Hi Everyone,
On another trip to London, we decided to do The Kray Twins Walk, as I have said previously we are both really into crime and the many stories within this area of life.
We could not start at the correct tube station, Bethnal Green, as it had been closed for renovations,
We got off at Whitechapel instead and made our way to the first stop in the book. You can buy a great book called The Kray Twins Walk from Amazon.
Use this if you don’t want to do the usual escorted tour, to be honest, it was more fun on our own.
We arrived at The Lions public house, a meeting place of the twins, this was just at the end of an arch under the railway lines. This was recorded to be where the twins heard George Cornell was in the Blind Beggar, the night George Cornell was shot dead in the Blind Beggar.
Next on the tour is W English and Son Funeral Directors who took care of all three Kray brothers funerals, the bodies of all of them were laid in the Chapel of Rest here until they were taken to St Matthews Church for their funerals. Ronnie in 1995, Charlie in early 2000 then later in 2000 Reggie. During each of the funeral processions, it was said the streets were lined with family friends and strangers. Visiting some of the stops on the walk brought about the reality of the Krays lives and despite being notorious criminals they were also in my personal opinion just ordinary people, who lived in the reality of their own lives. They did love their family and did what it took to protect them as well as being generous to some of those in need. I am not excusing what they are accused of doing but I do sympathise as they were not all bad.
The next point on the walk was a cafe (we really needed a cuppa and a rest by now the east end is big) Pellicci’s. It has been here for about a hundred years…. WOW…
We went inside for a cup of tea but it was packed and the only seats were on a table with a lady sat having a cup of tea. She must have noticed us looking for a seat and gestured us over and offered us two empty seats at her table. We accepted of course and sat with her while we all ate full English breakfast We presumed she was local due to the accent and came to the conclusion the East End was a very friendly place. By the way, Pellicci’s serve the best breakfast ever.
Just opposite the cafe is what used to be a church, St James the Great Church although it has been converted now to flats you can still tell it was a church. This was where Reggie married Francis in 1965, sadly a few years later this is where the funeral for Frances took place……
Daniel Street School below is the school attended by the Kray Twins when they were eleven, reported as being happy here they often played tricks on the teachers pretending to be each other. A good trick I bet they had fun doing this, I would have.
The next spot on the walk is St Matthews Church, where all of the funerals of the Kray Brothers, Ronnie, Reggie, and Charlie, also their mum Violet took place.
The Carpenter Arms is the 8th stop and the halfway point of the walk. Ronnie and Reggie Kray bought this old public house in 1967. This was described as a difficult time for the twins as it was around this time Frances, Reggie’s wife had died. Cornell had been killed. The twins wanted somewhere they could call their own and feel safe and the Carpenters Arms offered them the safety they needed
Cheshire St was stop 9 this is the location of the Carpenters Arms, simply an old back street in the East End. The Kray Twins are recorded as drinking here before they went to find Jack ‘the hat’ McVitie, who had been accused of ripping off he twins on a murder for hire plot. This night they reportedly killed ‘the hat’
Wood Close School was stop 10 but for some reason, we did not get a photo of it which is weird as we have photos of all of the other stops on the walk
Below is Repton Amateur Boxing Club. This is the venue for the twins to train. They each went on to win amateur boxing titles.
Stop 12 is Cheshire Street baths. It was a public bathhouse used by locals as back then not all houses had baths so regularly visited by the Twins. It has been said the furnace used to heat the bath water helped some of the Kray Twins victims ‘disappear’, although this has never been proven.
The house the Kray family lived in no longer exists but on the site of 178 Valance Road is a block of houses built on the site where the house once stood, adorned with a plaque giving the exact position of the house, I was disappointed this house was not there, not just because it was the Krays Home but as usual all of history gets erased eventually and all that remains is a plaque….
267 Whitechapel Road is the address of the next stop on the walk. This is the site of the Grave Maurice Public House. This was Ronnie Krays local pub and was only closed in 2010, what a shame, another piece of history lost in time. It is now a bookie.
Then the penultimate stop on the walk The Blind Beggar. This is the site of the infamous murder of George Cornell, mentioned earlier. As I have said previously my husband and I are complete crime buffs so for us this was the opportunity of a lifetime. To go into The Blind Beggar and have a drink where the Krays had once walked, the whole walk was like walking in the footsteps of history. We stayed and had a drink again very friendly old East End Public house. We would recommend you stop in for a drink
We could not miss the opportunity to take our photos outside either.
Basically, this was the end of the walk apart from the short walk up the street to the Whitechapel Tube Station
I must say although we love the criminal aspect of this walk it was also a very historically enriching walk as so much history is embellished onto the streets around here. The East end has truly seen some of the most memorable episodes in history.
If you visit London, you must do this walk.
If you are a fan of crime, you must do this walk.
If you are a fan of history, you must do this walk
As always loving being me …..
Thanks for reading…..
Please come back for more stories of love, life, and family.
We often go to London, as this was the first place my husband and I went together when we first met so it holds fond memories for us both. We thought we would go and we heard about this tour to see the site of the Jack the Ripper murders. As well as being huge fans of London we also love crime and the study of it.
