October 2022 - Walks on the beach and Pumpkin Carving!

 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!

In the right light, Weston Shore can actually be quite beautiful, as long as you don't go in the water!

Something that wasn't beautiful, was the political meltdown we were seeing in front of our very eyes. Liz Truss stumbled, over block after block, to the point where there was a live stream of a lettuce, with the concept she would resign before the lettuce became mouldy. For me, it was fascinating that our country was lurching from one political mess to another political mess, and it seemed to just be getting worse and worse. And only days after saying she was "a fighter and not a quitter" Liz Truss stood in front of Downing street and announced she was resigning.

It was exhausting, I couldn't keep up with the constant cycle of resignations, political in fighting and surreal events. And something I never saw coming, was the lettuce surviving our prime minister. A couple of days later, it was announced Rishi Sunak was going to be our next prime minister. I felt mixed emotions about it. I was frustrated because this was now the third PM we had which had not been elected via a general election (the others were Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss), proving again that there needed to be some sort of actual vote for people to decide. But on the plus side, he seemed to be bringing in a bit of a breath of fresh air politically, and seemed to at least be competent. But he was also a historical first, he was the first person of colour to become PM. I think it sent a message, that Britain as we know it is a multi cultural and multi-ethnic country, but also that it sent a message to ethnic minorities, who often are left out politically that they did have a voice, and they were represented, and more visible. I look forward to seeing what he does to turn the Conservative party around, but I think he needs to be bolshy to make this work. Especially with Penny Mordaunt was snapping at his heels for the PM job, and I think there had been a gradual realisation from the party that popular support was waning for the Tories.

On one of my days off, I headed up to London for a day at the museums. I'd gotten the bug from being in Madrid, and wanted to spend some more time seeing interesting exhibits.

I headed to the Victoria & Albert museum, and made a beeline for the plaster courts. I'd been fascinated by them the last time I went, but wanted to return and see a bit more. I mean, where else in the world can you see the statue of David and the facade to the Cathedral in Santiago di Compostela in the same room?

I love it when I see something that I recognise, like this early 1900's picture of Rievaulx Abbey. I am always also fascinated by the glass sculpture hanging in one of the entrance halls. It's a beautiful mix of blue & green glass, but my main thought is always how do they clean it? You can't exactly use a feather duster on a long stick, the chances of breaking a bit of glass off would be too high. Would you lower it down and take it apart piece by piece and clean each one individually? Or would you do what I would do, and that is to open the doors, then get a giant leaf blower and blow all the dust off the glass and out into the street. Surely that would be the easiest way? 

Unless of course, that by unfortunate coincidence you happen to walk past the open doors just as they switch the leaf blower on and suddenly you're in a dust filled storm!

Also I love this advert, because yes, we did see lots of bikes and some tulips, but no, we didn't see any ostriches in Amsterdam. And perhaps most disappointingly, I didn't see any Ostriches riding bikes with tulips in the front basket. It would be quite the sight to behold, like ET, but a bit more interesting.

   Anyway, things were busy at work, after a relatively quiet September, October was turning out to be a bit of a beast. The christmas stock was flowing in thick and fast, and I was struggling to find places to put it all. Half the time I wonder what head office thinks, they know how many units and shelves we have, but just seem to send in seemingly random amounts of stock, like the 15 boxes of bleach they send in. We sell one box a week at most. What am I going to do with 15 boxes of the stuff?

Me and James headed down to Portsmouth for an afternoon one day, we spent some time in the arcades on the two penny slots, before having an extremely competitive air hockey match. I thought we must have been about even, we'd both been scoring well, and I looked up to see that the machine hadn't tracked any of our points! I think I had one, I definitely scored the most goals!

We had a little wander around Gunwharf Quays, who interestingly won best refurbished car park of the year award in 2017. I don't know what to do with that information. I didnt even realise that was thing, giving car parks awards. I did a bit of research, and it turns out that Cabot Circus in Bristol was the first car park in Britain to win the Park Mark Plus Award. I am flabbergasted that I did not know such a prestigious ceremony took place each year. I will no longer be watching the Oscars, BRITS or anything else, parking awards will be how I celebrate each year,

Anyway, we popped down to Brighton a few days later, when the weather changed and became rather more blustery. Very blustery. To the point I was almost blown off the end of the pier while trying to take a picture of the blustery weather! 

Does anyone remember the Winnie the Pooh story about the blustery day? I remember watching it, and finding it so so cool that the letters were blowing off the screen in the film.

We also went out for dinner on the way home, and found ourselves a nice Chinese restaurant. I loved the fact the leftover chillies made a face on the plate when we had finished! The next night, I went round my friend Mel's house for Dinner and Drinks. It got to the point where I think we were so drunk, she couldn't get the cork out of the bottle. I told her I was great at getting stuck corks out, and I tried my best, only for the cork to fall into the bottle. Well we were wetting ourselves laughing, and decided that would be the last thing we would drink before we went to bed!

Another day at work, another piece of lost property hanging from a shelf!

And finally, the end of the month brought my favourite event of the year, halloween. I love it, I decorate the conservatory, I have all the family around for a take-away, and we have a great evening just eating, chatting and sometimes playing games. This year was a bit more of a celebration, the last two years hadn't happened because of Covid, and this was the first time we were all together again. And it really was a wonderful experience, even if I did forget to buy tealights for the pumpkins!

The smiling one is mine, and the square faced one on the right is James's. I brought a carving kit from poundland, but the jagged tool broke as soon as I used it, so it was back to the kitchen knife like we do normally each year!