March 21st 2015 - Carlisle Cathedral and bell tower tour

March 21st 2015 - Carlisle Cathedral and bell  tower tour

A few days ago I received an email from a competition I had entered saying I had won a pair of tickets to go on a tour of the Cathedral bell tower, I was really pleased and hoped it would be during the week so hubby could come as well.  Then I got another email from the gentleman who would be doing the tour stating it was today - 1pm or 2pm.  This was too short notice to get someone to look after the boys so hubby said he would stay with them and I could go on my own.   So I emailed asking to go on 1pm tour due to train times.

The train to Carlisle was mad - a very loud hen party that started drinking on the train, a stag do that were equally loud, a group of teenage girls with 3" thick make up and heels of the same height they could only just walk in and loads of football fans heading to the match.  The train filled up and there was about 15-20 people standing in the aisle it was that busy and the noise was going right through my head.  I don't know how anyone could hear their own conversations.  I was so glad to get off the train!!!

I was in Carlisle over an hour earlier but the next train wouldn't have got me there on time.  So I went and grabbed some lunch from Tesco, and once I had eaten it (whilst walking through the town) I made my way to the Cathedral.  I paid the lady so that I could take photos and went on my way around it as I had 45minutes until the start of the tour.  I took loads of pics of the inside downstairs, here are some of them:

I headed back to the main entrance to wait for the people doing the tour of the bell tower, at the time I was the only person there.  They said we had to wait a few minutes.  The only other person to turn up was the local news reporter/photographer!  So I have ended up with lots of pics being taken on the tour and am going to be in the paper.

The 3 people doing the tour were all from the Cathedral Bell Ringers, they explained things as went including a big plaque on the wall after one of the old clergy who left money to the Cathedral but on the condition that the bells are rung on his birthday!

After posing for a few pics for the paper we went through the little door at the back of the Cathedral and down a little corridor to the spiral stair case - some were steep, others not so, some were big others small, there was over 120 in total to get the bell room.  I took a picture of them as I was coming down after the tour:

 

The spiral stairs are broken up by a long narrow corridor that runs about half way up the Cathedral, the next pic shows the same corridor over the other side of the Cathedral.  Again there were more posed pics for the paper including some of me taking photos.  I remember doing this type of thing with my friends at school - didn't realise it was something that professionals did as well.

 

This picture was what I took when the photographer took s pic of me taking a pic:

I actually like the pic alot as it doesn't have the whole of the window or the wall in it.  I took a few others from up on this corridor as well. 

From the corridor we went up even more spiral stairs and went round the edge of the whole tower, some lovely views.  We then went into the ringing room, where all the bell cords hang.  They explained what they were and they worked, and showed me how they do it (they were using the bell sensors via the computer so as not to actually ring the bells.  The photographer asked for a pic of me posing pulling the bell.  I so wish I hadn't been ill as i'm sure I am going to look like death warmed up the pics, oh well not much I can do now. lol!

We then continued the tour and went up to the bells, where they talked to me about them all, and the real old one in the corner called Maria that has been there since the 1400s.  I have to say that the bells are much bigger than I thought they would be I did think they would be big but not as big as they are.  They had 1 of the team ring one of the bells so I could see how it all works from upstairs - although it didn't "ring" as it had its safety buffer thing in (they did tell me the name but I can't remember).

 

I had a really nice time and it was very interesting, and not something that many members of the public actually get to see.  Thanks to Cumbria Live for hosting the competition and picking me as 1 of the winners.

March 20th 2015 - Special day

March 20th 2015 - Special day

Today is a special day and one that will not be repeated for 100,000 years.  Many people of various religious beliefs think that the happenings of today could indicate the start of the end of the world because of how rare the 2 events of today are.

Firstly today is Ostara, also known as the spring equinox and means that there is as much daylight as there is darkness as both are equal, some people believe that the spring equinox is actually tomorrow not today, but I have always believed it to be 20th March and that's what google says.  So happy thoughts for Ostara if you celebrate.

Secondly today is a Solar Eclipse through out the UK and parts of the world.  It was seen by many but many others, myself included saw nothing due to cloud coverage and rain.  This was a great shame as I had hoped to get at least 1 nice picture but this is the best I could get:

Although it went dark it was more grey and linked to the cloud and rain rather the eclipse and some of the street lights did come on.  They had said that Cumbria was meant to be one of the best places to see it but it wasn't.

March 19th 2015 - Full of cold

March 19th 2015 - Full of cold

I feel so ill, well not ill exactly but i'm fullof cold and have a stuffy and runny nose at the same time!!!   I was fine when I went to SJA last night, however, we had to move to big cold room so we could play games - the kids were all ok as moving about but as I was stood still I think I got a chill.  But 1 of the Adult members has also ended up with a cold  and he wasn't in the cold room so thinks 1 of the kids brought it in.

I spent most of last night going from hot to cold and back again, but more so on the cold front, to the extent I had thick fluffy pjs on,  blanket and the duvet!  My nose was going from running to blocked and back again most of the night which wasn't fun either.  I've taken beechams all-in-1 tablets and they don't seem to be helping so I searched pinterest for ways to get rid of a cold and found this home remedy of honey & cinnamon either as a mix on own or mixed with tea - well I don't drink tea so put it in a coffee and it had a spicy christmas coffee flavour, wasn't too bad really.

The website it's from says 4 times a day for best results.  I don't normally drink this much coffee in a day so hopefully it wont send me hyper, but will get rid of this cold.  I can't say whether ot not it is going to work as only had 1 lot so we will see.

