A Trip To Dublin

Did I mention I went to Dublin? Well I did. In *cough*early September*cough* but due to my general rubbishness at remembering to steal photos from other people, it's taken me this long to blog about it. You don't mind a delay though, do you? Holidays are great and Dublin is BRILLIANT so it's totally worth the wait.

However, hotels there are ball-breakingly expensive. The cheap hotels were still £130 a night which is madness as far as I'm concerned. I want to spend my money on doing things, not on a bed for the night. We ended up staying at a Buddhist centre (as you do) and it was great. Cheap, nice, full of super friendly people and only 10 mins on the bus from the city centre.



So, what did we do? All the cultural things!

Now I don't have any pictures of the Chester Beatty Library because photography wasn't allowed but take my word on it, it is amazing. You must go. We went twice because it was so good and so full of wondrous things that we got kicked out at closing time on our first visit, having only got round half of it. It's like rolling round in booky heaven.

Speaking of which, we also went (as part of a tour of Trinity College) to Trinity College Library to see the Book of Kells. The latter was kinda underwhelming if I'm honest, although I did very much like the Pangur Bán poem in the accompanying exhibition. However, the library itself... *drools*

I'm such a div.


Just to add to the general air of literary love, we also went to the National Library of Ireland. The reading room there is unbelievably beautiful. I want to live in it.



The W.B Yeats exhibition on the ground floor also gets at least four thumbs up from me. Donning my nerdy work hat for a second, it's one of the best pieces of interpretation I've seen in a long time. So much to see and enjoy there. I really wasn't expecting it to be so enthralling.


We also went to the theatre to see Major Barbara, squeezed in a couple of films on the Sunday when nothing else was open (The Way, Way Back and About Time), walked around a lot and consumed a lot of coffee. Naturally.

Oh and we went on a tour of the castle. That was ace too! From high Victoriana to Viking foundations, all in the one place.

Ah, Lord Uxbridge. One of my favourite historical men.




I won't pretend it was all cultural though. Any of my holidays must feature lots of food and drink. It's the law. And possibly a frivolous purchase or two.




This place is amazing.

Sorry to let the side down but I just don't do Guiness.

And to end on a high point, I also encountered a man wearing these tremendously jaunty trousers.

Apologies for the shoddiness of some of the pictures btw. Blame it on phone cameras and Ryanair. Their cabin luggage allowance is now a pathetic 10kg and I couldn't fit all my stuff and my DSLR in the bag!

This Summer Redux

I challenged myself back at the start of the summer to undertake some fun things. No dull to-do lists for me! As autumn is drawing in, it seems time to look back at the list and see how I got on.

Watch some outdoor theatre

DONE - Macbeth and The Importance of Being Earnest.  Very different performances and theatre companies but they were both absolutely brilliant.

Book an autumn break with the girls from work

DONE - I am very excited.  Only a month or so to go!

Go to the Edinburgh Festival

DONE - Oh it was fantastic. We squeezed in 12 shows in two and a bit days so it was somewhat hectic but there was time for cider drinking in the sunshine and we even found time to go and see Chris Hoy's gold postbox.

Make a complicated cake - possibly Dobos Torte. See here for a mega review of someone else trying it!

NOT DONE - unfortunately the only real opportunity I had for this was the mid August for family birthdays but I ran out of time and the moment passed.  I still want to make it but it seems a bit pointless to make such a big cake just to take into work.  Hmmmm.  Someone have a birthday please.

Complete Project Bunny

DONE - and I am fricking pleased with myself.  I am still a wibbly knitter: I panic and then get hysterically giggly when casting on (seriously, why do I do this?) and my tension is terrible (probably cos I'm tense) but I made them and they look awesome, even if I do say so myself.

Have a smashing time at the Olympics

DONE - see this post for more thoughts and pictures.  What a truly amazing day it was.

Take my lovely new tent camping again

I took no photos of the tent: it was too wet. This was in a cafe in Church Stretton.

