To Hull and Back

[magictreehouse]

Well, I really should update with my weekend exploits should I? Being back at work appears to have sapped me of energy though, such is life. Roll on September (if I wasn’t so damn terrified of what going back to uni will entail. Oh how I love begging for jobs :s). But, there’s a staff quiz going on tonight so I’m staying behind after work to do that. Who says I never do anything social?

 

On Friday I got home to see James’ Mum and sister sitting in our house which was unexpected! But they arrived to take us both out for tea which was very nice, and winding James’ sister up is always fun! James also told me how his grandparents had known about for months and hadn’t said anything. But they’re completely fine with it and organising of a trip to meet them was done for Monday. I think it was a relief to James in a way. Stuff like that isn’t constantly hanging over you but it does linger in the back of your mind. That means that neither of us has any of those kind of issues to worry about in the near future so at least there’s no danger of me being outed by a tabloid newspaper. I do hate it when that happens. Anyway, after the meal we came back to ours and watched Coronation Street. Hmm, it’s been a while.

 

Saturday was a generally quiet day although for some reason it didn’t feel it. Me and James went into town in the morning and pottered about a bit, watching various things like we usually do. And in the afternoon I made a pineapple and mango upside down cake, aided by my faithful assistant who chopped the fruit (since I’m not allowed near sharp knives!) Yum yum. There was a minor irritation of forgetting to get eggs earlier in the day but never mind.

 

Sunday involved a trip to Hull to visit The Deep – apparently the world’s only subnarium, whatever that is. Actually, I do know what it is, it’s a lift in a tank. Now I had high hopes for The Deep. It doesn’t take a lot of weird sea creatures to impress me but when we got there Hull didn’t do much to endear itself to me. It was cold, windy and rainy and because I hadn’t checked the trains properly it took us ages to get there. We had such a long wait at Leeds that we decided to go for a shop! Having found it though, and not getting there until about 4pm we joined the strangely long queue.

 

Moaning aside though, it was good. There may have been lots of kids about but that’s the nature of the place, it’s very education-for-kids orientated but since we knew all the basic stuff (and even the stuff we didn’t we could read about in a book) we stuck to just looking at the fish. I think the main issue with the place was just the size of it. It only took a hour to walk around but what they had was really excellent. To start with there was a large shallow tank with an abundance of fish in including rays and small hammerheads which was cool. The only other ‘main’ tank as it were was a properly HUGE one with various viewing windows on the floors. Now it really was impressive and had lots of interesting things in including several big sharks, a sawfish, a moray eel and two mega whiplash rays. I could have watched them for hours really.

 

The rest of the place was just made up of smaller tanks I think. There were a few seahorses which I love, just because they’re so cute and yet so very strange. There was also a very dark, large tank with Japanese spider crabs in which are creepy and rather big. I think we both agreed that it was the most impressive tank (apart from the main one). In the same dark room there was a giant octopus. Now they’re my favourite but the one there was squashed up in a corner so we didn’t get to see it move! L Grrrr.

 

So yes, we left feeling a little underwhelmed. What they had was great, but it wasn’t nearly big enough. And because I was soggy I got the general impression that Hull was rubbish. I did buy some books from Leeds station to make myself better. Three Kate Atkinson’s and Freakonomics which cheered me up a bit. We got home at about 9pm and didn’t do much apart from watch Rosanne which James has just got the seventh season of. Twenty minute comedies are where it’s at people!

 

So Bank Holiday Monday then, during which I met James’ grandparents for the first time (and it’s only taken three years! Hurrah!). James’ Mum drove us up to Ingleton, which, funnily enough is where they have. It’s a nice drive really because you get to go through all the villages between there and Skipton. And sticking with the picturesque, James’ grandparents have an amazing view from their living room which takes in loads of fields and other green things. You can even see a horse and chickens in the field below. I love Yorkshire for a reason you know, and it’s not the men ;) As for the people themselves, they couldn’t be lovelier. They’re also a talented pair. I got to see James’ Grandad’s wonderful garden and drink his tasty elderflower wine and eat his Grandma’s homemade apple pie. I dunno what it is with James’ family but they always feed you to the point of exploding! So yes, the whole thing was entirely painless. I like them a lot and I know how much it means to James that I’ve met them :D

 

Not much else to report really. James sent me a text at dinner telling me that the new guy at work has just graduated in drama at Manchester Met Uni! That means that he may have been in my fan club when I was at the library. They always come back to haunt you these people.

 

I’ve been buying a fair few albums of late so I’m currently listening to Blonde Redhead, Adult., Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Rufus Wainwright. Eclectic non?