An update on Baking

One thing I have been proud of since being back is the amount of baking I have managed to do.  I haven't managed to keep up with all that many of my resolutions post-GYIL, but the best one is probably the baking. A couple of times I've baked for the sake of it, sometimes because I really wanted something sweet and recently because there has been an occasion.  I still don't feel I have managed all that much, but I am still trying.

This week I went to Sainsbury's and had a great time in the baking aisle buying all sorts of ingredients.  I feel I have a very well stocked cupboard now with lots of decorations.  I have this  week made a couple of batches of Judith which I have been pleased with and decorated merrily.

My cake of choice to make these days is a banana loaf - probably because its the only one I actually like to eat.  Hoping to make it today so will try take a photo and add in.

I'm enjoying my Mickey mold.  We have got into a nice tradition of having cheesy red (or yellow!) muffins on a sunday night - yum yum.  I liked making muffins before GYIL and in fact they were the only things I felt confident making.  Pleased to be carrying on with them.

 On the other hand.... cookies.  These have not been so sucessful...yet!  I love chewy cookies but am struggling to make them.  I've started with simple recipes, but now feel I might have to go for more technical recipes. 

 The cookies spread out so much and went thinner than I hoped so I tried making them in cookie molds to keep them thicker.  It was a bit of a strange result and I wouldn't serve them to others, but they were great for me!

 

I have kept trying with the shortbread, though I have now given up on the mold.  I was really proud of a batch I made and took to Birmingham and then took the leftovers to school.  But them I tried to make a batch yesterday which was a disaster.  Sadly I only have a photo of the disaster batch... I think it may have been because I rolled it a bit thin then didn't chill in the fridge long enough.

  

I have made bread a few times with this recipe and easy ready to go bread flour.  I'd like to do this more often so that I feel more confident.  I haven't got my head around the timings yet which puts me off making them often.

 Popcorn has happened a few times - I took this photo to show the various successes.  Lesson this time: don't heat the kernels by themselves for too long.

And to share at the end.  I am pleased to be trying with baking, but I am under no great allusions about my achievements or expectations.  Especially with a wonderful sister-in-law who can whip up such great creations!

Christmas is coming!

This year I have really enjoyed seeing the signs of Christmas coming! I am not someone who gets annoyed at Christmas starting too early. I think a bit like autumn I am enjoying it more this year after missing out last year. I can't remember all the dates but I did enjoy noting the 'firsts':
- first time I heard Christmas music in a shop (3rd December in Mothercare)
- First sighting of a Christmas tree (whetherspoons in Cowley)
- First time seeing Coca-cola advert (I've still not seen John Lewis advert yet!)
- First Christmas lights on houses

This year I went to the Country Living Christmas Fayre in London one Saturday in November where I loved getting to do some Christmas shopping. A few years ago I read on a blog of someone who did all their Christmas shopping and cards  by December 1st so that they can enjoy the festivities in December. That really appealed to me and is something Ive strived to do since. This year I got closest to it. I did a fair amount of shopping and wrapping and wrote all the cards I was in possession of and addressed them.

This weekend I have been in Birmingham with some friends which has been fun and we visited the Christmas markets. I also bought extra cards so my plan is to wrap and write tonight watching Strictly while John is at a gig. Maybe we might put up our decorations this week too.

Autumn Days

Started this post 16/11/16

I have really enjoyed Autumn this year.  I remember doing so my first year at Uni, possibly because I'd been away the autumn before.  It's now just getting to the stage where I feel winter is nearly here/upon us.  For the most part it has been a dry autumn.  The leaves turned colour slowly and we had a couple of weeks where the trees really seemed ablaze.  Now the majority are off the trees.  We put the heating on for the first time last week - we had been feeling proud of keeping it off for so long.  We live in a new flat so it always going to the warmest it can.  It had got so late without heating that I then became reluctant to put it on, and was determined to just put my new slippers on, Peru jumpers and dressing gown.  The thermometer in the bedroom did dip below 16 degrees for a while.  We had the heating on for a few times but I think now its off again.  I thought it would be the mornings where I really felt it, but actually the mornings have been fine!

Continuing 26/11/16

There were a few Christmassy things I had wanted to say, but I think I might save them for another post now.  I had already heard my first Christmas music in a shop!

I will conclude with some photos of autumn leaves that I have been enjoying.

PS Am sitting in my new slippers and dressing gown and have put the heating on.  For the most part it is still off, just occasionally putting it on in the room we are in. 

Life Lately

Unfortunately the Blogger App on my phone seems to have got a bug and automatically shuts down within a few seconds of starting a post.  I'm using that as my excuse for not writing all the blogs that I have got going around in my head at the moment.  I'm using this nice relaxed afternoon to get on with some jobs and also have a go at some nice blogging. 

I thought I would start with a selection of random photos of nice things that I have been upto and see where I go from there.

Here are some cookies I had a go at making.  Still room for improvement, but at least I've tried!

John is not as much of a keen reader as I am, so I always find it exciting when I spot him choosing to read. Here he is in the kitchen reading one of his birthday presents.

 Just looking cute this afternoon on our lazy Saturday.

 Playing on of John's birthday presents - the game 'Splendor'.

I was pretty entertained that we could just travel with our backpacks last year, but we were this far from travelling light for half-term!

Rose Hill and Iffley Low Carbon Group

This post and event fits with quite a few of my return from travel resolutions. Whilst out with Rose Hill Runners (exercise check!) one runner mentioned the event that the Rose Hill and Iffley Low Carbon Group were holding that Thursday 29th September at the Rose Hill Community Centre.  I was keen to go as it fitted with doing local community things and also Eco things. John was kind enough to come with me. We arrived just on 8pm and I was pleased there was someone inside directing us to the talk. She said to someone else 'its standing room only' and I wondered if that was a joke. But it turned out to be true and they were awaiting another delivery of chairs which we were delighted to see arrived curtesy of our larger than life neighbour. There must have been over 100 people in the room. 

