Slowly Making a Snail

 Hello Lovelies!

I have wanted to make a Julia Donaldson costume for a while now, but what to choose? The Gruffalo is by far her most famous character but seemed too obvious. My favourite book is Stick Man but that didn’t leave much chance for creativity. About a month ago I was shelving Julia Donaldson books and I came across The Snail and the Whale. Eureka! That was perfect, especially because of Anne, Charlotte and Emily my three Giant African Land Snails collectively known as the Bronte Snails.

I started to scour charity shops for some trousers in brown tones and was lucky enough to find three pairs from the YMCA (£1.50, £1.50, 50p) and then found another pair at the Red Cross for £1.99.

I had literally no idea how big it would need to be as I have no spatial sense, so I used some packing paper at work and laid it out on the floor to get a sense of how long it might need to be. This is about six feet and it only coiled up about this big (see below) so I knew I needed to make it much, much longer.

I carefully cut them into rectangles about two hands wide (because I can’t be arsed to measure properly) and sewed them together in a very long strip, then folded it right sides together and sewed down the side making a very, very, very long snake.

 One of the things I am so glad I did was to leave a gap every ten rectangles (a two-rectangle gap to be precise) to make stuffing it easier.

 Then I tried it on and pretended it was a long scarf and I was Tom Baker (as you do.)

Next I set about to stuffing it. Online people said that bubble wrap was a good thing to use as it was light, but I didn’t have any and it was expensive. The other thing people talked about was scrumpled up paper so that it what I did. I had some brown craft paper I use as wrapping paper so I tore it into long strips and scrumpled it up and used that in  combination with some pollyfill fluff. Then as I filled each section I hand stitched it closed.

 When the whole thing was stuffed it measured an impressive 4.5 meters. I saved back some of the nicest houndstooth tweedy fabric for an art display as my favourite geek merch company Skelton Crew says in the future they will be making the key to 221B Baker Street so I need to be prepared!

 Now it was time to coil that baby up into a huge swirly poop shape. I used safety pins to make this happen. I wasn’t sure how many I would need and as it turns out I needed about 180 and had to go back twice to get more packs. I used the biggest pins at the four carinal directions and the medium ones in all the spaces in between.

Then I needed to attach the straps which in hindsight I probably should have added earlier. I used heavy duty strapping and D Rings to sew (and re-sew about 50 times) to the top and bottom and then added safety pins for extra strengthening.

Then onto the eyestalks. I bought a wide headband from Poundland which was surprisingly comfortable (for a headband). I rolled up two squares of brown felt like a cone and stuffed them with more pollyfill fluff. Then hot glued them to the headband and added eyeballs to the top. Then I used leftover scraps to cover the headband to match the shell which made the headband slightly less comfortable because now it was tighter. But a careful strategic stretching and it now feels better.

So how do I put it on? The answer is with some difficulty. I bend over like I am trying to touch my toes with the shell balanced on my back and thread the straps through the D Rings and pull. Then stand up and pull the straps tighter and tie under my boobs.

How was it wearing it all day at work? Not that bad, actually. I did occasionally knock books off the shelf behind me and I could not fit in the cupboard under the stairs so had to get my colleague to bring a few things out (like the cordless phone and spare bags) before he left. Despite the size it was never as uncomfortable as the Medusa crown. I did notice some discomfort the next day between my scapula, but a bit of stretching and lying on my acupressure mat sorted it. 

Now I just need to figure out where to store it as it is quite large….

 

 

I made a Thing

 Hello lovelies! My life has been really busy at the moment with some good and some bad things, but one of the good things is that I have been able to make some incredible crafts for various costumes for work. 

I am working on a Wednesday Addams costume to wear to work on our dress up Saturdays. I managed to find all the clothing  at local charity shops and then I ordered a wig from EBAY. But I really wanted a Thing hand to use as a prop in the photo shoot. However looking online they were hella-expensive. Like between £30 and £60 and I was NOT gonna pay that just for a quick prop.

So what is a crafty Spidergrrl to do but make one herself.

Is it perfect? No. But is it pretty good? yeah. 

