The word is a very exciting place

 Hi everyone. This was actually a rather unplanned post. I figured with there being 52 weeks in a year, and with the posting on Sundays & Wednesday's, I would need 104 posts for 2025. Hilariously, I realised only two weeks before the end of 2025 that I was a post short, as I had already planned & written most of the posts for 2026, and got them all lined up in sequence and date order, ready to go. That's what happens where you're too organised, there's no wiggle room.  So I thought why not create a recap post for the year? But then that became confusing, as you know, I've not yet written or posted about 2025, so how could I recap it and spoil the surprise? So why no recap the year through the posts I had written about? 

 Possibly the UK's best known & visited cat cafe is in London, Lady Dinah's cat cafe is located in Bethnal Green. We had been before, but couldn't resist a visit to make some new friends! Who doesn't love making new feline friends?

 I'm sure it's a rite of passage for everyone to say "this is going to be my year" and made upteen plans about how this year will be their year, and all the changes they are going to make. I'll admit, I do exactly that, and then halfway through January I've failed all of them and am stuck in a cycle of frustration and crippling lack of drive. I think we all get like that though, don't we? I think it's a sort of rite of passage in the middle of January. Anyway, it was a quiet start to the year, work was quiet, and once all the christmas stock had cleared and the new spring stock was in place, it was nice to have some slightly lesser crazy days, and I could spend some time doing those small jobs that you never seem to have any time for.

 December brought freezing temperatures. And I mean freezing. I am always hot, I am one of those awful people that always needs the windows open or the air con on. So for me to say it was cold, it really must have been cold!

 Barev! And welcome to part two of the 2022 JESC, where I will be reviewing the interval acts, the voting, and of course, giving my opinions on the winner! I will also be revealing my results, will it change the winner? Will last place no longer be last place? We don't have long to wait! So without further ado, lets begin!

 Barev! Greetings from Armenia, this years host of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest! Coming to you live from Yerevan, we are going to see sixteen countries take part this year. My home country the UK is returning this year, while Azerbaijan (unsurprisingly, considerdering Armenia is hosting) Bulgaria, Germany and Russia (again, unsurprisingly due to their invasion of Ukraine) will not be taking part this year. Of course, we are in Armenia thanks to Malena's win last year with her song "Qami Qami". I will be reviewing the contest in two parts, the first will be my reaction to all the songs, while the second part will be about the results, as well as giving out my own scores. Will my points change the leaderboard? We shall have to wait and see! And without further ado, let's start the show! This years art design is so so good, featuring the Armenian colours and a traditional spinning top. And this continues with our opening video, explaining how the world rotates and ...

 November brought some nicer weather, with some cold but bright days. Work was getting busier, christmas stock was flowing in rapidly, and I was running out of places to put it. Every shelf was full, every spare unit was full, I was putting as much on the tills as possible to try and get it moving, you couldn't move in the warehouse it was so full. Pallets everywhere. The random deliveries continued, I received another 500 bottles of food colouring, as well as so many stock cubes I had a whole shelf dedicated to them in the warehouse. We were also inundated with crackers, but that I didn't mind so much, because we were constantly filling them! We also had some renovations at home, the bathroom had been redecorated and redone, and it was looking rather beautiful!

 November was here, and that meant the monster that is Christmas was right around the corner. There would be no such thing as spare time, and any little time I had not working, would be spent recovering from work. So I thought I would make the most of it, by having a weekend up in London with James. I'd worked until midnight on the friday night before, and we got up earlyish (I think I said I would be up at 8, but I think it was closer to 9, or maybe half past nine!), and after brunch drove up to London. We stayed near Ealing, and were absolutely stung in parking charges, I think it would have been cheaper to have caught the train up. We've remembered that for the future!

 October was turning out to be weather wise, a great month. It was warm & dry, perhaps I had brought the weather back from Spain? Normally I take the rain with me, so it made a nice change. Me and James continued to spend time down the beach, making the most of that glorious weather.  The morning started off a little dreary and grey, but the water was so super flat and calm. Once the sun came out, it was glorious, not to hot but nice and warming. Perfect for an ice cream!

My final day in Madrid was spent visiting the two most known and visited attractions, the Royal Palace and the Prado art gallery. I got to the Royal Palace early, and joined the queue that was growing ready for opening. I always pride myself on giving my honest opinions about the places I visit, whether they are good or bad opinions. When planning my trips and what I am going to do, I spend a lot of time reading reviews and researching places to see if I am going to like them or not, or if they are worth visiting. The Royal Palace was 18 euros for the main Palace building and Armoury. I didn't think that was too bad, it seemed reasonable for the largest Royal Palace in Europe. What I didn't expect, was for it to be so...well bland.

Having visited the Museo de Isidro, I then headed back to the Royal Basilica of Saint Francis the Great. And it was well worth the wait! It is beautifully decorated, brimming with detail and colour in every corner. It had a real Baroque & Rococo style to it, as well as containing some beautiful art in the side corridors.

 Who doesn't love a good archeological museum? I love them, I love to learn new things, see new things, and probably most importantly, I love to see things that I can relate to, it's make that connection between us and our ancestors that much closer. Sometimes I think we forget they were people too, and lived their lives in similar ways to how we do. We all work, share experiences with friends & family, have favourite foods, laugh & cry the same, and wonder about life. Whether that was 5,000 years ago, 2,000 years ago or the present day, the concept of life is the same. We all live it, and the only certainties about life are death, taxes and irritating people who walk slowly in front of you.

 I made the most of the early morning light by heading to the Royal Palace to get some photos of the outside before the place was rammed with tourists. Of course I needed some sustenance to do so, and grabbed some empanada's from the local supermarket! Why are empanada's not more widely celebrated as a breakfast food? They are tasty, filling and easy to grab and go? Maybe we should normalise them for breakfasts along with other hearty pastries like Cornish pasties and sausage rolls. Sometimes, a croissant will just not suffice!

Before you see the rest of the post, I just wanted to share my heartfelt thanks. I have just reached 30,000 views for this blog! It's an incredible achievement, and I want to say thankyou so much to everyone for following my journey & reading what I write. This blog means so much to me, and I am very grateful for the positive response I've gotten  After a taste of being abroad by visiting Amsterdam, I decided that in the week off I had in October, I was going to do a little more exploring. Back in 2018, all those years ago, I spent 5 weeks in Spain exploring, but ran out of time before I could finish. Although saying that feels silly, I think I could explore Spain for a year and still not see it all. But I decided to head out to Madrid, somewhere I had always wanted to go, and it seemed as good a time as any to return.

September was a stressful month, with a lot going on. To the point where the month felt a little overwhelming current events wise. It started off with news that we had a new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, who won the Conservative party election. She was replacing the toxic Boris Johnson, who had resigned before he could be removed from his post. It made it the third time now we were given a new Prime Minister without an election with this government. It happened with Teresa May, in 2015, then Boris Johnson in 2017. It didn't feel fair somehow, and it was very frustrating that nobody got a say in it unless you were a member of the Tory party, which lets face it, not many people are. I will however say one thing, with the choice between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, it was a good example of representation, and a nice change from the almost constant stream of white men that had ruled Britain since the post was created. We had only had two female Prime Ministers before, Margaret Thatcher and ...

 Our final half day in Amsterdam was a better one, the sun was shining and our first stop was to visit a windmill. First of all, how you could visit the land of windmills and not go to visit one, especially in the Netherlands! But also, ever since going to the Angla Windmill Park on Saaremaa Island in Estonia, I've been a little bit obsessed with them. Funny how even a hundred years ago, the skylines of the countryside would have been covered in them wherever you went, yet now days they are few and far between. We headed to the Nieuw Sloten Windmill, in the village of Sloten. It was easy to get to, just jump on tram number 2 to the very end, and then there was a charming walk through Sloten, with it's quaint little cheerful houses.

 When you think of The Netherlands, you generally think of water, tulips, windmills and tasty cheese. Well I do anyway. And I know that's a sweeping stereotype, but sometimes stereotypes are based in truth. I was feeling better today, my cold symptoms seemed to have cleared up, and the weather was better too, it's not fun feeling unwell in the pouring rain! We made sure to do as much as we could, and we started in the tulip Museum.

 After a good night's sleep, and dosing myself up with cold & flu tablets, we decided to try and enjoy a bit more of our visit to Amsterdam. The first thing we wanted to do was visit Anne Frank's House. Virtually everyone I know has read Anne Frank's diary, it's a harrowing story of a young girl's life being destroyed by the Nazi's. She writes every day in her diary, about events that are happening inside the annex where she and seven others were hidden, including about her complicated relationships with them. I think what makes it so heartbreaking, is the fact that it just suddenly stops. The family was found, and they were deported away, with only her father Otto surviving. She wasn't able to finish her diary.

 I figured it was time for a little break away. Though to be brutally honest, I feel like that all the time! But me and James had a long weekend booked off, and we decided that we now felt comfortable enough to leave the country. That's right, we were heading abroad! We didn't want to go far, and we only had a long weekend, so we decided to go to Amsterdam! And it was so brilliantly easy, which is what we like. We started on the train to London, except ours was cancelled and we were shoehorned onto the next one and arrived late. This was not the easy part. I swear the British railway system is falling apart. Anyway, we decided to spend an afternoon & evening in London.

 By August, the temperatures were becoming a little more bearable, and it seemed like the worst of the heatwave was over.  It meant I had a bit more energy to do things other than working. I swear the heat just saps your energy. I spent time baking, making these mini pasties with a spicy beef mince filling in them when I had the family round one evening. This was before I cooked them, and I had to move fast before I could take a picture of them baked. By the time I'd taken the second tray out of the oven, two were already missing and James was complaining his mouth was burnt. So I had to quickly try and hide them, which I did in the conservatory on a shelf with a fly net over them so we still had some left for dinner!

 July was sweltering, and I mean sweltering. It also felt incredibly muggy too, unlike the more tolerable dry heat we had the previous two summers. I felt like I was constantly sweating buckets all the time. Correction, I was sweating buckets all the time. It felt like I was going to drown in the puddle of my own sweat. I've probably grossed you out now, I promise I won't mention it again!

