spring, Mr and Mrs Wetherby and a bit of Leeds in Feb

In no particular calendar order the photos this month , oh, and those in the last blog page, cover most of what we got up to in February 2012.  This snap is of the no-expense-spared Comedy and Curry night we went to at the Wetherby Racetrack.  A rather funny night with rather funny comedians, and funny curry.  Things we learnt, it pays to know someone in the queue for drinks at the bar.... Poms queue for drinks at a bar at wetherby races..... and Wetherby supplies the whole of Englands supermarkets with every brand of pre-mixed gravy from a company called Golden Fry.... and other things we learned I forget because I wasn't driving home and could enjoy the night.

This pic is of Gail and the Alliance girls gone to the dogs.  We went to Manchester dishlickers mid week because of two reasons, we got cheap tickets in and were told it would not be a busy night.  The tickets were cheap but it wasn't a quiet night. In fact it was full and we didn't get to sit all night but we did have a jolly time watching very happy pups run really really fast.  Not the ones we chose mind you but the other dogs all ran really fast.

Oh, here is a tip, if you book a twin room at a Holiday Inn  , don't presume you can push the beds together and try to roll over to your partner's side of the beds.....  And when you are stuck between the mattresses with no way to get up don't presume your partner is getting up to help you......... at least not before she has taken a photo and gone to the bathroom because she is laughing so hard she is afraid she'll wet herself. 

 And sometime around the 14th we went to the Wetherby Lions' Valentines night do.  A rather fun night with a bunch of other old farts intent on having a good time.  All the blokes sang a song to the ladies...... Well two blokes knew the words and some of us recognised a bit of the chorus but the girls thought we were fantastic.  And we gave them each a red rose.

There was other entertainment, some of the blokes were asked to dress a lady.  A rather pneumatic type called Helga or Gertrude.  Inverted pantyhose technique proved more successful than karate chops to the gusset but far less amusing.

And by dint of having been together for over 34 years now Gail and I correctly answered more questions about each other than any other couple and were rewarded with chocolates, bubbles, a trophy and crowned 2012 Mr and Mrs Wetherby.  A title we feel most appropriate.

 And Spring came to our back yard  encouraging the early bulbs to bloom.

And as it was Spring we decided we would spend some time in Leeds.  We joined some sketchers drawing the Corn Exchange in the city then went to find a special bar we had heard of.

 

On our way we spotted this business =>    and immediately doubted its credentials.   Maybe they are classy hookers ......

We managed to find our way down a little cobbled back street to our destination, The Dock Street Markets.  It's not a market realy, more of a cafe/pub/bakery sort of thing.
We were attracted there because of a special being offered on teapot cocktails and a mezzo plate.  Teapot cocktails,,,,, We chose a rum cocktail of dubious alcohol content.  It is surprising how much cocktail a chilled teapot holds.  We were very happy when we were then told the special included TWO teapots......

Anyway, after we loitered over the mezzo plate for a while we decided a walk through the streets window shopping would be an entertaining thing to do.  After all,  the Spring sales were starting and everything was dropped.

And other than a little bit of snow for a few days, that was February really.  Except we did head of to find Yorkshirs most northern vinyard.  We found the vines, and a shed, shed was closed, it looked a bit, well, um, ah, let's say, closed and uninviting.  The limited info we found before we went was that the vinyard was open 'most days'.  Not that day. The business does not have a web site and while we have drunk their wine at Oulton Hall, (refer previous blogs by searching Oulton), and it was ..... interesting...., The vineyard is not a destination we would recommend.  However if we do ever return and the shed is open, we will let you know all about it. 

ON THE MATTER OF OUR TENURE IN THE UK;

Her Liz has taken our money for our application to stay and told us not to call her. 

I called her and her recording said, .... "I told you not to call.  If it has been more than 6 MONTHS since you lodged your application, then I may talk to you, but not before."   She went on to say that she would send our passports back to us if we needed them, it would take up to 25 days, and she may decide to retract our application..... I'm not clear on that but I don't think she offered to return our money in that case.  She's a nasty bit of work that girl.  No wonder she's always at war.

Anyway that means we can't leave the country, so our planned trip to Europe this month is OFF. As are all other trips until we learn if we will be allowed to stay or will be required to leave the country on 30 days notice. 

We continue to live in exciting times.

 

Rosco and Holmfirth and Yorkshire wine.

Some little time ago we had promised Rod and Tina if they ever needed someone to look after their dog, Rosco , while they went away.... Gal and I would be happy to do so.  About a month ago Gail got a call setting us up to do just that, and to stay at Tina and Rod's home in Holm, Holmfirth, at the top of the Pennines between Huddersfield and Manchester.  This was the view from their kitchen when we arrived......

RESULT!

First task on arrival was to get some heat into the old stone walls and Rosco was first to show us where the paper was .  Great game tearing it all up for the fire.   Sorry no photos of the house, I sort of think that is invasion of privacy, but it is a converted farm building, part of which, the now bathroom,  was the pig shed.  Rod and Tina have done amazing things and the place is a dream of country style and comfort.  Cold though these stone homes.... when left alone for a while.

 Next up was a long dog walk.  Found a little track through paddocks and past a waterfall reached down the side of a wonderful place called Underhill, built totally under a hill by an architect and there are photos in the RIBA if you care.  I don't need to explain the rest of our scenic photos so just enjoy  the few we took. it was a wonderful walk this day and the ones that followed over different tracks we didn't take the camera on.

