I love reading – I’ll try anything once so within reason I’d read anything once. I guess there are books out there that I refuse point blankly to read but chances are anything you suggest then I’ll at least try even if I don’t finish it.
This might sound slightly crazy or even silly but I’m hoping you keep up with my thought line.
So a few weeks back I went to see the film Bridesmaids. I’d seen the trailer, it looked okay and so I figured I’d go see it. Generally I enjoyed it (and the fact that Chris O’Dowd was in it that was cool lol). Anyway, the lead character (Annie) has an amazing best friend (Lillian) who is there for her, each time she screws up her best friend is there for her. In HIMYM, if Lily needs a girlfriend she calls Robin. In Friends there is Rachel and Monica, In Grey’s there is Meredith and Christina.
SO – this is my point btw lol. Is it possible to “fall in love” with the idea of having a “perfect best friend”, you know the one you can call just for a chat because you felt like it, and not feel like you’re interrupting that person’s evening, or you hang out just because and not because you need to particularly go and do something special, you trust them with everything and that’s the first person you call.
Now maybe I’m tired and grouchy and that’s why I’m pondering this at 23:34 while listening to Jar of Hearts and Arms by Christina Perri, Breathe (2am) by Anna Nalick and Satellite by Lena (yes it is a Eurovision song but I like it! Don’t judge me lol!).
I know that you can’t make someone like you – it’s just the way things go, and so this isn’t me begging for a new friend but more pondering on the idea. What do you think?
Back in June, I went to Birmingham on the train, Okay I did just go on the train to go to Birmingham I went for a reason.
My friend Rickie was hosting the first Birmingham Vintage Festival (Except originally it was a fair but there is a reason for that!). The second Festival happens this weekend – I would have been there but my Grandparents are celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary and as you can imagine that only happens once in a life time!
I asked Rickie if she could write me a guest post to tell you lovely people about the Festival – so take a look.
Birmingham Vintage Festival is the vintage event with a difference; it’s an afternoon out that includes the standard vintage clothes one expects from ‘vintage fairs’ but it has a whole lot more.
When I visit a vintage fair, I’d like it to be an event. I’d like music to be flowing (and not just from the 50’s or big band) and I’d love a live band that sounds ‘vintage.’ I’d love to immerse myself into a bygone era and music plays a huge part in this scenario.
I’d like to be able to buy unique pieces made by talented people who live right on my door step and who can tell me how and why they made them. I then recommend them to others because they are that good.
I’d like to buy a gorgeous little storage unit from the 1970s and a coffee set from the 30s. I can also pick up a ridiculously extravagant broach from the 1940s and a fake fur waistcoat from the 1970s (of course).
I’d prefer to be able to buy the best coffee in town the usual coffee shop prices and some traditional home made cakes to enjoy whilst I’m having a sit down on a comfy sofa.
I’d like there to be vintage jewellery but also contemporary pieces made where I live, in one of the largest Jewellery Quarters in Europe. I’d like a graduate jeweller to sell their first piece at the Vintage Festival and share the elation with everyone there.
I’d like a photographer who is there just to capture the afternoon to be asked to undertake a big paid job or even a small one.
I’d like the event to be written about both before and after the day by talented writers who in turn inspire other writers. Or just encourage people to be involved.
I’d like the venue to receive a booking to use their space as a result of someone coming to the festival.
It will be fantastic for a young person visiting with their parents to be inspired to do something creative. Or just get their face painted and enjoy their first cup cake.
I’d like Creative Open Workshops to run a mini craft workshop like they do in their lovely studio and for more people to know much fun they are.
I’d like to dress for the occasion, like I dress for any occasion.
I’ll do anything to have all my friends there, those that sell the products to make a living and those who love buying them.
This is the Birmingham Vintage Festival.
For more details visit the website or contact @RickieWrites Saturday 24th Sept 11-5pm at @ AE Harris, 110 Northwood Street, JQT, Birmingham, B3 1SZ Map to AE Harris
Cults – Go Outside
“I’m sorry I know you wanted to hang out but I gotta look after my little sister, Mum got called into work” Eli said “You can still come over but we might have to play Barbies or something like that”
“That’s cool but you do realise you’ll be out numbered.” Lily replied
A bit later….
“So you be this one” Sophia handed Lily a well loved Barbie. “Eli, You have to be Ken because you’re a boy”.
“Is Lily your girlfriend like Barbie is Ken’s girlfriend?”
“Well erm” Eli looked up at Lily.
“I think the phrase is out of the mouths of babes…” Lily laughed
I’m not sure I really have one to be honest. I keep trying to read Austen as if it would make me brainier or something lol. Then again Austen is the 1700/1800s answer to the modern day chick flick so you would think I’d like it lol.
I even had a look at “What Makes A Classic Novel” to make sure that I was on the right track lol. I found the comment
I think a classic book is one that outlasts time-people today can still read Jane Austen and enjoy it because they relate to the characters, or read Dumas because they enjoy the development of plot and characterisation. That’s what makes it really classic, but I guess the term tends to be used on books that have just managed to survive being around for a while too. Say a century maybe?
So yeah I think Austen or Dickens would be my favourite classic author but I actually need to read the whole of one of the books to be able to confirm which my favourite classic is!
Katie from Katie Anderson Blogs wrote about meeting online friends offline and how it’s become almost more socially acceptable rather than having a stigma attached to it like it might have had 5 or 10 years ago.
I wrote an epic comment (all 450 words of it!) and decided that I would post it here as well – I might even tweak it a bit to make sure I make sense lol.
I’m all for meeting “Twitter friends” offline. I would just make sure to stick with meeting in a busy place (rather than a dark alley or something equally risky!), make sure that someone knows where you are and who you’re with etc. Overall just use common sense and don’t put yourself in an awkward situation if it can be avoided.
My first experience of meeting people that I’d spoke to on Twitter was back in 2009 when I went to the #140conf in London. I’d taken the day off work and organised to stay with my friend near Finsbury Park so that I could be there first thing in the morning to get the train across the city to the O2 Arena. I was actually really worried and excited about it. I was worried because I was meeting all these people that I’d spoken to on Twitter and was worried that they wouldn’t like the real life version of me (and whether the Twitter version of me was close enough to the real version!).
I grabbed lunch with @Minxymoggy and @hrkovar and that was hilarious because we literally didn’t stop talking for the whole time we were there lol. It was like we’d been friends forever! @Minxymoggy looked out for me that day so I wasn’t totally on my own – we ended up guarding two plug sockets while we took turn to charge phones (problem with a twitter conference with no wifi is that it eats your charge). After the conference I was adopted into a big group who were going to grab a drink in one of the bars inside the O2 – it was good fun and it was nice to social – it was even more funny when I was ID’d on the way into the bar – that was quite funny and I’m glad they all saw the funny side of that.
I also met @Daren140 in person that day and via his talk I was introduced to @beccaspeaks (you can find her blog here) who I would say is now one of my best friends. Actually I think I tweeted her to tell her she’d been mentioned in Daren’s presentation and his tribute to Bob Dylan and that was that – we were friends!
I eventually met Becca back in February along with two other Twitter friends when we formed a team for Eggheads. Somewhere along the line we figured that if you could form a group of friends from the same book group or church or something similar why couldn’t you form a team across a social network – well I guess the BBC didn’t agree because we didn’t get a call back but we had a fab day and got to meet each other. We even walked back to Liverpool Street and wandered round the shops like proper girlie girls (I do go shopping in a girlie way but I tend to go on my own or with my Mum!)
I agree about the “it’s more acceptable for an adult to do so.” But even then I think there are still the concerns there – I told my friend that I was going to London to meet a bunch of bloggers who regularly commented on a particular celebrities blog and that we were going to volunteer at Radio 2 for Children In Need – well she got proper worried that I was going to get incepted into a cult or something lol. I pointed out that I was going to safe and that a lot of the ladies in the group were Mums and so they weren’t going to leave me to get back to the train station by myself and things like that but she was more worried that my Mum and Chris put together. (She did join Twitter for about two weeks and then left again).
I think my Mum sees that I’m smart enough not to put myself at risk and that I’d meet in a public place and things like that. I think she was questioning my sanity when I tried to organise going to a friend’s wedding in Australia. Chris could see how much it meant to me and how “out of my box” it was but it came down to money more than anything. On the other hand said friend and her now husband met via the internet – she’s from Australia and he’s from California. Me and said friend had met via Twitter but we’ve spoken on Skype and by letter and email so it’s not like we’re complete strangers (although the above friend might think I needed to be committed to the local psychiatric ward).
I’d actually say that the people I email when I’m having a bad day (other than Chris) are people that I’ve met via the Internet before in person.
To add to this, I’ve actually become friends with one of my ex-employers through Twitter – and I would say that we get on better now than we did then!
I think overall it’s more accepted now and actually these couples who do find love on the internet and things like that – it is isn’t weird it’s just broadening your horizons outside of your town or city.
So as you can tell by the time I actually posted the comment on Katie’s blog it was a bit long! Please go read her original post as well 🙂
Two or three months back my Mum was looking at getting a new phone. She was deterred at first from getting an iPhone or another phone with a touch screen as she struggles to use it – mainly due to her longer nails. However she borrowed my Brother’s old iPhone 3GS (He’d upgraded to iPhone 4 a while back) she was sold on the idea and decided to get one of them. But now I have a gadget that could have helped her. It’s called a Smart Touch.
It’s about 2 centimetres shorter than a normal Bic Cristal Biro which means you can carry it around in your pocket next to your phone or tuck it into that pen loop on your Filofax (if you’re a bit out dated like me – I have a smart phone but would rather use a paper diary!) It’s quite thin in comparison to other pens that I use on a daily basis and I would struggle to write a letter or something long like that with it comfortably but for quick notes and adding bits to my diary it’s perfect. (Currently I carry my Parker Cartridge pen which I think is a Frontier model, and a Pilot SnapClick which is like a biro anyway).
It arrived a few weeks back and I sat in the car park of the Sorting Office playing with it on my phone – I have a HTC Desire Z – the preset keyboard from HTC is a little small so I did catch odd buttons (for example an S instead of an A or a J instead of a H – so at one point my name was jsmmsh or something silly like that). I think this was more of a matter of getting the hang of where to aim – also thankfully because of autocorrect/suggestions it was able to fix the errors as I went.
I think the Smart Touch came into its own when I used it with Chris’s iPad – because the “buttons” for each letter are so much bigger than the ones on a normal iPhone or HTC handset it was easier to hit the correct letter first time.
All in all I found it easy enough to use but had to combine it with typing with the other hand as well to be able to do anything at any speed – if you were like my Mum who struggles to use a on screen keyboard this could be for you.
You can follow Total Merchandise Ltd on Twitter, Facebook or their own website.
This is a sponsored post and for full disclosure purposes, I received a free Smart Touch Elite Stylus in return for a product review.
Seriously just one city – that’s going to be a very tough choice. Well Amsterdam, Paris and Barcelona are most definitely somewhere up there in the top ones and if we went back to any of them I’d be excited.
I went to Amsterdam with Chris for our honeymoon – I think it had always been on my list of places to visit but I’d never had the opportunity and I think other places would have come further up the list first. Having finished my dissertation, turned 21, done my final practical, got married and gone on holiday all in the space of about two weeks by the time Chris told me we were going to Amsterdam, I reacted disappointed, I think I wanted to go somewhere I’d been before because then if I did miss stuff it wasn’t the end of the world because I’d seen those things before. Looking back I think I was a meany to Chris, because in the end I really enjoyed Amsterdam. We used the tram system to get around while we were in the city and I would say that actually it was easier to navigate that the London Underground system. There is a Metro system as well but it only has four lines, Again not too complicated to navigate.
Next up is Paris. Paris is an amazing city – I’ve lived in Bedford my whole live but even going to Paris makes me feel like I’m at home – something in me just feels rested – it’s really strange (yeah I know I sound completely barmy!) lol. I stood in Gare Du Nord in the queue to get metro tickets when me and Chris went last year – I told Chris that I wasn’t entirely sure I’d be that good at asking in French for the tickets but I would give it a try, after all we were in French (when in Rome sprung to mind) – I then spewed out a sentence resembling “Je voudrais due billets pour due jours si vous plait” (I would like two tickets for two days please) and it seemed to work as the guy sorted the tickets – I was a little baffled when he told me the price as it was a little faster than I expected lol. Thankfully I could read the display on the till so that was okay. Chris was very impressed and since that trip every time I say I can’t speak that much French he tells me I’m a liar based on two basic tourist French conversations lol. (The other conversation was asking for directions to the supermarket right in the middle of Paris)
Last up was Barcelona, I went to Barcelona in 2003 (I think – I’m having a mind blank if any one remembers please correct me!) I was there with the school music department, we were staying in Tarragona and doing a tour of the area to play outside concerts. Majority I enjoyed the trip but there were a few bits I would change – I would love to go back to Barcelona and actually have a proper wander round rather than doing the high speed visits that you get on school trips. I did get to see La Sangrada Famiglia and it was amazing. That’s on the top of the list should I ever go back, it’s phenomenal.
You can find the prompts on Ian’s Blog here.
Clearly being in a field works better for the inspiration because I’ve got killer writers block lol. The picture above is the prompt for this week’s 100 Word Challenge from Julia.
“Are you honestly sure we are supposed to be here?” he asked her.
“Nope, probably not but where’s our sense of adventure?” she replied while climbing up the fence.
“It’s too high. Seriously you’re gonna get us in so much trouble” he replied while climbing the fence after her. “It’ll be all your fault” he paused
“What is that over there?” He pointed to the far side of the garden
“I don’t know, Come on lets take a look” she ran across the grass “It looks like one of those things you pin dresses to”
“You mean a tailors dummy”
I’m like an overachiever when it comes to procrastinating – oh look the washing needs to be done – I know I’ll reclassify all those posts that are under “Stuff To Sort” rather than do the washing. I tried to remedy this by throwing out alot of socks so that I had to do the washing so I had clean socks. It kinda half works – well at the moment it’s kinda not working because I wear my flip flops instead lol. Hopefully when it gets colder it’ll then make a difference! When I was writing my dissertation at uni, I was packing to move out of my parents house and into the house with Chris as well – I think I did more packing when I should have been writing about Shakespeare and teaching his plays in schools! Then again had I not had the essay to be writing I would have been avoiding packing boxes by tidying my room or going out.
At the beginning of September, Chris set out on his birthday challenge to cycle from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in Scotland (aka LE2JOG). This is my attempt to blog along the route. I came home on Sunday but my FIL took over being Chris’s support team for LE2JOG so we are going to have some guest posts from him this week and maybe next too! Be nice!
Woke up cold at 3am, but my coat on the sleeping bag sorted that. Next time was 7.30. Chris was still asleep, so I sorted my bed, etc., and went for a wash. Chris was awake when I got back. The stove was still out so we had a hot drink with brekkie. Packed up together, then Chris got off at about 9.30, but not before getting a stamp and a donation! Very nice.
Managed to connect for lunch at Langsett without the trauma of the previous day, but Chris still grumbled because it was a whole 50 yds *up* a side road. I’ve also learnt how much he hates wasps!
Found a LIDL in Huddersfield – fatal! I did mostly get stuff we needed though. Later on, leaving Halifax, found a Morrisons. More stuff, though to be honest, not as much that we really needed, and more luxuries. Still, we’ll enjoy the pasties for lunch tomorrow. Ready meal cottage pie for tonight.
