Overdue Blog Post - Part Two!

So we pick up this blog post from the middle of November 2022 and something we had not done since the early Summer.

Every few months we venture into Nottingham to spend an afternoon drawing; life drawing to be precise. Our friend, and burlesque performer, Scarlett Daggers runs an event called Dr Sketchy's that takes place above a pub in Nottingham and is aimed at artists of all levels. And because Scarlett is a burlesque performer the models are always from the world of burlesque and cabaret and we are even treated to a performance from one of the models.

Suffice to say Simon is able to produce some wonderful art work using his digital drawing tablet while I on the other hand stick to paper and pencil!

A couple of my attempts

There are even prizes handed out and Simon was lucky enough to get picked for one of his drawings...

Simon with fellow 'winners' and Scarlett Daggers

I, on the other hand, was just happy to produce something that didn't look too bad!!

The last week in November took on a decidedly Christmas theme as it was time to get prepped for a weekend of decorating. So prior to that happening there was a lot of organising and cleaning through that needed to be done. 

Molly and Dan visited for that last weekend as I was not allowed to decorate without Molly being home! So we started late on Friday afternoon and by the end of Saturday we had everything in place, both inside and out. Which considering we had three trees indoors to assemble and decorate, numerous ornaments to place around the house, swags to hang and then two gardens to illuminate I don't think we did too bad.

One of my three Christmas trees...this one is ALL Disney!!

And even R2D2 got in the act with Simon having 3D printed a special Santa hat for him!!

My forward planning for the outdoor Christmas lights proved to be very helpful and everything seemed to go very smoothly and relatively easy. And I even have a remote control for some of my lights! I had a couple of outdoor light sets that didn't have a self timer which would have meant me going outside each night to switch them on so Simon introduced me to remote switches for plugs. Wow, what a simple and very satisfying product; not only can I switch my outdoor lights on from the comfort of indoors I can also switch on tree lights that are plugged into hard to get to sockets. Best buy ever!

It was then time for another week off work for Simon as he needed to make sure he used all of his holiday allowance before the end of the year. We had a day out shopping at Meadowhall, Sheffield with the aim of getting a little Christmas shopping done. So although no Christmas presents were bought we did come away with some new boots for Ethan (introduced him to the world of Dr Martens!) and some more Christmas lights for my garden and this time they were Mickey shaped ones!

We then enjoyed a couple of nights away and this time we ventured over to Birmingham. Again we thought we would be able to get some Christmas shopping done but alas we came home empty handed...suffice to say all our shopping has been completed online instead!

But Birmingham had a lovely, and extensive, German Christmas Market which was great to walk through. We had a couple of nice meals out, we walked lots and consequently had lots of stops for coffee and chat.

Back home and with our shopping focus being online I took advantage of a price reduction and bought my first ever Disney Spirit Jersey...now these are a big thing with Disney fans and whilst there have been some lovely designs over the years that have tempted me they are not the cheapest purchase. But I couldn't resist this one as it combined my love of Disney and Christmas and at a price I was happy to pay!

And while I was shopping I couldn't resist picking up this decoration just for Simon!!

Because every Christmas tree needs a dancing stormtrooper!!

And now we were into December and the season of chocolate...high cocoa and high quality chocolate of course...

Hotel Chocolat Advent Calendar

And as we moved into December the weather decided to acknowledge the season and turned rather frosty and cold. After a couple of early morning walks in freezing temperatures with very icy pavements we decided that staying home in the warmth with a hot coffee was the better and safer option. Although we still maintained our routine of cold showers, Wim Hof breathing and meditating.

We enjoyed a fabulous night out for my birthday (actually on my birthday) at La DeDa Cabaret in Derby. It was another fun filled night out with burlesque, comedy and cabaret and I even had 'Happy Birthday' sung to me by the audience.

Out, out!

The following morning we were out early with Ethan in tow to head out for a posh breakfast as part of my birthday celebrations. We have discovered a deli in Nottingham (Delilah Fine Foods) that does an amazing breakfast that suits our keto way of eating perfectly...the pancetta is to die for! I even picked up a few Christmas pressies from their array of food goodies on sale too.

Oh and I also did rather well on the present front with even my old team from pre-school surprising me with a rather appropriate Star Wars themed gift...

