Oh Wales X

I'm talking about the Rugby. My beloved Wales gave that game away with penalties. That's my opinion! 

However they also never gave up battling and I believe the Slimy South Africans ( sorry Viv if you still read this blog! ) manipulated every single one of those penalties on purpose. I base my opinion on the smug smile the big blonde one gave his team mate at one of the later penalties as if to say 'it worked'. Sure Wales should have been better disciplined - but I was watching hard and honestly saw no one deliberately give a penalty away. 

The ITV interviews after the match also annoyed me. 

The SSA captain, despite opportunities, never once said what a hard time they'd had winning and they were extremely ungracious I thought. Normally the losing team is highly praised. Not from the SSAs. 

Then when interviewing Warren Gatland, the frankly stupid interviewer asked him 

'So what was it that meant SA won in the end?'

Gatland looked bemused!! 

I declared to my living room that I'd have answered 

'The try they scored at 71 minutes.'

I am quite glad for my blood pressure and my family's ears that we don't have to endure the mega stress of a Semi final but my heart is breaking for Sam Warburton and his team. They did not deserve to go out to a sneaky try from the Springboks! I still love them! 

But now I'm shouting for Scotland and Ireland!! 

Before all this stress, 

The HG and I went out yesterday morning up int Lakes. We set off early so I could have my eyebrows ripped off my face by the lovely smiling Carla at 9. Fortunately my fringe covered the redness so no one noticed! First stop was Lakeland in Windermere. The Autumnal countryside was looking gorgeous in the weak sunshine ( no photos because I'd left my phone at home! ) 

I went in specifically to look at a Spiralizer. The in thing is to make spaghetti out of vegetables and you should know by now what a gadget hoarder my other half is! We spent ages in there! I found him chatting to a lady also looking at the Spiralizer!! After listening to him, she, like he, is going to buy the new spiralizing attachment you can get for Beryl! She thanked him for his knowledge! I bought lots of lovely things. 

Some cake cases int sale

Some cake decorating bits n bobs int sale

Some portable mini dehumidifiers int sale

A new peg bucket int sale

A pasta book int sale

A soft cheese book int sale 

And just before you think you are sensing  a theme I also bought some more snowflake biscuit cutters to add to my collection and some Christmas themed linzertorte biscuits cutters at, gasp, full price! 

Our next stop was the Stott Bobbin Mill on t'other side of t'Lake. It's the ONLY working bobbin mill left in the world. It's exactly as it was left in 1971, ( when I was born, making that erm...28 years ago now ) when it was closed as a commercial business.  It had opened in the late 1800s and it was only unchanged by the additions of steam turbines and electricity. All the original machinery was still

There but just adapted to be used by the modener technology. English Heritage took it on and that's how we were able to see it yesterday. We were the only two visitors there so we had a personal tour of the mill, the two young guides were excellent. The noise in the factory was IMMENSE when all the machinery was running! We saw the processes from tree to bobbin. It was a seven year apprenticeship to become a master turner. And we learnt that a few phrases we know these days come from the Bobbin mill industry. Which, by the way, was a very niche thing to the Lake District. 

"Knocking off" ( for the day as we say it ) came from the switch on one of the lathes. It would literally knock the belt off the shaft thus stopping all the machinery. 

"Happy hour" comes from the finishing room. Smaller bobbins would go into giant barrels 1000 at a time with lumps of beeswax and be turned for hours to get them polished and smooth. The larger three piece bobbins had to be coating in < something and methylated spirits> which was highly intoxicating. So this job was only done at the end hour of the day so the rest of the mill workers were not affected by the fumes. Happy hour! 

We then had warm steak and ale pies for lunch from Award Winning Butchers Higginsons of Grange! We ate them sat in the car! Classy! 

Today I need to catch up with my washing and cleaning and maybe I'll do some more knitting stuff! 

I was doing some finishing off during the rugby! Didn't get very far! 

Five more days till half term, it's been a long one! 

Lots of love from 

Rachel *procrastinating will happen today* Radiostar xx 

PS. Did anyone see me on Graham Norton last night?!!!!!!