Urgh, I'm sick

So for the last few days I've been feeling pretty under the weather and finally today I caved in and called in sick to work. I hate calling in sick. I hate falling behind at work, I hate having to make the phone call but there is something to be said about having a day to yourself - even if I you are in bed surrounded by tissues and orange juice.

In between naps and blowing my nose I've been watching my favourite show in the whole wide world. It used to be on TV on Sunday afternoons, I remember having Sunday lunch then running around outside and doing what ever kids did back them (usually play 40 40 Out). Then as the sun started to go in I'd go home and watch this before having my weekly bath. I'm talking about, of course, The Storyteller.

Now I've tried to talk about the Storyteller to some of my friends, and they look at me like I'm crazy, like I'm making it all up. Conversations usually go something like this 

"You know, that programme with John Hurt, he sits in front of the fire and tells stories. And he has a dog, a talking dog you must know it?!"

Blank stares.

"It's by Jim Henson"

"The guy who did The Muppets?"

"And the Labyrinth, one of the best films known to man, anyway The Storyteller has trolls, trollops, giants, the stone soup story, and you must remember Hans the Hedgehog"

"I like Beaker"

Beaker? What about me?!

So, that's the kind of people I'm friends with. Beaker fans who have never heard of The Storyteller. But surely it can't have just been me who watched this as a kid?! For those (poor people) who have never watched The Storyteller, John Hurt regales us with different folk tales from across the world. The stories are dark, certainly not anything Disney would make a film about, the acting can be a bit dodgy (especially the child actors) but it is beautiful. The mix of puppets, animation and live action is perfect. The Storyteller's narration and the music merge wonderfully. I may be a bit nostalgic over this TV show but I've never seen anything similar since. It's just what I need today to make me feel just a little bit better. That and and nutella on toast.

Also, I've now joined Instagram (I know, I'm 5 years behind anyone else) so if you want to follow me please do. When I work out how to get photos from there on to here I'll also try and do a monthly post to show what I've been taking photos of.

Wicked Weekend

Last weekend I had one of the best weekend I've had in a long time. I don't like winter, it makes me tired, lazy and cold. However as my friend George and I have agreed to walk up a mountain sometime this summer I thought I better get some sort of fresh air and exercise. To do this I headed down to the Isle of Wight for the weekend.

Blatantly stolen from The Islander

George and I spent Saturday morning walking up St Boniface Downs, climbing over trees, rolling down hills, and generally enjoying the sea air. After all that activity it was only fair the rest of the day consisted of eating pick n mix at the cinema, watching X-men First Class (Michael Fassbender, be still my beating heart!) whilst eating George's amazing homemade pie. The weekend was finished off with a trip to the local wildlife park on Sunday to get pooed on by a rather large bird - who knew one bird could poo so much! It was a very relaxed but active weekend, especially for me who has practically hibernated all winter, and made me yearn for spring.

Unfortunately I decided not to take my camera (before I went down there I was in a grump and didn't want to blog or take photos - stupid me) but George did. Therefore I want to take this opportunity to point anyone who reads this to George's blog so she can regale with photos of at least part of the weekend. You can find her post here.

I promise I'll get out of this winter grump soon and get out with my camera again!

WBWW - Sydney

Sorry I've missed a few weeks of 'Way Back When Wednesday' and to get back into the swing of things I'm going to start with some photos of Sydney from October 2007. 

One of my favourite memories of the whole trip come from our first night in Sydney. We had flown from Hong Kong, found a reasonable hostel in Kings Cross and headed down to Sydney harbour. We had did all the touristy things; strolled across the bridge, chilled out in the sun in a park, popped over to Luna Park fun fair, took plenty of photos of Sydney Bridge and the Opera House and watched the sunset. As the sun went in we decided to walk through the local botanical gardens right next to the opera house and head back to Kings Cross. What we didn't realise was the garden are home to hundreds of bats. As soon as the sun disappeared the sky came to life as all the bats came out. It's hard to describe but it was so unexpected and beautiful that I wanted to stay and watch them all evening, so we did. Another thing we didn't realise was the park got locked down at night. It really wasn't all that late and as we approached the exit we saw the gates were chained. There was a sign on the gate with a number to call if you found yourself locked in but we didn't bring mobile phones on our trip. After a good while of debating whether or not we could climb the fence or would end up impaling ourselves on spikes half way across the world, and loosing a shoe through the gap out luck was in and a park warden happened to come round and let us out. When I write it down now it doesn't sound half as much fun as it was but it's a great memory. And what better place to be locked in at night than a botanical garden in spring time Australia full of bats wheeling over head!

