Rocking Your World Friday weeks 44-47

Is three weeks up already??

Assuming I’m going to keep to the every-third-week pace, I’ve only got two more RYWF updates to go after this one and then 2012 will be done – eek!  How did that happen??

(or, if the Aztecs are right, I only have to do one more....)

So – what have I been up to?  Having a lot of fun actually, which I ascribe largely to the fact that it has mainly been nice and sunny (if a bit on the chilly side) and so we’ve been able to get out and about.  This has put me in a really good mood, I hate being stuck indoors.

Our main outdoor activity has been white horse hunting.  The big, chalk, carved-into-the-side-of-a-hill kind.  There are eight of these altogether in Wiltshire (plus an extra one just over the border into Oxfordshire), and it is one of our family goals to visit all nine before September 2013.  Over the past couple of weeks we have ticked another two off our list so that means we are now up to 7, and we just have 2 left.

So, here is the Marlborough white horse (a dinky one):

and the Devizes white horse (the only one of the nine which faces to the right):

(the little people are Connor and Reece, the cows were very friendly, I was stood just between the horse's back legs)

(not my photo, this is how it looks from the air)

At both locations we also made an afternoon of it by doing some geocaching (and in Marlborough, some Chariots of Fire style time trials :) ), nice cheap family fun in the autumn sunshine, fab.

Another reason I’m in a good mood, I actually managed to have two whole days off work the other week.  In a row!  It was like a bonus weekend, but on a Wednesday and Thursday.  When you work full time, days off are totally like the best thing everrrrrrr, dude.

The Wednesday I spent mainly chilling, and painting, and watching Battlestar, and having a super long soak in a very bubbly bath, and generally doing all the terribly self indulgent things that I don’t have time for in an average week.  Lovely :)

Then on the Thursday I took Connor to London town to see my dad and also to visit the Tower of London.  Again this is related to our family goals – we had a goal to visit eight different UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and this was number eight, so that’s a goal ticked off the list! Yay!  (The other seven, as I know you’re dying to ask, were the Dorset Jurassic Coast, the Avebury/Stonehenge area, Greenwich, Blenheim Palace, the City of Bath, Ironbridge, and the Cornish Tin Mines.   The full list is here - I’d love to visit all 28, but some – Henderson Island anyone? - are a little remote!

The Tower of London was absolutely packed with tourists –it was half term – but we still really enjoyed our visit despite the crowds.  I don’t remember ever going there before, although my dad reckons they must have taken me when I was little.  First we had a guided tour by a real life Beefeater – he was very funny and told us some fascinating stories and amusing anecdotes as we walked around the (huge) site.  For one thing, I didn’t realise that the Beefeaters still have to live on site in the Tower – and that the doors are locked at night with absolutely nobody allowed in or out, so they have to have a doctor living in there with them in case of an overnight medical emergency.

Then we had a good look round the exhibitions – Connor was particularly amused by this suit of armour belonging to a young Henry VIII (so that’s how he attracted all those wives???) – and the crown jewels.  Now, I have to say I wasn’t that bothered about going to see the jewels, I’m not a big jewellery person – at least not into traditional gold and diamonds and the like.  But, oh my lord, in the flesh they were BEAUTIFUL!!  So sparkly!!  I’m beginning to get the appeal :D

Back out in the grounds, we took part in a reconstruction of the English civil war.  I was a parliamentarian, Connor was a royalist.  He ended up getting a certificate and general congratulations from the ‘cast’.  I got beheaded.  Ooops.  Maybe I should have picked the side that actually won!

And finally, the gift shop …. I got some postcards – as ever (I really ought to start up Postcrossing again so I actually get to use some) – and Connor bought the most impressive (and heavy – they are real cast iron) set of jailer’s keys.  They are awesome!  He said I am allowed to play with them sometimes :)

(apparently that's his prison guard face :) )

My only regret is that we didn’t get to see the infamous Tower ravens.  I do hope they haven’t flown away (as then England will fall!).  I think it’s more likely that they were just staying out of the way of the crowds….

So then I was back into work for one day, and then it was the weekend again – this is the life!  I wish I could do that all the time, work one day on, two days off, ad infinitum ......

