The Weekend in (not real) Verbs

Debating

Lots of debating happened over #TheDress - pretty much anyone I've come across since Friday has asked me this question. I am well in the gold and white camp. It doesn't change colour for me like it seems to for others, my jaw actually dropped open when I saw a picture of the actual dress. A friend who sees blue and black said to me that she wished she could take out her eyes so that I could see what she sees. As a less violent offering I can show you this photo - these are the colours that I see the dress...

Dog Petting

I went to visit Mum's friend to help her learn how to use her Smartphone. It was every bit as painful as it sounds. But the upside is that I got to see Ozzie with his floppy ear, whom I love very much.

Shopping

Not just any kind of shopping but my particularly favourite kind of shopping. The kind that involves you not actually spending any money. I have some vouchers from Christmas and I ran round Matalan like a whirling dervish trying to pick up as many things as possible. Including this bedding which I came home and put on my bed immediately; a testament to how much I love it because I really hate making the bed.

Seaside-ing

I had an urge to go to the sea whilst I was vaguely near it. Living in the Midlands is nice for access reasons, lots of things aren't too far away, unless you want to get to the sea. Then the sea is far. Very very very very far.

So Mum and I headed to Hornsea for the most typical English visit to the seaside ever in that we ate fish & chips, bundled up against the howling wind and looking at very ominous grey skies.

In other words, it was brilliant.

Fred and Lily-ing

You didn't think I'd forgotten about them did you? Obviously not. Fred and Lily were in true crazy Fred and Lily mode. Just look at the photo of Lily's completely manic face at the prospect of being in the vicinity of crisps and dip. And Fred has a fun new trick - jumping on top of the door and then trying to get you as you walk past into the kitchen.

When they are not being totally mad, they are still mostly fond of relaxing, something which Lily is particularly good at doing...

How I fell in love with a gold rhino

The internet is a funny ol' place isn't it? One day you're sat around with The Stitchettes, planning the Embroidering the Truth exhibition and the next, you're helping out Mr X Stitch at the Stitch & Craft show in the Olympia in London.

For those of you not in the know Mr X Stitch is the place you need to go to if you're looking for anything vaguely contemporary when it comes to stitching/embroidering. Every day there's a new post up featuring the latest person to be at the forefront of cool stitchiness and it's the place to go if you're looking for something a little bit different, a little bit inspirational and, if you happen to be looking on a Saturday, something that might make your head spin a little bit.

Mr X is also the man behind Push: Stitchery which is an almost painfully cool book showcasing those right at the edge of art - you know, pushing things on and moving things forward. I know there are many that would love it as a Christmas present.

And if you still don't know him, you may well have seen him without realising when he appeared on Kirstie's Handmade Britain, pitting his beautiful cross-stitched silhouette of Whitby Abbey up against her appliqued cushion in the Great Yorkshire Show. (He was robbed let me tell you.)

We had such a great time last year, that when Mr X Stitch said he needed some volunteers for the Knitting & Stitching show in Harrogate, myself and another Stitchette pootled across from Preston and Hull to hang out with the coolest stitchy person I know.

This time the exhibition was biggerer and betterer than ever before. This stall featured Art with a capital Ar and as Mr X becomes more well known on the scene, he has access to cooler pieces of work than ever before and some of the pieces in the exhibition are by artists featured in the Push: Stitchery book.

For instance. What better way to grab people's attention as they walk in than with this piece:

Yes. That would be cross stitch. On a car door.

It is the phenomenal work of Severija Incirauskaite-Kriauneviciene who not only has an unpronouncable name but has a ridiculous wealth of talent.

There were so many pictures taken of this door just in the 1 day that I was at the show - it must be popping up on blogs and social media sites all over the place and I hope I see more and more of her in the future.

But he didn't just stop at car doors. Why have just a car door when you could have an actual wooden door as well?

I was transfixed by this piece of total beauty from Manchester based artist Sarah Greaves - I spent a huge amount of time encouraging people to look behind the door as people were assuming that this was in some way stuck on the door and couldn't comprehend that this is 100% embroidery on wood - there are wee tiny little holes in there that she has made.

My head cannot get around it.

I should also mention at this point that I fell in love with a piece. And I really mean fell in love with. I couldn't leave him alone and stood jealously beside him any opportunity I got, sneering at those who pretended to like him when they couldn't conjure up a fraction of my feelings towards him.

