Birthday Celebrations (for old people)

Blue Skies and Tall Masts

I haven’t really been up to anything exciting recently. It’s been too cold to do any allotmenting, I’m too crafted out to be creative and it’s that bit of the winter where the enthusiasm of the New Year has passed and I just want to hibernate for a while.

But – January sees my birthday and a reason to celebrate (if being a bit greyer and a bit wrinklier is a reason to celebrate). DH and I took the day off work and had a trip out to Gloucester. He was tempted by the wonderful industrial architecture of the docks and I had heard tell of a fabulous Antique Centre. A win-win situation!
 

So we set off on what must have been one of the wettest and most miserably cold days of the month but determined to have a good time.

We parked up and began the day with a hot chocolate which seemed like the best decision. The antiques then beckoned. I was most disappointed to not find anything that really drew me. An Enid Blyton book entitled ‘Mr Pink-Whistle Interferes’ caused some sniggers and I was tempted by a beautiful wooden Victory puzzle of kittens. We spent some time looking around the docks and admiring the wonderful restoration they have done. There were lots of artefacts around the place, giving a sense of the history of the setting and I was filled with longing, looking at the rows of colourful narrowboats all moored up (we used to own a narrowboat and I still really miss it)
 

Detail from a stone carving

We lunched at a small place called Hubble Bubble and both enjoyed some fab burgers. Hubble Bubble is conveniently located right near Gloucester Cathedral so we decided to look around that too.
 

Gloucester Cathedral

Cathedrals are awesome places – the scale, the history, the architecture! I had absolutely no clue that this particular cathedral had been used famously for filming some of the Harry Potter films. There was nothing inside to advertise this fact and I didn’t find out til afterwards – but it did explain why some of it seemed so familiar! The day we went they had film crews in again, setting up to shoot some scenes for Sherlock.

Gloucester Cathedral dates from 1089 and its other claim to fame is it houses the tomb of Edward II. Edward was alledgedly murdered at nearby Berkeley Castle and was buried at Gloucester although his heart is at Newgate Church in London (I just love a gruesome detail!). The tomb is pretty impressive and typically covered in graffiti from schoolboys in the 1700's. I didn't purchase a photography permit and so have no actual pics from inside the Cathedral.

 

Detail from outside the Cathedral

 

A final visit to some shops and the purchase of a suit for DS#2 (hang on, it was MY birthday!) saw us finish off the day before heading home.
 

Rain on the Cobbles!

I reflected afterwards on how grown up I must be now, cathedrals and antiques rather than mad drunken debauchery for my birthday – but then I don’t think I could keep up with the debauchery any more. I’d probably be asleep before it really got going!

Handmade Hats

The second post this week! It’s got to be a record!

All ready to get knitting!

I just wanted to update you with my attempts at spinning – as you may remember I borrowed a wheel from work over the Summer and have been enjoying teaching myself to spin wool from a mixture of trial and error (mostly error) and some helpful Youtube videos. Hurrah for technology.

I was determined to finish something from fleece to knitted item before Christmas. In my head I had the lovely idea of presenting DH with a hat and scarf on Christmas morning. In reality I had not taken into consideration how I would secretly card, spin and knit when he wasn’t looking. A spinning wheel is not the most easily concealed item in the world and my knitting is not something I can do without tons of concentration and regular reference to the pattern. So, my plans were reduced to just a hat. And a reasonably small hat at that!

I got the wool spun and the threads were spun into something resembling yarn. I still have sadly not got a Niddy Noddy and so had to use the back of the chair! I was unsure of how much yarn I would need for my hat. The ‘recipe’ in the knitting pattern doesn’t work in handspun lumpy balls and so I had to just go with it and accept that I may well have to be spinning more as I needed it.

Knitting the hat was a case of a few rows as and when. So, I took it to work, out and about and gave up my gym sessions in order to knit (ok, this is a slight lie – I didn't need an excuse to not visit the gym).

It was all worth it when I finally completed my first ever handmade hat! I even added a label and gave up a vintage button from my collection to give it a stamp of originality. I was thrilled! Even DH looked impressed.

The finished article 

 It’s not the most beautiful hat in the world. The wool is lumpy, the knitting a little uneven and in fairness it could use being a bit bigger in size. But I made it myself and it was the gift that I had the most pride in handing over this Christmas.

The new project - it's a fleece not a wig!

Now, I was given a new fleece to work on as a Christmas present – a Hebridean fleece (yes, thank you Helen, you do get the prize for most random gift!!) and so endless new possibilities present themselves. Well, endless new hat possibilities anyway!

Back to reality.....

