Why is it that when you take the car in to a garage the words you never never hear are

Don’t Worry it’s nothing

It’s a cheap fix

It’s sorted and there is no charge

So today the car misbehaved. Took it into the garage and within minutes was told it needs a new ……. and it’s going to cost £XXX

One of the benefits of a spectacularly unreliable and expensive to maintain car is that they seem to have allocated it its own dedicated service team. We can look at it straight away. It will be ready in a couple of hours.

So we had a couple of hours to pass and luckily we were in walking distance of a castle. A fine ruin of a castle.

Pickering Castle was originally built around 1070. It is reasonably well preserved as it missed out on the carnage which was the War of the Roses and the English Civil War. I hoped that this unplanned visit would count against our sons target of 12 new places to visit. Sadly he pointed out the exact date and time of his school visit here 4 years ago.

I always think castles look better in black and white. Brings out their hidden Hammer Horror character.

It was a fun couple of hours as son explained in great detail the history of the castle. It’s linkages to wider English History and the various different structural improvements which have occurred over the years. I added important stuff like cool places for ghosts to hide.

Unfortunately the hours flew by and all too soon it was time to return to the garage. Luckily they still take cheques. That buys a couple of days to keep the bank manager happy. Son helpfully pointed out that a few hundred years ago I could just have raised taxes to pay for it – probably a Poll Tax. That assumes my role would have been Lord and not Peasant. In my all to likely Peasant role I had better start shovelling that muck quicker.

63 thoughts on “Castle Time”

  9. Your son is a rare treasure!!!

    Sorry to hear about the motor. 😦 Maybe you can sell off one of the Summer Villas to pay for repairs – you are not that big a fan of Summer anyway, right? 🙂

    The B/W photography certainly helps the Gothic demeanour of the place.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      3. Ouch! – Sore point at the moment. the GBR might not be there for much longer as Sun bleaching, higher levels of CO2 in the oceans acidifying the sea, killing off coral, and higher sea levels combine to give a KO punch. If sea-level keeps on rising new reefs might form closer to shore but that could take hundreds of years and may be much less diverse if the high acidity remains meaning fewer corals that would have the strength needed to overcome storms in the region (prone to cyclones currently). 😦

        Liked by 1 person

      1. Yes, I met people travelling that sold their photos to those copyright free internet photo sites e.g. shutterstock I think? My car is like yours.

        Liked by 1 person

  12. I agree the black and white really do add to the pictures. I have to go to the car shop today. Nothing big, just for a quick oil change – I definitely will be thinking of your castles as I watch the cars spew their fumes on the highway next to me as I wait. So pretty!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  14. Sad about the car expense… The beasts just gobble money.
    On the other hand, did you encounter any ghosts in those likely hiding places? I pick up on spirits when I am in some places. The air goes cold (real temperature drop). Normally if that happens, I go look up the place, and then find out something about an untimely death (historically) which might account for what I felt. I am not disappointed when I do the research. Places record the energy of times past.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  16. Pingback: Castle Time – A Dad trying to cope with the loss of his Partner and becoming a single parent. – International Badass Activists

    1. Castles are special places. The more they are in ruins seems to add to the atmosphere. But every place has stuff which are unique and worthy of the bucket list. My bucket list includes New England in the Fall, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Statue of Liberty, French Quarter New Orleans, Brooklyn Bridge.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment