O CANADA!

You big, REALLY big, friendly, cold, wet, dry, hot, rainy, snowy, mountainous, flat, rocky, green, white, wild, AMAZING place!


I've been here a month now, and I love Canada. The only thing I don't love about Canada is that it's 4500 miles away from Wales. If we could move Wales to Canada, I would be in paradise. The people are wonderful, the food is varied to the Nth degree, the drinks are refilled endlessly, the trains are big! I love!

No picture for now, but if you have my facebook you'll have seen thm anyway, and I'm pretty much relying on the goodwill of my diddy laptop, so the photos take a while to get uploaded.

Extreme love! Wahey! x

The lungs attack!

So this week I've been excavating at an amazing site on the coast. Except for today, because I have pleurisy...
Which is a condition where the lining of the lungs, instead of being smooth and moist, dries out and causes rubbing and discomfort.
Thankfully I'm on TONS of penicillin and I had the day off to rest and do very little. It still hurts, but we'll see how I am tomorrow. Maybe I'll be able to do some recording or drawing or something, as breathing deeply is a bit difficult :S
Currently, I'm getting ready for my trip to Canada, which begins a week on Saturday, and I will be spending three months there! I've never spent Christmas away from my family, or even flown alone before...
Shazzoooo! Let's rock this joint!

Which reminds me, I need a cup of tea...

The photo is of a man whose internal organs are rebelling against him.

And so Liverpool

I made my way to Liverpool on the train yesterday, and arrived to sunshine and friend I'd not seen in months. I went to the pub, had pizza, watched films and stayed up late in the house I lived in last year.

This morning I woke up, it was raining, the house is silent, dark and empty, there hasn't been food, the people I've sent messages to haven't replied and I feel low.

Currently I'm feeling like a let-down, because of things I've done this last season, which I thought were the right decisions, and because of things beyond my control that I'm still blaming myself for. I was sad at home, and now I'm sad here...The damp, miserable grey of urban Liverpool, a sniffly head cold, a feeling of loneliness and the fact I haven't actually eaten anything today aren't helping I don't think.

It is most definitely one of those days.

I need a sandwich.

Today it is warm

So today I explored Dinorwig and Penrhyn quarries. They're such massive places you could spend weeks there and not see everything!

And it's so hot here today! Getting on for 26 degrees I'm told! Phew!

I've been having a lot of trouble being in Bangor lately. It's one of those places where you love, but you love to leave as well. After being in Liverpool, in the city, amongst many friends, it's hard to be back here with just my family and my mind for company. I've also not been keeping in touch with people as well as I should. I think that they think I'm ignoring them or abandoning them. And I'm not. I truly love and appreciate all of my friends, but I'm just forgetful sometimes, and I don't know what the best thing to do is, and I'm daft and useless at times. And I do miss them so much...

I have all my flights booked, which is awesome!

Shall we say hats?

Today a lot of crocheting happened, I finished my stipy toque, and made a start on a little cap for a baby that's just been born! Hurrah! :D

I also went on a 5 mile cycle ride before the weather became absolutely atrocious, then Robyn and I decided that it was time for me to dress up a little!

Tomorrow I shall be booking accommodation for my grand autumn/winter adventure!

I may also be going to the post office for some reason...

Just a selection of the hats I now have!

Fariday!

Right, well, it's almost the weekend, and I haven't done a blog post all week!

Thus far I've sent a visitor on their merry way homewards (I'm told the plane didn't crash, huzzah!), sorted out a somewhat stressful situation, moved Robyn into her new halls ;) started a pattern for a double breasted waistcoat (red wool, mmm) and crocheted a hat!

And apparently I don't post enough here, so I hope this post pleases my Canadian a little : p

Tonight I'll be venturing forth into the bustling urban metropolis that is Bangor (going to the pub) and then tomorrow I'm hopefully going on a wirework class which should be cool! It's being run by a local female blacksmith which is pretty groovy in my opinion!

The first picture is the face of a man who has just woken up and needs tea! The second is the same man, but having drunk a cup of breakfast tea! See the change in his eyes and face! If YOU need to wake up in a healthy, efficient way, drink tea!

I like tea...

Give me a ticket for an aeroplane, ain't got time to take a fast train...

So I've been a bit...busy isn't the word, more occupied.
I've been working things out, going places, doing stuff.
And feeling like absolute naffness for a while too. I had an awful headcold last week and I'm just about over it. Yay!

Anyhoo, today my oldest friend and I went for a walk, and he told me he was off back to his medicine degree in Sheffield tonight (safe journey old man!). And...I kind of felt a bit sad afterwards. I've got my degree, I'm taking a year off study to decide the best course of action.
And I'm in Bangor, not doing much. And I want to be somewhere else right now...

So I went to the boat builder on the quay and got myself some awesome sounding work possibilities! And I'm also going to volunteer on the steam railway again. Hurrah!

Tomorrow night I'm off to Liverpool for a gig with my friend JD, to see the Spooky Men's Chorale. Check 'em out, they're somewhat awesome!

Oh, and I'm sure there was something el-Oh yeah, I'M GOING TO CANADA!! In...92 days, to go all across the whole country on trains, and stay there for I don't know how long, and it will be a magnificent adventure! : D

Not that I'm looking forward or anything...

WedThur

Well, I haven't done much of late. All I've been doing is sleeping, eating, writing emails to try and find volunteer or temp work in museums, and having little luck because there is NONE.

So it seems I'm going on holiday, as the UK (and particularly Wales) is sinking deeper into unemployment and joblessness, instead of improving. I figure the best idea is to get away for a while and see some of the world, after all, travel is good for the soul! So I'm actually starting to plan and organise my trip, and tentatively looking for some part-time work to raise funds.

