A Day Out - Liverpool Pirate Festival 2015

Last weekend I ventured to Liverpool with my mum and Squiggle, dressed as pirates, with hats and swords in tow, for the annual Pirate Festival.
Based at The Albert Dock, the weekend was full of pirates, cannons, music and stories.

Visitors are encouraged to go along in fancy dress and well ...... we couldn't resist.

My mum is a dab hand at sewing, so she made a cute little skeleton pirate themed costume for Squiggle.

Mum and me put together our own ensemble, but after looking at some of the costumes the actors and other visitors wore, we are going full on pirate next year. Watch this space.

The line up of entertainment was slightly different on both days, we visited on Saturday so were lucky enough to see Swashbuckle's Cook and Line do a show. They read/acted out a story to the youngsters which was full of noise and water pistols. It was good to see the adults joining in too with a few shouts of argh argh and aye aye Captain! They really entertained the crowd and got us in the mood for a day of pirate antics!

In the afternoon we took part in the pirate parade, which went around The Albert Dock and incorporated a story of the Pirates vs The Kings Navy. Trying to explain to Squiggle why The Kings Navy was after us got confusing especially as I'm trying to teach him right from wrong. Of course pirates are baddies, but we were dressed as pirates and therefore on this occasion we were the "goodies" or were we just good as being bad??? confused? - I was!

Anyway, we followed the pirate marching band and had the first encounter with The Kings Navy, gunpowder, cannons and smoke filled the air as they "attacked" us.

We continued into the court yard and was met by another crew of pirates and The Kings Navy, a sword fight followed, a pretty maid was kidnapped and a full on war declared.

The battle took place a short while later as the pirate ship The Schooner Vilma took on The Kings Navy, cannons and guns were fired from each of the vessels, land cannons were fired. The noise and atmosphere was amazing. Visitors were on the side of the dock cheering and booing as the boats went past and jumping out of their skin everytime a cannon went off.

I won't spoil it by telling you the end but the good guys won, or should that be the bad guys?*

* See what I meant about it being confusing! 

Meal Planning Monday - 24th August 2015

Here I am, jumping back on the meal planning bandwagon. I actually made a start on this last week when I sat down and planned my shopping list so I could do a last minute online shop. It feels quite weird having actual food in the house - and by that I mean things that easily come together to make an edible meal and not random items like a jar of chicken & mushroom sauce, spaghetti hoops and fruit cocktail, not sure how they would ever go together without me having to make the effort of actually buying something to go with them.

So what is actually for tea?
Well I have in stock this week enough food to make:
Lamb steak and mash
Chicken thighs with squash and sweet potato stew
Spaghetti Bolognaise
Fish fingers
Sweet & sour chicken with rice*
Homemade pizzas - cheat style because I've bought a readymade base

I think I'll get Squiggle involved with the pizzas because he has turned into a bit of a fussy eater over the school holidays, too many days out, takeaways and sandwiches, so it's about time we all got back to eating some good-ish food.

As usual my menu probably won't inspire many of you this week, so why not check out At home with Mrs M for some great meal ideas.

*or I might actually use the aforementioned chicken & mushroom sauce

Silent Sunday - 16th August 2015

Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival

Yesterday was the annual day trip out to see the Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival. We've been going nearly every year since 2009 to see what wacky and wonderful creations the good people of Kettlewell have created.

The festival started back in 1994 as a fund raising event for the school and was so successful it has continued every year, being held for about 9 days in August and attracting thousands of visitors from all over.

The walk round Kettlewell usually only lasts about an hour or two depending on pace, pub stops, ice cream stops and tea break and my family likes to partake in all of these! It's a gentle wander around a small village and is quite suitable for push chair users.

There is a trail sheet available for adults (£1) or children (50p) and the idea is to follow the clues and look out for the letters which at the end will spell out a word relating to the trail sheet which this year was musicals and Roald Dahl stories. There is a daily prize for the winners of the adults and children's which is drawn at random.

Alongside the themed scarecrows are also a whole host of other scarecrows which are tucked away in hidden corners or made into giant landscaped scenes for all to see.

Here are a selection of my favourite photos from the day.

The Magic Roundabout

Let's go fly a kite

Please can I have my ball back?

Gru and The Minions

The old woman who lived in a shoe

Oh Dave!

Oh No Fashion Faux Pas!

So for the third time in my life, I turned up wearing the same clothes as someone else tonight. I suppose three times in thirty six years isn't too bad.

The first time was whilst I was working in Birmingham, I turned up to the office wearing the same blouse as my manager who was a good 30 years older than me, she thought it was great that a young lass was wearing the same as her and said she felt younger for wearing it, whereas I was embarrassed that someone 30 years older was wearing it, and felt like going into hiding. So I promptly put my cardigan on and sat covered up for the rest of the day, needless to say I never wore that blouse again!

The second time was at my cousin in laws wedding, I'd picked out the most beautiful dress and felt so lovely in it. I walked into the venue and spotted my dress on another girl. This time I thought it was funny and said we could pass ourselves off as bridesmaids but she was mortified at this, and if the wedding wasn't at a hotel in the middle of nowhere she would have gone home and got changed, but she couldn't. The poor girl then spent the rest of the day and evening avoiding me at all costs, and at one point whilst she was queuing at the bar saw me approaching and walked off. I don't know what her problem was - she looked much better in it than I did.



And so tonight, I walked into the pub and a friend walked past me, you guessed it, wearing the same top as me. However this time I was neither mortified nor embarrassed, because we both looked good in it. Thankfully we were there separately so didn't have to put up with any funny comments or odd looks from the people we were with.

I wonder what will happen the next time?