In which there is a small pause in the rain

There has been far too long a gap between posting I must confess. And the reason for that is mostly rain. At some point in the year Britain has to live up to its stereotype and just rain for a couple of weeks. In fact these pictures were partly taken in the rain. It has been a very gloomy day and we popped down to the ruins in a spot of sunshine and by the time we arrived, raining once again. I'm still happy with these, even if you can tell that I'm a little damp!

I actually bought this dress several years ago, wore it for a while and then stopped after I wore it once and my husband noticed that a man was following us down the street and staring at my ass. I became very aware of how short it was and shoved it back. But you know what, everyone is wearing plaid which made me look at it again, and I'm not going to let creeps dictate my wardrobe so I thought I'd bring it back.

I went out to the pub last night and had a lovely conversation with someone until the point I bought up writing about feminism as a hobby. The guy responded to ask me 'what kind of feminist are you? A liberal feminist or a bra-burning, tree-hugging feminist'.  I ask what other time do you declare yourself in favour of equality and people feel they can respond with 'but how extreme are you?' I then deconstructed his question, challenging what on earth he thought those two things meant. It's a phenomena I see all the time, and have experienced in conversations with otherwise normal reasonable and even likeable people who say things like 'I don't like how angry lots of feminist are', or even going as far as saying 'they should moderate their views, be more about consensus'. What I hear behind those words is 'Please don't make me feel uncomfortable about my privilege'.

If I declared myself fighting for a right to water or for a fair justice system they wouldn't say, 'but I hope you don't take it seriously' 'I hope you're not one of those extreme people'. I find myself becoming more angry when I see how effectively the media, with its 'Do we really need feminism?' morning tv debates, has made people think that striving for equality is something we should always question whether it is necessary, and never take too seriously. And I refused to be conned into believing anger about injustice is something I should apologise for.

Getting a little bit wet here!

 

And ending with a picture of me running to get out of the rain.

Outfit details
Dress: Forever 21 (America)
Blazer: H&M
Hat: Charity shop find
Boots: Doc Martens
Scarf: Gift

In which there are my most beautiful games

I've made a lot of posts in the past about Playmobil and Lego, but what about the other toys I own.

Since Andy and I met we've loved playing board games together. We used to take our scrabble set down to the beach or play canasta on a picnic table at the caste when we were at university. We also had a few more of the unusual board games: Killer Bunnies and Order of the Stick, for example. As time went on we've collected more and more games. Then when we moved here we became part of a board games club, increasing our collection all the more as we were introduced to everyone else's favourites.

So we do have a lot of games now. In fact our game collection looks something like this:

The drawers have smaller games, and packs of cards. The Lego bricks have Magic the Gathering cards. Oh and the left bottom draw of the set? That's just full of dice! 

What I really love though about the wider world of gaming is the detail in some of the pieces available.There are the most gorgeous playing pieces, beautifully painted boards, unusually faced dice and well designed cards, even amazing storage boxes. So even setting the game out feels like working with art. In this post I'd like to show you my favourite games, in terms of the pieces themselves.

1. Quarriors

As you may be able to see here the box that the game comes in is a patterned tin that matches the design on one of the dice you can use in the game. It wins hands down for best packaging. Then you play the game using some cards (not shown), velvety dice bags, and a fantastic mix of unusual dice. It has beautiful texture. The game is competitive, involving collecting dice from a central pool. Dice can be monsters, spells or the money to buy more dice. You then use your dice to collect points towards winning. There's a nice amount of strategy in it, but it's not overly complicated either.

2. Elder Sign 

Elder Sign is a Lovecraftian inspired co-operative game. You play together to go through a bizarre museum, defeating monsters within and gathering the tools necessary to ultimately defeat the beast from the other world who is trying to devour you all. It comes with a LOT of pieces. There's a clock, little footprint clue tokens, interesting dice and a weird set of monsters. This is one of my favourites games. I like having something less competitive for a change and I love the artwork.

3. Twenty Fives

This is no Fantasy Flight or boardgamegeek game. It's from Past Times, a British shop that sells fake antiques and is on the way to going bust. Despite that, I've had this game since I was a kid and I love it. The game will be far more familiar to you under the title of Ludo. It is very much the same, with the difference being that you play with shells rather than dice. This allows for some unusual bonuses. You count how many upturned shells land for your move, but if all land flat down, no mouths showing you get to move twenty-five. The shells just feel lovely in your hand and make a nice clackety noise as they tumble.

4. Carcassonne

This game is a little more well known than the others and for a very good reason. It's fantastic. If there is anything here I would recommend freely, it would be this one. So much so it has been a Christmas present for many people! The pieces are intricately drawn and the wooden figures are solid and friendly. The gameplay involves drawing pieces randomly and fitting them together to form a map, claiming bits of castle, road and land with your tiny people. It's a competitive game, but not aggressive. The game encourages you to help each other, and the beauty of a finished map of Carcassonne makes it always chilled out.

