It's that time of the year again...the big update! I hope that all of my readers have had a good year. This year did not turn out as I expected it would as there have been some set-backs, but I have had some decent times too. It's much better than the previous year. I went into 2022 without any expectations since last year was one of the lowest of my life so far. I am looking forward to 2023 and hope that it brings travel and good times with family and friends.
January: I spent January settling into my new job and project, which I joined in November of the previous year. It was full on with a lot of over-time challenges. The past several years of being over-worked has taught me that there's more to life than work, and I had burnt out. I actually feel as though I have still not recovered from burn-out. I've always been one to plan ahead to avoid stress. My work-life balanace is not what I would like it to be. I miss the half-day Fridays as this enabled me to go out and take a walk and appreciate nature; I felt more refreshed both mentally and physically.
Due to work, I did not get up to much in January. Earlier in the month, I did visit Windsor Great Park Illuminated, which was a winter trail that was put on for the Christmas season. It did not feel festive, but the lights were pretty, especially in the wooded areas.
Canary Wharf's annual Winter Lights event was cancelled at fairly short notice because a lot of the artists and their sculptures could not make the event. At this time, many other countries were still in lockdown, and there were some discussions that we could be too. It did not happen, but there was some concern. The line-up of sculptures looked to be amazing, so I was gutted that it did not go ahead. I am looking forward to it next month.
February: I've become friends with some people on my street that I met during the pandemic days, and I'd been out some for drinks a few times in January and February in between a busy work schedule. We have quite a few nice pubs and restaurants in the area, and a really nice one has good cocktails; it's also only about a five-minute walk from the house. Other than the odd day, I did not leave the house at all, which is not great for well-being.
February is Valentine's Day month, and I headed into east London to stop at Humble Crumble to have their Valentine's Day special after work. I remember feeling absolutely exhausted. Work was really wearing me down. I'd also read up about "high-functioning anxiety", and I am confident that I suffer from this as I tick most of the boxes.
Over the Valentine's Day weekend, I headed out for a day trip to Norwich via Anglesey Abbey on the way and saw the snowdrops here. This was the first time that I had been outdoors properly since early January, and it felt great to be out again. Unfortunately, the weather was not the best as it rained quite a bit while I was there, but I managed to enjoy nature and see some snowdrops and other early spring flowers.
The reason why I visited Norwich for the day trip was to see Dippy the Dinosaur in Norwich Cathedral and Love Light Norwich. Love Light Norwich took place across three days to showcase a series of illuminated artwork and sculptures located around the city of Norwich over Valentine's Day weekend. Due to Storm Eunice, which had happened a couple of days before, one of those days was cancelled, and some of the artwork was either moved or not placed. The projection on Norwich Castle was my favourite of the installations.
I had some really sad news toward the end of the month. My grandmother passed away in her sleep. She was the last of my grandparents. Although she was old, it was sudden and a bit of a shock. I had hoped to see her again.
March: Pancake Day fell on the first of the month this year, and I had plans for it. Unfortunately, there was a huge TFL London tube strike on the day (TFL Tube Strike Lockdown Pancake Day), and none of the trains were running. It was impossible to get into central London, so I made my own pancakes again this year. I purchased a tiny frying pan, so they came out looking nicer than last year's.
Due to the shocking news about my grandmother and remembering how better life had been a year ago at this time, I made a an effort to get out of the house. I visited Eastcote House Gardens and had a walk down to see the beautiful field of crocuses and daffodils that were in bloom.
I also managed to complete my first charity sculpture trail of the year in March: The Big Hoot in Hemel Hempstead. The sculpture trail brought twelve painted owl sculptures to the centre of the town, and I tracked them all down. I also discovered many knitted postbox toppers that were designed as a different book or characters in books for World Book Day.
I also made a visit to Bombay Sapphire for the tour and Cocktail Masterclass. This is something that I have wanted to do for awhile now, and I never got to do it while I was living down the road in Basingstoke. I had a tour of the distillery and learned about the ingredients while everyone sipped on their own gin and tonics. We made three yummy cocktails after the tour, and I also tried another in the bar afterwards. We had a lovely day for it with sunshine and signs of spring.
The final March activity was a weekend away in Shropshire using a voucher that I received for a night away, and I enjoyed the hotel. Some of the highlights of the weekend included Powis Castle, Buildwas Abbey, Wenlock Priory, Benthall Hall, Boscabel House and the Royal Oak, Wroxeter Roman City, and Attingham Park. The daffodils were in bloom, and the weather was good most of the time. I was impressed by the amazing gardens at Powis Castle, though the castle tour itself was not very insightful to any knowledge about the castle's history.
April: At the beginning of April, I managed to tick off an item on my London bucket list. I visited Ronnie Scott's jazz club and indulged in Sunday roast lunch with live music - a tribute to Doris Day on what would have been her 100th birthday. It was enjoyable, and the food was very good.
Easter break long weekend was spent in Cardiff in Wales. One of the reasons for the trip was to see the Snoopy sculptures around the area ("A Dog's Trail" in Cardiff). There were over fourty of them, and they were spread out over a large area.
I staryed at the beautiful Llanerch Vineyard hotel and had a tour and beautiful stay, and this is a place that I would recommend.
While in the area, I visited some interesting places, including: Dyffren Gardens, Ogmore Castle, Dyrham Park, Cardiff Castle, Tredegar House, and Castle Coch. Ogmore Castle is beautiful ruins of a castle next to a river. Cardiff Castle and Castle Coch are located in or near Cardiff and are two castles that I've wanted to visit for ages; they are both beautiful. Tredegar House was owned by the family who owned both Cardiff Castle and Castle Coch. It's a huge mansion estate, which is now owned by the National Trust.
Dyffren Gardens is a house with different garden rooms of various themes, also owned by the National Trust. I visited on Easter Sunday and enjoyed seeing the tulips and daffodils in the formal gardens. Dyrham Park was a very large estate with the house a twenty-minute walk at the bottom of a hill. I enjoyed seeing more tulips, but we did not have too long to visit.
At the end of the month, I had a pleasant walk from Eastcote House Gardens to Pinner where I enjoyed the annual St. George's Day Festivities in Pinner. This includes a drunken wheelbarrow race in costume, Morris dancing, and other activities. The weather turned out to be glorious, and it was a fun visit.
May: In May, the weather was colder and wetter than average. However, I had a glorious day in early May when I went to visit Hinton Ampner in Hampshire (Hinton Ampner Spring Visit). It's a lovely property, and it has beautiful gardens and amazing estate walks. I ended up walking a long three-hour walk through woodland and bordering fields, and I saw so many amazing bluebells in different parts of the walk (Hinton Ampner Bluebell Walk). The weather was warm with full sunshine, so I was really spoiled.
Later that day, I finally got to go on the Gin-Tasting Cruise from Poole Harbour, which was a gift that I purchased a couple of years previously. It was actually just a booze cruise, and I was hoping for more of a guided gin tour. The return trip back into Poole Harbour at dark was beautiful with very clear water, and it was perfect sailing conditions.
I was looking forward to mid-May because it meant that my six-month probation was passed, and I could finally book annual leave after the previous years of demanding contracts, the pandemic, and job redundancy that happened toward the end of the pandemic last autumn. I had many plans, but I was once again shafted here. The very day that I passed my probation and I went to book annual leave, there was bad news with the bloke's job. He was working in a start-up, and all was not going well with the company, and it was a time of uncertainty looming over. Meanwhile, he was depressed about it. The whole ordeal with it lasted all summer and ruined our summer in the end; we did have some nice weekends out, but the depression and uncertainty loomed over.
I tried to remain positive. Surely life can through some good vibes my way soon? As always, I go out and keep busy to appreciate London and life. One of the activities was to visit Chelsea in Bloom. This year was my first ever visit to Chelsea in Bloom to see the floral arrangements in the Chelsea Flower Show week, although I have previously been to the actual flower show itself. Each year, businesses in the area decorate with a theme, and visitors come to the area to the flower show or to simply see the displays. I did not expect it to be so busy in the area, but it was packed. Chelsea in Bloom celebrated British Icons this year to get ready for the upcoming Queen's Platinum Jubilee, and the scuptures were amazing. We had many tributes to the Queen (including her corgi dogs and crowns), the telephone box, the post box, afternoon tea, buses, guards, and the flag's colours. I loved the visit, although it was quite a bit of walking.
I also booked Platinum Jubilee Afternoon Tea with friends at the end of the month and just in time for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. We went to Park Lane's Intercontinental Hotel.
June: June was a month of celebrations. The big news this month was the celebration for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, and I went into London to see all of the decorations (London Gets Ready for the Platinum Jubilee). I hosted a Jubilee party on the Saturday of that long weekend (Queen's Platinum Jubilee) and watched the concert tribute to the Queen, and the road had a street party on the Sunday. The weather was not the best over the weekend, but we all made the most of it. The children and adults on the street primarily participated in a sports day, and we had pizza on the street while the children had afternoon tea but were too busy participating in the sports to sit down.
I took my birthday off this year because I had been working extremely hard, and I just did not want to have a stressful birthday. I ended up visiting three new National Trust and English Heritage properties: Chastleton House, Snowshill Manor, and Hailes Abbey. Snowshill Manor was interesting and filled with handmade antique items from all over the world and the first model village; some of the rooms were quite creepy as if the handmade items captured the souls of those who made some of the items. Chastleton House is a medieval house with small formal gardens; it's not a large property to explore, and there's a walk down to the house through pasture. Hailes Abbey was once a famous pilgrimage for the relic of the blood, and only ruins exist today.
Also to celebrate my birthday, a group of friends and I went out to Prime Steak and Grill Bottomless Brunch in Beaconsfield, and the bottomless brunch was tasty. I had an enjoyable time, and we had drinks afterwards at Revolution next door.
At the end of the month, I visited Southampton and Winchester to explore the Hares of Hampshire sculpture trail. The hare sculptures were all fairly central on both trails. I enjoyed finding them all and enjoyed the day out in two cities that I used to visit much more frequently before I moved to London.
Lastly, I perfected the passionfruit martini cocktail at the end of June. I enjoyed these cocktails throughout the rest of the year with friends. I had more than a couple of cocktail parties.
July: July was a difficult month. My workplace was busy, but the bloke's was a continuation of several weeks of stress (from mid-May). In early July, the company that the bloke worked for had agreed funding but then back-tracked a week or two later and decided to shut it down. The bloke and all of his colleagues immediately lost their jobs and pay for the whole month of June, part of July (technically the whole month as it took them time to liquidate), their notice periods, and unused annual leave. Since the bloke and I were waiting for my six-month probation to be passed (mid-May), the bloke had not used any annual leave, so he lost it all.
This period was a depressing and stressful time. For several years now, it just feels that we cannot catch our breaths with one thing after another. When the bloke was told at the start of the month that everything was fine, we booked our annual leave to visit my family and friends in the states. I wanted to visit over Thanksgiving, but he wanted to visit in the summer because his workplace was meant to kick off project work in November. Due to that, we booked it for summer, and it ended up being a hassle for his job search. He ended up being out of work for three months, which hit hard at a time when the cost of living and energy has increased greatly.
At the beginning of the month and right before the more dire of the times, I had booked Punchdrunk Immersive Theatre - Burnt City. I'd always wanted to attend a Punchdrunk event, and the subject of the Trojan war for this event appealed to me. Unfortunately, the bloke was in a bad mood and forbid us to split up to locate our own stories, so I did not get much out of it and had a bad time. Also, due to the hot weather, our experience was cut short, so we did not get as much out of it as I should have done.
July had some scorching hot and dry weather after an extremely wet and rainy spring. I had booked to visit Superbloom at the Tower of London on its opening weekend at the start of June for the Jubilee. However, the event was postponed because of all of the rain. The flowers were very slow to come out. I was able to re-book, so i picked a date in early-mid July. Unfortunately, the couple weeks of scorching weather meant that most of the plants had already bloomed and were mainly over their best.
