So I had my mini-festival last week with Show of Hands, Billy Bragg and Kate Rusby three nights in a row. And in short, it was amazing!
Show of Hands was in Pontardawe Arts Centre, and I went with Mountain Boy, YC, B, Ramblin' Folkie and Mr Folkie (and we found P&P there). The venue has everyone sitting round tables on the ground floor, and the 8 of us were sat together on a table of our own, which was cool, especially when it led to some timely giggles. Show of Hands were on top form, with an impressive 10 instruments between the 3 of them (Miranda Skyes came on for the second half), all of which were played with fantastic skill.
Next was Billy Bragg. Its a long story, but basically A and I got complementary tickets courtesy of the venue. And very good tickets at that - right in the middle, about 8 rows from the front, in a large hall. Billy was great. I'm used to hearing his songs at silly am, on a friend's guitar, at SCM events. But he was right there, with his music, political views and anecdotes - and the hecklers weren't in short supply! When starting with The World Turned Upside Down and finishing with A New England you can't go far wrong!
Finally was Kate Rusby. I'd never heard her live - I listen to her music regularly from my itunes, and heard she was something else live. But wow. She was absolutely amazing. It was in the same large hall, but this time we were sat in the second row from the front!!! She really was right in front of us! I went with a KateVirgin, which was cool because she thought she was great too. She had a very good, natural rapport with the audience too - although unlike the previous two nights, there weren't any hecklers (coincidence or difference in audiences??). The best bit was the encore when she sang The Village Green Preservation Society and Sandy Denny's Who knows where the Time Goes.
I'm sat in the middle of boxes, piles of crap and general half-packed stuff, trying to work out how I'm going to fix X about of stuff into Y boxes/bags. I've discovered I've still got a freezer half full of stuff and my new place doesn't have a freezer (yet), so will have to find a cool bag and smile sweetly at someone with a freezer. I'm not actually moving till a week today, but tomorrow I go to Manchester for 6 days. Yeah, I know, great timing. Its a coincidence, but it means the whole packing thing has had to be done a lot sooner. And to top it off, I woke up today (my main packing day) not feeling 100% with a sore throat, headache, backache and sore feet*.
Anyway, I decided to remind myself of why I'm going to all of this effort:
* To get away from the Stupid Busy Road, which almost gets me killed everytime I cross it.
* To have somewhere that feels like Home, instead of just a room where my stuff happens to be.
* To have housemates that I can socialise with and actually say more than 'hello, how are you?' to.
* To live the Other Side of the city, where most of the friend's I've made here are based, so I don't have to cycle for half an hour in order to see anyone.
* To live in a house (which has stairs!!!) rather than a flat.
* To have a garden - which even has a compost heap in it!!! (I got quite excited about this, so I've been put in charge of it! :) )
I just which I could click my fingers and have moved! On a brighter note, I've been lucky enough to have a Mini Festival of gigs this week. I've seen Show of Hands and Billy Bragg on Wednesday and Thursday of this week, and it finishes tonight with Kate Rusby! What this space - I'm planning to blog a review of all three when I'm in Manchester.
* NB: Sore feet are due to going out in silly shoes, rather than the virus that causing the other symptoms.
Not only has it sorted me out with the house, which got 100% confirmed yesterday, we're also being given 2 double beds and a couple of other bits of furniture from a mutual friend at church! :D Will just have to make sure I take down any pictures before transporting them!
Went to see Juno last week and loved the soundtrack so much that I bought it when I got home. It arrived this weekend and I've discovered that my favourite songs on it are all by Kimya Dawson, an American folk artist, and after browsing her website, I'm even more impressed. Shes worth checking out.
When I moved to my New Home, I was taken to a Methodist church by a friend who had been brought up in that church, but has since moved away. It was relatively similar to both the church that I was brought up in and the church I attended in Swansea. Within a couple of weeks of going there, I met for the first time, someone who I had known for a long time, via small world connections. He told me about an alternative worship church which meets on Sunday evenings in a parish church up the road. So I went along, and found myself settling in quicker than I could have settled in the Methodist church. The average age is much lower, with most people being in their 20s and 30s, and they still have their regular elderly members. We meet at 8pm for a hot drink, the service starts at 8.30 and is led by members of group, and afterwards we all go to the pub. There is instant socialising incorporated around worship, which meant that I made friends quickly. One friend there nicknamed me 'Trouble' within 2 weeks of meeting me! (I don't know where he could have got that impression from... (A) ;) )
For a little while I was attending both churches. But around my shifts, this grew increasingly more difficult. I can go to the alternative worship church after a day shift in work, and even after some weekends away. The only time I tend to miss services is when I'm on nights. Whereas the Methodist church service not only requires me to not be working, not be away, but also awake! If I've worked several long shifts in a row, and then I have a day off on Sunday, I'd often not wake up till after 10am, making getting to a 10.30 service (20 minutes walk) interesting! Consequently I haven't been there since Christmas. I do feel a little bad about this, like I'm going against my roots and all I've previously known. But on the other hand, it doesn't feel like my church. It never has done.
