You know those days....

....where you can think of absolutely nothing constructive or positive to say?

This is one of them!

I'm in a bit of a funk, lots on my mind, not enough sleep, yada, yada, yada.....

Thwack!

This is an old one and I've posted it before but it still makes me laugh! :o)

Red boat

Despite having a camera in my hand much of the time I very rarely take a photograph that I actually like, in fact I can think of probably only three in my lifetime!

However, at Robin Hoods Bay last weekend, just for once I managed to take a series that I think are ok so I'm gonna blow my own trumpet just a tiny bit! That said, I was lucky, I happened to notice a scrap of evening sunlight hitting the red tarpaulin when everything else was shrouded in mist...and it hung around long enough to take a few pictures!

Here are a few of them:







(All clickable but big files)

Animal antics

I'm away down south again for a day or two on 'patient transport' duties, TP is still doing remarkably well but it's kind of an ongoing thing.

I should be back soon but until then I'll leave you with a couple of scheduled posts and two amusing stories from the news recently.

The first, a guy who thought his asthma inhaler was for use on the cat!! You have to wonder about some people don't you!

.....and the second, a sheep that got stuck on the roof of a house!


*PS. Um....anyone I owe email too...sorry, I will get to it!

Blogging award!

Thank you to Kate of Shambles Manor who has seen fit to bestow upon me a blogging award, complete with golden cup!

I'm not entirely sure why I should deserve it but it's kinda nice just the same.

Now it's my turn to present the award to my favourite five blogs/bloggers so here goes, in no particular order:

1. Lisa of 'Lisa's Place'. Firstly for longevity, her blog might not seem one of very long standing but that's only because she shifts it with regular monotony! In actual fact Lisa has been blogging for years, her posts are thoughtful, insightful and often times very funny. We met through our blogs and became firm friends, we ran a small design business together for a time and there are probably only one or two other people in the world who know me as well as Lisa does.

2. Mr Nighttime. A relatively new blog to me but always fascinating, well written and very honest. I like this guys style.

3. Bendy Girl of 'Benefit Scrounging Scum'. For highlighting many of the difficulties faced by those with a disability and promoting discussion by her 'pull no punches', open and honest manner of writing.

4. Jenny of 'Demob Happy Teacher' . Jenny and I go back years almost to the very first day we began blogging. I think we were probably about the first to comment on one anothers blogs, so again she gets this for longevity along with her highly amusing and appealingly cynical slant on issues she encounters in life.

5. Leesa of 'Peace of my Mind', again another blog of long standing but she gets a gold cup because her photography is fantastic and amazing and always makes me smile!

So...pick up your cup and go nominate your five! :o)

Squiggly sky

What......no coffee??

Yesterday morning, having only just staggered out of bed, bleary eyed and with a brain only functioning at minimum capacity things began to fall apart almost immediately and just how much we rely on the infrastructure that is the 21st century was bought into sharp focus!

Our level of dependence on modern day conveniences, things we take for granted without a second thought, but that millions of people throughout the world don't have the privilege of, is really quite concerning and our ability to function efficiently without them is even more worrying.

What am I talking about? Well in this case power, the items littered around our lives that rely on it and the fact that at an early hour yesterday we had a complete power outage.....before I had even managed to get the first coffee of the day organised, this was not a good start to the day!

So, coffee-less and grumpy I decided that as I had a doctors appointment anyway I would wander into town early and have breakfast and the much needed coffee at Costa. Things were to go further downhill. As I approached the town I was aware of umpteen alarm sirens ringing, a sure sign that the power outage wasn't confined only to our building, and sure enough as I turned the corner into the main street it was very apparent that no-one had power anywhere. Ugh.... still no coffee!

From there on in it began to dawn on me just how much we take for granted. Next I thought I would make use of the time and go check my poorly bank balance....nope, ATMs don't function without electricity. Ok, I'll go buy something to eat and drink from the supermarket...nope, point of sale equipment doesn't work without electricity. Right then, I'll get to the doctors early....and sit in the window-less waiting room in the dark, unable to even read a magazine, fun and still no damn coffee!

