Saturday 29 May 2010

29 May 2010

Day 149:
Although I had a weekend camping ticket for Plymouth Volksfest (music and VW gathering), I wasn't in the right frame of mind to go hang out in a field with a bunch of people in the rain. So instead, I got in touch with my friend Tim who had asked me earlier in the week about getting together at some point to take some photos of him with his '52 Chevy out near Bovey Tracey (in Devon not far from Exeter). It turned out to be a great day, despite the rain with some very lovely people (Tim and his wife Cathy). They took me out to places I had never been before (Kennick, Tottiford and Trenchford Reservoirs), which were absolutely gorgeous! Then, on the way back to Bovey Tracey, we stopped off at a farm (a place that I thought was PERFECT on the way out of town) and took more photos (seen above), in addition to playing with baby calves, puppies, cows, bulls and chickens!  It was AWESOME and the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon!  :-)

Sunday 23 May 2010

23 May 2010

Day 143:
Here's another photo from the previous day's walk. This is typical of small Cornish fishing villages. There were only a few houses here in a beautiful setting.

Saturday 22 May 2010

22 May 2010

Day 142:
I'm on a mission. My mission is to complete the entire SW Coast Path by the time I hand in my thesis next September.... all 630 miles of it! So, this year I am trying to put as many miles under my boots as possible. With that in mind, I planned an day trip out to the Penwith Peninsula with Jennie, Nicolas and Sarah to do a walk from Porthcurno to Penzance (about 12.5 miles). It was a fabulous day, lovely and warm, with the most wonderful scenery! Yes, there were lots of ups and downs along the way, but worth every struggling moment of it.  :-)  Unfortunately we didn't quite make it back to Penzance, but instead to Mousehole, cutting off about 2 miles of the walk along the seafront. The photo is a taken shortly after we started the walk from just to the north of Porthcurno looking out towards Logan Rock. And yes, the sea is really that colour!

Wednesday 19 May 2010

19 May 2010

Day 139:
After much hemming and hawing, I bit the bullet and bought a ticket the morning of the The Damned gig in Exeter to see them that night. I knew that did want to see them, but didn't know if I could be asked to drive up to Exeter on my own. Fortunately my friend Tim convinced me to go and I am soooo glad that I did. WHAT A GIG!!  They were in top form and played a nice mix of old and new, with a lot of banter in between. They're actually pretty funny and don't take themselves too seriously which is nice to see!

Monday 17 May 2010

17 May 2010

Day 137:
I'm sure you all wonder what else I get up to while I am in the lab, so here is the set-up for my next experiment, if all goes according to plan. It looks a little scary, but all it is are a bunch of air lines pumping air or CO2 enriched air into the glass jars as it is an ocean acidification experiment with seagrass. Now admittedly you don't see any seagrass in the jars, but tat's because the system still hasn't reached stability yet and needs some further improvement. Let's hope that someday soon I can get this off the ground!

Sunday 16 May 2010

16 May 2010

Day 136:
After the long walk the day before, on Sunday I headed over to Salcombe to Bangwallop for a day long Portrait Photography course. Our beautiful model, Anete from Poland, had never modelled before and none of the 4 people attending the course had ever worked with a model before making the day a challenging one. It pushed me WAY OUT of my comfort zone telling Anete what to do and how to change her positioning, but I guess the results are worth it. It is something that I am definitely going to have to work on and am excited to try to develop new skills. In addition to the photography side of things, I was also introduced to Adobe Lightroom and think that my photos will be forever changed by using such an AWESOME piece of software!

Saturday 15 May 2010

15 May 2010

Day 135:
To continue on my mission of completing the SW Coast Path (SWCP), Nicolas and I headed back out to Tregantle Fort by bus (where I had left off 2 weeks previously) and walked to Looe, 10.5 miles further along the coast. This section started out easily enough, but got increasingly more difficult as we continued west. We stopped in Downderry for lunch on the beach and Nicolas even had a nap. It was indeed a glorious day. After leaving Seaton, it all became very much UP and DOWN... all the way to the bitter end in Looe. We caught the Looe branch (rail) line back to Plymouth and it was a LOVELY train ride up to Liskeard where we changed trains to finally get home. It was my first time of being on a train west of the Tamar River (the divider between Devon and Cornwall).

Friday 14 May 2010

14 May 2010

Day 134:
Before he headed off on a ferry to Spain, Mark Browne (former PhD student at the UoP), stopped by for a visit and a night out at the Nowhere (where else!?!?!). Nice to see him again and catch up a bit, even if he is a jammy git for getting a free holiday in Spain with his former bosses from Australia!

Thursday 13 May 2010

13 May 2010

Day 133:
Invigilating... yes, this is what most of my month of May consisted of at uni.  I administered many one-to-one exams, which is not the most exciting job, but at least I was able to catch up on a bit of reading in between watching the students to make sure they weren't cheating.

