Birthday Month

And I intend to 

Hello August

So Long July

So long July, you have been awesome.  I've left another school but I have also made many new friends and learned a great deal about myself as a person and a teacher.  

I could actually feel the colours

As we queued with bearded, tattooed hippies with sons called Alpro and Xanthe in front of us and Barbour clad loveies behind us I turned to GO and whispered "I think these are our people."  The confusion on his faced meant I'd have to try and elaborate without being over heard.  

The people in the line with us ranged from early thirties to sixties in age, men, women, gay, straight.  They had loads of children, or one or none.  They wore shoes, coats and bags with small almost indescribable labels (TOMS, Barbour, Fjallraven).  

Nothing special unless you recognised them and knew that the backpack slung so casually on the guys back was worth £100, and the shoes, as lovely as they are were, made the wearer feel good about them-self as for every pair purchased another was given to a child in need.  

These people go to festivals and parades in Hebden, they attend theatre evenings in abandons mills and warehouses.  They holiday abroad, but no where to ostentatious.  They are us, and like us they were lining up to crawl around huge bubbles dressed up in primary coloured smocks trying to look cool and arty.  There one photo of the event posted on Instagram was going to make them instafamous and the next social media star.  Well if you can't beat them, join them.  Well apart from Aldous, he was really annoying and kept photobombing all of my beautiful pictures.The exhibit itself was made up of over a dozen inflated domes that each have their own colour.  They are connected together in a hive of sorts, towards the edge of the hive there is a larger, white, dome, which is inhabited by various musicians and dancers.  

As we made our way around the domes it was very discombobulating, some rooms were dark and soothing (womb like) others were harsh and bright (it hurt to stand in them).   You are given a tabard to wear so that you are more at one with the colours around you (I had a child's one initially but mananged to arrange a swap with someone who was leaving), each group has a maximum of half an hour to explore.  As expected the children just ran and ran and ran, screaming, laughing and shouting. The adults were more subdued however after a few minutes to acclimate to their surroundings they soon began to enjoy themselves.  This nower days obviously involves posing for Instaworthy photos (I am queen of this).  

We "photoed" our hearts out, and then all of a sudden we were done.  Our time hadn't run out, we hadn't spent our allotted 30 minutes in the domes, we just reached a point where our sense had been overloaded.  I found the red dome quite hard to stand I for too long.  

Would I go again?  Possibly, it was fun but along the same lines as ball pools.  They are fun initially but soon you just want to go.  I had been wanting to go to this for a few year and I am glad we went, it wasn't a let down.

What is going on?

After such a busy weekend and the week ahead looking equally action packed we decided that today would be a pj day.  Quick and easy oven cooked food and snacks.  Chilling on the sofa catching up with The awesome Handmaids Tale and Game of Thrones.  All good so far, we were watching a YouTube clip show when we got an email arranging a gas inspection on Weds, then minlaw rang to drop off the mail we were "out", the phone rang with no answer and finally a knock at the door meter reading dude.  Is Simone trying to tell us something I asked GO exasperatedly.  Whatever was going on we battened down the hatches and shut out the world, like the good sofa bears we are.  

It's Bigger Than It Looks Inside

To round off our Geekend (see what I did there?) we visited the Dr Who experience in Cardiff Bay.  I had heard of it and had been told it was worth a visit but Cardiff had always seemed so far for just one exhibitions, even if it was Dr. Who.  We booked in for an early afternoon tour, and had been the theme of the weekend arrived slightly early, only this time our luck had run out and we had to wait for out allotted time.  We explored the gift shop and tapped into the free WIFI.  I managed to sneak an extra slush drink from the machine and we waited, I tried to line up and was told I was too early and to wait.  So we waited again, then finally it was our turn.  I didn't know what to expect, museum?  

What we experienced was an interactive experience, we were guest on the Tardis and we were being followed by enemies, we had to recover three crystals that the Tardis would use to safely return us to earth, Roger so far.  We travelled to different "worlds" and encountered different challenges along the way.  It was all quite exciting in that, I have paid for this so it will be exciting way.  Then we got to a grave yard full of Weeping Angels.  They are in my opinion the scariest thing on Dr Who, purely because I don't really understand them.  I refused to blink the whole way round and it didn't help that one of my secretly taken photos is one of them about to pounce!

After the tour your are free to explore the prop warehouse, there are a few Tardis', one inside set and every enemy there has ever been.  Recently my favourite character has been Missy and I loved being about to learn about her character. Some of the props were very scary, others were comical.  It was a good day and well worth a visit. 

Took some illegal photos during the presentation

How scary does this look?