Meet Humphrey.

Please note this is not his real name, merely the name I gave him. His show name is Gold Rhino and he is the work of Zoe Williams, a person, who I'm pretty sure if I ever met I would swoon away, overcome by the waves of talent that must emanate from her body.

Believe it or not, this is needle felting. No. I can't believe it either. I've seen people do a bit of needle felting and it looks fun - stabbing things very hard with a needle is the kind of craft I could get on board with - but never in all my days would I have thought that something as stunningly beautiful as this could be produced.

I swear I actually miss him now that I'm back home. Who needs a deer head?

These are just three of the artists with pieces on display at the show and I fear I have lost many of you already so I will stop gushing here. But if you were interested in some of the other pieces that were on display you can go here for a full list.

It was a day for enjoying people. For sitting or standing and chatting to people about a shared love - that of stitchiness. It was great to watch people being amazed by the car door or standing back to admire the various pieces and stopping to have a chat about how blown away they were by what they were seeing and all the idea they now had in their head floating about.

Places like the Knitting & Stitching show can tend towards the traditional shall we say and it felt good to be a very minor part of something new and a bit different.

So here's to Mr X Stitch and all those people who continue to be at the Stitchy edge of things, bringing a little bit of magic to common folk like me.

The last thing my camera saw...

It's that time of year again.

Time for Hull Fair.

I don't think there's a person alive (and certainly not an adult) who gets more excited about the fair than me. Unfortunately everyone else has grown up and isn't up for spending hours wandering around and getting chucked around like a ragdoll. Boo to them I say.

I've got 3 trips planned this year over the week or so the fair is on, because I am just that childish. One with the girls, one with an old friend from school and one with The Person who has never experienced the delights the fair has to offer.

This Saturday saw my first trip with the girls which unfortunately coincided with the heavens opening. I'm talking all kinds of rain pouring out of the sky.

To my immense disappointment only a couple of rides were endured before people called off feeling tired, bashed and thoroughly soaked through. I got to be whirled around a wee bit, but only enough to whet my appetite for my next trip tomorrow.

I'm not great at being just spun in round in circles. I can be flung about and go upside down and be thrown in the air without any problems whatsoever, but spinning round and round and round has an unfortunate effect on my brain and consequently stomach.

A couple of my friends however are little daredevils and went on the ultimate spinny roundy ride which is called the Superbowl. Think waltzers, on a platform, which tips in the air and you'll have the gist. My whole life I've wanted to go on it and my whole life I've never dared and this year was no exception.

Through the pouring rain I tried to snap some pictures, but,

Lots of rain + Flashing strobe lights + Spinny machines = crap photos

I did my best however and somewhere in this photo you can see my friends...

The next afternoon I decided I'd have a look at what photos I'd managed to get the night before. I turned my camera on......

....and nothing.

My camera is officially dead.

I'm not sure if it got completely soaked through, or if it got completely bashed about on the last ride we went on, which has left me with an incredibly bruised arm which I can't lift above my head.

Following the advice from some friends my camera has been taken apart and is enjoying a nice rice bath at the moment. Apparently the rice can soak up any excess moisture which might remain, but it's been in there for 24 hours and there's still no joy.

Luckily for me I took out insurance cover when I bought the camera and it's still covered. A quick hunt under my bed uncovered the policy and I'll be taking him in tomorrow to get him replaced.

There was more than a slight panic when I realised the effect this might have on my efforts to complete Project365, but my phone is going to have to substitute for now. I just have to figure out how to upload my photos straights to Flickr. Oh technology.

So the last thing my camera saw?

Aaaaaaah poor thing...

The Land of the Little Tin Bird

This weekend I went on an adventure. I went on an adventure to the land of the Little Tin Bird. I know I'm on a meeting bloggers in real life kick this year, first The Curious Cat and now Heather. Don't be jealous of my travelling ways people.

