Tidying My Mum's Attics and a Spa Day

Towards the end of March we went to my mum's house two days in a row to tidy out her attics. She had been threatening this for years but then waited until we moved house so that we have a loft of our own to put our stuff in rather than hers. My uncle Neil then offered to come and help us, as neither me nor my stepdad can climb the ladders into the attics. It was nice of him to help and he was so useful! He arrived at my mum's on the Tuesday afternoon, and we went over there on Wednesday morning. Lee took three days off work, so we had the time to do it. 

There are two attics in the house because it's extended. One is the ordinary common or garden attic, kind of boarded out and all dark and shadowy. The other one is in the extension and it was my 'chill out' space when I was a teenager. It's pretty small and set in the eaves, but it's properly boarded with a nice floor (that I painted purple) and a window. I LOVED it up there when I lived there - it was a cool space and I had cool furnishings and stuff. Since my stepdad moved in fifteen years ago he and my mum have used it just to store stuff. It was definitely in need of sorting, as was the other one!

It was actually snowing in the morning; Kiki and I were not impressed with this! Penistone really is its own micro climate. We got stuck into sorting things out at my mum's - where it wasn't snowing - and did well. I sat on the landing looking at a load of old stuff that was mine, and a load of stuff that was my dad's. We broke for lunch and then went again, and got stuff sorted into lots of piles, including lots of stuff to take to charity and lots of stuff to take to the tip. Lee and my uncle did a tip run late on and then we gave up, and had a nice night instead. 

My mum made sausage casserole (veggie for me and Lee) and she had got puddings from where I work, so I had apple crumble which was lovely. We had a few drinks and chatted for a bit, then Lee and I headed home to see the cats and go to bed!

Thursday was very much the same, only there was less of my stuff now because they were in the extension loft and that wasn't as much my stuff. I did go through a lot of my dad's stuff, including all of his school exercise books. Funnily, one of them was filled with football scores of a local team that he was friends with. I found loads of funny things and loads of touching things, too. My mum and uncle had taken a load of stuff to the charity shop first thing, and then Lee and Neil did another tip run just before it closed. There were still boxes of my stepdad's stuff for him to go through - a lot belonging to my stepsister, who doesn't speak to us anymore - but nothing for me or Lee to do. 

We had fajitas for tea and more pudding - jam sponge this time for me! - and played games and had some more drinks. We got  home late again so we weren't that early getting up the next morning. I was given a voucher by a friend which was for use of the spa facilities and afternoon tea at the Mercure Hotel in Sheffield City Centre. I had heard that the spa isn't great but we headed off anyway, of course. We got there about 11.30 and into the spa. 

There's a swimming pool and a sauna and a steam room, but no hot tub, and as it's all in the basement it's pretty dark and a bit dingy. But we had a nice swim and sat for a bit, and then swam some more. We went up to the hotel lobby for afternoon tea which was right next to the Winter Gardens. It was actually lovely food and we both enjoyed it! We headed back downstairs and I went into the steam room, which was lovely, for a bit, and then went for another swim. We didn't stay way long into the afternoon but we had enjoyed ourselves.

We went into Caffe Nero for a drink and took it up to Lee's office so he could show it to me. He works near the car park that looks like a cheese grater, if you know Sheffield. His office is on the top floor so we went up and he showed me his desk and the board rooms and stuff like that. There was only one person in! We went out on to the roof terrace which has a lovely view over the station and Park Hill. 

Then we came home! It had been a busy week! 

Kiki looking disbelievingly at the snow falling from the sky

This was given to me on my first Christmas, when I was nearly one, and was signed by my dad - adorable 

Bottom right is the first record I ever bought, when I was about eight years old. The others were definitely mine, haha

A wedding photo of my parents! My mum made her own dress, isn't it gorgeous? 

This was a folder I decorated in Year 10. All my folders looked like this

And the back of it, lol

Neil said he needed counselling over the number of baby dolls he found in both attics, haha. This one was my grandma's, so she's almost a hundred years old, and she's very fancy. Her head has been loose ever since I was a little girl, and it's now come off entirely. We did have it, though, so I am going to look into getting her mended and getting her clothes back in good condition too! She did look a bit terrifying sitting here with no head, though

Here we are playing Skyjo and having a drink

The afternoon tea in the hotel, which was lovely, the scone especially

I finished this cross stitch on Friday night I think!

Weekend in Durham - Day 2

On the Sunday of our little trip to Durham we went to Beamish! I've only been once, when I was a teenager on a school trip, and Lee hasn't been since he was a kid either. Lee's dad lives quite close to it now so we wanted to go. Lee's dad went off to see the football - a Newcastle/Sunderland derby - so I didn't actually see him, but I had some breakfast and talked to Lee's stepmam before we set off. 

We got there and met some friends of mine which was nice. We had prebooked tickets so we could get in quite quickly and because the match we a derby there weren't as many people around as there might otherwise have been on a nice Sunday in March. My friends have been a lot so they knew all the crack about it, so we followed their directions really. We got on a tram - a Sheffield tram! - and went all the way round the park to where the steam engine goes a little way up the track because my friends' little boy loves trains. I do too and it was really fun even though it doesn't go very far. 

We got back on the tram, going the other way, and went down to the 1950s town which is all I remember of the place from before. We wandered around a bit and went into the bakery where we bought goodies for later. Then we went to the fish and chip shop to get lunch, and sat on a picnic bench to eat them. They were good and thankfully the weather meant we could sit outside!

