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 794

Day 794...

OK, so let's start with how yesterday ended as I never got to finish that post due to being 'out, out'!

So...my good friend and podcast co-host Michelle, and her husband Tom, arrived at ours late afternoon yesterday. It was lovely to see each other in person and have a catch-up as well as having a little foodie exchange! 

When Michelle had visited Disneyland Paris at Easter she had been good enough to pick up a couple of bread puddings from the Earl of Sandwich...these are amazing and bring back very fond memories of discovering them for the first time while visiting Disney World many, many years ago.

And in exchange I was able to let her have a couple of my favourite American chocolate bars; Milky Way Midnight Edition...

...the kids had got me a box of these for Mothers Day and so I have plenty to keep me going and still be able to share!

And Michelle also brought me this gorgeous glass...

After a bite to eat of homemade keto pizza we headed into Derby to see LaDeDa Cabaret starring and produced by the gorgeous Scarlett Daggers. Hosted by the impeccable Stage Door Johnny and with acts by Storm Hooper, Rod Laver, Coco Deville and Anna Fur Laxis. A mix of variety, cabaret, comedy and of course burlesque and as always was a great night out and I cannot recommend highly enough these nights for a bit of cheeky fun.

It did mean a late return home and hence my lack of a published post yesterday as I simply forgot all about it - oops!

And then we had today - Sunday.

So it was a pretty standard start to the day with the collection of our weekly grocery shop but once that was all put away we set about checking our Star Wars cosplay. Next weekend we should, all things being well, be joining our fellow Star Wars friends at Emcon in Nottingham representing the East Midlands Garrison. This will be our first 'troop' since February 2020...for obvious reasons!

It has taken awhile for troops to be be back up and running and it has been a case of waiting for something accessible to us to become available. We are also members of Joker Squad but as they are mainly based down south it can be difficult to find troops that we can get to easily. And although with East Midlands Garrison there are more local troops they have been few and far between until of late, plus up until recently we would have had to have produced negative tests which we have simply refused to indulge in such pantomime. But all being well this coming Saturday we should be able to don our gear and get trooping again!

As Simon is a Stormtrooper his first task today was to get out all the electronic components of his outfit to charge everything up and make sure all was working correctly. He has fans in his helmet to keep him cool along with a speaker and voice synthesiser to give an authentic Stormtrooper sound.

And while things got charged we headed out for a walk over the fields in the sunshine. We completed 3.4 miles in an hour and 10 minutes and according to my fitness tracker 36 minutes of that was in fat burning mode! Whoop!

The remainder of the afternoon was spent doing more mundane stuff like the laundry! And catching up with writing this blog! I now have the task of house hunting online with Ethan to see if we can find any that are in the right sort of area and are worth a look see.

So I best stop typing and I'll see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 793

Day 793...

After a steady start to our Saturday morning we gathered ourselves together as Ethan had a house viewing booked.

He is thinking of getting his own place and had seen a newly listed house in the right sort of area at the top end of his budget and had booked in a viewing for today. Unfortunately this was not going to be the house for him! 

The estate agent greeted us with 'there's some work that needs to be done, it's a 'doer-upper''...mmm...and that doesn't even allow for the general cleanliness of the house as it completely stunk to high heaven of cats! It would need a new bathroom, new kitchen, new flooring, completely redecorating through out and a mega deep, deep clean. Oh well at least house that we look at from now on can only get better...right?!

After a quick detour via Lidl we arrived home in much need of a coffee. While Simon did a little digital art work I enjoyed my coffee sat in the sunshine. 

Our plans for the remainder of the day centered around my good friend Michelle visiting ahead of an evening out in Derby to see another La De Da Cabaret show. So while Simon got all energetic and nipped out for a quick run I took things much slower and did my make-up ready for the evening followed by a little online shopping. I was in need of some make-up bits and pieces as well as some new trainers for walking. I'd found a pair online and figured it was easier to order from the comfort of my own home as opposed to visit a store in person and hope that they had my size. So by the end of this week I should have some new walking shoes to try out.