The campsite was on top of a BIG hill. That’s why it’s ‘Black Moor’ Road! £10 deposit for a key fob, needed for *everything*, even the loo! To be fair, it would have been a nice campsite, but the foul weather let it down. Rain and headwind slowed Chris down, so it was after 6 pm when he called to be picked up from the crossroads in Cross Roads (really!). I’d managed to get my tent and most of Chris’ up when he called, but it was getting dark, the weather was foul, Chris was shattered and cold, and there was no shelter to cook. That’s why I was really really grateful to the couple who offered to microwave our ready meal in their motor home. That tasted better than it had any right to! Dodged showers to finish getting the tents up and the kit in. Chris magicked hot drinks on his petrol stove and enough extra for a flask for hot drinks in the morning. He was in bed by 9, but I took my time and was up a little later.
Angus & Julia Stone – Just A Boy
I wanted to embed the official video but it’s disabled. You can however find it here look out for the elephant.
Yeah I know silly to have Chocolate at the top but it’s true – I’m pretty sure somedays Chocolate is the only way to fix bad days!
At the beginning of September, Chris set out on his birthday challenge to cycle from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in Scotland (aka LE2JOG). This is my attempt to blog along the route. I came home on Sunday but my FIL took over being Chris’s support team for LE2JOG so we are going to have some guest posts from him this week and maybe next too! Be nice!
Made instant porridge in the room, then visited bike shop up the street, where we found Chris’ clicking noise was probably his pedal, not his bearings. Chris set off, and I set about repacking the car to put the stuff we’d need most on top. That done, set off to lunch stop telling satnav fastest route. By the time I realised it was taking me to Derby, not due N to Ashbourne, I was well on the way. Reprogrammed for the shortest route, which it then did! Rarely have I been down so many obscure roads in such a short space of time. Yes, I even clocked some with grass up the middle! As a net result, Chris got to lunch stop well ahead of me. After some serious confusion about the location, we did meet and enjoyed a cold lunch. Chris headed off, and I headed straight to the next campsite, booked in, and got tents up, etc. Chris rang and got directions, but missed a turn, so probably did about an extra mile (uphill, of course) before turning round. Had a lesson in alfresco cooking before we turned in at 9pm. V. early for me!
At the beginning of September, Chris set out on his birthday challenge to cycle from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in Scotland (aka LE2JOG). This is my attempt to blog along the route. I came home on Sunday but my FIL took over being Chris’s support team for LE2JOG so we are going to have some guest posts from him this week and maybe next too! Be nice!
Well, got away from home later than expected, and the satnav didn’t recognise the target road. Made it to Sutton Coldfield centre easily enough, but where then? several stops later, passed cop shop by pure chance. They gave brilliant directions (of course), so finally met Chris & Hannah (‘only’ about an hour late!).
Transferred stuff, so Hannah could get going, then Chris & I toddled off the the town centre (well drove, actually), topped up at a McDonalds, looked around a few shops (with bored stiff vibes from Chris), then back to Travelodge to book in. Asked if they had anywhere secure for the bike and they swapped us to the ground floor & let us put it in room. They were brilliant! After unpacking (a bit), got hungry, so ate at Harvester next door. Chris has lost some of his capacity for food! Back to room, lots of info from Chris, then reasonably early night.
At the beginning of September, Chris set out on his birthday challenge to cycle from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in Scotland (aka LE2JOG). This is my attempt to blog along the route.
So it’s Saturday. This time last week we were at the end of the world just outside Land’s End staying at a cottage called Trevorrian Farmhouse. I’m now sitting in Urban Coffee Company in Church St, Birmingham getting ready to head to my last overnight stop before heading home tomorrow. Although I’ve been to Birmingham before I’ve never actually stopped to have a drink here. The last time I was in Birmingham was for the Birmingham Vintage Fair (there is another Vintage Fair this weekend take a look here and I was helping Rickie so had no chance to see the sights lol.
I did try to get to the Bullring for a wander round but the traffic was horrendous and I kept getting lost – I was not happy. I couldn’t cope with the busy-ness in the middle of the city – I know that city driving is always a bit crazy anyway but normally I can deal with it – I guess with the disturbed sleep I’d been having all week I’d not really got my head around the driving. I met the lovely Hannah who works in Urban – she has some epic tattoos which are very cool. I was at the front of the queue and I dropped my bottle of water by mistake. We both made funny eek noises – I picked up the water from the floor and she made a comment like “I thought it was your iPad!” I was like thank heavens and all the angels that it wasn’t otherwise Chris would be kicking my butt into next week!
While I was sat in Urban, I could see the Twitter feed in the corner and my tweet went up on the screen – I did get rather excited about this (What a geek!). Following my drink in Urban I headed off to Ian and Sally-Jayne’s, I was literally round the corner at the supermarket and Chris called asking me to collect him from Sutton Coldfield Train Station as that’s where his ride for today finished. I managed to find the station but only after getting rather lost!
We then headed to Ian and Sally-Jayne’s, they were so welcoming and lovely. Tea was awesome – Ian did chicken in a white cheesy (I think) sauce with pasta and had garlic bread next to it – it was so yummy! While he was cooking and chatting to Chris, me and Sally-Jayne watched Strictly Come Dancing then after dinner we all watched Doctor Who together.
This was written on the 14th September rather than the 10th when I was away.
At the beginning of September, Chris set out on his birthday challenge to cycle from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in Scotland (aka LE2JOG). This is my attempt to blog along the route.
It’s Friday today which means two days and I head home. In all honesty, I want my bed! I don’t mind camping but I have to be in the mood for it and when it’s soggy, wet and I don’t get enough sleep then I would rather be in a proper bed – yes I’d never survive on a “survival sleep under the stars” course.
It’s 5 to 10 and I’m sitting in the dark in our tent lol. Chris is not so snoring but I can tell he’s asleep if it was a book it would be like “Hannah typed away at the iPad screen while Chris rhythmically breathed in and out like a metronome while listening to the traffic on the nearby A road and the people sharing the campsite.”
Or something like that anyway!
So back to this morning. While we cleared up the tent Mr Campsite from Oakfield Farm Camp Site popped down to make sure everything was okay. Out of all the people, we’ve met this week these were the most hospitable and friendly (although the chap at the Friday Night campsite is lovely and helpful). Chris and Mr Campsite chatted about how lovely the site was and where he was heading off to next.
Yesterday evening after tea I had had a flick through the English Heritage guide book that Mum had lent me to see if there were any nice sights to see along the route (pretty much the A46 heading northbound). There were a few but they were anything up to 10 miles off the route we were taking. Now normally that wouldn’t have been a lot but today was a “short day” miles wise so I didn’t want to stray from the route too much in case Chris was finished before I’d caught up with him.
I decided to head straight for Stroud which was Chris’s lunch stop. I found a supermarket and found that the major parking for the town centre was right next to the supermarket even though I’d done two laps of the one-way system and was still mone the wiser. (Thank goodness for Google Maps!). I’ve been out of sorts since we went out for dinner at Street. I think because I’d been eating smaller meals combined with early nights when I had that big meal and slightly later night at Street I was thrown and so I’ve not had breakfast 2 days in a row having had it 5 days in a row before also I’ve been peckish by 11 am -ish but then not hungry by the time I meet Chris for lunch – talk about complicated.
Anyway, so I find somewhere to park and go for a wander around the town. Found a really cool shop called Moonflower. It was so cute (and there was a whole Cath Kidston section!!!) however I did feel a bit underdressed (and even dirtier than I already feel from camping lol). I wandered up to Costa and decided to try and catch up on my blog posts, I finally got my cream tea but it was in Gloucestershire rather than Cornwall. As you can tell it kinda didn’t work which is why I’m writing this at high speed while Chris sleeps. (and I drain the battery…..oops!)
I also got an Iced Latte which normally isn’t my choice of drink – I’m trying to train myself to like coffee if that’s a logical thing lol. I’ve had Iced Latte’s from Costa in the past and they have been fine, had that normal coffee kick but all in all, they are fine – however, this one was disgusting. I figured I’d wait a few minutes and consider if I could in fact get away with putting sugar or sŵeetener in it. While I was sat there trying to decide if I should eat scone then blog or visa versa my phone started playing Muse very loud (I still love my ring tone lol) Chris was already in Stroud and where was I? Well I’m in Costa on the High Street you can’t miss it. Well apparently my directions were a bit pants and it wasn’t as obvious as I thought it was. Anyway, we found each other in the end and I moved to a seat outside, I shared my scone with Chris and asked him did my Iced Latte taste okay/was it just my taste buds dying. He said yes it was a bit stronger than normal and he thought that Costa Stroud made it different to Costa Bedford. So I gave him my drink and got on with eating my half of the scone (decided that eating the whole one with him sat next to me was a little mean and sharing was the loving thing to do).
We discussed the routes we had taken to get to Stroud and then decided that lunch was needed (Well I was still digesting Elevenses but apparently when the cyclist is hungry then lunch is required lol). We tried a cafe called Woodruffs but at £6-8 for a lunch each it was a it expensive. (it was more going out dinner with friends rather than grabbing a quick lunch) we ended up in Greggs – I had a sausage roll and Chris had a pizza slice thing. We then sat outside on a bench and ate lunch, I was people watching – though it was interesting how the lady selling Big Issue was then on a mobile phone for what seemed ages – not only that when I walked past her about 10 minutes later I noticed it wasn’t just a mobile phone, it was an iPhone 4……okay? Now I guess you have to tick certain boxes to qualify for selling the Big Issue right? I did nearly buy a copy as it had something to do with Lego on the front but I changed my mind – does that make me mean?
Following lunch, Chris carried on towards Cheltenham. I pottered round Stroud for a little while longer and then headed back to the car, as I was heading through Painswick which is a village in the way between Stroud and Gloucester/Cheltenham I thought I’d pop into the Rococo Garden for a look round, I got as far as the description board near the gate and realised that it was a similar design to the garden at Wrest Park that me and Mum saw about a fortnight ago. I decided that I’d head for Cheltenham and potter round the shops there instead.
I got to Cheltenham and got a text from Chris telling me he was about 2 miles from the campsite and could I meet him. This evening we’re staying at Briarfields Motel and Touring Park, Chris thought we were early and that we wouldn’t be allowed on our pitch but when we got here it turns out that pitches are available from Midday so we were able to set up our tent and still have time to go for an explore later.
We went to the caravan store just up the road so that we could get some waterproofing stuff for the tent, we then had the choice of Cheltenham or Gloucester. We decided to go to Gloucester for a wander round. We parked at one of the shopping centres and then walked around for a bit. We went into HMV and Chris got a card reader convertor bit for the iPad so he was able to access the pictures that he had taken on his route – I should have some of mine tomorrow if he let’s me have a play – if not they will be up in Sunday or Monday hopefully.
We headed back and then I sat around enjoying the sunshine while Chris re-waterproofed the tent.
Tomorrow is our last proper day – on Sunday me and Chris’s dad swap over as support. Tomorrow I go from Cheltenham to Alcester or something like that and then onto Birmingham. I have friends in Birmingham so we are staying with them which is really lovely. When Chris put out the request for people to adopt us where possible it was lovely that our friends from Twitter were able to help us out. (Don’t panic – we have met before it’s not like it’s a complete first meeting lol).
I’m hoping to go to the Bullring tomorrow but we will have to see. I wanted to go when I was up in Birmingham at the end of June but that didn’t quite work out. Hopefully it will this time.
For the stressful, energetic half of the trip read Chris’s posts here. You can read about the rest of the adventure here.
This is seriously a bad question. At present I have the following in progress:
For Women Only by Shaunti Feldhahn (Chris suggested it after one of the talks at Grapevine this year),
My Life in France
A Game of Thrones: Book 1 of A Song of Ice and Fire
Eat, Pray, Love
Right to the Edge: Sydney to Tokyo By Any Means
At the beginning of September, Chris set out on his birthday challenge to cycle from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in Scotland (aka LE2JOG). This is my attempt to blog along the route.
Well, rather than cooking on the camping stove for tea. Chris decided that we’d go out for food but given that he’d just cycled about 80 miles in one day the idea of having to focus on what to eat was a bit beyond him.
I made the choice that we’d go to the Wetherspoons in Street – I knew roughly where it was as the High Street runs along the Clarks Village and I knew that Street wasn’t too far away as I’d been there a few hours earlier. I was going to have a chicken burger but they were out of them so I choose lasagne – it’s very hard for it to go wrong – however, mine did seem like it had been microwaved to within an inch of its life – yum – not!! Chris has sausages and mash which he seemed to appreciate as I’m pretty sure he ate it down like I’d not fed him for a week. We also both had waffles for pudding. I had maple syrup on mine and Chris had chocolate sauce and banana on his.
We then headed back to the campsite. We arrived back and sorted some bits out. It was only then that I realised actually how foreboding the Tower on the Tor looked in the night. I half expected Orcs to come running down the hill towards us and then an elf or a dwarf come to our rescue – good job I’m not reading The Hobbit at the moment lol.
Comfort-wise sleep was a little easier but we were quite close to the main road so the traffic did make it a little harder to sleep. Yes I know I am picky and yes I am counting down the days until I sleep in a proper bed when we reach Birmingham!!
This morning Chris and I had a little disagreement – I think we’re getting a bit on each other’s nerves now and need some space – he headed off and I headed into Glastonbury and by lunch, we seemed to be a bit better.
I parked near the Abbey and then went for a bit of a wander. Then again I almost wished I hadn’t lol. I’m all for having your own beliefs but the whole town was like Wiccan/Pagan/Occult in your face-ness I think the only time I saw a bible was in the gift shop at the Abbey (this was the bit you could get in for free – the rest of the Abbey you had to pay to see). There were three bookshelves in the Abbey gift shop about Arthurian legend and the history of the Abbey and one tiny section with Christian books on – there were like 5 bibles and a couple of copies of the Book of Common Prayer. I wandered to a shoe shop that sold flip flops that benefitted a village in Africa – I had thought about buying a pair but I didn’t think that I could justify £25 on a pair of flip flops that I might only be able to wear for a few more days before retiring them until next year. I decided that I’d head towards my next stop.
I went to Wells and got some lunch. Chris’s lunch stop was at Farmborough but we weren’t sure about how much there would be in the way of shops etc. So I went prepared for lunch including bananas and oranges for Chris to carry with him to give him a boost of energy if needed.
I was heading towards Farnborough when my phone kept ringing – I couldn’t answer as I was kinda running late already (at least in mind I was even if I wasn’t really!). After the third time of hearing Supermassive Black Hole, I found a layby and answered the phone. Chris had something epic to show me and the meetup point for lunch was moving.
And it was epic and worth the miscommunication with the directions to get me there. He’d found a place called The Book Barn. Their tagline is “Millions of books, thousands of topics, ONE Bookbarn” and it’s very true. I spent about an hour in there but could have easily spent longer and not have got bored. They have thousands of books on display in one barn but they also have a computer system so that you look up through the stock they have in a second barn. I’d asked for two books from the system – you fill in a little slip and someone goes to look for it, for you. The two asked for were “The Left Side of Darkness” by Ursula Le Guin and “The Mysteries of Udolpho” by Ann Radcliffe (if you’ve read Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen you will have heard of it). They didn’t have the Le Guin book but they did have “The Mysteries of Udolpho”.