Oh, and I got bored last night so I put a braid in my hair, it keeps it out of my face oddly well...

Sat'dy

I felt ill yesterday and I'm still a bit...blergh today, so no church, and maybe no badminton with chums :( Boo.

I made up for feeling like my head was being soaked in a vat of glue yesterday afternoon by dressing properly (which for me = waistcoat and hat) and going to get a Chinese takeaway in a fedora. Here's a photo to prove it! I do look a bit like a 1920s jazz saxophonist, but I like my new spats!

Anyhoo, I crocheted an acorn this morning, it went quite well but I think I need to work on looking at the next year now. I could travel, work, travel AND work, study some more or become an itinerant artist of some sort and be poor but inspired. Which one will I choose? Probably a combination, but the issues are manifold, hmmmmm!

Anyway, picture one is what I wore yesterday. Picture two is the acorn which now rests on the mantelpiece. His name is Keith.

So this is Friday

I have had a mixed sort of couple of days. I've got a cold, which is par for the course really, but I've had to think so hard over the last week or three that I'm just tired out. I'm frazzled and my brain's telling me to take a nap and relax, while the world keeps telling me I need to get a job or go back to uni or both immediately.

But as Robyn said, fun sounds like fun, and I think I might just need soem after 15 odd years in full time education!

I think that I've cheered up by now mind, and I've crocheted a yellow jellyfish called Jerry, he's delightful! Then I've finished my spats, and I made a night cap too, with a pom-pom! My oldest friend and I wrote a story for a new comic today, but I'll have to brush up on my drawing skills to make a start on the characters. It looks like a great laugh, and he's a grand comedy writer, so here's hoping!

The first picture is my night cap, it's linen with a white woollen pom-pom, and the second picture is Jerry!

Chasing trains and spat making

I've been making things this week, I made a canvas spat yesterday, just the one, and I bought a sewing machine today!
It looks good, and it fits well enough, but I need to trim it a bit and things. It's linen lined, with canvas outside, and some black shanked buttons on the lower part, the top ones are white (because i had six black buttons in the bag!) and they look...ok I think! Tonight I'll finish the second spat, and then i'll finally finally have spats that fit, my Victorian ones are too small. Boo!

My Dad and I went chasing trains on Sunday and yesterday, we went after two steam specials down the North Wales coast, and it was awesome! We haven't done anything like that for months and months and months, and it was grand! There was fish and chips, chasing steam engines, smoke, soot and noise and it was brilliant!

The first shot is my spat, the second is of a Stanier 8F we saw yesterday on our travels, it was loud and smoky and great! :-D

So anyway...

I did some more finger loop weaving, and attached them to my tunic. I went to a birthday party in Llanddona last night, and went to a driving range today. It was delightful! I got very slightly marginally better at hitting golf balls, hurrah!

Mountaineering old school

Well, today my friend Ben came up to visit, and my oldest friend Rostam came over, and we went for a walk. A very long old walk up a mountain called Glyder Fawr in Snowdonia. In the first picture, we're going up, in the second, I'm stuck out of a rock formation in a 17th Century Montero mountain cap (!) and the last one is our descent down the scree to the valley floor..

It was lovely, but sooo tiring! I'm very out of shape, even though I managed to run most of the way down (and videod it on my phone) I was exhausted, and still am about 3 hours later!

Great fun, great friends and a great mountain view make for a pretty good day :-)

Dreesing Up Like Old Stuff!

So today I went to Beeston, in Cheshire, to the 13th century castle there, and did some re-enactment with a group that a couple of old friends of mine are in :)

I didn't actually get to fight, because I was in a linen tunic and everyone else was wearing chainmail and plate armour. Owie.

But it was great fun, and I managed to get sunburn on my feet by walking about barefoot all day! Woo! Pictures may follow when I find some!

Tada-Continued!

  

Ok, so I did leave the house and go for coffee with familypeeps, then I returned with a head cold and did some new tablet weave.

Tablet weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeave! See above my homemade and very flimsy set of cards and shuttle, they work...usually :p

(Apologies for photo quality, I've lost my camera charger which = no photo uploads or pictures until next week. Boo!)

Tada!

See? All finished! I haven't done much today, haven't even left the house yet, but will do soon! I've been trying to organise my academic future actually, there are far too many universities with far too few options. Why are my interests so odd!?

Ah well, we shall overcome, as we always do, eh chaps? ;-)

The day's craftiness

So I'm crocheting a hat. Cap. Toque. Yes, it is a toque! I was taught to crochet last month by a certain lady and I haven't finished it yet, but it now goes over my ears (just about) and soon it'll be ready! :D The wool is really cool, a sort of three shades of blue in one!

Today I have been trying to find a post graduate degree that suits me. I've looked all over the world, and it's so difficult! I never wanted to specialise, and now I think I do...oh brain, you so unmanageable!

Go Tuesday!

Well, today was a lazy sort of day, but I did realise that I have no way of getting pictures off my camera until tomorrow, which is heavy as I have reams of the little darlings to put around the internet and stick in albums and things like that.

And. I learnt how to tablet weave again. It's fun and super addictive once you get into it! Google it until I pop some pictures and links up, such a simple technique that looks dead nice. Yes!

And that was Tuesday. :)

Behold! A blog!

I have a blog now. Look, here it is. It was decided that I do enough stuff to warrant a web log in order that my many happenings, comings, goings, toings, froings and things might be followed by interested parties.

In short. You can keep track of me now.

So I'm going to pop up some photos and things to let anyone who's interested know what I'm up to when I remember. Mwynhewch! (It's Welsh for enjoy)