Since we last spoke...

After a few weeks away from the keyboard I thought I would check back in with a bit of a look back over what I've been up to of late...and if truth be told I've attempted to start this post many times over.

It's not that I haven't had something to write but that I've simply gotten out of the habit of writing. Whilst doing my 'lockdown diary' (for want of a better description) I had a 'reason' for writing something every day. I had given myself a challenge of writing a record of what was happening to me and the world around me. But after completing 893 days worth of my diary I had begun to feel that all I was recording was the mundane, the every day happenings of my life and that if I was to write it needed to be less often and with more to write about.

I knew that recording my life as a 'diary' would have days where nothing much happened or nothing that I felt was worthy of being written down, and as the pandemic moved on and life became more 'normal' there was less for me to muse about and pass comment on. And on the odd occasion that I did venture out into the realm of opinions I was disappointed by the negativity levied my way in return. After all I was writing to document my life and my thoughts and not to please others. But I discovered that this did not sit well with my innate nature of wanting to please and not cause anyone upset...so I stopped writing. I didn't want any confrontation with anyone and I let that (and them) stop me doing what I wanted to do...so here we are and I am going to attempt to write more often than I have of late just because I want to.

So what have I been up to over the last six, or more, weeks?

Well, our usual routine has continued and we attempt to get out first thing most mornings for our daily walk. Weekdays we tend to be out and about around 8am and stick to a shorter route of a couple of miles while at the weekends we may stretch our legs a little further or simply venture into the likes of Nottingham for more of an urban stroll. Since getting a fitness tracker back in the middle of May I have now recorded just over 300 miles walked, which I think is pretty good going. Not only is it good for us physically to be out and about by simply moving and absorbing vitamin D, but there is something about being outside in the fresh air that is good for the sole. It also gives Simon and I the time together and the time to talk without the trappings of 'life' getting in the way.

Cold showers are still apart of my daily routine although I have drawn a line in the sand and am sticking to my limit of 3 minutes and 30 seconds! I understand the beneficial effects that cold showers can produce but it doesn't mean I have to like them! Simon is now persuading me to try the Wim Hof breathing method which I think I maybe taking him up on...I will report back at some point in the future and let you know how I fair!

Over the course of the last few months we have made a few tweaks to our diet and exercise routine. We are still following a keto/low carb way of eating but have reduced the saturated fat content to see if it can make any difference to our overall good health. We have also increased our strength training sessions from twice a week to three times a week with a further two workouts that concentrate on body-weight exercises aimed at core/abs and legs. We have found a doctor to work with who understands the keto way of eating and approach to a healthy well being and we are fine tuning what we do and how we do it. As part of that we are still using an intermittent fasting approach to our meals with our first meal of the day now being around lunchtime rather than first thing in the morning. All of these approaches seem to be working for us, both physically and mentally.

The beginning of September saw us take a little day trip over to Macclesfield to visit my tattooist Saint Heywood at Acadia Tattoo. It had been about thirteen months since my last tattoo and I still had a number of ideas for what I wanted and where. By the end of the day I came away with a new piece to my left leg, a small addition to my right wrist and Simon came away with some script to his right arm.

Left leg - Three Good Fairies from Sleeping Beauty; Fauna, Flora & Merryweather

My smaller tattoo was in remembrance of my dad who passed away in March. When my mum died in 2015 I had a small gold star inked on my wrist to remember her by, as we all inevitably become stardust when we pass, and so it was only fitting to have the same again in memory of my dad.

Gold star for my dad

Script for Simon...a quote from the book Slaughterhouse 5 'So it goes'

And I already have another date booked in the diary for the beginning of November as I still have more ideas for yet more Disney themed ink.

Around the middle of September we had another road trip and this time we headed over to Birmingham as we had a concert booked. We have been long time fans of an LA based band called She Wants Revenge who over their career have had moments where the band has no longer been together and so getting an opportunity to see them live in concert has been rare. We saw them for the first time in a very small nightclub in Sheffield back in 2012 and we thought that would be the only chance we ever got to see them. Fast forward to 2019 and an announcement that they were back together and touring which led to us seeing them in Islington in London; and again we thought that would be the last time we would see them live. And then lo and behold a new tour was announced which seemed initially to concentrate on the US but before long they announced dates for the UK and Europe and with a date announced for Birmingham it meant it was a no brainer for us as it was only an hour away. So the band we thought we would be extremely lucky to see once we have now seen three times, and each time we have seen them they have played small venues and each time they have been phenomenal.

A little later in September we were able to join our fellow Star Wars cosplayers at Huddersfield Comic Con as part of the East Midlands Garrison and spend a day making people smile, posing for photos and raising money for the charity PASIC. We opted for Stormtrooper for Simon and Governor Pryce for myself.

This was our first time out trooping since Simon had broken his wrist back in May and happily we have another date coming up towards the end of October with our good friends from Joker Squad.

And in other 'geek' news Simon was approached by the soon to be opening 'Derby Computer Museum' about his time working for Derby based computer games companies Gremlin Graphics and Core Design. Inside the museum there is a room dedicated to British computer games from their beginning up until around 1999 and Simon has been able to provide them with some artwork as well as a video interview. Core Design produced the game Rick Dangerous which Simon developed way back in 1988/89 and still to this day is the game he will get asked about more than any of the others he has worked on.

Simon was only too happy to get involved and donated a signed poster, scans of his original drawings and notes, as well as spending a couple of hours recording the interview. Although we did have a slight recording issue when memory cards became corrupted so he did have to sit for a second recording! But this did mean that on our second visit I was able to donate a working Nintendo Gameboy and games to add to their collection. The museum will be opening on Saturdays from the 3rd December and we have been invited to their launch party towards the end of November!

