WTF Wyoming!?

Saturday it rained.  I needed some excitement.  Time for a second round of some coin flippin' road trippin'...

I found I had misplaced my trusty Canadian coin, but lo - a US quarter from the state of Wyoming would fit the bill perfectly in its stead.

We set off with a toss limit* of 32 and some general rules about directions, and were immediately plunged into full-on rurality by this dastardly little coin.  It is very hard even to toss double figures when you're on a narrow country lane with no turn-offs** for (country) miles.  By toss 13, and having already been led into 2 dead ends, I had had enough of Wyoming's tricks and just wanted some lunch!

All the best rules are made to be broken.  I could see that this coin was going to lead us, literally, up the garden path, so we decided to stop it in its tracks and head for the nearest place serving food in the vicinity.
As luck would (sometimes) have it, we stumbled into an exceedingly local food festival being held in a village hall!  Anyone for a sample of smoked sausage?

*phnar
**turns-off?

Find Three Things...

Here's a challenge to sharpen your awareness next time you're out and about.
Find and record three things you didn't expect.  They could be sights, sounds, smells, tastes, or, erm, feels.
Here are my three unexpected sights from a walk last week.  They're pretty boring though, so I'm going to challenge myself to do better next time...

"It's so hipster I could die"

Danke für meine Postkarte aus Berlin!

Even Rocky Had a Montage...

This month has been crammed so full of doing stuff, I've not had a moment to sit down and write about it!

So I will try and entertain you with my exploits in this concise summary.

Gatecrashing Ted X

Much as I love living in a charming and occasionally bohemian semi-rural utopia, it requires extra effort to remain at the bleeding edge of modern thinking.  So I keep up to speed with a regular dose of TED.

Imagine my delight then when I was offered a pair of free tickets a real-life TEDx event in the city!  For those of you with no imagination:  I was highly delighted.

(Okay so I didn't really gatecrash.  But we did arrive late and sneak in at the break to claim some good seats.)

Postcard, Postcard

Hurrah - a doormat surprise from a travelling art-physics-ist, and a return of a card requesting some art, done on the wrong side of the card no less (a true maverick).

Experimental Craftiness

This is where the leaves go when they leave...  And I also had a stab at a new thing - felting a bird!

Road Trip Wedding

So whaddaya gonna do when you get a wedding invitation from someone you haven't seen in almost a decade, for a weekday wedding on the other side of the country...?

ROAD TRIP!!!

Despite knowing absolutely nobody except the groom, I hit the M6 at silly o clock with my plus one, and after the inevitable satnav mishap, dashed into the venue at the last minute trailing suitcases and respectable frocks on hangers.  Richard Curtis eat your heart out.  What a deliciously perfect wedding it was!  I even almost cried!  Ah love love love, tis a wonderful thing.

Oh yeah then I accidentally set fire to the menu at dinner.  But destruction karma being as it is, I also got my windscreen smashed by a rogue golf ball / base jumping pheasant.  Swings and roundabouts innit.

Why Don't You Write Me Bristol?

Aspiring guerrilla artists in the Bristol area - look out for my hidden postcard please and tell me a bit about yourself.  Just a bit mind, data protection and all that...  Here's a clue:

  

Bloody love Bristol...

Some selected holiday snaps...

Always fade out in a montage

If you fade out, it seems like more time has passed in a montage...  montage...

And the award for the most creative way to return a borrowed pen goes to...

...Mr Skimble Shanks, for this little beauty that further brightened up my already bright day!

Take one borrowed Miss Bic for Her* biro, and cunningly disguise it in a padded envelope sent from Singapore, complete with customs declaration marks.  Make and print a fake label with the pen owner's work address, and attach to the front of the envelope.  Put this envelope inside a company internal mail envelope and send to the pen owner...

Maybe it's just cos it's Friday, but I was tickled pink to receive this surprise foreign package at work.
(I was also very glad to get my pen back, as my other one has just run out**.)

Thank you! 

*Other gender-specific writing implements are probably not available.
**As a woman, I can't be trusted with more than one pen at a time.

*Guest Artist Corner*#3 (or "Oh yes he did...")

So last year my Partner-in-Crime decided to write a pantomime script, as you do...

I'm very proud to say that not only did he write possibly* the best pantomime script EVER, but I had the privilege to act in it alongside some of the loveliest and talented people you could ever meet. 

The whole thing was so joy-inducing it makes me want to be in panto forever!
Thank you thank you thank you, everyone**. 

* Disclaimer: I've not actually read that many panto scripts.
**Including the little boy who said that the Page (me) was his favourite character, because of being so happy all the time!  Bless! 

My friend went to BETT...

My doormat has been disappointingly empty of late...  so let's hear it for the company internal mail system!

Here's a lovely surprise I received in a big shiny orange envelope, courtesy of fellow blogger and all round top bloke Mike:

A musing on mail:
Maybe the use of superfluous postal admin (Mike works just downstairs) adds to the excitement of both sending and receiving something.  Why hand-deliver a birthday card, say, when you can pay the Royal Mail 60p to do it for you in secret?  Does the added risk that it may never get there, or at least on time, make the whole thing a bit more of an adventure?  And does the recipient feel a bit happier knowing that someone has gone to the extra trouble of formal postage?