This alt worship church, although separate to the parish church its held in, is part of the local diocese and its official 'leader' is one of the vicars from the parish church. In practice the vicar doesn't do a huge amount to lead it, I've never known him to lead a service and he even delegates the job of chairing the recently formed church council meetings. And services don't bear any resemblance to traditional Anglican services. Its kinda ecumenical, although most members could be classed as 'post evangelical'.
Because of the close connection with the parish church, we're often invited along to events and special services there. The alternative worship church didn't have a service on Easter Sunday, so I went along to the Anglican service instead. Being a Methodist, I'm not used to the 'bells and smells' (as a friend puts it) of traditional Anglican services. But my friends were going, so it felt the natural place to go, rather than the Methodist church which I haven't been to since Christmas.
And its just a bit odd. All my life I've been involved in the life of a Methodist church. Except now. On the other hand, the alt worship church feels right for me at the moment. As much as I love a traditional Methodist service, they can get to the point where they rarely stimulate you. And around my shifts, both spiritually and physically, the 'God time and space' that the alt worship church provides, is often just what I need. Especially after a Difficult Week in work. As well as stimulating me spiritually, its also provided me with a friendship group, a boyfriend and a house (which has just about been confirmed!).
I realise I haven't posted very much recently. Lots is happening in Real Life. Lots of changes. But mostly good ones. Having found a fab man and an almost house, its looking good. But I thought I'd tell you about my adventure the other night...
I was visiting the Almost House on Sunday and had gone out for dinner with the Almost Housemates before we started making our way separately to church. I was on my bike and they were in the car, so they agreed to take my bag for me, and meet me there. I set off on my bike, with my map, before realising that my big thick cycling gloves were in the bag that was in their car. I thought I'd be ok.... until it started snowing. And my hands went numb. Changing gear with your arm muscles is interesting... Then I got lost. My map showed clearly a cycle path coming off the road, and towards the town, but I couldn't see it in real life, at all. After a quick phone call to my new guy and he told me you had to cycle through a block of flats car park to find it, I got over that hurdle. Don't ask how I managed to use a phone with numb hands, I'm not sure myself. Then it went ok for a few minutes, I didn't know exactly where I was going, but I could work it out. I reached the outskirts of the centre, and was just negotiating a Big roundabout (thankfully via the pavement / subway), when my bike stopped. Completely. It made a clang, and then refused to move. I clambered off, and soon realised that one of my elasticated spider things which secure bags on the back, had come off and wrapped itself around the back wheel spokes. I flipped my bike upside down and tried to remove it, but with numb hands and in the snow and dark, it wasn't going anywhere! I rang my boyfriend back (I was also meeting him at church, supposedly within 5 minutes by now) and after talking about it, we figured the best thing to do for me to lock up my bike where it was, and for me to go straight to the pub next to church and warm up.
So I left my bike at this roundabout, and walked the 20 minutes or so across town to the pub where I warmed up with hot chocolate and cider (not together!). Thankfully I happened to have a spare, although muddy, set of clothes, in my bag. So as soon as the service finished, I got my bag back and was able to get some dry clothes on. My hands had impressively warmed up before I made it to the pub, thanks to my fleecy jumper, but my jeans were soaked through with freezing water. With the dry jeans, lovely friends and a bit of jumping around, I soon got the circulation going properly again.
My bike was slightly more interesting. Its booked in for a (complementary) service in the shop it was bought from on Wednesday. So I figured that they could fix the back wheel. If I could get it across town, with a disabled wheel. And when I was working 12 hour shifts Monday and Tuesday. Theres a reason I called my new guy fab - I gave him the keys, he retrieved it, removed the elasticated spider thing, cycled it to the bike shop, booked it in for the service, and even remembered to tell them about the slightly dodgy second gear! :D So all I have to do tomorrow is collect it.
I had a request to blog about how my new veggie diet was going. So I thought I would do.
Generally very well. The only meat I've really missed is bacon. I think its the smell. I'm beginning to find that my instinctive, internal reaction to meat is negative. Except bacon. That still requires some self control.
