Malvern was a pleasant surprise. Despite living in Oxford for a number of years and visiting Stratford Upon Avon, Evesham, Cheltenham (all of which seem remarkably close on the map) I don't think I've ever passed through Worcester or Malvern.
Above shows the campsite. Our caravan isn't in the photo but it does show the view we woke up to every day. It was a 40 acre farm with only five caravan pitches and ten places for tents. We had a huge amount of room to ourselves which was perfect for a few games of silly cricket, just as long as we kept the ball out of the sheep field.
This time Ella had the privilege of staying at Malvern College while Jake stayed with us at the campsite. E is a bit of a home bod so she was a bit wobbly when we dropped her off, she hardly had time to miss us because the three days of cricket were pretty full on. Breakfast was at 8am and they were all outside doing warm ups and training exercises by 9.30am. Matches finished about 6pm. It was pretty tiring for us too.
Ella's first match was at Malvern College itself, but the following two were 'up in the mountains' at Colwell CC. We just drove up and up and went round several hair pin bends and finally found this two pitch site, which was a typically British village cricket club, complete with wooden clubhouses.
My iPod took rubbish shots because the light levels weren't ideal. It was a bit overcast. I did take some photos on my proper camera but that will involve downloading onto my old laptop and emailing to myself to use them on my iPad. Such a faff.
Ella took three wickets over the three days which she was absolutely chuffed to bits about. Jake got quite worried on the last match when she took two wickets. He said she was allowed to have a threefer but if she got a fourfer or fifer then he wouldn't be happy because he'd never had a fifer. Ella also got some runs when she went in at number ten (they only had ten players) so she was also pleased about that because she doesn't often get to bat.
I took some woolly projects with me and didn't knit a single stitch. Typical. I did read Rose Tremain's 'Sacred Country' which I picked up purely because I had enjoyed 'The Road Home'. It wasn't a theme I thought I'd particularly enjoy but it was an enjoyable read. I loved the characters.
Ella joined us for the last night in the caravan. She was totally and utterly exhausted so when I started reading out the first page of my next book aloud just to tell M about it she came over to our bed and curled up in the middle and asked me to carrying on reading aloud. At 15 years old there probably won't be many more moments like that.
I bought 'The Hundred Year Old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared' when it was 20p on Kindle books. As usual I'm reading it long after all the fuss about it has died down, this is partly due to not being a total Kindle convert. The trouble is that it is all too easy to pick up a good book for 50p at a charity shop (like my last book). Although in its favour I have read some good books on Kindle and one or two have been completely free. I'm giving it another go on the basis that I can have the typeface a bit bigger which means the reading specs can stay in their case!
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