Cambridge: Swords, fans and pounamu

Last game of the footy season. Dad went to watch Grimsby Town play Braintree (and win, I might add). That meant a whole day to myself and without anything important to do, I asked Dad to drop me off in Cambridge on the way so I could spend the day exploring.

Cambridge is a lovely little city - big parks, a pretty town centre and packed full of museums courtesy of Cambridge University. I began the day (or rather, afternoon, by the time I got there) at the Fitzwilliam Museum, the arts and antiquities museum. First stop this wonderful piece from the palaces at Nimrud.

Especially interesting given the pounding that Nimrud has taken from the twats calling themselves ISIS. I doubt there's a whole lot left of the palace this particular chap came from.

The Fitzwilliam, unlike some of the big museums in London, is pretty easy to navigate, although I'd recommend picking up a floor plan on your way in. There's a couple of little galleries stuck out of the way that I would have missed without it. The first of these is the Rothschild Gallery, with its collection of beautiful medieval and Renaissance art. Among my favourite pieces were this piece of Anglo-Saxon metalwork. I love this style.

Also, this amazing book of music - it's huge so that all the members of a choir could read from it at once.

The second of the Fitzwilliam's little hidden galleries is the Sasakawa Fan Gallery. I've been meaning to visit the Fan Museum in Greenwich for a while, just because it seems like such a strange thing to have a museum of, so this gallery will have to do for now. Some really beautiful old fans from the Far East, plus some rather more flouncy ones from later European courts and high society.

I'm torn on my favourite items though. I fell rather in love with the Korean pottery gallery, having not seen this style in any museum I've visited before. The colour is beautiful and the little pots shaped like squashes are lovely.

The tomboy-ish part of my brain though loved the miniature Royal Armouries they've got going on near the cafe. Who doesn't love a good sword?

The aforementioned cafe does some good lunch options, although a bit expensive. That said, I wasn't going to turn down a falafel scotch egg. Two of my favourite things combined. Yum. From the Fitzwilliam, I headed back towards the town centre to check out the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology.

There's a wonderful selection of local artefacts on the ground floor, plus a small display of Inuit items, including this beautiful little bear's head carving.

The upper two floors follow a more traditional museum pattern - big cases with relatively little information about the objects within. There's an amazing totem pole, although I neglected to take note of where it came from. Oops. There's also some great displays about the people of the South Pacific, at which point I went on my now traditional hunt for something made of pounamu. This is the super tough jade found on New Zealand's South Island that's used to make both jewellery and weapons that are a match for iron. I succeeded. I present to you a beautiful pounamu club.

Bit more substantial than my little pounamu manaia pendant!

The museum closed at 4:30pm, so I had a while to kill before Dad came back to get me. Took myself off for a wander around the city. Kings College.

St Botolph's Church. Lovely building and its churchyard looked so quiet and tranquil.

That led me into one of the city's winding back streets with these beautiful old buildings, presumably part of the University.

 

And then I spent a while sitting on a bench near Darwin College, watching the world go by. A lovely day. I need to go back - there's a whole bunch of other museums still to check out.

Been to Cambridge? Got a favourite museum? Do share!

London: The Complete Walk

I was a bit slow about getting this one written. Oops.

I visited London on 23rd April to take part in the celebrations for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. The Globe put on a big event to show off all 37 of the Bard's plays along the South Bank and my sister and I, both being fans of his work, decided to check it out. 37 plays, 37 films, 37 screens. Seems like a good way to spend a Saturday, right?

Each film was 10 minutes of new footage shot on the locations Shakespeare imagined, combined with archive footage from performances at the Globe and internationally and some even included some very old silent, black and white footage. 10 minutes per film... we reckoned even with walking time we could cover quite a few of the 37, especially since we'd gone through and made a shortlist of the ones we really wanted to see.

We arrived in London about half an hour before the event was due to start and managed to make it to the first of our planned viewings - The Taming of the Shrew in Jubilee Gardens - just after 10am, the published start time. So imagine our annoyance, having got the 6:30am train, when we found that the screen wasn't even set up, let alone showing the film. Slightly peeved but putting it down to technical issues, we moved on and caught Titus Andronicus under the Hungerford Bridge.

