feel like I'm part of a real band of Invisibles (minus the windmill)
Got back from Aber a few hours ago. A flying visit, I was only up there for under a day but it was so uber-cool I can't still quite believe it happened. :)
Got across the bridge and into Wales easy enough, but then got stung for a £6 Costa at a service station, but I NEEDED the caffeine so it was unfortunately compulsory. Got into the Welsh interior and Rudi was mostly happy, smooth purring even if he did clunk once coming out of Abergavenny.
[got out of the car, checked engine, boot, chassis, tires, dunno what clunked, proceed with caution]
The scenery was just effing FABULOUS. the whole world was golden and green and bright and rather cold. I resort to sticking the heaters on my boots (can't drive with cold feet, it's just wrong) and hoping I've brought enough warm clothing. Cos I was a warm city girl and I could feel the temperature dropping every mile I clocked going down the Aber road.
Say hi to the ELVIS rock.
Fortunately I was staying with friends in one of the big estates, rather than the cabin up in the black mountains so once I reach the signposts to the crematorium I know I'm almost there.
I reach my destination (branded on my brain I could recite the directions to aber better than tomtom) and the first thing I see is the back gate of the house is.. well.. off. being repaired apparently, it was a bit perplexing cos I've never seen the house minus the back gate, the entrance people like me usually use (either by class status or to avoid security detection!).
After half an hour of chatting and comparing how crap our jobs are and how the cuts and government austerity is really making a bad world worse we all go off for food.
and someone find ourselves in the Inn on the Pier, which is fine but they're watching soccer. and we all get some looks from the locals who are enthralled over the United Cardiff game. Three unusual women walk in and heads turn. if a piano was playing it would have stopped.
Pizza was good (though I forgot to request no sweetcorn and spent the time picking it out, evil, evil sweetcorn!!) but there was no pudding so we went to find pudding.
and we found pudding. not just pudding, but £5.99 extreme chocolate pudding. good for sharing apparently. Two of us order one each.
and we finish. the wait staff asks if we want anything else, my reply: "How about a bucket?" :)
I get Miss Leo a little blue flexible camera tripod. it is officially the mascot of the night, and would later have eyes superglued on, it's stem now looking like something out of the bad War of The Worlds remake. I think we named it Neville but I can't quite remember. Everyone's playing with it in the pub.
Sunday = pub quiz. so we find the pub, settle in, more friends come, Dr. Who is being celebrated and the level of fanboy knowledge and intensity is rather off-putting but we let it go. We would have come second in the pub but our gorgeous leader confuses "Open Sesame" and "Abracadabra" and we wipe-out on the last round. personally I'm glad. Cos a), it's a good story and b) the prizes for coming second looked utterly shite.
We three get a cab home and I get advice on how to control my mental whirlwinds. Journals and fire. I have the journals so now all I need is hairspray and lighters. ok, shouldn't be a problem..
I keep warm as the temperature goes artic. but my shoulder was playing up all night so I didn't sleep particularly well. Go into town with Miss Leo, driving for coffee and pastries while she has her morning gas-pedal pill. Cameras are strapped about us like futuristic carbines, I'm heavy in the body with a hockey top over everything to keep the wind at bay and the sun turns my glasses dark so I look like some kind of brazen, booted half/half with straggly blonde hair. Miss Leo caps her fireplug beautifully with her short choppy high-energy steps. we look like a pair of time travellers surrounded by teenagers, dressed without any real connection to our current situation. not a problem for me, I have that wherever I go, but aber yawns at such appearance. I don't feel conspicuous. :)
after buying gifts for the holidays and important things like incense, grape soda, imported chocolate, 2000AD magazine, journals, bath bombs and a stuffed mammoth we get ready to rendezvous with Miss Em up at the union.
Two things are really important here.
1) the aber campus has changed. dramatically. they are going to knock Penbryn hall down apparently. make some big SUPER-HALL at the top of the hill above PJM. people aren't happy. the library is clad in scaffolding, I doubt its façade will improve after it comes down. and there are a few new buildings I don't remember the last time I was in the art centre. But hey, that's progress I guess.
2) The hills are still hilly. Miss Leo goes at them like a mountain goat who sees K2 as a casual morning stroll. I just huff and puff in the background and blame the heavy cardio session I had less than 48 hours before. Seriously though, I used to burn up and down Penglais hill, I can't do that now. but I know I'm out of practice, and live in a city where cars are used for everything. in London I walked everywhere, in aber I walked almost everywhere. all it would need is practice. and exposure, it was pissing cold, and I was wearing everything I owned. I just need toughening up Fight Club styleee..
We all had lunch in the art centre, which was weird for me cos I worked in there for almost a year and when I did it was in a totally different part of the building. they reworked the restaurant back in 2007. shifted the whole thing lockstock to the other side of the building, ovens and all. and I see people who I worked with back in the day and they look right through me. this is how Dr. Who feels, he remembers but they don't recognise him. it's interesting, and cool, and oddly sad. but hey, it is life.
Then I get to drive home. which I do fairly well, don't get caught behind anything terrible on the aber road. don't crash and Rudi's differential doesn't fall out. I get a bit more gas at a service station (but no coffee!!!) and get back to my parents before six.
where I proceed to have a screaming argument over nothing because there were major misunderstandings concerning tomorrow's baking and preparation for Hanukkah.
family eh? *shakes head grinning*
so in a day I went to aber and saw friends and felt great (albeit in a bloody cold sense).
now all I gotta do is figure out my codename...;)
Got across the bridge and into Wales easy enough, but then got stung for a £6 Costa at a service station, but I NEEDED the caffeine so it was unfortunately compulsory. Got into the Welsh interior and Rudi was mostly happy, smooth purring even if he did clunk once coming out of Abergavenny.
