The Levellers - Holmfirth Picturedrome

We got tickets for this sellout gig ages ago, ironically we had 5 tickets and everyone else cancelled, Andrea quickly asked around and we managed to use 4 of the tickets!

The Picturedrome is an ace venue, there are two balconies and a sloping floor to the stage, everyone gets a good view.

Our first encounter with The Levellers was as support for New Model Army when they were promoting their first album 'Weapon Called The Word', they blew NMA away and we were hooked. We've seen them dozens of times over the last 20 odd years. They have a great following and usually there's a great atmosphere at the gigs, their music is really made to be played live.

This time the band weren't promoting a new album so the set had a 'greatest hits' feel to it. I was happy to stand and watch the show but as time went on I struggled to stay still so by mid way through the set I had to push through to the front and jump about with the other devoted fans. Initially everyone was shoving me around, I was wearing my 46 Rossi T- shirt so most people thought I didn't know the music, however after a couple of numbers I was accepted, I know pretty much all the words to every song. It was pretty mad, I love slam dancing, it looks so violent but everyone is smiling, if anyone falls over there is an instant effort to get them back on their feet.

By the end of the night I was ringing wet with sweat and pretty knackered. Andrea joined me at the front for the last couple of songs, the band did several encores, they were surprised that everyone was so enthusiastic on a Sunday night.

Good times, can't wait foot the next time!

Hawes Camping

Finlay with Hardraw Force.

Didn't get out of work early so had to deal with the rush hour traffic, it took a while to get above Keighley, from here we made good progress mand soon passed Ingleton and Ribblehead. We headed for the Caravan Club camp site. Andrea has joined this year to see if the sites are better / worse than The Caravan and Camping Club. We were soon pitched up and had a curry for tea, Andrea had got one of the ready prep aired meals that only needed warming up. It was tough sitting outside with all the midges so we had an early night!

We awoke to good weather and planned to walk up to the waterfall at Hard Raw, the highest waterfall above ground in England. It was an easy walk following the Pennine way for a little while, we soon reached Hard raw, amazingly the coast to coast bike ride was taking place and the Green Dragon was being used as the lunch stop, it wasn't busy as we arrived so we continued on behind the pub and paid to walk up the gorge to the waterfall.

It's only a short walk to the waterfall, I got my camera straight out and enjoyed taking photos, Finlay was happy to pose for the camera, but Jack wouldn't have his picture taken. We headed up the path next to the waterfall, and headed up to the top of the gauge. More people had now arrived and several people took their clothes off and dived into the plunge pool. It looked pretty cold.

We heard back to the pub which had now got very busy with all the bikes riders stopping for lunch. We had a couple of drinks and the kids spent time looking at all the cool bikes. Jack particularly liked the Mark Cavendish S Works specialised bike, there was lots of really nice bikes.

We headed back to the camp site and then went into Hawes for a look around. We went to the Wensleydale Cheese factory, it was interesting to find out about the history of Wensleydale cheese. For tea we got a Chinese take away,  again the midges stopped us from sitting outside, me and the kids players pool in the games room.

Sunday morning and we had a late breakfast before pas king up and heading home.

It was a nice relaxing weekend, The Caravans Club sites are quite different from the Caravans and Camping Club sites, it did feel like there was lots more older people on site sand fewer kids, but this just made it different, not better, not worse!

The Who - Manchester Arena

Usual poor quality gig photos!

As soon as tickets became available for the latest Who tour I spent a couple of frustrated hours on Ticket Master, what a racket! I had no chance, so put it behind me. Luckily one of Andreas running friends had got spare tickets and was happy to let us have 3 at the cover price. The plan was to ask Jack with us, this would be his first gig, lucky lad. To be fair Jack has liked The Who as long as he's listened to music, Who's Next being his favourite Album.

The gig was a rendition of Quadraphenia followed by some favourite songs, we had all been listening to the album for a couple of weeks.

Finlay was shipped off to friends for a sleep over, we promised to get him toys to the value of the ticket, little gods. We made good time over to Manchester and parked at the shopping centre on Cheatham Hill, Jack wanted to GOTO Pizza Hut for tea, after we finished we jumped in the car and parked nearer the Arena in one the streets at the bottom of the hill. Within a couple of minutes we were in the arena, Jack was gob smacked by the size of everything, 20,000 seats still impresses me!

We sat through the warmup act, Vintage Trouble these guys were pretty good, if you're into Soul,  it was hard work for them, people had paid to see The Who, and no matter how they tried to get people engaged in their polished show it just wasn't happening for them.