On the Sunday of that weekend I was up super bright and early to go visiting.  I had to be in Birmingham before 9am, so that meant getting out of bed before 7am.  On a lie-in day. Ouch!  But so worth it, as my lovely friend Michelle was making a flying visit to the UK on her way to Venice from the US, and this was my one chance to meet up with her in the flesh.  We have been chatting away over the interwebs for years now, but that just doesn’t compare to a proper hug and a catch up over a cuppa.  I wish we had had more time as the three hours we had went by in the blink of an eye.  Hopefully we will have another chance to meet up one day (I still have to visit the New Jersey Devils home rink, it’s on my list, so expect a house call, Michelle!).

I made her sign my True Colors book, because that book was what started it all for me, I'd never done anything remotely creative before then.  And it was because of the book that I first sought out Michelle's website, started chatting to her, and how we became pals.  So it means a lot to me.  I didn't see what she had actually written until I got home, made me smile....

And, talking of friends who make me smile, while I was up in the Midlands (child free at that as Jay was babysitting Connor for me, as he is a total star) I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go and see my bessie Alison, so that was my next stop.  She hadn’t told her hubby I was coming so he looked rather surprised when he opened the front door, still in his dressing gown :D  (at this point, I’d like to remind you all that I had been up and dressed for almost *6 hours*, get me! but usually I would still be in my jamas too :) ).  Great to see the bessie, as ever, and Bert the mad doggie.  Another visit where I wish we had had more time to chat as it always goes far too quickly.  I wish she lived closer.

All round, hoorah for visiting buddies from far and not so far

Onto last weekend now, and our trip to London for VANS WARPED TOUR UK - woop woop!!!  We bought tickets for this one-day punk/rock/skate festival months and months ago and the date finally rolled around.  This was Connor and Reece’s first proper gig – and talk about dropping them in at the deep end!  30 bands over 4 stages over 10 hours.  It was a long old tiring day.  But I wanted to use this as a test to see if they could hack a day at Download festival next year without getting bored or complaining, and given the great time they had at Warped I think the answer to that is a definite yes.

The gig was at Alexandra Palace in North London – one of my favourite venues, it’s such a pretty old building in lovely grounds, and as it is high up on top of a hill, it has the most amazing views over London.  And of course it was where Dr Who scaled the radio tower in the episode The Idiot’s Lantern (the really scary one with Maureen Lipman in the TV shouting “hunnggrrrryyyyyyyy!!!!” and stealing people’s faces).  Before the bands even started playing I had realised a long term ambition – I finally got a photo of the beautiful Ally Pally Rose Window from the inside – that room has never been open whenever I’ve been there before during the day.

We saw a ton of bands, and they were pretty much all on top form – I especially enjoyed Lost Prophets (more than I expected to actually), Less Than Jake, Bring Me The Horizon, the Used, Bowling For Soup, New Found Glory, Architects ….. and a couple of bands new to me that were fun to watch, Man Overboard and Force Family 5

Lost Prophets

Bring Me The Horizon

The response from the organisers is that they were overjoyed with how it all went, and it must have paid for itself as the gig was a sell out, and even all the merchandise sold out within 2 hours of the doors opening (so I’m glad we got our t shirts and stuff as soon as we got there!).  So hopefully they’ll be back next year, and we’ll be there, I’m sure.

The next day was another fab day, starting off with a nice lie in (we didn’t get home from the gig until about 1 in the morning), and then we were off to Cheltenham to meet up with the Watkins clan en masse – first we went to Jay’s Gran and Gramp’s house where his mum and Chris were there with Reg the dog, and Simon (Jay’s bro) was over from Barcelona with his wife Annie, and Reece’s big brother Kieran was there too with the first signs of his Movember moustache just starting to sprout.

There was an epic game of Frustration and then most of us went over to Gloucester where we met Jay’s dad and Kieran’s slightly hungover girlfriend at Pizza Hut for a mammoth nosh up. Yum!







Other positives:

- We have discovered a new Chinese takeaway near us that is luuuuuush!

