Busman's holiday? A cohousing weekend away

One of the Lancaster Cohousing highlights of 2011 was when we came together at Arnside YHA for a weekend in December , to celebrate signing our formal agreements to lease. We took advantage of the YHA Winter Warmer offer, which is a great deal... those of us who weren't members already took out a group membership, and we pretty much took the place over for two nights.

A year on, many of us have moved in and we see each other all the time... but in October Lucy sent a message round saying that she and Huw and their family were going to spend a weekend at Arnside again in December, if anyone fancied joining them. And quite a few of us did!

Eight of us set off by bike together to the train station, leaving plenty of time, which is advisable when you have chariots to detach and convert from bike mode to push mode, and a big bundle of bikes to lock up together on the station. There was also a last minute platform change, just to add to the fun.

It's well known that train journeys make you hungry, even short ones, so when we arrived in Arnside it seemed only right to head for the (excellent) fish and chip shop. Some had peas, some had beans, some had coffee, some had tea, some had juice, but we all enjoyed it very much indeed.

We were meandering rather slowly down the main street feeling a bit disappointed that the tide was so high that there was no beachcombing possible, when Kathy arrived -- with Polly & Isla in *their* chariot -- having cycled all the way from Forgebank. Clearly, this called for cake and hot chocolate, so we attended to that next.

This was all in preparation for walking up Arnside Knott, of course, which we did in two parties: the advance group, with the smaller walkers and their pie-carriers went first, while the others took our bags to the YHA then caught us up. We made it to the top before they reached us, which was very pleasing.

We admired the view, ate the pie (and some chocolate, and some Tic Tacs) and headed back down... some of us were getting a little tired now, and it was raining, so we did feel a bit gloomy when we reached the YHA to discover it was another hour till reception opened and there was no one around.

There was nothing else for it, we had to go to the pub. On the way there, we met Jon cycling up the hill, coming to join us after a run further up the coast. He didn't take much persuading to turn round and come with us to the Albion, where ale, mulled wine and more hot chocolate were enjoyed.

We did make it back up the hill to the hostel in the end... to find our various rooms and then head down for dinner. Arnside YHA has its own chef and everything is cooked to order on site. Apparently this is quite unusual... I say apparently because I am relatively new to youth hostelling as a grown up, in fact if you'd told me three years ago that I'd be a YHA member by now I'd have laughed you out of town... but I can report that the food was splendid. As was the sleep -- if you'd told me three years ago that I'd be going to bed at 9.30pm on a Saturday night I'd have laughed you out of town again, but it's tiring, all this eating and walking up hills and beer drinking.

One thing that was interesting though was how aware I was of the draughty old building, and though I was perfectly warm enough in bed under my YHA duvet and blanket, how hard it was getting undressed in a chilly bedroom, so used am I to my nice warm eco-home.

There was more eating and wandering on Sunday morning, where again we were lucky with the weather, and we did get a bit of beach action this time. We all got the train back together, which was quite hilarious -- two bikes, two chariots, five children, seven adults, more bags than we came with... but somehow we managed it, and found the rest of the bikes in Lancaster, and made our stately progress home. As a non-parent I had the luxury of an afternoon nap when we got back, it was definitely more hanging out with small children and less reading the paper than I normally do on a weekend, and I don't have the stamina! But I had a great time, and I look forward to more hostelly fun in 2013.

jo

www.lancastercohousing.org.uk