debitha: A sign from a kids playground that says, "Pretending to be an aeroplane is permitted in this area" (Aeroplanes are OK)
Life is quietening down a little. I can't decide whether to be relieved or paranoid.

Basically, my life has been nuts since about April. It may have been earlier than that but, to be honest, I don't really remember before April. I thought I couldn't remember earlier than late May, then I remember that I was running a fest that posted in May, so that covers April!

I kind of want to tell you all about it, but it would take too damn long and you're probably not that interested anyway, so I'll just hit the highlights:

Late April - trying to get things organised for fest which posted all through May.

May - posting the fest, and a 4 day trip to Lisbon with J.

June - J came to stay for a couple of weeks. She had her Viva in Exeter, so I drove her down. We took a couple of days and spent a little time in Exeter, Beer (no, I'm not kidding), and Lyme Regis. Training dig was on, as previously mentioned. What I don't think I mentioned is that BBC Breakfast News showed up to film us for a piece about volunteers in Archaeology, so I ended up on National TV. Yay? I think [profile] smarla's wedding was in June, so that must be when A came to visit. We mostly hung out, and she did her bridesmaidly thing. We went to London for a couple of days, right when that heat wave struck. OMG, you guys, 30 degrees in London is not OK. We went to the Sherlock Holmes Museum, and to Harrods, and the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace, and shopped a lot, because that is how A rolls.

July - We had an Open Day at the training dig site as part of the Festival of British Archaeology. The highlight of which, for me, were the Medieval re-enactors. They were camping, so once the punters had gone I wandered over and ended up practicing archery until I got blood blisters on my fingers, having dinner with them, and generally hanging out. They seemed quite keen to adopt me, and I had a whale of a time, so if I can find time somehow I may try and get involved. I could learn sword fighting, you guys! And then I went to my very first con. It was a small one in Canterbury, and I had a ball, met lots of people and generally overcame all the social anxiety I'd been having about it. Then there was more hole-digging - the Roman site was pretty interesting, but more tedious than last year. We're pretty sure that they were recycling glass and extracting silver from lead, though. (The site is not far from the main road to the lead mines at Charterhouse, so that would make sense.) I spent the first few days of the dig camping on site with the woman who was organising it. I probably shouldn't mention all the slightly tipsy driving around fields we did after hours. >_> (Please note that bit about fields - we would no way in hell have gone on the road.) Then there was another Open Day, this time about prehistory on Bathampton Down. I did a lot of burbling away about things and ended up in the local paper. I think that might have been my 15 minutes of fame. Alas.

And then it was somehow August - Which was the second week of the Roman dig, a few days to myself, and then off to Spain for a couple of weeks holiday, visting my cousin. I am such a wimp about the heat. I do not do well when the mercury goes over 30. While here I've been to Ronda, the Malaga Feria, and Antequerra, but mostly I have been by the pool.

At the end of the month, my brother and his wife (lol, my brother has a wife. I will never get over that) are coming to stay for a couple of days before she goes to Italy to do a Masters course. After that, my brother will be staying with me for a while, depending on if/when he can get himself a job over here. I think that might be it? At that point I may have access to enough time and brain to keep track of my f-lists.

Meanwhile, I have missed all of Torchwood: Miracle Day so far. I was going to try and catch it, but then I didn't, and now I'm not sure I can be bothered. What say you, f-list? Is it worth the effort to catch up?
debitha: Mermaid in silhouette (Default)
Firstly, I have a shiny new default icon! Pretty mermaid!

Also, I found my Provence pictures. *relief* There are more than 2000 of them. Now I just have to start going through them and uploading the better ones to Flickr. On the plus side, I have finished uploading my pics from Normandy. Here are a couple of my favourites.

Image heavy )

Still with me? I'd also like to direct your attention to Festivids, a fest for vidders of all fandoms.

There is a huge amount of vid goodness over there. My two favourites so far are the Chronicles of Narnia vid set to Greatest Day (by Take That - I wasn't sure either, but it really works) and The Dark Crystal vid set to 24 by Jem.

