More 'Summer' adventures

So, it's pretty much the end of summer. I use that term loosely, as I can't say there's been a whole bunch of sun. Anyhoo, I for one, am grateful that things are slowing down a little. Work has been manic,but I've still managed to get a few adventures in.

I went to It's a Sin at the Wedgewood rooms with Lucy. We had some giant burritos & got 2 jugs of cocktails, however the second one was so full of sugar, we just couldn't drink it. I clearly am getting older, I would of tried to plough on through it.. So yeah, we also went to the vodka bar, before meeting some of Lucy's friends and heading to the 90s dancing fun. The mean DJ wouldn't play New kids on the block. I mean, what sort of an establishment is this? ;) Although I do remember dancing around to Just a girl like I was 17.. ah memories.

It was a pretty fun night and I even got chatted up a few times. Good times. Ha ha. I believe as usual it ended in Chips in pitta with hummus. 

The next day we went for a wander around Southsea and I got me some treats.

These Elvis coasters are pretty rad, right? And everyone needs a Capt Lego figure?

As usual there was a bunch of food involved, including these rather yummy Peanut butter filled crepes.

Sunday involved more Southsea fun as I headed to my Geek gal meet up. I met Amy first for food. She gave me some belated birthday treats. Clearly she knows me pretty well, Pandas, Flamingos and Captain America. Yup, that's pretty much all my loves!!!

Myself, Amy and Laura also talked about taking a road trip next year to Edinburgh Zoo to see the pandas. I wanted to go in Bumblebee, but £130 a day to hire a camero is a little outta my price range...

If you don't know what meetup.com is, check it out. I have to say I've met some rather awesome gals via it. You can even start your own meet up depending on what interests you have.

If you get a chance and John Green gives you the warm & fuzzies, check out PAPER TOWNS. After A Fault in our stars I read the whole John Green back catalogue (yes, I am 35....) and was kinda interested to see how Q and Margo would translate on the big screen. I really liked it, but judge for yourself.

What else happened? Oh yes, the bank holiday weekend. Which meant Tattoo time! I got a new tattoo at The Rockabilly rave, and I wanted to add to it. Anyhoo, I can't say there was anywhere on the Isle I thought was great until I found Old time Tattoo. I'd been in a few weeks ago to see Josh and say what I wanted. 

2 and a half hours later along with some great conversations about zombies and cats I came out with a rather beautiful old school mermaid tattoo. I'm not going to lie, I'm a bit in love with her and she has a cute ass. She still needs a name though...

So yeah, it was Saturday and the lovely Lickle Amy & I had arranged to go out. Of course there was rum. A lot of rum.

There is Rum hot chocolate in these mugs...

So, we went for Tapas in Old Portsmouth which was quite fun and tasty. Then headed to the wetherspoons for more Rum and to Scandals for dancing to 90s music (I do seem to dance to 90s music a bunch, huh?)

It was pretty fun, although hot and cellarish, and the DJ's mixing skills were pretty bad.. but he seemed to be enjoying himself!

Sunday involved a slight hangover and finding food before heading home to two-stroke town. 

I did brave going to the Lud last night for a few hours were I had a jive and a stroll in a pub full of mods. Standard. I also saw the Lovely Toni Fox who I know from The Rockabilly Rave, so it was nice to get out and see her as well as Dawn, Max and Andy :)

So, yes, that would be summer over and done with. But there are lots of adventures yet to come. And maybe some sunshine now the kids are heading back to school.

Single summertime adventures

I have to say, it's been far too long since I've done a post.
Those of you who know me, will know there is a reason for this, and although it made me sad in the process etc, I am much better now than I was. So I can get back to boring you all about my adventures!

I have had quite a lot of mini adventures this year, and I know there will  be more to come. I've met some great people along the way, and I have to say I really know who my friends are now. I know some very decent, loving and awesome people and I feel so lucky to know them and to call them friends.They are the kind of people who come out of nowhere, and yet are there when you need them most!


So, yes, where was I? Adventures. I did have a mini adventure on Saturday to Retrofestival just outside of Newbury. Myself, Andy & Dani ventured on the overpriced ferry to Southampton and went on our merry way to Newbury.

Upon arrival, we did wonder if we had in fact arrived at 'Diggerfest'

I wasn't quite sure what to expect, as the word 'Retro' is massively overused and indeed covers such a wide spectrum of things. It was really random. It's in the showground which is pretty big with a bunch of Tents selling vintage stuff, as well as crafts and food (FYI, Fudge and Licorice don't really constitute actual food to me...) There were a few marquees playing different music depending on your preference. We ended up in the Rock'n'Roll marquee, which was a bit too fluffy for my liking, but I had a couple of strolls and a shandy, so it wasn't all bad.

