I've had a reaaaaally long day today, so I won't be writing very much.
I had an ordinary day and went to the dementia sessions which were a little more subdued than our past couple of weeks, but we still all had a good time.
Then this evening I went to my secret rehearsal!
If you want to know what that's about, you'll have to get tickets to see The Buried Heart! Its gonna be super spooky though, not recommended for those who aren't prepared for the darkness!
Who knows? Perhaps tomorrow I will do a Hallowe'en themed post!
Today, this is me on a boat, on my way back from a secret rehearsal:
...you can't tell by that light, but I have a lot of stage grime on my face.
So recently my shoes have been looking a bit like this:
...except in red. Because my converses are red. And as its getting to be wet and windy in the world, its high time I got myself a new pair of shoes. I loathe shoe shopping, and would do almost anything to avoid it. In fact any kind of clothes shopping, I'd try to avoid. But I was recently sent some money specifically for the purchasing of shoes (thanks, Nana, you're the best!) and I did think I could go back to the old standby of just buying another pair of converses in a different colour, but waaay in the back of my mind I heard my mum saying "...what about some Docs?" so I thought as I have doc boots, but not doc shoes, I'd take a look at their website. I scrolled through a few pages of very very nice boots and shoes that were all in the region of £150 and it took me a little while before I noticed the "Sale" Tab. In there, I found these shoes:
....Never in my life have I coveted footwear so much. Never have I freaked out so much over shoes. It seems so stereotypical of a woman, but I promise this is the first time in 23 years that this has happened to me. And its not as if they are stilettos, or shoes that I will only ever wear once. Not that there's anything wrong with desperately wanting a pair of shoes you don't necessarily need, or aren't necessarily practical; just that having this reaction to shoes is a hitherto, unheard of behaviour in me.
...so I was utterly devastated to find that the website only had sizes 8 and 9 in stock. I'm usually a 5. And after whining to my father about this over facebook, he reminded me that there were other places that might stock these shoes in the right size. I'm still on that mish, but the closest I have found so far are a 4.
...the next step in my mission is to go to the next town over when I have the morning off on Friday and try on a pair of size 4 Doc Marten shoes to see if they fit. The size 4 pair I found are virtually secured, as I contacted the person selling them and they told me that if that pair are sold before I find out, he can source another pair that size if I find that the 4s do fit me. And they're a unisex shoe, so the sizes are slightly different to normal. On top of that, my size 5 Doc Marten green boots are very slightly too large. So there is hope. There is hope, people.
I remember having worn this style of shoe (albeit a much less heavy duty version, and brown and green rather than red, white and navy/black) in a show I was in once and having been surprised at how much I liked them then. And being disappointed that the wardrobe department wouldn't allow me to buy the shoes from them, despite being the only person to have ever fitted those shoes owing to my super narrow feet.
I'll keep you updated on what happens with the shoes folks! But yeah. Have you ever gone crazy over a very particular pair of shoes? Let me know in the comments!
Today I've been doing some things that I don't often do, but have come to the conclusion that some of them are underrated:
1. the pixar movie A Bug's Life. Alright, it's not technically the most impressive film they've ever made- it was pre-Toy Story 2, in fact. But I still really like it :) Fun fact, Princess Dot is voiced by a pre-pubescent Hayden Panetierre. I find this HILARIOUS.
2. Getting up and dancing for no reason. I did this whilst on FaceTime earlier. Sorry. But also, not sorry, because it was fun.
3. Carrots. Because they're crunchy and delicious and make a great midnight snack.
4. Making sure your packed lunch is ready so that in the morning you will get that tiny extra bit of time in bed. Trust me, when the wind and rain are howling at your window, its worth it.
5. Making friends with whatever is making the creepy window noise. Because even though its an utterly bizarre sound, you can't help but feel it's one of the idiosyncrasies of your living space, and it should be embraced.
