NSO's FTW!

Yesterday was my second and third time NSOing for SSRG :-)

Whenever I get the message telling me the jobs Im expected to do I have that moment of panic 'what if I cock up!?' Luckily my role for the day would involve a whiteboard and a marker pen, how tasking could it be really?

I caught the tram to where I needed to be and once I got inside I hung around for a while until more folks turned up. SSRG were having a practice, and I didn't fancy gatecrashing unless I had someone else there to do so with :-) So I loitered, a lot, quite possibly looking like an obvious spare part. Luckily people started turning up and when Glam arrived and I grabbed her just to run over what I was meant to be doing. I'd be operating the penalty whiteboards for the first bout, and doing penalty timing in the second.

AAARGH, stopwatches!!! I was not expecting this, but it would explain why I'd been sent the manual for this role aswell (pay attention Becky!)

Yes, so the first bout got underway, and my job was to write down any penalties, minor or major, on the whiteboards in the middle of the track. 1 Major Penalty equates a minute in the penalty box, as does 4 Minor Penalties. There's lots of different ways a penalty can be given, it seemed yesterday people were favouring Track Cutting, Back Blocking and Forearms. It was actually really good fun in the middle, and a lot less scary/lot more exciting than I thought it would be.

Time for Bout 2 and I was sent with two others to the penalty box. I was in charge of Blocker timing :-) While I was happy to do this, I was a little concerned that the only space I had for standing was right behind the penalty seats, and I was told that the boys skate in with some gusto- I did NOT want to be squashed! It was all fine though. I remembered to start/stop the watch at all the right times, and once I got stuck in I realised it was actually a lot easier than it had first sounded. I remembered everything I needed to say, when I had to say it and even managed to have some sneaky little chats with the skaters coming in :-)

Anyway, for now I love being an NSO, but I am looking forward to when it's my turn out on the track.  The only downside to being an NSO, that I'm not so keen on, is the 'being impartial' bit. I'd love to be cheering along with everyone else, but unfortunately I'm not allowed. So for now I'm supporting Team Grey, NSO's FTW!!!

(PS- Team Orange and Team Black, of course you are both awesome, I'm just not allowed to say so during bout time!)

What a waste

Whilst living in Gloucester, I fell in love with a derelict building.

I walked past it, to and from work, every single day for nearly two years and always envisaged owning it and turning it into a dance studio. I'm not a dancer, but I just knew it would have been perfect. The windows were huge, floor to ceiling with nice roundy tops on them, perfect for letting the light in. There were nice floors inside (if you looked carefully through the windows you could see them). There was a nice staircase too, leading from the street down to the building.

Then there came a sad day when a notice went up outside saying that it was to be demolished, to make way for redevelopment. 

I was absolutely gutted. 

So, with my trusty vintage camera, I decided to document the destruction . . . 

My lovely building

The first corner is knocked down

The end of the building fastly disappearing

Half way 

Damn you little Digger Man!

The final piece

 I didn't manage to get a photo when the land was completely cleared, but it just wasn't the same.

This took place at the end of March and I've been away from Gloucester for nearly 7 months, not entirely sure whether the redevelopment of the site has even begun yet. Such a shame, I wish they'd waited until I'd left before getting rid of this amazing building.

Life in 35mm . . .

One thing I enjoy in life is photography. 

Last year I found the fun of film photography, and spent countless pennies on developing those little 35mm bundles of joy. There was a stage where I went through nearly a film a week, until I realised it was getting quite expensive, especially when Jessops decided to charge me a different price each time, despite having the same service (!?!)

Blossom in Richmond Park, London

I was given a fisheye camera by my sister last christmas, and it had its first grand outing on a family holiday to France. It was late January, so we enjoyed some time out in the snow, and playing with the neighbours daschunds (ahh my god they're so cute!)

One of my favourite things about film photography is the anticipation of what the photo will look like once developed. Will it be in focus, blurred, or have a scratch over it? Another fun thing is when you've had a film in the camera for so long, that you forget what you've actually taken photo's of. Its always a surprise to get the pictures back and think 'wow, I forgot I took that'.

After trawling the internet for hints and tips, I heard that using expired films worked really well for enhanced colours, and that 'old fashioned' look. Team this with a retro camera which belonged to my mum in the late 70's-80's and I got some pretty interesting photo's.

Me and my old cat Guido with an old school colour flash, and a set of run down warehouses by the docks in Gloucester.

The Fisheye came to loads of different places with me last year, trips back home to Wensleydale, visits with friends to the playpark and the safari park, around my house and even on the way to work. 

Guido has thumbs!

 

 

On a trip to London in March, the weather was absolutely beautiful. Bearing in mind that the camera I was using was at least 30 years old, and the film about 10, I was so pleased with my photo's; the colours were so vibrant and I must say I've never seen blossom look so pretty. 

I'm slowly working my way through three different films on three different cameras, so trying to take at least one with me when I go out about my business! I took my fisheye to practice a few weeks ago, god knows what those pics will look like. I guess I'll have to wait and see :-D

Well, this evening took a bit of a detour in the fact that skating WAS open! A last minute offer of a lift down there was quickly snapped up, and we were there just before 7, I would get an hour at least, so I had to make the most of it.

I don't think I've ever got ready so fast, so fast that I forgot to do the velcro up on one skate, oops!

Anyway, like I said, I was determined to make the most of it, so I made sure I pushed to get in some fast laps. Of course I had a little play around as well :-)

Luckily there's still time to Mary Poppins it up . . .

Where's Mary Poppins when I need her?

So, being denied the right to skate caused a major sad face tonight. I had my bag packed ready and everything :-(

However, it may have come as a blessing in disguise as my bedroom NEEDS SORTING!

Time to get everything in its rightful place and reinstate my crafty room. Currently neither of my desks can be used because they are covered in stuff. Nothing in particular, just generic stuff. Once I get them sorted the one in my bedroom will be for drawing, Lego and techy stuff, the one in my crafty room will be for sewing and (once I get all my tools) jewellery making, thanks to the guidance of the Tatty Devine book I got for christmas :-)

Its also about time I treat myself to sleeping in the middle of the bed, not on 'my' side anymore. Due to being messy, I rarely see the other side of my big bed as its always under a pile of, yep you guessed it, more 'stuff'. It's times like this I wish I could click my fingers and have everything tidy itself away.

Note to self: Must refrain from tweeting until bedroom is looking acceptable!

YAY, Wednesdays are back to normal!!

Just back from CTRV training, and boy am I glad its back on!

Back to that excited feeling from being challenged, from encouragement, and from being able to laugh at myself. My internal me is jumping up and down and clapping giddily with excitement whilst Holly is telling us what we'll be doing, but I think I keep it cool on the outside by just having a big grin and eyes as wide as saucers!

Tonight we practiced our one footed glides, clockwise skating (with very pretty crossovers- athankyou!), we had a little bash at hip whips in a paceline, and then we played some games. I know what you're thinking, a school gym full of a bunch of twentysomethings playing games . . . ? Yeah, stick in the mud and chariot races on skates are chuffing great fun!! Think I need to work on my 'agility' because I'm quite good at 'untagging' folks stuck in the mud, but not quite nimble enough to avoid being tagged. Goddamit I need to learn transitions, and toes stops, and fast! Think I might need to make myself a little checklist, because the past couple of trips to skating I've not really pushed myself, only slightly. I want to learn!! 

Hopefully Skate Central will be open tomorrow, if it's not I might have a very sad face! 

Aaargh, I want to go skating again, I don't want to go to bed!

Cheer up Chuck

After spending some time over the weekend with a very broken hearted friend of mine, I decided I needed to cheer her up somehow. Since we're both experiencing the same issues I thought about what would make me happy, and decided to do it for her.

I grabbed some spare material and threads I had lying around and whipped up this little gem.

With a little bit of concentration I had it up together in a couple of hours (it would have been quicker had I not been distracted by 'The Return to Oz'!!)

It went in the post to her yesterday, so hopefully it should have arrived today. It cheered me up just making it, and the prospect of it cheering her up is quite exciting :-)

Thinking I might end up making a few more of these if people ask nicely :-)