DONE - it was ridiculously rainy. We got drenched.  We then had bits of tent draped over the bannisters and dining room table for a week.  Still had a cracking time though!

Go to the football - either a pre-season Liverpool game or keep it local and go and watch Marine

DONE - I took the menfolk to see Liverpool vs Bayern Leverkusen as their birthday present.  Then someone crashed into the back of the car on the way home.  Fun eh?

Try a Zumba class

HA! You think you're getting a photo of me in exercise gear.  Think again.

DONE - I went by myself and everything.  This may not seem much but I get a bit panicky about doing things like that for the first time so I'm impressed I actually went.  It wasn't too bad either! I managed the whole thing and didn't ache afterwards so perhaps I'm fitter than I thought. 

Have a picnic with Shell and Baby Jack because I just don't see the two of them enough

NOT DONE - bad Alex.  I have basically had no free weekends since about June and besides, have you seen the weather? The one nice period of weather we've had and Shell is on holiday in Turkey - lucky thing!

Go on a Ferry 'cross the Mersey! Would you believe I've never been on it?

NOT DONE - Yeah, I've still never been on it.  Stupid busy weekends.  I am hopefully I can go at some point this month.

Do or buy something a bit frivolous and not feel guilty about it

DONE - Wheeeeeeee!  I bought this fine gentleman.  I did not need a new bag, I just wanted one.  Plus I used a voucher so it's frivolous, yet moneysaving at the same time.

Chill out.  I am becoming increasingly incapable of not checking my phone for texts/emails/tweets/Instagram updates/blog comments every 5 minutes.  I know it's a terrible habit.  I'll have to lock it in a box or something

SORT OF DONE - I'm trying.  Not entirely sure how I measure success on this point but I'm better at ignoring the phone and concentrating on tv/a book instead.

Write 15,000 more words of The Second Novel 

REALLY NOT DONE - Oh god, total and utter failure on this one.  I've done about 850 words.  I've been plotting out bits of The Third Novel but it would probably help if I finished this one first.  Autumn task!

Finally, if I can fit it in (cos my weekends are quite packed!), go to the zoo.  I've never been to the zoo.

NOT DONE - have still never been to the zoo.  Waaaah.  Someone take me to the zoo please.

Hmmm, nine successes, one maybe, five failures. Not too bad. Here's to an equally fun filled autumn!

Culture Vulture

After the craziness that was most of October, it's been a relief this month to take some time to do fun things instead and, if it doesn't sound too wanky and pretentious, to recharge my cultural batteries a bit. Ok, that does sound quite wanky, doesn't it? I just think writing the novel sapped a lot of my creativity and it's been nice to sit back and soak up other people's creative efforts a bit. So here's a mini round-up of things I've done/seen recently:

Cinema

The Ides of March


Is this where I finally get on the Gosling bandwagon? Possibly, although I didn't go and see it for him, nor for George Clooney. I went because I am a political nerd and The West Wing is probably my favourite drama series of all time. When I say that this was like a decent episode of that programme, that's a compliment. I like political intrigue and shenanigans and the fact that no-one is actually a nice person. Shades of grey, not black and white. It was good. Not outstanding, but good.


Weekend


Word of warning: don't go and see this with your dad. Even if he is quite cool and liberal and hippyish like mine, it's still a tad uncomfortable to sit next to him during gay sex scenes. That aside, I really liked this film. I'm very pleased it got a decent cinematic release as the subject matter isn't usually considered mainstream enough to get shown outside LGBT festivals (don't even get me started on how criminally underrated A Love To Hide is). It was just very honest and real. A little bittersweet, but isn't that how life is?