The reasons for this trip were many;

1. I should have seen her in Hull a while back but I couldn't get the time off work

2. I desperately needed a trip to a yarn shop that sells Stylecraft and I knew she had one

3. I just wanted to meet her didn't I?!

This trip was exciting because it involved me going into the dreaded country - you know me, city girl and all that, the country scares me and once I had changed trains at Leeds I noticed two things;

1. The average age of the people on the train had increased by 30 years

2. Lots of sheep in fields

However I needn't have been panicky because my trusty guide soon took me under wing, marching me directly to the yarn shop. Yarn me up people. My need was so desperate because I did something foolish some time ago - I tried to buy wool blind off the internet. I've decided to make a blanket for my Dad and his wife for Christmas and I sat down and looked at some colours of Stylecraft on the internet and duly picked ones that I felt went together. Then I got my order and nearly had a heart attack - the lovely burnt orange that I thought I'd picked is actually luminous orange (god knows what the people were thinking as they packed my order, they must have thought I was totally colour blind).

So I needed to get new colours, or colours that at least went with the colours I'd already got. Normally this makes me go a little crazy but I knew that with secret weapon Heather at my side I would be successful because this lady knows how to pick colours. I was right and whether she realised it or not, I rather cleverly got her to pick my colours for me. I'm a sly fox like that. (Sorry, I forgot to take pictures. Apologies.)

The land of the Little Tin Bird also brought me face to face with my other nemesis.

Hills.

One thing you need to know about Hull? No hills. Seriously. No. hills. We are flat flat flat. This is amazing in many ways but it means that as soon as I'm within a certain distance from the Humber and the land begins to slope, I become nearly totally incapable of walking.

The walk up to Heather's house in my opinion should only be undertaken with the use of an oxygen tank and crampons but she scampered up it like a little rabbit whilst I weezed away behind her. Seriously. It's virtually Snowdon.

I saw all the sights. All of them. There was the most amazing pizza for lunch. So amazing that I'm thinking of going back just to have some more of it.

I saw some rather famous hills from a distance.

I saw some of the Castle (you know I love a bit of castle action. Going in it is on my list of things to do next time I visit).

I saw some canal action. With some frantic duck action. Love a bit of duck action.

I saw a real life turning water mill. Amazing!

I saw a waterfall. Brilliant!

I went in the most gorgeous shop ever and bought a cat necklace. (And I forgot to take a picture of that as well. Sorry I'm not on form at the moment.)

And throughout all of this I kept having to remind myself that I don't actually know Heather. It's hard to explain, I don't mean that in the sense that I have made the mistake of reading someone's blog and believing that I know everything about them, but I actually had to keep reminding myself that I didn't know her. I had to keep reminding myself that this was a total stranger I was spending the day with - shouldn't it have felt a bit weirder than that?

Well whatever it was, the day passed far too quickly for my liking and before I knew it I was back on the train and heading for the Mothership. Much to the relief of my Mum who can't quite grasp the concept of meeting up with people you know from the internet and was pretty certain I was going to be coming back in a bodybag. (But whatever you do do not tell her that I actually went in Heather's house for a cup of tea because that was one thing she definitely told me not to do and I do try and do everything my Mum tells me.)


And do you know what? I might just have gotten over my fear of the countryside. Because the land of the Little Tin Bird might just have it all - lovely countryside and yet there was actually a Tesco in sight. Perfect.

(Also. I actually saw the real life Lucy and nearly had a laughing attack. But I played it cool don't worry. Although I did feel like I should curtsy.)

I can see the sea

This weekend was the weekend of the big squeeze. My sister, brother-in-law, two eldest nephews and their Irish Setter came to stay with my Mum for the weekend and I came to join them. That makes 6 people, a big dog and 2 cats in a 2-bedroom house. Yes, it’s every bit as claustrophobic as you can imagine.

Especially when Rowan forgets that she’s a dog and decides to sit on the sofa the second you get up to make yourself a drink and then do sad eyes at you so you don’t have the heart to move her.

In an attempt to stave off cabin fever and take advantage of the lovely weather we were in for, we went out for an adventure on the Saturday to Mappleton.

You know how I’m always banging on about people thinking Hull is on the coast? Well it isn’t, it’s on the banks of an estuary, trust me, you don’t want to be paddling in the Humber. But the coast isn’t too far away and when I was younger we were always heading on trips to Hornsea to eat fish and chips and paddle about.

Mappleton is about 10 minutes away from Hornsea but has one major advantage if you have a dog. You can let them off the lead on this beach. Dogs are persona non grata on big public beaches, but they’re allowed in the odd spot here and there and Mappleton is one of them.