I highly recommend checking it out!
debitha: Mermaid in silhouette (Default)
I have had a very busy week with the orchard and moving stuff at the farm that BACAS use as a base. Two days at the farm, two work days at the orchard (one in the pouring rain) plus the Wassail yesterday. In addition, I had yoga on Tuesday, choir on Wednesday, and the BACAS lecture on Thursday. On Friday I finally sorted out all the Stuff I have acquired for the orchard and BACAS. This entailed a trip to the tip, and to Argos for a bookcase of a very specific size.

For the curious, here are the two songs we're doing for choir at the moment.

Youtubez )

[personal profile] taldragon and [profile] lazyknight came over from London for the Wassail, which went really well. The weather was fine and not too cold, which was brilliant considering how much rain we've had this week. There was music and fire and cider, and a chap called January who led the proceedings. I handed [profile] lazyknight my camera, so there will be pics soon!

However now, because I am too tired to concentrate on anything much I am uploading the pics I took on various holidays in 2009. Because that is how far behind I am. Oops! Anyway, here are a few from the Old Forest and Winchester Cathedral.

A Brief Jaunt Through Hampshire )
debitha: A sign from a kids playground that says, "Pretending to be an aeroplane is permitted in this area" (Aeroplanes are OK)
Wow, 2011, huh? I guess this means it's time for my Annual Review of Life.

The year that was )

Which brings me to next year )

The soundtrack for this post is Beautiful Freak by Eels. (Partly because it's not that long since I posted the vid for Raise Your Glass.) I couldn't find a decent vid, so I've gone for the minimalist option.

Back!

Jul. 20th, 2010 09:36 am
debitha: Mermaid in silhouette (Default)
So, I went to New Zealand.

My little brother got married, I ate a lot of sushi, drank a lot of coffee and caught up with a lot of people. (Although not as many people as I had hoped, due to the weird scatteredness of my brain of late.) I had a lovely three weeks, in all. :o)

One friend pointed out that since my rent is paid till the end of August, I could probably afford to take some time out from the working world. I thought that was a bloody good idea, so I am going to spend the next three weeks getting myself over the jetlag and rounding up my brain from the various places to which it has wandered and generally doing a spring clean of my whole life.

One of the things I had forgotten about New Zealand is the amazing landscape. I was in my home town for two days. While I was there I took this shot of Mount Erin from Te Mata Peak. I kind of miss that light and the crazy crumpled land. I hadn't realised how much.

debitha: Mermaid in silhouette (Default)
- Today is my last day at work. From tonight until 1 July I am officially on leave. It didn't occur to me until I was on the way home last night that when L asked me how I felt about leaving, she was probably expecting a response more along the lines of feeling sad and maybe a bit nervous than, "Yeah, great!"

- On Saturday I fly out to New Zealand. I will start out going to my parents' in Hawkes Bay, then we're all down to Hanmer Springs for my little brother's wedding, then up to Wellington on the 4th of July. If any South Islanders can/want to be in Christchurch on the 4th, I will see if I can get myself down there for a meet up before my flight. Wellingtonians - when are you free? I will be there from 5-16 July. Probably mostly staying with my friend J in Tawa, but if anyone really wants me... :oD

- Signal boost: Discussions about Social Justice tend to have their own language. I tend to read and not say a lot because of the likelihood of putting my foot in it. [livejournal.com profile] sihaya09 is looking at creating a Learner's Guide. At this stage she's looking for links. If you've got any suggestions, drop them in. If you're interested in learning more, keep an eye on her posts.

- Flatmate occasionally feels moved to buy those toilet-cleany things that you put in the tank to 'freshen' the toilet. It took me ages to realise why that really, really bothered me. It turns out to hearken back to my childhood, growing up in earthquake-prone New Zealand. We were taught very young about things to do in an emergency. One of the things we were taught was that in the event of a major civil emergency, like a big quake, where our facilities are cut off, the water in the toilet tank is clean and fresh, and can last you several days if you're careful. So it turns out that what's bothering me is that she's poisoned our emergency water supply. So there we go.

Photos

Jun. 15th, 2010 10:50 pm
debitha: Mermaid in silhouette (Default)
I just downloaded the nearly 1200 pictures I took in Greece. That's nearly 120 photos a day. Er, oops?

