Holidays part one.

So, like I said, I'm a few weeks behind with my blog posts but I'll try to catch up as best I can.  This could make for a very long post so I'll blog in stages to avoid boring you all to death in one sitting.  You can die of boredom bit by bit instead!

During the last week of July, Patrick and I had a weeks leave from work and we had planned to go to Huddersfield for the first weekend. Not a very exciting prospect I can hear you saying!  However, for real ale fans, it is very exciting because Huddersfield is one of the stations on the Transpennine Real Ale Trail.  The weather was lovely as we arrived at Huddersfield and we firstly bought our train tickets for our journey.  The trail takes in 7 stations now because the pub in the first station of Batley has closed down, I'm sure there are plenty of other pubs in Batley but as we don't know the area, we decided to stick to the recommended route.  Five of the stations are in West Yorkshire and for that part of the journey we could buy a family day rover ticket which cost us the princely sum of £8.80, seriously, how cheap is that?!!  The other two stations are over the Pennines in Lancashire and the tickets for that cost I think around £15 for the two of us but I can't quite remember the exact cost.   Huddersfield station is a stunning Grade 1 listed building.

Huddersfield Station

Having left our baggage at our hotel, we ventured down to the first pub of the day, The Kings Head at Huddersfield station.  However, what we didn't realise until the next day was that there are actually two pubs, one at either end of the station and the first one we went into was the other one.  The Head of Steam was an interesting place, four very distinct rooms and plenty of hand pumps on show!  I opted to try a completely new beer, I almost always do this, unless there is something on that I particularly love.  I was unlucky with this choice though.  I now cant quite remember the full details but it was either called Brass Monkey or that was the brewery name and it was vile.  It had a strange metallic kind of taste and for only the second time ever, I couldn't drink my beer!  We  had downloaded a Beer app for Patrick's new phone so that we could make notes about what we enjoyed and what we didn't.  Geeky?  Maybe, but it makes perfect sense to me to make a note of it you have enjoyed a beer or not for future reference.  We have, on numerous occasions, seen a pump clip, known we have tried the beer before but cannot remember, until we taste it again, if we like it.  This app should hopefully help us to recall what our fuddled brains have forgotten.

Here is the interior of The Head of Steam.  I've no idea who the bloke in the  picture is

The Head of Steam - complete with random bloke at the bar

Proud mum alert!

I'm several blog-posts behind and I will catch up soon I promise.  I have lots to tell you and lots of pics to share.  However today, I am a very proud mum.  My eldest son Michael has his A Level results and achieved grade A in Maths, Further Maths and Physics, giving him the required points to be accepted at his first choice university.  So, in October, he will be going away to study a Masters Degree in Computer Science and Artifical Intelligence.

I will miss him terribly but York is only 50 miles away so I'm sure I will still see him fairly often.  Shaggy (the dog) will miss him even more than I will I think!  I asked Michael if he will miss me,  No he said, but I will miss Shaggy.  Typical!  I'm really glad that he isn't the homesick type because that would make me worry.  He is very independant and will grasp the opportunities in front of him with all his might.  I just know that he has a great future ahead of him.

Here he is in his finery at his Leaver's Ball from Hymers College, with his younger brother Mason who was dressed up for his School Prom.

Michael (left) and Mason (right)