Eden Project, Dismaland & Glasto Retreat

We used our tesco clubcard points to visit the Eden Project in Cornwall. It was a lovely place, with some great indoor biospheres.

Camping nearby in a YHA was fun with great views out to sea, enjoyed with a bottle of Korev.

We also visited Banksy's Dismaland in Weston-Super-Mare, good fun!

We also went on a yoga/meditation retreat at the Glastonbury Ashram, still trying to be hippies! We did lots of yoga, a Kirten and ate lots of healthy veggie food. It was a lovely long weekend, definitely to be repeated.

Wooding of the Singhtury

Inspired by Nev's convertible, we bought a soft top beetle and drove to Sara's wedding in St. Andrews. We took a fortnight off work and made a summer holiday out of it.

We drove to Birmingham for our first night, then camped in the Lake District on our second, it was pretty, but really windy, our pitch was really exposed and our tent got wet! We went on a boat on Lake Windermere and had brunch in Ambleside. This was the view on the drive to Penrith.

Then we drove to St. Andrews and stayed with my family in a house opposite David Russell Apartments (where Sara used to live). We met uncle Paul, uncle mejar and Karum there. The next day we moved to a different house close to the chapel where Sara was getting married and we had fudge doughnuts and I had a massage. We had a BBQ that evening, an old wives tale said if you bury a raw sausage the weather will be good the next day! Pete had to rescue the raw sausage from an enormous seagull! But it worked, the weather was fantastic on the day. 

Sara and John got married on Friday 7th August. They looked amazing and it was a beautiful day. 

Dad wore a kilt and gave her away in the gorgeous St. Andrews chapel.

We had supper at the seafood restaurant on the beach. Mum did the flowers...

.....and Issy made the cake

We looked the part as well:

The next evening we had a ceilidh and hog roast in the rugby club

We had lovely fish and chips for Sunday lunch with John's family before they headed back to Dublin, and we had breakfast at the Old Vic on Monday with my family before they all headed home. Pete and I stayed in St. Andrews for a full week. Then we headed to Dunbar and stayed at Issy's and went to the Edinburgh fringe festival. We saw Tom Parry who was brilliant in his yellow t-shirt, James Veitch Genius Bar, Seymour Mace and Zoe Coombs Marr who was the most expensive ticket we bought and she was terrible!

We then drove across to the West coast of Scotland and stayed in a beautiful youth hostel at Rowardennan Lodge. 

It was right on Loch Lomund in the Trossachs national park. 

We drove as far north as Glencoe, it was very pretty, and remote and peaceful, but cold, so we didn't risk walking very far!

Then we drove to Oban, stayed in an awful b&b in the town centre run by two eccentric old men who made their own jam! 

We explored the small town, had delicious seafood in the recommended Oban Seafood Hut right on the sea and visited the Oban distillery. 

We then made our way back to Bristol, via OK Diner for curly fries and American peanut butter milkshake. We spent a night camping in the Yorkshire Dales. We visited York Minster and walked round the city walls with an obligatory ice-cream as it was sunny!

Summer festivals

'Summer saw us visit Glatonbury for a third time. We linked up with Hazel and Kieran. Lionel Ritchie was the highlight on the Sunday afternoon slot. We also saw the Dalai Lama, Motörhead, Mark Ronson, a bit of Kanye, The Libertines, The Who, Paul Weller, Hot Chip and The Chemical Brothers.

We also enjoyed Arcadia...

Plus there was a little mud, but not too bad on the main site. It was bad next to our tent where we had one happy night listening to folk falling into our tent all the way through!

We also went to Outcider festival ("No tribute bands. No X-Factor. No Carling lager. No hipsters. No tossers.") for the second year on the trot for lots of strong cider and barn dancing with Charl and Nev! We were so busy drinking cider, we managed not to take a single snap! ;-)

Bits and pieces

Around the summer we went on a few day trips.

We visited Charl in London Bridge, enjoying Lobster Burger and going for a few beers at the Dalston Yard Street Feast in a funky Shoreditch warehouse. Spicy chicken wing roulette was fun, even though a ring burner.

We also popped across to the Cotsworlds to do a driving tour out of the LP. Here's Pete sat in the picturesque Bibury:

We visited Georgian House and Red Lodge in Bristol, two places that have been on our to do list a while!

Crazy bear in Oxford

We went to Oxford for the day, went to Christchurch college, turf tavern and ate G&D's ice cream on Cowley Road.

Pretty Bridge of Sighs in the heart of the uni:

Selina in front of the Radcliffe Camera (uni library):

We stayed in a craaazzziiee hotel with a bath at the end of the bed! With water that came out the ceiling!! Messy!

Lots of big rocks

In April, Selina went to Alice in Wonderland in London, it was Sara's Christmas present. It was a submersive theatre experience at the Mad Hatters Tea Party.

We spent the day in Aztec West Spa for Selina's birthday in May. We also saw Birdsong at the Old Vic. Pete's read the book a few times and has always wanted to see it on stage.

We went to Stonehenge at the end of May and camped. On the way we stopped at Salisbury Cathedral and saw the actual Magna Carta which was impressive. 

We went round Stonehenge in normal opening time. You can see all the people in the distance.

Then we paid extra to see the stone circle after hours. As it was getting dark, we wondered amongst the stones with a handful of people. At normal opening time you can only walk on a pathway surrounding the circle, so it felt very atmospheric walking in between the stones as the sun was setting. 

Pete had really enjoyed it, until he realised you could see all the stones from the public road as we drove back to the campsite!!

Flat renovation

In between contracts in 2015, I took on a task that has been on my to do list a while: renovating my flat in London Bridge. At times it was frustrating and exasperating, but overall it was fun and a job well done with help from some experts! 

The flat isn't that big, I've still got the layout from when I bought it:

I decided to keep the same layout, but strip everything out (kitchen, bathroom, heating system, floors, doors). So quite a bit of work, especially given how old it looked before:

Selina couldn't wait to get stuck in and start looking behind the covers!

First step, everything had to be stripped away. The boiler and two water tanks were removed (by a professional of course). Although we did manage to salvage one of the tanks for the Bristol garden! I was surprised how the guy was able to knock the price down by selling the stuff he removed for scrap!

Tiles off (by someone who thinks of themselves as a professional!).

A bit of bashing, thanks Darsh for the extra muscle!

A pile of stuff for the council to collect, boy did that take some organising!

Once everything was out, I found a great guy who I had too much fun with to plaster and skim all the walls...

Then my boiler man fitted the new boiler and new rads all in different positions from before, including this funky rad:

Then it was on to the fitting of a new bathroom and kitchen, along with new lighting, doors, architraving, flooring throughout and multiple coats of paint. The end product was pretty impressive, in a grey and white themed kind of way!!

Phew!

Madrid '15

Our friend, Eug, has been working in Spain for a few years now, so belatedly we decided to go visit him in Madrid in Spring 2015.

We booked in to an AirBnB. It was a lovely place, owned by a pianist. We spent most of our time hitting the bars for beers and tapas. You can tell we loved La Latina!

We squeezed in a visit to the basement of Eug's favourite Irish bar.

With slightly sore heads we took in some sights, like the Crystal Palace in Retiro Park:

We also went to see Picasso's Guernica in Museo Reina Sofia. Then more tapas, including some very tasty charcuterie.

We had dinner in Plaza Mayor and we also hit the market El Rastro with Eug, looking cool all the way...

Cheers Eug, same time next year....