Taking Stock vol 4

Haven't done this for a couple of years now :O But thought when I ever start reading this blog back I'd like to see what I was thinking and who I was back in the day y'know, instead of just where I've been. Although making these chitchat posts is always quite awkward and difficult for me. So a template I shall use :)

Making : (Jesus, I've already hit a snag and have to use the almighty Google to get inspo on what I am "making", Great Start). What am I making???? Nothing? Plans to go to Japan or America? Think we've left Japan too late though... I booked off 10 days at the end of November and still trying to figure out whaaaaaat we gonna do. Also kind of want to go to New Orleans. yes, because of the movies and tv shows, haven't actually looked into anything there yet, but would be a much easier choice than Japan?

Cooking : Fried some potatoes with lardons and sour cream. They stuck like ******* on the stupid pan! Sooo mad!

Drinking : Water mainly and also Green Relentless

Reading: Still trying to chew my way through the "Minu California", been on it for years :D Just can't find the time for it... and also too stubborn to start another book before that's done

Wanting: For people to first turn up to work, second take initiative and third do a good job! God why is it so difficult?? And guess who are the biggest whiners, when a new person is hired and "they now can't live off the small pay"

Looking: Forward to our big holiday in November, even if I don't know yet where we'll go

Playing: Sims2 (eternal love!)

Wasting: Time, literally al I do is sleep - work - sleep - work - sleep. What are cool hobbies or interests I could take up?

Wishing: I would finally take the plunge and move away!!!!! I'm stuck in this kind of ahhhh my life could be ten million times worse so why take the chance?

Enjoying: Tortillas with guacamole, I even went back to Tesco to get some more!!! 

Waiting: For a miracle to happen? A click in my mind to say "don't be so comfortable and scared of change"

Liking: The new layout of the living room - so much room for activities

Wondering: the person who didn't show up to work yesterday is still on his probationary and can I fire him, or are we stuck with a useless person... why did I let it go this far and didn't do it sooner?

Loving: My new Ted Baker bag, It's a pink kitty! :) Mr. Special got me another bag for last Christmas but by February that one had a big rip where the stitches were. So we took it back to the shop and they said no it shouldn't have gone like that especially so quickly. Refunded and gave me gift card that I just now cashed in by getting a new cool bag

Hoping: that one day I'll be brave enough to start driving :D Ha, the problem is I don't need to drive in this small town and that's what's holding me back. Yes, we do make the occasional trip to make sure I don't forget driving completely, but I'm scared to go into traffic and bored to just to the same easy road back and forth all the time... See my dilemma?

Marvelling: at the cake making skills of one of the Polish girls who made an absolutely ahmazing honey cake for our charity bake sale. Must get the recipe and make Mr. Special replicate it. It was yummy!!!!!!

Needing: To do something productive with my free time. Yes, I find it ridiculous that all I do is chill all day long and most days don't even leave the house :(

Smelling: Nothing really, the regular smell of home. I have bought a few Yankee candles and Joik candles that smell nice and would smell up the room nicely but I don't like burning them as then they'll be gone! Yes I am a hoarder at heart. I did use to have the scent diffuser, but I am very picky with these. I don't like strong smells and Next stopped doing the one I liked

Wearing: Comfy home clothes, shorts and a t-shirt

Following: A lot of blogs, favourite being Mallukas, because she always manages to get into some weird drama :D

Noticing: That there are a lot of weird things happening in this town as well! Latest being one of my neighbours running to the courtyard and knocking on everyone's door, screaming a heartbreaking HELP! HELP! They had some kind of domestic argument, so while they were arguing upstairs if police should be called or not, I got involved too and asked the guy to leave! I can't just sit in my flat listening to a girl pleading for help. He did eventually go, but before of course threatened me as well in case I decide to phone the police :D "13 - unlucky for some" - "Not for me mate!". I live in flat 13... So yes, first time ever chained my door just in case :D took about 10 minutes to figure out how it works though :D

Knowing: that I can't waste my life in this little town, and that I need to get out, but also it is my choice! and my initiative to make!

Thinking: Why am I so complacent?

Feeling: Unsettled (same answer as last time?) But feeling like there's more out for me but not really knowing what it is or what should I do.

Bookmarking: Masters programs, but they all need references... That's what's holding me back, afraid that I won't get the references needed... 

Opening: Messages from Mr. Special - he's stuck in North Wales, car broke down :D He's not a happy bunny

Getting: bored of this now :D See I should just write small snippets err day :D

Disliking: people, especially the ones who let the team down
Watching: The last few seasons of The Vampire Diaries, just got netflix about a week ago, so thought I'd use the chance and pick up where I left off a couple of years back?? I don't know actually? When did the show finish? Yes I am wayyyy behind with times... Wish I could say I've been super busy but I haven't :D Spent the last 6 months or so watching every episode of Criminal Minds :D and now following it up with NCIS

Listening: To Emeli Sande - Daddy at the moment. Will do a post soon (I use the term very loosely) with the top 5 new songs

And that's it for now... Toodaloo! 

Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...

Palermo

For some mysterious reason I keep going back to Italy. Look, basically, if there's a choice between Italy and anything else, there is no choice really :D This time our second (well third for her) girls trip!!! Wooooo! To Sicily. We had a choice between the two airports, one on either side of the island. At first we thought about flying into one and out of the other, buuut we only had 4 days and neither of us drives... Well we both have licenses but practice is a different matter :D So we chose the capitol: Palermo, home of the mafia dun dun dun. 

Let's just say the city was a bit underwhelming and maybe the south would've been a better option as there are more day trips around. We chose the city thinking there'll be lots to do in there + one day trip. The latter went wrong as well... :D LOL why? We had chosen the trip a long time ago but hadn't finalized anything yet, so decided to buy tickets separately so we wouldn't have to start converting euros to pounds for one of us to pay the debt to the other. All cool, until "whoops, no more places left for the day you want". F**** great... She could buy hers though! Got the last place... Just my freaking luck...

