street life

hello there

no, not something to do with that fine, celebrated song off of Ferry and Roxy Music, looks you see, but just a simple way to tie in the last of the pics from our time away at, or if you like in, the magnificence of Scarborough. i didn't know what else to call this one, and as the "life" thing seems to link them, well, there you go.

the boys were very excited about the idea of staying in a bed & breakfast, despite having no idea what a bed & breakfast actually was. we did our best to explain to them that it did pretty much what it said on the box; with it being the case in where we stayed excellently so. it has 9+ out of 10 reviews all over, and i have added to that.

what they liked the most, however, was this idea of something called a "bar" being present.

they were entirely oblivious, as one would hope at their age, to the beers, wines and spirits available to the gentry and the ladies. they were, however, very excited by the presence of coca cola for sale. they really, really liked the idea of a bar being somewhere that one could sit and be served coca cola on a perpetual basis.

whilst my (considerably) better half and i seldom drink these days, we agreed - since we were on holiday - to sit and have a pint each so that they boys could indulge their wish of sitting by the bar and having a coke. i suspect, as years go by, this scene will be repeated, although the coke shall be "sweetened up", as it were.

on, naturally, then, to the train ride from Peasholm Park to where Sea Life is. and, indeed back. a really smart train ride it is, and one that we all enjoyed. enjoyed, if not entirely complied with the "sit down, keep hands inside" ruling and instructions on the side. still, no limbs lost.

we had been to Sea Life the day before, so literally took the train, had an ice cream and took the train back. it was most pleasant and fun, in particular as it allowed us to have an elevated look at some of the more significant of the 20 or so mini crazy adventure golf courses that Scarborough offers to guests.

speaking of elevated views, open top double decker buses.whereas london believes it to be a city which has a monopoly on them, this is not the case, as Scarborough has many of them going between the north bay and the south bay.

as was the case as was with the bar, when the boys clocked what an open top double decker bus was, it was declared to be the best thing ever, and something that we should ride on frequently.

more pictures of open top bus adventures coming up for you, but i thought i'd slide that one in now just to mix things up a bit.

back to Peasholm Park, or rather the park over the road from it, where the very impressive looking open air theatre is. or maybe that's part of Peasholm Park too. on offer there were some of those massive air filled ball things that people who weigh less than me may step into and roll or drift across the water.

at the risk of being a touch repetitive, when the boys clocked what they were, they declared them to be the best thing ever and wished to give them a go.

what is the proper name for these things? not sure. James said it was something or other that began with a "z", but i cannot remember what exactly, sorry. they are just big inflatable balls that you get into and ride across the water in.

are they good, fun value for what they are? well, i raised an eyebrow, dear reader, when i was informed that it was £4.40 for 5 minutes, each. a fair price, i suppose, for the equipment and that which goes into it, and to be honest 5 minutes is just about all the fun you can extract out of the concept in one go.

five minutes was pretty much too much for William, who got bored very quickly with it. James, however, loved it, and wanted to have another go the next day. which he did, as you can see above. William worked out that being held by Daddy and pushing the ball that James was in was fun, so that's a win-win, and i saved £4.40 so there you go.

back to the buses, then, and another open top ride for you. they were so marvellous, apparently, that we had to stand and wait for another bus if there was no space for us on the top of one at the stop. in fairness, they came along fairly frequently - unlike the ones here, of course. Arriva could well learn from the idea of running buses at times convenient for their clients to get on.

there are two open top bus companies running in Scarborough. it would appear they are in healthy and friendly competition with each other, for i saw no evidence of drive by shootings or attempts by one to ram the other off the road.

we tried both, although i cannot recall the names of them. from a cost perspective the mostly brown ones for the win, as their all day family ticket (2 adults, 2 children) costs £7, whereas the same ticket is £10 on the blue and yellow ones. the blue and yellow ones, however, run slightly more frequently, and also run far later into the night.

a last picture on the bus, then, and one selected purely for the look on William's face. he learned the hard, and perhaps most effective way, that there is a price to pay for open top bus shenanigans on windy days, looking at the look on his face.

where is it that we took the bus to? the south bay of Scarborough. the south bay is what one might call the "business end" of this particular seaside resort, for that is where all the fishing and boat trips happen, along with the amusements, arcades, sticks of rock shops and what have you.

we didn't go on the beach at the south bay, but for what it's worth that seems to be the more tourist orientated one, as in if young lads and lasses wish to hang about in speedos, string like bikinis and that sort of nonsense, meet and be flirtatious, that's probably the place to do it. we just troubled ourselves with the amusements, the places to eat and, thanks to James spotting it, the Tardis off of that Doctor Who thing.

ok, so it's not the actual Tardis so much as it is a disused and distressed, somewhat abandoned old police box. but to the boys, and my (considerably) better half, it was the Tardis, and they were happy to have their picture taken in front of it. if it were the real one, well, one would hope that that time travel fellow off of Doctor Who, whose name escapes me for the moment, would clean the bird muck off of it.

and that's the slightly more expensive, yet runs for longer into the night and more frequently, bus right there in the background.

i have been pretty good, i would like to think, at limiting your exposure to me on these holiday posts. for the most part i have just presented you with images of the 75% of my family that you all actually like. indulge me, then, with my presence in a family selfie of us on the only boat with a motor on it on Peasholm Park.

i did want to get one the pedalo boats to go around in, as i think i maybe mentioned in an earlier post. they, however, looked like hard work, and there was a massive queue for them. the boat styled like a swan was a reasonable cost, and as we passed people peddling they commented how they wished that they had gone the way we had instead. also, lovely bloke running it.

and that's about that, then. except for one more picture of the boys propping up the bar.

yeah, this is the boys hitting the bar before breakfast. we kind of hope that this will not be a habit for them as life goes on, but who knows?

right, that pretty much covers the holiday then, or the parts that i wish to share. hope it's been of interest to someone somewhere, and that the info was useful!

more of this sort of thing as and when we go on our travels!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!