Day 821 & Day 822 - The Weekend

Day 821...Saturday

It was a relatively early start for a Saturday morning but there was no walk to be had as I was playing taxi driver for the men of the family as they had appointments at the barbers.

Back home and we had a mid-morning breakfast which was slightly earlier than of late for Simon and I. Next on the agenda was to order a new paper shredder as I have a lot of mine and my dads paperwork to go through, sort and re-organise and I know there will be a lot to get rid of. I also had to order some suspension files for the new filing cabinet that I've yet to use. I had ordered some files when we'd bought the cabinet a couple of months ago but unfortunately I'd ordered the wrong size which I didn't discover until this morning - oops!

Simon and I then headed out for a coffee; it was a grey and drizzly day and not overly conducive to going out and about, so we opted to stay dry and hydrated! We stopped by a DIY store on the way home as we wanted to check out some options for putting extra shelves in the new cupboards in our study/craft room.

The day was brought to a close by watching this weeks episode of RuPauls Drag Race All Stars season 7.

Day 822...Sunday...Father's Day

The day started with the giving of gifts from the 'kids' to Simon; Spiderman No Way Home on BluRay, some Deliciously Guilt Free goodies and an on-trend black bracelet.

With just a coffee to fuel us we headed into Nottingham for the day. We needed to exchange a shirt that Simon had bought last weekend as the sleeves were too tight and we also popped into Primark to pick up another pair of jeans for Simon as the ones he'd bought last week were so good he thought he'd get an extra pair. 

We then headed for a coffee before our main reason for visiting Nottingham; to attend Dr Sketchy's. This is a regular life drawing event that makes use of burlesque performers as their models. Hosted by the lovely Scarlett Daggers it is always a great way to pass a few hours on a Sunday afternoon. Although, today we decided that after the first half of the event we'd had enough and decided to head home. Simon was battling with his left hand being a little sore and simply wasn't enjoying the event as much as normal so having enjoyed what we'd done we called it a day and went home.

By the time we arrived home we were feeling a little peckish and so broke our 'fast' with some scrambled egg. This is the longest we have fasted for so far, managing about 21 hours.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with Simon doing some of his own personal digital art while I caught up with the online grocery shopping. My brother popped by as we had some paperwork from the solicitors that needed signing so that we can finally get my dad's estate sorted. It is taking them so long and we are beginning to think it would have been quicker if we'd done it all our selves. But we can't change that now we just have to go with the process and hope that the end is in sight.

And that was my weekend...see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 801

Day 801...

A nice and steady Sunday after yesterday's long day trooping.

As much as we love trooping two days back to back as some of our fellow geeks are doing can take its toll. There is a lot of standing around and holding poses which leaves you with muscle aches in the strangest of places. Simon finds his inner forearm aches from holding his blaster (which is actually quite heavy) as he holds it pretty much in the same position all day. I tend to stand in one position to look like a stern imperial officer, often with arms held behind my back so I find my biceps can ache along with the backs of my legs. My boots still need a bit of wearing in so by the end of the day my feet and ankles had had enough but thankfully today they have felt pretty good.

So we were able to have a much more relaxed start to our day and once we had collected our weekly grocery shop we (okay Simon) had the job of cleaning up and storing away our kit from yesterday.

My kit is straight forward and the only thing I will need to do at some point is to sponge clean the neck of my uniform jacket. Simon on the other hand needed to give his stormtrooper armour a clean and store it back in its storage trunk neatly. We thought a piece of elastic that keeps the shoulder straps in place had been lost but it turned out to have just slipped underneath and out of sight. He then took the opportunity to re-whiten his boots and make a slight repair to his blaster where he'd noticed a section was feeling a little looser than it should. But all in all that was pretty good going for our first troop out in over two years!

This afternoon we were joined by our good friend Michelle as she had driven down to spend a few hours with us before we went out for the evening. We managed to squeeze in a little 2 mile walk before grabbing a bite to eat and heading off into Nottingham.

This was our second weekend of burlesque and cabaret and today we were at The Gilded Merkin held at The Glee Club in Nottingham and produced by, and starring once more, the delightful Scarlett Daggers. Another great show and I cannot recommend highly enough trying one of these nights. Tonight we had traditional burlesque, juggling, fire eating, sword swallowing, comedy burlesque, more comedy and singing!

But it is late and so I will sign off for today and see you tomorrow.
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 760

Day 760...

Easter Sunday...although in our family it should be simply called 'excuse for some chocolate day'!!

As I am such a softie I still get my 'kids' easter eggs despite one living away from home and the other being 24! Molls and Dan got their eggs last weekend but poor Ethan had to wait till today. On the plus side I won't be pinching any of Ethan's chocolate as the majority is his favourite white...way too sweet for me. I shall enjoy some 90% dark after I've finished writing this blog piece.

