Holiday in The Lakes
by Phil LongThis was the view from the living room of the house in the Lake District where I stayed in with my family last week. I didn’t even have to Photoshop it to make it look sunny! 
As you can see it was fantastic though, regrettably, I didn’t take one on the day we left as the change in colours in just one week was pretty dramatic.
The tree on the right was more an orange colour on Saturday morning and pretty much everything had pushed up a few notches on the “autumnal appearance” slider.
As I posted previously, there were a fair number of us who went; Gran and Grandad, Mum, Dad, my Sister, my Brother and his family (Lynne, Robin and Rosie) and me. Plus, on the first night, my Uncle Bob and my cousins - Emily and Rebecca (they stayed in a nearby B&B). The house was well-equipped for dealing with the numbers involved. The living room was huge with 5 sofas - two of which faced the window which dominated an entire wall and looked out upon the landscape shown here. Upstairs was an additional smaller living room with it’s own kitchen. Three bedrooms downstairs had en-suite showers and/or bathrooms; with a further bathroom/shower upstairs. It was big.
Overall I didn’t get up to much - which is really what a holiday is about. It’s far less fraught than a trip on the Falcon - for obvious reasons (no running out of diesel and drifting down a river without power, for example). I had Rochdale second in the Coca Cola League 2 table in the Football Manager 2008 Demo from MacWorld… so even my virtual time while on holiday was relatively stress-free.
It was great to have all the family together; while also having the freedom for all of us to do our own thing. In my case walking round shops isn’t fun whether it’s done in Manchester or the Lake District - and hiking up hills isn’t the best thing for my ankle as it’s still recovering. I did go on a couple of short walks - but across easy terrain. As seen in the picture on the left, though, sometimes I had to carry more than myself.
On the night of arrival we had a big meal with all of the family around a pretty large dining table. Some of us learnt the perils of Facebook (and adding family to your ‘Friends’ list) then we played Cluedo before Maff, Emily, Rebecca and I played “Big Brain Academy” on the Wii. I felt I did reasonably well, considering we played that until around midnight after a few glasses of wine. I may consider getting the game myself as it’s a good party game - which can have more than 4 players.
The middle of the holiday was occupied with a bit of walking, visits to Windermere and Bowness, plus a steam train ride and relaxing at the house and driving Rochdale up the league table.
The last night, more wine, and charades - with my Dad’s, erm, unforgettable (or maybe unforgivable ;)) air-guitar mime for the rock songs he continuously picked out from the cards. The game was further complicated by everybody trying NOT to guess right; which can be the only explanation for Maff not getting my ‘Wonder Woman’ impersonation as it was - frankly - “spot on”. Maybe I should have pretended to fly in an invisible plane…
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