The view from here....York

Views of York, they are a little dark because I went for a walk as the sun rose.

Top left is a lovely tea room on Stonegate, It was originally called Taylor's but is now called Little Betty's after the sister ship at the end of the road. It is much nicer than the main tea shop, it is a jumble of higgeldy piggeldy rooms with open fires and uneven floors. It has a fabulous array of cream cakes and cafetieres of all the coffee it sells down stairs The pots of tea are made with loose teas and come with a tea strainer. All in all a delight, My youngest sister worked here for a few years before deciding to move to London, she tripped up the stairs more than once and she still has the scars to show for it. When I suggested we went to Betty's for breakfast she said she would rather chew her own arm off, so I guess she does not have good memories of the place!

Top right is part of the amazing Scott's the butcher which has unbelievably closed down.

Bottom left is the church where I was married! opposite Betty's

Bottom right, a beautiful little place with such a sad story, it was the house of Margaret Clitherow, read more here. It is now a place of quiet contemplation

York is an unusual city, in that it has grown around the Minster rather than the river. If you look from the bridges the city appears to turn its back on the river which makes riverside walks very difficult, if not impossible in some places. This I suspect is because the river floods A LOT! even so it is a shame because early in the morning it looks lovely

Above are some of the historic buildings, the top left is a detail of the place that housed my parents restaurant for over eight years.

Above are views of Stonegate and The Shambles. All the streets are called Gates, my absolute favourite is Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate a tiny little thoroughfare just off the Shambles

Museum gardens as the sun rose.

Betty's

Betty's windows

York Minster, can be seen from almost everywhere in York, it is an amazingly imposing building, yet manages to look very beautiful from all angles I have been lucky enough to go to midnight mass here more than once, it has it's own choir school so the music is Divine.

The idea was that we would drive up Saturday morning, have a leisurely walk around and then have an early pub meal and a few pints before bed time.
The reality was that mother had suggested we meet up with some relatives from the other side of the Pennines, she then stressed for TWO effing hours because she thought we would be late, just because we stopped for breakfast. Sister 1 took this to mean that she had to drive extra quick and in the end we got to York before they did. Of course now we had to have lunch, not easy on the biggest shopping day of the year. We settled down in a rather impersonal bar and had a long and animated chat. We checked into the hideously expensive hotel. The rooms were tiny and over heated. We then exchanged presents before waving them goodbye. Sister 2 lives in a village just outside York, sadly she lives in such utter squalor she refuses to let anyone visit let alone stay. This means that when we visit we end up paying a fortune, as hotels are obviously expensive in York, but this cuts little ice with her. Because of this I asked if we could just have a bar meal for dinner, but God only knows what went through my mothers head but she decided we should eat here,
My mother does this all the bloody time, she then martyrs herself by insisting she will pay, but when we got the bill I could have wept. It was so bad we had to divide it into four, the food tried too hard, the service was ad hoc, but what I resented the most was the complete lack of ambiance. To cap it all sister 2's daughter was her usual teenage moody self, she sat texting her boyfriend (psycho gun toting teenager from Finland, as found via some dodgy Internet chat room) She then said the food was rubbish and went home before the meal was over, it transpired an hour before we ate, she bought a bag of 12 donuts and ate 11 of them giving one to Daisy and Kitty to share. I was so angry I could not sleep, well that and the heat and the noise in the hotel.
Sunday morning I had an hour to myself and wandered around taking photographs. Daisy and Kitty then took it upon themselves to fleece me for every penny they could before blaming me for all the ills of their upbringing. The cherry on top of my utterly crap weekend was sister 2 sulking because I did not buy her anything for Christmas. In fact I bought her vile daughter vouchers, but because we were tied up for lunch I could not collect them until Sunday, and since she had asked for a present I decided she could go without. how rude..
Tey next time I want to fritter away £300 I am going to Selfridges! at least I get to enjoy it.

P.S Did not get the job, feeling even more pissed off.