Rustival 2026

 

Last adventures recorded up to  12th of March ,  with single entry in April about bra fitting.

21st of March - we visited my friend Bella in Blackpool, explored the town in the afternoon, ate in the food hall.  Got a guided tour of her trans-cave , then headed to Waterloo rock bar in the evening.

 

 

 

3rd of April - LFF , Benni's birthday.  We met some lovely youngsters who were attending for their first time, got two marriage proposals, went to Pieminister for tea. We drank too much as was a bit hungover for the Bra fitting we had the next day. Might have been the first time we did Buzzballs, the latest cocktail in a strange shape craze.

 

 

5th of April we had a lovely but cold walk along the bank of the Humber, through the timber yard and onwards to a dockside factory.

We had a lovely braised steak casserole for tea.

 

 

9th of April, drove Josephine to Hull to make sure she was ready for the big Rustival car show we were displaying at later in the month.

Popped to Halfords the next day to get a new fire extinguisher, got talking to a friendly guy in the car park who was very intrigued by the car. 

 

 

11th of April, drove down to Derby to pickup some car parts for the Flying9 I had bought on ebay. He had one himself, and was really nice - gave me some free hood latches too ! Afterwards met up with Ann at Costa for a catchup, which was nice.

 

 

 

17th of April, Rustival adventure begins, had driven over to Hull on Wednesday evening, we were heading down towards Gaydon on Friday afternoon.  Had booked a pub/motel nearby to stay over on the Friday night.

Drive down was not too bad, the clutch was making some weird noises though which was concerning.  We arrived around 5ish  and checked in, there were two other minors in the car park :) which was nice. 

The pub was doing food but there was a lot of excess testosterone around, and we didn't fancy it.  Met a nice chap in the car park who had a Morris traveller who recommended we try the nearby Gilks garage for food. There was a pre-event meetup there,  but it was ticketed and we didn't have tickets, so decided to go for a curry instead, then chance heading to Gilks afterwards.

Curry was lovely, really good service too. We walked to Gilks and the nice chap was there, we had a few drinks and a good chat with him. There wasn't that many people there, spotted a few trans youth.  We headed back to ensure we were not sozzled for the morning, stopping in a a Co-op to buy breakfast supplies.

In the morning we pootled to the petrol station on the way to the museum.  On arriving there we were asked if we were members of the young morris minors group, which I took as a compliment, but had to correct him and say we were with the womens drivers group.

Show was fab as always, lots of great cars.  The green Talbot and a number of Twingo's were my favorite. 

There was a trans club attending for the 1st time, but they were all very young and didn't seem to want to interact - wondered if it was more like a club for their friendship group than something they were looking to grow.

I had brought GF rolls, and the nice lady in the food van was willing to just sell bacon on it's own, so i got to have a butty unlike previous years.  Had a jacket potato in the museum cafe for lunch. We did a bit of talking with the other group members, but the leader was attending this year and it seemed a bit more fragmented than normal.

Headed back about 3pm i think.  On arrival back in hull I realised I had caught the sun :(

We went to the local kebab shop for a quick and easy tea, and had some beers out of the fridge.  I had been joking with Charlotte that we should visit her local pub, and she finally relented and we walked to that.

It was a nice experience, they had a young person of indeterminate gender identity singing as well as anything I had heard on BGT, They had a nice IPA for Charlotte and a box of proper cider for me - not much left in the box though I ended up finishing all they had :) 

It did seem to empty after an hour or so, and soon it was just us two and an old guy. We felt the need to apologize on leaving !

Would go back again for sure.

 

 

 

 

25th April - Pub lunch with the family for Roberts 17th, how time fly's.  He was disappointed as they had a run out of eggs for his mixed grill :(

 

28th April - a rare day in the office !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Measurements

 

Both myself and Charlotte had been recommended a very trans friendly lingerie shop in Hull to try.

One of the ladies has a trans daughter, and they have a trans sticker on the door to show they are supportive.   

The day after April LFF, and still feeling a little hungover, we decided to go for a fitting. The notice on the door said It was free if you bought a bra, or £15 if you just wanted to know your measurements, which seemed very fair.

We went in and I asked if we could get fitted. They had a more private room upstairs which we were shown to.

