Love to our dads on Fathers Day and to all the other dads celebrating today.
Category: General Musings
Je ne comprends pas
I just had to put that in as we head to France tonight. Yee hah! The heading above (Je ne comprends pas = I don’t understand) is one of the few lines I NEVER use while in France if I can help it. We always give it a go, more often looking silly but hey, you have to try.
I got my haircut last night before going away. The flatmates seemed to like it. Not sure if I’m sold on it or not. The idea has been to go shorter and shorter in length until I get it all chopped off. For the first time the hairdresser mentioned that as my hair is so thick it just goes really boofy the shorter it gets and may not sit well. Thanks for that, could of told me earlier. I think I am using this as an excuse to chicken out having always had long hair it feels very strange. Anyway, here’s the current look (including copper tones). Sorry about the quality of the photo and the cheesy grins, I have to start using the camera again as the Iphone quality is really not up to scratch at times for posts.
Banksy and running
Banksy has become rather famous worldwide now. He was generally a local UK guerilla graffitist known for his satirical “artwork” placed overnight on buildings. Huge debates rage regarding if he is an artist or public nuisance as his work is illegal. For me his work invokes comment, debate and often nicer to look at instead of a bland wall or filth ridden street. Yep it’s still illegal but so much more intelligent than some yob scrawling their hood name and still spelling that wrong!
On another note I started back running today! Only managed 2km but was rather impressed after 4 weeks off with my injury. Time of 16.04 which I was a bit gutted about at first but still I did it in one go and no heart failure! Still not too keen to head back to squash just yet though.
Below are some pictures of after my first run and the queues to Bristol Museum for the Banksy Exhibition. We would like to go but there is generally a 3 hour wait time and that was before the school holidays started!
Holiday time
August is a big holiday time for the UK. School holidays hit for 6 weeks and parents take time off to care for them as costs can get rather extortionate for that period of time to look after them. Work starts to get quieter as meetings are put off until after August and it has a bit of a ghost ship feeling in the office. Couple this with people sick with “swine flu” and you have fabulously quiet roads, plenty of car parking and no support calls to take! Bliss!
Actually to be honest, it makes the day drag. I prefer to be so busy you forget to eat – unfortunately that happens rarely. Pity, cheap way to lose weight 😉
So August is when we have our next holiday planned for. OK so this wasn’t our best choice but the next available time would be September, I can’t wait until then. So prices are hiked and I am sure we will encounter many crowds. As long as we just chill and take our time we will be fine.
Vanessa Mae Live – Westonbirt Arboretum
Well we were going to “broadcast” some bits live from the concert but there was no coverage. As promised it rained on and off throughout the evening but we managed to stay nice and toasty with our newly purchased tarp (tent ground sheet re-fashioned as a makeshift hide).
Even though I had brought along a feast of sun dried tomato bread (fresh from the markets at Wells), cold Spanish meat cuts, apple juice, cheese and cider from Cheddar and cheesecake for dessert we were far outdone by the professional concert goers. These people had tables, chairs, champagne, fluted glasses, umbrellas, a kitchen full of cutlery etc etc. But how quick can they pack up when it starts chucking it down I ask you or when you need to make a fast escape after the concert before the road gets congested?
The concert was fun despite the rain (what were they thinking – an outdoor concert in Britain?). Hopefully I will post some video of the fireworks finale soon. The file is huge though.
Would you like a vowel? Yes thanks, I’ll have a T.
I was in Borders bookstore yesterday and came across a new recipe book by Bill Grainger. He has a great little restaurant in Sydney (aptly named Bill’s) where they do the most impressive and delicious chocolate dessert I have ever had!
However, I have digressed…The reason I mention this book (Holidays) is that the writing is wonderful. He recounts a story before each new section to lead in to the food theme e.g. BBQ’s, Breakfasts etc. What captured me with this book was the imagery he was clearly able to evoke within his storytelling. One such story was of his family going to France for a holiday and the experiences they shared of warm summer days, strolling through and being awestruck by the local fresh food markets, the excitement of buying freshly made croissants and bread each morning from the bolangerie. Possibly it is because this tale is one I also share from our wonderful experiences in France but more importantly it brought to the forefront how boring blogs can be. It is so easy to get into a rhythm of just pounding them out and losing sight of what the blog is about. As mine were originally intended to provide a silicon memory of what we get up to (in order to back up my own bad memory) then I need to provide a better recount of the event.
So what is with the title of this blog?
I recall, still with embarrassment for the man, a celebrity Wheel of Fortune show. The celebrity at the time obviously didn’t understand the difference between a vowel and a consonant. Each time his turn came around the host would try to be helpful and say “would you like a vowel” the celebrity would say “yes thanks, I’ll have a T”, the host would say “so you would like a consonant” and the reply would be “no, I’d like a T please” (I paraphase of course). My point being, we seem to continue to lose an understanding of our language and more importantly the joy of using it intelligently, expressively, descriptively etc. See, I ran out of words…
One week on
One week later and still looking horrid.
Take her down!
I am currently holed up at home nursing an injury. I love playing squash and regularly play a game each week with a fellow work mate. In between the gym, running and squash something had to give. My calf muscle it would seem!
I played on Wednesday during lunch with another work colleague and after I expressly told him to turn it on and play the game hard, he obliged. I enjoyed the game, until mid stretch for a shot I felt the calf muscle in my right leg ping just like a rubber band. Agonizing pain followed, thankfully no expletives left my mouth (probably because the pain left me breathless) and my poor squash partner was left wondering how to help this writhing, incoherent person.
Thankfully I have been able to work from home which has enabled quite a speedy recovery so far. The first nights sleep was a bit uncomfortable but last night was a vast improvement. My internet medical diagnosis (yes, I am aware that this is a rather misguided notion) tells me that I probably have a level 2 sprain. I am finding a combination of massage and gentle walking/stretching makes it feel much more comfortable. If it is rested for too long it feels very stiff and painful. Walking and rubbing actually feels good.
Anyway, not sure when I will be getting back on the court so at this stage I have to watch everything that goes in the mouth at the moment until I can get the activity level back up again.
You’re doing what?
It’s a fabulously warm today here in Bristol. The sky is blue, the mercy has hit 23 degrees, only a slight breeze and where am I? Doing laundry at home!!!
Sadly this is a great day to finally air the dooner, pillows, wash everything in sight so it can hang out to dry in the wonderful sunshine for a change. Rather embarrassingly I will admit that another rather odd pet like is the smell and feel of freshly washed and sun dried laundry.
I will manage to try and claw back some sort of dignity by saying this is probably only the 5th time I have been given a day worthy of laundry drying in the 2 years we have been here! Does that somehow make it less embarrassing?
Another quiet week
This whole working weekends is getting rather old.
Thankfully next weekend we have free so we are currently researching locations for our next adventure.
The weather was gorgeous today and we ended up finding a local that we like. Well its not really that local (have to drive to it). The Robin Hood on Gloucester Road is rather laid back with some good ciders on tap, if that takes your fancy. Had curry for dinner and slowly watching the sun go down (10om at night, how crazy is that!)