Wales hasn't changed, except maybe for the pink ribbons all over the place..
had the last week off. so i went to aberystwyth to get wet.
very wet.
Staying in the remote cabin the wood(land) was great, not least of all as I got to watch 'Cabin in the Woods' and 'Dale & Tucker Verses Evil' which also features a cabin, in the woods.
Also i went for a walk one day in wellies, which were the same wellies i took away to camp back in 1993 (my feet grew quickly as a teenager) and splashed about in puddles, streams and one very boggy lake up near the Ceredigion reservoirs. Watery sunshine, bright winter light, break in the weather, ahh it was heaven.
Then I got back and watched the heavens pour. A lot.
I forgot how much the winter Aber wind can blow through you. it's stark and fresh and makes your bones chatter very quickly. but you feel warmer when you get indoors so in that sense it's great. and i slept well the entire time i was up there, 9 hours a night. great.
Other things i did was see the girls, heckle and endure some hideous open mic at Rummers. An acoustic version of Black Eyed Peas 'Where is the Love'? Really? Ug...
Bought incense and chai tea, wrote in the Treehouse, had some lovely chinese food on Pier Street and shot zombie nazis on the XBox.
Actually are they zombie nazis or nazi zombies? That is are they members of the National Socialist Party circa 1933-1945 who got infected by zombies OR are they ordinary run of the mill zombies who got interested in the anti-Semitic rantings of a 20th Century German nutter? Tricky question. still, they come apart easy enough when you blast them with a shotgun at close range.
Then i had to drive back to Bristol Wednesday night. This was the first nighttime trip (I call them jumps) I'd made from Aberystwyth to Bristol since 2003. I used to do them all the time then, work in the cafe till 9pm, drive back to where i was staying, pick up my gear and go. It's different now, gasoline is horrendously expensive and I now have crows feet but those two things aside the journey's still the same.
Pitch darkness, full-beam headlights essential for a lot of the rural areas, and add in the frequent downpours of rain and a surprisingly high number of other drivers attempting the same thing at the same time as me and it wasn't as solitary as expected.
There were also truckers. Drivers of the artics who don't brake, stop, or slow their merging onto the motorways for anybody. Nothing like swerving at 60 mph in the rain to avoid a Tesco truck barrelling onto the motorway at speed minus the indicators. Nice. I honked.
I got back for my writing class on thursday. We were stripping dialogue and had the scene in 'No Country for Old Men' where Chigura interrogates the garage owner. If you've seen the film the scene is virtually identical in the book. Sparse editing, few adjectives and horribly intimidating despite Chigura just standing there doing very little. oh if only i could write that well....
And Monday I am back in work for another 4 weeks before i have ANOTHER week off. I tend to save my annual leave for the Autumn. weather is hideous and dark and cold and if the stress of work gets too much during that time i get to get sicker than usual. Plus with all this overtime flashing on the boards, hoping we'll do it (or at least some of it) i might need every hour of free-time i can get. if only to crash in front of the tv and veg.
something that i rarely do.
very wet.
Staying in the remote cabin the wood(land) was great, not least of all as I got to watch 'Cabin in the Woods' and 'Dale & Tucker Verses Evil' which also features a cabin, in the woods.
Also i went for a walk one day in wellies, which were the same wellies i took away to camp back in 1993 (my feet grew quickly as a teenager) and splashed about in puddles, streams and one very boggy lake up near the Ceredigion reservoirs. Watery sunshine, bright winter light, break in the weather, ahh it was heaven.
Then I got back and watched the heavens pour. A lot.
I forgot how much the winter Aber wind can blow through you. it's stark and fresh and makes your bones chatter very quickly. but you feel warmer when you get indoors so in that sense it's great. and i slept well the entire time i was up there, 9 hours a night. great.
Other things i did was see the girls, heckle and endure some hideous open mic at Rummers. An acoustic version of Black Eyed Peas 'Where is the Love'? Really? Ug...
Bought incense and chai tea, wrote in the Treehouse, had some lovely chinese food on Pier Street and shot zombie nazis on the XBox.
Actually are they zombie nazis or nazi zombies? That is are they members of the National Socialist Party circa 1933-1945 who got infected by zombies OR are they ordinary run of the mill zombies who got interested in the anti-Semitic rantings of a 20th Century German nutter? Tricky question. still, they come apart easy enough when you blast them with a shotgun at close range.
Then i had to drive back to Bristol Wednesday night. This was the first nighttime trip (I call them jumps) I'd made from Aberystwyth to Bristol since 2003. I used to do them all the time then, work in the cafe till 9pm, drive back to where i was staying, pick up my gear and go. It's different now, gasoline is horrendously expensive and I now have crows feet but those two things aside the journey's still the same.
Pitch darkness, full-beam headlights essential for a lot of the rural areas, and add in the frequent downpours of rain and a surprisingly high number of other drivers attempting the same thing at the same time as me and it wasn't as solitary as expected.
There were also truckers. Drivers of the artics who don't brake, stop, or slow their merging onto the motorways for anybody. Nothing like swerving at 60 mph in the rain to avoid a Tesco truck barrelling onto the motorway at speed minus the indicators. Nice. I honked.
I got back for my writing class on thursday. We were stripping dialogue and had the scene in 'No Country for Old Men' where Chigura interrogates the garage owner. If you've seen the film the scene is virtually identical in the book. Sparse editing, few adjectives and horribly intimidating despite Chigura just standing there doing very little. oh if only i could write that well....
And Monday I am back in work for another 4 weeks before i have ANOTHER week off. I tend to save my annual leave for the Autumn. weather is hideous and dark and cold and if the stress of work gets too much during that time i get to get sicker than usual. Plus with all this overtime flashing on the boards, hoping we'll do it (or at least some of it) i might need every hour of free-time i can get. if only to crash in front of the tv and veg.
something that i rarely do.