Autumn

It's kinda my favourite season - I like the colours, the smells, the cozyness, the build up to Christmas, but I also know that after it comes winter which always seems to go on forever and ever.  But for now I will enjoy mugs of hot chocolate, smells of burning wood, evenings drawing in, leaves (slowly) turning to orange.  Thought I'd find some autumn loveliness via Flickr.... (I am queen of procrastination when I am supposed to be studying!!)

From Sebastian Mary

From kisses are a better fate than wisdom's

From Just us 3

I always want to go to Disney land at this time of year, they do it pretty good.

Other Bestivalities

Other than the Flaming lips, we saw Mumford and Sons, Bombay Bicycle club, Rolf Harris, Roxy Music (oh yes), Eliza Doolittle, Fake Blood and Vanilla Ice.  We walked past the Cocktails and Dreams tent saying 'I wonder when Vanilla Ice is on' only to bloody walk into him!!!!  And he posed for me!  The best possible Vanilla Ice pose ever!  And my stupid bloody camera missed it cos it was on silly mode.  Garrghhh!!!!

Other than that, we ate yummy food, dressed up as dragons/dinosaurs and red pandas (I was also supposed to be a dragon warrior but the rain meant I couldn't wear most of my outfit), drank yummy cocktails at the Black Dahlia and had afternoon tea and burlesque in the Time for Tease tent.

It was all great!  Stayed in a podpad for the 2nd year in a row, despite saying we wouldn't again!  Much comfier with twin beds and being on the flat, but this year we had absolutely no electricity (supposed to have light and 12V plug) - which made it a little bit of a waste of money.  Oh well.  And the prodigy, well they were a bit shit really.  Horrible atmosphere within the crowd.

Here are some photos!

Ice Ice Baby!  (this was inside during his gig)

The Wishing Tree (had to pass a test to get in there)

Main Stage

My 'dragon warrior thingy' mask... mostly worn in the Podpad during a rainstorm!

Our Kigu

Dinosaur in need of a wee

Ratty Panda

Tea and burlesque

Castle that got burnt on the last night

Watching the castle burn

Pretty fireworks and flags

Off to Southsea Fest tomorrow, our local festival - should be fun!

Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips at Bestival were amazing, probably the best live show I have ever seen!  There were streamers, balloons, confetti and even laser hands!!!  Whilst I don't love all their songs, it didn't hugely matter as they were putting on such a good show!  I thought I'd share a few photos!

Wayne in zorb at beginning

This was the intro, not the end!

Wayne on a bear!?!

Laser hands!!!!

Confetti on the floor afterwards!

More Bestival pics tomorrow. xx

Bestivalities

Off to Bestival tomorrow over on the Isle of Wight (so not exactly far...)  It really has already started but work commitments mean we can't go 'til tomorrow teatime, boo.  This year is the 'year of the fantastic'.  We are going as dragon and dragon rider/warrior in the day and dinosaur and red panda at night.  Yes, the night is lacking fantasy a bit!  I was supposed to be St George but my outfit never came and we could only find huge giant sized outfits in the fancy dress shop, so I got a cool mask and Phil did some spray painting and..... you'll have to wait and see! Very excited, hoping the weather is reasonably good and the hovercraft crossing is smooth! xx

(hideous pic of a drunken me from last year)

Produce from my garden

I have a postage stamp sized garden  and a slighter smaller patio, but have been determined to grow something other than flowers.  Last year we got 2 or 3 strawberries only, so this year I planted everything I could find.  Last week I have got a load of tiny red onions and this week my tomatoes have ripened.  The tomatoes aren't the tastiest things ever, but edible enough.  They were lovely in a prawn linguine last night! Other highlights include rosemary and about a dozen strawberries this year.  My carrots are almost ready too, but I think they will be tiny (I planted them too close together and never got round to thinning them out).  My coriander, basil and lettuce all never happened or died pretty soon after sprouting.  I am hoping to have a proper sized garden soon so I can plant lots more, hopefully more successfully!

A week of weddings!

The week before last we had 2 weddings in one week, both of which we were involved in.
The first, my husband was best man for.  He got heckled during his best man speech, by no less than the bride's mother!  It made it all the more entertaining!  The reception was in a spanish restaurant and had an incredibly yummy buffet of paella, patatas bravas, pesto pasta and so on.  Lots of dancing to good tunes and even a Jedward style rendition of Vanilla Ice by my husband and the groom!

The second wedding was Ben and Amy's - they are some of our best friends.  We did a little bit of helping the night before, then I joined a group of girls and Mums who helped Amy get ready on the day, and then proceeded to take hundreds of photos!  I loved Amy's dress - I had been waiting to see it as we went dress shopping and she choose this one over the one I saw her in!  They had afternoon tea, a hog roast, brilliant speeches and a very fun cover band - very very happy for them!

There's a dinosaur on Southsea common.

Its bloody huge!

So.....

I guess I haven't posted much recently, despite the fact I have a few bits and bobs to share.  I blame work - whilst I am so much happier to be back where I feel I 'belong' work-wise, in A&E, the shifts are incredibly tiring and I feel like I have so little time off.  The recent few have been pretty emotionally draining too - yesterday my 30 year old friend came in with a massive massive heart attack (luckily he went straight for an angio and is gonna be okay) and today, I had just left the hospital in my car when I came across a load of people standing round someone on the pavement - a man had collapsed on the way to work and had a cardiac arrest.  Myself and another doctor were there and pretty soon after, the whole cardiac arrest team were there - quite surreal as it was outside!  I am hoping that my next 2 night shifts will be a little less adrenaline filled!  I have 2 whole weeks off after that, I am very much looking forward to them!  I plan to sleep late, drink too much tea and take lots of pretty pictures.  Oh, and do some studying.  Bleurgh.