All the things I have been doing instead of writing this blog

I seem to experience life as a series of distinct phases - identifiable blocks of time which enclose a certain set of emotions, places or events.

Some of these phases are easy to pick out, marked by a distinct boundary such as the time spent living in another country, or perhaps bordered by the limits of a relationship. Others are murkier - with lines blurred between multiple events or a slightly messy emotional landscape. I am currently in a period resembling the latter - opaque around the edges and unsure of its direction or locality.

I have been remarkably absent from this blog since May. Not for a lack of trying, but every time I sit down to write, I encounter the creeping sense that I have nothing important/interesting to say about anything, even myself - which is after all the subject I know best! It's also hard to describe what's going on with your life or how you perceive the world when you yourself are unsure. 

So yeah, welcome to Bethan in her the late twenties crisis. Two years on from finally getting her shit together from the early/mid twenties wtf period, she's back asking the big questions: Who am I? What am I doing? Why am I here? What the hell does this all mean?

Outside of sitting down and staring at an empty screen as if I were in an existentialist melodrama, my life has actually been reasonably full of interesting things. 

Two weeks in the oven that is Paris

The view from the top of Notre Dame

Back in June I spent two weeks in Paris, working for the first seven days, then generally being a tourist for the remainder. Paris, like the UK, was absurdly hot for the most part, peaking at 35 degrees for a good few days. (I genuinely forgot what not being sweaty 24/7 felt like).

I'm quite lucky in that my work only really requires access to a computer and a reasonably good internet connection, however I am admittedly a people person and do very much enjoy being in the office. It was a bit of a shock to be flying solo for a week, relying on chat and video calls, even if that week was spent in Parisian cafes and co-working spaces. 

Alongside work, I tried to fit in as much sightseeing as possible - including Versailles, The Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, Café de Flore, the Centre Pompidou, Notre Dame and many, many boulangeries/patisseries. Unfortunately I didn't make it to Disneyland Paris in the end, so that's my excuse sorted to head back in the very near future.

Not that you really need an excuse to visit Paris - a city that remains so gorgeously in a state of decay and yet also defiantly youthful. 

Trying to buy a house

The second feature of my last few months has been the decision to get on the property ladder here in York. Let's just say Rightmove and I have become pretty good friends every evening...

Because I'm fussy and *very* protective over my ability to walk home after a night out, I'm ideally looking for something in a pretty limited geographical area. York is also quite expensive... but I'm hoping I'll end up in a nice two up, two down terrace near enough the city centre. 

It's going to be a bit of shock flying solo for a while after 27 years of living at home or in various house sharing situations. I'm am super excited to decorate though and do a massive IKEA/Reclamation yard haul (I've already picked out about 90% of my furniture.) 

Upping my speaking game

After getting a diversity scholarship to speak at UpFront 2017, I made a promise to myself to try and pursue further speaking opportunities. 

I really do think one of the best things you can do to build resilience is to try and do things that scare the shit out of you, ideally as often as possible. Whilst I'm not a wholly unconfident person, I do suffer from pretty bad stage fright (sweaty palms, palpitations etc.) 

A couple of months ago I responded to the call for speakers for Dot York, York's digital conference. I actually submitted to speak as part of the "Survival" category - with the aim of sharing something meaningful about how we can ensure the survival of the planet through ensuring we have a positive impact - basically taking everything I've learnt from Bright Ethics and packaging that into a compelling argument for action.

I'm happy to say that my submission was chosen and I will be speaking at the conference in October, which should give me plenty of time to work on my talk and delivery style.

Peach

As we have our first gig in over a year on the 24th July (a fundraiser at York Fringe for the Lord Mayor's charities - tickets available here *cough* *cough*), I've been working on some more material for Peach!

Check out the demo below for our latest track:

Sunday Summation 22: The 🔥 May Bank Holiday Edition

I'm admittedly writing this on Bank Holiday Monday, but it's still technically the weekend so I'm gonna roll with it and give you a breakdown of our weekend so far.

As you *may* have noticed, it's unusually warm at the moment here in the UK, I like to think this is payback for the fact that winter lasted for 6 months (give or take). 

Provenance aside, I'm making the most of this weather. Because before you know it, we'll be back to grey skies and drizzle...

1. Spark York Opening

On Friday night we headed to the opening of Spark York - a brand new and extremely exciting addition to the city! 

The project, focused around a box park development of shipping containers, includes a community of small independent businesses including street food, bars, retail, co-working and entertainment.

