Afternoon Tea with Grandma

Due to my regular work pattern I generally have Thursday, Friday and Saturday off. Last year I really did not do much at all with my days off, other than lounge around in my shorts and t-shirt. Of course a great deal of that was to do with how I was feeling following ongoing treatment for my NHL, no not the Hockey league...Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I pretty much always felt drained after 4 days at work, or I had some cough, cold or bug.

Well this year I have made the concious decision, no time for all that crap. I need to get out more doing different stuff and filling my time in more productively.

VW Beetle (Grandma) GSR

When I got up this morning I had just missed Ern, who had taken wor Baxter out. So I jumped in the shower, woke myself up and got ready and waited for him to come back. When he finally arrived back I went downstairs and suggested we go do something. Ern suggested a ride through to CostCo to get some petrol in Tango and a bit shopping "Yawn!" "Nah I fancy doing something like going for a ride and a bit look around". So I suggested "how about we head up to Raby Castle". Thinking I may get some nice shots of Grandma my VW Bug, quite possibly with some deer in the background. There are also tea rooms and a nice park to wander around apparently.

At Raby Castle

So we collected a few things, like jackets and hats, walking boots and I took my big boy camera my Pentax DSLR, it's a camera I don't really have much success with as I am no David Bailey. It has way too many buttons, switches and settings. Basically I am a point and click type of guy. Anyhoo thought I would fetch it along and just play around.

Dagnabbit it's closed

Before we set off I removed the rear parcel shelf and laid it in the boot of Grandma and also put down her rear seats. You see she has this annoying rattle somewhere on the rear end, passenger side. I m not sure if it is coming from where I had the Dashcam fitted and the long cable that runs from the front to the back and is placed behind one of the plastic covers running down the rear panel. It just comes on now and again, however is very annoying, so I wanted to see if I could discover the source of the noise and eliminate it at a later date.

Man Grandma is loud I mean proper loud inside the cabin. I am running a Revo Front pipe with a 200 Cell Race Cat and a un-resonated Miltek Cat Back. At certain speeds the car can actually make my ears pop. I notice it more when the car starts to pull up a hill and auto drops a gear. There is like a boom. I don't think it bothered my da as he is deaf anyways. On the motorway Grandma sounds awesome and she pulls like a train, all within legal speed limits of course.

Ok and we are off, Raby Castle being popped in Grandma's Sat Nav and a very un-Grandma like lady speaking queens English guiding me. I mentioned to Ern I think it would be pretty cool to see if I could get another voice, Mrs Doubtfire would suit my car pefectly. Ern then went on to do his best imitation of Mrs Doubtfire as we drove and each direction came up, which I have to say was terrible, but did make me chuckle. He can be proper funny my dad.

VW Beetle GSR #240

Love this car

"Yay!" we arrived at Raby Castle..."Boo!" to be greeted by a closed sign, dagnabbit no tea and slice of cake for poor Ern and I. So I grabbed a few pics outside of Raby Castles gates and we headed off in the direction of Barnard Castle, heading up to Middleton Teesdale and High Force.

Upon reaching High Force and the carpark, we had to pay £3...No concessions for disabled vehichles. Dam it the whole reason I got my leg off was for free parking. Not only that as we crossed the road there was a sign saying £1.50 and this was each mind you to go and see the water fall known as High Force. Ern and I kind of pretended we didn't see the sign and just went all ninja like down and then up to the falls. Once at the Falls I managed to grab a few shots of the waterfall and a few of both Ern and me. I figured out when I got home and looked through the images, that the camera was probably on too slow a shutter speed and that is why the falls look all un-flowy, if that is even a word.

High Force

There's The Ern

Dad N Lad

 

Me

Me without a Hat

Nice hot beverages

Nowt like a nice cuppa

 After a few more pics in the carpark we headed back towards home, it was getting a little dusky by then and as we drove down the road at around about 16:04pm a pheasant decided to play chicken with me. I was doing around 30mph and managed to come to a controlled stop without splatting it. My ABS just kicking in and everything done in a nice controlled manner, there was no one behind me and the pheasant flew off unharmed.

Continuing home and up and over the moors we approached Castleside and a Sheep decided to also have a go at playing chicken I swear it's a conspiracey. I have to say, the sheep was a lot more adept at the game, as he/she just stood grazing in the middle of the road, as I came to a complete stop. I honestly think the sheep was both deaf and blind, as well as being stupid as I was right on it and it still refused to move. At this point I am sure Ern said "flash it", so I proceeded to flash my lights up and down on high beam. I mean there was no way I was going to get out on the moor and get me bits out, it was freezing, plus I didn't have my mack. Now that I am home it probably makes more sense that he would have said "beep at it". Anyhoo the flashing of my lights must have worked as it strolled off and if it was not blind before it probably is now.

Onwards to Consett and a pitstop at Maccy D's for some much needed sustanance. Then a nice litle tootle home.
 

A canny little adventure with good company and some class tunes playing from the 80's. My first ride out in Grandma this year...Ooh and she is showing as doing 26.6 miles to the gallon.