(no subject)
So, recently i have been doing stuffs, and I feel like telling people about it:
I've been trying to help a friend by house-doctoring her house, i.e making it bland as a bland thing. So, I've painted one room back to magnolia, and am in the process of doing another. It's quite a lot of work but a) i'm paying back a debt and b) bizarrely I really like decorating.
Maybe soon I'll actually decorate my room, which i've been living in without paint or wallpaper for 18 months.... Maybe
I've also done some real life paid work. My sister's boss has really messed up her shoulder by ignoring RSI, so I spent a few days typing, checking emails and doing research, as she couldn't do any sort of computer work at all. She's now had to completely go off sick, but hopefully there'll be a couple more days to be had. It did feel good to be doing useful things again, and I'll now have a recent reference, but I'm not sure admin is the right way to go for me.
Decided I wanted to take the boy to Devon and play at being tourists, so I did!
Wednesday: We started off by megabussing to London and stopping overnight with Jamie's brother.
Thursday: We then had a day in London, starting with fantastic baklava, including some with cinnamon, which were gorgeous.
Then we spent the afternoon in the imperial war museum, being astonished by the cafeteria prices and suitably humbled by the crimes against humanity exhibit.
Then megabus once again...
Friday: Took a walk down to see the sea, then in the evening went to (one of) my dad's boat clubs, where someone gave a talk about lifeboats. This was semi-interesting, but I was more interested in the free pint I was bought by one of my old teachers. After the talk i'd been planning to drink more (everything is ludicrously cheap) and play pool (also ludicrously cheap). However this plan was foiled by the afore-mentioned ex-teacher. Dear God, but he can talk.
Saturday: Spent the day mostly sitting in Dad's dinghy steadying the boat whilst Dad hauled up the mooring to put the summer chain on. To me this is such a normal occurrence when home in Devon that I didn't think to warn Jamie that we might end up doing something similar. Ooops. To make up for it, I then drove him to Teignmouth to play on the pier, and many 2ps were wasted.
Sunday: We went to the Eden Project. I've been before, but it's just lovely, particularly on a sunny day, it really felt like we'd spent a couple of hours in a different country, just what you need in a rainy March.
Monday: Didn't get going till lunchtime, as Mum's car exhaust was doing a v odd thing which needed fixing before it was roadworthy- Dad to the rescue as ever. So we had a late lunch at the Anchor in Cockwood, a really nice pub with really nice food that I really should go to more often. We then drove to Torquay, trying to see some penguins, but arrived too late. So we hadn't wasted the journey, we went into an amusement arcade, and spent about an hour and 3 quid trying win a lizard keyring from a 2p machine. We eventually succeeded, and also came away with 2 other keyrings for our troubles.
Tuesday: Off to Dartmouth with the parents to visit their boat. It was too windy to go anywhere on it, so we got the water taxi over, cooked bacon and beans, ate bacon and beans, then got the water taxi back.
Wednesday: Lunch with the Nan at Powderham castle, great to see my Nan as she hasn't been well recently, but was in fine form, even if people do keep trying to make her eat swede. Then we dashed off to Torquay to see the penguins! And penguins we did see! Also puffins, many different terns, ducks and some seals. The penguins were just fantastic- they're just exactly how you'd hope they'd be and then some. I shall be dropping some hefty hints about getting a years membership to living coasts so i can go and see them every time I'm in Devon, I don't think it would ever be possible to get bored of them.
Thursday: Back to Leeds, with a stop off in London involving the Tate Modern. I really like the big crack in the ground in the Turbine Hall- can't remember what it was called, and I didn't really attempt to think about what it might mean, i just enjoyed it!
Neither Helen nor I had ever been to Newcastle, so we decided we'd go, just 'cause we could. We drove up on Good Friday, we'd intended to stop at the angel of the north, but it was tipping it down, so we decided we'd go another time and just looked from the car. In Newcastle we walked all around the quays area and really enjoyed all the new architecture, and went into the Baltic Gallery. The gallery was ace- I particularly enjoyed the bit about lomography, and in fact have a shiny new (but v cheap) camera on it's way from ebay to assist me in taking more photo's. Then we drove to Durham, and stopped for the night in St Chad's college for dead cheap on youth hostel rates, and woke up opposite the cathedral! We walked about quite a bit in the morning, and decided that we quite like Durham, it's all very picturesque, but it doesn't quite feel like a real place where real people live. We decided to drive back via Whitby, as neither of us had ever been, and we loved it! We're now plotting to take out parents to stay there, as there's enough sea-side/lifeboat/open top bus stuff to keep us all entertained. Maybe next time we'll go when there isn't a severe weather warning tho
Well, that's worn me out, see you when i next get the urge to blather!
