Goodbye Uncle Pad

A man so loving, so funny and kind,

A smile for us all and a Beautiful Mind.

Through all of our years guiding us on our way,

All of your wisdom has stayed with us I pray.

Dinner at Nan’s and off to the club you would go,

On with your coat and cap, then a quick “Cheerio”.

In you you had so much love for us to give,

But your poor mortal body could no longer live.

So Angels they came and carried you away,

And now in Heaven above with Bamps you must stay.

Together you both watch over us while we sleep,

But don’t you feel bad for us while we weep.

They are simply selfish tears of missing you,

Remembering all of the little things you would do.

Our memories live on, and the tears will slowly cease,

Because now above Uncle Pad you’re finally at Peace.

The Peaks Part Two

It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, it was hot in the sun, and we decided to go for a day out. We wanted to get a full day out, we found a little town not far away, with attractions like cave walking, cave boating, and a Castle we could walk to and explore. We strolled around the town centre, largely populated by pubs, which wasn’t an issue for us. We took in the sights and the locals and looked at the Castle from a far. I mean it was a long bloody walk, but from the bottom of the hill I say we had the best view. Dan and Katie even joined in with the local Rugby team who were doing precision shots for competitions. You had to throw the ball through a small hole from a distance. Dan unfortunately got his ass kicked by a girl, and Katie walked away victorious with a 4-1 win

It was cute and picturesque, with some really quirky shops for us to check out. One we found was a little on the strange side, it looked like the shop where people in the town’s stuff went when they die! We saw a mixture of really old antiques, some really beautiful stuff. Then came the sex toys, followed by a Shane Ward calendar, and a closed door that read “Massage Parlour Closed”! We were hoping at the time that it was a joke, but the owners didn’t seem like the people with that kind of humour. Combining that with the slap and tickle set, and handcuffs I think it’s safe to say we found a Pulp Fiction style basement shop.

We left with some haste and continued to explore the little town more. Unfortunately with the pub stops we missed the caves being over, so hung out at the entrance. I loved the wetness, and the fresh feeling that came from being in the caves. I can’t imagine what being inside would have been like, but from where we were it was just absolutely beautiful. I am always in awe of what nature can create.

We had a great day, we ate and drank and enjoyed each other’s company, even though we didn’t get around the attractions. The most fun was making our own fun. The weather was on the change and in began to pour down, so we made our way home to say bye to Laura who was going home to go on holiday.

Dan cracked on with making a feast for us all, and we decided to have a friendly game of Trivial Pursuit. I use the term “friendly” very loosely. We split into groups of three, and before we knew it we were locked in a ferocious game! Answers had to be word perfect to what was on the card. The timer could not drop a grain over. Iphones, and Ipads were brought out and I’m sure Google nearly crashed in the race to even question the super genius who wrote the game. Over time it became a two horse race. My team which consisted of Laura, Helen, Mia, Amy, and me were quickly thought of as, and I won’t beat around the bush, we were The Thick Team. I personally think we were just plain old havin’ a laugh!

While the others fought their way to the desirable cheese pieces, we knocked back some beer, flicked though some magazines, and got down to Glee. By the time the fates stepped in and we were in the lead, the others decided to call it a draw rather than losing to us.

The night turned to terror when Mia began making people drinks with her, as I now know them to be called, Mia Measures. With sniper precision she took each of us down one at a time. You’d never expect it from her angelic face, but the minx knew what she was doing, and my head really felt it the next day.

The night was full of drinking, singing and dancing which burned into the early hours of the morning, which ended in a medley of Disney Classics songs, from Aladdin to The Little Mermaid. Bed came quickly after.

I don’t know if I could recommend the Peak District to anyone who wanted to go, or even tell you for sure where we went. I can however tell you it was one of the best weekends I’ve ever had with a group of amazing friends.

A Different Look at the Peak District

5am is not a pretty site on a Saturday morning, and with only one hour sleep it looks even uglier. Lying in bed cursing my fella as the sound of my alarm blared on.

“Why’d he have to book the train so early?”

I didn’t have time to dwell on that though, so on the count of three I was up and in the shower with only the thought of getting some fresh air in the country, and seeing some chums to perk me up. We finished our packing and left in pretty good time, still with the bloody tube works we barely made it. We hit our sits breathless and settled down for a nice kip, and off we went. A quick change at Stockport which through tired eyes I hardly remember , then we were there.

The weekend had been planned for Dan’s friend Helen who’s going travelling in a couple of weeks, so 15 of us had rented a converted barn in Buxton in the Peak District. Dan’s been friends with his gang since school, and they’ve always remained really close despite them being in different areas of England due to Uni, and jobs etc. I’ve known them all about two years now so I was pretty excited to see everyone as well. We were the last to arrive, we had to work the Friday night so explains the lack of sleep, I did regret getting drunk in work because I was still a little drunk when we got there!

The pyjama party was still going strong when we arrived, people still feeling it from night one of the barn, they were still with it enough to give us hugs and hello’s though. The barn was gorgeous, with a massive open plan kitchen and living area, two toilets, and two showers, and two beds. Yes, that was two bedrooms for 15 people, we were split into couples and each couple shared the cutest little bunk beds. It reminded me of a school trip when you were a kid. We had some brekkie and headed off for a little explore to go trekking.

We found a lake and decided to head over, though when you’re in the country it’s called rambling, so we rambled on over when we came to a simple little wall we had to climb over. Easily enough everyone got over, until it came to my go. I don’t know how but I missed judged the little wall, slipped and took part of the wall with me. We bolted before the police would arrive and throw me in jail for damaging property!

We killed an hour or so, exploring, skimming rocks, gave some cocky looking sheep dirty looks, and even managed to adopt a dog. Colin. He joined the pack when we were making our way back to the car, he didn’t appear to have an owner around and just kept tailing us. We found a family of dog lovers walking their two hounds, but rather than helping Colin, we watched on, helplessly as poor Colin was mounted by another dog! This led me and Helen to question whether or not dogs care if they get it on boy girl style, and boy boy style? This question was never answered annoyingly!

Colin didn’t seem fazed so maybe that was a clue. We decided he would be fine and headed back to town. We even managed to pull over the Police. Yes in some twist of fate, a car full of civilians pulled the police over. That for me was the greatest definition of Karma. We told them about poor violated Colin we’d left in the car park, and I now hope he’s been adopted by Officer Handsome and is a police dog patrolling the streets of Buxton, that would be nice.

Our good deed, and hour doing the things you do in the Peaks had earned us a few pints and a watch of the ruggerz. It was great in theory to the country but let’s be fair, we were all thinking pub, pub, pub.

Back at the barn, the plan was take away. Everyone was KO’d and not in the mood for cooking, so we ordered a delivery. Here’s when this little anecdote takes a turn, the word delivery to me means you get brought your food. No, no my friends, this was not the way. Twenty minutes after our food was meant to arrive, we had a call. Our food was lost in the wilds! In true cavemen style, our group split into two some going to forage for our food, while the rest stayed back and made camp! Got the plates out, had a tidy then had some drinks! Same, same though.

Two hours after our ordered, and the heroes returned victorious, with their catch in hand. The barn went silent, no one spoke as we chowed down. We ate, chatted, played random drinking games which I plan to pass on for generations to come, then barely alive from the longest day of our lives, me and Dan headed for bed. I reminisced of my first brush with the Peaks, we’d seen a dog get molested, had to go looking for our take away in the back of nowhere and even managed to pull a police car! That was only the first day as well!