Brilliant. A great combination of clips, with Peter Capaldi as an excellently unhinged Titus and a great clip of the Globe production in which the Queen of the Goths, Tamora, played by Indira Varma unknowingly eats a pie containing the body parts of her murdered sons. A chorus of "ew" mingled with laughter from the audience. Just a shame we couldn't hear half of it because Hungerford Bridge is a railway bridge and every couple of minutes a train rumbled across overhead.

Anyway, seeing that the screen (Henry VI, part 2) next to Titus was also playing, we were a bit more hopeful that the following screens would also be working. Of the next 2 we passed, 1 was working and we had not interest in Romeo and Juliet. Then we caught Love's Labours Lost - pretty cool. Tempted to check out the next screen showing King John, only because the archive footage was from 1899 and is probably the earliest instance of a Shakespeare production on film.

After that though... well, it all started going wrong. We walked up as far as the Tate Modern where there were supposed to be another 4 screens. Every screen between King John at the National Theatre and the screens at the Tate Modern was out. No film. No audio. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

That's 12 screens that weren't working. Out of 37. So we decided to grab a cuppa and wile away half an hour, during which time I tweeted at the Globe in an attempt to get an explanation for the absolute shambles. They first told me it was because of the Presidential visit and later claimed technical difficulties. I'm more inclined to go with the latter - that many screens not working isn't anything to do with security issues or the like.

Anyway, refreshed and all ranted out, we decided to see if some of the early screens were working. Nope. Buggeration. Descending back into grumpiness, we marched off down the bank and finally found a functioning screen in Gabriel's Wharf showing the wonderful A Midsummer Night's Dream. One of the more straightforward of Shakespeare's works and one of the funniest. Much laughter from the many people crowding into the bandstand.

Unfortunately, from there the chaos returned. A Midsummer Night's Dream was screen 13. From there, the next functioning screen we came across was Measure for Measure at screen 24. On the plus side, screen 25 just around the corner was showing Twelfth Night and it was brilliant, if a little drowned out at times by the rail bridge overhead. Seem to be an awful lot of rail bridges over the Thames...

From there, we had a little more success and caught a run of working screens that included Troilus & Cressida, Timon of Athens, King Lear and Macbeth. All great, although Troilus & Cressida was rather ruined by being down in a hole which made it very hard to view. Did catch the snippet from the Maori production a few years ago. Genius, that, putting a haka in Shakespeare.

After Macbeth it all went downhill yet again. No working screens from there up until the very last screen which was showing The Tempest near Tower Bridge. Another wonderful little production and awesome to see so many people enjoying Shakespeare, but such a shame more of the screens weren't working.

A little bit cold and disappointed, we headed back along the bank, passing still non-functional screens, and decided to revisit some of the missing films from that morning. Some success was had - we caught a great Othello featuring David Harewood, an interesting take on Hamlet with several actors playing the Prince of Denmark and, much to my sister's delight, an excellent Much Ado About Nothing featuring Samuel West among others. Given that Much Ado is one of my sister's favourites, I'm glad we at least caught that one.

This was followed by the excellent Toby Jones playing Falstaff in Henry IV, pt 1 although he did rather drown out the also wonderful Johnathon Pryce playing Shylock in The Merchant of Venice on the next screen. Glad to see so many screens now working and getting rather short on time, we made one last attempt on The Taming of the Shrew. We found it working, at last although as we left to catch the train back home there were still screens not playing.

In all, a lovely day, with a stroll along the Thames and a whole heap of culture thrown in for good measure. It's just such a shame that such a huge event could be so badly organised. As mentioned above, I actually Tweeted the Globe to try to find out why it was going so wrong and they produced the following response:

@ZoeDixon Hi, there's been a delay due to the presidential visit but we hope to have all screens playing as soon as possible. Thanks!

— Shakespeare's Globe (@The_Globe) April 23, 2016

They also told other users that there had been some technical issues. I'm more inclined to believe the latter, given that as I pointed out to the poor bugger manning the Globe Twitter account, they should have taken the presidential visit into account. Let's just hope that they learn from this and the next time they try anything on this scale they'll organise it better.

In the end, we managed to see 15 of the 37 films. Not bad given that when we left, around 11 screens still didn't seem to be working although I'm told all 37 were working by the end of the day.

Did you visit the complete walk? What was your favourite film? How many did you manage to see?

