2. an icy adventure (part two)

Whale Day! The sun had come out for us just in time too. All whale-watching trips had been cancelled for the last two weeks because of bad weather and ours was the first to be allowed out.

Our boat wasn't due to leave until 1 in the afternoon so we spent our morning being tourists around the city. I'm too lazy to write about that bit. I just tried to Google the Hallgrímskirkja to find out the fact about how the bloke who designed it had won a competition…I can't seem to find it so I possibly completely made that up…Oh well! That's what I learnt that morning anyway.

After an amazing American-style lunch of pancakes and bacon and milkshake, we had to run to the harbour before our boat sailed off without us. We jumped on board with just a couple of minutes to spare…then jumped right off again because we'd chosen the wrong boat.

Another sprint to the correct boat and we got chucked off that one too. Apparently our best chance of seeing any whales was further down the coast. A lot of fishing boats had been spotted going to a particular area; boats mean fish and fish mean whales. So we travelled for an hour by coach before finally getting on a boat that was going to move.

When we got on board one of the first things the tour guide said was 'If anyone wants a seasickness tablet we have some downstairs…Its probably too late now though…You probably should've taken something in the coach…' I'm not going to go into detail but lets just say after not to long I saw my amazing American lunch again. Multiple times.

It was all worth it though! Not one but two humpback whales! Herbert and Humphrey.

Like an animal who knows its going to die and goes off quietly to do it on its own, I had separated myself from Hugo. By sheer luck I (literally) stumbled outside onto the lower deck and was stood just metres away from a whale that had just surfaced. He was so close that, when he blew through his blowhole, he sprinkled me with a cloud of mist.

A minute later the boat started to speed up to take us back to land. The sky had darkened and it looked like we were running away from some nasty weather.

So went my whale-watching experience. Not only had I seen a whale, I had also been wetly breathed on by one.

1. an icy adventure (part one)

Last year I started writing a list of stuff to do before I get too ancient to do them. It was probably going to be included in some sort of blog post I never finished…

Anyway, one of the first things on the list was to see a whale. Any kind of whale would do, I'm not fussy! In February, I hopped on a flight to Iceland to try my luck.

I took my adventure buddy Hugo, and both with lovely new cameras to try out we planned to spend our three and a half days packing in as many scenic things as possible. Being the (evil) genius I am I was going to attempt to tick off two things from my list of wonders in one holiday. The first attempt was a few hours after we arrived in Reykjavik.

After checking into the very Scandinavian-looking Hotel Klettur, we jumped on a coach to take us into the middle of nowhere. Our first aim was to see the Northern Lights.

Reykjavik is a weird place. It's the largest city in Iceland and about 60% of the whole of the country live there…Since the total population in Iceland is only 300,000 people this makes it a pretty mini largest city. It's about the same size as Bournemouth. We were only on the coach for about 10-15 minutes before we were leaving the capital and surrounded by pitch black.

Getting out of the city, the only thing we could do now was to gawp out of the window and shout if we saw anything we thought might be the Northern Lights. Luckily after not too long we heard a walkie-talkie crackling and the coach changed direction; there had been a sighting.

Pulling over on a narrow road, we all scrambled out to see what we could see. The coach lights were switched off and visibility suddenly reduced to nothing. If Hugo had taken three steps away from me I wouldn't have been able to find him. As we got used to it we realised we could see every single star in the sky and that there was an expanding wave of green spreading across the sky. The Northern Lights!

The green wave was sometimes one big mass, sometimes a few horizontal stripes. It was certainly a good first test for our cameras! I don't know how long we ended up standing out there in the cold but we were frozen iceblocks by the end. Eventually the sky clouded over and it was back to darkness again.

Tick! One thing off the list done, one to go.

