Cornish Adventuring - part 2!

 Cream Tea at Tehidy Country Park cafe

 I mentioned I think that we ended up making a second trip to the far South West during the month of May - this time was a part week's holiday spent with the group of pals we go off to Lundy and places with, we didn't have the holiday time free to commit to the full week, but agreed that we could easily add a couple of days onto the bank holiday weekend. 

Waves and surfers at Trevaunance Cove

The drive down on a Bank Holiday Saturday was inevitably full of traffic and diversions, but a fairly early departure still saw us arriving close to the big shared house near Redruth by mid afternoon. Our original plan had been to stop for breakfast on the way - but annoyingly one of the diversions meant that we didn't pass the planned butty-wagon (the excellent Max's Cabin on the A30) so by the time we arrived we were famished! As the rest of the gang were fairly scattered about, we elected to go to the lovely Country park cafe we visited on our previous trip (I blogged about it I think) to have a late lunch there - ciabatta toasties followed by one of their amazing cream teas, that filled a gap for sure! 

Minack Theatre

Saturday evening was spent settling in and catching up with everyone's news, before conversations turned to plans for Sunday - and a brewery taproom was (perhaps unsurprisingly) was suggested as a destination for some of us. Lovely pal Marc decided he was happy to drive, and suggested that MrEH and I hopped in with him & Laura (and the dog!) which we were more than happy to do after nearly 8 hours in the car the previous day. We'd been to Porthleven briefly on our last trip down, but Shoals Brewery is only open on weekends so it was nice to get a chance to visit. We were joined later by more members of the party too  - and passed several very pleasant hours enjoying some very tasty beers.

Early morning at Porthtowan beach

Part of Monday was already planned as almost the entire group had tickets for a short show at the Minack Theatre. The Minack is somewhere I have always fancied going so it was great to have the opportunity, and it didn't disappoint - perched on the cliff edge with the most stunning views! The show itself was more geared up to a rather younger audience, but still entertaining enough, and the chap presenting it had enough “Dad jokes” in his script to ensure that even the adults were kept chuckling! 

Reflective rock pools at Porthtowan

The Tuesday was a roastingly hot day - indeed one that broke temperature records for May in the UK I believe. With three dogs in our party, some of us opted for an early morning beach trip at Porthtowan, some of us paddled, some of us swam, and the dogs had a fine old time running about and in the case of the two Labradors, splashing in and out of the sea and rock pools. A trip to the bakery just down the road from the house on the way back saw us stocked up with baked goodies and the rest of the day was spent relaxing in the garden - chasing the shade, reading and relaxing. 

Coverack

Our final day on Wednesday saw another early morning beach visit with a bigger group this time (and more swimmers!) before a return to another favourite location of ours - Coverack. The excellent cafe there appealed to everyone for lunch, and plenty of ice cream sundaes were enjoyed.  We headed away mid afternoon - not before popping into the little Coverack village shop for a loaf of delicious Vicki’s bread to take home though!  All in all a really lovely few days with great pals - and we may just be plotting some more trips now too!

Robyn

Happy Birthday Tony!

 

St Martins Lane

Last Friday we hopped in the car first thing and headed up to York to join our great friend Tony for his 60th birthday celebrations. He's among the first of our close circle to hit that age and we were never going to miss his weekend of celebrations! 

The drive up was through torrential rain - and that continued although at a slightly eased off level once we arrived in York itself. Original plan had been to park at a station a couple of stops out and get the train, until we realised that we were JUST going to miss the hourly train by minutes. I turned my attention to google streetview and we quickly identified a few spots further in to the city where it appeared we may be able to street park - and so it proved, leaving us just a mile or so to walk to the hotel to drop our bag off. Our original plan for the afternoon had been to explore the city a bit, but the weather really wasn't lending itself to that plan, so after a stroll round the Shambles and its market and a bit of lunch from a street-food vendor we decided to seek shelter, by which obviously I mean we went to the pub, yes! 

Shambles Market from the Market Cat pub.

Another good pal Sarah joined us in the Market Cat and we had a good catch up before wandering back towards the hotel to check in - Sarah and I decided that MrEH could cope with that bit just fine, we'd just pop into this nice little pub and wait for him... ;-) A short while later once check-in was completed and MrEH had joined us we were joined by Ian and his Dad Ken, and then Catherine...the clan was assembling! Time then to head to the station and the excellent York Tap to meet Tony and a good many of the other attendees - lots of people we hadn't seen in an age too so that was good! The night ended back in the second pub I'd headed to with Sarah, before MrEH and I headed back to our hotel.

“Mallard” at the National Railway Museum

Saturday dawned far brighter and more cheerfully than the forecast had suggested which was a bonus. We were heading for the National Railway Museum, and decided to walk part way there around the City walls which turned out to be a great decision even if it did take slightly longer than we'd expected, with photos to be taken etc! The Museum was as good as ever - and we passed a pleasant couple of hours looking at trains before needing to head back to the station to get on one, as the afternoon was to be spent in the Taproom of the Brass Castle brewery at Malton. A nice train ride out, good company and some very tasty beer! The main event of the weekend followed that back in York itself as Tony had booked a room at the rather brilliant Brew York taproom! Somewhere I've wanted to go for a long while - their innovative brews are a bit legendary in the craft beer world - and it didn't disappoint! The beer was excellent - a big range of both cask & keg offerings - and the food from the in-house street-food people included some of the best loaded fries I've ever eaten! (Hoisin Duck, in case you were wondering!). As much as anything else it was great to have a group of people that included SO many good friends all together in one place - great fun!