All the books in the barn you can search through in-person are £1 each the ones in the other barn vary depending on the “rarity”, which edition it is etc, so Mysteries was £5 instead of £1. I got 7 other books so in an hour spent £12 on 8 books – now to read them all, plus “Rebecca” by Daphne Du Maurier and the six Austen novels I have on my bookcase at home that I keep saying I’ll read plus the one I’m in the middle of now – okay mental note to self *must not purchase any more reading books until I have cleared at least 75% of this pile* – that’s 12 books – oh dear!!!!
I then drove from The Book Barn onto our campsite at Horton. Well, I almost missed it. We were staying at Oakfield Farm Campsite. The campsite was about 2-3 miles from Chipping Sodbury and was in the middle of nowhere lol. I wasn’t sure I was in the right place at first and when the first person I saw had a nose piercing bleached blonde Mohican (although it was deflated for work I think) and tattoos up both forearms I really didn’t think I was in the right place but I asked and he said yes it was the right place and it turned out that we were the only people booked in for the night.
I got to setting up the tent in one corner as there were bushes on two sides and I could put the car on the third side to create a whole bunch of shelter. It was a good idea I think. While I was setting the tent up the lady (who is part of the couple who own the site) came to say hello and point out where the loo was and things like that. I went up to use the loo and the lock was broken but as it was a portaloo I could use and hold the door closed (is that TMI?)
The site was really nice other than the broken loo door. We could hear some cows a few fields over but other than that it was very quiet. Chris said he didn’t sleep well and I said it must have been because of how quiet it was in comparison to all the other sites we’ve stayed at.
Tinned hot dog sausages, bolognese sauce and pasta for tea – I think I can manage it – might even read at the same time.
For the stressful, energetic half of the trip read Chris’s posts here.
You can read about the rest of the adventure here.
I think it would have be Amsterdam, I had a phrase book and kept trying to speak Dutch but a lot of the people I met were too excited to practice their English on me rather than let me practice my Dutch. They were lovely and helpful especially when we had to ask for directions or help.
You can find the prompts on Ian’s Blog here.
Oh, dear. I wrote about half a post only to then close the WordPress app and lose it. Doh!
Today was Day Five from Okehampton to Street – well actually it’s Glastonbury rather than Street (they are next-door neighbours like Bedford and Kempston). From the door of our tent, I can see Glastonbury Tor and behind me, there is an amazing view over the valley (Future Hannah Says: Often if you watch the Glastonbury coverage on the BBC you can see Glastonbury Tor in the background).
Last night was a calmer night weather-wise but I think I picked the pitch with the most rocks underneath it (having said that the campsite lady suggested we went on the other side to normal as there was more shelter in case the weather was as bad as the night before).
Between us we managed to cook sausages, beans and new potatoes for tea, we were nearly finished and the heavens opened. Chris was holding the umbrella over the food but I had to crouch down underneath the umbrella to get any of the shelters – in the end, I was quite soaked and not a happy bunny lol. We sat in the car again to eat dinner (the problem with it being wet and only having a two-man tent). While we had tea we talked about repacking the car so that we could get the tent out and the beds made with relative ease rather than having to unpack half the car to get to the one thing we needed. Following tea, we put the plan to the test, while Chris did the washing up I got on with readjusting the car. It seems to be working better today. It took me less than an hour to get the tent up and the two beds set up. Now I just need to wait for Chris to arrive then I can start on tea. Anyway back to yesterday.
Following tea and reorganising the car we packed up anything we didn’t need in the morning – this included making sure anything we needed for breakfast was in the footwell off the passenger seat in the car so that we could get in the car, eat breakfast and leave. (I’ve decided that if there is a next time we need a Romahome. It’s like a caravan/motorhome but they come in smaller versions like the size of a large car rather than the size of a transit van)
Sleeping was a challenge again. The camping site was about a stone’s throw from the A30 – great for access not for sleep! We packed up and headed for bed almost straight after tea (7:30/8ish!!) I think this is a record for me given that I wasn’t ill lol. I sat reading while Chris finished some bits up – it seems that the work of a youth leader/web designer/project manager is never done lol. I read the passages for Day 5 and Day 6 of Soul Survivor’s Bible I managed to get into the sleeping bag but then for the life of me couldn’t get comfortable. I’d find a comfy position and close my eyes to try and doze
Partway through last night, I’d decided that I’d had enough and if I was going to have to camp I was going to need a proper bed. I didn’t want a thick air bed that takes half an hour to blow up and then deflates in the night so in my original plan, I was going to find a camp shop get a roll mat and hope that worked well enough. I had a look in the supermarket at Tiverton and they had the thick air beds – not a problem I’d look at Clarks Village at Street and if they didn’t have an air bed/roll mat that fits my criteria then I’d go looking for the supermarket in Street or Glastonbury – there was a plan!!
I woke up and was lying on my front with the sleeping bag hood over my face lol. It was nice and warm, funnily enough, I didn’t want to get up – I was finally comfortable!!
I got up and got dressed, Chris was already wide awake and ready to get started. I walked across the site and Chris was already folding up the beds and taking the tent down. By the time I got back Chris was ready for breakfast (I know we were a long way from the loos but seriously that’s crazy lol).
Because I had to pick Chris up from the town centre and take him to the campsite yesterday I have to take him back to about the same place so that he could “start the clock” from there instead as from the campsite would have meant he’d duplicate miles. Following breakfast, we drove into town so that Chris could get started. I popped into the supermarket where I asked one of the till ladies to sign Chris’s tick sheet. Her name was Irene and she was lovely and helpful.
After dropping Chris off I was heading out of Okehampton towards our lunch stop so I could find bits to do along the route. I realised I’d gone the wrong way so turned round to come back through Okehampton and stopped at a cash point before planning where to go next. I realised that I was just around the corner from Okehampton Castle so I drove up there to take a look. However, it was only about 9:20 am and the castle doesn’t open until 10am. I would have probably waited but the castle is ruins and it seemed silly waiting when I could see most of the ruins over the 3-foot fence – the only thing stopping me from climbing over the fence and ignoring the signs was that there was CCTV lol. (kidding I probably wouldn’t have climbed over the fence anyway for fear of getting in trouble!)
On the way into Okehampton, there is a no-entry road that pretty much just disappears from the side of the road. Having been to the castle and followed the one-way road from there back to the main road, I found out that, that disappearing road actually led to the castle. I got rather excited about this fact but Chris just thought I was really sad lol.
From there I drove to Tiverton which was our lunch stop. On the way, I’d planned to stop off at places that looked interesting but it gradually turned out there wasn’t really any. Dad had said about there being a steam railway museum – which okay sounds really boring and probably wouldn’t have been my first choice but I was willing to give it a go, it would fill some time and keep me out of trouble. However, I left Okehampton on the wrong road which meant I then missed the turning for the railway museum.
I made it to Tiverton really early. I had a look to see what times the swimming pool was open and whether I could go (it was 50+ swimming or something like that so I couldn’t go) I found a supermarket, went to look for my new air bed, got some food bits we needed then sat in their car park reading the paper. (which I then ripped up and stuffed in my DMs – another suggestion from one of Dad’s emails.)
Chris met me for lunch at the supermarket – I evacuated my seat and went into the store to get him some lunch. Following lunch, I continued towards Street and then to Clarks Village. According to my Mum, we went one year when we were on holiday with my Aunt and Uncle – I sort of remembered it but given that it could have been up to 13 years ago it had changed a lot. I’d got to the car park and its pay and display. I’d got that annoying situation where you have enough cash for the parking if they took notes but because you need change for the machine you don’t have enough. I had enough for an hour but had really wanted to stay a little longer to explore properly. I went to two camping stores to compare the prices of air beds or alternatives, in the end, I bought a self-inflating one like Chris’s (thankfully it’s a slightly different make so although it’s also bright orange you can tell the difference between the two. I headed back to the car and then followed the signs to Glastonbury and then to find the campsite.
The bit of land where this couple had the campsite had two driveways. One was specifically for the house and the other was for the campsite. Well, I’d got my directions muddled and ended up going up the lane and to the house entrance. I think this annoyed the owner a little bit but he let me go up that way anyway.
I parked the car and then walked back towards the house as the owner came out to meet me and told me where to put the tent. He was lovely and helpful anyway even though he seemed a bit grumpy on the phone.
I decided my spot for the tent – I got it set up and then got comfy – I had a blog post to write. Well I was doing alright and then managed to delete it, then I got halfway through writing and had to go and wait for Chris at the end of the correct entrance so that he could find the site.
It was one of the smallest sites we’ve stayed at this week – it was almost like we were in their back garden rather than on a campsite. There was also a caravan and a motorhome. There was a car that seemed to not belong with either of these and there wasn’t a tent either it was only this morning (Day Six) when Chris pointed it out that the car had front seats that could then turn around towards the living area or could be turned and make a bed of sorts. The car was a kind of motorhome.
For the stressful, energetic half of the trip read Chris’s posts here.
Oops! I missed a few weeks – where did the time go?
Mary thought “If I sneaked out now while Dad was at the store, I could be back in time before he noticed.” Mary knew that if she kept pushing the boundaries her Dad would ground her or worse, send her back to live with her Mum and Step-Dad but she couldn’t help it – she needed to get out of the house and away from her room. She was supposed to be studying but she had to see him. Surely her Dad understood what it was like to be a teenager right? Then again dinosaurs were still roaming the earth then.
I think I am on 100 words but it could be 101 I had to count myself rather than use the word count tool.
(This story bought to you from a wet field in Devon)
You can find this week’s prompt at http://www.theheadsoffice.co.uk/100-word-challenge-for-grown-ups-week9/
At the beginning of September, Chris set out on his birthday challenge to cycle from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in Scotland (aka LE2JOG). This is my attempt to blog along the route.
Dad to the rescue!! My Dad and Mum have been reading both mine and Chris’s blog posts about how far we’ve got to and how things have been going so last night my Dad emailed me suggestions of things to do along the route between Bodmin and Okehampton.
Both Chris and I slept badly last night. Between the high winds, the rain and our tent nearly folding in on itself, we were both in rotten moods and the tiniest things were setting us off. At one point I’d woken up with the roof I got dressed and went to put my DMs on but my right DM had been caught in the rain and was soaked through – there was no way I could really wear it all day (it would have made my socks wet too). I took my socks off and headed over to the car with bare feet – when these things have to be done they have to be done. I got my flip flops out and they were okay for a little while but the right one (what is it with my right foot?) was taking on water through the hole where the stump goes between your big toe and second toe. Well, I decided that wellies or boots might be needed.
After leaving the Mena Campsite just outside Bodmin, I headed for the supermarket, mainly for matches and washing up liquid but also for shoes as the particular supermarket has a very good clothing range. On the way to the supermarket, I pulled into a cycling/car accessories store and got two bits that Chris had requested on my travels. (tick that would make his mood a bit better and made mine better as well) I was pulling my trolley along the shoe aisle and caught the back of my heel on the wheel, I was so grumpy and tired that I nearly broke down in tears – not good!
I got the other bits and pieces needed from the supermarket (having added plasters to my shopping list) and headed for the till. I was probably supposed to report hurting myself in the store but given that it was my own fault and it was an accident there wasn’t really anything the store could have done differently to stop it. I used the self-service till but was having trouble with one of the items. The guy who was on the help till was lovely and very helpful and even made me laugh so that lightened my mood a huge chunk. (tick again!)
I checked over my emails while sat in the car park and decided that I’d head got Jamaica Inn. Somewhere along the route, I overtook Chris who was nearly squashed by a guy transporting a mobile home on the back of a lorry. One of my Mum’s favourite films is Rebecca based on the book by Daphne Du Maurier. I haven’t read the book but I have seen TV adapations so I had heard of the Jamaica Inn. But somehow I hadn’t realised that it was a real place. It was about £4 for entry and was reasonably interesting and worth the money. The lady who was at the reception was lovely and helpful. There’s a museum with a couple of displays about Daphne and then some about the area and things like that. I went into the gift shop and had a wander round there as well. I got a copy of Rebecca to read then again if I’d have thought about it I could have got it yesterday on a BOGOF offer at the book store (oh well!).
I headed up the road in the car then pulled over to take some pictures of the Jamaica Inn. It had started to spit again so I got back in the car and carried on to Launceston which was Chris’s stop for lunch – I’d not really timed it very well and overtook Chris again. This time he knew it was me and we waved at each other. (or at least I saw him wave at me and so I waved back!) I found somewhere to park in Launceston and it seemed to be the main town car park as all the signs pointed to it. I was sitting reading the maps and notes about where we were staying this evening when there was a knock on the back window – I jumped a mile! It was Chris letting me know that he was there. We wandered through the town and got a pasty and a pizza slice from one of the bakeries. It was dry enough to sit outside and eat for most of our lunch – toward the end, it started to rain again which was really annoying.
Following lunch, I drove straight to Okehampton as we needed to sort out where we were staying. I rang the campsite that Chris had contacted a few weeks ago and they still had spaces so we were able to show up and camp at that site. However, neither of us had made a proper note of the address and actually the campsite is at Sourton which is about 2 or 3 miles outside of Okehampton so I had to turn back and drive back to the campsite.
I’d got the tent up and the bedding in (and set up my bed at least) when Chris rang to say that he’d made it to Okehampton but didn’t know where he was going, he’d looked up the site on my phone and realised that it was back the way he came and he “didn’t want to cycle and could I go get him?” well I did because I’m lovely.
We’ve now been sitting chilling at the tent for a little while. I’m now off to make some tea I think. Tomorrow we’re going from Okehampton to Street near Glastonbury. Google Maps sends cars towards Exeter and then join the motorway to come up to Street so might have to check that. Any suggestions of things to do? Other than Clarks Village at Street.
For the stressful, energetic half of the trip read Chris’s posts here.
You can read about the rest of the adventure here.
Mumford & Sons – The Cave
At the beginning of September, Chris set out on his birthday challenge to cycle from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in Scotland (aka LE2JOG). This is my attempt to blog along the route.
So having spent a large chunk of the morning sitting in the Coffee Shop I decided I needed to do something else. I had a look for the local cinema but they only have 7 films on at the moment. One is french that I’ve never heard of, one is The Smurfs – which I did seriously consider until I realised that it was in 3D. Last time I saw a 3D movie I left the cinema at the end with a headache – I don’t know if the two are linked but it’s not a good idea to chance it right now.
I went to the Post Office and then to the Book Store again. The post office has a machine called Post and Go – it’s a genius idea – hopefully they put them in Post Offices in Bedford – would make life so much easier that’s for sure – I even managed to print off another three first-class postage stamps for other letters that I might write this week. I also bought a lined notebook and a pack of envelopes – I don’t expect to be writing that many more letters but at the same time I’d rather have the bits than have to look for a stationery store later in the week.
The customer service guy looked up on the computer for The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin and for The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe but both were out of stock and could be ordered in. That would be fine if I was staying in the area. However, he was more helpful than the lady that was in there at 9 am by herself who didn’t know how to look it up on the till and told me to come back later without really apologising for not being able to help me.
In the end, I got “I Don’t Know How She Does It” which is the book that the film is based on, the film is coming out soon starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Pierce Brosnan (amongst others) it’s on my list of films to see so I’m two minds about whether to stress about reading the book first before seeing the film or just seeing the film anyway when it comes out (I thought it was out now but then again it might just be in the bigger cinemas.)