I studied Criminology at University and have been fascinated by it ever since. So we decided we would book this walk, we did think it would involve being down a lot of dark alleys and we were right. We met our guide at Aldgate East Tube Station, he turned out to be the author of some Jack The Ripper books, Phillip Hutchinson.
We went around all the sites of the Ripper murders with the darkness crawling in the further we got round, I am not quite sure we went round the murder sites in the order they were committed but in the order of the route we walked for continuity as other wise we would have walked back and forth and the tour would have been much longer.
We went on about an hour and half walk which covered the following
Mitre Square was the site of the murder of Catherine Eddows apparently you can see late on a night a ghostly figure laid on the road where the body of Catherine was found.
Old Castle Street The site of the murder of Alice Mackenzie, believed to be Jacks last victim by some scholars even though this was 6 months after the last ‘official victim’
Gunthorpe Street The murder site of Martha Turner The First victim this was ‘never confirmed’
Whites Row The murder site of Mary Jane Kelly, this for me was by far the most gruesome of the murders as the Ripper had stopped all night with Mary to disembowel her completely
29 Hanbury St The Murder site of Annie Chapman. She was found on he street ‘with parts of her body beside her’.
Durward Street The murder site of Mary Anne Nichols. She had her throat cut and had been ‘gutted like a fish.
Berner St The murder site of Elizabeth Stride She was killed moments before she was discovered.
These pictures below are how some of those murder sites look today
and how they looked back when the murders took place
and some other Jack the Ripper memorabilia
I loved walking around the streets of London on a night, it is not the usual places you would expect to visit on a trip to London. There are lots of different tours going on around London. We will be doing all of them as soon as we can. Our views of the Jack the Ripper Tour was
This tour was very creepy –
very informative –
Worth the time and money –
If you are a fan of crime, serial killers and London this is a must do……. Loved it
See you soon
As always love being me
Thegotogirlsblog
We love the town we live in “Hull” but if we would of met when we were younger i think we may of either moved or bought a flat here. Where is here? LONDON!!!!
We love it and it all started in this pub,
Chris (my husband, i love saying that) used to work down here and lived 9 days here 5 days home, so he got to know his way around London quite well. He lived a short walk from this pub and spent the odd night here after work, probably more than he ever told me about lol. I did not know him then so …..
It was November 2006 and Chris was going to go to London for the weekend but i already had plans so asked him if he could postpone until the following week and i would be able to go with him…. He said yes…. whoppee dooo!!!!
I am off to London next week and i can’t wait.
We stayed at the pub in the picture “The Wheatsheaf opposite Tooting Bec Tube Station ” a typical old fashioned Irish public house was my first though when i entered it. Reminded me of my local back in Hull. We had a room, nice and clean and a fresh bed (thankfully) the only downside i felt was i had to share a bathroom, again it was kept clean so nothing really to worry about, of course it was cheap so how can i ask for more.
We arrived here about eleven pm on Friday night, we originally intended to be there earlier but we got a flat tyre and ended up going to meet up with Chris’s mates at The Old Sergeant on Garrett Lane, somewhere in South West London.
We eventually arrived at The Wheatsheaf (follow them on twitter @thewheatsheafTbec)but it was late and we had been travelling for about 4 hours so we had a quick drink and go to our room, shower and bed.
The next day we were up pretty early and went for breakfast at the little cafe across the road next to Tooting Bec Tube Station, it was so good, bacon, sausage, egg, mushroom, toast and a good old cup of “rosie lee” (tea)
All fed and watered we set off to see the sights and boy did we see a lot that day. We got on the tube at Tooting Bec, first place to see, Whitechapel, as we got off the tube we came upon a market and were surprised to see the Helen Mirren (instagram her at @helenmirren) filming on the street as we walked past. I was star struck. This is crazy we have been in London 5 minutes and already seeing famous people. WOW!!!!
Anyway back to reality we went for a walk around Whitechapel (we know this was the hunting ground of Jack the Ripper) We do come back to London later on and do the official Jack the Ripper Tour (more on this in a later blog)
Next stop Westminster….
The view around here as you can see are absolutely breathtaking. The Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, The London Eye and of course all of the street acts
We stood for a while watching them all and they have a real talent standing there not moving, i could not do it. Around the London Eye were food stalls with all sorts of treats i could not resist a bag of candy floss, yummy!
After about 1 hour we headed over to Piccadilly, Leicester Square and later China Town, if you are going to eat then this is the place to do it. We went to a little backstreet authentic Chinese all you can eat restaurant. OMG it was delicious and a bargain £6.00 per person all you can eat. We were in danger of being in food coma’s after our visit here and have been back a few times over the years.
Next stop on our tour was Camden….
I was getting a bit tired by this time but i was not about to miss anything during this trip as we were only there for a few days. We went to “The Dublin Castle” this is where Madness (twitter @madnessNews) played one of their first gigs and seeing as Chris is a massive Madness fan we had to stop and have a beer here before we went back to The Wheatsheaf to get ready for our night out in Balham
We went out with Chris’s mates he used to work with for a few drinks and a catch up as he had left London and working there in April that year. After that i had to go to bed but more sights the next day….
Keep coming back to see where we went….
Where we live we are really lucky we have a large park, it has a fishing pond, a children’s play area, a paddling pool, a bird aviary and a large open green space for sports etc. Its called Pickering Park.
