Back from GoGo Getaway

Just got back from the retreat and I had an OK time. I don't think that I will go to another one though, as I think I am more of a solitary scrapper than a social one. I am also a purest scrapper and don't particularly enjoy other paper crafting - too many photos to scrap and not enough time to do it to waste making other items that I don't like. Before I left this part of the country - just had to find some time to do a little geocaching, so Sue (Liberty) & I went to Lee Valley Country Park and we did 6 caches! It was a beautiful park and all the caches quite close to each other - a couple were really good. We picked up a travel bug each - hers is going back home with her to Jersey!It was very hot and we both caught the sun, you will see our faces getting redder and redder as the cache count increases. We took one wrong turn, but all was not lost as it bought us to this wonderful sight - a swan nesting and the daddy guarding her very possessively.

Got home to find the 2 men watching football on the telly and another one was out playing football. Loads of washing dumped by the machine but not put in! The ironing pile as big as ever, the grocery shopping not done and our new bedroom blind not put up - so guess what I will be doing all day tomorrow! My sister is visiting from London on Tuesday and my crafting stuff has just been dumped - so goodness knows when that will be sorted.

Scrapagogo Getaway retreat

Well I am tucked up in my room typing away at this instead of scrapping as I am scrapped out.

Today has been very busy with 3 classes. The best by far was Jane Dean's and luckily I have another class with her tomorrow. It was lovely to look through her album of real life layouts. I had seen quite a few of them in Scrapbook Inspirations but they were so much better in real life.

I did a class with Shimelle which was at a very fast pace - make a mini-book in 90 minutes. I am not really into mini books and it was all about me and having done a really detailed A-Z of me last year - I felt that for me it was just going over old ground and I was repeating much of what I did last year. don't think I will bother finishing this one. The other class was with Fiona Beckman - I always love her work but the class unfortunately was not really my cup of tea - painting. We had been told to bring photos with minimal colours so I choose 3 on a pale beach last week at Norfolk, with Liam's blue blanket the only colour. But no blue paint was used in class, so I had to do a layout that did not really work. I think I will chuck it when I get home and print the photos out again and do it in colours that work!

The hotel is lovely and its nice to have a room by myself, food is delicious and the Scrapagogo shop is nice - but I have been very restrained and have just bought an American Crafts D ring leather album, some refills for this and a couple of papers. Compared to some girls I was an angel!

Busy, busy day..

Oh it has taken me all day to just get the photos sorted for Shimelle's class at the getaway - granted there are more than 30 and some these are very specific - like a 4x6 portrait photo related to the music you love, others for books, and other specific things. Some had to be 6x4 portrait and others landscape - which limited my choice. Some had to be of me - again a limited choice. Others 2x3 - thankfully I spent the first part of the morning re-installing the silly printer so at least I could just click and print.

I have made a disc of 5o photos that I want printing at Sainsburys tomorrow. They do 50 7x5 for £7.99 - just can't do it at home for that price. I also need to sort the photos for the other 3 classes - I was very good and did them early on - but later they sent some paper samples and the pics I have chosen don't really go - so will have to try again!


I have also packed my clothes - only a few things and packed all my scrapbooking stash - the hall is full of bags and boxes and I am trying to travel light.

The badge and passport are still not done.

Thelma came for tea, so I am made a lovely leek, bacon & goats cheese quiche and even if I do say so - it was delicious! Then apple crumble & custard for pudding. Thankfully we then went back to Church Stretton to find the elusive LightSpout waterfall cache that we could not find yesterday to burn off some of this stodge.

I was the finder which miffed Thelma & Steven as they think of themselves as the super finders. It was a very cunning hide - well done to the hider. I added the lovely mothers day Geocoin to it. This cache LQ - Shropshire- Lightspout waterfall, GC16NJG, is part of the Little Quest series - where a cache has been placed in every county in England. Someone on UKS mentioned it and as we are from all over England we are going to see if we can collate the info and the person nearest the final cache can go and find it.


I used my new remote control for my Nikon D40 to take this photo. The remote worked very well - I nearly broke my leg rushing back to get in the picture yesterday - so it was a good buy. Its just not a good picture because we could not find a decent spot to site the camera - think I might have to treat myself to a Gorlliapod next.
As we were there we also did the Carding Mill Valley Cache- which was an easy find - though a bit of a clamber up a steep hill.

Massive walk today..

yes Thelma and I walked 21Km over the Longmynd - which we think is about 12 miles. It took us all day. The weather was a bit cloudy but the threatened rain never appeared so we were lucky. We did 6 geocaches but only managed to find 5!

This was our first find at Minton (WW2 Series - Minton Beware GCNWDR)

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This was our second find near to Carding Mill Valley (WW2 Series - Dead Man's Bridge GCNWDQ). We are rather precariously balanced for this pic with the self timer on the camera.

