August Happiness

Five things which made me smile this month...

 

 

 

1. Edinburgh! All of it; the shows, the madness and definitely the food.

 

 

 

2. Which leads nicely to...pizza! Managing to visit Mamma's Pizza Restaurant in Edinburgh finally after 4 years of trying to fit it into our hectic schedule.

 

 

 

3. Free rides at Carters Steam Fair as a thank you for helping fix one of their vehicles.

 

 

 

4. A delicious hog roll at a BBQ the night before the Mid Somerset Show.

 

 

 

5. Popping into Poundland after visiting Weston Super Mare Sand Sculpture Festival and picking up a couple of Magnums for £1 each, followed up with a slap-up seaside supper at a little seafront café.

 

What little things made you happy this month?
 

An A-Z of Me - G

 

Gardening - I'm what would be called a 'lazy gardener'; I like plants that take care of themselves and don't need too much looking after and I like growing veg like potatoes which again, don't take too much effort. It's funny really, before we owned a house, I wouldn't have said I was that bothered about having our own little patch of greenery but when you end up with one that's over 100ft long (in our first house) you suddenly become obsessed with Gardener's World and the Chelsea Flower Show!


Girliness - I really don't think I'm a girly girl at all. I was probably a bit of a tomboy as a child; I remember climbing trees and making mud pies and even owning (and loving) a toy multi-story car park complete with cars and a lift (ahh, good old 1980s toys).
I don't follow many beauty blogs, wouldn't know where to begin teaching someone how to do their make-up, only just started wearing bright lipstick this year, can't really be bothered styling my hair and the only reason I wear dresses is the majority of the time I'm too lazy to colour co-ordinate a top and a skirt!


Geography - This was the class at school that was a close runner-up (to English Literature and Drama) for the prize of being my favourite subject. My dad really liked it and most of our holidays incorporated some kind of geography lesson along the way. I seriously considered studying it at university but was put off by having to learn about soil and rock types when I was more interested in the human side of the subject. Obviously I know now that I could have just studied that bit on it's own!

 

What 'G' things sum you up?

For the rest of the alphabet click here!

32 before 32 - See A Random Show in Edinburgh

My '32 Before 32' list is still looking rather empty and I've only got just over 3 months left but when we were up in Edinburgh at the start of August I actually managed to cross off something from it - 'Discover a random show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival'.

 

Andrew spotted this poster fluttering in the breeze on the side of a bus shelter near the Pleasance Dome; we like Andrew Maxwell and Marcus Brigstocke so we thought anything starring them would have to be fairly good.
 

 

 

 

So we trotted off to the Assembly box office, bought our tickets and walked round to the venue which happened to literally be 'a small box'. I reckon there was only about 30 or so punters and the place was packed.
 

 

 

  

It wasn't until we were stood in the queue that I thought perhaps I should actually Google what the show was about.

So a quick search revealed This Is Your Trial starred Tim Fitzhigham at the judge, Thom Tuck at the Clerk and a changing line-up of QC's each night to either defend or prosecute whoever was on trial.

And the show is very accurately named as audience members are picked at random and then after a few questions from the judge, the clerk invents a heinous crime they've committed. Things like 'attempting to smuggle an Englishman inside a Scottish name' (the guy was from Cambridge but was called Hamish) and 'wearing a hipster sweatshirt for no reason'.

We needn't have worried though, it was brilliant! One of the funniest shows we saw all week, with fabulous performances from the QC's that night.
 

 What made it so funny wasn't necessarily the performances though, it was more to do with the fact that it really seemed as if all the comedians there were just messing around and having a good laugh; like they were all mates playing around down the pub after hours.

Tim Fitzhigham and Thom Tuck made you cry with laughter all the time; I don't know how much they'd drunk before the show but most of the time they couldn't keep a straight face (Marcus Brigstocke though, was amazingly poker-faced during his spiel, not really sure how he managed that!).

All in all, I think that was a darn good 'random show' and if it's back next year, it's one we'll be booking as part of the grand masterplan!

 

Two Days The Same

Just a quick one - during September I'll be taking part in Sarah's Two Days the Same project which she's been running since January.

 

 

 

 

The idea is that each day Sarah takes a picture and her guest blogger of the month (that'll be me then in a few days) takes one and shortly afterwards she posts them online side by side.

 

It's been a really interesting project to follow - sometimes the photos are wildly different and sometimes they're really quite similar!

 

So hop on over to Sarah's blog to see how we compare :-)

52 Lists - Weekly Shopping List

 

 

 

This week's prompt is all about your weekly shopping list.

 

Now our weekly list doesn't actually exist as we tend to shop fortnightly (and sometimes even every three weeks) and then make the most of all our freezer space.

 

I'm not going to list what we buy right now though as I do have the beginnings of a post all about my OCD meal planning tendencies in my drafts folder so watch out for that at some point! :-)

 

 

Instead tell me, what's on your shopping list?

 

 

This post is part of Ema's (Made in Hunters) 52 Lists Project

For a full list of all the other lovely bloggy people taking part, visit Scarlett's site (WorkRestPlayLove) for a nosy!