We like to take Theo here for walks especially during warmer weather. The park is about five minutes walk from our house. We usually take drinks and snacks and towels, you never know how long you are going to be out at the park as there is always someone you know. Sometimes you meet new people doing the same things you are, its quite a friendly place where we live which is nice especially for the kids. First stop is the pond, people fishing along the banks, there is quite a bit of wildlife on and around the pond. Ducks, swans and loads of geese, loads of them and they are quite big.
The pond is quite large and takes a while to walk all the way around, there is no point trying to rush your way around, the park is so lovely you have to just take a slow walk around and take in all it has to offer.
The next stop is the children’s play area. Theo loves to go on the swings and slides, he really likes to go on the climbing frame but he is so small we have to stand under him as he is climbing on i ready to catch him if he falls as you cannot tell him he is too small for it.
More recently the local council has put up a climbing wall, an assault course, a zip-line as well as a basket ball court and an outdoor exercise area. Nowadays Theo makes us all exercise when we go to the park. We do exercise anyway but the park is so much more fun to exercise in when we have Theo we cant get away with a few minutes here and there.
He goes on the assault course from start to finish, his little legs hardly fit in the tyres part of the course, they go up to his knees. Right at the back of the park is a bird aviary, it is full of parrots, budgies, chickens, peacocks and loads of others i don’t know the names of.
Next to the aviary is a small pond surrounded by trees and in those trees live loads of very friendly squirrels. The squirrels love monkey nuts and you can actually hand fed them. I don’t know whether Theo was amazed by the presence of squirrels or by the fact they came up to us but his face was a picture. He looked at his gramps as if to say WOW! what are those things?
So that was our day at the park, we all had a great time, got fitter and learned a little about squirrels
As always loving being me, see you soon for more tales of love, life and family,
Love from the gotogirlsblog…..
I spend my life,
Waiting for you,
Where were you?
Hiding in the Shadows,
Waiting for me,
You walked passed me,
Not knowing where you are,
You drove past me,
Not knowing where you’re going,
You have been there all of my life,
Waiting for me,
I to hide out in the shadows,
Too scared to walk into the light,
Not knowing the life awaiting me,
Would be filled with bright light,
Step into the light,
You have no idea,
What life is waiting for you.
As you will know my family mean a lot and we all try to spend as much time together as we can so when celebrations come up such as Halloween and bonfire night we do like to try to get together as a family and do something. This year we decided to celebrate Bonfire Night together.
If you don’t really know what bonfire night is, its a traditional celebration, mainly in the UK. It’s called Guy Fawkes night or bonfire night. It’s celebration on the 5th of November and it was based around Guy Fawkes who had a gunpowder plot to blow up the House of Lords he ended up failing and got prosecuted for treason. We all celebrate with lots of fireworks and bonfires twice but different apart from we had two different nights as some of the family love fireworks and others do not.
I thought I would tell you a bit about it so Saturday the 3rd of November it’s not bonfire night but we’re all off work so got together with Chris’s brother and family for drinks pies and peas. Claire usually makes chilli but we asked if she would do pie and peas. It reminds us of when we were kids and our grandparents used to do pie and jacket potatoes for us. They used to cook potatoes in tin foil in the bonfire and when it died down the potatoes would be cooked to perfection. Nowadays we have all become very safety conscious and put the potatoes in the oven even though no one got burnt in the old days when they were on the bonfire.
Chris and Dave picked me up after the football, they were all happy because they won against West Brom. I was actually ready well nearly lol and off we went to Dave’s. Theo and Louise don’t like fireworks so they would not come but we were to go there on Monday which is actually the 5th of November bonfire night anyway. It was already dark.
David built a bonfire and Claire was busy in the kitchen cooking chilli and rice, hot dogs, pie and peas, chips. All the drinks were chilling in the fridge, although it was so cold outside we could have put them outside to cool. Everyone should have arrived by 6:30 but then you know what family are like. Most are on time but mother and father-in-law were late. Oh! we thought you said after 6:30. Finally everyone arrived on the celebrations could start.
Dave lit the fire and the family began deciding which fireworks they wanted to light first, rockets, air bombs, Catherine wheels, sparklers ,you name it we had it. The kids loved the noisy ones, the older members of the family like the quiet ones lol! Half way through the night, it was time for a food break. Claire dished out all manner of yummy delights from many prepared dishes.
Although, I must say no onions on hot dogs not acceptable!! lol!! Onions on hot dogs it’s a must! With a belly full of chilli and hot dogs outside we went for part two of the fireworks and bonfire the fire needed stoking as we let it burn right down.
Again more air bombs rockets and those cute little fizzy fireworks that don’t really do much just sizzle for about 10 seconds then died out. The actual fireworks lasted about an hour and a half.
That was a lot of fireworks. A couple of drinks and we were ready for home. Chris and I got a lift down so he could have a couple of lagers so it was bus home for us. We timed the bus perfectly and within half an hour we were safely home showered and tucked up in bed with a lovely sleep in on Sunday to look forward to. Sunday and Monday came and went. Then it was round two, a bonfire night which was actually on the right day November 5th.