Thank god for the person selling the Parasol's on their stall, otherwise I would have been a lobster at the end of the day, plus someone it made me swear less. Dani said it was a magic parasol... There was a lot of similar clothes and stuff for sale, you do kinda find there are only so many styles and clothes available in the Rockin' scene.

I did get me a lovely Atomic Swag tee. I'd seen them at The Rockabilly Rave, but they were kinda pricey, So i was pretty stoked to find Campbell Crafts selling them for £17. Plus the gal selling them was really helpful trying to find a size to fit me. I also got a rather lovely Sailor Jerry beaker in red, which I'd never seen before. And a lovely bit of atomic fabric.

It was kinda like going to the Chale show but with more stalls, Although there were MANY swoon worthy cars and a lot of Mingos. I am a mingo magnet...

YES PLEASE!!!

I dream of this scene on a daily basis!!

It was great getting to know Dani some more and its always lovely having mini adventures with Mr. Hendy. I am lucky to have spent the day with these guys! And of course the evening where Andy hosted his Rock'n'Roll night at Wightrock. I got to catch up with some old pals- lovely to see you Peck, even if you did call me a Trollup ;) and thanks to Mick & Dani for both being so kind to me!

Here's to the next adventure!

January... where did you go?

So, it's been a while since I've blogged, my memory is terrible sometimes and I keep on meaning to blog- it's even under my 'To-do' list...

Its February now, and January feels like I did enough for about 3 months!
New Years Eve was spent working at the yacht club, and avoiding drunken people trying to hug me at midnight- I was pretty successful!
January began by going back to work-always a shock after time off at Christmas, but it was ok, I had something to look forward to. Before Christmas my boss had asked if I wanted to go to Holland to a tourism show. Umm Hi, No brainer! Holland for free, yes please!!
So, Mid January I headed over to Southampton to stay in the Premier Inn at the Hotel- living on the Island means that you can't get to the airport for a 6:50am flight..  That bed though- totally big enough to fit 3 people in!!
So, I flew from Southampton to Schipol, then got the train to Utrecht where the show was happening- I still can't remember exactly what it was called-Vala something.
It was HUGE, like a gigantic travel agents, full of Dutch people who love a) camping b) motor homes, c) walking d) nature e)history.
That was pretty much my week, by the end of it I was speaking in broken English like a robot. But, check out how lovely my hotel was:

Yes, that is a whirlpool bath- I might of almost flooded the bathroom with bubbles....

view from the deck.

So, besides the epic amount of talking, and being ill since Boxing day, it was a good experience, and I feel like I helped the Island. Oh yeah, also committed an awful fat gal sin and bought skinny jeans...

After being away for ages I had 2 days off, so lazed about for one, then headed to the cinema to see Into the Woods. If you haven't checked it out yet, you should, purely for Chris Pine as Prince Charming....

Anyhoo, back to work for 3 days get everything done that I needed to as I had the week after off! 

The weekend was fun as my boy came to visit. We had a lot of fun dancing at Andy's DJ night at the Wightrock bar. Dancing with him is pretty scary- mainly because I suck, but hopefully I'll get better!

Tuesday I'd been looking forward to ages, because in October I'd got me and 4 friends tickets to see JD McPherson in Brighton. Anyone who knows me, knows that putting JD on will always makes me dance (I'm looking at you Andy). So I'd been excited about it for a while, plus it was going to be a great mini adventure with my pals. 

Sadly, that didn't quite pan out. They all, with the exception of one, bailed. I'm not gonna get into it, as its a whole other story, lets just say I'm a bit sad about it.

So, my Brighton adventure started on the ferry- I decided I'd go to Chichester first as I hadn't been there before. There was a 'vintage' charity shop, which I thought might be worth a look. Alas not, lovely idea if you like the 70s or overpriced vintage. I got stopped in the street by a guy who was trying to get me to model- my first question 'How much?' yeah, you telling me you've met Dita isn't going to get me to part with my cash.... 

So onwards to Brighton- I checked in to the very glamorous Travelodge and then went for a wander, and much to my joy I found Bubble tea!!!

I had Bubbletea for the first time in Canada with Sunshine. Man I miss that gal! So I was stoked to see it was in the UK! Yum!

From there I went and sold my extra JD tickets, then met James from the station and headed for the fun. I have to say the venue-Komedia kinda sucked. Its a small low ceilings dark venue, which meant the sound barely travelled- it would be swell if they could get that sorted out! But it was a good show, The Cactus Blossoms in support were kinda lovely, Plus I got to see my man and Miss O'Hara who I love dearly, and do not see enough of!!