Next week I'll bore you with some photos from the different animal parks we visited across Australia!

9 to 5 The Musical

Early last week some friends invited me to join them to watch 9 to 5 The Musical. I love musicals, half the reason I picked to attend a London University was so I could go to the West End when ever I liked (depending on funds of course!). However 9 to 5 isn't on the West End, yet. It's currently touring across the UK and I had to venture across to the other side of London all the way to Richmond theatre. For me that's pretty far out of my way. I hoped my trip outside of zone 3 and into the depths of South West London would be worth it.

Before I saw the show the only thing I knew about it was of course Dolly Parton's song of the same name. I think it's a song everyone who has worked in an office can relate to. I made sure I downloaded and listened to it on the way to work for a few days before I saw the show (just to get in the right mindset) and I think it's been stuck in my head for literally weeks now! What I didn't know is that not only is this a musical by Dolly Parton herself but that it was based on a film she starred in back in 1980, which introduced Dolly to a wider audience. I haven't seen the film so I can't say how similar it is but I know it isn't a musical. It is now on my 'to watch' list (which is always seems to grow).

Now back to the musical; the story follows three women who are each victimised in different ways by their sexiest boss, and through the course of the story they get their revenge. It's a simple premise but that is just what is needed for the musical, the strong points of this story are the characters. Each of them have their own problems and we are given enough time to relate to them. And the songs are catchy. I thought all the performers were excellent, and it was good to see three leading ladies, but it was one of the supporting characters stole the show for me. Roz is the assistant to the sexiest boss and she harbours a secret crush on him. I don't want to give anything away but her song, dance, in fact, her whole character just helped pick up the story and brought the biggest laughs. I never buy a programme so I didn't realise until I got home and checked online but this character was played by legend Bonnie Langford. It's a great show, and surprisingly touching, I went not expecting too much but left with a big smile on my face.

Photos all taken from here

The show is currently touring across the UK and if you can get tickets I'd recommend gathering a few friends and heading to your local theatre for a fun night out.

Now I'm off to download Backwoods Barbie.

The Adventures of Priscilla

This weekend I've been very boring. I've spent the weekend doing chores and cleaning. I'm not very domesticated but when we get to the point we can't see the floor on our bedroom because of clothes and paper I find it's time to do a little tidying. Luckily this weekend has been cold and rainy so I had no excuses not to stay in and do a little house keeping.

Whenever I'm cleaning I have to have something on the TV to distract me. It can't be something I haven't seen before as then I'd end up sitting down and watching the whole thing, but it has to be engaging enough to distract me from the job in hand! My go to film for this scenario is possibly my favourite film of all time, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. I love it. It's such a fun film, and if you haven't seen it I recommend it.

It was released in 1994 (when I was only 10!) and I probably first watched around 10 years ago. I can't count the times my housemates have come in and seen me hogging the TV with it on. The story follows two drag queens and a transsexual who leave Sydney and head to a resort in Alice Springs to perform their show. Priscilla is the name of their bus. We follow their journey across Australia as they try to get on with the locals, and more importantly each other. It's a road trip movie with excellent costumes (the best flip flop dress you'l ever see), an imaginative cast and the perfect mix of comedy and drama.

It's a comedy with heart, and perfect for a rainy weekend.

WBWW - Hong Kong

As my first Way Back When Wednesday post looked at my trip to Hobbiton I've decided to try, for a few weeks at least, to keep some continuity.  Therefore I am going to tell you about the first leg of my Australia/New Zealand trip back in 2007.

It was the 1st October 2007 and Stuart and I had both, finally, finished studying. The kind people I worked for at the time were happy to let me have two months off and we decided to head to Australasia for a bit of a jolly. To break up the flight to Sydney we decided to stopover in Hong Kong for a few days, and I'm glad we did.

