Thursday 23 May 2013

Museums at Night...um, Day!

I'd never heard of this one before but came across it whilst researching something else and thought it'd be worth looking into whether there was anything going on locally.

And there was - Harewood House was holding a Twilight Experience on Thursday 16th May.  This was to include House and Collection talks, food and drink in the candlelit Terrace Cafe, silhouette portraiture and exclusive viewings of previously unseen areas of the house.

So I gathered as many of the 'boys' as I could (Kevin and Ken) and off we went...

As you can see it was less twilight and more broad daylight!



 
So the story is that this statue of Orpheus used to reside in the front entrance but caused something of  a stir (can't possibly think why?!) so was moved out to the garden.


 
And was replaced with this - obviously much less offensive with its enormous marble phallus! 
(In fact the whole statue is enormous which kind of begs the question "How did kevin not see this?", not only did he not see it but as he was turning he had a rather close encounter with said phallus, promptly apologised to it and then walked off - and didn't realise until Ken and I pointed out that he hadn't almost walked into a living person but had, in fact, apologised to a giant marble penis - is it wrong that this was one of the highlights of my evening?!)
 
 

 
 
 
Kevin - Lord of the Manor


 
So, apart from the fact that there wasn't the slightest hint of twilight it was still a very enjoyable visit. Things did come to a rather abrupt end though at the point Kevin discovered that the Terrace Cafe was only serving tea and cake.
 
Ray often says that Kevin is the calmest, most reasonable of people...unless he hasn't been fed. At which point he turns into something else altogether!  I started to feel uneasy when we were trying to actually find the cafe (very well hidden) and his pace quickened to an almost desperate haste as we retraced our steps through stone corridors and round increasingly familiar corners.
 
We finally located the cafe (which wasn't candle lit - it was still daylight), and sat down with the menu, Kevin was genuinely horrified to discover the limited (and in my opinion over-priced) fare on offer so we made a sharp exit and headed for the nearest eatery.  Which happened to be the pub across the road - where Kevin was then told it would be a long wait for food due to the party of 20 who were being served first.  Obviously this wasn't acceptable at all so off we headed back to Harrogate and the Pine Marten, by the time we got there I was genuinely concerned that Kevin might start gnawing on my arm but still couldn't help being amused when, on being told it was a 20 minute wait, he hopefully asked whether that was 20 minutes until our food was in front of us. The (rather scared looking) bar staff was very apologetic as he explained that, no,  it would be 20 minutes until we were seated.
 
So, after Ken and I forcibly removed Kevin from around the throat of the poor hapless bar man (only joking!) we all headed off for a drive around town on a mission to find somewhere still open that would feed Kevin before he entered some sort of full blown Jekyll/Hyde episode.
 
Having driven round for a while Ken skillfully found a parking place in the vicinity of Graveley's and we, just, made it in time to place an order to appease the angry food god.
 
The museum at night jaunt was enjoyable but it was the desperate mission afterwards which turned out to be the real adventure!  I am seriously considering though always making sure I have some sort of edible treat in my pocket, just in case, when out with Mr Matthews!




Thursday 9 May 2013

Make Something Day!

(try and include glitter)

I made 3 pavlova's (none for me), several cups of coffee and cheese and various meat toasted sandwiches.

I'm pretty sure I also made a mess at some point.

I made someone's day.

I made a difference.

I made a mistake and I made amends.

I'm not entirely sure glitter would have been a welcome addition to any of the above but I am now inspired to make some sort of glittery sparkly pavlova at some point soon (when I can actually eat some of it!)!

I wrote about the food I'd made because, yes, that's right, I STILL haven't got any further with my Christmas stockings (which will have lots of glitter!)!

Wednesday 8 May 2013

No Socks Day!

But I LOVE all my odd socks - admittedly they don't really go with the type of footwear I'm fiinally getting around to wearing though so it was time to abandon the mis-matched lairyness in favour of bare feet.



It has just occured to me that I can still get the 'odd' effect by painting my toenails different colours - bonus (amazing technicolour dream toes has got to be better than amazing technicolour dream hair right?)! It never occured to me though to check my summer shoes for cobwebs, lesson learnt.

Speaking of socks...chap who is too good to be true has major sock issues.  So, how do you know when you have major sock issues?  It's when you put your foot in the top and it comes back out - and you haven't even reached the toe yet.

Tuesday 7 May 2013

Try a New Hairstyle Day!

Hmmm, perhaps I should have just stuck to the usual visit to Toni and Guys!

Instead I went for a colour change (I knew this was a bad idea, I usually colour after a cut so there's less to colour!)...

