Olympic Colours for the Olympic Torch

Well hello there!

I’m back from a short break with a post about a torch and a scarf – the Olympic torch and the official Paralympics scarf of team GB to be precise.

The scarf itself is from Next and is part of their official Team GB line and I was lucky enough to be sent the scarf to check out by the Next team.

There are two styles of scarf available - the Olympic version and the Paralympics version. I was rather pleased to receive the Paralympics version as I preferred the colours, and being someone who has struggled occasionally with mobility, I appreciate the spirit of making sports available for all.

I started off simply styling the scarf with a simple neck tie, but I needed to change this after going for a walk outside and getting caught in a downpour. I thought the second style was a little Grany-ish but hey, I’m down with that.

For my second styling attempt I wore it as a head-scarf wrapped around hair rolls.

But more importantly than that I ventured out into the Durham rain to see the Olympic Torch pass through the city of Durham.

I wore the scarf as a cape, because I like capes, but also because it really showed the colours.

The Torch Relay itself was really fun, the sponsorship busses and police escorts really got the crowd excited so when the torch did pass through everyone was really excited. I even caught a few snaps of some people out on the town in fancy dress!

Its probably fair to suggest that there will be a few more red, white and blue outfit posts in the run up to the Olympics.

But until then…

Vintage Event: A Diamond Jubilee Celebration

Having somehow managed to end up with the long weekend off work I decided to use the Bank Holiday Monday to get dressed in red, white and blue, and check out the celebrations in my home town of Durham.

Although there were no big lunches in the city centre the shops had decorated in style! With bunting and Union flags as far as the eye could see.

It was really nice to see a few other people dressed for the occasion too, one lady had a fantastic Union flag jacket, and I saw everything else from flag ties, neck scarves, cardigans and dresses. It wasn’t an overwhelming sight, but of those present those that were dressed up for the occasion provided a very pleasant spattering of patriotic colours.

The market place in the centre played host to most of the city’s Jubilee celebrations providing entertainment in the form of swing DJ and crooner Jay-B and his dancers.

While a little bit camp it was fun, and there was lots of room for a spot of dancing – what this girl always wants!

Last but not least, what did I wear on this day of celebration? Well I managed to thrift a navy and white dress from Monsoon, via eBay, for under half price, a red cardigan and belt, both M&S, and a lovely pair of gorgeous brogues from Clarks (my most expensive item).

The sunglasses were found in a bargain bin in the Accessorize sale for around £1.70 and my hair flowers were bought cheerily from Poundland. As for my hair, good old victory rolls. Natch.

I hope you had a lovely Jubilee weekend, even if you’re not pro-royal, and managed to find some time to relax or party.

It’s the Durham regatta next weekend so I’ll have to get my glad-rags on for that.

Until then…

Cosplay Sightings: Somebody Stop Him - The Mask

Here is something delightful and fun I spotted on the way home from work in Newcastle!

A pair of buskers playing an eclectic fusion of a bongo and bag-pipes. Surprisingly it seemed to work, although it was very loud.

What interested me in this pair was the rather fantastic effort of the bongo player - he was dressed as The Mask from the Jim Carey movie of the same name. A slightly strange choice as i believe the mask danced at the Coco-Bongo Club rather than playing bongos, but still it impressed me.

Incidentally the scene where he dances with Cameron Diaz is one of the films I attribute my desperation to learn lindy to (that and Back to the Future part 1). Here's a clip of the fantastic scene for anyone who hasn't seen it.

The dance itself was also mimicked by Helio and Julianne in the final of Dancing With The Stars season 5 - a rather nice quickstep I believe.

I have to say that although there isn't much in the way of inspiration for ladies fashion, that yellow zoot suit has got to be an inspiration for the men. It really is iconic!

Where I Work and What I Wear

Just a little post today, as I've been busy writing my thesis, but I wanted to say a little about the other thing I've been doing lately.

While I've been writing I have another job.

I am a Science Explainer at the Centre for Life in Newcastle.

The Centre is a great place for kids and families and while some of it is traditional hands on museum fodder the rest is a brand new completely open ended interactive experience called Curiosity.

There are also science workshops where participants can get hands on with experiments, a 4D motion ride (opening soon hopefully) a planetarium and a science show.

All in all its pretty cool, especially if you're interested in science at all.

However it is a job with something I am not used to... a uniform...

Said uniform involves a red polo-shirt which I can cope with, but also a pair of cargo pants. The cargo pants are not only not my style, but they are also unisex so fit really badly around the hips - but never mind, it can be a dirty job so better those trousers than a pair of my nice ones!

Here's a picture of me from a few weekends ago with one of my favourite animals of all time - a meerkat!

I was lucky to get to give this guy a hug thanks to our visitors Jay's Animal Encounters who came to visit the centre.

Anywho...

I do appreciate that this is the kind of job that where I can roll my hair and no-one minds, in fact, I need to put my hair up in the labs so I am attempting to experiment with some variations on the norm. I'll post a gallery when I get enough pictures of different styles!

That's it for now!

Halfords The Tour Team Cycle Race – Durham

A little bit off topic for my blog but I thought this event was worth mentioning.

Its not often I go to live sporting events, but as a keen cyclist, the chance to see a very technical and slightly terrifying cycle race in my home town (only five minutes walk from my house!) was too good to miss.

The Tour is a series of team races that take place throughout the UK over May and June. What makes the races so exciting is the fact they take place on short circuits throughout city centres – this means lots of laps, sharp turns and plenty of crashes.

The Durham track in particular takes place over a 1.4 km course with a steep hill leading into an almost-hairpin turn and a further steep climb on a cobbled street.

