Mat & Kat

New kitchen

2010-02-16T13:07:00.010Z

Kat: It's not so new any more, but we didn't want to unveil it in pictures until it was totally finished. Anyway, here's the transformation:

The old kitchen had a partial wall between a tiny galley kitchen and the rest of the room. There was only room for one person in the "kitchen" at a time and you couldn't hear anything being said in the rest of the room. Brilliant!

There was a doorway to left of the cooker leading into a derelict shed which is now Mat's woodwork room and general hidey-hole (more before and after photos of that to follow).

The old kitchen was fairly dilapidated - sockets nearly hanging out of the wall, cupboards falling apart, the window frame was rotten and didn't close properly.

There's a chimney which used to have the old range in; in the old kitchen this was a little cupboard and work surface.

The chimney had been clad in slate and painted white, and there were beige floor tiles. The floor tiles were fairly inoffensive but several were cracked and they was a line of missing tiles when the partial wall was taken out.

The transformation took place in stages. The first stage was to block up the doorway and knock down the partial wall. That happened in February last year.

It involved moving the light switch to and radiator which had been on the partial wall. Previously, the light switch was half way along the wall and if you came in the back door in the dark, you had to feel your way along - not ideal while the dog was still being house-trained and tended to go to the toilet right next to the back door. The radiator is now under the window.

The old kitchen got ripped out in November. We had about a month without a kitchen, during which time we camped in the living room and ate at friends' houses (we owe lots of dinners!) The first stage was very dusty as the old floor was ripped up and the slate cladding taken off the chimney.

After weeks of filling the kettle up in the bath, we finally got a spangly new kitchen. There's new floor tiles and most of the walls have been replastered. The kitchen was fitted by our now good friends David and Jo Retallack and it was decorated by Nick the Painter.

It looks a lot lighter not just because there are more lights, but the back door has been replaced by one which is half-glazed.

There's lots of drawers! We haven't had a kitchen with drawers for ages. As well as all the cupboards there's a dresser in the corner. Can't have too many drawers.

Best of all is a vertical double over in the chimney and a 5 ring hob with an extractor that actually extracts rather than just recycles - no more dashing to unplug the smoke alarm.

The stainless steel board to the right of the oven has magnetic pots with herbs and spices in, since you were wondering.

Fancy coming over for dinner?

Prank calls

2010-01-07T17:00:00.002Z

Mat: Exciting news down here, apart from the snow, is that I've started getting prank calls on my mobile!

Actually it's not that exciting, they're the most boring prank calls imaginable - the caller seems to be incapable of stringing a sentence together. They're not even making sex noises down the line or anything interesting. I haven't ruled out the possibility that the mysterious caller is actually a monkey, randomly dialling numbers, as the conversation from their end is just monosyllabic grunts. I'll see if I can record the next one so you can join in the excitement. The last one went like this:

Me: Hello?
Monkey: Ugh
Me: Are you the same person that called me last night?
Monkey: Ugh
Me: I don't want you to call any more, okay?
Monkey: Ugh
Me: Bye bye
Monkey: Ugh ugh

To their credit they're dialling 141 so that it comes up as 'number blocked', so that's a pretty clever monkey. But more evidence of the simian-like brain of this "hilarious" prankster is that immediately after calling, they send me a text message which includes their mobile number! The first text message said "Who is dis nd how old r u? Tb", and the second one said "Who r u?". Presumably if you could spell correctly, you wouldn't be making prank calls in the first place. Maybe you'd have a job as telemarketer instead, and actually get paid for ringing strangers.

So I've decided to run a little competition: what should I say next time they call? Answers on a postcard to the usual address, and I'll be speaking the winning line using my actual mouth next time they ring.

If you want to call them to discuss what would be the wittiest put-down, or maybe you want to hear the grunting for yourself, they've used two numbers: 07592 361708 and 07871 561680.

Happy New Year...

2010-01-01T20:48:00.004Z

Kat: ... and merry Christmas to all. We've been off work for a fortnight and have had a really relaxing break at home in Cornwall.