- My hockey team has signed a new, rather fit, defenceman – about time Swindon got some eye candy ;)  (cracking photo by Simon Emms)

- There was a cool geocoin inside one of the caches we found the other day – you don’t get to see them very often nowadays which is a pity, but that means it’s a real treat when you do

- Finishing my Desert Island Discs CJ in time and getting it in the post – I love launching a new journal into the world, with all its empty pages waiting to be transformed :)

- There’s going to be a new Star Wars film next year – woohoo!!!  (and I might end up eating my words but I actually think Disney will probably do a pretty good job)

- And while we’re on the subject of Sci-Fi, I’m excited about Battlestar Galactica Blood & Chrome, the new prequel webseries – the first two episodes are now up on Youtube here and here and they are pretty good!

- Trick or Treaters – we actually got some this year, yay!  (although on the down side, that did mean fewer left over sweets for me) – Connor had a lot of fun going out ToT-ing with his pals from school too

- Prez Obama (and the lovely FLOTUS) are back for 4 more years!!! So pleased with that result, even from the other side of the world




- My Instagram web profile went live, and it looks cool: http://instagram.com/floroo17.  I think I might start using Instagram more again like I used to, just to keep it up to date.

- Three of my Roller Derby photos got published in an actual magazine down in Portsmouth – I’m hoping to be able to get hold of a copy, as I love seeing stuff of mine in print, makes it seem all official-like :)

(mine are the ones with the yellow background)

- iHanna launching another one of her handmade postcard swaps, I enjoyed the last one very much

- Meeting up with Pam in Cirencester for a little wander and a chat and for her to hand over her Desert Island Discs journal – it’s a lovely fabric based affair

- Connor’s eye test going well, and the opticians having one of their 2 for 1 sales on again so I was able to get him some prescription sunglasses for free

- Darby completed the Hell Down South run and did it in record time – they say that anything under 2 hours is brilliant and his time was 1:45.  A bit muddy though, apparently his vest started off white. Ewwww.  And he told me he is still picking dried mud out of his beard :D

- that the hotel in Brum where I went to visit Michelle backed down on the £90 parking fine they tried to slap me with - I was not happy when I opened the letter!!  But when I called to explain I had been there to visit one of their guests AND the receptionist had told me I was fine to park where I was for the duration, they apologised and rescinded the fine immediately.  Phew.

- Tesco putting orange and passion fruit J2O on special offer, leading me to discover that if you add a shot of vodka it tastes pretty darned close to my favourite, sadly now discontinued, alcopop of all time - Reef.  Yum!

- Catching up with season 2 of Portlandia, and finding an episode that had both a Battlestar Galactica sketch but also a guest appearance from Eddie Vedder.  It's almost like they wrote that whole episode especially for me :)

- Connor having a glowing parents' evening and a fun class assembly in the same week - and I managed to get to both, escaping the curse of the working mum for once, hooray :)

- and finally, this :



I could watch that on a loop all night, bazinga! :D

I want to wrap up this time with a huuuuge thank you to our chief Rocketeer, Virginia.  This whole process, of sifting through your life each week (or fortnight, or every third week in my case) to find those golden nuggets, is so uplifting.  It doesn't allow you to wallow.  It makes you recognise how blessed you really are.  And none of us would be doing it if Virginia hadn't had the idea in the first place, and caught the rest of us up in her enthusiasm.  So cheers me dear!

See you all again in December - eek!

It's postcard swapping time again

I'm not sure if you will remember, but back in the spring I took part in iHanna's annual mail art swap

I made these

and I got these in return

It was a lot of fun and myself and others were keenly looking forward to next spring so we could do it all over again

Well, it turns out we didn't have to wait that long as iHanna has launched a mini Autumn version of the swap (just the 5 postcards this time) to tide us over.  Yay!

And this time it has a theme - empowerment - ooo er missus, very deep!