To be honest, I think I’d rather set up camp on the beach here than be rammed in by the crowds at Hornsea. The beach is gorgeously sandy, with a few pebbly bits and it only took 2 seconds for me to kick my shoes up, attempt to roll up my jeans (note to self, skinny jeans were not made for paddling, not when you’ve got calf muscles like mine, you don’t stand a chance of rolling them up) and get my feet wet.

The water is a little suspiciously and oddly foamy when the waves come in. It made me feel like I definitely didn’t want to put my hands in it and then touch my mouth. I’m sure it’s not dirty at all, it just didn’t look appealing. But I was happy to stick my feet in and trot about.

Standard blog photo of feet in the sea.

Rowan loved the experience, capering about on the beach like the mad Irish Setter she is, full of seemingly unending energy. There was no getting her in the water however, she was scared of it and would run up the shore and then bark incessantly at the waves as they came rolling in. No amount of cajoling could get her in there and one incident involved my sister and I becoming so preoccupied with getting Rowan in the water that we didn’t see a freakishly large wave coming in and got much more than our ankles wet in the process.

There are rocks to scramble about on but unfortunately Eddie the Ankle Egg prevented me from doing any scrambling. He’s doing really well but only if I move in a forward motion, any attempt to twist my foot and he lets it be known that he’s not happy about it.

After letting Rowan expel some energy we went back to the car, dusted off the sand and headed in to Hornsea to visit Sullivans to get fish and chips. I’m sure there are plenty of fish and chip shops in Hornsea but this is the one that we always went to and the one I will always go to. The chips are gorgeous big thick chunks of potato, loads of grease, terribly bad for you but absolutely perfect.

We ate them on a bench on the seafront, wondering why on earth it wasn’t busier than it was. It was a lovely day, perfect beach weather, not too hot at all but it wasn’t anywhere near as crowded as I thought it would be. Maybe people had packed up and gone to Bridlington or Scarborough for the day. Who knows? I didn’t care as it meant we got a bench to sit on. Rowan wasn’t thrilled about being on her lead but she was soon appeased with an ice cream.

Then it was back in the car to go home, at which point we all seemed to fall asleep. Obviously the sea air tired us all out. Whilst everyone was asleep I snuck outside to sit in the sun and read the next classic on my list and try and fail to take arty pictures of myself.

Then it was pizza out on the decking (sleeping 6 people in a 2 bedroom house is actually much easier than finding room to feed 6 people in a 2 bedroom house) and then an evening of Mum, me and my sister sitting in the kitchen talking, whilst the menfolk watched Jurassic Park.

All in all, the perfect Saturday.

April Flickr Favourites

This was a good month for photos. The sudden appearance of the sun, a bit of craftiness, and a couple of bank holidays make for lots of photo opportunities.  

9th April - This was the first weekend that was gloriously sunny. I, like the rest of the UK, got completely caught up in it and I bought myself a summer skirt and went to sit in a park and read my book. However I failed to remember that blue skies do not a warm day make - it's still the beginning of April and all the sun in the world isn't going to make the temperature rise that far. But I sat and shivered it out like everyone else and made a secret little prayer to the weather gods that this weather will continue into summer.

12th April - Ok so I still almost shed a tear any time I think about the demise of my poor duck babies but instead I will try and focus on the good times. Even if they were only around for a week, I loved them so much it almost made my teeth hurt. And actually it's ok because I have discovered more duck babies, but they're for another post...

17th April - My first proper bit of embroidery and very proud I am of it too. Blogged about here, it still needs to be framed properly and I swear I will get around to it. Probably.

25th April - I don't even know if there are words for this one. Those cats crack me up something rotten and this is Fred at his very best. We excuse their poor behaviour on the fact that they are still babies, but they'll actually be three years old in August. I envy those people who have well behaved cats that don't jump on work surfaces and scavenge for food even though they're well fed - I have no idea why these two are such minxes. But I love them for it.

27th April - Oh hi. I can ripple now. WOOOOOOOO!! (I'll tell you more another time I promise.)

29th April - You may have missed this but there was a Royal Wedding recently. I had a tea party and it is officially one of the most fun things I've ever done and this photo will keep me smilling for many years to come. It's the product of a huge amount of blood, sweat and tears but an example of hard work paying off.

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Can't believe I've made it through four months of taking photos every day. I marvel at myself, I really do. (Mainly because if I don't, then no-one else will.)

All Project 365 photos can be found here if you wanted to have a gander.

