Manchester Half Marathon #McrHalf

I was up far too early on Sunday morning (5AM!) to get to Manchester in plenty of time for the half marathon. However I was boosted by knowing that I was running for YoungMinds. It was still dark when we had walked to the start area near Old Trafford:

With my family, I joined plenty of other runners in the local Costa for one last drink before the race. At this point my race nerves kicked in so I headed to my start pen way ahead of time! This gave me a chance to chat to other runners and even share a mutual birthday hug with another participant, We were all well covered up due to the classic Manchester weather:

The event started in waves, so being in Pen F we had over half an hour to wait before it was our turn to set off round the streets of Manchester. The first few kilometres were a loop towards the city centre and then back again to the start area - and my first glimpse of my family. Despite doing my best to go off too fast I soon realised I was far too close to the 2:15 pacer and managed to ease off a bit as we headed down the A56 towards Sale:

Madeline Linford and the Manchester Guardian

Today I joined several members of my family to travel to Manchester and the John Rylands library. My dad had discovered that my great aunt Madeline Linford was featured in an exhibition about the women who shaped Manchester:

My mum had arranged for us to meet an archivist who would give us access to all the papers referring to Madeline in the library. This meant that 3 generations of us met up at the library:

My great aunt Madeline was chosen because of her groundbreaking career at the Manchester Guardian. She joined the paper in 1913 and in 1922 became the first Editor of the Women’s Page. She started life in the Manchester Guardian not as journalist, but as an assistant in the display advertisement department after which time she became editor W.P. Crozier’s personal assistant. She remained the only woman on the editorial staff until Crozier’s daughter Mary joined in 1930. This video tells why she was a trail blazer for women in journalism:

#CountryKids in Manchester and Salford #WhateverTheWeather

With it being half term we wanted a bit of a break without going too far or breaking the bank. So we decided on an overnight trip to Manchester so that a) my son could hunt for different Pokemon b) we could visit museums etc. So on a frosty morning we headed up to Oxenholme train station:

It only takes 1 1/4 hours from Kendal to central Manchester but it feels a world away when you arrive at Piccadilly Station:

My son didn't waste much time in setting several eggs incubating and hunting down the Halloween special Pokemon as I navigated us through the city centre. It was a good job I took several battery packs with us as it was long day:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Week 16 end of the holidays #R2BC

My life may not be as exciting as Michelle's at the minute but I have lots of reasons to be cheerful this week! Here are the things that are making me smile:
1) Last of the Easter fun
Boy did we pack in the fun this Easter! We rounded off our holidays with a couple more fabulous family days out. The first was the RSPB reserve at Leighton Moss:

And then on Sunday we went to a bloggers' day at Legoland Discovery Centre in Manchester.  Not only did we have fun but I enjoyed meeting bloggers I had met before or who I had only talked to online. Interesting being described as the blogger with the lovely view from her kitchen window!
2) Praise for my children
I had some lovely things said about my children this week. Some from bloggers such as Chaos and Calm who enjoyed my children at Legoland. Also from other people telling me what polite and well brought up children I have! I will have to remember that when they are driving me mental! Also check over on my daughter's blog for her amazing Gollum impressions.
3) Diet and Fitness
After the previous 2 bad weeks there was a loss on the scales this week! I will be writing more about my plans for doing better when I join in with Fitness Fanatics Fridays from tomorrow. Having lots of support on and off line is oh so helpful. Going out for a total of 40 minutes running on Tuesday really put me in a great frame of mind too. Come back tomorrow if you want to know more..
4) Operation House
An impending visit by a surveyor for the landlady forced me into ramping up the house sorting this weekend. This wasn't a happy experience in itself as I'd rather have been doing something fun with the kids but it has left me smiling in the end! The previous moving of furniture from my bedroom to the living room had left my room in even more chaos than normal. Now I can access my bed from both sides again and the room seems twice the size. The landing is also cleared of all the boxes of stuff looking for a home - I did stash these on the bottom bunk so I know what I'm doing this weekend! The front room is a lot clearer too. I did have empty space all the way across the room at one point this week:

5) Spring?
We briefly got teased into thinking it was properly Spring on Monday and Tuesday again! The blossoms were out and we got to spend 2 evenings having picnic teas outside:

Blogs Up North at Legoland Discovery Centre and Cadwaladers

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We were lucky last Sunday to be invited to join 14 other blogging families for a Blogs Up North trip to the Legoland Discovery Centre in the Trafford Centre, Manchester. We were given free entry into the centre which I have visited before when we won a trip.