6. Taking the time to flow with your creative juices, rather than expecting inspiration to strike like lightening. Don't get me wrong, sometimes inspiration does strike like this, but you can't force it. If I'm struggling to do something creative (in today's case, make progress on my script) I just ...forget about it. Sometimes I go and watch some TED Talks, and sometimes I play some music or sometimes I just watch an episode of Adventure Time to lull my brain into forgetting that it was trying. Often, it works!
7. The satisfaction of finding that word you've been looking for to describe something for ages. This happened to me recently. The word was gratuitous. I love that word.
8. Finally getting rid of your ear worms!! You know ear worms right? Those songs that just get stuck in your head for days or even weeks until you either forget or force them out of your head? well they say that listening to the track in its entirety does the trick, but it doesn't for me- for me I have to sing along with it.
....And that's all I can think of right now....I'm sure there are more, but this clock turned back business is confusing my brain slightly, so I'm gonna go to sleep. If you think there are some underrated things, let me know in the comments! :D
Sorry this is so late! I've been in my pyjamas all day and I have not one jot of regret.
Today my blogpost is about the strange noise that I can here in my room. I've heard it before, but I'm still not sure where its coming from.
at the moment I'm thinking its probably coming from the window but I can't be sure. It sounds like a cross between a person badly playing two, out of tune accordions and a llama having an athsma attack. It might be pipes though. But it might also be a draught. But it might also be a poltergeist.
It sounds like the disappointed sigh of a cave with two dragons in it
It sounds like when children have suffered a mild disappointment
Its the sound of someone who's fallen asleep with a kazoo half in their mouth
Its like when two people are asked a difficult question at the same time and they both go "uhhh" in sync.
Its like the sound of a monster sneezing but trying to cover up the fact that they've sneezed.
I've heard it before and I've been unable to locate it the last few times I've heard it. Someone I was chatting with suggested it might be the wind, so I got up to have a look and there was still a sound, but a mysterious lack of windy related activity to be seen outside my window.
Anybody got any ideas of what it might be?? Let me know in the comments!
I'm super sleepy and very stressed so I won't be properly blogging today. I'm not even going to bother sharing this on Facebook because there is nothing worth reading in this post.
I have the weekend off however, so I'm going to have something more to say tomorrow :)
Last night I was blogging rather later than I had intended to be doing, and as a result was something of a zombie in the morning when I had to get the bus.
Normally when we get an early bus in, its because the next bus to come in is too late for us, so we go and have breakfast together in a nearby cafe. Today, I walked in and almost instantly, the girl behind the counter said "Oh dear... would you like a coffee? Large?" to which I replied "Yes. Yes I would" in probably the most exhausted voice I have ever heard leave my mouth, quickly followed by "Andatoastedteacake"- I write it like this because it probably sounded all like one word to the poor woman. After we told her we'd be coming in early every day next week, so she'd probably see a lot of us, she said "Ok, well then I'd better tell you my name. I'm Tasha." So we called her Teacake Tasha.
Another member of staff (who was far too chirpy for this time of day, even by my standards) came over and asked if I had a violin in my case- I didn't. I told him it was a tenor ukulele- we explained what we were doing and why etc, and we proceeded to have a very pleasant conversation about busking in the local area; he reckons you can make £20 an hour "twice as much, as you're a girl" (Cheeky! Meant perfectly innocently though) and then he told us about the best busking spots in town. I think I might apply for a busker's licence! During the course of our breakfast, we also saw him calling after another customer who he'd accidentally shortchanged, and righted this mistake. For this reason, we called him Nice Mark. We did know his name was Mark, because we asked him. We weren't just making up people's names. Although sometimes I do that in my head and assign people names if I see them regularly but never speak to them. But maybe that's just me....? this is the point at which you, reader, will reassure me in the comment section below!
Our Treasures workshops went very well too!
Today, this is me with Becca, my fellow intern:
Becca said "I look a right state" and I said "So do I, and we're united. We can be the United States of Keswick" Ladies and gents, the US of K.
