the collapse of the economy. Where's the money gone?? Well as it was credit it probably wasnt there in the first place, but most people are in a similar position to what they were in pre credit crunch.

If it's not disease or Google it's terrorists like Al Qaeda , and next week it'll be something else.

Society is a fragile thing built on trust . Usually those who abuse that trust are caught and punished in an appropriate manner.

It's all there to frighten us so the government can pass god knows what laws in "our best interest". The NHS , Police and Army do a good job of looking after us , it's what they're paid for , and despite the odd screw up it generally works.

The government seem to want us to live in a society where we're frightened of our own neighbour like great tracts of the USA. Canada and Switzerland and many other contries have a higher per capita gun ownership than the USA , but they dont hove the same carnage because people trust each other. This Michael Moore cartoon from "Bowling For Columbine" puts it in a nutshell:

Exploding CDs and Championship Unpredictability

This morning I was ripping so CDs and noticed that of them CD2 of "The Tzar, His Library And The Winter Palace" by Al Stewart (home page here)had a couple of cracks at the centre. Thought I best rip this , the drive started up , revved up to 500 rpm , or whatever it is for CDs , then BANG!!! , the thing exploded in the CD drive , leaving me a drive full of fragments!!! Amazingly , I took the thing apart , hoovered it out , emptied out the sparkly bits , put in back , and the thing is now working fine. Though I need to contact Mr Stewart about a replacement CD as it was purchased at one of his gigs and isnt commercially available!!

On the penultimate day of the Championship , due to Preston's atrocious away form , a home defeat by the relegation threatened 'Poo' , our season was finished unless , Cardiff lost at home to mid table Ipswich (with new manager Roy Keane) , , Burnley didnt beat relegation candidates Southampton , and we beat the team with the best defence in the league, a squad full of ex premiership players , on their own turf , that's Birmigham City!!. What I didnt realise was that in Phil Dowd we were against a big club homer referee as well . In the first half he denied us three excellent penaly claims , Jaidi stamping on Mellors leg , Quedrue's deliberate handball in his penalty area. Trevor Francis reckoned they were lucky to have 11 men on the pitch at half time. Well they had 12 !! The second half got worse , Sean St Ledger missed a great chance , the Birmingham scored an excellent goal through Fahey . On 60 sixty minutes Bowyer started a fight with Lee Williamson . Williamson tried to get away but ended up face to face with Bowyer and Dowd red carded both of them , I'm just surprised he sent Bowyer off.

Then with both sides down to 10 men Paul McKenna scored a wonder goal , just as a I was resigned to our season being over . After 88 minutes Ross Wallace took a free kick and scored a goal the equal of McKenna's , I was rubbing my eyes , thinking has in gone in , it had!!!! Wallace pulled off his shirt and Dowd took great delight in red carding Wallace to reduce Preston to 9 men for the four minutes of added time.

All credit to Trevor Francis on Sky, he was extemely objective in his match assessment.

So now I have to go though a nailbiting last day . Am I bothered ?

Not a bit

I'd Like To Live On The Chatsworth Estate

I noticed on Facebook that my niece had joined the group "I'd Like To Live On The Chatsworth Estate". Having visited Chatsworth twice , including my most recent holiday , I thought "That's nice , I didn't know she was that much into culture" and assumed she'd spent a day visiting the stately home and gardens , maybe having a champagne tea and seeing stuff like this:











In fact what the group is about is that they're fans of Frank Gallagher and his lovely family stars of the excellent Shameless. Amazing that I've watch the whole lot and not realised that they lived on the Chatsworth Estate! It's nice to think that youth can teach us a thing or two!!

One thing in common , both Estates know how to throw a party!!

A Garden Post and a Pair of Magpies

Nice weather for the Easter Bank Holiday , and we've managed to get the umbrella up , which seemed to contain an unwelcome infestation of flies, though hopefully our resident spiders and frogs will have devoured them by now!!

Also managed to get a photo of two magpies in our garden ruined by the fact that in was taken through the kitchen window , the flash went off and scred them away, still this is the result.

And here's a short video of the garden featuring "Always With Me, Always With You" by Joe Satriani which is available here:

The Odd Postbox..

My dad's job / hobby is the maintenance and installation / de installation of postboxes between Carlisle and Buxton . I saw this odd one on our recent Tideswell holiday which was one that he put in.









Previously I've come across few oddities such as this one in Worcester.








And then there's this similar one in Buxton which is probably another of my dad's.






And finally a Chinese style one in Stowell Street , Chinatown , Newcastle!!

Around Tideswell

Just a little more on the Peak District holiday , and more recommendations . Tideswell is a great village with some great buildings such as the afformentioned Natwest Bank,
with it's Griffin at the Front door:

Then there's the corner chippy , which highly recommended , opposite the bank ,and is another striking Tideswell building:

Just near to Tideswell , is the village Litton featuring the excellent Red Lion pub , which apart from being excellent features some incredible caving photographs on the wall , the work of Robbie Shone who's gallery can be seen here: