Day 507

Day 507...

We have reached yet another Saturday and it was a fairly busy day.

Ethan had a hair appointment first thing, to which Simon played taxi service and Molly had her usual guitar lesson but as her fella was here she had her own personal taxi service.

Simon, Ethan and I then ventured into Nottingham for a bit of retail therapy. Having helped Ethan sort through his wardrobe the other night we were hoping to replenish and revamp. So by the end of the trip Ethan had bought some trainers, belt, socks and a t-shirt, I'd bought myself a bracelet and we'd enjoyed a Five Guys burger and a pit stop for a coffee.

Although it was funny when we stopped for the burger as Simon opened his bun-less burger to find the salad and toppings but no actual burger! They were very apologetic and sorted Simon with a complete new order which meant he ended up with double salad and toppings.

While we shopped Molly and Dan were also in Nottingham but they were at the ice arena for an hour of skating.

The rest of the day was spent drinking coffee, a little reading for me and for Simon some more digital art work being created.

Time for wine, keto pizza and chill.

See you tomorrow.
xx
 

Day 506

Day 506...

We had another relaxed start to the day and with the weather forecast being a little mixed we decided to stay close to home and head into Derby.

We had a quick stop by the post office on the way as the prop piece Simon had re-cast yesterday was successful and needed sending on its way. We arrived in Derby to very grey skies and a couple of short sharp rain showers, but armed with our umbrellas we soldiered on.

As we know Derby pretty well so we decided to head off in a different direction to normal to see if it led us on undiscovered paths. As it was we found ourselves at the new Museum of Making which we had said we would pay a visit to but we weren't completely sure of where it was. Suffice to say it was a lot closer to the main centre than I thought it was.

The museum is in an old silk mill and was a lovely space to wander around and was free to enter. And while the museum were asking for guests to wear masks and to 'check-in' to the track and trace program we politely declined. It was sad to note that only a handful of guests were brave enough to wander around without a mask although plenty were happy to sit in the main entrance hallway without masks to enjoy refreshments from the cafe...just doesn't make sense to me...what is the difference between sitting down eating to standing up looking at exhibits? We're all in the same air space!

But anyway we really enjoyed our look around the museum, celebrating the 'making' ethos of Derby;

In the main hallway they have suspended a Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine which is not only very impressive but also gave me and Simon some Star Wars pod racing vibes!

There was lots of fascinating insight into the industries that have been an integral part of Derby from railways to engines to clothing and even video games as we found a small display linking to the two Derby based video game companies that Simon has worked for; Core Design and Eurocom!

Being studious!

As we then walked around the city we found a few of the ram sculptures that form part of the city's 'ram trail'...

And in between finding sculptures we enjoyed a coffee and a little unplanned shopping. Our intention wasn't to shop but Simon suggested having a look in one of my favourite shops 'Damaged Society' as we haven't visited in a long while...and purchases were made...

Hell Bunny trousers

Fearless Illustration skirt

So I think a few hours were well spent today!

And to round out the day Molly and her fella arrived home...a bit of long drive home for them but home nonetheless.

See you tomorrow.

xx

Day 505 - Lazy Thursday

Day 505...

So today has been a rather lazy day and so there is not much to report about.

After getting up rather late we decided to get a few jobs done around the house this morning. Simon had to re-cast the prop order from yesterday as when he took it out the mould the cast was not great so he'd decided it was better, and easier, to just cast again. We also measured up a couple of areas in the garden that we were thinking would be good for some new fencing and in particular some composite fencing. Well, suffice to say, by the time we'd measured and then priced up using a certain DIY store we changed our mind!

After lunch we had a quick trip out to a local supermarket for a handful of items we were running low on and marvelled at the number of people who still feel inclined to wear a mask. It was quite noticeable that yesterday being in a busy city centre the attitude seemed to be different with a much greater number of people happy to show their smile as opposed to a small town today. 

The rest of the afternoon saw Simon creating some more digital art while I did a little sorting through some old documents. Amazingly I found some old certificates from my school days including a college certificate that had an accompanying letter that advised that the year I'd taken the exam the qualification board were reviewing their grading scheme and only awarding pass or fails but that ordinarily I would have received a distinction! I had no memory of this at all...mind you it was 34 years ago!!

We then hit the 'gym' (aka our garage) and while Simon lifted the heavy stuff I stuck to a few body-weight exercises and some light kettle bells. Next we helped Ethan have a bit of a clear out of his wardrobe, and managed to discover he had jeans he's never worn as well as get rid of some very worn out jeans and t-shirts! I think we may have a shopping trip ahead of us this weekend.

And with a dinner of steak and salad that was our lazy Thursday.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 504 - Art and Arboretum

Day 504...

Today saw us take a trip into Nottingham to appreciate and experience what is on our doorstep and can, therefore, get taken for granted.

Our first stop of the day was to visit the Nottingham Contemporary art gallery. This has been open a few years now and we have talked about visiting but have never gotten around to it. It is a lovely space, very calm and relaxed with a quirky gift shop and a lovely cafe.

We took a walk around the exhibits which were by Erika Verzutti and Melanie Matranga; I will admit that I connected more with the works by Verzutti although I fear I do not have the eye for art that perhaps others do! But both exhibits were interesting nonetheless...first photos are works by Verzutti...

