Wollaton Park July 2017

My closest college friend and I visited Wollaton Park this afternoon. We arranged to visit there today since the weather forecast predicted a cloudy but otherwise dry day. Ha ha - no.

We were sat on a bench talking when a massive rainstorm was unleashed upon us; the two of us had to hide under a tree to prevent ourselves from being soaked, as I didn't have a raincoat on me and my friend's was barely enough to shield her from the water. It took about fifteen minutes for the rain to pass.

After that, we walked around the pond section of the park before heading to the village area, where we had to hide from a second rainstorm that materialised. We had a longer wait but it wasn't so bad since there was proper shelter rather than a tree, which dripped on us the wetter it became.

This is the first time since 2013 that I've had company while visiting Wollaton Park.

Cloudy Wollaton

I recently walked to Wollaton Hall from Nottingham's city centre. Looks a little different from what I'm used to:

The rain forced me to wait under a tree for over ten minutes while it passed over the vicinity. The Sun was out intermittently throughout the day.

The bottle

Usually when I'm out, such as at college or on my walks, I carry a bottle of water with me. The bottle that I've had for much of my course was destroyed during the half-term break. After I drained two smaller bottles during my recent Wollaton walk, I bought this:

It's a two-litre bottle of water, which is double the size of the two smaller bottles combined. Now, whenever I'm embarking on one of my long walks it will be more difficult for me to run out of water; I drained my original bottle on my most recent Hucknall hike.

And here is the bottle through the HDR filter of the Snapseed app.

Walk to Wallaton Hall

Remember this place?

It's Wollaton Park and in the distance is Wollaton Hall. Prior to yesterday, I last visited here in the summer of 2013, when I was with my Nottingham aunt, uncle and cousins. When I visited yesterday, I walked all the way there; it's not quite as far as Hucknall but it's still a worthy walk.

Wollaton Hall pictures

On the 20th of August, my Nottingham-based aunt, uncle and cousins, and I visited Wollaton Hall. Wollaton Hall, which is a country house built during the 1580s, was amongst the most local of the sites we travelled to last week, as the Hall is located within Nottingham. I do not have any pictures of the inside of the Hall; when I am unsure about any rules on photography I default to keeping my camera switched off.

A view of Wollaton Hall's front from a slight angle. While I've never seen it before, my aunt and uncle told me that the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises used Wollaton Hall in several scenes.

Another view looking up the front of the Hall, taken in somewhat of a more "artistic" manner than the previous.

A view of the front grounds from one of the Hall's windows. This picture does not contradict what I wrote earlier about not taking any pictures of the inside as the photo is of the outdoors.

A shot of the Hall over the lake. I, along with my aunt and one cousin, walked the entire path around the lake. It was a pleasant walk for me and my cousin but the horse-flies paid too much attention to my aunt!

The Hall again, this time from the lower grounds, near the entrance. We played a game of cricket and a little Frisbee on this part; my cricket performance had improved substantially when compared to game we had the day before at Rufford Park.

Which is your favourite picture? I consider it to be a close race between #3 and #4.

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.