I enjoyed, as I often too, smiling to myself and marvelling at the assortment of people there who are quite different from the circles I normally frequent. And yet I was feeling that these were in theory the sort of person I was hoping to become more towards. The chair person of the group started by defending the photo of her in a car saying it was the local electric car share. 

The talk was by Alan Rushbridger whom it turns out many people have heard of. He was Editor of the Guardian and is now Principal of LMH College. He wasn't a good speaker and many in the audience couldn't hear. I was glad that I just could. He spoke about the reasoning and planning of the 'Keep it in the ground' campaign that he instigated at the Guardian which I was disappointed to realise I had completely missed. I felt pleased that they had run the campaign. 

So an interesting evening and very pleased that I was able to go and be part of it. 

Folk at the Isis

I'd love to know what this group or this event is really called. But it's fun to be here. We've only been a couple of times before. I think they meet on the second Friday of the month at the Isis tavern. It's a great thing to witness and although I'd loved the ability to be able to join in, it's also wonderful that I can enjoy it fully from a spectator's point of view. 

It's an evening in spontaneous music and joining in with whatever instrument you have brought. There's singing and poetry and Viking hat wearing! It's often quite noisy and there's still people bringing food round. It's filling up more and more as people come out of the cold.  I love the feeling of people joining in. We currently have a rendition of 'all about the bass' and earlier we had a tune that I'm sure I enjoy dancing to in Scottish dancing. We are sat slightly round the corner here so it's mainly listening rather than watching. I did enjoy the sight of the kazoo and tiny tambourine though - that's maybe what I could aim towards! 

I really enjoy the feeling I get at times like this of both feeling I'm in a scene in a film and also like this is proper life and these are the moments I need to treasure. A special feeling that both lifts my heart and can make me a little teary too! 

 This last one was taken for the viking hat in the background. "Thou shalt respect the hat and thou shalt not hog the hat".

Baking - Shortbread

Baking - I really enjoyed having the time to learn to bake a bit in Uganda and want to try to make the time to do it now as well. I want to keep practising the same recipes until I can do them quicker without having to keep checking the recipe. 

I decided to try and record some of my baking attempts on here to kind of make myself feel I'm achieving something! Several years ago I was given a shortbread mould for secret Santa. I tried using it once and wasn't very successful. I tried it again in September on return from GYIL. Again, I couldn't really get it out of the mould - but at least the shortbread tasted ok! I did a bit of googling and found lots of people had had the same problem with this mould. So I tried again using some of their suggestions. It wouldn't come out initially but after a little prod with a knife out it came in a few sections. 

The trouble was I had totally changed the temperature and timings so I've no idea what really worked. And it was more crumbly this time and dough-y too! And I decided to add some chocolate this time too. So some more experimenting to do before I could feel confident to serve it to someone!! 

But at least I'm trying! 

Starting to think about packaging and plastic

One of the changes we were hoping to make since travelling was to head more towards a plastic free life.  Here's what I wrote in my end of travels blog:

Packaging - I want to think more about what I buy and try to buy things with less packaging. In particular, John has become good at thinking about plastic. He bought the book 'plastic free life' in California when seeing an exhibit at Monterey Bay Aquarium about the amount of plastic sea animals ingest. We are planning to research local places where you can go refill washing up liquid bottles etc. If anyone knows of any places around Oxford or has any good tips then do share! 

I thought this blog would be a good place to keep track of how we are doing on this journey. I still haven't read the book which will be an obvious good step to take. But I do declare I am much keener on the idea than when John suggested it. I thought it seemed so impossible at first, but now I'm feeling excited about taking steps in the right direction. I spent a little time on the internet which encouraged me. One day I feel I'd like to have milk delivered but it just doesn't seem plausible to a flat. 

One small step we have taken is to buy bars of soap rather than liquid soap in plastic bottles. Another is not to buy pre-packaged vegetables but rather loose, although it's still tricky to get supermarket delivery not to put them in bags. We have also been a few local shops on Cowley Road and bought veg and grains there. One thing I am conscious of at the moment is that many greetings cards seem to come in plastic wrappers which is a pain. 

I'm not quite sure what to call this change we are trying to accomplish, mainly being unsure what to tag this blog as! Should it be Eco, environmental, plastic free, packaging? Plastic free seems a bit extreme, but plastic reduction seems a bit boring! And as you can see from the post title, I was totally lacking excitement there! Suggestions welcome 😀 

Karaoke

I was shocked to discover I don't seem to have done a karaoke blog post. I think it is time I quickly rectify that! My friends and I have probably been karaoke-ing for close on a decade now. We almost always go to the same booth at the Lucky Voice in Soho. I realise that when I tell people I am going to karaoke, the assumption is that I will be singing in a bar. And I couldn't think of anything worse!! Whereas being in our own booth with our own choice of music blasting out and dancing around is one of my favourite things! 

I love that we are all so into it now. I still feel I probably love it the very most but it's not like there is one person feeling awkward or joining in less. I also love that I really really can't sing and two of my friends in particular have lovely voices, but I feel accepted and am pretty happy to belt out terrible vocals anyway. We consider ourselves quite pros now. We skip songs if they aren't going very well or if we feel we've had enough from a few verses and choruses as we know the time goes quickly. We have a set of standard songs but we also try out a few new ones each time. I consider it quite a two hour workout as we dance away and would consider it quite appalling to leave a gap between songs.  We do have certain numbers that certain combinations of us do as duets etc such as:

Elton John and Kiki Dee

Gangsta's Paradise

Fat Bottomed Girls

Wuthering Heights - quite a masterpiece!

