<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><rss xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/" xmlns:blogger="http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008" xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" version="2.0"><channel><atom:id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857</atom:id><lastBuildDate>Wed, 06 Nov 2024 02:51:53 +0000</lastBuildDate><category>weight loss</category><category>4am Project</category><category>my mum</category><category>talk about local</category><category>best friend</category><category>social media</category><category>running</category><category>weight loss goal</category><category>London</category><category>birmingham social media cafe</category><category>video</category><category>press trip</category><category>hula hooping birmingham</category><category>public speaking</category><category>social 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museum</category><category>vip</category><category>visit birmingham</category><category>wales tourism</category><category>warwick</category><category>water</category><category>website</category><category>weekly vlog</category><category>weight gain</category><category>weight loss journey</category><category>weight loss part 2</category><category>weight loss secret</category><category>when to work for free</category><category>wi</category><category>wieden and Kennedy</category><category>will perrin</category><category>witty women</category><category>womens institute</category><category>wonder woman nail art</category><category>wordpress</category><category>wordpress birmingham</category><category>wordpress help</category><category>wordpress support</category><category>work</category><category>workflowy</category><category>working for free</category><category>working from home</category><category>yardley photographic society</category><category>york castle museum</category><category>york dungeon</category><category>york minster</category><category>york trip</category><category>youtube</category><category>yumi</category><category>zumba class in Moseley</category><title>A bit more of Karen</title><description></description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/</link><managingEditor>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</managingEditor><generator>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>155</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-1974755939486627950</guid><pubDate>Fri, 08 May 2015 12:56:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2015-05-08T13:56:33.781+01:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">ivoted</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">uk general elections 2015</category><title>Voting for the first time in the UK General Elections</title><description>It seemed to surprise a few people that I had NEVER voted in the UK General Elections before. Yesterday was the very first time.&lt;br /&gt;
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In this video I talk about my spontaneous decision to go out and vote. I can&#39;t say I was that joyous about my decision, certainly by the end of the video I could feel doubts creeping.&lt;br /&gt;
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Also I talk about people&#39;s FREEDOM to chose not to vote, what I find negative about politics and voting and how disparaging people can be over other&#39;s RIGHTS not to vote. It&#39;s not my most positive of videos which confirms my feeling about politics in general.&lt;br /&gt;
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Later that evening I felt something I can only deem to be &#39;voter&#39;s remorse&#39;. Not that I would change who I voted for as such, but it felt like I had &#39;conformed&#39; or given in or lost a little bit of me.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&quot;&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;360&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/CX_aKhS2Zzg&quot; width=&quot;640&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2015/05/voting-for-first-time-in-uk-general.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/CX_aKhS2Zzg/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-3398130601967493188</guid><pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2015 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2015-04-28T15:00:12.198+01:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">four seasons london</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">London</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">the ritz</category><title>A day in London; Hyde Park, tea at The Four Seasons &amp; Cocktails at The Ritz</title><description>How I love some 5* luxury! So whilst in London for a couple of days to attend a business conference, I had to take the chance to get my 5* fix. What&#39;s your luxury fix?!&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&quot;&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;315&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/q28jaq2GJU0&quot; width=&quot;560&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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Whilst I was there, and feeling inspired, I took the chance to do a live google hangout about business, money and luxury!&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&quot;&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;315&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/M47oOK3Q_EM&quot; width=&quot;560&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2015/04/a-day-in-london-hyde-park-tea-at-four.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/q28jaq2GJU0/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-5745354820051562865</guid><pubDate>Sun, 19 Apr 2015 18:07:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2015-04-19T19:07:11.122+01:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">cinderella</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">cinema</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">day off</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">film</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">my mum</category><title>Day off, Cinderella, Lunch and Story Telling With My Mum </title><description>I usually have Friday&#39;s as my day off. Last week I went to see Cinderella with my mum @createdineire, we had a lovely lunch at the Handmade Burger Company and Mum told the story about her dog who went to school. Oh, and she&#39;s getting the vlogging bug, so watch this space! :)&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;Get your copy of FREE newsletter to help you do the work you love and live life on your terms! &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://eepurl.com/rylKP&quot; style=&quot;color: red; font-size: 14.3000001907349px; line-height: 19.734001159668px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;http://eepurl.com/rylKP&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2015/04/day-off-cinderella-lunch-and-story.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/CJ_M-2m3SdE/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-4380276234073959253</guid><pubDate>Sat, 18 Apr 2015 20:32:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2015-04-18T21:35:18.410+01:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">fat loss</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">giving up processed food</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">natural food</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">processed food addiction</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">unprocessed food</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">weight loss</category><title>Breaking processed food addiction</title><description>In this weight loss update I talk about braking the addiction of processed food and how my weight loss journey is going so far! If you&#39;d like to see what I&#39;m eating, check out &lt;a href=&quot;http://whatkarenate.tumblr.com/&quot;&gt;What Karen Ate&lt;/a&gt;, where I update (almost!) daily :)&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&quot;&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;315&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/1DIi21sfpqM&quot; width=&quot;420&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;Get your copy of FREE newsletter to help you do the work you love and live life on your terms! &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://eepurl.com/rylKP&quot; style=&quot;color: red; font-size: 14.3000001907349px; line-height: 19.734001159668px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;http://eepurl.com/rylKP&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2015/04/breaking-processed-food-addiction.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/1DIi21sfpqM/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-4781369231463038850</guid><pubDate>Sun, 12 Apr 2015 17:04:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2015-04-12T18:04:32.932+01:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">life blogger</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">life vlogger</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">video</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">weekly vlog</category><title>Weekly Vlog; Friends, Cocktails, Molly &amp; A Meetup </title><description>&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
&lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&quot;&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;315&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/3rsiXQAmvW0&quot; width=&quot;560&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;Get your copy of FREE newsletter to help you do the work you love and live life on your terms! &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://eepurl.com/rylKP&quot; style=&quot;background-color: white; color: red; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.3000001907349px; line-height: 19.734001159668px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;http://eepurl.com/rylKP&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2015/04/weekly-vlog-friends-cocktails-molly.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/3rsiXQAmvW0/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-3572139026661779111</guid><pubDate>Sun, 12 Apr 2015 16:20:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2015-04-12T17:20:16.288+01:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">becky walsh</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">learning about spirituality</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">spiritual life</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">tree of life festival</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">tree of life magazine</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">tree of life uk</category><title>Getting Spiritual At The Tree Of Life Festival </title><description>&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
&lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&quot;&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;315&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/_9KoutKdj6E&quot; width=&quot;560&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;

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&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2015/04/getting-spiritual-at-tree-of-life.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/_9KoutKdj6E/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total><georss:featurename>Bournville, Birmingham, West Midlands, UK</georss:featurename><georss:point>52.4240619 -1.9336918999999853</georss:point><georss:box>26.902027399999998 -43.242285899999985 77.9460964 39.374902100000014</georss:box></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-6584009238444136037</guid><pubDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2015 19:14:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2015-04-08T20:14:59.351+01:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">weight loss</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">weight loss journey</category><title>The time I ended up in an eating disorders unit</title><description>Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, I found myself admitted to an eating disorder unit... &lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/Cc7MSNGuV3U&quot;&gt;This video&lt;/a&gt; tells that story.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&amp;nbsp;


&lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&quot;&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;360&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cc7MSNGuV3U&quot; width=&quot;480&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
So, I&#39;ve documented my weight loss journey before on this blog but I felt like sharing a bit more about it and giving you a bit more background via this video. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I&#39;m kicking things off again, and I invite you to&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/groups/1587986254792638/&quot;&gt; JOIN ME&lt;/a&gt;! &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I&#39;m starting a friendly, private group for anyone who wants some accountability whilst on their journey to a happy, healthy body. I&#39;m not giving specific &#39;what to eat/do&#39; advice, but I will be sharing with you what worked for me when I previously lost 50lbs. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This group is for support, accountability, motivation, with a bit of butt kicking in between. I know I&#39;ll need it! :D&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/groups/1587986254792638/&quot;&gt;Join the Happy Healthy Body group here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Karen &amp;nbsp;x&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
PS If you&#39;d like to follow what I&#39;m eating to loose fat and get healthy; it&#39;s mainly 90% unprocessed food and about 50% (or more!) fruit &amp;amp; veg.&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.tumblr.com/blog/whatkarenate&quot;&gt; I&#39;m documenting what I eat over here&lt;/a&gt; if you are interested! :)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-time-i-ended-up-in-eating-disorders.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/Cc7MSNGuV3U/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-924642293636867139</guid><pubDate>Tue, 07 Apr 2015 19:04:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2015-04-07T20:04:39.352+01:00</atom:updated><title>A bit more is BACK! </title><description>I can&#39;t remember why I stopped...but it&#39;s back!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
You can catch my &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.karenstrunks.com/&quot;&gt;business blog over here&lt;/a&gt;, THIS blog is for everything else :)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&amp;nbsp; 

&lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&quot;&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;315&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/mKbkjIyxxLw&quot; width=&quot;420&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: Arial;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7000007629395px; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;Say Hi! &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2015/04/a-bit-more-is-back.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/mKbkjIyxxLw/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-8806103456249323484</guid><pubDate>Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:37:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-04-23T16:37:36.712+01:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Countryside Holiday</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">holiday</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">holiday cottage in wales</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Welsh Holiday Cottage</category><title>My last minute getaway to the Welsh mountains</title><description>Can you tell me where this year has gone already?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;2013 is the year that went by at double speed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Just after the last &lt;a href=&quot;http://4amproject.org/2013/04/4am-project-14th-april-2013/&quot;&gt;4am Project&lt;/a&gt; event, I realised I hadn&#39;t taken a break this year already. Maybe the odd weekend off, and I have mainly been sticking to having a day off a week, but all of a sudden I felt like I need to STOP.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
And there began the rush and many hours of online searching for my the secluded countryside cottage I had in mind. I wanted to be as far away from civilisation (whilst still being civilised!) as I could comfortably get.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It did me the world of good to get away and re-charge my batteries. I slept loads, took walks up hills and down vales and got more fresh air than was probably good for me lol.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The search was worth it. I found the perfect place to unwind, slow down and come to a complete stop.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://storify.com/karenstrunks/my-secluded-welsh-cottage-in-brecon-beacons#publicize&quot;&gt;Check out my Storify for pics and vines and tweets and more!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;script src=&quot;//storify.com/karenstrunks/my-secluded-welsh-cottage-in-brecon-beacons.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;noscript&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;//storify.com/karenstrunks/my-secluded-welsh-cottage-in-brecon-beacons&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;View the story &quot;My secluded Welsh cottage in Brecon Beacons&quot; on Storify&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/noscript&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2013/04/my-last-minute-getaway-to-welsh.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-2894718133812861422</guid><pubDate>Sun, 10 Mar 2013 10:15:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-03-10T10:18:15.047+00:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Child Free</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Child Freedom</category><title>My child free choice</title><description>It&#39;s Mother&#39;s Day today and I will be spending it with the luckiest mum in the world haha.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
My mum is awesome. We get on great and she is so generous and kind and funny too. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?sq=mum&amp;amp;o=U&amp;amp;channel=XK_UpB9Xfd7s7ZkFUbuDOw&amp;amp;utm_source=buffer&amp;amp;buffer_share=9334e&quot;&gt;Check out some her videos!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;She&#39;s got all the qualities of a brilliant mum! And thankfully I&#39;ve got her good looks hehee.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I haven&#39;t got a maternal side like my mum though.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I&#39;ll never be a mother.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I have given thought about the pros and cons of having a child. I have weighed things up rationally. I don&#39;t have that biological clock dictating that I must reproduce. My priorities in life are different.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I&#39;ve made a positive choice and I have many dreams, goals and ambitions, and none of them include a child.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Some people say &#39;Oh, you don&#39;t know what you will miss out on!&#39;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I know exactly what I will miss out on:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Waking up at my leisure every day&lt;br /&gt;
Years and years of to-ing and fro-ing on school runs&lt;br /&gt;
Not being able to go out on my own without involving babysitters and notifying people&lt;br /&gt;
Tantrums, crying and moody teenagers&lt;br /&gt;
Peace and serenity&lt;br /&gt;
Doctor and hospital visits&lt;br /&gt;
The pain of giving birth&lt;br /&gt;
Noise&lt;br /&gt;
Being tied to a man forever whether I like him or not&lt;br /&gt;
Competitive parents&lt;br /&gt;
Strained relationships&lt;br /&gt;
Worry&lt;br /&gt;
Time&lt;br /&gt;
Money&lt;br /&gt;
Easy travel&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
but most importantly of all is that I will miss out on......&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
FREEDOM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Freedom to travel at a moments notice&lt;br /&gt;
Freedom to do what I want when I want&lt;br /&gt;
Freedom from consulting others&lt;br /&gt;
Freedom to pursue my dreams&lt;br /&gt;
Freedom to sit quietly and read&lt;br /&gt;
Freedom to spend my money how I like&lt;br /&gt;
Freedom to daydream without interruption&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Freedom....&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2013/03/its-mothers-day-today-and-i-will-be.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-94090818455670567</guid><pubDate>Sat, 23 Feb 2013 10:55:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-02-23T10:55:50.689+00:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">2013</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">bbc digital news day</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">birmingham social media cafe</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">bsmc</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">community lovers guide</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">EyeEm</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">mailchimp</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">newsletter</category><title>Bits you may have missed this year!</title><description>Hello! I&#39;ve missed you. How have you been? I want to give you a big hug!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I had nearly completed this blog post a week ago and then, BAM!, blogger had other ideas and then deleted the whole flipping lot.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This year is going by scarily fast. I can&#39;t keep up with it! Still, it&#39;s better than being bored and boring and feeling like time is dragging.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This is a bit of a quick recap of some of highlights of 2013 so far! More to come, I hope. No, there&#39;s no &#39;hope&#39; about it. There will be more highlights if I have anything to do with it.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Let&#39;s dive in!&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://eepurl.com/rylKP&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;http://www.karenstrunksmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Mailchimp-Newsletter-logo.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Newsletter:&lt;/b&gt; I thought it high time I start a monthly newsletter; &lt;i&gt;Notes on social media, photography and doing the work you love.&lt;/i&gt; It&#39;s something I think I should have done a long time ago really, but better late than never. There have only been two issues so far and it&#39;s been an interesting process, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.karenstrunksmedia.com/2013/01/04/what-i-have-learned-from-starting-my-first-newsletter/&quot;&gt;which I&#39;ve written about here.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;Also, there comes with it a little pressure (self imposed I guess) of &#39;Will people like it? How will I feel if they unsubscribe? Will anyone subscribe to it?&#39;. But sure, you have to try these things and ignore any self doubts or you wouldn&#39;t do anything. And I&#39;m so appreciative when someone subscribes! &lt;a href=&quot;http://eepurl.com/rylKP&quot;&gt;If you would like to get it too, please feel free to subscribe here!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://birminghamsmc.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;http://www.karenstrunks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/birmingham-social-media-cafe.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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The first and second&amp;nbsp;&lt;b&gt;Birmingham Social Media Cafe&lt;/b&gt; events of the year have gone really well with a great turn outs and a interesting mix of social media peeps from the city!&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://birminghamsmc.com/&quot;&gt;29th March will be the next event so come along&lt;/a&gt; if you are in/near/can get to Bham and want to mix and mingle with peeps with a shared interest in social media for work and play!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.karenstrunksmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Digicity-social-graphy-by-My-Jewellery-Quarter.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;265&quot; src=&quot;http://www.karenstrunksmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Digicity-social-graphy-by-My-Jewellery-Quarter.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/gecal&quot;&gt;Digital City Social Graph by Brian Simpson&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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I went along to the &lt;b&gt;BBC&#39;s Digital News Day&lt;/b&gt; in January. It was a day of events aimed at people in involved or interested in digital media in the city. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.karenstrunks.com/2013/01/24/hyperlocal-thoughts-after-bbcs-digital-news-day/&quot;&gt;I blogged some hyperlocal thoughts that came from the day and the seemingly increased demand for hyperlocal news sharing&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;First London EyeEm Meetup&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cdn.yemimg.com/thumb/h/972/ece518ce919aefc1ad7c5d85717e3b81f254dd2b-1359813591&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;300&quot; src=&quot;http://cdn.yemimg.com/thumb/h/972/ece518ce919aefc1ad7c5d85717e3b81f254dd2b-1359813591&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.eyeem.com/u/943273&quot;&gt;Photo by the Wheyway&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.eyeem.com/&quot;&gt;EyeEm is a Berlin based photo app&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;and it&#39;s become a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.8mpx.co.uk/post/40857226238/unnoticed-by-the-media-instagram-is-overtaken-by&quot;&gt;very strong rival for instagram,&lt;/a&gt; especially after the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/12/21/instagram-reverses-terms-decision_n_2343372.html&quot;&gt;instagram terms and conditions debacle.&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.eyeem.com/ambassadors/&quot;&gt;EyeEm ambassadors &lt;/a&gt;are getting on board in lots of cities around the world, and I was invited along to the first London EyeEm Meetup which was arranged by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.twitter.com/dirktherabbit&quot;&gt;Dirk Singer.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cdn.yemimg.com/thumb/h/578/3dcf5e27190df2fabe9d15b99b29f40189a5c84a-1359810156&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;295&quot; src=&quot;http://cdn.yemimg.com/thumb/h/578/3dcf5e27190df2fabe9d15b99b29f40189a5c84a-1359810156&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://cdn.yemimg.com/thumb/h/578/3dcf5e27190df2fabe9d15b99b29f40189a5c84a-1359810156&quot;&gt;Photo by Kaaren.&lt;/a&gt; Pay attention everyone! :)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.eyeem.com/2013/02/a-recap-of-the-eyeem-london-meetup-2/&quot;&gt;Check out EyeEm&#39;s blog&lt;/a&gt; about the chilly but fun photo walk around Greenwich and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.eyeem.com/a/2745569&quot;&gt;check out awesome photos from the event.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;&#39;My&#39; book launch!&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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For the first time I have contributed to a book! And not just any old book, it&#39;s the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/4081647-the-community-lovers-guide-to-birmingham&quot;&gt;Community Lover&#39;s Guide To Birmingham!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;My chapter was a about the &lt;a href=&quot;http://4amproject.org/&quot;&gt;4am Project&lt;/a&gt; and creating a global project from scratch and not waiting for the right time or any one&#39;s permission. The chapters should be available to read free online sometime, so I&#39;ll give it a shout out then! &lt;a href=&quot;http://storify.com/dosticen/reading-the-community-lover-s-guide-to-birmingham&quot;&gt;Lorna Prescott has made a great Storify about the launch event!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.karenstrunksmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Community-Lovers-Guide-To-Birmingham-4am-Project-and-Karen-Strunks.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;400&quot; src=&quot;http://www.karenstrunksmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Community-Lovers-Guide-To-Birmingham-4am-Project-and-Karen-Strunks.jpg&quot; width=&quot;300&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Being Social!&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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One of my goals this year is to be more social. The going-out-and-seeing-people-in-person kinda social. A friend said that he thought I go out and about all the time, but really, I don&#39;t! I can be quite a hermit, lost in my own happy world of work. I know that I do need to get out more and meet up with friends more often, so with that in mind, I&#39;m arranging Being Social Days. I&#39;ll pick a day, get in touch with friends, and schedule a whole day of meeting and chatting and catching up. So far so good! I think this is a nice addition to my generally going out and about!&lt;br /&gt;
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There&#39;s a few of my highlights of the year so far. I am seriously scared about how fast this year is going!&lt;br /&gt;
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And I really don&#39;t want to neglect this blog. I guess &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.karenstrunksmedia.com/&quot;&gt;Karen Strunks Media&lt;/a&gt; is getting it&#39;s share of blog posts, but I do want to spread them out evenly. If in doubt, just stop by &lt;a href=&quot;http://karenstrunks.com/&quot;&gt;karenstrunks.com&lt;/a&gt; which is where I keep track of everything under one roof!&lt;br /&gt;
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How is your year going so far? Is it going to quickly? Is it exciting enough? Do you need more excitement in it? What are you looking forward to the most?! We&#39;ve still got about 10 months to fill! :)&lt;br /&gt;