My birthday weekend also saw us take a trip up north to hook up with our very good friend, and my podcast co-host, Michelle. This was a chance for a catch-up as well as an exchange of Christmas presents. We decided to meet up at Meadowhall Shopping Centre as this is about half way between where we both live. 

The day started out a bit grey and foggy but as we ventured further north the weather conditions took a bit of a turn. It started with seeing reduced speed limit signs, along with signs warning of 'salt spreading ahead' and then everywhere turned wet which quickly turned into slush on the roads and before we knew it all but two lanes of the motorway were covered in snow! And that was all in the last five minutes of our journey. But we arrived safely and after a few hours spending time with Michelle (and shopping!) the weather improved and the roads were all clear for our return journey home.

But seeing Michelle did mean that we could surprise her with a very special Mickey Mouse figure...

Michelle & Mickey!

...all printed, assembled and painted in Snow White (Michelle's favourite princess) colours. Suffice to say Michelle was blown away with it. I will share more details in a later post to explain how this all came about!

And then the day ended rather strangely and unexpectedly. We arrived home to find a lady wandering along the road to our house...she looked lost and so we stopped to ask if she needed help finding somewhere. It turned out that the lady was homeless and on seeing us asked if we had a phone she could use as she needed to call the emergency services as she wanted to 'kill myself'. At that I quickly phoned through for her and we then spent the next few hours trying to get her the help that she needed.

Both the ambulance and police services were reluctant to help explaining that it wasn't a job for the police but for the ambulance and vice versa! They were both experiencing severe delays and could not give us an estimate of when someone would be able to get out to help the lady. So in the intervening time we found a bench and supplied her with hot cups of tea, biscuits and a blanket to keep her warm as well as talking with her to see if we could figure out what had happened and whether there was anyone that could help her.

It turned out that she was under the care of a local trust who support the homeless so we decided to try and sort the situation ourselves by calling them. As luck would have it the person that Simon spoke to was an old school friend which helped make everything that bit easier. Ultimately we ended up driving the lady to the local trust just a few miles away and cancelling the ambulance. The police did call us back when we were enroute to advise us of the same information that we'd already found out ourselves. We explained what we were doing and they expressed their gratitude. We can only hope that the lady herself has been able to get the help and support that she very evidently needed.

On a lighter note...I did manage to complete two suitably themed jigsaws during the lead up to Christmas...

As we moved towards Christmas we had another busy weekend that saw a night out for me with the pre-school ladies and a busy Sunday for Simon as he was a guest speaker at Nottingham Video Games Expo.

Simon has been asked numerous times over the years to speak at various video game events about his career but has always declined. He is always much more focused on what he is currently working on rather than looking back at what has been. But as this expo was so close to home he decided to give it a go and see whether or not it was something that he would like to do more of in the future.

And Simon being the organised and professional individual that he is had spent the preceding weeks producing a presentation that documented his career making video games that spans over 35 years!! Check out his website for more details of his extensive portfolio! www.simonphipps.com

Simon in full flow delivering his presentation

Signing autographs for fans!!

I think it probably surprised us both at just how interested people were in all aspects of his career and we spent a lovely couple of hours chatting and reminiscing. So will Simon be taking part in more of these type events in the future? Who knows...I think it will all depend on where, when and the time involved. But as least Simon now has this experience to refer back to and will be in a better position to make decisions around any future requests.

And this brings us to the last full week before Christmas. Ethan's last day at work was the 16th, as he'd got left over holiday to use up, while Simon had to wait until the 21st...and it is from there where I think the next post will pick up!

xx

Day 701

Day 701...

And another day at home and another quiet day for obvious reasons.

My day was filled with work as the joy of technology means that I am still able to complete most of my administration tasks. By keeping in touch with my deputy we could confer and plan and by the end of the day I was pretty pleased with the progress made through my 'to do' list.

Once again I have probably completed more work than I would have done on a standard Wednesday in work but that is fine as it has kept me focused. My only 'illness' symptoms has been a runny nose but as a side effect of that I have been suffering with sinus pain which is something I often seem to get with a cold. Luckily I had some sinus relief medication in the house so dutifully took some this morning hoping it would make a difference which it didn't. When I looked at the packet later on I realised thatvthe 'sinus' medication was no different ingredient wise to the 'cold & flu' medication that I also have...in fact the only difference was the name of the medication - what a swizz!