Lostwithiel does festive very well. There's the Dickensian night with Victorian fancy dress, choirs, mulled wine, roast chestnuts and this year dense Jack-the-Ripper-style fog. Next the Pageant, a walking tableaux of the nativity scene (featuring a real lamb and donkey) with carol singing and more mulled wine. The Advent trail is a series of Xmassy window displays in shops and houses in the centre of town. Our film club, Lost In Film, showed a family screening of Monsters vs Aliens following a fancy dress competition (check out our costumes).

We were invited to two separate Christmas Day meals by friends but felt we were up to the challenge of both. After a walk and free drinks at The Globe, we exercised iron will at the magnificent lunch + all the trimmings in order to fit in another big meal a few hours later. We rolled home pleasantly full and not too drunk. It's been cold but clear and sunny so we've managed lots of walks, including finding 9 geocaches and creating a new multi-cache in Lostwithiel.

For NYE we went to a Fantasy theme fancy dress party. Mat's original costume idea was fairly outrageous, but luckily for the children present it didn't work out, so he went as the old pirate standby. Check out the other costumes. It was a fantastic party and midnight before we knew it. Happy New Year!

Birthday fun

2009-11-30T16:46:00.003Z

Mat: Yesterday I had one of the nicest birthdays in ages. Thanks so much for all your cards, presents and emails - I'm still replying to them all!

Yesterday morning was spent making three kinds of salami (chorizo, fig and hazelnut) with my new mincer, then over to Bryan and Debbie's for a Sunday roast. Incredibly I managed to restrain myself from opening my presents until after lunch :) My gifts were mainly on a woodwork / whisky/ cooking theme, my three favourite hobbies at the moment. Kat bought two dozen of my favourite cupcakes, which we scoffed in the afternoon.

Special thanks must go to Matty and Howard for a pair of incredibly useful woodwork manuals, and Michael and Lesley for a chain-mail butcher's glove, which protected my hand while cutting up the pork.

Later in the afternoon Rob and I started off another proscuitto (I made one on my birthday in 2007), which should be ready in August. Stanley managed to pinch one of the salami from earlier, which he swallowed in under ten seconds, and we ended the evening with the pub quiz, of course. We didn't win anything, but the whole pub sang me Happy Birthday at the end!

50 Geocaches

2009-11-16T17:00:00.003Z

Mat: Last year on my birthday we went to find our first Geocache. If you don't know what this is, it's like a global treasure hunt, where you get a latitude and longitude and have to hunt for a small container. This usually contains a log book, a few toys and occasionally some other items. There are almost a million caches around the world, so there's bound to be one near you.

Our first experience was awful - it was cold, wet and windy, we totally failed to find it and everyone came down with a cold afterwards. Despite this we've kept looking for other caches (although we haven't ever tried to find the first one again). Last Sunday Kat and I found our 50th cache (list here), including a really tricky one in the middle of an old clay pit that we're very proud of!

We've even placed one of our own - Stanley's Lookout, which has been found by 19 people since we hid it in August. To celebrate our 50th, we're going to create a Lostwithiel-wide cache, with lots of clues to find, which will hopefully be an interesting experience where you'll learn a bit about the area.

So if you haven't been to visit for a while and you're interested in having a go at Geocaching, come down and get lost :)

Another chair

2009-11-09T15:32:00.002Z

Mat: I've now finished my prototype dining chair, and I'm pretty happy with it! It's only made out of pine (because it's cheap and easy to work) so it's a little weak, but the size and shape is good and I'm really loving the back support. I've just enrolled on a woodworking course which starts in January, so hopefully my skills will come on leaps and bounds!

In other news, we're having our kitchen refitted. Last week was a downhill slope of destruction: tiles, appliances, cupboards and plaster all went. By Friday afternoon it was an empty dusty shell. We're definitely heading back towards a kitchen this week though - the plastering is well underway and the first fix electrics are in. Hopefully by the end of the week the plastering, electrics and tiles will be done, and the new kitchen will be going in the week after that. Everyone's being really nice and having us round for dinner, and it's a good excuse to try some new restaurants in the area :)

Carpentry crazy

2009-10-21T12:50:00.003Z

Mat: This week's fad is carpentry, we'll wait to see if it becomes anything more, but I'm really enjoying it! First I made a pair of stools for my shed, out of pine and spruce (for the seat). The rounded one was the first attempt (on the left), after which I realised that buying square profile pine is rather cheaper than rounded, so the second stool has square legs. I sort of worked from plans, but they evolved to a certain degree.