So how did I make it? 

First I bought a pair of tan PU leather (meaning not from animals) gloves from EBAY for £2.99.

Then I drew on them in red sharpie where I wanted the scars to be be. While the ink was wet I smudged it with my finger to make the lines blurry.

Then I used black embroidery floss to stitch it up. I had to cut the glove down the side to be able to reach all the places on the back of the hand, but that was fine. I just stitched up the side when I was done.

Next I added some wire into a disposable glove. I put wire in all the fingers and then taped it down at the wrist. Then I carefully inserted the wired glove into the Thing glove. This was so Thing's fingers could bend. I taped a few wires on the other side of the glove to help the wrist be able to move a bit more when it was done.

Then I filled the wired glove inside the Thing glove with uncooked rice. This was to weigh it down and make it heavy but also keep it flexible. It took ages as I could only do a few spoonfuls at a time and had to use a pencil to push rice all the way into each finger. 

Next I hot glued a circle of cardboard with little fold up flaps to stick it to the sides of the glove to keep the rice from falling out and keep the wrist from collapsing. I forgot to take a photo of this so you will just have to use your imagination.

Lastly I used the Thing to trace a circle the same size as the open top from the other glove, cut it out and sewed it to the open top to close off the wrist. I decided it needed fingernails so I used a brown sharpie to draw some dirty nails and then smudged the wet ink.

And voila!

It doesn't have a huge amount of flexibility, but it has enough to do what I wanted. The fingers bend down, the wrist bends up. It looks quite good and  I spent about £3 and two hours to make it which sure beats £30-£60. 

I plan to wear the Wednesday Addams costume sometime in May when the weather is warmer as it isn't the sort of costume that can fit a lot of layers underneath. Watch this space! 

Be Less, Do Less

 Hello lovelies! I am still looking at ways I want to be better in the new year. But as the title suggests I am still rather busy and struggling with time and energy management. 

The problem is that I LOVE to DIY. If I see something in a shop that can be made, then I  make it. I pride myself on making it myself for less. It is one of my superpowers. But I am also TIRED. 

And so part of my resolution this year is that I do not have to do it all, especially if I am doing other creative things. 

1. IT'S OK TO OUTSOURCE

Since the Amazing Spiderman died I have struggled with energy management since it falls to me to do EVERYTHING. I try to do a lot of pre-portioning foods like kale or broccoli so I can just grab-a-green-and-go. I had been using plastic ziplock type bags with a slide lock, but they were wearing out and I didn't want to just keep using and throwing away bags with such frequency (see number 2 on my resolutions today) and so I thought I could make some cloth reusable bags.

I wanted them to have that food grade wipe clean PUL liner but that stuff is EXPENSIVE. I found a half metre of the fabric on sale for £15 (Ker-ching!) and then I would need to factor in outer fabric, velcro if I chose to add that, plus time and energy. I looked at my life and just thought I can't pull blood from a stone. I am currently making storytelling props for the shop's Youtube Channel and rehearsing my lines, getting ready to film and then edit and there just is nothing left in the creative tank. So i decided to OUTSOURCE. I bought some on Etsy from EMMA MARY BAGS N BOBS. It kind of hurt my heart to let someone else make these, but it would have cost me that much to make them myself and now I don't have to.

They are adorable with cute fabric and are perfect for dividing greens into portions in the fridge. And they are wipe clean as well as washable. 

So what have I been making instead? An apple tree, a baker's oven (complete with felt loaf of bread on a wooden paddle) converted from a Troll Bridge leftover from a previous storytelling  and a piece of cloth that looks both like feather bedding and snowflakes when you shake it. Can you see why I didn't have time to make those bags myself? And that's OK.

These leads me into resolution 2:

2. LESS SINGLE USE PLASTIC AND WASTE

I am already doing that with the lovely reusable bags. However, starting this month there are changes to our waste/recycling collection and I want to improve. 