I also love that we have songs that probably no one else would do - namely Cliff Richard's Saviour's Day - which we did last night 79 days before Christmas! 

Some new ones we enjoyed last night were:

Under the Sea

Truly Madly Deeply

Wannabe

Here is a list that was sent round before this session and clearly was compiled at some point in the past. I feel it's the sort of thing I would have written but as it isn't on the blog then I am confused!! 

Must do

Far bottomed girls

Wuthering heights

You can't stop the beat

Like a prayer

Grease

Islands in the stream

Eye of the tiger

Bat out of hell

Time warp

Backstreet boys

Holding out for a hero

Saviours day 

For the album

Ring of fire

Don't go breaking my heart

Just can't wait to be king 

Maybes

Call me maybe 

Hey ya

Moves like jagger

Tiny dancer 

Crocodile rock

Don't stop me now

Suspicious minds 

Total eclipse of the heart

One way or another 

Everything I do 

Love shack

Wake me up before you go go 

Hangman style 

 Today 

Barry White

Year 3000

Love story

Let it go

All about the bass

Uptown funk

Sweet Caroline

Sorry seems to be the hardest word

Rasputin

China in your hand 

Africa 

Boots walking

Don't you want me

Ice ice baby

Rocking all over the world

Teenage dirtbag 

Fame

Shaggy

Paloma faith 

Brown eyed girl 

Bed of roses 

That's what makes you beautiful

And here are a few extras that I remember doing last night:

Never Forget

I got a lovely combine harvester 

East 17

I'm not sure if it was during Like a Prayer or maybe Don't Stop Me Now that I looked round and thought how much I love having these friends that I can do such silly things with and know I've got them and they've got me. I also felt the words to Hmmbop were highly highly appropriate - very surprised to discover it actually had words, and meaningful words at that!! I had the odd thought that if I died I would want the three of them to go do karaoke at some point and now I think I'd like them to sing Hmmbop! 

On coming up to town

I started writing a post on blogger as I arrived in London yesterday but didn't save it properly and lost it. It wasn't a lot so I will try to re-write the gist of it here. 

I had a funny sensation as the train pulled in to Paddington yesterday evening for karaoke with the girls. I realised that I couldn't remember the last time I had been to London - other than Heathrow, Gatwick or edges of Kent and Middx. It could well have been when I met the girls for dinner in August 2015 before we headed away. 

It definitely felt more monumental then I was expecting as we came in to the station. My sense of occasion was added to by following a passenger off the train who had a traveller backpack. I started to see it through the traveller' eyes that I had worn last year. I also saw quite a lot of people taking photos on their phones in the station that made me smile somewhat. 

I definitely felt like I was 'coming up to London'. I'm not a local and I sort of feel saddened that I don't have that at home and in control feeling that I had as a commuter after I left school. I did enjoy the sensation of knowing the shortcuts and best places to stand on the platform to be at the right exit. I'm also rather disappointed that I don't have the romantic feeling of coming up to town from somewhere like St Mary Mead!! 

I continued to have mixed feelings about London as I was meandering around. I arrived in Oxford Circus 55 minutes before our karaoke session so I wandered. I was a bit thrilled to come up and see the Christmas lights up - they weren't switched on but I did enjoy seeing them. I do love the build up to Christmas. I must get on with writing my cards!! 

I wandered down Carnaby Street. I don't really like it sadly. The shops are not the sort of places where I would buy anything. It was all very shiny and glam and prosperous looking. Although I would much rather somewhere be prosperous than run down, I still didn't like it. I also walked through Liberty's which I don't know very well. I thought I could like out for somewhere to buy a first birthday present and then I realised I was close to Hamleys so I managed to have fun in there. A lot of noise and plastic but I did buy a fun Peter Rabbit book. 

The big thing I noticed about London was the crowds. I think in the past I have found the crowds part of the charm and mastery challenge of London - sort of like at Disney World. Mustn't London be great if all these people want to be here and won't we feel more virtuous and successful if we can overcome the crowds and enjoy it. This was the first time where I was beginning to feel the crowds were too much and hampering the experience. I'm not going off London and I won't stop coming, I guess it's just that I can see what people mean about it being too busy! 

Karaoke was a super time. After 3 or 4 songs we were away and wearing our wigs and rocking our socks off. Some new hits of last night were 'Truly, Madly, Deeply' and Wannabe. I've just tried looking through the blog and it seems shocking to me that I haven't done a karaoke post before. What?!? I've just started writing about it, but have now decided it needs its own post! So I will leave this London summary here. 

On a side note - I am currently waiting by Platform 8B at Readinf station and the lady next to me is clipping her toe nails and I am pretty disturbed and freaked out by it...!!! At least the train is here now! 

On being home

Hello blog! I've missed you. 

We have been back in the country a month now and we have been back at school 3 weeks. I want to record some of my thoughts of being here. 

The thing that has struck me currently is time. That's one thing I didn't truly appreciate about GYIL. Now I don't seem to have the time to be doing the little things I'd like to be doing. I haven't knitted as much as I wanted, baked as much, done as many things on my to do list, blogged, phoned friends, made photobooks, touched my diary. School I guess takes up a lot of time and is tiring. The evenings just seem to pass. It was a bit better in the week before school started. Maybe I need to wait till half term. But that seems sad. Maybe I just need to lower my expectations or plan in something each day to do. Maybe instead of reading blogs over breakfast I could have computer set up to photobook/video. I'd like to move the to do list to the kitchen counter. Have a plan of when to cook, rather than waiting till there is time. 

I'm going to make a list (hehe, as that seems to be what I like to do) of the things I have achieved so I feel a bit better and encouraged:

- I've knitted three segments of a ball

- I baked two cakes before school started, some disastrous muffins after school started (or August, not am), some nice rolls and on Thursday some short bread. Need to work out how to get it out the mould (just found some ideas on Lakeland while looking up whether mould has a u!). 

- have done photos in Australia photobook - still need to do labels

- have finished Leicester book and started HBP. 

- lots unpacked at house and bags gone to charity shop. Still need shelves up in spare room. 

- had two lots of friends round for a meal.

- three or four episodes of ER. 

- Scottish dancing twice

- thirsty meeples once

- Rose Hill Runners and Parkrun once each.  

I'm thinking I need to get out of bed and have a go at some photobook things. 

I'll just blog about one more aspect of being home. It's very easy to stop appreciating the nice things about home. I am having to keep reminding myself that these things are good. Instead of being disappointed that I didn't manage to get a load of washing in before bed, I should be happy that it's so easy to do tomorrow. Instead of feeling tired reading in bed at night, be glad that I'm still able to read and enjoy. I have been enjoying waitrose online shopping and meal planning and cooking - yay! 

Well, at least I can tick off blog and maybe get up and do something else productive now! 

Happy (random) photos since being back:

Musical - Cats (again!)

Here I am in the theatre writing my blog before the show has even started. Don't think that has ever happened before! I'm thinking of Grandma and Grandpa. I didn't think I would have theatre trips for a while after GYIL but thanks to them I am treating myself tonight. A few people wondered how many times I've seen Cats and it was kind of fun that I didn't really know - I said 5 or 6 and I'm hoping a look through this blog might help me confirm. It's the end of the fourth week back at school and although I was tired today, it was nice to be able to come. I cycled here (hopefully that will make sense when you've read a yet to be written blog, I'm hoping to do some of it during the interval) and I'm proud and a little ashamed that I had time to buy some chocolate from the newsagents nearby - including 5 cream eggs! Just going to anti-bac before it starts!! 

I chose my seat as I'm hoping that a cat will walk past me at the beginning. I was really excited when that happened last time I was here. Although I didn't really like the red led eyes things. I went for restricted view half way back in the circle. It's not as much of a reduction as it used to be, but I used Mr B's members card so I didn't pay booking fee - thank you! It's 19.36 so it really should be starting - oh it is!!!! 

Interval time. Having a great time. Old Deuteronomy is sitting on stage. I'm really glad Lizzie went with me last time we were here. The opening was very funny for me. I was excited waiting for the Cats and then I managed to forget them as all of a sudden they were here and I was watching them go down the stairs and I was very excited. And then one ran past in front of me to go off to the stairs to the stage and I got such a trill and was starting to well up and then all of a sudden another cat jumped in front of me and looked at me and I was all shocked and jumped and then was giggling away and then has he moved on I started crying with joy and emotion and a couple more cats came past surprising me but they didn't stop. I think what made it extra funny was that I'm mainly alone on my row so felt rather on display. I loved that I cried though as it made it feel more special. 

I definitely love the big numbers with all cats dancing on stage. I tried not to count how many there are all the time this time. Oh cats are appearing on stage!! 

So now I'm writing it on Sunday. Well that didn't get far - I'm now writing the following Saturday! I had such a fun time at Cats. And I loved how much I loved it. It got me thinking about how lucky I am having things that I know will bring me pleasure at any point in my life - and they are things I can do by myself: go to musicals, read Harry Potter, watch ER, think about going to Disneyland. 

I think most of my feelings around the musical were similar to the recent times. I loved the lively numbers, especially Mr Mistofeles, Skimbleshanks, Jellicle Ball/Cats. 'Touch Me' is the best spine tingling moment from Memories. I tried to read the programme over a guy's shoulder during interval to see who was playing Grizabella as there was quite a stir in audience when she came on. I looked online and she didn't seem to be a well known person. 

I did spend a little time what I would name a cat. Maybe Jellicle?! 

Catherine's thoughts post traveling

Wow! That's the word that sums up this year for me. Wow! Wow! Wow! I have had a wonderful year, at least 100 times better than I was expecting. I give John all the credit for the idea. It was his dream to go; I'd have quite happily stayed being a home bird. I also would have ducked out many times this year if I'd been given the chance. I've learnt that I'm not adventurous by nature and as a flight loomed, I would be thinking 'it might be a brilliant adventure coming up but it would be ever so much easier to stay home and unpack the bags and settle into familiarity'. I'm ever so glad that I never was given those ducking out opportunities. 

We really have enjoyed everywhere we have been. Each country offered us so much and gave us so many super memories. There really aren't any places we wish we hadn't gone to, maybe just changed our timing in Fiji. It has been hard answering the question 'where has been your favourite place this year'. It was so special meeting up with our friends in Japan and New Zealand who we had not seen for years. There was a lot of excitement at being with family again in California and the Isle of Lewis.  We often answer the question by saying it was ever so special and enjoyable to live in Uganda for months meeting great new people, living a gentler pace of life and being settled. We also add that travelling around New Zealand in the camper van and seeing so many wondrous sights was another favourite bit. Oh, and I did love Disneyland - one of my favourite questions has been 'what was your favourite bit...of Disneyland?!' 

A friend said they would be interested to see us and chat to us when we are back and also hear about the things that didn't work as well and didn't make it on the blog, and I know I would be the same. Well, we tried to think of things and it got to the stage in South America where I started writing a 'Travelling "Disasters" List' as a way of reminding myself just how fortunate we have been this year. The list ranges from such minor things as sun cream explosion in big rucksack on a flight, booking our NZ ferry crossing in the wrong direction, to  losing penknife at airport after forgetting to put it in hold luggage (on our 17th flight) and having to be rescued by a tractor in our campervan after getting too close to the edge of a hill. We were also remarkably healthy all year. We were each sick once in South America and apart from my conjunctivitis in Fiji I think we had fewer colds etc than we would normally have in a year in the UK. 

During our wet day at Machu Picchu, I started adding up how many rainy days we had had during the year and once again realised how fortunate we had been with the weather. These are the times I could think of where it affected our day:

One wash out rainy day in Uganda - there were a lot of thunder storms, but I generally enjoyed their short and sharpness

One rainy day in Australia - Christmas Day! 

About three days in New Zealand including both times we were in Taupo

Two rainy times in Peru

No rainy days in Japan, California, Isle of Lewis, Brazil or Bolivia 

And then just the week affected by the cyclone in Fiji!! 

Not bad for a whole year! 

We have also been asked what we are looking forward to about being back. It will definitely be lovely catching up with friends and family. It has been super to keep in touch via messages and FaceTime but it will be nice to spend proper time together again.  I am also really looking forward to having a home around us again, with nice belongings - rather than the many things I took travelling because they were practical and it wouldn't matter if they didn't make it back. Also I think I am a bit to excited about having a washing machine and being able to do laundry whenever I want. I really feel like I am going to enjoy regular domestic things again; oddly I enjoyed washing up at the friends we stayed with yesterday! Not sure how long those things will remain a joyful novelty though!! Number one desire at the moment is drinking tap water again and being able to full water bottles up - that seemed quite a hardship missing that! 

Some people have asked how travelling has changed me. I don't feel I'm a radically different person. One thing I've notice is that I have become more obsessed with using antibacterial hand gel - Lizzie, hope you're proud!! Also, I've got to know more about John having spent so much of the year just with him. One thing we have learnt is how incompatible our walking paces are. Out on a countryside walk or hike, especially if it's uphill, I walk pretty slowly and poor John is left often waiting for me. But in a town or city when we are walking, my pace is quicker than John's so we don't have many opportunities to walk companionably! 

While travelling a did start making a list of some changes I would like to try when I'm back. Again, I'm not thinking to be radically different, I just like to try if possible to head a little more in these directions. Now I know lots of our friends do lots of these very well already so they might seem a little silly but I figure if I write them I might be better at doing them. They are all things that I have thought about while travelling. 

Local - I would like to try and buy more things locally. I love the convenience of Amazon online (and am sure I will keep using it), but I want to feel I am supporting real people rather than just nameless and faceless businesses. 

Community - in a similar way, I want to know more and have more of a connection of people in the community. I loved seeing that in small New Zealand communities and also up in Stornoway. Hopefully the new Rose Hill community centre may be a starting place for that. 

Packaging - I want to think more about what I buy and try to buy things with less packaging. In particular, John has become good at thinking about plastic. He bought the book 'plastic free life' in California when seeing an exhibit at Monterey Bay Aquarium about the amount of plastic sea animals ingest. We are planning to research local places where you can go refill washing up liquid bottles etc. If anyone knows of any places around Oxford or has any good tips then do share! 

Baking - I really enjoyed having the time to learn to bake a bit in Uganda and want to try to make the time to do it now as well. I want to keep practising the same recipes until I can do them quicker without having to keep checking the recipe. 

Cooking chapattis and popcorn - I also enjoyed learning to make these and don't want to forget! 

Bread - I would like to learn to make bread too. 

Basic ingredients, less processed - again, something from my time in Uganda. I'll start small and see where it's worth it.  

Phonetics - a random one that cropped up while in Denmark and so I popped it down as something I'd like to learn...one day!

Blogging - I've really enjoyed blogging this year. I'd like to keep it up with General musings on things that happen. 

More minimalist - although I am really looking forward to having belongings around me again and I still like nice things, I'm hoping to slim down belongings a bit and have another sort out as we unpack. 

Fewer clothes - I don't remember jotting this one down before, but glad I did as I wouldn't have tried to do it! This year has definitely proven that I can survive without many outfits. Although particularly in South America, I missed not having anything vaguely nice for an evening, (my indication that we were going out was putting on a pair of dandy earrings!) I definitely don't need an overflowing wardrobe. Andy H, your wardrobe with just the pair of jeans in is my inspiration! 

Rare shopping centre visits - I don't feel the need to visit a shopping centre often anymore. 

Keep reading - I really loved how much reading I did this year. I did read quite regularly before anyway, but just want to make sure I keep it up. I wonder how much I'll read my kindle at home and how much I will go back to paper books. 

Outdoors in the UK - thank you for your suggestions of your favourite places to be outdoors in the UK. I definitely want to make the effort to visit them all. 

Make lists - I did find I enjoyed making lists this year (as this is evidence!!) and I liked feeling efficient that things were getting done and weren't being missed. I wonder how that will continue now we are back. 

Exercise more consistently. I would love to run three times a week as I tried to do in Uganda. I'm looking forward to returning to Rose Hill Runners and seeing if I can finally get under 30 minutes for a park run...

Knitting - I enjoyed knitting in Uganda and particularly when we were home in June. Hopefully I can keep that up. Anyone have any (easy) knitting projects they would like me to do! 

Quite a few people have also asked: 'What next?' Well here's a quick answer...

Short term - prepare our classrooms for new school year while trying to remember as much about how to teach as possible. Settling back in to our flat by rediscovering our old belongings and finding homes for our souvenirs. Get our car back up and running. 

Medium term - catching up with friends and family. Making photo books and movies of our year. Surviving teaching and ofsted. Getting reacquainted with oxford. 

Longer term - travels round the UK, discovering exciting adventures there. 

It's been a truly amazing year and I am so so grateful for it. Thank you to all who have read, commented and been along for the ride. I've really enjoyed sharing it with you. 