The second item to come out of my workshop was a green hazel chair, started last Friday night in whisky-fuelled excitement with Rob and finished in a rather more sober state on Monday evening. We cut the wood from the hedges around Rob's field, cut it to size and assembled the whole thing without nails or glue. It's incredibly solid, and also incredibly heavy, so I don't think you'd want a dining set of them but it's a great outdoor chair. It's a bit of an experimental prototype, but if it's still looking good in six months I might make some more.

There's going to be a short lull before the next project, partly to spend time with Kat and the dog in the evenings rather than shut away in the shed, but mostly because I need to let the wounds on my hands heal! It's quite hard to write code with your fingers covered in plasters.

If I'm still into this in another few months I'd like to make a dining table and chairs (out of shop-bought wood, not green) but we'll see. If you're keen to encourage this kind of behaviour in me, and you're not sure what to get for my birthday, a book on carpentry, joinery or furniture making would be much appreciated! If you're not keen to encourage this, whisky would be great too :)

Devon C2C

2009-10-06T06:19:00.005Z

Kat: On Thursday I must have rubbed or scratched my eye while sitting at the computer, because it suddenly became acutely uncomfortable and light sensitive. After Mat's eye incident I thought my plans for the weekend had gone out the window; a trip to Bodmin Minor Injuries Unit on Friday morning confirmed it was indeed a corneal abrasion, but a minor one. I can't wear contact lenses for a week and don't have prescription shades, so until my light sensitivity reduced I had to wear sunglasses on top of my glasses.

With this limitation I set off for Barnstaple where I met up with Vicky. This was a second attempt at the Devon Coast to Coast for me after the last attempt was foiled due to Mat's bike problems. We set off on Saturday into driving rain and a strong headwind for the first 10 miles which didn't bode well, but as the route turned inland the wind reduced and the rain eased and turned to mist. We made sure to stop at all the lovely cafés en route and reached Okehampton by late afternoon, where we stayed in a B&B before completing the journey to Plymouth on Sunday.

It's a beautiful route and after a year of nearly no bike activity, quite challenging. The Plym Valley cycle path that Mat and I missed out on last time is a real highlight, the long downhill being no small part of our enjoyment. Vicky couldn't get enough of the viaducts which cut out some (but not all) of the ups and downs along the way. Apart from a bit of tiredness, my eye didn't give me any problems - the bigger issue was wearing glasses in mist and horizontal rain.

After walking for 4-5 hours, Mat and Stanley were also knackered so we propped ourselves up during the pub quiz and all slept very soundly on Sunday evening.

Holiday and a staycation

2009-10-01T14:53:00.007Z

Kat: Last week we flew to Marrakesh to meet the Dekkers who had driven all the way across Europe in a camper. It was an amazing holiday full of exotic things: narrow, winding alleys threading through the medina; noisy souks selling metal, leather and ceramic goods; colourful woven rugs; donkey carts; and palaces covered in beautiful carvings and tiles.

After a hard day getting thoroughly lost in the markets we'd trail back to our tiny riad in the centre of the medina with its open courtyard, plunge pool, rooftop garden and luxurious decor, to drink very sweet mint tea and play card games.

In the evenings we hung out at the main square Djemaa el Fna to see snake charmers, dinner hawkers, orange juice sellers and home-made fairground games. One day we took a trip out to the Atlas mountains to see Berber towns and waterfalls in the lush Ourika valley.

Joel met us at Gatwick and the next leg of our holiday began. On the way home we stopped at Stonehenge, on Saturday we spent the entire day at Heligan and on Sunday went clay pigeon shooting followed by a picnic on the beach and swimming in the sea at deserted Coombe Haven. I've got a cracking bruise from the shooting but I was only 3 shots behind top gun Mat.