Solo Travel: Anxious Relatives

My nanna tried to guilt trip me...

I've been fortunate over the last 18 months that, while a few folks have been worried about me going travelling alone, no one has yet tried to stop me from going. Well, apart from my dad telling me I'm not allowed to go to Fairbanks, Alaska because of the crime rate and to be fair, I agreed.

Someone, though, has let slip to my nanna that I'm going travelling. Alone. For a year. My nanna worries about everything. So I hadn't planned on telling her until just before I left (if at all) to save on the inevitable worry. But hey, someone spilled the beans and so when I saw her a couple of weeks ago she started with: "Are you still going travelling?"

To which, of course, my answer was yes. This was followed by the classic: "I thought you might have changed your mind."

Yes, Nanna, I've booked flights and hostels and been stuck full of vaccinations, but of course, I'll just change my mind.

This is both adorable and frustrating, because I know that every time I go to see her up until I leave I'm going to get another attempt from her at talking me out of it. So far I've been proved right - every week since then I've been asked if I'm still going. This week it was "you won't change your mind? Not even for me?" No. But the best one was this little gem from the first week she asked me.

"I might not be here when you get back."

My nanna is in her 80s. And now she's trying to guilt trip me with it. This is precisely why I hadn't told her I was going. So I'm going to come up with a few reasons why she shouldn't be worrying. Not that I think it will work, but there's no harm in trying.

1. I am not going anywhere especially dangerous

My grandad wanted to know if I'm going to the Middle East (although the way he phrased it was rather more older-generation-racist). Don't worry, Grandad. I'm not going anywhere with terrorists as far as I can help it. I do have a bit of an urge to make a detour to Jordan though to see Petra. And maybe Istanbul...

Let's be honest, though. I'm much more concerned about crime in the States than anywhere else. And what with the elections coming up I have this awful feeling I'm going to get into an argument with someone over politics/gun control/how I think the USA is weird and end up getting shot...

2. I will keep in touch

That is, indeed, the main point of this blog. And I intend on sending postcards as often as I can. And emailing. And Skype, if I can get a stable enough WiFi connection.

3. I have done this before

Not entirely the same, but I went out to Australia on my own when I was 19. Lived out there a year. I'm not totally new to the whole "going off on your own thing".

4. I am planning on coming back

OK, so this might just change depending on how it goes, but at the present moment I do intend to come back. It's not like I'm leaving for ever. That said, I might be tempted to stay a bit longer than my current plan suggests. Another year in Australia and New Zealand sounds rather lovely...

5. If 18 year olds on their gap yahs can do this, then so can I

At any  given time there must be hundreds if not thousands of teenagers adventuring (and drinking) their way around the world. I'd like to think I've got a bit more common sense than some of them. If they can do it, I bloody well can too.

I'm not sure what else I can tell her to reassure her that I'll be fine. Any ideas, folks? Please do share in the comments if you do.

100 Days, 100 Things: Days 41-60

This is part 3 of my attempts to note down something interesting, new, weird or stupidly mundane each day in the countdown to finishing work before I set off on my round-the-world Grand Tour adventure. Things are getting both more mundane and more interesting. How this is even possible, I have no idea...

41. Thursday 14th April - made pho.
Having tried the Vietnamese noodle soup at Pho in Manchester, I decided to have a go at making it myself. My attempt at chicken pho turned out pretty nice, especially with the pile of beansprouts I dumped into it!

42. Friday 15th April - pasta bake?
Looks like nothing interesting happened on this day. First pasta bake in a couple of years was as exciting as it got.

43. Saturday 16th April - took a walk on Saddleworth.
My mum was supposed to be taking a balloon flight from Bakewell for her birthday but the weather turned against us. Instead, we took the dogs out for a walk on Saddleworth Moor, something we've been meaning to do since Mum moved to Manchester nearly 2 years ago.

44. Sunday 17th April - finally did some proper gardening.
I can't remember what I actually did. Possibly I dug over the veg patch? Or did I put the onions in? Nah... I think the onions went in the week after... Nope. It was this day. Onions, shallots, garlic and potatoes. All going in a bit too late for my liking and none of which I'll have the joy of eating because I'll be on the other side of the globe. All the more for the relatives.

