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.