We went down a mine...sort of

After sneaking into our tour two hours early we had the prospect of a whole afternoon in the Rhondda Valley ahead of us.  As we'd already checked out on trip advisor for things to do it was looking like we'd be touring the shopping centres.  This in the past would have been heaven but these days, I prefer to shop for experiences and make memories.  

Then I saw a flyer for the Rhondda Heritage Centre, they had a working mine and seemed very reasonably priced.  So off we went into the Valleee.  We purchased our tickets and waited for our tour to begin. There were a few other family groups, one of which seemed to be a family from the US, GO was in hysterics because the mum had the same pack a mac as me.  Well I had bought it from a supermarket, it was bound to happen one day.

The children were all very loud and obnoxious and as usual the parents found it amusing, to cover up the shame of having rude children. The two Welsh boys were the worst, and very demanding of the tour guides time, he was very lead by them, which may have been great if you were with them but for those of us who weren't it was very irritating.  


One of the other gentlemen, began to ask questions and took over the tour guides attention, thankfully.  We watched a few videos about life down the mines and watched the huge mechanism being fired up.  It was amazing to see the big thing lurch into life.  The we went into the helmet room where we each assigned a helmet before getting into the lift to go down into the mine.

It took about sixty seconds for us to be lowered into the mine, it was quite quick.  I held on for dear life.  We made our way through the mine tunnels, learning about life down the mine and the role of children and birds.  Some points were quite dark and eerie, then we got to as fork I the mine where our miner told us how they would send children into the tunnels to lay explosives before detonating them, at this point he press a button and we experienced a explosion simulation.  I thought it was real and screamed.


This seemed to signal the end of the mine experiences and we carried on walking.  When we went down the Big Pitt we walked in a big circle before returning to the surface.  This time we walked along the tunnel and we began to see light, it must be the lift I thought.  PUT HATS HERE! read a sign, I didn't understand.  Why were we taking our hats off before we got back up top?  

Then it hit me, we hadn't been down a mine, the light wasn't the lift it was day light, we hadn't travelled hundreds of feet down into a mine we'd just gone down the cellar!  I was flabbergasted, well done to them I feel for it hook line a sinker.  GO's response was well the Health and Safety chat at the beginning was a bit brief for a trip down a real mine wasn't it? 

Two hours early OOPS!

We arrived two hours earlier than our designated slot.  I had read about the exhibition taking a couple of hours, I suggested to GO that perhaps we just walk around and wait for our tour to start.  I watched people queue up by security and followed them.  I understood the need to check our bags, it was the Royal Mint after all.  

Bag checked I walked through the scanner and retrieved my things. There was only one door so I passed through to find a little theatre, I sat down and waited for GO.  "What's going on ?"  He asked, I wasn't really sure, I only wanted to have a look around the exhibition, but before we could leave a tour guide arrived and began telling his about the history of coins.  This isn't my area of interest so I politely nodded along, and smiled waiting for him to check our tickets, no one checked.  

The next thing we knew we were being ushered across the road to the mint.  We were being talked through the process.  "Were on the bloody tour!" I whispered to GO anxiously. "Just keep our heads down and hope no one notices." I said casually.  Great plan... "What is written on the side of a £2 coin?"  The guide asked.  Complete silence, then GO looks around raises his hand and says, "Standing on the shoulders of giants!"  No chance of blending in now.

We were told the history of the coin making process and why the Kew Garden 50p coin is so valuable (See below).  I has to admit that I wasn't looking forward to the visit, it was definitely one for GO.  Even I have to admit that I found it interesting.  I am such a magpie that the minute I saw the cases of coins being loaded into sorting machines I was hooked.


Once we had seen the process, we were taken to a room where we could strike our own £1 coin.  I don't know what I was expecting, perhaps a large hammer and press, but I was rather disappointed when all I was given was a big red button to press.  We weren't even give an opportunity to personalise our coins, now I understand why people are selling them on EBay.

On our return to the exhibition centre, we learned that the reason the Mint was moved to Wales was down to the security risk that having it in London posed.  Then we were allowed o wander to our hearts content.  I started to take videos of the displays, designed my own coin, and used the magnifying glass to find the inscription on the side of the coins.  I lost GO, when I retraced my steps I found him surrounded by other numismatists, who were asking about coins and his collections.  He was like a coin god.


As we left I decided to fill in the visitors book;  Lovely tour, very interesting Keith (our guide) was very knowledgeable and really brought the history of coins to life.  Great experience even if we did managed to get onto a tour two hours earlier than we should have, oops!  GO while paying for his souvenirs, saw our guide reading my comment and giggling.