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[scullz1013]

I had a great time in Stockholm but the real reason for going to Sweden was to go to the far north - Jukkasjärvi, which is north of the arctic circle.

Annabelle, who is my sorority big sister got married in a candlelit forest ceremony, which she had hoped might have also been illuminated by the northern lights. Sadly this wasn't to be but it was still beautiful and so was she, check her out in photo 10!

On the day we arrived we all did a traditional sauna ritual which involved jumping into a very cold lake and then getting into a very hot bath, it was definitely the most invigorating thing I have done after travelling!

We stayed at the Ice Hotel which has both normal hotel rooms and rooms made entirely of ice that you can stay in. Nothing would posses me to sleep on a block of ice when there is a perfectly serviceable bed available but the hotel is open during the day for anyone to explore and that was a lot of fun. There is a bar that serves drinks in glasses made of ice (when you finish your drink, you go and throw your "glass" into the lake so that it can go back to where it came from) and then one long, snow lined corridor with the rooms people stay in on one side and rooms that are purely ice art on the other. Every room is different and they are genuinely amazing to walk through. Photos 1-7 show some of my favourite bits but I honestly could have stayed looking at it all for hours it was so stunning. The hotel is also completly rebuilt every year, so if I ever get to go back there I will see completly different rooms.

Photos 9 and 10 are Toni (my sorority grand big who I haven't seen for ages) and I after we had been in the ice hotel before getting ready for the wedding ceremony in the evening. When we met again it was in fancy dresses with leggings and boots because although it wasn't snowing it was still pretty chillly for an evening in the forest. All the wedding guests were taken by bus to the forest and we then had to follow a candlit trail to the ceremony area where we got some mulled wine while we waited for Annabelle to arrive. She and Jordan got married under the stars and we all cheered and then went and had champagne in ice glasses around a big fire. It really was a very nice wedding. We went back to the hotel restaurant for a very fancy dinner including one of the best wedding cakes I have had (which is saying something because I used to work at a wedding venue and I have eaten a lot of wedding cake in my life) it had four contrasting flavour layers and was really tasty.

The final day of the trip started understandably late but was almost as exciting as the previous day because I went ATV dog sledding. Obviously you can't sled without snow, so the huskies pull a little buggy along instead. There are 14 dogs in each team and a guide takes you on one of the routes they use to train for races and tells you all about them and how they are cared for and how they prepare for races. After a 14 kiometere ride we were able to meet all the huskies indvidually and then go and play with some of the puppies - this particular racing kennel has over 100 dogs. The guide then took us to warm up with some coffee and cinnamon buns. I'd watched a documentary called "Snow Dogs" (still available on iPlayer) before I left about someone learning to race huskies so I felt like I knew a little bit but the guide taught us so much and it was such a fun and unusual experience. A great way to end a great trip.

History, ice, fire and huskies - tack själv Sverige!

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Now, there are few things I enjoy more than a living history village and Skansen is the oldest outdoor museum in the world, so I clearly had to go.

I was excited to check it out and I was not disappointed. There are 190 buildings there - the oldest being from the 14th Century (and still looking good) plus an entire zoo and an aquarium. The place is massive and you can't really do every single thing properly in a day. We had a good try though.

Late September is off-season so not all of the buildings were open, but luckily, today was a designated school visit day so there was more open than usual for the kids. I learned a lot about Swedish life and traditions as they have buildings and artefacts from all over Sweden (plus some from Norway, which was part of Sweden for the first few years of Skansen's existence). They are split into sections with most of the buildings from northern Sweden in the northern end of the park and those from the south in the southern part plus a pretty large town section which has urban buildings from all over Sweden.

My favourite buildings were the farmstead (photo 3) that had original painted interior walls from the late 1700s. They were beautiful and incredibly well preserved, and the mechanical workshop in the town area which had a really interesting exhibit about trade unionism in Norway during the second world war (honestly, I realise that doesn't sound exciting but it was).

I got to see baby reindeer in the farm area (adorable) as well as a pretty diverse selection of animals from moose to tree frogs and even saw a National Cash register in the pub in the town near the end of the day (love to see the 937 repped in far flung places).

There was just so much to see and do, I feel like I could do it all over again and still learn loads. My final full day in Stockholm, I'm glad I spent it learning so much about Sweden.

[scullz1013]

Today was the royal day!

First, the royal palace where you can see the state rooms as well as the rooms where visiting heads of state stay. The rooms are still used for ceremonies and events and I had thought some of them might be closed but the only place you couldn't see fully was the State Hall (photo 2) which was being prepared to be used as part of the King's jubilee celebrations. It was quite cool to see such a fancy room in a bit of a state of disarray though.

The best part of the palace for me was the Halls of Order which has a big display on all the Swedish orders of chivalry and is full of medals and sashes.

The ticket also gets you into an exhibit about the castle of the three crowns which was destroyed by fire in 1697, with the palace being rebuilt on the site. The exhibit is in the basement where the few remaining original bits of the castle still exist.

The other cool thing is the treasury which houses Sweden's crown jewels. All very lovely and sparkly.

My favourite part of the day was visiting the Royal Armoury. It is part of the palace but managed seperatley so you have to buy another ticket, but it is very much worth the visit. Not only is there some very cool arms and amour from the medival to the present day (including the crowned helmet belonging to Gustav Vasa that you can see in photo 6) but also a lot of clothing and other objects. They even have an exhibit about unicorns and their symbolism through history.