The Minster from the City Wall

Sunday again started bright and sunny - another nice surprise for any of us who actually believed the Met Office! Once again MrEH and I made the most of the free unlimited breakfast at our hotel before leaving the bag with them and setting out - around the walls in the other direction this time, to complete the bit that we hadn't done the day before. We stopped back in at the museum again too - as there was an entire hall we'd failed to get to on Saturday - before the final pub of the weekend where some of the others had met for lunch. Just soft drinks for us this time as we were driving back of course, but good to have the opportunity for further farewells.

A very full river Ouse! 

An excellent weekend - not the cheapest, but we’d budgeted for it in advance and employed small but impactful money saving approaches like filling up at breakfast, making use of free parking, using our insulated mugs to take tea/coffee from home for the journey up, and utilising a free drink code from our energy supplier for one for the way home - the other was just a cup of tea for £1.50. We also grabbed a Too Good To Go bag from the station for an on-the-go tea on Friday evening. The bonus was being able to fill the car with diesel at a full 10p a litre cheaper than at home- bargain! 

Robyn

The end of an era?

 I've mentioned on here before my involvement with the Campaign for Real Ale and specifically with the Great British Beer Festival. My Dad was a CAMRA member from the early days of the Campaign, and got involved with our then local branch's beer festival "Pigs Ear" pretty much as soon as it started running. Inevitably that lead to me getting involved as well - initially working on the charity stall in the foyer, then when we relocated to a new venue without the space to have the stall, I moved on to initially working in the kitchen and then once I was actually old enough to be working in the main hall, the glasses stand. A few years on saw me shifting to the admin side - looking after press & PR, and assisting with the finances during the festival itself. It was at Pigs that I met MrEH, and there again that, a few years later, we agreed to go on our first date. Yep - it has a lot to answer for! 

A dramatic sky lighting up Olympia’s roof…

At the time we started going out MrEH was already involved with the Great British Beer Festival, having done the Bar Manager's Training Course there, and then become a Deputy Manager on one of the bars. I'd never particularly felt any urge to go and volunteer there, but at his encouragement reluctantly agreed to go along. First reactions weren't great, but at the point where he realised I was about to pack it in and head home, he suggested that there would be a role for me "behind the scenes" on their bar - so on the basis that I didn't have to serve the public, I agreed to give it another try, and sure enough, I found that the atmosphere of working with a good team of people was thoroughly enjoyable. Gradually I started adding to my knowledge, being taught the cellaring process and learning to take care of the beer that would subsequently be served to the customers (although almost never by me!), and when original Bar Manager Dave decided to move on to a new role a couple of years later leaving the bar in the hands of MrEH and his co-manager Bobbie, she asked me to step up to the role of Deputy Manager, and I agreed. The following year saw MrEH and Bobbie each taking on a bar of their own, and I became senior Deputy on MrEH's team, where I've been since. (Until this year, but more of that shortly!) 

An early team shot…

The team is the best aspect of the festival by miles - a group of people who, over the years, have become really close friends. Each year we get together for that week - and it's as though we've never been apart. It doesn't matter if we've not seen one another in the interim (although many of us do) for that period of time, it's working alongside some of your very best mates. 

2025 team - unexpectedly “Robyn’s Bar!”

In 2018 we were approached by a member of the Working Party - the committee who organise the festival from the ground up each year - and asked whether we would consider taking on responsibility for the ordering of the British Beer. To everyone's surprise, after a bit of thought we said yes, taking on the role from our predecessors ahead of the 2019 event. It is a massive amount of work, taking up a good amount of our time from November each year through to the end of August following the festival, but it's also been ludicrously rewarding curating a list of beers that we feel the public will enjoy.  We’ve found beers and breweries we’ve never heard of before, given small breweries an opportunity to see their beers showcased at the National flagship festival, and increased the range of styles to include far more dark beer options than there were before. Almost across the board, our selections have been applauded, which is a great reward for the hard work as it’s always good knowing you’ve got things right! 

Times have been getting increasingly harder in the world of festivals though, and none less than when you’re trying to put on a national festival that is primarily intended to appeal to the general public rather than mainly CAMRA members. Covid hit everyone hard, but we lost two years of festivals and a huge amount of momentum - plus the sea-change in people’s working patterns hit us hard - we used to do well from people heading to the festival after work, of taking an afternoon off to come along with colleagues. Now people work from home more and those outings are less prevalent - meaning that we were finding footfall decreasing and the venue emptying out from 8pm on. Then came a forced move of venues from Olympia in London (affected by building works that meant trying to hold the event there was not practical) - another year missed as by the time it became apparent that Olympia wasn’t going to work there was sufficient time to re-plan for elsewhere for 2024. 

Beer mat art for a social media post…

Now it’s become apparent that this year’s Festival at the NEC may well be the end of the road for The GBBF - although the festival itself received good comments about the beer and even some aspects of the venue, the attendance simply wasn’t what we needed, and it proved impossible to even break even, never mind making any sort of profit. From my perspective it was an unexpectedly hectic one - with MrEH being taken ill a couple of days before we were due to travel to Birmingham that left me (because if course he insisted I still needed to go!) not only looking after the Beer Order side of things on my own (on site we have responsibility for the two wet stock teams looking after logistics - getting the beer to where it needs to be within the venue, and dealing with collecting the empty casks and kegs at the end - and Stock Control - monitoring the sales on each bar and helping manage stock levels on the brewery bars, specifically) but also stepping up as Manager of our bar too. A tall order, and one that saw me spending the first few days running around like a mad thing trying to keep ALL the plates spinning! Thankfully MrEH was well enough by the Tuesday that he was able to join me and take over the beer order side of things, leaving me to complete my first festival as a Bar Manager with at least a little less stress. As always the team had my back throughout - they’re such a good bunch. Same with the wet stock teams - quite honestly they don’t really need me getting under their feet anyway! 