Theo doesn’t like fireworks and Louise hates the Bangs so they were having a few family and friends and food and fire instead. We rushed home from work, had a quick shower changed and straight back out again. Arriving at Louise and Mikes about 6:15. We were among the first to arrive for a change. The food smelled delicious, weirdly chilli again. Pulled pork, hot dogs ,again no onions! What is it with no onions? The drinks were chilling but not for us though as it was a work day.
The kids were all running around in the garden having fun and then the fireworks started from around the neighbourhood. I’ve never seen the kids move so quick house and tipped out so many toys into the living room it looks like the remnants of a LEGO / toy shop. They were all happy and all the adults were outside around the fire just kept popping back in. We make sure one of us was always in the house with the kids. After we had fed all the kids, we started dishing out the potatoes and hot dogs and chilli which, was in the slow cooker on the bar. Mike was in charge of the drinks but obviously disappeared when the fire started as always. The men were down by the fire and the women were up near the kitchen so we thought we’d give them a change.
So the women went down to the fire and the men came back up to the bar and started to take care of the kids for a while. After about couple of hours we decided it was time to go as it was an early start the next morning but all in all another great night. One spent with family and friends and people who don’t see very often. Yes, we mean you Dion! So the next celebration is going to be Christmas and hopefully we’ll have a few stories to tell you about family life, fun and friends then. OK bye for now! Although come back soon for more tales of love, life, family and travel.
I am sure we will have more stories to write before Christmas.
Loving being me.
Thanks for reading and we hope to see you again soon.
Love The Go To Girls Blog xxx
A Glimmer of hope,
That’s what I have,
It’s more than I had before,
When it’s dark you can’t see the light.
It’s hard had keep your head held up high,
Hope begins to grow,
Soon it’s doubled in size,
I finally looked through my own eyes.
A glimmer of hope sees a tomorrow,
Wow there it is,
It is all mine how did I miss,
It it’s right there.
I want to share my glimmer of hope,
I share as I do care,
You helped me through all the dark,
Snuggled up with you because you cared.
Now you need me too,
I share my hope with you,
I give you my glimmer of hope,
You share it back to me.
Always half and half,
That’s what we do,
Two halves of that coin,
Through and through.
Since I have been blogging I have become a bit of a people watcher. Well in fact a world watcher if there is such a thing . I watch people, animals, the sky, the sunrise, the sunset. I even watch where I go, not that I usually wander around in a daze, more on autopilot you know the routine as well as me. Wake up, cup of tea, get a shower, make up, hair, get dressed, go to work, come home, shower and bed, more or less.
I have done this so often I am on autopilot these days as I am sure millions of people around the world are. The thing is do you even notice the world around you? I thought I did but maybe not! I walk around the town I live in these days and I’m amazed by how much I have not even noticed so I thought I would share some of my photos I’ve taken recently of the things I’ve never noticed before that are right on my own door step. Not a bad place to live!! Why don’t you have a good look around on your way to work and message me with what you saw that you missed before!
Anyway one reason why I’m writing this post is to try to get people to be more aware of their surroundings in which they are living. The main reason was not the buildings, all the scenery, it was the people. I get angry with the way people are with each other and even despair about how we treat others but then again I’ve come to realise there are still some really good people out there in the world.
I recently wrote a few poems when I’ve been feeling down. I’ve been feeling down more than usual a past few months for reasons I won’t go into but this last 2 weeks have been especially hard as I’ve had the resurfacing of my neuralgia. I thought doctor’s had it under control and for a while they did. I was pain-free for what was around 6 months. Then a couple of weeks ago and my ear started hurting again. AAARRRGGGHHH!!! not again this in turn led to me being a long-term bad mood with respite only when I can dose myself up on tablets. (not the best choice but so far my only choice)
I wrote a poem called Help Me. If you haven’t seen it it’s on my blog. Out of the blue I’ve had several comments and even offers of help first I felt shocked then a massive feeling of hope came over me and a massive grin to my face. Then as I read the comments I had an overwhelming feeling it is true there are some caring people out in the world and their responses I had were really heartwarming. They are even from people who have suffered a lot more than I have.
I found when people have suffered the same they know your pain, they feel your pain, other people suffering the same pain. I’d like to say to those people on my blog comments (you know you are) how grateful I am for your comments offers of help and support thank you. As it just reminded me that in general I am a really positive person who wakes up with a smile on her face but I forgot for a while and let my crazy brain, (this is my pet name for my sad, unhappy bad side of me. No offence ment.) creep up and start taking over when usually I have a handle on it so bye-bye crazy brain hello sane brain.
If I can help any of you with anything that sounds familiar in this post or just anything in general please please message me and I will try my best to help you every time.
On a lighter note just to end this blog do you ever see weird things on your way to work these are the photos of some of the weird and wonderful things I have spotted on my way to and from or even during my lunch. If you can you match the level of weird and wonderful let me know!
Feeling more like me….
Still love being me….
Thanks for reading, please come back again for more tales of love, life, family and travel.
Love always The Go To Girls Blog xxx
With my head in my hands,
Tears in my eyes,
The pain is too much to bear,
Who will help me, who will care.
I have been suffering too long,
Want to rip my head off,
Just to get some relief,
Just to get some peace.
The pain is piercing,
Like a needle in my ear,
The pain is constant,
Something I don’t want to feel.