This time it was a lot less crowded and the only longish queue was for the first ride:

After shooting trolls with lasers we went into the Miniland to see the famous landmarks:

There were also some Lakes landmarks which we recognised too:

Next stop was the 4D cinema. We were able to sit on the front row for the original lego movie and got a little bit wet. Then we queued up for the new Chimera movie and got even wetter! Amazing 3D effects though the noise of the fan was louder than some parts of the soundtrack.

We then had a bite to eat in the cafe. I was rather disappointed with the range of food for children. There were loads of chicken mayo and few cheese sandwiches but no ham. My son ended up with cake and crisps for lunch! My grown up panini was pretty tasty though.

My son had a play in the soft play whilst I chatted to the other bloggers. Then my daughter went to watch the 4D with some other families whilst my son had a go driving a police car to catch the robbers:

I wanted to go on the Merlin's Apprentice ride. Whilst waiting my son had a chance to get up close to some of his favourite movie characters:

Then it was time to check out the next ride:

Finally the part my son had been waiting for Star Wars Miniland which is on until June:

There were 3 scenes created all of which had some form of interactivity though the clone wars missiles weren't shooting properly.

We had one last fun photo opportunity before we left. These are my 2 with their new blog buddies:

I think at 9.5 my daughter is about at the limit for the discovery centre as the rides are more aimed at younger children. We did all have a lovely few hours in there and we will probably return again.

The last treat of the day was a trip to Cadwaladers ice cream cafe next door. They had kindly allowed us to sample their ice creams and coffees. It was hard to choose from all their flavours:

My children chose chocolate and mint Choc chip:

The meanies wouldn't let me taste it but it must have been delicious judging by the way they were demolished:

The coffee was a pretty good one too. I would definitely go back there as a paying customer.

Manchester Museum of Science and Industry - MOSI

As a family we are big fans of the museum of science and industry in Manchester. I have been going to parts of it for over 30 years but the modern museum of MOSI is so different from the old 1970s and 1980s one.  Yesterday we went as part of a group of northern bloggers to help showcase what the museum has to offer families of all ages. 

There is so much to do and lots of it is interactive and hands on. Can you spot my family up on the screens:

There are lots of different galleries to explore - click on the names to see more about each from the MOSI web site:

• Air and Space Gallery
• Connecting Manchester Gallery
• Electricity Gallery
• Gas Gallery
• Liverpool and Manchester Railway
• The Making of Manchester
• Manchester Science Gallery
• Power Hall
• Revolution Manchester Gallery
• Textiles Gallery
• Underground Manchester Gallery
• Warehouse for the World

I have to admit that there are still parts of the museum we haven't visited which I guess makes a great excuse for going back! I will tell you about which ones we did see this time.

At the weekends one of the most popular activities is taking a ride on a steam train. The site is built on the location of the world's first passenger railway station so its very fitting to take a ride in replica early carriages pulled by a refurbished steam train. Well worth the charge of £2 per adult and £1 per child - do check the timetable before coming to the museum:

It was a chilly but fun ride so do wrap up warm if going on a cold day as the carriages are open. Also be prepared to queue but it was a fun way to see the whole site and get some views of the Manchester skyline as you went.

One of the galleries that grown ups love the most is the Power Hall. This is the one I can remember from my childhood with its noisy working machines. These are all still there either as replicas or ones that have been rescued from elsewhere and they show how steam came to revolutionise industry in the 18th and 19th centuries:

We were lucky to see two live demonstrations through the day with a gentleman acting as James Watt to explain how steam engines worked and how he improved them. Plenty of audience participation. He then had one running to show us exactly how it worked. For the children Forgetful Fireman Fred helped them learn how a steam train worked by encouraging them to correct his mistakes. They all had a good time with this talk and joining in with appropriate sound effects and actions:

Once my son heard about the 4D film Robin Hood he immediately wanted to go so we crossed the site to the 1830 Warehouse to purchase our tickets (£4 and £3). As we had to wait for the film to start there was time to have a look at the historical displays about the history of Manchester from Roman times through to the Industrial Revolution. I didn't get given much time to read the boards but there were plenty of models and artifacts for us all to see:

We all enjoyed the movie which included getting sprayed with water and jolted around to fit with the action! A nice extra treat to add to the day. 

