August through to December 2022
Friday, 28 July 2023 13:28![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iguana
I'm playing blog catch-up at the moment so the next few months will be brief. The latter half of 2022 had me finally catching covid, after a couple of years of avoiding it. It totally floored me, which certainly contributed to why I didn't have a chance to keep up with the blog.August 2022
In August I met up with both Angel and Zoe; the former in Nottingham and the latter in Sheffield where we went skating! I also visited a Luminarium, and Samathy helped me re-pot my dragonfruit plant, or, rather, re-trellis it. We changed it from an improvised lightweight climbing pole with a garden sieve for a canopy into something much more substantial.
In August I met up with both Angel and Zoe; the former in Nottingham and the latter in Sheffield where we went skating! I also visited a Luminarium, and Samathy helped me re-pot my dragonfruit plant, or, rather, re-trellis it. We changed it from an improvised lightweight climbing pole with a garden sieve for a canopy into something much more substantial.
September 2022
In September I visited Vienna, my second trip abroad since the pandemic. I met up with my friend Gil. Vienna was beautiful as always and we had a great time catching up. We visited the Buskers Festival in Karlsplatz, where we saw various performers, acrobats, and so on. It was a lot of fun. I visited Augarten one morning, which was situated near my hotel, and saw the old war structures as well as enjoying the greenery.
The next day we walked Stadtwanderweg 6 with Gil's friend L, getting caught in a couple of heavy rainstorms but overall having a lovely time. Unfortunately I lost my hat, leaving it on the tram on the way to the hike! Gil and I cooked dinner together in the evening, and I travelled home the next morning.
This was when I caught covid; I was feeling awful on the train back home on the evening of the flight, but put it down to travel stress. However, I took a covid test the next morning and it was very positive. Gil didn't catch covid, so I must have got it in the airport. I cancelled the rest of my holiday plans (an extended break in Cardiff for PyCon UK).
It looks like I was recovered (and testing negative for two days) enough to go to the outdoors skate session, Shoot the Duck, in Nottingham 12 days later, which looking back, I'm quite surprised about. I genuinely feel like covid knocked me out for months afterwards.
Shoot the Duck was fun. I got to skate outdoors for the first time, and there was a tiny little ramp which I learned to jump from in the course of the few hours I was there. I did leave early, at dusk, having worn myself out.
In September I visited Vienna, my second trip abroad since the pandemic. I met up with my friend Gil. Vienna was beautiful as always and we had a great time catching up. We visited the Buskers Festival in Karlsplatz, where we saw various performers, acrobats, and so on. It was a lot of fun. I visited Augarten one morning, which was situated near my hotel, and saw the old war structures as well as enjoying the greenery.
The next day we walked Stadtwanderweg 6 with Gil's friend L, getting caught in a couple of heavy rainstorms but overall having a lovely time. Unfortunately I lost my hat, leaving it on the tram on the way to the hike! Gil and I cooked dinner together in the evening, and I travelled home the next morning.
This was when I caught covid; I was feeling awful on the train back home on the evening of the flight, but put it down to travel stress. However, I took a covid test the next morning and it was very positive. Gil didn't catch covid, so I must have got it in the airport. I cancelled the rest of my holiday plans (an extended break in Cardiff for PyCon UK).
It looks like I was recovered (and testing negative for two days) enough to go to the outdoors skate session, Shoot the Duck, in Nottingham 12 days later, which looking back, I'm quite surprised about. I genuinely feel like covid knocked me out for months afterwards.
Shoot the Duck was fun. I got to skate outdoors for the first time, and there was a tiny little ramp which I learned to jump from in the course of the few hours I was there. I did leave early, at dusk, having worn myself out.
October 2022
In October I had the last set of roller skating lessons, as the teacher said that unless there was anything specific I wanted to focus on, there wasn't much more to teach me!
Emily visited the UK, and spent a couple of days at mine. We went to the Thursday night skate session and had a blast, and then toured Nottingham's manmade caves the next day. We also visited Wollaton Park, and walked around the lake, having a good catch-up.
October was also Nottingham Comic Con, and I went in cosplay along with Angel and her siblings. We both went as Sonic the Comic's Amy Rose, and met one of the writers, Lew Stringer, who was there and happy to chat. It was a fun day out!
I also started a character drawing course, which has been an ongoing thing for me since (though I'm nearly finished at the time of writing—but still learning).
In October I had the last set of roller skating lessons, as the teacher said that unless there was anything specific I wanted to focus on, there wasn't much more to teach me!
Emily visited the UK, and spent a couple of days at mine. We went to the Thursday night skate session and had a blast, and then toured Nottingham's manmade caves the next day. We also visited Wollaton Park, and walked around the lake, having a good catch-up.
October was also Nottingham Comic Con, and I went in cosplay along with Angel and her siblings. We both went as Sonic the Comic's Amy Rose, and met one of the writers, Lew Stringer, who was there and happy to chat. It was a fun day out!
I also started a character drawing course, which has been an ongoing thing for me since (though I'm nearly finished at the time of writing—but still learning).
November 2022
In November I had elective surgery to improve my quality of life, and so most of it was prep and recovery from that. However, beforehand I had a chance to meet up with my friend and then-coworker Claire in London. I had a haircut at Claire's preferred curly hair specialist hairdresser, and then we went to a London Transport Museum late event, where it was adults only and we got to build little circuit boards and do things without any children around. It was a really fun night!
In November I had elective surgery to improve my quality of life, and so most of it was prep and recovery from that. However, beforehand I had a chance to meet up with my friend and then-coworker Claire in London. I had a haircut at Claire's preferred curly hair specialist hairdresser, and then we went to a London Transport Museum late event, where it was adults only and we got to build little circuit boards and do things without any children around. It was a really fun night!
December 2022
I was off my feet for most of December due to a small complication from the surgery, which self-resolved after a while.
Angel and I managed to get the second issue of STC: Reillustrated finished, in a bit of people and project management that I'm extremely proud of myself for. We released just in time for Christmas.
On the way to my parents for Christmas, I stopped in London to go ice skating at Battersea Power Station. It was the first time I'd been ice skating since startig to learn to roller skate, and the skills were pleasantly transferrable, though I think ice skating, at least with the loan skates, was much harder. Still, I managed to do a few crossovers before the end of the session!
In Budleigh, I did the Christmas swim in the sea. The sea was really choppy to get into, and I lost the Santa hat I was wearing, but after I got past the waves breaking it was really nice in the sea; surprisingly warm and gentle.
I was off my feet for most of December due to a small complication from the surgery, which self-resolved after a while.
Angel and I managed to get the second issue of STC: Reillustrated finished, in a bit of people and project management that I'm extremely proud of myself for. We released just in time for Christmas.
On the way to my parents for Christmas, I stopped in London to go ice skating at Battersea Power Station. It was the first time I'd been ice skating since startig to learn to roller skate, and the skills were pleasantly transferrable, though I think ice skating, at least with the loan skates, was much harder. Still, I managed to do a few crossovers before the end of the session!
In Budleigh, I did the Christmas swim in the sea. The sea was really choppy to get into, and I lost the Santa hat I was wearing, but after I got past the waves breaking it was really nice in the sea; surprisingly warm and gentle.
