12 Sept 2010

Day 255:
On the way home from London with Cristina, Ines and Nicolas in the car, we took the more scenic route home via the A303, turning off to head up to Glastonbury. The plan was to visit the Abbey ruins as well as Glastonbury Tor. Some days are full of surprises and this one turned out to be all about serenity... We had dinner in town at a cafe then hiked up Glastonbury Tor, just in time to catch the sunset over the Somerset Downs... Life is good!

11 Sept 2010

Day 254:
The day had finally arrived to see MUSE at the new Wembley Stadium. Although I started out standing stage right, I eventually moved to a seat right at the back to take in everything that was going... it was AMAZING! Definitely an excellent day with good friends and great music (well, minus the support bands...). Where else can you see a UFO flying around a stadium with a person suspended on a trapeze below it (sorry, photo not shown)?

10 Sept 2010

Day 253:
I headed up to London for the weekend for the MUSE gig at Wembley Stadium. Before going to that on Saturday, Jane, Iain, Rie and I met up for dinner at Acornhouse near King's Cross. It was a lovely meal (mostly all organic & sustainably sourced) with lovely friends, until the cabbages got involved! ;-)

8 Sept 2010

Day 251:
While still convalescing, I finally made a visit to Antony House for a bit of a wander around, after living in Plymouth for 4 years. It's a National Trust property about 6 miles from where I live and was used in the filming of Tim Burton's version of 'Alice in Wonderland'. Although I still have yet to see that movie, the house was pretty cool and strolling through the gardens was a lovely way to spend an afternoon despite the spitting rain at times.

5 Sept 2010

Day 248:
Under the approval of my surgeon, Rie and I went for a (7 mile--maybe that was overdoing it a bit) walk from the Cremyll ferry to Cawsand/Kingsand up over Maker Heights and then back through Empacombe Quay before returning to the Cremyll ferry. We started the day with a lovely Sunday roast dinner at the Mt Edgecumbe Arms pub, followed by tasty Cornish ice cream from the Orangery Tea Room and topped off with a Cornish cream tea in Cawsand. Along the way we encounter a rope swing in a tree. Of course we both had a go and it was BRILLIANT FUN... especially that first swing out from the ground.

3 Sept 2010

Day 246:
Well, I went in for a heart operation and all I left with was two band-aids! Modern surgery is simply incredible! The fact that I went home the same day after having medical instruments inside my heart earlier that morning/afternoon is beyond belief! And all that I have to show for it are these two small incisions on the bikini line of my left leg and one even smaller one on my right leg, less than 48 hours after surgery. WOW!

2 Sept 2010

Day 245:
I had Rie take this photo of me before we left for the hospital to go and get my heart sorted out, hopefully once and for all. Just wanted to have a record of the day in case something happened to me.  :-S Fortunately for all involved, a positive outcome was achieved!

1 Sept 2010

Day 244:
On my last day with my 'dicky ticker' (as Rie calls it), I met up with Hronn who was passing through town on her way back to Iceland. It was lovely to see her again and catch up on how her PhD adventure is panning out so far.

31 Aug 2010

Day 243:
Trying to be a little arty, I tried desperately to capture the steam rising from my morning cup of tea in the kitchen. The steam was a little harder to capture than I thought it would be...

30 Aug 2010

Day 242:
In an effort to try and learn to use the external flash on my camera and in keeping with a chilled out weekend, I practised using the flash while laying on the couch, taking photos of things in my living room. Funny as it may seem, you can learn a great deal about photography this way, just as long as you can remember what settings you had the camera and flash set to for a particular output!

29 Aug 2010

Day 241:
For an unexpected turn of events, I hosted a BBQ at my place. Nicolas, Cristina and Ines came over and hung out for the evening. While outside sitting on the terrace, there was an AMAZING ray of rainbow that appeared through the clouds over Plymouth. None of us had ever seen anything like that before!

28 Aug 2010

Day 240:
Today was the day that I came off of my medication (beta blockers) in preparation for my heart surgery. Not wanting to tempt fate and set my heart off into palpitations, I decided to stay home despite the gorgeous weather. So, taking it easy, I headed out to the terrace and worked on my tan. While out there, I spent a lot of time thinking about my legs and what it would be like to be in my mother's shoes, so to speak, as she had her left leg amputated on the 25th. It was hard not to cry...

27 Aug 2010

Day 239:
As a sort of final 'hurrah' for the summer & while most people were still in town (or had just returned), a large group of us went out for some drinks after work over at Air (across the road from uni) upon Sam's insistence. She had every intention of only staying for ONE drink, but 3.5 drinks later she was finally making her way home to pack as she was off to Oxford, Canada and Scotland the following morning at 9am. She was worried about forgetting the essentials so Kate helped her remember by writing a list of items that couldn't forget to pack once home in her drunken state... :-)

26 Aug 2010

Day 238:
Yet again, another funny thing that I saw along the walk in to uni. WHO ON EARTH WOULD EVER WANT TO BUY SUCH AN ATROCIOUS PIECE OF CLOTHING?!?!?  The only reason why I would want to know where she got that jumpsuit is so that I could torch the place to save us all from further fashion faux pas.

25 Aug 2010

Day 237:
Although taken the day before, this was what the weather was like on this day too. In fact, it could be any number of summer day's in Plymouth. And yes, sometimes I feel like I am imprisoned due to the weather...

24 Aug 2010

Day 236:
Such a beautiful Plymouth summer's day (view from the Davy Bldg)...

23 Aug 2010

Day 235:
In my quest to get as many samples processed as possible before my heart surgery, I had to make up a new batch of super saturated sodium carbonate (Na2CO3). These were the residual crystals left in the beaker.

21 Aug 2010

Day 233:
Well, as I was sitting here working on updating this blog, I was listening to KEXP on my internet radio and practically fell out of my chair when I heard New Model Army on the RADIO, during prime time Saturday no less!!!  The song played was "Understand U". Not their best one, but I'll take it! I was so shocked that I immediately emailed the dj and told him that I had just seen them the night before and that they were on stage right at that moment at Beautiful Days Festival, which he relayed on air! If you fancy a listen in the next 2 weeks, go to KEXP's website (http://www.kexp.org/streamarchive/streamarchive.asp), choose Stevie Zoom as the host, select 21 Aug as the date and you'll find the song at about 1:53pm.  :-)  His comments come later (after the 2nd set of of music following NMA), but he was totally excited that I had emailed him that info!

Might have to start pledging my financial support to KEXP again (seeing that they are my favourite radio station) now that they have FINALLY played some NMA, which I asked them to do years ago to help generate interest in the band while they were touring in the US.

20 Aug 2010

Day 232:
I wasn't really in the mood to take photos at the NMA gig in Poole, so didn't take many and the ones that I did all turned out bad for the most part. However, Sean left his camera on the table in the pub and everyone decided to take bizarre, out-of-focus, close-up photos of body parts. This is him looking at the results of their foray into the 'abstract'.

19 Aug 2010

Day 231:
Since I didn't get a worker's ticket for Beautiful Days Festival, I wouldn't be going again, which made me sad to miss out on some pretty good music including the Sunday Morning Sermon with The Fabulous Good Time Party Boys (again!). This year, however, The Fabbies along with a few others (Dan Donnelly, The Fish Brothers, The Big V and Rev Hammer) all did a gig the night before Beautiful Days at the Exeter Phoenix Arts Centre. The Fabbies 'theme' for this year seemed to be ZOMBIES! It was a BRILLIANT night out seeing friends, dancing, laughing, drinking and seeing someone that I hadn't seen in 21 years!

16 Aug 2010

Day 228:
I love it when I discover amazingly intricate designs in nature...

15 Aug 2010

Day 227:

The view from Willapark headland, looking south along the north Cornish coastline (just south of Boscastle).

14 Aug 2010

Day 226:
Technically the sunset from New Polzeath on 15 Aug, but too good to pass up on posting.

12 Aug 2010

Day 224:
Despite being absolutely knackered from being out in the field all day again (3rd day in row), I had planned to go out to Dartmoor with Jennie, Kate and Claudia to watch the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. Initially it was forecast to be cloudy, the forecast changed and we were due clear skies. Heading out of town shortly after 10pm, we went up near Wistman's Wood to get away from the small crowds that had gathered at places closer to Plymouth. Lying down on the tarp, drinking hot chocolate while snuggled under a blanket watching the skies was magical. Lots of meteors went streaking across the sky during the 2 hours we were out there... it was so nice to FINALLY see them properly again! Oh... and as for the photo, they just star trails taken over a very, very long exposure (maybe 45 minutes or so...).

11 Aug 2010

Day 223:
Night two of the British Fireworks Championships. Although I was absolutely exhausted from being out in the field all day followed by a long session in the lab, I headed down to the MBA (Marine Biological Association) on the Hoe to take photos of the fireworks from there. It was the first time since living in Plymouth that I decided to brave the crowds. Fortunately the general public is kept out of the MBA and so it was nice to still have that distance from the masses. Needless to say, the results were pretty impressive!

10 Aug 2010

Day 222:
The first night of the British Fireworks Championships as watched from my roof terrace. It was very civilised sitting in a chair drinking my hot chocolate with Bailey's and marshmallows!

7 Aug 2010

Day 219:

On the headland just to the south of Dawlish, looking back north. I walked along the sea wall (when possible) between Starcross and Teignmouth as part of my quest to complete the entire SW Coast Path (all 630 miles of it) by next September or so...

6 Aug 2010

Day 218:
Technically taken the following day, this is what it was like walking along the South Devon sea wall... trains whizzing right past with only you between them and the sea... It's one of the most stunning train journeys you can take!

5 Aug 2010

Day 217:
Copper statue of George III at the end of The Long Walk, which leads directly to Windsor Castle (about 3 miles away). You can just see Windsor Castle in the distance (lower left).