 I feel like the posts about coming home are the worst post's of all! Knowing that you're returning back to the daily grind, and that work yet again take over life. We spent the morning in York, having a wander through the Shambles, before taking a quick picture of Yorkminster for good luck.

I know saying the greatest abbey is quite a statement, but we very well may have found it? I'm talking about Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, and it may just be the greatest abbey. The funniest thing is, it lulls you into a false sense of security. You are walking through the field from the ticket office to it, and you can't see anything, and you're thinking, I can't see any abbey, have we got the wrong place? And then, to our absolute delight, we come to a valley, and look into it, and there, is the greatest abbey.

 Yorkshire is just such a fantastic place to be. For a start, it's so beautiful. Rolling hills, natural habitats, sprawling farms, it's a delight to behold. It's also interesting, so much history and culture. Everytime we go, we get to experience such a varied mix of things, and today was no exception. Today we experienced everything we love, historical ruins, beautiful sighs, seafront amusements and ice creams. What could possibly be better?

 At the end of June we had booked a week off, and I purposely booked the week off before the school holidays begin. First of all, because I don't want to be charged extra for it, be surrounded by screaming kids and stressed parents. I just want to say to them, why did you bother to do this? You're all clearly having a really shitty time. Call it a day and go home and learn to love staying at home. Secondly, I also don't think it's fair for me to. If there was something in particular I wanted to do or see, then yes I would. But I think as someone without kids, it wouldn't be fair for me to possibly cause a parent childcare issues if they weren't able to get the week of.

 June was a strange month, the heat was really getting to me, I felt like energy wise, I was grinding to a halt. Work was also quite quiet, there wasn't an awful lot going on for a change, which meant I was catching up on all the odd little bits and bobs that I had been neglecting recently. Which I think then made me feel like I hadn't achieved much. But anyway, I didn't do much outside of work either to be fair. It had been my birthday, which always makes me feel glum. Nothing like a yearly reminder that you are getting older and closer to croaking it I guess!

 Hello and welcome to my post all about the aftermath of Eurovision, where I talk about what went well, what didn't go so well, and what I think about everything. After all, I've got opinions & a blog, why not put them both to good use? I think the first thing I want to talk about is the standard of entries this year. I feel like this year was one of the best we've had for the past couple of years. We had several different and interesting styles of music and performances, and for the grand final, over over half of the entries I thought deserved points from myself. This was the first time in a couple of years that I really struggled to make my top ten up and assign points. Even now, I feel like I could swap some of them around!

Ciao and hello! Welcome back to my review of the 2022 Eurovision Song contest! In the first part, myself and James gave our reviews of each of the competing songs. In this part, I will be reviewing the interval acts, the voting and of course, commenting on the winner. Plus I will be revealing our results too, and we shall see what that does to the leaderboard! So without further ado, let's get started! 

 Hello and welcome to the grand final of the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest held in Turin, Italy. I am joined by James, and together we will be reviewing all the competing performances tonight, as well as our impressions of the show. And at the end, we will be each sharing our points, will this change the leaderboard? We shall have to wait and see! So without further ado, let's start the show!

 Ciao! Hello and welcome back to my review of ESC 2022. In the last post, we saw who qualified to the final from the first semi final, and today we will see who makes it through from the second semi final. We've got good songs, bad songs, and everything in between! I will review each of the entries, and at the end of the post, reveal my votes. Will it changes who qualifies? We shall just have to wait and see. So, on with the show!

Hi everyone, just a quick note from me, I was thrilled to discover this morning I have now passed another milestone for this blog, 25,000 views! Thank you all so much for reading the blog, and following my journey through life! Hello, and welcome back to another review of the Eurovision Song Contest, or ESC for short. This year we are in Turin, after Italy's win with Maneskin last year in Rotterdam. Seeing as it's arranged by Italy, I'm sure we can expect a stylish and flashy show from the outset. I will be reviewing and commenting on all the songs in the semi finals, as well as the general show itself, and James will join me in the final. I will also be giving out my own sets of points too. Who will recieve my 12 points? Will there be any changes in the leaderboard? Will the qualifiers change? We shall soon see! So, without further ado, let the show begin! This years theme is the sound of beauty. I guess we shall  decide that  when we  hear some of the competing songs!

Another stop on the journey home was to Anne Boleyn's former home, Hever Castle. Anne Boleyn was not the only one of Henry the Eighth wives to live there, for he gave it to Anne of Cleves following the annulment of their marriage in 1540. The castle itself sits in the centre of a wonderful sprawling gardens, which if I'm being honest, are actually better than the castle itself. Oooh, I should have done a controversial opinion warning. But it's true for me at least, and I stand by it. The gardens are fantastic, there are many different areas with various flora, sculptures and statues, water features and even a classical style terrace area. Could you want anything more from a garden?

 I had a weekend off at the end of May, and we decided to go down to Kent for it, and have a little explore. I say this, because as usual, I had seen something online, and so wanted to visit, and James dutifully came along. I know he enjoys it too. We are quite different, we have very opposing music tastes with only the band Texas as a mutual musical connection. But when it comes to going places, 90% of the time we are on the same page, and then that other 10% isn't a problem. I feel like that's the best way to be. 