At the end of September we had a few days booked away to go and see Molly and Dan down in Bournemouth. The last time we'd seen them was in July when they had travelled to see us for a weekend so it was great to be able to take a few days off and spend a little longer with them. 

The visit also involved a trip to Ninja Warrior in Southampton! Molly and Dan had been there earlier in the year and were very keen to get Simon to have a go (they knew better than to ask me!!). Thankfully Simon had recovered from his broken wrist (with no help from the promised physiotherapy that never materialised!) and was more than happy to join in the fun. I took on the role of videographer and photographer for the day while they all threw themselves around from one obstacle to another. And whilst it was not something that I would do it was a great couple of hours of fun and sweat and was very well organised. There were two courses to complete as well as a very large inflatable course all of which you could complete as many times as you wanted within your booked session time. I think Simon was pretty pleased with his efforts and managed to 'keep up' with the 'young 'uns'!

Posing after two hours of warrior stuff!

Over the course of our time in Bournemouth we had some lovely meals out, walked lots of miles and encountered an arts festival that had taken over the whole of the town centre. There was even a 'Drum and Base on a Bike' event happening which took us slightly by surprise as we wandered through the town. It was a completely separate event to the arts festival and involved around 200 or more people cycling while drum and base music blasted out; it was a most peculiar, yet invigorating site to see.

On our way home from seeing Molly and Dan we took an extra night to stop over in Surrey so that we could catch up with Simon's work colleagues who are all based in that area. Simon had not seen his colleagues in person since February of 2020!!

Just before we embarked on our time away down South I decided to buy myself a camera; a proper DSLR camera! Photography is something I've fancied having a go at and have never really had the time or the inclination. With Molly having studied photography and subsequently set up her own business (Shutter Studios) I've always hand someone on hand should I need something 'proper'! My photography is normally limited to my phone...which to be fair does a really decent job but I wanted the challenge of learning a set of new skills, and proving to myself that I can rise to the challenge.

So over the course of our time away and the last few weeks I have started to use the camera and begun to figure out what all the buttons mean and even dip my toes into the proper lingo. Although I do feel the need to carve out sometime to watch videos and read up on the subject so that I can get the best out of it. The organised side of my personality wants to learn how to do this all 'properly' and in a logical orderly fashion and the challenge for me will be to 'just have a go' and figure it all out on the fly. So this will be a challenge not only from a technical stand point but also allowing myself the time and the creativity to simply try and not worry about conforming to any 'rules'!!

And before I waffle on anymore I think I will bring this post to an end and make a start on the next one!

See you soon.
xx

Day 441

Day 441...

Well after another night of rubbish sleep - thanks menopause! - we were a little late getting moving this morning but once up and about it turned into a busy and productive day.

First job of the day was to take Molly out for another drive. As she has insurance paid for a couple of weeks we are aiming to get her out and about at least once a day. We have found a route of around 15 miles which provides her with lots of different circumstances; left turns, right turns, parked cars, traffic lights, roundabouts, a railway crossing, busy roads and quieter roads and we even had roadworks today.

Back home I decided to do a little pre-school work to get ahead of myself so that when I'm back in work next week I can hit the ground running, so to speak. So I managed to write two newsletters, schedule emails and social media posts as well as completing all the necessary administration for two children who will be starting with us next week.

After a spot of lunch it was time to get the mountain of ironing sorted; I had hoped to get it done earlier in the day while it was a bit cooler but as it was it wasn't too bad and it is always a lovely feeling to see an empty basket. Not that it will stay empty for long!

Molly has spent a good part of her day taking photographs of some of her latest artwork that will be for sale on her Etsy store. She has created some lino prints and having printed them earlier in the week she was now photographing them ready for listing them. This did mean the dining table turned into a photography studio for a few hours but it did mean that I could borrow her light boxes later on for my own photography project!

The majority of my afternoon and early evening was spent using an app called Photomyne to scan our old photos and create a digital version of them. Simon had used the app last year to scan in around 3000 photos from his parents so we have decided to do the same with ours to cut down on the amount of storage space that photo albums take up. So I started at a random point and have managed to scan in around 60 photos from 1988! Once they'd been scanned it was a case of uploading them and then editing each photo with as much information as I could. Thankfully I used to write on the back of the photos any pertinent information; dates, places and even names of people...I just hope that continues as I wade through all the photos we have. I have from 1985 up to around the early 2000's I would think...wish me luck as I think this may take some time!

Take care and see you tomorrow.
xx

A Photoshoot by Shutter Studios

Day 221...

So as we turned back the clocks one hour last night and can now fully embrace the autumnal season I thought I would change my little icon at the top of these posts to something more appropriate.

The day started with the usual Sunday online grocery shop ready for collection tomorrow, and then we got ready for an afternoon out!

Molly had been asked by my sister-in-law if she could take some photos for her and so our afternoon out was to help Molly with this photoshoot. My sister-in-law runs a small business called China Petals where she makes mosiacs from fine china. She has a small studio space and had asked Molly if she could take some photographs to be used in publicity; some shots of the studio, of her at work and some headshots.

So armed with camera and lightboxes we spent a few hours this afternoon as photographers assistant and driver. Molly did a great job and took over 350 photos which she now needs to go through and edit

Once home we had time for a coffee before jumping online to join in with the weekly Disney Dream Girls podcast Disney quiz. This week I had come up with questions all about the movie Hocus Pocus and my partner in crime, Michelle, had done the same all about the film The Nightmare Before Christmas. Another fun hour chatting with Disney loving friends from around the world.

Simon has been working on an art commission for a contact in the US and some digital drawing for himself as well as a little VR time travelling around an art gallery! All in all, today has turned out to be quite a creative sort of day.

Until tomorrow, take care out there; wash your hands, keep your distance and wear a mask.

xx