The biggest suprise in the armoury was the basement which houses the royal coach collection. They were amazing and so well preserved. My favourite (photo 5) was the Crown Prince's Carriage built in 1763. I loved the interior ceiling (photo 4) as well.

I really enjoyed learning so much about a royal family that I had very limited knowledge of as well as seeing so many pretty shiny things.

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Today was my whole reason for coming to Stockholm, to see Vasa.

I used Vasa for a case study on wood preservation when I was at Wright State and I have wanted to visit her ever since.

She was a 17th century warship who sank in Stockholm harbour on her maiden voyage. Despite being down there for over 300 years, the anaerobic conditions in the water of the baltic sea meant that the wood was incredibly well preserved. She may have had an inauspicous working life but she is now one of the most important historical preservation projects ever.

The Vasa museum was built around the ship and is similar in style to the Mary Rose museum in Poetsmouth. There is lots of information about the building of the ship, as well as the people who were on her (including the skeletons of some of those who were raised from the water). What I was most interested in was the stuff about the preservation which there was a lot of, especially how they have adapted the techniques they have used on her since the 1960s as they have made new discoveries over time.

I think you're probably meant to spend a few hours there but this was pretty much a full day for me - I just kept walking around and staring at her. I was amazed by how close you could get and how much detailed carving was so well preserved.

Totally worth the trip and the time spent, I loved it!

[scullz1013]

Day 1 in Stockholm was a long one.

Started at the observatory because it was literally opposite the hotel, there are some cool sculptures in the park that surrounds it (sculptures and statues seem to feature heavily here) as well as some good views as it is on high ground.

I wanted to spend day one just walking around enjoying the architecture. The parliament building (photo 1) reminded me of King Charles Street in London and I was very impressed by the royal palace (photo 2) which I'm planning to actually go into another day - the military band also played "Dancing Queen" during the changing of the guard which I appreciated.

The medieval museum is very close to the palace and as it was free it seemed like a good addition to the walking day. It was a fun museum with lots of cool stuff for kids as well some original medieval city wall dating from 1530 (photo 3).

Stockholm cathedral (photo 4) was small but really stunning and very much worth the entrance fee. The carving around the royal pews was insane (what looks like cloth in photo 5 is made of wood). Even the statue of the designer (photo 6) is really cool - I've never seen a statue sat with dangling feet before! They also have a very jazzy depiction of Saint George doing a bit of dragon slaying (photo 7).

The last part of the day was spent on Riddarholmen which is an island that used to be full of the homes of Sweden's nobility but is now almost entirely government buildings as well as a church (photo 9) which is the final resting place of almost every Swedish monarch since the mid-1600s as well as a few medieval ones. The tombs and chapels in there are amazing and the walls are also lined with the coats of arms of the Knights of the Order of the Seraphim (much like the Garter Knight crests that line the walls at Windsor Castle).

Today was a LOT of walking but was so interesting, I feel like if I'd only had a day here this would have been a great way to spend it.

[scullz1013]

On my last full day we packed a lot in!

We started at the Log Cabin Village which is a small living history musuem where you can see log cabins from across Texas from the mid to late 1800s. I love living history and this one was great. The heat meant that there were not many visitors, so the volunteers spent a lot of time talking to us and showing us things like candle dipping and woodworking tools. There was even more weird hair art!

It's not a big place so would be great for kids as there is a lot to see and they even have an interactive cabin where you can touch everything.

We had lunch at a nice vegan place and then visited a little shop where all the profits go to support victims of sex trafficking - they deliver across the USA, check out their website for more info - https://worthy-co.com/

In the afternoon we went to the Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame and it was great. They had a cowgirl fashion exhibit that we really enjoyed and when the lady at the ticket desk heard I was from the UK she said I needed to see the saddle donated by Camilla Naprous who is a British stunt rider. Camilla has worked either as a rider or horsemaster on lots of TV and film including Game of Thrones and The Other Boleyn Girl. The saddle (pic 7) was used by Kit Harrington in GoT.

This is another museum that had a lot of fun interactive stuff for kids, alongside lots of really interesting exhibits about the cowgirls who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, including a big section on Annie Oakley who I always like to learn about since she is from Ohio.

We also walked around the outside of the building as there were a lot of statues and a large mosaic. My favourite was the statue of Lucca (pic 10) who was a working dog with the US marines.

I've had a brilliat trip but I am definitly enjoying a bit of cooler weather now I am home again!

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Yesterday we went to Grapevine which is a very cute little town about a 30 minute drive from Fort Worth or you could get the train, because not only do they have a heritage railway, they also have commuter rail into Fort Worth and Dallas which comes into the same station as the heritage trains.

It was a really lovely place to walk around, they have a lot of statues and preserved buildings as well as modern ones built in a sympathetic style.

As ever, once I knew there was a little museum I wanted to check it out. They actually have multiple museums but only one was open as the air conditioning in the others had broken down. Still, the small museum located in the old Ice House was a nice one. I got there an hour before they were due to close and the two volunteers were so excitied that I was foreign that they gave me a full guided tour and we chatted a lot about the local area.

