I loooooooooooooove....

Scarborough.

Yes I know I said that for the next few posts I would be talking about PEOPLE that I love but I changed my mind slightly (as is a woman's perogative.. and I am a woman after all and I choose to exercise my right to change my mind at will.. so there. Ha.)

So.. Scarborough.. if ever it were possible to fall in love with a place then this place would be a the one for me.

That might seem a bit weird to some people, I mean.. its the East coast of the North of England ffs.. its hardly the Great Barrier Reef or the Grand Canyon.. the foothills of the Himalayas perhaps?  No, not me..I'm a Yorkshire lass.. Scarborough is the place for me!!!!! lol

Of course there are many beautiful places on this planet and I'm not denying there are many places in the world I would love to see (those listed above included!!) but Scarborough is a place that I love, that I feel is a huge part of my life..maybe I'm a bit puddled, ok..ok I know, there is no doubt I am a smidge bonkers occasionally but still.. what of it?

Lets go back a few years whilst I make an attempt to explain...

 This is me, in 1976 I believe (eep!), I'm about a year old and sitting on my Grandpa Jack's knee, to my right is my Grandma Mary and in the green my Mum... These are my Dad's parents, I think he must have taken the photo cos he's the only one not in the pic.. although thats not necessarily the case cos I dont see my older brother Simon anywhere..

Anyway, this is taken on Scarborough beach and as Grandpa Jack died in November 1976 I assume this must have been one of the last holidays he had.

I know I got me some new red shoes that year.. and all because I cried when they put me on the sand.. haha I was smart even then ;)

So.. Scarborugh = happy times with the relly's AND new red shoes..hmmm..

Continuing with reasons to love Scarborough, here I am still sitting on Grandpa Jack's knee.. in my red shoes..

only this time.. someone gave me ice cream!!!

Well whats not to love right??

So..

Scarborough = sunshiney fun with the rellys.. new shiny red shoes AND Ice cream..

ANNNNNNNNNND still no sign of the evil curly haired one known as Simon..so, I'm winning here. lol

You can see why I love the place now right? lol


I think we returned a couple of times post Grandpa Jack although I don't remember them well if we did to be honest, I know I have vague memories of my Dad commenting on how Scarborough was a much nicer place that Blackpool (obviously.. that would be the Yorkshireman in him lol) and when I told him I was takinga day-trip to Blackpool when I was heavily pregnant with the boy child I remember him giving the strict instructions to get back across the border should anything happen but I also remember being asked why I wanted to go to Blackpool in any case as Scarborough is the best coastal resort in the country.. which just so happens to be in Yorkshire too.. its a win/win situation lol..(Definite Dad logic there for you).  But I digress lol..Anyway... I got older and discovered boys and the pub.. and Scarborough became a happy childhood memory for a while.

Rich and I once took his daughters to Scarborough with Grandma Liz and Grandad Derek (his Mum and Step Dad) in the back of Dereks big old red Sherpa van.. thats an experience none of us will forget.. lol I think I might have been pregnant at the time wtih Jake (although I'm not sure so don't quote me), it was a long day but we paddled in the sea and we had so much fun.. I wonder if they remember it too.  There are photos of this trip but I think they're in the attic and would require scanning (I'll get around to it!).. it was a good day..

Ok.. lets jump forward a few years to 2008 which, as we are all aware, wasn't the best year I ever had.. I would have crawled into a hole to hide that summer but the children wouldn't have it and the need to escape from the pain and grief was strong so a place to hide was found in a new area of an old haunt..and new memories were made as well as revisiting some old ones.. 

 There were many pics for this too but then some twat burgled my house and stole my laptop.. in the days before I used to back up..lol) I found a couple though.. here's my hubby and the kids building sandcastles on the beach.. what? as my friend so kindly pointed out at the time.. even rockstars love building sandcastles!!!