I don't really have much to write about today, as I've been a bit busy this evening with some volunteering (I'll go into that another time), which means after having had my dinner and everything I've left it rather late to be writing my blog for today. So for now I'm going to talk a little bit about "Treasures" as that will be the theme in the workshop I'm taking in part in tomorrow. This post might be a bit short...
I think there is a lot to be said for the wide range of bases that the word "treasure" (and derivatives such as "treasured" or "treasuring" among others) Because it can mean both a noun and a verb- that is, you treasure something, and whatever you are treasuring, becomes a treasure. Less complicated than it sounds.
But I think that what a person considers a treasure probably reveals a lot about what kind of a person they are- I think that gold and jewels of the kind found in Aladdin's cave can be considered some sort of universally agreed treasure- it has value and it is worth something, and that worth can be translated into any currency that bears monetary value.
But what interests me more are the treasures that are more... idiosyncratic, lets say. The things that people keep as mementos or tokens of bits of their lives. Under my bed at home (at home home, not the place I live while I'm working) I have a big shoebox labelled "Stuff that is very important to me" and under that "Private, keep out". Its the box that once had my green Doc Marten boots in it. Inside are all sorts of things. Mostly letters from various people in my life, cards I've been sent on my birthday. There's a painted bottle in there given to me by a friend shortly before I left to go to America. There's a rolo in there- its old and probably inedible now, but I kept it from maybe 6 or 7 years ago when someone very important to me decided that they wanted to give me their last rolo. There are tickets from all the theatre shows and films I've been to see since somewhere in the middle of 2008. There are invitations to parties, some of which have been the best nights of my life. There are tokens from the first x y and z that I did/happened to me. Photos of times when I was so young, I couldn't remember them, from all bits of my life; but I look back at all these things and I think- y'know what? It's been pretty alright, this life of mine.
All these things are my treasures. Things that I treasure. When I decided that's where I'd keep the box, I thought that if I had to wake up and escape from a fire in my house, all the things that were so important to me would be right there and I could get them out really easily.
...Fortunately I am less paranoid about house fires now. Wow that post was longer than I was expecting. Guess you just caught me on a ramble!
What about you? What sorts of things do you treasure? Do you have a collection of things in a box? Or maybe they're on display somewhere where you can look at them all the time? Let me know in the comments!
Today I got my train back after dodging the rain in Lancaster and somehow managing to buy some jeans, a top and some glue and then have an impromptu and spontaneous hot chocolate with Bernadette.
There were some pretty cool things along the journey- firstly when I sat down, I found this bit of paper:
For those of you who may be unable to decipher the handwriting, it says "Never let the fear of striking stop you from playing the game" which I think was someone's attempt at leaving an inspiring quote for the next journey maker to sit in that spot. Which would've been great, but I'm not entirely certain what it means- sure there's a "Don't let a fear of failure stop you from acting at all" message, but I think there is a subtle difference between my interpretation and the words actually used that I can't quire put my finger on. I think its something to do with the use of the word strike- perhaps this is a quote from something that I don't recognise? It seems to be a baseball metaphor, but as baseball is not really a game that is popular here, and if it is a baseball metaphor I can safely assume either (1) it was left by a person from a country or culture where baseball is popular and/or (2) this is a quote from a film that I have not seen.
...Or perhaps I am thinking too deeply into this? ...regardless I left a note of my own that I thought was a lot less ambiguous in the hope that it might stir somebody into taking some sort of action. But I won't tell you what it said, that'd spoil the mystery!
As I sometimes do when I have nothing to occupy myself, I made some paper birds out of a sheet of paper from my notebook. Not long after I had completed the second one, a huge number of children got on the train (I think perhaps at Ulverston, but I wasn't really playing close attention because I knew I had a really long time before I was due to get off the train) and as I had been rather greedy with the space I had to move my coat and bag so some of them could sit down. They quickly became interested in the birds and when I told them they could have them if they wanted they got very excited (they being 3 boys somewhere between the ages of 11 and 13) and started throwing them at/to each other and mis-pronouncing the word origami as "orij-ammy" which caused me a great deal of amusement as I pretended not to look and listen, using the reflection of the window and my over sized earphones as cover for my subtle spying.