Of course, there were wedding dresses, but the standout objects for me were the hair art (a theme in every small American museum that covers family life in the early 1900s, always slightly weird but compelling to me since we covered it on one of my uni courses), and the three handled shovel which they still use for photo opportunities whenever the foundations are laid on a new building in the town.

They also had some really nice shops there and lots of places to eat, apparently the best time to go is October - December because they go all out for Christmas and have a lot of pop-up vendors and decorations on the streets and in all the shops and houses.

They have a huge mall nearby, so we went in there for a bit before getting dinner. Then we spent our evening at Free Play which is an arcade bar where you pay a flat entry fee and then play all the games as many times as you like. They have one of these in Liverpool which I love, so I knew I would like this and it was great to play some different games. They had a whole wall of pinball machines plus a basketball game and skee-ball which I have never played before.

It ended up being a long day but a very fun one.

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We started yesterday with a really good lunch at the Hotel Drover which is pretty fancy and right next to the Forth Worth Stockyards.

I visited the stockyards last time I was here and really liked it there, so I wanted to visit again. I was also told that there had been a lot of development in the area since my last visit. I really enjoyed walking around and seeing all the new stuff.

They have a little museum inside the old Livestock Exchange building which was closed last time I was here, so I also went to look at that. It was everything I like about small, local museums - friendly volunteers, packed with stuff and a huge emphasis placed on the most random things. The big draws are the bad luck wedding dress (photo 7, info panel photo 6) and the second longest burning light bulb in the world (photo 5). I actually did learn a lot about the history of the area but I won't lie, I was very much in it for the hyper-local stuff.

After the museum we did some more walking around, visiting some shops and bars to hydrate as it was 44 degrees outside.

We ended the day with another visit to the dog park. A very fun and very Texan afternoon!

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I am now in Fort Worth, Texas and it is HOT out here, so I am trying to find air conditioned fun.

I visited the Amon Carter Museum of American Art because they had a cool photograhy exhibit - https://www.cartermuseum.org/exhibitions/avedons-west that I wanted to check out. The museum focuses on art related to the American West and the photos were mixed in with the older artwork which was a great way to encourage visitors to make comparisons between them.

They also had a cool soundscape exhibit (pictured) where you can hear different bird calls. It's not a big museum but it's nicely laid out and it looks like their changing exhibitions are pretty interesting.

Since I've been here I've been able to catch up with friends I haven't seen in a while and go to the coolest dog park ever - they have a bar and places to sit for the humans as well as TVs playing sport, fans blowing out water and cool air and bathtubs that you can fill to help keep the dogs cool. We met lots of lovely dogs and had a great time, it's a brilliant community resource.

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After Philly I went out to Maryland where the final games in the Summer Series were going to be played. This was one of the big reasons I decided to come on this trip, because it gave me the chance to see friends I haven't seen in a very long time.

Jayme and Lauren and I did a lot of fun stuff - $5 margs while watching USA v. Netherlands in the womens world cup, lots of shopping for Jayme and I - the town they live in has a beautiful downtown area with nice architecture and a nice mix of vitage and kitschy shops with cool stuff in (including a beautiful beaded jacket that I strongly considered, despite the $380 price tag).

We also went to see the Barbie film which was so funny and good and the cinema had special Barbie themed drinks and s'mores popcorn (the popcorn had choc chips and marshmallows in it)!

They love doing escape rooms, something I have never done before and I really enjoyed it - the one we did had a carnival / funfair theme and we completed it with 17 minutes to spare so I think we did a good job for a group with two complete beginners in it.

They are close to the Gettysburg battlefield so we decided to do a tour that you download on your phone and then drive around at your own pace. It worked brilliantly because the narrator was really informative and we could get out and look more closely at whatever we wanted to without being out in the heat for two long.

There are 1, 328 monuments across the battlefield. My faves were the peace one which had an eternal flame (pics 1 and 2), the memorial to Sally the dog (pics 3 and 4) who actually had to do drill with her unit, which seems like a big ask for a little dog and the Pennsylvania state memorial (pics 5 and 6) although a lot of the state memorials were very cool. We all enjoyed the experience and learned a lot, we even took a picnic to eat in the car. I think it was a great way to tour a big site without having to worry about the excessive heat outside.

We were also able to spend time hanging out with Evan and Nic and making pizzas (veggies and coconut milk cheese for me) and then we went to the two games on Sunday where we were swamped in a sea of Chelsea flags but still managed to enjoy ourselves despite a poor result - still, it's only pre-season and it's been an exciting and high-scoring tournament overall.

It was so wonderful to see everyone and be able to spend an extended period of time with them, next stop - The Lone Star State.

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Today was my last full day here and I decided to go all out on the American history tourism.

I started at the Museum of the American Revolution which covers the revolutionary war and its aftermath. It had a pretty hefty price tag (although your ticket allows you to return the next day if you miss anything - I spent 5 hours there, so this seems like a nice idea for people who rock up in the afternoon) but I felt it was worth it. There is a lot of content and it's displayed a lot of different ways. They also had plenty of things you could touch and interact with for kids (I assume they get a lot of school groups).