I went first - It was done in such a way that you were not naked on the top, so she first measured the band size, then estimated the cup size and went to get samples.

Then she waited outside while I tried the 1st one on, and she came in to check.  There was some touching as the breasts needed to be hoisted into position a bit ! 

She wasn't happy that the 1st one was big enough, as the breast tissue was sort of popping out of the cup a bit along the top, so she got me to try a bigger one.

It seemed like a nice fit to me, so I decided to get that one, and also order a similar one in black, as this was a white one. 

The one I had gone in wearing was actually broken - a wire had snapped on one side, and it also seems was way too small for me !!

I walked in wearing a 36B , and walked out with a 36DD !!  I was actually quite surprised, the old one hadn't felt overly tight, but it was 2nd hand when I got it, and was over a year in my ownership so was quite worn out.

She was kind enough to explain that it can take up to a month to break a new one in, and there may be some discomfort at first. 

All in all not a particularly stressful experience, really friendly ladies and was really pleased with how it went.

Sophistikate

 Won't be posting picture of me in it 😂 

 

     

RIP George (the cat)

Adventures 

February started with LFF, it was an odd one as Charlotte had a bad call at work in the morning and wasn't initially in the mood to join me.

But she did thankfully seem to start feeling better in the afternoon and drove into Leeds to join me.

We tried pizza at the newish bar 'Brewery Wharf Tavern' near the Leonardo - It seemed nice enough at the time, but Charlotte felt ill later on - can't be 100% sure but it put us off eating there again.

Did manage to try a new bar 'Crown Street Tap' which was great, very LGBTQ+ friendly, not much for GF drinkersm, but some options at least.  

Saturday I went straight home as was looking after the kids that night. 

Sunday we met back up for swimming at Bramley baths - neither of us had been for ages, it was really nice to go back. Didn't break an PB's in terms of lengths , took it easy.

Weekend of 21st : 

We were meant to go to Newcastle to explore the gay quarter but neither of us was feeling great, so we cancelled. 

Charlotte did do an amazign job cooking nice steaks with stilton sauce on the Saturday, was delicious. 

On Sunday we had a lovely trip out to Burnby Hall gardens near Pocklington on the Sunday. https://www.burnbyhallgardens.com/the-gardens/

There were loads of snowdrops in the gardens, the water lilies it is more famous for were not doing much, we might have to go back in the summer.

The aviary was  off limits due to a bird flu outbreak nearby, they mainly had budgies it seems.

Cafe was pretty good and had GF which was lovely, I had a bacon sarnie.

 

27th Feb: 

I had been at Charlotte's for a few days, and upon returning I was concerned to hear that nobody had seen much of George my cat.  I did find him hiding in his house, but he didn't look so good.  Brought him in, but he didn't seem hungry.  I popped to Asda for some posh food, as that had worked in the past. Decided to see if he would eat that.

He still hadn't touched anything by the morning, so I took him to the vets.  Unfortunately the prognosis wasn't great and it was decided better to put him down than prolong the suffering. 

I was quite upset by this of course. 

I had agreed to meet up with some old school friends later that day for a drink in Leeds, and given we don't see each other much didn't want to cancel - so I decided to drive in and just go on soft drinks. 

It was a good distraction for me and lovely to catch up with them, Leeds was very busy due to a football match, be we did just about manage to get seats everywhere we went eventually. 

 

March LFF : 

We were staying at the Discovery Inn as found a really cheap deal for it.  We had a lovely time at Pints and Straws.  The Crown Street Tap was on the rota for the 1st time - we nearly totally filled the place !  

There was a small group of older cis men stuck in the corner, but we had all the other tables - the manager was very pleased to see so many customers - if only for an hour and a half. 

For evening meal we went with Alice to Miller and Carter for some steak.  I had lamb which was fab, but not so filling, Alice and Charlotte had steak. Possibly a bad idea as there wasn't much carbs in anyones meals.

We headed back to the hotel to change, then onwards to  Bridge End Social for the main LFF event. 

We were in there a while - beat Ella and Sally at table football 9 - Nill 🤣

Unfortunately Charlotte came over a bit funny, and we had an early night - but neither of us slept well. Not sure on cause, almost seemed like she had been spiked ! 

