Saturday, 1 May 2021

Football, Fish and Chips

After a wonderful nights sleep for me, and a horrific one for Ian (misty mooching, chewing feet, rattling the radiator,  staring lovingly into his eyes) we rose to a cold but sunny day. Ian cooked a lovely full English while I showered and a few problems came to our attention. 

1. The shower cubicle is tiny. The bathroom is huge. Why?!

2. The ceramic hob gets hot! Not like an induction hob which doesn’t  

3. Towels too small

4. Wine glasses too small. Imagine if Vicky or Heather were here!

5. Tea towels not absorbent enough

6. No pan scrubber

7. The garden contains a patch of dog attracting soil

8. No hairdryer

Despite all these inconveniences the breakfast was lovely, and sitting in front of the stained glass window with the sun streaming through dried my hair.


Full English

           
The hairdryer                                                        


                                                          Chris preaches from the pulpit


   Preaching to the converted                                             

After breakfast we decided on a walk down to the cliff tops. We were expecting a visitor and needed to be around the chapel for 2pm. I laid out lots of outfits, a la Heather, before deciding on two jumpers (a natty Norwegian number and my new Leonburger sweatshirt) and a raincoat. Hat, gloves and scarf. A snood would have been better, but we hadn’t got one here. 

Eventually we were ready to depart. 



Past the duck pond, through the bull field, (many, many cows close to path) through a couple of kissing gates, and over a small rise. And wow! An amazing view of Filey bay. 








We walked down the hill to the cliff top and sat on a bench gazing out to sea. Using my useful binocs I could see hundreds of seabirds flying off Bempton Cliffs to my right. A microlight flew past and dogs and owners cavorted on the beach below. It was a bit blowy so I was very glad of my two jumpers, coat, hat, scarf, gloves. Chris was glad of his scarf, but a snood would have been better


A snoodless Chris

Bempton cliffs in the distance



Taking in the view

We sat for a while before making the return journey up the hill. The cows had ventured even closer to the path and had a few calves with them. A recipe for being stampeded to death. We gave them a wide berth. Then back to the old chapel to wait for our visitor

Our visitor was Wooly, who had caught the train to Bridlington and walked round Flamborough head and along the cliffs to Speeton to illegally watch the football with us. Ian set up the laptop as he arrived, and we lunched on leftover pie, sandwiches and scotch eggs.



Socially distanced supporting

The game itself was a tense affair, especially with relegation rivals Derby taking the lead at Swansea, and us going behind early on (again). If things stayed the same we would be relegated. Thoughts turned to the teams we might play next year, and the weekends away we could expect, lockdown permitting, such as Blackpool, oxford and Cambridge. But in a late twist, Derby lost and we equalised to leave us in with a chance. Next weekend is now being dubbed, “Survival Saturday”. Amongst all the drama Chris got a text from the government inviting him to book in for his Covid jab. Helps being old. 

After all the stress and we were ready for another walk. We were joined for it by Woolys wife Caroline, daughter Cathy, Cathy’s new husband Liam, and Doug the Pug. Doug and Misty got on like a house on fire when Misty wasn’t putting Doug in his place. 

We took our usual route down to the cliff tops before walking along as far as Reighton caravan park. Kathy and Caroline decided to take a slow walk back up the hill, the rest of us made for the beach. Along the way we came across a couple of World War II pillboxes


Misty and Doug the Pug investigate

Jackie investigates

To get to the beach we had to negotiate a wood and a river valley. At one point it involved a descent so steep we had to cling onto a rope to get down


Eventually we emerged onto the beach where there were stunning views either way





The way back up to the cliff top was a little hair raising to say the least. A steep incline followed by a flight of steps. Doug the Pug bounced up with style, but Misty had to be coaxed along the first bit with a boot to the derrière. No amount of coaxing, however, would persuade her up the steps, and poor old Ian had to carry her up each one. 



Misty and the steps


A distant Doug the Pug
 
It was 7pm by the time we arrived back at the old chapel, and unlike what seemed to be the rest of the country, the sun was still shining down. Just one more thing to do now. A trip into Filey for some fish and chips



2 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good time is being had. Lesson to learn always take a snood and oven gloves on holiday!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sounds like a good time is being had. Lesson to learn always take a snood and oven gloves on holiday!

    ReplyDelete

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