Month: July 2023

Finally the fashion museum

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Today, I finally achieved something that had been on my Gretchen Rubin inspired lists from 19for2019, a visit to the Fashion museum. This was my third attempt, as due to staffing issues (its run by volunteers) and a leak, my previous two visits were unsuccessful. However it was third time lucky and it is an absolute gem of a museum.

It felt that my visit to the Fashion museum was in the stars today, as even my morning Wordle puzzle had a fashion inspired answer. I absolutely loved the museum, housed in a Georgian period house. I went with my daughter and we not only admired the clothes, the tailoring and craft of the clothes but talked about the social history and of course chose our favourite outfits. For me the pale pink dress was my choice, whilst my daughter appreciated the dress designed by Bruce Oldfield. I took a photo of the 1950s navy outfit as my daughter noted it was very similar to the outfit I was wearing, down to the straw bag.

In addition to the museum, there was also a wonderful tea room and shop, so after our tour, we stopped for a pot of tea. The museum had such a lovely atmosphere and ethos that I joined up as a friend of the museum and look forward to many more visits, there are talks and workshops in addition to the exhibits. I am so pleased that I have finally visited the Fashion museum, its inspired me and is a truly wonderful little museum.

My week … the one with my 50th birthday

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This week saw the start of the school summer holidays. I have been so looking forward to the holiday but in reality this was a pretty dull week prior to my birthday. It was a week to catch up on lots and do the essential life admin, there have been visits to the doctor, dentist and hospital for routine appointments, a couple of football training sessions which mean a 40 mile round trip and holiday nails and treatments. The weather was also pretty poor, grey and drizzly so not the most inspiring way to start the holiday. I was feeling a little despondent with my week but then listened to a teacher podcast and it seemed my week was pretty normal for most teachers.

The highlight of the week was my birthday, as I celebrated my 50th. I’m not someone who gets stressed about my age, I’m happy who I am and how I am, and there’s no desire to try and be a younger me. I did feel a pressure from some parties to do something for my birthday when I was really quite comfortable with a quiet day with loved ones. I am the organiser and planner in our family and really did not want the stress to do this for my own celebration so left all the planning to my husband. I appreciated my day, it was me and who I am today. We started with breakfast at my favourite cafe in town and it was dry and warm to be able to sit outside in their colourful courtyard. It was here I was presented with my present, a certificate of ownership of a personalised plaque on the pier. Of course, our first stop after breakfast was to find my plaque on the pier. It is in a lovely spot and I am so made up with my gift. My husband did tease me that he knew I would question the u instead of you, but did explain there was a character limit and he couldn’t write the full word. I am so happy with my gift, I have been saying that I have been immortalised on our town’s pier. I love the thought of my grandchildren finding my plaque in the years to come, or friends passing and seeing it and thinking of happy times together. After our visit to the pier, we then walked the length of the beach, the sun on our faces and just chatting together ‘en famille.’ After a lovely al fresco lunch, I sat in the garden whilst friends and neighbours popped around, flowers were delivered and many messages exchanged. My neighbours bought me a rose in my name so Mr S planted this for me in our garden. As he did this, I also found the time to finish my book in the sunshine, these simple pleasures made my day. In all of this we also had a visit from Dyno Rod as we had discovered a significant leak the day before, happily it was easily fixed. The day finished with a Chinese dinner.

As it is now carnival week, there was a party feel at our parkrun on Saturday morning and I dressed up. I did keep my birthday quiet as I don’t like the fuss but had such a lovely morning with the carnival atmosphere and community fun.

Following our week of life admin, our future weeks look so much more exciting and fun, now we just need the weather to improve.

This month

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It’s the time of year where my life is hectic, family birthdays and celebrations, special end of term school events for the children and I combined with day to day life. I don’t want to complain or seem ungrateful as I know there will be years to come when I will miss this busy, full life, but as I write this at the end of term, I am relieved it’s all done and am able to look back at some very happy memories made over the past month.

Living in a seaside town, the place becomes so vibrant and fun in the summer and there is always something happening if you potter down to town. Over the last month we’ve had the filming of the Antiques Roadshow which my husband and daughter (coincidentally on an Inset day) attended, rowing regatta, triathlon, jazz festival, sponsored hikes etc.. As a family we’ve had days out to Weymouth, Bournemouth, Tankfest (which the boys loved) and spent a day at a local football club for a tournament. There have been picnics and meals out and home grown veggies for tea.

One of the most special times this month was an unexpected family reunion. My Scottish uncle has been very, very poorly over the last few years but is recuperating and was finally fit enough to travel and flew down to stay with my parents. As he is still frail, I decided it wasn’t appropriate for us all to visit, so my daughter and I went for a quick 24 hour trip after school one Friday night. It was a quiet and low key visit, most of the time was spent around my mum’s large kitchen table, talking and just being together, but it was just so lovely. Over the past few years, I have seen photos of my uncle, so was prepared for the transformation from my large, gregarious uncle to a frail, old man. However his mind was as sharp as ever and his witty conversation was spot on. I know its probably the last time I’ll see him, but it was not a morbid, sad time but life affirming and thankful meeting. Its been a unusual time in the last 6 weeks, as I have spent time with two of my uncles whom I haven’t been able to see for many years. Both meetings have been wonderful and spontaneous, arranged just days before they happened, and I am so grateful that they happened, they have been genuine highlights of my year.

During this month, we have celebrated two family birthdays too, one to go next week. I do try to post pictures of my bakes, but they are too personal and identifiable this year. For my daughters cake, I had edible polaroid style photos of her with all important friends and family create a border around and displayed on the cake. It was a lovely effect and an unexpected delight appeared to be eating yourself on a photo?!? For my football mad son, it could only be football so it was a cake personalised with his team’s colours and logo.

We have also been busy with parkrun and managed to squeeze some tourism in when we visited my mum at Marine Parade. It was such a tonic to do a flat, simple course in comparison to our tough, hilly normal run.

To end this round up, we have been to see the Barbie film on its opening weekend. Its definitely one of those event films. I did wear my pink skirt and there was a lot of pink in the capacity audience, I love when the audience embraces and becomes part of the film. The film is so different to any other I have ever seen, a pastiche of a Barbie world, fun, uplifting and kitsch, whilst also delivering a very strong feminist message. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to another viewing in the future.