78 - Wild Things

We spend some of our best days together on the beach, wild, free spirits.

Wild things at play. Wandering wild things. Watchers of wild things. Wowed by wild things of wonder.






Date: The final day of a busy half term (22nd February 2016)
Place: Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire
Soundtrack song: (feel) In Winter - Siren - Tori Amos probably different in shorts in summer (actual) The Killers - All These Things That I've Done (some spectacular car drumming and sing along from the littles).
Comments: A beautiful and awe inspiring drive through the North Yorkshire Moors to get there and that ever brilliant moment of spotting the sea shimmering in the distance.

Just enough facilities to cover a drink, ice cream and replacement bucket and spade but not overly commercial. Public toilets open - even in winter months.

We played like wild things on the beach for a short time before it was taken by the tide, played chase with the waves on the slip way, wandered the winding roads in search of dry socks after being caught by the tide, watched a swirling mass of angry sea flatten out to slumber and travelled a little way down the coast to Scarborough and ate the obligatory fish and chips in the car looking on to the wondrous full moon.
Nearby: Boggle Hole, Ravenscar, Whitby, Scarborough.

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77 - Arrivals

Five hours late, flight delayed. Late night arrival.

The thick feeling of different air and smells, a new and heavy kind of heat.

Passport control, move on, one by one through a wall with doors to unknown territory.

Watching the luggage carousel, wondering whether our belongings have made other plans. There is a surge forward to make a claim on possessions, we check everything is present and correct, no more, no less.

We wander out in to the middle of the night, the culture shock hits us like a truck sideways on.

The taxi takes us through avenues of palm trees that tower over and above us. We can see someone watching TV, their apartment wall is missing. Many are.

I feel we are not in the proverbial Kansas anymore Toto, our adventure is just beginning...

-

February 2006 we travelled to Cuba for our honeymoon. Our first long-haul, a life changer.

Our eyes were opened to the difference in geographic locations in the world which we had not before truly experienced.  The kindness of people (challenging our own suspicions).  We learnt always to travel with hand sanitiser and that if something looks funny, don't eat it.  That you will never truly believe the colour of the sea or the trillions of stars visible at night in certain parts of the world.  The sadness of a sunburnt dog so bitten by fleas it has no fur left to shade it from the scorching sun. The smell of a petrol refinery that turns every scorched hot pavement day back in England in to an early morning in Cuba.  The feel of communism and politics so prolific, it is everywhere - especially in the Russian plane that takes us from an island back to the mainland in the depths of night to a disused airport where we feared we might come to an untimely end...



Those first days as a married pair set the tone for the next ten years... sickness and health. Bitter/sweet. Shocking. Life changing. Sad. Exciting. Tiring. Awesome. Wondrous. Challenging. Inspiring.

The adventures we have had, the things we have seen, the sorrow and joy we have experienced.
It all makes us. Every day.

Here's to the next ten years...

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76 - The Daily Lie.

I have done the unthinkable... some time ago now I said no to early starts for vanity's sake and yes to an extra half an hour in bed.

I used to find the pressure to look good on the school run quite panic inducing and crippling, the need to look perfectly put together and like I have all my sh*t together before 8.30am causing an almost daily meltdown. I am a night owl and definitely not a morning person, so getting my kids in to school before the proverbial bell rings is a miracle in itself, let alone doing it in perfectly applied war paint. I asked myself who the make up was for, it certainly wasn't me, so what was the point?

I no longer wear makeup unless I want to (there are times it just feels good to look super pampered and preened and like a team of stylists have been at me) or my face will be recorded in some form other than by memory (wedding photos for example). Just because you can, doesn't mean you should, right? I got sick of what felt like a daily lie, for me, a feeling of having to say "look at me with my perfect skin and no dark circles under my eyes from burning the midnight oil", when underneath the primer, foundation, concealer and powder (and seriously - do you realise you what you are putting on your face - look at and decode your make up's ingredient list for something far more frightening than any horror flick you'll ever see) lay the truth. My skin could be better, so what? Do you really care? I didn't think so...

For more information on the make up thing - http://www.safecosmetics.org/get-the-facts/chemicals-of-concern/ makes for an interesting read.  I don't claim this to be the authority on the matter but it might spark your interest for further research, just because you aren't physically eating your make up, doesn't mean it doesn't wind up in your system - be smart, don't just look it!

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75 - Advice

Sowing the seeds of good future, growth and beauty...

I'm trying to start living my life by the sort of information or advice I'd give to my children. I often find I'm telling them things and wondering why I don't live by the idea or concept myself.

You need to go to sleep now I say, it's eight. Whyyyyyy mama? she says. Why can't I just stay up a leeeetle bit longer? Because to be healthy you need to get lots of sleep I say (it's a potted version of a much bigger answer but I figure on a four year old it'll do). Half past two in the morning I finally make it to bed after packing lots of orders up. Silly (hypocritical) mama.

We become wise beyond our means when someone else's life depends on it yet unable to furnish ourselves with the same love, attention and knowledge (and often, compassion). Be kind to yourself, sow the seeds of wisdom in your own soul that you would impart on your children. Go to bed early, sometimes.

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74 - Words

Quite often I find myself wanting to share something. Some choice idea or words of wisdom, some train of thought or words that popped into my head. That's usually where they stay, in my head. I become overwhelmed by the idea of finding time to "blog" because in my mind "blogging" has to be carefully thought out words and some pretty fancy imagery to go with, and so I end up not sharing anything.

I took a long walk this morning rather than my eight minute (six on a "good" day) walk/rush from school to work and I had an epiphany ("ten minutes over at Elton John's and you're..." - enough Love Actually quoting...).

You see, in my head, the swirly space where all of my thoughts run around as if in the Large Hadron Collider, crashing together, sometimes forming something beautiful, sometimes doing nothing at all, "blogging" and by default "bloggers" are taste makers or tellers, they tell people who and what to like and what's hip right now. I guess in my head they are a bit like the mean girls in high school that thrive on being ring leaders with minions who hang off their every word. Perhaps being a bit mean to the folk who are genuinely just sharing thoughts, but there-in lies the epiphany. A blog doesn't have to conform, to any pattern or ideal, it's just a space. In this case, my space (ha! I'm sure someone could do something with that, kinda catchy...). "Bloggers" don't have to be a specific odd sub-species of human, they're just the same as everyone else really. 

I don't like rules. I'm not very good with rules at all in fact, so from today on, gone. No more rules. No feeling like I HAVE to put images with my words, no more feeling like I can't pop in with a random thought train. Want images? I have Instagram that serves well on that matter...

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