I are been mostly ...........

Blimey, it's been a while since I was here.

Not had the time or inclination to blog for ages but couldn't resist a piccie of my stress relief system.
I've had this for a couple of months now and get the chance to set up in a mates rehearsal rooms on a Friday afternoon for an hour or so.
It's bloody hard work compared to my Roland electronic kit but it makes me smile.

Lots going on as usual but I'm sure Dive will post the 60th Anniversary celebrations we are having at work this weekend, then it's off to Goodwood for The Revival next weekend.

Got some nice shots from the 3rd Test match at Edgbaston against South Africa as well, so will try to get those up at some point, (there was a streaker) !!!

Oh and Tiger, if you are out there, I'll drop you a line soon.

Barnes & Barnes - A tribute.

Nipped over to Belgium for a few days last week and snapped a few pictures to kick off some regular posts for Project Blue.
I thought Blue Monday would sound good but that will have to wait because I found this....

Why would anyone build several small water fountains from lobster claws and fish heads unless it was a tribute to the stupendously wonderful Barnes and Barnes song "Fish Heads"

Stick with it....

Blue too

I'm off to Belgium again at 03:00 in the morning (yeah)!
So to tide things over until I get back, here are a couple of "Project Blue" efforts from yesterday morning in the city.



I'm not too sure what was going on in the ladies loo at the car park, could it be a giant insect zapping machine or a "tan while you pee" system?

Off to pack and get an early night.

Blue Moon

Vic has Project Blue going on over at her place at the moment and I thought I would have a go myself.
I took this yesterday from the garden as it was the first bit of blue I had seen in a while and I even managed to get the moon in there.
(5 points if you can spot it)

If this goes badly and I can't find much blue I may have to post a picture of Albert Collins.
We shall see.

Bite size

These little morsels were hatched in a raised flower bed outside the paint shop at work.

Recipie suggestions please?

I think crispy duck as a starter with bite size kebabs to follow.
I didn't mean it Lynn, they now live on the pond at the front of the factory with all the others and are getting very well fed.
(Foie gras perhaps)?

How did we do ?

Lynn wanted to see if we could post about similar stuff again today so, as great minds think alike.............

Drums

Beer

Work

I don't have any decent shots of rugby at the moment but thats one of the other things I have a passion for.
Oh, and weemen.

So Lynn, how did we do?

Up Close and Personal

I couldn't believe it when I nipped over to Lynn's site this evening and found that she had taken some pictures of the poppies in her garden.
I took a few shots at Mum's on Sunday and some from my garden on Saturday, which proves that great minds think alike.

I thought it might be a good chance to try out the macro capability of my camera, so here are some garden flowers which may be overlooked by most.

Moss needs flowers too.

Thyme flowers are nice in a salad but clear out the spiders first.

This is the pot that the thyme is in.

Complete with lichen flowers.

I think the macro works just fine.

The "G" Spot

I finally took the plunge on Saturday and got a Canon G9 camera after months of indecision.
It made sense to go for a smaller camera rather than a DSLR and by the time I'm ready for one of those, they will be much cheaper. In the meantime, if I need a bigger camera, I can use my old Nikon 35mm and good old fashioned film.

So, with the English weather doing it's usual bank holiday thing, blowing a hoolie and pissing down with rain, I'm left to have a practice in the house and garden to see how this thing works.

My coffee table holds the key to my soul.
Drum books, rugby books and how to drink wine.

This is for Dive and is simply titled.... Wood! (f'nar f'nar)

The only one of my pictures that I still have.
It is hanging straight but I wasn't.

Hello Iris, it was sunny on Saturday.

These two have some young which they are teaching to swim in the stream which runs into my pond. (It's not a real stream, but one which circulates via pumps filters and lots of tubes).

This is Bob

And this is one of his ancestors.

Lets hope next weekend is a bit better and I can get out to take some decent stuff.

Commercial Break

And now a word from our sponsors;

Advertising was much better in the '50's & '60's when bare faced lies were perfectly acceptable and nobody questioned anything.

For anyone not familiar with "Oxo", it's a dried beef stock cube used to flavour gravy for your Sunday roast.
Not too sure why you would put it in milk and give it to your little wretches.
Might be worth a try for the hell of it, tell them it's chocolate milk and wait for the reaction!!!

MMMMMMmmmmmmm beefy refreshment.

Scare wear

Now I have dug out some of my travel photos and worked out how to get them here, I will post some more over the next few weeks.

Inspired by Lynn, Mme and Dive, here's my contribution to the swimwear collection.
This is me just before entering the "Fat Bastard of the Day" contest in Cuba.
As you can see, when I got to the beach, everyone else fucked off!!!

When in Cuba one must read Hemingway.

Just so you know what the food was like, welcome to the Restaurant Colon.

More Phlegm

As I've let Lynn down so very badly by being a bit tardy with my posts, this is just for her.
Don't eat them all at once and if you do make it to Norwich, I still have some of these left.

