Castles, cheese and cake

We decided to have a trip up to Alnwick today, to go to Barter Books, which is one of the largest secondhand bookshops in the country. Its schtick (aside from the fact that it's located in the old railway station) is that you can take a bagful of books and they'll give you a value for them...which can then be spent on yet more books.

We're currently in credit, and were looking for all sorts of stuff today. There's a great children's section, more cookery books than you can shake a stick at, and everything from fiction to railways, maps or music books.

M came home with several new Paddington books, a Dick King-Smith, a book about pasta (that's my girl - start with the cookery books early!) and a Peter and Jane (3b - I remember them well). Orb's collecting Ian Fleming's Bond novels, and managed to find Goldfinger. My masterpiece was the delightful Make a Meal of Cheese, published in 1973 by the Cheese Information Service. It contains such gems as cheese roundabouts, cheddar curry and crunchy cheese bobs, illustrated with some lovely 1970s brown and orange photos. I have been politely requested not to make any of the recipes it contains...

Our other two missions in Alnwick were to find (a) tea and cake and (b) castles. The first was surprisingly difficult - there don't seem to be that many good teashops in Alnwick. We eventually found Grannies on Narrowgate, which did a pretty good selection.

Castles were easier. M's project for school this week is to do something to do with castles, whether it's making one, drawing one or whatever. We've been taking photos all week of anything castle-related, so Alnwick scored highly for having a real, live castle in all its damp, rain-soaked glory.

Budget for the day: £8 on coffee, hot chocolate and lots and lots of cake.

Despicably good

It's half-term. Hurrah!

Actually, it's probably one of the few times over the last few years that I've liked the fact it's half-term - before M went to school there was always much moaning about families cluttering up the place and the usual activities being cancelled.

All that's changed now, though. After two months back at school, it's nice to spend some time with her properly (and we're very lucky that we both work freelance, so can take a bit of time off).

So this week's going to be a bit of a mini-holiday. But a very Gateshead-based one. All our holiday cash is being saved up for Denmark in August (yes, we liked it so much we're going back again), so we have a minimal budget for the next nine days.

Today's treat, given that it was pouring down with rain/snow/sleet outside, was to head to the Saturday morning matinee. We like the Saturday morning kids films at the Empire. They're on at not a bad time (10.30am), it's £1 a ticket, and you can round off the experience with buns from the Chinese bakery round the corner. And we loved today's offering - Despicable Me. It's the story of how an evil supervillain called Gru finds his life changed by three orphan girls. He plans to use them in his plot to steal the moon - but is completely bowled over by them, and ends up becoming their dad.

There's lots of laughs (M loved the fart gun), and some delightfully witty dialogue for adults - especially when Gru's reading the three kittens book that the girls love. And there's quite a good plot too, with minimal nauseating American schmalz (quite remarkable, given there's three ballet-loving small girls at the heart of proceedings). Definitely one to watch (especially if you have a small girl yourself).

The buns were good too. I don't know how Bread Point do it. They produce rack after rack of gloriously pillowy, doughy bread buns for 60-90p a time, filled with things like spiced pork, char sui, curried beef and Thai chicken. Perfect stodge.

Today's budget: three tickets to the cinema £5.10 (it may be £1 per ticket, but there's a booking charge for lazy people like us who want to guarantee a seat, but not get out of bed too early)
lots of buns at the Chinese bakery: £4.90

Total: £10