Rocking February - plus Year of Firsts update

So here we are again with a roundup of what rocked my world last month, and also how I'm getting along with my Year of Firsts:

Blimey it was a rubbish month weather-wise, wasn't it?  Either freezing cold, or raining, or both.  Ugh.  But we tried not to let that get in the way of having fun.

For a start we've been doing a lot of hockeying - when you are stuck inside an ice rink anyway you don't really care what the weather is like outside :)

We have done our usual thing of realising that the season is nearly over and that we are going to miss it loads, so we have gone to a couple of away games this month as well as our regular home games, in a last minute frenzy :)

And as one of those away games was in Manchester, I have now completed my goal of seeing a game at every rink in our league, which is kind of cool - I think I deserve a badge for that.

And in other sporting news - the lovely ladies of Wiltshire Roller Derby had their first ever public home bout this month, and I was lucky enough to be invited along to take photos for the team.

They played really well, vs the Kernow Rollers, and were leading for most of the game, but right near the end our Cornish foes got a late boost of energy and managed to JUST pip us at the post.  The final score was 178 to 173.

The following weekend we had a very short holiday - otherwise known as one night in a cheap Travelodge in Manchester :) We had a brilliant time - who needs a fortnight in the Caribbean??

On the Saturday we were up bright and early and on the road by 8, arriving in central Manchester at 11-ish.  First stop was the Manchester Art Gallery.

Saw lots of incredibly inspiring art there, including a major exhibition by Raqib Shaw, plus the kids had fun recreating some old masters:

After lunch in the gallery (lush!) and a mooch around Chinatown, we drove out to Old Trafford for the Manchester United stadium tour.  I'm not even particularly interested in football but I found the tour really interesting, and the boys (old and young) loved it

We topped off the Saturday night with a walk into town and dinner at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen by the canal.  Manchester city centre on a Saturday night was a real eye opener for the boys - I don't think they had ever seen so many loud drunks and scantily dressed girls before :)

Next morning we had a yummy buffet breakfast at the hotel, and then headed to the Trafford Centre to go to the indoor Legoland there.  My my, that's one posh shopping centre!  It's like a slightly obscene and very over the top temple to opulence and excessive consumption:

Legoland was fun but probably more suited to younger children, as our big strapping lads were too big and old for some of the rides.  We did enjoy making our own cars to race though, and the 4D movie, and the miniland with scale models of lots of Northern landmarks we have visited, like Blackpool Tower and Alton Towers, and of course Old Trafford.

After Legoland we wandered over to the food court (if you have never seen the food court at the Trafford Centre, you HAVE to go, I've never seen anything like it, it's what I imagine Las Vegas is like, but with more Mancunians :) )

And there at Nandos we met up with my best friend from school, Sarah (yes another Sarah, there were 5 Sarahs in our class at one point!  common as muck name!) and her two lovely kiddies.  It was SO good to see her for the first time in over 20 years.  I was so excited that I forgot to take a photo of us together.  Doh!

Next we were going to go to MOSI (the Museum of Science and Industry) but we had left it too late to really do it justice, so instead we went to have a nose at Manchester City's stadium (just for the sake of balance) (and because Connor supports them  )

And then it was on to Altrincham for the ice hockey.  Which we lost.  Oops. But never mind, I was just happy to have finally ticked off the full set of EPL rinks.

We got home late Sunday night tired but happy after a brilliant weekend.

And our final adventure for February happened the following day.  The kids were back at school but Jay and I had a day off work, so we went out to Corsham near Chippenham to the derelict Naval site that is there, abandoned and now covered in graffiti.

It was amazing, and huge!  we were there over three hours and still didn't see it all.

Thankfully we didn't get apprehended and evicted by any MOD patrols....

There are over 100 more photos here if you fancy a proper look

Other Fab Feb happenings:

• I got to see my friends' little boy play in goal (hockey again) for the first time, as his under-10s team did a short demo game at our local rink - he's going to be a star in years to come, watch this space

• The week before their first home bout mentioned above, my Wiltshire Roller Derby girls got their first ever win in Milton Keynes - and with a short team of only 8 skaters too - well done ladies!!
• Baltimore won the Superbowl - go Ravens!

(February seems to have been sporty month!)

• I'm getting back into reading in a big way thanks to the Artful Readers Club.  I'm even finding myself wanting to make artwork to accompany the other books I'm reading outside of the challenge!  (watch this space)
• Connor had a brilliant day out at the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London with his school.  I don't remember school trips being that fab when I was a kid...
• Visiting friends - I had a CJ to pick up from my pal Pam and as she only lives about 40 minutes away I went over to collect it one Saturday morning, it was fab to sit in her craft room and look at all the lovely art on her walls and have a good old natter.  The internet is great and everything but you can't beat a good old fashioned real life catch up.
• An impromptu trip to the Stamp Attic in Wantage and resulting major spend up suggested by Jay one day when I was feeling a bit fed up.  Retail therapy makes everything better :)  Especially when it includes a Gelli Plate!  Yes, I've finally climbed on that particular bandwagon and am pleased I did - gelli-printing is so much fun!  

