Tebay - the Services You Enjoy Visiting

For Lancashire Life and eventually Meat Trades Journal I visited Tebay Services today. Is there another motorway service area in the UK you can actually feel good about (and after) visiting? In my past life I pounded the arterial roads, and had a policy of where possible avoiding motorway services, as they smell of grease, panic and corporate ignorance - Tebay being the honorable exception now as it has been for years. 

Family-owned, with a real (as opposed to convenient) commitment to local produce, it is cleaner, friendlier and more imaginative than the competition. Even the people visiting seem a different crowd. And bless them they have a butchery - no surprise when you find they were originally and are still farmers, their place supplying the beef, lamb and mutton and very fine the display looks to. Next time I am so tired I have to visit another services I will feel a tiny bit unfaithful.

Fishing from Fleetwood

The eco side of my character wonders about fishing as a hobby, albeit a very occasional one. But the sea is a fantastic resource, if treated properly. Last Saturday Joe and I joined a fishing party on Blue Mink off Fleetwood, last minute space fillers for a club where two members couldn't make it. We go every year at least once with the brilliant Andy Bradbury, skipper and owner of the boat. I've used such services elsewhere - Anglesey and Rhos among them - but he is by far the best.

In terms of value for money how do you rate enjoyment? It cost us (me) £80, and we took home a large Bull Huss prepped by the skipper for me, two plaice, and two dabs. Not economic in terms of food on the table then. But all cooked and eaten that night, and there is nothing as good as really fresh fish. Had we wanted, and possessed the skill to skin them, we could have eaten dogfish aplenty. But we didn't and don't. Pity, as they are everywhere. When I was a kid in Gorleston rock salmon as they were euphemistically called featured on the chippie menus, and was a favourite with my mother. A very tasty fish, as was the Huss - the first I can recall eating: it was softer than dogfish, if my memory serves, and had a distinct crabby-sweetness, really good.

The value, though, is probably in the pleasure my son took in the day (7 - 3), landing the first fish, catching I think the most fish (not bad given we were with guys who go on the boat every month, sometimes twice a month), and having a prolonged period in the fresh air (for which read away from texts, X-Box and similar vices).