Monday 31 August 2015

Paddle boarding























Street, Somerset

On Sunday, we went to Street. It was a pretty weird experience to be honest- We used to drive to Street from Oxfordshire every last week of the school holidays to buy school shoes ready for the next academic year.
We also went to the clarks factory outlet shop- soo much nostalgia!
And it was full of families doing the same thing.

Ray had her heart set on a part of shoes for Soph's wedding and my mum was after some new boots, so we had a shoe finding mission.
Ray had a power nap in the car to prepare to elbow all the small children out of the way to get her wedding shoes:



Shaun the Sheep trail Ashton Court- Clifton

On Saturday we headed off to Bristol to look for some more Shaun the Sheep statues- My mum has been on this all summer and only had a few of the trails left to complete.
Part of the argument for doing this was that I could "wear in" my new boots.
I did and they are extremely comfortable.











We walked all round clifton and over the suspension bridge, which has some amazing views. I can't get over how high up it is!

I love the shops and cafes in Clifton- I'll have to go back when we're not on a shaun the sheep hunt. We found a chocolate cafe! We also found a fancy looking pub to have a pint in before walking back to the Ashton Court mansion to find our last sheep.

And, to top off a good days walking, we had chippies for tea!
:D


Friday 28 August 2015

New hiking boots

My mountain warehouse bargain boots! £19. I am ready. Bring on Waland Smithy!  ¡Vamos!
I  have found the OS map for the hike too... I knew (hoped) I'd seen this at my mum's before. 
We are ready! 

Sorry for being so quiet...

As you may have guessed, by the usual pattern, I have been quiet because I have done very little.
I have done very little because I've been poorly again.
Which sucks.
Traff suggested that I am more open with people about whats going on with me- after the crazy week as documented- I'm really embarrassed and uncomfortable talking about this stuff so this is my outlet for the time being.
I feel like I'm making a big fuss and stealing everyones attention. "Fuss me! I'm sick!" I hate people knowing I haven't been well. It makes people anxious that they're going to make me ill, and since I don't know why I'm ill I can't really provide any guidance.

I had an MRI on Tuesday at the hospital. Which is progress of a sort and I'm pleased that we will be able to rule out (I am assuming they show nothing) anything really serious. That will be one step closer to a diagnosis and then hopefully finding some way to manage this chaos.

It got off to an interesting start, theres nothing like the question "Do you know if your lung is held in place with clips? And if you do, are they metal?"
Right before entering a magnetic field. Not so reassuring.

Traff insisted on coming with me and booked the day off work, I laughed at him because an MRI is a solitary experience and I warned him he'd be really bored.
However, After having a really fun reaction to one of the drugs they gave me  and spending between 11am and 4pm with my face in the toilet I was really grateful for his support (Laughter) and humour.
It was so bad the MRI nurses let me have my own toilet. and an absorbent mat for the taxi ride home. And an adult nappy "To make me laugh". It did make me laugh. I'd never seen one before.

They were really supportive and humorous too, as was their porter. They certainly made the experience more bearable. I filled out a comments card at the end and they were like "But you don't know about the services we offer- you've only seen our loo!"

I was totally out of action once we got home on Tuesday. I slept through all my studio ghibli DVDs and Traff made me cups of tea and korean dumplings to keep me alive!

I was so dehydrated from shouting at water that on Wednesday I'd lost 5lbs (all water, but still interesting, especially interesting to see the effect of dehydration on the darkness and size of my under eye bags. urgh!).  Dehydration is exhausting and aging.
Queue day 2 in bed watching TV.

Yesterday I managed to go out. mooching round town and for coffee and cake with Tats, Vicky and Kelly at fancy. Which cheered me up greatly.
I think cake is an excellent way to recover from a horrible 2 days.

I'm feeling much better now and I'm off on my adventures. however self pitying this may read as, I'd like to assure you that I am not!
I see if like this:
Either you can be scared that you'll be ill and stop doing everything that you enjoy, feel sorry for yourself and miss out. Or you can write off the rubbish days as unlucky and grab life by the balls when you're feeling fine.


Monday 24 August 2015

Traff's giant Welsh cakes

A valiant first attempt. Turns out you really do have to cook them on a griddle.  Or you just get rock cakes.
Cake is cake as far as I see it!

Bbq

Sah and Dan hosted an awesome bbq for traff, Matt, chaz, Jay and I. We got off to an interesting start as we went the boys to the shops for BBQ food and the came back with a Swing and no bread rolls.
poor substitute! Although I can see one person who thought it was a better choice of item..






We didn't get very far with the cricket because Alice preferred hammering the stumps into the lawn to actually playing.
Poor Matt had some very bashed fingers.


 I'm not sure why I look so furious with Jay, but I do look happy in the other photo!


The weather was amazing until the BBQ was hot enough to cook on and then the heavens opened. Alice provided us with her umbrella, which was maybe not the ideal size and The boys bravely battled on outside and the ladies jammed everything else in the oven.  

The house ended up smelling very strongly  of bbq smoke from everyone running in and out and it being so muggy it felt pretty authentic. Even the following morning.
Yummy food and excellent company. And a thunder storm for added drama.

Camping on the Gower

The photographic highlights of our rather epic 3 day camping trip to the Gower. please take not of my beautiful pink tent, £20 from Asda. In future I will remember top bring the poles for my proper tent, not just the outer!
We had an awesome time, mostly just ate biscuits and had glorious weather, which gave us glorious sun burn.