Oct 11

Life is a Rollercoaster…

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….I’m with Ronan Keating on that one…

A long time since my last post I know - so much has been going on, not least of which the last exams of my AAT course which, despite much worrying on my part, I did end up passing.  I had felt so un-prepared for one of the skills test that I was convinced that I would struggle to pass - and in fact it took me about three goes to get that one, but I did it in the end!  I have no idea how I managed to take all those exams in such a short period when I was at school, this last one was enough to have me so worried I was struggling to deal with it at the time.  Good news in the end though, and I am now embarked, for better or worse, on the final stage of the AAT course that could see me manage to get letters after my name.

What else has been happening?  Well the rollercoaster at the moment also includes preparation for WASH 2009, the flagship party weekend of Plus.  As a committee it may be that we have a very difficult decision to make after this years event, and the last few weeks leading up to it are not going to be easy for us I suspect.   Usually I can remain fairly positive whilst some of the others panic, despite the fact I am a natural pessimist, I am also a hopeful one - this year I’m struggling to find any reassurance to offer the others - still we are having hopeful moments only to get another kick in the teeth it seems.  Its so difficult for us all to cope with such ups and downs in such a short timespan and at the end of the day, only time will tell.

Work is busy as ever, I’m gaining responsibilities and work, but not an increase in wages unfortunately….something I don’t think is likely to change soon.  But at least I do have a job which at this time I do have to remind myself sometimes to be grateful for, as so many others have nothing.

There has been work on the cars, brakes on both the 2CV and the Smart.  The 2cv needed complete new rear brake pipes and shoes, installed with a lot of help from my dad, the Smart just went to the local garage for front brake pads - surprisingly only costing around £60 - I like those sort of surprises!

The most recent highlight was the Scalextric weekend which I organised - the second year of running now, a few more people, and such a fun event - made easier for me by the helpfulness of the landlord of the pub which we treat as our local even though it is about 20mins drive away!

I think the pictures will speak for themselves, so enough from me rabbiting on for now…

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Jul 23

100

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This is the 100th post since I started the blog!  Amazing.

I know its been very quiet for the last few weeks on here but if, by my silence, you have drawn the conclusion that there has been nothing much going on, you would be very much mistaken - its been chaos!

Project 52 is continuing still, not long to go now until it is complete.

I have attended a kite workshop (making a Sode kite and a Tulip spinner), visited the little men down in Shoreham (and their parents!) been to Ely Folk Festival (had a go at Morris dancing!!), and am just recovering from a weekend Christmas party (don’t say it) before heading up north(ish) to take part in Cleethorpes carnival and a spot of archery this weekend.

I have photos of all but the Christmas party (it went so quickly….) and will post them on here just as soon as I can get my camera connected to the computer - I think we have usb hub problems at the moment. 

As far as the Christmas party goes, the weekend sort of passed in a bit of a daze, very little sleep, a touch too much alcohol (although I was surprisingly sober on the Saturday night) and a whole load of stuff to do during the weekend mean that memories are not what they could be, and photos are non-existent - at least from my own point of view.  I am sure I will update the Kings Lynn Plus blog (www.kingslynnplus.org.uk) shortly with an account of the weekend , and I know a few of our members have photos I can use on that site if you want to see them.  What I do know is that after taking part in the National Rounders (on the losing side unfortunately), I was still suffering several days later - who says exercise is good for you?  I was also pleasantly surprised, and this is a very random thought, that my home-made beefburgers held together nicely on the BBQ instead of doing a disappearing act in pieces through the grill as home-made burgers usually seem to.  Told you it was a random thought!  I also improvised a rather nice recipe for a sweet pastry for mince pies, and made (yet another) Chocolate Guiness cake, which did its usual disappearing act before I ate much of it!

The summer party was the 5th weekend out of a total of 9 where I have been/will be either out or staying away from home all weekend - I do like keeping busy, but I can’t help thinking that next weekend we are actually at home for the whole weekend (which is looking to be August bank holiday - a whole three days at home!) it will come as something of a relief.

Photos to follow asap….off to PC World now to go buy a new USB hub I think!

(and yes I do know I still haven’t posted the recipes I promised!)

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Jun 10

Nene Valley Railway

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Once again I fancied a trip on the trains at the Nene Valley Railway, so I organised a day out for the Plus Group which incorporated some sightseeing, some walking, some real ale and some good food, not to mention both steam and diesel traction drawing the trains that transported us between the various stops.  I organise this day under the guise of a group day out, but truth be told its just an excuse for me to indulge my, some would say slightly sad, fascination with rail travel which I have had since I was a kid.