The general public's reception to the project has been somewhat mixed, with some objecting to the aesthetic of the shipping containers etc. etc. general nay-sayery. 

The buzzing atmosphere on Friday was undoubtedly a testament to how badly this city has needed something new and innovative. I'm super excited to make Spark a permanent fixture in my weekend plans, as I *need* to work my way through all the bars and street food stands...

2. Supporting other new local businesses

After an evening of drinks at the Spark York opening on Friday, we spent Saturday pottering about York.

I was very keen to visit two new businesses that I had come across on social media - Botanic and Pinder and Scott.

Taking over the Shamble's much loved bakery, Via Vecchia, Pinder and Scott has revamped the old premises and added even more baked good and sundries to the range! We came away with a beautiful olive focaccia - my staple Via Vecchia purchase since my student days. 

After loading up on bread, we then wandered down Fossgate/Walmgate to Botanic, a beautiful plant themed shop on Walmgate in the former paper shop. I ended up coming away with three gorgeous plants/succulents which I'm now doing my best not to murder...

Hot and sweaty train faces

3. Cycling the Solar System

Having lived in York for almost 8 years, I have never actually done the famous solar system cycle, which takes you from Fulford down to Riccall along a disused railway line

A scale model of the Solar System is spread out along the 6.4 miles, which includes models of all the planets and models of the Cassini and Voyager spacecraft.

We decided to extend the route and head all the way down to Selby, where we grabbed some lunch and took a quick turn round Selby Abbey to escape the heat. 

As we had done about 16 miles from York -> Selby, we decided to hop on the train back to York, with the promise that next time we would do the full round trip.

4. Letting Winnie Free

Winnie joined the house back in January from York RSPCA, where she had been bought as a stray. As an older lady, we weren't initially sure whether she would want to go outside, perhaps preferring a more sedate life as a house cat.

Due to her advancing years (13) we were also expecting her to be pretty lazy... rather on the contrary she has been full of beans from day one - literally waking us up in the middle of every night to play. 

After a couple of months of appalling weather, we decided that now was the time to give her free reign of the garden and beyond. So far she hasn't ventured more than a couple of gardens away, so I'm hoping that means she likes us and wants to stay at least a little bit!

Sunday Summation 21: Coastal adventures, London and Stargazing

It seems that all of my good intentions have not manifested into a steady stream of blog posts. 

I must admit that my creative energy has been focused elsewhere recently - The Guild, Bright Ethics, my Google Squared Course, another business project and work on a longer form piece of writing. I'm not sure if this will take the form of a short story or if there's material enough for a novella, all I know is that I'm 4000 words deep into a project that *feels* deeply satisfying.

As a child with a bedroom next to my father's study, I used to hear him tapping away at his computer late into the night. I used to wonder why he spent so long at work, didn't he want to play computer games, read or go to bed? As an adult it has become clear that I have inherited the same sense of compulsion when it comes to work - a bored Bethan is a sad Bethan. 

1. Roadtrips to the coast

Last weekend I picked up a new car, replacing the old hunk of metal which has been my travelling partner since I was 19. 

After a serious period of deliberation over whether I should indeed get another car, as opposed to simply relying on pedal power, I made the somewhat non-eco friendly choice to invest in another set of wheels. As someone with a long term chronic pain condition, a vehicle gives me freedom on the days where I simply cannot use human powered transportation. Needless to say, I have gone for the most eco-friendly option in my price range (an electric car will be the next step in a few years.)

Having lived with a less than reliable car for over a year now, Des and I took the first opportunity to test our new set of wheels as part of a longer range journey. The drive over to Whitby certainly put the new motor to the test, especially on the steep ascents which transport you onto the North Yorkshire Moors plateau. 

Once safely in Whitby we took a short stroll along the pier, arm in arm, headfirst into the cold breeze. This was followed by an obligatory visit to The Magpie Cafe for fish and chips which we then ate back on the pier, vigilantly watching out for seagull raids.

With a couple of hours of winter sunlight left we ascended the steps up towards Whitby Abbey, a place I visited first on a school trip when I was around 7 or 8 years old. 

Whilst up on the clifftop I had a moment of "oh shit, I'm so much older but this place has barely changed and will be here probably for hundreds of years after I'm dead." The only reasonable action after this revelation was to seek warmth and a hot drink in the nearby Youth Hostel (conversely the place I stayed during said school trip). 

2. Sister Reunion in London

Apologies for the slightly grainy photo on this one - I had limited choices!

