Day 878

Day 878...

Today has been all about droids!

We took a drive over to Harper Adams University in Shropshire where the Droid Builders UK were holding a weekend of droid building fun. When we arrived we realised that we had been to this university once before when we cosplayed as our Mandalorians at a small comic con aimed at families with children with special educational needs. But today the focus was on droids, and as it was rather warm again today cosplaying in Mandalorian armour would not have been very pleasant.

Now Simon has built a full size R2D2 which lives in our living room, his head spins around, he lights up and makes all the appropriate beeps and boops but he does not move around by remote control. He is also rather large and will not fit in our car so he had to stay at home but we were able to take Simon's MSE (mouse) droid with us instead.

When we arrived and got checked in we were given special event lanyards and welcomed into the fold. Everyone was so lovely and welcoming and happy to chat all things droids.

For Simon he was actually able to meet people in person who up to this point he had only ever spoken with over forums. It was a great atmosphere of sharing stories, tips, build journeys and asking questions...oh and of course there were droids!

After a lovely few hours it was time to head home. This was the first time in a while that we'd attempted a longer car journey and weren't sure whether we would need to re-charge on the way home. But thankfully, and probably due to the warm weather and using 'eco' mode, we managed both journeys and still had 55 miles left in the 'tank'! We are still getting used to the electric car and these longer journeys but this does bode well for when I get tattooed next month as I will need to travel a similar sort of distance!

And I think that is where I will leave it for today, see you tomorrow.
xx

It's Saturday!

Day 220...

Welcome to the weekend and the first day of my week off work.

A relaxed start to the day followed by taking Molly to her guitar lesson which meant we took advantage of a drive thru coffee while we waited. In more normal times we would have gone inside the aforementioned coffee shop but for now we will stick to the drive thru. But the lovely thing was that the staff there still remember us; the knock-on effect of visiting the same establishment at the same time week after week for a good number of years!

By the time we got home the weather had turned quite grey and wet so any thoughts of getting out for an afternoon walk were quashed. But in true gentlemanly style when I mentioned that I needed something from our garage which meant going outside in the pouring rain Simon grabbed an umbrella and braved the elements just as it decided to rain even heavier...must be true love 💘 

I then did something that I never normally do which was to stop, sit down and watch a film in the middle of the afternoon. Well I did have a reason for this; it was all done in the name of research. Tomorrow is our regular Disney Dream Girls weekly Disney quiz and I had been tasked with coming up with questions about the movie Hocus Pocus. I could have just googled it, or read about it on Wikipedia, but instead I decided to refresh my memory and come up with questions myself. 

Literally feet up and movie time!

It was great fun to revisit the film and I am pretty happy with the seventeen questions that I have come up with. Let's hope they are a good mixture of tricky and straight forward!

I had another Disney brown box arrive mid-afternoon with some more Christmassy bits and pieces.

And I couldn't resist getting some Disney Christmas earrings as well...

...and I am in love with the artwork that's on the back of the box of baubles...

The remainder of the afternoon was spent getting a few more Halloween decorations scattered around the house while Simon completed his Star Wars, MSE droid project; this has been on the go for about a year and has not only included 3D printing, metalwork, resin casting but also electronics. You can see more on Simons art page over on Facebook.

There we have Saturday done and dusted, and now it's time for red wine and dark chocolate - I know how to live it up on a Saturday night!!

Take care out there, wash your hands, keep your distance and wear a mask.

xx

Sunday again...

Day 214...

Well it was a slow start to the day but after all it was Sunday and we didn't really have anything planned.

Once up and about I had what is the now usual Sunday morning job of updating my online grocery shopping order ready for collection tomorrow. And while I did that Simon was tinkering with the mouse droid he is building as he is working towards getting the electronics working so that it 'beeps and boops'!

We then got on our walking shoes and set off for a little Sunday afternoon stroll...well we managed 3.5 miles in about and hour and 15 minutes. We took a walk that we haven't done for a while and it was interesting to notice the change in the scenery. We commented that when we first started walking back in March everywhere was just starting to bud and come to life. We have then seen everywhere blossom, get very green and very overgrown and now we are seeing it all start to die back, change colour and are seeing a whole new range of colours emerge. We really are getting to see the circle of life in full effect.

Once home we decided to enjoy a coffee, and a small piece of dark chocolate, outside in the garden. The only downside to this was a few wasps that thought we were fair game! So a little internet research ensued to find out whether there was any particular way to ward off wasps. Well, apparently they don't like the colour red and they are also very territorial. So one way is to make a fake wasps nest as then they won't approach...so thanks to the power of Amazon we have, for £3.00, ordered a fake wasp nest to see whether that will actually work!! I will let you know!

The rest of the afternoon was spent with a little more Ebaying, some online shopping and some more mouse droid tinkering for Simon....and here is said droid...

An MSE droid to name it correctly

So we have working sounds but, as I understand it, Simon wants the sounds to be linked to it's movement and that is what he is currently working on...apparently it involves accelerometers!

The day was rounded out with our regular Sunday evening Disney quiz, hosted by the podcast I co-host, the Disney Dream Girls. Today the quiz was all about the animated classic The Adventures of Ichabod & Mr Toad and we need pretty well...in fact we won! Which means we get to set the questions for next week and I think we have agreed to set them around the movie Hocus Pocus which means I will need to re-watch it this week I think.

While me and Molly were quizzing Simon has been immersing himself in more of his VR games, getting to grips with Vadar Immortal...a Star Wars game...and he's loving it by all accounts.

Another Sunday done and another day where we have managed to stay clear of real world antics...

Stay safe, take care out there...wash your hands, keep your distance and wear a mask.

xx