On Monday Joel and I kayaked from Lostwithiel up to Lerryn then down to Fowey. We got stuck in the mud flats at St Winnow, was followed by a kingfisher along the Lerryn and investigated shipwrecks at Golant. Joel took an evasive manoeuvre to avoid a crab pot at Fowey quay and got dunked in the river, but despite this it was a fantastic day.

Coming back from holiday can be a bit of a let down, but not for us this time.

12345

2009-09-16T08:13:00.003Z

Mat: I'm 12345 days old today!

I'm sure this won't be interesting to most people, but I get excited by things like this. I always smile when I glance at the clock and it reads 12:34 or 11:11. I was also quite excited when it was 09/09/09 but sadly I missed 09:09:09 that day...

Edit: A number of people have asked me how I know this. Have a look at timeanddate.com and calculate your own mathematical milestones!

Produce Show 2009

2009-09-14T07:54:00.002Z

Kat: One of the highlights of the Lostwithiel calendar happened on 5th September: the annual produce show. We tried our usual tactic of racing round the garden 3 days before and seeing what we could cobble together, with our usual level of success.

Pictured is our losing entries: my hand knitted garment and a Turk's Head pumpkin. The orange pumpkin grown by Mat and Caitlin and entered under the alias Hatty Oindean won 2nd prize. The 1st prize winning pumpkin was a lot bigger but quite misshapen - in this class, size is everything.

Our winning entries were:

1st prize - Bottle of wine (red) dry
2nd prize - Basket of organic mix vegetables
2nd prize - Jar of marmalade
3rd prize - Beetroot
3rd prize - Bottle of beer/lager

Our bottle of elderberry wine was the only one in its class - everyone else seems to favour sweet blackberry red wines - but being the only one is not a guarantee of a prize, as we've found to our cost in the past!

We did some research this year to find out how the veg should be presented, so in our basket of mixed veg we had 3 sweetcorn with their leaves on, 3 beetroot with 3" of stalk tied together, 3 leeks with their leaves wrapped down and tied, and 6 beans. Our 2nd prize beetroot were too big apparently, the judges were looking for fist sized beetroot with tight concentric rings inside.

It's the third year running that Mat has come 3rd in the beer making class after Mr Hancock. I was very chuffed to get 2nd prize for my Seville orange and whisky marmalade as there's stiff competition and strict judging by the WI.

For added excitement this year, there was a new class that I helped introduce: the compost cup. I did enter but mine was described more as a mulch than a compost. There's always next year...

Rounders round up

2009-09-02T13:28:00.004Z

Kat: Bit late after the event, but we've only just got hold of the photo.

For the second year running, on 14th July, we took part in the Lostwithiel Carnival rounders evening. We tried to get a practice in during the weeks prior but the weather was always against us, and the playing field was a meadow until the day before carnival week began. I'd even been given an early birthday present of a proper rounders set by the Wassons.

We had a great uniform (as you can see) and we spent ages practising on the night... unfortunately we lost our first game, much to our shock and surprise. We got through to the second round by default (an odd number of teams turned up) but by the time our turn to play came round, the heavens opened and it was more mud wrestling than rounders. Bats were flying around, people were sliding over and we could barely see.

We lost by one rounder to the team which eventually won - the Talbot's team - so we trooped off to said pub for nibbles donated by the victors. Next year we'll definitely get the trophy!

Lots of swimming

2009-08-11T14:50:00.003Z

Mat: I've been doing lots of swimming lately - last week I went in four times.

Last week my sort-of-godmother Hannah and her lovely daughter Alice came to visit. We had a great time, visiting Eden (pictured) on Tuesday and heading down to Menabilly for a wonderful swim before lunch at Fowey on Wednesday. It was really nice to see them, and I hope they come to visit again!

Last Friday Caitlin rang me at 8am to see if I fancied a swim in the river before work, and 15 mins later we were in and absolutely freezing, even in our wetsuits! The river comes straight off Bodmin Moor, and doesn't warm up in the summer like the sea. It was a great start to the day though!

On Saturday evening, after a great barbecue at Ben & Laura's, we inflated some rubber rings, jumped in the river by the bridge and floated down past the end of Coulson Park, beers in hand. Again, it was pretty cold even with a wetsuit on, but so much fun that I'd love to try floating all the way down to Fowey!

Finally on Sunday it was Family Fun Day at Lansallos, so after helping out on the light sensitive paper stall, we went for a splash in the sea. The temperature was perfect, and I'm inspired to hunt out new beaches to swim at. So if you come to visit this summer, bring your trunks and/or wetsuit!

Public Enemies

2009-07-17T08:56:00.005Z

Mat: Last night we went to see Public Enemies starring Johhny Depp, Christian Bale and the wonderful Marion Cotillard. It follows the life and death of John Dillinger, a US bank robber in the 1930s. The story is fairly interesting, with reasonable performances from the main characters and some interesting dialogue. However, the production of the film is so awful that I wanted to leave. It was shot on HD digital instead of film, and it really, really shows.

First, the audio is terrible. In some scenes you can barely hear what's being said over the background noise, and in other scenes the sounds jumps from quiet to loud and back again depending on who's speaking. Second, it's badly edited and too long at 139 minutes. If they'd shaved off half an hour of boring gunfights and chases it would have been much more bearable. I can't believe I'd ever say that gunfights and chases would be boring, but Michael Mann managed it! Rather than any dramatic tension, they're all just shoot-hide-shoot-hide-shoot-hide-run-die.

The main problem though is the cinematography - I read a review which said that it looked like the movie had been shot by drunk students, which is a pretty accurate description. The camera constantly wobbles, zooms and pans, not in an interesting arty way, but in an inexperienced amateur way. For some reason a lot of the film is shot from below the actors, maybe it's to try to make the film seem more interesting than it is. There are scenes where objects obscure the actors faces, and the camera visibly moves after a few seconds to reframe the scene. Isn't one of the advantages of digital that you can go back and shoot a scene again without wasting film? Actor's heads are cut off by the framing, a jail scene shot through the bars manages to obscure first Depp's eyes and then his mouth while he is talking.

I can see what Michael Mann was trying to do - shooting hand-held gives a real sense of being involved in the action, but it just doesn't work in my opinion. Films like Blair Witch and Cloverfield make really good use of hand-held, but this isn't an edgy, raw movie, it's a Hollywood blockbuster that looks like it was shot by kids.

At some points I totally lost involvement in the plot because I couldn't see what was going on, and the gunfight at Little Bohemia Lodge was so badly filmed and amateur-looking that I started giggling. I'm not saying that I could have done a better job, but if it was my film I would have started again and filmed it properly. The whole film feels unfinished, like they got bored halfway through or didn't bother looking at what they'd just shot before moving on to the next scene.

Kat said that she thought this was maybe the way that filming was going, that in future films shot in the 'traditional' way would look as old-fashioned as black and white movies look today. I really hope she's wrong, or I'm going to stop watching films altogether.

Royal visit

2009-07-11T10:54:00.008Z

Kat: A week ago Charles and Camilla popped into Lostwithiel. Haven't they been to your town lately? Apart from being a fantastic place in its own right, they came in particular to see the Duchy Palace recently purchased from the Freemasons by the Prince's Trust, and the newly renovated Restormel Manor Cottages owned by Duchy of Cornwall.

Kids from Lostwithiel and St Winnow primary schools piled out with their handmade Kernow and Union flags. Luckily the sun was shining while we waited for the Royals to arrive, marvelling at the most police we'd ever seen in town and guessing who were the plain clothes cops and palace security (not very difficult as they were all sharp dressing, strapping seven footers).

The Duke and Duchess (as they are referred to in Cornwall) got out of their Audi near the bottom of the high street and said hello to the school kids and local dignatories, while the Town Band played. They then had of the tour of the Duchy Palace; apparently Camilla complained that it smelled, which is fair enough because it is 800 years old and hasn't been aired much in recent years.

