Nottingham activities pictures

On the 21st of August, my aunt, uncle and one cousin engaged in "indoor" activities for much of the day: we bowled in the morning and went to the cinema in the afternoon. In our two bowling games, my uncle convincingly won the first while I narrowly won the second, bringing me my first-ever bowling victory; while we weren't playing competitively, it did feel good to win at bowling for the first time! I took this day's pictures in the evening:

This is sand. In the centre of Nottingham, a city nowhere near the ocean. What was it doing in Nottingham, then?

The sand in Nottingham comes from the Nottingham Riviera 2013, colloquially known as "The Beach". It brings a beach experience to the Nottingham city centre during the summer and features a selection of activities, such as rides, games and places to eat. According to the Riviera's website, it was launched in 2009 and has been a success.

My aunt, cousin and I all rode the Pirate Ship. It's a pendulum ride, which gradually increased in speed and height until it reached its peak and then slowed down again. We were concerned about a little girl seated unaccompanied behind us on the ride but she turned out to be just fine (her mother was watching her).

 

I had to include a picture of the Nottingham Council House: I love this sunset picture of the building.

More about the brain, finances, lasers, and bowling...and also the piano

Going back briefly for this post, in the late evening of August 6th, the day we returned to Stratford-upon-Avon, the boyfriend of one of my cousins arrived at my grandparents' house. He had been invited to come up and join my cousin/his girlfriend in visiting my family; neither my brother nor I had a problem with this because it meant meeting a new person.

Now onto the 7th of August. This day was different from every other day in the week because the morning consisted of a lesson covering some aspects of the brain (a few months ago my grandfather provided several members of the family with a DVD course on improving memory and keeping the brain healthy), followed by a lesson and debate over finances. To sum up both topics, the main point of the first lesson was about keeping our brains exercised and not letting them degrade through inactivity, while the second was about the lack of knowledge numerous people have about money - from banks to renting or buying a house. I thought we all had a very worthwhile morning.

Our afternoon activities were also indoor events, as the sudden rain disrupted the schedule. Instead of visiting a place called Wollaton Hall we went to the tenpin bowling/entertainment facility from last year's trip. The first game we played there was a laser tag shootout, with me and my brother appointed by our uncle as the captains of our respective teams; it became up to us to choose the rest of our teams from our group, and with five members out of nine my brother's team ended up with a numerical advantage. Worse yet for my team, my uncle's laser didn't work (although he only became aware of that in the second game), rendering him nothing more than a target and making the game five versus three. Needless to say, my team was defeated twice - narrowly on the first game and handily on the second - with the majority of our hits against our opponents coming from my cousin's boyfriend being on my side, as he turned out to be the best player overall by a wide margin. At the end of the day it didn't really matter who won: it was all good fun and there were plenty of laughs all around, and that is what's most important.

The running and laughing from the laser games had made us hot and sweaty, so we had a rest and some drinks before heading off to the bowling alleys. Most of us were running fairly even in our scores during the bowling, although my brother, aunt, uncle, and cousin's boyfriend were all the best; my aunt beat my uncle by one point in the first round and then defeated my brother by four in the second - as she was on my brother's team during the laser games she was the only person to win in both events. I did not pass one hundred points in either of the two rounds of bowling, and much to my chagrin I caused a foul by throwing my ball too early on one go and it hit the barrier; worse yet, the ball had stopped, and when I rolled the ball on my subsequent both balls went into the gutter and ended up jamming the barrier. Fortunately, someone quickly remedied the problem, and as with the laser games it was all fun.

We had pizza for dinner when we went to my aunt and uncle's house later on in the day. After the meal my brother, cousins, and my cousin's boyfriend all went to watch a film while my aunt gave me a lesson on learning to play to piano. She told me that within three-quarters of an hour I had learnt more on how to play than she did in five lessons! By the end of the lesson I knew middle D, middle C, and middle B, and I do have an interest in learning how to completely play the piano, although I'm not sure how feasible that is at the moment. I'll have to see what happens.