Next problem, the doctor can't access my notes, they are on the computer of course, computers don't work without power, ok, I refresh his memory, I need a prescription.....nope, prescription requires computer, computer requires electricity....you know the rest!

Finally an 'old fashioned' handwritten prescription pad is located. I go back into town to get the prescription filled....nope, the pharmacy can't dispense, dispensing is via a computer, the computer of course needs power, there is no damn power, they can't do it manually, they don't have the 'systems' in place.

I decided I might as well go home, still without coffee. The entire town was littered with the staff of shops and banks standing aimlessly outside their premises looking completely lost, unable to do anything without power and completely at a loss as what to do other than apologise over and over again to disgruntled customers for the inconvenience....that wasn't their fault in the first place.

At home I was stuck still. I decided to tidy up, our bathroom and kitchen have no windows, pitch black in there, too dark to do anything, right, I could catch up on the ironing....no I couldn't, irons need power, ok, get showered....nope, showers need power....and on it went, no power, no router, no computer and still no bloody coffee!

We know of course how much we rely on modern conveniences but we don't truly realise just how much until they all fall off at once but strangely, once I had gotten over the being frustrated aspect and accepted there was damn all I could do about it, it was actually quite liberating. I played with Hammy and I read a book and all without the guilt of thinking I should be doing something else more constructive, because there was nothing else I could be doing.....because it all needs power!

I got my first cup of coffee around late lunch time when the boffins at the sub-station got their act together, and you know what, I survived! ;o)

Funny old world.

A new five things

from Lisa:

What were you doing five years ago?

Living in Scotland...hmmmm, probably the less said about that the better!

What are five things on your to-do list for today?

1. Attend a doctors appointment.
2. Grocery shopping, online of course.
3. Working on a kinda new project.
4. Working on someones broken blog code.
5. Putting calamine lotion on my heat rash! Attractive eh? ;o)

What are five snacks you enjoy?

1. Does coffee count? I think so!
2. Green olives.
3. Toast and Marmite.
4. Crisps.
5. Chocolate!

What are five things you would do if you were a billionaire?

1. Buy this boat and a cat (called 'Skipper'). You can have a cat on a big boat right?
2. Get on the boat with Fletch and said cat.
3. Sail the world (Having taken navigation lessons!)
4. Not come back.
5. Give all my family and friends the rest.

What are five of your bad habits?

Just five??

1. Worrying about everything.
2. Being obsessively tidy.
3. Being impatient.
4. Not sleeping.
5. Not knowing when to give up.

What are five places where you have lived?

1. Hertfordshire.
2. Buckinghamshire.
3. Cambridge.
4. Manchester.
5. Scotland.

What are five jobs you’ve had?

1. Tax officer *hides*.
2. Retail security.
3. White van driver.
4. Retail manager.
5. British Standards licenser.

Caught!

Ugh...don't you just hate it when you get caught out!

I said yesterday there was an amusing tale to be told about our visit to Whitby Abbey, well here it is.

Having got up pretty early, as we always seem to when we camp, we headed off for the Abbey. I think the early hour was perhaps the cause of our not being quite as compis mentis as we should have been but upon arrival.

Now bear in mind here that Fletch had been here before, there had been no admission fee then and we genuinely didn't know if one was chargeable these days.

The Abbey sits atop a hill and is surrounded by a low stone wall. There was apparently (to us at least) no obvious point of entry and so we began walking kind of aimlessly around the perimeter until we came upon a stile that 'appeared' to be the route into the Abbey.

It seemed simple enough and in our still sleepy state of mind we cheerfully scrambled over said stile........and bang into 'Fiona', a froustly faced English Heritage official who was somewhat less than amused at finding two individuals, who are old enough to know better, trying to sneak in without paying, like kids to the movies! Ack!

