And some more...

The momentum of events from August spilled into September where I truly cannot believe how quickly the month has passed. The adage "time flies when you are having fun" holds true. Here is what I was up to:

As promised, a short report (and more than one pic) of the Broome Farm Cider Festival. The girlies were absent last year, so ensured that we doubled our presence for this year's festival. With cracking weather, ten of us set sail down the M50 to anchor ho' in our regular plot o'land in the orchard. Two big tents and one luggage hold-come-dressing tent was where we settled for the weekend. It was as good as we remembered it and we were remembered (and missed?!) by more than a few of the regulars.Who doesn't love the girls from Brum crashing a posh-party in the countryside ;) Ceilidh on the Friday night and a line of up bands (and pirates) on the Saturday prompted us to let loose and have a good weekend boogie. And before you ask, there is no good reason (nor bad one) for the fancy dress- rather: Why not?! What else ensured... well, what happens at Cider Fest, stays at Cider Fest... but here are a few pics.

Ceilidh Dancing (essentially Gaelic line dancing)

Cider Market

Cream Tea

Hair wraps and make up to pass day.

The Girls!

From Cider Fest, it was straight to Loerrach, Germany for work for a 3 day on, one week off, one week on stint at the Milka factory. Hooray! 

In between my weeks in Germany, I managed to squeeze in a wine tasting session. Yay for Groupon! 14-squids for a two hour wine tasting session + tapas. This was either going to go really well or really wrong- and I was feeling in a particular bossy-pants mood on the evening (thus setting it up to lean to the latter). I was pleasantly surprised how well the evening went (perhaps with the lubricant of all of the wine), and only managed to Hermoine the host once to correct him on the term subjective vs. objective response in detecting specific flavour notes. He  took the correction on and still sent me the wine list from the evening. 

The wine list was surprising- three whites, four reds, and a Muscadet all from the High Street. A mix of varietals and a mix of flavour profiles. What was nice was that all of the wines on the list were affordable and interaction was encouraged throughout the night- much different from any of the vineyard tastings that I have been to where they serve you the smallest drop and push you to purchase lots of anything. Different nights throughout the month were focused on a different region, and one thing that I miss from being in Edmonton is a selection of Zinfandel (Red!). So if I was to get anything off affirmative from the evening, it was to be where I can buy a good bottle of Zin.

I also managed to sneak in a quick trip to the big city to check another band off of the list: Beirut. It really pays to like bands on Facebook, because when they are in a city near by and the tickets go on sale (or they have tickets they haven't fully sold), an update usually comes along. I've managed to purchase tickets three times in the past two years in this way, rather than patrolling the Ticketmaster website. Win!

The gig was good- better than good, it was fab! My cheeks were sore from smiling the entire night. The experience was fab because instead of playing their songs as they are on the albums, each song was played in a slightly different style and you knew that this was the only time you would hear the song played in such a special way. And who doesn't love to hear the musicality and power of a brass section live!

With the Saturday in London to myself, the question of the morning was- which market to visit? and I chose to wander back down to Camden. In this visit I decided that Camden trumps Portobello. They are both samey-samey (within themselves rather than comparatively) year on year, where you probably only need to visit once and any return within the same year would be to purchase a known object. But having not been to Camden in over a year, it felt as fresh as it did when I first visited. I like the variety in Camden, there really is more of something for everyone. Portobello is more antique-y, cute, and vintage hipster (and don't even get me started on vintage hipster- I have at least one blog's worth of observations for another time); whereas, you have all of that in Camden next to a stall that sells gas masks and fetish next to a stall that sells fluffy cartoony key rings and bags to the Manga crowd- the mix is what I love.

Back to Brum to go back to Germany to come back again and fill the rest of my September at home cleaning and ironing and ticking tasks off of the list. And I can say that I have (well, Craig did) finally kicked my butt enough to finish one of my arts and crafts August projects- my cork board. My problem with arts and crafts is that I see a good idea and think- I want to have a go at that- I accumulate all the necessary items, start the craft, and get angry with myself half way through. But, I can't stop, so I keep on going and growing angry because of the internal dialogue in my head going "why did you start this?" "because you want something cool and hand-made in your house" "but you could just buy it" "but then you can't brag and say I did it" "why don't you just finish up for now" "because I probably won't ever start it up again" "why don't you just hurry up and do it" "because I can't do it crap- it needs to look good" "AAAARGH but it is so painstaking" "stupid linear OCD"... see, this is why I should steer clear in the first place. And now it's making me anxious because I have one more project that I want to do which is for decorating the dining room. I haven't started yet (apart from accumulating materials), but can't think of any other way in which I want to decorate the dining room, nor can I think of any good excuse to get out of starting. Sigh. In any case, I will leave you with my cork board and the answer "no, I did not drink all of the wine; but, had I thought of this task two years prior, then I would have had all personal corks to attach".