That was not the end of my fun, oh no! My Mom's birthday is January 31st, so I wanted to do something nice for her. Her also being an Elvis fan, I decided that the Elvis at the o2 Exhibition was an obvious winner. I decided to drive to London. (If I suggest that again, slap me). The motorway was fine, the hour and a half past the motorway that it took to get to the venue, not so much. I got massively stressed to the point of tears, mainly because we were late for our allocated slot.

Turns out that didn't matter, so we headed up to this:

Now, I won't spoil it for you if you've not been, but you should all go. I'm hoping to go again at some point.

We had dinner at Frankie & Benny's then headed home. Mom was pretty stoked as she didn't even know it was on! and she didn't know I had more planned!

Saturday was her actual birthday, so I made her Blueberry dairy and egg free pancakes for breakfast- they weren't awesome, but pretty good for a first attempt :) I also made a rad cake, but that's besides the point. So yes, we headed over to Pompey to the Spinnaker Tower

Even though the weather wasn't the best, the views were pretty amazing. 

I treated Mom to Jamies' Italian for dinner, which was soooo good!!!

And that was January over with. 

I still have this crappy cold, so I'm hoping it will piss off soon. I know I have lots of adventures to come this year & I can't wait. :)

Rantsville

So, some stuff has been bothering me lately. I guess it's really Humanity that's bothering me.

I've been doing a course on Equality & Diversity and have been doing some research on it all, so have been reading quite a few articles on various newspaper websites (Never the mail, I hasten to add- everything they write is bull) and I can't believe some of the comments people write. Now I know that everyone is entitled to their opinion and we live in a massively diverse society (well, not me, the IOW is barely diverse) and you have to learn to tolerate others opinions especially when you don't agree with them. That is life. I have no problem with that.
What I have a problem with, is all the SHAMING.
The people who add their opinions when they think they know better. Sexist comments or shaming fat people are my favourite ones.

'Like, OMG what you're doing isn't healthy, how can you say you're happy with your body, blah,blah, blah'

My question is this: Did you ever stop to think that maybe that 'fat' person goes to the gym and eats healthily and that they are HAPPY with their body the way it is? They have achieved what so many of the commenter's haven't. Being happy with the way they look and with who they are.
Fat shaming, or shaming of any sort helps no one. I don't even know why people do it. Does it make you feel better about yourself? Does it suddenly solve all of your own problems and insecurities? No.
I suggest before you make your pathetic comments, do your research. Fat people go to the gym, Women do still get sexist comments, and just because it doesn't happen to you, doesn't mean it doesn't happen, dufus. Maybe you should count yourself lucky that it doesn't.

Stop trolling, unless you actually have something useful to say. Go look in the mirror and sort out your own shit before you drop it on someone else.

Sorry about the rant, but it bothers me, I know I can't change it, and that people will always be negative and mean. But there are so many better things you could be using your time on, like actually being Grateful for the things and people in your life and figuring out how to love yourself and be happy.
No one else is here to validate you, or make you feel good. You have to do that for yourself.

Rant over. Thanks for reading and have a swell weekend kids!

Autumn.

I realised that I hadn't posted in like a month. Which for me and the amount of words which fall out of my mouth on a daily basis is pretty impressive.

I guess Autumn hit and I went into hibernation mode. Although I have still been going out, just not on the pile.

I joined a neat site called http://www.meetup.com/ Which is pretty rad. Not a whole bunch of people know about it, but its kinda like a site to make friends with people. Dating for friends is how its been described. Anyways, I joined a meet up  in Southsea called Geek Girls Unite. So far we've met for coffee twice and drinks once. Its been a lot of fun, mainly for the fact we all geek out and get over excited about the things we love. For me that's my love of Nathan Fillion & Pandas, so imagine my joy when I met a lovely Scottish lady who not only loves Mr. Fillion, but in fact drives a fiat Panda full of, wait for it....PANDAS!!!!!!!!!! Incredible.

There's also a lovely gal called Amy who reminds me of Linda Cardellini in Freaks and Geeks

Weird right! But she's a lot of fun and is dairy free like me.
I also met a gal from the pile called Danni, she's neat. We have a mutual friend too, as well, that's the Island for you!
I think some of the gals may be coming over to the Island for this at the end of the month:

I'm pretty excited about this too. Halloween and Rock'n'Roll? It must be the work of the devil, surely? ;) or just Dr.Jive...