After a short break the intro started, the sound of the sea. As soon as the band came on stage everyone stood up, this looked bad for Jack, to deal with this Jack stood on his chair, this made him slightly bigger than me, perfect!

The powerful base riff at the beginning of 'The Real Me' sent shivers down my spine. Time flew by and the stage show was pretty good. The circular screens projected lots of historic social and political video, starting back in WWII, not sure how much Jack understood of all this but it was okay, one or two references were a bit edgy, but in the main it worked well, there was not visuals from the film but this wasn't a problem.

My favourite song was '5.15' which featured John Entwistles wild base solo, projected onto the screens and perfectly synced with the live show.

Jack was getting pretty tired by the end of  Quadraphenia, when they came back on stage to play some of their other hits Jack was puffing and blowing, he did get his head around it when I explained that he'd probably never get this opportunity again.

Baba O'Riley was my favourite track from this part of the show. They didn't perform 'My Generation' which was okay, to be fair they are a bit old for this one! It was a petty they didn't do 'Behind Blue Eyes', but you can't have everything. The last song they played was 'Tea and Theatre' this rounded the evening off nicely.

Jack was happy to be heading home for a good nights sleep, he's got some great memories of his first gig. Lucky lad!

White Rose Youth League Cycling Round 4 - Richard Dunn Sports Centre

Finlay On His New Islabike.

Another race at Richard Dunn Sportrs Centre. Finlay was using his new Islabike Bienn 24, his time trial was his first race and tonight he ended up 3rd, he didn't look to be trying too hard but said that he'd done his best. It was the same again in his race,he ended up 3rd and just didn't look fast. Finlay was happy enough with his performance, but it had been a lonely race for him.

Jack had a good race and got in with a group of kids, he really stuck with it and sat on someone's wheel for pretty much the whole race, when someone tried to break he went with them, he even had a go a breaking away just before the bend at the top of the hill but didn't have the strength to make it work, he tried really hard his average lap time over the 12 laps was 1:34, pretty good!

Ambleside Camping

By the large Cairn on Black Crag

We have had this booked for a while, one of our friends dad signed up to do the ‘Great North Swim’ in Lake Windermere. It’s an open water swim over a 1 mile course. It was a good excuse to have a weekend away in the Lake District.

Friends booked us into Skelwith Fold Caravan Park on the outskirts of Ambleside. Set off after work on Friday and made good progress up to the camp site. Setup camp and had a quiet evening on site.

Out and About

Saturday morning and we decided to go for a walk, I wanted to do the Fairfield Horseshoe, but the weather wasn't  good enough so we decided to walk up onto Black Crag, this was a far shorter and easier walk, so the kids were happy! We walked in the lanes before heading on the Bridleway which goes past Black Crag, it was a straight forward walk and we were soon at the top. Although it was cloudy we still had great views, we ate the sandwiches that Andrea had made and I took some photos. It was a bit windy and the kids started to complain that they were cold so we headed back to the camp site.

Our friends arrived on site just after we got back, so we caught up and decided to head into Ambleside for a look around. We’d brought the bikes so it made sense to use them. Luckily there is an off-road track adjacent to the B5286, this was useful as the road is narrow and there are several blind bends. We had to be careful as we entered Ambleside, the one way system doesn't help!

Black Crag

After having a drink we decided to get everything needed for a BBQ and headed back to the camp site, we used the quieter back road ‘Bog Lane’ into the site. The weather had improved as the day went on and we enjoyed eating Al fresco, however as the evening progressed the midges came out and forced us into our motor homes!

Sunday and we got on our bikes again and headed through Ambleside and long the shore of Windermere to Low Wood Marina. Catching up with Tom who was doing the swim and Vicky is increasingly nervous wife! Several of the family had also come along to see how he would get on. There was hundreds of people doing the swim, every half hour another wave of swimmers set off. It was soon time for Tom’s race, off he went and we watched as the swimmers left the jetty and headed into deep water. It took Tom a long while to swim the course but eventually to everyone’s relief we spotted him heading towards the finish. It took him just under 1:30 hours to do the swim, he’s 70 years old, we didn't see anyone near his age doing it so it was a pretty good achievement.

Ice Cream at Kirkby Lonsdale

We headed back to the camp site and got changed before going out for a meal at ‘Lucy’s On A Plate’. The food was brilliant and nothing went to waste. Headed back to the camp site for a few beers before bed.

Monday morning, we used the BBQ to make sausage and bacon sandwiches before packing up and heading homeward. We stopped at Kirkby Lonsdale for an Ice cream before arriving home mid-afternoon.