Since the first week I haven't forgotten. Not that I really forgot in the first week, but I did have a couple of moments when I nearly picked out the ham sandwich, before I remembered. I've only eaten meat once since deciding I was veggie. I was at Birmingham New Street station, desperate for a pasty and also in a mad rush from one platform to another. Given there was about 1000 people also rushing to the change of platform, I figured I had time to stop at the pasty shop and buy a cheese and onion pasty. It wasn't until I got onto the train and had eaten half the pasty that I realised I'd been given a chicken and onion pasty (I was very hungry). Anyway, I decided it would be wasteful not to eat it, now I'd accidentally ended up with it.
I haven't yet used up the meat in my freezer. There are three pieces of chicken left. This is partly because I've dived into the veggie thing, and it seems odd now to cook chicken. And partly because I've had an offer from a Very Good Cook to make a yummy dish for me with these last pieces of meat.
I'm quite enjoying trying out new meals within these new limits. In fact, I've not really found it limiting, I've found it liberating because I've been trying all sorts of new food that I wouldn't have touched otherwise. I have been eating more fish and sea food. Which given that I've allowed myself it, because my main reason is the impact that meat production causes on CO2 production and consequently on the environment, is justified. I think. I know fish farming isn't great either, but in terms of my diet balance I think its important. And I do love fish.
My mum's initial reaction to my vegginess was to be concerned about my diet. I have a medical condition which is affected by diet. But having read around it, I don't think that cutting meat out of my diet will impact badly upon this. Basically as long as I eat healthily, and make sure I am getting my protein from elsewhere, then I think its ok. Given that I have been anemic in the past (I never ate much red meat anyway), I will probably get this tested after a while, to check its ok. In the meantime I'll have to eat lots of spinach!
I spent Easter weekend with some friends in Bristol, who had an interesting reaction to vegetarianism. One guy there, who I didn't know prior to that weekend, declared that vegginess was a way of living, beyond just your choice of diet. This was an interesting theory, which I was initially sceptical of but warmed slowly to. Basically, if you are a true veggie, then you will always choose the less selfish, least comfortable option in life. So you walk into a room full of sofas, and you sit on the floor. Or you cycle / walk instead of going by car. My argument against this, was that I enjoy cycling and walking, so therefore it is the preferable option when possible. It was an interesting theory, but I'm not entirely convinced.
Its odd how your own coping methods and relationships that you have with friends, etc, evolve over time. Evolve with situational changes within individuals lives. Its something I've noticed recently anyway. And I think 'evolve' is the right word, they build upon the foundations that were there before, but sometimes in unexpected way.
Over the past 6 months or so, my life has undergone quite big changes, with the move and starting a new job, etc. The quantity of friends that I have has increased, because I've met new people and made new friends. But within that move and that change, the roles of a lot of my friends has changed. I know longer see my Swansea friends on a week to week basis. And although generally the *amount* of stuff that I talk to them about hasn't changed, the frequency in which we're able to do so, has. Which makes sense, given the changes. I've also been developing friendships in my New Home and it feels good that I now have people here who I can talk to properly about stuff.
I'd also just like to take this opportunity to say thank you to a few friends (you'll know who you are), who gave me some advice a year or so ago, which I recently recalled and it helped me mentally through a tough few days. It feels like, I'm taking the altered Swansea support and putting it with my New Home support, and being more independent as a result of both. I'm not entirely sure if that makes sense, but I know what I mean!
I heard back from the really nice house. The one that I really wanted. And no, I didn't get it. Neither did anyone else. They've decided to continue looking for people. I wouldn't mind so much if someone else had got in there first. Or if I didn't truly believe that I'd get on with this woman really well. I think I could have made more of an effort to prove this to her, in the 20 minutes we spent together, but I didn't realise till towards the end that it was basically going to be her decision. Its frustrating. I wish I could wind back the clock and make more of an effort to show my personality in those 20 minutes. The fact that I was the first to say 'yes, I'm definitely interested' is insignificant. Sigh. I know there will be other houses. Went to see somewhere last night, and all it proved to me is how much I want this really nice house.
Regular readers and friends may remember that I've been trying to make plans to move out for the past 6 months that I've been living here. I think I must have planned and half arranged to live with at least 6 different arrangements of friends in that time, and all of them have fallen through somehow or other. A few weeks ago I decided that I was fed up waiting for other people to sort themselves out, and that I'd look for somewhere myself.
