New Year Round Up

I’m also at work on the Thursday and in the evening we have the annual squash club meal, which is again held at Chakh Le India on Trent Bridge. For some reason the menu doesn’t seem adventurous as it did last year. Well, I assume they’ve changed it. The food is again good but because of the unexciting menu, not spectacular.

Then on Friday we head up to the Lakes. We have a cottage booked in Staveley, somewhere we’ve always wanted to stay, on a late deal. Finding it is the first problem. It’s dark, the directions aren’t great and there’s an inch of snow on the ground. After trying to break in to several properties we finally find the right one.

We have a great first night in the Hawkshead Brewery, where we’ve never been able to manage a session before due to having to drive, with the dogs at our feet. Things start to go a bit wrong on the Saturday. First we head up to Keswick parkrun which goes ok until I badly twist my ankle on a rock and have to hobble over half the distance much to MD’s frustration. He was running with me.

Then Doggo has a funny turn and passes out on the pavement outside the cottage, I have to carry him inside thinking that this is surely the end. Then to add to our woes MD starts vomiting everywhere.

Doggo then seems to quickly recover but we don’t know whether this is just temporary and this, along with MD’s illness, somewhat ruins our Saturday night out.

We had booked a table at the Eagle & Child, which is always hard to get into and they also have Snecklifter on the bar but we are so worried about both dogs that we end up driving the very short distance there so that we can have the unwell pair close to us in the car.

The stress destroys my appetite but enhances L’s. Must be a girl thing. To be honest we also realise that the menu isn’t that great at Eagle & Child anyway, not sure we’ll be back. It does mean there are some leftovers to tempt the dogs to eat and that does work.

Sunday is New Year’s Eve and both dogs have recovered a bit more. We take them on the park in Kendal and go buy L a new walking jacket from Ambleside. I even manage to eat a full meal when we have Sunday lunch in the Watermill at Ings, then we go back to the Hawkshead Brewery for the evening.

It’s £3 to get in which is reasonable, this I assume pays for the disco which we escape from by going upstairs. We have been brave enough to leave the dogs back at the cottage, in the car parked outside, although this is still only a short stroll away.

It’s still a slightly subdued evening and we don’t stay until midnight but I’m not sure we would have done anyway. As is tradition we spend it with Jools Holland on the TV and with the dogs.

Monday we head back down the M6 as I want to be back for the New Year’s Day match but first we stop off near Wigan so that L can do a parkrun and which has a convenient 10:30 start. Sadly after my mishap in Keswick I’m unable to join her.

(Monday 1^st January)

Tourist

L is trying to become a parkrun tourist and also chalk up 50 parkruns, so today we head off to nearby Newby Bridge which is about 20 miles away. They have a 10am (wowee) run today in Fell Foot Park. Well, we thought they had but I think it must have been cancelled as there’s nothing doing when we get there. It got us out the cottage for the morning I suppose.

The rain has set in for the day so although we do walk the dogs it isn’t a particularly long one.  

In the evening we have at least had the forethought to book a table at the Eagle and Child for a meal. Naturally my choice on the menu is off and the Snecklifter is no longer on but it’s still a decent meal and a pleasant evening. I do have a bit of Snecklifter still left in the take out tub from last night so I’ve got that to look forward to back at the cottage.

(Thursday 1^st January)

New Year

We head up to the Lakes today and leave the snow behind as we do. There’s none of the white stuff beyond Stoke and in the Lakes it’s raining.

We have booked a cottage for three nights in the same settlement of Garnett Bridge in Longsleddale just a few miles north of Kendal.

In the evening we head to nearby Staveley although it still involves using the car along some great narrow roads. We have a drink the Duke William, which isn’t the most upmarket of pubs although they do allow the dogs in before moving to much more plush Eagle and Child. They would also have the dogs in but it’s a bit too busy to unleash our two tonight.

There’s no chance of getting food in the Eagle and Child, so we have another drink which is luckily Snecklifter before heading off with a four pint take out of said Snecklifter to find a takeaway to take back to the cottage. That isn’t an easy job either. We fancied a curry but could only find restaurants and no actual takeaways. The first restaurant we try is too busy to do us a take away but the second one, the Eastern Balti, does do us one.

We have a not so wild night at the cottage as we can’t get much reception on the TV so can’t even tune into our usual Jools Holland’s Hootenanny show. We end up in bed before midnight.

(Wednesday 31^st December)