Then we descended into the cellars to see the Underground Manchester exhibition. This fascinated the children as it was all about the history of sanitation and included reconstructions of toilets and sewers (complete with smell!) and interesting facts about sewage and clean water.

My daughter's favourite part of the museum is Experiment! which is hands on science for children (and adults). There was plenty to get them thinking and finding out what happens if I... Its adjacent to the restaurant so with older children you can leave them in there for a while and enjoy a coffee..

The Textiles Gallery celebrates Manchester's history as a cottonopolis. There are machines from all stages of the cotton making process and sometimes they run demos showing them in action (we saw them at Christmas and my children found it too loud!). Having had ancestors in woollen mills in the 19th century it showed me what awful conditions they must have worked in if the noise from these machines was only a fraction of what a proper working mill was like:

Whilst there we also sampled the lunch in the restaurant with nice homemade soup and children's pick and mix lunches. I resisted the fresh baked pizzas but we did return for yummy cakes later in the day..

We will be back there later in the year and I hope to see the parts of the museum I still haven't been too. I do want to spend time in the air and space section as that is the other part I remember from my childhood. It is quite tempting to go back without the children so I can have more time exploring but I know they would be very angry with me if I didn't take them!

Chill Factore - Blogger Party

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Back at half term my children and I were invited to the Chill Factore in Manchester for their blogger party. It was pretty exciting pulling up outside the building with its special shape to accomodate the ski slope. On entering the complex it was amazing what they had fitted in to make it a ski experience.

We were in a group with families with children from pre-school to early secondary age. All of us were kitted out with clothing, helmets and boots before being taken out to enjoy a taste of the activities on offer.

For my children and I our first taste was the tubing which is basically a giant inner tube that you sit in before being pushed down the slope! This was really good fun as it wasn't very scary but pretty exhilarating. My daughter had the maximum number of goes but my son only wanted 3 runs down.

He headed over to the adjacent sledging slope and was very happy to spend the rest of the session going down on there especially on the special seated sledges:



I came from the tubing just as my daughter came flying to the bottom of the luge! She had found it a bit too scary and advised me not to do it. So of course I went down it 4 times! It is pretty scary and I had bruised elbows but it was well worth it. I did take some pics and video of other people on the luge but can't get them on here at the minute as my laptop is broken... Luckily I had uploaded a partial video of what we did to YouTube so here it is including my squealing (and some sideways footage!):



 

For the youngest members of the group there was a Snow Play area where they could have fun in the real snow:

By the end of the session all of us were a little bit tired and a little bit wet but mostly looked happy:

We were more than ready to retire to one of the bar areas for pizza, chips and a view of the slopes:

Just at the minute my two aren't keen on the thought of the main slope for skiing and snowboarding but I'm quite tempted!

I would definitely recommend Chill Factore for a different family day out. At the minute they are having special Christmas events including Santa in a real snow grotto! For the rest of the time they have various packages to let you choose your activities. Its not a cheap day out but it is a lot of fun as a family.



Reasons to be Cheerful: Halloween Edition ( #R2BC )

Joining in with Michelle for the linky this week is a lot easier than last week to find reasons to be cheerful!

1) School holidays

No school for any of us for a whole week is bound to make us cheerful! Nothing wrong with school or work but the lack of school runs is always a plus. All of us needed a break as I had been back for 2 months and the children for over 7 weeks and we were al tired.

2) Fun in Manchester

We had a super fun if long day to Manchester on Monday. Its just over an hour drive from us but has so much to offer its worth the drive. Firstly we went to the Chill Factore blog party to try out the snow fun (more on this to follow!.

Then we went to use our prize winning tickets at Legoland Discovery Centre. My son was slightly disappointed that there weren't roller coasters like at Windsor but we all had a great fun afternoon:

We rounded off with a short shopping spree for the children in the Trafford Centre, they had never experienced anything quite like it!

3) Forest Fun

Our trip to Whinlatter on Tuesday made us all smile. The fact that my post about it has been shared on Blogmouth is an extra bonus:

4) My Family

Thanks to being near my parents I have had lots of help this week. The chaotic state of the house had not improved due to my new job and my parents came round to help at least make a dent in the children's rooms and get some stuff either up in the loft or out to their garage!

They have also kindly given me their old washing machine as mine had died. Having gone for nearly a fortnight without a machine its really maling me smile.

What's making you smile this week?