 Somewhere I had visited as a child was Amberley Working Museum, and it was somewhere I wanted to return to as an adult. I remember as a child being on an open top double decker bus, with a conductor giving me a brightly coloured paper ticket. Sad isn't it, I must have been a boring kid to find that particular bit so fascinating when there was a whole museum to explore! There are all kinds of little museum rooms with artefacts in them, celebrating the history of working people and what they would have used to live and work with. Kinda scary how before modern inhalers we would just use a ceramic vase with boiling water in it. Imagine having an asthma attack and having to wait for the water to boil! I also loved this sign, but as it doesn't state that bloggers who are three years behind are forbidden, then I guess I'm able to wander in!

Kew Gardens is maybe the closest place to heaven on earth (if of course a heaven even exists). It is utterly charming, filled with little surprises around each corner, and contains one of the most exquisite botanical collections I have ever seen. We were supposed to visit sooner but Covid came, but we finally got round to visiting, and I am so glad we did. Could things be any more perfect here? A view over the lake at the main greenhouse with a feathered friend wandering over.

 April finally brought Spring weather, albeit with a lot of rain. But I wasn't going to complain, it was nice to have some time in the garden, and it was nice to be able to spend time outside properly for a change. Husky didn't seem to agree, and I came home from work one day to find him in my hoodie!

I think March may have been the quietest month I had ever had. I just didn't seem to do anything or really go anywhere, I'm not quite sure why! I think part of it was to do with the week of night shifts I did at the start to get everything into Spring layout. Which involved moving pretty much everything on the ambient department. Most of it went without a hitch, but it was alcohol, particularly wines that just took forever. Every bottle had to move, red and white wines swapped places, every shelf had to be cleaned, dusty bottles wiped down, and everything moved. It took me and my trusty sidekick Mel a lifetime to do it, and incredibly, we didn't break a single bottle. That was a new record! We also got these new navigation boxes to help customer find particular national wines, and we had a laugh doing it as well. So the end result was worth it.

 February was otherwise a quiet month, I came back from our holiday and went straight back to work. The month passed fast though, I'm sure that's because although it's only a couple of days shorter than January, life returns to normal again in February. Christmas and New Years is finished with, and February is just a month about getting on with things while awaiting for Spring. At least to me it is!

 February brought horrific news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and with it, a scramble to do something. While the actual invasion was a surprise to many, it was merely a continuation of what had begun in 2014, when Russia had invaded and taken over Eastern Ukraine and the Crimea. I felt a sense of frustration in that people said they weren't expecting it. I think we all knew it was going to happen at some point, but when it actually happened, the speed at which it happened was the surprise. However, Ukraine staged a ferocious defence, pushing Russia back on many fronts.

 It was our final day of holiday, I know I say this every time, but why does the time go so fast? Yes, we had only been away for a few days because of covid at the start, so comparing it to the almost two weeks we normally get, it was short. But anyway, we were determined to enjoy the last day and for once, we were doing something more recent than the Dissolution of the Monasteries!

 We had a bit of a drive from Retford, where we had stayed the night, down to Birmingham, where we had booked a couple of nights in a hotel there. James wanted to spend some time with his parents, as he hadn't been able to see them much recently, due to the pandemic. They live in Birmingham, and the second he returns to the city his Brummie accent returns. There is no longer any S sounds, everything just sounds like a Z!

 I had visited Nottingham as a child, and had been fascinated by the fact they were building a tram line there. There seems to be a growing trend across the UK of reintroducing trams, which is understandable, as they are cleaner, provide better capacity than buses and seem to run better. The trouble is it cost's money, something we are always being told is not available, despite throwing money at HS2, the Trident program and paying for MP's second homes & expenses. But I digress.

 Thankfully I was soon testing negative for covid, and after 5 days of being negative, I could finally leave my bedroom! Hurrah! It did mean however that most of the two weeks I had booked off as holiday had already gone. Isn't that just bloody typical? Anyway, we decided to make the most of what was left, and got planning that night. 

 The rest of January brought a well deserved weekend off, and I was determined to have a good one, and get rid of those pesky christmas vibes. And what better, than to have a weekend in London? I swear a weekend in London can be a tonic for all sorts of maladies. Post christmas exhaustion? Weekend in London. Bad breakup? Weekend in London. Looming despair at life? Weekend in London. Fixed.

 January and 2022 came, so happy new year to you all! And by god was it cold. This had to have been the coldest winter for a long time. It was so cold in fact, that my friend and colleague Mel (who is Welsh, but I don't hold it against her!) refused to let me walk home from work, and would drop me home instead. We went out to her car after finishing the late shift, and I discovered these beautiful patterns in the frost on the roof of her car. We were then told that January was the warmest January on record, with temps of 15 degrees. I don't know where that was, but Southampton was having it's own mini ice age!