I learned loads, for example I never realised how wide reaching the war was or how long it lasted. I really enjoyed learning about the nautical element of the war and the involvment of privateers as I've always just thought of it as a land war. I was also interested to learn that they considered making Washington a king (there's an interregnum related joke there that I will refrain from making) I also liked the fact that as you enter the first part of the museum "Rule Britannia" is playing on a loop.

The museum is only a block away from the Liberty Bell which I felt like I HAD to do on my first visit here. I got there about 3.30pm and was suprised that the queue was relatively short and fast moving, so going later in the day was clearly a good idea. There are some info panels about the bell and it's history as a symbol of freedom but disappointingly, none of them talk about how it was made, which is a shame, because like all the best bells, it was made at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. You can walk all the way around the bell and get really close to it as well.

My last stop was Independence Hall (photo 7) where the Decleration of Independence was signed and where the US Governement sat in the early years of its existence. I deliberatly planned to go here later in the day because although it's free, you have to get a ticket for a guided tour of the main part of the building. If you go after 5pm in the summer though, you can just queue up and go in. I was able to see the first Senate room (photos 5 and 6) and the room where the Decleration of Independence was signed (photos 8 and 9) including the chair George Washington sat on to do the signing, which there happens to be a replica of at the Museum of the American Revolution that you can sit on yourself if you feel so inclined.

They also have a copy of the Declaration that is very slightly older than the one in the National Archives here, so if you are a constitutional completest, it's worth a look.

I have really enjoyed my time in Philadelphia - there is so much to do here and it's really easy to get around. I hope I can return at some point to explore more.

[scullz1013]

One thing I really love to do is walk around university campuses.

Obviously some of them are more beautiful than others but I always find them peaceful and rejuvenating. Maybe it's because I'm not a student anymore so there is no pressure to achieve anything and I can just enjoy them, but I always get the same feeling.

I'd heard that the University of Pennsylvania was particularly nice and you can download a self guided walking tour of the campus, so I did that and it was well worth it. There are so many lovely buildings and it was interesting to learn a bit more about their design and history.

My favourites were: College Hall (Photo 4) which was apparently the inspiration for the house in "The Addams Family" (they are doing a major renovation project on it at the moment, so I couldn't see it all, but the bit that wasn't under scaffolding looked ace), the fine arts library (photo 3) and Houston Hall (photo 1) which is the oldest student union building in America. Also got major Hampton Court vibes from the gatehouse to the quadrangle (photo 5) . I have no idea why a gatehouse was necessary, but I support it wholeheartedly. Everyone should have one.

In the interests of balance I should say that the residence halls were not pretty at all and actually looked like council estate tower blocks. I'm sure they were nice inside though, at least I hope so because it costs $86,000 a year to go to UPenn. Of course the other thing that happens whenever I walk around a campus is I get a wistful desire to do another degree so that price tag was a helpful way of shaking me out of that notion.

A large student population also usually equals vegan food nearby so I managed to score a plant-based version of a Philly Cheesesteak, so that's another tourist thing ticked off the list.

Not such a busy day today but a good one for the soul.

[scullz1013]

Well, it's game day! The matches were not until the afternoon though so I decided to visit the Rail Park in the morning. It's a similar idea to the High Line in New York - A garden built on what used to be an elevated railway line. Philly's version is still being created and only phase one is open. It's not as impressive as the High Line yet but they have big plans for it so it might well be one day. You can see from the first picture that it doesn't look like much when you first arrive but once you get up there they have lots of interesting plants. There are also art installations and they have music there in the evenings.

The line that the park is built on originally went into Reading Terminal which is now a huge covered food market with lots of different types to choose from. I'd gone out early this morning, so I wasn't hungry for anything (though lots of the cakes and cookies looked amazing) but I still liked looking at all the different vendors, although most are set up to sell breakfast, lunch or snacks to tourists there are also fruit and veg and fresh fish stalls.

A nice, chilled morning before the games which were a nice, though very warm experience. Fulham played Brentford first and then Newcastle played Aston Villa with a 40 minute break in between. It was a bit strange being surrounded by people supporting four different teams (I also saw someone walking around in a Watford shirt - your guess is as good as mine) but I sat next to two American Newcastle fans who were so genuinely thrilled to be sat next to a real live British person that it made me feel very special.

[scullz1013]

My first visit to Philadelphia

It has been such a long time since I've blogged I feel like I have forgotton how to use Tumblr.

Anyway, I am in Philadelphia for the first time for the Premier League Summer series and I am I have been very touristy so far. I arrived yesterday afternoon and knowing that Fridays after 5pm are "pay what you like" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I decided to use that as a way to try to stay awake as long as possible.

I really wanted to see their collection of armour, I know they have a lot of Milanese stuff which is always beautiful. Unfortunatly the gallery was closed for renovation but I was thankful that a few pieces of armour and some weapons were on display, including a Viking sword from 850!

I mostly looked at their European collection which seemed to have a heavy ecclesiastical focus, lots of stained glass and bits of old buildings that have been lugged across the atlantic. The lady at the front desk reccomended I see Rubens' painting of Prometheus getting his liver eaten by an eagle and, while certainly not a cheery painting, I did like it a lot.

When I left I went out via the Rocky steps and statue. I have never actually seen the movies, but it seemed rude not to and of course some bloke was actually running up the steps as well.

