Studio 9 art exhibition

Yarn interior design!!

Afternoon tea in Tetbury

This was a birthday present from my Aunt, so I booked us an Easter adventure.

The Snooty fox was very nice. The tea was lovely.
😁

Chameleon nail disaster

The rain

Yesterday it rained really heavily. As I was walking home from the gym it stopped and all the water droplets were clinging to the trees.
It was so beautiful.
All prismy and making rainbow colours.

All the dots on the photo are raindrops. One is refracting blue light but I just couldn't capture it.

(I went to town to collect a panier for my bike and ended up having lunch with my mum and Ray. Then I had to wait to go to the gym so I did my charity shop shopping and got a ski jacket for £2. This ended up making my timings all off and I got rained on so badly that when I got home I just put everything I was wearing in the wash it was so soaked!).

Easter watermelon

Better than eggs.
😁

Reading

Yesterday I spent the day in reading.
I went to meet up with my Nan and my Mum decided to join us so that was pretty cool.

We went to Heelas and perused their fabric selection. We also had fancy cakes!

Then had a look around the oracle and main shopping streets. We had hoped to go to the kennet and Avon museum but it doesn't open until the 1st April.

We also mooched around the Reading museum and the Abbey ruins.. or as close as you can get at the moment.

Glasgow Day 2

It's been a crazy 2 days with soooo much travelling.

Yesterday I got a 7.40am train to kick off my adventures.
We arrived in Scotland at 2pm and spent the afternoon at The university of Glasgow.

We went out in town in the evening for wagamamas and pints at the horse shoe pub.
It has karaoke "8 days a week".

Today we ran the early career forum, Also at Glasgow.
It went well. 😁

Glasgow Day 1

British champs

Today was a roller derby day.

The hoover monster

New cookbook

I bought lots of charity shop goodies today after the gym.

Tbh I was a bit naughty but it's all useful stuff.

I got 7 new tops for work for £8, this was pretty urgent as i'm working from Glasgow next week and have decided to wear my black jeans to fly in, rather than a skirt and tights. My schedule is pretty manic and i'm assuming I won't get time to change between the airport and my meeting on Monday or the end of the forum and my flight home on Tuesday night.

I usually wear a pencil skirt to work so I get away with slightly scruffy tops (because everything looks classy tucked into a pencil skirt). I'll also need to wear a suit jacket.
I got a new one of those too. M&S limited collection, black, £4.
(I actually have 3 suit jackets already but change is positive, right? This one is much posher than the others).

I also got a 1940s style vintage dress for £6 and two 1940s hats for £2. These I am very happy with these. I will post a hat selfie later.

My biggest extravagance was books today. £8.
I got a new Morse, a ww2 horrible history, oliver twist by Charles Dickens, Pemberley (pride and prejudice from the point of view of the servants), Dave Grohl s autobiography (for Traff) and a.cook book:
Supper club by Kerstin Rodgers.

It's mostly vegetarian so hopefully i'll be able to use some of my 'no work Wednesdays' to make yummy dinners!
Or to make kitchen disasters.
Either way.

Marley helped me read the cookbook by rolling on it and then eating the ribbon.

Oxford

Spring equinox

It's certainly looking spring-y.
Apparently it's warm enough to sunbathe on the roof.

I made my first ever loaf!

I made bread! Almost without incident. Ok. There were two incidents:

1) I did not measure the ingredients carefully as I misread the instructions. I was, therefore, expecting a pancake.

2) I had to shake it for 15 minutes to get it out of the pan.

Monday adventures

So, today I was working at steam in the morning- hence the very 1940s look.
I wore my wooly tights because it was far too cold for stockings.

Then I came home and had another bath to take my hair down.

And then off to the gym to get back on the couch to 5k.
Lately much more couch than 5k.

The snow from yesterday has mostly frozen and so walking anywhere is a bit of a nightmare. After walking to work and back and then to the gym and home again without incident I decided not to tempt fate and stayed home!

I made a loaf of herb bread (possibly without enough yeast), played with marley and read some more Morse.

Snow day!

Today I have been like a snail.
Slow moving.

I did some laundry, read a bit of my colin dexter book from yesterday and snuggled with the cat.
I tried having a nice warm bath with a green melon bath bomb but it just made me sleepier!
It's been such a busy week I guess I just needed a day to do nothing.

Didcot

Today, My mum had arranged to go for dinner with her school friends.
This weekend is also the date for the west coast mainline electrification. So there are no trains.

My mum stayed the night Friday to Saturday and I gave her a lift to her dinner date.
I met up with Abi for some charity shop shopping. Not quite last week's success but I did get a new coat, a colin dexter book, leggings and a pair of nude day gloves for my 1940s job.

We also had coffee in cornerstone, and I had vegan, gluten free carrot cake.
It was both beautiful and delicious

The birthday cake

So, this is simultaneously the best and worst photo ever!
My dad had his birthday cake today, a bit late as his birthday was on Monday. He was evidently determined to blow all the candles out in one go to get his wish!
#deepbreathing

Cardiff- day 3- sunshine!!

On my last day in Cardiff the sun finally came out!

Just in time for the busiest day so we didn't get to enjoy it, but the view was pretty.

On Thursday I decided to get up early again to make the most of the gym and spa (it's been pretty tough being at home without spa access for the last 24 hrs!).

