The word is a very exciting place

 The time had come to pack up and leave the lodge (glorified caravan) outside Easingwold where we had been staying, and to head over to Cumbria for the next part of our holiday. We seemed to have amassed a ton of tat during our holiday so far, and we were only halfway through! Funny isn't it, when you're on holiday you buy things you would never normally buy at home! Anyway, we decided to break the journey to Cumbria up a bit, with a couple of scheduled stops, up first, was Bolton Abbey.

 Luckily, after a lazy afternoon and an early night, James was feeling much better and wanted to hit the road again. Our next stop was Harewood House a glorious mansion, complete with mini zoo, sculpted gardens and even a little ferry to get you about the place. It was so fantastic, that I have decided I would like to live there! 

Just a quick note from me to say a massive thankyou to everyone who visits and reads my blog. I woke up this morning to discover that I had hit 20,000 visits since I started the blog in 2012. It's amazing to be able to share what I do and see with you all, and even better to know that people keep coming back to read more! I know that the blog is still very far behind, but I am continuing to write and queue the posts so there is a new one every Wednesday & Sunday for you. At some point I will be fully caught up, but until then, I hope you continue to enjoy the posts. Anyway, thankyou again for all your support! As October is typically the time it starts getting colder, more colds seem to circulate, and the day after Scarborough James woke up with a steaming cold. We did a covid test which was thankfully negative, but he did need the day in bed. I did a little walk around the site, there wasn't much to do, and then walked into Easingwold for wander about. I got some tasty pas...

 We decided we were in need of some amusement arcade fun, it's one of our favourite things to do while away. And being honest, the arcades are always better in the North, it's just another example of the North/South divide in England, albeit, a positive one for the North for a change!  Scarborough is one of those places where if it had better investment and a plan for the future, it could really do well, but instead, it always has this feeling of cheap, tacky and forgotten about. I remember a long time ago watching the news, and it was about the North/South divide, and the person was saying that the further from London you go, the less central investment there is. And I somewhat agree with that concept. But Scarborough has another problem - an accent I cannot understand! 

After soaking in the hot tub both the night before and this morning, to try and continue to ease the pain in my back and spine, we decided to head to the coast for some fresh sea air - a very Victorian concept, to go to the seaside to improve your health, but why not give it a try?  We headed to Whitby, looking for a ruined abbey, fish & chips, and to find dracula. We found two of three, can you guess which one we didn't? 

 After having an amazing time at Rievaulx, we headed into Helmsley to grab ourselves some lunch. We found a nice little cafe and over lunch planned where we were going to head next. We were planning on visiting Byland Abbey as well, but thought we'd have a little wander around Helmsley and see what was on offer.

 October came, and with it, two weeks off! Hooray! I know you must all think that I have too much holiday each year! I get 5 weeks off a year from where I work, plus extra days from working bank holidays, so it's normally an additional half a week each year. I am also terrible for fully booking the time off, so I normally come home in the evening and I'm back to work the next day. No point in getting those post holiday blues! 

 The day after I came back from London was the day for my MRI. I'd filled in the form, and tried not to feel anxious about it. I knew I needed this MRI, because then it meant they could see what was going on inside my back, and then the Doctor could do something about it. Hopefully anyway. 

I think London has two viewpoints. If you're like me and love a big city, and live in a small city where not much happens, London to me is exciting, fresh and vibrant, a place I would love to live in if the opportunity ever arose. Then there's the other viewpoint, and I think that's of people who live or work in London (like James) who find it noisy, messy, expensive and the place full of annoying tourists. I suppose I am one of those annoying tourists, although I do always try to get out of other people's way when I'm getting excited about something random. Which you'll notice towards the end of this post.

 Something I had always wanted to do since seeing the film Enigma, was to visit Bletchley park to see the history of codebreaking, and to where Alan Turing and other codebreakers worked through the war to intercept enemy communications. It's so, so fascinating, even though I don't fully understand it, and they have made it feel like the codebreakers have just gone for lunch, and you're snooping about, which gave it a really fun edge. Even the typewriters had little messages on them!