Here are some things that I deemed picture worthy during my train journey-
a rainbow that was really bright, but you can hardly see it here because of the light coming from the other side of the train reflected in the window I was sat next to.
Shortly after this (and I'm talking about a minute whilst I changed the podcast on my phone) I looked up and we were riding through what appeared to be a torrential downpour. Weird.
This is a lighthouse! I just thought it looked nice on top of the hill. Needless to say the rain had stopped by then.
I tried to get a picture of the sun setting, but this was the best I could do! I thought the water looked quite interesting though.
These are the originals, but I might try to instagram them... I'm still not entirely sure that instagram isn't just for pictures of my culinary creations but I'll certainly give it a go at using it properly.
Ever found a note left on a train? Maybe you've left one yourself? Let me know in the comments :)
***Also I'm nearing the 5000 views mark on this blog! thanks to everyone for your continued readership!! ***
Today, this is me during what I thought would be the only 30 seconds of the day that it wasn't raining in Lancaster:
Sorry this post is appearing rather late- I've been out!
This afternoon I was supposed to buy some new jeans, but it was really horrible out, so I decided not to bother.
I had my dinner at the pub (spicy soup!) with Anna and then I came home. To my annoyance, my clothes had not yet dried, so I decided to put them into the tumble drier.
The problem with doing this is that I often forget about my clothes and get hijacked into doing something else- in today's case, watching tv and chatting to my parents, as I'm not going to see my dad again until the next time I come home, which is likely to be at christmas. And I forgot all about my clothes until about five minutes ago, when the drier had finished ages ago and I got them out and they were dry, but cold and wrinkly. So they'll just have to go in my suitcase like that!!
And speaking of suitcases, it is time for my little trip back home to come to an end. In a way, I'm glad to be going back, but I'm still sad to leave my friends and family behind, especially due to my complete lack of friends in Workington (which is arguably my own fault as I've not made a huge amount of effort to make friends there yet- largely because Workington is not an especially inspiring place in which to form friendships); but in another way I will be glad to get back to my job because it makes me feel like a useful human being, and I love it so much!
I hope you are all well :) Most of today's activities have involved donating ketchup, sleeping and catching up on tv that I've missed over the past few days and then rearranging the things I was supposed to do and people I was supposed to meet today for tomorrow... which is when I will have something more interesting to say for tomorrow I have some plans of interest which I will carry out a thorough blogging of as soon as I can.
Sorry this has been so short, but to make up for it, I'll put some funny videos in:
I chose the goat video because, lets face it, the fainting goats are hilarious. The other day at dinner time my brother and I discovered that our parents knew nothing about them. I whipped out my phone and quickly educated them on the subject, and there was much dinner time merriment.
I chose this video because (a) I love CommunityChannel videos and (b) When I first started wearing glasses, I used to get a lot of this.
Today, this is me, very ready to go back to sleep:
I've been enjoying being back at home. Especially being back seeing my little flock of birds again. I'd forgotten how much I'd missed them! It makes me wish there was a little more character back in my other room further north- I swear the landlord has treated the walls with something that means nothing will stick to it. Perhaps if my last place I lived (that wasn't my parents' house) was called the icebox, I should call this one the teflon room? Who can say!!
Today, this is me appreciating being surrounded by all the bright things I like in my room :)
It looks like the clanger is sitting on my shoulder! But she's on the edge of the bed, that's where her clanger holiday home is!
Remember when I was all apprehensive and anxious/sceptical about what my experiences would be like upon the 555 bus? Well my ideas were totally WRONG. It was awesome. The only thing that could've made it better would've been to complete the journey in daylight and to have had the top deck front seat for the entirety of the journey.
Here's some pictures I took from the bus
I got chatting to some older folk on the bus and they told me they were going on a bus pass adventure!! We sat on the front together, about 8 of us and whooped when we went over dips in the road!
