Our trip up North

Saturday 26^th April
Driving home we visited a theme park called the American Experience. It’s closed down now and in the process of being dismantled but we managed to find a place where the fence was open so that we could get into the site for some photographs

Now this is an activity called Urban Exploring or Urbex, we used to do a lot of it but this is pretty much the first we’ve done since I’ve been ill. It’s not illegal so long as you don’t do any damage and don’t actually break anything to get in; we love exploring old abandoned buildings and sites and taking photographs of things which would otherwise be lost forever.

This trip I didn’t do any photographing and I had a rest while Phil did most of the exploring but I was soooooo happy that I could still do a little exploring as I’ve missed it.

Here is a link to the photos Phil took if you’d like to see them: http://www.flickr.com/photos/philbradley/sets/72157604744061960/

Friday 25^th April
We went out for the day to do some sightseeing, Eric drove which made a nice change for Phil as he could see the countryside (and have a nap in the car too). The Peak district is so beautiful and the small towns are great fun to see too. We stopped for a spot of lunch at Glossop and had a look at the weekly market (I bought some wool that was ridiculously cheap).

Then we went on to Matlock which has a wonderful old fashioned sweet shop with lots of jars (I bought quite a bit). We were a bit peckish again so had some chips before we went for a bit of a walk along the river. Great fun!

Thursday 24^th April
Not such a good day physically as the diarrhea came back and I felt pretty icky but it was lovely to sit and catch up with Kay and Eric. Kay looked after me and fed me up like a Christmas turkey so it was a good day even is I felt a bit rough.

Wednesday 23^rd April
Up early to drive to Nottingham where Phil was speaking in the afternoon at a Cilip event; it was held at the British Geological Survey. They were lovely and while Phil was busy with the breakout groups they let me sit in the library.

This visit was particularly useful as I’m starting a short Open University course in a couple of weeks about fossils (I could have spent days in their library).

After the course finished we drove on to visit my sister who lives near Stockport where Phil had another full day course on Thursday. We weren’t expecting Kay and Eric to be at home because they were on a 2 week holiday in the Lake District and so we had arranged for Gary their son to let up in. I was therefore both surprised and delighted to find that they had cut their holiday short so that they could spend some time with us (I’m very lucky in having both Phil and such a great family).

Tuesday 22 April
We had intended to drive up to Nottingham with some sightseeing on the way but Phil had some urgent work come in at the last minute so it was 3.30 before we were ready so we stayed at home instead.

However it was a really good day in the end, I was feeling so well I managed to do some ironing so that Phil had shirts for the next few courses and then as the weather was so good we both did a bit of gardening followed by a good hour walk in the woods.