On the beach

On Saturday we drove away from the fog that engulfed the Manchester area and found the sun (for a short time at least) on Southport Beach. You can see the big wheel of what was Southport's Pleasure Beach in the background. What was because it is all being dismantled and although fairgrounds always look a bit sad and pathetic, this one, half-demolished, is verging on the tragic. The beach, however, was fine and clear with lots of room for football and tussles between two very small, very eager and very determined referees. The best bit was when Maddie was asleep and Chris, Dominic and I faced John, Mel and Max. Probably the best player however, was the dog, Maisie, who proved to be an adept and tenacious tackler!

Ever keen to be in the right clothes, Dominic and Max dug out their Thing 1 and Thing 2 tee-shirts and wore them backwards so that they could have numbers, just like real footballers: although I have to say that this was pretty much the only point of similarlity between them and the real thing.