Back on Form (And 10 Reasons I'm Lucky)

Thank you so much for your kind comments. Even thought the whole thing was a bit of a shambles, I've bounced back and feel happily back to my usual self. I also have some amazing things to feel grateful for:

1) On the 6th November (my birthday) Star Trek Girl and I are driving to Amsterdam to spend three days drinking good coffee and wine, eating nice food, wandering the canal-sides, looking at art and admiring clogs. 

I usually go to Italy but my friend has never been to Amsterdam, is half French so used to driving on the other side of the road, speaks six languages, and I haven't been since I went for a boyfriend's birthday around 15 years ago. We've booked a lovely little apartment through Air BnB that comes with two bicycles and is right near the museum district. It's going to be great!

2) My American client has just renewed the contract on my flat so I have at least another year being able to live by myself in my gorgeous, bright, happy little home.

3) I've just had a bumper month work-wise. I'm making around £300 per month in passive income through download sales which I aim to take up to £1000 within a year. I have lots of interesting, satisfying work and I'm still able to work completely virtually.

4) The last time I took my little cat Treacle to the vets for a check up, they said her heart murmur was a lot less severe than they had initially thought and that it might've just sounded louder because she was stressed. So she's pretty much fine.

5) Two books of beautiful poetry arrived through my door today. Winter is coming and it always makes me want to read poetry and ghost stories for some reason. A Scottish friend often posts poems up on Facebook and, after a particularly gorgeous poem the other day (Infinity by Giacomo Leopardi) I asked him to recommended some books and I ended up buying The Bees and Love Poems by the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. 

6) I'm dating someone new. I decided to go back on the dating site for a month and have been on four dates with a guy called Peter. I wasn't sure if he was 'romantically interested' so I asked him on our fourth date last night if he was (we're all busy here pal) and he said he was interested but that he was a bit shy when it came to these things. He also finished a five year relationship at the end of last year and I think he's a bit out of practice!

I don't feel any urgency, but dating has certainly cheered me up and restored my knocked confidence - which was the point.

7) I've been planning another trip away. I've mentioned this before, but I'd really love to go on a  three-day winter break on the island of Sark. It's a Dark Skies island and I want to take a good book, go on some brisk clifftop walks, then cosy up with a brandy and read in front of an open fire. How lovely does that sound?

8) A friend is coming up from Cornwall today, another friend from London is joining us and we're going out for sangria and dinner at a Spanish tapas bar before heading to a Mogwai gig in town. My Cornish friend is doing some work for them so we're all on the guest list. 

9) I went to my first Star Trek Convention the other week. It was brilliant to be around other nerds, to see people just wandering around in Starfleet uniforms and to not feel awkward discussing the common ancestry of Vulcans and Romulins! I loved it.

10) After I got dumped by email and had a horrendous eye infection that left me taking a five-day, four-a-day course of hardcore antibiotics, a friend sent me a lovely card from Devon saying how wonderful I was, my best friend came through as she always does and was an incredible source of support, another friend came over with paleo cherry and chocolate scones, my cousin called me to see if I was ok and another two friends came over to cheer me up.

So actually I have a pretty good life, things are pretty peachy and I did not let that bloody loser get me down! 

Glad to be Home From Austin

I returned from Austin four days ago now and I feel I've only just recovered some sense of normality. I'm really glad I did the event but it was incredibly hard work and I felt like I earned every single penny. Working 12-15 hour days in a windowless, wood-panelled room mainly by myself and only eating when someone bought me food, I was so busy that it took me hours to eat that food and I didn't stop all day. It was completely exhausting.

When I finished work I would call a taxi and hope one turned up as not one knew where the University was even after I gave them the address (in fact not one taxi driver knew the way to anywhere I ever asked him to go in 2 weeks). I would then give them directions every step of the way and fume when they asked how much change I wanted back) I would then occasionally flick through 40 channels of banality before I crashed out so I could get up at 6.30 to do it all again. Thank God the hotel served Illy coffee cos I would have gone postal otherwise.

I did get 2 days out of the 18 to explore and I can tell you that I wasn't impressed with Austin much. Like most US cities it was sprawling and I think people generally drove to the mall to do their shopping. Nearly every place sold food in some way (takeout, fast food, restaurant, 7-11) and most of the food I had was horrible. Nearly everything had fake cheese on it and lost weight when I was there as I could barely look at some of it. I was offered deep-fried ice cream one evening ("hey, it comes with cream on the side!"). Those poor people didn't have a chance - you would have to have a will of steel to live there!

It was a complete culture-shock for me actually. The ineptitude of the US team was staggering but they whooped, high-fived and congratulated themselves when they did anything remotely resembling competence. The red tape we had to navigate so that nobody got sued was jaw-dropping. The taxi driver at the airport refused to lift our suitcases because he didn't have any medical insurance and the competitors had to sign waivers for 100 things before they could do anything. It was most odd. 

We did find a few gems on the faculty though. People we hadn't even known about suddenly appeared and went over and above board to save the day. They were amazing and, whilst the rest were completely out of their depth running an international event of that size, without these gems, the event would have failed in my opinion. They were completely undervalued and underused at the university and were thrilled to get to get to use some skills for once. 