Anyway, here's one that leapt out at me as I was scanning through them. Sunset on Santorini.


debitha: Mermaid in silhouette (Default)
Hi everybody! Free internet at the hostel is a wonderful thing. :o) I'm not yet sure whether it outweighs sharing an 8 bed co-ed dorm for three nights - I'll have to come back to you on that one.

Meanwhile, [livejournal.com profile] sassafrassle and I have been having adventures! Many were of a Classics geek nature, but hiring a quad bike for a day and trekking all over Santorini was definitely an adventure by anyone's standards! As was the "two hour" walk from Fira to Oia along the coast. Try four and a half hours. And some of that path was more like goat track. Still, adventure! And lovely views!

We've done a quick spending spree through Naxos Town (we only had one afternoon, so weren't able to get to the rest of the island), and spent a couple of days on Mykonos, with a side trip to Delos.

Yesterday we got into Athens, and we spent most of today to the National Archaeological Museum, then Sass had to 'Split' (hahaha) to get her flight to Croatia. I went to the Temple of Zeus and took a lot of pictures of columns. I hope my dorm mates (all male so far with two beds still empty) aren't party animals, because I am getting up at sparrow's fart tomorrow morning to get up the Acropolis before the ravening hordes.

Anyone got hints and tips on CVs for agencies? Mine always comes out frightfully dull and list-like.

I have an awful lot of stuff to get done in the slightly less than two weeks in between getting back from Greece and leaving for Athens New Zealand (oops!).

I begin to babble. I will shut up and go check the f-list.
debitha: Mermaid in silhouette (Default)
First of all, let it be known that I really bloody hate the first week after the clocks change. I get thrown by it really badly, and spend a week exhausted.

Not helped by the frustrations of not more than sporadic internet connection at work for the last two days. Emails have been dodgy at best, websites... well, it took me nearly an hour to get someone booked on a course, normally a two minute job. Heads were meeting desks all over the office.

Tired or no, I went swimming last night. I managed 20 lengths of the 50m pool. I swum a whole kilometer! Whoo!

Tonight I went to hear Philip Pullman at the Guildhall, talking about his new book The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. His publishers decided to do a series of books re-imagining myths of the world - mythological fanfic, if you will. They invited a number of authors to pick a myth and retell it in their own way, which I find a fascinating idea and I'll be looking into it. (The publisher is Canongate if you're interested and don't want to wait for me to sort myself out!) I managed to restrain myself from adding it to my To Read List, but he's a very interesting speaker.

Tomorrow, I will throw a load of things in a suitcase (it's OK, I have a list) and jet off to Firenze for the weekend. I have only ever been on flying visits to Florence, and this will be another one, but this time I plan to see some of the sights I have missed previously. The Uffizi and David have been quite thoroughly Done, so this time I am going to the Palazzo Vecchio and Museo del Bargello and probably some other places that I will pick out of the guide book on the way there.

Ciao darlings, have a wonderful Easter.

Advise me!

Mar. 26th, 2010 12:25 pm
debitha: Mermaid in silhouette (Default)
[livejournal.com profile] sassafrassle and I are going on a trip to the Greek Islands in June. Yay!

But!

We are a little short on Plan. So, does anyone have any relevant information they can share? Or indeed totally irrelevant stories? Let's not be prohibitive here.

My specific questions are:

- We start on Santorini and end on Mykonos. We want to go to another island in between. Any recommendations? (Apparently Rhodes is awesome, but would require us to go back to Athens from Santorini to get there.)

- Does anyone know of any reasonably priced hotels on the caldera on Santorini, or anywhere else on the island? Or Mykonos? Or in Athens?

- Recommend me restaurants!

- Is there a comm for stuff like this? I'm going to go look for one.
debitha: Mermaid in silhouette (Default)
There are places and times that fire the imagination. For me, Canterbury in October is one of those places in time. Here are four stories that wanted to be told.

Canterbury Tales )
debitha: Mermaid in silhouette (Default)
On our last full day in France it rained horribly, so we went to the Musee Lapidaire. It has the sculptures from the Calvet Museuum collection. It's a cute wee place, with a fascinating collection, and a sense of intimacy with the art. I don't know if I can make more sense about it than that. I think it was that a lot of it was freestanding rather than in big full-wall cases.

