The Adventures of Bear and Butterfly

So we’ve been pretty good at getting our pics & vids up, but for some reason the blogging side keeps getting pushed back later & later.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, & besides, we are busy people!!  Too busy doing stuff, which is the whole point of us being here… but I know our mummys & daddys want to hear more from us so here goes the catch up…  I’ve made links along the way (the writing in a different colour) so you can easily find the websites, pics or vids that go with the tale…

Out & about:  We had some snow at the beginning of April in Reading, Portishead, Derren Brown (he came to Reading!  We are convinced that he is very, very spooky), Bjork (such an amazing concert which Kim & Ez accompanied me to- Toumani Diabate performed  as well- he’s a Kora player from Mali), a beautiful Inka Essenhigh exhibition at the Victorio Miro gallery with Kim, fun drinks out with Kim & her teacher friends, a walk from Pangbourne to Theale through a Bluebell Forest, the Grand Design show in London, Kim taught me how to make wings, Foo Fighters concert in June with Rachael (where Jimmy Page & John Paul Jones from Led Zep joined for the encore), a Silent Disco with Chantal & Josh,  Radiohead (with Ez, Kim, Nik & Dawn- Bodra doesn’t care much for Radiohead- his loss!!!), Shihad with Paul & Rach, a funny photo shoot with Kim at Studio64, a delicious chocolate experience with friends at William Curley in London, exploring the English Countryside at Basildon Park & the Vyne with Dewi, friends having babies (Sarah & Lukas, Gareth & Angela, Tibor & Lavinia, Jo & Chris), Boom Festival… & I’m sure there is more that I just can’t remember right now!

Travel: Sweeps Festival in Rochester May 3rd, Glastonbury for a weekend away from Reading at the end of May (where we stayed at Jasmin Cottage & had a lovely long walk in the drizzle), Bodra went to Paris for Blizzard Geek World Wide Invitational at the end of June, Lisbon in Portugal, South of Spain & Barcelona in August, Malta for Bodra’s Birthday, Totnes in Devon, England in September…

We moved flat again in the middle of July & we were lucky enough to have Paul, Rachael & David make it a fairly stress-free event.  As our apartment was mostly unfurnished Paul & Rachael gifted us with some lovely bits n pieces- I’m still raving about the actual non-stick frying pan!  (Getting very domestic these days- scary!)  Our apartment block is very close to the River Thames so bird life is very close-by!

I started my first temp position via a recruitment agency at Thames Water.  Data-base admin, nothing too exciting.  That position ended up becoming a bit unpredictable as the whole interest-crashy-mortgage-market-thing impacted the work we had so I wasn’t working as much as I wanted.  So I told them where they can stick their job… no I didn’t.  Anyway, this Tuesday I begin a new job working for CfBT an Education Trust Charity thingy… admin again but hopefully more stable & it will pay me an extra squid per hour- yahoo!!

Bodra continues with Symantec, visiting far-flung places like Turin (blurgggghhh!!!) & his favourite place- Riyadh!  Hopefully not for much longer as the other BCE dude from Egypt is meant to be covering that region… Bodra will also be going to Dublin again in October for some more training & boozing/socialising.

So our big trips since our last blog… PORTUGAL!  Not bad at all for Europe, wasn’t too hot, Lisbon was kind of pretty with it’s murals of tiles all over the buildings & walls.  We really liked their aquarium which is designed to show all the different oceans around our little world.  We saw puffins for the first time, were quite astounded by the massive sunfish, & enamoured by the leafy sea-dragon & cuttlefish.

Our Lisbon pics can be viewed:here

Aquarium vids are here: & one Lisbon vid:

We had loads of fun at the Boom festival, camping in a Unesco Geopark- Naturetejo- trying to dodge the sun, swimming in the Lake Idanha-a-Nova, dancing a wee bit, eating yummy vege fare, enjoying the festive atmosphere & spending some time with our new & old friends!

Our Boom pics can be viewed: here Our Boom vids can be viewed: here

After the Festival we bussed by night to Sevilla in Spain- Bodra is now sworn off travelling by coach (I thought our trip to Germany sealed that deal?).  Sevilla had Bodra in the bunk bed of our hostel trying to recover from Boom Belly, while Mike, Dan & I braved the heat to explore the city & had a tour through El Alcazar.  Sometimes it can be hard to appreciate where you are when you have to deal with heat, but we made a pretty good attempt at getting to know Sevilla.  I really liked it when we stopped at the Haggen Daas cafe for ice cream.

The South of Spain did not live up to any expectations we may have had.  Bodra says “In fact it sucked.”  (He isn’t always so eloquent you know.)  Very hot, even at night it was hot.  The beaches were littered & crowded, the water was polluted, cigarette butts everywhere.  Crappy Spanish food to contend with too.  We are officially over Europe.

Barcelona was wonderful- great vegetarian food, clean (ish- for Europe anyway), loads to do that interested us.  We thought the Gaudi buildings were pretty cool- I especially liked the atmosphere at the Park Guell, Bodra thinks they should definitely hold a rave there.  Bodra has promised to take me back to the Sagrada Familia once it’s finished- they’ve been building it for over a century now so it can’t be too far off… can it?  Barcelona restored our faith that Europe can be a pleasant experience…

Spain pics can be viewed: here & our vids.

We had a unique dining experience for Bodra’s birthday- Mike, Chantal, Ezra, Kim, Paul & Rachael joined us for dining in the dark!  We went to a restaurant called Dans le Noir, where the wait staff are blind & the meals are a mystery!

Russell, Alanna, Paul, Rachael, Bodra & I all went to Malta for a few days after Bodra’s 29th.  It was a fairly relaxed holiday despite the major humidity we suffered.  Food started off good but then got progressively worse (our fault for not eating fish), our hotel was pretty cruddy (Bodra has promised me we never need to do 3 star hotels ever again) but it did have one redeeming feature- an Escher-like stairwell that tripped Bodra out everytime he walked down it.  We enjoyed fireworks in the evening which I initially thought was part of a pirate invasion re-enactment as they sounded like cannons blasting.  Apparently Malta is famous for fireworks.   We really enjoyed our swims out at Comino & Gozo Island- easily the highlights of this Summer.

Malta pics can be viewed here: Malta vids can be viewed here:

So yes, we went to Totnes while I did my first Yoga workshop.  I have started a correspondence diploma in Yoga Teacher Training- more that I just want to understand Yoga more, & if it all makes sense then perhaps I will teach it one day when my hair is white & flowing & I look more like a sage.  Bodra drove me down there & while I was on the course he went for a drive through Dartmoor National Park to Lydford Gorge.  The area was mostly rocky & barren, but there was a pretty river there as well as the Devil’s Cauldron!! That evening, Bodra took me to the coast where we enjoyed some time by the ocean on a pebbly beach called Blackpool Sands.  Here’s a vid showing what the country roads are like… & what the countryside is like…

Yesterday we went for a massive 8 mile hike from Marlow to Henley on Thames with our lovely friend Dewi.  It was very foggy, cool & crisp in the morning, but it wasn’t very long into our walk where that all burnt off & we had a nice sunny day.  Walking along the Thames Path enjoying the bird life & nature, eating at the lovely Flower Pot Inn… very achey & tired by the end of it!!  Here’s a little vid of a spot along the way.

Hopefully this blog will be sufficient.  Now I need to do some study!!  We hope you are all super & healthy & enjoying every moment!

<3 Jasmin & Bodra