We went back across to the 1950s town and went into some of the old houses. One belongs to a local artist and that was really cool. We went into a few of the shops but didn't queue for the sweet shop as the queue was huge! I was really tired as we had walked a long way the day before - and as a reminder, I have fibromyalgia - so we could have seen more but weren't completely up for it. But we can go back for free on the tickets we bought, so we will probably do that within the year and see bits we didn't get to this time! 

We got ice creams from the stand and sat in the park to eat them before getting a bus back to the top and to the gift shop where I bought some sugar mice. We said goodbye to our friends and got back on the road as Lee's mam wasn't free because of the match. Not to worry as that meant we were home early enough to relax for the evening which was good before another week started! 

I love old advertisements so took this photo just into the park

On a Sheffield tram!

Looking at the 1950s town

And again

And a tram coming towards us!

Inside the bakery

More old adverts outside the fish and chip shop

Old bikes inside one of the shops

I LOVE old sewing machines and this Singer was a beautiful example in the artist's house

My mum still has this roasting tin and uses it often

More old adverts!

A car that looked a lot like Brum in the garage

We used to have a shop called Eagle Press in Wakefield that sold stationery and did printing, so I wondered if this one was related to it

Looking further up the street - those are the terraced houses we went in on the left

Sheffield cutlery!

Chocolate ice cream

Signs of spring in the grounds!

And here's what I was wearing. This is a Yours dress I've had forever and I love it in the summer, but I pulled it out in March and wore it with a cardigan and footless tights

Weekend in Durham - Day 1

On the 21st of March we headed off to Durham for the weekend. It's where Lee is from originally so we do go and visit his family there, but we hadn't been into the city centre for literally twenty years. Maybe longer! Then I read Cuddy by Benjamin Myers for my book club in January which is about St Cuthbert and Durham cathedral and I wanted to visit the cathedral and his shrine, so we made plans to go. 

We set off from home around 10am and easily made it up the A1 to Belmont Park and Ride. We got on the bus which only takes a few minutes into the city centre, and got off by the market place. There was an outdoor market on as well as the indoor one, so we looked at that before heading into the indoor market. I had read that there's a queer bookshop there so I obviously had to buy some books from there, and then we looked at everything else. There's a ton of cute stalls! There's a record stall and a really cool place selling upcycled jewellery - I bought some earrings. We went back outside and got an ice cream from a van in the market place. The sun was out so although it was a bit cool, it was lovely to be in the sunshine.

We walked up Saddler Street and up the very very steep bit to where the cathedral and castle are. We looked at the castle but had decided to not go in, so we just headed to the cathedral. We looked round that, which you can do for free, and which includes St Cuthbert's shrine behind the altar. That's really cool, but you can also see his treasures in the museum, which is £7.50 each which I felt was reasonable. The person who sold us the ticket told us that the cathedral was closing at 3pm for a service at 4pm so we looked round it first and then went up to the museum. 

By the time we had finished it was about 3.30 and we had walked a long way and were tired, so we decided to go for a drink in a place called Tango on Saddler Street. I had a peach melba cocktail which was nice, and Lee had a hot chocolate. 

When we had finished that we went across to Turkish Kitchen where we had decided to eat. Turkish food is always good for vegetarian so I was happy to go there. I had cheese filled filo pastry things, and then falafel with hummus, and Kir Royale. It was all so good and arrived in double quick time so we were done by about 5pm! We walked back to the bus stop and got back to the car and then went to Lee's dad's house where we were staying for the night.

Lee's dad was in but his stepmam was out, she had been in Sunderland at the theatre, so Lee's dad went to pick her up. Everyone was back by 8pm so we just sat and chatted which was nice! 

I walked bloody miles and up really steep hills too, so I was impressed with myself. Here's ten thousand photos: 

Sitting in the sunshine in the market place while Lee went to get ice creams

Lee has a sundae but I had a traditional cornet

And here we are, aren't we cute

We went into a pop up museum thing and there was an old sign, which I love

And some information about Cuthbert

And a scale model of the cathedral! 

And Durham bricks

This sign was on The People's Bookshop which was also a really cool bookshop, although I didn't buy anything in there

And then, the cathedral! Looking stunning in the sunshine

Looking towards the castle

This is a replica of the sanctuary knocker which is really old, it was cool to see this one anyway! But then the original turned out to be in the Treasures of St Cuthbert exhibit which was amazing to see

One of the shrines, I liked the sculpture

And there was info about the Venerable Bede too. His head is in St Cuthbert's shrine, because of course it is

Looking up into the tower

And I thought this embroidered hanging of the gospel writers was cool too 

The rose window, which is amazing but hard to photograph 

The shrine of St Cuthbert himself! I loved seeing this

I also loved this rainbow window, of course

And I can never resist a mining banner...

And loved this memorial to the miners, which had a book full of miners names, too 

Looking out on to the cathedral lawn 

And out over the River Wear

This is the St Cuthbert exhibit, the first part was in what had been the monks' dormitory and is now a library. It had a lot on the history of Durham which was interesting too

This is an effigy of Cuthbert himself

Love a bit of bookkeeping

We went downstairs into a special archival airlocked room which has what is left of Cuthbert's coffin, and his necklace which is a cross of gold with garnets in, which was so cool to see. But you can't take photos in there, so I didn't

This embroidery was SO cool though, made by a local artist. It was amazing in person! 

Back out now on the cathedral green

Drinks in Tango

And a Kir Royale, which was delicious

My food

And here are the books I bought in the queer bookshop!