I pottered around for a bit and went to two art galleries, an art shop and a craft shop to look at wool. I found a very cute handbag but given that the smaller one was nearly £40 I decided that the bigger one was going to hurt my purse – especially given the repairs on the car happening today. The handbag is made by Saidos da Concha and she blogs here and has an Etsy store here. (I can’t find a picture of the bag and my battery on my phone was dying so I couldn’t take a picture).
Then somewhere along the line my Dad suggested by text that I go to the library for something to do. So I did lol. In my brain it was miles away and actually it probably is from the garage but in relation to where I was stood reading his message I was actually really close. I’ve been writing this post for about 50 minutes so I’ve nearly ran out of my allotted slot of mains electricity. They do free wi-fi at the library which is fab you just have to pay for your electricity if you want to use the mains so thats 50p for 30 minutes which I figured was a bargain against £20 for an emergency charger from the mobile phone store lol.
Anyway, I am going to wrap this up here otherwise I’ll use Chris’s battery which partially defeats the point of why I sat here lol. My shoulders are beginning to hurt from carrying this rucksack around with me. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.
I’ll be heading from Bodmin to Okehampton – any suggestions of things to do?
For the stressful, energetic half of the trip read Chris’s posts here.
At the beginning of September, Chris set out on his birthday challenge to cycle from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in Scotland (aka LE2JOG). This is my attempt to blog along the route.
I’m sitting in a coffee shop in Penzance. It’s called The Green Bean Coffee Co and the people here are super lovely. Chris and I got a drink here on Saturday and I decided that I’d use this as a base today while waiting for the car to get fixed. If it was as simple as driving around the area and then travelling home we might have been able to chance it but actually with all the extra driving across the country this week we really needed to get it fixed.
I’m not one for saying this kind of thing but I think the devil decided that as we’re doing this huge challenge which is to show Jesus to our town and young people in the long run, he decided that he’d give us a mole hill to get over to start with. Thankfully my God is bigger and stronger than anything he can throw at us – yes it sucks but we’ll sort it and fight through it.
I’m going to head up to the post office after I finish playing Popmaster with @RickieWrites and @RoxyRich via twitter – then I’m losing epically and not really helping myself by writing this blog post instead of playing lol. (Oops just been encouraged to get another drink then again I’ve been sat here miles longer than I thought doh!)
I’d started at the bookstore up the road looking for The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe and The Left Side of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. I have a copy of the second at home but I didn’t bring it with me as Chris was complaining about how much I’d packed lol. (one holdall and one satchel – how much of the stuff in the car relates to him and his bike lol).
I’m still reading My Life in France which could take me the whole week but I’d rather have extra to read and not touch them than finish this book and not have anything to read for the rest of the week.
I’m going to finish my drink and then head off for a wander I think. Then lunch might be needed. Is there a cinema in Penzance? I might have to pay as I don’t think there is a Cineworld local to Penzance (I think the nearest is Cheltenham or somewhere up there!)
For the stressful, energetic half of the trip read Chris’s posts here.
At the beginning of September, Chris set out on his birthday challenge to cycle from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in Scotland (aka LE2JOG). This is my attempt to blog along the route.
Today was a bit of a lazy day. We didn’t really have much to do apart from go to Land’s End and get Chris’s paperwork organised so that he could get ticked off at each stop along the route.
Due to the issues with the car Chris completed his route from Land’s End back to the farmhouse where we are staying so that tomorrow he can set off from here at the same time that I leave for Penzance to get the car sorted out. (oh mental note to self need to look up the bus times from the garage to the town centre.)
We went and did the tourist thing and had our photos taken at the sign. If you stand on one side of the barrier although you get other people in the picture you can take a picture at the sign. There is a charge to have your photo taken with the sign so it’s up to you. Once we’d wandered around and taken photos, we collected Chris’s forms and then headed to the official start line. I’d offered Chris the keys in case he got back to the house first but he said that the hills would probably slow him down. He also said that I might be better to take them. I had the camera and took a couple of pictures of Chris before he started the route. I wandered back to the car and a lady and gent stopped me and asked if Chris was doing the whole route. I explained that yes he was doing the whole route and that he was raising funds for The Fountain in Bedford. They then said “Bedford? Really? We’re from Hertfordshire” how cool is that lol.
I got in the car and drove back to the house via the local shop as we needed some bits. There were two shops pretty much opposite each other I went into the first one to get some margarine and squash, when I got to the till the girl was really helpful and lovely, I asked if they did stamps but she said they were out and to try the shop over the road. I moved the car to the other shops car park and then went into ask about the stamps. The lady was really grumpy and pointed out that I wouldn’t be able to get any stamps till tomorrow (I kinda knew this but some shops in Bedford sell stamps over the till as well as at the actual Post Office counter which is good on Sundays).
I headed home and as I pulled into the driveway I could see Chris pottering round as he had beaten me back. I sat down at the kitchen table and worked on finishing my letters so that I could post the ones that had stamps and then get stamps tomorrow for the ones that needed them (one is airmail so I couldn’t do that one without taking it to the post office)
We hang out at the house for most of the afternoon and then decided to go for a bit of a drive. We headed up to the Minack Theatre but it was £4 each to get in which wouldn’t have been a problem but we would have only had an hour to look round and really I wanted longer than that to have a look round.
We decided to walk down to the beach which was a little crazy it was fine walking down it was a bit steep but manageable. The walk back nearly killed me. I really should have taken my inhalers with me. I’d been paddling in the sea while on the beach but then couldn’t really get my shoes back on again as my feet were absolutely covered in sand. I got most of it off but there were bits of shell and bits of sand that I couldn’t get off my feet. It was good fun though the sand was proper sand and the see was amazingly clear. You go to the Norfolk or even the coast at Brighton and the water looks so cloudy and dirty here it was crystal clear till a shelf a few metres out when it got really deep.
We went for a bit of a drive to find the other coast but my navigating failed a bit and I realised that the road we were going up actually turned into a bridle path and we weren’t going to get through. So we stopped and parked the car. Chris pointed out a pile of rocks we’d stopped by and actually it was a barrow not just a pile of rocks. It’s called Ballowall Barrow.
In the evening, we spent time back at the cottage. Chris made spaghetti bolognese for tea which was yummy (and one of my favourites).
For the stressful, energetic half of the trip read Chris’s posts here.
At the beginning of September, Chris set out on his birthday challenge to cycle from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in Scotland (aka LE2JOG). This is my attempt to blog along the route.
Well, technically it isn’t day 1 as we don’t officially start till tomorrow. But I wanted to recap so far. It is the first whole day of the trip (or at least the bit that I’m here for). We started from Bedford at about 10 pm the idea being that we’d drive through the night, nap along the way and then miss the traffic to get here for the morning.
Well, that did all work but it was a little uncomfortable napping in the car. We pulled over at the services near Oxford to try and get a bit more sleep. I switched sides with Chris so had to contend with the steering wheel sharing a bed with me. That was rather uncomfy, I even tried sleeping in a kneeling position with my head on the back of the chair but after about 30 minutes of creating a mental to-do list, I gave up. I was so fed up that I decided driving might be the best option even if Chris curled up on the passenger side and slept. Then again he was curled up in the most epic position – I kinda wish that I’d have had the camera to hand. Curling up in the backseat as I’ve done on other trips wasn’t an option. The backseat was full of kit! (see here).
Our car decided to protest and around this time the clutch started playing up. We stopped at a car park near St Michael’s Mount just outside Penzance and had a look at the car. Chris called our friend, who is a mechanic to see if he could walk us through the problem and see if it was something simple that could be fixed at the side of the road or by finding a small part like a fuse or spark plug, or if it was something big. Well yes, it was something big, it was going to be a proper mechanic job.
The idea even crossed our friend’s mind that he’d drive organise a temporary car for us, drive down here with it and swap it for our car that he’d then drive back to Bedford. Woah! That’s like an 8 to 10-hour trip before you’ve even turned round to head home again. It floored me!
He said that we would need to try and get a garage to take a look at it really before driving too much further. We found a garage that might have been able to do it. However, because it was related to the clutch and it wasn’t their area of expertise. They couldn’t make an exception however the guy at the garage had a contact who could do the replacement but it was going to have to wait until Monday when he could get the parts.
Okay, so I was a little disappointed I’d got half plans to do the tourist thing before meeting Chris at our next stop for dinner and the night. Instead, I am going to be hanging around Penzance for tomorrow while the mechanic man works on the car.
So I’d like some suggestions of things to do in Penzance other than drink coffee at cute coffee shops like The Green Bean Coffee Co. and resist the urge to sing Gilbert and Sullivan songs at the top of my lungs.
For the stressful, energetic half of the trip read Chris’s posts here.
His pledge to her: “i will kill the spiders. i will share my fries with you when you’ve finished all yours and are still hungry. i won’t ever pop my collar. i will never be rude to your tummy- when i hear it growl and gurgle, i promise to bend down and reply respectfully. i will eat the mushrooms when we order the supreme pizza. i will kiss the papercuts. and the door-slammed finger. and the counter-bumped hip. i’ll try my hardest not to get annoyed when you whisper questions and comments during movies. i will be the big spoon. i will let you win at wrestling. sometimes. other times i will not. i will go faster. harder. i will pull when you want. and tease you when you don’t. i will send you random txts and leave you silly gifts. not always. not on schedule. just whenever i want to. whenever i think you need one. or seven. i will check your tire pressure. and remind you to take your car in. i will hold your hand. i will love you. i will love you. i will love you.”
Somehow I found this on Flickr and I can image some of it being true to me and Chris lol. Well mainly the bit about eating the “mushrooms when we order the supreme pizza.”
Today my best friend from school married her boyfriend. They’ve been together over 6 years ish (maybe – actually it could be closer to 7 or even 8). I rarely do WIW posts because I usually don’t have anyone to take a picture of me. Then again because it’s funny at work that I’ve dressed up for the day my colleague took my picture and sent it round. So here is me stood in our office.
I’m going to say that The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom is my favourite non-fiction book – it’s not a happy story in what happens but at the same time it’s inspiring and somehow that makes it my favourite. I wrote more about it back in week 2 as it was my Most Inspiring book as well.
I had a whole plan about how I was going to design my book and what I was going to do but August flew by and then next thing I know I’m leaving for Cornwall in 24 hours and will be starting LE2JOG with Chris in like 3 days! How crazy is that! So this is my Day 1 List – hopefully tomorrow will be better and by next week I’ll be on a roll!
I went camping up in Scotland just outside Inverurie and I napped in the back seat of my Fiat Seicento. For most of the night, we stayed in the house that Chris was staying in as a student. Then we carried on a bit further and ended up stopping for a nap in a lay by. I curled up in the back seat (I’m pretty sure mine was smaller than this picture – then again maybe it’s deceptive!
Anyway so we were heading to Scotland and we stopped so I had a nap in the back seat – I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have been comfortable enough for a whole night’s sleep but it worked for a nap.
You can find the prompts on Ian’s Blog here.
Before you get to the bottom and go “Han, you plonker you told me the ending!” you might not want to read past the “Read More” bit in case I spoil the story for you.
A while back I picked up this book in the second hand store, I love second hand book stores and charity shops with book sections – I could spend hours just looking at the books. Anyway I picked up One Day as I’d read Starter for 10 a while back (about the same time that the film came out I think).
It sat on my book shelf collecting dust (like a lot of my books tend do for a little while!) then when I saw that the film adaptation was coming out this summer I decided that I needed to read it and needed to read it before I went to see the film (I decided to see Eat, Pray, Love when I was half way through the book – I now haven’t been near the book apart from to put it on the bookshelf! I’m rubbish like that lol)
I was prepared for the sad bits and had a box of tissues in my handbag (I was ill last week with a cold so it wasn’t like I went out and specially purchased them.)
I was also prepared that Anne Hathaway’s accent could be questionable. Now having been a drama student I know that accent’s aren’t always that easy. I can do about two versions of an American accent and say “45 minute” in something resembling a chinese accent but that’s about it. I managed to just about get a Texan accent for my A Level drama exam only to then go in my rehearsals and not actually remember how to do it. Anyway back to Anne’s accent. At the beginning when we first here her speak it comes out posh English (like Queen’s English) rather than Yorkshire Lass from T’up North. It does kind of reappear in places on the odd word and she does actually sound like Emma Morley should sound. I was going to say that Anne plays Emma quite well minus the accent but then I realised she kinda doesn’t. Anne is lovely and she’s one of my favourite actresses but I’d always imagined that Emma was a bit of a plain Jane and although she had that thing that made her pretty, Dexter was always looking for the fun factor that Emma kinda didn’t have at first and therefore was always over looked (and regularly Dex put his foot in it because of this “overlooking”).
Usually when I write blog posts I do spend some time puzzling over what I’m going to write and I’ll go back and tweak it beyond believe sometimes to make sure that the pictures line up or that the headers look nice and things like that. Then I did two posts in the last couple of days that had kinda been half written and then were left in drafts – but I decided to post them anyway. I just did. I think I had reasons for just going ahead and doing it then at the same time I’m not so sure. Maybe I did it for a reaction (That so far hasn’t appeared) but at the same time maybe I didn’t.
I wanted to point out that I do actually like my job. I started here in 2008 and it was my proper real grown up left university job. I’d had a temp job and what I thought would be my proper real job (but that didn’t work out) and so starting here was my proper job. I struggled at first and I didn’t really enjoy it – I’d worked in Customer Service for about 4 years between a supermarket and a builders merchant. It wasn’t really something I wanted to be doing. I’d had dreams of finding my dream job and being good at it and the real world kicked in. I was taken on a temp contract to start with and I was trying to be fab. I was doing all basic stuff that I could pretty much do with my eyes closed hence why I don’t think I was happy, I wanted the dream job but it wasn’t really an option because I couldn’t afford to move London and I didn’t want to be commuting.
Now before you go “so what was your dream job?” I don’t think I really had any idea – I just thought that moving to London and being there would get me that job. Well anyway, I ended up staying here and 3 years later I’m still in the same job. And it’s like every job there are days I want to walk out and not stop until I reach my car in the car park, other days we have a laugh and I really enjoy my job. We had our meeting this morning and so it seems like that is all back on track now. We had a proper open heart to heart kind of thing and I said something that came out like I was colleague-bashing. I think she understood that it was just an example but she did disappear for a few minutes so I hope she hadn’t gone to have a weep or anything like that.
The day got better after that. I’d given in to temptation this morning and had breakfast which was fine but meant that by lunch I really wasn’t that hungry lol. At first I wasn’t clock watching for once so I only checked on the time when my Mum phoned me because she was having trouble with something that only I could help with, I realised that it was half past one and so if I wanted lunch I would have to go then and be back in half an hour. Well, I decided in the end just to get canteen sandwiches – I could always not have tea (or make tea if I was hungry by that point lol.)