 

7th of March 

I was very tired as had a really bad sleep, but neither of us was really hungover in the morning, so decided to make use of the day, and pop into a donkey sanctuary just off the M62 on the way back to Hull.


It was a fab little place, you only got to see about 50% of the animals if you didn't do the tour - so we had a look around at what you could see, then were recommended to go visit the cafe by a really friendly staff member.

I had a 'small' breakfast which was very filling, and made me feel a lot better.  

The tour was great, we were able to get in the pens with a number of them and pet and stroke them.  The more traumatized rescue ones we had to stay outside their stables.  

Some of them had been badly mistreated and quite a few were on the verge of being put down before being rescued, I think there were 35 in total.   One of them was off an east coast beach, just too old to work anymore, probably had thousands of kids on it over the years.

 https://www.wonkey-donkey.co.uk/

 In the afternoon Charlotte cooked us some fantatic GF pork pie - best pork pie pastry we've ever had - both agree.  The filling was lovely too,  a bit posher than the ones you get in the shops. 

On the sunday we decided to explore Grimsby - neither of us had ever been ! - I wasn't the nicest of days, but was fun to explore. We need to go back on a weekday to visit the fish smokers and look around the docks.

We did have a quick look at the maritime museum but didn't go in as we didn't have a lot of time. 
 

March 12th - Jordan Gray

Wouldn't normally go out on a school night, but the famous trans musician/comedian was in York and Charlotte is a big fan.

There was a bad storm, and the journey there was not fun at all, lots of standing water on the roads, but we did get there safe and sound.  Fortunately there was a gap in the rain so our walk to the Theatre was not bad.

A guy was outside who we briefly chatted to - turns out he was the warmup act.  He was OK but not our cup of tea really.

It was a really small place, really friendly staff.  I suggested the 2nd row as figured less chance of being part of the act and thankfully she mainly only interacted with those on the front.

Her show does have a significant mention of her unmentionables, but was very funny. At one point she shrew a big bag of tampons into the audience - we we later had an opportunity to throw back as part of an unexpected punchline.  

She did also play the keyboard and guitar, and was very animated, jumping around the place. Some very clever lyrics 😊

We had tiny ice creams at the interval.  

The drive back wasn't as bad, partly due to lack of traffic, still very wet though.

 

Car news

Still working on the Morris cylinder, had a bit of a disaster partly caused by using a bodgy home made improvised press, so invested in a proper one:

Been using my lathe a fair bit as well, which is good as spent a fair bit on it.

Hoping the rest of the rebuild will go well, and she will be ready for test drives prior to a longish trip to Gaydon next month for the 1st car show of the year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Kicking off the new year

 

Xmas

It was a bit odd being away from the kids, they had gone down to Kent with their mother. I had been invited, as well as told was fine not come, so I chose the later. 

Charlotte was on her own, so I went there instead. 

Had a cold but fun explore of the coastline near 'Paull' on the humber on the morning of xmas day.  Some lovely weird mini lighthouses, was bitterly cold though. 

For the meal we had beef, her dad had gifted a horseradish out of the garden, and we made a sauce, nearly gassing ourselves in the process. Grating that was so much worse than cutting onions, we had to take it in turns. 

We were very stuffed afterwards, it was very relaxing and had a lovely time.

 

New Years Eve  

Had been looking forward to this for a while, we had a blast last year. It's a retro night at Humber Social, it was mainly 80's last year, but this year they were doing 90's too.

We were a bit disappointed by the inclusion of the 90's before the event, but I had forgotten about so many songs that I could actually dance to !  I went a bit mental to 'No limit' by 2 Unlimited 😂  

Sally had come along, and was staying with us which made it more fun too. Gemma and Emily were meant to be coming, but Emily had a really bad cold and cancelled. One of their friends called Claire was still going, and joined our group, so I hope that Sally didn't feel like a spare wheel ! 

We did the 'Sailmakers arms' before heading to the main venue, it was rammed, but we still had a good time, and eventually got a table.  

It was a cold walk to the Humber Social, and still fairly quiet - which was a good thing as we could get a table next to the dance floor. Claire found us, she had been sent a pic of Charlotte. We welcomed her in to the group and did some chatting. 

It started filling up a bit more after 10pm, and soon there were lots of other people dancing.  We were pretty sensible with the drinks, and I didn't go onto Vodka and redbull like last year.  We got an Uber about 12:30 , and was in bed at a sensible time.