But she is a kind person and gave her place to me. Turns out we went in a minivan, only having room for 8 people and one stupid group was a family of 3 :( Americans... selfish

First we went to Erice, which is a frotress town on top of a hill. Main attraction is walking along the narrow streets, a huge park and castle ruins (thought it was more of a castle than just some rocks scattered around :( because on the outside it looks like a proper castle, but inside... open ground that I walked through 3 times in disbelief...)

Before that though a little tasting of all the Sicilian sweets. And they were sweet. mmmm Marzipan :) So sweet that I got to have more as one of the other people on the trip did not wish to have all of hers.

Looks like a proper castle right?

By the way, took me forever to find the entrance

View from the Venus castle

Cathedral

Then it was lunch time, included in the trip. Typical Sicilian food: tasted the local olive oil, yes we drank a shot. It had a spicy aftertaste after drinking but when having with bread no spiciness. Strange? Caponata, Gato di patete (sweet potatoe and cheese?), pasta alla Norma, couscous... There was plenty of food! All food that picky me would normally never order for myself but it was delicious! 

The local farm/vineyard where we had lunch also had 4 dogs that just laid about in the sun.

Then the daytrip took us to Segesta Archeological Park. A site that has a Doric Temple (overheard a guide saying that it was probably built only for show because they were instructed to build it. Because it has no visible entrance on any side of the temple)

Then you take the bus up (or walk half an hourish steep uphill) the hill where there's a big open air Theatre. I even was witness to a performance, one of the other group that was there at the time decided to recite a lovely poem while there.

Back to Palermo for an evening meal

Next day we roamed around Palermo, starting with the Catacombe, which were very hard to find. Walked through some dodgy streets and ended up on the road between two walls with no pavement. On the verge of turning back luckily the good people of Palermo helped us and said yes this is the (dodgy) way and it's just around the corner (if you don't get hit by a car first). So we went and ended up in a big square. Managed to find the cemetery and google maps said the catacombs were just where we were standing????? How, Where? After about ten minutes of absolute what the hell? We found the tiniest sign pointing to the tiniest door. What was waiting for us there is the creepiest room I've ever seen! And I've been to the Paris catacombs, Bone house in Austria, seen/smelt a dead body for med students. What waited for us downstairs was a basement, walls lined with mummified people! :O Pinned up to the wall, clothed. 8 000 of them! including babies. Some I believe still had skin on them... No photos as I don't think that's appropriate... Truly once in a lifetime experience though! Never forget!

Visited another disappointing castle (the only reason they're disappointing is because the ticket price does not reflect what you see/get in return). Didn't even take any pics inside :D

Then a quick lunch of the most popular street food - arancini. Deep fried ball of rice with mozzarella and ham inside, you can choose a different flavour. It was not nice :D :D :D

What was nice was the walk on the roof of the cathedral. We were the last ones up (day slot?) and took that many photos that the attendant was already motioning us to go down - she came down with us :D probably to go on her lunch break

Teatro Massimo - we spent one evening sitting in front of it, enjoying the hustle and bustle, there was music playing and people were just out enjoying themselves :) Grabbed a nice white choc cake from the cafe across the road :)

Giardino Inglese

Late night drinks

Third day we took the train to the Valley of the Temples. Not disappointing :D only problem was the heat. It is a big big valley! And her glass bottle of water was confiscated :D Security reasons! Very dangerous!

It has both temple ruins and a few full on temples :) and unfortunately some kind of park that you have to pay extra to get into! Why? Jesus it's money money money in this island.

The town where the Valey is, is also full of cathedrals and churches, whenever you get to one, there is a sign for the next one! Cute little streets :) I like cute little narrow streets

Our Airbnb was right next to this square

Last night drinks - I am now obsessed with dried pineapple!

The view from our Airbnb

Since our flight was late evening, we decided to take one last daytrip. Dropped our bags in the hold at the train station and hopped on a train to Cefalu, having decied between that and Monreale. But the ladder was only supposed to have the Cathedral as anything worth looking at while Cefalu was supposed to be bustling summer resort town. The weather wasn't on our side though :(

We ended up coming back earlier than expected as Cefalu was tiny tiny.

And I decided to go to the Botanical Gardens, Giardino Garibaldi in Palermo, just 10 minute walk from the train station

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Elan Valley

Another sight quite close to us in Mid Wales that for some reason we have overlooked in the past... Basically the Elan Valley is a collection of dams scattered around in the countryside. The roads to get there, well the one coming back to Aber, are amazing and a little scary but so scenic! There are 6 dams all together and easiest and fastest way to get to them all is by car, although parking is quite difficult at some places...

Caban Coch is the dam that has a visitor centre, so best start there, or finish. There's a cafe as well. You can admire the dam from the bottom and then climb up there as well :)

Claerwen - built to provide water to Birmingham. It sure looks very impressive but unfortunately on the day we were visiting it was absolutely dry :(

Garreg Du - Also provides water for Birmingham but is a submerged dam, so on the site there is just an incredible river Elan to admire

Pen y Garreg - Couldn't find a car park actually, so we stopped on the road and I ran out to quickly take this photo, luckily traffic was light and we didn't get in anyone's way

Craig Goch - Here you can drive over the dam and there's a parking lot on the other side but the catch is that only one car can cross at a time so if you meet another car trying to go the other way... you both are in trouble... So to avoid this we actually parked on the side of the road and walked towards the dam and bridge. This is the highest upstream of the series. 

It took us about 2 hours for the valley. One of the highlights of the trip was definitely the road back

Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...