There's been quite a lot going on in the last week or so
Can't call this "a week in the life of" as that would make it sound like a normal week, which it isn't. But anyway....
Got up a little earlier than normal. Dropped Izzy at nursery a little earlier than normal. Headed for Denbighshire (Clocaenog Forest, to be precise) with some flasks of coffee and several layers of clothing to marshal one of the stages on the Welsh round of the World Rally Championship. The sign on time was unusually sociable - we are used to deadlines of 1.30 or 3am, and this one was actually 12.30pm, which was quite remarkable. Certainly not complaining! Also, the weather was really quite nice, and despite being in a damp muddy forest, I didn't need to even put a coat on until the sun dipped, and even after dark a hat was unnecessary (of course I was still wearing the obligatory million layers of jumpers).
One of the perqs of marshalling is that in order to get to your marshalls' post you need to drive round the rally stage. These roads are not normally open to the public, and are little more than muddy forestry tracks. REALLY muddy forestry tracks. And they're one way for the day, with arrows in advance of any junctions (which will be blocked off too, so there shouldn't be any joining traffic). So, in effect, you get to throw your road car around a rally stage as fast as you have the bottle to. Tee hee.
I have driven a number of rally stages in my time, but I think Clocaenog was probably the most fun. Did I mention the mud? It was SO slippery that even with the AWD a lot of the time it was like driving on snow. I think I went for miles without actually getting proper traction on the rear wheels, but it didn't matter - the road had a rhythm, and it was lovely. As oldnick will remember from the run around MIRA, the Impreza didn't really like going sideways, even if I yanked the handbrake at the appropriate moment. Not so much of an issue in Clocaenog, where I ended up looking where I was going through the side window on a number of occasions. There were a fair few hairpins that I got to properly play with, and it was just generally a lot of fun. Muddy fun. Hurrah!
We got to marshal post 15 to find we were with a bunch of chatty guys who we'd never met previously, but we had the added bonus of an unexpected radio car. So ephraim and I walked up to post 16 to tell them we had one, only to find that they also had an unscheduled radio car, and it was one of the guys from our motor club. Nice surprise, that. After some chatting we bimbled back down to our post, and as the light started fading got ready to receive the battle for the championship. The cars all passed without incident, and the spectators were all polite and co-operative (I suspect the latter may have been helped by the presence of 3 uniformed coppers who had walked up from the main road to see what was going on, and stayed far longer than I think their duties probably allowed). All in all a very nice way to spend the late afternoon/early evening.
Then home, to Mum and Bruce having picked Iz up from nursery and general warm cosy family stuff.
Friday I made a bit of a rubbish mask out of eyes in photographs (I now have a stack of pictures with the eyes cut out, which makes me look like a scary stalker) and cleaned the Subaru thoroughly. There was general family bimbling, but we didn't get out to Stratford as we'd planned. Never mind.
Saturday morning Mum and Bruce took Izzy off shopping, and I set about the serious business of trying to persuade a man to buy the (now sparkling) Subaru. Given that he came up on the train with the cash in his rucksack I knew it was likely, but didn't want to count my chickens. After all, I'd been trying to sell the car since March/April, and had ne'er a sniff until that point, so I had to make it count.
He drove off in her at ten to twelve. I was both sad and immensely relieved. She needed to go: I just couldn't afford to keep her anymore, and I had concerns about the life of the engine. Doesn't mean she wasn't huge fun though, and I was kinda sorry to see her go. The buyer texted me later to say that he'd driven her to Somerset and was thoroughly pleased. Yay.
Then we got ourselves sorted and headed off to Tamworth for the "weeding" of pax_draconis and averylaterabbit. It was a lovely day. Don't tell anyone, but Ian's really a big softie (I don't think I've ever seen anyone's lip quiver quite as much as his did as he walked up the aisle). Twas quite moving actually, I nearly blubbed too, and I'm not the blubbing kind - even though sitting up the back dressed all in black and in a big hat did make me feel like I probably should for dramatic effect.
It was lovely to see so many people who I see so rarely these days, both at the ceremony and at the meal and masquerade later on. I am pleased to say that my nightmare of a dress was rather well received - I had covered a cocktail dress completely with photos of the grooms - and that it held up all evening without even a hint of disintegration. No idea what I'm going to do with it now, though.