We returned in July 2009 to do it all again but this time we stayed a little longer than our usual week and opted for 2 (living on the edge as usual ;) LOL)

July that year was the best fun we'd had in ages.. still reeling from the rawness of the first year without someone, we'd headed off full of excitement and longing for the sunshine.  We'd looked forward to it all year long and the kids had a fantastic time revisiting things and places from the year before and enjoying them all over again, it was fun.. and fun had been in short supply in the House of Savage for a while..

As we stepped off the train that day the laughter filled the air along with squeals of excitement.. so much so that we decided there and then that we'd be returning for as long as the children wanted to.

And so we did.  The next time in August 2010 cos Rich couldnt get July off work and to a different area, closer to the beach.. and we were closer to the beach.. a walk down the street, down the cliff lift and there it was..away from the crowds of the main beach we sat on the sands beneath the Spa, in the quiet where the rock pools are.  Kids building castles, finding hermit crabs called Sebastian and feeling inexplicably at home in a town where I've never lived or even stayed longer than a couple of weeks..

I'll probably never know what it is about the place that draws us to it year after year but I know we'll be there again this summer for another smile-filled fortnight or sandcastles and sunshine (hopefully!!).

I think we might have actually run out of things to do and places to visit as Richard managed to make sure that last time we did EVERYTHING there was to do including football on the beach ;) lol well ok.. technically you're not supposed to play footbal with your face but still..
We had Nana Sue having a whole host of new experiences such as "walking", "taking the bus" and "shopping in a pound store" and my personal fave "the rain hat of doom" that day that the heavens opened lol, although to be fair.. she did that herself..lol

But whether its sunny (YES) or raining (NOOOOOOO!!) we still have the most fun.. the looks on the faces of the kids as we see that beach for the first time is priceless and they spend hours and hours just digging and building and digging and building.. It's great.

So, Scarborough.. well Scarborough = sunshiney fun with the rellys.. new shiny red shoes AND Ice cream.. Nana Sue in a variety of uncomfortable scenarios, Richard getting shit on (always a winner) or hit in the face with a football.. the kids happy and smiling and giggling, Sandcastles, rain hats,

ANNNNNNNNNND still no sign of the evil curly haired one known as Simon.... whats NOT to love?

I think we should move there and live happily ever after.. lol don't joke, I'm not kidding ;) xx

Scarborough 2010

As you know every summer us Savage's take a trip to Scarborough.. we've done it 3 years running now, I'm not quite sure why..

We never intended to be one of those families that takes the same holiday ever year to the same place on the same dates etc and in fact we varied it up a little this time by going at a different time AND staying in a different place too...mmhmm, I like to live dangerously, shocking isnt it? lol

Anyway, at the caravan park at the Blue Dolphin (which we LOVE btw) we have a regular van with a little bit of a grassy area that the kids play in but this year we'd left it too late because we were originally going to Scotland.. but of course all that changed when I decided to have a nervous breakdown in the middle of my driving thing..lol

SO Scarborough it was again.. we decided to rent a flat in the centre of town on the Esplanade.. beautiful views, beach at the bottom of the hill.. even a cliff lift to get up and down and 2 weeks for less than half the price that we'd pay at the Haven resort. Winner!!

It was a winner too.. we had a great time. The first week my Mum and John came with us and we mercilessly made my Mother miserable by making her experience all things chav... here.. have a look.


Mum on a bus!


In a pound shop!!!

Poor Mum.. but she got her own back when it started to rain one day and out of her bag she pulled a plastic rain hood and put it on!!! I must stress (or otherwise she might actually kill me and bury me in the garden) that she did it for a joke and she DOES NOT normally wear one of the "old lady hats"... I can also tell you though that she was that impressed with how it kept the water off her hair that she kept it on until she got home.. yes she walked through town with it on.. gonna have to call her "Mabel" in future for sure..lol


"Mabel".