I had a day of freedom in December, can you believe it? Well I had two or three I think in the end. Most of them I was too knackered to do anything, but on one of my days off I headed up to London to visit the Jack the Ripper museum. I'd seen it advertised somewhere, and thought it sounded interesting, particularly as there seemed to be more about the women themselves than just about the killer.

 Bonsoir! And welcome back. This is part two of #JESC2021, where we discuss the interval performances, the voting sequence and of course, most importantly, I will give you my votes too! We saw all the performances in the first part, and we will kick off right after the end of Portugal's performance. So without further ado, let's get started!

 It's that time again, for the Junior Eurovision Song Contests 2021! Held in Paris, the contest features 19 competing countries, all fighting for the Eurovision trophy. Will France continue their successful run? Will Poland, having won twice on the trot win again? Or will it be the dark horse, could Ireland, Albania or Macedonia who win for the first time? I guess we will have to wait and find out. I will of course be reviewing all the entries and the contest itself, and at the end, I will give my votes, and we will see if it changes the scoreboards. So, without further ado, let's start the show!

 November brought joyous news, and no I don't mean christmas! I had a call from the spinal specialist I had been seeing, who had the results of my MRI. She explained I had a severely herniated disk on my right side, that was affecting the S1 nerve. This was what was causing me so much pain in my lower back and right leg. She advised for me to have a nerve root block done, a procedure where a long lasting steroid and pain killer would be injected into the area where the herniated disk was, which should hopefully improve my symptoms and reduce the amount of pain I was in. I was out having lunch with my brother when the call came, and we toasted pizza slices to celebrate.

Well how did that happen? How is it the final day already? I swear this keeps happening to me, two weeks of holiday evaporates and all of a sudden the final day is here! And boy, did we pack a lot into the final day! Our first stop was Lowther Castle, and let me state this right here, this may be my favourite castle that I have ever visited. A bold statement yes, but let me show you why.

 If you've never heard of St Bees, then I won't hold it against you. I had only heard of it from watching a documentary about the St Bees man. His body was found during excavation at St Bees Priory, in 1981 and is one of the best preserved medieval bodies found in the United Kingdom, so well preserved, that skin and the iris's of his eyes still had colour to them.

 If you're bored of Medieval history, and desiring something earlier, then this is the post for you! We decided to head to the coast and spend some time rubbing shoulders with our Roman ancestors, and what best way to do it, then by visiting where they would have washed themselves. Yes, a Roman bathhouse!

 So I woke up from the first night in the lodge like death warmed up. Streaming nose and eyes, a fever and feeling very under the weather. I thought I had managed to dodge James's cold, but here it was in all its glory. So that was our first day gone, with me confined to bed, and him confined to the sauna and hot tub. Not sure if confined is quite the right word for him! The second day was a bit better we managed a small trip out to the Lake District, or more specifically Windermere.

 The time had come to pack up and leave the lodge (glorified caravan) outside Easingwold where we had been staying, and to head over to Cumbria for the next part of our holiday. We seemed to have amassed a ton of tat during our holiday so far, and we were only halfway through! Funny isn't it, when you're on holiday you buy things you would never normally buy at home! Anyway, we decided to break the journey to Cumbria up a bit, with a couple of scheduled stops, up first, was Bolton Abbey.

 Luckily, after a lazy afternoon and an early night, James was feeling much better and wanted to hit the road again. Our next stop was Harewood House a glorious mansion, complete with mini zoo, sculpted gardens and even a little ferry to get you about the place. It was so fantastic, that I have decided I would like to live there! 

Just a quick note from me to say a massive thankyou to everyone who visits and reads my blog. I woke up this morning to discover that I had hit 20,000 visits since I started the blog in 2012. It's amazing to be able to share what I do and see with you all, and even better to know that people keep coming back to read more! I know that the blog is still very far behind, but I am continuing to write and queue the posts so there is a new one every Wednesday & Sunday for you. At some point I will be fully caught up, but until then, I hope you continue to enjoy the posts. Anyway, thankyou again for all your support! As October is typically the time it starts getting colder, more colds seem to circulate, and the day after Scarborough James woke up with a steaming cold. We did a covid test which was thankfully negative, but he did need the day in bed. I did a little walk around the site, there wasn't much to do, and then walked into Easingwold for wander about. I got some tasty pas...

 We decided we were in need of some amusement arcade fun, it's one of our favourite things to do while away. And being honest, the arcades are always better in the North, it's just another example of the North/South divide in England, albeit, a positive one for the North for a change!  Scarborough is one of those places where if it had better investment and a plan for the future, it could really do well, but instead, it always has this feeling of cheap, tacky and forgotten about. I remember a long time ago watching the news, and it was about the North/South divide, and the person was saying that the further from London you go, the less central investment there is. And I somewhat agree with that concept. But Scarborough has another problem - an accent I cannot understand! 

After soaking in the hot tub both the night before and this morning, to try and continue to ease the pain in my back and spine, we decided to head to the coast for some fresh sea air - a very Victorian concept, to go to the seaside to improve your health, but why not give it a try?  We headed to Whitby, looking for a ruined abbey, fish & chips, and to find dracula. We found two of three, can you guess which one we didn't? 

