XL and all that stuff

Just over a week ago, l was scanning through the business pages of one of the daily broadsheets, not really taking in what was written, when an article caught my eye, the headlines read, 'XL Leisure Group enters refunding talks'. I re-read the article twice just to make sure l my eyes were not deceiving me.

I think my heart stopped beating for a moment or two, thoughts of the Zoom fiasco flashed in front of my eyes. At times of crisis, l guess the internet is an excellent source of information so there l was, googling XL.com trying to find out more. For the next 2 days nothing, no news absolutely nowt.

The problem, you see, was that l had booked tickets with XL flying out of East Midlands to Corfu in the next 4 days. Would the company find a backer or would it fold? As the departure date crept ever closer, still no news. Press releases had stated that a decision would be reached at the end of the week.......... nothing. No news is good news? I don't think so, l had a gut feeling that the company was as they say, going to go 'tits up'.

Being self-employed, holidays are few and far between, eagerly anticipated, a case of escaping from the daily routine to relax and re-charge before going hell for leather again. For the past few years, after the the schools have gone back and the season is starting to return to its normal pace, we have departed en-mass to Corfu for a week's r & r. No different this year except, XL.

A hurriedly arranged crisis meeting was called around the breakfast table, topics discussed included what if there is no plane on monday and what do we do if we couldn't get back? The boys were fine , they were flying out of Birmingham with Monarch, it was just us & the in-laws.

After rather a large intake of breath, it was decided, unanimously l might add, to re-book flights with another carrier. Call us mad, but what option was there, could we really take the risk of loosing out on the long awaited holiday?

So there you have it. Seats were booked through First Choice.

The holiday was wonderful. The sun shone, the sea was deliciously warm, the temperature lolled around in the high 30'C and the villa was a dream. The boys swam and raced around in motor boats, we ate at waterside tavernas and drank copious amounts of retsina, the stress from the past 12 months was starting to drift off into the ether.

So what was happening to XL we wondered? Had we been plain daft in changing flights? Texts, followed by eagerly read news reports, care of the BBC web pages, told us otherwise. Groups of XL flight only travelers huddled around their suitcases on monday at Corfu airport waiting for a seat to, well anywhere, really brought home to us that the days of cheap airline seats are gone for the time being.

Yorkshire Air Ambulance

This week, what with the Bank Holiday weekend and such like, has been fully blown, so to speak. Customers, traffic, car park rage and sunshine, pretty normal for holiday weekends in the height of summer on the Yorkshire coast. What made this weekend a bit more thought provoking, was the BBC's showing of the first in the series of Helicopter Heroes, a documentary following the live emergency rescues in the Yorkshire region.

In many parts of rural England, the rescue helicopter services offer a serious option for emergency treatment following trauma, whether road, agriculture or equine accident for example. We all watch these programs with interest l am sure, knowing the service is there but never once dreaming that we will be a part of a rescue. So it was that we all sat down in front of the box at 9 am on Bank Holiday Monday to watch the program.

The first episode followed a two year old, hit in a freak accident by a gate resulting in 3 fractures to her skull and a broken arm. This little girl is my niece.

The accident happened last autumn on the family farm when a young horse, after being spooked, skidded into a galvanized gate which was thrown across the yard, hitting AT. I should mention that country children are brought up from an early age to be aware that animals and machinery are dangerous, little AT was stood well away from any source of danger, or so Hazza's cousin thought.........

Alone, LT rang for help, the progress of that help was shown dramatically in the program. The rescue mission was touch and go, there was a genuine fault with the gear box which worse case scenario would have resulted in the chopper being grounded.

AT, was air lifted to Midlesborough safely and you will be pleased to note that she has made a full recovery, going on to win the fancy dress competition at this year's Malton Show!

As a result of the accident the familyhas been raising money for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance charity fund, donating Christmas and birthday present money and even ice cream at Driffield Show.

On a slightly more frivolous note, AT spent last Monday in London after appearing on BBC's breakfast news alongside the swimming phenomenon that is Michael Phelps. AT thought that London Zoo was marvelous and so did Little Teddy!

