Writing, fatshion, me: Weekend in Barrow-on-Furness

At the beginning of August I headed up to Barrow-in-Furness for the weekend. Charlie, who used to live in Leeds and used to come to clothes swaps and stuff, moved up there quite a few years ago, so I haven't seen her since then although we're still friends on social media etc. For the past year and a bit I think she has been battling breast cancer and she has been declared No Active Disease, so she was throwing a party to celebrate! I wanted to go anyway but of course because my mum has battled breast cancer again this year I really wanted to go and donate some money. Then it turned out that Lolly, Gary, and Franklin would be on holiday nearby so they were going to go too, so it was ideal. I booked a single hotel room in Barrow for myself.

I have a friend, Rachael, who lives in Carlisle, so I asked if she wanted to meet me on the Saturday, and she agreed and booked her train tickets. Lolly and I arranged to have brunch on the Sunday before I set off home, and it was all set.

Then Kiki needed to go to the vet on Friday morning, as an emergency, because she seemed to have a bit of a water infection. She is fine, and had some painkillers. But it meant I was a bit later setting off than I wanted to. I ran into a bit of traffic too, which was annoying. I stopped for some lunch at some place or other, and managed to avoid a traffic jam. When I got to Barrow I couldn't find my hotel to start off with, so it was nearly 4pm by the time I actually checked in. I was tired by then!

My room didn't have a window in it - the window was in the bathroom so I could have it open and let some air in, but I did also shut the bathroom door at night so it made it nice and dark for when I was sleeping. It was fine, I really didn't need a fancier hotel room, but it did look a lot like my room in university halls. I laid down for a bit and watched crap TV which was fine, and read my book.

I'm guessing it was about 6.30 when I set out again. I wanted to find like a Zizzi or something, a chain restaurant where I could sit and read my book and have some food without being bothered. However, Barrow appears to not have anything like this AT ALL. There was a KFC and a McDonalds but I didn't want either of those; I wanted to sit in for a bit. I drove around and around and was considering just going into Tesco for snacks or a sandwich, but then I saw on my map that there was a Starbucks. The directions took me round the houses and I ended up back at the bloody Tesco. I swear to god, I was just cursed. BUT Starbucks was near Asda and I eventually found it. I had a veggie sausage sandwich and a coffee, and got a coffee to take away too.

I went back to the hotel and watched more rubbish telly and did some of my cross stitch. A family had arrived and were in two or three rooms and they kept knocking on each other's doors, so that was annoying, especially when they kept doing it after midnight. I put my earplugs in and went to sleep, but they woke me up before 8am which I was not thrilled about!

I went down and had some breakfast, which was not that inspired but it was fine, so whatever, and then I relaxed in my room for a bit. Rachael had been told her trains were cancelled, but she managed to get on different ones and I picked her up at the station at about 11.30. We decided to go to Piel Island. We were hoping to get on a boat to see some seals, so we joined the queue on the jetty. But the seal trip was full so we waited for the other boat which goes to Piel Island only. It was a tiny boat but a pretty fun trip. it was only a few minutes though! The island is tiny, it has a pub, a ruined castle, and about four houses on it.

We went into the pub and both got cheesy chips and sat inside to eat them. We sat for a bit in the sunshine and then queued to get the boat back. By this point it was coming up to 3pm so we decided to go to Stollers, this furniture shop, for cake. I had had it recommended to me and had been past it the night before (it's near Starbucks). I had a strawberry trifle and a coffee. We left just after 4pm and I took Rachael back to the train station to go home. It was nice to spend such a long time with her though!

I popped into Tesco to get some sushi and snacks for later, as I knew there wasn't food at the party and wasn't sure how hungry I would be. I got back to my hotel room and laid in the bed to have a nap, but couldn't sleep. I rested instead, though, which was good. About 6.15 I started to get ready for the party. I wore the same dress that I had worn to Prashad the previous week and I had taken lots of glitter to wear as make up to celebrate! I found some contact lenses in my bag so put them in, and went to town with glitter and gems. As you can see, I had caught the sun during the day!

I left the hotel about 7pm and walked round to the party venue. It was close enough for me to walk. I was one of the first people there so got to talk to Charlie which was lovely. Lolly and Gary turned up not too long after me. The bar had created two special cocktails to raise money - a Pink Colada and a Cherry Sour. Lolly and I both had a Pink Colada to start off with. We bought raffle tickets and then a piece of Polish strawberry cake each, all of which was to raise money too. Gary bought a copy off the quiz so we filled that in.

Around 9pm Charlie drew the raffle and one of my tickets was drawn, so I got to choose a prize. I went for a bottle of Mumm champagne because I bloody love champagne! I'll save it for a special occasion. Lolly and Gary left about 9.30. I talked to Charlie and a woman called Lou who also used to come to clothes swaps, so it was nice to see her. I got back to the hotel about 10.45 which was perfect for me. I had had quite a few of the Cherry Sours, they were lovely! I again didn't sleep amazingly due to loud people (maybe the same loud people, although I don't think they were) and woke up about 8am again.

I decided to make my life easier for the next day by having a shower as I had time, and then I packed up my stuff and left the hotel just after 10am. I then drove to Industry Kitchen where I was having brunch with Lolly and Gary and Franklin. It's only small and it was busy, so I had to wait, but then I got a booth table so sat down. The others arrived about 11am and we ordered food. I went for shrooms on toast which were delicious, with pesto and hummus and other stuff on. Lolly gave me one of her hash browns, too. Then I had millionaire's shortbread too which was yummy.

I set off home about midday and got home in really good time, I was home before 3pm and laid down for a nap! This is the longest post on earth but no matter, here's all the photos: