Goodbye 2018...Hello 4th Decade

Well, 2018 was a bit of a rough year.  Throughout most of it my geriatric cat - Tori - was very ill.  A liver condition that we knew she wouldn't recover from.  She kept going until August when it all became too much.  She followed my grandfather who also finally gave into his illness at the ripe old age of 97.  I'll admit that both of these instances left me emotionally drained and it is taking a while to build up those reserves again - but I'm working on it. 

I turned 40 at the beginning of 2019 - yeah, I can't quite believe it either.  Hopefully, my 4th decade will be as filled with growth and fun as my 3rd but I'm not quite sure it's sunk in yet (whatever "it" is - I still seem to have the mind of a teenager so I don't think I will ever grow up now!)

Anyway, to help me get back to being more...me, I have booked myself a trip to Japan and a holiday to a sunny spot with the lovely Mr B in the coming months. I know that getting back to Japan and some good training will be highly beneficial and a sunny holiday always does everyone good.  I just have to brush up on my Japanese and dig out my bikini!

I will likely have lots of upcoming ramblings about Japan after my trip - if the excitement gets to me you may get some pre-trip too! - and probably some photos of the sunny holiday (not of the bikini though - no one needs to see that)

Barbies Chocolate Conspiracy

I've noticed something - don't panic, I'm quite astute when I think about it - but listen up - chocolate makers are trying to sucker you into eating more. 

They might argue otherwise but on the majority of bars now they show a portion size...

Looks good right?

Helping you to know how many pieces count as a portion and what the calorie intake is...The problem with this is shown in the following photo....

So, 3 pieces is a portion...but there are 4 pieces in a strip....


WHO THE HELL BREAKS OFF ONE STRIP AND THEN LEAVES A SINGLE PIECE?!?!

No one.

 So to know how much you've eaten you need to either do maths (Hard option!) or eat 3 strips to make a total of 12 pieces (or 4 portions).  (Easy option!)

The chocolate companies are trying to make me fat!

It's that time of year again!

I love October, the wheel turns as the leaves do, and the whole place is beautiful... and we have Halloween!

As a kid I loved the dressing up and as an adult ...I still love dressing up!  As a Pagan, it's an important time too, not only because I start to find really weird stuff online from people who have some strange ideas about the holiday... todays top find has to be this:

 

WOW...This is a new one to me..... Satans Birthday...I really can't explain how many holes there are in this idea.  Thankfully a young child has covered some of them for me...

A friend posted this on Facebook and received some every interesting discussion (possibly from the teacher mentioned above!) 😞

I would post extracts from the discussion here but as the commenter (as usual) ended up falling back on petty insults when they were obviously outdone, I won't give them the space.

I will provide one quick easy lesson in basic logic however:

Satan is a construct of Christianity.  Pagan is an umbrella term for pre-Christian religions.  Therefore, Pagans aren't Satanists. 

Simple huh?!

Streamworld

No, it's not a new place to visit.  Recently (thanks to Mr B) I have been watching quite a lot of streams. 

Our platform of choice is Twitch, and there are lots of options there.  Like I said, lots of gamers for all types of games - some awesome ones and some not-so-awesome too.  There are some massive streamers out there who EVERYONE has heard of (the likes of Shroud and Ninja) but its fun to watch the smaller guys, who are working themselves to the bone to build up a fan base and entertain people. some of my top picks - in no particular order - would probably be these...

Jimb0 - plays various games and has some brilliant effects that chat can play with

Rovefogle - PUBG gamer who really should be better known than he is 

 ^^^^  this dude is an awesome shot!

RTGameCrowd - Insane guy who loves making his Sims miserable.  Simply hilarious!

Mostly people play games n stream, but there are some other channels too - its a little amazing what people put out there.
There's a whole selection of IRL streams - mostly people chatting/opening new stuff/chilling in front of a webcam...

IRL stream selection 

These guys are streaming breakfast. Yes, breakfast.

 and of course...there's a Bob Ross channel

Bob Ross - the legend!

What you can't really see in the photo above is just how many people were watching when I took that shot......