4 Aug 2010

Day 216:
After the Talent Show/Revue at the conference, some of us headed into the bar at Cumberland Lodge for an impromptu singing and guitar-playing session.

3 Aug 2010

Day 215:

Bees busy at work in Savill Gardens in The Great Park, Windsor. This was about a 20 minute walk from Cumberland Lodge.

More info: http://www.theroyallandscape.co.uk/landscape/savillgarden/.

2 Aug 2010

Day 214:

After Sonisphere I headed to Cumberland Lodge for a 4 day conference titled, "The Value of PhD Research". It was great getting to meet 59 other PhD students from across the UK from a WIDE variety of disciplines! BTW, Cumberland Lodge is owned by the Queen and is given to the foundation 'rent-free' for as long as the Queen is alive. It was built around 1640, about the time of the English Civil War and is located on the grounds of The Great Park (part of the Windsor Castle estate).

1 Aug 2010

Day 213:

Rie, Jemma and I sitting right outside the tattoo bus at Sonisphere. Who on earth goes to a festival where no one is clean to get tattooed??? People are strange...

31 July 2010

Day 212:

Rammstein headlined Saturday night on the Apollo stage at Sonisphere. It was hands down the best SHOW I have ever seen performed at a concert before. GO AND SEE THEM IF YOU SHOULD EVER HAVE THE CHANCE!!! It doesn't matter if you like their music (industrial metal/rock) or not...

30 July 2010

Day 211:

Karma to Burn playing the Jagermeister stage at Sonisphere (at Knebworth). What a GREAT band!!!

27 July 2010

Day 208:
On my way home from Chris and Toni's wedding reception, the full moon was high in the sky over Mt Batten/Cattedown/Plymouth Sound. Such a beautiful evening, until the fog rolled in...

26 July 2010

Day 207:

Chris and Toni Pike at their wedding reception at the Royal Corinthian Plymouth Yacht Club. Chris was the 1st person I ever talked to (via email) from Plymouth that helped me with information prior to my moving to the UK.

18 July 2010

Day 199:

The Damerals live at The Nowhere Inn. They have to be the loudest band I have seen in a long, long time playing f*cking great garage rock 'n' roll!

13 July 2010

Day 194:

Valentina's 31st birthday (technically the day before) and one of Balbina's wonderful cakes!

12 July 2010

Day 193:

B-bar Thai noodles for lunch on the Mayflower Steps (yes, the ones the pilgrims departed from) in the Barbican while Sarah was visiting Plymouth.

10 July 2010

Day 191:

Although technically taken the day before, I had to get a photo in here from the night out at The Nowhere Inn from when Sarah was over visiting from Calgary.

9 July 2010

Day 190:

Anna's 40th Birthday drinks in the James Street Vaults (JSV).

7 July 2010

Day 188:
WOWOWOW... I WON THE SOUTH DEVON AREA OF OUTSTANDING NATURAL BEAUTY PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION!!!!  I found out the night before at the opening of the photo exhibition in Kingsbridge. This is the winning photo and I simply could not have done it without all of your support and voting! For my prize I get to go in a hot air balloon ride over the SW... I am sooo looking forward to getting up in the air!!

Maybe this is a good omen for my photography as this was taken on the 1st day that I took my new DSLR out on a walk....

6 July 2010

Day 187:

The evening that I returned to the UK from Croatia. This was on my drive back from Kingsbridge and collecting my prize for winning the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty photography competition. With landscape like this, it's easy to take a good picture!

5 July 2010

Day 186:
On Day 4 of Vida and I's Croatian road trip, we found ourselves in Plitvice Lakes National Park in central Croatia. This place is filled with thousands of waterfalls, all formed and reformed by the special interaction between the flora and travertine that are found in this region. It's a place that I want to visit in every season as the landscape/scenery changes dramatically depending on the time of year.

4 July 2010

Day 185:
On Day 3 of Vida and I's Croatian road trip, we found ourselves on a different boat than what we had booked on to to sail to Kornati National Park, a series of islands along the southern end of the North Dalmation Coast. Being with the horrid people and their terrible children made for a rather unpleasant experience and our least favourite out of all 4 days, but it still was beautiful. What you want to explore this national park is a small sailboat or the like to take you whichever way the wind is blowing while relaxing under the wonderfully warm Croatian sun...

This photo was taken from the top of the island we stopped at for a swim with islands as far as the eye can see! This island has the ONLY sandy beach in the entire national park. This meant that it gets very, very busy with lots of tourists. If you swim out far enough you can get away from most before getting to all of the anchored boats. The water was divine though...

3 July 2010

Day 184:

Day 2 of my Croatian road trip with Vida. This was in Paklenica National Park, heading back to the car. What an amazing place!

2 July 2010

Day 183:

On the outskirts of Lubenice on Cres Island, Croatia.

1 July 2010

Day 182:

Veli Lošinj at sunset on the island of Lošinj and the last night of the ISCB course.

30 June 2010

Day 181:

The very lush beach that I went swimming at just after lunch in Bali on Cres (Croatia). I never wanted to get out of the water!