 After having an amazing time at Rievaulx, we headed into Helmsley to grab ourselves some lunch. We found a nice little cafe and over lunch planned where we were going to head next. We were planning on visiting Byland Abbey as well, but thought we'd have a little wander around Helmsley and see what was on offer.

 October came, and with it, two weeks off! Hooray! I know you must all think that I have too much holiday each year! I get 5 weeks off a year from where I work, plus extra days from working bank holidays, so it's normally an additional half a week each year. I am also terrible for fully booking the time off, so I normally come home in the evening and I'm back to work the next day. No point in getting those post holiday blues! 

 The day after I came back from London was the day for my MRI. I'd filled in the form, and tried not to feel anxious about it. I knew I needed this MRI, because then it meant they could see what was going on inside my back, and then the Doctor could do something about it. Hopefully anyway. 

I think London has two viewpoints. If you're like me and love a big city, and live in a small city where not much happens, London to me is exciting, fresh and vibrant, a place I would love to live in if the opportunity ever arose. Then there's the other viewpoint, and I think that's of people who live or work in London (like James) who find it noisy, messy, expensive and the place full of annoying tourists. I suppose I am one of those annoying tourists, although I do always try to get out of other people's way when I'm getting excited about something random. Which you'll notice towards the end of this post.

 Something I had always wanted to do since seeing the film Enigma, was to visit Bletchley park to see the history of codebreaking, and to where Alan Turing and other codebreakers worked through the war to intercept enemy communications. It's so, so fascinating, even though I don't fully understand it, and they have made it feel like the codebreakers have just gone for lunch, and you're snooping about, which gave it a really fun edge. Even the typewriters had little messages on them!

 We got up early, grabbed breakfast and headed over to Ely Cathedral for opening. I've wanted to visit for a long time, ever since seeing it featured on TV in something I was watching. And it did not disappoint!

 September proved to be a month of escape. I had a long weekend off, and we decided to go away for a bit. James booked a cheap Holiday Inn, which was in the centre of Stevenage. We did the drive from Southampton, and made sure we had a few stops along the way to get out and explore.  We had what I call a travellers lunch (on a services, so James could use the toilet and I could get some more painkillers, as for some reason, I brought my Amitriptyline with me, but not any paracetamol & ibuprofen. I'd also forgotten to bring any socks with me, so I ordered some to be collected in Stevenage. I think the Amitriptyline was messing with my brain a little, at times it felt like it was really hard to concentrate and remember things.

August was a slower month. I was doing less because my back was flaring up, and was affecting my mobility. The GP increased the amount of painkillers again to make doing things like working bearable, but I was struggling to walk to work anymore, so I was now catching the bus, which took just as long as walking as it does a trip around the city before getting near work. The Musculoskeletal team had also booked me in for an MRI in September to see what was going on in my spine. I also had a couple of days feeling unwell due to my second Covid vaccination, but it had to be better than actually having Covid. 

My back was getting worse and worse, to the point I was starting to catch my foot on things while walking. I went to see the team at the Musculoskeletal clinic, where the team there told me I had a suspected herniated disk. They wanted me to have an MRI to be sure, but the closest appointment was in September. They did however confer with my GP and got me some stronger pain relief, in the form of Amitriptyline. They explained it was one that wouldn't start working for a while, because it needed to build up in the body in order to feel the effects. So they would start me on a low dosage, and go from there. The first week wasn't too bad, but the second week was when I started to feel a bit weird. I can't explain it, it wasn't paranoia or anything like that, but I had this constant gnawing feeling that something wasn't quite right. But it did give me some pain relief and gave me a temporary increase in my ability to live life.

The glorious weather continued. I swear the summers during the pandemic were the best we had ever seen? Or is it just me thinking that? Anyway, we continued spending time in the garden, and I picked up a load of of bedding plants from work to pop in between the strawberries for a bit of extra colour. We also tried to save water by wrapping the bottom of the baskets with bin bags to stop the water just coming through, as the birds kept stealing bits of the fibres of the base of the basket to use in their nests. It partially worked, we seemed to be watering a bit less, but the birds kept pulling the bin bags off! I think we gave up in the end. The strawberries were still coming through thick and fast, although other things in the garden seemed to be struggling in the heat.

June was in full swing, the glorious weather meant I wanted to be in the garden, but my bad back was getting worse. I thought it was maybe from working, with all the bending and lifting, but over the week off I had, it didn't improve. So I finally rang the GP surgery, and got a same day GP telephone appointment, she was brilliant, arranged for me to have some physio and referred me to the Musculoskeletal team for an appointment for further assessment. I was glad that something was actually going to happen about it, I think as well we were all being told not to contact the health service unless it was really necessary due to the lasting effects of Covid, and I really didn't want to bother anyone. But it had got to the point where it was really starting to affect me. Thankfully things were going to be sorted soon.

 The last day of our holiday was driving home from Swindon, where we had spent the night. James wanted to do a bit of shopping for some new clothes, so we headed to the Swindon Designer Outlet. I know I've blogged about it before, but it's such a fun place to be. Yes theres shops there, but the fact that it's all in former train engine workshops is brilliant. Everywhere you look there is history on show, the brickwork, cranes, even tracks can be spotted. There's a railway museum there too, which we've done before and didn't do on this occasion, but it's worth having a look if you're into railway nostalgia & shopping. I doubt there is many places that manage to seamlessly blend the two! 