I've been trying to help a friend by house-doctoring her house, i.e making it bland as a bland thing. So, I've painted one room back to magnolia, and am in the process of doing another. It's quite a lot of work but a) i'm paying back a debt and b) bizarrely I really like decorating.
Maybe soon I'll actually decorate my room, which i've been living in without paint or wallpaper for 18 months.... Maybe
I've also done some real life paid work. My sister's boss has really messed up her shoulder by ignoring RSI, so I spent a few days typing, checking emails and doing research, as she couldn't do any sort of computer work at all. She's now had to completely go off sick, but hopefully there'll be a couple more days to be had. It did feel good to be doing useful things again, and I'll now have a recent reference, but I'm not sure admin is the right way to go for me.
Decided I wanted to take the boy to Devon and play at being tourists, so I did!
Wednesday: We started off by megabussing to London and stopping overnight with Jamie's brother.
Thursday: We then had a day in London, starting with fantastic baklava, including some with cinnamon, which were gorgeous.
Then we spent the afternoon in the imperial war museum, being astonished by the cafeteria prices and suitably humbled by the crimes against humanity exhibit.
Then megabus once again...
Friday: Took a walk down to see the sea, then in the evening went to (one of) my dad's boat clubs, where someone gave a talk about lifeboats. This was semi-interesting, but I was more interested in the free pint I was bought by one of my old teachers. After the talk i'd been planning to drink more (everything is ludicrously cheap) and play pool (also ludicrously cheap). However this plan was foiled by the afore-mentioned ex-teacher. Dear God, but he can talk.
Saturday: Spent the day mostly sitting in Dad's dinghy steadying the boat whilst Dad hauled up the mooring to put the summer chain on. To me this is such a normal occurrence when home in Devon that I didn't think to warn Jamie that we might end up doing something similar. Ooops. To make up for it, I then drove him to Teignmouth to play on the pier, and many 2ps were wasted.
Sunday: We went to the Eden Project. I've been before, but it's just lovely, particularly on a sunny day, it really felt like we'd spent a couple of hours in a different country, just what you need in a rainy March.
Monday: Didn't get going till lunchtime, as Mum's car exhaust was doing a v odd thing which needed fixing before it was roadworthy- Dad to the rescue as ever. So we had a late lunch at the Anchor in Cockwood, a really nice pub with really nice food that I really should go to more often. We then drove to Torquay, trying to see some penguins, but arrived too late. So we hadn't wasted the journey, we went into an amusement arcade, and spent about an hour and 3 quid trying win a lizard keyring from a 2p machine. We eventually succeeded, and also came away with 2 other keyrings for our troubles.
Tuesday: Off to Dartmouth with the parents to visit their boat. It was too windy to go anywhere on it, so we got the water taxi over, cooked bacon and beans, ate bacon and beans, then got the water taxi back.
Wednesday: Lunch with the Nan at Powderham castle, great to see my Nan as she hasn't been well recently, but was in fine form, even if people do keep trying to make her eat swede. Then we dashed off to Torquay to see the penguins! And penguins we did see! Also puffins, many different terns, ducks and some seals. The penguins were just fantastic- they're just exactly how you'd hope they'd be and then some. I shall be dropping some hefty hints about getting a years membership to living coasts so i can go and see them every time I'm in Devon, I don't think it would ever be possible to get bored of them.
Thursday: Back to Leeds, with a stop off in London involving the Tate Modern. I really like the big crack in the ground in the Turbine Hall- can't remember what it was called, and I didn't really attempt to think about what it might mean, i just enjoyed it!
Neither Helen nor I had ever been to Newcastle, so we decided we'd go, just 'cause we could. We drove up on Good Friday, we'd intended to stop at the angel of the north, but it was tipping it down, so we decided we'd go another time and just looked from the car. In Newcastle we walked all around the quays area and really enjoyed all the new architecture, and went into the Baltic Gallery. The gallery was ace- I particularly enjoyed the bit about lomography, and in fact have a shiny new (but v cheap) camera on it's way from ebay to assist me in taking more photo's. Then we drove to Durham, and stopped for the night in St Chad's college for dead cheap on youth hostel rates, and woke up opposite the cathedral! We walked about quite a bit in the morning, and decided that we quite like Durham, it's all very picturesque, but it doesn't quite feel like a real place where real people live. We decided to drive back via Whitby, as neither of us had ever been, and we loved it! We're now plotting to take out parents to stay there, as there's enough sea-side/lifeboat/open top bus stuff to keep us all entertained. Maybe next time we'll go when there isn't a severe weather warning tho
Well, that's worn me out, see you when i next get the urge to blather!