A bit of excitement!

After our early-ish night last night, we were awake before 8am and looking out on blue skies and sunshine, although it was very windy. This wasn't supposed to be the weather for today!

We packed, had breakfast and were on on way by 9.30am. We had planned to go to the horse racing in Sedgefield but as the weather was supposed to be bad and the racing didn't start until the afternoon we decided to give it a miss and headed home to spend Easter Sunday with the children.

We had a great journey home and were back at midday, much to the delight of Sophie who had really missed us over the weekend. I unpacked and put a wash on and then it was great to sit and watch Masterchef with my daughter while Keith watched the sport upstairs.

Towards the late afternoon Keith came downstairs to watch the cricket and I was in the sunny conservatory. I could hear sirens and said to Keith were they on the television? He couldn't hear them so I went to our front window and saw smoke billowing up into the sky. I raced upstairs to get a better look and it seemed that some ramshackle farm buildings opposite our estate had gone up in flames. We could see at least three fire engines there already.

I saw our next door neighbour, Tom, go running along the road so we all followed him and when we got to the entrance of the estate there was a large fire engine blocking the road.

There was a rumour that there were gas cylinders stored at the farm so the fire brigade had decided to leave trying to put the fire out as there was a risk they might explode. At least it gave us a chance to catch up with Tom and congratulate him on the birth of his baby son last week!

The road remained blocked all evening and apart from some very black smoke and flames at one point, not much more happened. In the evening we went out to Frank's Hamburger House for dinner and we had a lovely evening with very good food. The restaurant was nearly empty so we had great service and a very relaxed time. We chose nachos with pulled pork to start as well as some chicken goujons which disappeared rapidly!

We all had burgers for our main course and mine, the Swashbuckler, was served with salad, cheese and dills. Delicious! On the way home we called into McDonald's for a McFlurry and enjoying the creamy dessert ended our evening perfectly!