Wednesday 12 May 2010

12 May 2010

Day 132:
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I think this one worth a £60 speeding ticket, 3 points on my license for 3 years, a tank of fuel to drive up and back to Bristol airport and a missed afternoon of work. Yep, after getting over to Saltram House (National Trust property where Prideand it not opening to the public until 12pm, I ended up taking Josh, Shannon and Greg further afield visiting Wembury Beach and on out to Bolberry Down in South Devon. I knew the timing would be close getting back to town, but didn't realise just how close (and yet how far). Due to road closures and slow 'Sunday' drivers, stupid construction workers blocking the drive, I missed getting Josh and Shannon back to the rail station on time so they missed their train, while racking up a speeding ticket on the way back in to town.  PANTS! At least Greg made his train ok, so that was something. To make up for my miscalculation and the world conspiring against us, I ending up driving them up to the Bristol airport and on the way came across a terrible crash on the M5 (heading opposite direction to us) involving lots of dead farm animals strewn across the road (no shit!). So, although it turned into a very expensive day out, it was still a beautiful morning with good friends.  :-)

Tuesday 11 May 2010

11 May 2010

Day 131:
After Josh, Shannon, Greg arrived safely in Plymouth, we went to my house and had tea on the terrace before heading down to the Barbican for the Plymouth Gin Distillery tour (http://www.plymouthgin.com/). After finding out how the longest continually produced din is made and what goes into it, we had a cocktail in the bar before walking up to the Hoe to see Plymouth Sound and the war memorials. Since the daylight hours were longer, we headed out to Dartmoor via Tavistock. Since there was a road traffic accident on the way out of town, I tried to take a very roundabout detour through Tamerton Foliot. None of them had ever driven through English hedgerows before and they LOVED it!

Once past the accident and throughTavistock, we stopped at Merrivale Rows (http://www.megalithics.com/england/merivale/merimain.htm), which is where Josh and Greg and contemplating the existence of such stone rows.... well, at least Greg is. After exploring the area a bit, we headed down to The Plume of Feathers for a lovely dinner before heading back home.

Monday 10 May 2010

10 May 2010

Day 130:
This photo is a carry over from the day before and is from when the girls and I had tea in a tea house in the Barbican. The cow milk dispenser was priceless!

Sunday 9 May 2010

9 May 2010

Day 129:
On the final day of the 2010 Plymouth Jazz & Blues Festival, aka Swing Sunday, the girls and I headed down to the Barbican to check out The Bonneville Barons amongst others performing that afternoon. Unfortunately the weather turned to shite and it was cold and windy, making standing outside watching bands pretty fricking freezing.  :-(  We lasted as long as we could before dashing off to a tea house to try and get warm before giving it another go. We didn't last much longer as I couldn't feel my feet and ankles. At least when we got home it was warm inside.

Saturday 8 May 2010

8 May 2010

Day 128:
As part of the 2010 Plymouth Jazz & Blues Festival, The Mighty Atoms (from Devon) and Derriere (from Brighton) played at The Hippo. As Dawn and Naz were down for the weekend, us girls got dolled up and headed down to the venue to check out some good old fashioned rockabilly from The Mighty Atoms and some bluesy/soul/motown/rockabilly from Derriere. Although there won't many people in the venue, we still all had a great night out! In the photo is Willy from The Mighty Atoms giving it some beans on the guitar.

Friday 7 May 2010

7 May 2010

Day 127:
Although not taken until the following night, I figured it was about time that I appeared in another photo in this blog.  :-)  Dawn, Naz and I went to The Hippo to see The Mighty Atoms and Derriere on the 8th and not only did we create our own entertainment, we found the coolest peeps in the place to hang out with! Oh how I wish the girls were closer... we always have such great fun together!

Thursday 6 May 2010

6 May 2010

Day 126:
After a long day invigilating, I headed over to Ride Cafe to see Wille and the Bandits perform as well as to pick up their new CD (which is BRILLIANT, BTW). It was a fun night out, with me staying out longer than I had planned, but it was worth having more time with the good company and good music.

If any of you are interested in checking out what Wille and the Bandits sound like, head over to their MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/willesband.

Wednesday 5 May 2010

5 May 2010

Day 125:
After much anticipation on my part, the day finally arrived when Alabama 3 came to Plymouth and played at The Hippo. I had no idea how all 8 of them were going to fit on stage, but somehow they managed and they made it work well. Promoting their new CD 'Revolver Soul', they put on a great show. It was nice to be so up close and personal with the band for once! 


Don't know Alabama 3??  Have you heard The Soprano's theme tune, "Woke Up This Morning..."??  Well, they wrote and perform that! :-)  Want to hear more?  Check out their website: http://www.alabama3.co.uk/en/containers/mp3/main_mp3_player.

Tuesday 4 May 2010

4 May 2010

Day 124:
Although not taken on this day (a little later in May), I just love this photo of these blue bells (blue bonnets in the US) taken after a morning shower on my way in to uni. Spring is simply amazing out here in the SW UK... what an explosion of colour everywhere you look!

Monday 3 May 2010

3 May 2010

Day 123:
As today was a Bank Holiday Monday, I decided to really start putting some mileage in on the SW Coast Path. So, departing from my house on foot, I walked to the Cremyll Ferry that I took over to Mt. Edgecumbe from where I carried on walking until I got to Tregantle Fort at Whitsand Bay, about 12.5 miles later. My feet felt very pounded by the end of it all and I was happy to have a bus take me back to Plymouth.  What a day though visiting Mt. Edgecumbe, Kingsand, Cawsand, Rame Head, Freathy and Tregantle Fort. And fortunately the weather more or less cooperated!

Sunday 2 May 2010

2 May 2010


Day 122:
The first BBQ of the season after spending hours cleaning the deck from its winter accumulation of crap!  Oh, and the pork chops were tasty indeed... served with roast carrots and parsnips, roast potatoes and salad!  DELICIOUS!

Saturday 1 May 2010

1 May 2010

Day 121:
Although there were plenty of unique things to do to celebrate May Day out here in the SW, I never made it to any of them. :-( However, just outside my front door, the lilac bush had come into flower marking the occasion and it smelled simply divine! It has to be one of my most favourite spring smells ever!