I haven't got very far yet with mine:

Do they look empowered yet? :)

If you fancy joining up and playing along with me, just click on that banner at the top and it will take you straight there

(NB there is a $4 charge to play, but that's quite good really as psychologically it tends to encourage people to follow through and make and send their cards, as they have had to think about it a bit at the sign up stage and it has cost them a little bit of cash - apparently in previous years when it was free, you were lucky to get 6 or 7 cards back for the 10 you sent out, but I got all 10 this year)

"My Soundtrack" circle journal

It's new circle journal time, yay!

I love starting a new circle and sending a fresh empty book out into the world ..... all those possibilities :)

This one is taking place over at Collabor-art and is based on a "desert island discs" type theme - there are 10 of us taking part, and we have each chosen 10 songs that mean a lot to us for whatever reason.

The other participants will each complete a page in the book inspired by one of those songs

This should be fun!

To see lots more pictures and my full song list, you'll need to go and read all about it on Collabor-art

But, here's a peek at my own page, can you guess which song I chose?

Rocking Your World Friday weeks 41 to 43

It’s (past) time again for me to tell you what’s been rocking my little world recently - another three weeks have rolled on by, but Virginia assures me that she doesn’t do the tutting thing, so hopefully I’m not in trouble :)

Is anyone else finding it harder to find those golden nuggets of gratitude as we settle into a chilly, wet Autumn?  I wouldn’t go as far as to say I have S.A.D. or anything major like that, but the darker evenings and cooler temperatures definitely have me feeling a little “meh” ….

I think it feels more frustrating because we didn’t even get much of a summer this year.

Not that the last three weeks have been all doom and gloom, just not a lot happening, especially during the week, it’s been very much a case of work, home, TV, bed.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Good TV, mind – I’m still watching an episode or two of Battlestar Galactica every night (am now about a third of the way into Season Three, and it is frakking amazing so far!), plus Connor and I have started watching Community, which is SO funny!!  And also Modern Family which is funny too.   Plus I enjoyed the pilot episode of Elementary.  Got to say, I love my new Tivo box!  We are discovering all sorts of fab telly we didn’t know about before.

So, yes, apart from the telly box, life is fairly dull during the week.  But the weekends have been great fun:

Some really good games of hockey to watch (we thrashed Guildford, woohoo!  Always a pleasure :D ).

Plus we have had a couple of great days out.....

First of all, on the day we were supposed to be in London at the Sketchbook Project, we went on a consolation prize (for me) trip – to the Nature In Art gallery near Gloucester.

I try and avoid dragging the family around too many galleries, but because they all knew I was sad about not being in London, they humoured me just this once :)  And actually I think they all really enjoyed it (or put on a very good act to that effect), so I needn’t have worried.

It’s a gorgeous little gallery, set in a stately-home type building with its own sculpture garden.  And, the clue’s in the name, all the art is nature-based.  Everything from traditional through to contemporary, all sorts of different media, really excellent.  They didn’t allow photos inside unfortunately, but we took lots of pics in the gardens.

It’s a little pricey (£15 for a family ticket) for the size of the place, you could be round there and out in an hour easily if you were in a rush, but we took our time and I think we got our money’s worth.   There was a nice little café and shop, too, and a playground outside for the kiddies.  Definitely recommended if you’re ever in the area.

And then a week later, it was Alton Towers baby!!! :D

We’ve been planning this trip off and on since July, it was supposed to be for Connor’s birthday, but one thing after another has got in the way and led it to be postponed a few times.  But in the end I think that worked out for the best, as the Halloween season is absolutely THE best time to go to a theme park.

It was a long old day, we left the house before 7am, and didn’t get home until past midnight – and the drive home was seriously yawn inducing – but it was so worth it, we had SUCH a fun time!  It’s 18 years since I was last at Alton Towers, and I’d forgotten just how fantastic it is.

Compared to ugly old Thorpe Park (great rides, but all set in concrete), it’s so landscaped and gorgeous.  There’s the lovely old ruined house in the middle.  And Nemesis’s waterfalls.  And all the trees in the gardens, which we flew over on the sky line, looked so stunning in their best Autumn colours.

