A Bit of a Catch Up.

Well I thought it was about time I blogged again! I honestly planned to blog in March and here we are a day away from May *sigh*

I am so grateful I have had lots of  fun things to do because things at work things are a bit crap. To cut a very long story short, my colleagues and I have been doing a lot of extra work prior to being regraded, and instead we have just found out we will actually have to reapply and be interviewed for our own jobs, and of course there is no guarantee we will actually get the job because they have to be advertised!
As you can imagine morale is at rock bottom and I certainly feel like a prize prat with 'Mug' tattooed right across my forehead for having done all this extra work.

Anyway enough of that and talking of rock and April I went to see not one but two musicals with Rock in the title that month.

First up was the anniversary tour of Rock of Ages with my besties Soo and Jenny.

Soo and I had seen it before when the show toured the UK in 2014 and both remember absolutely loving it. Sadly this production was frankly one big old mess, to the point where we were more than happy to leave a bit early so Jenny could catch her bus home. Having said that all the singers were amazing including the two Kevins.
 Kevin Clifton (from Strictly) and Kevin Kennedy (Curly Watts from Corrie!)

The next week Himself and I were back to The New Theatre to see The Rocky Horror Show.

As you know we go every time it tours and thankfully the production more than made up for the week before. Indeed it's one of the best ones we have seen. I didn't dress up this year I just went in clashing leopard and tiger print!

I've also been to the cinema, first to see Captain Marvel which was great

 and then this weekend to see End Game the final Avengers film

which I also thoroughly enjoyed despite the bloke behind who talked very loudly and at one point even took a phone call!?! Luckily he decided to leave before he got lynched.


Wasn't Easter glorious? My line manager suggested I use up some of my plus time and take an extra day off  on the Thursday and as you can imagine I didn't need much persuading. I spent a blissful day gardening followed by my usual pilates class in the evening (more of that later.)

On Good Friday Soo and I had decided to take a trip to Kew Gardens.

She was amazed to find I had never been and bought me tickets for my birthday last year. I read Spring is meant to be the best time of year to go hence us picking Good Friday, the weather meant it was certainly a good choice.
I had been warned it would be super busy and weirdly bits of it were but other bits weren't at all,  I  guess it helps that Kew is vast, I genuinely hadn't realised it was so big. We were there for five and a half hours and felt we had done it justice because we barely paused, so I can understand why at a slower pace it might take a couple of days.

We traveled by train direct from Reading to Richmond which took an hour and also meant we didn't have to cross London. From Richmond station it's a 15 minute walk to the Lion gate at Kew.

First stop was the Marianne North Gallery. I have been wanting to see it for years, literally years. Basically ever since I bought a book about her in a sale when I was a penniless art student and it certainly did not disappoint.
No photos were allowed but please do google her to see her stunning paintings, she really was an incredible woman. She just took herself off on her own around the world painting after her beloved father died, in an era where women just didn't do such things.

We mooched for a bit with a vague direction in mind, here's the restored Temperance House, stopping wherever took our fancy.

 Soo wanted to do the treetop walkway and I was happy to try it as well. Once I was up there though  it was a different story!
I have to say I surprised myself as I never get travel or motion sick as a rule, but  because it was very busy the whole walkway was just constantly swaying. I was fine when I was moving but as soon as I stopped to take a picture I just could not get used to the motion and it made me feel really, really sick. So I grabbed a couple of pictures then galloped round and back down.

We bought a picnic in Richmond so stopped for lunch on a bench by  a lake before heading off to find the bluebells. We thought we had found them and I will admit I thought they were a bit sparse but further on we just found more and more and oh they smelt absolutely divine.

I got on my knees to take the second picture and suddenly realised when it came to get up again, that a full day of gardening followed by pilates had not been such a good idea after all!

We ambled back towards the gate we came in at

past the pagoda and the beautiful Japanese garden,

and also past this amazing elephant. Oh how I would love to have one in my garden.

All in all a wonderful day out and now I know Richmond is so easy to get to I will definitely go again.

On the Saturday Himself and I went out for a walk and just like the fabled Mad Dogs & Englishmen it was in the midday sun. As it was the first walk of the year we did a gentle six and a half miles and called in at a pub for a restorative or two.

On Easter Sunday my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin came up from Ipswich to see Dad so we popped by the care home to catch up with them and then on Easter Monday we headed back with snacks and the latest Fantastic Beasts films to watch with Dad.
My Mum arrived with a full picnic complete with prosecco, then my brother and his wife arrived with scones, jam and cream so no one needed any dinner that's for sure!

I have a week off work in May with no real plans other than maybe a trip to the V&A for the Mary Quant exhibition and a bit of sorting out/de-cluttering (we shall see how that goes...)

I'll leave you with my latest purchases, all bags, no frocks.

This was described on ebay as a 'huge silver bag' , it's not huge but it is bigger than most silver evening bags so I'm happy.

I was thrilled to snag this Corde for the collection. It was a great price and is such a pretty design.

This fab 60's wash/make-up bag is in perfect condition and will be used by me as a handbag.

Finally this lovely Gerbra. I adore them and have several, they usually have one or two flowers at a time like the orange one here, but I had this cream & red one in a shady spot so it had never flowered before. I moved it into the light and it's gone slightly mad, just like it's owner.