The A-Z of me: part 2

Inspired by Splodz and The Urban Wanderer, I thought I’d put together a little A-Z of me. Part 1 covered A-M, so let’s crack on with N-Z!

Firstly though, I don’t think I introduced myself properly in part 1. Hi. This is me. I’m not as black and white in real life, and honestly, I’m more cheerful than I look. 🙂

N is for noodles and notebooks

I love noodles. The best place for noodles in Leeds is probably Fuji Hiro, a lovely little Japanese place tucked away at the side of the Merrion Centre which has been there for twenty years and serves fabulous noodles. And dumplings. Mmm, dumplings.

I also love notebooks, and have entirely too many. Half-filled with scribbles of ideas for blog posts and stories, or just plain lists. I do love a good list. My latest notebook is a Midori Traveler’s Notebook which is ace. And I had a go at making some notebooks – great fun!

O is for outdoors

Love the great outdoors. I help run a local Scout troop and we’ve had some great adventures over the years camping. Nothing better than to get the kettle on, campfire lit and a nice cup of tea going.

P is for photography

My twitter bio reads “Book reviewer, occasional writer, photographer, coffee-lover, cyclist, spoon carver and stationery geek.”

I like taking photos, of all sorts of things. The little things that people might miss, the big landscapes (more outdoorsy things). You can find some of my photos over on Flickr or Instagram. Come along and say hi.

One of my favourite quotes on photography is this:

Three step guide to photography: 01: be interesting. 02: find interesting people. 03: find interesting places. Nothing about cameras.

Clayton Cubitt

It’s really not about the camera. It’s about the person behind the lens (or, increasingly, the smartphone). You can give someone a £5,000 camera and they can take terrible photos. Or you can take something like this with a £40 point and shoot (and be in the right place at the right time)

I’ve also written more than a couple of blog posts about photography.

Q is for quiet

Ah, peace and quiet. An essential part of the day, and I get grouchy if I don’t get at least some time by myself during the day to recharge. And sometimes you get out in the woods on the bike and there’s no-one there but you, the trees and the wildlife and a nice flask of coffee. Bliss.

R is for running

I’ve recently taken up running again after a dozen years off. Inspired by friends who were doing Parkrun, I went along to the local one at Nostell Priory with my sister-in-law in August and ran/walked my way around the 5km course. Apparently this ‘couch to 5k’ programme isn’t ‘get off the couch and run 5k’. Note to self: do more research.

Finding a friend to run with has been a massive boost. My running buddy is also our former Scout Leader and we’ve known each other since the kids were tiny. We’re about the same age and run at roughly the same pace, and our midweek runs turn into a bit of a therapy session where we put the world to rights.

We’ve just entered a half marathon in April. Gulp. I’ve done some half marathons before, but I was considerably younger (and lighter!) Wish us luck…

S is for spoons

The eagle-eyed amongst you might have noticed the ‘spoon carver’ bit in my twitter bio which I mentioned in P, above.  A couple of years ago I spent a lovely day in the company of Dan, who taught me how to carve spoons.

T is for tea

Whilst I do love coffee, I probably drink at least twice as much tea. First rule of Scout Camp: if you see a leader without a cup of tea in their hand, they are clearly in need of tea.

Tea is brilliant.  But a nice hot mug of tea in the great outdoors which, and this is the important bit, someone else has made for you, is at least 25% more brilliant. True fact.

U is for UX

After many years and many careers, I’m currently employed as a UX Designer. What’s UX, I hear you cry? It stands for User Experience, and it’s our job to make sure that the things we make work well and meet the needs of the user.

One should be careful not to mix it up with UI (user interface). Whilst the UI is important, it is not the same as UX. We get quite cross about that.

V is for volunteering

Kind of covered under O for Outdoors, I volunteer with a local Scout troop. I started about 7 years ago as an adult helper, but eventually ended up with a uniform as assistant section leader and then ran the troop for a term or two. Back to being assistant, which suits me just fine!

W is for wild swimming

A fairly recent thing, but there’s nothing quite like finding a nice spot for a swim, be it in the sea at Whitley Bay (about 10 degrees, brrr) or in Llyn Padarn near Llanberis where the water was just *so* warm over the summer, or in a pool by a waterfall halfway up Snowdon.

X is for x-ray

Never had one. Never broken anything that I’m aware of!

Y is for YouTube

I love YouTube and spend entirely too long watching it. I love that you can learn how to do pretty much anything on there. Latest favourite is Brandon Farris.

Z is for Zardoz

From the very first moment I decided to do an A-Z of movies, I knew what my Z film would be.

Z is for Zardoz. 1974, and a mere 5.8 stars on IMDb.  John Boorman’s next movie from the utterly brilliant Deliverance.

I had no intention of reviewing this film. None whatsoever. Instead, I shall present you with a photo.

One which, once seen, cannot be unseen.

You have been warned.

Still reading?

I present Sean Connery as Zed. Burt Reynolds was first in line for the role, but he was ill. Apparently. Either that, or he didn’t fancy the nappy and the ponytail…

Any day in which you can show *that* photo to someone who hasn’t seen it is a good day in my book. 🙂

So that’s part 2 of the A-Z of me. Don’t forget to check out part 1!