A brand spanking new year

So, the tide has washed away 2011 and all that went with it (do you see what I did there, do ya do ya?). We saw out the last day with a quick dash between rainstorms to Lavernock Point, for a bit of hunting both fossils and geocaches. Nothing like a few fossils to make a year in your life feel like no time at all!

Still, I’m determined to make this year count, however insignificant in the grand scheme of things. In the time-honoured tradition, I’ve decided now is a good time to deal with the post-Christmas bleurgh, and get a bit healthy. So the last few days have been full of yoga, green smoothies (not as bad as I’d feared!), a whole lotta vegetables and even a run. We’ve been catching up with The Walking Dead and I can think of no better motivation for getting in shape than the thought of having to leg it from a load of zombies. I’m sure this won’t last past the weekend (for which is scheduled a trip to Purple Poppadom before watching Robin Ince, as well as afternoon tea the day after so I will need a will of iron to try and eat healthily, which I’m pretty sure I don’t have!).

I hope 2012 is a good year for you all, and is generally a lot less rainy than it is today!

Happy holidays!

I hope you’ve all had a nice Christmas. Despite having to work Christmas day, it feels like we’ve had a nice break. Christmas Eve was spent with my folks, drinking lots of red wine and making plans for next Christmas. After work on Christmas Day we went to Dave and Laura’s, where Dave had made an awesome Christmas dinner. We had a lovely day, playing Trivial Pursuit and falling asleep in front of Doctor Who (that might have just been me!).

On Boxing Day we made a flying visit up north and watched a version of the Wizard of Oz where Bolton had replaced Kansas and the Wonderful Wizard was from Wigan.

It’s nice to be back home and chilling out a bit now. In the weeks leading up to Christmas I was busy crafting and baking, when I wasn’t busy stuffing my face with cheese and chocolate. I made a few crochet flower badges, and a crochet Christmas garland (2011 will go down as the year I finally conquered crochet, mwahaha).

I also shamelessly nicked Hayley’s Cookies in a Jar idea, and made batches of White Chocolate & Baileys Fudge, spiced apple chutney, chocolate truffles and Christmas cake truffles. I haven’t heard that anyone has been taken into hospital with sugar coma/food poisoning/stabbing from badly sewn on pins yet, but I fear it may only be a matter of time!

So it’s just about getting ready for 2012 now I guess. 2011 has been mostly fun. I’ve ridden a camel on the banks of the Nile, trekked a llama in Herefordshire, moved house (again), started a new job, passed year 1 of my counselling course, passed a photography course, failed a photography course (couldn’t get my arse in gear to submit my coursework), bellydanced in front of a whole cruise ship, volunteered briefly at a psychiatric hospital, actually got round to going non-festival camping finally, and had some awesome holidays here and abroad. I’m hoping 2012 brings more adventure. Next up is Tokyo in March, can’t wait!

And as I think I probably put every year on my blog when I remember:

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself. Neil Gaiman

Gotta keep movin…

We’d been in our last flat a whole year (compared to the six months we’d lasted at our previous house) so it was getting time to move on! I spend so much time at home now it was time to get something with a bit more space, and somewhere a bit quieter to help me sleep between night shifts. So we are no longer citizens of Cardiff.

It feels like it’s been a manic couple of weeks so I don’t really feel like I’ve seen much outside the little bubble of my flat, but we did have some time last weekend to eat lunch at the deli round the corner, drink a few pints at our new local, and have a quick walk in the woods in between, to justify all that eating and drinking! It’s really nice to know such a beautiful place is in walking distance. The colours were amazing. I do love autumn (when it’s not being grey and rainy anyway).

Here be ghosties

It might not be Halloween yet (although the supermarkets would have us believe that it’s pretty much Christmas) but last weekend we went hunting ghosties.

Andy’s family were down so we surprised them with some tickets to the Llandaff Ghost Walk. It was rather a bargain. The ticket price of £15 included the walk and a two course meal at a restaurant nearby. Despite having stuffed ourselves in the new coffeeshop above Wally’s not long before (the Rohrbach sandwich there is seriously amazing), and walked for miles around town, we were all still up for more eating and walking. Well, most of us were, the poor husband’s been poorly and we didn’t think he’d make it on the walk, but he did luckily, as I needed protecting from the ghoulies and ghosties! So those of us who did eat enjoyed the food, even though everyone looked in disgust at my beetroot and paneer curry (which was actually lovely, I have to say).

While we were eating, we had some info to read on poltergeists and other spooky goings-on, which I thought was a nice touch. Then it was off to find out what was lurking in the dark corners of Llandaff. I wasn’t sure what to expect, I didn’t know if it would be people in sheets shouting ‘boo!’ from behind trees, but it wasn’t luckily, and it was great! So many interesting stories which gave a really good insight into how Llandaff, and Cardiff, were in the past. And Jim, the tour guide, was such a good storyteller. I have to confess I didn’t see anything otherworldy myself but it was genuinely creepy! I particularly liked the story about the Gwrach y Rhibyn, a story I seemed to half-remember from somewhere. I’d really recommend it to anyone looking for something a bit different to do on a Saturday night!

(No, the photo of the lampost doesn’t really have anything to do with Llandaff or ghosts, but it’s vaguely old’n'spookylooking!).

Oy Oy Oy!

So I had my first successful go on an OYBike today. Third time lucky – first time the bike didn’t want to, well, move (which I find is a handy quality to have in a bike) and the second time I rocked up to the rental location to find no bikes left.

Today, before starting work, I had to drop off a file at an office in town (which will hopefully lead to me getting an advocacy qualification as long as I’ve filled everything in properly). I walked through the park to get there, and what a gorgeous autumnal walk it was, crunchy leaves underfoot and the wind whipping through my hair, rendering me a right Cousin It. I didn’t have much time to get back and make lunch before my shift (spicy butternut squash soup – I love autumn!) so thought I”d take a chance on an OYBike.

So previous experience hadn’t been too good, and I hadn’t heard great things about them either, so I was a bit worried. However, I’d paid a whole pound to register (usually £18 for a year), so I thought I’d better use it and get my money’s worth. There were plenty of bikes outside City Hall which was a good start, and the renting bit of the process was pretty easy.

Actually riding the thing, jeez! Now, I know absolutely nothing about bikes, despite being a regular customer of the lovely Pedal Power over the years while I was a befriender for the National Autistic Society, and this could entirely be my fault and not the bike’s. It was pretty damn windy, and I had been to the gym in the morning for the first time in far too long so my legs were complaining a bit before I started, but the bike felt so heavy to use! I was a big sweaty mess and pretty cream crackered by the time I got to Pontcanna Fields. However, I could tell how jealous everyone was of my giant yellow bike so that was a bonus!

It was free though as I’d had it for under 30 minutes so I can’t complain too much. It was pretty convenient for just hopping on and off quickly. Especially for those of us who live in flats where the purchase of a bike would take up pretty much the entirety of any remaining free space. If I wanted it for longer than 30 minutes though, I think I’d stick to the nice, non-leg-demolishing bikes at Pedal Power!

Coffee

I drink a fair bit of coffee. Fresh brewed, instant – I’m not fussy. As long as it’s overpriced hot brown water. Yesterday I got to the office to realise there was only decaf – not impressed.

Today I am using my rather awesome Elvis mug I picked up last weekend in Porthcawl. We didn’t actually go to any of the Elvis-related festivities (although I will one year!), but it was still fun to watch the Elvi swanning around Porthcawl in all their finery. I also ‘treated’ myself to a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich, one of Elvis’s favourites. It made me feel a tad sick, not helped by running along the beach afterwards trying to get a kite to fly in a complete absence of wind!

The rest of the weekend was equally healthy – Cheese festival at the castle! Mmm, cheese.

 

I miss Mad Men

Channeling my inner Betty Draper in a dress from Dorothy Perkins’ lovely Floradita range. By the time I’d spotted it, they only had my size left. Score!

The dress gods must be smiling on me this month. A couple of weeks back, I spotted a dress (another green floral one, I think I might have a problem) in the window of a charity shop and it turned out to be in my size. And £3! Love it when that happens!

La Route du Rock

Just about recovered from the weekend now, except for being pretty deaf in one ear. We thought we’d have a go at combining holiday and festival-going so we spent the weekend at La Route du Rock festival in St Malo.

The line-up looked pretty good and the price of the ticket and the ferry to France was about the same as a ticket to a festival in this country.

I hadn’t been on a ferry for ages so I was a bit excited! I love standing on deck, feeling the sea breeze on my face, watching England fade into the distance. The novelty soon wore off when we had to try sleeping on the floor. Still, it didn’t feel like that long until we were in St Malo, walking along the walls of the city and eating macarons.