Next stop was St Bartholomew's church. Last year the tower and spire were restored and this year they are having the bells renovated, which meant having the tower clock disassembled to get them down.

Then they popped into the museum and a few shops, including Liddicoats butchers and Watts Trading. Camilla's sister has been decorating Restormel Manor and she's bought some items from Watts.

You can see one of the beautiful flags on display above Watts Trading, which Denise made for the carnival 3 years ago to match each business's colours. The bunting was another matter - dog eared, faded to white and missing several flags it was a total embarrassment! Denise and I are going to make some more with the leftover material from the flags.

We didn't elbow our way to the front to shake hands but we were quite close. It was a surprisingly low key affair and many of our friends who are local officials and business owners got to chat with the pair. Everyone said they were friendly and relaxed.

To round off their trip to Lostwithiel they inspected Restormel Manor, then the royal whirlwind was off to its next destination.

Tinniversary

2009-06-30T09:03:00.007Z

Kat: We're back to work after a fantastic week off culminating with a party to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary (can you believe it?!)

On Tuesday we made our way to Land's End and camped for a couple of nights in Treen. The farm campsite is right on the cliff top, a few minutes walk from Porthcurno beach and the stunning Minack Theatre. We visited Cape Cornwall and lunched in St Just, bringing back happy memories of our E2E adventure. Wending our way home on Thursday via Mousehole and Newlyn, we spent one night at home before the Lansallos party on Friday night.

Our 10 year celebration was a BBQ and camping at Highertown, a National Trust campsite close to secluded Lansallos beach. We booked the whole campsite out, the threatened rain never came and much merriment ensued. Naturally we completely over-catered and the food and drink kept us going for lunch and another BBQ the next night. It was beautifully sunny right up until we packed up on Sunday morning, and we had fantastic time.

We've never made much fuss about our anniversaries, and this one was more like an excuse to have a party than actually a celebration of our wedding. We considered a historical re-enactment (as it were) but figured that people wouldn't want to make the long journey for one night's camping, especially with little ones in tow, so we decided to keep it low-key. Only two people who attended the wedding happen to live locally and came to the party. We genuinely didn't expect anyone else to remember, so it was extremely touching to receive cards and presents from so many people who were there on the day. We're inspired to hold a big do for 15 years!

North Cornish Coast

2009-06-23T08:38:00.003Z

Mat: We started off our week off with a day trip to the north coast. First stop was Rock, opposite Padstow, where we wanted to have lunch but couldn't find anywhere to park within a mile and a half!

So on we drove to Port Quin, via the exciting Porteath Bee Centre. I'm a big fan of bees and would love to keep them one day, but was slightly put off by an educational video at the centre which showed a man holding an entire swarm in his hands! There wasn't much at Port Quin (it was abandoned in the 19th century after the male population were drowned at sea) so we made for Port Isaac (see photo) for lunch.

It's a funny place, not least because they let cars park on the beach in the harbour, so you don't pay for a certain number of hours, your leaving time is determined by the incoming tide. I'd hoped to see a couple of cars floating off, but everyone seemed pretty on the ball. On the way home we visited the glorious St Kew Harvest deli and stocked up with lush ingredients before heading back to Lostwithiel.

After dinner I went on a short bike ride with Debs, Pete (Bryan's brother) and his friend Eodine to find a Geocache a few miles out of town. Lovely!

How does your garden grow?

2009-06-21T16:43:00.007Z

Kat: Despite many attempts at gardening over the years - in tubs, at an allotment, in other people's gardens - we've never been hugely successful. Over ambition and total inexperience were the main factors, although quality of site, aspect, soil and distance from growing patch have all been factors. I now realise that although weeds can grow anywhere with no tending whatsoever, luscious vegetables and flowers cannot.

We're still making basic mistakes but slowly we're starting to learn. For example: start with something manageable. That's why we've only got two raised beds this year for vegetables, a few pots of tomatoes and a bed for flowers.

From last year's brassica massacre I've learnt to take no chances with butterflies, and from our onions that birds will maliciously pull them all out, even if they don't like the first one. Our veggie beds have been netted with a fine mesh since the seeds went in, which has also kept out the large slugs and snails, and the cats who provocatively use our garden as a toilet while Stanley barks at them just out of reach.