I was chilling out in front of the TV watching Cherry’s Body Dilemmas when she interviewed a lovely girlie called Kirsty about body image etc. I spend so much time freaking out about how I look that I’m pretty sure that I don’t enjoy myself. I spend most of my teens years hiding behind baggy clothes, boys hoodies and baggy jeans because I wanted to the rock girlie (I think Avril Lavigne and Alanis Morrisette could have been my influences for this – at least they started it lol) I was too happy to be a goth that was for sure. I think I still hide behind baggy and oversized clothes because I often don’t fit in the size I’m supposed to be (I wear a UK 16 most of the time but I often have to buy an 18 because the t-shirt length isn’t long enough or on the other hand because I’ve gone up a size the neck line is too low and doesn’t cover my underwear.
Anyway so my point was that I was watching this show and then I went off to find Kirsty’s blog – with the wonders of the internet it wasn’t hard. You can read her blog here.
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On a more focused note, I saw this tweet earlier:
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/beccaspeaks/status/107098980005056514″]
So I went to have a look at all the information. The lovely Mrs Thrifty of A Thrifty Mrs UK is hosting an awesome giveaway.
Clothing isn’t the only vintage-ness you can bring into your life. You can get second hand furniture and make it into something new and fab and of course that’s where the giveaway comes in. The giveaway is to win a 2.5L tin in the colour of your choice from Crown’s Vintage range (so the colours above!) You can go to her blog here and see the conditions and the info about entries and things like that (it’s UK only). This finishes on 2nd September.
As if that wasn’t enough! Sarah at Sunlight After Rain and Sarah at [Life of Love] are hosting a joint giveaway. Team work!! (Yes I would like to win both giveaways! lol) You can go to either of the links and follow the instructions for the giveaway. This one finishes on the 3rd September.
I need to add this as well – it’s not really relevant to the above post but I need to record it for future reference
“feeling very loved. Chris set the TV to record various sets from Reading and Leeds this weekend. So far The Vaccines and Noah and the Whale have appeared on the recorded TV list – there are others on there too. He recorded some of V last weekend too! He’s so fabbity! Then again he might not actually be able to read this until tomorrow as he’s having phone difficulties (which will hopefully be fixed by my act of service – with some help from Mr and Mrs C!!! Thank you.”
I think this has to be one of my new favourite TV shows
In my eyes the person I am going to pick isn’t fictional – she’s actually non-fictional but there are atheists out there who would disagree with me and would say that she is fictional and that the bible is a book of fairy tales. I would say that it is stories but in the way that tribes talk about their history rather than myths or legends that are told to scare children into behaving and things like that.
My hero is Esther, she was originally called Hadassah which was Hebrew for Myrtle. If you grab a bible and flick to about the middle you’ll find a whole book called Esther. She was normal girl who would go onto great things. In the bible the King Xerxes held a huge feast to show of how powerful he was. He ordered his Queen, Vashti to appear before him and his guests. Vashti refused (which was a huge deal she was telling the King basically where to stick his invite).
Xerxes decided that if he let her behave like this it would cause too much trouble in his kingdom so he decided he needed a new Queen. The King sent out a notice decreeing that beautiful young virgins were to be gathered at the palace from every province of his kingdom. Well, it was almost like The Bachelor in a way – there were all these girls for the King to choose from but only one would be Queen. After all the virgins went through their preparations it was then Esther’s turn to go to see the King and she was chosen to be Xerxes new Queen.
Now there are various other bits to the story but the main part is how she trusted in God to provide for her and keep her safe. Xerxes had an advisor called Haman and he was the baddie of the story (BBOOO!!! HISS!), Esther tells the king of Haman’s plan to massacre all the Jews who were in the Persian Empire and she owned up to be being Jewish as well.
In February, Jewish people have a festival called Purim which is where they celebrate Esther saving the Jewish people from Haman’s evil plan.
I love the story because even though Esther comes from really humble beginnings she goes on to achieve something pretty mind blowing. Now okay I’m pretty sure that it’s not in God’s plan that I should save all the people who are a tiny bit Irish from a massacre but God has got plan’s for me and as it says in the story of Esther I was born “for such a time as this”.
A little while ago our Girlie’s group that was started at church read a book called “For Such A Time As This” (Well actually the whole title is Generation Esther: Stories of Young Women Raised Up for Such a Time as This
For the last 4 years – I’ve borrowed Chris’s or The Kiwi’s bike if I’ve needed to cycle somewhere. Last week I finally got my own bike home and this week I cycled to Connect Group and back – if I can prove that I’ll use it more Chris and I might consider getting me a new (lighter) bike which should also help make it easier to ride.
All Images link to the pages I found them 🙂
I try to be positive and appreciate what I have but I do really need to rant. Now I get that there are people out there without jobs or with huge money worries – especially given the economic climate so I know that I am lucky that I have a job, food and a roof over my head but I am going crazy at the moment #firstworldproblems – right?
I thought I knew what my job was. I do x, y, and z and then know that I can go home knowing I achieved my goals for the day. Now after a little while people realised I knew my way round a computer like I knew my way round my hand – you had a question I would answer it or I’d pop off find an answer and come back to you so we can add it so the goals for the day were x, y, z and IT. Now occasionally other bits would be added – no problem we’ll squeeze them in post 3pm when the labels have been collected because that’s when my day quietens down again either that or I’d sort the query and then cram the rest in.
It all kinda changed when I gained a new colleague – that wasn’t a problem because we just jiggled stuff round and it all settled again. However this week it seems to have all been shaken up again. Now maybe I’m just on a downer anyway. I started the week being ill and I’m still not 100% now so maybe I’m just being grumpy following that – I know that Tuesday and Wednesday night I had like insomnia attacks or something because I didn’t really sleep and then by the time I did it was closer to 2am then 12am. Also this morning I woke up having had the craziest dream – I had a dream Chris fell in a huge hole and we were trying to get him out, we were struggling to get him out of the hole and then all of a sudden I was in our tent and he was all wrapped up in blankets and a sleeping bag and I was just sat there staring at him – at this point Chris then put his hand on my shoulder and told me it was time to wake up. I was super confused because I’d checked that my alarms were set before I went to bed lol.
Turkey again – one night there was a power cut – which probably would have been fine with but I was in a foreign country, sharing a room with my cousin (who at the time was 12 or 13) and the light we had was the screen on my iPod (it was an old style one so wasn’t very bright). We’d been getting ready for bed when the lights went out – I’d have probably just got straight into bed and gone to bed rather than worrying about it but my cousin was freaking out so Super-Han to the rescue, I got my cousin to sit on the bed while I went out to the corridor to see if it was just our room or if it was the whole floor. My cousin wouldn’t calm down so in the end I called her Mum – who was upstairs from us –
she said she was on her way and she’d be with us in a few minutes. Some how my Aunt and our friend managed to get down the stairs and along the corridor in what seemed like no time at all. My cousin just needed a Mum hug and it was all fine she could deal with the power cut.
You can find the prompts on Ian’s Blog here.
Well I tried to write a normal post but this was all that came out – hence why it’s a bit jumbled and doesn’t make sense lol.
How to start this post – I keep looking at the blank word document and can’t decide what to write – I think I know what I want to say but how to put it is another thing. I think I’m having one of those days – I wrote a tweet this morning and used the wrong your/you’re in my sentence which was really unusual for me because I’m normally there correcting everyone else.
The tweet was in the context that I’ve been following someone on Twitter – they are usually pretty friendly but because of the time difference when I get up in the morning they are at the end of their day and often their tweets have swearing in them – I wouldn’t mind but it’s unnecessary when 3 or 4 tweets in a row have swearing in it for no reason. Today I took that moment and I un-followed – pretty much as I was walking from my car to the office. I thought to myself “I can’t be done with your swearing – there is enough stress in life without extra from you”.
Now maybe I just started the day on a bad foot because I really didn’t sleep well (I don’t mind seeing 2am when I’m doing stuff or can have a lay in the following morning but when I’ve been in bed since about midnight I really don’t want to be laying there in the dark waiting for sleep to come. You know how you have those dreams where you’re not really asleep but at the same time you’re not awake. Well I had one of them and I think it was a combination of being tired, ill and just wanting to sleep that I came out with this crazy half dream – it’s always possible that this affected my mood too.
I think I also had a whole discussion with my inner monologue about whether writing my blog is actually worth the effort, whether I should give it up, how I get more readers and whether I should be writing because I want to write rather than because I want readers.
So as you can imagine I think my inner monologue was nice and chilled when I went to sleep because it no longer had me whinging and whining.
I got to work and was doing okay but then around 11am something happened that kinda threw me – I had mentioned to my manager last week (or was it the week before) that I wanted to go over what I do in my role because it’s kinda changed twice since February and will kinda change again by Christmas so I just want to make sure that I’m on the right track and that I am doing all that I should be doing and not missing stuff out by mistake (or because I think someone else has got it covered). Although it’s not been resolved totally there is a plan in the pipeline so that’s not so much of a worry just that it needs to get sorted eventually/hopefully.
Again this morning a drank another litre of Orange Juice – I’m pretty sure that it actually might not be healthy for me to have drunk 2 litres of juice in three days especially as I think it means I’m OD-ing on Vitamin C.
Laura Marling – Sophia
Chris tends to do most of the cooking in our house, so for me to cook it’s a bit of a blog-able event.
A few weeks back Chris was given an epic bag of apples – I don’t know if they were cooking apples or not but Chris stewed them so they could be used in a pie or something like that – but that was as far as he had got. Therefore I had a bit of a head start on making the crumble because the fruit was already sorted. It seems that I have two different recipes but the one that I was using works on 2 large cooking apples and a mango as the filling so I’ll use that recipe for the rest of my instructions.
Either way you then stick your fruit into the bottom of a dish – I used a Pyrex dish as that’s what we had – I think the similar dish my Mum would use is opaque. I would say that its about 2 or 3 centimetres deep (and guestimated from what we had ready).
200g (7 oz) plain four (we used self raising and no baking powder)
1 teaspoon baking powder
75g (3 oz) butter (or margarine)
25-50g (1-2 oz) porridge oats
So for the topping, I sometimes stick religiously to the recipe and other times I guess – like with victoria sponge/fairy cakes they are dead easy (4442 formation – new blog post to follow about that I think lol.). Chris prefers his topping more oaty and I prefer it more bread-crumb like – so there were a few extra grams of porridge oats thrown in for good measure.
1. Mix the flour, baking powder (or just your self raising in our case), also add your butter. Yes you have to get your hands mucky – I’m sure there is a cleaner way to do it but this is more fun lol.Stick your hands in and rub it all together so that you end up something looking like breadcrumbs.
2. Stir in the sugar and the oats.
3. Tip the topping mixture over your fruit.
4. Level off the top and bake in the oven till its a golden brown colour for about 30 minutes at 180C (350F) Gas Mark 4.
5. Serve with ice cream, custard or cream. I had raspberry ice cream because that’s what we had in the freezer!
A friend of mine from Twitter recommended adding ginger to the crumble mix.
Did you like this recipe? Would you like to see more? Let me know or head over to Ruby’s blog where she is regularly posting the recipes that her and her hubby make.
This post has been shared on Age UK too. You can see it here.
I know a very unoriginal post title but you’ll see why soon. As I write this, I’m sat in my bed it’s 20 to 11 on a Saturday night and my throat is hurting even more than it was yesterday. I keep sneezing and my left nostril can’t decide whether it’s running or not – I think cold relief will definitely be needed tomorrow and I think after church I am going to come home and sleep. I would stay home and sleep but I’m supposed to be playing bass and helping the kids with the craft stuff (We’re making the next parts in our armour of God – read Ephesians 6:11-17ish). Then again if I’m all sick and icky breathing over the kids probably isn’t the best option. I think I’ll see how I’m doing – I can always go up the front for prayer.
Today was pretty busy – maybe staying home and sleeping would have been a better option lol. I was fast asleep and my alarm went off – I realised that it was only 8am so I rolled over to go back to sleep for another hour. I was about to doze of completely when Chris arrived at the bedroom door with breakfast in bed for me.
I got up this morning and went to collect my Mum on the way into town. We headed into town, there was a card making workshop at The Art Centre and Gallery so we popped in there but it wasn’t really covering anything that we didn’t already know between us (like stamping and decoupage). We stood in front of the paper/card shelf and compared colours while decided which combination to use for Grandma and Grandad’s Golden Wedding Anniversay Order of Services and Menus for the meal after.
I bought some card blanks so that I could make some more cards as I’d used all mine up – I got ones that are like brown recycled paper. I had planned to make a New Home card as we were off to a housewarming party this afternoon and a birthday card for JellySlug as between Grapevine and us doing LE2JOG I wouldn’t see her until after her birthday,.
We went back to Mum’s and got started on some prototype ideas – so that we didn’t cut all the fancy twirls etc in the wrong coloured paper. My Dad kept making silly comments about what we were doing, also he was getting stressed at the PC as it wasn’t printing how it wanted it done (double sided but a particular way round or something like that lol)
The throat sweets I had weren’t really doing anything for my sore throat so I went and got a hot Ribena – in the end I drank two – the second was slightly warmer than the first as I put the cold water in second rather than first. Mum and Me had a team effort to make lunch – she’d put the sausages on for sandwiches and I checked them and then served up them. I was serving and Dad came in and asked which sandwich was his and I pointed to one on the worktop then turned back to the grill pan and realised that there were 15 thin sausages. So I asked mum how many it was each. She said something that completely confused me and then I asked her again and the second time I got “4 sausages each apart from me who is have 3 because that was the end of the bag” – my Dad then made a comment something like “Well why didn’t you say that the first time?”.
In the end for Grandma and Grandad’s Wedding anniversary stationary bits I’d cut out 60 of these flowers, which are just part of the design – Mum was working on the other bits as I had to go shortly after lunch.
We spent the afternoon at our friend’s house as they were having a housewarming. Having taken so many pictures in the morning by the time I got to the housewarming the battery on my phone was dying (this is ridiculous that it lasts less than a day).
In the evening I went to hang out with @Jellyslug. We watched Mean Girls and Julie and Julia. She challenged me to do the 524 recipes of Mastering The Art of French Cooking in two years – we worked out it would be about 5 recipes per week.
It’s now Sunday morning as I finish this and I’m missing church today. I woke up and said to Chris that I felt like death warmed up and that was decided – I was staying home. Going to try and go back to sleep again. Chris brought me breakfast in bed again this morning which was lovely but now I have breakfast in me I can’t sleep lol.
This week, I’ve been helping at Mission Rescue holiday club at Howard Memorial Church in Cardington. I used to go with my brother as a kid and my Mum was helping and now, my Mum is still helping I help in the same group (I often end up doing the crafts as well lol) and my brother helps in the drama (As well as being in the oldest group – the age limit is supposed to be 18 but it keeps stretching!)
Anyway, this week we’ve been doing the story of Moses and how he got the people out of Egypt – yesterday was the plagues and it was given to me to organise the messy game. I came up with the idea of covering your partner’s face with shaving foam and then you have to stick on as many cotton wool balls as you can in your 30 seconds or something like that.
Well we did the game and I was clearing up. It’s an ongoing joke that my brother and his friend wind up some of the leaders – especially the guy who leads from the front called Brian. Well we finished the messy game and Brian was giving out instructions for the next bit so I crept up behind him and wiped the cotton wool covered in shaving foam that I had in my hand across his face – I’m not sure he appreciated it but he’s usually up for a laugh so I got away with it.