But after a very relaxed start to the day we headed off into Nottingham for Dr Sketchy's, our regular burlesque themed life drawing event. Organised by the delightful Scarlett Daggers the event runs once every few months and features a model and a performer. Today we were joined by pin-up model Nora Drenaline who gave us some fabulous poses and then we were entertained by the ever wonderful Anna Fur Laxis. The afternoon starts off with some quick one, two and five minute poses and then continues with some ten and fifteen minute ones. Mid-way we have a burlesque performance and I cannot recommend seeing Anna Fur Laxis enough she is an absolute delight as well as being cheeky and funny.

 And the afternoon is completed with even longer twenty minute poses...here are some of my efforts...please remember I am not an artist! I simply have a pencil, paper and an eraser (while sat next to Simon with his digital drawing tablet!);

And that's how we celebrate Easter Sunday...burlesque performers and life drawing in a pub in Nottingham on a lovely sunny day.

Today was a bit of a Disney, punk vibe!

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 705

Day 705...

Another wet, windy and grey day but that did not stop us getting out of the house.

We had another event to attend today and this time it involved our 'pencils' as it was time for the first Dr Sketchy's Nottingham of the year.

We enjoyed an afternoon of life drawing with a little burlesque thrown in for good measure. And while Simon used his digital drawing tablet I stuck with the more traditional paper, pencil and eraser!

The afternoon started with model Pixie Trix, posing for a number of short poses; 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes and a 10 minute pose to get us all warmed up!

Next we were entertained by the glorious Mysti Vine with a burlesque routine before she gave us a 15 minute pose. 

Mysti Vine

After a short break we had two twenty minute poses to finish out the afternoon. 

Pixie Trix

Mysti Vine

We then had a very wet and squally drive home as we seemed to being battered by yet another storm, the third to hit the UK in about as many days!

So I think it's time to curl up in front of the TV with red wine and chocolate and ignore the wind howling around.

See you tomorrow.
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

Day 88

Day 88...

Today started like a typical lazy Sunday with a struggle to get out of bed!

But once up and about it was straight down to our supermarket of choice to fetch our 'collect' order. Me and Molly have this down to a fine art and were a little disappointed as we had to wait for our shopping to be brought out to us! Once home it was the usual routine of wipe everything down, get rid of as much packaging as possible, wash all the fresh food and then pack everything away.

By the time that was done it was make a coffee and settle down for a couple of hours of drawing as it was another online Dr Sketchy's Nottingham; hosted by the ever lovely Scarlett Daggers and poses by one of our most favourite burlesque performers Anna Fur Laxis. Now I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination but I will happily have a go...nothing fancy just pencil and paper...here are a few of my efforts from today;

Afterwards armed with another coffee I thought I would spend a few minutes sat outside on the patio; as I sat down there was a rumble of thunder...I think I lasted about five minutes before the rain started! So back inside and I decided to start a new jigsaw...this is another Disney one from their Villainous range and based around the villain Jafar.

Slow progress is being made...have you seen how similar all those edge pieces look?! Although I did get a new jigsaw delivered today as well, ready for when this one is complete...and yes it's another Disney one...but this is 2000 pieces - eek!

And then to finish out the day there was another Disney Zoom quiz hosted by the podcast I co-host, Disney Dream Girls. I had set five questions all relating to Disneyland in Anaheim and then we had some music and movie related questions. Between me and Molly we didn't do too badly but the most important thing was that we had a good giggle and enjoyed the opportunity to chat with people from all over the world.

And that was today...a lazy Sunday that turned out to be not that lazy after all.

And tomorrow we re-open pre-school for the first time since the 19th March.

Take care out there,

xx

Day 53

Day 53...

OK so today has, surprise surprise, been another quiet day. Simon has been heads down working on his latest art commission piece as he is determined to get it finished sooner rather than later.

We had a little interlude this afternoon with another online version of Dr Sketchy's Nottingham. Once again hosted by the lovely Scarlett Daggers and with poses and a performance from Coco Deville. Here are a few of my attempts!

 

And then this evening we had Boris Johnson unveil the UK's plan for coming out of the lockdown...I think...maybe...perhaps. It really was as clear as a pint of mud! Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (who last time I checked were still part of the UK) have all said let's keep staying at home, let's review again in about 3 weeks, let's not speculate on schools just yet but we will let you go out to exercise more than once a day - I think that's all very sensible.

And then we get Boris saying that in England we have to 'stay alert' - WTF does that mean? How can I stay alert for something that is invisible! And for some reason Wednesday is the day we can go out and exercise more...we can sit in a park or drive somewhere to exercise...err I think I'll stick to my local walks and sitting on my patio thank you very much. Oh and then tomorrow if you aren't working you can go back but only if you don't use public transport...so you're telling us this at 7pm before we should be back working in what 12 hours tops?! Really? How is that supposed to work? What have employers done to make it safe to go back to work? Did employers even know that was going to be announced? What do the employees feel about it all? So many questions!

Oh so it's now okay to exercise some more, play sports (but only with members of my household) and to go to work BUT I can't go see my dad or my brother...it really does not make any logical sense.