And the rides were excellent.  Fairly long queues, but not too bad given it was a sunny Saturday and they had all the extra stuff laid on for Halloween which must have brought in extra crowds.  Nemesis is still as brilliant as I remembered.  And of the new rides, I particularly enjoyed Air and 13.  One ride we didn’t manage to fit in to our busy day was Oblivion – we’ll definitely have to go back some time to get that one ticked off the list, it looked awesome!

And, I’m relieved to say, there was nothing I couldn’t fit my ample frame into :)  I had been panicking a bit after reading some accounts online from size 18 ladies who had been unable to fit on the rides after queuing up for ages, and had been sent on the “walk of shame”.  As, let’s be honest here, I’m bigger than a size 18!  But I had absolutely no problems on any of the rides.  So yay for not being too fat for rollercoasters!!! :D

I’ve noticed that my whole mood has improved dramatically since the Alton Towers day, sometimes you need a day of pure adrenaline to shake off the cobwebs, I think.  Maybe they should prescribe theme park days out on the NHS :)

Other high points

• Holding my breath all day yesterday waiting for news, and being rewarded by photos of a beautiful baby boy popping up on Facebook just after 10pm - the Wednesday Whine group's first baby :) :) :)

• Hearing from an online friend that she is visiting England early next month and so we finally get to meet in real actual life - yay :D

• Giving in to the craze of the moment and buying myself a onesie from Primark – it’s so cozy and lovely I might just live in it forever!  

(that's not me in the photo :)  I found that pic online..... but it's the same onesie ..... well, the same design, I didn't steal a strange man's onesie ..... I like the hinges on his door though)

• The fine moral support of my Wednesday Whine cheerleaders (with or without star jumps) when I had to go and get a tooth out and was being a proper baby about it

• Hearing from both my grown up prodigal sons that life is great for them right now - the best news a mum can get

• Getting nice and busy again at work – it makes the day go quicker

• Everyone getting their Rock Resurrected circle journals home – even Clare!  And I honestly thought that hers (which had been AWOL since February) was a goner forever.   So that maintains my unbroken record for never having lost any journals on my watch in 7 years of CJ hosting.  Go me! :D

• I got to spend some time at Jay’s house for the first time in yonks – I love it there – it’s the only place I can totally relax without thinking “I should be doing housework” or “I should be at my art table” – we just snuggled up and watched a Salvage Hunters marathon for hours, 100% guilt free, fab




• My Sketchbook Project book got a couple more views while it was in London – that’s 7 strangers who have checked it out so far, I wonder if they liked it? - and I spotted it on the shelves in a photo on someone’s blog which was exciting (I’m still really upset that I couldn’t make it there to see my book in person, thanks to them cancelling at the last minute the only day I could go, boo, but this was the next best thing)

See that book on the second shelf up with the wide, shocking pink spine?  That's mine 

• Watching Alien again for the first time in years – can you believe it’s 33 years old???? And it still looks amazing!


• Hearing that a good friend’s hubby who was made redundant earlier this year has landed himself a great job, and that they are off to sunny Barcelona, giving us all the more visit to organise a trip out there next summer (Jay’s bro and sister in law live there too, so we can do double visiting duties, can’t wait!)


• Carmen, despite being very heavily pregnant (baby arrived as I was typing this post up last night! welcome to the world little man :)  ), launching her much loved annual Secret Santa.  I’ve already got the name of my giftee and I’m excited to go ahead and get shopping!

• Finishing off my latest ‘turn’ in my pairs journal, and making some good progress on getting a new circle journal ready, I’d had a bit of a mojo-less few weeks and it feels good to get back to sploshing paint and ink about

• My new t-shirt arrived from the states, I love it so much! Can’t wait to wear it.  It’s Sheldon and Evil Wil Wheaton from the Bing Bang Theory as Dr Horrible and Captain Hammer.  Geek much?? :)







• Connor having lots of fun at holiday club this week doing halloween activities – it soothes the working mum guilt when I know he is enjoying himself  

Look, mummy, I'm a mummy!

That’s all from me this time around – time to link up at Virginia’s blog, the spiritual home of RYWF …. please do join us over there if you feel so inclined, this process of sitting down and counting your blessings is great therapy – I put it right up there with watching your ice hockey team beating Guildford while doing the loop on Nemesis :)