I also explored the immediate area where I am staying - there is a lot of cool street art and murals nearby and the building next door is a trade union headquarters which makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Today I went to the National Jewish Museum. I walked there via Chinatown (one of the biggest and busiest I have been to in the last few years). The museum is free and focuses specifically on the Jewish American experience and because of that focus I felt that I really learned a lot. I particularly enjoyed the section about Jewish pioneers going out west on their waggons in the 1800s and the section about the civil rights movements of the 20th century.

After a break for some lunch and a bit of planning for the next few days I took a walk up to the City Hall building which is one of the biggest I have ever seen. I really enjoyed it until I walked into the central courtyard which, though lovely, reminded me very strongly of the courtyard of the building I work in at home which slightly dampened my holiday mood. There were also loads of Chelsea fans milling around there ahead of their game against Brighton - all the more reason to move swiftly on. I went to Rittenhouse Square which is a park surrounded by cool old buildings and fancy shops and restaurants. My favourite thing was the frog sculpture, aptly named "Giant Frog".

I got sushi for dinner on the way home and now I am resting my aching feet ready for game day tomorrow. I am very much enjoying Philly so far.

EDIT: It looks like you can no longer caption pictures on Tumblr - I had added what I thought were captions to the image descriptions but you can't see them on the post, so:

Image 1: The trade union building next door to me is named after this guy

Image 3: The building opposite me has an entire mural wall

Image 4: The lifts at PMA were pretty impressive

Image 7: The view from the steps

Image 12: The Jewish Museum's street art contribution

Image 14: City Hall (stock photo) It was too big for me to get a photo without something obstructing the view and / or not getting it all in. Such an impressive building!

Image 15: Benjamin Franklin: Craftsman - huge sculpture near City Hall.

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Swindon counts as travel doesn’t it? I mean I had to get on three separate trains to get there so I’m going to deem it blog-worthy. Also I won’t be doing anything as exciting as this again this year and it’s been a while since I last blogged, so here we are.

I recently changed jobs and I work for the MOD now. I can’t say much about what I do but I can tell you a bit about a course I’ve just been on. The idea behind it was to give civil servants whose jobs have a direct effect on military personnel a better understanding of military life and it was 100% the best work related experience I’ve ever had (and I have been on a hell of a lot of courses).

We were based at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom in Wiltshire but we got to visit some other places too. On day 1 we learned about explosives and saw a lot of things getting blown up and we even got to make our own IED’s (terrifyingly easy) - despite a lot of the course being lecture based, this was definitely going to be something different! We also got to check out loads of tanks at the tech school, I climbed on them but didn’t go inside since I’m not the biggest fan of confined spaces.

On day 2 we visited RAF stations and got to see fixed wing aircraft and helicopters. Although I’ve seen military planes in museums in the US, it was very cool to actually get to go inside ones that are in active use. We also got to hear from a guy whose entire job is working out how to parachute equipment out of planes, everything from food supplies to boats (sorry, no photos as there was some prototype equipment in the hanger). What a sweet job though!

The rest of week one was an exercise where we got to live in the field at the Infantry Battle School in Brecon, (Here’s their page on the army website:  https://www.army.mod.uk/who-we-are/our-schools-and-colleges/infantry-battle-school/ ) hilariously entitled “Exercise Civil Strife” (yes, really). This was the army part of the course, although because the instructors were army officers we had to call it the “land environment” because all the forces serve in the land environment at some point and they didn’t want to be seen to be over-emphasising the army stuff.

Now we all know I love Wales but what I do not love is camping, dirt and portaloos. To say I was apprehensive about this part of the course would be an understatement. I didn’t want to get shouted at by a man in a beret, I didn’t want to sleep in a field and I didn’t want to carry a bag that was bigger than I was for any significant distance. It actually turned out to be one of the most affirming experiences I’ve had in a long time (and not a single person shouted at me!)

Before we left we were issued with kit, my trousers were so big that I’m pretty sure I could have comfortably invited another person to join me in them. Unlike becoming a flight attendant, there is no height restriction for joining the British Army, but lets just say that they don’t really cater for the little people. It’s a good thing we didn’t have to parade because I would have been a shambles. The rucksack (they call it a bergan, I know all the lingo now) that you have to wear is massive and heavy, plus you have a rifle and webbing which is like a utility belt with a load of detachable pockets for important stuff like your ammunition, water bottle and “luxury snack items” (I made sure all luxury snack items were easily accessible at all times). When I was in NZ I helped one of my friends pack to leave once and tried her rucksack on to see how heavy it was, I nearly fell over then and this was worse (it was also only about a third of the weight that real soldiers carry).

So, off we went to hell or Wales, or whatever you want to call it (at this point I was still convinced I was facing my final days on earth). When we got there we were issued with our rifles and shown how to use them (I forgot immediately and had to be shown again multiple times, hello dyslexic brain freeze, my old friend). Manny, the real live Gurkha soldier who was teaching us was patience personified (I mean the instructors we had from day 1 of the course are real live soldiers too, but, as will become clear later, they are basically teddy bears in camouflage, some of the IBS instructors looked like they would kill you for insubordination). I guess even if the they are giving you blank ammunition, they want to be 100% sure you aren't going to screw up with a massive great gun.

We’d been divided into three squadrons (lingo again there, you see!) and I was in 2 Section which was of course the best one. Pics of us above are just before getting on the transport trucks to go out and immediately after completing the assault course on the last day.