On day two we travelled around to see a bit more of Iceland as a country. We went on a group trip to the south coast with a few stop-offs on the way. Apart from the odd small town the whole country is practically deserted. The black volcanic rock is covered in snow or long yellow grass and every now and then you see a group of thick-haired Icelandic ponies (Apparently these 'ponies' are actually horses…but I think ponies suit them better)

The day started well and when we stopped off at Skógarfoss waterfall we got some good photos. The sky was a bit grey and dull so it wasn't as good as it would've been in summer but winter is the time to go if you want to see the Northern Lights or whales! When we stopped off at Mýrdalsjökull glacier the sleet arrived and I started to regret being out in the middle of nowhere in the wind and cold.

The cold only got worse as we arrived at the coast with no shelter from it. We took refuge for lunch at a place by the roadside where I can honestly say the hot stew probably saved the blood from freezing in my arteries.

After that, we braced ourselves and went onto the pitch black Reynishverfi Beach. The old boots I was wearing, which were already held together with glue, were completely destroyed by the little black pebbles. By the time I got back on the coach the fronts were flapping like a boot that gets fished out of lakes in cartoons and I had a shoe full of tiny stones.

Retreating from the beach, we started to make our way back towards Reykjavik…Then back to the beach because we had left two people behind…

Our next stop was the Skógar Museum, a folk museum full of old wooden ice-skates and boat-building tools and spinning wheels for wool etc. Because of the weather and the detour to rescue the people from the beach we were running late and the museum was about the close. A little old man hurried us around each room and pointed at things, obviously eager to go home.

"Fishing net, sewing box, ice pick, snow shoes. Quick quick!…"

He did take the time to stop a few times and sing us some songs though which was lovely!

I found out a bit more about the man once I got back to England. The museum was opened in 1949 and has been the responsibility of this one man, Thordur Tomasson since that time. He's now 91 years old and still going strong.

The rush prevented us from seeing any of the outdoor bits of the museum. There's a church and a schoolhouse and some farm buildings with turfed roofs. I'll have to go back in the summer one day and have another look.

By now it was snowing properly and every now and again the coach driver would have to stop and get out to straighten the windscreen wipers that were about to snap off in the gale. The last stop before going back to the city was another waterfall. It was a smaller one this time and was actually blowing either sideways or back upwards when we got there. I decided I'd rather keep my life so I stayed on the coach for this one. I amused myself by taking photos of the last toilets in civilisation from the window. They didn't look very inviting. 

Tomorrow was Whale Day so I had to get back to Reykjavik! Would I make it or would I be stuck in a snowdrift in the middle of nowhere?!*

*Clue: I always say this and I always survive…I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't survive...

chrimblations to you all

Surprise! I survived Christmas after all…and the Christmas after that… Seems like I abandoned the ol' blog for a while again.

Here's the deal; in the next 12 weeks I'll post 12 entries. That'll make up for the 12 month abandonment and will get rid of my backlog of a years worth of stuff…

Here are some Happy New Year* fireworks for you!

*Actually taken at the '14th Winchester Scout Group Annual Grand Fireworks Display and Bonfire' in South Wonston on fireworks night...

A wodhes kewsel Kernewek?

I know its against many rules to talk about Christmas a month after it happened but as only about 1% of people I know read this (hello!)…I don't really care :P

For the last two years Christmas has been different. The family home is now in St Ives in Cornwall rather than Batheaston. When I started this blog I remember writing from there when I was on holiday. Now its home when I'm not in London! The 5 and a half hour train journey isn't so fun…especially as it always turns into a 6 and a half hour one when I'm on it. But then I arrive in St Ives so who cares?

Christmas is officially my favourite time of year. I love carrying big bags of wrapped presents for some reason. I should take over from Father Christmas when he retires. I've got a red coat already so I think I'll have an advantage when applying for the job.

When I get to the house in St Ives it's always already Christmassed up. All the decorations are up unless the cats have pulled any down again. Even the cushion covers and some of the pictures on the walls get changed to their once-a-year Christmas versions.

The old plastic tree we used for years has now been replaced with a driftwood version which is topped with a star that's been handcrafted by my Dad out of twisted wire and pieces of glass found washed up on the beach.

