On our way to Malta

This trip was planned to be my daughter's 21st birthday present - and now i'm on disability benefits it could well be the last holiday I can afford.

The day did not begin well. I left the house with my suitcase and carry-on - taking a bus to the nearest train station - only to realise I had left my phone behind! Argh. I had to get a taxi back to the house to pick up the phone and back to the railway station in order to be in London on time to meet my daughter. Stress!

Made it on to a train at Waterloo but by now did not have time to get an Uber so jumped in a black cab to get me to her flat as we were hopping on a bus right outside her flat to get to the airport.

I arrived at the allotted departure time for her to tell me the coach had left, grr.... but 10 minutes late a coach turned up and it turned out to be the one we were supposed to be on and was running late so on we hopped to get to the flight. At this point I could relax as we had acres of time at the other end - I hate travelling in a rush. I'd also booked special assistance as somedays it can be a struggle and using budget airlines means you are always at the last gate.

Airport wheelchairs are not great - very uncomfortable. Staff member at RyanAir was very rude when I asked him about special assistance and if i could go in the fast track queue - just pointed vaguely behind me.

When I did get to the gate I tried to explain that I can't stand in a queue waiting to board as that can cause me a huge back ache and then make the flight very uncomfortable, and was advised to wait until the end of priority boarding (which we had booked hoping it would help and on advice from the RyanAir customer service) - fortunately this did mean only standing for 5 minutes instead of 15 but not ideal.

For such a beautiful girl, my daughter is surprisingly camera shy for candid shots but I did manage to get this one at Stansted Airport

And there's always an airport selfie - what else to do whilst you are waiting?

And she came loaded with new make up for me - clever girl actually found blue and purple lip liners to go with my crazy lipsticks - the mascara is turquoise because who doesn't need to return to the 1980s?

Things got a little hectic at my house

and so I have sadly neglected my blog and for a large part my stitching too... but I'm back with lots to share with you so sit tight :)

First off is a visit to my mum in her care home - my son drove me to visit her on Mother's Day and we brought her a card and gift. Actually persuaded my mum to have her photo taken (something that she really doesn't like)

Tom & his grandmother

Me and my mum

This is not a great picture of me, my hair is a mess but I'm letting it grow out a little before the next colour treatment and hoping to fade out the blue as much as possible so I can do something crazy next time.

We were never close and barely spoke through a lot of my adulthood (actually had very little contact with any of my family) but now she has Alzheimer's I've been trying to visit as often as I can. Unfortunately she is about 40 miles away and not easily reached by public transport.

A new day and a new hair colour...

This time it's Manic Panic Electric Amethyst on the roots with Manic Panic Turquoise and Adore Emerald on the lengths.

Not too shabby even if I do say so myself

I have this thing for shoes

particularly high heeled shoes...

I have a collection but that doesn't stop me wanting to buy more.

These were the latest acquisitions from a charity shop

Throwback Thursday

Here's a picture of baby me at about 4 years old... quite the throw back. I was cute then...

A different day, different hair...

This combination turned out so well and faded to the most beautiful soft pastels, though I did add on more purple to the roots a few days later.

Here's me rocking the faded version a week later.

A little nostalgia

Pictures taken in 2004 when I bravely but somewhat foolishly took my two children on holiday to Majorca. As you can see a good time was had by all, plenty of fun and sunshine. At the end of the week I was exhausted and in need of a holiday alone!

Rainbow hair

This was a dare from my son, and I figured I'd been every colour on it's own so why not a rainbow?

Athens Day 5 - Wandering about... & my Birthday dinner

Wandering about Athens on the way to Syntagma and the Benaki Museum I came across a few dogs. Dogs wandering around Athens are a common sight. Most of them are not feral or stray, they are collared and tagged but just left to wander during the day. They are fed by Athenians and they seem quite road-savvy.

This would probably explain the Greek riot dogs.

This handsome fellow looks like he has some golden retriever or labrador in him. He looks in great condition and the blue tag means he has had all his vaccinations.

And this one had decided he was going to lay down on the pedestrian crossing. Athenians seem very fond of the dogs and nobody made the dog move, all the cars drove around him, even the taxis.

This is the Greek Parliament on Syntagma Square. In a former life is was the Royal Palace built for King Otto and completed in 1843. You can watch the changing of the guard here, but more about that in a different post.

Another cuddly mutt, I thought this one might be Labrador & German Shepherd, what do you think?

And this handsome boy (Beagle & German Shepherd?) was wandering around Syntagma Square with his collar in his mouth as he had managed to take it off. A passerby put it back on for him. This dog seemed to spend a lot of his time with the dog above, we saw them together several times.

 

This is one of the busy roads near Syntagma, Vasilissis Sofias Avenue, named after Queen Sofia (1870 - 1932) the consort of King Constantine 1

There are small protests on a daily basis in Greece, especially in the area around the Parliament. This one was by the gate to the National Garden. There was some shouting and speakers seemed to be taking turns with a megaphone. The average young person only earns about 300 Euros a month. With 28% unemployment across the population, 62% for those under 25, house prices and wages have halved since 2008 it is no surprise that people are making lots of noise and are very angry with the politicians who destroyed the Greek economy. For 20 years or more they told the people that they had balanced the books with their budget and all the time the national debt was growing until the position was unsustainable. For the 2004 Olympics in Athens, a new airport was built, a road network to the airport and extended and refurbished the metro. All large and expensive infrastructure projects that Greece could not afford. It is estimated that it will take 20 years for the Greek economy to recover.

The police were quite relaxed, they were just wandering back and forth and directing pedestrians on to the road to walk around them.

After the museum I had a Cappuccino "Freddo" with vanilla ice cream on top - delicious - Starbucks in Athens also do these, wonder if I can get the Starbucks in Basingstoke to make one?

Traffic in Athens is a problem. There are lots of taxis and motorbikes. Driving is a little crazy and haphazard. Speed limit signs and road markings seem to be just decorations! Also like some states in the US, you can turn right on a red. However unlike the US there are no signs warning you of this so when I first arrived I was caught out by a car turning as I was crossing!

After the museum and on the way back to the hotel I passed Riot Dog #2, he had moved about 8ft to the pavement and was fast asleep right next to the crossing. People were giving him plenty of room so he would not be disturbed.

More street art this one seemed to be a protest piece. The colours were fabulous.

And in a square on the way back to the hotel I came across these wool wrapped trees. 

As it was my birthday that day we dressed up later and went to dinner in the restaurant on the top of Lycabettus Hill. Alan wore his top hat of course.

I had grilled sea bream, quite adventurous for me as I do not usually eat seafood.

Dessert was a delicious tart with icecream and a lemon-y sauce.
We climbed up to the viewing point on the to of the hill, this is the view to the East.

I sucked at blogging last year...

But it wasn't all my fault. I've been unwell. The final diagnosis is that my back is a mess. I had an MRI done and it shows I have no disc left at all at L5/S1 and only a fragment of disc at L4/5. I am due to have steroid injections into my back to see if it will help, with physio to follow up. I was also diagnosed with fibromyalgia - widespread chronic pain in muscles, joints and nerves. All told I've been put on some funky drugs and I've not been at work since mid June.   Here's a round up of a few pictures I didn't get around to sharing with you all...
My lovely daughter Cat modelling the Harley Quinn costume that I made for her.  

A picture of the make up she did for the Halloween party she went to

And Charlie dog isn't very well so he's sleeping beside me, but here's a picture taken in October when he was full of beans  

Chopped again... a fresh new look for summer

Now that it's finally arrived and I was feeling particularly blah so a new hair cut for a fresh look  

My birthday weekend

Started early Saturday as we intended to queue to see the Leonardo Exhibition at the National Gallery. So here's Alan (and me behind the camera) at a cold Basingstoke Railway Station at 6:45am - waiting for the coffee shop to open and our train due at 7:09am

See how early we were, the station was almost deserted and it was still dark!

We arrived at Waterloo at 7:55 - optimistic there wouldn't be too many people in the queue that early (the gallery opens at 10am) - hopped on the Northern Line to Charing Cross.

The National Gallery faces on to Trafalgar Square, Nelson's Colum and the London Olympic Countdown Clock. Unfortunately we were wrong about the queue. There were already 1000+ people there, some having started queueing at 10pm the night before - bearing in mind it was about -3 celsius when were standing there, on the exposed and windy square - I don't want to think about how cold those people were! We would have had to queue until 2pm to get a ticket to come back about 9pm that night. We had plans for the evening and I didn't really want to stand in the cold for 6 hours on the chance we may have gotten a ticket before the gallery closed at midnight. We decided that it would have been nice to see the exhibition but not worth frostbite and went to Caffe Nero across the square to warm up.

This is one of the fountains on Trafalgar Square, iced but still working - it had melted by the time we left the gallery at lunchtime so I'm guessing this ice is just from the night before

From the window of Caffe Nero - my archetypal photo of London - Black taxi, red bus, red telephone boxes and Nelson's Column (and a pigeon)

We toured the ordinary exhibitions around the National Gallery. To call them ordinary is not fair though, there were some amazing paintings. You can take a virtual tour here. We'll have to go back to see more of the exhibitions another time. Alan's favourite was The Fighting Temeraire by Turner. I really liked this one The Virgin and Child ('The Madonna with the Iris') that came from the workshop of Albrecht Dürer - you can't see it until you zoom into the picture but the painting of the transparent veil is exquisite.

And then we headed off to Olympia 2 to the Doctor Who Experience - hence the smile - Alan is a huge Dr Who fan, particularly the Tom Baker version (4th incarnation) - I swear one year I am going to knit him the Tom Baker scarf

(to be continued)