A Little Bit About Me

See I’ve definitely shrunk!!

…some people would say I’m eccentric… you can judge for yourselves

I turned 50 in November 2017.  I don’t know how the hell that happened!  When I look in the mirror I’m always surprised it’s not the 18 year old me looking back…. time just rages on.

My life was very ordinary, until I realised it wasn’t.  Until I realised no-one is ordinary, no-ones life is ordinary and we can all and do all experience the extraordinary in our everyday lives.  We simply don’t always notice.Way back in 2005 we upped stix and moved our lives to the beautiful town (village)  of Llanwrtyd Wells in Mid Wales.  No planning, just a spontaneous move bourne out of desperation; We run a B&B from it (Cerdyn Villa, LD5 4RS, come and visit us 🙂 ). We could not be happier.Life is far from ordinary and far from extraordinary.  My blog finds the extraordinary within the ordinary.  It is a celebration of all things everyday that make each of us unique and ordinarily extraordinary human beings. …..

Me, The Bog Frog with Stag party

My alter-ego “Lady lily of the Pink”

We’re in Wales because Hubby and I quit our middle management office jobs after a two-day holiday to a place chosen by sticking a pin in a map.  We visited Llanwrtyd Wells, Mid Wales and returned home to sell our house, hand in our notices and pull our 7yr old son out of school. We moved ourselves here lock stock and car transporter within 3 months of the initial visit.  Without a care in the world,much of a plan or a backward glance.

reflexology panel

Tangerine Dream – Acrylic on Canvas

I always felt I had “an artist in me” so started community art and stained glass classes and now that’s what I do.  These days I also use our home as a studio for my art and glass business (Berni Benton Glass & Art)

As well as the B&B and the arty stuff, I do gardening work, the odd bit of bar work and the odd bit of waitressing and anything else that might present itself.  For a while I ran a craft shop called In the Pink.

I L O V E people who ‘don’t fit into a box’ , eccentrics, rebels, free-thinkers.  Anyone who’s a bit ‘alternative’.

Which is probably why I joined the Monster Raving Loony Party as my alter ego, Lady Lily the Pink, soon after moving here and discovering my home is in the town where Screaming Lord Sutch played his last ever gig and also the place where the party has its Brecknockshire H/Q.  One day I shall stand for parliament …but that’s a future story.

I own a 1968 Hillman Husky, it’s now magnificently sprayed in a stunning magenta pink, and called Ffloyd.  Ffloyd after the band and the double “eff” in honour of my Welsh home.  Sometimes she/he (my car is gender fluid) and Ido charitable things together, like the annual  Pink Car Rally.  Predominantly, I enjoy the fact that driving around in Ffloyd brings a smile to pretty much everyone’s face and leads me into random conversations with complete strangers.

raising awareness of the 2 year anniversary of the temporary lights

I consider myself a bit of an activist, possibly an antagonist.  I like to stand up and be counted when I feel people are wronged.  I like to ‘advocate’ for those who feel they don’t have a voice.  As such I often find myself in ‘hot water’ or in the local press for making a noise about local issues when, perhaps, the public servants would prefer everyone to keep quiet!.  Anyway, I’m sure my blogs will cover some of these antics…

I do, of course, happen to live in the most eccentric town in the UK; also the smallest.  A happy coincidence (some would say ‘fated’).  Llanwrtyd Wells invented Bog Snorkelling; Man v Horse Marathon; Mountain Bike Chariot Racing; to name but a few.  It also created the World Alternative Games… gathering eccentric pastimes from around the world together bi-annually to the benefit of the community, the amusement of the world and the interest of the press.  I take my hat of to the great characters and the wonderful personalities you will no doubt read about hereI’m planning to “ramble on”, with rose-tinted ramblings on anything that takes my fancy.  Mostly relating to pinkness, looniness, eccentric activities and adventures with Ffloyd.   But being driven to advocate for those with quieter voices you may find the odd ‘rant’ amongst the rosy glow.  We all have extraordinary in our ordinary, I hope I can help you find yours.

…some people would say I’m eccentric… I think of myself as ordinarily extraordinary, just like you xx

Really really red