[got out of the car, checked engine, boot, chassis, tires, dunno what clunked, proceed with caution]
The scenery was just effing FABULOUS. the whole world was golden and green and bright and rather cold. I resort to sticking the heaters on my boots (can't drive with cold feet, it's just wrong) and hoping I've brought enough warm clothing. Cos I was a warm city girl and I could feel the temperature dropping every mile I clocked going down the Aber road.
Say hi to the ELVIS rock.
Fortunately I was staying with friends in one of the big estates, rather than the cabin up in the black mountains so once I reach the signposts to the crematorium I know I'm almost there.
I reach my destination (branded on my brain I could recite the directions to aber better than tomtom) and the first thing I see is the back gate of the house is.. well.. off. being repaired apparently, it was a bit perplexing cos I've never seen the house minus the back gate, the entrance people like me usually use (either by class status or to avoid security detection!).
After half an hour of chatting and comparing how crap our jobs are and how the cuts and government austerity is really making a bad world worse we all go off for food.
and someone find ourselves in the Inn on the Pier, which is fine but they're watching soccer. and we all get some looks from the locals who are enthralled over the United Cardiff game. Three unusual women walk in and heads turn. if a piano was playing it would have stopped.
Pizza was good (though I forgot to request no sweetcorn and spent the time picking it out, evil, evil sweetcorn!!) but there was no pudding so we went to find pudding.
and we found pudding. not just pudding, but £5.99 extreme chocolate pudding. good for sharing apparently. Two of us order one each.
and we finish. the wait staff asks if we want anything else, my reply: "How about a bucket?" :)
I get Miss Leo a little blue flexible camera tripod. it is officially the mascot of the night, and would later have eyes superglued on, it's stem now looking like something out of the bad War of The Worlds remake. I think we named it Neville but I can't quite remember. Everyone's playing with it in the pub.
Sunday = pub quiz. so we find the pub, settle in, more friends come, Dr. Who is being celebrated and the level of fanboy knowledge and intensity is rather off-putting but we let it go. We would have come second in the pub but our gorgeous leader confuses "Open Sesame" and "Abracadabra" and we wipe-out on the last round. personally I'm glad. Cos a), it's a good story and b) the prizes for coming second looked utterly shite.
We three get a cab home and I get advice on how to control my mental whirlwinds. Journals and fire. I have the journals so now all I need is hairspray and lighters. ok, shouldn't be a problem..
I keep warm as the temperature goes artic. but my shoulder was playing up all night so I didn't sleep particularly well. Go into town with Miss Leo, driving for coffee and pastries while she has her morning gas-pedal pill. Cameras are strapped about us like futuristic carbines, I'm heavy in the body with a hockey top over everything to keep the wind at bay and the sun turns my glasses dark so I look like some kind of brazen, booted half/half with straggly blonde hair. Miss Leo caps her fireplug beautifully with her short choppy high-energy steps. we look like a pair of time travellers surrounded by teenagers, dressed without any real connection to our current situation. not a problem for me, I have that wherever I go, but aber yawns at such appearance. I don't feel conspicuous. :)
after buying gifts for the holidays and important things like incense, grape soda, imported chocolate, 2000AD magazine, journals, bath bombs and a stuffed mammoth we get ready to rendezvous with Miss Em up at the union.
Two things are really important here.
1) the aber campus has changed. dramatically. they are going to knock Penbryn hall down apparently. make some big SUPER-HALL at the top of the hill above PJM. people aren't happy. the library is clad in scaffolding, I doubt its façade will improve after it comes down. and there are a few new buildings I don't remember the last time I was in the art centre. But hey, that's progress I guess.
2) The hills are still hilly. Miss Leo goes at them like a mountain goat who sees K2 as a casual morning stroll. I just huff and puff in the background and blame the heavy cardio session I had less than 48 hours before. Seriously though, I used to burn up and down Penglais hill, I can't do that now. but I know I'm out of practice, and live in a city where cars are used for everything. in London I walked everywhere, in aber I walked almost everywhere. all it would need is practice. and exposure, it was pissing cold, and I was wearing everything I owned. I just need toughening up Fight Club styleee..
We all had lunch in the art centre, which was weird for me cos I worked in there for almost a year and when I did it was in a totally different part of the building. they reworked the restaurant back in 2007. shifted the whole thing lockstock to the other side of the building, ovens and all. and I see people who I worked with back in the day and they look right through me. this is how Dr. Who feels, he remembers but they don't recognise him. it's interesting, and cool, and oddly sad. but hey, it is life.
Then I get to drive home. which I do fairly well, don't get caught behind anything terrible on the aber road. don't crash and Rudi's differential doesn't fall out. I get a bit more gas at a service station (but no coffee!!!) and get back to my parents before six.
where I proceed to have a screaming argument over nothing because there were major misunderstandings concerning tomorrow's baking and preparation for Hanukkah.
family eh? *shakes head grinning*
so in a day I went to aber and saw friends and felt great (albeit in a bloody cold sense).
now all I gotta do is figure out my codename...;)