Size matters....seriously

Greetings dear readers.  It is Thursday evening and this blog comes from one very tired writer.  It has been a very busy few days!  Yesterday we got up at the crack of dawn (5.45am) to head to Manchester airport to pick up Ilona.  Arriving there at about 9am, it was just great to see her!  She had a decent flight over and we quickly bundled her into the car and whisked her off towards the lakes.

We had to make a quick stop in Kendal, the place where James and I had completed our residency interview a few weeks back.  Over the last few weeks we have bought various items at Marks and Spencer's, a nice department store, and we needed to complete a tax free shopping form as we are not UK residents.  We have completed many of these in the past, but Kendal had clearly not done one for about two years.  It wasn't long before James took charge and was soon giving lessons to the staff in how to fill the forms out!  Meanwhile, Ilona and I went for a look around the lingerie section.  While browsing, we stopped mesmerised.  There, hanging on a hook, in turquoise silk, with bright red ribbons ( a horrid colour scheme if ever there was one) was the biggest bra we have ever seen in our lives.  Yes, dear reader, you are reading correctly.  We are talking about bras.  Can you guess how big this was?  It was

40 GG

Yep.  Now, I am not normally an expert on bra sizes, but this one was a show stopper.  It was big enough to either take your bowling balls to the bowling alley, or, as Ilona pointed out, to hang outside your house and use for hanging flower baskets.  We toyed briefly with the idea of buying it to use as an extra piece of checked baggage, and then decided not to.  Returning to James, we rescued him from the throngs of attentive shop assistants who were now hanging on his every word and headed off.  A quick stop for lunch and we were on our way once more.  We arrived at the Winder Hall, and gleefully we all went to our rooms.  Yes, this was the day that we also said goodbye to the campsite and checked in to a room with a bed!  It is not our final destination, as on Friday we will move again into the largest room at Winder Hall, complete with four poster bed.  The rest of the afternoon was spent having a nap and finishing up a few errands before heading out to the pub for dinner.  Tonight dinner was at the Sun Inn at Braithwaite and was jolly good too.  Bedtime soon arrived, and we all crashed out for the night having decided to do a walk the following day.

Thursday dawned quickly with a fantastic breakfast in the Winder Hall.  Oh what a joy not to be sitting outside a tent frying eggs and bacon on the grass!  We dined on Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Salmon, and also Fried Eggs with Black Pudding, Bacon, Sausages, Toast, Mushrooms, and lots of coffee.  Fuel for a walk as our theory!  Then with a spring in our step, we headed off to a walk.  We decided, due to time issues, to re-do the walk that James and I had done earlier in the week.  Ilona did brilliantly slogging her way to the top of the hills with us.  It was a little windy at the top, as you can tell from the attached picture!

The afternoon was spent wondering where Joe and Cheryl, our next door neighbours from the USA where.  We knew that they we landing around 8am at Manchester, but when they hadn't arrived by 4pm ( a 2.5 hour drive) we were starting to get a little concerned.  A timely text from Louise and Andrew, informing us that the M6 motorway was closed quickly shed some light.  We got online and discovered that the motorway had been closed at 11.15am and was only just reopening, because someone had climbed onto a bridge and was threatening to jump off onto the motorway.  The motorway was not re-opened until 3.25pm when someone had finally talked the poor man down.  Joe and Cheryl finally arrived at about 5.15pm, after quite possibly the longest journey in history.  Still, they were safe and that was the most important thing!  Luckily they arrived just in time to go to the pub for dinner!  A good evening was had by all, and when I returned from the pub we also had a text from Louise and Andrew telling us that they had arrived too!  Hurrah!

So now, dear reader, I am off to bed.  We have an early start tomorrow as we still have some administration to take care of.  Then in the afternoon the whole weekend starts with the welcoming reception and Winder Hall.  I'll post plenty of pictures and try to blog throughout the day.  It should be fun with 30+ people arriving to spend the weekend with us!

So with that I'll say goodnight and of course, big love to all!

D&J