5. Descent

This game is a cheeky addition as I have only played it once since getting it. The game is huge and heavy. You may get some idea by looking at the size of the box. I only got out a tiny selection of the pieces. It is very basically the game of Dungeons and Dragons (or any other dungeon crawl type game) played out without the role-playing aspect. You have tiny warriors who move through dungeons built out of jigsaw pieces. You roll dice to fight monsters. It is co-operative, except one person has to control the monsters. The game hasn't thrilled us as much but I think it calls for a large group. It does however, have a fantastic dragon piece.

Also, we got all but one of the games listed here for our wedding, so thank you guys! You know who you are. We love our collections and all the evenings of fun it gives us.
Do you play board games? Do you have any favourites I should know about? Do you also treasure pretty playing pieces?

In which there is much less noise here

 Lately London has been like a weight on my senses. It's so loud all the time, always sirens or children screaming or cars revving or that sound of fast trains that go by so suddently, it makes your heart pound in that one half-second you consider them coming off the tracks. I've been so overwhelmed by it lately I feel an urge to put my hands over my ears as I walk down the street. There's so much dirt and smells, and people. Always, so many people, and so much work to be done.

I realised that the last time I was in Yorkshire and in the real countryside was when I was getting married. Perhaps I am indeed romanticising it because of this association, perhaps I last saw Yorkshire at it's best and now London is looking at its worst. But I think not. I just need a break. On Sunday Andy and I went on a train a little bit further out from our home, not all the way north at all. Just the first bit of real countryside we get to. This enormous park has paths leading off it into the woods and we had a beautiful walk all around the fields and the trees for hours.

When we walked into the park I could feel my whole self relaxing, tension I didn't even know was there. The power of that is wonderful.

I still love London too, in it's own way. I love the view from Blackfriars train station, I love seeing sunset behind Tower Bridge. I love the way the Shard looms over and shines like a fantasy villain's tower. I love all the museums and being able to go to life drawing classes. But right now, I'd prefer sunset over the dales and only the trees to tower. In the meantime this trip to the park refreshed me, and I hope the pictures show that.

 

Outfit details
 Skirt: charity shop
Jumper & tights: H&M
Shoes: New Look
Necklace New Look

In which there is a little ode to Halloween

Uma Thurman as Medusa in The Lightening Thief. That's a costume to try.

I really love dressing up. I've always loved it. I've always chosen to host fancy dress parties at any excuse. I dressed up as a Native American at a 'Cowboy and Indian party' I had when I was eight (we were very friendly cowboys and Indians who liked climbing trees and playing pass the parcel together). And ten years later, my eighteenth was a huge costume party, and my twenty second was themed on 'things you'd find in a forest' (red riding hood, fairies, Big Bad wolf and Princess Mononoke were among the costumes), I have been to comic conventions in cosplay, but most of all I am always excited by Halloween. It's the time of year when d it is acceptable to get all dressed up, to make an effort, and to revel in it.

I thought I'd share a few Facebook snaps of me in costume from some past times at uni and such. Neither the pictures nor the costumes are all great quality, more snaps in the hallway on the way to the party! What you can see is my progression from first year university student to now: graduated three years ago and still loving to dress up.

And now? This Halloween? What's next?

A little while ago I funded a Kickstarter called Take Back Halloween. It was a response to the over-sexualisation they saw in a lot of Halloween costumes, meaning Halloween costumes for girls. There's a beautiful cartoon that illustrates this concept:




 Jillian Tamaki has an awesome webcomic at mutantmagic.com.

Personally, I quite like looking sexy and am not adverse to wanting to wear things that make me look good. What I also like though, is imagination in costume concept. The idea of the 'sexy broken doll' or the 'sexy Alice in Wonderland' is part of an idea that women always have to be conforming to a patriarchal beauty standard. It's also really boring. I want to do more like my Death outfit, more fully realised characters. Take Back Halloween offers surprising ideas for new, interesting character costumes for women. It also gives detailed advice on how to make them and where to buy the material's. It is also incredibly informative and fascinating. There are so many names on there that mean nothing to me, so many awesome women of history and legend that I've never learnt about, reminding me of just how much more there is to know. They fill in that gap by providing alongside the costume ideas, a mini-biography of that woman. So they are worth checking out, even if it is just to learn a little more about women who have been pirates and philosophers and genius nuns. The site isn't perfect and I find it lacks some of the scarier characters that might be fun to spook people with on Halloween, but it's definitely fun for ideas.

In the mean time these are my current favourites:

The Morrigan




Anne Bonny/Mary Read



Hypatia

So, do you love costumes? Do you dress up at Halloween? And if so, what are you doing this year?