We started this time at Wansford which is the main NVR station, and our first train was diesel drawn, taking us to Ferry Meadows where had time for a cup of coffee and a gingerbread man before hopping back onto the train (steam this time) to join the late-risers (aparently a good evening was had the night before and some were suffering..).  Quick change of platforms and back onto the diesel drawn train back towards Peterborough stopping at Orton Mere.  Each train has its own bar carriage which was quickly sought out, and bottled real ales were served, albeit rather frothy ones. 

Orton Mere was our lunch stop, with a meal at a pub which is about 25 mins walk from the station - the food was pretty good here, and well worth the walk.  The walk back to the station was along the river, and was very pleasant due to the good weather which somehow we had managed to be blessed with.  On to Peterborough then, and the end of the line.  Travelling in first class carriages for this trip - the ones with a corridor down one side and compartments with sliding doors.  I have memories of these carriages from when I was young - we never actually travelled in the compartments, but used to stand with my dad in the corridor for part of the trip instead and considered this a bit of a treat!

In Peterborough  there is (a short walk from the station) a floating bar and chinese restaurant.  The bar sells such a selection of real ales as you would ever wish to find on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and while most stayed to sample some of these, I went with  a few others for some retail therapy into the City, and straight to the Lush shop, returning just in time to meet the beer drinkers to head back to the station..  Stephen had very kindly saved me some of his beer - which after the brisk walking back from Lush was extremely refreshing and very much appreciated!

Back onto the train, and staying on until the end of the line at Yarwell Junction via a long tunnel, we watched the engine uncouple from the carriages, drive to the points where it swapped tracks and headed back past the carriages to hook up at the other end.  The kids with us decided to run to try and beat the train down to the other end, stupidly I seemed to think it was a good idea too, but didn’t quite make it all the way before running out of energy - I really do need to get fitter!

Last trip of the day was back from Yarwell to Wansford after which we all adjourned to a another pub in Peterborough for the rest of the evening.

A really good day out which was made even better by the good weather we had, and this time no thunderstorm to soak us all at the end of the day like there was last year.  There really is something special about train travel for me, especially with the older engines and carriages - I guess its all a bit of childhood nostalgia really.  I would probably lose my fascination fairly quickly if I was a regular rail commuter for work, but I am very glad that I don’t have that worry!

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Jun 07

Review

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It was Open Farm Day today and, although I didn’t visit any farms this year because of the weather,  it made me think…..its been a year since I started this blog - my very first post was about the Open Farm Sunday last year.  I was intending it to be somewhere to put down my thoughts on a page, random as they are at times, but seems to have become more of a log of things I have done than anything else.  I don’t suppose this is altogether a bad thing, but seems a bit more shallow than my first intention!

Its been a while since I posted - I haven’t abandoned Project 52 though, I’ve still been taking the photos, just struggled to find the time to post them.  Life goes on at such a speedy pace sometimes, the blog has been a bit stop and go, but then that is how my life is, so probably an accurate reflection.  Recently I have been to Nene Valley Railway with Plus, been occupied with WASH bits and pieces and meetings, got stuck into some gardening -everything on my windowsill that needed to go outside now is, apart from the tomato plant(let)s - and tried to cope with the effects of thinking that gaining more qualifications would be a good idea!

The thing that has occupied my spare time most at the moment has been the college work - a course I started in September last year is shortly coming to an end with the inevitable set of exams.  One exam I sat in December, and managed to pass - this was on a subject which I could relate to as far as my work goes, which was a great help.  Now this is followed up by learning about such thrilling stuff as costings, short and long term decision making, and reports and returns.  Each unit (there are three in this course) involves a “skills test”, and Units 5 and 6 also have exams.  On top of this I have to complete health and safety and working with computers skills tests too. 

When I first started studying part-time, alongside working, a couple of years ago, I was questioning whether I was still capable of learning new stuff - I’ve proven to myself that I am, but what I find now is that I am treating the exams themselves far more seriously than any I took at school.  This is probably a good thing, as far as actually revising goes, but at school I had fewer worries and responsibilities outside of the classroom than I currently do and I now find myself getting far more stressed about exams than maybe I should do.  I find that I struggle to retain the information I need to do the exams, despite sometimes having only read it a few days beforehand. 

It seems that everyone around me has more confidence in me than I do, and I am not sure who is right - is it them, because I constantly doubt myself even when I am capable, or is it me because I do actually know my limitations?  Time will tell, and I know that I didn’t represent myself especially well in the Unit 7 skills test - I will shortly find out how much I need to do to rectify this - in the meantime I am setting myself serious study time to prepare for the exam next Monday and the skills test the day after.  Thats about all I can do, and then I will find out who knows me better, my friends and work colleagues, or myself.

