A Walk in the Lickeys...

Created with flickr slideshow.

Had another fun day today. We wandered around the Lickey Hills behaving like small children whilst taking pictures :) Some of these Dad took and they're lovely!

When I was old enough to be allowed on the train to Birmingham I discovered The Oasis Market. If you've never been then you're missing a treat. This indoor center full of unique and strange stalls has been around for decades as a mecca for all things alternative.

When I was kid it was the place you went for the giant posters for your bedroom walls, the place where Span went to get her belly button pierced without permission (No holes for me thank you!), the location for royal blue hair dye to make you look 'unique during your first year at uni and the place to find the clothes i chose to wear that others might have called 'hippy'. I recently returned to this forgotten mecca when I was looking for something to wear to a 1920s party. Unsurprisingly, i was in the wrong location for that kind of thing but it did re-awaken some funny memories and rebellious feelings...

Now, my Dad has a photographic studio and apparently there are loads of models willing to do a shoot for free if you let them have the pictures for free on a disc. Dad's embraced this and now has a few female models popping to the studio on regular occasions for various shoots. He wanted to get some red stockings.... I know a strange conversation to be having with your father... where to buy slightly kinky gear... but it's all for artistic purposes so that's ok (??) My first thought was obviously Anne Summers. However, I'm not really sure how comfortable I would be taking my dad into a shop filled with vibrators and other paraphanalia.... What about The Oasis??

So we went and Mum paid for i bought some lovely 'hippy' skirts and enjoyed the stall dedicated purely to fair trade clothing. My Dad spent about 45 minutes saying "wow! I didn't know this place existed. This is brilliant!" promptly went to the cash point and then spent over a £100 pounds on Corsets, fish net tights, Fish net gloves, sexy dresses, Small net mini skirts, a top hat and a black mask....

LOF entertained himself by considering what the shop vendors were thinking as four people who were obviously Mum, Dad, Daughter and Son-in-Law wandered around a shop buying obviously vampy clothing... strange... but very funny! I suppose I should be greatful for the lack of interesting mechanial devices!

Span.. do your parents know about the OASIS? Apparently It's a hit! ;)

Rugby Bottoms

The weekend of the 17th saw us get all excited again as we disappeared off down to Reading.

In the days leading up to this little trip the pals we were visiting had warned us to wear sensible shoes and to wrap up warm. "You might even need a water proof." Our first reaction to these statements was a cry of "But our walking boots are in Adelaide!" For days we were convinced that we were off up another mountain or hiking cross country and we did our best to be prepared. As it turned out, we were off to see a Rugby match. I don't know if A new that if he'd have mentioned this to me earlier I might have pulled a face but I did admire his ability to make sure it happened ;)

As it turned out, once i knew, I was quite curious. I've never seen any kind of professional match in a stadium. I once watched "Eddy" a boy I 'fell in love with' on a cruise run around on a rugby pitch in Rochdale but that was the limit of my experience.

Approaching the stadium I was greated with loud bangs, drums and chants.... Not the warm up bands that I have grown accustomed to hearing as I enter such an establishment. Instead of plastic in the middle of the arena there was actual grass and no stage. Interesting!

I did ask a stupid question of a very symptathetic R... "So, if they're the Welsh Scarlets and they're the Irish why on earth are they playing in Reading??" R explained that they were actually the LONDON Irish and that they had moved up from london when the stadium was built. This was their home turf! RIGhhhht ;)

I watched the match. I squirmed (as usual) when the ball got even remotely close to me and it was quite fun! Being sat next to LOF meant I had to cheer on the chaps in the red shorts. I had my camera out and I tested "sports mode" and learnt all sorts of things about the game. I also noticed how much grabbing each other and rolling around on the floor there is in Rugby; just like when LOF and A get too drunk! ;)

No Bones About it!

So... the battle to get rid of stuff continues.  Ebay has made me £60 today. 

I had a range of halloween items online (all of which sold)
and some more sensible items like solid wooden blinds and a fire place.

Now, you'd expect the blinds to go for a reasonable price.  I paid about £3o each for them so, as their second hand, perhaps about a tenner each?

No such luck!

The blinds went for £4.00 each .
On the other hand.... this plastic, tacky skeleton which had a start bid of £1:50 amd that I had paid £8.00 for a year ago sold for nearly £30.00....

I ask you!!! 
Do you think you can still buy these new from the shops??? ... these bones are making me money!!  lol

Blood, planning and Affirmation.

This week saw the removal of 12 vials (sounds better than syringe i think) of my blood being removed for examination by the Borg (that's Dr Borg to most). I was sooo tempted to ask whether resistance was futile but LOF told me to calm down. I took his advice. I suppose it is important to be a little more respectful to the man who is trying to look at how and why your chemical makeup works.

He wasn't worried but his curiosity did result in a sheet covered in requests for blood tests. The nurse actual said "Dear god!" when I walked in and I left laughing my head off after having 12 samples removed. I did use it as a useful excuse to have a nice cream tea by the river before we returned home. Well, if you're in Stratford.....

As well as that i was observed this week at school. I thought it was quite funny that they had chosen me to be observed when they know I won't be there after Xmas anyway. Ah well. I have to plan my lessons well anyway so I might as well. Three people observed my lesson and, in the end, they gave me outstanding.

There are so many entries on this blog where i am disappointed in the way the observations have gone. This time I found all of the hoops and I can now leave the country having managed to leap through all of them. I got outstanding for every single element of my lesson. I'm so glad I won't be in the country next time OFSTED knock on the door! I know they'd come and hunt me down!!

London Town

Went to London this weekend to see lovely people in their lovely new flat. HOW EXCITING! Markets (with wickedly delicious food) river walks and giant eyes! I ate soo much food that I'm not sure I'll need to eat until next week ! (unless someone brings me cheesecake)

It was a lovely weekend and well over due! London is a very exciting place to be and I can see why Span love 'Crouche end' - Loads of cafes, gyms and charity shops with designer label in!

A lovely weekend :) with a lovely couple who are clearly very much in love(ly) ;)

I've always fancied myself as alternative.... Well at least in my own little way... Pink streaks, smiley faces when everyone's looking glum, a love for the classical and the rock, married by the lake with sausages in the vows... Not too different but quirky.

I love anyone else who's different. People who are talented and braver than me. People who use their intellgence to send messages to make points, messages which come with a kick, a laugh or a tear. I guess that's why music and language have always been things that interest me.

A beautiful baby grand with a skilled musician can take me away, sending shivers of calm down my spine - I wish I could still play in that way myself. I spent hours as a teenager glued to the well loved Yamaha baby g in the theatre. My escape when things were "teenage"; my solice.

Books have the same power. Carefully crafted words, characters and settings reduce me to tears for 45minutes, move me by opening up doors into possible futures and closed pasts. Waking me up, reminding me.

This man has the power to do all of this...



...His skill with language and music is awe inspiring. This song comes from an Aussie movie he's been a part of and is beautiful. I've hadn't seen him play live before; You Tube was, in fact, the only place I'd ever seen him play at all. There was something about him though that had the power to make me laugh till i cried. This man knows music. He knows it in the same way I hoped I'd know it when I was 17. He can make that piano calm me and make me howl with laughter. He is, brilliant and if you ever get a chance to go get some musical/linguistic therapy then make sure you go see him live (and
"that's a F**king homphone"!) ;)