Here Is The News #8

Blogland Brilliance

Danielle took some beautiful pictures of Berwick upon Tweed beach

Angela went sheep-hunting in Sodbury (not as dodgy as it sounds, believe me, we'll all be doing it next summer)

Lily had a very early morning start to watch the dawn ascent at Bristol Balloon Fiesta

Saskia's back from her summer volunteering in Nepal - she did some sterling work out there!

Sophie made some delicious-looking Blueberry, Raspberry and Chocolate Muffins (and in the process, reminded us all there's only 18 Fridays til Christmas!)



Currently Coveting

A trip to this toilet! (and a slice of cake from the café as well) :-)



Find me at...

Great Dorset Steam Fair opens to the public today; expect queues of traffic either side of Blandford, hundreds of gleaming steam engines, vintage fairground rides and plenty of cider.

There's also another Carnival on this weekend (there's at least one on now every weekend until the middle of November) - this Saturday evening it's the turn on seaside town Seaton in Devon.



Interesting Info

Did you hear about the marriage proposal caught by the Met Police helicopter?
Very romantic, I hope she said yes!

Can you think of any more untranslatable words?



I wish I hadn't missed...

Rhythmic Circus - I love love love this video and tune!
Can't believe I've never heard of them before, they were at Edinburgh this year and had all 5* reviews - they're definitely going on my 'ones to watch out for' list for next year.





What's new with you this week?
 

This (Long) Weekend at the Duckpond

We have mostly been...

 

Collecting - a few books from the library. I only actually reserved 3 of them, the others were just ones I stumbled upon in the 10 minutes I spent there!

 

 

 

 

Eating - far too much food. We had a Tesco Clubcard Prezzo voucher which needed using so after we'd done the book thing we went off for a 'date' (is it still a date after 7 and half years of marriage?)

Anyway, I'd forgotten how big Prezzo's meals were! Although we did still manage a pudding - that goes into a different stomach doesn't it?

 

 

 

 

 

Packing - a few bits and pieces for going off to the Great Dorset Steam Fair.

 

 

 

Watching - the first procession of South West England's illuminated Carnival season. Last Saturday's parade was in Sturminster Newton in North Dorset and there's now at least one Carnival somewhere across the South West every Saturday until the middle of November (so yup, sorry, you'll be hearing a lot about them again, same as last year)

 

 

 

 

Judging - the entries at the Carnival procession. Even though this was only a small Carnival, it can still be surprisingly difficult!

 

 

 

 

Heading - off in separate directions. Not in a bad way or anything! Andrew took his lorry off to the Great Dorset Steam Fair on Sunday morning and is staying down there at the moment. I stayed home to catch up with some jobs around the house and do a bit of coursework for my degree and I'll be going down to join him on Wednesday.

 

 

What did you get up to at the weekend?

Weston Super Mare Sand Sculpture Festival 2014

A few weeks ago we hopped over to Weston Super Mare to visit their Sand Sculpture Festival. It's been running in various formats for 8 years now, with a different theme each season - this year is 'Once Upon A Time' with all sorts of magical and literary characters.

 

We managed to get a couple of cheap tickets through Living Social which included a programme and some hot drinks and managed to visit the site on what must have been the windiest day of the year so far.

 

So out came the phone, away went the fancy camera and on went the glasses (and even then we both ended up covered in sand!)
 

 One of my favourite sculptures (and one of my favourite childhood stories) - Matilda by Dutch artist Arianne Van Rosemalen.

 

 

 The castle is based on the Brothers Grimm Fairytales with each side decorated as a different story - all created by Italian artist Laura Scavuzzo and German artist Susanne Paucker.

 Where the Wild Things Are by Czech artist Jan Zelinka.



 The Hobbit by Latvian artist Uldis Zarins.

 I loved this one (Romeo and Juliet), it's just so evocative and the expression on Romeo's face is so detailed. This one's been sculpted by Dutch artist Marielle Heessels.

 Gulliver's Travels by Czech artist Radek Zivny.

 The Lion and the Mouse by English artist Rachel Stubbs.

The other side of the Brothers Grimm Fairytale castle.

 

 

 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by the brilliantly named English artist Baldrick Buckle.

 

 

 Alice in Wonderland by Dutch artist Anique Kuizenga.

 I'm not sure who this fella belonged to!

Paddington Bear by English artist Rachel Stubbs.

  

 

The Sand Sculpture Festival is on every day til 5th October. It's not that expensive to get in and won't take you very long to look round so is definitely well worth a visit if you're in the area.

(although having said that, I've now shown you half the displays, ah well, it's still worth going, they make a mean cup of tea and the cakes in the café are quite tasty too)

The 2014 Mid Somerset Show

Although we go to a fair few steam rallies throughout the year, one of our faves is the Mid Somerset Show - actually an agricultural show and it's only on for one day.

For starters, lots of our friends (with and without vehicles) visit so it's a chance to catch up on all the gossip; we always have some kind of picnic (last year was baked potatoes and this year was pie and cake) and you also get to see all sorts of wild and wonderful animals, cattle, cheese, vegetables and craft entries.  

I'm not sure this little fella is quite aware of the label in his cage!

This was entered by a child - I'm 31 and I'm not even that creative!

 

 

 

 

 

Have you been to any local shows this year?