Deb's Digest

Our day trip to Skipton made us hanker after a longer break in the Yorkshire Dales - perhaps not the best week to go considering the weather forecast - but we went anyway and visited all our usual haunts, staying at The Aldwark Manor where there are always great deals.Fish, chips and mushy peas at the White Swan in Ampleforth and calves liver and mash at The Nags Head in Pickhill all helped to warm us up after days fighting against icy gales and freezing hail. But even in that sort of weather and at this time of year I'd go there in preference to a scrubby sun drenched bit of the world - am I mad?I'm slightly regretting giving the Tom Tom to my husband as a Christmas present. It accompanies us on every journey and I was forced to spend 20 minutes sitting in a freezing car in the hotel car park while my husband shouted YORK into the machine. When the woman inside it eventually got that bit right she asked for the name of the road. Well we didn't have the answer so my husband shouted "NO NAME" which sent her scurrying off in search of  a street called No Name in York. She was finally called a name I can't repeat and we set off under our own steam. The upshot of all that is that I now have acute bronchitis.The Innocent son's trousers sold for a magnificent £132 on eBay and all the money is on its way to save the orangutans in Borneo.

The pair on the right are the ones he sold - we felt sorry for him, having to part with his old tartan trousers so we sent him a replacement pair - pictured left.