my life

Finally, OUTSIDE

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After four months of going nowhere but the occasional field I have been to Bradgate Park in Leicester! Oh thank god. It’s so nice to BE OUT.

No-one else was wearing masks… apart from this elf we found in a tree on the way there.

I took a panorama with my phone once we got there. Surprisingly there are no deer in it (they are everywhere)

See, here’s one. This deer has an expression on his face I cannot read.

More deer.

Dave took most of the above photos (only numbers 2 and 6 are mine I think) and he also took these AMAZING ones of a white deer chilling in the ruins of Lady Jane Grey’s estate. There was a wall in the way but he STILL MANAGED IT!

The Romantic/gothy side of me likes to think, maybe that’s Lady Jane’s reincarnated spirit wandering around there.

Meanwhile I took a picture of an interesting wall.

Dave then got this amazing photo of a dragonfly which are very hard to photograph-

AND THEN! WE CLIMBED! ALL THE WAY UP to Old John.

It’s much harder to get to than it looks from here, trust me.

I took this photo halfway up:

It’s worth it for the views, if your legs can take it.

Here’s some pictures I took at the top!

Here’s a couple of slightly more imposing-looking ones I took with my phone.

And then just before we left suddenly a noisy peacock flew overhead! Sadly neither of us got any photos of it in flight, but I WAS able to get close enough to it to take this:

And that was I think everything, and oh my god my legs are killing me.

Vintage Disneyworld: 1999 edition

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Hey remember all my posts of photos from when my family went to Disneyworld in 1996? Well we went in 1999 as well (I was a spoiled kid) and only recently have I uncovered photos from that. There’s not nearly as many (I figure the rest will show up eventually) and they’re pretty small images but, wanna see?

Animal Kingdom would have just opened at this point I think. It was about a year old when this photo was taken!

I imagine I was probably pretty fascinated by the dinosaurs scattered around Animal Kingdom. I seem to remember the movie Dinosaur was being advertised in the park a lot and there was at least one “Dinosaur” themed ride? Alas, I fear it didn’t stand the test of time.

On the cable cars again! Those things must’ve been popular. So I guess the body of water on the right is the submarine lake with the submarines long gone.

Tomorrowland as viewed from the cable cars. I remember the racing car ride there but couldn’t say with any certainty what it was called.

The castle, presumably also viewed from the cable cars since there’s no crowds getting in the way.

Space Mountain, ditto. Is now a good time to point out I find the Disneyworld Space Mountain design so terribly dull? Feast your eyes instead on the Disneyland Paris one. It’s a WORK OF ART.

Oh but this is Spectromagic and that was also a work of art!

Right here is a blurry dolphin and my 13-year-old self wrote on the photo that this was at Epcot, they had dolphins at Epcot? Oh wait they did! And still do! I also gather animal rights activists aren’t happy about it and well, fair enough.

Elsewhere in Epcot, who’s this guy? This would have been at Innoventions, which was closed for good and reduced to rubble just last year, aww man. Oh here’s a video of him! I think his name is Starnac. Wonder where he is now.

Ah here is The Electric Umbrella! That name stuck in my mind for ages for some reason.

This is IllumiNations which took place over the Epcot lake! Also hooray, 90s cameras had evolved to be able to take pictures of fireworks at that point.

Minnie Mouse! Oh my GOD you can see my training bra under my shirt in this picture.

An AT-AT! That must be the building Star Tours was in?


Curiously the only Disneyworld ’99 snaps I do have in high definition are ones from Typhoon Lagoon. Here’s the Typhoon Lagoon boat!

In fact WAIT I have a picture of that boat from ’96 as well! So here’s the two side-by-side.

And that’s about it! (I really hope I find the rest some day though.)

You can repost the pictures of the attractions here, but please don’t repost any pictures with people in them!

Lockdown

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Sigh. This is an awful situation. (And one you most likely already know about if you’ve been reading the news.)

I’m lucky, insanely lucky, because I live just outside of the lockdown zone. I found that out today. I can’t go visit people or go to the city center or visit the next town over, but I’m in an area that has so far had zero deaths.

The mood on Facebook and the other social media hangouts for Leicesterians is a very, very subdued one. Also, because Leicester is known for being so diverse there have been pockets of hate and racism cropping up and Twitter will not do anything about them. That’s awful too.

It’s weird and surreal and really, really not great to be spared when everyone around you is suffering.

BECAUSE I’M ONE OF THE IDIOTS WHO LIVES IN IT! part 3

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So obviously I haven’t been writing about my garden growing attempts for some time, since first winter happened and then a massive global pandemic happened. But! BUT! Now food is growing in the garden! Actual food!

These sprung up literally overnight. They’re pea pods! (Probably.) A few months ago they looked like this:

And now they’ve grown! Oh I’m so proud.

Next to those are carrots and lettuces:

And then there’s the potatoes! The potatoes have EXCELLED. They went from this:

To this!

There’s more growing in a flowerbed too. (Same flowerbed as last year.)

So yeah, good news all round!

Cleethorpes, UK. Not usually known for its beauty. — Stickety Sweeet

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Cleethorpes, UK. Not usually known for its beauty. Touch here for the full post on the Quite Gorgeous Everythings tumblr — See these photos and more on eBay!

Cleethorpes, UK. Not usually known for its beauty. — Stickety Sweeet

Unexpected Cleethorpes on the dashboard!

Cleethorpes is far from beautiful, but I miss it terribly, especially now. I spent so much of my childhood running up and down its beaches… and of course my grandmother is still there. When all this is over I want to go visit her, but oh man, that “when.”

Well, I suppose there’s no point dwelling. Have a picture I found on Reddit that is also very much, ah, the Cleethorpes I remember.

Just moved back up North. Truly I am back with my people. from CasualUK

The Big Night In Blackadder bit

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Since I posted the Doctor Who segement of The Big Night In I thought, let’s post the Blackadder bit as well. It… wasn’t actually much to do with Blackadder, and much more to do with Prince William, but what the hey. Also it led into the Clap for the NHS, which is obviously a political minefield of the “Fuck the Tories forever” variety right now but I still found it kinda touching. Hearing clapping on the TV and going out to hear more clapping, and even damn fireworks finally, it was… I don’t know. It was an experience.

More scenes from a pandemic

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Ventured outside for supplies. It was very grey and wet. Signs everywhere.

The guy letting people into the supermarket seemed pretty cheerful, but I heard him talking about incidents elsewhere where customers had deliberately spat on staff.

While waiting in the queue a woman came towards it coughing and coughing and coughing. She wasn’t covering her mouth or making any effort at all not to spread her germs. I try not to wish ill on people but my god did I wish ill on her. She was walking alongside a pram which presumably had a baby in it. I can’t even describe the disgust I felt at that moment.

It’s been a bleak day.

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