Previously our collection alternated--one week recycling pickup and the next week black bag non recycled waste pickup. But starting at the end of January, recycling is picked up every week and black bag only every three weeks (basically once a month). Normally, it takes me 3-4 weeks to fill up a black bag. But now I really want to concentrate on stretching myself to see how long I can go before I have to put out a black bag. Can I go six weeks (two pickup cycles?) Can I stretch to nine weeks (three pickup cycles?) 

Our recycling is even better than it used to be. Many more things are accepted locally to fill the blue recycling bags and now large supermarkets like Tesco have collections for things like crisp packets and certain plastic food bags that can't be recycled kerbside. 

I would love to be able to buy more naked fruit and veg, but it is not always available or affordable. Broccoli I can get plastic free, but kale I cannot. Kale comes in a crinkly plastic bag that can't be recycled so I try to use them as a bin liner in the bathroom before it goes into the black bag. 

Also when you try to throw away crinkly plastic bags they will not scrunch. Or rather they won't stay scrunched. This means that they take up a lot of space (very light air-filled space) but space none the less in your black bag filling it up quicker. The trick is take one minute to cut it into strips so it takes up less space. Another trick is to designate one crinkly bag as the "fill bag" and put all your strips into it before you put it in the black bag. 

And the last resolution for the day is:

3. ACTIVITIES AND EXPERIENCES

Let's be honest--the Amazing Spiderman was my EVERYTHING. We had lots of fun experiences over the years, but now I need to do them differently. Now I do them on my own (which is not as bad as i thought it might be. I was afraid I would look like Billy-No-Mates, but truthfully--nobody cares) and some I do with my FRAMILY. 

I got some birthday and Christmas money and so I have bought myself tickets to have a variety of experiences throughout the year. I will see three NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE at the cinema by myself (The Crucible, Othello and a play called Good starring David Tennant) and two comedians at the LYRIC THEATRE (Rich Hall and Mark Steel) with my Stand Up Comedian Friend (and Spiderman's former supervisor) Bettina. I also have tickets to see the Peatbog Faeries in concert. I have tickets to Swansea Comic Con with my Geek Friends the FT Gang and have already started going out with my Cinema Friend Pearl--we went out on Monday night to film club at the Lyric to see The Muppets Take Manhattan. 

That's all I have time for today as I need to finish making props so i can go and do a dress rehearsal for the storytelling. 

I hope you have lots of fun this year and don't feel like you have to do it all by yourself. 

Crafty Corner--my new phone holder

 Hello lovelies! I have been crafting like crazy lately, thanks to my friend Kirsty who found me several huge bags of curtains, duvet covers and sheets for fabric. It has inspired me to finally get in there and reorganise my craft room for easier project making. I bought several hugh-jass clear storage tubs at B&M Bargains for all my new fabric and I found all kinds of stuff I didn't even remember I had.

I have been working with clay, painting rocks and sewing this week after work and it feels great.

During lockdown I noticed that my phone case was beginning to go. I knew I wanted to craft a replacement but wasn't sure how to do it. While I was home with no place to go, I watched dozens of tutorials about how people made phone cases.

I had a great idea to make a little slip in envelope sort of case made from a men's necktie which was absolutely adorable, but extremely impracticable. I am a butterfingers. There is a reason i have the sort of case that is like a little book with a front cover because I drop my phone ALL THE TIME. I tried sewing a little pocket one and promptly dropped my slippery as an eel phone the moment I tried to get it out of its cute little envelope. I decided it would made a cute i-pod holder instead. 

So I began to look at only tutorials for the flip case style. This is what I found.

Some were paper--a terrible idea in wet Wales.

Some were cloth with cardboard inside for stiffness--also a bad idea in the country that never seems to stop raining.

Most were just glued together/no sew--I wanted to do a combination of sewing with a bit of gluing.

Some had little tiny strips of elastic in the corners to precariously hold your phone in--yeah, that is an accident waiting to happen.

Finally, I was allowed to go back to work and I just put up with my slightly raggedy phone case while i pondered and schemed. Finally--as so many good ideas do---it came to me in a dream.