And then apparently schools will partially re-open in June to certain year groups, now I see a lot of government emails from the education department and this has not been mentioned. I know some schools are open for keyworkers children but these are small numbers and working safely with small numbers is totally different to opening for  various year groups which in some schools could be 100+ pupils - ridiculous. Again, have they even thought whether parents feel comfortable sending their children back to school, never mind what the teaching staff and unions think? And how exactly did they determine which year groups should go back and what was the thinking behind sending back very young primary school children when social distancing still needs to be adhered to - have you seen children when they get together?

Why, oh why, can't we just keep staying home, keep our heads down and hope that we get the infection rate as low as we can. Why risk all the good work achieved over the last 7 weeks or so? It will be interesting (and that doesn't feel the right word to use) to see whether we get an increase in cases in about two weeks time in reaction to the stupidity seen over the weekend in some areas along with the easing of these 'restrictions'. It will unfortunately be a matter of only time will tell and that, to be frank, makes me extremely angry, annoyed, disappointed and very sad.

STAY HOME, TAKE CARE

xx

Day 40

Day 40...

Welcome to Monday and another week of lockdown. Simon has been busy sorting Mandalorian helmets to ship out as the two he has made over the last few days are all ready to go.

Two helmets ready to go

I've been chatting with friends and everyone seems to be doing okay, getting used to this new way of life and swapping shopping stories. I have one friend who has just had a COVID-19 test and is waiting for the results so my thoughts keep turning to her and I keep checking in to make sure she's doing alright.

I think the strange thing at the moment is that we find ourselves settling into this new way of life and that it is quickly becoming the new normal. We are able to work from home; we are able to get out for a walk each day; we have sorted out the way we want to shop; we have minimised our physical interactions with the outside world and we now just accept all that.

But it can be so frustrating and confusing trying to figure out where all this is taking us. Trying to figure out who to listen to and who to believe. Wondering why our country seems to be doing so badly compared to other countries. Should we have acted earlier, should we have been stricter with our lockdowns, should there be restrictions on entering and leaving the country, should anyone arriving in the country go straight into quarantine - so many questions but getting answers is difficult and bewildering and can leave us with a sense of hopelessness. So by getting on with the new normal we find ourselves on an emotional rollercoaster moving from acceptance to worry to questioning to wondering if we will ever get back to the way we were...

As I looked at the calendar hung up in the kitchen today I realised that this was supposed to be a very busy week for us. Molly should have had her music school's annual concert yesterday; tonight we had tickets to see Nick Offerman in stand-up; I had a night out with my work colleagues pencilled in for Thursday; Friday we had tickets for The Gilded Merkin at the Spiegeltent (Burlesque show) and then Sunday we were planning on trooping Star Wars style with our fellow cosplayer's from the East Midlands Garrison at a local comic-con - wow, that's a lot of stuff to be missing out on!

Simon and I from last December, trooping at Nottingham Hospital's Children's Christmas Party

At the beginning of the year we decided to make sure we had things to look forward to after having had a year where we had not been able to do as much as we would have liked. So we had been finding events that we wanted to go to, putting them on the calendar, buying tickets and booking hotels...so to see a calendar with lots of things crossed out is really disheartening.

But we accept that for now we have to batten down the hatches and just see it through till the other side.

xx

Day 39

Day 39...

So our Sunday has turned out to be quite crafty and arty! Simon set to this morning demolding a Mandalorian helmet and then cleaning up the two that he his made this last couple of days so that they are in a position to get shipped.

This afternoon we then settled down for a couple of hours of life drawing. A couple of weeks ago we were due to attend in person Dr Sketchy's in Nottingham but as this couldn't take place it was re-organised to be an online event via Facebook live. Hosted by the lovely Scarlett Daggers, Dr Sketchy's is a combination of burlesque and art, and is a very relaxed couple of hours of drawing for all abilities.

After the success of the first online event Scarlett had organised another for this afternoon with the delightful Cherry Shakewell providing the poses as well as a cheeky little performance! The event consists of a number of 1 minute, 2 minute, 5 minute, 10 minute and 15 minute poses before concluding with a 30 minute pose. At the Nottingham event we have DJ Spike providing an eclectic mix of music everything from indie rock, retro tracks, random cover versions and the odd comedy track and today he was able to join us via Twitch.

2 minute poses

5 minute pose

10 minute pose

10 minute pose

15 minute pose

30 minute pose

Decided I would make the effort and dress up a bit as I would have done had we been physically going to Dr Sketchy's in Nottingham...

Now I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination but I have to say I was quite pleased with today's results and felt a little more confident in my abilities...looking forward to the next one on the 10th May. Check out their Facebook page - Dr Sketchy's Nottingham

It has been quite nice today to be doing stuff even if it had to be virtual...I think we all need things to do to distract us from the situation and from the noise of news media and social media. Everyone seems to have an opinion, and all opinions seem to be opposite of each other and I'm not sure how that is supposed to make me feel. Who do we believe? Who should we believe? Why is one doctors opinion better than another? At a time when we all want answers the answers seem to be some what confusing. In the meantime I am going to stay home, I will do my bit to give the NHS the room to breathe that it needs and to protect and keep safe those that I love and care about and that's all I can do at the moment.

xx