The cold hurts it, the vibration, the noise,
I can’t help it, its out of my control,
I just need someone to hold me,
Just to take the pain away.
A kind face, a comforting word,
A warm pillow,
Anything to calm this pain,
Who can help, who will care.
Pain, pain all I know is pain,
All to lose and nothing to gain,
When will it stop,
Will it just carry on?
Hoping soon it will be gone,
I thought it was solved,
turns out nothings resolved,
Someone HELP ME please.
I can’t take,
This pain anymore,
It’s beyond my control,
That i know for sure!
I feel so angry,
Rage building inside of me,
How much more can I take,
Before you see another side of me.
You think I’m a fool,
You treat me so cruel,
You should beware,
Because when I go I will scare.
I don’t want to get, where you push me,
Too far,
Don’t dare!
If you are a regular reader of my blog you will know i am from “Hull” (‘Ull is the pronunciation if you are from Hull.) Hull is a port and has a long history of the fishing industry ingrained into our cobbled streets. 
If you visit Hull you can still see the docks and the pier where the old passenger ferry from Hull to New Holland. Nowadays this no longer exists but further down the River Humber you can get a North Sea ferry to Holland or Belgium. 
They called the mouth of the River Humber the gateway to Europe. One thing you may not know about Hull is the language. We up in the north-east are quite unique in many ways and one of those ways is the way we speak. As I have lived here all my i don’t notice we all have this accent. Even less noticeable to me is our pronunciation of certain words, i suppose it is a kind of Hull slang. I though for this blog i can introduce you to some of the words and the slang versions of them. I am going to tell you how this idea came about. 
I work in our town center and always walk along the pier and noticed a while ago the pub on the river front Minerva has installed outside seating and as an amazing touch to the seating our slang had been added onto the wooden slats on the seats. As a blogger I am always looking for inspiration for my blogs and my home town is a wealth of interesting history and stories. Hence the thought of this as a blog subject. It may make you laugh or it may make no sense to you but here goes anyway.
Below is a list of words and phrases and the Hull slang versions of them.
Above: I am playing outside.
Above: I am having a conversation with someone.
Above: I am on government benefits. (dole)
Above: The children are outside playing.
Above: It is raining really hard & Radio Humberside. (the local radio station)
Above: Hessle Road. (One of the main streets in Hull)
Above: There is no snow on the road.
Above: Ice in my coke (please remember this is slang not swearing)
Above: We are going onto Hessle Road.
Above: I claim to go first. This is said when you are playing a game and you want to go first.
Above: The back alley behind your house where children used to play. Named as most of them were actually ten feet wide.
Above: Your holidays.
In the order they are above top to bottom:
Chip seasoning,
Phone,
Playing truant from school,
Nothing,
I don’t know,
Can I have a look.
Again words as they are above:
Half a lager,
Hull,
The other end of the street,
Crying,
Get the drinks in,
Oh, No,
A pint of mild (a type of beer),
You can’t really make the last one out in the picture, the word is ‘fizog’
it means face.
As above listed in order on the picture.
First,
Shut up,
Hello,
Is there something the matter?
So there you have an insight into our slang here in Hull. I hope you like/understand it LOL!
Another reason to love being me. x
Thank you for reading, please come back again for more tales of love, life, family and travel.
Love always the Go To Girls Blog. xxx
Words, words, words,
They come, they flow,
In my mind,
They grow.
I need a release,
Never want them to cease,
I have to write,
Sometimes through the night.
It’s like a volcano in my mind,
Words spewing never two of a kind,
Am I crazy?
Is my mind obsessed with words!
Hull Fair is Europe’s biggest travelling fair and has been coming to Hull for over 700 years. The whole town stops what it is doing and goes to Hull Fair for a variety of reasons which include food from burgers to in the last few years Indian and Chinese cuisine. Then there are the rides and stall which range from hook a duck and shooting ranges to children’s big wheels and bombers for the more adventurous of us.
One of the weird but true facts of Hull Fair is the official ‘Fair Day’ is the eleventh of October, which happens to be my husband Chris’s birthday. He always said Hull Fair happens every year on his birthday. As part of a ‘Hull’ tradition everyone gets together with their friends and family to visit Hull Fair. I say part of ‘Hull’ tradition, people from all over come to the Fair. 
I heard just last week a family with relatives overseas had organised their holidays around the fair as they were originally from Hull and loved the fair when they were here. As a family we all arranged to go in various groups, our daughter Lou and her husband to be took Theo on the first day. Theo walked into the salon when Lou works and told her he was going to the fair after she left work last Saturday. 
This made her laugh as he is only just 4 and he definitely knows what he wants so they took him for a walk round. She told me how much he enjoyed it and had been taken again by his uncle later in the week. It finally came to our turn to take him which was the last day of the fair and our only opportunity to go as it had been a busy week as usual. Theo has a very busy social life and had a party to attend so instead of Friday night stay with granny and gramps he was coming to us after the party. 
Lou dropped Theo off and said she will meet us at Hull Fair. Off we went in the car. As we are local we know all the little back streets for parking and have a favourite street called Selby Street. It brings back a lot of childhood memories of the journey to Hull Fair as our families used to walk the same way as we do now. Down Selby Street and over Waliker Street bridge, straight onto Walton Street where the fair is based. Theo’s only little so a short walk to the fair was a good idea as walking round the fair can add miles to your trip.