Oh, I may have forgotten to mention..... Right near to Tina's and Rod's home in Holme is Holmfirth Vinyard.  Yes, in West Yorkshire! 
It's the second most northern English vinyard.

We now just have to visit the most Northern.... Its even closer to Wetherby!

Anyway we called in sampled their medium dry white and light red, both quite stunningly drinkable and with good complexity and sugars.  Most surprising considering the land and the climate but the german varietal grape they use is a hardy and productive beast.... Well worth a visit.... nine quid a bottle at the cellar door makes it a viable local drop,

 The restaurant was rather nice too and I can imagine if there was ever a fine warm day in Holmfirth in summer this would be a spectacular place to go, small tho so bookings would be recommended.  Matt and Ret, you could plan a visit here on, say the 26th March, on your way from Manchester to stay with us on the 27th?  Or we could take the hour trip from Wetherby and do both northern vineyards on the 28th.... now there is an idea for Manlangang wine tours...... a Yorkshire wine tour, who'd a thought?

And then , on the last day of our dog minding, winter arrived and spat snow on us all here in northern England.
  Of course England stops when it snows... stupid. We made it home just fine.
Got a good six inches before we left Holme and found Wetherby had not escaped the heavyfall  when we woke, dogless the next morning at our own home.

And so February 2012 began. 

We sat inside for the whole next day filling out forms and copying documents to send to THE QUEEN giving her  reasons why, despite the fact our visas to stay in the UK will expire in March, she should , really should, allow us to stay and continue our Wetherby Adventures....

We posted the forms and our passports off to some grey faceless public servants who spend their boring pathetic little lives processing endless pieces of paper in vast soulless rooms looking for minute errors and reasons why perfectly competent capable but ex-commonwealth tax payers like us should be kicked out in preference to EU criminals and social security grabbing desperadoes who have thieved enough lucre to bribe their way through the system.. 

I have no reason to believe that this is anything like the truth but we do worry we may be sent home.....wherever that is now, or will have to be .... more on that later,  probably or hopefully over a bottle of fine French champers,,,,, and cheese , and in celebration of our extended tenure.

Aussie Day Party 2012

 
 SO WE MISSED AUSTRALIA DAY IN WETHERBY,  but we did enjoy it in Jersey if you look at the next blog entry below.   But as you can see we had planned a great date for it.  Saturday the 28th was the Wetherby Aussie Day this year and it was a cold but sunny day. We have been most proud to have every year selected a fine weather day for our Aussie days and this year was the best.  We had between 20 and 30 folk turn up of which there were equal numbers of locals, Gail's work friends and some of my friends from Leeds Savages.  Regrettably because some of our good  friends from past years have returned to Australia there were not many Aussies and even fewer photo taking friends (Karen, Kylie and Jon were most missed) so the selection of snaps this year comes from Gail's and my best efforts to remember to take pictures.

The theme this year was BYOG&N and MYOP .  Bring Your Own Grog&Nibbles and Make Your Own Pizza.
Thinking there may be few nibbles bought along Gail laid out some cheese.  We had previously spent a day prepping the Pizza toppings.  Of which there were ample.  We had the party start time of noon and as no-one had shown up by 1pm Gail started in on the cheese.  

 It wasn't that long before the house filled up, the music kicked in and the first takers of the pizza fest stepped up to the table.  Amy Trish and Cora  were first in and there were three choices of base, tomato, roast capsicum or pesto then a bewildering choice of meats, vegetable or seafood.

Oh, and Vics again bought along one of her cake creations in theme ,
 Look at this will you,
There are Kangaroo, Wallaby, Platypus and Koala roasting marshmallows and drinking grog, a cockatoo on the fence, a snake or two, a campfire, real fire see later, and of course a pizza with the mandatory dropped slice.  Brilliant and again, thanks Vics.

 The pizzas went down a treat Gail and I worked the ovens and made sure everyone remembered to collect their own pizza.  Sort of distracted us from photo taking until the fireworks which I hosted and tried again to control.  No one died, no one took photos but there was one incident where one multi -shot cannon thing sort of misfired and scattered the crowd..... one singed overcoat, one holed stocking, one party goer escaping down the stairs and quite a few expletives, most exciting, but as I said no deaths again ..... so.....success....!!.

And then we came inside to light the candles on the cake and share it around.  How cool is that ?
Some folk left and others stayed. 

The music went on as did the chatting.

As did the drinking.

Until 10pm.

 10pm was when Gail and I had sort of agreed to launch some night lanterns. 
Gail found these on  'tinternet and they were fantastic fun.  
The night was cold and still so just perfect for these things.  You light a fuel cell suspended beneath the paper canopy, it heats the air inside and the whole thing floats off into the breeze.   Most , most beautiful and those who remained all got to light one up and launch it off. 
These photos Gail took do not really do the event justice. Not that they are not great photos.....

The last one was launched and rose for ages floating into the heavens and to wherever out of sight...... when those remaining folk returned into the warmth of the house, the chat and the drinks and nibbles, and the cheese, always cheese.

And eventually everyone left the party
and then I had to push the last few off into bed.....
at about 3:30am ,

despite the fact there was still cake left.

The next morning, well, early afternoon, we knocked up some leftover pizza and finished off the pavlova Gail had made and settled down into a rather calm discussion and catch up before a short drive to Leeds to catch the train back to London for the last two guests

The clean up took almost no time, in fact most of it is still waiting to be done..... Well I'm deciding what to do about the carpet......vacuum first I suppose then evaluate.

As far as Wetherby Aussie Days go the fourth one was up there with the best of them.  

Thanks to everyone for making it such a great day, and night, and morning.