Nobody was very hungover, so we all managed a bit of cooked breakfast.  Sally headed off late morning, and we headed out over to the park for a bit of a walk. Found a load of unexpected tree mushrooms. 

 

Leeds First Friday 

It actually wasn't on the first friday, but that was too close to new years, so had to be moved.

We had a great time, did Pints and Straws, met up with Bella and had tea at PieMinster with her.   Did the Bridge again, Blayds and the End.  Did seem to lose the herd, but was still a fab night. 

We went for a walk around the park the day after the duck pond was frozen solid, very thick ice.

 

 

Other weekends

We did a bit of a 'cider saturday' last weekend, going to a nice little place we had been to before that always has some real cider on, then to a new community pub that has recently opened around the corner. 

The comunity pub had a really friendly bar maid, lots of nice drinks, and also a lonely Charles and Camilla plate hanging up for some reason. We really enjoyed it there ! 

Ended up at the Sailmakers arms again, where we got some PieMinister pies ! They even had multiple GF ones.  We went to the lion and key afterwards, but the drinks were not great so we got an uber back and played on the playstation before a sensible bed time !

We've done a few parkruns this year, Charlotte managed her 100th last weekend ! 

I am now on 14.  Was at Peter Pan on the 3rd, I did one at Nostell  on the 17th, and back to Peter Pan in Hull on the 24th, so 3 done already this year.

Have been working a bit on the car, managed to get the engine out, and done some investigation. Some valve work is on my to-do list, hopefully do some tomorrow ! 

 

Health 

Managed to get around to seeing the doctor to ask for bloods, I was a bit nervous as he was a new doctor - both mine retired late last year, so had not seen the replacements. 

He was lovely though, and agreed to do them, I had them at Barnsley walk in centre this morning !  Hopefully results will come through soon.

This will allow me to properly finish registering with Pride in Health and hopefully get some actual supervision on my dosage, which is good !

 

 

 

 

Mostly not about food

 

General Updates

Werk -  it's not been that great, I moved into another department again. I am not a massive fan of change, so has been a bit disconcerting.

My new boss is only temporary too, so there is some uncertainty in that regard.  On the plus side the boss of my boss is in favor with the C-Level people, so I am perhaps in a safer department.

A few people I know have gone, or been pushed too, which hasn't helped.

 

Transition -  Nothing much more has been achieved really, I've had 6 laser sessions on my unmentionables. Still a few more to do.  I don't believe it's a hard requirement anymore, but certainly a lot easier to remove hair when it's on the outside of your body still !

I still need to go to the doctor and get an appointment for bloods, I've been sort of YOLO'ing it with my hormones for quite a while now - very naughty and ill advised I know.

 

Home Life -  Fairly stable, not much upset - don't think she is massively happy about how much time I spend in Hull, but not so upset to rock the boat.

Kids are OK, big one is doing well at college. 

 

Cars -  The Flying 9 is waiting on parts, which have been a while now, likely going back outside soon so I can look at the Morris. Suspected engine damage to her too 😬

So only the MG EV is usable at the moment, thankfully just passed the 1st MOT with no issues.

Social Activities

Leeds First Friday - 5th of December 

Pints and Straws was really good, lots of people and had great time.  But really should have slowed down afterwards, as got very drunk in the evening and did rather ruin the rest of the weekend as wasn't feeling too well.

Might have to stop going when I don't have supervision !  

 

Chameleons Xmas Fuddle 11th December  

Managed to make a plan that allowed Charlotte to come along with me - basically went to hers the day before, so that we could go down together from there.

It was a bit of a longer drive, so my car did need to be charged at the Church, and we also needed to stop for a short contingency charge at Woodall Services on the way back too.

Was really good to be back there after what seems quite a while. Fab to see Lynn and the gang , Sally and Ann had come along too. We did end up sort of in out own sub group, I didn't do much mingling really. 

I had brought enough gluten free snacks for myself. The cheese I took did get eaten by others too, and the Mrs Crimbles Macaroons were popular too.   

I do really like the fuddle, a highlight of the year, was good for Charlotte to come along too. She got to put some faces to names too.

 

Xmas Shopping 12th December - Malton

We both had the friday off, so decided to go to Malton to do some xmas shopping, and get some nice food of course.