This year's lessons were: wait till the final frost (at least May) before putting tomato plants outside. I bought replacements but realised there were loads going spare at our a local plant swap. Despite nightly patrols and home-made deterrents, my pumpkin plant got munched through at the stalk so I conceded and bought organic slug pellets, as recommended by Eden Project.

Today we lifted the low nets from both beds and created a taller net just for the broccoli. I'm a bit worried that everything is now going to get ravaged, but at least there's a picture of it in all its glory. In the top picture, the left hand bed has sweetcorn, a courgette, borlotti beans, a butternut squash and a couple of lettuces in pots. The right hand bed has broccoli (mainly PSB), beetroot and leeks. There's a sedum on the right of the flower bed, nicotiana and stock in the foreground and strawberries at the front. The hanging baskets next to the front door have tomatoes in. We've just moved the nasturtiums into the bank on the other side of the path as they were turning triffid. In contrast, the bottom picture shows the garden when we moved in - the now veggie patch was covered in the shrubs that you can see in the bottom right.

Royal Cornwall Show

2009-06-10T07:21:00.002Z

Mat: I love agricultural shows. The Melbourne Show was one of the highlights of our year there, and I was delighted to discover the Royal Cornwall Show.

This year I wanted to document the massive diversity of sights at the show: agriculture, animals, crafts, farm machinery, food, plants, toys, and people, people, people. I've uploaded some of my favourite images, and also created a book at Blurb. It's really re-ignited my passion for photography, and I'm looking forward to next year already!

The Beautiful Journey

2009-06-04T11:20:00.006Z

Mat: Last night we went to see the second night of The Beautiful Journey, by WildWorks theatre company. It is staged on an old naval base called Mutton Cove at Devonport in Plymouth. Described as "an outdoor promenade performance featuring film, food, flowers, flirting, fire and hope", The Beautiful Journey has to rank as my all-time favourite performance ever. Amazing ideas, wonderful costumes, incredible performances and a truly magical set.

You can't really get a sense of it from my photos, so if you get a chance to see it please do - it's on until 20th June, but make sure it's a nice day as the whole thing is outdoors!

On the way home Kat and I discussed our favourite theatre of all time, they're the same performances but in different orders:

Catching up with the Joneses

2009-05-21T15:12:00.015Z

Kat: On Saturday we went to Kim and Gavin's wedding in the swish Haymarket Hotel in London. It's just off Trafalgar Square but tucked down a cul-de-sac without an ostentatious entrance; inside it's full of quirky art and mad wallpaper. We spent ages inspecting the light fittings - they were really inspiring!

The ceremony itself was a civil service in what seemed to be an Ethiopian themed room of the hotel. The bride looked lovely, of course; we'd not met Gavin before but he seems like a top chap. During drinks after the ceremony we were entertained by a pair of xylophonists who had brought their xylophone down from Manchester specially for the occasion.

Because I've known Kim for so long, there were friends from school and uni to catch up with. We had a great time with Gina and Brett who we haven't seen since their eldest, who's now at school, was a babe in arms. Hi guys!

After a sit down meal where Kim's dad allocated 3.5 bottles of wine per head, the speeches started. Unusually, Gavin had a best man and a best woman to do his "best" speech, but the most anticipated speech of the evening was from Kim's dad. True to form, he told several totally inappropriate jokes. In the end I think Kim is lucky to have married a Welsh man, as most of Alan's speech was taken up by a general rant against the Welsh rugby team! The Welsh contingent gave as good as they got and there was much flag waving (literally).

The evening do was in the pool room of the hotel, with a live band at one end and a crepe bar at the other, plus loads more alcohol. There was a huge neon screen at one end of the pool which gently moved between orange, purple and dark blue. We weren't allowed in the pool but Alan brought out a radio controlled boat, which had capsized by the time we left.

All in all it was a great do. We spent the night at nearby Trafalgar Hilton and came home tired, our ears ringing and our pockets stuffed with toiletries.