UPDATE

since having the first cup my nose has stopped running and I have only sneezed once.  So I have now made a 2nd cup in with coffee and hope that this does actually work like it seems to have done so far.

March 18th 2015 - Family Learning

March 18th 2015 - Family Learning

Today at the family learning at the school we didn't have the children in with us as they were all involved with Commando Joe who does sports and things with them, and today he had brought in an inflatable assualt course for them to do and as they were at different times they didn't come.

The first of today's tasks was a spelling test of 5 hard words that most people can't spell - I got 4/5 as I put an extra letter on the last word.  The words were necessary, secretary, piece, accommodation and rhythm(n added at end).  We then talked about ways of remembering the words whether it be through pictures of phrases.  And after about hour we were asked to re-write the words down, I got 5/5 then.

We were then all given bookmarks to make for our children - I got the one with the apple and the one with the purple book.  I hope the boys like them.  The initial ideas was for the children to make them but as they wern't with us we did them.

We went to more things about spelling including a KS1 SATs paper where they had to spell words linked to the pictures and then write the word in the space that the lady read out in the story.  Some of the words were not easy for 6/7year olds I tell you.  We also did a SATs paper that KS2 would do and again it wasn't easy although I got 20/20, some of the words I thought would be hard for 10/11year olds.  Linked to this a paragraph that had had the full stops and capital letters put in the wrong place and we had to sort them, some of us said we would put them in different places.

The lady teaching the course gave us all a question that we had to answer - they were both open and closed questions.  Mine was "what would your dream job be?" I answered Paramedic.  And as I had only given a 1 word answer I was asked If I would ever do it - the answer is no because of my knee problems and it never would be an option as my knees are not strong enough.  Everyone had different questions.  We were then asked what our children would say as an answer to our question - I said that my youngest would say a Chef and we got talking about why and I told them that he has his own business plan already written and who is doing what job.  For my other son I said that he wants to be a Fireman but as hes asthmatic he can't.

Finally the trip to the farm we are going on after Easter as the last week of the course was talked about and how we need to take wellies and lunch etc.  This should be a good day, we only have next week left in the classroom and then the course is ended.  They are hoping to do a short 5week craft course after Easter as well and then another 10week course from September.

March 17th 2015 - Depression

March 17th 2015 - Depression

Firstly Happy St Patrick's Day to everyone who is Irish, or Irish Decent or just celebrating.  Have a great day. I had hoped for today to be able to do something linked to St Patrick's Day, but this wasn't the case.

Today I had an appointment at the hospital with 1 of the counselling team about my depression and how they can help me to try and get up from the low place I am in at the moment.  I had spoken to the lady on the phone a few weeks ago but today was my first face to face appointment.  It went ok, the lady is nice (which is a good thing).  We went over the things that are making me feel depressed and why I think they are affecting me and we talked about the depression circle similar to this pin, we filled out a sheet about me in each box.

The lady has set me some "homework" for our next appointment in 2weeks time.  I need to fill out a few sheets of "what I do" and "what I did before but don't do now" and have a booklet to have a read through, plus I need to work out some "Goals" of what I would like to get from the sessions and how we can achieve them.

She did say that normally 1 of things that would be suggested for people with depression is to get out of the house for at least half hour a day and go for walk somewhere, but as I am still struggling with walking linked to my knee injury and the surgery I had on it last year that's not really an option as I end up in pain after walking.  I agree sitting at home within 4 walls probably isn't helping my mood but I am limited on what I can do.  (Don't get me wrong I like my walls, they are decorated lovely - a deep purple on most of them with a white and purple wallpaper of roses on my chimney).

So once the kids are in bed I plan to work on some of it to see what I can come up with.  I also need to get into the doctors to sort a medication review as I don't think my meds are doing much - the pain killers for knee are not easing that much and the anti-depressants that are meant to help me sleep aren't doing that as I am still awake at 1-2 in the morning most mornings despite going to bed at about 10pm!

March 16th 2015 - Vegetable markers

March 16th 2015 - Vegetable markers

With lil man trying to grow his own vegetables he needs to have markers of some sort so we can tell what he has growing (hopefully) where.

I didn't think that the plastic ones you write on would be very good with high winds and cats, so I looed on pinterest for ideas and found these vegetable markers made from stones with the image draw/painted on them and then varnished - much more sturdy.  So I set about making him some, so far we have carrots, potatoes and sweetcorn markers made (see below) and I need to make garlic, raspberries and blueberries.  These are not all in his big planter but in smaller pots as well.

March 15th 2015 - Happy Mother's day

March 15th 2015 - Happy Mother's day

Happy Mother's day to all the Mum's around, and a big Happy Mother's day to my Mummy who sadly isn't here in person anymore but is in my heart and thought about all the time.  I found a similar pic to this one (but didn't like the look of it so made my own.)

 

I would also like to say thank you to my 3 boys for my lovely cards:

And my gifts that they got me:

This morning would have been great had I not been woken up by my eldest being sick and yelling down the stairs that he had been!  Still love him though.  I know i'm not perfect but I try to do my best for all 3 of you.  You are my world and I love you all.

Hubby is cooking us all a lovely roast beef dinner as we couldn't afford to go out for a meal.  As my eldest was sick and didn't want dinner we took his plate full round to the neighbour as she is on her own for a few days as her hubby is away.  I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did.