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May 20

Eurovision Pudding Party - Douze points!!

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Eurovision - what a great excuse for a party!!  And every good party needs….puddings!  Well its more a combination of two separate ideas really, we have had a Eurovision party previously, and before that we had a pudding party, both held at a very unusual house built by some friends out at Necton which once again was the host venue.  The basic idea was that everyone brought a pudding to share, and we spent the evening listening to songs, good, bad and some distinctly odd, shouting at the TV during the scoring!

We joined in the sweepstake, but between us drawing Poland, Israel and Lithuania we had a sneaking suspicion we wouldn’t win…….!!

As far as food goes, despite Sherrie promising “nibbles”, we have more of a feast awaiting us when we arrived, not leaving much room for puddings, but with a gap of a few hours in between we gave them our best efforts!  As usual, and along the same lines as Sherrie, I had as usual got a bit carried away in the kitchen during the day and managed to take three puddings and some freshly baked breadsticks.  I will post the recipes for the Chocolate Meringue Pie (think lemon meringue with a difference) and the white choc chip scones with vodka strawberries on here later, the chocolate apple pie wasn’t in my opinion quite as nice and was basically just a twist on a normal apple pie.  The first two were something quite special though - I’d be hard pushed to say which was my favourite .

Of course the evening was also an excuse for disposing of a few alcoholic beverages, as most of us stayed overnight - unlike some of the others, for some reason I seem to have lost the desire to drink for the sake of it, sticking to one bottle of beer and a single vodka and coke - I must be losing my touch, and will certainly be out of practice come the KL Plus mid-summer party - that really doesn’t bode well…….

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Apr 28

Whitby April 09

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In October last year, I dipped my toe into the Whitby Goth Weekend waters, as it were, just to see what it was all about - I enjoyed what I saw, so decided I would pay for the whole weekend in April (as the weather was bound to be better!) and experience the complete package.

The first difference between November and April, other than the weather, was the B&B.  As I booked in plenty of time this time I managed to get a room in a B&B actually in Whitby to save the driving backwards and forwards that we had to do in November.  As it turned out the one I picked was in a pretty good location and I left the car parked all weekend.  It also meant we had a base in the town to return to whenever we wanted.

We went on Thursday afternoon so that we could attend the “Whitby Virgins’ Welcome” meeting on Friday morning where I thought we would pick up some info about what was going on.  Someone had taken the trouble to produce a map with places of interest, places to eat, and goth friendly pubs marked and we then got the rundown of the do’s and don’ts of the weekends, liberally sprinkled with stories of previous years exploits/experiences of the guy holding the meeting.  One thing which has really stuck in my mind, and I’ll also share this on the Plus forum at some point as it has particular relevance there, is the talk about safety of valuables/drinks during the evenings.  In Plus it is pretty much taken for granted that you can leave your handbags/cameras etc., on your table unattended without any worries, and there is definitely no reason to think that if you leave your drink unattended it will have been spiked by the time you return - Loki (the guy holding the meeting) quite forcibly pointed out the stupidity of doing this in the “real world”, and it made me think how much people in Plus probably undervalue this aspect of their events. 

Welcome meeting over, it was time for some window shopping (because I wasn’t actually going to spend much money this year, right?!) in the various locations where the “Bizzarre Bazaar” (excuse the spelling, not sure if that is correct!) was being held.  There are always a wide variety of stalls selling clothes (including some amazing corsets….drool….!!), jewellery, hairpieces, CDs, etc.. 

By mid-afternoon we had just about worked off the good sized breakfast provided by the B&B, and by recommendation found what must be the best fish restaurant in Whitby and had the most amazing fish and chips, made up of a selection of four types of fish in batter - I’ve never thought of trying salmon in batter before, but have now found how good it is!  We had been warned that we may have to queue to get a table but were lucky this time - other times during the weekend the queues were out along the pavement in front of the building!

We watched six bands in all over the weekend, three on each of Friday and Saturday nights.  I think I can safely say that my enjoyment of goth music is limited….I didn’t hate any of it, but at the same time it didn’t really grab my interest particularly either.  I had been wanting to see one of the bands after hearing some recorded tracks by them on a goth networking site, but despite really liking what I had previously heard, the live band itself was a bit of a disappointment.  The other band I particularly liked was of a particular genre of goth called “Steam Punk”.  Apparently inspired by Jules Verne and the Victorian engineering, particularly the steam era - the outfits are quite unusual, but the band (including a singing belly dancer - or is that a belly dancing singer?) proved to be enjoyable and a pleasant change from what we had been listening to previously.