I did try to explain but it was pointless, she had her mind made up and her mouth set in a thin line of disapproval and all I achieved was to make myself feel more like a naughty school child than I did already. To make matters worse, when she escorted us to the official entry point it was a very large metal shuttered affair that we couldn't understand ourselves how we has managed to miss, let alone convince Mrs. Frousty face!

By now I was feeling more than a little indignant that it had been a genuine mistake but that the more I tried to explain the less she believed me, so of course we did what you do in these situations and payed up and looked happy.....though we weren't. In usual fashion English Heritage wanted a small ransom for entry into something that one could see no more of on their side of the wall than on the free side but baulking at payment would merely have confirmed her suspicions and there was no way we were going to give her the satisfaction at any cost!

Whitby and Robin Hoods Bay

What a fab weekend!

Ignoramus that I am I somehow never imagined that anywhere in Yorkshire could be as beautiful as Whitby and Robin Hoods bay!


And hidden though it was for much of the time in low cloud and fog, Saturday decided to be skin scorchingly beautiful and sunny.


The journey North was relatively uneventful, save for the expected holiday hold-ups courtesy as ever of caravans moving at a snails pace, and we arrived at our chosen camp site mid afternoon, to a sign that said 'full' (we never book, it's too restricting) but I'm an old hand at this. A nice smile and proof that 'really it's only a very small tent' always results in a little pitch being available.


So that was it, we pitched overlooking the particularly beautiful Robin Hoods Bay and then set about our weekend...albeit one day late as the result of of over indulgence on Thursday night!

We did all the grockle stuff. We walked down to the bay (yes we walked up and down those killer hills, even Fletch!) in the evening and ate fudge dipped in melted chocolate from Browns Chocolate Heaven,


we sat on the beach in the evening despite the fog restricting the view down to about 10 yards and we ate dinner off the camp fire, well, it's a camp stove and it runs very nicely indeed on unleaded fuel (we hadn't tested it on run of the mill petrol previously), sites rarely allow actual fires these days unfortunately.

The only down side to the weekend was the sleep issue. Despite all the exercise I still couldn't sleep and spending the hours of darkness, wide awake, in a four seasons, expedition grade tent that has no space to sit up properly, becomes a little claustrophobic after hours and hours. Yes, I had anticipated this possibility, I had a book, a light and a torch but the torch bulb chose this moment to fail and anyone who camps will know it's never a good idea to completely deplete the only other remaining source of light. I though daybreak was never going to arrive!

Sunday finally dawned bright and sunny and off we went into Whitby. For Fletch this was kind of a trip down memory lane, he spent many happy childhood family holidays in Whitby and consequently knew his was around.


We had another day of grockle behaviour. We walked the harbour, visited Whitby Abbey (there is a funny tale to be told there another day), though Count Dracula seemed not to be in residence that day,


we ate the most fabulous fish, chips and gravy on the harbour wall and we took a boat ride out to sea resulting in the absolutely best bit of the whole weekend for me. We saw a porpoise!!! How cool is that?! A real live porpoise jumping merrily around just outside the harbour in front of the boat...amazing!!


Sunday evening was cuisine from the kitchen of Fletch and his camp stove again and then a swift walk to the local pub for the obligatory Guinness. By the time we arrived back at the tent the fog had returned and visibility was almost nil again.


Monday dawned damp and foggy still so we packed a very soggy tent (never good) and decided to head off home early on a protracted 'scenic route' via Scarborough (the only place I have ever seen a fetish shop on the main road!) and the moors. As we got further South the fog cleared and we arrived home to 28 degrees to add to our already lobster coloured skin!

It was an excellent weekend, really, I never imagined the area would be as beautiful as it is, I was wrong, I would happily go back tomorrow.

(Images clickable)

*The rest of the pictures and the 'arty'(?) stuff can be found HERE.

Oopsss....change of plan!

Punting: Pretty chilled.

Food: Acceptable, for a chain establishment.

Alcohol: Suitably silly high level.

Company: Completely, madly excellent.