At first I investigated a couple of rooms that I knew that were free through contacts, but the first one wasn't suitable and the second was taken before I got to look at it. So then I started looking on Gumtree. It is full of lists of houses, flats, rooms, etc, available for renting in my area. Earlier this week I fished through them all, emailing and phoning the relevant people. It is a fantastic site. But v.popular. So all the best places get snapped up very quickly. I've been to see a couple more places this week - the first wasn't suitable, but the second is really, really nice. And I really want it. But theres 7 people potentially interested in 2 rooms. The person who is organising it (not the landlady), basically gets to choose who gets to live with her. I think I would get on with her really well, but I don't quite know if she thought the same thing. And she did say that 2 guys had visited the place before me, so if they wanted the rooms then she'd be likely to give it to them, as they were first. So now I'm just hoping that one of them doesn't want it!
The thing about Gumtree is that it all moves so quickly. Its designed for people who need accommodation fast. Both of the places I visited from there were available from next week. So if I was successful with this house, then I'd have to spend next week packing and sort out a moving date around my shifts (and my promised car/van driver). Oh, and this place had unfurnished bedrooms, so I'd need to buy some bedroom furniture. I've been sitting here thinking I would move sometime in the future, for the past 6 months, and now it all seems to be happening very quickly! When I was a student I knew when I would be moving house for months in advance. I could plan. Now I don't even know whether I am moving next week or not. :S
Almost 3 years ago I called Swansea home. And since then, Swansea had become more and more like home. Since leaving Swansea, I have been missing it considerably. And to a certain degree, I still do. But at the weekend when I was in Swansea, I missed my New Home. It felt like I used to feel going back to Manchester from Swansea. And that feeling struck me by complete surprise. I know I still have a lot more settling to do in my New Home, but it felt good that when I got a signal on Saturday I had 3 texts from New Home People, all asking me if I was about to do something. Don't get me wrong, Swansea People will always hold a special place in my heart. But now, for the first time, it feels like I'm beginning to settle elsewhere. I actually missed my New Home. At times over the weekend, I wanted to be able to split myself in two, so I could be in both places at once. As a friend pointed out though, this would be quite messy.
I collected my new bike this morning! Its fab! I can ride up hills without too much effort and everything works beautifully.
For my birthday last July and when I graduated, I was given some money to put towards a car for work. But parking anywhere is so impossible here, and I'm so central that I don't need a car, so I decided to spend the money on a better bike. This one is much better quality, should last a lot longer and I had 25% off the retail price!
There was some debate over what I'm going to do with my old bike. I was tempted to give it to a local homeless charity which does old bikes up for homeless people. But my parents pointed out that my sister and I are often complaining that there isn't a bike at home suitable for us to use, when we're at home (on holiday) and wanting to cycle somewhere. So it's going home. Given that I had some money spare with the sale in the shop, I decided to leave my v.old lock and lights with my old bike for home use, and buy myself some new ones. So earlier this afternoon I fitted the new fittings onto my new bike. And now it really is set to go!
After picking it up, I cycled over to the organic farmers market and bought local cheese, freshly baked bread and homegrown mushrooms. This afternoon I walked up the hill and went to my regular local fruit and veg shop, and stocked up with food that I didn't buy this morning at the market. And I discovered Burnt Sugar, in the Oxfam up there. They claim to be set to do what Green and Blacks did to chocolate, to the sweet market. Its all fairly traded, carbon neutral and very yummy! I treated myself to a bar of their fudge, and have made subtle obvious hints in reference to their honeycomb and chocolate easter egg. :D
As of yesterday I am a vegetarian. Its been something that I've been thinking about for a long time. I don't eat a huge amount of meat anyway, and I'd often thought that I should cut it out of my diet completely. I've been doing a fair amount of reading around climate change issues recently and the more I read, the more I felt I ought to being a vegetarian, mostly for environmental reasons, but also due to animal welfare. It was reading this book which I reviewed the other week, and attending the SCM conference which pushed me to finally decide definitely. On Sunday we had to make a promise to do an action which helped something, with / for someone else (tis hard to explain without the sheet). I promised to cut my carbon emissions by becoming vegetarian and it would help people that I don't know, by making my small difference to climate change.
Coming back last night and eating lunch out today, showed me how difficult it often is to find vegetarian food when out and about. It was almost natural to pick up the ham salad sandwich, and I had to stop myself. I am still going to eat fish. I know its cheating slightly, but I love fish too much, and it makes it easier when eating out and things. And I am going to finish the meat in my freezer. Wish me luck!
Rainbow Girl 
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