chili in the eye

I haven't washed my hair for 4 days.
This would have been an achievement if it weren't for the fact that I've been too lazy ill to wash it. Since my last post the cough has developed and so has a blocked nose. I've gotten through half a jar of honey and bottle of Vimto single handedly. It's been a laugh.

We've found a new flat, quicker than expected, and move at the end of January. I'll miss this flat and it's big bathroom. The sun-catching patio, and the cheap rent with no bills. The way it's not far from the beach and this was our first home together. Our new flat is a lovely, big first floor 2 bedroom flat, it has a little garden with white goods in the kitchen - including a freezer.

Since we moved into this little flat we haven't had a freezer, not even a drawer in the fridge. When people find out this little fun fact we get asked a lot: 'how do you survive!?' We have managed, we have had fresh food everyday and had to deal with week old forgotten leftovers. We've had the same meals for dinner, then lunch, lunch and dinner. We haven't bought tubbed ice-cream for dessert since getting married, and I can't wait to have a bowl of strawberry ice-cream with a flake and wafer and sprinkles and the whole hog just because I can. Then I can have some the next day, because it would have been kept in the freezer between times. We can also have a meal, then wait a week or two before we eat the leftovers instead of having it for lunch the next 3 days. Needless to say I'm excited about the freezer.
Other positive things about the new flat: we have off road parking, a washing machine and tumble dryer, DISHWASHER, microwave, WINDOWS (another thing our current flat lacks), a big living room and a fireplace.


I'm pretty looking forward to it.

Other developments for Craig and I:
We have the Christmas decorations up, and they look wonderful
Craig starts his new job in about 11 days
I've made 2 curries in the past week
I bought some new jeans that are red
We have fresh flowers on the table

Not enough photos

A while ago, quite a while ago, something dreadful happened.

My laptop screen turned blue, then went weird. We called the computer doctor and shipped it on up to them and they told me the bad news - my hard drive was unrepairable and we had lost everything. Well, obviously not our flat, money or anything actually real, but we had lost memories and music and photographs and all sorts of documents.

Thankfully it was only a year of stuff. It was my own silly fault and I regret it all, it was like losing a dear friend and not remembering any of the memories.

I feel like more and more photographs should be taken, constantly. I have a gadget called an iPhone (you may have heard of it) and use a thing called Instagram (just a plug - annanee89). I like to take photos on that so that there is a record somewhere.

A couple of months ago we bought two 'new' cameras and received Craig's dad's old camera. A Canon A1, Canon AE1 and a Ricoh. All 35mm film, all beautiful!

I've had to slow down a bit. Using film when at university was lovely, I loved it. I had to take time to create the image and take care, I wouldn't see the photograph instantly and I loved that. It was mysterious and tense, waiting for the photograph to appear.

Using film again has been wonderful. I've only had one film back so far, but looking through the photographs I felt the same excitement as when those prints were in a tray covered in chemicals.

I found that when taking the photographs I took more time, one roll lasted about 2 weeks, a lot less photographs that would have been taken if using my digital, but the feel and the sentiment behind the images mean a lot more.

Only negative (mwhaha) is that...there's not enough photographs.

A day at the Temple

England vs Fiji

Craig's graduation

 

Poole Harbour

(All photos in this post taken on Canon A1 with Afga Vista 100 film)

Catch up

A few weekends ago (actually more like 6 weeks ago) Craig had organised a little trip for us to South Wales.

I have only ever been to Cardiff for a day about a billion years ago and so I was quite excited for this trip. There was a hidden agenda: Craig had a triathlon on the Saturday.

After driving in the dark and looking for our holiday apartment (that wouldn't feature on the satnav and we had no signal on country roads) we finally found our apartment 'Sanctuary' in the complex High Winds. We stocked Craig up with pasta and straight to sleep as we had to wake early for the event the next day.

It was a glorious morning, not a cloud in the sky, sea as smooth as glass with the sun rising over the water. It was ice cold outside.

Craig managed to complete the course (a task in itself) in the same time as his last triathlon. Considering this course was a lot hillier than the last, we were very very pleased with this result.
After a quick massage and a few Welsh Cakes, we headed back to Sanctuary to give Craig back his protein and calories with plenty chicken.

We then ventured to Rhossili.

 What a stud.

With the National Trust you can geocache (an electronic treasure hunt) for free! We managed to find two boxes as well as take a wander down to the wonderful beach there in Rhossili. Highly recommended as a post triathlon stretch (or just for fun, again, highly recommended!)

We attended church in Swansea, where we met an old friend of Craig's from his mission days and a family i was kind of related to through marriage.

After a rainy Sunday afternoon watching Mary Poppins, drinking hot chocolate and playing Scrabble, we looked forward to Monday's surprise that Craig had organised. See, this weekend was also to commemorate our very first wedding anniversary. The apartment was a surprise and so was Monday's activity.

We went horse riding!

In a group of 6, we went out on our lovely chestnuts and trekked over the hills to see some wonderful bays in Gower.

We were the only ones that stayed on all day, the others were silly and left after two hours. but we carried on and had lunch in the visitor's centre there...with more Welsh Cakes.

We recently bought Delia Smith's Cakes book from 1977 we found in a second hand book sale and found a recipe for Welsh Cakes. These will have to be tried!

Birthday Week(s) Part 2

After that fantastic birthday morning from Craig, I had a lot to live up to. We had a quick conversation about our birthdays a little while ago:

Me: 'So, every year for the rest of forever I'm going to have 3 days to top whatever you've done for my birthday, which you will have had a whole year to prepare for?'

Craig: 'Yes.'

I had a vague idea but nothing set in stone, but I hoped for good weather and ignored the suggestions made by colleagues. After taking an afternoon off work to clean the flat and prep everything needed, I think it worked.

I decided for alfresco dining.

We don't have much of a garden, but a patio instead, but it's south facing (I think) and it gets a lot of sun in the evening. We ate home made burgers and chunky fries, and drank chocolate milk from the wonderful milk bottles we picked up in Lyme Regis not long ago.

NB: the bottle of wine was left there by our kind landlord while I went inside to prepare for dinner. It was returned but with great thanks for their thoughtfulness.

After dinner a stroll along the beach was in order, and we chose to go to one of my favourite local stretches of sand. These wonderful beach huts make my day.

To end the night we drove down to the Town Quay, where fireworks were being held. I pulled a picnic blanket, tea lights and marshmallows from my bag, which we toasted. Craig also had his last present of the evening: my cake in a jar!

This weekend past we ventured to Cornwall for the Boardmasters festival. I think one highlight was not just the music and the food, but when we walked past a group of people staring at a small screen and shouting. We stopped and looked just as Mo Farah ran across the line. We celebrated with this group. I love the Olympics and how much they've brought people together.

And this:

Via: Mo running away from things