26
Mar
An Egg-cellent Break
Ouch, terrible pun sorry. The last few days have been spent doing an 1100 mile circuit of the UK heading back down to Northamptonshire where we used to live, to see our ex-neighbours and (current!) friends Andrew & Caroline.
Although the traveling was OK, the weather was generally awful, with strong, cold winds and driving snow & rain.This meant that my camera had a nice ride in the car without coming out much, but it was still a really nice break. Despite not having had any snow in Northern Scotland, we were greeted by this after driving 500 miles south!
Thankfully it didn’t last long, and despite us eating them out of house and home, Andrew & Caroline were fantastic hosts as usual. The boys love them to bits, and rarely gave them a moments peace - Steph & I nearly slipped away on several occasions!
The boys got to see their first ever football (soccer if you will 
) match on Saturday, watching the mighty Kettering Town defeat Nuneaton Borough 3-2. It was actually a good match despite the frequent blizzards that swept the ground, followed by sun & blue skies. The boys enjoyed it, and Pat in particular got into the spirit of things by telling the Referee that he needed glasses (which he did).
We went on to the National Space Centre (in Leicester of all places!) which despite being a modern museum (i.e. lots of flashing screens, little hard information and a confusing layout) was quite enjoyable and had some cool stuff on show:
We also went on a simulated ride to Europa, getting shot out of a magnetic tunnel before crash landing, which was impressive, but a little rough. Despite the following photo, the boys don’t want to be astronauts anymore!
The weekend was over all too soon and we headed home via a night in the Lake District. We were still pursued by snow, so most of it was spent in the car, but it was very beautiful and amazingly busy given the weather. Still, I managed to get out of the car for this shot at Castlerigg stone circle:
Incredibly cold, but I wish I could have stayed longer!
All this and not a chocolate egg in sight - how was your Easter then?
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March 26th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Sounds like you had a great time, I like the addition of ‘current’ friends almost as if you did something naughty and they haven’t found out you didn’t flush the toilet before you left
Love the stone circle photograph.
I had a nice easter, hiking and drinking
March 26th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Yeah, they haven’t checked under the bed yet
March 26th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
We had snow in Chicago for Easter, too.Sounds like you had a wonderful trip. But I’m not too sure why a space museum would simulate a crash landing for its speculative interplanetary adventure. I mean, if you’re going to imagine the trip, why not imagine a happy and entirely successful voyage?
March 26th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
How weird was it seeing your old garden out the window then?
March 26th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Have just looked under the bed !!!!!!!!!!
We too had a fab weekend and it was great to see you all again.
Thanks for the plug for Kettering Town Football Club! For those that are interested, they won again on Monday!
March 26th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
hahah at the bed comment and bed comment reply
I drank after hiking because i normally fall over without booze anyways
March 27th, 2008 at 8:01 am
Wow, this is so a beautiful sight, it can be cold there, but it must be pleasant to be in such places.
March 27th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Kettering are storming the division!
I know Curmudgeon, it was very impressive, but we all came off the ride battered & bruised with the boys absolutely certain they never wanted to be astronauts!
It was a bit odd Alison…..
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:19 am
I used to love going to “space stuff” when I was a kid. Wait a minute, I still do!
May 13th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Egg-cellent break as you said, nice pics and wonderful view!