I suppose we're a bit of a creative family really. My Dad has made all sorts of different driftwood things for about the house. He made a little box out of slate for each of us for Christmas too. My Mum makes a Christmas wreath every year and handmade crackers including the bang. She made the personalised Christmas sacks we get our presents in when we were tiny and we still use them now! Joe's has a Father Christmas on it, Laurie's has a Christmas tree. I have an angel on mine because I clearly am one… I was actually an angel in the nativity in my first year of school. I remember peeing on the stage during a rehearsal… Those were the days!…

Joe's the writer and film expert of the family. He provides the Christmas entertainment with a batch of films and big bag of boardgames. We never really used to play boardgames at Christmas when we were younger. We were all too distracted by the toys and/or getting Dad to put together our toys. The record was possibly the 3 hours he had to spend putting together my Barbie Picnic Van. It was amazing though! A people-carrier with a sunroof and a boot that opened out to become a kitchen/BBQ with about 100 little objects like cooler boxes, camping lanterns, suitcases, picnic basket with little bottles of drink, radio and every single cooking implement you could ever need. I wonder if it still survives in the loft or whether it was given away…

Anyway, these days we play things like Settlers of Cata, Ticket To Ride and Cranium around the kitchen table.

Laurie is the budding chef of the family. He cooked the roast beef with all the trimmings this year. We don't necessarily have turkey on Christmas Day. Every year its something different but with all the traditional additions. Apparently the brussell sprouts were done to perfection but there's no point asking me as I went nowhere near them. Everything else was good though!

I'm the nuisance of the family, getting in the way by taking photos of everything, including action shots of things being taken out of the oven.

After munching down a massive Christmas lunch, its the brand new tradition to walk down the hill to Porthmeor beach, 5 minutes away. In coats and hats and wellies we have a paddle in the sea and wander on the sand. The winter is a good time to scavenge so we look out for driftwood or anything else good for Dad to make things out of.

Another tradition now is to make a sandman while we're on the beach…I say tradition…I did it on my own last year but this year was a team effort and I'm going to make it a tradition. This year was definitely one to beat. A lovely pirate sandman decorated with things found on the beach.

Then its time to go home to warm up and eat more food! Even if everyone is only back home for 2 days, my parents pack the house full of things to eat. They make shortbread, mince pies, Christmas cake, reindeer shaped cookies, Malteser fridge cake, Christmas log and ice-cream as well as buying Christmas pudding and cheesecake…not to mention the popcorn, peanuts, jelly babies, After Eights…and the rest. By the time Doctor Who comes on we're generally all collapsing of death by Christmas.

Tune in next week, folks, to see if I survived.

sound of silence

Happy New Year and all that!


So I've been pretty quiet again for a while. Not as long this time though so no-one is allowed to moan.
Talking of silence, this evening I've mostly been playing The Sound Of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel on repeat. Ironically it's one of those songs that the louder you play it, the better it gets.


If you haven't ever seen the film The Graduate in which the song features;
a. where have you been?
b. watch it now.


Here's the song! (yes, it annoys me that they've spelt Garfunkel wrong too. But its the video with the best quality sound/video combination I could find on Youtube)


Geeky Graduate fact before I buzz off again:
In the following clip the 'grab' was unscripted and the actress and crew had no idea it was going to happen. The head-banging is Dustin Hoffman trying not to laugh... Watch here!

weekend in london town: sunday

Tourist day number two was to Camden Town with my little brother as well as my parents in tow. 

Unlike Abbey Road, I'd been there many times before and I'm still not bored of it. I'm a big fan of vintage and retro stuff in general and the Stables Market is the perfect place for it. Everything is all crammed together and a bit of a maze with lots of different passages you can explore. Its an exciting place to go with lots of things to take photos of. There are a few miserable shopkeepers who tell you off if you take photos of their stuff but other than that its all good!

It'd been a long time since I'd been in Camden. I think the last time was when I went to my friend's birthday party and Kevin Spacey turned up…A random story that I can't be bothered to explain.

There's not much more to say about Camden apart from that everyone should go!

weekend in london town: saturday

Living in London and putting up with the tube and the crowds every day means its really easy to forget to be a tourist. Once in a while its good to get out and see all the things you normally rush past.