 The final part of our summer holiday was to Wells. We stayed nearby, and had the day in the town, which is just sublime. It's a stunning and magical place, and somewhere you can just lose yourself in. You can see why so many artists & writers have been inspired by the place, it has a level of beauty and medieval charm that is irresistible. 

 The weather was glorious, and we stopped for a break in the journey in Watchet. It's a quiet but cute little place, and not much seemed to be going on, which we put down to the effects of Covid. There is a heritage railway that passes through, the West Somerset Railway, but we didnt get to see any of the trains passing through. We grabbed ourselves an ice cream each, and had a wander along the coastline for a bit. James having a rest on the beach

 The summer came, and we felt safe enough to be able to go a little further away from home. We made sure to protect ourselves, I was armed with masks, alcohol wipes, hand gel and a refusal to be near people. We did a little bit of research and tried to go to an area that was nice, but also not to busy. We were also lucky in the fact that the schools had fully reopened, and it was a couple of weeks away from the school holidays. So that bit was fine. And it meant we could enjoy ourselves without screaming children everywhere. We decided to go down and have a week in Devon & Cornwall, we could have done longer, but I was still having issues with my back. I had phoned the GP surgery, who told me it was probable sciatica, and to take pain relief when needed. That's what I had already been doing, but they didn't seem to think it was anything serious.

Hello and welcome back to part two of Eurovision 2021. In this post, I will be reviewing the interval acts & the results. I will also be sharing mine & James's votes, so we can see if it changes the winner!  The lines have just opened, but of course, you cannot vote. But the first recap is starting, and it's a great opportunity to pick your favourites. Who would get your 12 points? 

Hello and welcome to our review of the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final! 26 songs will be competing to be crowned Europe's favourite song. For this first part, I am joined by James, who will also be reviewing the songs, and giving his feedback. We will also be adding our scores to the final leader board, to see if there is any changes. So, without further ado, lets start the show!

Hello, and welcome to the Second Semi Final of Eurovision 2021. In today's Semi Final, we have seventeen entries, all fighting for the ten places in the Grand Final. I will review each of them, and at the end, I will reveal my results to you. In the First Semi Final, my votes changed one of the qualifiers, so let's see what changes will happen this time! Who will make it through, and who will fail to qualify. So without further ado, let's get the Second Semi Final started!

Can you believe it's May again? Or at least, in terms of this blog it is May again! I know the 2025 contest is coming up in just over a months time, but in this blog, we are still in 2021! Think of it as a re-watch style of post. I'm going to watch the contest, and at the end of each semi final, I will be giving out my own scores, and we shall see how that changes the leaderboards! In the final, I will be joined by James, who will also review the entries lucky enough to make it to the final. So without further ado, lets begin! (I'll try not to complain about the amount of ads on YouTube!)

 May also brought the super moon! How spooooooooky! I was working the late shift that night, and while walking back home through the park, I saw the reflection in the waters of the pond there. It's not the greatest photo, but my god was it beautiful!

 May turned out to be a beautiful month weather wise, and when we weren't working, we were busy in the garden, there always seemed to be something else that needed doing, even when you thought you had done everything! The weeds were the worst bit, no matter how many times you plucked them out, they would return again tenfold. I was fed up with husky living at home for free, so here he is on his first day before he went out to work and started to contribute to the household!

 April saw some of the final covid restrictions on businesses, hairdressers, pubs, gyms & other non essential businesses could now open again. 33 million people had had a vaccine, of which 12 million had received both doses. Deaths and cases were both decreasing as well, and there was hope in the air that the vaccine was going to be what helps to end covid in the UK. 

 March saw the start of warmer weather, and left slowly returning to normal again. Schools had reopened, and the end of march saw further restrictions being lifted, and people were now able to have two households mixing. There was two pieces of troubling news that came though, the first being a rather insulting 1% pay rise for NHS workers, despite having managed to get the country through a pandemic. This was such a surprise to me, because of course you should be grateful for anything extra that you get, but 1% was just utter nonsense. I've never heard something so ridiculous. And it made the government's promotion of the clap for carers seem so hollow. We value you enough to clap for you once a week, but we don't value you enough to reward you for your service. Disgraceful.

 Still February remained cold, but otherwise dry which was nice. There was a different feeling in the air too, there was a sense that this third lockdown was going to be our last, what with the vaccine being rolled out, as well as plans being made for schools to reopen. February brought me some holiday, which I spent some time at home resting. A backache had started up, painful enough for me to notice, but not painful enough to stop me from doing things. I assumed it was due to the fact I'd worked so many hours and so hard recently, and it was a sprain or something like that. My body was telling me to slow down, and I needed to listen to it. So much of my week off was spent relaxing and not doing much. So much so that Husky wanted to know why he didn't have all the bed to himself all day like he normally does. You can see him almost questioning me as to why I was home all the time!

