30th Of October - Seaside Adventures
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 !
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.
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.
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
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
13th of November
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.
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 !!
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.
- 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.
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
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.
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 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 !! 😝
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
