Yorkshire Treats

Here's another post from our Yorkshire days….on the last night Alice invited us to dinner.  She made a lamb stew and served it in the dinning room next to the fire.  It was cold and rainy outside but we were warm, well fed, and happy.  After dinner Bill mentioned having a smoke.  Michael smokes a pipe so he went to get his…and they both sparked up indoors. Alice and Michael acted like that was normal but when was the last time you actually saw someone smoking in a house?  Bill still felt like he had to sit by the fire so the smoke would go right up.

Michael told us that he is a barrister so i asked if he had to wear one of those wigs in court.  Yes, did I want to try it on?  Did I??  Yes, Please!!  

Let us smoke indoors and wear your wig and we will be the happiest guests ever.

Quiz Night Back at the Vic!

We were so happy to be back at the Victoria for quiz night on Tuesday….but maybe not as happy as the two shaggers behind Bill?  They were clearly not at the Vic to quiz.

There were 7 of us for Saucy Orchestra as Ann-Maria, Ollie and Robert came to join us.

We were so happy to be reunited!

Somehow amidst all our antics, catch up chatter and photo shoots we managed to do pretty well in the quiz.  We were in first place but moved down to second after wiping out in the last round.  

Questions:

• What is the word for a narrow strip of land connecting two larger pieces of land across a body of water?  
• This model and show girl was at the center of the Profumo Affair. 
• What British town is said to be the farthest from Lands End?  
• What words make up the acronym SCUBA?  
• What 5 countries border Argentina? 
• George Clooney's wife has been asked to replace Donald Trump in what TV reality show?  
• Identify either the first or last year of Queen Victoria's reign.  
• Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry were in what building society commercial?  
• What Sunday newspaper ran fake Hitler diaries in 1983? 

I think this was supposed to be a "sexy face"…I need to work on that….

Quiz Answers:

• What is the word for a narrow strip of land connecting two larger pieces of land across a body of water?  Isthmus
• This model and show girl was at the center of the Profumo Affair. Christine Keeler
• What British town is said to be the farthest from Lands End?  John O'Groats
• What words make up the acronym SCUBA?  Self Contained Underwater Breathing Aparatice
• What 5 countries border Argentina? Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Brazil Uraguay
• George Clooney's wife has been asked to replace Donald Trump in what TV reality show?   The Apprentice
• Identify either the first or last year of Queen Victoria's reign.  1901
• Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry were in what building society commercial?  Alliance and Leicester
• What Sunday newspaper ran fake Hitler diaries in 1983? The Sunday Times

After the quiz, Robert invited us back to the mews to see his finished basement!!

We are standing in the kitchen which used to be a hole under his garage.  

This is the other end of the room from the kitchen - and there is a window up above it so that it doesn't feel completely subterranean.  Robert is still in the process of decorating.  This area is where he will live while his Air B and B guests will take the flat above.

The bed room was nice…unfortunately Bill just took this shot of Jerry…being Jerry….so you can't see the whole thing.  And we didn't shoot the bathroom which was nice.  It's fairly small down there but nicely kitted out and Robert's got some plans for a phase 2. Hard to believe that this was once that pile of rubble next door.

Hutton-le-Hole

If this were a published diary the readers would be confused by the sequencing.  One day they are in Hutton-le-Hole, then London, then back to Hutton-le-Hole, then in some caravan in Helperby ....
The author is clearly confused.

So here is some Hutton-le-Hole leftovers from our stay at the hunting lodge.

We love their dogs.  This is Dart.  Alice pronounces it Dot.  For two days I called it the wrong name.
She's their oldest dog, a sixth generation Jack Russell of which they have raised the previous five generations.

Another cute photo of Musket, the sandwich thief.

We took a walk to an abandoned Viking village.  On the path there were many slugs.  I gathered a bunch to place at the entrance.  We watched others stop and take pictures of the slugs, as if they had gathered randomly.  These are the things you do for kicks in the country.

Jules said I look like I've been beaten by Muhammed Ali in this picture.  Harsh.