Lovely lovely lovely

2009-04-20T12:38:00.005Z

Mat: The weather's been glorious recently, so we've been working in the garden and going for long walks. Saturday was warm and sunny, but we spent most of the day in the car driving to and from Ikea in Bristol, our closest store. I'd rather not ever go there, but they sell a few surprisingly high quality products at reasonable prices, so occasionally we have to!

Sunday was a balmy 25°C, which for this time of year is pretty unusual. We took the dog for a walk in the morning (pics on my Flickr account) and I dusted off the kayak for a trip down to St Winnow, where the farmer's wife runs a burger van selling all their own meat.

The icing on the weekend cake was winning the second round of the pub quiz with a magnificent 19/20! The only question we got wrong was "How many eyes are visible in total on a pack of 52 playing cards?" Answers on a postcard.

Aye eye

2009-04-14T08:40:00.003Z

Mat: What a lovely Easter weekend. The weather here has been glorious, allowing us to spend lots of time in the garden and on long walks with the puppy. We cut down some of Rob & Caitlin's bamboo to make structures to net off our veggie beds, and the leeks and broccoli are in the ground waiting to come up. I put up hanging baskets outside the front door for tomatoes, and after a good drenching yesterday we're ready for them all to start growing.

The only minor downside of the weekend was that I nearly blinded myself on Friday. While cutting down the bamboo a stalk whipped me across the eye, and a visit to A&E showed that I had a large scratch across my cornea. They put orange dye in my eye and then used a UV light to make it glow, showing where it had stuck to the cut. I had my left eye closed most of the weekend because of the pain, but it's now looking pretty good and only slightly swollen. My vision is almost back to normal, it's slightly blurry compared to my right eye. I've learned a lot about depth perception over the weekend - mostly it's been fine but I had problems with things like being able to tell how full my cereal bowl is!

Action weekend

2009-03-31T08:53:00.006Z

Kat: Long time no blog! We've had an action packed weekend of his 'n' hers activities...

On Saturday Mat and a couple of buddies went Clay Pigeon shooting near Lanlivery with a qualified coach. It was fairly wild and windy on the exposed ground up there by all accounts, so they all did well in tricky conditions. Naturally Mat stole the show by winning Top Gun - he got 25 out of 32 (78%, a grade A as he smugly points out) while Rob got 17 and Bryan got 15. They used a Beretta 686 12 gauge and although their shoulders didn't ache as they expected, they all complained about having sore cheeks on their gunside. Mat was awarded an etched tumbler for his efforts, and they're all keen for another session, although next time it might be archery.

On Sunday I took part in the Firefighters Charity Ladies Driving Challenge at RAF Portreath near Redruth. Basically it's an excuse to drive big things and have lots of fun. Caitlin and I spent 4 hours driving fire engines, double-decker buses and coaches, articulated lorries, fire service staff cars, tractors, diggers and quads. Being in control of such massive vehicles was thrilling, but having 16 gears was mind-boggling and some gear sticks required the full extent of my reach. I also got randomly selected to have a 15 minute lesson in a skid pan which simulates driving in snow and ice - there was a fair amount of spinning in circles but I did learn some useful skills too. The event was brilliantly organised and I'd recommend it to anyone (they happen every year all over the country).

Stanley larked around with Ethel all Sunday, and was so tired that he didn't have enough energy for a walk yesterday morning.

Six Month Stanley

2009-03-23T17:12:00.003Z

Mat: Life continues down here, we've just had a glorious week of sunshine and I even broke out the shorts and sandals for the first time this year! It looks like it's becoming more cloudy now, that was summer I guess.

Our builders have now finished, so as soon as the electrician is done we'll have a whole new room of the house to fill with junk. They've done a really neat job and we'd definitely recommend them (as long as you live around here, I don't think they travel very far upcountry).

The big news of the day is that Stanley's six months old today! He's a touch under 20Kg now (weight chart here) he's more than tripled in weight since we got him in November last year. To celebrate we bought him a huge beef thigh bone which he's been feasting on all afternoon and he now smells like a butchers.

Hope you're well, let us know your news!