Wet stock teams! 

So what happens from here then? We don’t officially know yet - but we’ve been told that there will be no festival under the GBBF Brand in 2026. Realistically, while there may be some form of national festival again at some stage in the future it’s unlikely to be in the same mould, and so chances are that leaves us without a role going forwards anyway. Whatever happens now though being involved with it has been an incredible experience, we’ve met some wonderful people, worked in some iconic places and had huge amounts of fun with it - but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the thought of a little more free time to explore other options in life isn’t quite appealing. Even things as simple as being able to do the whole of the Royal International Air Tattoo in July without feeling guilty for leaving all the work with MrEH will be quite a change! 

For now at least, au revoir GBBF - it’s been a blast! 

Robyn

New island alert! 🚨

Regular readers (are there any left?!) will recall that we do like an island or two, and we particularly enjoy the chance to explore new ones, so being able to add two previously unvisited ones to our list recently was a bit excellent!

Appreciating the sunset from the top of the fort…

When our pal Laura mentioned a few years back that she had plans to book the rather incredible Fort Clonque on Alderney for a week for her 50th birthday celebrations, it took us precisely zero minutes to assure her that we were very much in for this plan - even before we looked at the photos of the place it sounded fabulous. Logistically for us it needed to work around our Hebrides trip, but planning that in was fine, and lead us to a 5 week period where I actually only had 6 working days too which was marvellous! The financial planning took some working in - but we were determined and in the end we diverted our usual “joint fun” budget for the last year, plus some extra diverted from monthly surpluses for the last few months to cover spending money as well, and we were all set. Having a good long run-in to the trip was helpful in this regard as it gave us time to ensure that the costs were covered - no nasty post-holiday credit card surprises for this household, thank you very much! 

The fort from the end of the causeway

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and the long awaited trip was finally upon us - so MrEH and I headed for London City Airport for our first flight - the 1 hour-ish hop down to Guernsey on Aurigny Airline’s ATR 72 aircraft. Being able to fly from City did add to the cost a bit but having never flown from there before we were both keen, and it reduced the travel at the “home” end a lot over the alternative drive down to Southampton too. We were fortunate with having gloriously clear days for the flights at both ends of the trip too - always a bonus and a good chance to play the game of trying to work out where precisely you are as places look very different indeed from the air! I did spot that we flew out over the coast over Beachy Head though - I have spent too much time in Eastbourne for airshow purposes not to recognise its distinctive pier and Martello tower!  A short break between flights on Guernsey so not too much time to explore but we did manage a short walk out to the coast before heading back to meet some of the rest of the gang in departures ahead of the short hop across to Alderney. This was a novelty on several levels - first another new-to-me aircraft type in the shape of the Dornier 228. Broadly similar to my favourite De Havilland Twin Otter in shape and style, this has a cabin head height of just 5’ - and while I could navigate this with barely a need to duck, our 6’7” friend Marc wasn’t quite as comfortable while boarding! This was also the shortest flight I had ever taken at about 12 minutes - and to add to that we departed early so actually taxied up to the terminal at Alderney Airport before we should technically have departed Guernsey! 

Alderney is a superb little island - at around 3.5 miles long and 1.5 across it’s just a great size for exploring on foot, which is a good thing as there isn’t actually any public transport available for the most part - and although you can hire a car, we opted not to. There IS an extremely helpful taxi driver - we made a lot of use of his services during the week, both as transport for those less comfortable with walking long distances and as a way of getting shopping to the Fort as well. There is also - 1 day a week and running just two return journeys - a railway, which of course we had to visit! An added bonus here was the fact that the two passenger carriages are 1959 London Underground Northern Line stock - complete with their maps etc in place! Rather wonderful and amusing to tick off a bit of “Hidden London” style tube geekery! 

Underground overground….and on an island! 

Probably the most notable part of Alderney’s history is that it was occupied by the Germans during WW2 and as a result the vast majority of the island’s residents were evacuated in 1940 for their own safety. The had just a few hours notice of this, and were ordered to arrive at the pier for the boats carrying just a single suitcase each, and pets were to be killed and livestock set free before they left, which must have been an incredible wrench for people already terrified of what was to come. Those evacuees did not get to return until over 5 years later - in December 1945, and when they did return it was to discover that their homes had been ransacked and in some cases destroyed completely. The German occupation has left huge amounts of history all over the island too which includes many of the Victorian forts which are to be found right round the coast bearing more recent (relatively speaking) German additions. There were 4 labour camps on the island too one of which - Lager Sylt - later became a concentration camp. All that remains now are the gateposts, but it was indescribably haunting to stand and look at those gateposts now, all these years later. 

S.S. Lager Sylt

While unquestionably WW2 buffs will love the island, it definitely has something for everyone - the wildlife is amazing - with flowers, birds and other creatures a-plenty. We saw huge numbers of Gannets from the Fort, and Gannets and Puffins from a boat trip round the island. If general history is your thing then the Victorian forts (there are forts EVERYWHERE!) will float your boat, and if you just like exploring then there is so much to see in spite of the small footprint Alderney has. 

