Category: Blog

Hic

So you might have noticed that this site was down for a few days. I finally decided to abandon my non-WordPress-friendly host and sign up elsewhere. I may have been in too much of a hurry to do this properly…

It turns out that it’s a good idea to check back-ups have actually worked before relying on them. Somehow the result of my last site back-up is a directory full of empty folders. Not so helpful. So I had to reinstall an old version of my doctored-to-suit-me theme (which thankfully Tim had held onto long after I thought I had any need for it). At some point I’ll go back in and tweak it to how I like it.

Also, I hadn’t realised that the WordPress export file contains only posts and pages. It doesn’t include anything else that you’ve personalised like images, links, site name and description, user name…stuff like that. No doubt I’ll continue finding things I need to update for weeks to come. I also wouldn’t be surprised if there’s very clear instructions on all this on WordPress.org somewhere.

Life is still hectic and I’m getting very little reading done but if you ask nicely I might just blog about the fun and pains of my new discovery: hulaerobics. Yes, it is what it sounds like.

New year, new books

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Happy new year!

I now have a lot of new books, except I only physically have half of them so the photo doesn’t look as impressive as it might do. Stupid rubbish postal service. Not that I read fast enough to get through these before the end of the month.

So these are the books I received for Christmas…

Stack of books

An Image of Africa by Chinua Achebe
Silly Novels by Lady Novelists by George Eliot
And Now You Can Go by Vendela Vida
Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years by Sue Townsend
Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns
The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver
The Breaking Point and other stories by Daphne du Maurier

…and if anything I have less reading time than last year, so this should be an interesting exercise in time management. Please don’t judge me if it takes months for my reviews of these titles to appear!

Another year is over

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We’re off up north to celebrate the new year and then have a hectic first week of January looming so I doubt I’ll get much time for reading or blogging. I won’t do a full review of 2010 here but the one question I’ve seen a few bloggers answer that I find endlessly interesting is: what did you do/experience for the first time this year? So, in no particular order:

1. Started a blog. Obviously. You’re reading it. I’m enjoying it so far. I have interacted with some very lovely people, met people in real life through it, flexed my writing muscles and read more because of it.

2. Went to Manchester. At least I don’t think I’d ever been there before February. Not that I remember. I think I like it. And it has some very nice people.

3. Grew courgettes. With a little help from Tim and our allotment buddy Swish, I planted half a dozen seeds and we grew so many courgettes we had to give some away! And we can eat a lot of courgette in this house. Total success.

4. Exhibited a photograph in an exhibition. One that was curated and had a preview night with wine and nibbles and everything. It was really cool to be a part of.

5. Got asked to be someone’s bridesmaid. The wedding itself is next year but just being asked was incredibly exciting for me because I was honestly starting to think I’d never get to be a bridesmaid. (The bride’s my sister, by the way, so I was already pretty darned excited about this wedding.)

6. Made a tau neutrino from felt. As you do. Summer fun work thing. I was quite pleased with my handiwork actually. It’s on my desk at work. (Except actually it’s not, it’s in a crate, because I packed up my desk last week ready to start my new job at a new desk in the new year. It’s a lot of new all at once. Exciting and scary and another reason I may be too busy to blog much for a while.)

7. Volunteered at an astronomy fair. I spotted a notice asking for volunteers to man a physics fun stand at a fair in Devon and in a moment of crazy I offered my services and Tim’s. Science outreach is hugely important but I’m not the most outgoing person so I may not do that to myself again.

8. Employed a builder to work on my very own house. Or rather, our very own house. We knew we’d have to get work done when we bought this place and it’s very satisfying to have got a big chunk of it done. We still need to do some decorating before I post any photos. Which leads me on to…

9. Painted a ceiling. Which is very tiring, it turns out. Thankfully I had help from Tim and my Dad. In fact they did more than me. But I did do some of it, honest.

10. Watched It’s a Wonderful Life. I know. How could I possibly have gone almost 30 years without watching the epitome of Christmas films? I finally sat down in front of it on Christmas Day and it has immediately won top place in my favourite Christmas films list. Unsurprisingly.

I could probably cheat and add a whole bunch of blogging-related firsts, because it’s all been new to me this year! And a few more owning a house firsts as well. But that would get boring pretty quickly. So instead, feel free to tell me your 2010 firsts in the comments, I hope you have had a good year, and all the best for 2011.

Christmas sledging fun

The snow stuck around just long enough for us to replace our traditional Christmas Day walk with sledging up at the local park. It’s the same park my siblings and I sledged in as children so it was a real memory lane moment to be up there with a variety of sleds, my Dad throwing himself enthusiastically down every slope while I took it a little easier. The light was falling so I didn’t get many photos, but here are a few to show the great fun we had.

Practice run on a gentle slope:
On your marks

Tim following my Dad’s cue by going headfirst:
Whoosh

Kitty the dog didn’t get that sledging and fetch are a tad incompatible:

Holly the dog was content to just dig around in the snow:
Digging

Happy holidays!

The Great Grocery Bag Exchange #2

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My second parcel of goodies is here (after a delay while it sat forlornly at the sorting office until Tim kindly cycled over there and fetched it for me). In case anyone missed my last post about this, I took part in the Great Grocery Bag Exchange, organised by Carin of A Little Bookish. Go here to find out more.