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Say Hi on twitter&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.twitter.com/karenstrunks&quot;&gt;@karenstrunks&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2013/02/bits-you-may-have-missed-this-year.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/YD0kROyj_Ng/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-9133134771319509072</guid><pubDate>Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:26:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-01-31T12:26:24.451+00:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">leek and potato soup recipe</category><title>The best leek and potato soup recipe in the world!</title><description>Following on from my popular soup series (&lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/best-spicy-butternut-squash-soup-recipe.html&quot;&gt;okay, just one other post&lt;/a&gt;), I bring you.....&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #38761d;&quot;&gt;THE BEST LEEK AND POTATO SOUP RECIPE IN THE WORLD EVER!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #38761d;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;
This recipe makes 3 large bowls and you will need:&lt;br /&gt;
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2 leeks&lt;br /&gt;
3 medium potatoes&lt;br /&gt;
2 medium onions&lt;br /&gt;
1 veggie stock cube&lt;br /&gt;
2 cloves of garlic&lt;br /&gt;
1 healthy pinch of black pepper&lt;br /&gt;
1 good pinch of salt&lt;br /&gt;
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This is a rough, ready and fast soup.&lt;br /&gt;
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Peels what needs peeling and just chop it all up as rough as you like.&lt;br /&gt;
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Put in a pan and put in enough water so that the vegetables are just covered.&lt;br /&gt;
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Cook for 30 mins or so.&lt;br /&gt;
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Whizz it up!&lt;br /&gt;
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TA-DA!&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH_Y3lttNaCmorAUU35jm3trtQXTEfReG1npUdlviy11f1AgWf0XIuGoBFxWM49Xijl9Dd9vVl96N6tknhnzOHCcuTuvM1MgrC8dSCN1zkI6bsgPD4U7u_KsrxvpfkkLqsODNGBP-66N7_/s1600/Leek+and+Potato+Soup+Recipe.JPG&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;400&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH_Y3lttNaCmorAUU35jm3trtQXTEfReG1npUdlviy11f1AgWf0XIuGoBFxWM49Xijl9Dd9vVl96N6tknhnzOHCcuTuvM1MgrC8dSCN1zkI6bsgPD4U7u_KsrxvpfkkLqsODNGBP-66N7_/s400/Leek+and+Potato+Soup+Recipe.JPG&quot; width=&quot;300&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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Healthy, hearty, low cal, no fat and super duper tasty.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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Don&#39;t forget to check out my &lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/best-spicy-butternut-squash-soup-recipe.html&quot;&gt;Best Butternut Squash Soup Recipe&lt;/a&gt; in the world too!&lt;/div&gt;
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Say Hi on twitter!&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.twitter.com/karenstrunks&quot;&gt;@karenstrunks&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-best-leek-and-potato-soup-recipe-in.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH_Y3lttNaCmorAUU35jm3trtQXTEfReG1npUdlviy11f1AgWf0XIuGoBFxWM49Xijl9Dd9vVl96N6tknhnzOHCcuTuvM1MgrC8dSCN1zkI6bsgPD4U7u_KsrxvpfkkLqsODNGBP-66N7_/s72-c/Leek+and+Potato+Soup+Recipe.JPG" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-1117865976454252424</guid><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jan 2013 11:58:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-01-04T11:58:22.269+00:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">4am Project</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">BBC WM</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">birmingham central library</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">interview</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">John Penrose</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">radio</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">the cube</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Urban heritage</category><title>Comment on BBC WM: Do we need to preserve our urban views. </title><description>I took a call from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bbc.co.uk/wm&quot;&gt;BBC WM&lt;/a&gt; yesterday asking me for a comment, as a photographer, on former heritage minister &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.johnpenrose.org/&quot;&gt;John Penrose&lt;/a&gt;&#39;s idea that the finest urban views in our cities and towns should be protected. Here&#39;s the article in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9774400/We-must-do-more-to-protect-our-finest-urban-views-says-ex-minister-John-Penrose.html&quot;&gt;The Telegraph&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0126wnk&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0camsaFr77MJR-GntIXuDrGtcysS1TcnAkQcOJ-6VUdTlvHrZGrZCmFkCsOO09SOSItx18qIXohLOjoRMwLNhWYqiB2fH-exdau42xI4SH-XB2o83q28e6xVjF5WjZ3xg66Dx3kmWxEIZ/s1600/Comment+on+BBC+WM.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0126wnk&quot;&gt;It&#39;s still available on Listen Again for the next 5 days so tune in while you can! It starts 48:20 minutes in.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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I think John Penrose&#39;s idea is certainly different but I&#39;m not sure how it could be executed successfully in cities where the landscape is always changing.&lt;br /&gt;
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I don&#39;t think views are always ruined by redevelopment. In fact, new buildings and architecture can enhance city&#39;s aspects.&lt;br /&gt;
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Could preserving certain urban views have a detrimental effect on industry? If a business can&#39;t build, where will the jobs go and in turn the growth of towns and cities.&lt;br /&gt;
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What would constitute a heritage view? How would it be decided?&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Madin&quot;&gt;John Madin&#39;s&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thechamberlainfiles.com/birmingham-central-library-will-be-demolished/3084&quot;&gt;Central Library is due to be demolished&lt;/a&gt;. I was very fortunate that the Central Library gave permission for access to the building for the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.4amproject.org/&quot;&gt;4am Project&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.flickr.com/photos/sparks68/5648627017/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot; title=&quot;Ben Waddington looks over Centenary Square by Sparks68, on Flickr&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Ben Waddington looks over Centenary Square&quot; height=&quot;332&quot; src=&quot;http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5265/5648627017_1d040cc041.jpg&quot; width=&quot;500&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.flickr.com/photos/sparks68/5648627017/&quot;&gt;Photo by Mark Wilson&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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The urban view from the roof top of the library is wonderful, but that particular view won&#39;t be there much longer. Though as one building goes, another will appear on the horizon and perhaps offer an even better view of an urban landscape (which of course is all down to personal taste and opinion anyway).&lt;br /&gt;
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On my &#39;&lt;a href=&quot;http://storify.com/karenstrunks/birmingham-tourist&quot;&gt;Being a tourist in my own city&lt;/a&gt;&#39; day I took to the 25th Floor of the fairly new &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thecube.co.uk/&quot;&gt;The Cube&lt;/a&gt;. I was amazed by the views! Those views may not exist if redevelopment had been halted.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://youtu.be/aNrxNGKgIEk&quot;&gt;Watch on youtube&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&quot;allowfullscreen&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;315&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/aNrxNGKgIEk&quot; width=&quot;420&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;

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I&#39;m all for an ever-changing urban landscape. Unless you touch my favourite building of course!&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?related=karenstrunks&amp;amp;text=@karenstrunks&quot;&gt;Tweet me!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2013/01/comment-on-bbc-wm-do-we-need-to.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0camsaFr77MJR-GntIXuDrGtcysS1TcnAkQcOJ-6VUdTlvHrZGrZCmFkCsOO09SOSItx18qIXohLOjoRMwLNhWYqiB2fH-exdau42xI4SH-XB2o83q28e6xVjF5WjZ3xg66Dx3kmWxEIZ/s72-c/Comment+on+BBC+WM.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-5681561014871809380</guid><pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 12:25:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2013-01-03T12:25:06.704+00:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">2013</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">life coach</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">new year</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">NLP</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">positive thinking</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">positivity</category><title>Happy New Year! Hello 2013</title><description>I&#39;m trying to find some wise words to kick off my new year post.&lt;br /&gt;
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I&#39;m feeling my usual gung-ho-ness about a brand new year, and already it feels like 2013 is off to a flying start! I&#39;m feeling really happy, optimistic and taking time to celebrate achievements, big and small.&lt;br /&gt;
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In a conversation with a good friend I was reminded how we rarely pauses to enjoy the now. I know I don&#39;t. I&#39;m always looking ahead; to the next goal, to the next adventure, to the next journey, to the next whatever. I think to myself, &quot;I want this, that and that to happen&quot; and &quot;In my ideal life this and that will happen, and I&#39;ll be doing this&quot;. I keep looking ahead, always with the future in mind, and it&#39;s just dawned on me that &quot;this, that and that&quot;&lt;i&gt; have happened&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;u&gt;they do happen&lt;/u&gt; and I&#39;m looking ahead so much I don&#39;t actually realise what I want is happening at the time!&lt;br /&gt;
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So, this year I am going to try and be more mindful; to enjoy the journey, not just the destination. Sometimes peeps say &quot;Oh, you are so lucky!&quot;, but I disagree. I&#39;m not lucky at all; I don&#39;t believe in luck. I work really hard for the successes I have. I strive for more. Of course I love doing what I do and I&#39;m grateful I have the wherewithal to make plans, set things in motion and get to my goals. I&#39;ve just realised I sound a bit serious, I&#39;m not, I&#39;m just grateful and very appreciative, and being mindful!&lt;br /&gt;
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So, onto this brand new year!&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.merchline.com/moodgadget/productdisplay.11662.p.htm&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;640&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaKvapdFHjL3EEfR_uIfOuTy9QdkLQaRg1mTNbcFSw1kUAWIrHk-IsPHAWxJ0D0aOxfdkf7vKJQPr6KEmefLgU8z3_7ROp00VDrOrqecQ7C41TarcrWH-7ZdugGVlOkG3j2w0rZhkvX8cA/s640/Areyouhappy_a2_web_1024.jpg&quot; width=&quot;451&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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What are you going to do to keep being happy? What are you going to change to be even happier?! If we are not happy with something it&#39;s down to us to change our situation, or adjust our outlook and perception.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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About 15 years ago I read a book about the power of positive thinking. Unfortunately I can&#39;t remember the exact title or who it was by (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0091947456/ref=asc_df_009194745611311116?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&amp;amp;tag=hydra0b-21&amp;amp;linkCode=asn&amp;amp;creative=22206&amp;amp;creativeASIN=0091947456&amp;amp;hvpos=2o1&amp;amp;hvexid=&amp;amp;hvnetw=g&amp;amp;hvrand=4463792161112291993&amp;amp;hvpone=&amp;amp;hvptwo=&amp;amp;hvqmt=&quot;&gt;it wasn&#39;t this popular book by Normal Vincent Peale though&lt;/a&gt;) but it had a huge effect on me and my attitude. Looking back I used to be fairly negative in my thinking; my glass was half empty. The biggest lesson I took from that book was that I could learn to be more positive. It was a very easy thing to do, much easier to do that I first anticipated; whenever a negative thought popped into my mind I would change it to a positive one, even if I didn&#39;t really believe it at the time.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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For example:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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Negative - Oh, I&#39;m never going to be able to run a mile so what&#39;s the point in even trying.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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Positive - I can&#39;t wait to be able to run a mile! It will take some time and effort and I&#39;m going to feel great when I am able to do it!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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Over a period of time I re-trained my brain by catching the negative self-talk as it happened and replacing it with something a lot more positive. And it worked! My outlook changed, I felt happier, I felt like I could do more and achieve more and my confidence grew. I went on to take a year long life coaching course and gained a qualification there, and also qualified as an NLP (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming&quot;&gt;neuro linguistic programming&lt;/a&gt;) practitioner. I never looked back. I got out of a job that I had done for far too long which was getting me down, went travelling around the USA, moved house and started the process of doing work that I love.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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It&#39;s important to surround yourself with positive people too! The company you keep has a huge influence on you. Spend time with people who make you feel great. Connect with people you admire. &lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/and-hello-2012.html&quot;&gt;A goal for 2012 was to bannish negative people from my life&lt;/a&gt;, and doing that has made such a wonderful difference! I highly recommend it.