Well, that's that. Back to work tomorrow after a week and a half of chilling and relaxing. I had lists of things I wanted to do, sewing to catch up on, crafts, blogging, reading and allotmenting. Instead I have pottered about and not done very much at all. Oh, I did reorganise the larder - does that count?

Anyway - here are a few pics from the last couple of weeks and a belated Happy New Year to you all!

Christmas on the Home Front

Tea and Christmas cake anyone?

I have had a very exciting couple of weeks at work (well, more exciting than normal!) which I wanted to share with you.

I am involved with the WW2 programme at work where we run an evacuee camp and get groups of school children to try out lots of different period activities whilst learning what life was like on the Home Front. I love running these days – dressing up and indulging in my love of this period of history. So, I decided to approach Mr Bossman and see if I could run a couple of weeks of Christmas on the Home Front as a special offer. He happily agreed to let me give it a try and I am proud to say it was a huge success.

Some of our props.

We decorated our WW2 building and shop with period decorations. I spent hours creating paper chains from facsimile WW2 newspapers and sourcing paper decorations and streamers of crepe paper. We found the tiniest tree in the world and added some red, white and blue bunting too. I even found a supply of old Christmas cards to stretch above the mirror. Some fresh greenery from around the site completed the decor.

I spent hours researching facts and figures. Being a bit nerdy I wanted everything to be perfectly accurate but in truth we could just give an flavour of the time. Hence we had some American supplies in the shop alongside ration guidance from earlier in the War. Petrol rationing facts didn’t quite match with the dates on the magazines – but overall it gave a good impression of life in that era. And I just had to get over it!

The children got the chance to look at some toys and to think about what they might find in their stockings. They cooked and tasted authentic WW2 recipes and learned about rations in the shop. They got to weigh out a weeks’ worth of sweet ration to take home with them although I suspect none of them managed to make them last a whole week! Hopefully alongside the fun we managed to get the children to appreciate some of the hardships suffered by people, we certainly had several very thoughtful comments from the children.

A visit to our authentic Anderson Shelter (also decorated for the season) and an exciting Beetle Drive game with an onion prize were also on the agenda.

To top off the fun for me, I got to spend some time away from my Land Girl dungarees and look a little more dressed up. Curled and pinned hair, a nice party dress and even some lippy (apparently those Americans down in the town have a little to spare!!) 

Egypt Adventure Part Three - in which we ride camels and get sand in our crevices!

I promise I won’t be boring you with any more Egypt Adventure posts but I just wanted to share one last experience with you all!

DD was determined to ride a camel while we were out there – it was number one on her wish list. This is actually one of the few things that I could say ‘done that’ to, but I was quite happy to have another go.

So, the trip that best fulfilled this brief was the ‘Desert Adventure’ which promised a day full of excitement and a camel ride too. On booking the trip we were presented (read ‘sold’) a scarf each. This was the traditional keffiyeh which I have since learnt has different political meanings related to colours. We wondered if ours were more of a stereotypical tourism trap – like selling University sweatshirts to Oxford or Cambridge visitors but I can safely say they were very welcome out in the desert!

 

Don't you just hate it when you dress for the desert and someone is wearing exactly the same!

The day started at the Centre where the trips are run from. This was an attractive place just outside of Hurghada. We arrived and met up with the rest of our group for the day over a lovely cup of Hibiscus tea. First part of the adventure was Dune Buggy driving. DD and I had teamed up with a couple from Yorkshire. Myself and Julie decided we would let the others take turns in driving while we admired the view from the back. DD was very excited – dreams of speeding off into the desert were, however, cruelly dashed when we found ourselves at the back of the convoy and stuck behind someone who had to stop and take photographs every 5 seconds.

 

Pedal to the metal - not.

Next we all piled into jeeps and set off into the real desert. This took us into the Red Sea Mountains. I was surprised at actually how beautiful the terrain was, not at all what I expected from desert.

We made a couple of stops on the way to a Bedouin Village, the first one to see a real mirage. It was ok, but I didn't feel the awe that I think our guide expected.

The second stop was to climb a sizeable mountain and run down a sand dune on the other side. Now this was pretty awesome! The top of the mountain afforded some great views and a chance to glory in the peace before we whooped our way down the slope.

We arrived in the Bedouin Village not really knowing what to expect. Clearly they no longer live in the huge tents that everyone visualises but in huts and shacks. Not so romantic but that’s the price of progress I guess.

We got to share sweets with the children – this felt a little weird, were they really hanging out for Werthers Originals and Haribo? Then followed a tour around the Village. I couldn't help but feel bad about this too. Many of the Bedouins now make their living through tourism which basically amounts to herds of us traipsing through their space while they put on a show of making bread, weaving, and generally getting on with the day and trying to ignore us. It felt wrong, a little like being in a zoo and getting them to perform. And I felt bad that I was contributing to this trade but then also I was helping them to maintain a living. All a bit morally confusing.