The Person, Birthdays and Cake

I do believe they call it the law of sod. I get to see The Person for the first time in a month, book some holidays off work to use up my holiday allocation before April and I get sick.

Stupid stupid mega cold. I hate you.

I didn't let it spoil things too much, no amount of snot and mucus was going to get in the way of my weekend.

The good thing about hardly ever seeing each other is that we get kind of over-excited to see each other again and just hang out and do stuff. We don't have to do anything spectacularly exciting, just being together is cool. We call it being a real-life couple.

Although I felt like staying in bed and making groaning noises, I took The Person to see yet more fun things in Hull. I'm on a one woman mission to prove that Hull is brilliant to everyone that has the misfortune to cross my path it would seem. Next on the list was the Streetlife Museum which I like because you can climb on transporty things like trams and carriages. Who doesn't love that?

There are also grocery and pharmacy stores which have been preserved from the days of yore. Who doesn't love old stuff?

Then we went to enjoy the vaguely Spring-like weather by sitting in Queen's Gardens and laughing at some of the sights in Hull, like this guy, who was completely sparked out and yet had managed to make sure his super-strength beer can stayed upright.

Other highlights of the weekend included baking (with The Person valiantly trying to help but kind of not really) and a meal out in a lovely bistro down the road - we again marvelled at our real-life coupley-ness.

On Sunday the cold was doing it's best to try and strike me down in the prime of life but there was no way I was allowing it to take hold because Sunday was the Day of Birthday Parties. The Person was packed off home whilst I went to York for my nephew's 3rd birthday and then it was back home for Dorothy's tea party for her birthday. It was more than a little marvellous - there were muffins with cream cheese frosting, lemon drizzle cake, banana and honey teabread, Dundee cake, scones, lemon meringue pie, rose flavoured cupcakes, cucumber sandwiches...in short, just too much goodness for words.

I get over-excited about birthdays, I love the build-up to them, I love the cards, I love the opening of presents. And this is just anyone's birthday - when I arrived home on Saturday to find some cards on the mat for Dorothy I did an excited birthday jig. Imagine how unbearable I'm going to be this time next week when it's my birthday.

I am so thankful that I booked today off, I would need a day to recover at the best of times, never mind when I'm fighting off the lurgy at the same time.

And now I will go because my nose actually literally just dripped. Gross.

(But do you know what's awesome? I don't have to wait another month to see The Person - he'll be coming next Saturday for a visit for my birthday - see?! Like a real-life couple!)

Cultural Desert?

I know that some people (who are awful) wouldn’t necessarily associate the city of Hull with the word culture.

In fact we did make a bid to become Europe’s City of Culture a couple of years ago, but failed miserably. Whilst I admired the hopefulness of this effort, I think we’re a few years away from that kind of accolade.

But things are slowly improving. We had the Larkin 25 celebrations which included the Larkin with Toads installation and I think that the desert is beginning to get a few more water holes.

Whitefriargate is in the centre of Hull and is one of the main shopping parades. At least it was. St Stephen’s shopping centre was open on the other side of town and this led to a migration of people away from the area. Lots of shops closed down and it was starting to look a little depressed.

However some clever, bright people decided to turn this depression into an opportunity and commissioned artists to exhibit installations inside the empty shop units. Unfortunately I think some of these have gone unnoticed, but the latest, and final exhibition is most definitely on a mission to be seen.

Whitefriargate is playing host to an exhibition by two artists called Hsiao-Chi Tsai and Kimiya Yoshikawa who have put in place 3 installations in a piece called Rainbow-Friargate (see what they did there?!).

Whilst a lot of people walking with their heads down might miss some of the pieces inside the shop units, one of the pieces is pretty much unmissable. Mainly because it’s up two freaking trees in the middle of the street.

This piece is called Rainbow-Friargate Float and is made from bits of foam which have been strung up and tied to the branches of the trees. From a distance it’s absolutely beautiful, it’s like a tree on acid and is one of the cheeriest things I’ve seen in a long time, especially given the dismal weather we’ve been having (all of you with blue skies can do one, there hasn’t been blue sky in Hull for over 2 weeks now!).

I felt like quite the twerp in a busy street taking photos of foam up a tree but I am trying to steel my nerves and not let it bother me. Especially as I’m taking part in Kathy’s photo scavenger hunt (PS One of the items we had to collect this month is ‘a rainbow’ – I think this fits the bill.) and need to get braver about looking like a bit of a twat.

