Skipton and a Huge Lunch

Yesterday we had a ride out to Skipton as I'm still off work on holiday this week.

The car park was fairly quiet when we got there, but the town was anything but. There always seems to be a large market on in Skipton. Stalls run on both sides of the wide roadway leading up towards the small roundabout in front of the church, with Skipton's famous castle just to it's right.

The photo shows the Library with market stalls standing before it and a row of folk catching their breath before tackling the next set of bargains...

There were so many people wandering about even I, who don't normally race about at top speed, was getting frustrated. When someone decided to stop we all had to stop until they moved on. It was a slow progress along the stalls. I'm not sure why Fran seemed to think I'd rushed her along the stalls therefore...

"It's a good job I didn't want to buy anything!" she said. Grossly unfair - because she had bought some plastic containers at one stall! But it's a husband's lot in life to be scolded and I looked suitably contrite. (Some people mix my contrite expression for my astounded and affronted expression - but surely that's not my fault?)

So we headed away from the crowds down to the canal. Here was a scene of tranquil serenity. Colourful longboats chugging quietly round a corner, a row of cottages ascending a steep hill in the background.

Totally unlike the scene behind me which was of 973 old folks jostling in their starting grid to board another canal boat for a half hour trip up the canal. Half were jostling for the closest seat to the bar. The other half for a clear run to the toilet... Coaches were disgorging yet more blue rinses, linking arms and brandishing walking sticks to knock any unsuspecting youngsters of 50 years or less out of their way. Linking arms to sing Gracie Fields songs that no one else but they could remember. My mother would have been right at home...

We had planned on fish and chips for lunch but that place was packed as well. There were mutters of "There's youngsters taking up places!" coming from behind us in the queue and we ducked out and walked, but did not run, back to the car. It doesn't do to show fear in front of pensioners...

We had seen The Cross Keys on our way in along the A59 road. It was a haven of peace apart from one old couple, torn between cooing over a baby but also wanting to castigate the mother for being unmarried.

The meal was huge and very very good. We both had gammon steak, egg and chips and could probably have shared a single portion.

Fed and watered we went back to the car park and I picked up the camera and walked back to take a few photographs.

As I walked back past the pub there was an indignant yell from the kitchen. I turned in surprise, wondering if it was directed at me, but no... There was an old chap of about 70 who, in the middle of the countryside, had chosen to wheel his bicycle into the back yard of the pub in order to urinate against a tree at the far end of the yard...

Nearly all of these people will have said to their children at some stage; "If I ever get like that - shoot me..."

Old Photos Jumble

Here's a bit of a mixture for you! Over the past few days there's loads of old photos gone through the scanner and many of them were one-offs or have specially interesting stories to them.

The first one was taken in 1986 I think. Blackpool Zoo orang utan Azimat had a baby daughter called Victoria. Vicky is now the grand old mother of the orang utans at Blackpool and has a glorious smile for visitors - she was trained to show her teeth as she had dental problems when young!

From the same year, here is the old Manxman. As the name suggests she was the ferry to the Isle of Man and as such was featured in one of George Formby's most famous films. It was No Limit made in 1933 and featuring the Isle of Man TT races. George played George Shuttleworth who crashed his bike but was given the chance to ride for a team and won not only the race but the girl - Florence Desmond who apparently couldn't stand him... or perhaps the way his missus stood by with a look of wrath and a tape measure every time they had to film a screen kiss!

The Manxman is shown in Preston Docks where for several years she served time as a nightclub. Wonder whether the ghost of George used to sing "Riding In The TT Races" in the main bar...?

I could almost have left this one uncaptioned and asked you to tell me what it was!

It is in fact the view down the toilet of Skipton Castle. As you can see, they preferred a long drop! The bar across guards against anyone trying to climb up the toilet to break into the castle during a seige. Not a nice job, but the tactic worked well and was a tried and tested way of sneaking into castles! Phew... what's that smell?!?

And lastly, this is Axbridge near Cheddar in Somerset. A few of us had gone down to Blagdon for a computer system course and we stayed at one of two pub/hotels in the village.

The date was 4 July 1990. Ring any bells? We sat in the bar watching England being knocked out of the FIFA World Cup in the semi final. Gazza cried and my mate Pete and I took our pints and sat in a deserted but very warm square until I decided to get the camera and take some photos.

Talking of ringing bells, our hotel was right next door to the church and the clock tower kept striking every quarter hour until two o'clock in the morning then started again at six!!!

Italy and Skipton

Oh dear, another week has gone by!

Well, I've found enough to keep me busy without venting my spleen at anyone or feeling the urge to rave about something or let off a few quips of humour.

I've spent most of my spare time this week trying to finish a project that's been ongoing for far too long. I've been creating a set of digital montages to create a year book. You'll understand what I mean about it having taken a long time when I point out it's a year book of 2005...

I've got as far as our Sorrento holiday from that year and the resulting montages have been being uploaded to my Flickr Account at the rate of a couple a day.

I have just about finished the holiday photos now and moved on to the rest of 2005 but it will take approx a couple of weeks for the photos to appear on Flickr - unless I get fed up or find something else to post up there in which case there could be a flood of photos uploaded at some point in the next few days!

Today we had a run out in the car to Skipton, taking the long way round, via Lancaster then Ingleton and back down.

We passed through some lovely little villages that are a definite for a return visit some day and the weather was really great until we got just a few miles from Skipton, after which it has poured down all day...

So here's a rather dreary photo of Skipton Castle just to prove we were there and I'll try to drum up some sunny weather for our next trip out!

Now - see if you can find a blog entry anywhere else that gives you Italy and Skipton in one entry!