However, we did get to have the camel ride. Some of the children (buzzed up on all our sugary treats) helped us on and off the camels and led us for a few minutes’ walk. DD was thrilled! I was just overawed by the absolute silence in the desert. Not a bird or a creature, no wind, just nothing…. It was a moment of pure calm.

The trip back to the Centre took in a visit to a water spring and a chance to take some photographs as the sun went down. We were told we didn't get the most spectacular sunset due to clouds – but I was impressed anyway.

 

The camera sadly just didn't capture the colours....

Back at camp we got to settle down for a Folkloric Show with a pretty poor bellydancer, some whirling dervishes and an impressive men’s stick dance. There was a good buffet and BBQ and some traditional tea.

To finish the evening we had the chance to use some massive telescopes to star gaze in the night sky over the desert.

It was a full on day and we left the Centre tired but very happy. We snuggled on the balcony back at the hotel to chat about the experiences and how the beauty of the desert would be with us forever.

How true this turned out to be when we took our shoes off and prepared for bed that night!

Egypt Adventure Part Two - In which I narrowly avoid drowning.

Dolphins just out of shot.

Today’s post is all about being brave and trying something new. As regular readers will know, this is something I try to do every now and then but I had the opportunity in Egypt to push this to new heights (or depths)!

So, I will fess up at this point and say I don’t actually like water that much. Not huge expanses of water anyway. I like the sea from the shore; I could sit and look at it for hours. But I don’t like going in it. Not really. So it was with huge amounts of trepidation that I agreed to book on a dolphin/coral reef snorkelling trip with DD in Egypt. She loves the water and swims like, well, like a fish and this was her idea of heaven. But anyway, the man at the hotel did a really good selling job and described the day in glowing terms and so we found ourselves at 6.30am the next morning heading off to the marina.

 

The marina - our yacht wasn't quite as impressive.

We were in a group with mostly Germans on a fairly large yacht with a friendly and experienced crew. I did try to explain that I had never snorkelled before and would this be a problem? I had lots of smiles and thumbs up in reply which I took as a good sign!

 

We set off into the sea, looking for the dolphins which we found fairly quickly. Much excitement as they were spotted in the bay and lots of pointing and turning of the boat as we followed them. Then there was a mad rush as we were all piled onto a tiny dinghy off the back of the yacht, flippers and snorkels at the ready. I could feel the fear growing…. Not helped as most people happily threw themselves backwards off the boat and into the sea. I clambered more sedately into the water then realised that I couldn’t touch the bottom. D’oh. Panic! Then I realised that the very nature of the snorkel meant that I couldn’t breathe through my nose. More panic. The guide was brilliant but clearly torn between helping Mrs Theatrical Drowning and the rest of the group who were there to snorkel with dolphins. I decided in the interests of everyone I would get back into the dinghy (not the most dignified entry) and just observe proceedings from there. The driver (do you drive boats?) looked at me with the air of one who has seen it all before. In fairness I did get a spectacular view of the dolphins from the boat, close enough to touch and all very magical if you could ignore the exhaust fumes.

 

Once the dolphins had had their fill of performing for the humans we all got back on the yacht. I kept my eyes down with embarrassment. DD was full of it, dolphins gliding past her face, baby ones, big ones, real, live, wild dolphins. Bah, I could see them from the boat! Her only complaint was that our specially bought underwater cameras had leaked and stopped working after one shot.

From here we took a leisurely cruise to a coral reef. This rose up before us in the middle of nowhere like some barely submerged island. I had never seen an actual coral reef before and so I guess I wasn’t sure what to expect. We moored and everyone got kitted up again. The guide came to chat to me, to plead with me to have a go. It was wonderful he said - I would be fine. Just take it easy and relax. I would love it. I listened and decided I would love it more on the boat watching everyone else loving it in the water.

Which is what I did. Relaxing in the sun and seeing everyone else swimming about and loving the views.

 

DD selfie with me sunning myself under a towel behind her.

In fairness, DD did play down how fabulous it had been when she finally emerged from the water. “It was ok” she said with the biggest grin ever. “Lots of fish and wonderful colours. You can’t really see that from up here”.

 

The coral reef - much more spectacular from underwater.