Ended up in a fab little butchers, which did triangular gluten free black pudding, sausages and haggis !!  So we got some of each :)

Did another butcher who had Pheasants !  

Went to a patisserie and got some macrons - which I had never had before.

Found a fab cheese monger, that aside from some lovely cheese that we got (Wensleydale), also sold gluten free bitter, porter, stout and brown ale.  So we got one of each of those two. 

Also spend plenty of time in the gift shops getting presents for others, and we had lunch in a nice place that did a fab Jacket Potato with onion chutney and goats cheese, which was amazing !! 

We had haggis and greens for tea that day, and black pudding for brunch the day after.

Ideally i would have done the park run in the morning but I had come down with a cold, and so just went along to spectate in a big warm coat.

On Saturday evening we had one of the Pheasants, which was really nice !

 

 

On the Sunday we went to the garden centre on the other side of the river for a bit. Had a mooch around there, and a tea in the cafe.  Then we went to the nearby nature reserve to look for otters - none spotted.  

We did manage to do a little bit of urban explorations at an abandoned ruined hotel that was near the reserve too, but didn't venture inside for fear of death.

All in all a very nice long weekend. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michelin starred gothic seals

 

 30th Of October - Seaside Adventures 

We had planned an adventure weekend, horse riding in Beverley, then to an Airbnb near Scarborough to visit another new Park Run location - then onwards to Whitby to spend an afternoon experiencing the Goth Weekend.

Unfortunately one of Charlotte's spawn had come down with a tummy bug in the proceeding week, and he had passed it on to her 😟

We did still manage a lot of our plan, we went to horse riding on Friday afternoon, and was enjoyable for us both. She wasn't up to driving us to Scarborough though so I did that. 

On arriving at the Airbnb at Irton - which was lovely, but quite small, we had a bit of a rest then wandered into the village in search of food.  We tried a pub first, but the atmosphere wasn't the best, and the food didn't seem too enticing. So we headed to the 'Proudfoot' mini supermarket for breakfast supplies, then to Seamer Fisheries for a chippy tea.

The fish and chips were very good, and we both enjoyed - the table in the kitchen was tiny so it was a challenge though !

The only thing missing from our room, which was in it's own little annex, was a TV. But we made do with netflix on Charlotte's phone and watched 'Chappie' which i had never seen before.

We slept pretty well, but Charlotte wasn't feeling too great in the morning. But we managed to get up and get ready for the park run.  It was at the North Yorkshire Water Park, only 15 mins away from Irton. It was pretty cold, and started to rain a bit, but we were pretty well prepared.

It was gravel underfoot so we were not trying to break any PB's.  Both made it around in fairly pleasing times, Charlotte managed a 25:40 even feeling bad !  I was under 39mins too.  

She wasn't feeling too great when we got back to the room though.  So after packing back up, we decided to change our plans and go to Filey instead of Whitby, as big crowds are not the sort of thing you need when you don't feel great.

So I drove us to the long stay at the back of the Tesco, and we went for a bit of an amble.  Popped into the Memorial Garden to visit the budgies that I had fond memories from my youth - only to find the council had got rid of them 😭. My parents took me a lot when I was very young. Had a look in 'Aladin's Cave' which I also remember from my youth, it was still there at least, and full of lots of random junk. 

The run had made me quite hungry, and it seemed like a good idea to try to get her to eat something small as well, so I found us a little cafe with lots of table free. 

I had a small breakfast, and Charlotte had some poached eggs on toast, it was very reasonably priced too.

We went for an amble towards the beach, eventually going down to the Coble landing slipway.  Played some time crisis 4 in the arcade there, then headed outside and watched the sea breaking against the wall - the tide was nearly at it's highest and there was no beach to go on.  

We went the other way along the front for a bit, then up  Crescent hill back towards the centre.  Popped in a few charity shops, but she was running out of steam by this point, and just wanted to head home.  I did persuade her to pop into a pharmacy to see if they could suggest anything for her tummy, but they didn't have any great ideas.

I drove us back to Hull, and tried my best to look after her for the rest of the weekend. We had a nice time even so, and glad we didn't attempt Whitby, we can go again another year.