I still haven't gone up the stairs to the top of Monument, seen the smallest police station in Britain or spotted the random nose on Admiralty Arch (I've tried but failed so far) A couple of weekends ago I did go and see some Grade II listed road markings though…

My parents visited and that's always a good excuse to get out and about and look at interesting things. Despite being a huuuugggeee Beatles fan I still hadn't gotten around to visiting Abbey Road Studios and the famous zebra crossing outside of it. If you don't know the crossing I'm on about, please leave now.

I crossed the crossing…multiple times. There were quite a few other people there too, all making a nuisance of themselves.

1. They insisted on stopping in the middle of the road to get their photos taken in bad walking poses while the traffic was forced to wait.

2. They got in the way of me trying to stop in the middle of the road to get my photo taken in a bad walking pose while the traffic was forced to wait.

Turns out Abbey Road is pretty busy on a Saturday afternoon and I got a total of zero good photos of the actual crossing. The photo for the album cover was taken from right in the middle of the road with only a couple of cars in the distance. A photo from a pavement with a queue of buses and a load of other tourists hanging around isn't good enough!

As the place is only half an hour walk from my current flat I've decided to go back at 5am at some point when its more likely to be clear…Is it even light at 5am these days? I might have to wait until next summer now.

As is tradition, I added my scribble to the wall outside Abbey Road Studios. Note to self: take a better pen next time. If you cared to look (and search for hours) you'd find my 'AliceInPepperland 2011' on the wall directly opposite the door of the recordings studios.

Being a proper fan, I also wandered a few streets away from Abbey Road to Cavendish Avenue to see Paul McCartney's 60s home. I think he still owned it until pretty recently. There was no Paul to be seen but no other tourists either which meant a smug I'm-a-better-fan-than-you-are feeling overrode the disappointment of no photos of the zebra crossing.

A blue plaque told me that Billy Fury (real name Ronald William Wycherle. Ha) also lived on the avenue in the 60s. I think I should get a time machine and buy myself a place there...

The walk wasn't over for the day. We carried on past Lords cricket ground and through St John's Wood to Regents Park. After stopping for a lollipop we left the park and went on to 221b Baker Street.

We didn't go inside Sherlock Holmes' house this time but when I saw a photo in the museum shop of Dustin Hoffman posing with a policeman outside the famous door I felt a bit better about having to stand there for what felt like 10 minutes while other tourists waited for a turn while my Dad took a photo.

Next door was another little London gem: the Beatles store! Many many things in there I wanted to buy. I'll have to go back sometime when I'm feeling rich.

the glue that holds everything together…

…is quickly destroyed by my bottle of un-du® Original Adhesive, Sticker, Tape and Label remover.

My paradise with my new books was extremely troubled by the fact that some of them had stickers on the spines that seemed to have been stuck on with superglue. They were ruining the look of my lovely bookshelves and keeping me awake at night (slight exaggeration but only a slight one)

The internet saved my life once again and told me of a little bottle that could solve all my problems…After downing the vodka I then found the above mentioned 'undu' and bought that too.

I thought I'd share it with the world so you can take those pesky price tags off presents for people without it turning into a glue and paper mess and ruining your life. 

Isn't this blog the most exciting thing you've ever read?!

frankie and jeremy

Once upon a time there was a geek girl and a geek boy. One day they made books for each other. In the back of the one for the boy was a questionnaire where the girl asked him to go out with her…After he ticked 'Yes' he was trapped forever.

Two years later, me and Jay felt we needed to be geeky together again for our anniversary. We decided to sew each other a toy to give each other on the day. Despite me hassling him for months, Jay managed to keep what he was making me a secret…until the night before when he accidentally announced it without me even trying to find out! Nice one.

Here's what we made:

I made Frankie Fox and Jay made Jeremy the Monkey. We both happened to choose patterns from the same shop on Etsy: Click here to have a look

ashtrays and killer crabs (croatia part 3)

After the storm passed we had no more bad weather in Croatia. We saw Pete and his wife (I like to think of her as Maureen) a couple of times the week we were on the island and we always had a little wave at each other. They saved our lives so I'll have to vote them to be the best people we met.