Final night of Athletics aka Mo's 5000m

Our final event of the Olympics and it was a big one - Athletics! We arrived early, even before the stadium was open. It meant we got to walk in and see an empty stadium - quite surreal. We walked around trying out different seats, deciding where would be best to sit, finally settling on the home straight. We did have numbered seats but we just decided to hope no one came to sit in the seats we had chosen and fortunately they didn't. 

We were sat in front of a lovely Brazilian  family. They and many others in the stadium were trying to watch the football final on their phone. It went to penalties and there was possibly the largest cheer of the night around the stadium when Brazil won!! It was great to be a part of the victory in a funny way! And when the Athletics finally started the Brazilian family we had bonded with were cheering on Team GB too which was lovely! 

As well as watching the football, we occupied ourselves before the action started by using the binoculars to try and spot presenters from the BBC which I enjoyed!

Events kicked off with the women's high jump and then more and more started appearing so it was hard to know where to look! I generally found the track events more exciting than the field events. They also started doing the medal ceremonies from the day before so we had the great excitement of Bolt getting his ninth medal for the 4x100m relay. I really loved the crowds reaction to him - there was applause as the medalists came out of the tunnel, bigger applause when it got to the Jamaicans, then it just exploded when Bolt was spotted - wow! 

At last it was Mo time - what John and I had come for. I was feeling tense. We were all expecting him to complete the double double - what a lot of pressure. They ran out to the far side of the track then quickly were off. It was funny not having a commentary for the race so I was never sure whether he was in a good position or not. I was anxious that he had come to the front too early. We were counting down the laps. It was fun to have the second Brit to keep an eye on and divert the tension from Mo. It was wonderful as he came round the final bend in front of us and was kicking on in the lead. Woohoo!!!!!  And even more fab, he came to celebrate with his family on our side of the stadium. 

We then had barely calmed down when we had the next excitement of the 4x400m relays. I've decided it might just be my favourite race to watch! I won't give a full race recap but when Christine came round to the final straight, I was screaming far more than for Mo and so much more wide eyed and delighted that she held on for Bronze - yaaaaaaay!!!! 

After the men's relay (glossing over that due to gutting absence of Brits) we just had the medal ceremonies to wait for. It was getting late and they kept us waiting by doing the 5000m ceremony last. It was worth the wait. It was mainly Brits left in the audience and we sang 'God Save The Queen' with gusto. My second favourite part of the evening was seeing his cheeky grin as he went in to his pocket to take out his other Rio Gold Medal! Go Mo!! Love it! A super evening and a super way to end our Olympic Experience. 

Tri, tri again

Saturday 20th August 2016, Women's Triathlon Day, started in the same way as for the men with us heading to the athletes' entrance. We were there to see the three Brits arrive. They didn't set their bikes up quite as close to the fence as the men so we didn't get to know so much about them. I did learn that Canadian Kirsten Sweetland lived up to her name by being very sweet chatting to some through the fence. We also heard a Team USA member speaking through the fence instructing someone on the outside how to get the waterbottle, socks, podium kit and black leggings from the bedroom where one USA athlete had forgotten them. It was also exciting for us that we saw a few of the male triathletes hanging out on the outside including Kiwi Dodds, Spain's Hernandez and South Africa's Ricahrd Murray. 

We headed back round to our spot from Thursday where Katie was waiting for us along with the super fans. We chatted to them as well as to a lady who had worked for Adidas supplying the Brownlees with kit. 

With less than 10 minutes to go till the start of the swim at 11am, a couple approached us saying they had four tickets for the triathlon but only needed two. So we bought them! Well, we didn't have quite enough cash on us so Katie leant us the money - yay! It turned out we bought them off the brother of a triathlete who had competed for Jordan on Thursday and the tickets said guests of the ITU on them. 

We hurried excitedly on through the security and down on to the beach where the women were being announced. John went to try out another vantage point and soon came back to beckon me over. I went to stand with him at the railings behind Helen Jenkins - a great spot I thought. And then I found out why John had called me over as I was standing next to Sir Steve  Redgrave on the beach! Yikes! 

After the swim had started we moved around so that we could see them running out of the water to the transition zone. We got chatting to a Brit who turned out to be Eddie Brocklesby, the oldest ironman competitor in Britain who has started a charity to get older people exercising, Silver Fit. A very nice lady and we had a fun chat. I've just googled and discovered she's 72 - amazing! 

The three Brits came past in the first group and we saw them get on their bikes. Then we headed round to the grandstands which were crammed full but we were able to find a spot perched on the stairs - again something I don't think would have been allowed in London. We were in front of a Russian man who I thought might be a bit annoyed that we were blocking him but yet again I was delightfully surprised as he asked for s selfie with us and gave us magnet of Russian triathlon. Had I been disappointed when Russian athletes were let back in to the Olympics?! 

We got to see a lot more of the race this time, as we had a better vantage point to see further, we got to see transition which is always exciting and also there was a big screen with English commentary on the rest of the race. Horray! 

We were in the stands with the Bermuda supporters of Flora Duffy (they gave us a Bermuda Olympics pin) and with the family  and many supporters of USA Sarah True who unfortunately had trouble and limped round. Non Stanford and Vicky Holland were in the leading pack for the Brits, but so unfortunately was Gwen Jorgenson - the phenomenal American with the unbeatable run. She did indeed pull away on the run but so too did Nicola Spirig who hasn't majorly featured on the triathlon scene since she won gold at the last Olympics. It was good to see someone race with Gwen and it was funny seeing them talk to each other on the run and weave in and out. In the end Gwen had the legs and got the gold everyone was expecting. But it was very close between two of the Brits for the bronze medal. Non Stanford and Vicky Holland, friends and housemates, had been side by side all of the run and just as they got in front of us Non pushed a little but then Vicky pushed even harder and sprinted for the line to get the medal. So tough for Non but well done Vicky. 