• Eventually got my Pure Evil print in a frame after finding a perfectly sized (and perfectly priced!) frame at the Range.  It still hasn't actually made it onto the wall yet, but I'm getting there....

• Connor and I took a punt on the Qwertee random t-shirt sale.  It's really good fun waiting for your shirts to turn up with no idea what you're going to get.  I got a nice art nouveau type design and Connor got this brilliant Monty Python one:   I think we'll play again next time.
• Good telly - this month I particularly enjoyed Utopia,  Black Mirror and Ripper Street.  And I also finally got to the end of Season 3 of Fringe (which is the point at which a lot of people apparently went right off it but I still think it's fab).  Only two more seasons to go.
• Talking of Fringe - I got mine back!  After attempting to grow my hair out to one length for a year, I finally had had enough of it blowing in my face on windy days and generally being all rat-tailed and horrid, so I had my hair cut and had my fringe cut back in.  I can seeeeeeee!!!!  Hooray :D

• Connor got a shout out online from his favourite artist - El Pez - it made his day:

This month's firsts - big and small, they all count:

10) After last month's 'trying a different type of bread roll' triumph, I tried ANOTHER new type of roll.  This time, it wasn't very nice :( ah well, you win some you lose some.

11) Used my airbrush machine for the first time, it's awesome, I need to practice with it more though to really get the hang of it

12) Photographed my first open-to-the-public roller derby bout.  It's harder with people in the way!

13) I ALWAYS get exactly the same dinner whenever we have a Chinese takeaway.  This time I chose something different.  It was almost but crucially not quite as nice as what I usually have.  This experiment isn't working as well as I hoped :)

14) First time partaking in the Qwertee random t-shirt lottery

15) First time using the gelli-plate for monoprinting - SO MUCH FUN

16) First visit to Manchester Legoland 

17) First time doing a behind-the-scenes football stadium tour

18) First time visiting the home rink of the Manchester Phoenix in Altrincham

19) First visit to the Manchester Art Gallery

20) First time eating in Nandos.  Yum!!!

21) First time trespassing on MOD property!

So that's 21 of my 100 firsts already achieved and we are only 2 months into the year - slightly ahead of the pace - good stuff!

Rocking January - and introducing my Year of Firsts.....

I pretty much failed last year at playing along with Virginia's awesome weekly gratitude party, Rocking Your World Friday - weekly just proved a bit much for me as I slipped first to fortnightly and then ended up settling with posting every three or four weeks.

So for 2013, I thought I'd take the pressure off myself and aim for monthly roundups instead.  And so here we go, kicking off with my rocking January.

It's been a fairly uneventful month, we haven't been out too much as the weather has been a bit pants, and we lost a couple of weeks to the lurgy, first Connor then me.

But it still had its moments :)

- it's been a great month for hockey, we haven't won every game we've played but they've been a lot of fun to watch

- we've won a ton of new business at work - which means we are crazy busy but it's all good on the job security front

- the January sales - I didn't go mad, but I did have fun buying up half of Paperchase's sticker department :)

- the snow - it arrived, looked pretty, and went away again without turning to dangerous ice or causing too much disruption.  Perfect.  The only pity was that it came while I was all flu'd up so I didn't get to play out in it, but I did enjoy watching Connor through the window making snow angels after school :)

- and on the subject of the weather, winter sunshine!  it's been a little few and far between but we have made the most of it when it has showed its face

- for example, we had a brilliant day out in Stratford upon Avon on the 6th - and the weather was very kind to us.

Shakespeare's birthplace

We had a good stroll around town and visited - and I quote Reece - the two best museums ever! First the creaky cauldron / magic alley / museum of witches and wizardry (it seems to have three names) where we delighted in the Harry Potterish surroundings, solved (with help!) the potion puzzle, found a polite TARDIS and sent ourselves some letters via owl post.

Then the MAD museum - Mechanical Art and Design - two floors of crazy kinetic and interactive sculptures and machinery - it was awesome!

And then we had a nice walk down by the canal and found an art gallery on a boat, a lovely day out all round

- Connor's new graffiti career :)  He had to make a piece of graffiti art for homework, and he made a canvas inspired by his favourite graffiti artist, El Pez from Spain.  He sent a photo to the artist himself and got a really nice email back, plus it's now on display in the school reception.  WTG Connor!

