Pleading Poverty!

We're just back from a week away in Foulridge, Lancs. We had a really relaxing time, despite seeing lots of places. Foulridge is about 12 miles outside of Skipton, the nearest place you may all be familiar with is Burnley? Anyway it's irrelevant really. Our holiday cottage was two mins walk away from the Leeds Liverpool Canal and the famous mile long tunnel, In fact it's probably that famous that you don't have a clue what it is.. Google it!

We did a bit of walking along the canal path and around the reservoir, but we didn't do any real 'rambling' as we didn't take any maps or a compass. We spent a day at Hebden Bridge and Howarth (home to the Bronte Sisters) we had a day at Skipton, mooching around the market, and trying out their fish and chips! we also spent a day visiting Grassington and Hawes up in The Yorkshire Dales. The weather was great at the start of the week although it did get a bit cooler on Tuesday, luckily though we never had any rain!
I have been to all of the above places before so knew what we were in for, Matt however has never visited any of these places, I think it's fair to say I picked out all the nice spots. We are hoping to go in the same area later in the summer and get some camping done, weather permitting!
England really is a stunning country when it comes to scenery, we were surrounded by rolling fields full of grazing sheep and lambs, it was just like been back in NZ, only there were far more people and cars. It was such a peaceful and tranquil setting, just what you need after the hustle and bustle of living in a large city like Hull.
It's not cheap though holidaying in the U.K, firstly there was the expense of the cottage in excess of £300 for the week, and then there is the issue of fuel, not to mention the extortionate prices at the moment. It was also self catering too so we had to feed ourselves for the week, then there were parking fees (£2 every time you stepped out of the car) £5 each for fish and chips, £4 for two cups of pissy tea, and then all the tat you tend to buy when you are aimlessly ambling around the shops on holiday mode. It's amazing the amount of tat you can accumulate in one week.
We did have a lovely Indian curry though and some decent pub grub, and more than a few pints of the landlords finest ales. My mum and dad also came up for a few days and wasted equally the same amount of cash as we did on nic nacs, it's obviously a holiday thing. At least we didn't bring home any fluffy donkeys or castanets!!

Anyway back to petrol prices as it seems to be the topic of all conversation at the moment. After much complaining about the price of it and the way it has steadily continued to rise over the last few months, me and Matt have agreed to just accept it. What else can we do? it's not going to come down again so we might as well just get on with it. For those of you that are feeling the pinch (which I think we all are) check out www.petrolprices.com, if you type in your post-code it will give you the details of the cheapest petrol stations in your area. It's not just fuel prices that are on the up though is it, it's your shopping bill too, a couple of pence here a couple of pence there and before you know it you are only getting half a basket of shopping for the price that you used to be able to get a full one for. Which means all your little treats have to go.. Campbell's meat balls, Fray Bentos meat pie (in a tin) Angel Delight!
And what about the cost of gas and electric city, they are just going up and up, and the weather is getting colder and colder. Can you believe it is mid June next week and we are still having to put our heating on in the evening as it's so cold! There has been a few articles on the news about poverty in the UK, what a load of rubbish, there is no such thing! There was an old girl on the TV complaining about the cost of heat and light etc and about the choice between keeping warm or going hungry, she also goes on to mention about the housing benefit she gets and the tax credits she so ungratefully receives (thanks very much I'll have them back then) and how difficult it is to cope. And she genuinely believes she is living below the poverty line. What I would say to that sad old woman is, save up your pension, your housing benefits, your tax credits and whatever other handouts you receive from the government and buy yourself a one way flight to somewhere like Ecuador, where 80% of the population DO live below the poverty line. Poverty in these countries is, no running water, no gas, no electricity, no food, no heat, no welfare benefits, no nothing! They also suffer extreme winters in houses that are no more than concrete huts, now that IS poverty!
However bad thing's get in Britain we can always be guaranteed a comfortable standard of living, we all live in habitable accommodation, we all have access to utilities (pensioners get a heating allowance every year) and we know that we can claim some kind of benefit from the government if we are unable to work or if we are retired.
In these 3rd world countries they live a hand to mouth existence every day of their sorry lives, they have never known a days luxury in their lives and the chance are they never will. So when I see a fat old woman, with nice clean clothes on, a lovely little flat with cupboards full of meatballs and angel delight saying "woe is me' I have to say I have no time for her and her wittering. My message to her is this 'Get in the real world love and stop feeling sorry for yourself!'

Anyway that's my rant over with.

We have uploaded some pics of our hols onto Flckr, there are also some of Edinburgh too. Our next jaunt is in a couple of weeks when we are off down to London on the train with Anna and Robin. We are booked in at Gordon Ramsey's Foxtrot Oscar for a slap up meal, we're also gonna do the touristy thing and jump on an open top bus and take in the delights, we're then off to Belfast for a wedding (not ours) and then who knows where?
Talking of weddings, we are just in the process of putting together a guest list for the occasion (a task in itself, you can't please everyone) so as soon as we have that agreed(!) we will be booking a venue and setting the date. It is difficult knowing who to invite etc, I might do it the Willy Wonka way and put so many invitations/golden tickets inside special packs of Angel Delight (or something similar) if you're lucky enough to land a ticket then you get to enjoy the celebrations, and if you don't land a ticket then you're even luckier as you don't have to worry about a wedding present, what to wear, where to stay, how to get there etc etc etc