A trip to Cumbria.......well almost

So my eldest daughter is taking her A levels this year and University beckons. Accepted at Uni's, a total of 5 courses. All animal conservation or marine animal conservation. She informed us a while ago that an open day for one of the colleges, Cumbria, was on 6th March. We live in Essex (Hornchurch) so Cumbria is 5hr trip by car (Ambleside for those of you that know the lake district). I book a hotel for the Tuesday night and book of Wednesday. I swap shifts on the Tuesday and leave work early (owing two hours back) to drive up there with her. We're two hours into the journey, Northampton, and she jokes "wouldn't it be funny if I had the dates wrong. lol". No really. She checks because I wanted to know the itinerary and she had indeed got the dates wrong. It's actually next Wednesday. So we stop in Northampton services so she can ring the University under protests of "do I have to ring them?". Yes sweetheart. You're eighteen so you quite capable. The university can't guarantee lecturers would be available (it's now 5pm and they have gone home) and she can't see the halls of residence. I ring the hotel and they kindly swap the booking. So we drive back home again. Only to do it all again next week.

So to sum up, we drove two hours to sit in the car park at Northampton services for 20mins then drove home again.

Don't you just love your kids.

More fool you. Last time I tried to drive from Oxfordshire to the Highlands on a Friday afternoon, we gave up at Shap, having averaged 30mph up to that point. Much time spent stationary.

NEVER again on a Friday afternoon.

I blame the parents

or Brexit

or that shimemahmemahmemah Begging whatever her name is

Its Brexit  thats what it is !!       Oh well better luck next time ............did you say it was a Friday  or is that Dave confusing matters .     You don't want to be passing Brum on the M6 on a Friday thats for sure. 

Aww it could be worse. At least she noticed before you got all the way.

BTW, if you haven't been, Ambleside is lovely, even in winter, and somewhere I visit regularly and go for a two or three day stay-break each February.

Make the most and enjoy your visit, and good luck to your daughter.

Evans Electric said:

Its Brexit  thats what it is !!       Oh well better luck next time ............did you say it was a Friday  or is that Dave confusing matters .     You don't want to be passing Brum on the M6 on a Friday thats for sure. 

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No Deke, it was a Tuesday afternoon and a very pleasant drive. Dave is confusing things.

Geoff1946 said:

Aww it could be worse. At least she noticed before you got all the way.

BTW, if you haven't been, Ambleside is lovely, even in winter, and somewhere I visit regularly and go for a two or three day stay-break each February.

Make the most and enjoy your visit, and good luck to your daughter.

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I hjave visted the lake distrcit and I beiliev it included Ambleside. It does look rather nice. Thnaks mate.

kerching said:

I blame the parents

or Brexit

or that shimemahmemahmemah Begging whatever her name is

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It'll be my fault. Dad always gets the blame. :blush:

We’ve been to the Lakes on many occasion - most recently last month .... Ambleside isn’t that big, so I wonder where a uni might be hidden?

hope she takes the time out to explore and walk the lakes ....

Ambleside is very nice, the Lakes are very nice, the mountains are stunning - I like the high bits!

Did a Plymouth to Ransgate drive to take my son for an interview the other week - 5 hours each way, M25 is a dreadful road, ruddy concrete slabs FFS, no danger of falling asleep! 

I've still got to do Plymouth as that is one of the other Uni's she has chosen!! Another 4.5hr trip in the other bloody direction.  :facepalm:

Murdoch said:

We’ve been to the Lakes on many occasion - most recently last month .... Ambleside isn’t that big, so I wonder where a uni might be hidden?

hope she takes the time out to explore and walk the lakes ....

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It's on the north side of the town, off Rydal Road. It's not huge; I think it's an "outpost" of Lancaster Uni. which is quite big.

Geoff1946 said:

It's on the north side of the town, off Rydal Road. It's not huge; I think it's an "outpost" of Lancaster Uni. which is quite big.

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Lancaster is on view from the M6

we did 5 unis with our daughter last year ....Warwick on a Friday and Bath on the following day ... we had an overnight stay near Bath ... all 5 visits were on scolding hot days 

Murdoch said:

We’ve been to the Lakes on many occasion - most recently last month .... Ambleside isn’t that big, so I wonder where a uni might be hidden?

hope she takes the time out to explore and walk the lakes ....