There were a few good moments though. The people were at least friendly, the weather was nice most of the time, I had a laugh buying my cowboy hat and watching people dancing to live music, the margaritas were amazing (they free-pour over there!), the Four Seasons was obviously fantastic and my bed was like a huge marshmallow with clouds for pillows, I liked seeing squirrels clambering everywhere and the buses were cheap.

I'm truly glad I had the experience, and I'd do the next one in London if asked, but I didn't really like Austin much. From being made to stand in a booth with my hands behind my head and then fingerprinted and photographed like a criminal at customs, to the ineptitude and greed of the taxi drivers, half and half, and the lardy food, I'm glad to see the back of it to be honest. I'd still like to see some more of America, but Texas wasn't for me I'm afraid - maybe I'm more European than I realised.

My home for 2 weeks

I'm back to work tomorrow and, having made some big changes to my business just before the event, I'm looking forward to seeing how that pans out. Spring also seems to have finally arrived in Blighty and next week is predicted to be fine and sunny which is something to look forward to. I'm very happy to be back to my cats, Italian coffee pot, TiVo, the cinema and my darling seaside town though.

PS: to my American blogger friends, please don't take this post as a criticism of you. I've only been to two places in the US and am just saying how I personally found the experience. We have plenty to moan about here and, if you'd love to come and visit, I would be delighted to show you around and see what you hate too! 

Tales From The Tower

The White Tower

I love to read history books and the Tower of London makes an appearance in nearly every historical tale of intrigue, murder and treason I read; so it was kind of odd that I knew so much about the place but had never actually been. Well that all changed yesterday when I finally took myself up for a little jaunt.

I'd been thinking of going for a while but yesterday I decided to actually get off my arse and do it. So I hopped on a train to London Bridge Station (around an hour away) walked across the bridge and joined the tourists piling in to the 1000 year old Tower of London.

Henry VIII 

I'd made a bit of a faux pas by going on a Saturday when it was rammed full of tourists, but I went in around 1pm so after a few hours it was much quieter which really made a difference. It's nice to me able to get a sense of the place without so many people around as well as getting a clear shot when taking photos!

Memorial on the Tower Hill site looking towards the Jewel House on the right

The place was absolutely amazing. It was atmospheric and rammed so full of history that I could hardly bear it. Not all of it was 1000 years old of course, as it had been rebuilt and added to over the centuries, but you just felt like so much had happened there. So many people's lives were played out there - so many ends of people's lives as well.

One of my favourite places in a kind of macabre way was the Beauchamp Tower which had been the last stop for many people destined for the block. Many of them had carved their names or messages into the walls and these were still there protected by clear plastic - some were written 500 years ago. It's not often you get to see or think about something like that.

Obviously I also went to see the crown jewels which were in a series dark rooms protected by the thickest doors I'd ever seen. You go past the rows of crowns on a moving walkway which I guess is to stop people crowding round them and blocking the view. They were the sparkliest things I'd ever seen - very bling.

Traitors Gate

There was some stuff I wasn't so interested in like the gold plate and the weaponry, but seeing the armour that Henry VIII, Edward VI (his son) and James I wore was the stuff of dreams for geeky lil me. And finally seeing Traitors Gate where Elizabeth I was bought in to the Tower on the order of her sister Mary was pretty cool as well. She must have been terrified - no wonder she wasn't fond of staying there once she became Queen.

London Skyline From the Tower

We are lucky to have so much history readily available in this country. We have castles, palaces and stately homes coming out of our ears; we can go to a 7th century Anglo Saxon royal burial ground, see Henry VIII's 500 year old flagship the Mary Rose, and see stone circles that are almost 5000 years old if we want to. We live amongst our history, and I love that we're surrounded by ancient reminders of who we are, how we got here, and the people we came from. 

Waiting For Henry

I had a fabulous day of culture on Friday; although it meant going to London it was well worth it. Firstly I met Star Trek Girl and we went to see the Henry VIII 'Man & Monarch' exhibition at the British Library - I love history and my speciality is the monarchy; in particular the Tudors, so I had been looking forward to this since I heard about it.

In one room were these paintings, books, tapestries and effects that I had seen time and time again in books but had never seen in real life. One huge tapestry was so magnificent it was hard to imagine how anyone could physically create such a beautiful item. There were so many original sources there - paintings and drawings that were nearly 500 years old; that had survived wars, plague, fire and flood. To read the last letters of men pleading for their lives in The Tower, or to see the writing desk of a man who has been dead for half a millennia and who changed the course of British history for love, is really something.

The exhibition is narrated by David Starkey, who is like a God to me - on this subject he is the most knowledgeable man on the planet, and if I could have anyone else's job then it'd be his! The exhibition really was something special and I highly recommend it if you can get to see it; it was only £9 and well worth it. There's loads of Henry events around at the moment as it's 500 years since the accession; I want to see the 'Dressed to Kill' at The Tower of London next - can you imagine; a history lover who has never been to the tower?!

After we left Henry we headed for the Theatre Royal Haymarket to see Waiting For Godot; although we were up in the gallery and the sound didn't carry too well, I really enjoyed it. Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan and Simon Callow are all brilliant actors and it was a compete privilege to see them at work - I had absolutely no idea what was going on, but I liked it anyway!