Perhaps l just ought to mention that the program was filmed in 'real time' and was not a reconstruction.

Late August

I am sat here, in the office preparing for the final onslaught of the 'summer' season, august bank holiday. The weather, thanks to the good old jet stream has been absolutely **** crap. We have, just, manged to combine the oil seed rape and winter barley but many farms in the area still have the early sown crops in the fields, winter wheat hasn't been touched yet. l noticed today on my weekly trip to our local town that the floods were 'out' once again around the castle motte. August my foot!

So, what a wonderful summer for the hoards of tourists who are once again re-discovering the pleasures of the English summer holiday. All roads heading to the coast have been busy, [understatement], not that we mind. The coastal resorts are reporting a bumper year with sales of buckets and spades being at a record level. Certainly here, we have noticed a new wave of customers, families either coming for the day, or as they say in this part of the world 'comfurt'day', or stopping on one of the many caravan parks the litter this coastline, so thanks to the 'credit crunch' the beautiful, historic and varied landscape of Yorkshire is being discovered once again.

This year, our immediate cliff has not eroded too much, however, further north along coast towards Bridlington, the sea is washing up the mud cliffs at every high tide, eroding vast amounts of boulder clay, resulting in the road being closed and several houses in imminent danger of being washed into the sea. Locals are pretty sure that this pounding of the cliffs is due in large to the sand dredging out in the bay, which incidentally we also reckon has resulted in reduction in common tern numbers who feed on sand eels.

It will be interesting to see how busy we are this weekend, the forecast isn't good, but when your on holiday you have to go somewhere, and at least we have indoor as well as out door seating. The ice cream team are busy making loads of napoli tubs so as to keep our wholesale customers stocked up over the coming bank holiday, so, if you are visiting the Yorkshire coast, look out for the signs and try a proper dairy ice cream, you can find us here at base camp, or along the coast from Hornsea to Whitby! Have a nice weekend!

a footpath is just that - a footpath

Having lived here for the past 25 years, one of the pleasures has been walking along the field boundaries, down to the sea at Withow gap. So it was that to complement Mr Moo's and the planting of over 2000 native tree species, we set up and have established a 'permissive footpath' [to avoid any confusion this is not a public footpath], with grant aid from DEFRA. The easy walk slowly meanders through the saplings of oak, field maple and rowan, hugging the field boundaries, leading on past WW1 and 2 concrete bunkers once maned by the home guard and the Royal Observer Corps, then sweeping down into what was once a shallow, kettlehole lake resplendent in olden times with its own beaver dam and finally ending down on the beach.

This year, after the wet winter, and as the soil becomes less fertile due to the restricted use of fertilizers, the stewardship grassland has seen a sudden burst of colour as the wild flowers begin to become re-established after years of mono culture in the form of that good old silage mix, rye grass. Buttercups, common vetch, white clover and some sort of trefoil are making a comeback. Sky lark numbers have increased, the barn owls seem to appreciate the short clipped grass of the trail, roe deer hide in the long grass. Oh l feel a 'Bill Oddie' moment coming on.

So it is with some annoyance that a local 'chav' family have decided that the footpath makes a wonderful race track for their clapped out motor bikes. The buggers have stretched the barbed wire alongside the kissing gate. Hubby has already tackled these rural yobs. l have been adding broken fence posts and concrete slabs in an effort to halt the blighter's fun or to at least puncture the tyres. The only real way to stop the prats, is to replace the 6 feet of fence with 2 strands of barbed wire and rabbit netting. Perhaps some caltrops might be the answer..

Freedom of Speech

So at last we have a politician who is thinking and behaving like a Statesman, a politician who appears to believe in something other than his or her safe seat at the next election. An MP who is prepared to stand up for what he believes to be right and asks to be judged by the electorate on the issue. Boy, from slimy, ditch water politics to stand up and be counted politics and all in the same week as the anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta what could be happening in the totally apathetic political sphere here in England?

Well l refer to the almost local MP, David Davies who has resigned his seat in protest to the passing, by what can only call dubious and mucky means, of the bill to extend the maximum time police can hold terror suspects to 42 days.

