In Tents

On Saturday Kerry, the kids, and I went camping. Despite the rain, 4°C temperature, Evan refusing to sleep until 10:30pm and then waking screaming at 5:30am, and the apparent inability of our children to behave themselves in cafes we had a really good time.

Well, in retrospect anyhow.

Although we took the camera with us we didn’t actually take any photos, which is about par for the course for us at the moment. In fact the only record we’ve got of the weekend is this phone camera shot of Evan stealing my Dr Pepper (I’m not usually much of a fan of the good Doctor, but the campsite shop was poorly stocked and times were desperate).

I must admit we did cheat a bit. At around teatime when the rain started really coming down we decided that discretion was the better part of valor and made a break for a nearby cinema in Sheffield.

The original plan was for Evan and I to go and watch Monsters vs Aliens 3D, while Amy and Kerry would go and see the Hanna Montana movie. There’s nothing like a bit of conforming to gender stereotypes to transform your children into societies mindless drones, that’s what I say.

As it turned out Monsters vs Aliens was sold out, so Evan and I were forced to trudge reluctantly into the soppy girls film instead. I considered making a break for the Star Trek Movie instead, but I’m pretty sure Kerry would have divorced me.

Hanna Montana was OK, but (and I can’t believe I’m going to say this) it was no High School Musical. The music and dance routines were pretty tepid, and the cast just didn’t feel hungry enough. At least with HSM you get the impression that you are watching a bunch of talented young performers who have worked pretty hard to land the roles they’ve got. Rightly or wrongly the whole Billy-Ray / Miley Cyrus thing smells a little of nepotism to me. Amy of course enjoyed it, but it’s pretty telling that she declined the chance to go and see it next weekend with her Auntie Megan (although to be fair that’s probably more to do with her embarrassment about being seen in public in the company of someone with such a leathery and wrinkly face).

Still, by having the novelty of going camping combined with the warmth and popcorn of going to the cinema I guess we got the best of both worlds on Saturday night (see what I did there!?).

Sunday morning (and due to getting up with Evan at 5:30am there was a lot of Sunday Morning) was spent killing time until it was time to head over to my brother Sam’s where we went out for a meal to celebrate his and his partner Lucy’s birthday.

Sam’s recently returned from a 6 day 90 mile hike along the first section of the Pennine way. Usually something like this would lead me to complain bitterly that he always have to go one better than me. But considering that not only was the weather pretty grim for him at times, but that he also had to carry his tent on his back and spent every night desperately trying to dry out his socks on his guy rope I think he can keep this victory. I still have more letters after my name than he does, not to mention my ability to pass a mirror without spending twenty minutes preening myself and me having fractionally more surviving hair follicles (providing you count back and ear hair that is).

You can read all about Sam’s adventures on the Pennine Way on his blog.

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