Home: at absolutely stupid o'clock,....a day of recovery needed.

Change of plan: Yorkshire tomorrow!



(Clickable)

Fish and chips and Fylingthorpe

I'm in a rush! Lots to do!

With a little luck and a prevailing wind I will manage to get our recently much unused camping gear gathered together from it's various places of stowage, hither and thither about the flat, and get some degree of organisation going in an effort to set off on a long weekend away, bright and early tomorrow morning.

I don't think the camping equipment has been sighted, let alone checked out, since we returned from our mad long distance tour of Europe (video) on the bike last year! This weekend will be somewhat simpler, Eloisa is currently off the road forcing us to take the car, this is not good, but on the upside I don't have to fight to squish enough gear and camping paraphernalia for two, for 5000 miles, into the limited space available on two wheels! Believe me, it's a skill well honed over the years but to be able to just dump everything in a big car willy-nilly is something of a treat, though it does seem a little odd/sad not to be taking the bike.

So, our destination, probably Robin Hoods Bay on the Yorkshire coast. I've never been there, it's pretty close, it looks fab and it promises fish and chips to die for! Of course, as is our way, when we hit the road we could well have a change of plan and head off in another direction! Who knows.

I'm likely to be a little remiss on the blogging front over the next few days as a consequence but I'll be back next week if not before. Have fun.


*N.B. Archived posts from Europe are HERE if you're interested.

Asking for trouble?..... and heros

Tomorrow evening we get to go punting on the river in Cambridge, courtesy of Fletch's employer. It's the annual summer beano when colleagues and assorted guests, in theory at least, get to chill out together away from the pressure of work. In reality of course what happens is that they all spend the evening talking geek shop whilst we, the amassed clique of miscellaneous hangers-on try and follow at least a fraction of the conversation!

I of course am not complaining, this is an opportunity for Champagne (well it would be if I weren't the designated driver) and dinner at the companies expense and I can think of worse things to do than spend the evening being chauffeured along the river by candlelight.

I do however have just one reservation....the idea of Fletch, a punt, lots of water and a gaggle (what is the collective for intoxicated men incidentally?) of inebriated guys I suspect could be asking for trouble..... and has a higher than average possibility of resulting in any number of practical jokes and/or a very wet ending!

**And on an entirely different subject and more serious note, My Hero, pop over and add your support any way you can please.

A literary lightweight!

Over the last few months, as the result of all the time I have on my hands, I have returned to a pass time I used to love but over recent years never seemed to find space in my itinerary for, reading.

I rarely ever read anything very heavy, I read to relax and for me ploughing through something that I can barely even understand is neither fun nor relaxing, education be damned. Non fiction I will fight with should the need for knowledge arise but for me fiction has to be about enjoyment. I hate that scenario when I finally struggle to the last page after weeks of referencing.....and still don't have the damnedest idea what it was reading about all that time!

There is distinct pleasure for me in new books, the smell of the pages, the unbroken spine, the thought that probably no one has ever opened this particular book before, it is pristine. However, due to my current financial predicament I have taken to borrowing books from others (yes, I always give them back!), this limits one choices somewhat but it's benefit is obvious, it's cheap!

As a result I have read various things recently I might not have chosen had I stood among the heaven that is Waterstones, Jodie Picoult, Mark Haddon and Helen Townsend to name but three.

The problem has been this, those very kind people who have been lending me reading matter seem to have a penchant for the most miserable story lines known to man, death, destruction, illness, you name it just about any depressing life trauma or emotional turmoil and I seem to have been reading about it....and I do not need assistance in feeling depressed, I can manage that all on my own thankyouverymuch.

So, all good intentions were flung to the winds on Sunday and I bought a book, a completely appalling, blockbuster, rubbishy chick lit novel, that aside from the fact it makes it's author a living should probably be consigned to the recycling bin.....but this is the thing, it's cheerful and it's easy and right now I don't care if that qualifies me as an incorrigible lightweight, at least I will be a cheerful idiot! ;o)