This second parcel came from Lydia of The Lost Entwife, another book blog that was new to me and I am now enjoying. Which was what this was all about, after all. Thank you Lydia for my lovely lovely parcel. Here they are:

More goodies in the post

Yes I have eaten three of those rather chunky cookies already and yes they are very tasty. Yum yum. Thanks again Lydia!

The Great Grocery Bag Exchange #1

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I have received the first of my two parcels in the Great Grocery Bag Exchange, a fantastic idea dreamed up by Carin of A Little Bookish where book bloggers get to know each other by sending a parcel of goodies, including at least one reusable shopping bag, to their exchange partner(s). What fun! Goodies from another country, another blog to read, another blogger to get to know and perhaps the best bit – fun post!

My first parcel is from Amy of Amy Reads, a Canadian blogger whose reading taste has, I think, quite a lot of crossover with mine. At least, I have starred a lot of her reviews in my Google Reader, which is my totally hi-tech system for marking out books I think I might like to read. Amy sent me these good-looking goodies:

For me!!!

The postcard and one of the bags were designed on Prince Edward Island by descendants of LM Montgomery, which gives me a book-nerd thrill. Oh how I loved the Anne of Green Gables books when I was younger. Also, I like how the greeting card has a non-denominational “Happy Holidays” message. Very Canadian, I believe. It’s hard to even get a birthday card in the UK right now, everywhere’s so Christmas-obsessed!

Thank you Amy for my great parcel of fun stuff. I will definitely take your advice and bump Adichie up the TBR pile 🙂

Undecided about mornings

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One of the joys of having lupus is the many blood tests I have to have. Okay, that was sarcastic but the regular trips to the GP surgery are actually quite fun. Maybe not fun. Diversions from the normal routine that aren’t too unpleasant. That’s closer.

I always book my blood tests for first thing in the morning on a work day. I stroll up the hill against the flow of people heading to work or school, spend about two minutes with a nurse and then amble on my way to work. I’ve warned my manager that I’ll be a little late in, so I’m in no hurry. I sometimes need a pick-me-up after having blood drawn so I treat myself to a sugary breakfast. I get to see a slightly different view of my neighbourhood, like the lollipop man outside the local primary school who makes crossing the road so much easier. And it’s morning, which is a time I think I like. Probably.

The blood test itself isn’t too bad these days. I’m inured to the whole thing. I’m lucky that the two practice nurses are great (that’s nurses at the medical practice, not nurses who are practising on me, obviously, though I did have a student nurse draw my blood once – it wasn’t pleasant, I had to lie down for a while). You might think all nurses are equally capable of taking blood but believe me, you’re wrong. I show them which vein looks good and we chat a little about holidays, family, weather, whatever. Before I know it the tourniquet’s off, the plaster’s on and I’m saying goodbye. While my health is steady as it has been all year (I’m not superstitious but I feel I should touch wood or something here) I only have to have one sample taken, which is a whole lot better than the armful I used to give every month.

But regardless I’m always a little nervous beforehand and a little relieved afterward. As I was today. It was particularly cold, with a biting wind and I was worried I’d chosen a bad outfit for getting at my inner arm easily. But it all went fine and I was feeling cheerful as I bought my cappuccino and brownie from A Cappella, then strolled down the road sipping at my drink, having a nose at a shop that’s opening soon and someone’s house covered in scaffold. Now maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention to where I was going or maybe I wasn’t fully awake still but personally I blame the police siren and the car that looked like it was about to mount the pavement and head straight for me. Either way I walked into a wall and spilled my coffee all down me. Perfect.

My day wasn’t ruined but I’m still uncertain about this morning thing. It might just be the lupus, but another hour of sleep sounds a whole lot better than an early morning walk to me.

Art and community

This weekend Totterdown opened its doors for the Front Room Art Trail, an annual neighbourhood event that was one of the things that attracted us to this part of the city. Although people come from all over the city and beyond, I get the impression that most of those on the trail are local residents meeting their neighbours, seeing what an impressive range of artists live nearby.

The “front room” of the title comes from the fact that the majority of the art is displayed in people’s homes, with bright orange flags and wide open front doors indicating where to go (there are also maps freely available). Proprietors are ready with warm welcomes and friendly chatter to guide you around the art they have displayed.

In contrast to complaints I hear that these days no-one knows their neighbours, especially in cities, we have found Totterdown full of community feeling, with an endless rollcall of events, groups and meetings. The art trail is a fantastic addition to this mix. There’s something quite wonderful about walking into a stranger’s house to the warmth and smell of a wood fire, being handed a glass of mulled wine and encouraged to look out of their window to compare their view with your own!

Between the drizzling rain and my attempts to use a film camera rather than digital, I only have one decent photo from yesterday. This sculpture, built primarily by local schoolchildren, stands outside Fig. 1:

Light sculpture art community fun

I am already looking forward to next year’s event. Who knows, we may even open up our own front room!

A bit of happy

Though they’ve been around for a few years, I only recently discovered Canadian band Metric. They are ace and make me smile. Enjoy!