St. David's Day

Happy St. David's Day to any Welsh readers out there. It's March 1st and the first 2 months of 2026 have whizzed by.

I'm taking a quiet day at home today. R is off on a one day blacksmithing course that I bought him as a birthday present, and I am recovering from the small bowel MRI that I had yesterday. I was referred last August and, between you and me, I think that my referral got lost in the ether. After chasing it up, they rang me on Friday and offered me an appointment for the following day. We had to travel to Banbury, about an hour away. It was actually a small private hospital that the NHS sometimes uses for scanning purposes. The MRI was situated in a trailer in the car park, but the prep (canula insertion and drinking the 1L of disgusting bowel distender with laxative effects) was done in a small private room inside. The room had an ensuite with loo, for which I was very grateful! Still traumatised by the laxative experience before my colonoscopy last year, I was worried about needing the loo whilst in the scanner and on the hour journey home. Luckily, the effects didn't kick in fully until I was home; possibly the Buscopan injection that they give you during the scan to relax the intestines helped.

If you've never had an MRI, the prep is the worst part. The scanning machine is very noisy but they give you ear plugs (which it is best to ram right in!) and headphones, so you can follow the instructions. I kept my eyes shut to combat the claustrophobia and, if it wasn't for the fact that there is a lot of 'breathe in, breathe out, breathe in and hold', I think I may well have nodded off. The scan took about an hour and then we rushed home before the Buscopan fully wore off. When it did, the rest of my evening was spent mostly in the downstairs loo!

Anyway, that's quite enough of that. We've had several trips out over the past month or so - 3 of which were birthday presents, which I will get to in a moment. 

January saw us heading to Bristol to visit our youngest and take her out for a birthday lunch. Kibou is a Japanese restaurant with a delicious vegan (and GF) selection of food. Their sake wasn't too bad either!

Ingenious and beautiful sake bottle in a flask of hot water:

The food was delicious and we may have overordered just a tad. E took the leftovers home in a takeaway container for dinner the following day.

For R's birthday, L had bought him 2 tickets to see the 30th anniversary tour of The Fast Show. To be honest, I was never much of a fan but R liked the show back in the day, and it was a day out. I loved the London Palladium. Apparently, Bruce Forsyth's ashes are buried under the stage - he used to perform there a lot and wanted his remains to be near the sound of theatre, music and dance. As predicted, the show wasn't really to my taste. I enjoyed the cast talking about how they met but the rest of the show left me rather baffled. There was a lot of innuendo best left in the 1970s, and I was rather like Margo in 'The Good Life' wondering why something was funny. I was definitely in the minority though, R and the rest of the audience laughed non-stop for 3 hours. My favourite part was a film clip showing some of the late Caroline Aherne's best bits. I found some of those very funny, as well as being unbearably poignant.

A night at the Corn Exchange. It was enjoyable if not terribly memorable:

A trip to Longleat Safari Park for my birthday present from R - an aardvark feeding experience! It was an incredibly rainy day, which had its pros and cons. Firstly, R had forgotten his coat(!), so we stopped off at a Lidl en route and bought a cheap and cheerful padded waterproof from their middle aisle. It will now live in the boot of the car to combat any future moments of forgetfulness! The rain may have put a bit of a dampener on the outside bits, but the dreadful weather did mean that it was relatively uncrowded. I imagine that the drive through safari can get quite frustrating, not to say hot, during the summer months. Here are a few of my favourite bits - the photos aren't the best owing to trying to take them through rain spattered windows:

Lemurs sheltering from the rain:

Some rather bedraggled ostriches:

The monkey section - enter at your peril!

I loved the bat cave where you can stand watching them swoop around and coming very close. It's not for everyone though - some people seemed a little spooked by the experience!

Then it was time for the highlight of the trip - meeting Frankie, one of the park's aardvarks. Our appointment was for 3pm and, being nocturnal, Frankie was still asleep when we arrived. This allowed us time to get up close and personal, whilst learning all about her. Her snout was adorable, a bit like a large squishy marshmallow, but her tail was solid muscle! They are solitary creatures (her mate, Benny, lived in a separate enclosure nearby) with amazing digging capabilities. They also use their tail to cover their footprints to avoid predators.

When it became apparent that supper (or breakfast in Frankie's case) was imminent, she woke up and became very active extremely quickly! I'm not entirely sure that R had thought it through when it came to the feeding part! Imagine if you will, 2 vegans feeding a very enthusiastic aardvark with live mealworms followed by a raw mince chaser! Luckily, gloves were worn; it was the closest that either of us had come to meat in decades, but Frankie adored it. She was literally climbing all over us in her eagerness to get at the food and, despite the non-veganness (is that a word? :O) ) of it all, I loved every second.

My birthday present from L was a trip into London to see 'Shadowlands' at the Aldwych Theatre. She was my plus 1. It was an evening performance and, rather than travel back late at night on my own, I stayed the night at L's flat, enjoying a sleepover with her rabbit, Felix. I also booked tickets for the Picasso exhibition at the Tate Modern in the afternoon.

The cafe did a very nice vegan and GF apple and cinnamon cake - it was much nicer than it looks!

Dinner was a pre-theatre dosa at Sagar's:

The play was fantastic. L didn't really know the story of C.S.Lewis and Joy Gresham/Davidman. The ending, therefore, came as a bit of a shock. It's not often that you don't have a happy ending in plays, or even a bit of ambiguity or sense of hope. This one was just sad. I really enjoyed it and the acting was excellent.

Interval pink G&T - we traditionally share a cocktail with 2 straws!

A trip to the Unravel yarn festival in Farnham. I arrive early and leave when it starts to get too crowded. I bought some alpaca yarn to make the Hobbiton Vest.

Valentine's Day roses and getting out my veggie seeds.

Finally, I'm still joining as I go on my Prague blanket. When we visited Prague a couple of years ago, we didn't buy any souvenirs. Then I saw a video where 'It is a Sarah' began a blanket inspired by the colours of the buildings in Prague. I thought it would be a nice reminder of our holiday and decided to follow suit, with Lucy at Attic 24's Fireside Blanket pattern. To be honest, I'm in 2 minds about the colours; Sarah's were better but I went with what I had. Occasionally, we toy with the idea of getting a camper van. I'd love an old VW one, but fear that I would really need one with a loo! If we ever get one, this is the blanket that will go in it.

That's all for this month. I'm spending the day sowing some more seeds in the greenhouse and potting on some houseplants, all undertaken not far from the bathroom! How about you, anything exciting happening in your corner of the world? 

Toodle pip for now. x