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be in London for work and managed to meet up with my extremely talented sister, Catrin (she's in a band and is way cooler than me). 

We had a great catch up over pizza and even managed to get into an argument with four men over Donald Trump (not the best pick up chat...).

3. Staring at the stars

When he was younger, one of Des' hobbies outside of music was amateur astronomy. 

He still has most of the gear hidden away in our garage and come a clear night, is known to get everything out for a spot of star gazing. 

Despite being bitterly cold, the recent crisp winter evenings have provided the perfect setting for looking at the heavens. Using our very loved Cannon D2300, Des managed to rig up a pretty decent photography setup, which we used to capture an image of the Orion Nebula above.

The light pollution where we live is pretty heavy, so the images aren't as detailed as they could be.

4. Friday routine

Des is currently working from York City Centre on Fridays' - which has become the perfect excuse to head into the city and meet in the early evening for an end of week celebration.

Our current unwinding routine starts at Parings Wine Bar, where we held our engagement party last year. This can involve both wine and food - both of which are excellent. Last Friday we indulged in the Deli Platter pictured above.

5. First class hacks

My colleague tipped me off about Seatfrog whilst we were in London and both facing a mid-evening train back to York after a long day. 

The app essentially allows users to bid on selected first class seats before departure, starting from £5. Whilst the auction process is not completely transparent, I did manage to bag a first class upgrade from Kings Cross to York for £14, which was well worth it for the lounge access and wifi on the train. 

Currently it seems that the service is only running on Virgin East Coast, however the website does indicate that they have plans to expand in the near future!

6. Great Medium articles

My love for blogging platform Medium is ongoing. Here are a few of the excellent articles I have read over the past few weeks:

50 Things You Probably Forgot To Design

Find a way to do more for others than anyone else is doing: A 9-min Guide to Winning at Customer Retention

63 Best Digital Marketing Tools You Should Know About in 2018

7. Song of the week

Just because. 

That's all folks! Speak this coming week (I promise)

Sunday Summation 20: The post Christmas catch up

So, time for some weekly reflection. 

It's been quite a while since my last post of this nature, so I'm not too sure where I last left you - probably sometime back in deepest darkest 2017. 

I'm slightly late with this week's Sunday Summation as I spent most of Sunday evening trying to come to terms with the fact that my two week holiday was well and truly over.

Despite my body clock resetting itself back to my university routine (bed at 2am, wake up at 11am), I actually managed to have an activity filled festive break, the highlights of which did not include multiple trips up and down the M1 and M62. 

Some things have changed for the New Year, others have stayed the same, so I thought I would use this week's round up to recap a couple of events/bits of news from the last few months (as opposed to a scintillating overview of my past week spent in PJs watching Mad Men).

Saying goodbye to Nancy

In November we sadly said goodbye to our much loved cat Nancy. 

As an old lady with multiple health issues, she had surpassed all expectations in living well into old age. In mid November it became clear that her back legs were failing fast due to a spinal tumour or cyst (the vet was unsure of the exact diagnosis, but sure that it would be fatal either way). This was severely impacting her quality of life and in all likelihood was rather painful, so we decided to let her go peacefully.

Almost two months on, I'm still surprised at my grief. Whilst she was not a child, a close friend or family member, she was part of our family. 

A winter trip to Budapest

I suspect I may elaborate on my experiences in a longer post as there's a lot to say about this city. 

In mid December we set off from Manchester airport on my Birthday for four days in Hungary's capital city, staying in the luxurious and central Hotel Prtestige Budapest.

Most of our trip was spent exploring the city on foot, on one day I clocked up over 26,000 steps as we carved out a trail along the river and through festively lit streets. 

The highlight for me had to be the river cruise we took along the Danube late one afternoon which included a glass of fizz and a stop off at Margaret island. 

Making more Peach

In the past I have described Peach as the "creative vehicle" which Des and I use to make music together, but that sounds a bit wanky. Basically it's the name under which we post our various jams and musical experiments, some good, some less than mediocre. 

Being cooped up together in inclement weather over Christmas provided a prime opportunity to work on a couple of new tracks, including the one below. (Apologies for my sub-par vocals, I'm definitely out of practice).

Getting back on the bike

After falling out of love with cycling in 2017, I have decided that this year will be the year of the bike.

My car is essentially dying a slow but certain death, so at some point I'm going to have to decide whether to get another one, or try and go without.