45. Monday 18th April - blogged for the first time in ages.
Which, I do believe, was the last post in this series. You can read it here: 100 Days, 100 Things: Days 21-40.

46. Tuesday 19th April - created an overly detailed packing list.
I almost always use a packing list for holidays and short trips, so I figured I need a super-awesome one for the Grand Tour. After all, how on earth am I going to make it all the way round-the-world if I manage to forget something along the way?

47. Wednesday 20th April - started planning Australian adventures.
Claire got her flights booked to join me in Australia over the New Year, so we could finally start planning what we want to do in those 2 weeks. Too many things to do!

48. Thursday 21st April - overdosed on pretty AirBnB listings.
Falling a little bit in love with AirBnB, especially given how many awesome listings there are for Sydney at New Year.

49. Friday 22nd April - started laying out all the things on the aforementioned packing list.
And started worrying that a) I've forgotten some things and b) it won't all fit in my rucksack...

50. Saturday 23rd April - The Complete Walk.
Took a trip to London with my sister to see as many of the 37 films which made up The Complete Walk as possible. 15/37 - not bad going considering the technical difficulties. So much Shakespeare! And topped off with an evening of Shakespeare on the BBC when I got home.

51. Sunday 24th April - booked my first AirBnB.
Got the accommodation booked for my stay in Sydney over New Year with Claire. A lovely little studio apartment a little way out of the city centre for less than half the price it would have been to stay in a hostel, let alone a hotel.

52. Monday 25th April - fell off the blogging wagon.
Yeah... my attempts to keep blogging regularly are not going so well. Doesn't bode well for me keeping on top of it while I'm away, does it?

53. Tuesday 26th April - booked Australia flights. Poor bank balance.
Sorted out internal flights for the two weeks I'm spending with Claire in Australia, just to make sure we actually end up on the same flights. My bank account doesn't know what's hit it this month...

54. Wednesday 27th April - more jabs.
Back to the doctors to get yet another jab, this time for my Hep B booster. Also got my prescription for anti-malarials sorted, so that's another thing I can stop worrying about.

55. Thursday 28th April - played the bath game with the dogs.
We took the dogs out for quite a late walk because the weather had been foul all day. When we got back, we played the game where I chase them round the kitchen with the towel in an attempt to dry them off. They love it - they get like puppies again. Might not like getting wet, but they really like avoiding getting dry!

56. Friday 29th April - more jabs.
Yet another jab, but hopefully this one is the last one I'll need. Certainly the most expensive - anyone want to explain to me why the Yellow Fever vaccine is so very costly? At least I don't seem to have had any side effects from it yet.

57. Saturday 30th April - dogs on the beach.
Took the dogs down to the beach. They love the beach. Poppy invited herself to someone's picnic and Mum nearly had to pull her out of a bag of crisps. Sneaky sausage dog.

58. Sunday 1st May - "Not even for me?"
Someone let slip to my nanna that I'm going away for a year and now she's spending every time I see her trying to talk me out of it. We have now had such classics as "But I might not be here when you get back!" and "You won't change your mind? Not even for me?" This is exactly why I didn't tell her.

59. Monday 2nd May - fixed my "critical error".
No thanks to Microsoft. My Windows 10 threw up a glitch and basically broke my start menu. Microsoft's fixes didn't work, but the one I used last time this happened did. And Microsoft don't seem to know a thing about it. Thanks, guys.

60. Tuesday 3rd May - uh...
Not a lot happened. Other than a minor freak out when I realised that it's now less than 6 weeks until the Grand Tour kicks off. Yeep.

Excitement is setting in! Less than 6 weeks to go!

The Grand Tour: Whistlestop Australia

Claire, veteran of both the New Zealand and Ireland trips, is joining me for a couple of weeks in Australia over the New Year. This is going to be wonderful and will make a nice change from travelling alone for a while (although I am also hoping to spend Christmas with relatives).

Now that flights are booked, the fun bit of planning can start. I.e. what are we going to do with those 2 weeks? How much of Australia can you see in that time?

This is all rather bounded by the flights that Claire was able to get. It's worked out that we've got 5-6 days in Sydney over New Year, 2/3 days in Alice Springs, 2/3 days in Cairns and 4/5 days in Melbourne. The confusion over numbers of days is because I'm not certain how much time we'll lose because of flights and whatnot.