One of the highlights for me this year was a romantic stay at The Grand Hotel Eastbourne one weekend, and we only had one night here. The weather was perfect, and we enjoyed some cocktails. There was an outdoor pool, and I forgot my swimming clothes. We ended up not actually going to the beach or walking down to the pier as I hoped we would. We had a lovely room with a side view of the sea and the internal gardens, and I kept the room window open all night when it cooled down. Listening to the crashing waves from the beautiful room was an amazing experience.
While in the area, I visited the duck sculptures from the Follow that Duck sculpture trail around the south coast. They were located in and around Hastings and Leonard-on-Sea. Unfortunately, they were quite spread out all over a wide area with some of them being difficult to get to. I would have preferred them to be in walkable distance from each other and more accessible.
I also visited Battle Abbey and Battle of Hastings Battlefield and Pevensey Castle. The Battle of Hastings Battlefield walk was roughly a thirty loop minute walk with an audio guide commentary device for the tour and information about the battle. There was a museum with more information about the battle, the abbey gatehouse, and the ruins of the abbey to visit. The abbey was placed here to commemorate the fall of the king of England to William the Conqueror. Battle Abbey and the Battle of Hastings Battlefield is one of English Heritage's larger sites, and I enjoyed the visit. We arrived early to avoid the crowds, and we walked the battlefield first to avoid the scorching heat on the day. Afterwards, we visited the nearby ruins of Pevensey Castle.
I also visited Ightham Mote to tour inside the house as I had only ever been inside it once, and that was during Christmas a few years ago when only a few of the ground floor rooms are open. I enjoyed seeing the gardens in the summer and at their height of beauty.
August: After work one evening in August, a couple of friends and I headed to Sky Garden and enjoyed the amazing views and cocktails. Afterwards, we visited the twilight edition of Superbloom, but the flowers themselves were over due to the extremely dry summer weather we had. The grounds and wildflowers were lit up with multi-coloured spotlights, which made the setting look enchanting.
At the end of August, I jetted off to America to see my family for the first time in several years. One of my first visits was to one of my favourite lunch spots, Giacomos, for the grilled cheese and onion sandwich and delicious cookies. I love sugar cookies, but my favourite are snickerdoodles. At the end of August, they already had autumn treats on display.
The end of August had very hot weather in Ohio, and I visited Franklin Park Conservatory to see Dale Chihuly sculptures and Topiary Takeover with my family. I got to spend time with nieces and nephews, which I'd either never met or had met a long while ago. The weather outside was a little too warm for them to endure too much outdoors in the open heat.
Of course, I got to go back to visit the Amish Country in Ohio again as my parents do not live too far away from it (A Day in Ohio's Amish Country). We had an excellent meal at Mount Hope in Mrs. Yoder's Kitchen and stopped off at a few shops and a bakery. We drove down several backroads to see what was happening.
September: At the start of September, I drove up to northwestern Ohio in order to visit one of my closest friends who lives there, and we spent some time visiting together. We met up in Marion and walked around the town before touring Warren G. Harding's presidential home.
My friend and I also visited various wineries in the northwestern part of Ohio, and we found some real gems. I included a list of all of Ohio wineries here: List of Ohio Wineries. I was only able to see my friend for a short time, and then it was back to my parent's house. The weather in September was not kind and had several wet and rainy days. September is usually my favourite month, so the rain and cold weather was disappointing.
Before having to fly back to the UK, I also got to go to Kentucky with my parents to see my youngest brother and his family. We only stayed for a little over a day, and we went to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky with my brother and his family. This was a settlement of people who followed Shaker beliefs and lived and worked together in a community.
All good things must end, and the visit to Ohio came to a close in the middle of the month. Here's a round-up of the various things I got up to, but it was mainly a trip to visit family instead of sight-see: Summer Visit to Ohio, USA.
