Ice Skating in Warwick

Another brilliant weekend – such good fun

Woke up nice and early and got cracking with a proper fry-up for breakfast. Made loads, which turned out to be a good call because Tash had invited people round and they all tucked in too.

John & Pauline came over, then Liam and Georgia turned up with their dog Woody. Must admit, he was a bit of a nightmare and I’m slightly worried about how he’ll be on Christmas Day when they come over. I’m sure we’ll work something out — hopefully we can calm him down somehow.

It was really nice having everyone round though, and little Frankie got passed around from pillar to post. He didn’t complain at all — such a lovely little lad.

After breakfast they all headed off and we started getting sorted to go to Warwick Castle for skating. Before leaving, Jeny popped in briefly with a couple of cuddly toys for Frankie — she’s so kind and thoughtful.

Dropped Bess off at Sue’s and made our way to Warwick — nice easy drive as it’s so close. Found a decent parking spot and met Wayne & Kerry and the girls in Wetherspoons. Slowly everyone else arrived. Niamh even brought her new boyfriend, Sidney, who seems a very nice lad.

We had some food and drinks and then walked over to the ice rink, set in the castle grounds with the castle itself overlooking us — brilliant setting.

Unfortunately the rain had ruined the rink, and they hadn’t re-iced it. There was a good inch of water across the whole thing — absolutely not ideal.

Didn’t stop us though. We still got on and had fun, and as usual I was zooming around, happy as Larry… until for the first time in many, many years I lost my balance and went over! And of course it had to be on the bit completely full of water — absolutely soaked. Didn’t hurt anything except my pride.

Carried on skating anyway until our time was up. Everyone had a good laugh at my expense. We hung around outside for a while afterwards, chatting with a pint, then said our goodbyes and went our separate ways home.

Lewis, Emily, Frankie and Jack all headed back up north.

Picked Bess up from Sue’s and stayed a little while — I had a very large gin and tonic — then home, where we watched more Mr Mercedes. I had four more beers, so ended up a bit tipsy but not too bad. Bed not too late.

Such a lovely weekend — so good to have Lewis, Emily and Frankie here. I hope they enjoyed it too and that it hasn’t put them off coming again.

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✅ End of Day Summary

A proper feel-good Sunday — family, friends, food, dogs, babies, skating chaos and a soaking on the ice. Lots of laughter, a big G&T, a few beers and a warm, contented finish to a brilliant weekend.

Rats

It’s been an interesting (and not in a good way) last few days. We’d been coming downstairs to food being eaten, wires chewed through, and general chaos, and assumed it was a mouse — until this morning proved otherwise.

To be honest, when I first saw the state of the bananas, half eaten and shredded, I did wonder if it was something bigger than a mouse…

We bought traps and set them out, but nothing happened. Last night after seeing Tucks, I even set my alarm for 5.30am so I could check the traps before the Airbnb guests were up. Came down at 3.00am — nothing. Alarm went, checked again — still nothing.

I went into the library to move one of the traps when I suddenly caught movement behind me. Turned around and saw this huge rat scurrying down a hole near the unused chimney. It was big. So that was the culprit. Put the trap right by his hole and went back to bed, let Tash know — she was not happy.

In the morning he still hadn’t bitten, so we made a plan. Later today I filled the hole with expanding foam, hoping it’s the only entry point. Before sealing it I threw a load of poison chunks down there. I’m worried it’s not the only hole and he’ll find another way in — or that there’s more than one rat. Not a pleasant thought.

Bought another box of poison and refilled the one by the back door. The last thing we want is rats in the house. There was even evidence of it in the bathroom cupboard, which is worrying — no idea how it got there.

Let’s see if this does the trick. I’m not convinced, but we’ll find out soon enough.

Reflection:
Today was more stressful than anything else — and the not knowing makes it worse. Fingers crossed the measures we’ve taken actually work.

Wicked for Good - Cinema night

Normal day’s work — nothing much to report. I got dinner on the go earlier than usual because we were heading out in the evening.

Once Tash was home and ready, we made our way over to the Vue at the Kassam, meeting up with Mum and Charlotte to watch the second Wicked film (Wicked for Good). There were only about ten people in the whole screening, and even the car park was practically empty — I don’t think I’ve ever seen it that quiet before. Feels a bit of a sad state of affairs for the place.

We really enjoyed the first Wicked film, and this one was just as good. Really well put together, beautifully performed, and just very, very enjoyable overall. All of us loved it. Made me think we should make the effort to go to the cinema more often — especially when it’s only about £6.50 a ticket.

Said our goodbyes afterwards and headed home, where we watched another episode of Mr Mercedes, the Netflix series we’ve just started. Really getting into it, but only just realised there are three seasons of ten episodes each — so we’re definitely in for the long haul!

Reflections:
A simple day overall, but a really nice evening out. It’s easy to forget how much I enjoy going to the cinema, especially when it’s quiet and you can properly sink into the film. And it was good spending time with Mum and Charlotte. The little routines — dinner early, a film, then an episode of a series at home — end up making a day feel surprisingly satisfying.