....to be continued....as we were out late I never got to finish this post and publish it so I guess this will be done today (Sunday!).

See you later.
xx

 

Day 711

Day 711...

So last night we had the pleasure of experiencing La Deda Cabaret in Derby. A burlesque and cabaret show produced by the delightful Scarlett Daggers and compered by the hilarious Stage Door Journey. 

We have been going to these events for a number of years now and can't recommend them highly enough. They have an array of talented artists from burlesque performers to singers to mime to knife throwing and more. We have seen so many varied acts over the years and consequently no two shows are ever the same.

Last night we had two of my favourite acts. Kiki Lovechild who is a mime and manages to incorporate humour with heartfelt meaning along with Velma Von Bon Bon who serves up a mix of burlesque, comedy and acrobatics. Both of these never fail to disappoint.

So this morning we had a steady start to the day as we really did not have much to do. We had hoped to meet up with Michelle for a coffee before she headed home but due to a build up of traffic she decided to head home earlier than planned. But it had been lovely to see her yesterday evening.

We popped out to grab a coffee and a car wash. We have discovered that one of our favourite coffee shops has a jet car wash located next door so we make a point of when the car needs a clean we need a coffee!

Before we knew it the day had rolled along and while Simon jumped on the exercise bike I took a much more relaxed approach by completing my jigsaw. Although I am one piece missing...as this jigsaw was passed onto me I don't know whether it was always missing a piece or whether I have lost it somewhere!

We will be rounding out today with keto pizza and hopefully the latest episode of RuPauls Drag Race.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 710

Day 710...

The end of the week and the start of the weekend.

Today was a mixture of getting jobs done and a little me time. I had a few household chores to do, the laundry to sort and a couple of emails that I needed to respond to.

I then had a little pre-school work to complete. As a registered charity we have to submit an annual return to the Charities Commission which involves producing accounts which have to be independently reviewed, writing an annual report and then making sure that all of our trustee information is up to date and correct. 

From previous years I knew that the documents that I needed to submit had to be in PDF format. This meant figuring out how to convert a Google document, a Google sheets workbook and a JPEG picture into a PDF file. And I was quite pleased with myself that with a little online research I was able to get them all converted over with relative ease. With them all converted and saved out I could then complete the annual return online; another job done and out the way.

We had a butchers delivery arrive this morning which meant splitting everything out into meal size portions. Thankfully this order wasn't as big as some of my previous and only involved splitting 5kg of steak mince, 2kg of bacon, some burgers and some sausages.

And then at the end of the morning I even managed to squeeze in a little time to paint my nails which is the first time I have done that in I can't remember when. But as we are off out this evening I thought I would use that as a good excuse to pop a little colour on.

This afternoon has been a much more relaxed affair. I spent some time with my jigsaw, I sorted more laundry, responded to a few more emails (both mine and work), watched some YouTube of the new Star Wars hotel over at Walt Disney World and took advantage of the natural daylight to get my make-up done ready for this evening.

So it is now time to get my glad rags on as we are off into Derby to see La DeDa Cabaret; an evening of burlesque and cabaret and chance to hook up with my good friend Michelle. These are always such a fun night so I will report back tomorrow!

See you then.
xx

Day 633

Day 633...

We had a fun filled evening yesterday attending our favourite burlesque show called La De Da Cabaret...in fact it has been two years since seeing this show. So it was great to be back if a little sad to recognise the length of time in between visits. It was also the first time I've worn in heels in about two years as well!!

The evening was filled with burlesque and cabaret acts, we had a strong man, hula hoops, fire breathing, singing, comedy and of course burlesque. Can't recommend one of these evenings enough and producer Scarlett Daggers always manages to put together shows with a breadth of performers.