7pm on a Sunday and 1,725 people are watching a Bob Ross Marathon.  That number in grey is total views.

So next time you're bored of watching the same old TV, or you're looking for some inspiration why not go and have a peek at the wonderful streaming world you probably didn't realise was there.

Conspiracy Barbie

I love a good conspiracy theory.  A GOOD one, not the Avril Lavigne one or flat earthers (They're just crazy people ;) )

Today sparked a bit of conspiracy in my mind though, everyone was complaining about being tired, like they hadn't slept well last night.  It's a pattern I've noticed a fair bit recently too.

Obviously, my brain went straight to aliens...maybe all of my work colleagues are being abducted....maybe there's a government test going on at night that disturbs your sleep in the area....maybe we all just had a heavy weekend....maybe it's just Monday...but it could still be the aliens.

Sandman Returns

When I was aged about 15, I got into comic books.  This, according to Mr. B makes me not just a geek, but an uber-geek.  Between then and about aged 25, I amassed quite a collection.  I was always loyal to the same shop - Abstract Sprocket - they were friendly and didn't treat me like an alien (as many comic book shops seemed to do back then when a g.i.r.l. walked in). 

Most of the comics I collected were slightly off the wall, independent publishing house type stuff.  I never really went for the standard super hero type of thing.

One of my biggest loves at the time was Sandman - I have the all of the comics from the time of their release (although admittedly, some of the earlier ones in graphic novels rather than in single format, although I do have single copies of No.1 and a No. 7 (the first introduction of Death) regardless).  They all live in designated comic boxes in my study, only opened with permission, and books handled with care - especially as being aged 15 was quite some time ago now!

I was delighted a year or so back, when Neil Gaiman announced the release of The Sandman Overture, a short miniseries following on from the end of the series.  It was great to be able to step back into the stories I once loved so much again.  This month was also pretty exciting, as a new series was released - The Sandman Universe.

Obviously, I no longer live in the same place as I did when I was 15 - the comic book shops locally didn't seem overly appealing (I did try one - I swear!)  Thankfully, whilst my old childhood comic shop doesn't have a website, they do kindly transact orders via email, so a brief exchange later with the wonderful Mr Dean and No.1 of the new series landed on my doormat, securely packaged like the prized possession that it should be!

I'm now looking forward to the rest of them...

Barbies newest challenge

Whilst I practice martial arts, it's not the best way to keep fit - especially my art as it relies on being relaxed and soft, not using any strength.  So I'm not very food at keeping fit/working out.  I find gyms unbearably boring and the idea of going for a run makes me stick to the sofa even harder. Swimming is fun, but the problem with public pools is that they are public and have other people in! I will use the pool in the fancy hotels I get to stay in though.

So I thought I needed to try something different....and I did.  Polefit!  If you've not coma across it, it is basically pole dancing for fitness. It's not stripping or lap dancing - I have overheard someone in the lift on my way to class say "there's a lap dance class round here somewhere"

Whist it can look very beautiful and graceful, generally what happens in a pole class is that a group of people get very hot and sweaty whilst some of them manage to pull of elaborate moves whilst others struggle to hoist themselves onto the pole.  This all takes place to a background of loud music (not the 'banging techno' you get in gyms but a mix of random up-tempo songs), the occasional cheer of accomplishment, and a whole heap of giggles and laughter.  

What most people wouldn't realise is the strength that pole dancing requires, both physical and mental! My entire body is sore for days after a class but my strength has already improved massively (I was pretty strong before, but not in the right muscles!) many of the moves also rely on you gripping a metal pole with your skin...to say that it 'nips' it quite an understatement...I have a good pain threshold and I felt sick after hanging from the pole by the inside of my elbow! You also need a bit of mental strength to throw yourself upside down and hang from your legs/hands/limbs, trusting that you won't fall and land on the floor in a heap (although that can happen!).

I would love to post a photo of me looking graceful hanging from a pole but there's no way I'm letting anyone take pictures of me doing it yet! (at least without heavy use of photoshop!)

Most classes are open to men and women so if you fancy a real challenge I really would recommend giving it a try...just don't blame me when you can't walk the next day!