This is the one that stumped us - Light spout waterfall. (LQ: Shropshire - Lightspout Waterfall, GC16NJG) Everyone else seems to have found it OK - but they do comment that is is a cunning hiding place. Determined not to be beaten we are going back to it, once we have looked at the clues on the web site.

The main aim of the day was to complete the WW2 series of 4 caches and we found all of these and learnt a little of the history of the Longmynd during WW2. We also added another one on route to our 3rd find -(Long Mynd - Pole Bank GCTQ7T).

We then honed our bridge building skills at Pole cottage : WW2 Series - A Bridge too Far - Pole Cottage GCJ5E7- we did not even get our feet wet - unlike some!

We then walked through the LongMynd gliding club to reach the final cache: (WW2 Series - A Bridge too Far - Pole Cottage GCNWDT).

Thelma 's dog Mollie always accompanies us on our geocaching travels which is not usually a problem, but I don't like dogs at all so she usually keeps her away from me, but this time because I wanted a photo for here Mollies sat with me - nicely at first then she got a bit too close and my face tells the story. Thelma quickly retrieved her!

My new teeth!

Here are my new teeth and I am delighted with them.

They are a hundred times better than my old crowns which were way past their best. These are now straight, level and a nice uniform colour. In fact the whole procedure was not painful - just a bit unpleasant when he took the impressions and prised the temporary ones off. Anyway the verdict is - Yes they are worth the expense. The only worry is is that the Dentist said I have to be very careful with them as if I bite into something hard like a baguette etc. they may break - so I can see me having to cut up my apples etc - I hope I remember.

Made the pics black & white for more palatable viewing!

Oh and instead of sorting photos this afternoon I baked a lovely pineapple fruit cake and chocolate orange muffins - that should keep the troops happy. I also added a visitor counter to my blog.

catching up ..again

Well I did not manage to complete the photo-a-day-in-May challenge. Which is a shame but lack of my lap top and then the internet for a few days just seemed to scupper and nothing particularly exciting to photograph at the end of the month anyway. My new printer is no longer talking to my laptop !! so I will have to reinstall it but I cannot find the disc that came with it - its only 4 weeks old so it can't be far a way - but looking for it is driving me mad.

We did a geocache last night on Lyth Hill - (Crab Apple Jelly - Lyth Hill, Shropshire _GCHPHX) usually there are beautiful views from the top but a bit hazy so did not take any. The cache was easy to find and we picked up a lovely geocoin and left the travel bug we picked up in Norwich last week.

We started on another one up Lyth Hill (Lets go Geohasing - GCTOFT) but it is a multi cache - 9 stops, so we did the first 2 and will come back and finish that one off when we have a bit more time as it is quite a long trek

Have got to get myself sorted this week for the GoGoGetaway and have a busy week planned.

Monday -I am having my new crowns put on today - will try and post a pic later.

Must finish sorting my photos out into the binder albums - I can't see my worktop for photos spread everywhere and this has dragged on long enough now.

Tuesday - long walk over the Longmynd planned with Thelma - but the weather forecast does not look too promising so we may have to cancel it or amend our plans.

Wednesday - packing day - clothes - hardly any, Stash - quite a lot! and my geocaching stuff as there are a few geocachers going to the retreat, so we want to try and fit one in on Sunday morning. Make badge and passport. Sort photos - if I can't get my printer working will have to get them printed at Sainsburys

Thursday - haircut and legs waxed

Friday - leaving to pick Jane up from Market Drayton bright and early. I would like to be at her house for 10 and then the journey (according to the Sat Nav) is 2 hours 40 - but knowing those dreaded roadworks on the M1 at Luton could be more like 4 hours 40 - so I want to give ourselves plenty of time to get there for 2-3.

...and things are going down.

When I look at the photos of our recent trip away, I am struck by one thing - how much weight I have put on recently.

I have not been to Slimming World for a few months now so do not know exactly how much weight I have gained but it is quite considerable - in just a couple of months. I would guess about 1 1/2 - 2 stones. My clothes are really tight again - I can only just squeeze into the size 14 trousers but they are so un-comfortable - that I rarely bother and stick to the size 16's instead.

People have started to comment as well - so I must do something about it. Loosing weight was easy - this is the hard bit keeping it off. It does not help that I am eating chocolate like it is going out of fashion - I have certainly made up for my no chocolate during my diet now. I am also eating a lot of carbs which I don't thinks help. I hardly ate any on my diet - preferring meat , fruit & veg, but now I can eat a whole box of Alpen in one day and have cereal a couple of times a day.

There is only one thing for it - I must go back on my diet. However there is no point starting before the Gogogetaway - we are staying in a nice hotel so I want to enjoy that. So I have set a date to start for the Monday when I come back from the retreat and I am going to stick to it. I hate myself for being so weak willed.

Crikey this Blog is going to be so confused - first a dieting blog, then a scrapbooking one, then a geocaching one and then back to dieting - well at least it should not be boring.