After lunch on board we moved off to the third and final reef stop on the trip. After much soul searching I decided that maybe I should give it one more try in the calmer waters. DD promised to be with me every flip of the way and that if I decided I really didn’t like it then I could get straight back on the boat. Well, I am SO glad that I was brave and made that choice. I snorkelled for about 15 minutes, never far from the boat but what I saw totally made up for the fear. It was beautiful, a whole underwater world, so many fish and other weird sea things. The colours were wonderful. For a few moments I would forget the snorkel and just enjoy the experience. Then I would remember that my breathing was compromised and I would have to stop and relax again.

I can’t say that I enjoyed snorkelling, I am still too scared of the water to fully like the experience. But I appreciate why people do this kind of thing as a hobby – and I am so proud of myself for taking that opportunity. What an experience!

PS all photos in this post courtesy of DD as I didn't have my camera on that day!

Adventures in Egypt - Part One

Sphinxes at Karnak.

DD and I have just returned from our fabulous girls holiday to Egypt – it was the most perfect week in every way.

I won’t overwhelm you with a huge post but thought I’d write a few smaller ones to share some of the highlights with you.

We stayed in Hurghada, on the Red Sea coast. This is a reasonably new resort, created specifically for the tourist trade around an older fishing port. It was a nice place to be but I desperately craved some real culture and history. 

So, DD and I booked a trip to Luxor, approx 300km away. We had the choice of a coach trip (6 hours each way with lots of other tourists) or for a small amount more we could have our own private car and driver and our own guide for the day. This also cut the driving time down a bit. Having our own guide seemed like a worthwhile idea and so we went for this option. I am so glad we did!

The day started at 5am with the long drive to Luxor with our driver and our lovely guide, Ash. Ash studied Egyptology at Cairo University and became an archaeologist before leaving all that for the thrill of the tourist trade.

First stop the Egyptian equivalent of a motorway service station which was an experience. Expensive, useless items for sale, queues for the toilets, cheery staff, they had it all! Except pasties.

Our first visit on reaching Luxor was Karnak Temple which should correctly be called Temples as it’s a huge complex of different religious sites all together. Its earliest parts date from 2055BC which is pretty mind-blowing in itself. It covers over 200 acres and features statues, pillars, carvings, sphinxes.... all of it awesome and impressive. Two obelisks remain (most of Egypt’s obelisks have been relocated around the world eg London and Paris). Of these two, the tallest was erected by Queen Hatshepsut (more of her later) and stands 97ft/30m. The second one was erected by Tuthmosis I and stands 75ft/23m high.

The obelisks.

So many beautiful carvings!

The colours are still visible.

After a visit to a Papyrus Museum we went on to the Valley of the Kings. This was so exciting although cameras are strictly banned so sadly I have no photographs. This valley, which stretches beneath a natural pyramid shaped mountain, is the resting place of the New Kingdom Pharaohs, approx 1539 – 1075BC. After the showy pyramids of previous dynasties, these guys decided to hide their tombs away in a bid to defeat the tomb robbers. All to (mostly) no avail. The Valley’s most famous inhabitants include Seti I, Ramses II and, of course, Tutankhamun. Tut’s tomb was famously discovered intact by Howard Carter in 1922. The tomb itself is tiny but the discovery ensured Tutankhamun’s is the best known. However, in 2005, another undisturbed room was found, leading some to suspect there could be further tomb discoveries still to be made. Our ticket allowed us to visit just three tombs, they are super careful to ensure the tombs are not overexposed to humidity and dust from visitors. The wall carvings and paintings were just wonderful. The colours still bright, the pictures and hieroglyphs fascinating.

Following this visit we saw how traditional alabaster carving is still done and how beautiful it is compared to newer machined items. I bought a small vase to hold a candle and the light it gives off is worth every penny.

Next stop was also a big ‘wish’ on my list – the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut . This iconic place is built on three terraces and truly took my breath away. Hatshepsut was a rare female Pharaoh, ruling between 1503 – 1482BC (approx). She was regent for her stepson Tuthmosis III but took the power herself, adopting the dress and false beard to show her stature. After her death, he succeeded her and defaced all depictions of her, trying to erase her from history. An interesting discovery was made in 2007 when a box containing her liver was found to also contain a tooth. Through this tiny piece of evidence they were able to match the tooth to an unknown mummy discovered by Howard Carter in one of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Hatshepsut had been identified! It also revealed she had been obese and ill at the time of her death. It did, however, quash rumours that she had been murdered.

DD and the awesome temple of Hatshepsut

You can still see the paint on some of the statues!

Our final stop was a short cruise on the Nile – a perfect and relaxing way to finish the excitement of the visit. We saw so many birds, including ibis and kingfishers.

Ash had given us so much information and entertainment throughout the whole day – he was truly patient and lovely. It also helped that he was prepared to offer DD 500 camels for me. She turned him down. Mainly because she only had a 15kg limit on her luggage!