There was much dancing (yay for lupercal and janey_m!) to all manner of music, and a lot of interesting conversation. Some people played cards and/or roulette, but I didn't really get into that as there were so many people who I wanted to see. And lovely cheese to scoff, oh yes. All in all a thoroughly good evening.
It was a bit Sundayish, really. Mum, Bruce, Izzy and I went for a walk down to the river in the sunshine. We ended up all sitting on a log singing "Row Row Row The Boat", with sheep staring at us like we were crazy. And Iz got to jump in some muddy puddles, so she was a happy girl. Then Mum and Bruce went home, and we watched a whole bunch of motorsport and lazed about.
Yesterday was my birthday. I'm getting to that age where I have mixed feelings about it. Still, it was lovely to get over a hundred birthday greetings on Facebook as well as lovely cards and pressies from the family. One of the presents was a book that I got drawn into, and this meant that I didn't make it out of bed until lunchtime, at which point we tried to go car shopping. The success (or lack thereof) can be best summed up by Izzy's comment on the subject: "Put them in the bin!" Oh well. Hopefully something better will come up soon.
Then in the evening, the lovely squeezypaws babysat whilst ephraim and I went out for food. First we tried The Huffcap in Great Alne, but their heating was broken so they closed the restaurant. Then we tried The Cardamom in Alcester, but discovered that one wall of the restaurant was dominated by a large television (who wants to watch TV in a nice restaurant, really?), so we ended up with the tried and tested The Cellar, also in Alcster.
The Cellar is an Indian restaurant, but whilst you can get a Korma if that's what you want, it isn't what you go there for. It does posh Indian food. e.g. you can get lobster dishes. We opted for crab and monkfish for starters, followed by Duck Methi Tenga and Sundarban Venison. Soooo nice. It was one of those meals that makes you stop every now and then just to exclaim "I love food!" Mmmmmmm.
And today has been full of lurgy, so we'll gloss over that too.
All in all, quite a good week. I'm hoping this sore throat will pass before the weekend, as I'm very much looking forward to going out dancing. Yay!
Got up a little earlier than normal. Dropped Izzy at nursery a little earlier than normal. Headed for Denbighshire (Clocaenog Forest, to be precise) with some flasks of coffee and several layers of clothing to marshal one of the stages on the Welsh round of the World Rally Championship. The sign on time was unusually sociable - we are used to deadlines of 1.30 or 3am, and this one was actually 12.30pm, which was quite remarkable. Certainly not complaining! Also, the weather was really quite nice, and despite being in a damp muddy forest, I didn't need to even put a coat on until the sun dipped, and even after dark a hat was unnecessary (of course I was still wearing the obligatory million layers of jumpers).
One of the perqs of marshalling is that in order to get to your marshalls' post you need to drive round the rally stage. These roads are not normally open to the public, and are little more than muddy forestry tracks. REALLY muddy forestry tracks. And they're one way for the day, with arrows in advance of any junctions (which will be blocked off too, so there shouldn't be any joining traffic). So, in effect, you get to throw your road car around a rally stage as fast as you have the bottle to. Tee hee.
I have driven a number of rally stages in my time, but I think Clocaenog was probably the most fun. Did I mention the mud? It was SO slippery that even with the AWD a lot of the time it was like driving on snow. I think I went for miles without actually getting proper traction on the rear wheels, but it didn't matter - the road had a rhythm, and it was lovely. As oldnick will remember from the run around MIRA, the Impreza didn't really like going sideways, even if I yanked the handbrake at the appropriate moment. Not so much of an issue in Clocaenog, where I ended up looking where I was going through the side window on a number of occasions. There were a fair few hairpins that I got to properly play with, and it was just generally a lot of fun. Muddy fun. Hurrah!
We got to marshal post 15 to find we were with a bunch of chatty guys who we'd never met previously, but we had the added bonus of an unexpected radio car. So ephraim and I walked up to post 16 to tell them we had one, only to find that they also had an unscheduled radio car, and it was one of the guys from our motor club. Nice surprise, that. After some chatting we bimbled back down to our post, and as the light started fading got ready to receive the battle for the championship. The cars all passed without incident, and the spectators were all polite and co-operative (I suspect the latter may have been helped by the presence of 3 uniformed coppers who had walked up from the main road to see what was going on, and stayed far longer than I think their duties probably allowed). All in all a very nice way to spend the late afternoon/early evening.