A walk round Whitby and up to the Abbey on Saturday saw the town absolutely over-run with every type of goth imaginable (there are so many different styles/genres all included under the one umbrella of “goth”), and where there were goths, there were photographers, particularly in the churchyard where apparently earlier in the day there had actually been a goth wedding.

I managed to hold out until Sunday before I actually bought much, which proved a good move as I got at least 10% off the price of what I did buy - including a choker necklace that I have been wanting for some time.  Despite the fact I had decided not to spend much, I just didn’t feel like the weekend was complete until I had managed to buy some clothes.

The thing I noticed (and no-one could fail to) is the fact that at this weekend as far as clothes are concerned, “anything goes”.  People get the chance to dress as they want to, and be accepted as they are, not feeling they are being  judged.  The goth community appears to be a very open minded one, and people feel comfortable within it.  There were a large number of cross-dressers, people with multiple piercings and tattoos, and clothes that may have been classed as outrageous in “normal” society.  There is no one goth “look” as such, but still a sort of dress code.  Stephen did say he was a little disconcerted when he went into the toilets but had trouble getting to the sinks because of the number of people using the mirrors for applying make-up - and yes, he did go to the gents loos!

So, general conclusion?  Well the music may not be entirely for me, but the general atmostphere I enjoyed.  I may not spend the money to attend the main events next time, the fringe events are probably enough for me in any case, but the B&B is already booked for November and I have started a clothes buying fund…..

Photos to follow as soon as I get around to choosing the best ones out of the many we took, and putting them on Flickr!

One last observation…….Whitby is a town full of steps - I’ve never seen so many in one town!  I’m sure I’d be a lot fitter if I lived there, but would also eat a lot more fish and chips than I do now!

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Mar 25

Brean there, done that…

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The second biggest event on the Plus calendar - held at Brean Leisure Park, near Weston-Super-Mare.  Basically a weekend of dancing, bands, parties etc - accommodation is in mobile homes, very plush too!

My official “Plus” report of Brean is on the KL Plus website (www.kingslynnplus.org.uk) so no need to do the “how great it was” etc. bit again, although it truly was great!  This is the place to put a more personal perspective on the event. 

Friday afternoon was good - I sort of lingered during booking in under the premise of helping out, not sure I contributed much to the booking in, but I always really enjoy the bit where I get to meet people that I haven’t seen for ages, and also in some cases put faces to names and real people to facebook profiles, and its a great time to sit and chat for a while before things get a bit more hectic.

I had offered to be head chef for the weekend for our van, so gave up on booking in to go cook chilli - the smell of the onions cooking seemed to attract people as they passed the caravan, and in the end we had a few more people join us for dinner than originally planned - there was plenty to go around and the company was great.  A quick change of clothes and a smudge of make-up (that was just me as I was in a van full of blokes!) and we were ready for the evening do.  Some time during the evening I realised that I had forgotten my fan (it was very hot in there and my fan has proved invaluable since I bought it for WASH!) so headed back to the van - in the process managing to lose my balance in my platform boots on an uneven pavement and land on my face on the ground again - ouch!!  Result - a twisted ankle, bits of gravel in my hand, and (oh no!!) slight damage to the boots.  I did try playing for the sympathy vote with the gravel and blood speckled hand - it only worked for a while though….!!

Saturday evening brought us a great band called “My Immortal” who are an Evanescence tribute band.  They were a bit shaky to start with (I gather they are a reasonably new band and were very nervous) but I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the two sets they did.  Before I knew they were appearing, I hadn’t previously seriously listended to Evanscence music, but think I’m now hooked!  I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing them again some time in the future.  Sunday’s band were “The Man from Funkle” who were probably one of the most versatile bands I have seen for a long time, and I am certain all the blokes fancied the female lead singer…

A showing of Kung Foo Panda on sunday afternoon didn’t quite go as smoothly as it could have done, with the result that we don’t actually know what happens at the end of the film!  Not to worry, I don’t think it was really my thing, but passed some time quite pleasantly anyway.  Before that a Tai Chi lesson - never done it before but rather enjoyed it - would love to do it again next year but don’t think I’ll be taking it up regularly.