I'm lucky to live a few miles away from my work and am also only a 7 minute cycle from York city centre and the railway station. My favourable location, coupled with the cost savings and undesirable environmental impact of car ownership, are good reasons to err on the side of no car. Plus the feeling of cycling right past stationary traffic is like no other...

In order to test my hypothesis, I've decided to try going for one month without a car whilst I still have one, just to confirm to myself that it is indeed easy, cheap and good for my health. 

One of my biggest obstacles to cycling everywhere is mainly concerns over safety (I am lucky to be in reasonably good shape so the fitness aspect should be OK).

To make sure I'm doing everything I can to protect myself, I've invested in a new top quality helmet and some extremely good high vis clothing - opting for this impressively luminous and lightweight gilet. 

If you're a fellow cyclist on the streets of York, do say hi!

Film Review: Blade Runner 2049

I've never done a film review here on the blog before, but to hell with it!

There's a first time for everything and upon thinking about what I REALLY wanted to write about this week, Blade Runner 2049 came very high up on my list.

Because tl;dr - I think you should go and watch it, whatever genre/s you're into. 

This is why...

Remakes and sequels are big business in Hollywood at the moment, with the results ranging from the good (Logan), to the reasonable (Alien Covenant) and the awful (Godzilla, holy hell that film sucked).

One could argue that from the outside, it looks like Tinseltown has run out of original ideas. In fact, when I think about the trailers we watched before the move, not one was based upon new intellectual property. 

In a world which is facing turbulent and unknown times, perhaps nostalgia is a valid and desperately sought escape. We all can retreat back into our childhoods and immerse ourselves in cultural artefacts associated with memories from a better time.

(This may explain my constant replaying of Usher's "Yeah", or maybe that's just my poor music taste.)

It comes as no surprise that one of the most iconic movies of the 1980s, Blade Runner, has been subjected to the sequel treatment, resulting in Blade Runner 2049. 

As someone who loves Sci-Fi, futurism in fiction and the novels of Phillip K. Dick (Blade Runner is a loose adaptation of his novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?") Blade Runner and its sequel are undoubtedly right up my street. 

(Very minor spoiler alerts from here)

To surmise: Blade Runner 2049 is set thirty years after the events of the original film, in a world still wrestling with the presence of replicants (bio-engineered androids to you and me). It will be no surprise to learn that Harrison Ford returns once again as Rick Deckard, the "Blade Runner" who hunted down replicants in the original film.

To be honest that's as much of a plot overview as I'm really going to give you. The only thing I will say is that the narrative arc is satisfactory (on the whole) and well paced; with moments of extreme tension and dread. 

The thing I really want to talk about is the visual and oral landscapes depicted in the film. I bet that isn't a phrase you expected to read on a Lifestyle Blog!

But bear with me, because I really do believe that a film is more than the story - it is about full composition of the world in which you, the viewer, are invited to enter.

I seriously enjoyed the soundtrack from the start, especially as it heavily riffs off the original (think 80's synths), yet also has a distinct individuality, complimenting the visuals of the film perfectly. They have also managed to make that 80's synth vibe sound modern and fresh, a technical feat which is pretty damn impressive. 

Visually the film is also a triumph.

Not once do you see the the orb of the sun.

For this is a world which has undergone an extreme ecological catastrophe, resulting in a carpet of fog, rain and pollution that seems to cover the entire West Coast of America. I found this quite oppressive, as the murkiness coupled with the depictions of the cramped urban sprawl of a future LA combined to depict a plausible apocalyptic vision of the future. All life, apart from that of humanity, has been scraped off the earth.

These imagined landscapes are portrayed beautifully throughout the film. It would be gripping even without the audio. There's one scene shot in an office with a moving light-source which is just out of this world - I've never seen anything like it.

The film also makes amazing use of the new face-mapping technologies in a way which far surpasses last year's Rogue One. It's worth watching for this alone in my opinion.

Ryan Gosling's performance is solid. To be honest I've never really rated him as an actor, but he has the charisma to carry off the ambiguous emotional landscape of his character in this film. Plus he has an amazing jacket, even better than in Drive, which I'm sure which inspire many high-street versions.

As a social critique the film lives up to its predecessor's promise, exploring ideas of humanity, environmental catastrophie and the nth stage of neoliberal capitalism. A world in which people can be owned at the genetic level. A world in which the rich are literally on another planet.

Basically what I'm trying to say here is go and see this film. You will not be disappointed by the narrative or visual impression.

It is an ambitious vision for a society which may come to suffer under its ambition.