First things first though, at the age of 22 this was going to be my first ever time on a plane. Growing up we never had trips abroad; I lived on the Isle of Wight so summer holidays were spent at the beach, and when I hit Uni, all my money was spend on studying or drinking. Stuart and I had one break over in Paris, but for that we used the Eurostar. So there we were, waiting for my first ever flight, and an 8 hour one at that - to be followed by around 5 other flights in the following 8 weeks. I'm glad to say that I quite enjoying flying - well the take off and the landing, the bit in the middle is a bit boring, and (sorry carbon footprint) since 2007 I have managed to get a few more flight and holidays in. The one overriding memory I have from this first flight is that the guy who sat in the aisle seat next to Stuart and I did not move from his seat once - not even to pee! Bladder of steel. I however keep getting up and down, half for the novelty and a change of scene and half from paranoia about DVT! All in all it was an interesting first flight and there were some lovely views from the window - I loved flying over mountains and islands.

The first thing that hit me when we got off the plane was the heat and humidity. For some strange reason I had decided to wear jeans. As soon as we got to our hostel I had to change into something more suitable! We spent the two days we were there just walking around, visiting the peak and generally taking in the atmosphere. I am sure there is lots to see and do in Hong Kong but for such a short time I really enjoyed just doing our own thing. I'd love to go back. These photos don't do the place justice (they were taken on a very old digital camera I'd had for years - how quickly technology has moved on recently!) but they are a great reminder for me of the time we spent there.

White Cliffs of Dover

Last year Stuart learned to drive. We both moved to London when we were 18 to go to uni, and for the past 9 years or so have felt no need to learn to drive or own a car. I still can't drive; never had a lesson and couldn't tell you anything about the highway code, but finally after all these years Stuart decided to do an intensive driving course and get a car. We haven't used the car all that much apart from trips to see each others families so this year we decided to try and get out of London about once a month. This month we choose to go to Dover. It was a last minute choice, we just looked at a map to see what was in driving distance, and Dover won because we knew they'd be something to see (the cliffs) and it was next to the sea.  

It was actually very easy to get to, and only took us about an hour and a half from London. We drove straight to the National Heritage site, and parked at the top of the cliffs (£3 per car).  Armed, with a free map we decided to walk along the cliffs to a lighthouse about 2 miles away. It was a cold, beautiful day, and quite muddy. We were dressed for a stroll in the park in jeans and trainers, whilst there were some serious hikers with boots, backpacks, proper waterproof trousers and walking sticks marching past us. However the walk was relatively easy, and you'd be fine just turning up in sturdy shoes you don't mind getting muddy.  

The Cliffs and beautiful blue sky!

I have to admit, sometimes I get a little impatient with people who are being overly cautious about a bit of mud and when a girl (wearing wellies) was tip toeing slowly (and I suppose safely) round a particularly muddy section I took great pleasure in just stomping past her drowning my trainers in mud! It may be immature, and yes I was the one in the least sensible shoewear on this occasion but it amuses me when people go to the countryside and are worried about a bit of mud. Considering I've once skidded through a cow pat and landed on my arse in the middle of the manure a bit of mud seems like nothing!

Looking back the way we'd came (it was busy up there despite being a cold February).

Stuart getting a closer look at the chalk 

We were heading to the white lighthouse in the distance

And we got there!

Having a well deserved brownie at the lighthouse

Heading back

Had to clean our shoes before we could get back in the car - Stuarts rule!

I would really recommend a trip to Dover, the views (as I hope you can see from the photos) are stunning, and it really was so refreshing to get away from London, get some sea air and just take in the quietness of the place. 

Now to get thinking of where to visit next...

WBWW - Hobbiton

WBWW. What does it mean? Well now that I've started this blog I've been looking back at photos of things I've already done. Although I want this blog to be very much about the future I also want a chance show off some old photos and old stories, and that is what WBWW is. 'Way Back When Wednesday'. Every Wednesday I will (try) and post some old photos and the story behind them. It could be something from 5 years ago, or 5 months, and I will post weekly until I run out of photos. 