Heidi and Her Amazing Technicolour Dream Hair could well be appearing at a theatre near you.

It's varying shades of purple, red and brown.

And it's growing on me (no pun intended)!

Monday 6 May 2013

Get on Your Soapbox Day!

I managed to put a MOON CANNON on my soapbox! I will beat you!

Something about this sentence just appealed to me.

And here it is in context...

A favourite pasttime among children is to build racers from junk found around the house and garage. Usually, crates used for carrying soap are used for the "bodies". So, a soapbox either refers to a crate used for carrying soap (wow) or the body of something young people drive about in.
I managed to put a MOON CANNON on my soapbox! I will beat you!
 
Other (urban dictionary) definitions of soapbox include...
 
Refers to someone having the attention of others as they speak.
Comes from when, back in the day, people would stand on soap boxes in parks and give speeches.
He was out standing on the soapbox, bitching about how the world was unfair.
 
(n.) a downhill race for american children, where they design go-carts that have no steering, to get them used to the fact that american roads have no corners, and american cars cannot turn worth shit.
The soapbox derby is lame.
 
A wooden crate used in shipment of soap.
Used by one who wishes to stand above others to give a speech.
The lunatic on the corner stood on a soapbox to tell us the world is ending.
 
I'm trying to decide which of  the 'bitching', 'moon cannon', 'lame' or 'lunatic' approaches would be most appropriate for me...

Sunday 5 May 2013

Most Tummy-Flipping Thing This Week!

As every single day last week and this week (so far) has been full of tummy-flippiness I'd really struggle to pick the 'Most' tummy-flipping thing!

Hmmm, perhaps I have Gastric Volvulus.

Friday 3 May 2013

May Outside-ness Mantra!

Hooray!

At last flip flop o'clock is here (yeah, this could be a problem) & this month of May I will get out and about, yes, out of my comfort zone (which apparently is where the magic happens).

I will spend at least 82% of my time in nature (only if I quit work!) including a night under the stars!  Indeed Alfresco will be my middle name (no, I won't be getting deed poll involved involved to make this official - sorry!)!

I will run til my legs hurt (that won't take long then!), & laugh til my belly aches & have picnics!

I will go to places I've never been & have seven kinds of adventure!

Yes, May will be a breath-of-fresh-air kind of month, it will!

Thursday 2 May 2013

April Me-ness Mantra - The Results!

Ok, here we go...(reminder of the Mantra HERE)

I AM amazing, wonderful AND brilliant
(Someone at work did actually tell me on 1st of April that I was brilliant - unfortunately I can't for the life of me remember who it was or why they said it.  Obviously this is because it happens so often that I just take it for granted now...)

April is going to be the best month yet...Yep, EPIC success!

I wasn't kind to myself every day but I was more conscious of when I wasn't being, I may have wasted a moment (or two) worrying but nothing excessive I promise!

I have made the most of every second of precicisely 10.5 days of April which I think is actually pretty good going!

Haha, I've actually had the TV on more than normal but barely watched it when it was on as the conversation was much more interesting, I haven't gotten outside as much as I'd have liked but I'm hoping that'll change in May, I've put pen to paper and got a little creative (and made an admittedly feeble attempt to start the Christmas stockings) and done a fair bit of getting more me than I've ever been before!

Wednesday 1 May 2013

Make Up Your Own Day Day!

I really don't know what to call this one...

Take Someone You're Trying to Get to Know Better to the Cemetery Day?

Doesn't exactly trip off the tongue does it!

Aunty Betty set me a challenge some time ago to find my ancestor's gravestone (pictured below) in the cemetery across the road from me.  It's been moved around on my 'to do' list  (otherwise known as 'The Spreadsheet Which Runs My Life') but the potential sale of the church land finally motivated me to get down there and have a look.

So why not, thinks I, also take the opportunity to see just how receptive the 'far too good to be true' chap I met a few days previously is to my particular brand of...well, just odd really.



 
And the answer is...very! 
 
Really enjoyed poking around the cemetery and fairly quickly got the line of sight for the gravestone - there's a big house in the background now though!  Anyway, with my sense of direction, I could have easily spent a lot longer actually trying to locate the stone itself but fortunately 'far too good to be true' chap (with a better sense of direction than me) homed in on it almost immediately.
 
Considering its age it was actually in pretty good condition despite being laid flat for safety (which I suspected would be the case) so I took a couple of photos for Betty before we wandered on to look round the rest of the stones.
 
Never let it be said that I don't know how to show a guy a good time!