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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This time last year I wanted to get my online profile in order, and I&#39;ve done that. If you want to keep up to date with everything I am up to with work and play, then &lt;a href=&quot;http://karenstrunks.com/&quot;&gt;karenstrunks.com&lt;/a&gt; is the best place to be! It&#39;s my portfolio site and I update with all my blog posts from other areas.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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I also wanted to be braver and bolder, and push myself out of my comfort zone. I think I&#39;ve done that to some degree but it&#39;s a work in progress and something I&#39;m going to continue to do; saying yes, and seeking out adventures along the way.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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London! Having spent more time in the city last year I&#39;ve got it in my sights and I&#39;m very excited about new work opportunities in the Big Smoke!&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/2012-good-bad-and-unplanned.html#&quot;&gt;I did a 2012 review here in case you missed it&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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Right! Time to get on and get going with 2013! :)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;b style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Whatever you do with the brand new year, have a blast! Make it your sparkliest yet!&lt;/b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?related=karenstrunks&amp;amp;text=@karenstrunks&quot;&gt;Tweet me!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;!--End mc_embed_signup--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2013/01/happy-new-year-hello-2013.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaKvapdFHjL3EEfR_uIfOuTy9QdkLQaRg1mTNbcFSw1kUAWIrHk-IsPHAWxJ0D0aOxfdkf7vKJQPr6KEmefLgU8z3_7ROp00VDrOrqecQ7C41TarcrWH-7ZdugGVlOkG3j2w0rZhkvX8cA/s72-c/Areyouhappy_a2_web_1024.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-6231216860242641302</guid><pubDate>Sun, 30 Dec 2012 15:12:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-12-30T15:12:34.678+00:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">2012</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">4am Project</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">best friend</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Clore</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Clore Leadership Programme</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">London</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Milan</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">new year</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">review</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">tal</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">talk about local</category><title>2012: The Good, The Bad and The Unplanned</title><description>Hello!&lt;br /&gt;
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I hope you had a magical Christmas time and Santa got you lots of great toys! He was very good to me with lovely perfumes and blingy things. My favourites! How does he know eh?!&lt;br /&gt;
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I&#39;m just emerging from a few days of completely re-charging my glitter, which means I really, actually, truly did nothing! It was bliddy marvelous. It&#39;s so rare I take a few days to do nothing and I really got into the swing of it. And I&#39;ve just realised that in planning my 2013 diary I forgot to schedule time off - I&#39;m going to correct that right this second....&lt;br /&gt;
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Right, that&#39;s time off booked into next years diary. Now, to look back on 2012!&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;The Good&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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I&#39;ve got all sorts of good from this year!&lt;br /&gt;
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Here are just a few of my personal favourites:&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/speaking-at-birmingham-girl-geeks.html&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;195&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP524RPefPsJXiAp6MAioRKujD0KDCvKImhfAZwmZREfukgUUNkT7c46dcmC-yDWwwTL1jb9RhMsKHaxGeFxfz4PyZcQiSYiMwRhIdMwyYBy72qeLbC3hO9SPuaU1L3Fwbv4PzDMcO9bIn/s320/Speaking+at+Birmingham+Girl+Geeks+Launch+Event.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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Speaking at &lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/speaking-at-birmingham-girl-geeks.html&quot;&gt;Birmingham Girl Geeks launch event&lt;/a&gt; about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.karenstrunksmedia.com/&quot;&gt;social media&lt;/a&gt; and the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.4amproject.org/&quot;&gt;4am Project.&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;Thanks for inviting me ladies! If you are a Girl and a bit of a Geek and you are in, or can get to Birmingham,&lt;a href=&quot;http://brumgirlgeeks.co.uk/&quot;&gt; keep an eye out for their up-coming events.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/my-welsh-holiday-with-my-best-friend.html&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeL_4fnamxpEEDHPtnI9rlBQYja261_SYJOj8lxbOZapUe4OI7_vST3fIut45FQHPk8CkOpNqQ_OevCrtSZFNimyasCPyn5q8PJdXtAQy6rHto582r_Rx3jvTtJbEAy8dEy6imfKJYcz8y/s320/welsh+holiday+cottage.jpg&quot; width=&quot;234&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/my-welsh-holiday-with-my-best-friend.html&quot;&gt;Celebrating my best friend&#39;s 40th Birthday at a haunted cottage&lt;/a&gt; in the middle of nowhere in Wales. I still shudder at the ghostly goings on! It was a real country break with just the sound of birds and the neighbours mooing (they were cows, not humans!). I loved the open fire, but not the cobwebs. Part of me would just love to go back there again, and the other part says &#39;noooooo, it&#39;s just toooo scary!&#39;.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/partying-at-fat-sams-grand-slam-with.html&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7VMPsbOlJ-smHIkZpKTzn5FrK41DjPB6IeV_hoqipRzI9kze5yGAD-kB_dHehaJmiy7jhlZffC88D0rQkhe6UFHy4nSj0A-Mg3UaYBl4OKVgaPPx-iRUpgy-PnBmn8TX_arXuDybwPPFq/s320/karen+and+bugsy.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/partying-at-fat-sams-grand-slam-with.html&quot;&gt;Partying with Bugsy Malone at Fat Sam&#39;s Grand Slam&lt;/a&gt;. Fat Sam knows how to throw a party! I met Bugsy and he let me hold his splurge gun! What a gentleman. He&#39;s from NYC so I had a soft spot for him.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/milan-adventure-part-2-things-to-see.html&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsw20JAOTYEjp1jEcOQfGowsJ3NVBR3495fXuTQj5xAUY1jnMVv6fRtfASdSU7ULgaFrJPxvLl4Bv8t42BROioLOw0cN4sV3DlOW5z7a9xoivDUUZTLIo26XW57qaSXLpM8twO4cj9s9Q/s320/Duomo+Cathedral+Rooftop+02+rs.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/milan-adventure-part-2-things-to-see.html&quot;&gt;Having an Italian adventure in Milan!&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;I had the chance to explore this beautiful city with it&#39;s stunning architecture, designer shops, art and of course the stylish people and not forgetting it has the most fabulous graveyard ever! &lt;a href=&quot;http://telly.com/BORUF&quot;&gt;Honestly&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/amazing-month-of-may.html&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;400&quot; src=&quot;http://p.twimg.com/AthLoxPCMAEMQlz.jpg&quot; width=&quot;300&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/amazing-month-of-may.html&quot;&gt;The A.May.Zing month of May!&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;10 days of working and living in London. I had such an adventure and so many things fell into place. It was just the place I should have been that month. Now it&#39;s given me a taste for London and I&#39;ve been back a few times since and plans to return very soon!&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/brave-new-ventures-mission-report.html&quot;&gt;Being recruited by Brave New Ventures&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;I had no idea what I was getting into or letting myself in for when I was approached by BNV. What a mysterious organisation. I&#39;m still not quite sure what happened!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/my-great-british-seaside-holiday-with.html&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgneb9iF1KFM5Z43bcg42Z_6SSUj21wuokxYgtsc0X_ScEln-ZsC7ZwCLXFqqsKe4u43Ag3BB0Hy3o72gqoIH8tJcvNGooJ4rFNiEAW6kRUwH9CAmalqUmxU3gjwQp7OTc-QaySdynKB05q/s320/Me+and+Mum+Margate.jpg&quot; width=&quot;240&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/my-great-british-seaside-holiday-with.html&quot;&gt;Enjoying a Great British Seaside Holiday with my fab Mum&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;We toured seaside towns down south and had one sunny day during the week. Hey, you can&#39;t go to the beach and not get rained on the the UK. Sandy sandwiches are a must. It&#39;s tradition! Thanks for a fab holiday Mum!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://youtu.be/nu3nRd5PmCY&quot;&gt;Taking the 4am Project event to Nottingham and having 40 amazing photographers turn up despite the torrential rain!&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;I still have to blog about this event, but it was a great challenge to take the project to a new city and make it happen and also team up with the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lakesidearts.org.uk/Exhibitions/ViewEvent.html?e=2062&amp;amp;c=5&amp;amp;d=0&quot;&gt;Lakeside Arts Centre and their Saturday Night Sunday Morning exhibition.&lt;/a&gt; I&#39;m very grateful to all the photographers who came along and took part in the 4am Project photography challenge given the challenging weather!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://talkaboutlocal.org.uk/&quot;&gt;Working with the talk about local team!&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;Not just good, but great! However, now it&#39;s time to say a fond farewell to the team and take part in new adventures in 2013, which I&#39;ll announce shortly. If you ever get a chance to work with any of the tal team, do! If you have an interest in how to use social media from a grass root up perspective, &lt;a href=&quot;http://talkaboutlocal.org.uk/&quot;&gt;keep an eye on the great work they do&lt;/a&gt; in empowering people and communities. It&#39;s been a pleasure working with everyone and I&#39;ll look forward to the TAL13 conference next year! &amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;The Bad&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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This could also go in The Unplanned category, but it was it was more &#39;bad&#39; than &#39;unplanned&#39; (not that I planned it!) so it&#39;s going here.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-diagnosis-of-my-mystery-illness.html&quot;&gt;Being ill and spending a week in hospital&lt;/a&gt;. That was pretty bad. The &#39;good&#39; is that I am better now. Hurrah!&lt;br /&gt;
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It took a month out of the year all in all and I resent it for that. And it knocked my confidence in how my body works and also what I could and couldn&#39;t eat until I ended up eating the blandest diet ever. Thankfully, I am better and I know I can eat whatever I like again. So, another, Hurrah!&lt;br /&gt;
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The &#39;good&#39; for you is that I&#39;m pretty bored of talking about it now, so this&#39;ll be the last you hear about it. Unless 1. I get ill again or 2. I feel like I want some sympathy haha.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;The Unplanned&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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I didn&#39;t plan 2012 quite well enough. Which in some parts worked out well (Amazing Month Of May and for the Being Ill parts), but that was only by accident. Let me explain.&lt;br /&gt;
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Earlier in the year I applied for a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cloreleadership.org/&quot;&gt;Clore Fellowship&lt;/a&gt;. Naturally I was pretty excited about this, but I also had a feeling that my chances of securing a place would be fairly slim. However, if you don&#39;t try for things, you stand no chance at all. What with the time commitment involved in the Fellowship if I had of been successful, and even though I felt my chances were a little slim, I kept the second half of the year free of commitments. &lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/i-am-not-clore-fellow.html&quot;&gt;In April I got the news that I didn&#39;t get a place.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;I was looking at the rest of the year without as much of a plan as I would ordinarily have liked.&lt;br /&gt;
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It all worked out in the end and I was able to get back on track with planning but I really think I should have had more of a back up plan. The power of a back up plan should not be underestimated!&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;FINAL SCORE&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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I will give 2012 a score of 7/10.&lt;br /&gt;
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2013, I have very high expectations of you! We are aiming for 10/10!&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Thank you to everyone who has brought their positivity to the year!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;I wish you all the happiness in the world and every success for 2013!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Let&#39;s grab it and go out and make our own luck! :)&lt;span style=&quot;color: red;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?related=karenstrunks&amp;amp;text=@karenstrunks&quot;&gt;Tweet me!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;!--End mc_embed_signup--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2012/12/2012-good-bad-and-unplanned.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP524RPefPsJXiAp6MAioRKujD0KDCvKImhfAZwmZREfukgUUNkT7c46dcmC-yDWwwTL1jb9RhMsKHaxGeFxfz4PyZcQiSYiMwRhIdMwyYBy72qeLbC3hO9SPuaU1L3Fwbv4PzDMcO9bIn/s72-c/Speaking+at+Birmingham+Girl+Geeks+Launch+Event.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-682838641980405750</guid><pubDate>Tue, 25 Dec 2012 08:00:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-12-25T08:24:25.692+00:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Christmas</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Christmas 2012</category><title>Happy Christmas! </title><description>&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
&lt;b&gt;Happy Christmas to you!&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
&lt;b&gt;I hope you have a fabulous time whatever you do and whoever you are with!&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5U390iEy9pZSEPlfmTAzgfqomdeJ3mRDgQLk5x1G3r3bHUwr3n913l1jnn07ro61F02CSlCQ8QoAYGOvEuQ70-MWpO35zTnrqzDF4fKyYWXT-OXyupC907g49iT6f5yfigpGewSP5_NlJ/s1600/Christmas+Riendeer+and+Snowman.JPG&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5U390iEy9pZSEPlfmTAzgfqomdeJ3mRDgQLk5x1G3r3bHUwr3n913l1jnn07ro61F02CSlCQ8QoAYGOvEuQ70-MWpO35zTnrqzDF4fKyYWXT-OXyupC907g49iT6f5yfigpGewSP5_NlJ/s320/Christmas+Riendeer+and+Snowman.JPG&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
&lt;b&gt;Love of festive love and kisses&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Karen xxx&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2012/12/happy-christmas.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5U390iEy9pZSEPlfmTAzgfqomdeJ3mRDgQLk5x1G3r3bHUwr3n913l1jnn07ro61F02CSlCQ8QoAYGOvEuQ70-MWpO35zTnrqzDF4fKyYWXT-OXyupC907g49iT6f5yfigpGewSP5_NlJ/s72-c/Christmas+Riendeer+and+Snowman.JPG" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-1125751316699772237</guid><pubDate>Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:37:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-12-15T16:41:39.309+00:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">4am Project</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">4am project in Birmingham</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">birmingham photographer</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">birmingham photography</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">David Rann</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Fotofilia</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">public speaking</category><title>Speaking about my photography career and the 4am Project</title><description>&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6IEBsEYIe6mduSuW54O2a30YT1HRL4ZcKDGZWtNk0D8RfBYENm8G0eMisxtrv8eFurS4vCLsjpgMtAxrow2DzdQJvFn98zn-ibhVPB7ncfLWtJ070c9X5Hp4jOMm-C6f69e1faf73UP80/s1600/Fotofilia+talk+November+2012+Karen+Strunks.JPG&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;300&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6IEBsEYIe6mduSuW54O2a30YT1HRL4ZcKDGZWtNk0D8RfBYENm8G0eMisxtrv8eFurS4vCLsjpgMtAxrow2DzdQJvFn98zn-ibhVPB7ncfLWtJ070c9X5Hp4jOMm-C6f69e1faf73UP80/s400/Fotofilia+talk+November+2012+Karen+Strunks.JPG&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;At &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fotofilia.co.uk/&quot;&gt;Fotofilia Photography Studio&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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Last month I gave two talks about my &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.karenstrunksphotography.com/&quot;&gt;photography career &lt;/a&gt;and the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.4amproject.org/&quot;&gt;4am Project&lt;/a&gt; at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fotofilia.co.uk/&quot;&gt;Fotofilia Photography Studio.&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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David Rann who owns Fotofilia ask me to come along and give two 90 minute talks to his two photographic societies; The Club and F2.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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I spoke about how &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.karenstrunksphotography.com/&quot;&gt;I turned my passion into a career,&lt;/a&gt; and how the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.4amproject.org/&quot;&gt;4am Project&lt;/a&gt; began and captured the imaginations of photographers around the world.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://fotofiliablog.com/2012/12/10/4am-project-the-sequel/&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqxZ1jMW4HwklhwpTXvKUYF0jpCGXpY_5ruRPZmEQD8ABPhqxqSx8mtrV2BiDGNhtMBpbXeTMZYJD9Ji6DswZP26IeYbBMymx1ZsePxosCbnHebZkyeCslAAzA8JZBmt7MvZodQr7XMzEk/s1600/Fotofilia+4am+Project+Walk+in+Birmingham.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://fotofiliablog.com/2012/12/10/4am-project-the-sequel/&quot;&gt;Fotofilia&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.4amproject.org/&quot;&gt;4am Project&lt;/a&gt; Walk&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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With a global &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.4amproject.org/&quot;&gt;4am Project&lt;/a&gt; date coming up soon &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.twitter.com/fotofiliastudio&quot;&gt;David&lt;/a&gt; got some hardy photography souls together and headed out into the rain drenched streets of Birmingham! &lt;a href=&quot;http://fotofiliablog.com/2012/12/02/theres-a-4am/&quot;&gt;Check out his blog post about the morning&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;and his &lt;a href=&quot;http://fotofiliablog.com/2012/12/10/4am-project-the-sequel/&quot;&gt;DSLR photographs&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp;Thanks for organising the walk and for inviting me along to speak to your photo societies David!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fotofilia.co.uk/#!&quot;&gt;Have a look at everything that is happening at Fotofilia&lt;/a&gt;. Not only is there a fabulous photo studio for hire (at a great price), there are classes and lessons and courses. David arranges exhibitions as well as running the photographic societies.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b&gt;What David said about my talks:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;
&lt;i&gt;“Karen has now delivered two presentations to the photographic societies we run here at Fotofilia. I had wanted to bring Karen along to speak for some time, having heard many great things about the 4am Project and admiring the innovative concept.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;u&gt;On both occasions, the presentations were fun, informative and inspirational&lt;/u&gt; - (anything that can encourage our members to consider getting up at 4am to take pictures must be recommended). The presentations were well paced and friendly, with any questions being handled honestly and concisely&quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If you would like to hire me to&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.karenstrunksphotography.com/&quot;&gt; talk photography&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.4amproject.org/&quot;&gt;4am Project&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.karenstrunksmedia.com/&quot;&gt;communities or social media&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/p/contact.html&quot;&gt;then give me a shout!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Say hello on twitter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.twitter.com/karenstrunks&quot;&gt;@karenstrunks&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;!--End mc_embed_signup--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2012/12/speaking-about-photography-career-and.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6IEBsEYIe6mduSuW54O2a30YT1HRL4ZcKDGZWtNk0D8RfBYENm8G0eMisxtrv8eFurS4vCLsjpgMtAxrow2DzdQJvFn98zn-ibhVPB7ncfLWtJ070c9X5Hp4jOMm-C6f69e1faf73UP80/s72-c/Fotofilia+talk+November+2012+Karen+Strunks.JPG" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total><georss:featurename>Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, 75-79 Vyse St, Hockley, Birmingham, West Midlands B18 6HA, UK</georss:featurename><georss:point>52.4905893 -1.9121362</georss:point><georss:box>52.480920800000007 -1.9318772 52.5002578 -1.8923952</georss:box></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-613035234275613762</guid><pubDate>Fri, 14 Dec 2012 10:33:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-12-14T11:05:08.094+00:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">igers</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">igerslondon</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">ilondon2012</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">London</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">motographer of the year</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">moty2012</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">trumanbrewery</category><title>Iconic London 2012  </title><description>On the 12th of the 12th of the 12th I went along to the launch of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://instagramerslondon.com/&quot;&gt;London Instagramers&lt;/a&gt; photography exhibition &lt;a href=&quot;http://iconiclondon2012.com/&quot;&gt;Iconic London 2012&lt;/a&gt; which is a retrospective of London this year.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The exhibition is on at the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.trumanbrewery.com/&quot;&gt;Truman Brewery&lt;/a&gt; until 16th December so go along this weekend! There are 100&#39;s of amazing images of London to be seen and be inspired by. You can get a&lt;a href=&quot;http://iconiclondon2012.com/&quot;&gt; sneak peek of some of the photographs and the photographers behind them over on the iLondon site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmGzBDXUZQHVbdBab-YAX0rWq92UyxzRZf5-ysC3broYc5YT-857971PjM35w_scDQHBx018vLZYdWcn0ZJLK-KzRLtWjQDU1bTkxWeGYuhTPJnJ19fzUKyqJJsqI3kXcw-xvC0Yi1UvIz/s1600/iLondon+2012+Launch+01.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmGzBDXUZQHVbdBab-YAX0rWq92UyxzRZf5-ysC3broYc5YT-857971PjM35w_scDQHBx018vLZYdWcn0ZJLK-KzRLtWjQDU1bTkxWeGYuhTPJnJ19fzUKyqJJsqI3kXcw-xvC0Yi1UvIz/s1600/iLondon+2012+Launch+01.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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Whilst you are there, strike a pose in the instamgram photo booth!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN5Ebb_rmCj8DzeMNmwirzV4qFNh6k0jX9YWjKTGBhU5syBwkK05dJO2GoSn-WEyS7mdCbUo5mtp6sxXKtYWkvtqfhm9_hyphenhyphenMGNHeq5-5LRq3aZ1yWnnczAj4ZHQjkofeChmr4EzjDWZcK6/s1600/Karen+and+Zoe+iLondon+2012.JPG&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;400&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN5Ebb_rmCj8DzeMNmwirzV4qFNh6k0jX9YWjKTGBhU5syBwkK05dJO2GoSn-WEyS7mdCbUo5mtp6sxXKtYWkvtqfhm9_hyphenhyphenMGNHeq5-5LRq3aZ1yWnnczAj4ZHQjkofeChmr4EzjDWZcK6/s400/Karen+and+Zoe+iLondon+2012.JPG&quot; width=&quot;300&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.twitter.com/zoewithdots&quot;&gt;Zoe&lt;/a&gt; and I - so shy! ;)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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Thanks for a great night! I&#39;m full of instagram inspiration now.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://instagram.com/karenstrunks/&quot;&gt;You can find me on instagram here &lt;/a&gt;and like ALL my photos ;)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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I wanted to make sure I had a memorable day as well as night on 12th December 2012 so I took myself on a photo walk around the city. It was a very chilly day, but I wrapped up and got out there and had a lot of photo fun along the way! Of course I couldn&#39;t let a day like 121212 go by without documenting it, so I&#39;ve &lt;a href=&quot;http://storify.com/karenstrunks/london-121212&quot;&gt;recorded it on Storify&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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It was a fantastic day and night in the Big Smoke. Thanks to everyone who was part of it! :)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;script src=&quot;//storify.com/karenstrunks/london-121212.js?template=slideshow&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;noscript&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;//storify.com/karenstrunks/london-121212&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;View the story &quot;London 121212&quot; on Storify&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/noscript&gt;

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&lt;!--End mc_embed_signup--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2012/12/iconic-london-2012.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmGzBDXUZQHVbdBab-YAX0rWq92UyxzRZf5-ysC3broYc5YT-857971PjM35w_scDQHBx018vLZYdWcn0ZJLK-KzRLtWjQDU1bTkxWeGYuhTPJnJ19fzUKyqJJsqI3kXcw-xvC0Yi1UvIz/s72-c/iLondon+2012+Launch+01.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-2889045590016072001</guid><pubDate>Mon, 03 Dec 2012 18:24:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-12-03T18:32:01.988+00:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">birmingham canals</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">birmingham city centre</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">birmingham tourist</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">birmingham uk tourism</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">brumtourist</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">visit birmingham</category><title>Becoming a tourist in the city where I live</title><description>They say the best way to see the city that you live in is to pretend that you are a tourist and that you are seeing things for the first time. Do you have to travel far to have new experiences?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://realityminus3.posterous.com/&quot;&gt;My friend Elizabeth&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;lives in Cardiff and she told me she was visiting the city where I live, Birmingham. As soon as she mentioned this to me I got so excited and offered to show her around. Rather trustingly Elizabeth put herself completely in my hands for the day and went along with the whole thing!&lt;br /&gt;
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I love organising and making plans and setting schedules and times and very soon a precision timed tour of Birmingham was on a spread sheet waiting to be executed.&lt;br /&gt;