- Darcy's Artful Readers Club - I am so enjoying this new challenge, I had really slacked off on my reading last year, but this has reawakened the urge big time, I am fairly ploughing through my list of books - I'm reading March's book now having already finished February's - and I'm also listening to Game of Thrones on audiobook whenever I'm in the car.  I don't know why I've never tried audiobooks before, they are awesome, SO much better than listening to all the awful noise that passes as music these days on the radio (god, I'm so middle-aged!!)

- I finally finished my months long marathon viewing of Battlestar Galactica - I'd been terrified of the final episode because so many people had told me it was AWFUL and how they were still smarting from it years down the line - but you know what?  It wasn't that bad :) Sometimes it is good to have your expectations lowered so they can be exceeded :)

- and, more TV, I watched the first series of Danish/Swedish crime drama The Bridge while I was off work poorly.... it was amazing, highly recommended.   And I'm now hooked on the Channel 4 series Utopia- which is not for the faint hearted but, in my opinion, the best short drama series to hit British TV screens since The Fades

- playing with new toys - one of my christmas pressies from Jay was a set of pom pom makers, and I have gone a bit pom pom crazy this month :)  I am looking to make enough for a big garland to hang above the double doorway between my front room and kitchen/diner/craft room.  Here's one in progress <------


- another trip out on a sunny winter's day : we headed over to Bourton on the Water - the Venice of the Cotswolds, as they call it because of all the bridges.  Our first stop was the model village - in all the time I've lived in the area I've never been there, and we had great fun staging "giant" photos :)

Jay modelling his new beard :) I love the fact they even have little to-scale sized trees here

posting a postcard home :)

and admiring the model village within the model village - very fractal ;)

Afterwards we had a lovely lunch in a quaint little tea room, and then a walk around the village.  And we were going to do the motor museum too but it was closed for the winter, so we'll come back to that one another day.

- my eldest son finally adding me on Facebook - yay, I'm not shunned any more :D

- getting our accommodation booked for Barcelona ....exciting stuff!  can't wait!  we arrive really late on the first night so we have one night in an airport hotel and then 4 nights in a gorgeous 3 bedroomed apartment right next door to the Picasso museum!

all three bedrooms have a double bed and their own balcony :)  lush!

- back to telly again - my guiltiest watching pleasure is back! :)  Gentlemen, start your engines, because Ru Paul's Drag Race season 5 started this month (along with my favourite judge, Santino).  From the one episode I've seen so far I totally want Detox to win, girl is fierce!

And that's it for my rocking post ..... but, I also have something new (and to an extent, overlapping) that I want to share with you.

For a while in blogging circles it has been the done thing to choose a word in January that sums up what you are hoping to achieve that year.  After some humming and harring I settled for "brave" as my 2013 word.

I'm not talking "wrestle a lion" levels of courageousness, I just want to encourage myself out of my rut a little. Silly things like I always order EXACTLY the same meal when we eat out, because I know I like it, and I'm scared that if I order something else it might not be as nice.

Or, whenever I start a painting, I agonise about the initial stages of it for ages (days usually), whereas I wish I could just get on with it! :)

So, to support my efforts to be brave, I have challenged myself to do, eat, visit, experience 100 brand new things in 2013.  They can be big or little.  But they have to be things I've never done before.

And here is the opening chapter of my Year of Firsts:

1) first cooking of an actual chicken in the shape of a chicken  (I very rarely cook meat at all and whenever I have done a roast dinner before I've always cheated and bought one of those decidedly non chicken shaped joints in a tray).  Connor had to help me with the carving as I could barely get any meat off the thing, it's all hidden behind bones!   

2) first visit to Magic Alley and MAD Museum in Stratford upon Avon (see above)

(as an example of a classic missed opportunity to be brave in the first week, we went to a fudge shop while in Stratford upon Avon - I dithered for ages over lemon meringue flavour but chickened out in the end and bought safe old chocolate and vanilla because I already know I like them.  LM flavour might have been AMAZING!  but I'll never know....)

3) first time published in Featuring magazine

4) First visit to the model village at Bourton on the Water (see above)

5) First use of pom pom makers (ditto)

6) First visit to Leominster.  Not that I saw much of it as was just for a work meeting but it looked purty in the snow

7) First time taking part in the Artful Readers Club

8) Tried a fancy type of roll for lunch instead of the one I always get. It had sundried tomatoes and walnuts in. Didn't expect to like it.  In fact was grumpy about buying it.  But it was lovely :)

9) First time opening my car bonnet! I've had the car well over a year but Jay has always kindly done anything that needed doing. But I ran out of screenwash and in the spirit of the year of the brave, he encouraged me to pull up my big girl panties and do it myself :)

Not a desperately exciting list so far!  But let's hope that as the weather improves and we get out and about more, that I'll have more opportunity for interesting "firsts"

For those that managed it, thanks for reading to the bottom of this mammoth post :)