A Yorkshire Wednesday and Thursday

and I have no pictures. Not sure why not. just forgot to take them. Although they would haven mainly been of people that would mean nothing to anyone but me. 

Wednesday we spent time with the my Dorothy Dunnet reading friends - not that many of us read DD much any more. We had lunch in a very nice pub on the outskirts of Harrogate, although we had a bit of trouble finding it! as the sat nav took us into the precincts of some scientific research establishment and then insisted we had arrived at our destination, The Pine Marten. Close but no coconut as the saying goes. After lunch we decamped to the nearby home of one of the group for coffee and chat and general catch up, and then the OH and I drove one of the group home and returned to our cottage. Some of the group I have known since Son No 23 was in vitro, and he's 33 next month, so that's a long time to stay connected. Others came along slightly later, but not by much. The latest one to join up was just after we moved to Orkney so that even she has been around for 15 plus  years. 

Thursday was just mad. We had coffee with a friend from my Leeds church in the morning, in the cafe at Golden Acre Park, much improved and expanded since our day. This was followed by a very quick trip into Leeds City Centre where I needed to return a shirt I had bought the previous day in the Harrogate branch of M and S, and a very short diversion into Waterstones where I found the next in the series of the St Mary's Chronicles so that was a bit of a result. Then on to tea and cake with a friend from the Russian Department / Brotherton Library Special Collections staff, now retired but working just as hard as he ever did before as a volunteer as far as I could see. And then we set off in what we thought was plenty of time to have an evening meal in Halifax with some friends from a Facebook group I'm in. 

The plenty of time was not in fact plenty of time at all. In fact if we'd left 90 minutes earlier we might still have been only just on time. We were supposed to be meeting at 6.30 and lots of frantic messaging and much frustration over traffic and closed roads later, we finally arrived an hour late. At least the others had ordered and were well through their starters and I have to say the food and company were all lovely but we weren't very relaxed - we both hate being late for anything. Things weren't improved as we tried to get back to the cottage, I was beginning to think we would never get back as the saga of closed roads continued. I think the great takeaway from that day was that we were very glad we didn't live in Leeds anymore. 

I'd thought that Thursday would stress me out because of all the socialising but it didn't which was pleasing. It was just lovely to see everyone. And just a shame I didn't take photos just for myself. Ah well.