The biggest news of the month, however, was the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. This happened when I was in America, and I missed the Queen's coffin and Prince Charles arriving near where I live at RAF Northolt by less than a day. After I returned to the country, I visited the floral tributes in Green Park to Queen Elizabeth II as soon as the weekend came around. The tributes were moving and consisted of photographs, artwork, crafts, teddies, flowers, cards, balloons, flags, and marmalade sandwiches. There were several piles of tributes placed around Green Park into piles.
I also visited Frieze Sculpture in Regent's Park 2022 when I returned, and I was happy to see a nice mixture of artwork this year. I enjoy this annual outing to Regent's Park to visit it.
One last September outing was spending A Morning at Shaw's Corner (National Trust, Hertfordshire). We had a guided tour of George Bernard Shaw's home and gardens.
October: The month of October was extremely busy for me due to a new project at work, and I did not get to go out much. I looked forward to my Halloween at Headlands Hotel visit, and it was amazing. I enjoyed the spa facilities, and the afternoon tea was delicious. The hotel was used for filming "The Witches", and the Grand Witch (one of the characters), arrived during the afternoon tea to keep the guests company.
While in Cornwall, I visited Lanhydrock, Halloween Visit to Lanhydrock (National Trust, Cornwall). The property hosted a Halloween-themed event experience that visitors could do. It involved a story staged in the servants' part of the house where actors dressed up as different characters would tell the story.
I also visited Trelissick, Trerice, and Cotehele, all of which are National Trust properties. The largest of these with expansive grounds is Trelissick, and I walked around the gardens and enjoyed the views over the estuary to Falmouth. Trerice was a smaller property to explore with a house as the greater estate was sold off post-World War II. Cotehele contained a larger area of grounds to explore as well as the house and a mill.
Also at the end of October, I visited the Tower of London Light Show: About Us: 14 Billion Years. These projections were illuminated onto the front of the Tower of London, and it was basically telling the story through 14 billion years of life on Earth.
November: Although November was another busy month with work, there were a couple of things that I looked forward to. I enjoyed Bonfire Night 2022 with two local fireworks displays.
I also attended The Gunpowder Plot Immersive Experience, which is a historical experience set during 1605 about Guy Fawkes and the plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament. I had food and cocktails before the experience. The experience was pretty good, although I had trouble really being immersed into the mindset, and the agumented reality headsets were hard to work.
December: The month of December has also flown by, and I've been incredibly busy with work. However, I did make some time to head into London throughout the month to enjoy the Christmas lights and decorations: London's Christmas Lights, Treats and Decorations 2022. I particularly enjoyed the new decorations in Covent Garden and Carnaby Street.
Near the start of the month, I spent the day at Wimpole Estate and enjoyed the Christmas Lights Trail in the evening: Wimpole Estate Christmas Lights Trail (National Trust, Cambridgeshire). It was not the best light trail that I've been on as I had seen many of the illuminations at previous light trails, but it was good to get out of the house and have a day outdoors.
Also earlier in the month, I visited Lucy Sparrow's Felt 'R' Us at Brunswick Centre. This is a pop-up shop that was open for a limited time until late December, and visitors could see some of her felt artwork and purchase items.
A few days before Christmas, a friend and I had a day out to Waddesdon to see Waddesdon Manor at Christmas 2022 and Waddesdon Winter Light Trail. We enjoyed the illuminations.
On Christmas Eve, I had Festive Afternoon Tea at The Savoy with friends as per our Christmas tradition. It was enjoyable. I had to work over Christmas and did not do anything on the couple of days that I had off. I had such a lazy time that I am feeling frustrated at myself for being so lazy.
That brings this year to a close. I felt quite over-worked this year, so I have already started new habits to take care of myself so that my body and mind can function well and keep from getting ill. I have already started undoing the past few years' worth of damage now, and I hope to carry this throughout the new year. I do not want to jinx it, but I also hope to travel and make up for some lost time. Other than that, I am trying to keep an open kind as to what 2023 will bring.
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