So there we are then, something very dear to my heart, the erosion of both freedom of speech and civil liberties all in the name of protecting us, the British citizen, against the terrorist. Bah blurdey humbug say I! We as a nation, have fought long and hard to establish and protect our civil liberties and freedom of speech, even executing a misguided fool of a King who believed in the Divine Right of Kings en route to the establishment of modern democracy. Are we now to see our rights and freedoms being slowly diminished by a bunch of blundering buffoons who just happen to be 'in power' at the moment with the excuse of security of the nation?

I am not a real big fan of Tony Robinson, but there has been however on Channel 4 a series on law and order, or is it crimes and punishment, anyway the episode from 15th June was in fact concerned with freedom of speech and made fascinating viewing shedding new light on what is fast becoming a 'police' state.

So there we have it briefly, no ice cream, no photos just my thoughts on a topic that is important to everyone today. We shouldn't just lie back and blithely ignore bills that pass through parliament, they effect us all and if l want to protest in front of parliament this should not be deemed illegal, if l want to take photos in the new shopping mall in Hull l should be able to without being threatened by security thugs and finally if l choose not to have an ID card my wishes should be respected, and finally finally check out this web site.

June, where did May go?

warning: this blog does not contain reference to the credit crunch, price of food, fuel or Gordon Brown.

Has anyone seen May? I seem to have misplaced it somewhere. It was the start of the month, then, wham bamm, it's now June, the 10th to be exact. Is this what happens as one ages [gracefully of course]? By heck doesn't time fly, they say. I think l could say more, but being a polite sort of oldie l won't embarrass myself more than necessary and most definately wont bore you with what muddyboots did and what muddyboots did next. If the truth were know, l can't exactly remember......................It was truly awesome [TF's words] to meet fellow blogger @themill, last month and explore the rugged dramatic shoreline of Northumbria, castles, sandy beaches and strange restaurants in tree houses. Time away from base, wonderful, but then came half term bringing with it the chaos and rush and rattle and pandemonium; no peace - no calm - nothing but crowds and holiday-makers, bunged up roads and, well it's no fun working whilst everyone else is out enjoying themselves is it? Oh, l seem to have done a bit of filling in the blanks. Sorry about that bit, l must be in a state of denial. The customer is always right, the customer is always right, the custome..............

Well at least there's nothing wrong with my very dodgey sense of humour. Or is there?

So, the sun has come out the temperature is in the low 20's which is seemingly bringing with it the annual red skin syndrome as pasty white limbs are exposed to the air for the first time this year together with 'mygodyoureallyshouldntwearthatinpublic'.

May Day May Day

So it is now May, and it is the second bank holiday weekend of the year. Compared to the last one, easter, the weather looks as though it WILL BE better. At this very moment in time, the sky is, nearly blue, the air temperature is nearly warm and the grass caravan site is nearly dry.

We are expecting to be busy. Not only is the CL site full, but we also have a caravan rally as well. I have marched about this morning with the Rally Marshals pointing out the 'wet holes' and roping off the boggy bit on the CL Site which is right across pitch number 4. hopefully, fingers crossed, the latecomers on the CL site will wait until morning to be sited. I wish.

Yesterday was my day off - Hubby and l took deliveries into Leeds and Harrogate. Two new customers, Shaky Jakes in Headingley and Indulge Deli Bar in Harrogate. Although l had no time to shop till l dropped in Harrogate, l did manage a quick nip into Betty's for some Yorkshire Fat Rascals and cauliflowers dainty-cake-thingies.

On the farm, the heifers are now out enjoying the spring grass, the hedges and trees are bursting into leaf, everywhere is becoming a blaze of brilliant, vibrant green, whilst Gordon has rediscovered his spring time habit of eating dandelion flowers! The swallows have re-established and are repairing their nest in the barns whilst the bats and flitting about at dusk. As for rabbits..........yes they are everywhere and the cat, for the majority of the time is marching about clutching an unfortunate baby bunny between her teeth! So all in all, our visitors should have plenty to see whilst walking along the farm walk to the beach.

1 x dandelion-eating dog

1 x cat eating baby rabbits