Apparently the other two pieces incorporate UV lights and paint so will change according to the time of day. I’m thinking I might have to stay in town late one night to check this out. So far I’ve only seen one of the other pieces called Blooming Propeller which is as beautiful as the Float piece, but I haven’t had a chance to photograph it yet.

I love that Hull is doing stuff like that but I hate that my first reaction is to go “Uh-oh that’s going to get vandalised.” Unfortunately it’s a thought borne out of experience. The toads lasted less than a week before they were vandalised and I have serious fears for this piece as it’s only made of foam and you can reach up on to your tippy toes and touch it quite easily. I have my fingers crossed however that the citizens of Hull will do me proud and not do their best to ruin a great piece of culture.

I will (obviously) keep you updated and try and get some photos of the other pieces before the rainbow shimmers and disappears into thin air.

The installation is running until May 13th and I think I’m already going to miss it.

You can go here to read more about the installation and artists.

Project 365: A look back at February

And whoosh. Another month has flown past. I would like to personally thank Lady Time for letting the sands through her fingers so liberally. Not.

I’m definitely starting to feel the burn of Project 365 now. The novelty has worn off and I’ve photographed pretty much all I can do on my walk to work and back each day. In fact a disturbing number of my photographs are taken when I’m at work – every time my boss leaves the office, I’m rummaging around for my camera and setting something up to photograph.

I haven’t taken any photographs this month that I’m particularly proud of. I wanted to write this post and thought I couldn’t really call it a round-up of my favourite photographs – more of a round-up of my favourite moments of February 2011 as represented by my Project 365 photos. 

(Why have a snappy title when you can have a convoluted one I say)

01/02 - How very convenient. The 1st February happened to be the day I reached my goal weight. Hurrah. Definitely a moment to remember. (I bragged about it here) I should say that since then I have paralysed with fear about going back to weigh-in. I am now a Gold Member and weigh-in is free for me as long as I am within 5lbs of my goal weight. Now I’m in somewhat of a dilemma, I’m sure I will have put weight back on (I don’t own scales so can’t say for sure) but I’m still happy as I am, part of me is very reluctant to go back to be told to lose weight, just because of an arbitrary number I plucked out of thin air when I first joined up. Hmm...not sure how I feel about it all to be honest.

03/02 - I snapped this on the way to the gym after work (ps how much lighter is it now already?! Hurrah!) because I thought that Hull City Hall, as seen across Victoria Square looked so beautiful. I might be alone in this one because the poor little photo hardly got any views on Flickr. Poor Hull.

12/02 – This month I made my very first cushion cover. It’s been exciting. And I haven’t even done a blog post yet about finishing it. Shame on me. But when I finished this side of it one weekend I felt immensely proud of it.

17/02 - I’ve got a lot of love for these when I included them in my February Photo Scavenger Hunt post and it made me very pleased. I absolutely love these shoes and have done from the very first day that I spotted a whole shelf full of them reduced to £3 in Primark 3 or 4 years ago. The sad truth is that I bought them and then didn’t dare wear them in public (although they did get an outing to Vegas when I went to see American Girl and Boy in 2008 – if you can’t wear those shoes in Vegas you seriously can’t wear them anywhere). I have decided that I need to get my fancy shoes out more though, I have a few of them but never ever wear them because quite truthfully a lot of them cripple me so can’t really be worn on nights out. So I have decided that at Stitch & Bitch on a Thursday I’m going to give them all their turn in public – it’s only up the road, I can totter there and back no problems. Expect lots more shoe photos to come in the following months...

20/02 - Somehow I’ve managed to get to the age of 27 and never travel in First Class. However, when I was booking my tickets to come home from Preston after a weekend of interview and Manchestering I discovered that by some quirk of fate a first class ticket was the same as a standard ticket (no I have no idea why either). I won’t lie, it was bliss, I am not looking forward to having to slum it in standard from now on. Lots more room, including bigger arm rests so you don’t have to get into an elbow war with a complete stranger and no having to listen to some chav’s music blaring out of his earphones. And on the train from Preston to Manchester there were free biscuits on offer. That’s right folks. Free biscuits. (There was nothing from Manchester to Hull because it was 6pm and there’s no trolley service on then. Booooooooo.) Small things please me people, what can I say.