When the film was finished we returned to my grandparents' house; we were exhausted, but there was a positive atmosphere and we eagerly awaited the next day.

August 31st

I am amazed at how fast August appears to have gone, for in a few hours it will be September. Still, I should not be surprised as it has been an active and exciting month, with the trip to Nottingham and all that: to think that a mere three weeks ago we were bowling, and four weeks ago I had beaten my brother in an incredibly close game of Run Off.

Summer is not quite over, but it feels like it came and went ages ago: the majority of our really warm weather took place back in spring, and summer's weather has mainly been what we are used to from about this time of the year to October (cloudy, rainy, and/or windy). Last winter was very cold even by British standards, so I am curious to see just how cold this winter will be too, but before then, we now have autumn to look forward to after this fall-like summer.

Oh, a little off-topic, but remember the rafting trip I mentioned a couple of months ago? I checked, and that adventure took place exactly eight years ago to the date.

More about cinema and bowling

I do not have any images or videos to post of the 10th of August, as all of our activities that day were indoors and any pictures that I did take all contain family members, but I do have a little more to write about the day.

For starters, the people who went out for the day were my brother and I, my older cousin from yesterday (he is the eldest, in fact), only one of my younger cousins, and our friend. Originally, the plan was for all of us to go into main areas of Nottingham and spend the day there, but we decided not to because of concerns over rioting. We went to the cinema instead to see a film called Mr. Popper's Penguins.

While Mr. Popper's Penguins was not a film I had heard of before the day began, nor was it the type of film I normally have been to the cinema to see, I thought it was a funny movie and I liked it. The cast was decent: all the Jim Carrey films I have seen so far have been good, and this was no exception; Carla Gugino is always nice to see, and long-term actress Angela Lansbury added to the charm of the film as well. I did a bit of research later on, and it turns out that the movie is based on the children's book Mr. Popper's Penguins published in 1938.

We went to Nando's for lunch after the film (the second time we went there that week), and chatted about various matters there during our meal before we went back to my aunt and uncle's house for a couple of hours (we had a ride to the cinema, and a ride back), as my eldest cousin had a driving lesson. At about 5:00, well after his lesson was complete, the five of us who were out before, plus my other older cousin, all went out to bowling.

Bowling is something that neither my brother nor I had done before, but as I wrote in the first post about this day, in the two games we played I came in fourth and then third while my brother won the first and tied in the second. What was best about all our scores was that they were all fairly close (except for my brother's in the first game, when he handily defeated everyone), with less than twenty points in margin between the highest and lowest. However, the highlight of the evening was when my brother, who had been bowling with his right hand the whole time, scored a strike with his right hand and then on his next turn hit another strike using his left hand as well. Unfortunately, no one got a picture or video of his achievement, but we can all vouch that he did it!

On the way back to my aunt and uncle's after bowling we had to drop our friend off at her house. It actually occurred to me at that moment that she did have her own home to go back to: as we had spent so much time with her the last few days, she really felt like a member of the family now! We would see her again on Friday, though.

The rest of the evening was spent at my aunt and uncle's house. My aunt cooked a wonderful spaghetti meal for dinner, and my brother and I returned to my grandparents' house afterwards. As I said in the first post about this day, it was slower paced, but still exciting.

Cinema and bowling

We were planning to go into Nottingham to look around the shops, but we did not since several of the stores were closed due to the riots here in the United Kingdom. Instead, we went to the cinema to see Mr. Popper's Penguins (this was a funny film), had lunch out, and later went bowling. Despite it being me and my brother's first time at bowling, my brother beat us all in the first round and tied in first with our oldest cousin for the second while I came in fourth and third respectively.

As we spent most of the day indoors, we were glad the weather was mainly wet and windy, so at least we did not miss any sunshine. Today was definitely slower paced than the last few days, but it was no less exciting!