I suffered for this blip

Grace and I went out to see some of our NCT group mums and babies today in Shotley Bridge, which is about 45mins - 1hour's drive from here. We went a different route from usual, taking us past Hexham Racecourse and Slaley. It's a pretty journey and on the way we drove past several fields of oilseed rape, which were resplendent in the bright sunlight. I have an allergy to oilseed rape, but I did my blipper's duty and got out of the car to take a few snaps. I was then wheezing a bit and had runny eyes for the next half hour or so. Serves me right, you might say. And so it did.

But there's more.

Further down the road, we got stuck behind a tractor for mile upon mile of twisty road. The tractor was pulling a large trailer. The trailer was full to the brim with fresh manure. POOOOOOOOO!!! (Quite literally).

So we eventually arrived at my friend's house, only to find the curtains closed and no car there. That's when I checked the texts on my phone, which hadn't had a signal for days at home, so I hadn't received the news that my friend had had to cancel the meet up at the last minute.

So we set off home but Grace, who had been napping for some of the way there, was now a bit hot, sweaty and grouchy in the back of the car and clearly wasn't going to put up with another hour in her car seat.

We made a stop for petrol, which ended up being hugely embarrassing because I couldn't refit the screw cap on the petrol tank. I was battling away when a young lad who worked at the garage offered his assistance and got it back on straight away. I'd been turning it in the wrong direction. Thank you Wayne.

At times like this, you need to make the most of the day, and so we did just that. We stopped at a little tea room near Derwent Reservoir. It was lovely. The tearoom is in a newly converted byre - very pretty! Grace had a cucumber sandwich and I had a cup of tea. How terribly English of us. The lady in there was really friendly and we had a good chat. She was babysitting her 22month old grandson who kept Grace company. There were also two dogs outside in the farm yard for Grace to squeal at.

So although it was not the day we had expected, it was still really enjoyable! Here's to a happy bank holiday weekend too :)