The next best person was the owner of a restaurant we went to for dinner on our first night in Stari Grad. Igor's restaurant was a dark little venue with fishing nets and pictures of boats all over the place. Tansley ordered fish and I had a simple pizza. I was way too tired to cope with something like the langoustine from the other night. I don't think I've ever had such a case of food envy ever before. Tansley's looked amazing! I think while Igor was perfecting the amazing crispy fish he overdid my sad looking pizza.

We were the only people in the restaurant. In fact, the whole town seemed deserted. Igor's wife sat texting on her phone at one table and Igor himself was on his laptop at another. It was a bit like we had just turned up in someone's house and started eating… I think Igor must've been bored because at one point during our peaceful meal there was a big smash. I didn't see what happened but Tansley informs me (and he should be reliable, being a news employee) that Igor had been juggling the glass ashtrays from the tables outside…

The entertainment was then followed with a free shot of grappa courtesy of Igor. I wasn't sure at first but when I saw a small pot of paint in the corner of the restaurant it was confirmed that it must've actually been paint stripper. It was meant for after the meal but I drank it just before the end, burning off my taste buds and not being able to taste the rest of my meal. At least I still had some apple juice to wash it down with though. Tansley had to take the pain.

The holiday was a lazy one. Every other day we'd go sight-seeing around Stari Grad or one of the surrounding towns. We visited Hvar Town and although it was pretty it was no way near as good as our quiet little Stari Grad.

Stari Grad

Hvar Town

As the week went on we started to see more tourists but Stari Grad stayed pretty deserted. On our lazy days we always went to a beach. I say beach…The island looked very much like Scotland. It was covered in pines and steep hills led down to the waters edge. The steep slopes meant that beaches didn't really exist or if they did they were small pebbly ones. So along the coast were some man-made concrete 'beaches'. They were…an experience! I can't quite say I ever got comfortable lying on one reading my book. But that was more than made up for with the weather and the warm sea. Warm sea. I didn't know it could be possible! After years of freezing to death on Cornish beaches I could actually get into the sea up to my neck and swim around without dying!

The biggest risk of death and/or nipped toes I only noticed when it scuttled past my face as I was lying down reading…Crabs. Lots and lots of crabs.

We generally had the beaches to ourselves apart from maybe one or two other quiet people. We knew our holiday was over when on our last day our favourite and most special beach was invaded by a whole glassful of loud kids…

In the evenings we watched Croatian Masterchef and a few of the many soap operas available. It's good fun trying to work out what on earth is going on. Masterchef seems to have about 50 judges in Croatia…and all of them love blatantly advertising weird looking packets of food.

I read a lot too. Reading 'World War Z' by Max Brooks at night when you're the only people in an apartment block is scary…Very scary! I had my escape route planned (Don't bother seeing the movie, by the way. It'll be rubbish because they've changed so much. Read the book for sure though.) When someone actually did move in to the block later in the week I wasn't reassured! They sounded zombie-ish with their banging around...

On our last night we had to go back to the first restaurant:

1. I needed to have that amazing fish meal.

2. We wanted the legend that is Igor to be our goodbye from the island.

The night didn't disappoint. This time Igor (instead of smashing the place up) completely disappeared after our meal. We waited so long for him to come back that even his constantly texting wife noticed and went off to find him. Good ol' Igor.

The next day we got the ferry back to Split for one more night before flying home. I have never in my life had a worse nights sleep. Split, having been quiet when we were first there, had become slightly lively… Somehow Tansley managed to sleep through drunks shouting, a couple having a screaming argument, a man's howl, carts being dragged down the paving stones outside, whipping sounds, and (I'm not entirely sure I didn't make this up in my delirium) a Croatian barbershop quartet singing…I had exactly one hours sleep before we travelled back.

Just to show us we were back in England there was a massive thunder and lightning storm as soon as we arrived. This time I wasn't so lucky as to not get soaked before I got home…Bring on next year!

*most likely not his name but he definitely looked like an Igor.