23/02 - I don’t know about anywhere else but last week was freakin’ miserable weather-wise. If it wasn’t raining the sky was just grey and heavy and leaden. I think the sun broke through once on Thursday and I had to be restrained from cracking open the sun lotion. When I woke up on 23rd to yet more dismal stuff I decided to cheer myself up by putting on a summer dress. Another Primark bargain from a few years ago, it hasn’t been worn in a while (due to a) no decent summer weather and b) being too fat to button it up) and I had a burst of inspiration and put my black jumper over the top of it so I didn’t freeze. This might not sound like a burst of inspiration to you but I have little imagination, especially when it comes to wardrobe matters, so this was a major breakthrough for me. And you know what? It totally kept me happy all day. Win.

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If you want to check in on my Project 365 photos then click here or on the link on my sidebar.

Obligatory snow pictures

Please allow me to get in on this snow action. I hardly ever get to post snow pictures, that's the bad fortune that comes with living in Hull. As we're pretty much below sea level and have about one hill in the vague vicinity, the white stuff doesn't come our way that often and if it does it hardly ever settles.

So you can imagine my smugness when we not only got snow, but that we were some of the first to get snow. Ha. In your face the rest of England.

The view out of my bedroom window yesterday afternoon

This morning was one of the days that made me glad I don't have a car. Whilst everyone was scraping the ice and snow off their cars, I could just begin walking into work, happy as a clam. This is a feeling I'm not sure will last, this morning was fine because the snow was fresh and powdery and therefore not slippy. After a couple of days of being walked on and compacted I think I might have a different view and possibly a broken ankle or two.

But let us not concentrate on the bad things the snow can bring. If I was going to do that I'd have to tell you all about how the pipes were frozen when I came back from my sister's yesterday and remained frozen, despite the heating being on low, until nearly 6pm last night. OR I'd tell you about how the other Stitchettes, who bravely went out to Harrogate to the knitting and stitching show, got more than a little stuck, spending 7 hours on the road in an attempt to make a journey which is normally a couple of hours at the most. OR I'd tell you about how Fred and Lily are trapped at the cattery because Mum couldn't drive out to bring them home yesterday (they'll think they've been abandonned!).

Instead let us ooh and aaah at the prettiness.

Remember Pearson Park from this post at the end of August? This is what it looks like now, there have been plenty attempts at building giant snowmen over the weekend, but for some reason, all of them appear to have been aborted once they've built the body. No commitment some people.

Queen Victoria remains unamused.

The fountain in Queen's Gardens in the middle of town is frozen over and some amazing sheets of ice are hanging over the sides.

Close-up ice action

And do you remember the baby moorhens? I've been meaning to tell you, they're doing incredibly well and thriving, there's at least three or four that have survived which has warmed the cockles of my icy cold heart. I am very pleased to have been there to capture their first experiences with the cold stuff. They seemed pretty confused, whereas the mallards and their mother skidded about with relative ease the babies did not look happy at all and were incredibly tentative as they stepped about the frozen pond. I feel like a proud Mother Moorhen myself.

Brave baby moorhen



Post hen do

I am a broken woman.


The hen do was amazing and Sheffield didn’t know what had hit it but I feel like some kind of casualty of war.

I ache from my head to my feet. My neck hurts but I have no idea why, did it buckle under the pressure of all the hairspray keeping my hair up? My feet hurt, one of them sporting a rather wonderful bruise which was the result of getting in the way of some exuberant dance moves from the Hen. My hamstrings hurt, although this is unsurprising given that I danced solidly for 5/6 hours straight, sitting down was for wusses apparently.

I’m pretty sure that even my fingers hurt.

I couldn’t even tell you if I was hungover yesterday or not (yes I did break the Warfarin rules and drink my little socks off. Fancy dress requires drinks I’m afraid). I can tell you that I was incredibly tired. Incredibly incredibly tired, most likely from the excessive dancing.

The extra hour should have helped us. It should have been an extra hour in bed. But instead we used it as an extra hour of drinking and dancing. My poor little body needed sleep, sleep and more sleep. I even fell asleep during the day, a never heard of activity if you’re me (even if it only was for 30 minutes).

The cold which has been lurking about for weeks and weeks has taken advantage of my run down immune system and is trying to invade my whole body, the lungs have been the first to capitulate and I’m hoping I’m not seeing the return of the cough that irritated and annoyed me for 18 months, only to disappear when I had the embolism. But my body (and more importantly my brain) are telling it to just bugger off, I don’t have time to be ill thank you very much so you might as well just leave.