We finally made it to the fair around five and began walking down Walton Street which is the street the fair is on at the bottom there is a large open area used for markets and parking for the KCOM stadium on match days or event days. Walton Street is just over half a mile long and the space at the end where the fair rides are situated is sixteen acres which is a very large site for a toddler to walk. The rides start around half way down the street and as soon as Theo saw the kiddie rides he was off.
Come on gramps can we go on this ride? First ride was the kiddie wheel, as he was getting on another little girl wanted to get in the same carriage with Theo. We thought she was a bit scared to go on her own and Theo did not mind.
Next was the monster truck ride. Theo loves Blaze and the monster trucks so as soon as he saw this ride he thought he was going on Blaze LOL. As we walked around he saw the Coca-Cola truck, anything to do with cars will do for Theo. 
We had a candy floss break next just for a bit of a fair food. In case you don’t know what candy floss is, in the USA it is cotton candy which is whipped sugar with colour and put on a stick. this has been a fair staple since we can remember and probably a lot longer. 
We walked up to the other end of Walton Street to meet up with Lou while sharing candy floss which was by the way was really sticky. Next ride of the night was the hot air balloon ride which went up in the air. 
Lou asked Theo shall I come on this with you? Theo’s reply made us all laugh. Why would I mummy! Well he is four now!! Next was the worst ride of the night an old battered fun house which was no fun at all, so next! Theo spotted the ski jump in the distance so we had to race to this with him. 
He wanted his mummy on this ride with him but it stated on the notice no adults, sorry mummy. Mummy got her chance to go on a ride with Theo on the next ride though…….. Here come the Dodgems.
The airplane ride was a particular favourite as it was from another favourite of Theo’s, Planes and his plane of choice was Dusty.
Another fun house was next as the last one was such a bust.
He went on again with mummy. He does love his mummy. Finally my favourite time, time for food! On the menu tonight for Lou and I was vegetable noodles and sweet chilli sauce. Chris opted for the traditional cheese burger. 
We could not get Theo to eat fair food as he was too excited to go on more rides and had eaten at the party any hour or so earlier. We received a phone call from Chris’s brother and his family to meet us at the children’s helter skelter. We arrived and more or less walked up at the same time. 
By this time Theo was starting to get a bit tired, he must have walked a good few miles around the fair. Even though we had just met Dave and Claire and the kids I said we probably would not be able to stay much longer as Theo was getting tired. 
We walked around for about anther half an hour while the girls went on some of the adrenaline fuelled rides. Kids are crazy at fair, well teenagers they want to go on the biggest, the tallest and the fastest ride there is. Just like us when we were their age. Now it take going to Disneyworld to get me and Chris on this kind of ride. The final ride of the night for Theo was the biggest fun house on the fair. I suggested it might be a bit big for him and he burst into tears. Granny I am four now I am not a baby he said! Ok if Aleesha and Ebony will take you on you can go but you must hold hands all the way around. Ok granny I promise. Slightly worried I let them all go. 
He went on the fun house, held the girls hands and came off safe and sound. Phew! We left Dave, Claire and the girls walked back up Walton Street without forgetting to buy an Owlet balloon for Theo. You have never seen a child look so happy as Theo looked when the man handed him that balloon. About a half hour later we were back home. 
I would usually say into the warm but this year was a weird year for fair weather. We have a saying in Hull ‘here comes fair weather’ as every year for as long as we can remember it has turned colder, rained and blown a gale all on the week the fair comes to town. Not this year, when we left home for the fair it was 24 degrees centigrade and when we returned it was 21 degrees centigrade. Chris and I have never experienced this weather on fair week in our lifetimes!! So all in all time spent with the family at ‘Hull Fair’ was time well spent. Just another reason I love being me.
Thanks for reading and come back soon for more tales of love, life, family and our travels.
Love always The Go To Girls Blog xxx
As you may know Chris and I travel or rather go on holiday each year and we have started to venture further afield each time we go. If you read my blog you will have heard of some of the stories of our escapades. We always try to do something cultural or off the Beaten Track. As we were in Dominican Republic, our trip of choice for this holiday was to visit Scape park.
Scape Park is located in Cap Cana resort about an hour away from Punta Cana. It is a natural theme park with lots of things to bring out the adventurer in you. It’s like an adrenaline junkie Park you can do various adrenaline fuelled activities such as swimming in a cenote (a fossilised sink hole), there are caves to explore, zip lining, rock climbing and so much more. We heard about this trip when we were looking around for trips on trip advisor. We booked to go and signed up for a swim in the cenote, now filled in with water the clearest blue water in this case. 
We were picked up by coach for this trip and travel about an hour to reach Scape Park. It’s about million square metres in total for all the different activities. We went to get all bands and information from the reception when we arrived. Then we waited for our guides and 10 minutes later the guide appeared and began showing us around. He began by showing us the plant life around the path, the variety of Native vegetation is amazing. The path meanders deeper into the forest and you simply follow your party.
