It has been a busy few days. On Tuesday, the school Sophie attends, received notification that, at long last, Ofsted were going to pay them a visit. For two years the school has been expecting a visit, so it almost felt like a relief that they were actually coming. Wednesday, Dad and Dennis arrived. It was great to see them both looking so well and in great humour. I was looking forward to introducing them to some of the new Harrogate pubs, The Tap and Major Toms in particular. We spent some happy times testing out different beers in The Tap but Major Toms will have to wait for next visit. It’s always good to have something to look forward to. As frequent visitors to Harrogate, Dad and Dennis are on a mission to find the nicest and best value place to stay. So far they have slept at the Crown (their favourite), The Shannon ( very unimpressed with being given a room not much bigger then the single bed occupying it) and Spring Mount Guest  House (too many hills near by and no one ever saw the lady owner of the guest house, suspicious?). The search goes on. I have suggested www.easy-breaks.com. Matt and I had a lovely two night break in one of their hotels before we had too many children to allow us to get away together, and found the two night dbb deals very good value. Last night, to celebrate Matt’s birthday, we ate at Cattlemans, a steak house in town. Matt who had previously been counting calories in an effort to loose some belly fat, decided that calories don’t exist on birthdays. I agree with this. What he may not know is they also don’t exist on other people’s birthdays, if you eat cake with friends or on any other special occasion. It’s just as well Matt decided that, because the steak alone he ordered had 1345 calories and that’s without the fries, coleslaw, wine and desert, 145 more calories then allowed on a normal day. I raised a few eyebrows by ordering the veggie burger. It came with onion rings and fries and cheese and mushrooms and was delicious. The desert was a little disappointing. What promised to be lots of different types of chocolate in a slice wasn’t really lots of different types and to Felix’s disappointment it contained lots of pieces of nuts which he doesn’t like. Despite the desert everyone had a wonderful time especially the birthday boy who smiled all day. Today Dad and Dennis visited the Royal Armouries in Leeds. Annie-mo is not the right sort of baby to take there. I have visions of her disappearing and reappearing with a Lance or something equally deadly. Climbing into the exhibits or onto the exhibits and running amok. So whilst Dad and Dennis did the armouries Annie and I caught up with some friends for coffee and Syndi’s birthday champagne. One of my friends is a fellow blogger but a much more accomplished one then me as she gets lots of fab freebies. Today her husband was making us espressos using their new (freebie) Roco espresso maker. The machine looked like a complicated piece of futuristic space technology and was delivered from Selfridges in a massive metal case. In fact the espresso maker was extremely easy to use and made a very nice espresso. My only criticism is  that it is massive and you do need to boil the kettle first to pour over the grinds. A nice touch was the hand held milk frother included in the case. Of course once we discovered the frother we all had to have frothy coffees as well.as.our espressos and I left almost jogging home on a caffeine buzz. This evening  I dropped Dad and Dennis off to the airport. Leeds Bradford airport operate a ridiculous system where you have to pay a disproportionately large fee to use the car park even if you are just stopping for two minutes to drop someone off. Because of this, most drivers now pull up illegally on the road at the bottom of the airport, heave their passengers out and leave them to walk up the road to the terminal. It isn’t too far but the hill is relatively steep. I don’t know any other airport with such outrageous parking charges and policy. What a busy few days we have had. I am going to sign off now and try to read a few pages of my new Harry Dresden novel before I fall asleep. Felix and I are racing to see who finishes first. Tonight I may conside and let him win this round.