We cheered the rest of the women over the line and were able to be in a good spot to see (the back of) the medal ceremony. Another super event made even better by getting the tickets. 

Olympic Moments and Memories

Wow! This has been such a truly awesome week. When we decided and booked the Olympics I thought it would be a great experience. But it has gone so far above and beyond what I was expecting and it has been just the sort of excitement I love! There have been the sporting moments - whether that was seeing a Brit win gold, or watching a live sport I had no idea of the rules of. There were the celeb spots which I am always over excited by. Then there were the smaller and more general moments that I have tried to keep a list of for the memory bank...

I love how with the Olympics you can get really into a sport and be really tense over it when you knew nothing about it five minutes before. We were having dinner at a pizza and pasta buffet restaurant one night where there was a TV showing the weightlifting. I found myself gasping at the Iranian's 3rd attempt failure on his first clean and jerk weight despite getting a world record in the snatch?!?! It was tough to watch but we were happy that Lasha from Georgia went on to win... 

And can anyone explain about the Modern Pentathlon Fencing bungee run rope thing that the competitors seem to be attached to? I'm perplexed but loving the insight into a new world. I've been blessed to have that pleasantly perplexed feeling a lot this year 😀

I love the way you see different areas of the world nations dominating in different sports. A new nation of prowess for me was Hungary and countries towards the eastern half of Europe being highly represented in the canoe sprint.

I was also interested to discover, not until I was actually there in the stand, just what different events constituted Canoe Sprint. We saw doubles canoe where the athletes sort of kneel up with a one ended paddle on one side of the boat. Then there was individual kayaking and four to a kayak with distances 200m, 500m and 1000m. And I was pleased to understand now why basketball always seems so fast paced and end to end. I have never known there was a 24 (or is it 25) second countdown once a team has the ball and they have to shoot within that time or forfeit the ball. There is a clock above each basket that is counting down. 

I loved the general buzz and feeling that there was of people having a good time. Everyone seemed excited and happy. Even when people were tired on the buses and trains, there were still smiles. We had a few chats to strangers on various transports, especially when we had our flags on and the definite impression was that people were having a great time. I found I had little time to think about non-Olympic things as my mind was just full of the excitement. One new friend asked how I was feeling about going back to the UK; it took me a while to get out my standard answer i'd been giving for the last few weeks, as I'd just not thought about it since being at the Olympics. And our French housemates asked about Brexit - it's been a long time since I've thought of that! Happy travel times! 

I particularly enjoyed walking around the Olympic park in Barra. That's where most of the new venues were together, including swimming, velodrome, tennis, gymnastics, handball, basketball and others. I liked being part of the crowds surging through and heading to an event. It made me think of Disney a bit - walking long distances in excited crowds and also not eating very regularly! 

Another thing I enjoyed was spotting the Games Maker similarities to London 2012. Their uniforms were very similar, just a different colour and their trousers could zip off into shorts. When someone scanned our tickets, I liked wondering if they were enjoying that job as much as I did at the Excel. I don't think there were as many volunteers as at London which had its good and bad points. In Rio we benefitted from the more relaxed style in that there wasn't anyone showing you to your seats so we 'upgraded' ourselves to better seats - particularly for Mo's 5000m final where arriving early meant we got to take our pick of the expensive seats on the finish straight instead of being right at the top. Although we did feel there was something not quite right about games makers taking photos of themselves on the 100m straight while spectators in stand! 

I guess a difference in experience being at an 'away' games, is that we were in the monitory by being team GB supporters. Hence I guess the fact that we were interviewed by the same radio journalist at two different events, and that people wanted to take photos of us with our Union flags. My favourite surreal photo moment was the guy who gave his dog to us and took a photo of us with it!!

My final random moment that I have not managed to fit in anywhere else, was when we happened to watch Bolt win the 200m final on tv in a restaurant on Copacabana beach. I smiled at the way people spontaneously applauded when he won. It's quite something the way he has such universal appeal and everyone seems to be wanting him to do well. 

I can't really believe that it's been only a week but it has been a wondrous week to finish our travels on. There seemed such negative press beforehand but we haven't experienced any of it. We always felt safe, the transport was always ready and waiting for us, and I wasn't bitten once by anything my whole time in South America! I really have loved it! Well done Rio and Team GB - you did us proud! 

HE TOOK OUR FLAG!!!!!

This was another stand out day at the Olympics! What a super time we are having. I feel so fortunate. 

Today (Thursday 18th August 2016) was one of the main reasons we had come to the Olympics: to cheer on the Brownlee Brothers in the Traithlon. Over the last four years we have become big fans of them both and keen watchers of triathlon on TV. We have been to watch two triathlons live in London which were part of the World Triathlon Series. We have also taken part in the Brownlee Tri, a short triathlon organised by the Brownlee Brothers. John has done three of them and his phone screensaver is still a photo of Jonny, Ali and us from the first event. John also ordered a Yorkshire White Rose flag on eBay before we came to South America which we had been carrying around with us, as we had seen the Brownlees carry one over the finish line at other races. 

The night before the triathlon, we wandered along Copacabana beach watching some of the final preparations as the numbers were sprayed onto the starting mat and we enjoyed working out where transition was and where the athletes entrance was to the complex. 

Unfortunately we had never been able to get tickets for the Olympic Event. We figured we were sure to get them when we first applied, as who would be wanting to go to watch triathlon? It seemed crazy to us that the stadium often looked half empty for the athletics but we couldn't get our hands on triathlon tickets wherever we looked. But at least it was an 8 lap 5km bike course so we knew we would be able to cheer the Brownlees on somewhere! 

