I Wish I Was There- more screening announcements!

Super pleased to announce another couple of screenings for 'I Wish I Was There'. I'll do them in order of appearance(!), so firstly, on Saturday 14th of March (2pm), it will be playing at Chester Animation Festival. The screening is part of the wider event that is Chester International Film Festival, which all takes place at Storyhouse Cinema, Chester. I am stoked to be part of it! You can see the full line up (I'm in good company) and buy your tickets (at the ridiculously good value price of £3!) by clicking HERE!

And then later in March (Weds 25th), it will be playing as part of Screener Short Film Night, in that there London! It will be at 93 Feet East (150 Brick Ln, London E1 6QL) doors open 6:30pm and there's no need for tickets- just turn up ready to enjoy a great selection of short films!

I'll be in attendance at both of them- be lovely to see some familiar faces. Really looking forward to the events and checking out different cinemas/ community screenings around the country and seeing some amazing short films.

Despite all this positive news, I have had a fair amount of rejections: I've had 5 'no's' and 4 'yes's' up to now. Probably right messed up my apostrophes there, but whateves, it's my blog, I'll do what I want! But, I will do a longer post about that I expect, perhaps when it comes round to putting my film on line or something. Anyway, we shall see. Just thought I'd quickly add this note at the end for balance and so no one thinks it's all going swimmingly for my film! xo

AFC Bournemouth Women Photos

Sunday 18th Jan had us head to the south coast for AFC Bournemouth Women, as they were pitted against Man City Women in the Women's FA Cup fourth round proper. The game was controversially played at the Snows Stadium, home of AFC Totton, a 25 mile drive away from Bournemouth's Vitality Stadium. A kick in the teeth for the fans and women's football in general. Despite this, the game sold out (2,089 attendance) and it was a good atmosphere. Though pretty wild to see the likes of Lauren Hemp, Bunny Shaw, Viv Miedema and Alex Greenwood in such an intimate setting.

Man City won 0-6, as one may expect for a game where the current WSL leaders are drawn against a club who are in tier 3 (FAWNL Southern Premier). But, Bournemouth did themselves proud and were a great advert for the National League. Let's hope some of the supporters who watched them on Sunday convert to loyal fans...

Ten photos below, full set on my Flickr HERE!

Crochet Scarf

Now the recipient has received it, I can now share the final instalment of my Christmas crochet! I created this 'Hot Fudge' Robbie Williams inspired scarf for one of my brothers:

I love how crisp the text looks and think it appears really smart with a white background. The yarn used is Women’s Institute Hobbycraft exclusive, 100% premium acrylic DK yarn. Using a 3mm hook, single crochet, yarn under/ yarn over technique. This was 11,400 stitches in total and took 31 hours to complete. The gift was thankfully well received... Now off to crochet something for me again!

Worcester City Women Photos

First photo set of the years and it's 3 points on the road. 4 league games unbeaten. Love this team <3 Northampton Town Women 1-2 Worcester City Women FC, FAWNL Division 1 Midlands, Fernie Fields 11/01/26, att. 147. Full set of photos HERE.

Crochet Lanyard

The lanyard on my water bottle broke a few days ago (sad times):

...but never fear! I called my crochet skills into action and voila, I made a new one:

I used a stitch called Star Stitch, something I've never previously tried but thought it looked pretty and made for a great lanyard. I loosely based it on this tutorial. I made it a little too long for my liking (I chained 76, which in hindsight was too many- 68 or 66 might have been better options), but besides that, I am really proud of the result. I definitely want to use this stitch again somehow...

It didn't take all that long to make either, about 1.75ish hours. I used 100% cotton yarn, because I wanted minimal stretch and a 2.5mm hook. It's going to feel weird going back up to a 4mm when I make my next garment! Was a nice quick little project to do, especially after all the Christmas stuff, which all took ages! Catch you in the next one xo

Film Recommendations 2025

Like last year, here are my top 25 film recommendations out of all the feature films I watched during 2025. In total I watched 106 films (including 4 rewatches), down from 143 last year. My target is generally 104- which is two (new to me) watches a week, which I like to think is a manageable amount. My film watching this year definitely ebbed and flowed, with some periods of watching several a week, including more than one a day, contrasting with large stretches of not watching any for weeks at a time. I hope to be more consistent with it this year, but of late I’ve been finding it hard to make the time for it for various reasons.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the list! This is in no particular order. The title of the film is in bold, followed by the the date which it was made according to IMDb (in brackets) and then the name of the director(s).

1. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024) Crossingham, Merlin; Park, Nick
2. Hard Truths (2024) Leigh, Mike
3. The Brutalist (2024) Corbet, Brady
4. I’m Still Here (2024) Salles, Walter
5. Flow (2024) Zilbalodis, Gints
6. American Movie (1999) Smith, Chris
7. One to One: John & Yoko (2024) Macdonald, Kevin; Rice-Edwards, Sam
8. The Surfer (2024) Finnegan, Lorcan
9. She Said (2022) Schrader, Maria
10. The Ballad of Wallis Island (2025) Griffiths, James
11. The Perfect Neighbor (2025) Gandbhir, Geeta
12. Lowland Kids (2025) Winther, Sandra
13. Power Station (2025) Edelstyn, Daniel; Powell, Hilary
14. On Falling (2024) Carreira, Laura
15. Pelikan Blue (2023) Csaki, Laszlo
16. Brigsby Bear (2017) McCary, Dave
17. Vengeance (2022) Novak, B.J
18. Tummy Monster (2024) Lyons, Ciaran
19. Julie Keeps Quiet (2024) Van Dijl, Leonardo
20. Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (2025) Han Jin Kuang, Liane-Cho; Vallade, Maïlys
21. Lesbian Space Princess (2024) Hough Hobbs, Emma; Varghese, Leela
22. Bob Trevino Likes It (2024) Laymon, Tracie
23. Sorry, Baby (2025) Victor, Eva
24. Grand Theft Hamlet (2024) Crane, Sam; Grylls, Pinny
25. Bird (2024) Arnold, Andrea

Enjoy and any recs for this year, please leave in the comments xo

2025 in Football

Happy New Year! Right then, straight to the point: stats, stats and more stats!

2025 was actually a really good year in football for both myself and my partner. It was the second best in terms of numbers (I attended 115 matches) since the year 2019, where I did a whopping 182! I’m not sure, if I’ll ever reach those heights again, but never say never… Out of the 115 games, 110 of them were ‘new' (to me) grounds, I saw 461 goals (averaging 4 a game) and my most seen team were, of course, my faves Worcester City Women FC at 8 times.

The lowest attendance was 10 (at several county league games) and the highest was 5,964 at the Liberty Stadium, where Wales Women took on Italy Women in the UEFA Women’s Nations League, back in June.

But, of course groundhopping isn’t only about stats, though I’m sure some will contest that opinion… It is of course about the enjoyment of watching the beautiful game in weird and wonderful places all around the UK and beyond. And, I will say, that my enthusiasm and pleasure for doing so has really been rekindled this year. I think one of the reasons for that is, because we’ve been to more interesting games/ grounds, which is obviously a huge help. Kind of how we used to do it way back when, just pick a ground or game which we really want to go to and then just go to it! It’s really that simple and those are always the best days out.

I think as well, the fact that I’ve been getting back into photography has had a lot to do with it. I love being behind the camera, so I need to keep on top of that and make it more of a regular occurrence in 2026. I have several games lined up already to photograph, so fingers crossed the weather plays nice and the clubs actually get back to me when I email for permission. I’m aware both of those things are out of my control, but still, one should never give up hope!

It’s also been great continuing attending Worcester City Women’s games, as well as being an ad hoc volunteer photographer for them. I love being part of a club in which my outlook and ethics align with so strongly and it’s great to be able to give back in whatever small way I can.

Ok, so time for my top 10 grounds of the year. As always, this list is not an easy thing to compile, but I tried my best. Also, I’m a sucker for a ground with an athletics track, which will be obvious when you read this list! I’m not sure what it is about them, but they always seem to have an interesting looking large stand, plus often some old curved terracing. Phwoar! The list is in order in which I visited, because to put them in order of my favourite, would not be an enjoyable task.

List is below, enjoy! I hope you have an amazing 2026, catch you at a game <3

Twerton Park

Bath City FC 2-0 Tonbridge Angels
National League South, 15/03/25
Attendance: 1073

Victoria Bottoms (phone photograph- definitely does not do the ground justice)

Nanpean Rovers 6-0 Roche AFC
St Piran League Division 1 East, 19/04/25
Attendance: 432

Wakefield Road

Lepton Highlanders 5-3 Greetland AFC
Yorkshire Amateur Supreme Division, 03/05/25
Attendance: 50

GER Sports Ground

March Town United 2-0 Ipswich Wanderers FC
Men’s FA Cup Preliminary Round, 16/08/25
Attendance: 192

Guru Nanak

Guru Nanak FC 1-0 Minster FC
Kent County Football League Premier Division, 06/09/25
Attendance: 51

Kuflink Stadium

Ebbsfleet United 5-0 Roche AFC
Men’s FA Cup Second Round Qualifying, 13/09/25
Attendance: 574

London Marathon Community Track

Stonewall FC 2-1 Harrow United
Middlesex County League Premier Division, 11/10/25
Attendance: 10

Alexander Stadium

West Bromwich Albion Women 1-1 Middlesbrough Women FC
FAWNL Northern Premier Division, 02/11/25
Attendance: 111

South Kesteven Stadium

Grantham Town FC 2-2 Abbey Hulton United
FA Vase Third Round Proper, 08/11/25
Attendance: 232

Moorways Stadium

Pride Park FC 1-3 Derby County Women Devs
Derbyshire County Cup, 21/12/25
Attendance: 52

And for a bonus ‘game of the season’:

Notts County Women FC 0-4 Worcester City Women FC
FAWNL Division One Midlands, 12/10/25
Attendance: 65 at Coronation Park

Christmas Crochet Extravaganza!!