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But what do they say about the best laid plans.....? I only went and lost my printed timetable on the morning itself. Minutes before Elizabeth stepped off the train I realised that somewhere between having the day&#39;s schedule in my hand hot off the printer and travelling to New Street Station that this vital ingredient of the day had gone missing. But all was not lost - hurrah! I have a good memory so I was able to piece together my plans for the day. Yay.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=Birmingham+New+Street+Rail+Station,+New+Street,+Birmingham,+West+Midlands+B2+4ND&amp;amp;daddr=The+Mailbox,+Wharfside+Street,+Birmingham+to:The+Cube,+Wharfside+Street+to:Gas+Street,+Birmingham+to:52.478645,-1.912525+to:52.4779311,-1.9153272+to:Unknown+road+to:National+Indoor+Arena,+King+Edward&#39;s+Road,+Birmingham+to:The+ICC+Birmingham,+Broad+Street+to:Unknown+road+to:Unknown+road+to:New+Street,+Birmingham+to:Canon+St+to:Union+St+to:Carrs+Lane+URC+Church,+Carrs+Lane,+Birmingham+to:Fazeley+Street,+Birmingham+to:Fazeley+Studios,+Fazeley+Street,+Birmingham+to:Floodgate+St+to:52.4764712,-1.8836043+to:52.4755299,-1.8853319+to:52.4754821,-1.8854206+to:The+Custard+Factory,+Gibb+Street,+Birmingham+to:The+Old+Crown,+Birmingham&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;ll=52.478285,-1.899948&amp;amp;spn=0.033927,0.066175&amp;amp;sll=52.475566,-1.883576&amp;amp;sspn=0.004241,0.008272&amp;amp;geocode=FV6_IAMdiAjj_ykNqfpoibxwSDGYdodFB4kt1Q%3BFUy4IAMdvO_i_yEIVkVH4jRiTilvSaPSirxwSDEIVkVH4jRiTg%3BFa64IAMdWuzi_yFirHZ-RpAzJSn_js9B9bxwSDFirHZ-RpAzJQ%3BFcS6IAMdMd7i_ykFe1ZM9LxwSDF1Cf92sli0WQ%3BFbXCIAMdM9Hi_ynRoPCu9rxwSDFel43z9MMpxg%3BFeu_IAMdQcbi_ynBrxc-97xwSDHbvRBELEiaSA%3BFfXCIAMdo7ni_w%3BFS7HIAMdNcni_yHgbtYcuQcdCilP_oby8LxwSDHgbtYcuQcdCg%3BFfLCIAMdX9zi_yFvqDeCNIA46imT7NKMjLxwSDFvqDeCNIA46g%3BFf7IIAMdM_Li_w%3BFdjGIAMdCPXi_w%3BFdLEIAMdhQbj_ymph-jPiLxwSDGwnbW9DnKbXg%3BFXfJIAMdPg3j_w%3BFTPGIAMdLRfj_w%3BFVTFIAMdMB3j_yF9LdnqEpXLCCkD-qf_hbxwSDF9LdnqEpXLCA%3BFeLFIAMdvzzj_ylHlV1QgbxwSDE3AUBLSiJzZA%3BFcu_IAMd60nj_yGzKn0QQ0ASpimVm8i5gbxwSDGzKn0QQ0ASpg%3BFSC7IAMdvEPj_w%3BFTe6IAMdLELj_yn178lVgLxwSDFpoLixzaEFQg%3BFYm2IAMdbTvj_yl_FbfugLxwSDHYlAL7BvwZNw%3BFVq2IAMdFDvj_yl_FbfugLxwSDHYlAL7BvwZNw%3BFS22IAMdk0Dj_yG7hL_2MWuO1CmBf1WNgLxwSDG7hL_2MWuO1A%3BFX2zIAMdfkLj_yH5odgjo1-J1yl9rT96gLxwSDH5odgjo1-J1w&amp;amp;oq=the+old+crown&amp;amp;dirflg=w&amp;amp;mra=ls&amp;amp;via=4,5,18,19,20&amp;amp;t=m&amp;amp;z=14&quot;&gt;I made google map of the route we took&lt;/a&gt; which is about 4.5 miles.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;iframe frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;350&quot; marginheight=&quot;0&quot; marginwidth=&quot;0&quot; scrolling=&quot;no&quot; src=&quot;https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&amp;amp;source=s_d&amp;amp;saddr=Birmingham+New+Street+Rail+Station,+New+Street,+Birmingham,+West+Midlands+B2+4ND&amp;amp;daddr=The+Mailbox,+Wharfside+Street,+Birmingham+to:The+Cube,+Wharfside+Street+to:Gas+Street,+Birmingham+to:52.478645,-1.912525+to:52.4779311,-1.9153272+to:Unknown+road+to:National+Indoor+Arena,+King+Edward&#39;s+Road,+Birmingham+to:The+ICC+Birmingham,+Broad+Street+to:Unknown+road+to:Unknown+road+to:New+Street,+Birmingham+to:Canon+St+to:Union+St+to:Carrs+Lane+URC+Church,+Carrs+Lane,+Birmingham+to:Fazeley+Street,+Birmingham+to:Fazeley+Studios,+Fazeley+Street,+Birmingham+to:Floodgate+St+to:52.4764712,-1.8836043+to:52.4755299,-1.8853319+to:52.4754821,-1.8854206+to:The+Custard+Factory,+Gibb+Street,+Birmingham+to:The+Old+Crown,+Birmingham&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;geocode=FV6_IAMdiAjj_ykNqfpoibxwSDGYdodFB4kt1Q%3BFUy4IAMdvO_i_yEIVkVH4jRiTilvSaPSirxwSDEIVkVH4jRiTg%3BFa64IAMdWuzi_yFirHZ-RpAzJSn_js9B9bxwSDFirHZ-RpAzJQ%3BFcS6IAMdMd7i_ykFe1ZM9LxwSDF1Cf92sli0WQ%3BFbXCIAMdM9Hi_ynRoPCu9rxwSDFel43z9MMpxg%3BFeu_IAMdQcbi_ynBrxc-97xwSDHbvRBELEiaSA%3BFfXCIAMdo7ni_w%3BFS7HIAMdNcni_yHgbtYcuQcdCilP_oby8LxwSDHgbtYcuQcdCg%3BFfLCIAMdX9zi_yFvqDeCNIA46imT7NKMjLxwSDFvqDeCNIA46g%3BFf7IIAMdM_Li_w%3BFdjGIAMdCPXi_w%3BFdLEIAMdhQbj_ymph-jPiLxwSDGwnbW9DnKbXg%3BFXfJIAMdPg3j_w%3BFTPGIAMdLRfj_w%3BFVTFIAMdMB3j_yF9LdnqEpXLCCkD-qf_hbxwSDF9LdnqEpXLCA%3BFeLFIAMdvzzj_ylHlV1QgbxwSDE3AUBLSiJzZA%3BFcu_IAMd60nj_yGzKn0QQ0ASpimVm8i5gbxwSDGzKn0QQ0ASpg%3BFSC7IAMdvEPj_w%3BFTe6IAMdLELj_yn178lVgLxwSDFpoLixzaEFQg%3BFYm2IAMdbTvj_yl_FbfugLxwSDHYlAL7BvwZNw%3BFVq2IAMdFDvj_yl_FbfugLxwSDHYlAL7BvwZNw%3BFS22IAMdk0Dj_yG7hL_2MWuO1CmBf1WNgLxwSDG7hL_2MWuO1A%3BFX2zIAMdfkLj_yH5odgjo1-J1yl9rT96gLxwSDH5odgjo1-J1w&amp;amp;aq=0&amp;amp;oq=the+old+crown&amp;amp;sll=52.475566,-1.883576&amp;amp;sspn=0.004241,0.008272&amp;amp;dirflg=w&amp;amp;mra=ls&amp;amp;via=4,5,18,19,20&amp;amp;ie=UTF8&amp;amp;ll=52.47801,-1.899925&amp;amp;spn=0.00678,0.03727&amp;amp;t=m&amp;amp;output=embed&quot; width=&quot;425&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;small&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&amp;amp;source=embed&amp;amp;saddr=Birmingham+New+Street+Rail+Station,+New+Street,+Birmingham,+West+Midlands+B2+4ND&amp;amp;daddr=The+Mailbox,+Wharfside+Street,+Birmingham+to:The+Cube,+Wharfside+Street+to:Gas+Street,+Birmingham+to:52.478645,-1.912525+to:52.4779311,-1.9153272+to:Unknown+road+to:National+Indoor+Arena,+King+Edward&#39;s+Road,+Birmingham+to:The+ICC+Birmingham,+Broad+Street+to:Unknown+road+to:Unknown+road+to:New+Street,+Birmingham+to:Canon+St+to:Union+St+to:Carrs+Lane+URC+Church,+Carrs+Lane,+Birmingham+to:Fazeley+Street,+Birmingham+to:Fazeley+Studios,+Fazeley+Street,+Birmingham+to:Floodgate+St+to:52.4764712,-1.8836043+to:52.4755299,-1.8853319+to:52.4754821,-1.8854206+to:The+Custard+Factory,+Gibb+Street,+Birmingham+to:The+Old+Crown,+Birmingham&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;geocode=FV6_IAMdiAjj_ykNqfpoibxwSDGYdodFB4kt1Q%3BFUy4IAMdvO_i_yEIVkVH4jRiTilvSaPSirxwSDEIVkVH4jRiTg%3BFa64IAMdWuzi_yFirHZ-RpAzJSn_js9B9bxwSDFirHZ-RpAzJQ%3BFcS6IAMdMd7i_ykFe1ZM9LxwSDF1Cf92sli0WQ%3BFbXCIAMdM9Hi_ynRoPCu9rxwSDFel43z9MMpxg%3BFeu_IAMdQcbi_ynBrxc-97xwSDHbvRBELEiaSA%3BFfXCIAMdo7ni_w%3BFS7HIAMdNcni_yHgbtYcuQcdCilP_oby8LxwSDHgbtYcuQcdCg%3BFfLCIAMdX9zi_yFvqDeCNIA46imT7NKMjLxwSDFvqDeCNIA46g%3BFf7IIAMdM_Li_w%3BFdjGIAMdCPXi_w%3BFdLEIAMdhQbj_ymph-jPiLxwSDGwnbW9DnKbXg%3BFXfJIAMdPg3j_w%3BFTPGIAMdLRfj_w%3BFVTFIAMdMB3j_yF9LdnqEpXLCCkD-qf_hbxwSDF9LdnqEpXLCA%3BFeLFIAMdvzzj_ylHlV1QgbxwSDE3AUBLSiJzZA%3BFcu_IAMd60nj_yGzKn0QQ0ASpimVm8i5gbxwSDGzKn0QQ0ASpg%3BFSC7IAMdvEPj_w%3BFTe6IAMdLELj_yn178lVgLxwSDFpoLixzaEFQg%3BFYm2IAMdbTvj_yl_FbfugLxwSDHYlAL7BvwZNw%3BFVq2IAMdFDvj_yl_FbfugLxwSDHYlAL7BvwZNw%3BFS22IAMdk0Dj_yG7hL_2MWuO1CmBf1WNgLxwSDG7hL_2MWuO1A%3BFX2zIAMdfkLj_yH5odgjo1-J1yl9rT96gLxwSDH5odgjo1-J1w&amp;amp;aq=0&amp;amp;oq=the+old+crown&amp;amp;sll=52.475566,-1.883576&amp;amp;sspn=0.004241,0.008272&amp;amp;dirflg=w&amp;amp;mra=ls&amp;amp;via=4,5,18,19,20&amp;amp;ie=UTF8&amp;amp;ll=52.47801,-1.899925&amp;amp;spn=0.00678,0.03727&amp;amp;t=m&quot; style=&quot;color: blue; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;View Larger Map&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/small&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I had to give some thought into what parts of the city to show Elizabeth and the tour would be a bit biased towards where I know, and what I like, but I did try to bear my friends likes and dislikes in mind too!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://storify.com/karenstrunks/birmingham-tourist&quot;&gt;I&#39;ve @storify&#39;d the day of course!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;You can see everywhere we went and what we saw along the way.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Thank you to Elizabeth for a wicked day and to my friends &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.twitter.com/daneed4&quot;&gt;Marty&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.twitter.com/karmadillo&quot;&gt;Sas&lt;/a&gt; who I haven&#39;t seen for far too long, but we got a chance to catch up on Saturday night over a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balti_(food)&quot;&gt;traditional Birmingham dish, the Balti&lt;/a&gt;! Whoop!!! :)&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha9pHHwyi3WRbWPwCAS3IpEuv8IKlHaNAolJyii1mXPWipdRssN2dn0YOLEWrj3LhEMCv0uOi_2Jv7Z63fUCxYgFgERmRrW5oMYYjw2u1UfBAF3dDYrst0pTg6Ua8Z6wUOHmjpnkjc0TJi/s1600/Elizabeth+and+Karen.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;212&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha9pHHwyi3WRbWPwCAS3IpEuv8IKlHaNAolJyii1mXPWipdRssN2dn0YOLEWrj3LhEMCv0uOi_2Jv7Z63fUCxYgFgERmRrW5oMYYjw2u1UfBAF3dDYrst0pTg6Ua8Z6wUOHmjpnkjc0TJi/s400/Elizabeth+and+Karen.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;The #BrumTourist Two!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;
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&lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&quot;allowfullscreen&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;360&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/7QN6EpBhBtk&quot; width=&quot;480&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;

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&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijppOiB5oVA3x6vIHlxwZ-V1ARTSPXxFqk1PxV0hyphenhyphenWGKkfrpnwCu7f8DB3IQfu1JNoijzoWEBB_r_ySYZ4wZ1fVrILT0HnPKpos5VDAkz9NWmCidiuVaL0Od0Y_Isr3cJf2kj2N6gph66i/s1600/Brum+Tourist+Photos+by+Karen+Strunks.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;640&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijppOiB5oVA3x6vIHlxwZ-V1ARTSPXxFqk1PxV0hyphenhyphenWGKkfrpnwCu7f8DB3IQfu1JNoijzoWEBB_r_ySYZ4wZ1fVrILT0HnPKpos5VDAkz9NWmCidiuVaL0Od0Y_Isr3cJf2kj2N6gph66i/s640/Brum+Tourist+Photos+by+Karen+Strunks.jpg&quot; width=&quot;580&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;script src=&quot;//storify.com/karenstrunks/birmingham-tourist.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;noscript&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;//storify.com/karenstrunks/birmingham-tourist&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;View the story &quot;Birmingham Tourist&quot; on Storify&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/noscript&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2012/12/becoming-tourist-in-city-where-i-live.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha9pHHwyi3WRbWPwCAS3IpEuv8IKlHaNAolJyii1mXPWipdRssN2dn0YOLEWrj3LhEMCv0uOi_2Jv7Z63fUCxYgFgERmRrW5oMYYjw2u1UfBAF3dDYrst0pTg6Ua8Z6wUOHmjpnkjc0TJi/s72-c/Elizabeth+and+Karen.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total><georss:featurename>Birmingham, West Midlands, UK</georss:featurename><georss:point>52.486243 -1.890401</georss:point><georss:box>52.331536 -2.206258 52.640950000000004 -1.574544</georss:box></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-4889121142274089391</guid><pubDate>Thu, 29 Nov 2012 17:17:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-11-29T17:17:00.975+00:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">best friend</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">hair bling</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">halloween</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">halloween nail art</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">nail art</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">nail bling</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">nail inspiration</category><title>Experiments with nail art - part 2 plus bonus hair bling!</title><description>Hello!!!&lt;br /&gt;
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It&#39;s like coming back to a familiar place after being away from it for a while. November has been an extremely busy month and I hope to tell you all about it when I get the chance to catch my breath! It&#39;s been an amazing month and one of the most packed of the year.&lt;br /&gt;
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But for now may I present you with my latest attempts at nail art (my latest favourite hobby), and I&#39;ve put some bonus bling at the end of the post because it&#39;s just too sparkly to not blog about! Mmmmm sparkles.....&lt;br /&gt;
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I think I called this one Star Crossed Night or something. It&#39;s really easy to do. Just paint your back ground colour. When the base layer is dry, put on randomly placed &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&amp;amp;_nkw=striping+tape&amp;amp;_sacat=0&amp;amp;_from=R40&quot;&gt;nail striping tape&lt;/a&gt;, and paint over with your glitter nail polish!&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ddBMGaoAI6Ou5jeRkBp_2Qb2TF2qdVpcvV76C_HeR4ZjdXwv1MwE5yMXHHtFUqdDKlIJ9Ve6W5VTopJy9yKlFyn2WG9zvQyYvuAsifJmFM8varIfoOlgwV8EN1h7GtEJqg8nUZE7rcta/s1600/nail+art+01.JPG&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;640&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ddBMGaoAI6Ou5jeRkBp_2Qb2TF2qdVpcvV76C_HeR4ZjdXwv1MwE5yMXHHtFUqdDKlIJ9Ve6W5VTopJy9yKlFyn2WG9zvQyYvuAsifJmFM8varIfoOlgwV8EN1h7GtEJqg8nUZE7rcta/s640/nail+art+01.JPG&quot; width=&quot;480&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQoEPX6IrQqufxmg2rG0GFlQWyfrWKnwFEwSQ2-ZFu1bQyq4qjAmylxufy6OkqottcXx94qD7VH7FEs1YFNOejM3bseG6zqI3xKmlp5VNDys5CcZTcRKwSfwCneVJvXy2fruJ9Pu1jKLkB/s1600/nail+art+02.JPG&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;640&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQoEPX6IrQqufxmg2rG0GFlQWyfrWKnwFEwSQ2-ZFu1bQyq4qjAmylxufy6OkqottcXx94qD7VH7FEs1YFNOejM3bseG6zqI3xKmlp5VNDys5CcZTcRKwSfwCneVJvXy2fruJ9Pu1jKLkB/s640/nail+art+02.JPG&quot; width=&quot;480&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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I think this is one of my favourites! This is from a couple of months ago when my nails were actually growing for the first time in year (due to a stay in hospital). They are a lovely length. I&#39;ve used my favourite colour (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OPI-NAIL-POLISH-BIG-APPLE-RED-NL-N25-/261131814918?pt=UK_Health_Beauty_Nails_Manicure_Pedicure_CA&amp;amp;hash=item3cccab4806&quot;&gt;OPI Big Apple Red&lt;/a&gt;), added some bling and painted just one nail with glorious glitter!&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLRuCAsUnjCygMc7jbumXd38Wp-40tUbscJ5DgARpvoP-sRinZbhNYKT3mua17qk-5e5tkXTs37bmuX04Nc3mHqt1V4Px4AIA4fHSKirLzf0NlW_TV-rCUuHoY1L8Et9oDTKHcbwE0SKYU/s1600/nail+art+03.JPG&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;640&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLRuCAsUnjCygMc7jbumXd38Wp-40tUbscJ5DgARpvoP-sRinZbhNYKT3mua17qk-5e5tkXTs37bmuX04Nc3mHqt1V4Px4AIA4fHSKirLzf0NlW_TV-rCUuHoY1L8Et9oDTKHcbwE0SKYU/s640/nail+art+03.JPG&quot; width=&quot;480&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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Leopard print. Red. Sparkles. Bling. YES! :D&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
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My Lovely Mum gave me these beautiful glass hearts which I will treasure forever. They also happened to match my nails perfectly. I should be a nail/finger/glass heart model!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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Halloweeeeeen!!&lt;br /&gt;
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Blood tipped nails..... C&#39;mon, they are scary right?&lt;br /&gt;
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This was my first attempt at gradient nails, if you can&#39;t tell.&lt;br /&gt;
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I refer to you to the fab &lt;a href=&quot;http://nuthinbutanailthing.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/gradient-nails-tutorial-and-tips.html&quot;&gt;Nuthin&#39; But A Nail Thing blog for an awesome tutorial.&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;Though I would say I don&#39;t think wetting the sponge worked for me. It kinda flaked and got stuck to my nails. Which was ok on this occasion for Halloween nails because a bit of texture added to the look. I&#39;m sure the ghosts appreciated the effort I made when I went on my &lt;a href=&quot;http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/ghost-hunting-in-moseley-bog.html&quot;&gt;ghost hunting walk&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;When you apply the polish with a sponge be prepared and allow time to clean up your nails afterwards!&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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This is my second attempt at gradient nails. I used a dry sponge this time. Plus I used more than one sponge - maybe about 4. As soon as one sponge got too &#39;clunky&#39; with polish, I just used a fresh one. I also cut my sponges into smaller pieces, just to make them go a bit further, and so I&#39;m not quite so wasteful.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;TIP:&lt;/b&gt; I paint my nails on Sunday night. It&#39;s a nice little chill out routine before the week ahead. Anyway, after my nails are dry (and I run my nails under cold water to make them set quicker), I rub hand cream (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.boots.com/en/Nivea-Creme-50ml_6105/&quot;&gt;Nivea&lt;/a&gt;) around my nails and off I go to bed. The next morning when I have my shower, I gently use a nail scrub and the excess nail polish peels away.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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Of course you can just go around the nail with a cotton wool bud dipped in nail polish remover too! I guess my method is a bit lower maintenance.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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I got a bit carried away with my &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1311&amp;amp;_nkw=nail+dotting+tool&amp;amp;_sacat=0&amp;amp;_from=R40&quot;&gt;nail dotters&lt;/a&gt; for this one!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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I bought some bottles of glitter and decided to go for red/silver/blue combination. I did my base coat (as always), then whilst the red coat was wet I sprinkled over &amp;nbsp;the glitter. It looks better in real life than in the photograph; it&#39;s more eye catching in the light.&lt;br /&gt;
