as we went on two train rides i suppose this should be called scenes from trains, but then again i am almost certain that on both trips it was the same train we were on. so the title stays as it is, thanks. the title, anyway, is nowhere near as important as anyone making an issue of it believes it is, believe me.
yesterday, when the date called for it and the weather was a good deal better than it is today, we went off on one of them train ride things. it looked to us to be a suitable, indeed apt, day to visit Whitby. as, indeed as it happens, so did many others, but we will get to that later.
in a bold, perhaps brave, move i decided that we should take a walk up to the nearby train station. it is some distance, despite my previous arguments with google about how much time it should take one to walk there. oh hang on, i should have called this post "return of the train adventure" or something.
never mind, we walked up to the station, and we waited for the train.
and, indeed, we waited. despite the electronic sign and some lady with a nice voice telling us that the train was on time, it was not. the train was in fact some 10 - 12 minutes late, which isn't so bad a thing. it would, however, have been nice if the display board had been updated to point out it was late, and give an estimate of when it would arrive. this, one would assume, is the point, if not purpose, of such a fancy electronic display board type of thing.
still, ample time to do some pictures, then.
if you are a regular reader and have noted that the pictures seem to be of a much higher quality than usual, that's because i took the proper camera with us, rather than using the blueberry. a bit of a better quality approach here does not hurt too much. sorry, no, did not take the iTwat with me, so no Commodore 64 mode images. i haven't done them for a while, though, have i? i will do some soon.
the train, then, arrived, much to the delight of the many, many people waiting. we found that the train was already full with many, many people, all of whom had presumably decided that the day was a good day to catch the train to Whitby. so many, in fact, that there were no seats available.
well, no official seats - as you can see, the boys managed to make a seat.
i suppose one could grumble or complain about the lack of seats, but apparently the train featured double the amount of carriages as usual as it was. as there's no way they can determine how many people are likely to get on the train on its journey, they had to take an educated guess. now if they re-nationalised the trains, and had mega-length ones running all the time at the expense of the taxpayer, we would have had a seat. but also we would not have had staff onboard that needed to work nice to keep their jobs.
also, it is not like any of the grown men on the train offered to stand up and allow my (considerably) better half and the boys the chance to sit down, or for that matter any of the somewhat elderly ladies who also had to stand. chivalry and politeness are not, it seems, associated with train passengers.
anyway, to Whitby, then, and sadly not as many pictures as i could have taken. we were just really busy going all over, alas, and i didn't fire off as many photographic snaps as i could have. i still took a few, mind.
the House of Mouse funhouse there is a place that the boys really, really love going around, and they spent quite a bit of time there. but not enough of it visible enough for me to take all that many pictures.
hopefully you are noting that the weather yesterday was most smart, assuming you define smart as being sunny, pleasantly warm and characterised, mostly, by clear blue skies. today it is all rain and grey, the afterthought of some sort of hurricane that the Americans decided would be a class idea to have.
quite near, as in next to, the House of Mouse funhouse was one of them Dr Seuss / Cat In The Hat rides. the boys were very keen indeed to have a go on it. as it turns out, as you can see, we think William just wanted to have a nice sit down for a few minutes.
James was, however, somewhat more enthusiastic around the ride. actually i am now curious, does the cat in the hat off of The Cat In The Hat have a name, or is that name it?
it has just dawned on me that, despite us being at a coastal town for most of the day, i don't believe i have any pictures of the coast as such, or the sea. whoops, sorry for that, i am sure you can do a google or whatever and find some, if that's what you want.
wandering around Whitby happened to be one of them Minion things off of Despicable Me, who turned out to be much bigger than i thought, and Spongebob Squarepants, who turned out to be a lot bigger than i thought he was.
i suspect that the boys, William in particular, imagined that the Minions were of a somewhat smaller, easy to kick size, so this was a surprise to them. still, they were delighted to have met a real life one of them off of the films.
Fireman Sam, or whoever it is, also turned up.
and, yeah, that's that for the pictures in Whitby. sorry, probably should have taken more. especially as Freddie Flintoff walked past us with a film crew. it looked like he was heading towards the 199 steps up to the Abbey. those familiar with Freddie, and indeed the Abbey steps, will however appreciate that there is a fine pub at the bottom of them. Freddie is a very polite bloke, and would not wish to offend any non-Australian, and he would have seen it as being rude not to have called in at the pub.
on the train back we had, hurrah, seats, so used it as an excuse for some pictures. yes, i feature in them, so you have been warned.
here i am with the boys. no, no idea why they felt the need to show off a "number one" sort of thing.
and if that wasn't enough a picture of me for you, here i am again for you. this time with my (considerably) better half, who decided to go for a special pose.
well, it was a date of some significance and importance to us, so my (considerably) better half tells me, so it seemed only proper to pose together for a picture.
i am pretty sure you would rather see pictures that i do not feature in, so here you go.
yes, that is indeed a Minecraft t-shirt James has on. the 75% of my family that you all like more than me have really taken a shine to this game. me? i've not even tried it yet, don't have either the time to do so or the chance to play with these three on the go with it. still, keeps them (mostly) quiet and out of my way.
so to that extent, yes, indeed, that is a Minecraft toy that William found whilst we were out and about.
what was that? you don't wish to hurt my feelings so you would not object to another picture of me? well, how very diplomatic and civil of you. more people like you on trains means that those who need a seat more would probably get it.
here you go then, my last appearance in this post for your viewing pleasure.
aahh, oooh and all that sort of thing.
one more picture off of the train? why not. here's the boys, chatting about the awesome, wonderful, epic and indeed mint day out that they had had.
and, after the train ride, the walk home. it was a lovely walk home, and one which featured a lovely bench for the 75% of my family that you all actually like to sit down on and have a good rest.
and that's it, really. a wonderful day out in a favourite place. we had reason to remember those we wish could have been there with us, to remember (according to my (considerably) better half) 11 or so brilliant years that have been (according to my (considerably) better half) the best of my life, ever, and to think of the future, i suppose.
sorry if the text has been somewhat sparse here, but really it's just window dressing to let family and friends around the world see these pictures!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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