Not a crack-ass dream but a craft-ass dream. I could use the little snap-in case that sits in the book part of the case and craft around it. No precariously placed strips of flimsy elastic for me! I could sew a cover and cut a little peephole for the camera. I could fill it with a bit of a soft old blanket to give it some padding and then instead of cardboard, I could use some craft foam that I found in my clean up. It would give it some flexible, waterproof stability.

I dug out this pretty fabric that came from a  sort of Indian-print throw and started planning. I added iron on interfacing for stiffness and used my phone case as a tracing pattern. I debated about adding little pockets but 1) that would be a faff and 2) I never really used them on my old phone case. 

I decided to add the classic button and elastic clasp because it is easy to make and looks nice. Who doesn't love a big decorative button??? 

Here it is: Ta-da!

 In the inside after sewing, I hot glued the slip-in case from my old phone case because it was still in good condition.

Now, here it is with the phone in--I really need to clean my screen. Also, this would be a good time to mention that is is impossible to take a photo of your phone with your phone. I had to resort to the camera and then tediously download it and edit it on the computer. My phone makes taking pictures so much easier!

I also closed it with a very nice rolled edge that I hand sewed. 

Now from the back--peek-a-boo! 

I am really proud of it...it is beautiful and hand made and exactly like how it was in the dream. It is soft to cushion the inevitable falls and when it wears out I will be able to make another one. I love that it is made from upcycled materials and it cost me nothing to make. 

Hoorah for crazy crafts! 

Neck and Neck

This is me.

My neck is cold therefore I am.

It is what Rene Descartes *really* wanted to say. 

However, I have a solution. 

The neck warmer. A  tube of polar fleece.

It is small and can roll up to fit in your pocket if you go in a building that is warm, but can pop out at a moment's notice when you venture back outside. It's stretchy so it slides on easily without mussing your hair (if you care about stuff like that) and is less faff than a scarf. When you wear it you are as warm as toast in no time as Jack Frost cannot blow his icy breath down the back of your neck. You can even wear it as an ear warmer if you swing that way. 

. 

This has literally been a lifesaver to me since we moved to chilly, damp Wales from chilly, damp England.

I wear mine every day for three seasons of the year. 

When my Mum and Carl came for a visit recently, I made them some.

Nobody likes to be cold.

Not even animals.

Recently, when the Carmarthen Vegans went to Cilgerran Wildlife Centre we had two lovely rescued greyhounds with us named Rufus and Eddie. 

Eddie takes after his Auntie Spider. He doesn't like being cold. So i started brainstorming with his "people"  our friends Nigel and Cheryl (hereafter known as the Haboobys) about ways we could fix that.

I went out and bought a half a metre brightly coloured polar fleece--candy floss pink with white spots--and using Eddie's measurements sewed him an extra long fleece neck warmer. I even managed to leave a gap where his collar would be so they can attach his lead for walkies. A half a metre makes 2 doggie ones and two people ones so everyone could have one! 

Modelled by the Haboobys and Rufus and Eddie

Here's another shot of Nigel and the doggies outside where you can see the colour a lot better. Eddie is also wearing his blue onesie with peek-a-boo bottom. 

But it really got me thinking how animals are so much like us.

They feel hot and cold.

They feel love and affection.

They feel fear and pain.

They feel joy and curiosity.

They feel hunger and thirst. 

And I would want for myself to have my physical needs taken care of--to have enough food and water, to be free from pain and to be warm and comfortable.

I would want for myself to have my emotional needs met--to be loved and give and receive affection, to be able to express joy and learn about the world around me through exploration and curiosity. 

Why would I not want that for other living beings? 

Being a vegan, for me, is all about treating ALL living beings with the same courtesy I would treat myself. To believe that everything from the smallest that creep on the ground to the those that swim in the sea and fly in the sky and every one that moves across the surface of this planet deserves to be safe, happy and at peace. 

Every human and every animal. We are all Earthlings. 

A Very Special Birthday

Hello peeps! it has been a long time since I wrote on the blog. I could use some lame excuse, but I know you won't fall for it.  Basically, I have been busy and lazy.

But today is my 46th birthday and though I have been super busy, i wanted to take a moment to say what I am grateful for.

What started out as a joke has turned into reality--I am having a week long birthday celebration.

