Broken Mugs and Birthdays (by sarah)

So today is my 32nd meaning that I am the same age my mother was when she had me and that 16 was half a life time ago!

I've just had two school friends over for a couple of days and as always we talked of school, the bullies, the crushes, the arguments and so forth. Was school really half a life time ago? Was school only half a life time ago?

So much stuff has happened in that sixteen years and yet... and yet I feel pretty much exactly the same bar health issues which started around then anyway.

But in same ways I have changed - on seeing The Hobbit I can tell you how as well. I am Bilbo Baggins, I had a stronge adventurous streak in me when I was younger, I did climbing and archery and hiked through mud and went of to do a geology degree, had a stunt bike and never admitted that things phased me or scared me. I went off to London for Uni on my own even though the prospect was petrifying! On many different levels.

I liked doing stuff all the time, choir, gardening, caving, taking my friends on long rambling walks and designing dresses. But now everything feels more sedate and constrained. And the nearer I got to 30 the more ok that sort of life seemed. But then the last year as I was plunged into the world of festivals I began to hunger for it all but after the chaos of the last few years and the struggle to sort our lives out I found I didn't want things too busy and craved the stability of home. I also began to see just how lucky I was - after all the struggles and trials we have our home and it is a brilliant home and it is ours and even before that I had Al and the girls and my family and friends. Ok so health is missing but I suppose you can't have everything. I am in the middle of a mild flare up at the moment - I call it mild - it has persisted for a while and would be termed a set back by physios but really it is not. I know that if I am careful I can continue to be productive through it and look after my kids though the house may get messier.

It wont last more than a few weeks if I rest and then I will be up and at em in time for festival season starting.

One of the things that has led me to thinking about if I have changed though is that a) people tell me I haven't changed and b) the people who used to moan at me that I acted too grown up now moan that I am too immature and too me they have grown boring.

And too be honest I fear that boredom, that conventualism more than I fear the chaos. But I am scared of new things, and so this year y 32nd is about pushing my personal boundaries to stop me stagnating, to stop everything including the new skills I aquire from just becoming gears within the machine of existence.

During the Olymipics I felt a great sense of what I can achieve pour into me once more and though I know that my health is always going to put a spanner in the works, those leaks and breakages to the flow can be worked around. I thought on all I have achieved already and all that I feel is within my grasp and I sat and drew pictures - I filled a note book with them and have many more that wish to be drawn.

They are called The Inspira Pictures. This one is called Face Your Fears and is apt for my plans

Also I broke my Pocket Dragon birthday wishes mug which made me really sad but at the same time the search to replace it has shown me there are quiet a few designs out there still. The pocket dragon stuff isn't made anymore which is a real shame and I was really looking forward to using it over the weekend - for which I have gaming and film watching planned. I get quiet grumpy about m mugs and things which again has led me to the Hobbitness - the buttons also all popped off my coat :/ And I have hairy toes if I do not pluck, I am also rather... erm... short and if I thought I could get away with it would love to have second breakfast but alas the waist line is bad enough as it is!

This film was not The Hobbit as such - it was a mix and match across the books and alot more dramatic than the book with depths added that just weren't there. It is however a brilliant prequal to Lord of The Rings and made in that style. The Dwarfs however were alot more 'man' like than expected coughs with two cuties to boot! Though Oaken Shield really didn't need to look like a stocky Aragorn did he?

But Bilbo's sentiment at the end that he has a home, a lovely home and they don't and that is why he is helping them just reinforced my desire to help. Before Christmas I embarked on a mad cap scheme of trying to illustrate a book in like two weeks but with Christmas prep and the fact that not many people sponsored me I didn't make it but I am going to be working on this through the year now and hope to run some other events as well such as Creativi-Tea which I blog about later. I just can not take the thought of thousands of kids being homeless or in temp. accomidation so you will be hearing more and more about this!

So for now I am off to spend my birthday writing and drawing and baking cakes in prep for the weekend but here is the sponsor button just incase :).

The End of the Festive Season (by sarah)

Today we had our last Christmas visitor, Barbara, so I put out the minced pies and cut up Christmas Cake and we apologised as we seem to have lost her tea towel with Mary's print on it that we were going to give her - so we gave her same homemade jam instead.

She gave Mary some lovely Hello Kitty wellies which is brilliant as it was starting to be a squeeze to get her into the ones she has and the previous bigger set she lost one of whilst we were out shopping one day. Jean got an art casse which she was excited about and Al got cheese which is always a hit with him. I got a pot of tulips which shall be going outside the front door.