I didn't finish my run as i'd managed a pb the day before. So feeling defeated I headed to the pool only to be thwarted by the french rugby team.

Dinner in n spoons!

Cardiff- day 2- early start

I always sleep really badly in hotels.
Today I was up before the sun. I watched the sunrise over Cardiff bay then went and did my run.
I am not a morning runner! But I had the gym to myself.
Then I used the spa and i'm still ready in time for our 8am breakfast.
Sadly, they boys don't seem to be...

Cardiff- day 1 @ the st Davids

I'm away in Cardiff for a few days as I'm helping with a conference for work.

The conference is at the st Davids hotel and spa.
So we get to stay here!

I'm very impressed by the view.

For dinner we went to 'dock' which used to be 'terra Nova'. The food was pretty awesome.

Sadly we got back too late to go in the pool. I will have to go tomorrow!

Bletchley park

Today is my Dad's Birthday. With his birthday and mothers day so close together we didn't even try to go out for birthday tea at the weekend- he's postponed until april!

To make up for it, my parents were going to have an adventure on Monday.

Yesterday I mentioned that I was off today as I had a dental check up back where I used to live, so they decided to accompany me to the East of England and visit Bletchley park.

There was even time for some dressing up!

Emergency watch surgery

The cat likes to chew my stuff. She chews my glasses, slippers, anything. She loves chewing on my watch.
Normally, this is fine.
It just gets bite marks on it and I disinfect it. She loves to play with it when I charge it over night, quite often I have 'cat steps' recorded when I clearly wasn't wearing it to get my steps!

Usually, she just chews the end, but over the weekend she brutally ripped the strap!
I didn't notice and spent a whole day wondering why my arm had a load of little red pinch marks on it.

Amazon saved the day £6 replacement, next day delivery. Including the tools!

So foolproof even I could do it!

Mother's day

A mother's day walk along the Clevedon seafront!

The bread maker

On Saturday I made a lucky discovery.
A bread maker.
For £11.

Traff has been after one since before Christmas, he hadn't mentioned it for a while, but his whims tend to last quite a while.

I tend to do my charity shop rounds on a Saturday. Usually after books, sometimes for bits for 1940s looks or for clothes. But  on Saturday I found an extremely battered looking bread maker box.
I scoffed for a bit at the idiocy of buying second hand electronics.
Then the shop lady asked me if I wanted to see inside the box, as i'd been stood there staring at it lost in thinking.

She opened the box and the bread maker was brand new!
Then she told me it was not only.PAT tested but checked by an electrician.
So, I acquired it.

Traff has been very excited.
On Sunday he spent most of the day making Italian herb bread.
It's very good.

We'll meet again @ steam

On Friday I worked at Steam as part of 'we'll meet again'.

My job was to take a griup of primary school children to their activities. Thus was ace because I got to sit in on the mini workshops so I saw more sessions that i'll be running soon/for we'll meet again in October.

I also got to go onboard the Caerphilly castle steam engine!

Stacks!

Ok, this new burger and waffle place opened literally 300m from my front door in January.
I tried to go with SJ in.like the first week but went on a Tuesday. Which is the only day it doesn't open.
Traff and I have talked about going a few times but quite often been thwarted by the weather.

But today, success.
Ray came over to borrow my overboard phone case and wrist guards to take skiing next week. We tried stacks out for dinner and it was good.
Really good.

Come and visit so that I have an excuse to go again!!

It's start to look like spring!

Today has been rather exhausting, but in a good way!
I walked to Tracey's, it's usually not a long walk but with all the ice and slush it took forever!

We had planned to go to lydiard for a walk then bake scones.
We ended up watching 'the big sick' and eating chocolate.
Not so creative and energetic but just as good for the soul.

Walking home, it rained a bit so all the birds came out to collect food and bits for their nests.
I actually saw (usually i'm so unobservant I miss them all!) Robins,wood pigeons, blackbirds, blue tits, a thrush, sparrows and a wag tail!

I spent my evening watching ' I capture the castle'.
I'm not sure what to make of it.

Today I accidentally spent £50 in primark

But, I only bought things I needed, so it's fine. Right?

I got 2 pairs of seamed stockings for working at steam and a new tea dress for we'll meet again next week.

I got gym clothes. I only have 2 pairs of sports trousers. So my trips to the gym are a little constrained by how quickly the laundry dries. I also got a gym cropped top. I wouldn't be brave enough to wear it was one. I wear them over my sports bra and under my t-shirt to reduce bounce.

New pjs. Hair elastics. Shopping bag.

I'm very pleased with myself.

I have also completed week 4/9 in my couch to 5k.
I can run 3k.
4 weeks ago I did not run so it's certainly been good progress.

Working from home

Our offices were closed early on Thursday and completely on Friday.
We were advised to work from home due to 'adverse weather conditions'.

It turns out that working from home when you own an extremely nosy cat is almost impossible.
Our boiler failed on Thursday night (but we revived it with boiling water over the outside pipes on friday afternoon, asper the facebook video!) So I set up my home office by the fire.

Marley rolled on all my paperwork, pushed all my pens off the table and typed oddities on my laptop.
She was not very productive.

Every time I got up she stole my chair. Eventually she agreed to share the chair by sitting on my lap.
Marley isn't a huggy lap cat. So this was a bit weird for us both.

I can see why bringing your cat to the office is discouraged.