Last weekend, our dear friend Karen came to visit us from Newcastle. Although she lives in New York, she and her family often visit the UK and so we have seen them many times, but this year she is living and working in Newcastle on a Leverhulme fellowship. She kindly spent eight hours on a train to spend a weekend with us. It is always such a joy to spend time with her. I had a 24 bug for the first day and spent most of Saturday lying on the floor because sitting up made me dizzy, but by Sunday I was right as rain and we had a lovely nearly seven mile walk together through town.

from abitofthegoodstuff.com

Yesterday we met with 12 vegan friends and had Christmas lunch at the local cafe. It was good food, good friends and good fun. I am so thankful we have managed to form such deep friendships in such a short time.

When we got home there was a hilarious message on our ansaphone of my mum pretending to be my Aunt Icy. For those of you not in the family, Aunt Icy used to phone you up and sing Happy Birthday in a slow, melodramatic, operatic voice.  The message cracked me up because it was an uncanny likeness and it was a day early which is a testament to my grandmother on my other side. Every year she would phone me on the 10th and say, "I cannot recall whether your birthday is the 10th or the 12th so i am phoning today." In reality--it was neither. it is the 11th. But try and tell her that and she would turn up her hearing aide and pretend she could not hear you.

Today (my actual-smactual birthday) was spent with those munchkins that I tutor. I adore these funny vegan kids and love being their home-education teacher once a week. I was gifted with lots of beautiful homemade gifts.

They were all handmade including the wrapping although M asked me if she could keep some of the wrapping because she wanted to reuse the sparkly paper.

Here they are together. Sorry for the accidental selfie--i can see myself reflected in the glass.

Here are the gifts from M aged 7--a bracelet that she made me and a little angel made from a clothes peg. Also a lovely card with lots of flowers and fairy cakes sellotaped on.

Here is the gift from H aged 9--a haiku poem written on the back of a cereal box (because he couldn't find any paper) and put into a frame. Please excuse the accidental selfie reflected in the glass.

If you can't read it it says:
Now it's your birthday
the best teacher in the world
Heather, that is you!

These gifts have won my heart. Who doesn't love homemade gifts?

So today was our home education Christmas party. We made some Snowman Snacks. 

Snowman Snacks
You need:
2 rice cakes
vegan cream cheese
raisins
a bit of carrot
some fruit leather like Yo Yo bears

1. Spread the rice cakes with cream cheese.
2. Use raisins for the eyes and buttons. We also used raisins to make a smile.
3. Use a bit of carrot for the nose.
4. Cut some fruit leather to make a scarf.
Eat and enjoy!


They were easy enough to make that their little brother A was able to join in and help.  Then A went to play downstairs and we made some ornaments.

it basically involved sewing on a button and then sewing around the edges and stuffing with fibrefill. They came out really cute and the kids were really proud. M sews a lot but H had never done so.. He sometimes has very specific gender roles in his head (don't know where he gets it--not from home) and i think sometimes *wants* to do certain things but if they are perceived by society as *girl* things he is not too sure. I said sewing was for everyone and sewing on buttons is a lifeskill. By the end he was really enjoying himself and muttering, "Sewing is for everyone. Anyone can do sewing."

We had a brilliant time. Tonight when Spiderman came home from work he brought me a pressie. I wasn't expecting a gift and he wasn't planning to buy me a gift, but he saw it in the window of a wee Five and Dime shop in Lampeter. He knew I would love it.

OMG! A spirograph! It's the 70's all over again!!!!! Back to my childhood!!!! There was also a badge which reads it's my birthday which I refuse to take off. 

 Tomorrow we will decorate the tree, make leek and potato soup and watch the Muppet's Christmas Carol.  Sunday we will go to see the pantomime of Sleeping Beauty and then out for a Chinese meal at our friend Soong's restaurant.

A big festival of me! With friends, food and fun. What more could a person ask for?

Diolch Ffrindiau

This means thank you friends in Welsh. I have a lot to be thankful for. Every night when Spiderman and I bless our food we say:

 

We give thanks O Lord

For food when many walk in hunger,

For faith when many walk in fear,

For friends when many walk alone,

We give thanks to you O God and

May all that have life be delivered from suffering.