If all else fails, fellow 70’s kids will enjoy the Womble connection - Elisabeth Beresford lived on Alderney, and so there are references everywhere which is rather fun. There is a Womble trail, a Womble display in the museum - and even rather fabulously a Womble covered ice cream van, and yes, you’d best believe that Laura, Tony and I did indeed agree that if one sees a Womble ice cream van it is the law that one must have ice cream! 

All in all we had an amazing week - we walked, we cycled (shout out to the fabulous Cycle and Surf Alderney crew who sorted us out with e-bikes for a brilliant day exploring!) we ate and drank, we enjoyed sunsets and relatively little rain (yes, what did fall did it as we were heading back to the fort one day and we got soaked, no I do not have photos of this!) and frankly we are all already planning when we are returning! 

Robyn

2021 Airshow season is GO!

I'm pretty much still smiling after a fabulous day at Shuttleworth's opening airshow of the season on Sunday. Shuttleworth is a gorgeous venue - a real favourite of mine as you are always guaranteed an array of wonderful old aircraft including the warbirds I love so much. Also, quite often, you're guaranteed great company as well - and this time was no exception. Normally it's a case of rock up there and meet people, but because of the current restrictions around Covid-19 this time was a drive-in airshow so a little more logistically challenging, which is why 9am on Sunday morning saw myself, Max, Kevin & Sven, Richard, Mark and his Mrs (Wendy I think?) and Adam gathering in a car park on the outskirts of Biggleswade to travel in convoy to the show. 

The organisation at the Shuttleworth estate was superb - a large holding area for those arriving ahead of the official gates open time, then well managed queues to the ticket gates and a special convoy system for groups of vehicles wanting to be placed together. People were also being very conscious about giving others space in food queues, and while generally wandering about.  

Opening the show was the Consolidated Catalina in the photograph at the top - a stunningly beautiful aircraft. She'd flown in ahead of displaying so seeing her powering up and taking off was an additional treat. Next up was a series of flypasts by two of the Spitfires of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight - one of the two flown by my pal Andy, who managed to multi-task what might be described as a "sporty" entrance, a cracking topside view of the aircraft AND a wave, all at the one time - impressive! 

Shuttleworth has a big collection of resident aircraft ranging from vintage biplanes like this Gloster Gladiator...

...through to classic racers - including the immaculate DeHavilland DH.88 Comet...

If ever an aircraft looked like it simply belonged in the sky, flirting with the clouds, then this is it. This particular example also has an illustrious history - winner of many air races in the 1930's, it also appeared as a static exhibit at the Festival of Great Britain in 1951. Above all it is just stunningly beautiful and a joy to see fly. THIS is what the Shuttleworth Collection does so well - taking classic aircraft and putting them where they belong - up in the sky. 

Sunday was a brilliant day - great company, great aircraft, lots of banter...and if driving into the show and having to stay in our own little allocated areas by our vehicles is currently the way we can actually have airshows, then that's worth it to me. It was fantastic to spend time with good friends, and catch up with others who I'd not seen in ages. Max and I have already booked for another Shuttleworth show in a few weeks time - and it just feels brilliant to have airshows to look forward to again! 

Robyn

Missing the “usual”...

A few of you will probably know that in normal circumstances I would have been spending this week of the year working my arse off for no pay in a gigantic greenhouse in West London - otherwise known as volunteering at the Great British Beer Festival at Olympia. It’s something I’ve done annually since 1998 - so this would have been my 23rd year. Last year we added the duties of looking after the British beer order to our previous roles too - MrEH is a Manager of one of the bars and I am a Deputy Manager. It’s a hot, exhausting, sweaty, physically demanding and above all pretty stressful week, but it’s spent with some of my best friends in the world and as a result, yes, I love it! 

The festival was one of the earliest victims of the pandemic - we reach the stage of increasing commitments both in terms of workload and financial outlay from March onwards - and so as soon as it became apparent that the Covid-19 crisis was going to have a huge impact not just on the U.K. but all over the world, decisions had to be made. At the stage we first talked about it it was becoming very obvious that large gatherings - particularly indoor ones - were going to be banned for a significant period of time, potentially with no end date. With so many “unknown factors” the decision was reluctantly taken by our Festival Organiser Catherine to cancel this year’s event - a hugely brave and tough decision so far in advance, but one which was backed unanimously by the entire working party. A fair few folk on the outside said we’d jumped too soon - that it would “all be over by August” - but as we now know this is far from the case and had we tried to press ahead it would have proved a very costly mistake. 

There’s much joking on social media this week amongst the volunteer staff about all the things we are “virtually doing” - imagining that in fact we were at Olympia as normal. Right now for example, at the time I am writing I would be making final checks on any beers we were expecting to need to put on sale later tonight - Friday evening  is one of our business sessions on the bar - so tasking the cellar team with making sure that anything we would be needing shortly had a tap in it, as well as making decisions about anything that would not be ready to sell this evening, but would instead be tapped last thing tonight or first thing tomorrow ready to see out our final day open to the public. With my other pair of hands (!) I’d also be checking that the two teams under our “control” for want of a better word (actually they are staffed by exceptionally competent and experienced individuals) on the beer order side; Wet stock control and wet stock logistics were happy with their tasks and workloads and also dealing with any problems that needed our attention. 

It feels very strange to be sitting here quietly on the balcony, writing this at a time when usually I’d be incredibly busy - and I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t to a degree missing the bustle and fun that comes along with it. I’m not missing the sore feet - by this stage of the week no matter how much you obey the first rule of GBBF (never stand when you can sit) the heels are always letting out a low yet relentless throb - although this is much improved from the days at Earls Court with it’s unforgiving concrete floor. I confess I am also not missing the stress - today’s 54BPM is the lowest my resting heart rate has been during August since I got my FitBit in 2017! 

There will be a real “Virtual GBBF” happening next month - although aside from putting together some lists of beers which will be featuring in that we have little to do with that as we’re unavailable during the time it’s happening - and we have a plan to get our bar team together for a meet-up at some stage before the end of the year too. For now though, there will be a glass or two raised this evening to “what might have been” and also to all those pals we are missing this week. For now, that’s the best we can do.

Robyn 

Friends, and beers, and Little Red Jets!

Yes, the observant amongst you will notice that the photo is NOT a little red jet....I’ve not had time to process those yet! Allowing for where I am tonight though - the photo above is somewhat fitting...

A not so early start this morning and a drive up M11, A14 and A1 to Scampton to see the Reds practising this afternoon. Summertime practises always feel like a real luxury - winter training tends to demand 5am alarms and freezing cold muddy fields, but this time of year things tend to be later in the day - so a leisurely start, and if we’re lucky some nice warm sunshine. Not quite so much of that today, but still warm enough. Once flying was complete, back to Claire’s for a brew and then for me, back to Scampton to meet my pal at my accommodation for the night - a house just outside the wire of the base, available to friends and family of those working on camp for a very reasonable rate, and handily within walking distance of the rather excellent pub in Scampton village... A good natter and brew with Fletch, then Claire turned up (also staying here tonight) and shortly afterwards it was time to head to the pub for dinner.

The Dambusters Inn at Scampton is probably my favourite pub anywhere. The food is excellent, they always have a range of beautifully kept beers on, and almost invariably I go there with brilliant people - nothing not to like there then! Tonight was no exception - steak and all the trimmings, followed by Lemon Tart and ice cream - delicious! Washed down with several pints of Rudgate Brewery’s Ruby Mild - a beer which won the prestigious Champion beer of Britain award when we served it on our bar at the Great British Beer Festival some years ago, and as such still a firm favourite of mine. Good company in the form of Claire and Fletch, plus a chap I’d not met before but who works with Fletch. Greg, Steve and the team at the pub have clearly worked hard to ensure that they can safely reopen under the new Covid-secure guidelines - tables inside are reserved for those eating, and well spaced out, while people just wanting drinks use tables outside - also very widely spaced. Having all table service and not going to the bar feels a bit strange, but very pleasant nonetheless. Above all it felt safe  - something which I was a little concerned about having not sat inside a pub for quite some time - and I will be extremely happy to return again any time!

The best thing about today was it just felt normal - aside from the inevitable topical references which you would expect, it didn’t feel that different to pre-Covid times. We ate, drank, exchanged gossip, traded banter and talked of plans for the future - and it felt wonderful to *have* positive plans for the future too. There may not be masses of air shows on the horizon, but as ever we have proved that we can still have fun, regardless - and that counts for a lot!

Robyn.

(The relevance of the photo above? RAF Scampton was of course the home of 617 Squadron and where the famous Dambusters raid launched from during World War 2.)

Socialising a little...

We are starting to plan some more sociable events. I have a night away from home staying with a friend imminent, to do some remarkably “normal” aviation photography stuff. Our Zoom chat with the gang yesterday included some discussion about trying to all get together somewhere fairly central to everyone for a weekend at some stage before too long, although a lot will depend on the rules being relaxed to allow more than two households to congregate together outside at least.

Shuttleworth have announced a “drive in airshow” for a couple of weeks time - the premise being you are allocated a 5m x 5m parking bay, and aside from use of toilets etc you aim to stay within that bay. A good idea, although for me the £50 per car price tag makes it unjustifiable for the line-up of aircraft displaying. For a family of 3 or 4 though this would be a decent deal. Although MrEH would come along with me, he’s not really interested in the flying aside from the Edwardian stuff which might fly, but might not, depending on the weather. If they had involved some of the aircraft from nearby Duxford in the line-up too I would very likely have felt it was worth the money, but as it is, I’m going to swerve this one I think.

It is beginning to look optimistic that we might be able to visit the Hebrides for our deferred holiday later in the summer. It may have to look rather different to normal, with face coverings being mandatory in shops in Scotland from next week for example, MrEH may find himself doing rather a lot of shopping on his own as I cannot currently wear face coverings, and I think I would feel uncomfortable explaining that I was exempt in that circumstance. The Ferry is easy to deal with so long as I can wear a covering for long enough to get from the car to the outside deck, we tend to sit outside in all weathers anyway! This is the first time since rearranging things that I have actually begun to let myself feel even slightly hopeful about this, and after what has been at times an incredibly difficult few months, that trip has never been more needed, so hopefully we will not have to face disappointment again.

On a less cheerful note an interaction today has left me questioning my continued participation in  a group of which I am part. A message received from a member of that group this morning blaming me for something which patently could not have been my fault, in really quite unpleasant terms left me literally feeling sick and shaking, a feeling which has still not entirely subsided. My first reaction was to lash out in return, and make clear how hurt I was, but I am grateful that I surprised that initial urge and instead reply relatively calmly - pointing out that their comments were uncalled for, and clarifying something else they have accused me of. I know need to establish in my own mind where that leaves me in our social group - although I have in the past proved that I can step away from a group when one members’ behaviour makes me feel I no longer want anything to do with that person - in my experience those friends worth retaining find a way through, those who are not, don’t, so I’m actually not as alarmed and worried about the thought of no longer participating in that group as I would have been. This is not the first time the person concerned has chosen to take something I have said as a personal attack on them, and also not the first time that they have apologised in the terms and with the same mitigation that they have today. While it would appear that they may not have learned from that first experience, I definitely have and will not be opening myself up to the same treatment being meted out again. I’m worth more than that, and also need to be mindful of my own mental health - dealing with situations like this morning provides all the triggers I need to plummet into depression again, but being aware of his means I can take hopefully steps to guard against that. Self care, or self preservation - call it what you will!

Robyn

Day 82... A lockdown Saturday...

Ok - this will rely on me remembering to update though the day...yeah yeah, I know, likelihood slim, huh? Let’s see though. I thought it might be fun to post through the day today - we have no particular plans aside from our zoom meet with the gang this afternoon, so how the day will pan out I have no idea. It won’t be an hourly thing, just as I feel like posting something to update the day.

Aside from the zoom we have rarely had any plans for our Saturdays throughout lockdown - that in itself is very different to “real life” - usually there would be rugby matches or training for MrEH, in the summer I might be at an airshow, otherwise there are beer festival meetings or other trips away with friends...Saturdays are rarely a no-plans day. One thing that isn’t that uncommon, in the summer at least though, is that they might start like this...

...on a warm sunny day here is no better way to start my day!

And possibly NO better breakfast to start the day either! My sourdough starter is still producing the goods once a week - the aesthetics of the loaves aren’t great as I have been proving them in my big mixing bowl, lined with a tea towel, meaning a wider, flatter loaf than is ideal, but I have just ordered a proving basket which, when it arrives, will hopefully give a more rounded result. Either way, sourdough toast with butter, marmite, peanut butter...yum!

Planning. I’ve not been using my journal much of late - with no real “diary” to consider, it hasn’t seemed worth it somehow. I have had a long list of “things we’d like to do” online, and I have been ticking things off that - and adding more to it - as time has unfolded, but the last week I have really felt as though I have been drifting rather, and that has now reached the point of feeling uncomfortable, so time to give my coming week some more structure, I think.

Lunch! Yum!

Our weekly Zoom meet with friends has become a key part of our week. This is the gang we often holiday with on Lundy and elsewhere - normally at least a few of us get together somewhere along the line every couple of months. Our virtual get together at the moment fits to very much the same pattern as meetings in real life might - we have a few beers, chat about all sorts, the banter is relentless but ultimately we all also look out for one another and make sure we’re ok. We talk about anything and everything - pretty much nothing is off limits, and as someone said earlier “we’re one big family” - worries and triumphs are shared equally. one of the things I am most looking forward to once normality begins to return is getting together with these guys again!

Saturdays generally finish with cheese & crackers in front of the TV, plus a piece of whatever baking has been done - this week it’s not “baking” as such as we have gone for Rocky Road - made delightfully budget friendly using Aldi ingredients! As well as the traditional chocolate, golden syrup, biscuit, marshmallow and butter, mine also contains some chopped dried apricots and hazelnuts to add a couple of different textures - and it tastes delicious!

So there you go - that was our Saturday. Not wildly exciting, but a routine in the “new normal” nonetheless, and right now at least a little routine to underpin our week seems quite important.

Robyn

Day 61...

Another day begun on the balcony in the sun. Not quite as warm as it has been, and still very breezy, but still a lovely start to the day.

A walk, starting out through our local woodland. While by no means huge, there’s over a mile of trails through it, we’ve always enjoyed wandering around over there and I sometimes run round it too - particularly in the summer when the shade provided by the trees can be very welcome. 

Another local patch of green space. The town has a foundation of ensuring that every area has green space within it, and particularly where there are flats that do not have their own gardens. 

This little bridge has fascinated us for years - seemingly it’s a bit of a folly, as you can see it serves barely any purpose! Having walked both over and under it today we’re still none the wiser as to it’s existence, but as it appears to be being left to rot we suspect it may not exist for that much longer. 

It was dramatic skies all around today, and this one dropped a short sharp rain shower on us while we were out, too. Nothing that much, but we did take shelter under a (another, different!) bridge while it passed over, rather than getting completely drenched. This photo, by the way, along with the others here were taken with my phone and have been uploaded here with no adjustment whatsoever - yes, that sky really did look like that!

Finally, our now regular Saturday afternoon date - a zoom chat with the gang, a few beers, and a bit more jigsawing. This little bit of social activity in each week has become really important now - and in many ways it mirrors how things would be if we were all sitting together in a pub somewhere - discussion, debate, catching up on one another’s news.

Robyn

Day 33...

Saturdays are feeling probably about the oddest day of the week at the moment. Usually we’d have some shopping to do in the morning, then MrEH would get his stuff together and whizz off to the rugby club for the afternoon. I’d sometimes have things to do here, and sometimes go and watch the match, but generally speaking we’d both end up in the bar for drinks in the evening with a few of his team mates as well. If not a rugby weekend, then we might be off with pals at a beer festival somewhere, or attending a planning meeting for the Great British Beer Festival - quite often in a pub, and then featuring a few more pubs in the evening once business has been concluded!  Now we have usually done any shopping that needs doing at quieter times previously in the week. Obviously there is no rugby matches, and no rugby club or pubs open, and indeed, for his year, no GBBF to be planned for either. Beers, and friends, however do remain unchanged as a feature.

Zoom is one platform which until a few weeks ago a fairly large number of us had never even heard of, never mind used. Now it, along with various other live video chat applications is forming a huge part of many people’s social lives. Following on from the get-together we had with our closest  CAMRA friends last weekend to celebrate Marc’s birthday, the suggestion was made that we planned it as a weekly thing while the lockdown continued, and the second of these gatherings was held today. It does feel quite strange chatting with people like this, but after a while you get used to it -  people come and go as needed (one of our number absented himself for a short while to go and feed his sheep, and I vanished for 15 minutes or so to make scones... ) and the conversation flows pretty naturally, as does the banter!

Baking seems to be something else going through a bit of an resurgence currently too - although flour is still incredibly tricky to get hold of. We still have a small amount of self raising, and a spare bag of plain in the cupboard, as well as the bread flour we acquired in the week, so we’ll be OK for a bit yet. This week however I was unable to get eggs, so I needed an egg free recipe to bake, and after several friends talking about making scones, they seemed to hit the spot nicely!

Robyn

Day 26...

A morning of cooking - the Choc Banana. Are that a friend had sent me the recipe for - I deliberately saved a couple of my bananas from the week for this and having had a slice earlier it was definitely worth it!  Also a leek & ricotta tart to make use of the tub of yellow stickered ricotta I got for 30p the other night. It also used up more of the cream bought to go with crumble last weekend so even more of a bonus!

This morning also saw us busy making eyepatches, fabricating bandanas, and in my case printing out a picture of a parrot that I could colour in in rainbow colours...as you do! We should have been on Lundy this week as I mentioned previously - and today was the big event that the trip was being organised on account of - Marc’s 50th birthday. As we had planned to travel  across on the boat last week with the entire party dressed as Pirates, our little gang had a virtual birthday party for him this afternoon complete with fancy dress! Great fun and excellent to “see” everyone even if just over Zoom - we’re now planning the same thing for next week.

The parrot has now been stuck to the kitchen window where it will hopefully raise a smile from passers-by - so many households have little things in the windows at the moment - my lovely friend Fay who longer term readers will remember from her “the Wind & the Wellies” blog is changing things each day to amuse their village’s one and only child resident with little messages and stuffed toys doing funny things. Many folk have rainbows and messages of support for the NHS.

Robyn

Now for 2019...

So time for a new page, a fresh year, and also a good time to make some decisions about what I want to achieve this year. Last year feels like a tough act to follow in some ways - and indeed this year's aims are going to be loosely based on what I set out last year with some additional bits thrown in for good measure. 

Personal/Health & Fitness:
- I will aim to keep up a good level of activity, averaging at least 13,000 steps daily across a year.
- Continue with eating well, using the FitBit to log foods some days to keep on track.
- Exercise at least 3 x per week - more is fine. Gym, running, swimming, circuits, HIIT Sessions - all good, also a brisk paced walk of at least a mile/15 minutes counts.
- Stretching - I had one injury last year partly as a result of not doing enough of this so an area to focus on.
- Bullet-ish journal - weekly lists, monthly planners, general to-do's.
- Aim for 500km total distance run in the year - I'm signing up to a virtual challenge for this one!
- Assuming they do the series again run 3 RunthroughUK "Chase the Sun" events
- Sign up and run a full 10k
- Bring running distance up to 10 miles
- Either get back to cycling or get rid of the bike
- Run the Dartmouth Regatta Road race in August - a terrifying 5 mile course with some horrific hills!
- Run/walk up Rueval - my favourite hill in the Hebrides

Home: We need to get back to sorting out the remaining works on the flat this year - from the more major stuff that still needs doing, to simple decluttering:
- Establish whether the electrician we were planning to use still wants the work, and if so get a firm start date from him.
- Find a new plasterer - lovely Geoff has retired!
- Plastering in Hallway and around windows - investigate whether we can do smaller areas ourselves?
- Hallway to be refloored/redecorated
- Decluttering at a low level - focus on seeing items within the house that we don't use
- New coffee table for front room - put measurements for this on the phone so I have them to hand and research and actually buy something.

Financial:
- Start to look towards replacing Ben's car - either just "at some stage" this year or earlier depending on MOT result.
- Joint savings to continue as they are
- I will keep a good eye on interest rates - if good deals come up we will switch money around to capitalise
- The "extra" savings will pay for a short holiday with friends in the spring - and will probably subsidise the holiday savings a little too as we have a short gap between the 2018 & 2019 Hebrides trips and had moved a previous surplus in that account across to long term savings
- Keep the focus on not frittering, and getting best value from our money

General/Random:
- Continue social stuff as last year
- Learn from the lessons I learned last year on friendships, and people who add value to my life rather than sucking the vibrancy from it.
- Try not to feel hurt or upset when other people behave unpleasantly or unkindly - I can't control their behaviour, I can control my reaction to it. (This one stays - SUCH a good life lesson!) Sometimes my reaction to it may be to simply step away from them as a regular part of my life - this works exceptionally well!
- Be conscious and mindful. Try to stop and think through choices and choose my path accordingly
- Brutal tidy and organise of laptop
- Sort out new power cable & battery for laptop
- sort out problem with desktop
- Keep up the momentum with the Beer Order stuff and don't let the workload pile up
- Another "big" walk - perhaps done in stages 
- Finish the Thames Path walk
- Finish the Jubilee Greenway walk

We have also agreed on some joint things to focus on for the year :
 - avoiding products with non-sustainable Palm Oil
 - Breaking the habit of procrastination (We're BOTH guilty of this!)
 - Working on cutting use of single use plastics even further


That seems like some good stuff to work on through the year, and a nice mix of "quality of life" stuff alongside building for the future. Social stuff will take a different turn this year in any event as there is likely to be less airshows partly due to taking up more responsibility within the National beer festival - the role we have taken on is a big one and there is absolutely NO room for not doing it well, so other distractions will need to take at least a bit of a back seat this year I think. There will also be meetings off the back of that too - which as a flip-side means more time spent with friends from that area of our lives which is great! 