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&amp;nbsp;And finally...... gold and red gradient. Before and after!&lt;br /&gt;
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I promised you some hair bling. I see a theme here; sparkles, leopard print and red! I&#39;m a bit annoyed with myself at the moment as I seem to have lost the red hair band already.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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Red blingy butterfly. I haven&#39;t worn this yet.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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This one is so sweet! I got it from a lovely vintage shop in Nottingham called &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hopkinsongallery.co.uk/&quot;&gt;Hopkins&lt;/a&gt;. I could have spent hours in there!&lt;/div&gt;
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I think I was attracted to this hair decoration as I have a real-sized hat just like this!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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And my BFF surprised me when this gorgeous ring arrived in the post this week. I LOVE IT! Thank you Best Friend Forever In The Whole Wide World!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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Was that enough sparkles for one blog post? I hope so!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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Anyway, it hasn&#39;t been all work all the time this month. I&#39;m about to dash out for a cocktail evening at a new venue in the city centre. If it&#39;s any good, I&#39;ll let you know! :)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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Say hello on twitter: @&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.twitter.com/karenstrunks&quot;&gt;karenstrunks&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://eepurl.com/rylKP&quot;&gt;Subscribe to my new newsletter!&lt;/a&gt; &amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2012/11/experiments-with-nail-art-part-2-plus.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ddBMGaoAI6Ou5jeRkBp_2Qb2TF2qdVpcvV76C_HeR4ZjdXwv1MwE5yMXHHtFUqdDKlIJ9Ve6W5VTopJy9yKlFyn2WG9zvQyYvuAsifJmFM8varIfoOlgwV8EN1h7GtEJqg8nUZE7rcta/s72-c/nail+art+01.JPG" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-3558199624121608606</guid><pubDate>Sun, 04 Nov 2012 10:59:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-11-29T17:16:56.663+00:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">bhx</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">birmingham airport</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">no.1 traveller</category><title>No.1 Traveller opens at Birmingham Airport</title><description>Last Monday afternoon made my way to&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.birminghamairport.co.uk/&quot;&gt; Birmingham Airport&lt;/a&gt; with my passport in hand.&lt;br /&gt;
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Some of the destinations I could have jetted off to...&lt;/div&gt;
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I made my way to the the rendezvous point and handed over my passport, but I wasn&#39;t about to board a plane, &amp;nbsp;I was going to the opening of Birmingham Airport&#39;s sparkling brand new &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.no1traveller.com/&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;No.1 Traveller&lt;/a&gt; lounge which promises travellers an up-scale pre-flight experience.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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I couldn&#39;t wait!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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At the entrance to the lounge guests are greeted with a wall of Rosemary.&lt;/div&gt;
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Here&#39;s a panoramic view of just one part of the lounge. Behind me was the dining area and to my left a very well stocked bar.&lt;br /&gt;
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This lounge is the largest within Birmingham Airport. The windows look out over the run way so you can chill out and watch the airport action as you wait for your flight.&lt;br /&gt;
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And there is a mezzanine level too! One of the things I tend to naturally check out is the easy access to power supply and you will never be short of somewhere to charge your phone or laptop. They have power points on the walls, by the chairs, on the floor. Great planning there!&lt;br /&gt;
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Want to get into work mode or have a meeting. Step into the office space! And if you want a more private area to have a meeting there is actually a meeting room you can use as well.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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Part of the the dining area. Complimentary food and drink are included in the price of entry into the lounge.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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For example, at breakfast you can chose from a range of pastries, cereals, fruit salad and granola.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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At lunchtime there is salads and soups, bread, cheese, cakes, and fruit, and served all day are sausage or bacon rolls, poached egg pot and Welsh&amp;nbsp;rarebit. I tried the fresh fruit salad and it was the freshest and nicest I have ever tasted, and I saw the bacon roll and poached egg pot being served and they looked amazing.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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And not forgetting that there are complimentary drinks too! Take your pick - tea, coffee, juices, soft drinks, beer, wine and spirits!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;span style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;Set your laptop up and you are good to go with fast, free wifi included too.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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The bowler hats again, just because...they are bowler hat lamps!&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/solihullmayor&quot;&gt;Councillor Ken Hawkins&lt;/a&gt;, the Mayor of Solihull attended the official opening. The new lounge has created 20 new jobs for the area.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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It&#39;s not often a girl gets a chance to don this much bling, and Ken was kind enough to obliged. Just for a minute though!&lt;br /&gt;
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It&#39;s hard to say what my favourite thing about the new lounge is. It&#39;s been so well designed.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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Would I go book into the lounge next time I catching a flight? Yes! In fact, what I think I might well do is arrive even earlier to the airport so I can enjoy spending longer in there - it&#39;s really that nice!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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The lounge is open to anyone. All you do is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.no1traveller.com/birmingham-airport-lounge.htm&quot;&gt;book the lounge online for &lt;b&gt;£22.50&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt; or pay &lt;b&gt;£27.50&lt;/b&gt; on the door. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.no1traveller.com/images/DressCode.png&quot;&gt;Note the dress code&lt;/a&gt;. I think it provides really good value for money too. If you are waiting at the airport you could easily spend the cost of entry to the lounge on food, drinks and magazines/papers etc. I&#39;d say check into the lounge and really relax whilst you are waiting to jet off.&amp;nbsp;The trouble is, you might get too comfy and miss your plane! :)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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No.1 Traveller &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.no1traveller.com/birmingham-airport-lounge.htm&quot;&gt;website&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/No1traveller&quot;&gt;twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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Birmingham Airport &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.birminghamairport.co.uk/&quot;&gt;website&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/bhx_official&quot;&gt;twitter&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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Say hello on twitter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.twitter.com/karenstrunks&quot;&gt;@karenstrunks&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2012/11/no1-traveller-opens-at-birmingham.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKxx4RmQQllrCM0FnmaDwRbRCSlUFzc3MBFRKDDnVTTcUM_A7Bqti_7cT0UyP8_xl2huiPztzTnM1KCQkCPbQnKDyeN_mDX9G2xkLJT_hjbUpog0ShoQRZp0EMEHsJ8i5TX6Di4p14REh6/s72-c/Passport.JPG" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>4</thr:total><georss:featurename>Birmingham Airport (BHX), Birmingham, West Midlands B26 3QJ, UK</georss:featurename><georss:point>52.4521237 -1.7330816</georss:point><georss:box>52.4327702 -1.7725636 52.4714772 -1.6935996</georss:box></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-8931403279632079616</guid><pubDate>Fri, 02 Nov 2012 20:46:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-11-02T20:48:09.462+00:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">divining rods</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">ghost hunting</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">ghost walk</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">m2 ghost hunting app</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">moseley bog</category><title>Ghost Hunting in Moseley Bog! </title><description>Warning: Only read this when it&#39;s daylight.&lt;br /&gt;
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Hallowe&#39;en!! Scary stuff right?&lt;br /&gt;
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Well, not scary enough for me so I invited my friend &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/falsedog&quot;&gt;Ben&lt;/a&gt; to go ghost hunting with me on Thursday night. That sounds like I was going to go ghost hunting anyway. I can assure you I was not! I&#39;m not that daft.&lt;br /&gt;
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Pre-ghost hunting preparations involved getting my kit ready and looking out of the window at the weather. It was bucketing down! Would that stop determined paranormal investigators? Not at all!&lt;br /&gt;
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I joked with Ben that we would need pumpkin lanterns to light our way in the woods. He didn&#39;t have a pumpkin, but look at this apple carving! Very cute.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx5CkEML5NtvL1l3zgrYf6LSs4Jr3ITDUAXe9cOhYi2eA_FdNVPGYwUHJwRWF613seIURucNN_uTNw-LOIPjmWP-fu-vU5jR-Ayj8-doQL7pH4XRnj3L6cYuwOWlReT_4jefVaF_LZC1F6/s1600/Apple+Lantern.JPG&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;313&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx5CkEML5NtvL1l3zgrYf6LSs4Jr3ITDUAXe9cOhYi2eA_FdNVPGYwUHJwRWF613seIURucNN_uTNw-LOIPjmWP-fu-vU5jR-Ayj8-doQL7pH4XRnj3L6cYuwOWlReT_4jefVaF_LZC1F6/s320/Apple+Lantern.JPG&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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My &#39;kit&#39; comprised of my compact camera, iPhone with the&lt;a href=&quot;https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/ghost-hunter-m2/id398120588?mt=8&quot;&gt; M2 Ghost Hunting app&lt;/a&gt; (stop sniggering at the back!), divining rods, and flip camera and 2 torches to light our way. I wore my flowery wellington boots. Oh, and I had painted my nails; tips blood dipped.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;This was my first attempt at gradient nails. Not perfect, but I got away with imperfections due to the Halloween nature of them. Let&#39;s see how attempt no.2 goes!&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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Wrapped up against the elements, we walked the 5 minutes to &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moseley_Bog&quot;&gt;Moseley Bog&lt;/a&gt; which is particularly known as a place that inspired &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien&quot;&gt;JRR Tolkien&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;whilst he was writing&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings&quot;&gt;Lord Of The Rings&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit&quot;&gt;The Hobbit&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
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We stepped off the main road and through a muddy path that led the way into a field. We walked through and found another pathway which led to another field and then the tree lined paths narrowed and became a little more windy. Torches on, we tried to make a note of how many turns we had taken - imagine getting lost in the woods all night so close to home!&lt;br /&gt;
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The rain was relentless and with the trees losing their leaves for winter, there was very little shelter about. We walked along the path with sheets of rain thundering all around us and found a tree that offered very little shelter really, but it was the best we were going to get!&lt;br /&gt;
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I wrapped up my iPhone in a little bag and booted up the ghost app.&lt;br /&gt;
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&#39;Ring&#39;, it said. Ring! Lord of the Rings!! Tell me that&#39;s not a coincidence!&lt;br /&gt;
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The radar that detects spirits was lighting up all around us.&lt;br /&gt;
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Here&#39;s Ben. He holds the torch. His was better than mine.&lt;br /&gt;