However, I can safely say that we've got plenty of time in Sydney and Melbourne. Alice Springs and Cairns we'll have to be a bit more organised with our time to make sure we get the most out of it.

I figure there's a fair number of folks who go to Australia for relatively short holidays - 2 or 3 weeks - since that's all a lot of companies let employees take off in one go, plus Oz is expensive. So, here's a very short list of must-do things in Oz which are very much doable in 2 weeks.

1. New Year in Sydney

OK, so this is clearly time dependent, but if you get the chance New Year in Sydney is amazing. Claire and I will be joining the festivities, even more so because New Year's Eve is also Claire's birthday. Someone remind me to find her something awesome... But just picture it: thousands of people thronging the harbour-side, fireworks going off every hour all the way down the river and at midnight that iconic display of fireworks going off over the famous Harbour Bridge. Yep. Pretty awesome.

2. Uluru-Kata-Tjuta National Park

Uluru, formerly more commonly known as Ayer's Rock, is perhaps Australia's most famous landmark, a hulking red monolith looming out of the desert. It is as stunning as the tourist boards make it out to be and the history and culture that surrounds it is fascinating. Nearby Kata-Tjuta, also known as the Olgas, is a similar site and also well worth visiting.

3. The Great Barrier Reef

Need I say more? The largest biological construction (not an organism. Many organisms) on the planet, the reef teems with life and, weather permitting, there's a good chance you'll see something interesting.

4. The Great Ocean Road

Lots of "greats" in this list! The Great Ocean Road does what it says on the tin - it's a road that follows the ocean between Melbourne and Adelaide and it's pretty great. Built after the Second World War to provide work for returned servicemen, it's a beautiful drive and there's a chance of spotting a whole assortment of Australia's quirky wildlife. I think I remember seeing koalas when I took a trip down part of it...

5. Daintree Rainforest

The Daintree is a fragment of one of the most ancient rainforests on the planet and is hugely biodiverse. As someone who studied ecology at university, this is enough to make it amazing even without the beautiful views and the equally awesome wildlife. It's also easily accessible from Cairns, so great for a day trip. Onto the list it goes!


For 2 weeks, I think that's enough highlights. Our only real problem so far has been finding accommodation in Sydney over New Year at a reasonable price. For this, I eventually turned to AirBnB and Claire managed to find a lovely little studio for us to stay in which has cost less than half what it would if we had settled for a hostel, let alone a hotel. So, yes, it's a bit out of the centre, but Sydney has reasonable public transport. In addition, the owner informs us that there's lots of Italian restaurants and some amazing gelato to be had nearby. Bring on the food!

If you had only 2 weeks to see Australia's highlights, where would you go and what would you do? Let me know in the comments!

The Joy of Trains

If you're a Brit like me, you'll know how we love to knock train travel. It's expensive, slow and doesn't run as often as we'd like. Not to mention the delays.

But look at it another way. You could drive, but that means you doing the work. You have to focus on the road and mostly miss the views. Sure, it might be cheaper and you'll almost certainly get there quicker, but isn't the journey part of the fun?

Sometimes it's good to just slow down and take the long way round for a change. Train lines cross some of the wildest, most beautiful parts of the world. I get to see this view every time I take the train to Manchester (weather dependent) because the route goes through the always beautiful Hope Valley.

From seeing New Forest ponies on the train to Bournemouth to crossing mountains in New Zealand, you see so much more when you take a train instead. And when it all goes wrong and the train gets delayed or you're stranded at a station (looking at you, Sheffield, with you shit signals), that's all just another part of the adventure, right?

So, in recognition of how lovely a train journey can be (discounting the Tube, because I’m never going to like the Tube), here are some of the most scenic railways from around the world.

1. North Yorkshire Moors Railway, UK

I love the Yorkshire Moors. It’s a beautiful area and if you don’t fancy taking a stroll along any of the numerous tracks, you can sit back and enjoy the view from the iconic North York Moors Railway. Pulled by both steam and diesel locomotives (great when your dad’s a bit into his trains and obviously not because I quite like steam trains too…), this line runs through the valleys from Pickering on the southern edge of the moors to Whitby on the coast to the north. For added pop culture value, you can hop off the train at Goathland, the setting for the Heartbeat’s Aidensfield and make sure to check out the station itself – Harry Potter fans might recognise it as Hogsmeade station from the films.