Amen.

 

It is not really the way that Quakers tend to pray. Normally they hold a silent thought before a meal, but since we have been in Wales we have felt the need to do more--to acknowledge our blessings verbally.

 

We were blessed with a visit from friends this past weekend. I guess you could also say it was a visit from Friends as Friends (Of Truth) is another word for Quakers. When we arrived in Cymru six months ago, I had a bit of hard time adjusting. I was homesick and lonely and unemployed. I missed my church family and friends back in England. While things are considerably better now--I am still unemployed but I am not so homesick or lonely as I once was--it was with great excitement that some of our Quaker friends discussed the possibility of coming to Wales for a weekend.

 

It seemed like such a difficult thing to arrange--one of those ideas that sound good in theory but then when you look into the logistics of it couldn’t really be done. I tried not to get my hopes up and seem casual in our email exchanges but I know my heart was just wanting it so badly. I really miss these people--they were a huge part of my life both spiritual and social and I wanted to show them around our new town and new life in Cymru.

 

Well reader, it happened. They came.

 

Friday night Rachel and Lorna N arrived after five and half hours in the car. I couldn’t believe they were willing to drive that long just to see us. To be fair, the actual drive was more like four and half hours with two half an hour pit stops but still. That is a *long* way to come for the sake of friendship.

 

But they came anyway.

 

We went out for a delicious Chinese meal at Sai Wu, the restaurant owned by our friend Soong. They came back for the quick tour of our flat and for a slice of date cake and then back to their hotel to bed.

 

Saturday morning the weather was *perfect* --the daffodils were blooming, the sky was blue and the sun was shining and I was in my short red spring coat as opposed to my long pink winter coat. Hoorah!!! Spiderman gave us the day together because he knew I needed a visit more than he did. He got his visit later that night over dinner and conversation that lasted until nearly midnight.

 

We three ladies pottered around the many shops that Carmarthen has to offer. There are at least eight charity shops and several interesting independent retro crafty type places so we ambled about from around 10am to about 4pm (stopping in the middle for a cup of tea and sandwiches). We all had a nap and then they came over for dinner and we ate mushroom barley soup http://spidergrrlvstheworld.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/souper-supper.html  and date cake http://spidergrrlvstheworld.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/this-is-date-to-bake-cake.html and we talked and laughed and told stories and discussed politics and laughed some more. It was a truly uplifting experience.

 

We didn’t actually subject them to our blessing as that feels like a personal religious choice and we didn’t want to make them feel uncomfortable but I did make them listen to a seasonal poem as we are counting our way towards the spring equinox on March the 20th. I have even decorated my seasonal tree in it’s spring attire.

The next day we met then at Café Nero for a cuppa before they got on the road. We were having such an interesting discussion about the American South (Last year Lorna took a trip to Nashville as well as further down south) that I think we didn’t want it to end. But they said goodbye and drove home and we walked home in the drizzle (I was back wearing my long pink winter coat again).

 

It was, without a doubt, one of the best weekends I’ve had. It reminds you that if you are truly friends then distance and time do not matter. You can pick up right where you left off. Just seeing them was gift enough but did I mention they also brought pressies?????

 

Seriously. Boxes and bags of goodies from Quaker Friends back in Hitchin. Knowing our finances are a wee bit on the tight side (we are, after all, Mr and Mrs Church Mouse) Friends sent expensive food treats like olive oil, cashew nuts, coconut milk and tamarind paste (can you say curry????) plus delicious but totally out of our price range maple syrup. Luxury!  They sent posh snacks like apricot chia bars, chocolate covered raspberries, dried apricots, mixed nuts and two (count ’em two) kinds of hand cooked crisps. Yeah…we’ve actually eaten most of the snack stuff already. Plus two varieties of herbal tea! 

There were also three (count ‘em three) jars of homemade jellies and jams. Yes please!!!!

There were fabric remnants from their fabric stashes that had long lain unused and were looking for someone to think of a use for them. Me! Pick me! I can use them! 