A little bright spot in the day was when my Hotel Chocolat delivery arrived. I had been a member of their Chocolate Tasting Club for a lot of years but when that scheme came to an end I swapped over to their 'high cocoa curated collection' and every couple of months or so I get a parcel. The collection contains a mix of different items with the common factor being that they all have a high cocoa content. Now for me personally I prefer my chocolate around the 90% cocoa mark but anything over 70% is what I would consider to be 'high cocoa'. 

I was therefore a tad disappointed today when I found two items in the box to be, what I considered, below par. The first was a small selector box of 'supermilk' chocolates...err supermilk? I don't think so! Turns out these are 65% cocoa. Then there was a bigger box of 'Unbelievably Vegan' chocolates...okay so where do I start with this one. Firstly it's great that they can make vegan friendly chocolates but I am not vegan and surely I should have the choice as to whether I want a product that has been made in a non-standard way? Secondly to make them vegan they use a nutmilk; I don't like diary alternatives and I don't like the chemical processes that are needed to produce them. And thirdly the cocoa content is only 45%!! How on earth is that high cocoa?

Suffice to say an email was issued expressing my displeasure and to their credit I received a reply pretty quickly along with a £5 gift card as compensation for my disappointment...mmm...well as the two products that I'm not happy with have a value of about £19 it doesn't seem very proportionate!

I did try one of the 65% chocolates with a coffee this afternoon and while it wasn't bad it also wasn't anything amazing either!

See you all tomorrow.
xx

Day 390 - Lockdown Easing - Stage Two

Day 390...

Today saw the start of 'stage two' of our governments 'roadmap out of lockdown' which means that personal services can resume, non-essential shops can open and hospitality can operate outside only. Although social distancing, masks and track & trace all still apply...so yes we can do more but we effectively still have 'one hand tied behind our backs' so to speak.

But as it was Monday we still had the usual morning job of collecting our weekly grocery shop which also involved dropping a few bits and pieces off at my dads as he is still without a car.

We then had the helmet that Simon had made last week to post off before we made our way into one of our closest cities, Nottingham. We decided that we would venture into the city and just see what the day brought, with no expectations other than to have a walk and perhaps grab a coffee.

We were curious to see just how far we would walk on a trip to an urban area and whilst it was a more relaxed and gentler paced walk than our usual countryside walks we still managed 4.12 miles. Thankfully we had a dry and sunny day, if a little chilly at times, and were able to meander around the city and take in the sights and sounds that we have not been able to do in such a long time.

Nottingham City Centre

Enjoying a coffee on a walkabout

The city was quite busy and it was lovely to be back out amongst people and to soak up the atmosphere that a city has to offer. We have loved walking over the fields on our doorstep but it was so good to be back in a city and just wander.

As we had expected there were some shops that had ridiculously long lines and although I would have loved to have popped in and seen what was on offer (especially Disney stuff) we really weren't that desperate! So we walked and picked up a coffee and were pleasantly surprised to see the amount of work being carried out on new buildings and remarked on the changes since we had last visited. 

I remember Molly and I visiting the city last August but it will be over a year since Simon and I have visited together and it was just lovely to be back and doing something a little closer to normal and to simply soak up the surroundings. It was sad to see a large number of shop fronts all boarded up and empty and it will be interesting to see going forward which venues survive and whether these unused shops will ever get filled again.

But we did manage to get a little shopping done...well it would have been rude not to have taken advantage of a special offer at Hotel Chocolat...

And then when we discovered we could walk straight into the Disney Store we just had to have a look around and although there wasn't really anything that took my fancy we couldn't not pick up a Star Wars figure for Simon...

The Mandalorian, already set-up on Simon's work desk.

Although I did get to choose the shopping bag!

Something suitably girly...princesses!

As we came home we stopped by an out of town 'DIY' store to look at some fencing as we need to replace some trellis panels; although we went in with one idea and think we may have left with something different...still in research phase though.

Once home we had a coffee and just spent some time chilling in the back garden as the sun was shining and it was actually quite pleasant. Simon has been doing some more digital drawing and just tonight was lamenting missing our regular life drawing class, Dr Sketchy's, and how we are so looking forward to hanging out with people we haven't seen for way too long now, and giving them a big hug when we do. While Simon got arty I managed a little more reading of my Gary Taubes book 'The Case for Keto'.

