Journal Entries
Snapshots of 2013 - NaJoPoMo2013 day 19
Posted Nov 19, 2013
To counter the claims that my life is full of excitement, I offer the highpoint from today's office experience.
You know the way office buildings tend to have signage by the lifts on each floor to explain where each department can be found? Well, ours have just been updated with swish expensive looking glass panels. I joked when I saw them being installed that I'd be checking them for accuracy later. This morning, while waiting for the lift, I scanned the ground floor version and found the spelling mistake in the Partnership "Intergration" (sic) Team's title. During the day I checked the other floors while passing and found them all the same.
This could make me seethe with grumpy indignation at company money being wasted. Or whinge about the youth of today being unable to use a spell checker. Or sit in smug satisfaction at the fulfilment of my prediction. But no, it just makes me giggle and lightens my day. Not sure what this says about me...
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Latest reply: Nov 19, 2013
Snapshots of 2013 - NaJoPoMo2013 day 18
Posted Nov 18, 2013
Unexpected parties are the best, don't you think?
For example, on the first day of 2013 we were staying on a small Scottish island with a few friends. Phil and I escaped the gang for the afternoon, setting off to drive across the island for a walk to the ruined castle at the other end. We parked up when the road ran out and set off walking up the footpath to the castle. We'd only gone a few yards when a door opened and we were invited in to join a party that seemed to be 24 hours in.
Drinks were offered (well whisky was pretty much forced on Phil), cake was eaten, chat was had. Then someone brought out a squeezebox and the music started. Before long we were being danced round the room by our new friends and great times were had by all.
We did eventually make it to the castle - stuffed in the back of some kind of all-terrain agricultural vehicle and driven across the bumpy fields by the matriarch of the clan (the only one still sober). The ruins by the sea, looking over the straits to the next island, were just as rugged and romantic as we'd hoped. But we enjoyed it all the more following on from that unexpected New Year party.
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Latest reply: Nov 18, 2013
Snapshots of 2013 - NaJoPoMo2013 day 17
Posted Nov 18, 2013
A festival's not a festival without a fancy dress opportunity and my regular festival is no exception. Every year a theme is annoumced for Sunday. It's normally something deliberately vague so that all can participate, easy for the majority to find something but allowing inventive interpretation by the creative minority. So we've had such things as masks, hats and hair, spots and stripes.
This year's theme was 'animals'. I admit I took the easy option and dressed in leopard skin prints. The large group camped next to us had more imagination and organisation, dressing up as Noah's ark and animals two by two. The pair of owls had particularly nice homemade costumes and masks.The guy who'd drawn the short straw had to walk around all day with a cardboard boat round his middle above wood brown tights. I think they were the same group who came as a set of dominoes in the spotty year and spent all day standing in a line so people could topple them. I look forward to seeing what they come up with next year.
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Latest reply: Nov 18, 2013
Snapshots of 2013 - NaJoPoMo2013 day 16
Posted Nov 16, 2013
When a bearded man in gold leggings and an electric blue tutu is passing out the party hats and songsheets, this is a sign that sticking around will lead to fun and good times.
Or so I learned in a field in Devon this Summer, standing by a minor stage at the Beautiful Days festival.
It is perhaps true of all festivals that the most memorable moments turn out to be random occurences chanced on in passing, rather than the main stage gigs.Not that the main stages aren't fun, they often are. But it's the peripheral happenings that make the difference between just another gig (however good) and festival frivolities.
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Latest reply: Nov 16, 2013
Snapshots of 2013 - NaJoPoMo2013 day 15
Posted Nov 15, 2013
My summer of walking culminated in a 26 mile trek from Stonehenge to Avebury, to raise money for tha Alzheimer's Society.
morningole day was a great experience, amazingly well organised and helped by the rain holding off. Parked up in Avebury and bussed across to the start point where the iconic stone circle could just be made out through the early morning mist. I wandered off for a closer look and nearly missed the official setting off time. Anyway, the first 11 miles were flat and easy walking across Salisbury Plain. The next 7 miles were more varied and harder going. The final 8 miles had lots of hills. The route of the last mile went right past another set of famous landmarks, Silbury Hill and the avenue of stones leading in to Avebury village.
The trouble is, I was so tired by the last mile I didn't have the energy to appreciate any of the Avebury monuments. I remember the relief of reaching Silbury Hill and knowing the end was close. I remember the horrified sinking feeling when I saw another hill to get over in the last half mile. I remember the welcome sighting of the finish line at the end of the day. Then I remember sinking into a chair with a nice cup of tea.
However, the strongest memory from the day is still that dim but atmospheric view of the stones of Stonehenge in the misty morning light. Magic 
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Latest reply: Nov 15, 2013
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