Spirit of Dee – Page 240 – Adventures of a 20th century girl in a 21st century world

Adventures in Coding: Slightly More Serious Adventures

I did promise I was going to tell you all about the software development course I’m doing soon! I have a place on the TechUp Skills Bootcamp in Software Development, which starts next week. I’m going to be learning Python and finding out about opportunities for moving into a tech career, which is very exciting. […]

Race Review: London Marathon 2021

After months of worrying about various ailments, struggling with long runs due to the hot summer, mental games, highs and lows, and readjustment to a world that contained races once more, it was finally marathon day. I accepted the place for my second London Marathon nearly two and a half years ago. That is a […]

Gamebook Wednesday: Asterix: Alea Jacta Est! #1, ‘The Meeting of the Chieftains’

This is another selection from my childhood collection. My brother Malcolm and I absolutely loved Asterix as kids and had tons of the comics, as well as several gamebooks. I didn’t play this one from the Alea Jacta Est! series nearly as often as the more-tactile Asterix Adventure Books we also had (they’ll be replayed […]

Screengrabs From Games That Don’t Exist #3: Weatherman

This studio scene is just the shiny face of it! The real puzzles in the game are solved in the meteorology centre, where you consult with specialists, pore over projections and DO SCIENCE in your endless, fascinating quest to predict the British weather correctly. (Pixel British/Irish Isles based on a design by nightwolfdezines at Vecteezy.)

So much plastic

7 January 20189 January 2018 Dee Leave a comment

I went through my bracelet box this evening. I have several hundred bracelets that I never wear, largely due to a teenage addiction to Claire’s Accessories. SO MANY JELLY BRACELETS. I used to wear them with neon fishnet armwarmers and matching plastic beads, all of which I also still have. My taste in jewellery has always screamed ‘1980s’, though these days it’s a little less early Madonna and a little more OTT power bling. Maturity and all.

Bracelets, mostly jelly and plastic bangles. — Plastic, plastic everywhere.

Anyway, I’ve organised them into vague colour groupings in the hope that they might actually get worn more often. We’ll see.

Back to running

6 January 20186 January 2018 Dee Leave a comment

Geth and I dragged ourselves out of bed this morning to go to parkrun for the first time in seven weeks. Neither of us had run at all during the intervening period; taking this into consideration, I was pretty happy with my time, which was only four minutes slower than my PB. A few weeks back in training (not to mention non-Christmas eating) and hopefully I’ll be back where I was in the autumn and ready for the 10k races I’ve got lined up for the spring and summer!

My forthcoming ’80s house!

5 January 201820 January 2018 Dee Leave a comment

My husband Geth and I are in the process of buying our first house at the moment, which, as with every move, is both exciting and stressful at the same time. We’re pretty close to completion now, and had a meeting with our solicitor in Whitley Bay today to sign stuff and finalise things.

Whitley Bay red phone box — Gratuitous phone box picture of the phone box near Whitley Bay metro station, probably my favourite phone box in the North East.

I was excited to find out today that the house we’re buying was built in 1988. I love the ’80s but have never lived in an ’80s build before! I’m really looking forward to moving in next month, getting settled, and starting to plan all my home improvement projects.

2018 Ciders #2: Magners Original

4 January 20184 January 2018 Dee Leave a comment

On Tuesday, I went out with the family to our favourite Italian restaurant in Edinburgh, the Bar Italia, where my mum and dad have been going since the ’70s. The pizza there is great, but like most Italian restaurants, they don’t offer a huge deal of choice on the cider front, so a Magners it was.

Magners is pretty ubiquitous so there’s not much to say about this one, other than the fact I expect I’ll be drinking it at lots of restaurants during 2018!

Thirty-three

3 January 20183 January 2018 Dee Leave a comment

It’s my thirty-third birthday today. I have celebrated reaching matching digits again (only happens once every eleven years!) with birthday cheesecake, prosecco, filthy Dominos takeaway and a resolve not to care what the scales say at Slimming World weigh-in tomorrow (back on plan from tomorrow afternoon!).

2018 Ciders #1: Thistly Cross Traditional

2 January 20184 January 2018 Dee 2 Comments

It’s probably fitting that my first proper post is about cider; I do drink a lot of the stuff. I did originally think about doing a blog where I tried a new one every day for a year, but in recent years I’ve realised that I do need to have dry days most of the time. Still, I’m going to review them here when I do drink them.

Thistly Cross Traditional. Apologies for the terrible photo!

I like pretty much all flavours of Thistly Cross, but some of them can be a bit heavy. This is a nice, lighter option at 4.4% (the Original and Whisky Cask flavours are both over 6%, for comparison), so it was very welcome yesterday when I was starting to get that really sluggish, boozed-out feeling you have towards the end of the Christmas period.

Scotland isn’t typically known for cider production, but Thistly Cross is most definitely one of my favourite ciders. Expect to see a few different flavours of this posted over the next wee while.

A new venture!

1 January 20181 January 2018 Dee Leave a comment

It’s a new year today, so time for a few new projects. Including this blog, which I’ve been planning for a while. I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts about music, ’80s stuff, TV, food and all the other things going on in my life!