There were card making crafty bits like fancy paper and little wooden doodads which filled me with so many ideas I could hardly wait to make something.

 

There were also several craft kits and projects and game ideas --plastic fillable Easter eggs anyone??? Oh the fun we will have!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There were thoughtful cards from several of our friends back in England that I will treasure because of their kind messages.

 It would have been a perfect weekend with just their company but I gotta say…the pressies were really nice! Food and crafts and books! Oh, I forgot the  books!!

 Lorna found some a trilogy of interesting books all about Merlin the magician (who was born in a cave outside Carmarthen dontcha know!) in a charity shop and bought them for me. How kind.

It truly let me know how blessed we are--with good food, good friends and a shared faith that draws us together.

Diolch o galon! Heartfelt thanks!

 

 

Pen-blwydd Hapus

Pen-blwydd hapus i ti

Pen-blwydd hapus i ti

Pen-blwydd hapus i Spidergrrl

Pen-blwydd hapus i ti

Any idea what those words might mean? Hmmm? Using your newly formed Welsh detective skills can you work out what the song is? Wrth gwrs (of course) you can!

It’s Happy Birthday or rather Birthday Happy as those crazy Welsh like to put their adjectives after the noun. They are not alone in that--I know French does it as well.

It was a wonderful birthday because I have been alive for 45 years and 25 of those have been in the company of Spiderman. As we always put up our Christmas tree on my birthday I get to reminisce about all the good times we have had. We have an ornament for every year we have been married and so each one as it is unwrapped and placed on the tree tells a story. Our  story. This year we chose a goofy looking Welsh dragon with a jingle bell for an arse holding a sign which reads Nadolig Llawen (Merry Christmas).

As I am still unemployed money is in short supply so I wasn’t expecting much but Spiderman came through with a little something to make me smile. He made me a card with Cyw on it. Never heard of Cyw? Clearly you are not a Welsh preschooler. Cyw the chicken is the mascot for a preschool programme on SC4 where they sing lots of jolly songs in Welsh to teach little people (and some big people!) the alphabet and other concepts.

Most of the videos feature this cartoon chicken driving a vehicle and waving in a strange rhythmically way like a metronome with feathers out the window without watching the road. She can drive a safari car and a bus! Is there anything this little chicken can’t do?

Does anyone else find the concept of chicken cooking eggs a bit weird?

We love Cyw and practice waving in profile while singing in Welsh every chance we get.

 He came home from  the extensive and endlessly varied DVD library at the university with a copy of Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights which I hadn't seen for years. Larry (as Olivier was known to his friends)  was just as handsome, brooding and charismatic as I remembered but the film really takes liberties with the book (I just read it last year for book club) and only covers about half the plot. Plus it gave it a happy ending! But that's 1939 for you.

He also surprised me with an autographed copy of actor Cary Elwes’ book As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride.

Bendigedig! (brilliant!)

But the main thing the day made me realise is how happy I am. Sure, I will be happier when I find meaningful employment, but when I look at my life--it is pretty amazing. I genuinely have everything I could desire. I am loved by so many people and we have made friends--really good friends--since we arrived. We have a big, supportive vegan community and are able to do more outreach as well as socialisation. One of our new vegan friends owns a shop and commissioned me to make thirty badges to sell that contain positive messages such as LOVE, PEACE and FAITH.

Her generosity meant we had some pocket money for Christmas and I had a chance to be creative again. We have a roof over our heads and a flat which is big and spacious. Yes, it may be cold but that’s why God invented thermals which thanks to my Mum I now have three pairs of thermal leggings which keep me toasty warm. Thanks Mum! We have delicious, nutritious food on our table which is cooked with love and does not cause or contain suffering. We may be eating on a budget, but we have never gone hungry. Lastly, I have the privilege to be married to the most thoughtful man in the world. A man who knows me and loves me so deeply, despite my many enormous flaws, who knows that despite our limited circumstances that I need a treat every now and then and picks just the right one. 

Diolch yn fawr, Cariad.

Dw i’n dy garu di.

(Thank you very much, my love. I love you.)