Jean also tidied the front garden, litter picking the litter that blows in and sweeping up the leaves - mainly as she is whipping through her worst witch books and wants to earn money to buy the missing ones.

There would be photos of today but unfortunately Jean was taking photos yesterday and dropped it and today it has gone completely screwy It was on it's way out anyway which is why I had saved up money to get a good one but I spent it on the TV so that we could use the X-Box, I do not regret this but I do now find myself with out a camera - right at the point where I am trying to launch myself back into things seriously - sigh.

On the other hand I do have a rather serious back log of photos to sort out anyway so maybe this will give me time to do that?

After Al's aunt left we started taking down all the decorations to general chagrin of the kids - Mary was walking about saying 'Oh! No!' whilst Jean was whining that the room was starting to look so bare which we felt too. Somehow Christmas went so fast this year.

It has been a fun one though.

Of course tomorrow I have one of my best friends from school visiting in a sort of post-Christmas/pre-birthday type of way which is going to be ace!

And last night I forgot to go to the pub with one of my local friends which I feel really bad about - It wasn't a good day medically for me but still...

Anyway the good thing about the decorations coming down is that I am in the mood for Spring Cleaning to be honest. We started today with putting hooks up to hang various house type things up, such as sun catchers and wall art butterflies and the broom and duster and carrier bag suasage.

Today also marks the constructed language Lojban's 25th Birthday - this is the language that Alaric has been learning for the past few years and that he has been teaching to Mary. So we have begun work on a little language comic type thing - we came up with the idea ages ago but haven't had the time to act upon it!

Apart from that we made bread in the bread maker and made our own sauce for the chickpea hodge podge we had for dinner - January is already a month of highs and lows but net effect seems to be positive at the moment.

New Years Eve At The Snell-Pym’s House (by sarah)

We were gifted an X-Box Connect for Christmas but did not have a TV ours having died a death a few weeks previously and being an old one just for DVD watching anyway it still wouldn't have been any good. We looked at was best for playing this sort of thing on and I took the money I had been saving for a new camera, my birthday money and Jean's vouchers she had gotten for her birthday - Al put in some money too and we went and got ourselves a new TV from the super market whilst doing our food shop.

Of course we then couldn't get all of us and the TV in the car so I had to walk home (40 mins) - it was tough as I didn't have my stick with me but I managed it! I couldn't talk when I got back but it was worth it! a) this means I am improving again and b) the TV is fantastic!

So we set the X-Box up and WOW! We hadn't really been following electronic gaming as we thought we wouldn't be able to afford a system for a good long time yet so it has been just amazing! It had already been suggested to me that I should get a Wii or something for physio therapy purposes and now I see why!

This is jean on one of the games

We can NOT thank Santa enough for this present!

Alaric spent the remainder of the afternoon trying to extract a half edited novel and a completed poetry book off of one of my old laptops for me - unfortunately it didn't work but he says there are still a few things he can try.

We had a take away Pizza as I am giving pizza up until I lose some weight! And watched Bill and Ted on the new TV and again just WOW! It was fantastic - I sat and knitted and the girls snugged with Daddy and we all agreed that To Be Excellent To Each Other is a good thing to aspire too. Jean's comment at the end when Rufus says they will get better was, 'Well they will, Mummy has'

Mary was very excited to be dressing up in a pretty dress, the little angel outfit we were given for Jean when she was little.

She is a rougie type of angel, playing rough and tumble with her sister and attempting to steal Christmas Cake!

She ended up being a very sleepy angel

We then all played on the X-Box again after which we played one of my favourite board games Elixir which is about wizards

At midnight we rushed into the garden and banged our pots and rang our bell and fire works went off all around us and the neighbours started singing in their house - very loud and merry in serbian whilst we shouted Happy New Year and hugged and watched fire lanterns whilst humming Old Langsi.

We then popped the tired Mary in bed and played the board game until Jean was too tired and then me and Al blogged about our year and discussed our plans for the next year. Oh and we had a home made veggi sushi supper and White Knight with Peppermint Candy Cains

Resolutions, Goals and Hopes (by sarah)

2012 has seen a large number of first for me, from soldering, to poetry slams, to making my own cake toppers to us having our own house, I have gotten off of the crutches and walking sticks and faced a few medical hurdles. We have been to many amazing events and met some great people, had the ability to look back on the past few years and see just how surportive and lovely our friends have been.