But was it worth it?

Absolutely baby.

Now excuse me while I curl up in a ball somewhere.

The greatest show on earth

Remember how I told you about the Humber Bridge and that if you’re from Hull it’s a law to love it?

There’s something else you have to love if you’re from Hull.

Hull Fair.

I feel I can confidently state that 99% of the people born in Hull have been at least once to Hull Fair. (And if they haven’t they’re frankly a little bit weird and we should probably disown them.)

It will be an integral part of any childhood memory. Somewhere, in the recesses of your mind you will remember what it felt like the first time you went on the waltzers or the big wheel or ate so much candyfloss, toffee apples, nougat, cinder toffee that you wanted to die. You’ll remember the first time you were allowed to go on your own. You’ll remember plucking up the courage to go on a ride that you really didn’t want to because you didn’t want to lose face in front of your friends.

You’ll remember the bus journeys there. Or the car journeys which took forever because you had to queue for what felt like hours to get into the car park. You’ll remember looking up into the sky at pretty much any point in Hull and being able to see the strobe lights in the sky. You’ll remember walking over the flyover on Anlaby Road and seeing the lights and becoming giddy with excitement.

You’ll remember the low buzz as you get closer and closer that grows and grows in volume until you reach Walton Street and all the street vendors and you get bowled over by the assault on your senses – chips and burgers and hot dogs and chestnuts and people yelling and shouting in every direction.

You'll remember the sheer joy you got from the first time you won a prize on Hook a Duck. Or Hook a Pingu or whatever other animal it is - this year it was Hook a Polar Bear. And no, I didn't win one. Very upsetting.

Man alive it’s brilliant.

And so I insist on going every year. Because really Hull Fair is not for children, I don’t think you can enjoy it properly until you’re an adult and can freely admit you’re terrified and concentrate on the fair and not trying to look cool in front of boys you’re never going to see again and it’s even better when you’re not so grown up that you have to be responsible for a child of your own.

You can eat whatever you like and your Mum isn’t going to stop you. Bob Carvers chips and a dirty great big burger on the way home? Yes please.

Every single year I forget how loud Hull Fair is. Conversation is impossible and actually kind of unnecessary – there’s so much to look at you don’t want to miss out by talking to someone. I also forget how much of a vacuum it is for money – nothing seems to be that expensive yet suddenly your purse is empty, how does that happen?! (Yes the chips and the burger might have had something to do with that.)

I went with Dorothy at the end of last week to the penultimate day. We behaved like teenagers and screamed our heads off on the rides. We went on The Wild Mouse, a small little rollercoaster, it’s not massive, it’s not long, it’s probably aimed more at children and yet more noise came from the pair of us than anyone else. There were 2 grown women, waiting for their children to come off it who were killing themselves laughing at us.

Because that’s really what Hull Fair is all about. The people. You don’t have to go on anything, you just need to wander about and look at stuff and marvel at the insane rides that people are willing to go on. And laugh at the barely clothed girls, shivering their heads off but determined to look ‘sexy’ in the hopes of bagging a traveller. You can stand in the queues and work out everyone’s story. The university students who look excited but slightly terrified and out of their depth (Hull Fair is seriously, seriously big, do not underestimate it and always have a meet-up point in case of separation.), the school kids who have been allowed to go on their own and are spending more time snogging than enjoying any of the rides, the slightly uncomfortable looking middle-aged, middle class couple who don’t really know what they’re doing there...the sights are endless.

Last year was the first time I went on the big wheel and it scared the beejebus out of me. This year I was much braver and felt (slightly) less afraid. God know why I’m scared, you’re fully enclosed in a little carriage and you’re not going to fall anywhere, it’s just so bloody high. And it doesn’t help that the men working on it think it’s just hilarious to spin you round and round as you pass by.

I could stay there all night. I could go on everything (but not the waltzers, after an unfortunate vomiting incident a few years ago I haven’t been able to face going back on them since) the only thing that stops me is the fact that everyone gets the fear when they get older and don’t want to go on the scary rides and also the fact that I’m not made of money.

But I love it. I love it with every inch of my being and I will always do my best to go every year. I can’t not, it’s in my blood.