If you don’t fancy the train, there’s a path which follows the line at least between Grosmont and Goathland with parking at both ends, though Grosmont tends to be less busy.

2. TranzAlpine, New Zealand

The Southern Alps, spanning the length of New Zealand’s South Island, are crossed by only 3 passes. Now, you could hire a car and drive one of them, but in winter especially the roads can be closed for hours and days. Why not take the train instead? Sit back, relax and enjoy the view. The TranzAlpine is clearly a tourist train, not aimed at locals travelling between east and west, but don’t let that put you off. There’s huge windows in the coaches, audio commentary at various points and the train goes at the right sort of speed for you to take photos and really take in the view.

Plus, let’s not forget the wonderful open-air car. Who wouldn’t want to get “bitch-slapped by nature” in New Zealand?

3. Indian Pacific, Australia

Australia is vast. Something you don’t always realise from looking at maps. But it’s huge. Really fucking huge. Getting from east to west can take ages. Now, you could hop on a flight and the views are pretty good, although for great flight views in Oz I’d recommend the Alice Springs-Adelaide route because oh my god, Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre is beautiful from above.

But for getting across from Sydney to Perth, I’m going to try the train. Well, at least from Adelaide to Perth. The Indian Pacific cuts in an almost straight line right across the desert and scrublands of Nullarbor. It takes three days to make the trip and sounds like a great way of kicking back for a few days. Sure, I could take a flight and be in Perth in a few hours, but it’s the experience that counts, right? Besides, I’ve never taken an overnight train before. New adventures ahoy!

4. Cusco-Aguas Calientes, Peru

Machu Picchu is something of a Peruvian must-do, but how to get there? The nearest big town is Cusco, nestled in the mountains a few hours away. The nearest settlement to the ruins themselves is Aguas Calientes, a 5 mile drive away. I don’t drive, so the options are limited to bus or train. Bus is cheaper. Train is prettier and probably more comfortable. Train it is, then.

PeruRail run three different trains from just outside Cusco, varying in luxury, but all take the same route through the valley, winding alongside the river before reaching Aguas Calientes, the end of the line and jumping off point for a shuttle bus to Machu Picchu. There’s also the option of stopping at Ollantaytambo, which looks like a beautiful little town and well worth exploring.

5. Transpennine, UK

Probably the only one on this list that’s not aimed at tourists. The Transpennine runs between the east and west coasts of the UK from various stations. It’s also the train I take most often since it runs from my hometown to Manchester, where my mum lives. You’d think a journey you make often would get boring, but it’s such a scenic route that I always end up spotting new things. The line is at its best on the stretch between Sheffield and Manchester where it climbs up into the Peak District National Park, winding through the Hope Valley. You could hope off here at Hope, Edale or Hathersage and go walking – some gorgeous tracks up here. From the train you can also see Mam Tor, overlooking the valley.


As one final point, I wrote a big chunk of this while I was on the train to Manchester. Wouldn't have been able to do that in a car - I'd have got travel sick.

Do you enjoy train travel? Been on any rickety old rails? Why not share in the comments below?

100 Days, 100 Things: Days 21-40

I am inching ever closer to my final day of employment and the subsequent departure on my Grand Tour. Here's days 21-40 of my attempts to find something interesting, funny or ridiculously mundane that happened each day of my final 100 days here.

21. Friday 25th March - first gardening of the year
Finally got round to doing some gardening - cleared out my veg patch, tidied up some pots and trimmed back the chamomile bed. Just in time for the dogs to arrive and paddle all over it the next day!

22. Saturday 26th March - took a stroll to the churchyard
With Mum being over for the Easter weekend, we took the dogs for a walk up to the churchyard. Lovely peaceful place.

23. Sunday 27th March - had a rare moment of vanity
Anyone who's met me (or seen all the "Stupid Selfies" that we took in New Zealand) will know that I'm not especially concerned about how I look. So the joy of fitting comfortably into an old size 6 dress for the family Easter lunch was indeed a rare moment of vanity. Up yours, uni-drinking-weight.

24. Monday 28th March - cooked Sri Lankan style food
Treated my parents and sister to my first attempt at Sri Lankan style food. Delicious egg hoppers with coconut gravy and a couple of fresh pickle type dishes. Turned out pretty good - will have to try it again.