31 October 2007

As the title of this blog indicates I am a bit of a fan of Lord of the Rings, so I think the best way to start WBWW is a look back at the time I visited Hobbiton! When Stuart and I had both finally finished our Masters in was time for a celebration, and what better way than packing up and travelling around Australia and New Zealand for a couple of months. Ideally I would have loved to do the whole year out there but I can't complain as I had a fantastic time.  We'd been away for about 4 weeks when we found ourselves in Rotorua, New Zealand. I say found, what I actually mean is, I had completely planned that we must stay in Rotorua, not just because it was beautiful (and a bit smelly) with geothermal lakes popping up all over but because I knew it was close to Matamata, and the farm where the LOTRs folk based the Hobbiton set.  As soon as we jumped off the coach in Rotorua I marched Stuart along to the local information building and booked us on a Hobbiton Movie Set Tour for the very next day.

It turned out to be a beautiful day, the weather was perfect (the right mix of blue skies and fluffy white clouds), everyone was excited and our tour guide was excellent; just the right mix of funny, informative and laid back. For the rest of the story I hope these photos speak for themselves.

Our first view of the hobbit holes

Pretty damn happy to be here.

Giving the party tree a hug!

Jumping like fools of a Took,

Bag End. The actual Bag End!

Can't describe how much fun I had messing around here.

Beautiful view over the farm from Bag End.

Back in 2007 the farm only had a few parts of the set left up, but it was still amazing and I wouldn't have changed anything about the day we had there. However the very exciting news is that now they have finished filming The Hobbit, they left more of the set behind, including gardens, the mill and the bridge over the The Green Dragon Inn. And the Inn, I believe is fully functioning in case you need a refreshment during your day. It will take me a long time to save up to return to New Zealand but when I do returning to Matamata and the Hobbiton set is top of my list. If you've stumbled on this page and have been lucky enough to go to the new improved tour please make me insanely jealous and tell me all about it.

A trip to the Tower

I'm very lucky living in London; there is so much to see and do, so much history around, and a skyline full of amazing architecture. After a week of snow and cloudy skies the sun finally came out. I decided to make the most of the good weather, to wrap up warm and get out the house. My very kind house-mates brought Stuart and I a years membership for the Historic Royal Palaces, which means we can visit these places whenever we like and not worry about rushing because we can just come back again, so we decided to head to the Tower of London.

We jumped on a bus to London Bridge and then walked along the Thames to Tower Bridge.

I think it's safe to say Tower Bridge would be up there as most peoples favourite London based bridge, it's just so iconic and imposing. They have a exhibition you can pay a few pounds to go to, but I've yet to do it. When I do though, I will certainly tell you all about it.

This is the coat of arms for the City of London, and I learnt yesterday that the motto of the City is Domine, dirige nos, which means Lord, direct us. 

Once across the bridge we headed towards the Tower to be greeted by these guys;

The Tower of London are currently running an exhibition called The Royal Menagerie showing all the different animals that have found themselves imprisoned in the Tower. It's interesting to read about these exotic specimens who had to adjust to life in London. Apparently Henry VIII (my favourite monarch) had a polar bear who would fish in the Thames!

I love being a tourist and exploring but I don't want to be seen as a tourist, if that makes sense! I want to immerse myself in the moment and not worry I'm not going to have time to get round everything. This membership meant we could take our time, and come back another day if it was too busy or we got tired. We decided just to wander around the White Tower, and leave the rest of the place for another day. The White Tower is the oldest part of the palace. It was built in the 11th century by William the Conqueror. Over the centuries it has had various uses but now it houses the armoury. I didn't really take any photos of the inside but if you go be sure to get a look at Henry VIII suit of armour and the dragon sculpture made out of weapons from throughout the ages.

The rest of our visit was taken up watching and photographing this guy;

There are a lot of stories about the Tower of London and the ravens, one being that if there are no ravens at the Tower the British Crown will fail. Now as I don't like, or see the reason for a monarchy in a society that claims to be a democracy (but I won't moan about that now) it wouldn't bother me if all the ravens left, but they can't as they have one wing clipped so can only fly very short distances. However another story that I love, and could quite possibly be true is, that as carrion eaters, wild ravens were attracted to the Tower because of all the people executed there (or on nearby Tower Hill). It's strange to think these birds were originally drawn to the location because of the numerous eyes and tasty titbits they had to pick at, yet that story is forgotten and they are seen as a quaint addition to the visit, but certainly one worth a few minutes contemplation when you visit. And on that thought Stuart and I left to get our own dinner.

I'm looking forward to going back soon to check out the rest the Tower has to offer!