Chester-le-Street

This town must have ancient French connections with a name like that. Peter and Freda live there and I visited them with Alan and Lynne last Friday. I took the train to Leeds then another to Castleford where Alan and Lynne were waiting for me. Our target is over an hours drive north east and towards the coast. It is south of Durham.

When I was 16 I travelled to Leeds to attend courses at Leeds Technical College. Peter and Alan were in my class so we got to know each other over time. We are the same age but I am the 'baby' in the trio! We have certainly gone in many different directions and tracks over the years but contact was always maintained. Peter inherited his family business but continued his love of music, and still plays in a local 'pop' band.

We caught up on news at their home over cups of tea before driving off to what is becoming our local restaurant there. Happily seated, we looked at the menu. I am not a great fan of 'red' meat so I ordered 'Yorkshire Chicken with Stuffing and Seasonal Vegetables' to accompany a cool glass of Chardonnay.

More catching up on news and then the meals were placed on the table.  When I saw my plate my 'eyes popped out like organ stops'!!

I'm sure you can see why. Staring back at me was a whole chicken. Yes, you read correctly. I thought there must be a mistake but my fellow eaters assured me there was not. I said that I had expected a couple of slices of chicken breast, as I would expect in Berlin, but not a whole chicken! They just smiled and told me to 'gerrit down yer'. I sliced off some meat then shared out the rest. The veg tasted nice though.

After lunch we drove to Durham. Peter and Freda's sons have opened a sports centre including lots of things for children to jump about, run and generally burn off energy. There is also a cafe/snack bar where Peter and Freda sometimes help out. Nice of them to do that. I really enjoyed seeing families  sharing in all kinds of activities. Pity they didn't have such a place in Silsden when I was a kid.

I particularly liked an area where children could jump onto a huge air bag. Some just jumped straight, some did back flips, some did somersaults. No matter how, they really enjoyed it. Each area of activity has a trainer to supervise what the children do and make sure they are safe. The next time I go there I shall distract the trainer then do a back flip onto the bag. Can't wait for that :-))  Thanks for a great day out to all.