{"id":71,"date":"2009-01-04T23:11:42","date_gmt":"2009-01-04T22:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aimee.mychores.co.uk\/?p=396"},"modified":"2009-01-04T23:11:42","modified_gmt":"2009-01-04T22:11:42","slug":"holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/2009\/01\/holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"Holidays!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So my epic holiday is nearly over &#8230; i go back to work tomorrow after more than 3 weeks away. I actually can&#8217;t wait to get back! I so enjoy the work that i do, and i appreciate the structure of knowing what is going to happen each day.<\/p>\n<p>Here is my holiday summary:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A few days at home relaxing and getting ready<\/li>\n<li>Four days in Germany<\/li>\n<li>A week in De Panne, on the North coast of Belgium over Christmas<\/li>\n<li>Back home and time with family and friends<\/li>\n<li>Dealing with horrible damp mouldy walls that got really bad when we were away<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For more details and photographs, read on &#8230; but beware of the mould pictures if they might squick you out!<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-396\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Germany was great. We visited a few Christmas markets and visited a friend in K\u00f6ln. Shamefully i forgot to take any photos.<\/p>\n<p>We had a good time in Belgium, nice and relaxing. We were by the beach near the border with France. Here is an enormous beach in Bray Dunes, France.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sermoa\/3142811329\/\" title=\"Miles of expansive beach by sermoa, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3101\/3142811329_882fc2a374.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Miles of expansive beach\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I was intrigued by the way the tide had washed the sand over these shells:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sermoa\/3142811331\/\" title=\"Pretty shells by sermoa, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3098\/3142811331_89d83cdd3b.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Pretty shells\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On Christmas Day we took a trip to the beach of De Panne. A lot of other people had the same idea! It was cold and the sea was quite choppy, but we had a nice cup of coffee!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sermoa\/3143655786\/\" title=\"Waves by sermoa, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3207\/3143655786_69817ef1fd.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Waves\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I really liked this peaceful-looking statue gazing out into the distance.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sermoa\/3143655792\/\" title=\"Looking out to see by sermoa, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3128\/3143655792_fb18e3136a.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Looking out to see\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We had very clear skies, and the flat land offered us some amazing sunsets.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sermoa\/3143699236\/\" title=\"Sun on its way out by sermoa, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3215\/3143699236_f8f83fef40.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Sun on its way out\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I was lucky enough to get a good shot of Jupiter shortly after sunset.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sermoa\/3143714722\/\" title=\"Jupiter in the sunset glow by sermoa, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3116\/3143714722_e9de8a2526.jpg\" width=\"375\" height=\"500\" alt=\"Jupiter in the sunset glow\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On the day we left we also had a very beautiful sunrise.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sermoa\/3150462531\/\" title=\"It's going to be a nice day by sermoa, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3265\/3150462531_88d71312eb.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"It's going to be a nice day\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The day we came home, my lovely <a href=\"http:\/\/mickeyfelix.livejournal.com\/\">Felix<\/a> phoned to ask to stay the night. We were tired, but happy to oblige, and we had a lovely couple of days. A lot of my family were in the area; my dad, step-mum and Felix came to my church last Sunday and they enjoyed it. After that we went to my grandparents&#8217; house where i think about 20 family members had gathered together! It was fantastic to catch up with everybody, some of whom i had not seen for 8 years!<\/p>\n<p>My sweet little brother also came round to visit us the next day, and we spent an hour or two looking at family trees and genes reunited. It was lovely.<\/p>\n<p>We also had our good friend <a href=\"http:\/\/goodarcher.livejournal.com\/\">Goodarcher<\/a> to stay for a couple of days. We always like to joke that we&#8217;re having a bi meetup every time we get together, but this time we decided to make it official and we formed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biwessex.tk\/\">Bi Wessex<\/a>. We had our first social event in the local pub, set up the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/group.php?gid=52561839788\">Facebook group<\/a> and ordered some Moo cards to publicise! I look forward to seeing what becomes of this! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p><strong>Warning: icky pictures follow. Look away now if you don&#8217;t want to see!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately the down-side to being away for 11 days was that the flat got very cold and damp. We came back to discover our mould problem had become horribly worse. The clean-up was nasty and depressing, and took me a long time, not because it was actually time consuming, but because it squicks me out so much that i procrastinate and need to take frequent breaks. I feel good for having done it though, of course. Some before\/after pictures.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sermoa\/3166685786\/\" title=\"Before by sermoa, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3265\/3166685786_8189aaf7cd_m.jpg\" width=\"180\" height=\"240\" alt=\"Before\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sermoa\/3166685790\/\" title=\"After by sermoa, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3255\/3166685790_f96a1f7853_m.jpg\" width=\"180\" height=\"240\" alt=\"After\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sermoa\/3165863017\/\" title=\"Before by sermoa, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3075\/3165863017_5f2f39d700_m.jpg\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" alt=\"Before\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sermoa\/3165863025\/\" title=\"After by sermoa, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1146\/3165863025_6a06a414aa_m.jpg\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" alt=\"After\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sermoa\/3166701600\/\" title=\"Before by sermoa, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1123\/3166701600_40be164f4a_m.jpg\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" alt=\"Before\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sermoa\/3166701602\/\" title=\"After by sermoa, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1071\/3166701602_7983be1846_m.jpg\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" alt=\"After\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The study\/spare rom was even worse. The wallpaper was saturated &#8211; when i looked closely there were droplets on the wall.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sermoa\/3167243815\/\" title=\"Water drops dripping down the wall by sermoa, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1395\/3167243815_8b8d4b6450.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Water drops dripping down the wall\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I tried to dry the wall but the wallpaper just came away in my hands. And there was more mould behind the wallpaper. I thought it was caused by condensation, but now i think it must be coming in through the outside walls.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, i have done my very best to clean up the visible mould, but i know it will come back. We are currently rearranging all our furniture to be as far as possible from the outside walls. Ideally we need better heaters, a dehumidifier, an extractor fan in the kitchen, and the whole flat redecorated with waterproof, anti-fungal paint. Oh, and cavity insulation, then we&#8217;d be nice and toasty! Ah, i can but dream &#8230;! Let&#8217;s hope the house prices keep on falling and maybe we&#8217;ll be able to buy our own place.<\/p>\n<p>Posted in astronomy, bisexual, family, friends, holiday, home, photos  <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/gocomments\/sermoa.wordpress.com\/396\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/comments\/sermoa.wordpress.com\/396\/\" \/><\/a> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/pixel.wp.com\/b.gif?host=sermoa.wordpress.com&#038;blog=18513183&#038;%23038;post=396&#038;%23038;subd=sermoa&#038;%23038;ref=&#038;%23038;feed=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So my epic holiday is nearly over &hellip; i go back to work tomorrow after more than 3 weeks away. I actually can&rsquo;t wait to get back! I so enjoy the work that i do, and i appreciate the structure &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/sermoa.wordpress.com\/2009\/01\/04\/holidays-3\/\">Continue reading <span>&rarr;<\/span><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/pixel.wp.com\/b.gif?host=sermoa.wordpress.com&amp;blog=18513183&amp;post=396&amp;subd=sermoa&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,9,101,95,96,102,103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-astronomy","category-bisexual","category-family","category-friends","category-holiday","category-home","category-photos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9338,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions\/9338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}