Adventures in the North

Blackpool .. Las Vegas of the North. Faded amusement arcades, a pier, a promenade, a sweeping beach, some good fish and chips - and off the scale on the tack factor. Shaun decided to test his strong-man status on our way to ride the mighty Blackpool Pier Ferris wheel - on a day where the effect of the wind gusts at the top was no extra charge.
From the excitement of Blackpool we moved on, intent on uncovering more excitement in the mighty cities of the North. In Liverpool we made time to sing 'Ferry .. cross the Mersey' .. on the ferry cross the Mersey .. before going on a self-guided Beatles tribute tour ...

As a lasting touch we thought the locals deserved their own debut of the famous umbrella hat (you saw it first at Arundel), so it made its second appearance on UK soil at Day 2 of the second test between the Black Caps and England at Old Trafford cricket ground in Manchester. It did itself proud, as did our cricketers (on that day at least). We are now the proud owners of some dedicated cricket commentary earpieces.. watch this space for the next piece of embarrassing cricket spectator kit .. M

Battle of Pasty v Clotted Cream

The First May Bank Holiday and it was time to undertake field research into that great British conundrum - the Cornish Pasty vs the Devonshire Afternoon Tea. Heading down to Cornwall from London via Stonehenge and Bath we got straight to work sampling the best local fare on offer ... There was time to branch out and sample some of the fantastic seafood hauled in at the little fishing villages around the Cornwall coast ...

On our return journey to London it was time to try some authentic Devon clotted cream and scones (coffee replacing one essential ingredient of afternoon tea for Michaela).

The winner ... well that depends on who you ask ... but there's nothing like a 5lb pasty to keep you going all day on a walk out to King Arthur's Castle ...

S