A Grand Day Out - Scarborough

Week 2 of the summer holidays - skint, so we're tapping into that "staycation" trend..... but determined to get to the seaside at least twice we caught a train (ok, 3 trains) to Scarborough for the day on a blazing hot gorgeous blue sky day, armed with sun-block, a tiny beach towel for the paddling, memories of a lovely week spent there 4 years ago, and 2 pairs of very hard-working feet!

(Now, reading that sentence back, who would ever guess I get paid to make teenagers use full-stops???)

Princesses, Pizza And Pictures

Out for another prowl around a Midlands metropolis yesterday. To Birmingham. Despite living oop norf for the past 10 years, we've only been there twice, neither time making it any further than the Bullring shopping centre. I had no idea there were canals going right through it.

Popped into Pizza Express and parked ourselves at a window table to nose at people going past people-watch. Unfortunately we timed our arrival to within minutes of the end of the Disney on Ice show up the road, and the place was soon heaving with pastel taffeta as hordes of little girls in Princess frocks, clutching souvenir light-up wands, descended on the place with their families. There was even a dad dressed as Buzz Lightyear....

Afterwards, to walk off the chocolate fudge cake dessert to recover from the decibel damage, we had a bit of a poke around the city centre, admiring the tall, beautifully embellished old buildings, and some of the even taller shiny new ones. We will have to go back several more times to get to know our way round better. Charity shops next time!

Where We Went On School's Out Thursday

Despite not having to set the alarm clock this morning we were up early, to make the most of the Extra Day-Off today, and even managed to be back by teatime. We were so busy having a lovely time that I only remembered to take one photo. I'm really Quite Proud Of Myself for getting a move on and managing an impulse day at the seaside...

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Nah, course we didn't! The 12 year old enjoyed a long lie-in til gone 10, and it was a pj morning for both of us, but we went for an afternoon up the train track to Civilisation, exploring vintage shops, quaint buildings, finding A New Favourite Cafe - houmous and roasted vegetable ciabattas and king prawn salad sandwiches. Would love to show a photo, but still trying to pluck up courage to take food pics; they might think I'm from Environmental Health!

We* were so impressed at getting long-handled spoons with the coleslaw that afterwards we went to this lovely little shop to find some of our own, for ice cream sundaes aka anything from the freezer I sling into tall glasses and slather in chocolate sauce:

A treasure trove of Very Expensive Loveliness - personally I'd cry for days if I dropped an Orla Kiely teapot that cost £54.99 - but we found the spoons. Apparently they are latte spoons. There were several types of cutlery which, frankly, I'd never heard of and I felt as uncouth as someone encountering a place setting with so much silver that you have no idea whether to start from the outside or the inside. Grapefruit spoons? How very sensible - I thought that's what teaspoons are for. ;)

And finally, we had to put on body armour, took a load of rescue remedy.... and hit Primark. Yes, this was the Day When It Was Discovered That None Of The 12 Year Old's Jeans Fit Him Anymore - apart from the one pair that were in the wash. Predictably it was rammed, groups of School's Out teenagers (mostly well-behaved) and a slightly higher than usual amount of unmanned toddlers. But puzzlingly, there were also hoardes of people NOT entertaining school-age children - older people, people with babies... School's Out Thursday coinciding with payday? Brilliant! Oh, and I also got this t-shirt ;)

* Actually just me - the 12 year old is still being polite enough to pretend to feign interest