So, I've been with the Phlegms again. (yeah)!!!
This is part of the new border controls at the Channel Tunnel.
If you give it some food you can go through.
This gull was one of the extras in "The Birds". It's sad how they are now reduced to scratching out a living by menacing tourists with their "Hooded" look.

This is where I play when I'm over in Belgium, complete with a pretend series 1 Elise.
This is just a load of old panels we used for testing, which were then screwed together on a few blocks of wood and painted in "Gay hairdresser purple".

Here we are in jolly Mechelen again.
This is for Dive. See how the Belgian town planners seamlessly blend the new architecture with the old?

I like bridges, so here is a bridge.

Obviously I work very hard when I'm there but there are benefits.
Belgian beer and chilli nuts at the end of a long day.

I have been going to Belgium for over 10 years now with work and when we go out in the evenings the restaurant food is very good where ever we go. This, however, was probably the best place I've been for the setting as well as the food.
It's Het Pomphuis (The Pump House) alongside the river at the docks in Antwerp.
The building has an eclectic style with art nouveau features and beautiful tall Romanesque windows set in red brick edged with block stonework.
The inside, as you can see, is the old pumping gear used to drain the nearby dry dock to maintain the ships which used to trade from Antwerp.

I had a superb seat just to the left of the three chairs to the top right of the picture.
It was right on the edge and ideal for vertigo sufferers.
The food was excellent so if anyone is ever in Antwerp, go there.

On my travels.

I will be away from Blogland next week so play nicely together and don't run indoors.

It's Curry Club tonight, Twickenham for the EDF Cup Final between Leicester Tigers and The Ospreys on Saturday, ( I'll wave Lynn), and off to the land of the Phlegms again on Monday.

I will try to get some photos etc and try to put the fun back into Belgium.
(I be glum).

Lynns Mystery

Lynn posted a picture of some strange growths in a tree and wondered what they were.

This is a shot I took a few weeks ago as I travelled to Pouancé in France.

Seems they are taking over the world.
Maybe they are alien nests!
Maybe thats where Twiglets come from.
(that would explain the crappy taste).

Happy Easter

Just a few pictures taken this morning as I came home.

The date today is March 23rd

Easter Sunday

Oh well, the garden won't get done today.

Happy Easter to you all from festive Norfolk.

Wheeeee !!!

I have been in a blog vacuum for a while but as Dive said he was going to show some scary views, I thought I would mention the view from the plane I was in this week.
I have been over to France with work Monday to Wednesday for the last couple of weeks and this Monday we trundled to Stansted with joy in our hearts safe in the knowledge that our flight would be cancelled due to the storms etc.
So as we flew across the channel in our "not so cancelled" 737, the pilot informed us that the crosswinds at Dinard airport were "on the limits for this aircraft but we will attempt to land anyway".

Thanks matie.


As we came out of the clouds it started to get a bit bumpy, but I have been on lots of bumpy flights and this wasn't so bad.
Then it got more bumpy and, as we approached the runway, we went up diddly up up, and down diddly down down, and then sideways for a bit, then the right hand wing flipped up about 10 degrees and we went sideways and down again. By this time we were about 50 feet off the runway and having fun when the pilot must have thought "fuck this for a game of soldiers" and put on full throttle and we went up diddly up up at a rate of knots.
When we got to about 20,000 feet the tannoy calmly announced " you may have noticed that we had to abort that landing as I deemed it a little dangerous" No shit Sherlock!!

We then flew on to Brest where the gale force winds were blowing directly down the runway rather than across it.
The pilot got us in first time, although it was bloody rough. The end of the much shorter runway at Brest was very close when we finally slowed enough to turn back to the terminal. (that's not a good word for an airport building).
As we filed off the plane, the pilot stood at the cockpit door with a smile on his face. I said "That was interesting" and his reply was a silent intake of breath and raised eyebrows as if to say "thank fuck I got that down in one piece".

He earned every penny of his wage on Monday, thanks Captain.

New Years Eve

I know it's late but there you go.

These are some of the usual suspects for New Years Eve.
I knew I should have grown a beard and tash instead of trying to stick one on.

Take the above and add lots of these below and similar libation, shake well and release into Bungay for a bloody good night out.
Tequilla slammers with lemon is not the norm but this is Norfolk and the pub didn't have any limes!

This, as I am reliably informed, is Venom. The evil incarnation of Spiderman.
It's actually the drunk incarnation of Eddie.
(He said they were his muscles but we were not so sure)

This is "mutual leaning", a clever manoeuvre to make sure we don't all fall in a heap.

The bloke on the left of the picture below is the senior lecturer in engineering at a local college.
He usually only wears those things on a weekend.

We always have a good laugh and everyone else seems to respond to a bunch of idiots in fancy dress, no matter which pub we go to.
There were fewer people out this year than in past years which was a shame but maybe the smoking ban has something to do with that.
Roll on next year.