It’s been far too long!

Ooops, I’ve just realised that we haven’t posted anything on here since May! That’s far too long, but in our defense, we doubt very much that you’d be interested in our day to day lives at home! The reason I checked was because we’re back out on the road again, so it’s time to bring you up to speed with our highlights since we last posted.

After a fantastic month pottering around France, Luxembourg, a potter along the Mosel in Germany and the Netherlands for Parkruns and on to Belgium, we went back home to take part in an experience I bought Jay for his Birthday. In the past we’ve made pottery bowls, learned to blow glass, carved wooden spoons and this time it was blacksmithing.

We headed to one of the oldest working forges in the UK (which happens to be not too far from us at the High Peak Junction in Cromford in Derbyshire) and had a wonderful day learning different techniques. The result, a fire poker each with twirly bits on it, aching arms and an appreciation of the work that goes into making stuff.

For his actual birthday, we headed to Buxton in Derbyshire for a long weekend in an Airbnb. As well as wandering around the spa town, and taking in a Parkrun, we used the car to explore the area to hike around Lud’s Church and visit the Derwent Dam.

We’ve nipped up to Bridlington to see our friends Richard and Jenny who treated us to tickets to see the comedian Sarah Millican. While we were there we also managed a round of pitch and putt with the course, thankfully, to ourselves. We were also lucky and spotted dolphins in the sea.

Unable to get tickets to see any of the athletics at the Olympics in Paris this year, we opted for the next best thing and went to watch the Diamond League athletics in London, which was held in the 2012 Olympic stadium. I confess we were in the cheap seats, so the athletes looked a bit like ants on the track. After the games ended we got to spot several of them on the cool down track, and the following day I got to say hello to the sprinter Noah Lyles as walked (very quickly) with all his luggage from his hotel.

To make a weekend of it, I booked us into the Olympic park ‘Snoozebox’ which is a temporary hotel made from shipping containers. It was right by the stadium, so ideal for a morning jog around the Olympic park. The hotel also happened to be across the road from ABBA Voyage, so the following night we boogied down with the abbatars and enjoyed the amazing show – if you haven’t been, I’d seriously recommend it.

Our own Airbnb has been doing really well, which has kept us busy day to day, along with supporting our parents and stuff with our running club. I really don’t know where the time has gone. Before we knew it, our friends children were all breaking up for the school holidays – summer was here. As the streets in our town are closed over the summer to replace a gas main, we decided to have summer off from Airbnb hosting. We blocked out the nights so no one could book it, leaving us free to nip up to Whitby for a couple of weeks.

We stayed on the Camping and Caravan Club Temporary Holiday Site which was only £15 a night and around a kilometre from the town centre.

We met up with friends who were holidaying there as well as others who were cycling through on the coastal path. We were even inspired to cycle part of the path over to Robin Hoods Bay one day (our backsides taking much longer than a day to recover).

Whitby is one of our happy places, after we spent a couple of weeks there during the Covid summer of 2020. This time while we were there it was the Steampunk weekend and the Steam Traction Engine show (don’t get the two mixed up, they are very different).

This is the first time we’ve visited Whitby in the height of summer and it was sooooo busy. Towards the end of the fortnight, we avoided the town centre in the day time. Instead we’d nip through for an early morning run or an evening stroll when it was quieter, especially when there were fireworks to watch.

With still another month of the summer blocked out in our calendar, we booked a ferry to France. That’s as far as our plans went. We nipped home for a few days to give us time to get the washing done, sort out a few things for parents, and grab our passports. Allons-y!

Ju x