While not really my usual blog fodder I thought it was worth mentioning the bright colours the competing teams wore. White was a surprisingly common colour - well surprising given how dirty they must get!

My level of cycling is far more recreational so you’ll most likely find me in a dress rather than spandex, but each to their own! For watching the event I chose to wear a red dress (a current favourite of mine) and my blue duffle coat, mainly because it had a hood and I was fairly convinced it would rain again (it didn't however). 

The race itself was incredibly exciting! My family and I managed to station ourselves close to the ‘treacherous corner’ where most of the falls and near misses occurred. Watching the competitors whizz round with such speed was quite exhilarating especially as they were so close to the pavement.

As I said we saw a fair number of crashes and near misses. More than one rider took the corner too quickly and hit the hay bails as they hit the breaks.

It didn’t take long before a clear leader of the race was established, Kristian House took a fairly early lead and just kept going until he had crossed the finish line (however his team were not the overall victors of the race).

The race is only just over an hour long and well worth the time to go and have a look, you can check out the locations of races on TheTour website. Maybe its just the thing to get you into the sporting mood for the Olympics!

Oh, and if you're interested you can watch highlights on ITV player here, you may also spot me around 23 minutes in ;)

A Beautiful Solution to a Rainy-Day Wedding

Hello there, I believe its been a rather long time since I last posted anything about my wedding!

Today my Mum was browsing in the trinket and home shop Audacia in Durham city centre for a new table. The lady who works in (and possibly owns) the shop is very friendly and always asks about the wedding.

Today she said that she hoped I had weather as wonderful as today on my wedding day and I said that I hoped so too, but that I had a plan if it was raining. I then added that I was looking for a girly full umbrella in white and incredibly usefully - she had one in the window display!

I knew instantly that this was the item I had been searching for, so that should it pour down my hubby and I will be able to stand in the rain to have pictures taken under an umbrella made for two (don't worry, I'll resist the temptation of a certain Rihanna song).

Handily this brolly is light enough that it could make a beautiful parasol on a sunny day too - and my cat seemed to like it.

This umbrella cost £26, which is the most anyone I know has ever paid for an umbrella, but is certainly seems to be very sturdy.

Do you know anyone who was married on a rainy day?
If so what did they do about it?

P.S. Here is a picture of my cat, I've been practising my animal photography.

A Personal Story and Some Inspiration From Avengers Assemble

So, a couple of nights ago I saw for the Avengers for the second time. Something that, in itself, is not that interesting but what happened afterwards was something I have never really done before.

There are not many trains that run from Newcastle to my home town after 10pm so when the Hulk was catching a falling Tony Stark after the big battle in New York at ten past 10 and my train was at 10:21. I started to feel a little under time pressure.

So I ran. I ran for the train. It is just under a mile from the cinema to the station and I made that train with 3 minutes to spare and looking back now I can’t believe I managed it.

Now perhaps you’re thinking, she ran for a train, so what?  Well, being able to run is not something I take for granted.

I have a condition called Reactive Arthritis, it is a type of inflammatory arthritis that typically effects people acutely for a few months and then they get better. But in some people it produces a chronic condition where the sufferer will go through phases of ‘flair ups’ (sometimes it can even cause damage to organs in very unfortunate people – luckily I am not one of them).

While I have several flair ups in my teenage years, they were never serious enough to prevent me from walking, they made me nervous about running, dancing and jumping but they did not seriously limit my life (although it was a little strange trying to sit my A-levels with very swollen fingers).

My first major incident, the one that lead to my diagnosis was when I was 20. I had a huge flair up after a very serious bout of food poisoning (I still can’t eat BBQ chicken to this day). Shortly after recovering from that I noticed my ankle began to swell, and while I was able to keep walking on it for a few days after about a week it was so painful I could not longer stand up.

I didn’t understand what was wrong, I hurt so much and I was afraid of going to the doctors so it took me a couple of weeks of being house and occasionally bed bound before I gathered the strength (and a walking stick stolen from my Grandmother) before I made it to the doctors.

To cut a very long story short, with a lot of doctors, painkillers, anti-inflammatories, physiotherapy, immunosuppressants and time I began to get better.

In the following years I kept as active as possible, it’s the main reason I spent so much time dancing, but the hardest thing to get over was the fear.

I’ve never really spoken about my feelings on what I went through, I’ve always felt that so many other people go through worse things in their life-time that I didn’t really have a right to think or complain about it again.

However recently I started having problems walking and having difficulty with my hands. I don’t think its too bad, but it made me so afraid of what might happen to me, that I could end up in the same situation again.

So how does this relate to the Avengers?

Well there is just so much physical action in that movie its inspiring, everyone is running, jumping, kicking, flying… just watching it makes me want to run and jump too.

The whole time I was running to the station I was thinking, ‘Do NOT miss that train’ but also ‘Be like Black Widow, she wouldn’t be tired now'. I'm not going to lie, my ankle has been paying the price since, but I am hoping that I will be able to go out for a proper run soon (if it ever stops raining).

It was an almost out of body experience, and all I could feel was that I want to be better. I am fortunate that the type of arthritis I have actually gets better with exercise - it just takes some time. So all I can say is that if a film like this can have that kind of affect on me who else does it affect? I can only hope that other people feel inspired in the same way I was.

I have decided that I need to lose weight in order to reduce the stress on my joints and to help me get fitter. One day I'd like to make a cosplay costume of Black Widow so perhaps this is also the start of my journey to that day.

Wish me luck, and I hope that if you’ve ever had any health or physical problems you can find something to inspire you too.