The trucks were where it all got quite real. You sit in them sideways and the back is open so you can just awkwardly stare out at the normal traffic - normal people going to their nice warm houses rather than to a wet, cold field. It was also both dark and fully raining (”If it’s not raining - it’s not training!”) by the time we left the training centre so it was quite disorientating. It was about a 40 minute journey too, because you have to go right into the centre of the MOD land area where there are no other civilians for you to casually walk away back to civilisation with.

We were dumped out of the trucks and shown where we were sleeping, which was the floor of a barn, so super comfortable and welcoming. The rest of the night was lessons on camouflage, how to cook rations, using flares, patrolling with night vision goggles (very cool) and heat sensors (also cool, but we only got to have a quick look at these since they cost 17 grand each so we weren't going to be trusted with them for long).

Although we were able to try the rations (my favourite was the fruit explosion, the texture of which was a mix between a smoothie and baby food, but legitimately delicious) we were actually fed fresh food because, being delicate civil servants, our myriad dietary requirements were more than army rations could cope with. My vegan pasta and “meatballs” was surprisingly good.

Now of course in the army, you can’t just sleep because who knows when an enemy combatant might attack you. Someone has to be patrolling all night. I was on second watch which ended up being first watch because we went to bed later than planned and frankly I think I totally lucked out. My partner and I had a very relaxed time watching the stars and enjoying the snow (thanks Wales, another of my favourite things) that gently began to fall on us five minutes in. Despite my frankly, jammy skill at getting the best stag (LINGO) and therefore not having to get up in the night, I didn’t get any sleep at all, discomfort, snorers and my general inability to sleep anywhere other than my own bed meant that 5am couldn’t come soon enough.

Day 2, crack on.

Being up before dawn generally puts me in a bad mood and realising that they hadn’t brought my vegan breakfast could have tipped me over the edge, but watching one officer jovially berating another in a Malcom Tucker-esque display of colourful language for forgetting it couldn’t fail to make me smile. When he said; “I’ve got fruit in me car, sweetheart, will a bit of fruit do you for now?” and then pulled out a pear and two bananas, I was thrilled, after all, English pears are in season right right now and I do love a pear (and yes Mum, I ate it un-sliced and un-peeled, because that’s what soldiers do).

Our first night accommodation had been luxurious compared to what we would have on night two and in anticipation of this we practised putting up our “bashers” (LINGO) - literally like tarpaulin sheets to keep the rain off you while you sleep on the ground. Thankfully there wasn’t much time to dwell on this fresh hell as the rest of the morning (and mornings are long if you get up at 5am) was rifle drill where we had to practice attacking and retreating from a firefight. This was actually really fun. We leaned hand signals and there was a lot of running and firing and jumping up and down. I also discovered that getting down on the floor and shooting from the ground is all fine and dandy until you have to get up again while wearing the webbing and the backpack and not dropping the rifle, run forward a few paces and then repeat the whole task again ad-infitum. I’ll just say it was a sweet-ass core muscle workout and I’m glad that there was a brief break in the rain for this activity.

After lunch we got to meet the SAS. Now, you know they’re the SAS because it’s bitter cold and they are in t-shirts. I’ve met a lot of people in my life but I think this is the first time I’ve ever met anyone whose specialist skill set includes bayoneting people in the face (although idk, some of you may be hiding your light under a bushel, let me know). I want to say here and now that I enjoyed the SAS part. We learned a lot of cool survival stuff and it was really interesting. I did take issue with some of the chicken murder though.

So, the SAS guy shows us how to kill, skin and cook a chicken. I was fine with that. It was clean and quick and I am interested in biology, so seeing the inside of the chicken (including a fully intact egg she was just about to lay) was a legitimate learning experience. Now they had 20 chickens in a cage which made me uncomfortable because of course the next part was “who wants to have a go at killing a chicken?” I understand that nobody is going to be good at something the first time they try it, even SAS man probably killed his first couple of chickens badly when he started doing it at age 3 or whatever, but I was not massively excited at butchery amateur hour. The chickens in the cage had obviously just seen what had happened to their friend so understandably, they were not excited either. When I was in NZ I looked after a few chickens so I quite like them and I know a little bit about them. There was one thing I didn’t realise about chickens who know they are about to die though.

They scream.

Now I may have been projecting, but to me they sounded like people screaming and I really was not in any way prepared to listen to that, so I noped out of there pretty quick. I absented myself from the rest of the cooking part and came back to listen to the rest of the survival stuff. I talked to people about it afterwards and I don’t feel like I missed anything important.

I like to think that in general I am a pretty tough and resilient person, but I did have to spend a bit of time reflecting on that experience. I talked to one of the instructors who helped me see that there is nothing wrong in taking the time to explore feelings that you didn’t expect to have about something. I certainly didn’t anticipate having such a strong reaction and I think those little chickens taught me something important about myself, something I never expected to take away from this course. Heavy stuff for a light-hearted blogger.

