IOM day 6

Thursday 5th August 2010

1000
This cottage is not doing me any good at all – every morning it seems I wake up with a head and / or backache, I’m glad I brought plenty of painkillers with me cos every morning I’m starting the day with a handful of pills!! Luckily the tablets seem to sort it and within half an hour or so I feel human again.

I was up before my mum this morning and had my breakfast. I’ve also written my postcards this morning but I’ve decided I don’t really like them so if we find some nicer postcards before we find a postbox I’m going to re-write them!

1845
Today has turned out pretty good in the end.

We went out at about 1100 to head for the craftworks in Silverdale Glen. I thought I’d sorted out the instructions and knew exactly where I was going – we did get there in one go but not quite by the route we intended. We did initially miss the turning – I saw the sign as we passed it but luckily there was a place not too far on where I could turn round. When I actually turned into the road I discovered it was a tiny little road, in places only wide enough for one car to drive and another pulled over. When we got into the Glen we found the craft studio and there was hardly anyone else in there :-)

I’d decided I wanted to paint something so my mum decided to do one as well. We both wanted something simple to paint, in the end I chose a pirate parrot and my mum chose a turtle :-) We had a very relaxing morning both painting our models :-)

When we’d finished we went looking for the tea room but it was really rubbish – there were 2 sandwiches left in the fridge and the lady was offering basic sandwiches – cheese or ham or both. We decided not to bother and went off to our 2nd destination of the day – Cregneash Village cos mum wanted to go to the National Folk Museum.

We headed off in the right direction and we got there in one go although not quite in the exact route we planned. Luckily when we got there there was a bit car park with an obvious sign where to park. It wasn’t quite so obvious where to go after you leave the car park but we did find the correct path. There were people coming up towards the car park so I asked one man if we were going the right way and was it far, he said it was a 2-3 minute walk and he was going to give us his entrance sticker but unfortunately he’d folded it in half and it had stuck to itself so we weren’t able to use it.

When we got to the entrance office we paid and got our sticker to let us into the various sites in the area. The lady then directed us upstairs to a small exhibition before sending us into another room to watch an introductory video.

At that point all I really wanted was lunch and a toilet so we went straight into the tea room next door. We weren’t very inspired by what we saw on the menu but when the lady who was serving showed us what was on the specials board we both decided on lamb hotpot. It was very nice and my mum couldn’t finish hers so I had one and a bit meals. But, she heard someone mention carrot cake and her ears pricked up haha. Mum had a pudding of carrot and walnut cake but I didn’t have a dessert – I certainly was full after finishing off her lunch as well as my own.

When we’d eaten we set off around the heritage site – it’s an interesting ‘museum’ it’s not one building, it’s a little village with different cottages and workshops for you to go in, some with craftspeople showing you different things. We also went into the local church which, although not part of National Trust is on the trail map for you to look round. There was a leaflet in the church with The Lord’s Prayer in Manx on the back so we picked up a copy for ourselves and one to give Fr Gerry when we get home haha

We also found a postbox in the village so I was able to post my postcards – even though I wasn’t particularly happy with them, at least they were going.

We headed home, I knew where I was going and just had to make the correct turn. One part of the instructions was to continue forwards where the A31 becomes the A5, I recognised that so I knew I was heading the correct way.

Not long after I’d turned onto the A3 for our cottage the screen on the dashboard of the car was telling me to check the tyre pressure of the back passenger side tyre :-o I was quite worried about that, especially cos I was on a ‘go as fast as you want’ road and it looked like there was nowhere to stop. Luckily there was a government building with a yard-type thing at the front where I was able to pull off the road. I was glad I’d brought my compressor with me!!! When I checked the tyre it was complaining about, it was on 34psi so I pumped it up to 39 which is what it says for fully loaded. After that it stopped complaining and I couldn’t feel anything obvious that might’ve caused a puncture :-S I’ll check the tyre properly tomorrow morning while they’re cold. I have done a visual check each morning and some other times when I’ve got back in the car but I haven’t done a proper pressure check yet – naughty me!! If I have got a problem with the tyre I’ll have to try and ring Enterprise to see what I should do about it. I did ask them about punctures when I first picked up the car and they said just to ring them to let them know then take it to any branch of National or Kwik Fit where they have accounts – over here I wouldn’t have a clue!!!!

We got back to the cottage at about 1800 I think – and you know the rest LOL