...these are installations by Matranga...

We then enjoyed a coffee in the sunshine...

...and then it was time for a little walk through the city centre with a couple of stops in shops. Although dipping into Primark for a potential Disney themed purchase left me a little disappointed as there was nothing really to choose from.

But the great thing was that in all the shops we went into we noticed that the majority of shoppers were mask free and that shop employees were a mix of masked and unmasked. It was lovely to see smiley faces and know that employers were letting their employees make their own decisions about whether they wanted, or were happy, to wear masks.

We had a quick bite for lunch at Five Guys which is great for us keto and carnivore diet people as you can order all their burgers without the bun. They will either pop the burgers in a lettuce wrap or, like us, you can have them in a 'bowl'; double bacon cheeseburgers for both of us with toppings of our choosing went down a treat. We then went in search of a decent coffee, courtesy of Caffe Nero, before heading off for another wander.

We then found ourselves walking through Nottingham Arboretum which I am ashamed to say I have never visited before today. Simon remembers spending time there when he was a student at the nearby Trent Polytechnic (now Nottingham Trent University) but that was a fair few years ago!

And then I find out when we get home that there is a possible Disney connection! It may have possibly been the inspiration for JM Barrie's Neverland as apparently he lived in Nottingham - who knew!! But now I do it will be somewhere to visit again and explore a little more.

It was then time to head home. Simon had a little prop casting to do as he'd had an order come through and I had a couple of admin bits to get done. But now it's time to stop, enjoy some very dark chocolate and a small glass of red.

See you tomorrow.

xx

Day 503 - Chat, Chat and more Chat

Day 503...

Well today has turned out to be a rather talkative day.

My morning was spent chatting with my podcast co-host, Michelle; yes I know we saw each other yesterday but today was for official purposes as we set about recording the next episode of the Disney Dream Girls podcast. 

We recorded one show to be released this coming Sunday where we chatted about some Disney history as well as looked at some upcoming events. And then we recorded a show for our Patreon subscribers; we chatted about our plans for the summer and then played a guessing game about current ride wait times at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. Let's just say I was doing the guessing and my guessing wasn't all that great! Although I did comment that the current wait times didn't seem to be too much different to a 'normal' summer which when you consider that the parks are supposedly operating on a reduced capacity puts into question just what that reduced capacity actually is?!

After a brief stop for lunch we then spent the remainder of the day catching up with an old friend who came to visit. We chatted, we drank coffee, Simon showed off his R2D2 and Star Wars prop builds, we drank some more coffee and carried on chatting and before we knew it the afternoon had disappeared. But it was great to catch up, reminisce and talk about our future plans.

And that was our day...Oh and because it was bin collection day today we had some freshly empty garden refuse bins so we spent a little while this evening filling them with all the branches and remains of tree from our garden that we could possibly squeeze in. Plus we added some of the drier pieces to our fire pit and set them burning! We still have some of the larger root pieces to get rid of which will involve a visit to our local recycling centre but otherwise we have been able to get rid of everything!

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 502 - Road Trip

Day 502...

Road trip! This morning we headed north to visit my good friend, and podcast co-host, Michelle.

Although we'd managed to meet up for a shopping trip back in May this was the first time in forever that we'd actually had a proper get together and catch-up. And it was the first time I'd been able to see her new house.

It took us about an hour and 40 minutes to get there and the sat nav took us over the moors and up and down some very twisty, turny and narrow roads but we had some spectacular views along the way.

The day was spent chatting, drinking coffee, a little food (keto of course!), more coffee and a trip out to Ogden Water where we enjoyed a walk around the reservoir and nature reserve.

A beautiful space to have a wander and Michelle is very lucky to have this on her doorstep. But with our exercise done for the day we headed back to Michelle's for another coffee before heading home.

We have had a lovely day out and it was great to be doing something 'normal' and like the 'old times'! 

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 501

Day 501...

Well I think this will be a short post today as it is now quite late on in the day and it has been a day spent pretty much at home.

We had a short trip out first thing this morning to go and fetch this weeks grocery shop but once back home we were home for the day and our focus was the garden.

We had started last week to remove a few trees and plants from our courtyard garden and today we decided that we would see how much of the remaining trees we could remove. We started last weekend with three very well established conifer trees and a California lilac bush; all of which had been in situ for about 24 or 25 years and were rather well established!

But with the loan of an axe from a neighbough we (well Simon) started to attack what was remaining of the aforementioned trees. Suffice to say after about five hours hard work we had managed to remove all of the trees, plus their roots and cut down as much as we could all of the branches and twigs to reduce them to as small a pile of rubbish as possible. We are hoping that we can get rid of most of this in our bi-weekly garden rubbish collection, although the bigger roots may need to be taken to our local recycling centre.

I had just enough time to jump in the shower to freshen up before I jumped online for our Sunday afternoon Disney quiz as part of the Disney Dream Girls podcast that I help co-host. I had set some of the questions this week but did pretty poorly on the other questions set!

And that was Sunday...time for dinner and then an evening of relaxing I think.

See you tomorrow.
xx