6th / 7th Of November - LFF

Went over to Hull on the Thursday evening, had a lovely emergency sausage and gnochi concoction for tea.  

On the Friday morning we went for a nice walk in the Humber Bridge Country park, then back for some lunch. 

Photo to right is some wellies left in the carpark by someone 😄

I was heading off to LFF, and Charlotte was going to fetch her kids over for the weekend.  I would be hosting Pints and Straws on my own (as the only official host) this time, as Ann and Benni were otherwise engaged. 

Was a bit unsure how it would go, but it turned out to be a really good one.  I wasn't drinking as had to drive home afterwards - hotels were silly money that weekend. 

Alex who helps out with the cocktail event in the evening was at the first bar, and so was Alice who was a previous host, so i didn't feel alone, which was nice.

A lady who I had met on a few previous occasions came along, ended up with her most of the afternoon too.  Met a few newbies, but it was difficult to schmooze when on my own. The turnout was really good, much more than I expected ! 

8th of November 

I meant to go for a park run on the Saturday, but I had a dodgy tummy so I just went out locally by myself instead, got some nice pics of shrooms, last of the season possibly.

 

 

 

 

13th of November  

Back in Hull, i suggested we get a greek takeaway - I had seen a mixed grill to share that looked really nice.  It was still too big for the two of us, a total meat overload - but very nice indeed ! 

On the Saturday we venture south of the river to Baysgarth Park to try that parkrun, as really getting into the idea of visiting as many different places as possible.

It was a really friendly one, the weather was not very nice though, rain again and quite cold. 

There was a bit of a hill too, which slowed me down, so no fast time.  Fortunately as the car was parked so close we could warm up quickly instead of having to walk back from Charlotte's local one.

 After returning home, we cleaned up and got changed. The plan was to go to the York Designer Outlet, as the weather was pants and some retail therapy was deemed a good idea.

Unfortunately a lot of other people had the same idea, and had a bit of a stress getting there, and into a car parking space !!

Inside was rammed and the food options were not ideal, but we were both starving and hangry, so made do with a noodle place.

It wasn't the best, but did stop up from eating the other shoppers ! 

Had a good mooch about, we both got new handbags, and I got a dress that was on sale. Charlotte got a nice furry top thingy too. 

Had  drink outside in a tent next to an ice rink, then headed home - thankfully a lot nicer drive than the way there.

Had some pasta for tea, then we got changed and headed into Hull for some drinkies ! 

We were going to hit the real ale pubs of the old town, some of which we had been in before, but we wanted to try some new ones too.  

I believe we did :

• Fretwells
• Lion and Key  
• WM Hawke 
• Sailmakers Arms

Lion and Key was a new one, that was surprisingly nice, really enjoyed a bitter in there. 

Sailmakers arms was my favourite, also a new one to me, but loved the decor, it even had a fishtank in the wall. There were a few ciders on, and they did Pieminster pies !!!!!!

It was a bit dead though, which was surprising, if it was in Leeds it would have been rammed I am sure. 

I had been giving some pills a go that supposedly helped with gluten intolerance's, but they failed to cope with the beer i had drunk, so the next day was a not fun 😞 

Did manage to go for a walk around some local parks before I set off, but didn't do much else.

27th of November 

We both had the Friday off, so decided to go to the seal colony at RAF Donna Nook. It was a lovely morning in terms of sun, but quite a chilly wind. So we both had winter adventure coats on.  

The drive there was not too bad, but the bright sun was very low, and made it hard to see. We got there OK, stopping at some loos in North Somercotes on the way. The smaller nearer and also free car park was open, and we managed to get a space which was a blessing.

Wandered along the footpath to the viewing area, passing by a burger van with lots of tempting smells - but unlikely and gf food.  

There was a lot more humans than expected, but also sooooooo many seals and pups. We spent a good hour going from one end to the other looking at them all. Quite a few pups were right up close to the fence, so you could get very close to them. 

Never been so close before, there were lots of noises - not so cute, sounded more like teenagers really. A few of the males had been fighting, and there were a few oozing neck wounds on display.  

Lots of starlings were on the ground eating the afterbirth too ! 

Hard to get a sense of how many there were, but I must have seen several hundred or so.

We had made packed lunches to take with us, and so when we were done went back to the car and had those.

