Home again, home again, jiggity jig

Back home after a long weekend in Swaledale.

We set off in a worryingly heavy downpour on Saturday lunchtime for the drive up the A1 to Hunt House in Swaledale to stay with my mum and dad in their friend's holiday cottage. I usually drive through Richmond, but Google Earth persuaded me to try a different route, turning off the A1 at Wensleydale and then heading up over the moors. It was certainly a more interesting journey, with heavy mist, switch back roads and a section alongside a tank firing range with all sorts of dire warnings posted about live ammunition being used and red flags flying. It did shave half an hour off the trip time, so it was worthwhile in the end.

The weather in Swaledale didn't dampen our spirits and I managed several walks up to the top of the valley, dodging the showers that turned every path into a small stream. The main rill that flows down the valley into the river was a roaring, peaty brown torrent, but at least the water tank at the house was well topped up.

The sun peeked out on Sunday morning, so we ventured into Reeth for Sunday lunch at the Black Bull. Phenomenal portions of roast meat (beef, lamb or pork), potatoes (mashed and roast), parsnips, carrots, mashed swede, green beans, cauliflower cheese, sauces (horseradish, mint or apple), Yorkshire puds and oodles of gravy. Yum. We did get some black looks from the landlady for being a few minutes late for our sitting, but they did have a party of fifteen coming in after us who had even bigger piles of food on their plates than we did, making me feel not quite so guilty about my gluttony. After lunch we walked down to the Swale to try and burn off a few calories, but some spectacular black thunderheads started forming up at the head of the valley so we turned around and had an ice cream in a little cafe while the rain poured down outside.

Hunt House has no tv or internet access, and mobile phone signals are intermittent at best, so the evenings were spent playing Pass the Pigs, Mille Bournes, 42 Classic Games on DS, doing crosswords (aided by a wonderful copy of Brewer's Phrase and Fable), reading my book (Angry White Pyjamas as recommended by Nancy) and drinking beer.

Monday morning rolled around all too quickly, and when my phone got back in range I had a couple of calls from work on top of a huge number of assorted Twitters from various people. The drive home was smooth and fast, and after a nap, I finally polished off Marvel Ultimate Alliance and immediately started another game, this time playing as the Fantastic Four on a tougher difficulty setting. I avoided reading anything about the Doctor Who finale until we had watched it, and it was great fun although Russell T Davies seems to a fan of kitchen sink drama, in that he insists on throwing everything into his scripts including the kitchen sink.

Back to work today and a $hillariously_large_made_up_number of forgotten password emails to wade though, yet another invoicing system (see blog posts passim) to implement and various other bits and bobs to add to the never ending 'to do' list ... ho hum.