 February brought colder weather, but a more optimistic outlook. According to the news 20 million vaccines had now been given out across the UK, and although things were still not great, cases, deaths and people in hospital with Covid was slowly declining. For me, it helped to ease my anxiety about what was going on, and gave me a bit of confidence to go back out for walks again with James. It felt good to be outside again, and not just walking to and from work. It felt good to be able to just wander along the local shore line, and for a while forget everything that was going on in the world.

 Well first of all, happy new year! Here's to hoping 2021 will be a better year than 2020. I dare not even joke and ask if it could get any worse? Covid wise, things were becoming worse and worse. While the vaccine deployment was gaining speed, the cases, admissions to hospitals and deaths continued to rise faster. The nation entered a third lockdown on the 5th of January, and it seemed like it was too late. They should have done it earlier, and it seemed the mixing that a lot of people did over Christmas was coming back to haunt us as a whole.  

Hi everyone! Just another note from me! I know two in consecutive posts, aren't you lucky! Just wanted to say another massive thank you, because yesterday the blog reached 15,000 views! I can't believe it, it's fantastic! Thank you all so much for reading and sharing my story, it means to much to me. And also thank you for your pertinence while the blog slowly catches up to the modern day, we will get there eventually!   December came, and we came out of a full lockdown, and into a tiered system which actually was quite confusing. The advice given didn't always make sense. But we continued to do our part and avoid people at all costs (Which I actually loved)

Before I continue with the post, I just wanted to say that this is my 500th post! Can you imagine, 500 times I have clicked the post button and shared something with you all. It's a fantastic landmark, and I'm so pleased to be able to write about it! I just want to say thankyou to everyone for your continued support in reading my posts. It's taken 13 years to get to 500 posts, maybe it will take more, maybe less to reach a thousand. But I can't wait to see the next milestone! Thank you all for reading! :)  Hello and welcome back, this post is all about the results, and the rest of the show after the performances. I will also be sharing my votes with you as well, and we will see what that changes on the leaderboard! So without further ado, lets jump back in and Move the World!

Greetings from Warsaw, as we head to Poland for the 2020 Junior Eurovision Song Contest! This is our first Eurovision event since the main contest was cancelled due to the Corona Virus pandemic. It's a small contest, with just twelve contestants, with many withdrawals due to Covid, so here's to hoping more return next year. But we welcome Germany, who are making their debut this year. We are not travelling far either, as it was Gliwice that hosted the 2019 contest in Poland, making this one of the shortest distances between host cities we've seen for a few years. Will Poland be able to do the Eurovision holy trinity and complete a hat trick of Eurovision wins? Well we are just about to begin. So without further ado, let the show begin!

Life under lockdown felt oddly familiar, yet different. Working in retail, there wasn't much change. We got a bit busier at work, but didn't see the shortages or empty shelves that we had in the first lockdown. And people's attitudes were different, people seemed tired, and a bit lost. I guess that's what it does to you. Customers of course were not happy, and it was hard work trying to keep them moving round the store and not creating blockages in the aisles when they wanted to stand and complain about everything.

 November brought cold weather, and news that a second lockdown was imminent, although it would not be as harsh as the first one. The news was also that the vaccines were being developed and entering clinical trials, and there was some positive results, although there was no date for roll out as of yet. We also had the grim news that Covid had caused the deaths of 60,000 people so far in the United Kingdom, and there was no signs of it stopping now.

My driving lessons were not going fully to plan. I was struggling with both the individual aspects, and the process as whole. It was perfectly summed up by my instructor teaching me how to parallel park, but I somehow ended up bay parked on someones drive. This is not good. I had the weekend off before I started the new role, and James took me to Exeter Cathedral for the day. We had been before, but he wanted to get me out the house and go somewhere nice and familiar. So the Cathedral it was. I mean you can't go wrong with a visit to a cathedral. I would have preferred something outdoors where I could have myself a bit more space, but to be fair the Cathedral was not busy, and there was plenty of space to move about inside without feeling nervous of being close to anyone. I know I've already posted on the blog about Exeter Cathedral, but it's a fun place, especially this view of the window over the minstrel gallery. A view of the organ. The cutest little embroidered duck ne...

Amazingly, the glorious weather continued into September, and we made good use of it by heading back to Whitchurch, to feed the ducks and do the large circular walk from the silk mill and around the countryside. I don't think there is anywhere in England where the ducks are more tame and friendly, these will eat out of your hands as well as running between your legs while loudly quacking!

 August seemed to go on forever, in nice way that is! You know that feeling you got as a kid where the endless summer days were in front of you, and there was no rush to do anything. It was slightly different as I still had to work full time, but that feeling was still there. There seemed to be blackberries everywhere you looked, and we went to the common where we filled these two tubs up! (Don't worry, we left some for other people and the birds). We made blackberry and elderflower jam, which was delicious, if just an incredibly soft set jam, almost to the point of being runny. Perhaps we need more pectin next time.

After the night in Shepton Mallet, we did a bit of exploring around the area, starting with the Tithe barn at Bradford-on-Avon. Doesn't everyone love a good Tithe barn?