I shouldn't have been worried ;)
Today, this is me, rather pleased with how my journey was going:
Today, moreover, this evening, I have been packing. For tomorrow, I am to take the dreaded 555 bus from Keswick and ride it for almost its ENTIRE possible course all the way to Lancaster.
...I'm not entirely sure why I have developed this ominous feeling about the 555, but I think it is probably a problem born in Lancaster. Whenever anyone mentions it, they do that thing that plumbers or electricians or mechanics do of sucking their teeth, shaking there heads and saying something vague. Seldom seen, and the reminder that it is going a very long way for a bus, the 555 is a symbol of all that could go wrong with public transport. For example.
1. It could be really cold. And if your bus is going to take around about 3 hours, this isn't an attractive prospect.
2. Its going a long a LOT of country roads. This could lead to all sorts of conundrums such as getting stuck in mud, and all the passengers having to get out and push the bus; or hitting a sheep and having to stop until a vet or a farmer or someone can come and take the sheep away- this situation would be even worse if it were a cow or a horse, because at least a sheep is easily moved by people who don't have any kind of zoological training. Though having a GCSE in rural and agricultural science (grade B, in case you were wondering) I'd gladly step up to the plate and shift that sheep outta the road!
3. If you get stuck on the bus with someone overly chatty, or very smelly you're faced with the prospect of potentially being stuck with them for a horrendously long time. You have no idea when they're going to get off, so you have no idea whether or not you should move. Then you wait it out til halfway through your journey, realise that if you were to move now, you would've already spent the majority of your journey near the smelly or chatty person, so you might as well stick it out to the bitter end now.
4. They claim that the route is "scenic" this means- goes through a lot of countryside. This means windy roads. This means travel sickness. This means every time you view the beauty of the lake district, you are reminded of how you felt so disgusting on that bus that one time.
....I'll let you all know how it all goes of course! What are some of your worst journey nightmares? Let me know in the comments!!
Today, this is me having eaten the sun. Literally :
Recently, as in, Monday- yesterday, I bought some ginger tea because they were cheap in the shop down the road. Usually I would be drinking water or coffee at home and peppermint tea at work. Very occasionally I'd drink some blackcurrant high juice at home.
But since the buying of the ginger tea, I have had almost nothing else. It is fiery and soothing and I think its helping me battle the cold I've been feeling come on.
I'm also helping it will help me with the frankly enormous quantity of garlic I ate this evening in my dinner, which was super delish.
I still really like peppermint tea, but this has something that peppermint just doesn't- its FIERY! And I like fiery. It reminds me of me. Especially if I'm wearing orange like I am now.
...I decided, I could have one more cup of tea before I went to bed.
Today, this is me with the pot of haagen daaz I was finally able to defeat upon my third attempt:
So today I had another day off because I'd been working on Saturday. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, I decided that I'd like to sleep in a bit.
It was all going swimmingly until I was awoken by the sound of something very heavy being dragged up the stairs directly behind the wall where my head was. I think it can generally be agreed that the sound of banging and drills did not improve my lie in. It was about 8.30 when I first woke up and I thought "ah... I don't need to get up yet, I can just sleep until I feel like getting up, because today is mine" (although, as per usual I spent a great deal of time thinking about what I'm going to be doing at work tomorrow, partly because its so interesting and partly because I love my job so much)
So I fell asleep again, and was woken by all this noise!! But it was, by this time, embarrassingly late to be still asleep considering that everyone else was out at work by this point. I was wondering how long it would take before the landlord and the plumber would leave (they were fitting a new shower in the bathroom on the floor above mine) but after waiting nearly an hour, they still hadn't gone. By this time it was about 11.30 and I was starting to get seriously hungry.
... I went to facebook for help and a number of my friends provided me with helpful escape tips, some of which I used. I was surprised that I managed to go downstairs, and put my laundry in the washer and creep out of the house and go to the co-op for bread and biscuits and ginger tea bags. And then I managed to get back in the house and make beans on toast before I was finally discovered. The conversation went something like this:
Landlord: Oh, hello. I didn't realise you were here
Me: Yep. Morning- um..just about
(it was nearly 12)
Landlord: Are you not at work today then?
Me: Apparently not.
Landlord: How come?
Me: I worked on Saturday.
-plumber comes in-
Me: Hello. Do you need me to move my things?
-plumber nearly whacks head on lowered washing rack-
Plumber: No, its fine.
Landlord: Did the new housemate get moved in ok?
Me: Yep.
Landlord: You got her keys to her ok and everything?
Me: Yep.
-an awkward silence-
Landlord: OK, well we'll just get on with it then.
....it wasn't as embarrassing as I thought, being caught eating baked beans at an odd time. But it was very awkward trying to justify why I was doing it.
In other news, I've successfully returned my far too big jeans, posted my letter to Bernadette and bought a new screen protector for my phone! How productive of me.
...I have also just been embroiled in a mystery FaceTime incident...! If it was who I think it was, then it is tres interesting, but it wouldn't connect!
Today, this is me, relieved after my conversation with the landlord and plumber:
Many thanks for all your messages of support yesterday!
Other things that happened yesterday included me having an utterly awesome day at work, having expected a complete deluge durum the day and having a wonderful day in the sunshine! It's actually for something that is technically a secret project. But I can tell you that it's on an island in the middle of a lake in the dark. And it's on Halloween. So that shoul give you a clue as to what we were all up to. The picture above wasn't taken by me, but it IS the actual island that I was actually on.
On the way home it was a rather picturesque scene across Braithwaite, with the mountain in the other side reflected in the strangely still and glassy surface. It got me thinking- how deep is that lake, anyway?! because a reflection of the mountain fits in there pretty nicely- how do I know that a whole mountain wouldn't fit in the lake?? How deep is it? And who checked?? How do we know that there aren't eerie weird creatures at the bottom? I'd quite like to go down there and have a look if I was so terrified of becoming an ice block- because I'm sure I would become an ice block even if I was going down there in July.
There can't be that many people that can say they've been to the depths of the Lake District-which is something that I think would be quite impressive!!
So does anybody fancy sponsoring me to find a mini submarine, train me to use it, then transport it to some location in the Lake Districy where I could go deep-lake-diving? Great! I'll set up a KickStarter.
I've been working on this post for about a week to try and make sure that I get it exactly right. So here goes.
Let's not beat about the bush. I know why you're here, but in case some of you didn't know or hadn't guessed yet, I am bisexual. Shock, horror. No biggie.
But why haven't I said something before? Well a number of reasons.
1. Being bisexual may not be a biggie, but coming out feels like one. I'm totally fine with the reality that I'm attracted to men and women, but telling people this would require me to come out over and over again.
2. I'm lazy. Letting people assume that I was straight was easier than the repeated task of coming out.
3. I'm quite private about my sexuality. Until now that is- I felt today would be an appropriate day for coming out, what with it being national coming out day and all that jazz. I've kind of dropped the odd hint here and there, using gender neutral pronouns when talking about potential partners/relationships etc. or adding "or girlfriend" onto occasional sentences. I assumed some people might pick that up.
4. At the time I came out to myself, it had not been long since I has come out of a very abusive relationship, and I didn't want people to think that it was this that had "changed" me. I hadn't changed. Not like that anyway. I only talk to a select few about the details of what happened in that relationship, so if you don't already know, please don't ask me about it. Rest assured that I do have people I can talk to about it.
5. It shouldn't make a difference. It's my business and whoever I choose to be with; nobody else's.
6. I didn't want people to think this was a stepping stone to being gay. That's just not how it works and if you think it is, then you don't really understand humans very well.
7. Nobody ever actually asked me. So I don't feel like I've lied to anyone.
Some questions I have anticipated:
Q: does this mean you're attracted to everyone then?
A: no. If I was straight would you ask me if I was attracted to all men? Of course not. Talk about double standards!
Q: what about pansexuality?