This is where I got a bit cocky – I decided that it would be hilarious that while my brother is chatting to someone in his group, I’d creep up and attack him with the cotton wool and shaving foam. Well this wasn’t such a good idea because he stood up (he’s like 6 foot tall to my 5 foot 2) grabbed me and then started to get me, his friend Aaron then decided to join in as well so it was two against one! What a wally! Then again yes I was very silly to take on my brother but it was so much fun. I think my Mum has one photo as her camera went all blurry and I was covered in too much shaving foam to even consider taking a photo on my phone lol.
Tonight is the last night of Holiday Club for this year and tonight’s part of the story is about Moses crossing the Red Sea and we find out what happens to the Agents in the drama. (My brother is Agent E2 and he speaks very high like he’s breathing helium).
My friend Nathan aka Wez (I know him as Wez as that’s his Twitter name – it feels weird calling him Nathan even though that’s his name lol) is planning a hypothetical adventure. His idea behind it is to blog about planning a 6 months ish trip. Because it’s hypothetical and it’s just to show the planning, money is unlimited.
He asked for suggestions of places and I gave him the following list
Yes I know random choices – I was working on picking as many random places as I could think off lol. Clearly you wouldn’t necessarily really visit just these places – especially if you’re entering Cambodia and China then America – they might react funny lol.
Anyway, so the lovely Wez rewrote the list so that it made more sense and was in a logical order – so it’s starting in Australia heading West and finishing in Great Bend,. Kansas. At the moment he’s taking on more destinations but he’s also talking about things like when to travel and is there a better route than just hoping on the next plane and things like that. For example when it comes to Verona and Auschwitz – maybe you could get a train and travel through Poland, Czech Republic, Austria and Italy (then again that’s the car route that Google gives me – it wouldn’t give me a public transport route).
You can read the first post requesting places here and the first of the series here.
I don’t think I have a favourite one. I read alot of Crime/Mystery and Fantasy books so I guess those two would become my favourites. I think the main reason I like the Crime/Mystery ones because the baddie always gets his/her comeuppance. I’m not sure why I like fantasy books – I’ve been reading The Hobbit and I keep meaning to read the Lord of The Rings books – I think the thing that strikes me about them is about friendship – in LOTR, Frodo’s friend’s come on the adventure with him to look after him. I think they also want the adventure themselves but they want to make sure that Frodo gets there and back again in one piece. I guess if you include the Harry Potter books in this as well it’s about friendship – right to the end Ron and Hermione are there with Harry fighting for good.
I don’t think I have one – I guess being injured on holiday was quite upsetting but that was like an hour in tears and then move onto the next thing. I guess Turkey might count as I got home to find that my best friend had been taken into hospital with an appendicitis but at the same time I didn’t know about it until I had got home.
You can find the prompts on Ian’s Blog here.
At the beginning of September, Chris will be setting out on his birthday challenge to cycle from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in Scotland (aka LE2JOG). I will be attempting to blog along while we travel.
So we’re within two weeks to doing the crazy Land’s End to John O’Groats challenge (aka LE2JOG) and thought I’d post an updated map of the route – this is rough as some bits will be on cycle routes rather than main roads and things like that. I’m going to be Chris’s support crew for the first sort of half of the journey. I’ll be starting with him at Land’s End and will be with him to about Birmingham sort of direction. I’ll then be handing it over to Chris’s Dad who will then take over from North of Birmingham all the way up to Scotland.
I’m looking for stuff to do between meet ups so if you have suggestions near places on the map it would be fab.
More info can be found on The Fountain Website here.
Friendly Fires – Live Those Days Tonight
You can find this week’s prompt here.
The sun shone but there was a chill in the air as Sooz headed for the tube stop, it was August but she needed her woolies. It was 5:30am and it was the start of another day. It was going to be another long shift for her. She had to get on with her job as a barista but the whole idea of serving the suits and the girls in their clickety clackety heels filled her with a bit of dread. She would never be one of those girls, brightly coloured hair, ink and piercings were more her thing.
This evening at holiday club, Mum interviewed me, we are looking at the story of Moses this week and how God protected him, so Mum interviewed me about an occasion when God has protected me. So here is the interview. It was for kids from about 5 up to 18+ so it had to make sense to the littlelies as well.
Have you ever felt God protecting you?
When I was 14, I was involved in a car accident in town. It was February half term holiday, me and my best friend had been for a wander round town.
So what happened?
We were heading back to her house and were stood at the crossing outside Barclays Bank in the High Street and a guy who been running away from the police pushed through the crowd and pushed me into the road and I knocked in to a passing car.
Did you panic? Did you feel God with you?
Yes, I did. I was told to keep still and the nurse was holding my head so I couldn’t look around to find Clare which made me panic more.
I didn’t have a feeling of God being with me at first but one of the first people to ome to help me was a nurse and she knew what she was doing. So looking back I think God knew what I needed and sent the nurse to look after me.
What happened next?
After a few minutes, Clare came to get my phone from my bag to call Mum. I half heard her making the phone call but everyone around me were asking me questions and keeping me talking.
Because one of the first people on the scene was a police officer, it was radio-ed in almost straight away that an ambulance was needed.
Because of me the whole of Bedford had become a really big traffic jam. I could hear the siren on the ambulance but it seemed to take forever for it to cut through the queues and get to me.
The paramedics arrived and got me onto the spinal board and stretcher as they were about to put me into the ambulance as my mum arrived. Her friend Kate had given her a lift from work to town to meet me but because of all the traffic it had slowed Mum down.
I was taken to hospital and was taken straight through to be seen by a doctor – I think it’s the fastest I’ve ever been seen by a doctor in A&E. I had my neck and various other parts checked and the Doctor said that I could be taken off the spinal board. I was then sent for an x-ray to make sure that my ankle was okay as it had started hurting. The Doctor said that I had a sprained ankle and whiplash. It was a little while after that I realised that had God not be there to protect me it could have been a whole lot worse. Sometimes you feel God being there in a situation and you know he’s there – like a calmness or a warmth. Other times you don’t feel it but after you notice how different something could have been without God there.
So I’ve seen this challenge posted both on Ian‘s and Sally‘s blogs but never got round to doing it – but this time I did. It took me a few attempts as the first attempt was about 160 words and I hadn’t even mentioned the prompt! DOH! Then I edited and changed bits and got it down to 100. Tell me what you think. You can find the prompts here.
The air smelt musty and the cold chilled my arms. How did I always get myself into trouble like this? I was trying to do my job and then this. I needed to work out where I was. I sat myself up but my head started to swim, I had come into the church to shelter from the thunder storm outside. Then everything went black. I reached up to my head. My forehead was bleeding. I waited for my vision to clear and reached to my left, there was a body next to me but it was cold and metallic.
When I was at Middle School I used to cycle to and from school quite alot. Then when I moved to upper school I would cycle some of the time and then gradually after learning to drive I pretty much stopped cycling and would drive like 99% of the way and then walk when my car was in the garage – or something like that lol.
When I first moved in with Chris nearly everything we did was within walking distance so the car was only used for things like going to my parents or going outside of Bedford (or at least that was the idea!)
It’s only been recently since we moved to our own house that I’ve started cycling more as our house is a bit further away from church and work. I normally ride The Kiwi’s bike as when I have ridden Chris’s bike I’ve ended up injured or in pain lol. I decided that it was about time that I got my bike out of the garage at church and got it fixed up. I’m not sure that I will be able to ride to work – (I have to go up a pretty steep hill) just yet but I’m thinking that if I can start riding to and from church or to and from the shops it could make all the difference – also me and Chris might be able to go for bike rides. I am in the process of planing one to and from Sandy – which isn’t too far but it’s nearly 10 miles which to me is ages away!
I had asked Chris to look at my bike during the week but various bits got in his way and he didn’t manage to take a look.. We decided to take a look over it after church in the hope that we could then walk it home. Chris managed to get it out but the wheels were both flat. We got the bike out of the garaged and then got it into the car (Chris said that we wouldn’t be able to as the boot – even with the seats down, wouldn’t be big enough. I was willing to try it even if we then had to come up with a plan B.
We got the bike into the garage and when we got it home we had a team effort to pump up the tires – for now they are both fully pumped up but they might deflate as the outers on both tires are cracked where the rubber has perished. But from what my friend said the local cycle shop does a new set of tires for about £10-15 so that shouldn’t be too bad (Why can’t car tires be £10-15 for a pair lol).
Anyway tick it off – my bike is fixed.
Today’s Friday Finds is about Typography – because I love it so much lol. I decided after reading this article on the Moo blog that that’s today’s theme needed to be. I wish I could use an actual Letter Press it would be amazing! Each image is followed by the source where I found the image. Show them some love!
I am the worst person for reading 2 or 3 books at once – I think the most I got to was 4 and then decided it was taking the mickey so I needed to finish at least two. A few weeks ago I was reading Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs and The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow by Joyce Magnin – not sure you could actually get two more extremes. Mum bought me both of these books – The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow was bought for me for my birthday and Fatal Voyage was found on a second hand book stand while she was on holiday in Wales a few weeks back so she got it for me.
I finished The Prayers of Agnes Sparrows on about the 27th July and then started The Last Christian by David Gregory the following day as well as reading Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. Now I’m reading Game of Thrones, Labyrinth and The Church of Facebook – on and off all at the same time.
Growing up I was a bit accident prone. One year we went camping near Dover – we’d been to visit a castle (Castle trips were like a staple of our holidays!) I was chasing my brother – I went to duck under a cannon except I didn’t judge how wide it was and stood up underneath it bashed my head. Not just a little bit it was very painful and made me feel dizzy – I may have even had a cry!. But if that wasn’t bad enough we sat down to eat our packed lunch and a bee or a wasp came and sat on my hand – I was freaking out a bit but sat as still as I could (while feeling dizzy!). My Dad swatted the waspie/bee away but it didn’t go so he tried again and it did an about face and stung me in the hand. (I think I was definitely crying at this point!). My whole hand puffed up and it looked like it was a human balloon. We went to a pharmacy on the way home to see if anything could be done – I’m not generally allergic to anything so for my hand to puff up we knew it was bad. We got to the pharmacy and they said to take antihistamines and have it strapped while the swelling went down. A few days later my Dad was still feeling bad about it, we’d taken the strapping off as the swelling had gone down – Dad gave me a hug and squeezed my hand only to realised it was my bad one and it made me jump because it was still sore.
When I was in Turkey I slipped over in the hotel lobby and bashed up my ankle and leg – at first we thought it was possible that I’d broken my ankle but actually I’d just sprained it which was fortunate.
When I went to Amsterdam we went to the Oude Kerk for a photo journalism exhibition. It was good fun but I was so focused on looking at the pictures that I stood on the edge of uneven slab and ended up in a heap. I’d gone over on my ankle – it wasn’t badly damaged but it was sore. We hobbled back to the hotel – Chris went out to get me tea (what a sweetie!) rather than me walk on it more than I needed to in case I did more damage in the end.
Ian B set the prompts and you can read Ian’s Post here
I’m on of those people who pray in funny places – so on the loo or in the car on the way to and from work. (The loo is a random place I know but there’s like zero distraction – unless I clean the bathroom lol!)
Well anyway location doesn’t matter. I was in the car praying and the “broken and fatherless” bit of this quote came to me – I tried to Google it from my phone but an article from The Mail that was posted this morning about the riots kept coming up.
So here it is
“God is looking down and Hes smiling cos He sees a broken and fatherless generation, and he’s let them be a dancing generation and the reason is because this is the revival generation.”
(Delirious, History Maker live at Hillsongs Australia)
But I think the quote stuck with me because of the “broken and fatherless” bit – now in this quote it’s about how we are broken and without God but he restores us, The Mail article was talking about fatherless in the context of single parent families. But I think it’s right in both – we live in a broken generation – there are young people across the country trying to find happiness in material possessions, relationships that aren’t right for them etc.
The A Team – Ed Sheeran
I’d starting writing a whole post and was almost finished then I changed app on my phone which should have been okay but when I came back to the WordPress app and my post was gone – even the draft that I had started before on my computer – how annoying! (I even shouted “Pants!” very loud in the car and I think Chris jumped lol).
So rewind a bit – to say about the second week in June – we’re all praying that the weather will perk up a bit and that we can get out our shorts without feeling like we’re blinding the neighbours (or at least thats me as I have pasty white legs lol). I get an email from the lovely Sylvie from FuelMyBlog offering a voucher for Joe Delucci’s. I had a look on the website and my nearest store is Luton. I also spotted that there is one in the Bullring in Birmingham. No problem – I was going to Birmingham for Birmingham Vintage Fair at the end of June (by the way the next one is on the 24th September!! Don’t miss it!) – I could use the voucher then and share the gelati with Rickie – well that was an idea only till I looked and saw that the Bullring was a little further away from the Jewellery Quarter than I thought it was and add to that, we didn’t really have chance to make it over there and back again as well as all the BVF stuff that had to be done.
So I needed a plan B – me and Chris had a spare Saturday so the following weekend we headed off to The Mall in Luton (it used to be the Arndale but it was all rebranded and so now it’s The Mall – I’m pretty sure that you need to say it in an American accent so you don’t sound too posh lol!)
We got to Luton and had been expecting to find a proper store – a bit like the Haagen Daz one in Paris lol. Actually it turned out that it was a concession stand in one of the main walk ways. I was first loving the seats that were at the stand – they were the back ends of Vespa scooters – if you regularly read my blog then you will know that I love Scooters and even shared some pictures of them that I had found over the last few weeks.
We showed the guy who was serving us the voucher and he explained that we could see the flavours available on the other side of the counter – so we walked round and saw this fridge/freezer – Oh. My. Word. I actually didn’t know what flavours to go with – I think I would have had like 5 scoops and still have wanted more! In the end I choose, Oreo Cookie and Caramel (or it might have been Toffee but it was that kind of flavour.)
My Ice Cream tasting partner in crime went for Summer Fruits and Lemon. We each had a spoonful of the others flavours – I really liked the lemon as it was very lemony and definitely did what it said on the tin! While we were sat there eating a little boy came and bought a waffle – I think now that I know that they do waffles as well I could be back there to try their waffles as well!
All in all my ice cream was very yummy – I don’t think we would have stopped for an ice cream there if it hadn’t been for the voucher as it was a little pricey for two scoops of ice cream (especially as there was a supermarket chain about 5 minutes along the shopping centre and we could have got a box of lollies for the same price), however if it was as a treat then I would go back again. Also because our nearest branch is current in Luton it’s a long way to go just for ice cream if they were to open one in Bedford then it might be further up the list as a date night option – luckily on this occasion we had other things to be doing in the shopping centre so we just added it as a stop on our way round. The ice cream was yummy, however the staff on the stand although they were helpful they weren’t really chatting and we almost felt like an inconvenience for being there taking up seats at the stand.
You can also find other reviews here: Three Beautiful Things, Last Year’s Girl, Anayah and Ms Bubu and Her Girlyness.
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This is a sponsored post.
The voucher for the ice cream was provided for the purpose of review by Joe Delucci’s Gelato through FuelMyBlog. You can also find them on the Web, Facebook (Well apparently they are but I can’t find a link!) and Twitter
This evening (well at least it’s evening in Australia), my lovely friend Ruby posted her first blog post today (then again with the coming soon it’s really a second post – but that’s not the point!).
She’s started blogging and I’d love it, if you could all welcome her to the blogging world. Her blog is called Sew, Cook, Create!. She’s going to be blogging about sewing, cooking and creating in general as well as a few road trips and other adventures.
I’ve seen offers of tickets to events pop up on Twitter in the past but often they have clashed with things I’ve already had in my diary like band practice or church meetings.
I saw one pop up yesterday afternoon and almost dismissed it as it being too short notice – I probably could have done with an evening at home.
Melinda from Miss Geeky tweeted about having some spare tickets for a showing of “Beautiful Lies”. I hadn’t really looked into the film as I’d just seen a cardboard cut out thing in the cinema on Tuesday when I went with Clare and some (new) friends to see Arrietty. Anyway, Beautiful Lies is the new film starting Audrey Tautou. Those of you who know me, know that Amelie is one of my favourite films.
I texted Chris to see what he said about going – it was going to be one of those opportunities that if you say no you might regret it kinda thing. Well Chris went with my spontaneity and said yes. I’m one of those people who plans a trip to London meticulously – which route to I need to get on from St Pancras – do I need to go else where? Do I need to change tubes? You get it – I’m a planner. Anyway we organise a plan and he meets me at the train station straight after work (During the conversation to organise where we were meeting and when I also gained the new nickname of Batgirl! Well Chris called me Batwoman but I had to correct him that I’d be Batgirl). We made it to the Preview Theatre with about 10 minutes to spare before the doors opened so we ate our sandwiches that we got from Pret on the way from the station. (We figured that if we couldn’t eat them before hand we could then eat them on the way back to the station rather than try and find somewhere to eat).
I really enjoyed the film – well what I kept up with I enjoyed lol. There was a guy sat two rows in front of me and I couldn’t always read the subtitles through his head – I could have done with sitting closer but the preview theatre is tiny so where I was sat was actually probably the best seat almost. Because it’s a preview and they want to raise awareness of the film as such, we were allowed to tweet through the service which was kind of funny – I think if I had known it was going to be a live tweet event then I would have charged my phone. Unfortunately about 35 minutes into the film my phone died – and actually I think it was a good thing because the film was subtitled it really needed my full attention (I think it’s now only that I’ve seen Amelie 10 times that I can keep up with the story line even if I don’t know the French word for word!)
If you like Amelie you will like this film – it’s not quite as surreal as some of the bits in Amelie but there are a couple of nods to from this film to Amelie for example near the beginning when Emilie (yes it’s not a typo) writes the letter it’s a patische of sorts to the scene in Amelie where she uses the photocopier to write the letter to the lady who lives downstairs from Amelie’s character. I think if you like romantic comedies you will like it too.
Okay so here I’m going to quote a film and it’s because it always springs to mind whenever someone asks me about re-reading the same book. (Then again I couldn’t decide which quote to use so they are both here). First is Kathleen Kelly to Joe Fox in You’ve Got Mail.
I guess I’ve read Pride & Prejudice about 100 times and every time I read it I worry that Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are not going to get together — but the truth is whenever I think about my favourite book I always think about the books I read as a child –
The second is still in You’ve Got Mail but it’s the other way round and kinda used as a bit of a dig almost:
I didn’t know you were a Jane Austen fan. Not that it’s a surprise. I bet you read it every year. I bet you just love Mr. Darcy, and that your sentimental heart beats wildly at the thought that he and whatever her name is are really, honestly and truly going to end up together.
I’m completely the opposite to this – I think the only books that I’ve personally read (Rather than had read to me) more than once have been ones I’ve studied at school – for example Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth (amongst others I’m sure) or the Harry Potter books – I actually finished re-reading Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows in time to see the second part at the cinema back in July.
I don’t know whether it’s just I didn’t like the books enough to read them more than once or because I then remember the story and know what’s coming.
(On a different note I have tried reading Pride and Prejudice – multiple times I struggle to get past about chapter 4 – I know that Lizzie and Mr Darcy get together and so it kind of defeats reading the book but at the same time I want to read it so that I can say that I did read it).
The only other book I can think of that I may have read multiple times was Soul Sista by Beth Redman. It’s about being a girl of God and trying to grow up the right way – I even had a signed copy! (Although it says “To Anna” rather than “To Hannah” as I had a stinky cold when I met Beth). It was like 100 pages I think and had slightly larger font that normal so it was something I could take with me on weekends awau without clogging up my bag with big books. (Having said that, I might see if I still have it my ‘Little Sis’ might like it).
There goes another month lol. Why does it feel like the whole of July just sprinted past when I wasn’t looking?!
So highlights of July (They didn’t necessarily happen in this order)
• My cousin got married to his lovely fiancé – now his wifey.
• My Father in law celebrated his 60th
• My brother turned 23 (and got a girlfriend!)
• I started my Etsy store
• I helped Ruby start/design a blog of her very own (It’s called Sew, Cook, Create! And it’s going to be fab!)
• Me and Mum did Race for Life again and shaved a few more minutes off our time.
• The Sands and his lovely wife moved to Bedford to they are officially installed as the Pastor and Mrs Pastor of our church which is fab! Two of their three kids have moved with them between uni terms and other bits.
• I dug out my roller blades after my friend’s 10 year old got a new set for his birthday. I’m still getting the hang again but it’s good fun trying not to fall over lol.
• I sponsored both GrrFeisty and Chantilly Songs which was good fun – I was part of a giveaway on Chantilly’s Blog.
• I was chosen as a sponsor for 30 Days of Lists which is taking place again in September which is good fun as there will be people from all over the world taking part – how awesome is that!
• I hosted a swap on Swap-Bot (which technically finishes in August but started in July so I think that counts right?)
Random Finds Along The Way
So these started as highlights but then they
• How true is this:
Found here.
Box of Stones – Benjamin Frances Leftwich
I briefly touched on my favourite childhood books last week when I was talking about The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom.
I was trying to think if there were any particular books I remember from when I was really little and the main one I think I remember is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, but then again it could have been that my brother had it.
Around about the age of 9 or 10, I went through a stage of not being able to sleep well – I don’t really know why but I ended up reading and reading and reading until I would fall asleep. I think this was what created my passion for reading now. I remember also having The Borrowers Omnibus which was fine but it was about 4 or 5 inches thick and I couldn’t really lift it to be able to read it while in bed so I would get it off the bookcase try reading a few pages then give up and put it back on the bookcase. It was about this time that I started getting Shakespeare plays out of the library to read. I remember reading Romeo and Juliet or Midsummer Night’s Dream when I was about 11 or 12 I think (and it was under my own steam in fact yes I was a strange child! I’m not sure if I remember how much I understood at the time but it stretched what I was reading and often gave me a head start in front of my class at school).
When I was at Middle School I was in the middle set for English rather than the top set (I think it was to do with lack of space and my surname being near the end of the alphabet but that’s a whole other argument to be having). Anyway so I was in the middle set and the top set was reading Enduring Love by Ian McEwan – so what did I do? I went to the library with my Dad (As we did most weeks while me and my brother were growing up) and I got it out the library – I read it about the same speed (if not slightly faster) than the class in my own time while still doing my normal work for English at school.
I can’t show you actual pictures of the Bride and Groom as there were special requests but I took some pictures of the decorations and things like that (hopefully that’s okay right?). The cake was created by Putnoe Cakes – and it was very yummy!
Something Good Can Work – Two Door Cinema Club
You can find this week’s prompt here. I spent about an hour writing this (on the 15th August) only to realise that it’s the wrong prompt so I’ve posted it back where it should have been! Doh!
The crowd had gathered outside the recording studios. Their cries were heard a few hundred metres along the street – who would believe that the fans would react in such a way when their favourite band split up. Each huddle of fans had different explanations of what had happened and why they were splitting up. Some said drugs, others said alcohol, a few even said that one of the members were fed up. After a little while the number of police and press had also doubled. Three of the band members came to stand outside the doors and started their statement.
Mornings aren’t my best time – although my body might be awake it takes a little while for my brain to join the world of the awake. I got up on the 22nd June and did the usual – check my phone with one eye open (and the other one closed!), fidgeted a bit to see if Chris was awake then fall out of bed and head for the bathroom. On my way back from the bathroom this morning I looked down the stairs and there about 3 or 4 steps up was a package.
I nipped down the stairs and grabbed the box – it was for me! Well I knew the package was coming but I thought it would have been in a week or so not on a next day service. Clearly The Kiwi had been up before us and opened the door for the delivery person (I would have completely missed it, I was out for the count).
I was offered a new pair of trainers in exchange for a review of the shoes – I also put in some bits about their website. Now when it comes to new trainers I don’t like them when they are bright white or that they squeeze my feet (I wore my Roxy Trainers yesterday to the pub for the first time in ages and I felt like my toes were being crushed – I remembered why I don’t wear them any more), this is probably why I got with skater trainers because they come in better colours. So I nip in the bedroom and get dressed, then put my new shoes on. Now had I been on the right track it would have been better to wear them round the house before wearing them out. Well I didn’t do that – I put them straight on and headed out to work, by 10ish I had a blister coming up on my right heel. This is more my feet rather than the shoes btw!
Anyway so these are what my fab new shows look like.
When I received the email from Sylvie about the offer I had a look round the website to get my first impressions – I loved it – it was nice and easy to find stuff also it was the skater shop that never opened here when I was a teenager lol.
I had a look around the About Us pages as well it says
“ExtremePie.com was born back in 2001 as one of the earliest online retailers and since the day we arrived we’ve made it our mission to unearth, offer and deliver edgy, fresh and funky clothing and accessories to you at cracking prices direct to your door, all backed by great customer service.”
It also says that they “boast the broadest range of both global and niche brands, from Roxy and Nikita to Zoo York and Fenchurch.” I love the Roxy brand along with Animal – I also like finding niche ones that aren’t so well known. You know that way when you go to a party or something you won’t be wearing the same outfit as other people!
I looked at things like shipping and how long it would take to get to me. As with most websites it varies depending on how quick you want it (A next day service is about £5 and it goes down from there to a first class delivery which is quoted at 1 to 3 working days by Royal Mail – so presuming there are no delays you can have your bits with in a week. My shoes arrived on a next day service which did surprise me but which was really good – especially if you’re like me and you wear a pair of shoes until they are falling apart or let the rain in. I also had a look at payments – They don’t take Amex but on the other hand they accept Paypal which alot of sites don’t do even in this day.
I had the choice of DCs or Vans – I was tempted by the Vans but the pairs on offer were similar to the pair of Roxy shoes I had that didn’t fit so I decided to go with DCs as you can see above. I loved the pattern – the fact that I think all of them weren’t bright white sold me first!! I wore them to work that first week that they arrived and I’ve been wearing them lots. They are comfortable for work and things like that – I might have to wear them in a bit more before I wear them on any longer trips with lots of walking – but that is just personal preference.
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This is a sponsored post.
The new shoes were provided for the purpose of review by Extreme Pie through FuelMyBlog. You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter.
I would say that one of the most inspiring books I’ve read is The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. I’m pretty sure that I’ve written about the book in the past either here on my own blog or elsewhere. Corrie lived in Holland during the war. Her family started taking in Jews who would stay in their house and when the police came they would hide. Unfortunately someone dropped them in it and Corrie and her family were taken first to a prison at Scheveningen. Three of Corrie’s family members were released but Corrie and her sister Betsie were taken to the Vught concentration camp in Holland and then on to Ravensbruck Concentration camp in Germany. Ian wrote about visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp, he says “So my choice is not worst in that sense, but for reasons that I hope are obvious from the name alone.” He’s right you hear Auschwitz, Ravensbruck or Treblinka and you think of the atrocities that happened at those places. I think it’s one of those places that no matter how much you read about it, it won’t prepare you for seeing the “left behind” bits.
The whole story really struck a chord with me – I watched Schindler’s List when I was doing GCSE History and I cried part way through, anyway back to the story so although the whole story struck a chord with me the part of the story that always comes back to me is when Corrie and Betsie arrived at Ravenbruck. They’d somehow managed to smuggle a bible in through the “induction” and managed to hide it until they could go back for it later. (If you see the film of The Hiding Place a lady in the queue freaks out and so the guards are distracted while Betsie or Corrie sneak through that particular check)
Corrie, Betsie and hundreds of other women were squashed into barracks that were damp, overcrowded and smelly.
Corrie recounts when they arrived in their barrack – they had been reading 1 Thessalonians in the NT and were looking at what they had.
Betsie said, “We can start right now to thank God for every single thing about this new barracks”.
I stared at her, then around me at the dark, foul aired room. “Such as?” I said.
“Such as being assigned here together”.
I bit my lip, “Oh Yes, Lord Jesus!”
“Such as what you’re holding in your hands”
I looked down at the Bible. “Yes! Thank you, dear lord, that there was no inspection when we entered here! Thank you for all women here in this room who will meet you in these pages.”
“Yes” said Betsie “Thank You for the very crowding here. Since we’re packed so close, that many more will hear.” She looked at me expectantly “Corrie!” she prodded
“Oh, all right. Thank you for the jammed, crammed, stuffed, packed suffocating crowds.”
“Thank you” Betsie went on serenely, “for the fleas and for -”
The FLEAS! This was too much. “Betsie, there’s no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.”
“Give thanks in all circumstances,” she quoted. “It doesn’t say in pleasant circumstances. Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.”
And so we stood between piers to bunks and gave thanks for fleas. But this time I was sure Betsie was wrong.
We’re so quick to complain about what we have, how it’s not good enough because it’s not new and shiny or because it’s the old model not the new model – and I know I am guilty of this too but imagine it for a second, you are taken away from your home in the clothes you stand up in, you don’t know where you’re going and if you’ll make it home again – you also don’t know who you are going to be with and where your family are. There were millions of other people involved in the Holocaust – the three stories I’ve heard lots of are Corrie and her family, Anne Frank and Schindler’s List.
I think the main reason that The Hiding Place inspires me is because although Corrie and her sister when to hell and back they never stopped focusing on God which is amazing – too much of the time we only turn to God when we need something or in the bad times – when the times are good we can get distracted and turn away.
I haven’t posted the Love Bomb mission in a while but today’s one really got me. I love knitting it’s actually becoming one of my favourite-est hobbies in the world. Here’s the mission:
Today’s mission is a really interesting one, and I don’t think I’m gonna ramble on here at all. I’ll just let Liz, the team member who sent in the nomination, do the talking.
I would recommend a really amazing guy…Gregory Patrick. I discovered him on Etsy. I have a little shop selling handmade purses and I came across his lovely little knit bears and purses one day as I was looking around. I then found that he had a blog and went over to check it out. To my amazement and dismay, this great knitting artist, with a heart of gold, has been constantly facing homelessness for the past year. He seems to find temporary places to stay, but with Etsy being his only income he never seems to find a home he can afford to keep for very long.
In his blog, I have read about his heartbreak, loneliness and his constant hope for something more permanent and secure. He always speaks from the heart and I know that he just wants a chance to grow his knitting business, live peacefully with his cat Mario and just keep spreading love with his adorable knit bears. I think an outpouring from Love Bomb would be a amazing surprise for Gregory and such positive energy would only help him to keep moving forward against the tough times he keeps encountering.
Let’s give him a boost on his most recent post here. Just a note – these comments are moderated, so we may not see them instantly, but let’s give it a shot anyway – it’s such an interesting story – very different for us.
Have you ever had that feeling that there is so much going on around you that you’re bound to miss something. That’s what I feel like right about now.