Moving and Grooving

I know I said that this month was to be Arts and Crafts August... but with the amount of comings and goings and ins and outs we have had this month, my arts and crafts have truly remained buried in the garage, and at the side of the sofa, and firmly in my brain. However, I did manage to secure one of my crafty projects in the hair of my good friend Jackie for her wedding... you'll see....

After a pretty eventful July, the momentum kept up with the opening of the Olympics in London. I was in two minds whether or not to stay clear or jump on the band-wagon and as the hype intensified, I had a feeling I would be joining in. Some twisting of my rubber arm from my Mom (just go, you never know when you will get to be a part of it again) cemented it and I bought some tickets to see Canada play South Africa in the Women's Soccer. It was nearby (Coventry) and the stadium was maybe 1/3 full, but all geared up and ready to shout De-Fence, I was ready to take it in with other passionate Canuks. Victory was ours and this taster was enough to get me addicted. I managed to convince Craig and some other team GB supporters to watch the Canada vs. GB quarter final match, where even Craig was impressed with the calibre of our women (he was also not at all impressed with the calibre of refereeing, but everyone is a critic). What impressed me most was the inclusive and family atmosphere in the stadium when I was a lone Maple Leaf in a sea of GB, where usually such seating arrangements are heavily tabooed. I was able to raise my flag high in support of the goals the girls scored- apart from a deathly scowl I kept getting off a well-trained 8-year old football fan. The only thing I hadn't done to this point was paint/tattoo my face with a group of fellow Canadians, but Corinne soon fixed that. Her Mom had a spare ticket to give me for the Equestrian in London and at last I was truly going to be a part of the best Olympics to date.

Splitting the Western and Eastern Hemispheres at Greenwich. I have now stood at the North/ South (Equator at Quito, Ecuador) and East/West (Greenwich,UK) divides!

Post-Olympics and with an entertainment comedown (as they were calling it in the media), I had to focus on the next big task- learn to solder! Yes, I can solder (and I can also use a bandsaw), and I learned to do it so I could make Jackie's wedding hairpiece. At first when I volunteered my efforts, I suspected sticking some feathers and sparkly bits together on a hair comb with some hot glue; but when she showed me the intricate pearls and rhinestones that she wanted, I did panic. I thought I could either say, Sorry- you'll have to buy it yourself, or else give it a go. 

As I have a bit more free time these days, I thought I would give it a try. The first hardest bit was to find the silly decorations! I had a heck of a time finding metallised rhinestones on silver sticks to attach to a hair comb. In the end, I ended up purchasing a few different "cheap for you" pre-made combs from some e-bay shop in Hong Kong. Step 2: learn to assemble the disassembled bits. This is where YouTube is handy. Type in Jewelry Soldering and you get a good selection of middle aged American women teaching you how to solder. If they can do it, I certainly can, and I certainly did. Into the garage for a solid few hours, set up my "helping hands" to hold the bits in place, and fire up the magic-screwdriver (this is what my very cheap soldering iron looked like- a screwdriver with a very hot tip). And Voila... the fruits of my labour for a very happy bride.

Jackie and Rob's wedding was a part of the comings and goings I spoke to earlier; and the event was a mash up of North vs. Midlands: the Mackem FCP Crew vs. the Brum gang... it was all going to go either horribly wrong or incredibly well, and I can say (and so can many others) that their wedding was truly one of the best wedding we have ever been to. An entertaining day with the best of old chums coming together to celebrate our good friends' marriage. Cheers to Rob and Jackie!

As part of the support for the wedding we hosted nos amis de France: Fred and Aud for five days and four Mackems for one night. My liver was pickled from Wednesday to Monday (the recycling box was looking very healthy, and by healthy, I mean overflowing). The good thing about hosting visitors (apart from seeing good friends you haven't seen in a very long time) is that it means I can go see a castle (to Kenilworth it was) and eat at nice restaurants (I highly recommend Lasan- winner of Gordon Ramsay's F-Word). But, by Monday all I wanted to do was lock myself in a room and not speak to anybody... for a long, long time.

All the visitors gone, and you would think I could get a bit of rest or have a relaxing Bank Holiday camping trip to the south coast with our favourite camping crew the Nowell's- but no, all the camping sites were booked. So unfortunately, my yearly coastline pics have been replaced by a weekend away to a lovely fishing lake in Evesham where Craig managed to jump in the lake to catch his rod (and not the fish) and a large chunk of time (3-days) was spent trying to hash out a 6-block wooden brainteaser puzzle. What I can promise you for next month though, is a report, well a picture, as I more than likely won't remember much of what happened, from the Broome Farm Cider Festival. Yarrr... ;)