Sunday 13 May 2012

Chocolate, Curries and Cycling

An obvious combination!

On the May day weekend my parents came up to visit.  I had a look at the various shops and attractions on the isle and chose a few places that would be open on Saturday for us to go visit while showing Mum the island (Dad's seen most of it from bringing us up).

Saturday afternoon they arrive, we give them a delicious home made lunch and then off we go.  Alas, I misread the times for the pottery so that was closed by the time we arrived, but chocolates and charms was open.  What a lovely shop!  (and doesn't that sound so twee?)  It had some fantastic jewellery (Mum treated herself to a pair of earrings) and some huge chocolate shells.  Well, guess what I got?  Sorry, it was eaten before I grabbed the camera!  I can definitely say though, it is lovely choccy.

After C&C we did a bit of a tour, partly because my sense of direction is appalling when in a car and partly because hey, small island, why not?  Mum was absolutely positive she just couldn't see the appeal or would want to live here, even though we had glorious sunshine.

Saturday evening we had booked a table at the farmhouse cafe for a curry night.  I knew they did great banana bread, and Jo had heard they do good food, so we all went.  We got there a bit early so had a short trot down the road and saw and Alan doing a jog on the way back.  When we walked in we were immediately known as one of Jo's pupils was waitressing, table for 4, Bennett?  Yep!  The starter was a pile of poppadoms (think I spelled that right) with chutney, onion thing and minty yoghurt, followed by curried salmon (honestly, I want that recipe!), pakora and kebabs.  Main was buffet curry, rice and naans, the curries were beef, chicken and lamb, all three were very moreish and all four of us had seconds.  To finish off the delicious meal was a fantastic rapsberry sundae with bits of meringue in.  I believe I can safely say all four stomachs were most satisfied.

Sunday was an even more leisurely spent day.  My parents and I went to do some fishing, Mum sat and read and enjoyed the sun, Dad and I went rock hopping in the hopes of finding suitable spots.  No fish were caught and Dad and I spent an hour just sitting watching the birds while my boots and socks dried off after I went for an accidental dip.  We even glimpsed a seal!  We had lunch on the shore, watched the geese and the cormorants and then headed home.  Alas, Skeryvore pier isn't good for fishing, the waters are shallow and the sand is white so the fishies aren't keen to come visit.  Oh, we did catch one thing...Dad caught himself!

Sunday afternoon all four of us took a drive up to the North end and tried to find the ringing stone.  We didn't find the stone, but we did all have a nice walk and so did the doglet.  I managed a bit of sunburn on one side, but nothing too bad.

That evening we had a relaxing chat, made pizza and then my parents headed off for a good night's sleep before their ferry on Monday back to the mainland and then the 6 hour drive back to Lancaster.

Cycling...
Dad asked "doctor bike" in Lancaster to give his Saracen mountain bike an MOT and service so to speak and to put some thick road tyres on for me.  They brought it up last weekend and this Friday I braved the wind and took a ride down to the resource centre.  New saddle needed!

The road down looks fairly smooth about a foot in from the sides, but when you're on an unsprung saddle and hard road tyres...it really isn't!  On the plus side, Dr. Bike has done an excellent job, the gears were wonderfully smooth changing, no grinding of chain as it tried to slip and the bike offered no resistance of its own.  I did have to walk it back though, 30+mph winds head on just aren't that easy to go into when you're not exactly a small person.  Still, I shall buy myself a new saddle with my next pay and then hopefully manage to cycle atleast once a week and get my fitness up a bit.

Sorry this post is all text, I do have some photos, but they're still on the camera, so I'll crop them and put them up later this week.  Until then, have a lovely time all!

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