You followed each other’s footsteps as you get further and further into the park deep into the forest but luckily you have a guide showing you which way to go we walked for about half an hour and came to a bridge across a road running through the park. The views from the top of the bridge (mainly tops of trees) was beautiful. You could see so far from up. From there we started to walk up hill and we could see rocks and caves as we walked further on. We were sort of on the top of a large rock hill or a cave, quite high but not a mountain high. We had been walking quite a while by now and it was boiling hot so obviously the mosquitos were making a meal out of us. 
You could literally see the bites on Chris’s body increasing the further we walked. Not to say I did not get bitten, you can draw dot to dot on my back, it was not pretty. As you can imagine we could not wait to get in the water. Finally we started to hear the guide talking about the Cenote and the crisp blue water. Just up here he said! Up Where? This sort of hill. Then he hit us with this enormous ladder down to the Cenote. There was literally hundreds of steps down to the cenote but finally we could see it. It was more beautiful than you could imagine. It was about fifty metres wide, thirty metres across and twenty metres deep.
As soon as we arrived we were stripped down and straight into the pool. It was freezing, as you would expect it to be but always hoped it would not be. We had a couple of hours free time while we were there. We just bobbed around in the water for most of this time as it warmed up the longer you were in there. The water was so clear you could see all the way to the bottom and could swim with your eyes open all the way to the bottom, If you could hold your breath that long! On these trips you have various photograph opportunities so we had our guide take photos. 
This actually turned out to be a very good choice as we have had not had any luck finding the videos we took from our day there, really hoping I have not deleted them. We spent one of the best days of our lives here and it was an experience swimming in a fossilised sink hole as for all we know it could have ‘sunk’ with us in it. We were really glad it did not LOL!! I did not realise at any part of my life i would do some of the things i have done over the last ten years but this is definitely one of the most memorable.
Loving being me (loving being adventurous me)
Thanks for reading, please come back soon for more tales of love, life, family and travel.
Love The Go To Girls Blog xxx
One day,
In some way,
I will make my name,
Stand out but not in shame.
I lived through shame,
I died through shame,
I am reborn,
I am myself.
You came,
When i needed you,
You stayed,
Because you needed to,
You take all of me,
You take care of me,
You just let me be,
Me!
I have been on holiday all last week so thought I would get loads done, writing, researching you know all the things you don’t always have enough time for. Did i do that, well kind of. I did get my website updated with a bit of help from the tech guys at WordPress (thanks). I am very impressed with the look of the website at the moment. i also got quite of bit of writing done. I have recently discovered i can write poetry and i have some pretty nice comments on my work so far. I am also in the process of writing a my second poetry book to follow Love Scares Me which I have self published on Amazon.
Along side the poetry books i am writing a children’s book based on myself and my grandson and our adventures in a magical land. I look forward to writing as i find it a release for me whether it be poetry or blogging or children’s stories. I find it really relaxing until today. I am always hearing from people, bloggers, blogging groups when you blog you should ‘blog about something you love’ or ‘blog about something you know about’ but what about blogging directly out of your own life.
You know when you have one of ‘those’ days. I thought i would give you an insight to one of ‘those’ days in the go to girls life. Today has certainly been one of ‘those’ days. It is a Sunday here in sunny Hull which started my day off great. Then after i got up i had arranged to go to look at a wedding dress with my daughter. Yes, my only daughter is getting married…… Yay. There has never been a prouder mother. But back to the story i am sure i will tell you a lot more on wedding preparations as and when they happen.
Upon my return i had planned to get back to writing and then realised i did not have a blog in my mind to write. What i mean is every time i have ever wrote a blog i always have a day or event in mind and this time i never. Usually if this happens i have a look in my photos and a story will be there hidden in the thousands of photos in my library. I have some of my photos filed and in the correct folders and years etc. Then i have another lot of photos which are in folders dated but not labelled correctly.
This obviously makes finding and choosing stories very difficult. The story i wanted to blog about today was when Chris and I went to Scape Park in The Dominican Republic. However my usually good filing system had other ideas for me. I spent about an hour looking for the photo’s i wanted, on mine and Chris’s laptops, old and new. I still have not found them, then Chris said we only took video’s on this trip. AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
What?, I mean, What? AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!! thanks for remembering after we just spent all this time looking for the photos!!!!!! Anyway I still have not found them. I did locate a memory stick which had the ‘trip guides photo’s’ on it. I will use these for the Scape Park blog but will continue to look for the others. Does anyone have any good indexing apps or software they can recommend for me as I need to get my ‘house in order’ I really need to index my photos and blogs etc. My day did not get any better from there.
I have recently ventured into the world of Facebook, if you read my blog often you will have seen the recent blog asking for advice on the pro’s and con’s of Facebook and i am beginning to this the cons’ outweigh the pro’s by far. So far i have been in ‘Facebook jail’ 3 times and am currently unable to post any links to my blog. I have joined several blog groups to try to increase my viewers and followers and have just been accused of ‘spamming’. I had no idea what spamming was and had to ‘google’ to find out. How can i be spamming if i don’t know what it is?
Apparently really easily!, by putting my website link on a Facebook group i am spamming others in the group although the other members of this group are able to post their website links with no punishment from Facebook. I literally don’t get it! What am i doing differently to other members. So currently i am in Facebook limbo! I have a page called The Go To Girls Blog and a group called Blog Yourself but i cannot link my blog to them on Facebook. What makes it worse is there is no way you can actually speak, text, or email Facebook.