The weekend was great - did I say that already?!!  The best bits for me apart from an excellent saturday night band were the times I got to chill out - read a book, cook for friends, watch a DVD, wander around the local town centre and drink hot chocolate in the cafe taking refuge on a very windy day!   The evening before Brean was very chilled out too - watching a film with a friend, drinking too much red wine, laughing lots, both falling asleep on the sofa under our respective duvets dragged from the bedrooms before the film even ended!   Meeting all my friends once again was great - I like my own company, I like to be individual, but sometimes I just need to feel I’m part of something bigger, and the community feeling you get at these events is what makes them so great.

Photos:

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Feb 26

Project 52 - Week 28

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A picture from a Plus event.  I was going to use a photo of the band, but when I saw this one it struck me as odd how some people are blurred because they are dancing, but one person is perfectly in focus.  Obviously because she was also taking a photo, but it just makes the photo look a bit weird and slightly surreal!

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Feb 26

Satin sheets are very romantic……

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So Madonna said.  Not sure I can comment on that, but I saw a full bed set in brown satin in a shop the other day at a very reasonable price, so gave into temptation.  Duvet, pillowcases and fitted sheet, all in chocolate satin, means I wake up in the morning feeling like I am in an advert for Galaxy!

That provides me with week 27 of Project 52 - I know its a bit sad that the most interesting part of the week is buying bed linen…..

Actually the most memorable part of the week was when I decided to trim the growth of an overactive climber on the pergola down to size, and managed to trim the cable on the hedge trimmers instead - whoops.  Now we have a pergola that is only two thirds trimmed, and no hedge trimmer - not a very productive day all told.

What else has been going on since I lasted posted (yes I know it was quite a while ago!)?  Lots of Plus stuff, group AGM, Area AGM, National AGM all have taken place in the last few weeks, the most recent being the National, held in Walsall - an interesting, positive meeting and a great evening do too.  Work on Project DS has also carried on - all the pink parts are now hemmed, that leaves only 40 black bits to hem and then carry on with assembly.  There is progress, slow but sure!

Anyway….Project 52 photo:

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Nov 25

WASH - and pre-WASH

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Its been a whie now since WASH was all packed away and finished for another year, but quite a busy time for me, so now I get a chance to look back at the event, and all the work that went into it.

The party weekend itself was, as always and particularly so this year, absolutely fab - such a great atmosphere, and added to this year by the return of some lively ex-members.  Being on the committee and having logistical problems to worry about (think birthday cake, moving, hiding, cutting and distributing - more about the cake later) meant I didn’t actually start to relax until after Saturday nights’ activities were over and I was able to kick off my shoes (literally!) at Lara’s shed party. 

And was I glad to do that!  Remember the platform boots from Camden?  Well I discovered after a french dancing session that I was perfectly ok to dance in the lower ones, but then realised that everything in moderation should be the key to these things - I spent all evening standing, dancing, walking, in them - and hobbled back to Lara’s shed for the party where one of the first things I did was find a spot on the floor to sit and remove them!  Surprisingly standing in them was the worst.

Not to be put off by sore feet (and blisters) I actually did wear the highest of the platforms to the casino afternoon (no dancing there!).  Will I never learn?

There was no one highlight of the weekend for me, although the casino was very good, and I am going to another one this Friday in King’s Lynn run by the same guy.  I would probably say one of the best bits was seeing the three King’s Lynn ex-members enjoying themselves so much, it was just like the old days and made everything worthwhile.

Ok - back to the cake then!  Some bright spark earlier in the year thought that a birthday party wouldn’t be complete without a birthday cake to cut and distribute to all the party-goers (that would be me then - doh!)  So, next problem - how to make a cake big enough to feed over 200 people…….Online research led to a choice between vanilla sponge or carrot cake so obviously I had to bake a test cake of each to find out.  Some of the sponge cake is still in the freezer, the carrot cake was taken to both mine and stephen’s work and went very quickly.   The carrot cake came out flatter and so would be easier to ice - unfortunately it wasn’t high enough so I would have to stack two high with a filling - meaning I would need to cook six 12″ square cakes.  It would then also only feed about 170ish people so I would make one sponge cake too which would hopefully feed another 70 or so.

Needless to say, I now know the recipe for a 12″ square carrot cake off by heart (I will post on here later!).  I used 6 kilos of carrots, and to ice and decorate both cakes about 6 kilos of fondant ice, and nearly 2 kilos of icing sugar for buttercream and piping icing!  I couldn’t have done the cake deorating without the help of Stephen for rolling out such large pieces of icing, and didn’t finish decorating both cakes until about 4.20am on Friday morning, needing to be up to pack for the weekend around 8am! 

Start the weekend as you mean to go on is what I say…..although did have an early night on Friday, about 3am when the party didn’t finish until aroud 6am!

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