Jen is reading a plaque, but she looks like a Deatheater.

Deatheater Jen in the abbey cemetery.  We made the most of this rainy day in the Yorkshire country.
Slugs and Deatheaters.

Yorkshire Seaside

Doing a little time travel back to the pre-London portion of our trip.  On Thursday we drive through the moors to get to two seaside towns - Robin Hood's Bay and Whitby.

Robin Hood's Bay is known for being very picturesque.  It's built at the bottom of a steep  incline.  All the houses are snuggled up close to each other with narrow twisted alleyways leading out to the water.

Beautiful - but packed with tourists!!  And ultimately it's pretty small.  At one point in our planning I was looking for our accommodation in this area and I'm glad I didn't find anything because I think we would have been bored if we stayed here for the week.  Although we certainly would have given our glutes a work out going up and down that steep hill every day.

Next stop - Whitby.  Again, picturesque town by the sea but on a larger scale with many more shops and restaurants.  Bill and I got our bearings the old fashioned way - with a map.

This is where Bram Stoker wrote Dracula.  Lots of people come here to celebrate and be goth.  We came to see our old buddy John!!  John was one of the Jedi Knights quiz team back at the Victoria.  He lives in Whitby so he showed us around.

This is Crabby Corner where the kids all fish for crabs.

This is Whitby Abbey.

These are the 199 steps that lead up to the Abbey from the town.  Stoker wrote about these in Dracula and it's traditional to count them as you climb even though there are little markers pin roman numerals every 10 steps.

The steps helped us work up an appetite.  We went out to dinner with John and his new girlfriend.  They went out dancing after while Bill and I had to drive back through the moors in the dark rain.  There are no lights, the road is barely wide enough for two cars and very little signage but we managed to get back to Hutton-le-Hole without incident.

It was fun to explore the coastal towns but even better to see John again!

Sunday in London

Our time line is going to get a little out of order on this trip…we still have Yorkshire pictures to post and we're already a few days into London. We arrived on Saturday afternoon at Jerry and Jules'.  The first thing we did was head to the park. 

When I unpacked that night I realized that I left some of my clothes back at Alice's!  That meant that we needed to spend some time on Sunday shopping, of course!

Sunday started with a hearty breakfast at the Portman pub.

We didn't document our shopping but I managed buy way more than I left behind.  

Jules met us at the Portrait Gallery.  I loved this new display of Betty!

They were showing the portraits from the BP Award - a show of submitted portraits by  "amateur" artists.  It was a strangely somber show - most of the subjects were old or had dementia or some other sad storyline to them.  These two colorful ones were our favorites.

On the way home we noticed that one of the upscale hand cream stores had a dispenser bottle attached to the wall on the sidewalk - so of course we had to cream up!!

We walked all over town.  The Speaker's Corner of Hyde Park was in full swing.

And ended the night with Sunday Roast and the sing along at the Duke of Kendal.  Sunday night the pianist is a 90+ year old woman who does mostly older songs and show tunes.  It was a little more like karaoke than sing along since people often got up to do solos.  A trip of women did It's My Party.

It's so nice to be back - and now that we are here it feels like we never left at all! 

The Moors

The North Yorkshire Moors is a national park.  It is covered in heather and sheep poo.

And it's views are as gorgeous as any we've seen.

The drive up, and we mean up - some grades were as high as 25% - was fun driving.  The locals whizzed past, not caring that there was barely enough room for 1 and a half cars.  Jen is an excellent navigator and a nervous passenger.  She flinches and applies pretend brakes from the passenger seat whenever another car approaches.  

On the way through the Moors we pass through little towns.  Sheep crossing is led by a family on their bicycles.

The Moors are known for their heather.  It is a beautiful purple that blankets the region.

The sun and clouds dance together to constantly change the view of the heather.

The roads are littered with roadkill.  Speeding cars and stupid birds and daring rabbits means there are many flattened creatures.

Jennie goes good with heather.

The End.