Immortals


In 3D. Uck. I hate 3D. Not only does it not work properly with my eyes (and having to wear two pairs of glasses is never a good look), I massively begrudge having to pay inflated ticket prices, especially when it's a film that's been retrofitted and wasn't even meant to be in 3D in the first place. Grrr. But such is my devotion to Henry Cavill. I kinda dread the new Superman film coming out because he'll be all mainstream and I have had a crush on him for YEARS don't you know? Um yeah, the film... Entertaining enough I suppose but not that good and also quite a lot gorier than I was expecting! He's beautiful though so I don't really care.


Theatre

Star Quality by Noel Coward


Fun, fun, fun. I do enjoy a bit of mid 20th century drama - the dialogue is generally very snappy and witty and that, my friends, is just my cup of tea. It's a play about a play and I always think that's good fun if done well because there's so much potential for bitchiness and melodrama.


Lovesong by Abi Morgan, performed by Frantic Assembly



People, go and look at their list of dates for the rest of the tour. If they're performing near you, go and see them. Please. I've been going to see them since 2006 when my friend Lee took me to see pool (no water) and haven't missed a show since, even if (as in this case) it means going to Leeds to watch them. Not that I have any object to Leeds you understand, it just adds to the cost of the day when you have to buy train tickets as well.

Anyway, the play! Superb. Frantic Assembly put on the most stunning pieces of physical theatre I've ever seen. This play perhaps doesn't have quite so much of it but that's due to the age of two of the four actors and when it is done, it's brilliant and perfectly in keeping. The play is about the beginning and end of a relationship and all I'm going to say is that there wasn't a dry eye in the house when it was finished.


Comedy

Jack Whitehall

Oh Jack, how I love thee. I went to see him in London last year when I think he was working on the beginnings of this show so I'd seen bits of it before but I still bloody loved it all. I thought Lee and I were safe sitting in the front row with Jack not being the sort of comedian who pokes fun at his audience...yeah, he asked us a question, didn't he? I had to very bashfully squeak "we're not a couple, we're best friends".


Milton Jones


I'll say it straight off: I like comedy but I don't like one-liner merchants, I prefer story tellers. So why did I go and see him? Um, cos someone else bought me a ticket? He was great though. Yes, it's a constant stream of one liners but it's surreal and really cleverly done wordplay rather than just reeling off joke after joke after joke. His warm-up act was dire though and would have completely died on his arse had he not involved some audience members.


Mitch Benn


This was a bit of a speculative one to be honest. I've heard him on The Now Show (Radio 4 FTW!) and I love this song so I thought it was worth snapping up a ticket. I honestly didn't expect it to be as good as it was. He absolutely rocked through two full 45 minute sets of fricking hilarious songs. I thoroughly recommend going to see him.

So that was the cultural month that was. Do you have any recommendations for me?

When In Rome

(Or Edinburgh...) Drink Irn Bru, obviously.

I'm back from Edinburgh.

I think I left my energy and body clock behind because I'm quite disgustingly tired at the moment. Probably the result of a truly hectic couple of days and spending 18 hours on a coach but my god it was worth it. What an amazing place! How have I never been before? Am already planning a return trip to do some sightseeing and shopping.

We had blue skies! I barely got wet at all, so all that fretting about waterproof shoes was completely pointless.

What did we fit into our packed schedule? Quite a mixture of things really. I know the Fringe is probably best known for comedy but we watch quite a lot of that anyway so we made the conscious decision this time to limit it to a couple of comedians that we hadn't seen before and fill the rest of our time with other stuff.

The World According To Bertie

This wasn't the most dynamic play in the world but it was never going to be. If you've ever read any of the Scotland Street books then you know the joy of them is in the little things. Not very much happens in terms of plot; it's all about the characters. It was done really well and I loved the staging - the play happened in about 6 different locations around the room and we were constantly swivelling round on our stools to follow it all.

William

This was a little one-man show, aimed at families. Hey, you know me though. I am never put off by anything targeted at a younger age group. Rightly so in this case because I absolutely loved it. It was a really wonderful mixture of storytelling, audience interaction, doodling on post-it notes and tales of constellations. Reminded me a lot of Diana Wynne Jones in style and coming from me, that is a big compliment.

