When I wrote down my bucket list in January I included a couple of UK attractions.  London Zoo and Stonhenge.  I’ve actually done both of them since.  The former being pretty average and the latter pretty cool.  I certainly appreciated the ancient circle more than I did as a kid.

I’ve since mused about taking the time to see other attractions that don’t need a passport.  A day on the Settle to Carlisle railway will happen.  They even ran scheduled services with a steam train recently.  The Giants Causeway is another must do – and I can earn a handful of Avios if I hop on a Flybe plane!  I also mused about having fish and chips in Whitby.  Sometimes the simple things can make life good.

Today I’ve decided to visit Northampton to watch the football.  It’s not the sort of thing I’d usually do on a Tuesday night (football is, Northampton isn’t) but I thought I’d take the chance to see a bit more of what these islands have to offer.

After a look online I found myself struggling for interesting stuff in Northamptonshire.  And I’ve got a lunchtime CT scan so my current plan is to drive to from the hospital to my bed and breakfast, secured with a free night from Hotels.com, have a bath and then head to the Sixfields stadium in the hope of a little more goal action than the last two games have provided.  I’ve woken up a little itchy, the side effects of my medication.  The bath together wirh my special prescribed lotion will be much needed after the drive.  Not my normal pre-match routine.

The journey home has the current idea of stopping at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park for an hour or two.  Nothing challenging, but quite an interesting break to the drive before I head out for a wild night in Halifax with work colleagues who’ve not seen me for a few weeks.  And won’t see me working again.

Hotels.com gave me an interesting offer by email yesterday.  Write a review and accrue double free nights next time you stay.  My initial thought was to utilise the offer in Australia in Brisbane, where I’ve got six nights booked in November.  Cancel that.  Rebook it with my loyalty code.  Earn 1.2 free nights instead of 0.6 free nights.

It’s never quite that simple though.  Fortunately I read the small print and saw a “stay by the end of April” clause.  If there had been further availability at the Iceland hotel, I’d have done the cancel and rebook thing there.  No such luck though, so to benefit from what seemed like a great offer I needed a new booking.

Instead, I’ve booked a bed and breakfast near the North Yorkshire Moors for a couple of nights to explore York, Whitby and the moors themselves.  Sneakily the offer doesn’t allow me to use TopCashback.  Irritatingly the cost of not using that form of rebate discount is pretty close to the value of the extra 0.2 free nights accrued.  So what looked like a great offer initially is only an adequate one in reality.  The equation of cashback v free nights is similarly unexciting for longer stays too.  Something is better than nothing though and this mob is usually better than booking direct.

Still, it’s persuaded me to do something I should have done since I moved to Yorkshire and as a result I will be seeing a bit more of the White Rose county.

It’s not Lancashire though.

That Exciting Moment When a Flight Price Alert Comes Through