Feeling inspired and ready to get back on the blogging train
so thought I would wait until the tail end of 2016 and blast you all with a
whistle-stop tour of my year (not all in one go you will be glad to see!)
So here goes with instalment 1, Jan to April – we all know
that 2016 has been a pretty crap year for lots of people and for lots of
reasons. This has been no different for me either, it has seen some bloody damn
horrible lows but it has made me incredibly grateful for the bright spots and
good things that happened too.
My friend Jane and I came up with a plan back in 2015 to do new thing each month – this hasn’t always happened, sometimes life gets in
the way, but we have done some very cool things throughout the year. We went to
the opera to see La Boheme in Feb, lowered the average audience age by a good
40 years and felt somewhat out of place with all the real cultured people. To
my shame I didn’t have clue what was going on but we stayed til the end and I
only fell asleep once! I do remember feeling slightly confused by the gloves
worn by Mimi in her (spoiler alert!) death scene. They looked like giant pork
chops which somewhat detracted from the feel of the moment and I am sure this
is not what the costume designer had in mind.....
I visited my Dad and stepmother in Denmark with DD in Feb
too. This was a short trip but we packed lots in. We visited the Hans Christian
Anderson museum, which includes the house where he was born. DD enjoyed this as
she loves HCA stories. Highlight was her trying to describe a storyline she
vaguely remembered to the confused lady in the shop who loved a challenge and
wasn’t going to give up! Thank goodness the Danes have a better grasp of
English than we do of Danish – we got there in the end, it was ‘Big Claus and
Little Claus’. We also went to see the Viking ship burial at Ladby. This is the
only ship burial where the ship is still in the mound. The display is
breathtaking and very atmospheric. We were lucky enough to be the only ones
there when we went – lots of time to take in the mood of the place. They were also
putting the finishing touches to a replica ship when we went. Totally life size
and built using traditional methods, it was very impressive.
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| Detail from the ship |
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| All the skeletons of the horses are still there.. |
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| The replica - almost finished |
I really valued the family time too –
something that we don’t get enough of. I probably don’t tell them how much I
miss them either.....
Other highlights of the first part of the year were music
related. DS#1 had his first gig at a uni bar which we went along to. We got
about 2 words from him while he chilled with friends but we were well impressed
with his bass playing!
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Musical highlight 2 was also with DS#1 where I
accompanied him to London to see Muse at the O2. Now I have to admit to having
only a vague knowledge of Muse before buying the tickets but I was sent a
playlist to better acquaint myself with some of their well known tunes. DS#1
and I spent a lovely day together exploring London and Greenwich in the rain. I
ended up giving in and buying an umbrella, at which point the rain stopped! We
walked along the river from Greenwich to the O2 in good time for the gig – it was
a spectacular show although I had not researched enough before hand and didn’t
realise the floaty balls were actually drones! This would have made a bit more
sense of the show and I would have been a lot more astounded at the display. Oh
well, my first resolution for 2017 shall be ‘research before you go!’
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| You don't want to know how long it took to get this picture with the 'Muse' in the right place! |
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| Drones - not beach balls |
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| Bloody spectacular show |
Please do check in again for instalment 2 where our intrepid
heroine has the best and worst days of the year, has an amazing hair adventure
and doesn’t get drowned!
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