Another night of zero sleep, howling wind and rain meant that after 5am reveille (LINGO), my 7am date with the assault course came after being awake for 50 hours. When I got up to walk to the loo I realised I felt drunk and I was weaving around, I also couldn’t see properly and had no depth perception. I’ve been awake for over 40 hours before when flying long-haul but all I had to do was move from plane to plane, not really achieve anything. When I told the Lieutenant-Colonel  how I was feeling he smiled and said; “Oh yeah, that’s exactly what sleep deprivation does to you” at least someone was enjoying themselves.

We were told the assault course was 800 meters away. That was a lie. People had fitbits, we totally checked, it was a long way away. Whatever, I thought, if I’m gonna go down here, I’m gonna go down fighting, (I guess all that camo was really rubbing off on me). Now the assault course was the first place where there was any shouting, apparently the PT instructors didn’t get the memo about being nice. I’m not going to lie, I was worn out after the warm up and then we had to run the length of the course so they could show us each exercise. The concept of a glacial pace is completely alien to the infantry.

Now this is a proper assault course that the proper infantry do and have to pass as part of their proper training. We were allowed to skip an exercise if we really felt we couldn’t do it but there wasn’t really anything you could do in a half-assed way. Go hard or go home (or go and wait next to the trucks with the injured people at least). I admit I was intimidated. I’m pretty fit but remember I couldn’t see properly, I felt rough as toast and as I said before the army don’t really accommodate little people. There were ladders with rungs so far apart that there was no way I could physically climb them without assistance because I simply didn’t have the leg span to do it. We also weren't in our sections but had been split into random smaller teams so I didn’t know all the people in my group that well.

With a huge amount of support from everyone in my group, I got through and I completed almost every obstacle. There was only one thing I didn’t do. It was a kind of fireman’s pole type thing that was at a 45 degree angle. I climbed the insanely wide rung-ed ladder up to it, I crossed the rope bridge over to it (no problem, I’m pretty good at rope bridges) I sat down to get my arms and legs on the pole. I was fine with my arms but I struggled to get my teeny little legs into the right position, I just about got my feet on there, just barely. I asked the instructor if that would be enough because I didn’t feel like I had a safe enough grip with my feet. He said I’d be fine as long as I kept them steady and kept my arms wrapped around the pole exactly as I had them. Now there are two of each exercise so there is always someone opposite you doing the same thing and at this point the guy opposite me fell from the same position I was in. He was perfectly fine but he screamed a lot and the sound of him hitting the ground was pretty nasty. I don’t think it was actually a bad fall but from where I was sitting it looked horrible. Back across the rope bridge, back down the ladder (my teammate having to climb back up to help me down). Know your limits. I carried on and completed every other obstacle.

I’ve completed assault courses before (I did PGL twice mate, I’m no slouch) but what I managed to achieve there was pretty impressive. I’m naturally pretty lazy, if I don’t want to do something, I don’t do it. The LC had said before that I’d be amazed at what my body could do if I just pushed it and he was right. I have no desire to go through that experience ever again, but I learned something very important about my endurance levels. I don’t actually surprise myself very often but I did there and I got a lot of praise for it that made me feel warm and fuzzy.

Back on the trucks, back to civilisation (well as civilised as IBS training centre gets, flushing toilets and running water) we hand our kit back and I’m cleaning my rifle and the LC said; “Do you feel like a rock star now?” I looked up at him and said; “At the tail end of a world tour that’s gone on 15 cities too long, worn out after too much coke and too many groupies, yeah maybe that kind of rock star”.

Coach back to Swindon, train back to London for the weekend. My bed has never been more welcome but that was a hell of an experience to have at work (and just think of all the flexi-time I accrued by never going to sleep!).

Week 2 was never going to quite match up to week 1 but it was still pretty cool. Lectures on days 1, 4 and 5 and a trip to a naval base on days 2 and 3. Now if you’re going to live in an officers’ mess, do it with the Royal Navy because those kids know how to live. The food was amazing, the apple crumble was VEGAN and DELIGHTFUL. We got to look around some ships and meet a lot of sailors, we got to see their training set up where they simulate a flood on a ship (HMS Chaos, because of course) and fires on ships, we got to see them train for ship to ship refuelling (If you’ve been watching the programme about the HMS Queen Elizabeth on BBC 2 recently, this is what they did during the hurricane in the second episode). We also got to hang out in the bar with a pretty fun group of naval officers (I low key fell in love with one for a minute but I quickly got over it).

Day 4 was all about the realities of war and we heard from a captain who almost lost his ship (The tagline of his presentation was: “NOBODY DIED”), a  woman who lost her partner in Iraq and from survivors of physical and mental injuries, it was heavy and hard to listen to at times, but important. Also, the chefs who made our lunch were bold enough to put ratatouille on a stick and I have to say that the ratatouille and aubergine skewers were top notch.

I can say without a doubt that this was the best work course I’ve ever been on. Despite what I said four paragraphs ago about the assault course, I’d do the whole two weeks again in a heartbeat (with the caveat of some sleep and no chickens in Brecon). I was pushed and I learned a lot and I feel incredibly blessed to have had this opportunity (This course runs twice a year and only certain people get to go on it, the majority of people on the leadership scheme I’m on will never get the chance to do it).

In the bar on the final night of the course one of the instructors told me he was proud of me. I’m not going to tell you exactly what he said. I doubt I’ll ever tell anyone because it was private and a little bit emotional and it might have made a teeny little crack in my cold, stone heart but I’ll share one bit of it (apologies for the language); “I know you felt like shit, but you put your fucking helmet on your head and walked over there and you smashed every single fucking obstacle on that assault course. Never let yourself believe that you can’t do anything”.

