Nathan and Jill spot a tractor in Ullswater

I promised to write this up some time ago, but I've been waiting to get my Flickr feed updated. Anyway, that was fixed at the weekend when I upgraded the plugin that I use in iPhoto to upload pictures.

We spent my birthday weekend in Centre Parcs at Whinfell Forest in Cumbria, with a group of friends. It came about from a quick aside that I through out to Jill wehen she asked for ideas of what to do for my birthday, and all of a sudden we were booked. It didn't turn out as big as we imagined (too many people had prior commitments) but we had a nice chalet for the long weekend and a group of friends who we had not seen for quite some time.

With us were the Mawhinneys, old friends from Ellesmere Port who I originally met through roleplaying, and the Francises, who we met through work when Jill and I were both based in Port Sunlight. Phill Francis is Nathan's godfather.

We had a great weekend relaxing, eating and drinking too much and enjoying the facilities. Nathan and Caitlin (Richard and Allison's daughter) hit it off really well, despite an age difference, and happily shared a room. We had fun in the pool complex (the nearest thing I've done for exercise since my operation), at the adventure playground, and in the restaurants. In fact, Richard and I rediscovered why soft play areas in pubs are a *good* idea as we enjoyed a pint while the kids scrambled around. One evening, Nathan enjoyed the 'Animal Magic' show with lots of small animals including Lottie the Polar Bear (in reality, a West Highland Terrier).

We finished off the weekend with a quick trip to Ullswater in the Lake District, where Nathan's day was made with hugh numbers of tractors moving sillage before returning back across the A66 and Pennines to Yorkshire.

We had a lovely time and would love to do it again.