Anyway. Here are a few of my favourite shots.

Musee Lapidaire )


And one last one to finish up. I am not above using small children for photos if it's convenient.

debitha: Mermaid in silhouette (Default)
I prefer the Expressive layout, as it shows the icon for each post but the colour scheme is right.

The art for the icon is by a French artist who goes by Misstigri. You can check out her stuff here. It's lovely and whimsical.

And while we're here, have some more picspam. These are all from our trip to the Camargue area, down on the south coast of Provence.

The Camargue )

Pic Spam

Nov. 18th, 2009 12:48 pm
debitha: Mermaid in silhouette (Default)
Pont du Gard, people. The actual Pont du Gard! I haven't titled or captioned them because they're all the Pont du Gard.

Geek!spaz!

Pont du Gard )
debitha: Mermaid in silhouette (Default)
I finally heard back from the property managers about whether I can have a cat, and the answer is a conditional 'Yes'.

The conditions are an additional 2 weeks worth of security deposit, that if it's a male it must be fixed (apparently the landlord has had a previous bad experience with moron tenants whose unspayed male cat was kept indoors and the inevitable happened), and that if I put a catflap in I have to pay to have it put in and removed again at the end of the tenancy. In short, it will be an expensive business, and therefore won't happen in the next couple of months, what with months of jetsetting, and Christmas and all. But it could happen. :oD

And now onto the pic-spam: )
debitha: Mermaid in silhouette (Default)
If it helps, this is in the third week of the Provence trip, so there's probably a couple more from Provence, then there's the weekend in Spain, the weekend in Kent, and now the weekend in the Cotswolds. Plus some autumnal pictures I took around Bath at [livejournal.com profile] leaden_sand's request. I probably won't have got all of those up by the time I go to Florence, so put that on the list as well.

I ended up buying a 2Gb card and a spare battery for my camera, because one or the other kept running out on me.

On to the picspam! )
debitha: Mermaid in silhouette (Default)
So maybe I do have time for more than a meme. But after this I'm going to bed.

Picspam - you love it )
debitha: Mermaid in silhouette (Default)
Yeah, yeah, I'm behind. Way behind. Have three days all at once.

On Saturday we sat around over breakfast deciding what to do. In the end we decided to go to Cordoba. It was supposed to be pretty wet all afternoon, but not as bad as Marbella, where we were, and neither Mum not I had been to Cordoba before.

Cordoba is beautiful, and its old Mosque is magnificent. It came in grey and windy in the afternoon, but the rain held off altogether. We had a lovely meal in a decidedly quirky restaurant and then went to a flamenco show.

The show was very much a Tourist Special, but the quality was outstanding. I don't know if you've ever seen flamenco danced properly, but it is breathtaking. The music is totally unique - it utterly disdains most traditional patterns of melody and rhythm, there is nothing comfortably familiar to relax into, it grabs your attention and holds it every second. The dancers were amazing. The sheer passion that goes into the dance is stunning. Most of the performances were female solos. One in particular was absolutely riveting - you just couldn't take your eyes off her. It's also unusual in that the dancers don't dance to the music, the musicians play to the dancer. There were two guitarists and two vocalists and they were all keeping time to the dancers' feet. I am pretty astounded by the skill required to do that. It's hard enough when you're watching a conductor. The show was two hours, but we had no sense of that much time passing. It was an amazing experience.

Sunday morning was clear and sunny, and it was around 30 degrees at lunchtime - much more what I got used to in Provence than what we'd had here in UK. We went around the castle and its gardens, which were beautiful. They also had some amazingly intact Roman mosaics. Also, I randomly bumped into a woman who occasionally works for my company. I had no idea she was in Spain at all, and then there she was, so we had a little chat.

My flight home, a Squeezyjet flight due to leave at 2340, left... wait for it... early, allowing me to be in bed not much after 2.30. (No really, that's a good thing. I once got in from that flight at about 5.30.) I had taken the morning off, but ended up calling in sick for the afternoon, so spent the whole day in my lovely snuggly bed, which was great.
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