Private Peaceful

I cried. Are you surprised? Thought not. It's a stage adaptation of the book of the same name by Michael Morpurgo and given how astonishingly good War Horse is, I really wasn't surprised by the quality of this. One actor on a very simple stage for a solid 75 minutes - just incredible. It was immensely powerful and moving.

Holly Walsh


Best use of Venn Diagrams. Ever. Oh she was funny. I've seen her on quite a few panel shows but didn't realise this year was her first time doing proper stand-up. You honestly wouldn't have known. She was really at home in front of the audience and we were all howling with laughter.

Chris Ramsey


If this boy doesn't make it very big very soon then there is no justice in the world. I left with properly aching cheeks because I'd laughed so much.

I find it so hard to describe comedy. It's not much use me going "And he did this HILARIOUS thing about Geordie Shore - HAHAHAHAHAHA! It made me CRY laughing!" (he did, and it did, but my retelling of it would be shite). I thoroughly recommend going to see him if you get the chance.

We wound the trip up by being in the audience at a live recording of the Radio 4 programme Broadcasting House. Ex-MP Neil Hamilton sat behind me. Yes, I do realise I'm about the only person in the world who would be mildly thrilled by this.

We've already got the dates in our diary for next year. Can't wait.

ps - am monstrously behind on blog commenting. Sorry! I'll try and catch up gradually but free time is very, very scarce for me this week.

A Trip & A Tag

Ooh what a lovely weekend it's been.

Despite having to get up at an ungodly time for a Saturday, I was in London by 10am and, feeling very girl about town (am very much enjoying feeling more confident navigating my way around London), headed off to meet Margaret of Penny Dreadful Vintage fame. We had a little charity shop mooch, wandered around in the sunshine and then had coffee in a tremendous little cafe. And I'm pleased to report that she's even funnier and lovelier than I expected. Enviably dressed too! Isn't blogging fab? I am always a proper wuss about meeting new people but find when I meet fellow bloggers that I'm much less shy. I suppose there's already that sense of friendship there from all the chatting and commenting.

The original point of the jaunt to London was for Lee and I to see In A Forest Dark And Deep starring Matthew Fox and Olivia Williams. We very much like to get tickets for plays that feature our favourite actors and they're both high up on his list. The play was, well, hmmm... not very good. The acting was great - no complaints whatsoever in that department - and we had 3rd row seats which meant we could appreciate them up close (close enough for Lee to get hit in the foot with a prop can of Bud that fell off the stage). I just thought the dialogue and characterisation, particularly in the female character, were really poor in parts. The plot was a bit all over the place as well with lots of little things suggested and then never followed up on, and I saw the big dramatic moment coming a MILE off. The lady sitting next to me did not and let out quite the overly dramatic gasp when it happened.

We'd planned to meet one of Lee's pals in the evening for drinks but she couldn't come and working on the assumption that we'd easily spend £20 each in the pub, we bought tickets to see Flare Path starring Sienna Miller, James Purefoy and Sheridan Smith instead. I am SO glad we did. Despite the fact that we were sitting right up in the heavens and obviously didn't get to see any of the subtleties, I absolutely loved it. Mind you, it would have had to have been pretty bad for me not to. I love fiction and drama set in WW2 and have a real soft spot for RAF centred things, especially those about Bomber Command. But this really was great. Very funny in parts, very sad in parts, full of jolly 40's slang, really enthralling and with fab costumes and set design. Sienna (who admittedly I don't like very much) was much better than any films I've seen her in but Sheridan Smith was the winner for me. Such a sweet, emotional subplot.

Oh and we stayed in an EasyHotel. The hilarity. The orangeness. The lack of anything except a bed (seriously, wouldn't have killed them to put up a shelf or something). The bathroom was quite nice though.