So on the morning of the race, we headed to the athletes entrance with one last try at the ticket box office - still all sold out. But our disappointment didn't last long as we were quickly spotting athletes. It turned out that the area for setting up the bikes and doing final checks, was just the other side of the metal barrier so we were able to watch and listen as they strapped energy gels on to handlebars, cleaned tyres, tied elastic bands around their bike shoes and made sure everything was ready. John had heard that Alistair was the chilled out calm one before a race and Jonny was more nervous and anxious. That definitely seemed true to us! 

We then headed round to the spot we had sussed out to watch from - as close to the finish line as we could get outside the ticketed area. We walked past one of the areas that the BBC broadcast from and 5Live asked to take our photo for their Twitter feed. I think our lipstick purchased the night before helped us stand out! 

That turned out to be the first of a few photos poses as various people asked for our photo as we were stood by the barriers. We got chatting to another British girl and we became quite a GB supporting team. One Brazilian girl asked for a photo as she said UK was her favourite country and I was filmed from toe to head by a Sky Sports News cameraman. I saw a man photographing us so I waved at him and he came and asked for a photo of us with his dog - definitely one of the most highly surreal moments of the year! 

John and Katie went behind us to the beach to watch the start of the swim as the triathletes ran into the sea, while I saved our spot at the railings. There was quite an exclusion zone on the beach so it wasn't really possibly to tell who was who, but it was interesting to see when they stopped running and dived in the waves as compared to a lake swim where they dive off a pontoon. We were on the railings next to a nice man from Venezuela who lives in Rio and was knowledgable about triathlon so it was fun for me to chat to him while the others were on the beach. 

Admittedly we didn't actually see all that much of the action during the race, but I was super happy during the whole thing. We got eight flashes as they came right past us on the bike laps and there were eight slightly longer glimpses through the metal barriers as they went past the other way across the road. It took a couple of laps to get my eyes trained then I was able to identify the Brownlees as they passed in the lead group of about 10 riders. We cheered as they went past, though they cycled so close to our side of the barrier that we couldn't wave our flags too elaborately for fear they'd get caught in the spokes! We also particularly cheered for the second group which had Gordon Benson in, the third Brit. We noticed that he hadn't gone past us at the start of the run and were thinking he must be really slow and then Katie spotted him walking across on the other side of the barriers in the middle with a scrape on his leg and back. It turns out he had come off his bike. 

We were able to see the athletes for slightly longer as they came past us on the run and we were delighted that the Brownlees were out together leading everyone quickly and leaving them behind.  We focussed on our chanting and mad flag waving. 

Ali pulled away on the third lap and was looking strong to come home for gold. On the final straight we were shouting 'Ali! Ali! Ali!', I was waving our Yorkshire flag and Katie was waving her GB flag. I was really hoping Ali would take one of our flags to carry over the finish line but he was looking so focussed and running so straight that I'd resigned myself to it not happening. Then at what seemed to me to be the very last minute he swerved and grabbed them both! We were ecstatically excited!!! Woop woop woop! 

He carried them over the line, one in each hand. We were jumping up and squealing. My legs were shaking. Katie was trying to type her email address on to the phone of the guy next to her who had videoed the 'flag grab' but her hands were shaking too much to do it. The two men who had happened to video the moment hung around for a while trying to get one video transferred over Bluetooth. I also managed to be in text contact with Ma and Lizzie and heard that the flags were a major feature after the race. 

Once we had recovered sufficiently we headed back round to the athletes entrance, catching the national anthem on a big screen through the bars. There were lots of athletes leaving by this point including Gordon Benson and Richard Varga ('Slovakia, first out of the water' on the back of his supporters' tops). 

While waiting we were approached by a man who said 'hello, I'm Richard from Sky News Radio' and we said 'yes we know, you interviewed us on Monday after the dressage!' How funny! We did another interview, much longer as we chatted about the flag and our Brownlee Tris. We got chatting to a British man for a while who turned out to be the father of a member of the GB hockey team whose son had had a disappointing games. But we chatted away about how positive our experiences of the Rio Games was. 

We saw the Brownlees getting in to a golf buggy each to be then whisked off for press interviews. We were told they would likely be a while so we headed off to the Lagoa to collect our athletics tickets from France House. Whilst there John got on the wifi and found a message from Katie saying she had got our Yorkshire flag back and it was a long story. We arranged to meet that night back at our cheering spot to hear the story over dinner. Back at home we enjoyed seeing the reaction to the flag handover with our family and friends. Lizzie had managed to record the TV footage. The Daily Mail online had also jumped on the Yorkshire flag grab story!

We had a fun time hearing all about the flag retrieval that evening. Katie had headed to the Fort and bumped in to two Brits who were mega fans of the Brownlees. She had seen the Brownlees go past with them and seen their interaction. They had got tickets the night before the race to be in the grandstand. They were walking back when the couple introduced Katie to the Brownlees' physio who was walking past. They told the story of the flags and the physio took the Yorkshire flag out of her bag - still wet with sweat!! The fan lady had been very desperate for it and had tried all sorts to persuade Katie to give it to her, but she had held strong and had the flag for us - she had put it in her dry bag so that we could still feel the wetness of the sweat!! 

What wonderful craziness the day had been!! We headed back for bed. As we got in, Haydee showed us a message she had google translated which started 'could you do an interview...' and my thought was ok my goodness, the press have found out we gave the flag and have somehow traced us to here, but the rest of the message was '...about your experience of Airbnb during the Olympics'. My mind was clearly far to active after the excitement of the day! I also had a surprise when I looked in the mirror - I had a very red forehead, apart from the centimetre closest to my hair which my Union flag bandana had been covering. I normally wear a hat and clearly the one lot of sun cream I'd put on in the morning hadn't been enough. I have also realised that I have a lighter skin coloured heart on my forehead, where I'd had a lipstick heart drawn. Oh dear - maybe I need a new hairstyle with a fringe!