2013 I hope doesn't compare to be honest! The year has been fun but intense and I just want to take things a little slower to enjoy them! I am hoping to sort some novels out to send off to publishers and get back to the writing and crafting which was starting to become impossible with the number of other things we were doing!

I also hope to become part of the Art Evolved (dinosaur drawing group), Friday Flash (flash fiction writers) and the Scifi Chatters once more as I've sort of slipped off the radar since having Mary which is almost 2 yrs ago now!

This leads me on to goals:

1) Get stuff published by publishers ( I got a few flash fictions published last year but that was it)

2) Publish and sort previously stuff myself

3) Sell stuff on Etsy et al

4) Make more Art

5) Sort my blogs and websites out!

Resolutions:

1) become healthier - this means exercise and no cake testing! I've found that the medical stuff last year kept setting me back but I still managed to get going with the belly dancing and walking - and now with the X-box Connect I can do stuff on my own as fun games as well Food wise I am cutting out sugar and caffine and pizza is restricted to half term outings unless homemade from scratch - holidays and parties don't count you see! I want to chomp on more whole raw foods to help keep the diabetes at bay. So more cooking of the savoury (low salt and fat).

2) To be more organised! Yes I know I am me but I've got to at least try!

3) To learn a new skill once a season and learn/try something new everyday

Ontop of these we are going to be spending large chunks of time on the house and finishing off old projects And just being a family and having friends round etc... I am looking forward to getting the garden in shape and hopefully passing my driving test.

The guitar must be practiced daily

Happy New Year Everybody!

2012 Summary :) (by sarah)

January

At the beginning of 2012 we were moving into our new house, so January was a mix of boxes, crates and buying things.

The cats liked it

January also saw my birthday and friends helping us move.

And Mary's which saw me hosting the first party in the new house!

February

February saw my cousins coming to visit And we dressed Alaric up as Gotye and created a spoof video.

It also saw valentines day when Alaric bought me a microphone which has lead to me producing recordings of my works

and pancake day

March

March saw World Book Day were Jeany dressed up as a dinosaur for the book Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs!

And Mothers Day when we all went off to Gloucester Cathedral to look at some art!

Alaric also upgraded the hardware running our Internet stuff (such as this web site) to a more powerful single box, rather than the previous two-box setup, which has simplified administration. It was a lot of work merging the two configurations, but this means that future upgrades will be a lot easier!

April

April was an excessively busy month and set the pace for the Summer!

There was me reading at Not The Oxford Lit Fest

Jean was in the Stroud Dance festival

April is of course the month of birthdays so we had a BBQ for Alaric, my Brother and some friends who all have April birthdays

Alaric took a day off work for his birthday, and spent it sorting out his workshop.

Then there was the Cheltenham Poetry Festival!

And as if that were not enough for one month I also won a bronze medal in the Gloucester Creative Olympics for my song Windy Gloucestershire

Alaric wrote a toolkit for building 9P servers in Chicken Scheme.

Easter

Visit to Petersfield

May

Cake pops! As a moving in present to ourselves we got a cake pop machine which we have had lots of fun with

We enjoyed our garden

I read at a National Flash Fiction day event in Oxford

I read at the Stroud Site Festival

We went to the Olympic Torch Relay in Painswick.

Mary's Christening

and House Warming

June

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee - we made cake

And went to Party in the Park in Gloucester

One festival I was performing at was canceled due to the site flooding but a last minute booking was made for me to read at the Stroud Water Festival. It was very wet!

My textural science art was in an exhibition at Centre Arts in Cheltenham.

Fathers Day:

We attended the Cheltenham Science Festival

Our garden started to seriously feed us

I drew a picture for Mid Summer and we made solar cakes.

We made a Turing Machine cake for the centenary of Alan Turing, the father of modern computing.

Wychwood festival were I was running a workshop making pompoms We hung out with same of our friends and had a great time

Alaric finally caught up on all the overdue financial returns and dissolved our company, Warhead.org.uk Ltd, a lump of work which had been hanging over us ever since life became crazy after The Flood.

Wedding Anniversary we went to Bristol and found a hill to slide down and went on a bridge tour and lots more.

We went to our friends Zaphire's House warming and we made cake pops

July

I became a poetry installation in a manor house in Oxford for the On Form Sculpture Garden

We all went off to Cornbury Festival as I was running a craft workshop - this time sock puppets and monsters Jean beat the IQ elves and as did I so we got a signed photograph

I drew a picture to mark the 'discovery' of the Higgs Boson

I learnt to solder So did Jeany at Bristol Hack Space

I drew postcards for a charity auction

I went to Bristol to perform during Science Show-Off, I knitted a buckminsterfullerene which was nicked by an audience geek!

It was my Dad's 65th Birthday so we organised a Discworld themed party, including a cakes of course and films and books and of course a BBQ.

Alaric took up Krav Maga.

I made bread puppies for my friend Ella's birthday in Bristol

Alaric wrote a turtle graphics system to help children learn programming in Scheme.

August

I ran Centre Arts an art gallery for 2 weeks - it was lots of fun.

We went to my friend Claire's Birthday and we made English Rose cakes for her

Olympics

I took part in a wonderful city centre festival called Art Tournament - part of this included the fact that I had been short listed for Gloucestershire Poet Laureate.

Cranham Feast

My friend Buko and her family visited from Australia!

Off we went to the Hullabaloo Festival which had been rained off earlier in the year - it was very wet but again but there was one fantastically sunny day and the ran was fun in the Centre Arts Markee anyway We did face painting and a junk music workshop.

We went to the @ Bristol Center to see Robot Football and meet up with my friend Ella - we managed to miss the actual event as we picked the only half day to arrive on but it was ok as we found them testing and repairing the robots outside the centre and the students who had made them showed us how they worked

At the end of the summer I was too too tired and went for a short break in Essex where we chased ducks round a trout pond and everyone bar me went swimming and we camped and had BBQ's and it was lovely.

September

Jean moved up a grade in Ju Jitsu - she is now a Yellow Belt White Stripe, she also attended the National Seminar.

Jean started Junior School!

Jean's Dr Who Birthday

We went to the 1000 Kites festival.

Alaric's Dad visited from South Africa

Hosted Chicken UK

My cousin Sheila visited from Australia

October

I released The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry

Took the girls to the farm shop for half term fun

I performed in my second ever slam which was part of the Cheltenham Literature Festival!

Took part in the first Green Unconference in the UK, I talked about Upcycling and Junk Art and ran a workshop.

We took Alaric's cousins to Legoland as a thankyou for help with the deposit for the house - it was amazing!

Halloween

November

The end of October is a cluster of anniversaries of various types which we celebrated with my Brother and his Wife having just celebrated their first wedding anniversary and it being mum and dads and mine and Al's first going out anniversary. Michelle and David got cake, mum and dad the picture I had returned from the Cricket Club.

Released the audio book of The Little Book of Festive Poetry

Bonfire Night

The whole family took part in NaNoWriMo and writing fever took over the house; even Alaric did some work on his existing fiction project

We celebrated 10 yrs of being together by going for a four day holiday in London which was amazing, we saw Gotye at Hammersmith Apollo

We had a house full of Pudseys for Children In Need

I went to an improvisation workshop which was lots of fun and helped me with my stage skills

I went on a one day writing retreat which did result in 10, 000 words of my novel being writing in one day

Millie came to stay bringing my friend Becca and her sister along

We went to the NaNo Finishing Party

December

I performed at the first ever Cirencester Poetry Slam

Mark and Lucy's Wedding

Wrote, recorded and illustrated Percival's Christmas Wish in an attempt to raise money for Shelter and homeless kids.

Tish and Clare's Wedding

Released the e-book of The DoomsDay Collection and celebrated the Winter Solstice marking the dawn of a new age.

Visited all my Essex cousins.

Went to the Island for the Snell Family Christmas Meal

Friends Christmas Party (I forgot the camera)

Had friends over for Mulled Wine and Minced Pies

Celebrated Christmas

Had a belated Pym Christmas

In little dribs and drabs throughout the whole year, Alaric's managed to tidy up his home directory, which had become terribly fragmented after several hurried fresh starts with new computers due to previous ones being stolen over the past few years, with restoring stuff from backups not being an immediate option but happening later. This had led to different projects being in all sorts of different places, so it was good to bring them all together and organise them. As part of this, he rebuilt the Kitten Technologies site, and reorganised and rewrote the ARGON Project web site. And, finally, he continued his part in the standardisation of the next version of the Scheme programming language.

New Year!