25. Tuesday 29th March - attempted to train our apprentice on Excel
I was only sort of successful. I struggle to explain things like Excel to other folks because I constantly make the assumption that they know more than they do.

26. Wednesday 30th March - ate too much pizza
We got a new system installed at work for our student records and to celebrate the demise of the seriously outdated and temperamental old system we had a pizza and prosecco party in the office. And, true to tradition, I ate too much pizza and spent the afternoon trying not to fall asleep.

27. Thursday 31st March - made colleague's day by gifting him the Excel guide
Said colleague finished in the department the next day and it was great watching him going through the guide and finding things he didn't know he could do. Clearly the guide was better than I thought it was.

28. Friday 1st April - 5kDay1 for Camp NaNoWriMo
I take part in National Novel Writing Month and its less frantic Camp sessions every year. The latest session kicked off today and somehow on a work day I managed to write 5000 words in a 24 hours. Pretty pleased with that.

29. Saturday 2nd April - drank too much cider. Ugh.
Have I mentioned how Friday is Cider-Day in my house? I don't drink much any more - just a pint of cider on a Friday evening. So going out for a colleague's leaving do was... interesting. Three pints later and I ended up persuading my dad to come and pick me up because my brain went from "OK. I'm fine." to "I hate it here. The crowd is making me anxious. I want to go home." in about 3 minutes flat. Mature. The bar was nice though...

30. Sunday 3rd April - watched Snow White for the first time in years
Apparently Snow White is just as creepy and terrifying as it was when I was little. That thunderstorm at the end with the vultures and the evil queen? Jeez.

31. Monday 4th April - killed off third character within 10,000 words
Returning to my Camp NaNoWriMo project, I killed off yet another character. It wouldn't be so bad, but they've all been killed by the same person and she's my protagonist. This might be a new record for novelling deaths...

32. Tuesday 5th April - pulled off my first 1k30min of Camp
I write relatively quick (see all the comments about typing speed in my previous 100 Days post), but writing 1000 words in 30 minutes is still something of an achievement for me. Makes writing 50,000 words in a month much more feasible.

33. Wednesday 6th April - confirmed colleague's return
So, yeah. The colleague who finished on April 1st and on whose leaving do I drank too much cider? Turns out the new job/life situation wasn't really what he wanted, so he's coming back. So that was weird...

34. Thursday 7th April - compliments?
A colleague greeted me with the words "you're quite small, aren't you?". I assumed she meant short, because yes, I am. Apparently she meant I'm skinny. I'm not. I'm in proportion with my height, no matter what the rare moment of vanity above might suggest.

35. Friday 8th April - 1130 words in 20 minutes
Yeah, so my writing speed is still going up. Woop for that. In non-writing news, I made a delicious fish pie with a cheesy crumble topping. It was amazing.

36. Saturday 9th April - spotted Terry Deary at the Lowry
Went across to Manchester for Mum's birthday. Went to see a play called Bad Jews, which was excellent - very funny and yet sad. Really enjoyed that, but I think I was more pleased about seeing Terry Deary in the lobby afterwards. I had nearly the entire collection of Horrible Histories books as a kid, so I was pretty tempted to join the queue of small children waiting to get books signed.

37. Sunday 10th April - made friends with some more dachshunds
Gotta love sausage dogs. Took my mum's two on a walk with some other daxies. Lots of fun. Astley Park is pretty, too. But mostly I just wanted to dog-nap any of the dachshunds.

38. Monday 11th April - met an adorable husky
Anyone else noticing a bit of a dog obsession? Anyhoo, met a lovely husky pup. Very friendly and just wanted to lick my hands. Possibly because it was just a friendly dog. Possibly because I'd done chicken for tea...

39. Tuesday 12th April - did my travel guru thing
Tried to help colleague find a suitable train for Manchester. Also bollocked recently returned colleague for thinking he doesn't need travel insurance. More on that in a future post, probably.

40. Wednesday 13th April - got my first travel jabs. Ouch.
Turns out I need not only a Hep A and Typhoid booster, I also need Hep B and Rabies boosters and then I need to get a Yellow Fever jab. Just the Hep A/Typhoid to start, though. My poor arm.