This morning was standard touristy as Emily and Aimi went to visit the home of Beatrix Potter. She wrote the Peter Rabbit books, which were so successful and earned her so much fame and fortune that she bought and protected many areas of the Lake District. These were almost exclusively given to the National Trust and now make up a large part of the Lake District National Park preserving the landscape for generations.
While her life is impressive, works notable and business success enviable, I didn’t fancy walking around a squat cottage banging my head off low beams surrounded by cartoon rabbits in blue jackets. So I headed to the hotel next door and sat with Kayto and Killian in the sun. However, it wasn’t just us, a plague of wasps made it their business to spoil the calm atmosphere and otherwise enjoyable view. I have a firm hatred of wasps ever since i was stung by a huge spanish hornet and my arm swelled up to twice its size. I get nervous around them so it was not fun, maybe I should have sought refuge in the cottage afterall?
The hotel was a bit upper class and didn’t allow dogs inside (strange for the Lake District) so we found a local pub. This was also a low ceiling-ed cottage so I didn’t escape banging my head in the end. The traditional cottage stew was incredible and went down a treat, even tho it was warm outside. The best bit however was the urinal game in the men’s loos. There was a small plastic goal post in the pan with a black and white football on a piece of fishing line. Brilliant way to turn the mundane act of peeing into something far more entertaining! It also ensured that men didn’t miss, even if dribbling is expected in a normal game…
After this we went for a walk, over in Ambleside, to see the Lion and the Lamb. This is a really steep hill up to a large outcrop of rock (the Lion) that towers over a small nobbin of rock (the Lamb). It was a short but really steep climb up there which got us all sweating but was truly worth it for the view. There was also an interesting point of rock that looked like (and was called) the Howitzer. Killian and I scrambled up here not realising there was a huge drop off the other side. We struck manly, hands free poses for the photos before descending bravely, to safety.
K&E suggested staying at theirs that night. In a proper bed, with proper heating, and proper toilets. It had been such an action packed day, and we were so tired that they didnt need to ask twice. We picked up some chicken for curry that evening and headed over to Penrith. While Killian and Aimi cooked dinner, Emily took me over to her dads to see about my van batteries. Hopefully they could be revived and spare me even more cost on lumps of acidic lead…
Unfortunately not. They were not completely toast, but certainly down to about 60% of where they should be. And even if they could manage to start the van, I was told if I put them in parallel with the new battery, the bad one would just pull the new one down to its level. I didn’t fancy screwing my brand new battery up immediately after buying it, so I’ve got to accept that I need to buy a second new one. Lesson learned.
At least knowing this, I would have two brand new van batteries and could sleep easy. This was also helped by the proper bed we had that night!