A couple of galettes later, we headed off to the campsite which was near the stage area. Annoyingly, once you were in the stage area, you couldn’t go out and back in again. Which was a bit of a pain, especially on the Saturday when it totally peed it down. We missed Battles as it was just too flippin wet to hang around. Still, we saw a lot of good bands anyway! Electralane and Blonde Redhead were especially good. Aphex Twin was more fun than I was expecting, and I was surprised by the amount of crowd-surfing and air guitar that was going on to Fleet Foxes!

When we weren’t watching bands, we pootled around the local village and St Malo, stuffing ourselves with bread, cheese, pain au chocolat, macarons and more macarons, and drinking a whole lot of cider, which I managed to convince myself was the healthy option. I could definitely have done with a few more days out there! Still, I have the rest of the week off work and am off to sunny Birmingham tomorrow for some more eating, drinking and general merry-making.

I only really know I’m on holiday if I’m drinking peach ice tea. 

Running away with the circus

Last weekend I tried to get one step nearer to my dream of quitting my job and running away with the circus (and then becoming a llama farmer). I’ve had so much fun hooping I thought I’d see what else was out there, and went to an introduction to circus skills day at No Fit State circus.

When I got there I was a bit worried as it turned out the person leading the workshop was someone who’d had to very patiently try and fix me up after a hoop bit me at class a few weeks ago and made my foot bleed for what seemed like hours (seriously, those plastic hoops are dangerous). Luckily she was lovely!

First up we tried juggling, which is something I’ve just always said I can’t do without ever really trying. Ok, so now I’ve tried and I still can’t do, but that’s not the point! I was definitely getting better at it by the end. And at least it’s something I can practice at home.

Unlike trapeze, which came next. Oh how I would love my own trapeze! This was so much fun even though my arms complained vigorously for days afterwards. Getting up on the thing was hard enough. I also made the mistake of wearing a baggy top – not such a good idea when you’re hanging upside down! Apologies to the rest of the class for flashing them, luckily there were only three of us! Still, lesson learned. No Fit State do a beginners trapeze course which I am very tempted by.

Next we had a go on the tightwire. Now, I have to say that I had managed about two hours sleep before this class as I was on night shifts at the time, and that is totally the reason I couldn’t balance at all, honest! Luckily the wire was not very far off the ground and surrounded by crash mats.

We then had a go at unicycling. By ‘having a go’ I mean I sat on the unicycle and clung desperately to the wall. As much I am jealous of the gang of lads I used to see unicycling around the city centre, I think there’s a reason bicycles have won the popularity game – two wheels are better than one.

We finished with the most terrifying of them all – acrobalance. I didn’t know what this was. Now I know that it means standing on complete strangers while repeatedly apologising and trying not to break them. Being the base wasn’t so bad but I don’t think I’m destined to be a flyer.

I was shattered by the end, but it was loads of fun.

Life, Death & Harry Potter

So a while ago I started to write a list of 30 things I wanted to do before I was 30 which I then promptly forgot all about. One of the things on the list was to do a performance, so I’m counting my hooping at Brisfest. Another item I can tick off now is getting a photo used for something. The photo above was used in the Ffotogallery course booklet, which I’m a bit happy about as there were so many good photographers on the Beginners course I did at the start of the year. I’m hoping to do the second beginners course in the autumn. I’ve been going through my photos from our recent camping jaunts this morning and, judging by the amount of out of focus photos, it’s not something I’ll ever be great at, but I do enjoy it and that’s the main thing!

It’s this time of year when I start to feel grateful for whatever I get done by the age of 30 anyway, as I know we don’t all even get that far. It would have been my brother’s 26th birthday yesterday. I always find it a bit of a rough time, but this year all the Harry Potter final film stuff has made me feel even more sad. He wasn’t exactly a big reader was Gareth. Calvin & Hobbes, this rubbish football novel called United and Harry Potter. His bedroom shelves still hold all the Harry Potter books and films – up to a point. He never got to find out what happened. I know it’s a silly thing, but that has really got to me this year. Anyway, just a reminder to me to appreciate every day and every friend as we don’t know when our last page is going to be.

(CRY heart screening is taking place in the University of Glamorgan on 24th July. You can see if there’s anything planned in your area on the CRY website)