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These are Ben&#39;s misty pics. We figured out that the mist is just our breath in the cold air. What a disappointment!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3nYtxxcwBktd5draxxdwrsx97403-stjQSe6NZb1Hn_-IqIijKbeVwbt5S2AxTWOm16FAyp2oDxUtmqT-6uwkcJR4-9fXdFHkwI6rdMOsDu-RkkbyFpir7LwiehyphenhyphenBmXATvgpL9YCNlmzk/s1600/Moseley+Bog+Mist+01.JPG&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;640&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3nYtxxcwBktd5draxxdwrsx97403-stjQSe6NZb1Hn_-IqIijKbeVwbt5S2AxTWOm16FAyp2oDxUtmqT-6uwkcJR4-9fXdFHkwI6rdMOsDu-RkkbyFpir7LwiehyphenhyphenBmXATvgpL9YCNlmzk/s640/Moseley+Bog+Mist+01.JPG&quot; width=&quot;480&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYHf_xpZG7ioyweR-MJE-a55nYl3Yk02WF-SppiTbd4_V7NSTEcSt7zda9PFK2FX-OwIk8GiqssxdJcorjByiG7zR0VaPcVIOpOTRXtGKJVO0U4VVQRyyvus98Xs01SrYVGOAPopQ4cSrk/s1600/Moseley+Bog+Mist.JPG&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;480&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYHf_xpZG7ioyweR-MJE-a55nYl3Yk02WF-SppiTbd4_V7NSTEcSt7zda9PFK2FX-OwIk8GiqssxdJcorjByiG7zR0VaPcVIOpOTRXtGKJVO0U4VVQRyyvus98Xs01SrYVGOAPopQ4cSrk/s640/Moseley+Bog+Mist.JPG&quot; width=&quot;640&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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My divining rods. Nice nails!&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmthaWLEMFUpYdJm24qPwEMezdPamwxx5Z476NwefqXNPDkTw3k22VeNNW-cXSs2bMWyOhJ5RKDpBUPgEEwsR3AJCxuXdjyuErSbcNwpr0sBVYdmpoSzucOd3Yt2CcBUD56uKNe0IhZQkA/s1600/Divining+Rods.JPG&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;640&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmthaWLEMFUpYdJm24qPwEMezdPamwxx5Z476NwefqXNPDkTw3k22VeNNW-cXSs2bMWyOhJ5RKDpBUPgEEwsR3AJCxuXdjyuErSbcNwpr0sBVYdmpoSzucOd3Yt2CcBUD56uKNe0IhZQkA/s640/Divining+Rods.JPG&quot; width=&quot;476&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;No sense! Standing in the woods in the rain checking my ghost app for spirits!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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But check this out!! Lots of orbs which are raindrops caught in the cameras flash, but if you check the top left hand corner and tell me what you see!!&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggPbOhIZN5exJSPEuoj6WoENL1c2aFoS1WwlBpvuNBODUdfvP8Y8b0UH0D44U9JTQu5DX8yFtVwvJoJkMjX2lYaa8NYIkfLkjXanz_w5VIguZXVaecPj6fF1TWOGbqNKVQmue1eyMdj7Fj/s1600/Skulls+in+orbs.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;480&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggPbOhIZN5exJSPEuoj6WoENL1c2aFoS1WwlBpvuNBODUdfvP8Y8b0UH0D44U9JTQu5DX8yFtVwvJoJkMjX2lYaa8NYIkfLkjXanz_w5VIguZXVaecPj6fF1TWOGbqNKVQmue1eyMdj7Fj/s640/Skulls+in+orbs.jpg&quot; width=&quot;640&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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Do you see it?! Or rather, do you see....them?!&lt;br /&gt;
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I must admit when I first saw them when I was checking the back of the camera, I was freaked out.&lt;br /&gt;
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I enjoyed the haunted woods and didn&#39;t get too scared and I only screamed once when I thought Ben was walking behind me and I saw a black man-sized figure in front of me.&lt;br /&gt;
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We popped to the local pub afterwards to come back to the land of the living and I enjoyed a &#39;spirit&#39; and Ben had a &#39;whine&#39;. Sorry. Don&#39;t blame me. That&#39;s Ben&#39;s joke.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6VwuSZkoVoE7LcIQVcxlC-tRUyXONtE15mWegrO1LWz2LMqGR69bXFQwHIfd5EFplOHG4XfaZmXl7PwU573yAecU-sLwgAVubLGoFzns6r6-VKAmWDJ0ok2-Lq4bYTDCNmSLOkH-qyJCb/s1600/knives.JPG&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;480&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6VwuSZkoVoE7LcIQVcxlC-tRUyXONtE15mWegrO1LWz2LMqGR69bXFQwHIfd5EFplOHG4XfaZmXl7PwU573yAecU-sLwgAVubLGoFzns6r6-VKAmWDJ0ok2-Lq4bYTDCNmSLOkH-qyJCb/s640/knives.JPG&quot; width=&quot;640&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Back to reality in the pub&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Thank you Ben for being a great ghost hunter! I&#39;ll now make you an official member of the B13 Ghost Hunting Gang which I&#39;ve just made up. Get in touch if you are made of tough stuff and would like to be part of the gang! ;)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Say Hello on twitter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.twitter.com/karenstrunks&quot;&gt;@karenstrunks&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2012/11/ghost-hunting-in-moseley-bog.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx5CkEML5NtvL1l3zgrYf6LSs4Jr3ITDUAXe9cOhYi2eA_FdNVPGYwUHJwRWF613seIURucNN_uTNw-LOIPjmWP-fu-vU5jR-Ayj8-doQL7pH4XRnj3L6cYuwOWlReT_4jefVaF_LZC1F6/s72-c/Apple+Lantern.JPG" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total><georss:featurename>Moseley Bog Nature Reserve, Birmingham, West Midlands B13, UK</georss:featurename><georss:point>52.436528 -1.8657956</georss:point><georss:box>52.434108 -1.8707311 52.438948 -1.8608601</georss:box></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-7550883741223190316</guid><pubDate>Sat, 27 Oct 2012 10:35:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-10-27T11:35:12.710+01:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">4am</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">4am photographs</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">4am Project</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">4am Project Nottingham</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">4amproject</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Lakeside Arts Centre</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">photography</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">photography project</category><title>New global 4am Project date plus bonus Nottingham event!</title><description>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
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&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://4amproject.org/&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;87&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVWYkjj6yDW88UvtF4PxWBZN0xU2_cZZNTFqi-x2Gf6PXgJbb2JBJ_a6Qfg_XvbBYcUdOq1Ai1zORtrJKpnZMY8Hd5xwJJeyIcEo50Sj67VnOwvAasU4QUjyqMkIZeEKtKdZyrsqJRwsdC/s400/4am_logo_180mm.png&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I&#39;m calling out to photographers and those with a curiosity and like to try something a little &lt;strike&gt;crazy&lt;/strike&gt; different at 4am on Sunday 25th November.&lt;br /&gt;
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The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.4amproject.org/&quot;&gt;4am Project&lt;/a&gt; is back and not only is this another global event, I&#39;m also hosting a &lt;a href=&quot;http://4amprojectnottingham.eventbrite.com/&quot;&gt;4am Project photo walk in Nottingham city centre!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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Tickets are free and places are limited!&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.eventbrite.com/event/4649185840?ref=ebtnebregn&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Eventbrite - 4am Project in Nottingham!&quot; src=&quot;http://www.eventbrite.com/custombutton?eid=4649185840&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
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Grab some &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.flickr.com/search/show/?q=4amproject&amp;amp;s=int&quot;&gt;4am photography inspiration&lt;/a&gt; from some of the 6000+ photography archive from the project from 50 countries!&lt;br /&gt;
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Where to find the 4am Project online....&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.4amproject.org/&quot;&gt;Website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.flickr.com/groups/992728@N21/&quot;&gt;Flickr Group&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.facebook.com/pages/4am-Project/114027808623358?ref=hl&quot;&gt;Facebook Group&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.twitter.com/4amproject&quot;&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=4amproject+-darth&amp;amp;s=int&amp;amp;z=t&amp;amp;ss=0&amp;amp;ct=0&amp;amp;mt=all&amp;amp;adv=1&quot;&gt;View the archives&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://4amproject.org/get-involved/&quot;&gt;It&#39;s really easy to take part!&lt;/a&gt; All you need is a camera (and a willingness to get up at 4am!)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If you have any questions, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.karenstrunks.com/contact/&quot;&gt;just give me a shout!&lt;/a&gt; :)&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2012/10/new-global-4am-project-date-plus-bonus.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVWYkjj6yDW88UvtF4PxWBZN0xU2_cZZNTFqi-x2Gf6PXgJbb2JBJ_a6Qfg_XvbBYcUdOq1Ai1zORtrJKpnZMY8Hd5xwJJeyIcEo50Sj67VnOwvAasU4QUjyqMkIZeEKtKdZyrsqJRwsdC/s72-c/4am_logo_180mm.png" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-4734941020380936557</guid><pubDate>Wed, 17 Oct 2012 19:09:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-10-17T20:22:31.445+01:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">40th Birthday</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">best friend</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">my birthday</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">my mum</category><title>My 2012 Birthday</title><description>Well, seeing as I recorded my birthday celebrations last year, it must now be deemed a blogging tradition! I think that&#39;s how traditions start anyway...&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Last year was my &lt;span style=&quot;font-size: xx-small;&quot;&gt;40th&lt;/span&gt; birthday! hehee. This year it&#39;s the year of my 2012 birthday!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I storify&#39;d some of the few days of celebration. Thanks to my BFF for a fab day in Manchester and my awesome Mum for an adventure in Liverpool. And thanks to all my friends for joining in with the celebrations online too! :) x&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;script src=&quot;http://storify.com/karenstrunks/my-2012-birthday.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;noscript&gt;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://storify.com/karenstrunks/my-2012-birthday&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;View the story &quot;My 2012 Birthday&quot; on Storify&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/noscript&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2012/10/my-2012-birthday.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842056190667723857.post-5904816469290311781</guid><pubDate>Thu, 11 Oct 2012 17:29:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-10-12T11:06:46.564+01:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">balcony</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">herbs</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">strawberries</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">sunflower</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">tomatoes</category><title>Goodbye bountiful* balcony</title><description>*barren&lt;br /&gt;
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&amp;nbsp;This year I decided I would have an Edible Balcony.&lt;br /&gt;
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My balcony is like a sun trap. It catches rays all day long - how could anything &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; grow on my balcony especially if I remember to water and talk to the plants!&lt;br /&gt;
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I&#39;m going to turn into a farmer(ess) and start &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/10/10/food-prices-likely-to-raise-national-farmers-union_n_1953420.html?utm_hp_ref=uk&quot;&gt;blaming the wet summer for the poor produce.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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First up, my strawberries. I got lovely healthy plants that showed a lot of promise, but delivered a lot of disappointment.&lt;br /&gt;
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What the hell is THIS?!&lt;/div&gt;
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I planted 10 (TEN!) sunflower seeds and cared for and nurtured them.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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And out of the TEN seeds I planted, just 2 fought their way through and managed to show signs of life&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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They took about 4 months to blossom, but it was worth the wait. They were beautiful and really, really cheery. I was quite selfish and instead of sharing their happy faces with my neighbours I turned them so they were looking in the window and facing me hehee.&lt;/div&gt;
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These flipping herbs. I grew these from seeds. They took AGES. Every day I checked on them. I talked to them. And I was delighted when little shoots of hope appeared!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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Eventually they were put outside for just an hour or so a day to acclimatise to what would become their new environment. I handled these seedlings with kid gloves! If I had wanted something that needed so much attention I would have had kids! Or a cat.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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And they got stronger and more robust. I made room for them in my herb box with my chives and sage. And then they gave up and died!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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Tomatoes. Come on tomatoes, you won&#39;t let me down will you?!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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I can&#39;t really complain too much about my tomato plants. They produced a reasonable yield (hark at me with the farming lingo!), and I got around 20 baby tomatoes altogether.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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I&#39;m not sure what I&#39;ll do next year. I might just plant 100 sunflower seeds (and maybe ten will grow) as I got to most pleasure out of them.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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How did your garden grow this year? :)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
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Say hello on twitter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.twitter.com/karenstrunks&quot;&gt;@karenstrunks&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;Say Hello on twitter! @karenstrunks :)&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://abitmoreofkaren.blogspot.com/2012/10/goodbye-bountiful-balcony.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Karen Strunks)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPwbrXKZTmD8iz08yx4__sWMr89YYf5IisKZt3nh_RMmLnW8jqSIDJat1ktIx8nwSz1_4-5j32JZRwdsfMtvMQQal3S4Ywn_EeQO6u3cvp_IhfHWWymHXw_sO43zzP5DQGRkax4dn5uTg1/s72-c/Edible+Balcony+03.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total></item></channel></rss>