And then another almost normal event today was taking Molly to her kickboxing class...the first time since before Christmas! And although they are not allowed any contact at least they can now train in a proper gym kitted out for their sport.

The day was rounded out by making martini's...I had read up that vodka and gin martini's were both good low carb alcoholic drink options and had decided to give them a go! Actually both worked really well and then Simon discovered a Smokey Martini made with gin and whiskey!

Best stop typing now!!

Take care - cheers!
xx

Another Lockdown Birthday

Day 266...

Yes we have another birthday during these strange and unprecedented times and this time it's mine! As a lady I won't reveal my age, let's just say I'm not 21 anymore!

I have a wonderful team of work colleagues which meant that although I was in work this morning I was able to take the afternoon off.

Yesterday's baking efforts were a special delivery for my team...some, hopefully yummy, rocky road muffins!

I decided to leave the opening of presents and cards until later in the day when I could better enjoy it, but I feel very loved and thankful to have received some very lovely and thoughtful presents.

My work team surprised me with this gorgeous necklace and little did they know that I have been eyeing up this necklace for years!

My very good friend and podcast co-host Michelle not only got me one of my all time favourite chocolate bars (Cadbury's Old Jamaica) and a Star Wars t-shirt but she got me this absolutely adorable Figment hanging decoration.

Simon, along with a couple of t-shirts, had bought me this amazing Disney book that I'd been wanting for a while...Disney and holidays, there is no better combination.

I like that Molly and Ethan are optimistic about the year ahead as they bought me a calendar and diary...Disney of course!

And as look would have it I received my Hotel Chocolat subscription today...dark chocolate of course...

...and this gorgeous pair of cute bambi-esq, festive, glittery earrings that I ordered after I'd fell in love with the design on an Instagram post also arrived!

I was very blessed to see in person one of my closest friends who I haven't seen since this whole COVID thing started as she dropped by with a card and pressie. It was lovely to chat, all be it outside in the cold, and catch-up just a little bit. Plus she knows me too well as her pressie was a Christmas themed jigsaw!

And when I arrived home at lunchtime I found that Molly had baked me a cake...my favourite low carb dark chocolate cake which I am going to enjoy with some raspberries and a generous helping of double cream.

And that is where I am going to leave todays post...it's my birthday and I can do what I want...I have another glass of red wine calling me and chocolate cake to eat! Happy Birthday to me!

Take care.

xx

Day 86

Day 86...

Well I had said that I wasn't going to do any work today...but that didn't quite go as planned.

Hopping online this morning I had a few emails to respond to as well as generating a couple myself. There were some parents to chase for responses that were outstanding and spreadsheets to update. I even had phone calls to deal with today.

But by lunchtime I was pretty much on top of everything so we took our usual walk out. We did just another couple of miles in about 40 minutes and although it didn't rain it was rather grey and windy.

After lunch I did a little online shopping...nothing exciting as it was mainly sorting this weeks grocery order along with a little bit of something for my dad for Father's Day. Although I did inadvertently stumble across Hotel Chocolat and saw a few items for sale...well...it would have been rude not to! Can't recommend these chocolates highly enough; I am a member of their Chocolate Tasting Club and receive a very yummy box of their dark chocolate creations every 12 weeks.

The afternoon was made up of getting some more of my current jigsaw complete and helping Molly with her business venture. She has done a fab job of creating some cute designs that she is going to produce as prints and hopefully t-shirts. Today we went through the designs that she has picked for the prints and made sure we ordered the correct ones along with envelopes, thank you cards, address labels and sweets! 

One of Molly's designs for Shutter Studios

She also showed me the t-shirt designs that she has come up with and they all look fab; she has 5 at the moment and now needs to complete the setting up of her Etsy store so she can get selling. It's all very exciting and I have everything crossed that she manages to get this venture up and running.

And that has been my day; a fairly quiet day and one where I seemed to have stayed away from the news for the vast majority of the day. Some days the news can be overwhelming and the start of the day felt a little like that so it has been nice to avoid the majority of it today. There is so much going on at the moment, and while I am very aware of everything that is happening, there are some days where I just need to disengage. Some days when I need to turn down the volume and take things at a pace that feels less fraught and less out of my control; days where I can be in control and complete something or help someone so I feel much more productive and much less stressful.

Take care out there,

xx

Day 10

Day 10 and welcome to the weekend!

