Wild Horses in Ironbridge

“I have my freedom. But I don’t have much time”

The Toy Town of Ironbridge never fails to please my inner child and today, it was horses outside the hotel! 31st August 2024 (Author’s Collection)

Star Date: Saturday 31st August 2024
Destination: Ironbridge Gorge AKA “Toy Town”
Reason: Picnic breakfast with the light of my life
Reason Number 7: To play silly games in the sunshine
Today’s “Old Fashioned Sweets”: Sour Strawberries and Cola Cubes
Number of Swans: Four
Number of close wins: One
Number of crushing defeats: Two
Number of (not so) Wild Horses: Two

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“Uno” Result

Dad 0
Lad 3

If the 3–0 scoreline isn’t comprehensive enough for you, then please consider that I only won one hand in Game 1, two in Game 2 and whilst the young tyke “allowed” me to win three hands in Game 3, he still romped home 107 points to 69, adding to his demolitions of me in Games 1 and 2 by the embarrassing scorelines of 106–7 and 104–29. I barely scraped past 100 points and the laughing assassin opposite me won 12 hands on his way to 317 points and we hadn’t even finished our bacon rolls yet.

A quote to live by outside “The Toy Box” (Author’s Collection)

Bacon Roll anyone? (Author’s Collection)

“messing about on the river” (Author’s Collection)

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“Yahtzee” Result

Dad 253
Lad 239

This 14 point victory is as slender as it sounds and in a dice throwing nutshell the game hinged on the lad securing a “Four of a Kind” with his very last throw. Success in throwing 4 of the same number would have resulted in victory, his failure handed me my only win of the morning.

Three of today’s four beautiful swans (Author’s Collection)

The “Gang of Four” and some rather pleasing sun spots on the River Severn (Author’s Collection)

Picture-Book Perfect Toy Town (Author’s Collection)

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“Tri-ominos” Result

Dad 150
Lad 272

With the early game score standing at 53–43 in favour of the lad he formed a “Hexagon”, the game’s top honour, and romped into a lead he would stretch easily until placing his final piece for a crushing win by 122 points.

We then fed some ducks and swans and watched two horses arrive outside the hotel and for a moment, a split second, it could have been two centuries ago and that, ladies and gentlemen of The Matrix, is why Ironbridge is so very, very special.

A scene of game playing carnage!!! (Author’s Collection)

The “Grand Old Lady” of Ironbridge (Author’s Collection)

Thanks for the memories (again) Toy Town (Author’s Collection)

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Thanks for reading. For more tomfoolery and balderdash, ramblings and musings and thoughts on the world from inside an unsound mind, here’s one I prepared and released earlier:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CZ7BKWNS (Author’s Collection)

"At the end of a Storm" - link to Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CZ7BKWNS (Author’s Collection)

Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.

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