Love it, Laugh at it, Photograph it.: May 2015

I just checked the last time I posted a blog, and it was FIVE MONTHS ago. I couldn't be more sorry. Because of that, I thought I'd give you a few significant blog-related updates on my life since the last post, and then try to think about how I might blog a bit more regular-like, and that sort of thing.

So.

1. And we're starting with a biggun: I LOST MY CAMERA.
I know, I know. The third crucial element to 'Love it, Laugh at it, Photograph it' is now sorely lacking. The story of how it was lost is a tale of intrepid adventure, a long wait at a train station just east of Barcelona, a stupid girl (that's me), and an accidental lack of travel insurance (closely linked to the penultimate item on the list). I won't tell it now, because you can pretty much guess what happened. It's really sad. I am thankful, though, that I still have almost all of my lenses, bar one, so will [eventually, when I've saved up] just need to replace the body. I'm also really glad that I still have my old bridge camera, so can still take some photos when out and about - they're just not so fancy. I do miss my old beastie though.

As a side note, the camera contained some AWESOME pictures of Betsy and I that were taken on the beach in Santa Susanna, that the world will now never get to enjoy. I know you're all incredibly disappointed by that. What's better than me in a raincoat on a rock looking windswept but joyful? Not much.

2. I've actually been blogging...somewhere else.
It's a little painful to admit this, but there has been another blog that's stolen my creative energies since New Year. The blog is not my own, it's a community blog for Christian 20's and 30's to explore what it is to be a Christian 20/30-something, called Threads. It's fun and interesting, and since New Year I have had the honour of being a regular contributor! However, it has a very different aim/tone/structure to Love-Laugh-Photograph, so I'll not let it replace this at all. I have to be a bit more sensible over there. You can't keep that up all the time.

3. I'm actually quite well.
It seems a weird thing to say, but I am quite well, and it does make a difference to life. You might remember about nine months ago I wrote a post about having been unwell with fatigue, and then having an operation that set that all back...yada, yada, yada. It turns out it takes a long time for bodies to get well. But, having discovered that I am gluten-intolerant (but not a coeliac), and also recently been confirmed that there's been no regrowth of the tumour (hooray!), I am actually in a relatively good bill of health now. ACTUALLY, I'm writing this on the tail end of a gross cold, which has knocked me out a bit in the last week, but other than that I am good, and with some extra energy than just to do my job. This bodes well for having creative energy to write and photograph, and the like.

It also means I have a new interest in food that I didn't have before (other than just eating it. That's not really new). Before we get ahead of ourselves, this is in NO WAY going to turn into a food blog. But. Now that I'm having to eat gluten free I'm that bit more aware of what's going in, cooking with good ingredients from scratch, eating well, and all that jazz; so I may allude to/link to some great things I come across, as and when I come across them. Just a tentative heads up.

4. This might actually be most importantly: I have finally been to my first jousting tournament!
Now, this is all the doing of my dear friend Betsy. Bets is from Nashville, and has wonderfully romantic notions about how we Brits live. In her time here, it has been a passionate desire for her to come to a jousting tournament AS IF THAT'S SOMETHING WE STILL DO. (I jest, she lives in the real world really, but this was something wonderfully not-of-this-world that she really wanted to do that I told her didn't exist.) I scoffed affectionately at the notion when first she mentioned it, until it turned out that there was going to be a jousting tournament at Blenheim Palace (which is about seven miles away from us) on this Bank Holiday Monday just passed. My words had to be eaten, much like Paddy Ashdown's hat.

I was, while surprised, ridiculously excited to go. And I kid you not, I had the most fun I have had in an incredibly long time. I can totally see why they used to do it, and I don't know why we don't still? Well, I do, it was incredibly dangerous - so for us it was largely fun because it was so obviously staged and safe and funny. But, watching genuine hunks (plus a few old dudes - who I'm sure were plenty hunky in their day) on genuine horseback, galloping up and down an arena, showing off their prowess and jousting each other with lances...Well. It was QUITE something to behold! Lances were splintered and everything. We laughed a lot, and I now feel like I can tick something off the bucket list that I don't actually have. Maybe, like those to-do lists you write where you put something you've already done on it so you can cross it off and immediately feel productive, I should start a bucket list and put this on it?

Anyway, until I think up something a bit more inspired to blog about (if it genuinely ends up being my bucket list you have my permission to disown me), I'll leave you with some over-excited jousting pictures (taken on the old camera), and some glorious jousting from A Knight's Tale, whose tone, irreverence and musical accompaniment were not dissimilar to that of our day...