If you’ve read all the way through my longest ever blog post, good for you, you’re nearly as bad-ass as I am and remember, I’m the kind of bitch that can impress soldiers.

[scullz1013]

After a brief trip back home so that I could squeeze in 2 days of work, we continued the tour in Washington DC and Boston.

Washington DC was the same humid hellscape it becomes every summer. Since I’ve been to DC so many times and it was frankly, far too hot to move I didn’t do anything touristy but instead had a great time catching up with friends who I hadn’t seen in a while and pretty much ignoring everything that was going on for 4th July. (I have previously done 4th July in NYC, so I wasn’t being grinchy I just find fireworks in the summertime weird, it’s cold November rain or nothing for me).

From DC we travelled to Boston which was instantly more pleasant due to it’s lack of humidity and what better place to be on Independence Day weekend than the home of the Freedom Trail? It took us two days to complete the trail because we had to curtail our walk on the first day due to torrential rain but it was still a fascinating and fun experience. I loved looking at all the interesting buildings and bobbing in and out of the cemeteries where a lot of people who were important to the revolution and the signing of the Declaration of Independence are buried.

On our final day we took a tour of the Boston Public Library which has loads of interesting art as well as a stunning Venetian-looking central courtyard. We also did some more walking around on Newbury Street and visited Newbury comics which is apparently THE comic book shop if you are into comic book shops (They had a Fox Mulder magnet, so I was sold on it).

A bit of a whirlwind since we only spent a few days in each city but I loved Boston and would like to visit in the spring to see more (Ok fine I like DC too, just not in the summer).

[scullz1013]

It seems like my trip to Chicago was such a long time ago when really it was only at the end of June. As usual, life has got in the way of my blog posting, but here at last is the update you need.

Our first full day in Chicago was a show day where, as regular readers will know, very little actually happens. This show day was much like any other, catching up with friends, hanging about, various levels of ticket related tension and then a brilliant show at the end of it. (My review of both Chicago shows can be found here: https://www.altrevue.com/single-post/2019/07/01/Concert-Review---The-Rolling-Stones-Chicago-62119-and-62519 ).

The next day we headed over to Chess studios where countless famous blues artists from Chuck Berry to Nina Simone have recorded. The Stones recorded there too and there was a photo exhibit of their time at the studio. They do tours throughout the year and as it is one of the few preserved studios from the 1950s left in Chicago, it is well worth a visit for any music fan - I imagine you would also get a much smaller tour group when the Stones aren't in town.

We also went on the Loop today - it’s literally just the elevated part of the subway, but it runs really close to a number of the buildings downtown, so it’s a great way to get close to some of Chicago’s intricately detailed architecture. It’s only a short ride, but I enjoyed it so much I insisted on doing it twice.

On Sunday we checked out the American Writers Museum. It was right near where we were staying and I’d seen a poster for a Bob Dylan exhibit that I thought looked interesting. It was so good! Not just the Dylan exhibit which focused on his transition from acoustic to electric and was really nicely done but the whole museum. It’s not that big but it’s well thought out and packed with cool stuff from typewriters to an amazing “waterfall of words” installation.

After the museum we checked out Navy Pier because since I refused to go to the bean, we had to do something touristy. We enjoyed walking around until a rainstorm came and it’s always nice to be able to say you’ve done stuff like that.

The Chicago History Museum was the next day’s all encompassing activity. I managed to get a groupon for it which cut the cost of our entry in half. It’s a big museum with a big price tag, so this is worth doing if you want to visit. I was really impressed with the diversity of exhibits and the balance of family friendly and more in-depth displays. From dioramas (Americans love a diorama) to the bed Abraham Lincoln died in (macabre and nobody will convince me otherwise) we were totally engrossed and spent the entire day there.

The second show day meant that I was on my own if I wanted to do anything interesting so I decided to go to the African American History Museum. By pure happenstance it was a Tuesday and Tuesdays are free for everybody so I made sure to buy something from the gift shop. I learned a lot about the African American experience in Chicago including the all black regiment that served in the first world war and the first black mayor of the city. The museum also has a focus on art and since I don’t go to many art specific museums it was nice to check out some of the work of people local to Chicago.

On our final day in this awesome city we went to Pullman. Pullman was originally built as a planned town but has since been subsumed into the greater Chicago area. Much like Bournville or Saltaire in England, it was built by a factory owner to house his workers. The Pullman factory made luxurious rail cars and the name is still synonymous with rail travel today. Now one of America’s few urban National Parks (You’ll find another in Dayton, OH which you will have already read about in a previous post here) it was once recognised as the best town in the world. Although the criteria for this achievement wasn’t made clear and I’m not too sure of the legitimacy of the awarding body it was still a really interesting place to walk around. The houses are all privately owned now but it is still very much a living neighbourhood and the residents work hard to preserve its history. I also got a hella good falafel burger for lunch there and that’s a sign of quality if ever one existed.

I had a brilliant time in Chicago, even though I feel I barely scratched the surface of what the city has to offer. I hope to get back there and see more soon but for now on to somewhere I know very well, Washington DC.