May Day outing in the Docks (by sarah)

After the BBQ and excesses of the night before the day started slowly with some kitten snuggles and a Dr Who fest.

Eventually we headed into Gloucester for a late lunch - Pizza Express - we couldn't get a table outside boo hiss but the girls decorated hats.

Then Mary spent ages trying to decide weather dough balls were really food or not.

She decided they were.

There was a slight altercation about Jean sharing her food with Mary but Jean redeemed herself enough for desert.

Hmmmm.... Oh yes and of course she made Olly sit next to her!

Then we went for an explore in the docks area.

May loved the water so Aunty Becca had to hold her lots.

Jean was very surprised to find the word RANTS written on the wall - Olly attempted to explain it though he forgot to take phonetics into account - as you nearly always have to with under tens.

I found birds to photograph for the 100 Birds in 100 Days challenge.

Becca and Olly explained paddle steamers to Jeany.

I found more birds to photograph.

There were some lovely sites to take in in the sunshine.

See:

Jean with Aunty Becca's help found out that Olly's hair can be used as reigns on a horsey - I don't think he was impressed!

I found more birds to photograph.

In our explorations we found a dry dock with a boat in it and so we spent ages explaining to Jean how it worked.

I found a boat to photograph!

And more buildings and birds - Jean put her hands on her hips and said 'Mummy will you please stop taking photo!' She even rolled her eyes - which I think is unfair - I only took a few more!

First Summer BBQ 2013 (by sarah)

Saturday afternoon was filled with laughter and chat and BBQ as my college friends Becca and Olly came up for the last of the bank holiday weekend along with another friend Helen. We had a BBQ of course!

The trampoline was a great hit right from the start!

Olly was finding it too hot so Jean (who was dress up as Princess Layer in camo on the forest moon) went and found an umbrella for him to hide beneith.

Here is Alaric with his veggie burger.

And Alaric being sexy geek on the trampoline 🙂

Alaric whooing the girls including Olly with his Krav Maga moves on the trampoline.

Or rather wowing should I say.

I took video of him seeing how many strange positions he could bounce in - not sure it is safe for the net though!!

But mainly he kipped on it!

Then Jean helped Helen with her sun block - erm....

As you can see there was rather alot!

Helen's response was 'Do I look sexy?!' 😀

It was however worth it for the snooze in the hammock with beer.

I went geek spotting and found these two lesser spotted geeks in the middle of some sort of courtship ritual - it appeared to involve computer programming languages.

Mary found dressing up as an alien and hiding in her house was the best thing ever.

She was very cheeky about it and kept shutting the door so you couldn't possibly tickle her!

She also put the head band on around her chest and announced they were boobies :/

The trampoline became a gaming platform with Mary running around the players in a never ending squeal of glee.

Then I spotted Helium basking in the sun on the roof of the workshop.

So did Alaric.

He says the cat just loves it when he climbs up there to stroke her - I wonder who loves it more!

I only managed to nock two drinks over and Olly escaped having to play with barbie dolls as Jean opted for lego and minecraft.

Facebook Meme – A Question of Age (by sarah)

An interesting Facebook meme caught my attention - I was given an age an a list of questions which I had to answer for then and now. People who liked the update were given their own ages to do by me 🙂

When I was 21:

I lived: In shared rooms in Everlyne Gardens in South Kensignton with many other students discussing science and philosophy and art into the night.

I drove: myself on work, working harder and smarter for my degree - finally I felt I knew how to do this academic stuff.

I worked: at the student union stewarding events during term time with Tuesday afternoons given up to sieving out bats teeth from cave sediments at the Natural History Museum. During the holidays I was an Outdoor pursuit instructor and site mantance bod at Thriftwood Campsite -sometimes they left me in charge.

I feared: Failure, the dark and other people, but mainly that the Drs said I possible had two chronic conditions one degenerate and the other with a age cap of 30 on average.

I wanted: to change the world, be an astrobiologist or look at human origins.

I wanted to write stories that captured the imagination and be a TV science documentary person. I wanted to show the world the wonder of science, to sing and dance and perform on stage. I wanted things to work out with this guy I'd just met...

Now I'm 32:

I live: in Gloucester with that guy I met and our two kids and our cats and our rabbit... there is lots of purple and butterflies and books and rocks.

I drive: when the instructor calls but am finding it hard.

I work: mainly snuggling little ones but also blogging, writing fiction, performing poetry, running craft workshops, baking cakes, creating science-art and trying to save the world one bit of inspiration at a time.

I fear: loosing my family

I want: to be well, to have a body that works but failing that just to do as much as I can.

Poetry Riot (by sarah)

Unfortunately we only caught an hour or so of the final night party Poetry Riot of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival - but what an hour with Trevor Meaney (yes not good photos but light levels were really low by this point as was my energy!):

And the sadly hilarious Clayton Blizzard with his whispered poetry and folk/rap songs that you are either going to laugh or cry or both too.

It was great fun though we sadly missed Mark Neil performing though I almost crashed into him at the top of the stairs and said my normal hello and he responded with his (I can't remember who you are) smile like normal 🙂 - Alaric appears to have transmogrified into Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi.

No really look!

I took embarrassing photos of the interns 🙂 (who should start a comedy show up!)

And I took arty pics of people taking much better pictures than me!

Other photos of events can be found at Write Out Loud and Bilt Photography (which is where my current profile picture on FB comes from!).

You can probably tell that I really really enjoyed the festival 🙂

Felix Winkelmann interviewed in Atomic Spin (by alaric)

Here's an interview with my favourite Scheme implementer!