We even had to contend with a false fire alarm as the smoke machines being used on stage accidentally set off the alarms - oops!

Out, out! We don't scrub up too bad!

The only sad thing was to see so many people wearing masks, seemingly defying all levels of common sense. Everyone together in the bar before hand without masks...move into the theater and the mask goes on...sit down in the auditorium with a drink in their hand and then take off the aforementioned mask!! I just don't get it...if you think that masks are helpful then surely the mask should stay on your face the whole time you are in the building and not just when you're not drinking! Or maybe this virus only goes after those of us who don't have a drink in our hands? And then watching the audience as the night moved on, and more alcohol had been drunk, and the number of masks being worn at the 'correct times' seemed to become rather haphazard!!

But a late night last night meant a very relaxed and late start to the morning today which was much needed after a rubbish nights sleep and was the slowest morning in a long while.

Just before lunch we finally received a delivery we'd been waiting for from Yodel; the delivery driver was lovely but the service from Yodel has been rubbish. The parcel was due here at the latest by 7th December and had been sitting at their 'national hub' since the 1st of December...simply ridiculous that it took that long to get to us. But at least we have it now and it then meant Simon had a job to do as it was an exercise bike which needed assembling! Another edition to our home gym set-up.

I had the fun of updating the online grocery shopping coupled with a little online car insurance research as I was also able to get in touch with the garage about taking delivery of our new electric car. All being well the car will be delivered on Monday; it's all very exciting although a little scary at the same time as I think there maybe a bit of a learning curve involved. If only for the fact that we will move from a manual gearbox to an automatic!

Then we popped out this afternoon as we had a parcel to drop at the post office and cheques to pay in at the bank. We then thought we'd nip over to our local Starbucks for a quick coffee, however the traffic had other ideas! Unfortunately for us we'd timed it to clash with football traffic, so much so that the road we wanted to take ran alongside the football ground and so was closed. A quick u-turn and we headed for a Costa instead! And happy to see the staff were not wearing masks...although most of the customers were wearing them to stand and order and then remove once they were sat down - again this virus must only operate at certain elevation levels (yes I am being sarcastic!).

It was then time to try and chill out and while I attacked the jigsaw Simon jumped on the new bike! We are both aiming to get a little fitter by taking the time on the bike by attempting to achieve a zone two workout in...apparently this is best for heart health and is good for fat burning! This means, for me, working out with a heart rate of between 100 and 120 per minute. I've yet to have a go so I will report back at a later date. I am anticipating it being uncomfortable for two reasons; first I hate anything aerobic based and second I think it may be a little sore around the bottom and thigh area!!!

And with that I will take my glass of red, grab some chocolate and settle down for the evening in front of the TV.

Take care and I'll see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 632

Day 632...

And a day off from work! Having done some extra hours of late today was chance to take a day off in lieu of those hours.

It has in the main been a quiet day; I've updated my weekly grocery shop, got caught up on a few emails, did a little more online Christmas shopping, sorted through my handbags and purses and put a few more pieces into my current jigsaw.

About halfway through the day our electrician arrived to complete the final part of our electric car charging station installation by actually installing the charger itself. Unfortunately, when he went to test it he found that the unit was faulty! So he left for the day saying that he would be back as soon as he could get a replacement unit...we presumed that this would be Monday at the earliest.

And then just after 6pm there was a knock on the door, it was our electrician to let us know that the unit was now in and working!! Bless him he'd been able to get a replacement unit later this afternoon and had popped back to get the job completed and because it was being installed outside he'd been able to get it all done without us knowing he was even here!

So now we have the charging station we just need the car! I will be in touch with the garage tomorrow to see when we can arrange delivery...all very exciting with a touch of apprehension.

And to round out the day we are off out, out to see our favourite burlesque show, La De Da Cabaret hosted by the wonderful Scarlett Daggers. I think it's two years since our last La De Da - wow!

I will report back tomorrow to let you know how the night went.

See you then.
xx