A: I am not attracted to pans. In all seriousness though I did give that label a lot of thought but in the end decided that bisexual was more... Fitting for me.
Q: aren't you worried people will change their whole perception of you?
A: I'd like to say no, but I am. But I've decided to come out anyway. Any friends that decide this is worth ending a friendship over are not worth having as friends. If my family don't like it (this is probably the first they're hearing of it) then they're stuck with it. Can't imagine it's gonna be a problem with them though, they're all pretty cool people.
Q: what about work?
A: pur-lease. I work in a theatre. If there was a more welcoming/accepting place to be LGBT (and other letters to this ever extending acronym) then I'd like to see it! Not worried.
Q: do you prefer men or women?
A: I think you misunderstand the term "bisexual". I take it on a person by person basis.
Q: are you just doing this for attention?
A: Don't be so condescending. Really??
Q: are you serious?
A: yep. Given it lots of thought.
Q: how do you know you're bisexual?
A: you just do.
... So that's it! I'm telling you this because I trust you all not to put me in a box labelled "bisexual". I trust that you will leave me in the only box that matters- the one with my name on it. And to be honest I don't feel like I'm in a box. If you want to you can now go and shout from the rooftops "Rosa doesn't discriminate her attraction based on gender!" But you know what? I don't think it would bother anyone. Not one bit.
And if you STILL don't get it, have a look at these, and for goodness sake, educate yourself:
Today, this is me. Still me, the same as I was yesterday:
I had a really good day today, but as there is probably nothing happening tomorrow, I'll tell you about it then.
See you tomorrow!
-Rosa
x
p.s. to those of you whom this is not a complete revelation to, thank you for not keeping my confidence and allowing me to do this when I feel comfortable.
Basically I'm gonna talk about my commute again. I know you're probably tired of hearing about how great it is, but today something different happened.
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of it to show you because it was raining really hard and the windows of the bus were quite steamy. Basically the bus mysteriously went a different route to normal, leading to me seeing some things I thought were rather unusual.
....llamas. Lots of them. Just... standing around in a field. Not quite as scenic as this might suggest, but very strange, nevertheless. Which is a brilliant word.
Some other very odd, borderline alarming things that happened were that we crossed a bridge that only just seemed wide enough for the bus to cross it, and we were going at some definitely alarming speeds around some corners. Which is odd for a bus. I was starting to feel worried that I'd got on the wrong bus, Even though it said "X4 Keswick for Penrith" on it when I got on the bus- and yet outside I could see some of the same scenery as usual... but from the other side. I'm not sure if I'm right or not, but I think the bus went round the other side of the lake... which is really going to piss off the people who normally catch the bus as it goes around on it's normal route. But then thinking about it, I have absolutely no idea why it would've gone round a different way to normal- it had rained a lot the past 24 hours so the roads might have been flooded, but there hadn't been any weather warnings, and on the way back the bus went on the normal route and there was no sign of flooding on the road. Weird, right?? In fact there wasn't any water, but there was a thick, static, white smoke drifting from a chimney across the road from someone's house. It was the strangest smoke I'd ever seen- it didn't seem to move at all- it just....hung there. It looked like it was trapped in glass or something- or like when they put coloured glass inside a marble. It was utterly bizarre!
p.s. I called this post Llamas in the Lake district in honour/mockery of those Animal Ark books, of which I always liked the titles and cover illustrations as a young girl, but only ever owned one "puppy in the pantry" or something like that. It was about a border collie puppy that was born deaf. I can't really remember but I'm pretty sure that all those books were the same "Oh no! An abandon/sick animal! lets take it to my long-suffering veterinarian parents and give it vital resources that they can't really afford the time or money to treat without someone footing the bill" And I distinctly remember that they had a black Labrador called blackie, but when they made a TV series out of the books on CITV, they had a golden retriever...and still called it blackie. I mean- whaaaat??
Today, this is me on my triumphant walk to the bus station, having completed the tedious and previously impossible task of phoning the council to find out why they've not been providing us with recycling bags- Spoiler alert, they're going to send us some:
