Filed under: the Captains Cabin | Tags: blog, cardie, country, dinosaur, Great North Run, jubilee, knitting, May Open, Olympics, ood, powerboat, prize, running, sailing, sheep, spinning, summer solstice, wine, Woolfest
It turns out that it was a year ago today I posted my first entry on this site. It was a bit random and primarily in response to ‘I couldn’t do that – could I?’. Well so far it’s been a lot of fun – I think! And looking back over the year, it turns out there are lots of things that I couldn’t have imagined at the beginning of this!
Things I have learnt from this year
- Everyone hates running (apart from Tillerman – but I don’t actually believe him)
- That the inventor of the Crow’s Nest was born in Whitby
- That I DON’T NEED TO KNIT CARDIGANS
- Spinning is really hard
- How to taste wine (sort of – it all still tastes like wine really though)
- Trying to teach kids anything without the benefit of chocolate is basically a waste of time
- You actually can buy ANYTHING on E-Bay
- How to be a better OOD!
- We all like Dinosaurs (maybe I imagined this?)
- Woolfest is awesome
- Not every 50p is worth 50p
- The Internet definitely thinks I should get a sheep
Amazing things that happened this year
- I ran the Great North Run– who knew?!?
- I came third in an actual proper sailing race – and got a prize to prove it
- It was the Mr’s last year as Commodore
- I learnt to spin
- The dog qualified to drive a powerboat
- We didn’t move to the country
- I met a real life alpaca and fed it a carrot
- I got a spinning wheel AND a knitting machine called Jeremy
- The Olympics and the Jubilee! Go Britain!
- I qualified as a Dinghy Instructor
- The Solstice at Stonehenge – kind of amazing
- I learnt how to felt… OK it was by mistake – but let’s take it as a positive!
- I wasn’t last at an open event
I also found some amazing people and blogs out there in the ether of the Internet – I have added a new page so if you would like to go and visit some of them then check this out. Be warned – some of these people actually know what they are talking about!
But most of all it’s been fun to chat with you all – so thanks for dropping by…. it’s appreciated!
So what about this year?
Well I have a plan. I need to get better at sailing and knitting. I also need to delete the email suggesting that I take part in the Sunderland Half Marathon in April. This is a foolish idea and no amount of looking at the email is going to get rid of the cake and beer induced wobble prior to April.
So I am going to be doing 3LT – this is the name for my new recipe for success. Every idea needs a good marketing slogan. And maybe a logo.
Look, Learn, Listen; Turn up, Take part and TRAVEL!
That sounds really exciting doesn’t it?
Filed under: the Captains Cabin | Tags: event, jubilee, medal, Olympic, sailing
So the Olympics are finished and life can get back to normal. So what does that mean? Well for a start we can all stop watching sport at every available moment – I even found myself actively engaging in a bout of jumping earlier last week – trust me – put Olympics in the title and I was quite literally watching anything. Turned out we are good at jumping and got Gold in it – who knew??
We can also stop being a little smug about our medal haul – none of us are actually smug – we are just trying to cover how totally amazed we are with how well we have done. And in who has achieved – allot of our ‘nailed on’ medals didn’t come off, or didn’t do as well as we would have hoped, while in other areas (dancing horses anyone?) we have surprised everyone.
I can finally put my flags away – they came out for the Jubilee and have taken up residence since – and I have never owned a flag prior to this.
The London transport system can stop emailing me thanking me for not using it – I’ve never seen a business so pleased that I have avoided it and chose other modes of transport instead (primarily, not going to London, and walking when I had to go, or even on one occasion going in an Olympic Lane in a taxi – I was so excited…).
For special people only
But what I am most excited about is how much of a medal I have won. Obviously by being a taxpayer and buying lottery tickets all the athletes funding has actually come from me (and the rest of the British public). So based on the 63,600,000 people there are in Britain (well, the UK), I calculate that I have personal possession of 0.00000102201 of one of our 65 medals. I’m so proud.
If you try and work out how much of a gold medal I have won however calculators start doing funny things – mine tells me I have won 4.55974843e-7 of one of our Gold medals. That’s maths too hard for me, so I’ll stick with ‘some’ of a gold medal is mine….!
They are made from gen-u-ine gold
So for a little wincey country I think we have done pretty good – and it’s just been announced that on the back of our success kids will be doing more sport at school, increased spending will be available for continued investment in sport both at community and elite level, and we will all be taking an increased interest in Handball and Taekwondo.
Net gain in sailing club members over this time? Nil.
Drastic action is required to capitalise on Olympic enthusiasm. Watch this space.
As the country celebrates with fireworks, a flotilla and festivities galore, we at Kielder were not to be out done.
We had our very own sail past from the yacht club.
The Queen herself was pleased to attend – I employed my very best curtsey.
As you can see in these times of austerity she even wore the same outfit as she did back in 1982 when she opened the resovoir.
Even the dog was looking patriotic.
After a walk around, she stayed for a bite to eat before dashing back to London for the evening festivities.
The NSC (none sailing comodore) even put in an appearance.
So a rare event indeed. We hope to see the queen back in the near future for a cruise and a BBQ, we’ve let her know we have some spare wetsuits she can borrow if she or Philip doesn’t have one to hand.
In the meantime, it was a weekend to remember – and from all at the club – God Save the Queen!
(Thanks to Laura for the photos!)