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The Uni at Ambleside used to be an allnight shoe repair shop and cat sanctuary

Geoff1946 said:

It's on the north side of the town, off Rydal Road. It's not huge; I think it's an "outpost" of Lancaster Uni. which is quite big.

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It's actually Ambleside campus. Belongs to Cumbria University. Which has  campus"s in Carlisle, Lancaster and other places . 

Lake District great place... :Salute

Spent some of our honeymoon up in the middle of nowhere between Keswick & the Honister Pass.

Apple pie eating house, in Ambleside (if still called that and still there), is a cracking place for some tea or coffee and cake!

I have cycled through Ambleside many years ago on a ride from Keswick to Windermere..

As for University trips....

We have 5 children, our youngest now 22, so finished all the open day visits...

But over the years have done....

UCL, Loughborough, Royal Holloway, Sheffield, Nottingham, Bristol, Bath, Brighton, Portsmouth, Southampton...

Maybe others I can't remember..?   :mellow:

But our five ended up studying at:

Loughborough, Bath, Southampton, Royal Holloway, Portsmouth and Sheffield.  (eldest daughter did Architecture which is a long course involving more than one Uni)

Banged up a fair few miles on the car doing the taking/fetching belongings trips,  between home and various digs as they moved in and out of various accommodations..

Christmas/Easter & Summer breaks.. between  halls and rented houses..

Guinness

Rutts35 said:

I've still got to do Plymouth as that is one of the other Uni's she has chosen!! Another 4.5hr trip in the other bloody direction.  :facepalm:

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Plenty to see and do in Plymouth, go have a look at the 'Hoe' and the Barbican - close to uni.

SPECIAL LOCATION said:

Apple pie eating house, in Ambleside (if still called that and still there), is a cracking place for some tea or coffee and cake!

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It's still just the same. We buy their pies to bring home. I recommend Dodds restaurant next door too.

Unfortunately we won't have time to appreciate it just yet. If she goes to either we can visit and take it all in. With such a long drive we won't get there till 20:30/21:00. Plus once we've done open day it'll be time to come home.

Welcome to Tony’s world.

My worse mistake was showing up at the wrong church to photograph a wedding.

Arriving at work at 6pm instead of 6am, I had to stay over night with Pink Minx rather than drive back 70 miles. I didn’t notice it was getting darker rather than lighter.

Tony S said:

Welcome to Tony’s world.

My worse mistake was showing up at the wrong church to photograph a wedding.

Arriving at work at 6pm instead of 6am, I had to stay over night with Pink Minx rather than drive back 70 miles. I didn’t notice it was getting darker rather than lighter.

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I have a couple of mad stories around travel, the first was not long after I had met my wife, she wanted to go and see one of her sons who had moved to Wales, we spoke on the phone, he gave her the address and we arranged to visit the following Sunday. We set off and I had an idea roughly where we were going, I got within about 10 miles of his house and asked her for the address, she opened her handbag, the paper wasn't there! "I know where it is, it's on the arm of the chair, I was checking I had it before we left" she insisted, now what? She couldn't remember it, all she knew was it sounded something like 'Penguin', I ended up going into a local shop and asking if there was any places nearby with names that sounded like penguin, yes, a place called Pentre Gwyn, that had to be it, it had a small housing estate, we arrived and ended up driving around for ages until we saw a car on a drive that, 'looked like his', fortunately it was, and she wonders why I won't let her be in charge of directions when we're going anywhere. lol

The second was many years ago at work, it had been a really rough week, early starts and late finishes, I think they were around 15 hour shifts, I worked through the weekend and into the following week, one night I got an 'early' finish and arrived home about 6pm, I sat in the chair and fell asleep, I think I was living on my own at the time, anyway I woke up and looked at the clock, 7.45, hell I was going to be late for work! I grabbed my coat, car keys and fags and ran outside, it was dark, nothing unusual there, it was January!

I jumped in the car, shot down the road and arrived in work at about 8.30, no bosses about, I'd got away with it thank god. Then I heard one of the lads shout over, "oi, you doing a double shift then?" I looked at him puzzled, what was he on about? Then I saw the clock on the wall, 20 45! I must have been so tired I'd only fell asleep for a short while but thought it was all night, I'd left work about half five and actually gone back in at half eight the same night, what an idiot.