Yay it's Saturday so what shall we do today?...Oh I don't know shall we just have a day at home and chill? Sorry a little bit of sarcasm to start off my post today.

But yes that's just what me and my family and everyone else will be doing today...staying home and chilling.

Our day had a little rude awakening with the doorbell and a parcel delivery before 8am on a Saturday. Thankfully our postman did as he was supposed to and rang the bell, put the parcel in front of the door and left. Is it just me or is everyone else getting a little paranoid about things coming into the home from outside...when you don't know where something has been, how its been handled or who has handled it and never mind cleaning door handles, doorbells and being weary of refuse bins. I wonder if after all of this we are all going to turn into germaphobes?? So I will confess that the parcel did get wiped down with anti-bacterial wipes before it was opened!

The parcel was actually a bit of a treat I'd sorted for my kids; I know they're not kids but young adults now but hey I'm their mum and I can treat them if I want to. This was a little care package from Hotel Chocolat with some Easter themed treats and I'd also arranged for another package to go to my dad which he'd actually received yesterday.

So once the day was up and going Simon decided to spend a little time sanding the main body of the R2D2 that he is building which then meant it needed washing down afterwards which is easiest to do in our shower and that led to today's phrase of the day 'I'm just going to bathe my droid'!

We then had the joy of clearing out a blocked drain - whoop! Just a big dose of normality that somethings will still need sorting no matter what else is going off in the world.

This afternoon we had our daily walk out only today it was much colder and greyer than the rest of the week so much so my woolly hat was back on and we left armed with an umbrella. Thankfully it didn't rain but we managed 2.5 miles in just under 55 minutes and that included a stop by my dads house. Luckily my dad lives about a mile away so we were able to walk to his house and then be able to chat to him through his living room window. It was just nice to be able to see him and know that he's doing okay.

On our walk back we decided that rather than walk the main road route that we had taken to get to my dads we would walk back the 'scenic' route over the fields. We had met a few people on our walk to my dads but everyone had kept their distance, everyone smiled and acknowledged each other and we had only needed to cross to the other side of the road once when the pathway got too narrow for us to pass safely. In fact I had commented that not only was the main road so quiet that we could cross without any wait but also how other people out and about were acknowledging one another something that wouldn't generally happen as much in more 'normal' times.

So Simon said 'if we go over the field we will see less people'...okay that didn't really work out. Just as we started to head towards the first public pathway we met a gentleman walking his dog, now I don't want to sound mean but I think the term walk is a bit over energetic this very old looking dog was doing more of a waddle! So we gave space and passed each other before seeing a family cross over the road in front of us and head down the same pathway we were heading...so we stopped and gave them a little head start before following along. When we emerged into the field we found that there was another family ahead of us as well with two small children; we then began a very leisurely walk to make sure the gap between all of us was more than sufficient. As we emerged from the field and were about to head along the second footpath we noticed that the family with young children were exactly where we wanted to go and moving at a slow pace (as you would expect with young children) so we decided to follow an alternate pathway which took us back to the main road we had been trying to avoid! It's great to see people out and about getting exercise and fresh air but it does feel like a game of dodgeball at times!!

We decided a few walks back that we would start using the 'Strava' app to record where we walked and how long it took us, we have recorded 5 walks so far, walked a total of 10 miles and had 4 hours of activity - that's not too shabby.

Saturday has been a day of chilling and taking things at a steady pace; I have done a bit more on my current jigsaw, Molly has watched the complete series of High School Musical The Musical The Series and Simon has watched the follow up movie to Pacific Rim and we are now going to have an evening of RuPauls Drag Race and perhaps Frozen 2!

But in amongst all this 'chilling' we still can't escape from what's going on around us, the news and social media is still there and I find myself caught in the middle of wanting to know what's happening and at the same time not wanting to hear about it over and over. I saw a photo of my aunty this evening who works for the NHS in the North East all gowned up in the full protective gear and marvelled at her smiling face and simultaneously felt proud and worried. I then saw a quote a friend had posted on Facebook which resonated 'You're not stuck at home, you're safe at home'...by staying home we make the lives of all those working so hard within the NHS and elsewhere a darn sight easier it's not hard, it's really quite simple and it's our way of helping out in a horrid situation.

I am out of my usual red wine so tonight I have opened a bottle of champagne...or more likely a bubbly wine...so I will raise a glass to all of us that are doing our bit even if that is just staying at home.

xx