Ash Wednesday with Louis and Wreck it Ralph.

Normy wakes me at seven, wanting to go out, so I slide into my slippers, put on my dressing gown and then follow him to the Garden Room and open the door onto another cold morning. When he returns indoors, we make our way to the kitchen and cook breakfast, today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and we are having kippers, as I have given up meat. I fry two fillets in a little olive oil and give Norman half of one with some crumbled toast, and eat the rest myself. I had forgotten what an excellent breakfast they make, even if their aroma tends to linger. We are showered, dressed and out of the house for nine, as I hope to see my friends at the Poppy Seed for ten thirty. The terriers are collected and our usual walk round the Westwood takes place without incident, other than the grey winter sky and a bitterly cold wind. After returning Dolly and Teddy to Cherry Burton, we drive into Beverley and park near Sarah's house in North Bar Without, before walking through the Bar to the Poppy Seed. Felicity is already there, tucking into scrambled eggs on toast, and passes a morsel across for Normy, who after drying, is nestled in my arm. Thelma and Annie arrive with the news that Jill has had a TIA, (a minor stroke), and is in hospital, but is expected home in the next few days. Having older friends is a bit like combat in the army, every so often, one of them becomes a casualty. There is some discussion about Pope Benedict's resignation, Thelma and I are both Catholics and accept the thing at face value, but concede that there may be other factors at play behind the scenes. Usually history uncovers the truth eventually. At half past eleven, I fetch the car and drive Felicity back to Albert Terrace, before returning home to change clothing, feed Norman and then return to Beverley, where I collect Louis. He wants to play football, but it is bitterly cold outside, the temperature hovering around freezing but the windchill making it feel more like ten below. After some discussion it is agreed we will go to the cinema to see the new Disney picture, "Wreck it Ralph", but call in at Northpoint Shopping Centre, about a mile from Cineworld first, to see if there are any more football figures in a shop there. North Point is in North Hull, adjacent to the clinic where Sarah works as a podiatrist, which is how Louis came to buy his footballers there, and it can be reached by a country road which runs south from the village of Routh, a mile past Tickton. This road is narrow and has numerous hairpin bends, but the countryside is pleasant and there is rarely much traffic. It begins to snow a little, so I adopt my mountain training from my army days, slowing down and using the gears to avoid braking. The hedgerows alongside the road are dotted with snow drops and we are in no particular hurry, so we enjoy the drive and arrive at Northpoint around one o'clock. Although I have driven past the place, I have never been inside and am pleasantly surprised. Parking is adequate and easy, a large Morrison's supermarket and a Wilco's are adjacent to the Mall, which has a variety of shops and an indoor market. The shops are more towards the budget end of the market, as North Point is situated near Bransholme, once the largest council estate in Europe. Home Bargains, where Louis bought his footballers last week, has sold out when we get there, so we check other stores to look for these, or similar products. Eventually we find some footballers made by "Click brick", they are Lego like constructions that have to be assembled from about ten constituent parts. £7.99p later we emerge from Boyes department store, where we found them, along with a bottle of flavoured water and a packet of crisps for the cinema. It is a short drive to Kingswood and Cineworld, where we arrive for the two o'clock screening of the film, only to find it is sold out. Other parents and grandparents no doubt thinking it a good option on a cold half term Orange Wednesday. The kindly cashier tells us that the next showing starts at a quarter to three and gives us 3D glasses, free of charge. We have three quarters of an hour to kill and the cafe upstairs is full, so we brave the weather and walk across the car park to McDonalds, where Louis has a "Happy Meal"' and I a blueberry muffin and a fresh ground black coffee, which is the only really tasty thing I have ever consumed there. A woman with a little girl, sat at an adjacent table, has just been to see our film and says it is OK. Louis is more interested in opening his toy, which I let him do, once he has eaten his lunch. There are eleven footballers in a team and each player has ten parts, which are quite small, as well as other bits and pieces, over a hundred separate items, so we agree that he would be likely to lose some, if we tried to assemble them in the cafe. Fortunately it is almost time for the film, so we brave the snow and make our way back to the cinema, and find our seats in screen four, the largest auditorium. Within minutes every seat has gone and this showing is also sold out. The film is OK, a lot of it over Louis' head, with references to computer code and viruses and games that were obsolete twenty years before he was born, but with enough action to stop him getting too bored. We emerge at a quarter to five, to a full white out beyond the cinema doors, Louis only has one thing on his mind and that is to get to my house, so that we can put his figures together. Due to the weather conditions, we return by the main road and arrive in Tickton at half past five, to be greeted by Norman when we open the door. After letting him out to toilet, I make tea for everyone, dog food for Normy, ante pasta for Louis and smoked salmon on cream cheese with toast for me. Louis finishes his tea in record time and then rushes into the lounge to unpack his footballers, returning to the kitchen every couple of minutes to ask if I have finished eating. Eventually I join him and we set up an assembly line for constructing the players, Louis putting the hair, heads, and body together and me adding the arms, legs and hands which are fiddly and hard to push into place. Eventually, by a quarter to seven, all the players are assembled, but outside the snow is still coming down heavily, so we pack the assembled footballers into a Tupperware box, put on our shoes and coats and drive into Beverley. Sarah is making tea for herself and Alice, when we arrive, although I don't stay long, because of the weather, but put in a good word for Louis before leaving, as he has been well behaved all afternoon. I return home for seven thirty, to find I have missed a call from Pip, so ring her back, and she tells me that Andrew has holiday until Monday, so I don't need to take the terriers out for her. After washing up and tidying away, I start my new book, "The End" by Salvatore Scibona, its first few pages have a poetic, lyrical style that I liked when I browsed in the Library. Outside the snow has stopped falling but a strong wind has blown in. To bed for ten.