A good weekend, the kids got Monday off school so they were happy. The weather had been good and the camp site brilliant. We’ll be visiting Skelwith Fold Caravan Site again, it’s a great place to use as a base for some great walks!

BSCA Yorkshire Region Time Trial - Richard Dunn Sports Centre

The kids enjoy the BSCA races, it's usually easier for them to do well, so we headed to Richard Dunn Sports centre with two kids wanting to do a good job.

Finlay had to do 6 laps and Jack 10. Unlike racing, where you can sit in a group and get 'dragged along' with time trials you have to stay on your own, if you catch someone up you've got to go straight past them and not use their slip stream.

Both kids tried hard, Finlay averaged 2:00 for his 6 laps and he got 4th overall. Jack averaged 1:41 over his 10 laps, looking at his times he was very consistent, his first 3 laps were all 1:39 and he gradually slipped back over the subsequent laps to 1:43, he then tried hard on his last lap and did a 1:40. This earned him a 4th as well.

Both kids were chuffed that they had done well and enjoyed receiving their certificates at the prize giving at the end of the day.

White Rose Youth League Cycling Round 3 - Richard Dunn Sports Centre

Jack working Hard

Both Jack and Finlay tried really hard tonight. Finlay did well in his time trial, getting down to 1:47, that's 10 seconds better than last time, this got him another win! He did great in the race again and won his age group.

Jack did his best and didn't sit up on his bars for the whole race, trying to keep a good consistent lap time. He averaged 1:41 over the race distance and worked hard, still finishing a long way back, I was happy with his attitude, Jack knows that he's in a hard group this year, he continues to improve.

Barra Holiday

It's been a while since we visited our friends house on Barra, we've been to the Island probably 10 times, our lady visit included a visit to Stornaway and a trip down through several Islands, finally visiting Barra. The kids have also been several times, Jacks first joined up spoken words were 'Chris's Canoe' , talking about the chap in the next house who had a canoe.

We decided to use the motorhome to make it a more comfortable trip, we planned to sleep in the house but use the motorhome on the Island.

Setoff Saturday morning and made good time, there was as bit of concern, other ferries had been unreliable for a couple of weeks and the day before we setoff the ferry had been cancelled, thankfully Calmac decided to put two ferries on to help with the backlog. The ferry terminal was very busy in Oban but we were booked on the 3:30 ferry so we knew there was a place for us. 

The crossing was trouble free, we made good time up the Sound of Mull, past Tobermory and across The Minch, reaching Castle bay by mid evening.

Sunday and it was cloudy, we headed over to Vatersay  connected to Barra by a causeway. Heading out to Uidh we parked the Motorhome where the road ends and headed down onto the large north facing beach, at the far end we clambered over the rocks and made our way to the next beaches, the sea has cut the island in two at high tide, the kids enjoyed looking for crabs, turning over stones and routing through seaweed. On the way back we visited a south facing beach, again looking for creatures under the stones, there was some quite large shore crabs and the kids enjoyed picking them up as they tried to nip with their class.

Monday and it was still clouds, we headed up to Cleat, this is my favourite beach, there's some great sea caves at the far end of the beach,you've really got to know where to look for some of them, the kids played for ages running backwards and forwards as the waves came up inside one of the best caves, thankfully you can escape at the back of the caves, so you don't get cut off by the tide.

Tuesday and better weather, we decided to do a circular bike ride on the A888, it's about 13 miles, went clockwise, the outbound ride follows the beaches that face the Atlantic, circling in land we crossed over to Northbay where we stopped at the Heathbank Hotel for a drink before heading  south along the rocky coast line, the last bit is a drag having to go up quite a long steep hill to the highest point of the road next to Heaval the highest mountain on Barra.

Wednesday as and we decided to walk up Heaval to admire the views out over the islands. The weather was pretty good and I got some good photos, in the afternoon we headed upon to the airport, watches a plane come in to land and finally ended up at Eoligarry where we got some muscles from under the pier, these were beautiful, Andrea and Finlay had their fill.

Thursday and we headed back onto Vatersay and spent time on the sheltered long beach, the kids were 'sand dune jumping', the beach was pretty busy and some of the other kids wanted to join in, but their parents weren't too chuffed and stopped them!

Friday we were heading home, so tidied the house up, spent time on the foreshore by the house with a crab line and a bucket before getting the ferry at tea time, landing back in Oban at 11:30pm, we stopped in the Tesco car park, we drove home Saturday morning and arrived home mid afternoon.

Barra is an amazing place when the weather is good, and on this visit we had been ferry lucky. We've had holidays when the weather has been poor and the whole experience is quite different, can't wait to comer back again!