Michelle and Scarlett's Blog

(New) Pleasureland, Southport

Michelle — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:32:27 +0000

When we visited Deb, Neil & Lucas in May/June, we took a day trip to Southport which concluded with a visit to what was once Pleasureland and is now New Pleasureland. The original park opened in 1912 but was forced to close in 2006 after the introduction of an entrance fee. The parent company owns Blackpool Pleasure Beach which also introduced an entrance fee in the last few years but obviously has the visitor numbers to warrant this. The park was happily reopened in 2007, sans said fee but also sans several uber-cool rollercoasters. Sadly, nothing remains of the original park since a fire in 2010 that destroyed The Haunted Inn, the only remaining feature from oldskool Pleasureland.

Any road up, New Pleasureland is still a cool place to visit. We’ve been once before but this time was much more fun due to Scarlett being that bit older. She had a brilliant time and was utterly fearless with regards to rides. She would have gone on everything given half a chance. I’ve done this as a separate post, by the way, as there seemed to be an awful lot of pictures from the trip.

New Brighton in May

Michelle — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 09:49:11 +0000

Oh dear, I’m way behind again with this blogging lark so it’s catch up time.

At the end of May, beginning of June, we headed to New Brighton to spend a week with Deb & Neil and enjoyed our stay so much that we ended up extending it to ten days. Anna & Dave came up for the first weekend and the boys stayed in whilst we three ladies went to see Adam Ant. I was apprehensive and not totally convinced that he wasn’t going to just pull out at the last-minute. As it was, he was brilliant. He just needs to drop those two wholly superfluous backing singers/dancers.

Whilst in New Brighton, we enjoyed trips to the beach and park, picnics, a roast courtesy of the McGuinness’, a day trip to Southport and a couple of barbecues (the first somewhat more successful than the second). Oh, and Neil & I enjoyed the odd glass of wine too.

We had a lovely time as usual and big thanks go to Deb & Neil for putting up with us for so long.

Scarborough For Ten

Michelle — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:13:26 +0000

In May we celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary. Cue lots of jokes about getting less time for murder etc. Seriously though, 10 years! Where’s it gone? Whilst recently looking at our wedding photos, Scarlett went through everyone saying “There’s you & Daddy when you were young; and there’s Deb & Neil when they were young; and there’s Tom & Gemma…” etc etc. It did make me feel a bit old, I have to say.

Anyway, went to Scarborough for the weekend in celebration of a decade of married bliss and though the weather didn’t really want to play, we still had a very enjoyable time. Oh, and I got a lovely jet pendant from Andrew as an anniversary present.

Snapshot Scarlett

Michelle — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 22:15:32 +0000

Oh dear, I have rather a lot of catching up to do, most of May it would seem.

Thought I’d start off with something more recent though. Scarlett has inherited a brand new (well, rather old really), super-swanky (well, a bit rubbish really) state-of-the-art (only 5 mega pixels actually) digital camera. It was our first one that’s been gathering dust on the shelf for the last few years so both parties are very happy at the new union.

Here are some of the pictures that she’s taken in the last few days.

May Day Gala

Michelle — Fri, 13 May 2011 20:33:10 +0000

There was a gala at Thornes Park on the May Day Bank Holiday which we thought might be fun. We were accompanied by the Smith-Forrests and one extra Forrest for a picnic in the park before testing out the delights that the gala might offer. It was quite good actually with lots for the smaller amongst us to enjoy. Not sure why they squeezed it all into one end though when there’s a lot of park to spread out to.

Tom’s Birthday Barbecue

Michelle — Fri, 13 May 2011 19:40:58 +0000

Tom celebrated his birthday at the beginning of the month with a barbecue at Chez Smith-Forrest. Good food and good company made for a very enjoyable time. Gemma had made ice cream with some new-fangled device which went down very well with everyone. Scarlett had a particularly enjoyable time raiding Olive’s dressing up box and ended up wearing most of the outfits at once.

Two Bike Rides

Michelle — Fri, 13 May 2011 16:55:59 +0000

We went on our first two of bike rides of the year in April; one to Newmillerdam & the other towards Horbury and then back along the canal. The first ride had the best weather and ended with lakeside ice creams and the second, although a little chillier at times, ended at the Navigation Pub for coffee and/or ice creams and was just as enjoyable. We’ve done both rides before so we were just easing ourselves in really. We’ve convinced Tom & Gemma to come on the Horbury ride later on in the year where we will sample the meals at the Navigation. Citing!

Trip to Nostell

Michelle — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 22:56:07 +0000

We went to Nostell last weekend for a picnic and a play about. They have a really good park there which Scarlett loves and that was one of the main reasons for going really. The weather was mainly good and we managed to avoid the rain that did fall by partaking of a coffee & cake in the old stables cafe.

Sculpture Park

Michelle — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 21:08:48 +0000

We ventured to the Sculpture Park a couple of weeks ago to check out the new Jaume Plensa exhibition and enjoy a picnic. I use the word venture because although we live in Wakefield and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park is in Wakefield, there is only one bus an hour to get there. Now, when I say “get there”, what I really mean is get within a mile of it. The bus service is so poor since the on-site campus closed that there are no buses that actually go into the park, some buses that go about half a mile from the park and some others that go about a mile from the park. Needless to say, we caught the latter. Oh well, we enjoy a walk. We had a nice day (as always) and the exhibition was cool as well.

Otley Chevin Walk

Michelle — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 22:12:38 +0000

A couple of weeks ago we took advantage of the beautiful weather and did the Otley Chevin walk. We weren’t the only people making the most of the weather as the jam-packed bus attested to. Standing all the way from Leeds to Otley wasn’t much fun on such a hot morning but we were spurred on by the thought of our lovely walk when we alighted.

This was Scarlett’s first “true” walk and she loved it. We’ve done the Chevin before with her but we had the buggy then. No such luxuries this time but she did brilliantly and didn’t complain once. I imagine that at a mere four years old, she’s walked more miles than a lot of adults.

The park in Otley was undergoing an overhaul last time we visited and was gloriously complete this time. We spent some time there before we enjoyed some well deserved fish & chips by the river.

We took a pad and pen on the walk to make a list of all of the animals that we saw from the time that we left the house to the time that we returned. They were broken down into three categories: animals, birds and insects with a sub category of different dog breeds and I’ve included them here for your pleasure.

Animals:

A cat; sheep; dogs; goats; horses; a squirrel; fish; ponies.

Birds:

Ducks; pigeons; crows; blackbirds; blue tits; jackdaws; wrens; geese; chickens; swans; black headed gulls.

Insects:

Flies; ants; a wasp; bees; a beetle; butterflies; a ladybird; a hoverfly; a thrips; a spider (not an insect, I know, but I wasn’t going to create a separate arachnid category for one very small spider).

Sub Category of Dog Breeds:

Great Danes; a Jack Russell; a Weimaraner; a German Pinscher; Schitzus; Whippets; Labradors; a German Shepherd; a Poodle; a King Charles Spaniel; a Springer Spaniel; a Cocker Spaniel; a Yorkshire Terrier; a Boxer; a Newfoundland