Besides that I've been to a few fluffy Rock'n'Roll events on the Isle which has involved quite a lot of drunkenness on my behalf. Turns out I'm pretty good at being drunk, who knew? 

I've watched some movies that were so bad they are almost good:

There are some very imaginative Nazi monsters in it, so totally worth a look for them alone.

I've also been catching up on the new Fall TV, which has included Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Supernatural, Castle and a new edition to my playlist thanks to Mr. Short

I know a few people have dissed it, but I have to say I kinda love it, but then I've always had a soft spot for Tom Everett Scott. There are some awesome zombie death scenes and a zombie tornado. AMAZING. For a syfy show it's pretty good, yet there isn't even a hint of it on UK TV yet. I started on The Strain and Gotham too. 

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

So, that's kinda what I've been up to. I won't leave it so long next time.

Summer.... and stuff

So, It has been a really long but fast and incredibly tiring summer.
I didn't get out much, but I've had a few mini adventures to keep me sane!

I finally saw this guy after 12 years!! 

(He's not a midget, he was just getting the lighthouse in shot...)

This is my friend Dan from Uni. We always do the 'we must meet up' thing, and never quite get round to it. So, a few weekends ago I got my ass on a ferry & a train and went to the delightful Littlehampton to see Dan and his Boyfriend Martin. Not forgetting his dogs!

We went for a stroll along the sea front and ended up in this lovely little Tea room, where I had the best High Tea I'd ever eaten.

Martin with all the food!

Brie & Cranberry sandwiches, with a shot glass of coleslaw. Then cream tea, made up of a cherry & almond scone with cherry jam & cream. 2 (yes, 2 ) cakes! One Gluten free Chocolate almond cake, which was incredible! I took my bakewell tart home as I couldn't eat any more!

It was lovely catching up with Dan, and I really don't think either of us has changed that much. But I know we won't be leaving it so long next time!

Sunday was also a mini adventure as well to the Victorious Festival in Southsea. It was such a lovely laid back festival, really well put together and a lot of fun. I met Claire on the seafront (we braved our way through the mods) and ventured on the cat to meet Lucy. 

We ate a whole bunch- Toastie, sweets, nachos and a halomi & pitta and donuts! Yum. Not all in one go of course.

We saw the Southsea Alternative choir. I was still swooning at the ginger one who was struggling to sing. So very cute! Lucy and I were most excited about seeing Menswe@r!!!

We went on a mini adventure to the Blue reef aquarium. I squashed a penny. I know, right!? Awesome!

So yes, Menswear sounded pretty much the same, and Lucy and I were playing the game of remembering the songs. We were pretty close to the front, so hadn't realised how big the crowd had got for Shed Seven. Man, People LOVED Shed Seven. There was a guy in a Wonderstuff tee going Mental for them. He was pretty entertaining.

Claire and I didn't stay to the end. thanks to Wightlink for having a crap timetable, but it was fun none the less.

Last weekend was the Ryde Illuminated Carnival. 

The Highlight really was getting my light up Bunny ears.

Its such a shame, because the illuminated carnival used to be a lot of fun & had a whole bunch more floats. I guess that kinda goes to show that people can't be bothered anymore. Sorry state of affairs.

Last night was a whole bunch of fun too.

My friend Andy was doing his regular Vintage Rock'n'Roll night at The Wightrock Bar. It also happened to be Max's birthday weekend, so Dawn & I hatched plan to hijack his event with a surpriseish party for Max.

I went to Cowes earlier in the day to collect the food and Balloons from Dawn. I drove home with a Bull looking at me in my rear view mirror!!

I got there and decorated and waited for the birthday boy to arrive. It didn't really go to plan and it was just me yelling SURPRISE at Max when he walked in. HA!
He was like, Surprise what? ha ha

Me rockin' my gringo tash- it made it really hard to drink or stay on..

Yeeeeehaw

Andy rockin' his gay cowboy shirt. 

The fun was had and it was really lovely to hang out with my rockabilly pals, as well as the lovely Helen & Frazer from Vintage Vacations who I hadn't seen in forever. Wendy & her husband came over too which was lovely. 

We all consumed the some what rummy chocolate rum cake I made for Max. People kept on asking how much rum I put in. NO IDEA! tasted great though! ha.

So, I just wanted to wish Max Warner a very Happy Birthday.

Now for some shameless self promotion!

I finally got my ass in gear and listed some of my new Fascinators on Etsy, so it would be incredible if you guys could go and have a look and let me know what you think!

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/RnRtreats?ref=l2-shopheader-name

Thank you & Happy Sunday!