Self with the perfect late night accompaniments - wine straight from the bottle, fake Pringles, a vegan Mars Bar and some roasted broad beans. What a classy bird I am.

I was terribly cultured today though. Lee's coach left about 3 hours before mine so I took myself off to the V&A for a look round. Oh my. I could have spent days in the place. I restricted myself to one little section and didn't even have enough time to do that properly. I was in my element in the British Galleries 1500-1760, with a very short dash through the 1760-1900 section as I realised I was running very late and had to scamper to the exit. Bliss, especially all the 17th century clothing and the Elizabethan room. The Hilliard miniatures are just exquisite - I stood gawping at them for ages. I didn't go to the Yohji Yamamoto exhibition but there were pieces dotted all around the rest of the exhibition rooms which I thought was a very nice touch.

Then just to round the trip off nicely, by strategically selfish bag placement I had a double seat to myself on the coach on the way home. Hurrah.

And finally...the tag. It's The Handwriting Challenge which the ever-lovely Char posted about the other day. I adore looking at other people's handwriting so do have a go at this yourself if you want to. The rules are simple, write down the following:

1. Name and blog name
2. URL
3. Write 'a quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog'
4. Favourite quote
5. Favourite song
6. Favourite band(s), artist(s)
7. Anything else you wish to say..

So, using a scrap of paper from my brilliant Edward Monkton notebook:

Didn't realise that I made the word "crap" look so much like "oap"!

The Week Of Doom is OVER!

Morning everyone!! Am I disgustingly cheerful for early on a Saturday morning? Probably! I am caffeined up, on a train and celebrating the end of the week of doom by going down to London for the day to see this:

And I'm wearing this. Not the smartest ensemble in the world but I've had no time to do any washing or ironing so the choice in my wardrobe isn't as good as usual!

Tshirt - bought at Thursday's gig (which was AMAZING)

Skirt - Warehouse, ancient

Boots - Gap sale

Cardi - Hawkhead

Yesterday's Frock Friday outfit deserves a quick mention too:

Dress - Primark
Shoes - New Look

I had to rope in my mum to help alter this frock. It came with the oddest shoulder puff things that I was not at all keen on and as I don't trust myself to do anything more complicated than hemming and button swapping when it comes to alterations, help was needed. Typical Primark sizing issue as well - it's a size 12 but there's so much extra fabric in it that I had to hold it at the back a bit in these photos. Doesn't look so shapeless in real life but for some reason it photographs as very baggy. Perhaps I'll pass it back to her to get the side seams taken in a bit.

Thank you for all your lovely comments over the past couple of weeks and for putting up with my moaning. New followers, I'm not usually this mardy! I'm pleased to report that I've had a super productive week and am feeling much happier about life now. I've also been hugely cheered along by the wonderful parcels that have arrived from some lovely blogging pals. Isn't it funny how getting an unexpected package in the post can entirely brighten up your day?

Helga sent me this lovely parcel - very unexpected and a bit spooky as it turned up on the morning that we found out she and G were safe! I can't wait to get started on the books. I always think it's fascinating and perhaps a tad scary to read books that others have recommended - what if I don't like them? I'm confident with these two though as the blurbs on the back sound so interesting and I trust Helga's taste.

(Expect more book chat in March. Oh and hats. I haven't forgotten about the Hat Challenge.)

Vix, being all the all round wonderful woman that she is, sent me this fab vintage Windsmoor frock and a fun book that I've been dipping in and out of. I'm going to be very brave and attempt hacking several inches off the bottom of the frock as it's rather long on me. I shall report back on my progress.

Then I came home from work yesterday to this beautifully wrapped parcel of gorgeous giveaway goodies that I won in Lucy's recent giveaway. Blog karma is definitely going around - she won a prize in mine! Thank you Lucy - it's all so lovely and your wrapping skills put my shoddy bundle-everything-into-a-jiffy-bag attempts to shame!