Yesterday I had the day off work because I woke up at 5am with a whopping headache which later I’d add up the symptoms and work out that it was a migraine. I’ve been having more headaches in the last year or so but yesterday was the first time since I was at school that I had a full blown migraine. I woke up at 5.08, got up went to the bathroom and my head was throbbing – I stood on the landing and was in two minds about getting painkillers – I was about to go downstairs and remembered that we didn’t have any and it was really too early to ask The Kiwi if she had any. I got back into bed but couldn’t get comfy and I was too hot so I kicked off the duvet then was frozen so pulled it back on again – about 5:30 Chris woke up enough to tell me that there was dissolvable paracetamol downstairs – so I got back out of bed and it took me like 10 minutes to make it downstairs because at first I thought I was going to throw up (TMI I know) so I got downstairs and sorting the painkillers out then knew I was going to be sick so I headed back upstairs and that’s when it happened. Almost exactly on the 45 minute mark since I woke up – as I say last time I had a migraine that I could time like that was when I was at school. I think while I remember what happened during the day I need to note it all down so that if there is a next time soon I can make sure I’m prepared and also know what may have triggered it.
So after all that I slept for most of the morning minus a few breaks to text my manager and things like that. I barely ate anything which probably explains why I wasn’t hungry today as well. I had a slice of toast and a bowl of cereal – that was all I ate all day – that’s crazy! I even when to bed at 10 and read until 10:30 and went to sleep around 11 – that’s positively unheard of for me! I’m a night owl what’s going on! This morning I was awake around 8 and mooched in bed then got up at 8:25 – again positively unheard of – I might have to start on earlier nights. I was back in work today and just feel lost my to do list went from 1 to 30 in about 2 hours which means it’s going to be busy. Ugh.
So my opening statement of “Have you ever had that feeling that there is so much going on around you that you’re bound to miss something. That’s what I feel like right about now.”
Actually comes in because my friend Sooz is going to South Africa to do YWAM in a few weeks (she has a blog) and it really feels like last week it was off in the future and was ages away and now it’s in a few weeks it’s like 5 or 6 weeks away now which is like 30 ish days – that’s like nothing and then she’ll be gone for a whole year – she won’t even be back in the UK for Christmas. That’s crazy!
At the end of this week my cousin and his fiancé Ally get married – which is super cool – we’ve been talking about it for so long and it being off somewhere in the future and now we’re down to days rather than months. Mum and Me were talking shoes and jewellery on Friday and today it was batteries for the camera – that’s how close it is lol.
Add to that, in 7 weeks Chris does his LE2JOG Challenge – hence the crazy blogging and tweeting about it yesterday (and yes I’m sorry it’ll probably get mentioned every day or so for the next 7 weeks!) – then again that means that it’s less than 7 weeks until Cat and Bex get married to their respective fiancés which is crazy but so awesome. (Unfortunately I go to Bex’s which is a real shame as I desperately wanted to be there!).
There isn’t a video on YouTube yet so I went with the Live Lounge video – skip it to 9:16 that’s about where it starts (hopefully)
At the beginning of September, Chris and I are heading down to Land’s End in Cornwall so that he can head off on his 1000 mile adventure across the country. He’s starting in Land’s End, Cornwall and heading for John O’Groats in the Scottish Highlands. He’s doing it to raise money and awareness for The Fountain (Bedford) project that he is director of.
He’s looking for sponsorship from both individuals and businesses.
Although Chris is doing the hard work and peddling his bike he has a support team of me and his Dad. I’m hoping to blog about it on our way but that’s something that I need to get sorted out lol.
Chris is looking forward to the trip and as he says on The Fountain’s Site “please sponsor me, not for my sake, but for the sake of The Fountain, which is so desperately needed to support the young people in Bedford, especially in the climate of so many cutbacks to existing support provision”.
You can sponsor Chris on his MyDonate page. There is a short link as well – http://bit.ly/le2jog.
I’m going to start this post with this – it’s kinda strange writing at my Mum’s Computer rather than my own. It’s almost 11pm on Thursday 14th July and I’m in the process of setting up my Brother’s old iPhone so that my Mum can trial it tomorrow before we go to look at a new phone for her. It’s a complicated matter that could take the 3ish hours that we have of later night shopping tomorrow evening to decide on a handset and even then we might not completely decide on one. So anyway iTunes is downloading and restoring firmware in the background – I was watching YouTube videos but that slowed down the connection so then I went downstairs and watched Torchwood in chunks. Now I’m here blogging, writing this post so that I don’t have to worry about it when I get home (hopefully not too much later!)
Today’s prompt for our new series entitled The Friday Read is “Your Favourite Author”. Now this is a bit of a challenge – I read allsorts and also a lot of varied books in the last month for example I’ve read Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling, Virals by Kathy Reichs, (I started) The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and I started Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs yesterday on the bus home from work. I would say that Kathy Reichs is one of my favourites – but then that is kinda morbid given that she writes about murder – then again I guess if I’d said that Agatha Christie was my favourite it could still be morbid as they are crime novels too (and often if not always involve murder).
Growing up, Enid Blyton was one of my favourites for absolutely years and years – I read the whole of the Malory Towers books and I’m pretty sure I read a chunk of the Secret Seven and Famous Five books. (I think at one point I actually wanted to be part of the Famous Five!). I think I’d like to re-read some of the Enid Blyton books but at the same time I’m not sure if they’d appeal to my 25yo self like they appealed to my 13yo self who spent hours and hours in the library avoiding the bullies and the cold lol.
Whoop whoop the phone has finished updating which means it’s time to go explain to Mum and then go home to bed. ttfn all
Short post today. I’ve actually not been on that many – I’ve been on three for the company that I currently work for – two were in Bedford (or surrounding area). The furthest one was Stoke to meet with one of our distributors to look round their warehouse but that’s about it.
You can find the prompts on Ian’s Blog here.
Swedish House Mafia – Save The World Tonight
It’s kinda silly but cute and serious all at the same time – if that’s possible!
Anything with a youth group I think lol. In 2002 I went to Festival Manchester with the youth group I was part of, on the first day one of the lads in the tent next door to us decided to try bin surfing – it was one of those big industrial bins that they have in some businesses and he decided to try and use it like a giant skateboard. The stewards weren’t too impressed and he got told off but it was too funny and so were doing our best not to laugh because he was in trouble but couldn’t help it because it was funny.
Next, Turkey – on the last day of the drop I thought I’d show off and did a divebomb into the pool – this was the good bit but then I hit the water. It was so cold! Well I went to get out as quick as I could only to realise that two of the younger girls had jumped in after me and were now freaking out in the pool because it was so cold so rather than get myself out I swam to get them and then to the side – I’m pretty sure my toes were frozen by that point. The others in our group thought it was hilarious and looking back it was funny because of how dumb I was – I knew the water could be cold like it had been all week but who cared I was showing off lol.
You can find the prompts on Ian’s Blog here.
So this post was technically started back in February with an email from the lovely people at FuelMyBlog sent out an email back then offering the chance to review a DVD Rental offer by a company called Cinema Paradiso.
I had started writing the review when I started using the service to keep track of how things were going.
I got all signed up on the 10th March. After completing all the details like where the DVDs are going to be sent and how often I then added my first 10 films to my list. Signing up was easy and clear to understand. All the information you needed was there in front of you.
I did have a little hiccup when I was adding films to the list. When I was looking at certain film pages the link at the top that told me about how many DVD’s I had on my list vanished and then would reappear on the next page or on different film pages.
On the morning of the 11th March I had an email letting me know that my DVDs were on the way. This was pretty efficient as when I got in from work on the 12th there were two DVDs waiting for me.
I watched both DVDs – one of them at first wouldn’t play in my DVD player – I think this was more the DVD player being temperamental rather than the DVD quality as when I put it in a second time it played with no problems.
On about the 14th or 15th March I mailed these two DVDS in the same envelope back to Cinema Paradiso – the good thing about it – Freepost envelopes – no faffing about with stamps just bung it in the post box and the postman does the rest and unlike services like Blockbuster there are no late fees. If you haven’t sent in back in about two weeks you get a friendly reminder telling you that they’ve not received a DVD back.
By the 24th March I hadn’t received any more discs although they had been left me over a week. Now had there been a bank holiday or a strike or something I would have understood the delay but it didn’t really make sense why there was a delay. I signed into my account on the 24th March and got in touch with customer services – although it said that someone would get back to me within 24 hours it actually took until the 28th March for someone to get back to me.
As of the 1st April I received my next batch – that was a total of two weeks between posting the first lot back and receiving the second lot. This was kind of disappointing as had it been a paid subscription I would have ended up paying for a second month but not had my full allowance of DVD rentals.
I wrote the original review and realised that it was quite negative and there was bound to be a reasonable explanation for the delay of the DVDs and a lack of customer service. I emailed my contact at FuelMyBlog who then past my queries onto Zoran who is the CEO of Cinema Paradiso. I received a response back from Zoran who explained that part of the delay was caused by a system that they have in place while people are on the free trials that are offered by Cinema Paradiso.
Me and Zoran had an email conversation over a couple of days so it was clear to see that he wanted to make sure that I received good Customer Service and that we were able to resolve the issue that had been caused along the way.
While looking into reviewing the service I looked at other services such as LoveFilm. I used to use LoveFilm but as I have a unlimited card for my local cinema I’m reluctant to pay out for a DVD rental service at the same time (maybe if I become a famous blogger who can pay the rent on a post then I might consider both at once lol). There are better value services out there but the website is user friendly and when needed the customer service is very good.
There are wide range of films but money wise it might be better to compare against other services that are out there.
This is a sponsored post and for full disclosure purposes, I received a free trial in return for a review from fuelmyblog
So I had this whole plan to get back into normal blogging this weekend but it didn’t seem to happen – Saturday was good to a certain point then I had the mother of all headaches and had to retreat to bed – 3 hours later I was awake and it had gone but I had no motivation. Was going to do it yesterday but with the results of Saturday still hanging in the air I decided crashing in front of the TV and watching Firefly (borrowed from my brother) would be my best option – mainly because I didn’t want the post to turn into a diatribe about the yelling I received. Then again may today is just as bad – my colleague was late and then went home about two hours later because she wasn’t feeling well. My manager is having a half day so he went off at 12. Then again I still had some of my other colleagues in the office to help me out so I wasn’t completely and utterly abandoned on my own.
So let me rewind because there is this whole bunch of weekend to discuss. So a few weekends ago me and Chris realised how many Clubcard points we’d saved up so decided to look at a weekend away somewhere – it didn’t really work for a whole weekend away somewhere so we thought that we’d work on a couple of days out here and there. Saturday was the first our vouchers arrived and off we set for Woburn Safari Park. Now I’ve been before but it was like 5 years ago when we were still students as I went with Kewey and Sarge, I’d taken my little point and shoot camera with me as I didn’t have my DSLR but yet I’d come out with some good pictures. This time I decided to take the DSLR with me so I could take some more pictures and hopefully they would be better. We got round as far as the giraffes and I was kinda wishing that we’d postponed to next weekend so that I could have borrowed my Dad’s telephoto lens to take some close up pictures. I managed to take some that might work out but I’m not sure – maybe they’ll be fine once I get them on my MacBook and go through them. We did the safari bit in the car and then headed off to look at the foot safari and the water animals – except the Sealions display is being refitted and I swear some of the exhibits were no longer there. I know how a lot of animal rights people talk about how cruel it is for animals to be in captivity but we saw a deer or something that in the wild would be almost extinct (We’re talking like 3000 animals left in the world of this one breed) and it’s the ones in captivity that are keeping that species going – now I know there are zoo’s that have questionable ideas but I also know that there are a lot that place a massive importance on conservation of animals in the world. (Just look at the work that Steve Irwin did for Australia Zoo and conservation of animals)
Anyway so we went to the safari park, then went to grab lunch (note to you if you’re going out to Woburn take lunch with you or go off site for lunch – for me and Chris to have a sandwich and a drink each it was going to be £11 – we went to the supermarket up the road and got 2 packets of sandwiches, 2 x bags of crisps, 2 x bottles of cola for about £8 or less – we also got some others bits I think). We were then heading back to Bedford and as we came past the sign before the junction for Cranfield and Marston Mortaine Chris asked had I ever been to the Forest Centre at Marston Vale? Well again I had but years ago. So we headed up taking a detour.
Now I need to point this out it was lovely spending all this time with Chris but I was feeling rough by this point – I’d been in a hot car for like an hour going round the Safari had then not really had anything to drink so I was dehydrated and grumpy and just wanted to flop in a heap but I said yes to go to the forest centre because I knew it would make Chris feel all spesh that I wanted to go with him. (It’s like the whole bit in The Break-Up you don’t do that thing because you like it, you do it because you know that the other person likes it).
So I potter round the Forest Centre trying to fend off the headache that was making me feel queasy. We headed home and when I got in I flopped out on the sofa for a bit. I went to get ready for the BBQ we were going to at our friends house. I sat at the bottom of the stairs trying to decide whether I needed to get in the car to go or run upstairs.
In the end I decided that staying home was going to be my best bet – rather than going and having something to eat only to see it again a bit later. I went straight to bed, I changed out of my hippy skirt (photo to follow I think) and changed into my pyjamas. I curled up under the duvet and dozed off. About an hour later I woke up and I thought I was okay, I had some of my drink and visited the loo. Somewhere between the bedroom and the bathroom my head was banging – I mean like someone was hitting me with a hammer it was hurting I thought it was going to explode. I got straight back into bed but realised that the duvet combined with the heat was probably making me feel worse too so I grabbed the skirt that I had been wearing and that somehow became a makeshift sheet for the next hour. After the second nap I felt better but I had that post headache fog so I decided to stay in bed and read/doodle/journal. It was a good choice. I started watching a documentary about the Company of Elders who are based at Sadler’s Wells. They are a contemporary dance company and everyone is 60+ which is amazing. Seeing some of the 80yos dancing is so cool. The BBC have had a series on about contemporary dance – it’s exactly what I could have done with seeing when I was at uni. For three years I was told that I wasn’t very good at contemporary dance because it was missing x and y but you look at the pieces that they had compiled in the documentaries and some of them aren’t polished and completely finished off – they are the way someone intended for it to be choreographed. If a glass of water on a bookshelf can be art why can’t something I created be dance – and how do you grade it? Anyway it was bugging me because I miss dancing and really wish that I could just hang out with Serena, LB and Kewey without having to organise it weeks (or months) in advance.
Anyway so that gets us to Sunday evening. I want to write about yesterday and the bits that we did in the garden but that will have to be another post later on I think.
Adele – Rolling In The Deep
A singer who isn’t the norm – Adele has the lungs for those “money notes” but is a good example to us larger girlies.
A friend of mine asked me how I was doing on my goals list. I’d kinda given up on it but when she asked I realised I should look into it – I’ve actually done more than I thought I had and I’m over half way through the goals and on Day 462 which is just under half way through date wise.
As you can see there are some to rewrite – those are where I’d ended up with duplicates or goals that aren’t at all realistic with what’s happening in the rest of my life lol. I’ll rewrite those and complete the others and then possible rewrite the failed ones too so that I can work on complete all 101 goals.
Have you ever done 101 in 1001 days? Did you start and not finish? Are you deterred from even starting in the first place?
I kinda started it last year when I felt like my everyday job was just the same over and over I needed to create something that I was doing for me. Creating goals for me to achieve.