Then home, to Mum and Bruce having picked Iz up from nursery and general warm cosy family stuff.
Friday I made a bit of a rubbish mask out of eyes in photographs (I now have a stack of pictures with the eyes cut out, which makes me look like a scary stalker) and cleaned the Subaru thoroughly. There was general family bimbling, but we didn't get out to Stratford as we'd planned. Never mind.
Saturday morning Mum and Bruce took Izzy off shopping, and I set about the serious business of trying to persuade a man to buy the (now sparkling) Subaru. Given that he came up on the train with the cash in his rucksack I knew it was likely, but didn't want to count my chickens. After all, I'd been trying to sell the car since March/April, and had ne'er a sniff until that point, so I had to make it count.
He drove off in her at ten to twelve. I was both sad and immensely relieved. She needed to go: I just couldn't afford to keep her anymore, and I had concerns about the life of the engine. Doesn't mean she wasn't huge fun though, and I was kinda sorry to see her go. The buyer texted me later to say that he'd driven her to Somerset and was thoroughly pleased. Yay.
Then we got ourselves sorted and headed off to Tamworth for the "weeding" of pax_draconis and averylaterabbit. It was a lovely day. Don't tell anyone, but Ian's really a big softie (I don't think I've ever seen anyone's lip quiver quite as much as his did as he walked up the aisle). Twas quite moving actually, I nearly blubbed too, and I'm not the blubbing kind - even though sitting up the back dressed all in black and in a big hat did make me feel like I probably should for dramatic effect.
It was lovely to see so many people who I see so rarely these days, both at the ceremony and at the meal and masquerade later on. I am pleased to say that my nightmare of a dress was rather well received - I had covered a cocktail dress completely with photos of the grooms - and that it held up all evening without even a hint of disintegration. No idea what I'm going to do with it now, though.
There was much dancing (yay for lupercal and janey_m!) to all manner of music, and a lot of interesting conversation. Some people played cards and/or roulette, but I didn't really get into that as there were so many people who I wanted to see. And lovely cheese to scoff, oh yes. All in all a thoroughly good evening.
It was a bit Sundayish, really. Mum, Bruce, Izzy and I went for a walk down to the river in the sunshine. We ended up all sitting on a log singing "Row Row Row The Boat", with sheep staring at us like we were crazy. And Iz got to jump in some muddy puddles, so she was a happy girl. Then Mum and Bruce went home, and we watched a whole bunch of motorsport and lazed about.
Yesterday was my birthday. I'm getting to that age where I have mixed feelings about it. Still, it was lovely to get over a hundred birthday greetings on Facebook as well as lovely cards and pressies from the family. One of the presents was a book that I got drawn into, and this meant that I didn't make it out of bed until lunchtime, at which point we tried to go car shopping. The success (or lack thereof) can be best summed up by Izzy's comment on the subject: "Put them in the bin!" Oh well. Hopefully something better will come up soon.
Then in the evening, the lovely squeezypaws babysat whilst ephraim and I went out for food. First we tried The Huffcap in Great Alne, but their heating was broken so they closed the restaurant. Then we tried The Cardamom in Alcester, but discovered that one wall of the restaurant was dominated by a large television (who wants to watch TV in a nice restaurant, really?), so we ended up with the tried and tested The Cellar, also in Alcster.
The Cellar is an Indian restaurant, but whilst you can get a Korma if that's what you want, it isn't what you go there for. It does posh Indian food. e.g. you can get lobster dishes. We opted for crab and monkfish for starters, followed by Duck Methi Tenga and Sundarban Venison. Soooo nice. It was one of those meals that makes you stop every now and then just to exclaim "I love food!" Mmmmmmm.
And today has been full of lurgy, so we'll gloss over that too.
All in all, quite a good week. I'm hoping this sore throat will pass before the weekend, as I'm very much looking forward to going out dancing. Yay!