If anyone has any tried and tested ways of getting in touch with Facebook let me know. Even after I decided to have a moan on my blog (sorry) it still did not get any better as i tried to login to my Amazon account on my new laptop i could not remember the login details and had to get the information i needed from my phone, which is not as easy as copy and paste on my laptop. After all has been said and done i have a massive headache and i am back at work tomorrow.
I know you don’t have to tell me i should be grateful as these things are such ‘little stupid things’ to moan about in the scheme of things in the world today. I am so grateful to be me i have a lot to be thankful for but just needed to get this off my chest before my head bursts with stress. When i think about all the things i have to be grateful for i thought i would include them in the pictures for the post. I am suddenly smiling and my headache is subsiding. Who would have technology? I still would! If any one has any comments or solutions to anything in this post (apart from shut up! LOL) please comment below.
Still loving being me (although slightly moaning)
Thanks for reading please come back soon (I don’t usually write a ‘MOG’ Moaning Blog)
Love always The Go To Girls Blog xxx
I am a force of nature,
I can believe it, never nurtured,
There is no where I haven’t ventured,
Yet I always make my way forward.
I wont be silenced,
They have tried through violence,
I can take care of my own,
After all the years I have shown.
I am a force of nature,
You wont scare me I am fearless,
I will die trying to save,
Anyone I care for from the grave.
They know upon me they can rely,
As I have shown how hard i try,
They could never be safer,
To them all I give my life.
This will probably be the easiest blog posts I have ever written as it is about one of my favourite people in the whole world. Can you guess who? Chris, my husband.
For some time now Chris has been venturing into the realm of social media, you would not think a few years ago he did not even know how to turn a computer on. He started his own YouTube channel Travels of a Tiger. The name was an easy choice as he is a massive Hull City Football Club and we have been doing a bit of travelling over the last ten years or so. Hence the name was almost wrote for him Travels of a Tiger.
He travels quite a bit as a driver around the UK (Mainly the Northern half of the UK) and for his own safety bought a dashcam. Driving for a living Chris comes across a wide variety of people causing risk to life and limb and has even been involved in quite a serious accident with a girl racer on a tight country lane.
This girl would of died if it had not been for Chris’s quick reactions and experience. This crash was one of the contributing factors of him getting a dashcam in the first place.
Keeping a record of these things led ultimately to him opening his YouTube channel Travels of a Tiger. This allowed him to show the world how dangerous some peoples actions on the road are no matter how seemingly small. He began simply by recording day by day life on the road and then uploading them to Travels of a Tiger. He sees all sorts of drivers on his travels including red light jumpers and near misses. He began grouping the videos together by category to make the videos longer for YouTube.
He also began using his social media channels, Twitter @hullbornnbred & Instagram @hullbornnbred to spread the word about his YouTube channel. For a while he just got likes and the odd retweet, slowly he has been building his own internet brand as we all do. As we live in Hull we have a local paper called The Hull Daily Mail which has recently changed its online paper to @hulllive and Chris occasionally sends them pictures of traffic jams etc. as they are happening. He had a few pictures used in @Hulllive news articles. Credit for them allowed him to increase the flow of traffic to all of his media channel, which is always a good thing.
A couple of days ago Chris received a follow request on Twitter from @Sophiekitching who is working @Hulllive asking for him to follow her so she can direct message him regarding one of his videos. He did as she asked and what happened next was another little step in his journey onto building his own brand. She liked the video he made of him stuck in a country lane with a tractor. He had to use all his skills as a driver to navigate passed this tractor and recorded his self doing it on his dash cam. Sophie said people are interested in this kind of video and would he do an interview for @Hulllive.
Wow, we can’t believe it from Twitter to YouTube to @Hulllive and it really helped bring traffic to his sites as the views at Travels of a Tiger.
You can click the link below to read the article published on @Hulllive.
Nail-biting moment HGV and tractor squeeze through gap in road https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/nail-biting-moment-hgv-tractor-2018449?
As you can imagine I am so proud of him, he is really working hard to make a name for himself. I hope you will all support him in his efforts to get his channels out there and be as supportive as his family has been. Subscribe to Travels of a Tiger – Like his videos, tell him, Its just a click on a button. Thank You.
Another reason I love being me
Thanks for reading, please come back again to #thegotogirlsblog for more tales of love, life, family and travel.
Love always The Go To Girls Blog xxx
Apologies to my regular readers for my absence over the last few weeks.
I somehow contracted Shingles and have been very sick.
I am now on the mend and will have my new blog post on Friday 30 November 2018.
Thanks for your patience and please come back in numbers as I have worked really hard to get followers on my blog and don’t want to lose any of you.
Also, I am going self-hosting so will be moving to Blue Host. I hope you will all follow me still. The new address will be the same but in case you need it https://www.thegotogirlsblog.com
Please come and find us in our new home and thank you so much for reading my blogs.
Lots of love from a very itchy Go To Girls Blog xxx
Not loving being me at the moment……..
Loving calamine lotion a lot LOL
The Go to Girls Blog. 