Happy New Year!
Yesterday Nick & I toasted goodbye to a crummy 2012 with a very uncrummy New Years Eve. We were home alone (rare and precious in itself) and the night consisted of the deepest bath with Matey pirate bubbles, a huge bowl of nachos with my homemade green chilli salsa, a Moon & Moonrise kingdom double bill and Moscow gin mules that turned into whiskey mules when we discovered we’d finished off the gin ages ago and it was an empty giant Gordons bottle I’d been too lazy/ashamed to recycle. I woke up this morning to the sun streaming in and pulled on my leopard print Pat Butcher coat and tottered off across North London to be reunited with my magic third Ali (dedicated blog readers may remember her from adventures such as this & this), who has abandoned me and Craig to live in Winnipeg, Canada where she is taking the art world by storm. It’s great for her but less great for us, as Magic 2 just doesn’t have the same ring to it however hard we try. So far 2013 is already massively telling 2012 to jog on!
Anyway where was I..? I can’t really get on with this year before finishing off my big re-cap of the past year, and talking of magic 3 day trips, that segues nicely into summer…
July
As all UK-dwellers know, the summer was absolutely rubbish weather-wise. I heaved out all my garish printed sun dresses and strappy tops, only to shiver away in anything less than at least a cardi and jeans combo and eventually admit defeat and sullenly packing them all away again in October mostly unworn. However in true magical style Craig & I plucked a day at random and got super lucky as the storm clouds dissolved and gave us a jolly seaside jaunt. This year we headed to escaped to Reculver. In classic us-style (eg similar scrape to getting stuck on the London eye) our hire car was great on the motorway, but less great at er, reversing. In fact it could NOT reverse. We didn’t imagine this to be a problem as we figured we could just park in spaces you could pull forward out of etc. Then we arrived somewhere near Reculver, near enough to see the famous fort mocking us from a distance, so came off the motorway and started driving along winding rural roads and narrowing paths. Eventually we drove down a dirt farm path for about quarter of a mile before hitting a locked gate. On one side of the path was a sheer drop and the other… the motorway hidden by a few brambles. We had no phone signal, it was pouring with rain and we honestly thought we were going to have to abandon the car and spend the day grovelling to Zipcar. Luckily though with a huge tug the car eventually played nicely and went into reverse so we could gingerly inch back to a main road and back on adventure-track. It never would reverse again afterwards though so it was a miracle!
We pulled into Reculver, which was a lot smaller than we expected, and the rain was hammering down. Rushing into the local pub for shelter, we experienced one of the scariest welcoming committees ever. It was a bit like being in the League of Gentleman, as silence and staring descended amongst the ferocious locals propping the bar up and we were greeted by a waiter who would only sit us at a tiny table hidden in the back and kept rushing us to finish our cup of tea as the “lunchtime rush” was about to start (it was 2pm and there was about 30 tables reserved for this phantom rush already). The only inhabited table was being used by a woman so old that her wrinkles covered up most of her facial features and she spent the entire 20 terrified minutes we were in there glowering at me whilst drinking 2 large glasses of red wine. SO! Safe to say we scuttled out of there very quickly but luckily the storm had moved out to sea which looked phenomenal from dry land. The fort ruins are said to be haunted by the waling of a crying baby (despite reading endless Susan Hill this somehow still appealed to me!) but all we heard was the whistling wind that day. We strolled the beach and didn’t see a single other person, which was lovely and meant we could take some unashamed jumping photos with only a ghost baby to worry about looking silly in front of.
After a few hours we decided to drive down the coast to Herne Bay where the sun blazed, the sea roared and we ate salt soaked chips on the pebbles. I would highly recommend a day trip there, as even the slightly ramshackle bandstand, ‘Eels on Wheels’ seafood stand and peeling pastel painted houses are very charming. We were sorry not to be staying overnight to take in the sights & sounds of the New York New York nightclub…! Added to the gorgeous stealth sunshine, another delight was catching a brass band on the bandstand. We were sat in candy striped deck chairs as they played classic numbers, eyes shut and dozey from the sea air, when all of a sudden they burst into the Jurassic Park theme! That was definitely one of my best moments of 2012.