I’ve been a bit quiet on here over the last month or so, because as the title may suggest, I’ve been doing a LOT of crochet for Christmas gifts for my family. Unfortunately none of it I was able to share on here on the off chance anyone saw it prior to the big day! But as that has now passed and gifts have all been gifted (and well received), long blog post incoming. Strap in!

I was very ambitious in the lead up in terms of time I had available to complete what I wanted to (the gifts were not small and were mostly self drafted). And I also didn’t account for breaks/ rest days/ crochet injuries (yes, it’s a thing, my poor shoulder)! Which all slowed me down a bit. Unfortunately because of this, I was unable to finish one, so my other brother will have to receive his in a week or so. If I do decide to take on such a mammoth task again in the future, I shall definitely give myself more time. But as other plans fell through for this year, I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. And I’m pleased I did.

The first one (and the one which I was most excited about) was the Totoro plush from the Miyazaki film ‘My Neighbour Totoro’. This one was actually from a pattern- though I will say it’s the most amazing pattern I’ve ever seen. Full of detailed descriptions, pictures, videos. Everything. If you’re inspired by this post, then you can purchase said pattern HERE. Either way, the creator deserves full credit for the pattern.

I actually did a test first, to create a smaller version (the pattern has three variations included- one is the main Totoro and the other two are the small blue and white ones, which Mai first comes across in the film), because there were a lot of new techniques in the pattern. And I wanted to see if I was able to do it and if it looked good. I actually replaced the blue for pink, because I had a lot of spare pink yarn. And why can’t I just use another colour?! I have ideas for some pretty whacky designs, so watch this space for those…

pictured with an existing Totoro plush I already have

making of

testing out the eyes- I ended up going with the one on the left, which I
created using safety eyes and 100% cotton embroidery thread and a 2.5mm hook

It didn’t come out perfect, but I was pleased with it and confident enough to go into creating the big Totoro design. I used just 28 grams of the pink yarn and around 5 grams of the white (though I did not weigh this). This one took 19 hours in total.

As you can see from the photo, I also didn’t use the chenille yarn as advised in the pattern, because I didn’t have any, but also wanted to see how it would turn out by just using regular yarn. And I actually quite like the effect. I am aiming to purchase some chenille yarn though next, because I’d love to see how it looks all fluffy and cute! Plus, it would be a new challenge to me, because I’ve not actually used it before besides a tiny test piece.

Before I forget, all the yarn used throughout is post is Women’s Institute Hobbycraft exclusive, 100% premium acrylic DK yarn. All using a 3mm hook, single crochet, yarn under/ yarn over technique.

Ok, so now the big one! Here’s a few pics of how Totoro turned out:

And I’ll just say I am immensely proud of him! He looks soooo cute and I’ve crocheted him really neatly. I must say he was hard to give away! But I guess I can always make another. And I will. I’m going to create a Totoro army! The house will be full of him, though my partner may have something to say about that…

This one took 18 hours (getting slightly quicker!), and I used 33 grams of the grey yarn and just 6 grams of the cream colour.

The next one I made was a cushion for my dad, of one of his paintings:

the original painting

Got to be honest, I was super proud of this one too- I thought it turned out really well. The final measurements were around 12.5x12 inch. And yes, I crocheted the back panel as well. Which was a bit of a boring task, because it was so repetitive, but I think the end result was worth it, rather than just sewing the front to a piece of fabric. This one took 29 hours in total, including sewing the inner pillow-like case inner to house the stuffing. I didn’t want to stuff straight into the crochet, because I wanted an extra layer separating it, because I didn’t want to risk any of the stuffing poking through or owt. Should also say that for this one and the next one, I created the pattern using the website Stitch Fiddle. So you can add a picture and it will grid it up for you, like this:

Ok, lastly, was the scarf I made for my brother, of his DJ/ producer logo:

Again, I was really pleased with this one, too! I love how well the text came out and really liked the tassel detail. It would have been better if it was a bit longer, so I guess it could be more of a ‘display scarf’ if you like, but I would have still been here crocheting it, if it was any longer!

This one took 34.5 hours in total. So yeah, it was pretty much my full time job for the last four weeks! And I’m about a third through my other brothers gift, which will be appear on here once it’s finished. Right, enough of this, I’ve got some crochet to do!

xo