Another ROSPA statistic

Not quite a tea-cozy accident, but it’s still quite good for me. I’ve bruised the side of my hand to the bone by hitting it on the bottom of a glass bottle containing the last dregs of spicy plum sauce.
ROSPA is the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. I think I should be one of their spokesbodies as an example of “What not to do”.

Actually, I’m hoping it’s just bruised. Just tried to pick my full coffee cup up and it felt like the bone was going to break. I’ll feel very foolish if tomorrow I’m in A & E about to be put in plaster!
So, while you’re waiting for my marvellous photos of the Isle of Wight, I present the rather successful gluten-free brownies I made for my mum’s birthday:

Never mind the taste, look at the sheen! Just realised the photo's upside down!

I used this recipe for the brownies and this one [direct link to PDF] for the glaze.
And to keep you going, here’s a view of the Sandown pier at dusk.

Sandown, Isle of Wight at dusk in March 2012

Before I post a selection of photos

from the 200 I took in 5 days, I’d like to share my travel-related wisdom.

Actually, this is more for the future me, but if you take anything from it, let me know!

•    Take more clothes (yes really) especially thin tops to wear in the evening. Trousers/skirts can be re-worn since you’ll be sitting down most of the time.
•    Scope out supermarkets/shops near-by before you go.
•    The Co-op meal deal is a life (and money) saver
•    Always take the “Kag-in-a-bag”
•    It doesn’t matter what other people think of you
•    Be flexible
•    Don’t be afraid of resting. You’re on holiday and you don’t have to do anything.
•    Always take a sun hat and a woolly hat.
•    Take 3 pairs of shoes (excl. flip-flops/slippers) – at least 2 smart/casual pairs
•    Flip flops for the shower/room are a very good idea
•    Take a microfibre towel
•    Having your camera in a pouch-on-a-belt was a good idea.
•    Have more confidence and ask for the wi-fi password on the first day.
•    You can manage to go up and down 5 flights of stairs twice a day, but don’t be afraid of resting every flight.
•    Your walking stick looks like it has Smarties on it.
•    Take your hair straighteners
•    Always take a small multi-band radio
•    Take 2 knee braces – that was a good idea when your knees seized up
•    RUBBER GLOVES
•    Milton sterilising tablets and cleansing wipes = good idea.
•    Headphones = very good idea
•    Only take 2 knitting/crochet projects. Any more and you won’t work on them.
•    Sunglasses = very good idea
•    Keep road map in day bag for all journeys so you know where the hell you are
•    Take as much underwear as days of holiday plus 1. It was nice knowing you didn’t have to wash something.
•    2 water bottles + 1 fruit juice + 2-cup flask = great idea for travelling down and back.
•    £10 per day food and drink budget is reasonable and achievable.
•    Keep £10 in change for tips at end of holiday. £5 for a 5-day holiday seems to be the going rate for tipping the coach driver.
•    Separate cosmetics bag worked well.
•    Find another 6-in-1 lipstick/gloss thing. The one you have now smells rancid.
•    Get an inflatable neck pillow.
•    LIPSTICK! Need some.
•    Check all items are still usable/functional BEFORE you go away cf: foundation and sunscreen
•    Take a facial astringent cleanser and don’t rely on facial wipes to clean make-up off.
•    At least 1 of your 2 crafting projects needs to be simple enough to be worked on when not looking at it e.g. plain/simple sock.

Flat land, Big Sky pt 2

Welcome back!

WARNING – VERY IMAGE-HEAVY POST.  I’ve posted small-ish photos on this post, but you can click on them to view a larger image.  I’ve also put them behind a “cut” so if you’re viewing this post from the main page I wont be responsible for major bandwidth-suckage.

This post will show you a little of Great Yarmouth, some lovely old vehicles in a transport museum and wonderful calm waters on the Broads.

I’ll admit there weren’t many big skies or parcels of flat land in Norwich, but there are in this post!

Flat land, big sky!

WARNING – IMAGE-HEAVY POST.  I’ve posted small-ish photos on this post, but you can click on them to view a larger image.  I’ve also put them behind a “cut” so if you’re viewing this post from the main page I wont be responsible for major bandwidth-suckage.

Better late than never, right?  So, in late June I spent 3 days in South Norfolk, England (to differentiate any other Norfolk out there in the world.  Pioneers don’t seem to have been very imaginative with naming the places they stumbled across) and I’ve selected a few photos to best illustrate my time there.

I stayed in Great Yarmouth and travelled to Norwich, a museum just outside Lowestoft (Suffolk) and the Broads.

I’ve split those three days over two posts.  Norwich today and Great Yarmouth, The Transport Museum and the Broads trip tomorrow.

The Galloway Peninsular

Howdy! Long-time no blog! I’ve been busy recently and a bit stressed, so I treated myself to a weekend away. I went to the Galloway peninsular in south-western Scotland (it’s the bit that sticks out into the Irish sea and is just 20-odd miles away from Northern Ireland).

Apart from getting stuck in a traffic jam for over two hours that resulted from a fatal car crash (can’t really complain, I wasn’t dead and I got some knitting done) the trip went well.

Here are a few photographic highlights (the full set is here):

Portpatrick shrouded in early morning fog

Wigtown – Best. Bookshop. Ever.

Seriously, it was like a TARDIS in there – seven kinds of awesome!

Kirkcudbright (pronounced ker-koo-bree) showing signs of spring

Thank the gods for the Co-op – I bought a make-shift picnic lunch and ate it overlooking the harbour at Kirkcudbright. How British is that?

The Mull of Galloway (most southerly point in Scotland) and its lighthouse – stunning place. Very, very windy (obviously!)

Feeding some mountain goats in the New Galloway Forest – their eyes look just unreal!