Other things that happened.. some great comments..

there was the day we were on the beach making sandcastles and Rich told the kids to "Watch where you're throwing all that snow..." er... snow? I think you'll find thats wrong dear..

and there was the moment when Heather watched a lady being pushed by her husband in a wheelchair and asked my Mother "Why don't you get one of those pushchairs Nana? Then Grandad John can push you around all day and you'd never have to walk again!!"

Angelina: "Oh No.. the Bog Horn is ringing!!"

mm.. Richard had a few "moments"..

yes. there was the "paper bag incident".. which was most amusing to Mum and I..

We were at the Filey Bird Garden and Petting Zoo for the day, its a great day out and the kids love it.. regular readers will remember last year when Princess Heather fed the pig that snotted on her, she was less than amused. Well they had so much fun last time that they wanted to return and so we did, we bought animal feed in little paper bags and everything was great until one of the kids dropped an empty bag and the breeze took it away..

"Rich!! get that bag will you??" I say and he bends down to reach the bag at his feet.. and the wind blew it.. he shuffled a few steps forward and bent to grab it and the wind took it again.. Rich shuffles forward, stooping like an old man trying to get the bag and the wind keeps taking it and he shuffles some more.. well by the time he got it the rest of us were on the floor in stitches and floods of tears giggling at the muppet chasing the bag.. heheh was brilliant, classic Rich at his spasmodic best.

Then there was the football incident.. I've swear I have never seen anything as funny in my whole life.
There we were, minding our own business just walking on the beach one day and up ahead there was an old guy kicking a ball around with his grandson, just a light football.. not a big heavy leather one but not as light as a beach ball..
We're walking towards them and he looked directly at Rich (- so it was even as if he hadn't seen him) and he kicked the ball.. whether he expected Rich to move or the ball to curve around him or what I dunno.. but it didn't..noooo it hit him full on in the face and even bounced off his head with a really loud "boing" sound to it.

Y'know sometimes when something so shocking happens and you just don't know how to react?? In that moment you don't really know what happened or why it did and you're left open mouthed looking a little like this guy??



Hmm Rich had that look about him too.. he stood, totally shocked and his mouth open as the old guy (who look a teeny bit worried..)picked up the ball and said "oops. sorry mate" and buggers off!!

So I'm trying really REALLY hard not to laugh and say "are u ok?" and Jake just starts with this big belly laugh..and that was it.. Jake was giggling, I was laughing so much I was crying.. I had to run to the public bathroom cos I thought I was gonna pee myself, the girls were laughing and Rich is telling me to "shut the f*ck up biatch".

The best part was I had said to him that very morning how disappointed I was that he hadn't done anything stupid over the last few days.. infact, since the paperbag incident the week before, no sea gulls had crapped on him or anything and then that happened.. and I didn't stop laughing for days, and every time someone mentioned it I was crying again.. my mum phoned that evening (cos she only stayed the first week) and I couldn't speak to tell her the tale for laughing so much.

It was brilliant! A total comedic highlight and I doubt any of us will forget it in a hurry..

So.. what else? Well.. there was the Sea Life Centre, the beach, the swimming pool at Filey, the lighthouse, the grave of Anne Bronte, the sandcastles...

Toy Story 3 at the cinema... (completely hilarious and not at all spoiled by a certain loud voiced "Angelic" child of mine shouting "Daddy!!! Gimme those fruit pastels!!!" honest!! lol),

there was the day we found "Sebastian" the Hermit Crab in the rock pools, the fun fair, the boat trip..

the ball pool..






the mad rooster



Angelina on the "medieval naughty step" ("Don't you dare think lady, that just because we're in the middle of medieval ruins on top of a big hill in Scarborough that I can't find a bloody step to sit your butt on Madam...now park it!!") and the random bloke laughing as she gave me her best sulky face


Shocker isn't it?? LOL

Heather licking the bus shelter window... why?!?!?



walking the pretend pets in the park..



Jake meeting the donkey also called Jake..



then this..



and this..



and this..




I think those smiles say it all really...

here, have a slideshow..

Bring on next year!!!!!!!