August
The Olympics fortnight was the most exciting time I have ever experienced living in London. Living here is electric and exciting most of the time, but for the 2012 Olympic games it just crackled with energy and colour and positivity and everything you would wish for (and more!). I had tried and failed to get tickets for any sporting event, but to be honest without even stepping foot in the Olympic village I still feel like I had the best experience possible. For working days we had a huge TV set up with everyone gathered round shouting and clutching each other and bellowing when medals were won. For the rest, Hyde Park became my second home. I watched so many events on the huge screen there, including the photo above where Andy Murray won gold. The atmosphere was so happy and welcoming, even if the woodchip flooring did not agree with bare legs and long periods of sitting. I also attended the spine tingling closing ceremony where the sun shone and The Specials played, followed by a killer (could be their last ever) set by Blur and all day I was surrounded by my second family (Lol and her parents and her parents friends) plus Nick, plus Craig, as we pulled MoBots in every photograph. I went to see the torch be carried down Regents Street, I drank cider and cried my way during the opening ceremony, I wore official 2012 games sweatbands, I got ahead of the games and walked to work every day and I spotted athletes from almost every country. I’ll never regret living in London at that time, and how truly privileged I was to be a tiny part of it all. I’ve never been prouder to be British… or from Yorkshire as we clambered up the medals table.
September
In September I packed up my long abandoned wellies and headed to the Larmer Tree Gardens in North Dorset for End of the Road festival. I haven’t been to a festival in the UK since the apocalyptic Worstival (Bestival) of 2008, instead opting for weather foolproof options such as Sonar. Nick and his family/friends are annual End of the Road attendees however and not wanting to miss out/be parted I decided to take the plunge and go. Luckily the weather was pretty solid, just a few splatters of rain and one unseasonally freezing chattery teeth tent nights sleep. I have been to lots of festivals (Leeds, Reading, V, Bestival, ATPx3, Latitude, Field Day, Wireless and loads more I probably drank too much smuggled in gin to remember) as I have been going to UK summer festivals since I was 14. However End of the Road definitely wins my prize for best fest. It was the perfect number of people,so felt intimate and you never had to queue for a (very clean) portaloo. The festival is set in beautiful woodlands, and has a real enchanted fairytale vibe. My favourite memories were dancing until 2am in the light-up dancefloor disco deep in the forest, eating the best pulled pork burrito of my life (actually 3 over the course of the festival), kissing Nick under the swaying fairylights, dressing as a cowgirl, the amazing line up with highlights of Grizzly Bear, The Antlers, Beach House, John Grant & First Aid Kit. Oh and the secret Futureheads a cappella gig.
October
Short & sweet as October basically didn’t happen for me, as I covered here in rubbishtober. If it wasn’t happening in a hospital, doctors surgery, operating theatre or my bedroom prison, then I wasn’t there. I still dressed up for Halloween though…
November
I saw this on the day before I left my re-cooperating parents house in Yorkshire to head back to London and real post-op life. We were on our way to watch Skyfall, which was amazing, and for me to treat them to their first ever Nandos. I took it as a sign of great things to come and a fresh start, although to be honest I haven’t recovered as quickly as I expected. My operation was complicated and long and I still have struggles if I do quite standard things like lift a heavy bag or stand up too long or push myself too far too fast. My doctors think realistically it will be January 22nd before I am ‘recovered’ and realistically later until I am a robo-fixed-better version of myself. So November was a month of frustratingly taking it slow and steady to win the race.
December
In December I could finally step up my game and enjoy some London festivities, such as Winter Wonderland where Nick & I supped mulled cider and scampered around the Magical Ice Kingdom of ice sculptures where they even had an ice SLIDE and an ice unicorn. We drank in the carousel bar, and ate piping hot churros, and above all – despite our final destination health year – we risked a go on the ice skating and didn’t fall over once! In fact we helped other people to not fall over.
Writing this has made me realise that there were hundreds of tiny glimmers of hope and fun this/last year even if it was tough going. I can’t even begin to write about them all or mention all the sparkly people involved, but I am a very lucky girl and cannot wait to get stuck into 2013. (And write about it more)