My mantras for this year then:

Activity

Planning

Action

There WILL still be challenges - and I'll still be looking to see what I can achieve, but the focus this year will be more on maintaining the things I've achieved already within the running/fitness stuff. Last year started forcefully on the exercise front but tailed off later in the year - I found running in the heat of the summer quite challenging and as a result took more of a step back from it than I really wanted to for - this summer will be about finding a way of keeping going - hopefully the Dartmouth Road Race might be a way of keeping the momentum there!  

Feel free to join in for the ride - I'm starting out as I did last year with a challenge to do some form of exercise every day of January and so far, so good on that one. I think Frugal February will not be happening this year but I am intending to keep a focus on spending as I've said - we have more works on the flat to pay out for and lots of social stuff planned and intend to compromise on our longer terms savings as little as possible for those things. 

Has your last week been about planning challenges and goals for the year ahead? 

Robyn

Airshow season - half way already!

We've reached the mid season point in the UK airshow season and what fantastic weather we've had for it so far!

My season this year started at Shuttleworth in May - I was getting itchy feet and when someone mentioned the first of their "evening airshows" I couldn't resist getting started! As well as the usual Shuttleworth residents there was also a visit from this beauty:

A few blank weeks after that as we headed off to Lundy with a big group of friends for a week (there is a blog post half written on that, to!) but our return to the mainland tied in nicely with the lovely Torbay Airshow - having attended their first show a couple of years ago it's become a bit of a favourite of mine so I was pleased to be able ton get there for a day again this year. It was also my first time this season seeing the Red Arrows display:

A lovely day in the sun with Maxine watching the flying, chattering lots and making the most of access to cheap ice cream!

From June things start getting busy as a rule - although I had made a conscious decision this season that I was going to step things back a bit simply because there are just too many things I want to cram into my summer" - still, Cosford was up next - one that I'd previously ummed and ahhed about doing, but this year the line-up made it an easy decision.

So many highlights it's tricky to know what to pick out but seeing these guys do their full landing display is also good:

Mid month was the first Great Yarmouth Airshow - and I debated long and hard about whether to go or not. In the end I decided to judge it based on the weather, and as the date grew nearer the forecase wasn't looking great. Then a few days before a couple of this year';s Red Arrows Circus chaps started encouraging me to head up to Norwich to see them at the airport which was what I decided to do in the end. I was very glad I did too - thanks to the lovely Caz, and the kind chaps at Saxon Air, I ended up spending a full day airside with the team and the jets - which of course meant that this year's "Circus At Work" project is very much on!

Another trip to Shuttleworth followed - warbird heaven! then into the "big" shows again with Yeovilton arrivals and the show itself. The arrivals day there has proved to be a really nice chilled day and for its £15 price tag, great value too, so friend Gary & I pitched up on a blazingly hot sunny day before being joined by Kim & Jade the following day for the show itself. The absolute highlight for me was finally getting to see this for myself:

My much loved and missed Uncle Bob's name on the tail of RAF Red Arrows Hawk XX322. Thanks to the fundraising "Names on a plane" scheme Bob had been whizzing around the skies of the UK and beyond since last season but for various reasons this was the first time I'd got to see it up close. There was a shriek, and then a tear or two when I realised it was visible - very emotional indeed and I just know how excited Bob would have been at this!

Flying highlights were probably the Belgian Air Force F16 display I think - with their stunning "Dark Falcon" scheme complete with the additional of flares for this display:

The following week was of course the biggie - The Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford - a great three days of incredible displays but most of all the years best chance to catch up with oh-so-many great friends that you simply don't see enough of! So many highlights on the flying front - the RAF BBMF's incredible "Trenchard Plus" display where they got all the toys out of the toybox to fly:

Awesome is a much over used word but this really was. See also "emotional". Very very special indeed - I'm incredibly glad to have seen it for myself. Another "Special" was a 617 Squadron Formation with the BBMF Lancaster, the Panvia Tornado and "new kid on the block" the newly arrived to the UK Lockheed Martin F35b Lightning II.

Spectaular and another great tribute to both the #RAF100 anniversary and the anniversary also of the Dams Raid, of course.

This end of the season got wrapped up with a visit to Farnborough. Now this is a show I've never been sure about visiting - tickets tend to be on the expensive side and the public days at the weekend are often said to be not great. However, the draw for me was that they had secured a Spanish Navy Harrier jump jet - and this one was going to be FLYING! The decision was made and I duly met up with another pal - Simon - shortly after bacon butty time for a good old wander about the show. We found the prototype model of the newly announced RAF jet the Tempest which was interesting, then  separated for a bit to find our chosen spot top watch the star of the show:

What a star it was, too! I'd forgotten how unbelievably loud these are! Thank goodness for earplugs - they really were much needed! She flew, and she hovered and yes I confess that it must have got quite dusty as I definitely had something in my eye! In spite of not being greatly impressed with the rest of the show, this was actually well worth the ticket price, for me. Probably not a show I'd got back to though, on the whole.

So next up for me after mid season break will be Eastbourne - this is one for the "usual suspects" gang - Claire, Anthony and I are all in the same hotel I believe, and Tom & Alysha are staying elsewhere in the town. Lots of other friends will be about as well so it's going to be a sort of combined mini holiday and big get together, hopefully! Planning is happening apace and we're all thoroughly looking forward to a great few days! Bring it on!

Robyn