We had intended to go for an explore along some of the coastal footpaths, which we tried to do, but once we were out of shelter the cold wind was just cutting straight through to us, and we abandoned that idea.

On the way back we diverted to a windmill that Charlotte had seen a sign for, and had remembered was notable as it had 6 sails. 

On arrival we discovered they had been removed for maintenance, but there were some nice little shops dotted around the base, and looked in a few of those.  

We discovered some fantastic geometric design cups in a pottery, which had been made by a very friendly guy there, so we bought a couple of those, and headed back to Hull.  

Charlotte had decided to treat us to a posh meal at a michelin featured restaurant in Beverley in the evening, and I had persuaded her to make it more of an adventure by getting the train there. This would enable us to have some wine with the posh food, which would make it more of a night out.

It also meant that I could visit a micropub we had seen on a previous shopping expedition there !! 😝

Our Uber to the train station was very good, the traffic was awful but he found a way through a load of industrial estates and back roads to get us there in plenty of time. 

The train ride was uneventful, and only took about 15 mins, was really cheap too ! 

On arrival we headed straight for 'Chequers Micropub'.  It was pretty rammed inside, but a guy was just leaving and so we got the only free table.  It was table service, and seemly only the landlady was attending to everyone, but she did a fab job and we didn't have to wait long.

I had some proper (flat) cider, and Charlotte got an IPA i think.  There was an older guy, and a much younger guy sat on a table next to us who were really friendly.  Had a nice chat with them, they were locals -  a father and son as it turned out.  The younger one was a metal lover, and his father I think worked on oil rigs !  

We really enjoyed it in there, but after another half it was soon time to head to the 'Westwood' restaurant. The nice people and the landlady said farewell as we departed.

It was about a 15 minute walk, but we were not in a massive rush as our table was booked for when they opened, so no point in being early. 

We had already mostly decided that were were going to order a sharing steak, so we really just needed to decide on the starters, wine, and the sides to go with it. Had a Bierzo for the wine. 

For starters I had scallops and Charlotte had yellowfin tuna tartare, they both looked amazing and tasted so too !

The steak was also very well presented and looked delicious, so good that I didn't even stop to take a photo.  We had mushrooms , broccoli and Charlotte potatoes with it.

I was flagging towards the end, but Charlotte managed to finish it off 😊  

We were too full for desert, but had a small Calvados each to keep us warm on the long walk to the train station. 

The next train was going to be a little while, so we did find a pub to shelter in nearby - it had been recommended by the nice people sat next to us in the micropub.  They had a gluten free beer on, so I went with that - it was very nice. We didn't explore it fully, as we just ended up in the front bar, so need to pop in again sometime.

Unfortunately the train had been delayed a little, so we had a bit more of a wait on the cold platform than anticipated, but aside from that the journey back was fine, and a lot quieter then on the way.

The morning plan was to do a parkrun, so no more drinking allowed, and we got an Uber back to Charlotte's.

All in all a really fab evening, lovely food, drink and met some nice people, couldn't really improve on it at all !

 

28th Of November 

Parkrun was a chore, I was sooooooo full of meat still, it was a horrible cold rainy day too. But we got around ! No PB's from either of us, and I lost a glove.

We had some duck egg  sandwiches for brunch  (had bought them the previous day on way back from seals). 

Then in the afternoon we headed into Hull to look at the markets - in the hope they would have something lovely for us to have for dinner. But they were mostly street food stalls, not stalls selling food.  

We did pop into Primark for a mooch around and both bought books from waterstones.

We also got a fighting game for the PS4 to play later in the day.  We watched Attack the Block in the evening, which was good fun ! 

It was Moussaka for tea, which was lovely, and we had some bottled cider I had got a while ago. 

 

29th Of November 

Twas the last day of my visit, and it was nice and sunny again ! So we decided to head over the river to visit the 'Ropewalk' gallery, a really nice place housed in an extremely long building that was the rope works.   

They do lots of jewellery from small artisan craftspeople, as well as art and sculpture and all sorts.  We did manage not to buy anything though.

After this we headed to the riverside to the visitor center, which had more crafts for sale, and we had a cup of tea in the cafe too.  Then outside to walk around a bit of nature reserve before heading back over the bridge.

Had some lunch and relaxed for a bit in the afternoon before heading back west before tea.