Dee – Page 249 – Spirit of Dee

Shelves!

6 April 20186 April 2018 Dee Leave a comment

We built the Ikea Kallax wall for the boardgame collection today!

Kallax boardgame storage — Boardgame storage extraordinaire!

I designed this mishmash of Ikea Kallax units to fit our dining area space a few weeks ago, and ordered the requisite Kallaxes in the big Ikea order. I built the individual units over the last couple of days, and today my dad came and bolted them all together to make a nice solid structure. It got a bit tricky, involving having to shave bits off where the wall width was uneven, but the finished result looks amazing (and Geth finally has access to the boardgames again, which will keep him very happy).

We also started building some shoe storage, but that’s mainly a project for tomorrow!

Phone Box Thursday: Waverley Bridge, Edinburgh

5 April 201828 April 2022 Dee Leave a comment

While visiting home for Burns Night in January 2016, I took a photo of the phone box outside Waverley train station, which was looking sad, neglected and stuck in the middle of a building site:

Red phone box, Waverley Bridge, Edinburgh, 25th January 2016.

I was a bit worried that the phone box wouldn’t be long for this world, as there seemed to be something new being built on the site. But! Lo and behold, the ‘something new’ turned out to be a Wetherspoon (isn’t it always?), and when I went in with Geth and my friend Sharpy for a pre-train pint in July of that year, guess what had taken pride of place in the beer garden?

Blue phone box, Waverley Bridge, Edinburgh, 10th July 2016.

(Coordinates 55°95’18.4″N, 3°19’17.9″W.)

I really like the way that the Wetherspoon designers have made a lovely feature out of this phone box, showcasing the beers that you can buy in the pub. Another way to maintain old unused phone boxes!

(Update April 2022: I’ve added coordinates for this box, and the Google Street View clock slider is one of the best I’ve seen in terms of showing the timeline of a place – lots of pictures from between 2009 and 2021! Apparently the Wetherspoon isn’t the first pub garden it’s been part of…)

Back in the house

4 April 20184 April 2018 Dee Leave a comment

Time to get back to home improvement!

Geth and I have had a nice Easter break visiting the in-laws in Lancashire. We’re now back home and ready for another visit from my parents, who will be arriving tomorrow to help with putting up shelves and taking the messy remains of my bloody wardrobe cull to the dump/charity shop. Exciting!

2018 Ciders #20: Kingstone Press Classic Apple

3 April 20183 April 2018 Dee Leave a comment

I went for Easter lunch with the in-laws on Sunday, and so was able to enjoy a new cider alongside the pretty seasonal table display:

This was a nice light cider, fairly medium dry. Quite similar to Strongbow in taste and I wouldn’t be surprised to start seeing it in pubs more often. Apparently they do other flavours as well, so I’ll have to look out for those!

2018 Ciders #19: Thistly Cross Real Ginger

2 April 20182 April 2018 Dee Leave a comment

There was a couple of years where Geth and I were having a lot of trouble tracking down Thistly Cross Real Ginger, which is our favourite of the Thistly Cross varieties. They sell it at Tebay service station, but we only ever have cause to go there when we’re travelling with my parents (it’ll be a different story when we have our own car, but that hasn’t been the case up till now). However, recently a new beer and cider shop opened at Newcastle Central train station, Centrale, which sells every single variety of Thistly Cross (among many other tasty, tasty things). As such, I pick up a bottle every time I happen to be in the train station.

I’ve always loved this one. The ginger taste is really sharp and tangy, and it goes so well in a cider that I’m amazed I’ve not seen it by any other brand. They’d have to work pretty hard to beat the Thistly Cross version though. Probably in my top three ciders of all time.

Easter!

1 April 20181 April 2018 Dee Leave a comment

Happy Easter! I’ve had a great day, and am now in possession of so much chocolate that I’ll be eating it for weeks (got to eke out those Syns carefully). I’ve also had some lovely ciders this weekend, so there’ll be a couple more cider posts in the next couple of days!

2018 Ciders #18: Thatchers Stan’s Cheddar Valley

31 March 201831 March 2018 Dee Leave a comment

Geth and I went for a slightly ill-fated Maundy Thursday pint the other night – our favourite pub was absolutely rammed, so I started to feel ill and had to leave without finishing my second drink, which was Stowford Press, already logged. I did, however, enjoy my first, which was a rough cider I’d not tried before – Cheddar Valley, one of Thatchers’ ‘Stan’s’ line.

Thatchers Stan's Cheddar Valley — Thatchers Stan’s Cheddar Valley.

It was a nice change to have a rough cider – I usually only drink those in the summer – even if the taste of this one was a little dry for my liking. I’m interested to try the other ciders in the ‘Stan’s’ range now.

2018 Ciders #17: Strongbow Original

30 March 201830 March 2018 Dee Leave a comment

I’ve been drinking Strongbow for the last couple of weeks, since I ran out of the Thistly Cross my parents brought down from Edinburgh, but it’s something I drink so often I’d assumed I’d already logged it. Apparently not, however, so let me rectify that now.

Strongbow is my standard home drinking go-to (and often a pub go-to as well – if it’s the type of pub where there’s only one cider available, it’ll almost always be Strongbow), as it’s always cheap and available in supermarkets. It’s what I consider the ‘baseline’ for cider – it’s a very generic taste, ubiquitous for as long as I can remember (even back in the ’90s when cider was still seen as a bit of a hobo drink, before it became semi-classy in the ’00s with the introduction of Magners and Bulmers and the irritating move to serving it over ice). Perfectly tasty and refreshing, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Phone Box Thursday: St Andrew Square, Edinburgh

29 March 201824 March 2022 Dee Leave a comment

I took this one the day after the Great Winter Run 2016, when I was on my way to the bus station to go back to Newcastle.

(Coordinates 55°95’48.9″N, 3°19’28.0″W.)

The picture’s a bit blurry, but you can tell from the Louis Vuitton storefront in the background that it’s in the ‘classy’ shopping area of town (other than the bus station). It was also pouring with rain, which means it was definitely a lot warmer than it had been the day before, when the race took place in absolutely frozen conditions around Arthur’s Seat!

Update March 2022: added coordinates. Still standing as of September 2020.

Retail therapy

28 March 201828 March 2018 Dee Leave a comment

I’ve been buying a lot of stuff the last few weeks. At first it was all house stuff, but lately it’s been mostly treats for me. New clothes for my almost-at-target figure! New makeup for my new makeup storage unit! New shoes (quite a lot of new shoes) for…uh, they’re not for anything in particular, I just love shoes.

I mentioned before that I always feel a bit guilty if I go on a spending spree, but I’ve found it difficult to resist these last few weeks. It’s mainly because I’ve been carrying out a ruthless cull of my entire wardrobe and so the state of this particular collection is always on my mind at the moment. Post-cull, the gaps in my wardrobe are far more apparent, and there are a few areas (underwear, jeans, skirts) where I genuinely do need to buy new things.

I’m not delusional enough to think that’s the case with the shoes, obviously. But I did get rid of an awful lot in the cull, and shoes are pretty, and shoe shopping makes me feel better at the end of a difficult day. I’m very aware that I’ll need to replace this habit with something less expensive soon. Seeing as I can’t go back to binge-drinking now that I’m (sort of) healthy and slim, I imagine it’ll be baths, especially as the bath in our new house is so awesome. I just have to hope I don’t develop a ‘luxury bathing products’ obsession instead, although in fairness it would be cheaper than shoes. We’ll see what happens over the next few weeks.