UWE, Goslings and Me (by sarah)

Today I had a bit of a mixed medium day - I went to UWE (University of the West of England) in Bristol to look around their science communication centre and to talk about maybe doing the post graduate certificate there. Being me I arrived stupidly early and was doing my normal clumsy performance with my paper work and bag and what not. My legs have also not recovered from the poetry festival yet so I found keeping up with the lovely woman who was showing me around a bit hard but I managed it.

The university campus is quiet different to UCL and IC and for that matter the OU - there was lovely wall art/graffiti type stuff with inspiring messages through out the place - they are more the sort of thing I would have expected at a six form college - but I love this type of art work so annoyed students by getting in there way to take pictures.

They also had a random fruit and veg stall inside!

The department itself looked pretty much like others I have been in that have not yet had some sort of corporate make over. There were examples of publications and works of the students on the walls and an air of hard work. I feel I was't my normal energetic self as I was having a mild flare up but then in many ways this is a good thing as I needed to check I could get about on a not so good day anyway.

As many of you know I came out of the failed to complete MRes experience knowing that I enjoyed putting together my talk and writing the essays more than I probably should have - add that to the fact that I have been building myself up as a writer and artist over the last few years and the natural shift is obvious - science communication. I've been looking at this course for a while and got a prospectus last year and have tracked down people who have done the course and spoken to friends at the uni about what it is like.

The course sounds more doable due to the structure of it than the MRes was as I like to focus on things - it is in blocks of 3 days which means it is less travel time etc... than what I was doing before which was all evenings and in London. I also now live in walking distance to the train station that takes me to the train station in Bristol I need which is a vast improvement!

I am applying for the bursary but there is only one so it is unlikely that I will get it though I have already writing the first draft of an article for it. Alaric also things this is far more doable than last time - we are in a more stable position and I have back up money for it in case and it is going be less of an issue with finding child care solutions.

Having said all this I am still nervous that I will not get a space or that something will go wrong but I still have to try. And that leads me to module choices - I want to do them all to be honest :/

After the meeting I wondered out to meet Al who was in Bristol (almost getting myself hit by a car as I was looking the wrong way :/ due to being confused about traffic flow and the round about! I also had my waist length hair down which was stupid as it was sooooo windy). He popped over to pick me up and whilst I was waiting I found goslings!

The photos are not brilliant as the light levels kept changing and it was soooo windy - I tied my hair up!

There were ducks and moles too!

I also found a bench with The Personal is Political written on it.

Once home we went to get a cat tree to stop the kitten shredding everything - Mary was not impressed that I had gotten out of the car without her again at Bristol so was very clingy - as was the kitten.

When I got home - I sat down in the nursing chair for a rest and... was instantly covered in cute things!

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.

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 🙂

I Forgot to Do Any Work (by sarah)

Yesterday I sort of forgot to do any work - after 9 days of intensive festival coverage I awoke tired but happy and helped get the girls off to school mind buzzing with more things to write up about the Cheltenham Poetry Festival. But I had to go to the bank at 10 and somehow this took up the entire morning!

I did find some fantastic bits of wall art to snap whilst out though!

Then my parents and Al had conspired together meaning that I was taken for lunch were I relaxed and ate and drunk and produced the rough first draft of a childrens picture book.

I then came home and slept!

When I got up Jean was home from school and I ended up watching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs whilst buried in children and kittens. It was then tea time which was eaten in the garden.

With a rabbit for company!

My dad also tried the trampoline.

Then I had a bath and read the book I was given as part of World Book Night during the festival, in bed I wrote two poems and babbled about arty stuff.

Of course today I am staring at the state of the house going eep! And Mary isn't going to let me get much done as I've basically been missing for a week and she is determined to catch up on snugs!