Thinking of 3 points

Maybe I should change the name of the blog. Everytime I want to put something on here, I have to think of 3 things... Still, I think I've managed to blog at least once a month for a year! That must be a record.

Well, we've had at least 3 engagement parties:

1. In Bristol - I've got a picture somewhere...

2. In Belfast (might actually be 2 if you count the one involving Pirates Adventure Golf followed by watching Sky High and Shrek the Halls on a friend's widescreen, Hi Def projector):
3. In London

Top 3 things glad we've got out of the way

1. Wedding venue and date set - thank goodness. Shame it's on a Thursday! But we're not prepared to wait 2 years to get married on a weekend!

2. The wedding dress is picked. So no need to worry about the bride to be getting stressed because she can't find the perfect dress. In fact, she had it picked before we picked the wedding venue. I secretly suspect that she picked the wedding venue to match the dress...

3. The ring has been placed on her finger. And the money has been sucked out of my account. Now all I need to do is start saving for the wedding...

:-)

I'm loving it really!

Looking at venues

As we battle the tide of questions asking "have you set a date... YET", we've started to look at venues for the wedding reception.

1. Was slightly disappointed that out of 7 venues visited, only 3 venues offered us a cup of tea. We didn't even get a cup of tea at the really expensive Culloden Estate and Spa. Maybe we should have dressed up a bit more for that one. They probably saw us from afar in our jeans and immediately thought, "timewasters"...

2. Was there ever at time when weekend dates for weddings didn't book up at least 2 years in advance?

3. Would you pay £30 per head for seat covers??? OK, they do cover the entire chair, but still!!! If I did that, I think I'd have to ban people from removing their jackets and putting them over the seat. I'd want to get full value out of my seat covers!

Fireworks

Had a bit of a celebration with some friends this weekend. And, because it was getting close to that time of year, Heavy Isotope D spotted a two-for-one offer on fireworks. So we decided to scorch the earth of Nipring's garden...


1. Cool picture of fireworks
2. Fun with sparklers... Looks like Mrs Heavy Isotope D is attempting a bit of 'force lightning' in the background.

3. And finally, how NOT to set off fireworks. Shops probably shouldn't be selling fireworks to us!

Probably best summed up by a txt message from my fiance: "Take care wit the firewrks!" She knows me too well...

In our defence, we did have a large bucket of water for the sparklers and a hose at the ready (although water and burning magnesium don't really mix too well...)

Top 3 questions asked upon announcing your engagement

1. So, have you set a date yet? (definitely most frequently asked question)

2. What does the ring look like? (if you're a girl, or a bloke who's thinking about proposing to his girlfriend...)

3. Did she ask you? (Which seems to be my work colleagues top question!)

You can probably already see what direction this blog is going to take in the coming months!

Thought I'd post 3 videos to make use of blogger's new facility! Talk about grasping hold of new and emerging technology - ok, maybe not. But it's good for me!!!

Auto riding at it's chaotic best round India Gate

A rather poor quality video of the delhi metro

And walking around the local neighbourhood of Panscheel Vihar...

Forms of transport in New Delhi

I've now been on 1. Delhi bus, 2. taken the metro, 3. taken a cycle rickshaw and of course, (see previous blog) the aforementioned 'auto'. I think that pretty much sums up all the types of transport in Delhi, short of walking and paying someone to carry you around (though I don't think that happens much here). Yeah OK, there are taxis and cars with drivers, but I think the 4 modes of transport above sum up what the general public use around here.The bus - sorry it's a bit blurred, but those people aren't rushing to get onto the bus, they're holding on to it as it moves!

Autos and what passes for the village main road...

It's kinda like London, just a lot hotter, dustier and if you don't watch where you're going, you're liable to fall down a large hole or trip over a stray dog. That said, I kinda like it here!

In India now!

1 week completed in India.

Here are some pictures:

1. How my first 'auto' ride ended!!!

2. View from the office balcony!!!3. Delhi sunset - It's amazing how the smog and dust reflects the light! Taken somewhere around the Delhi University North Campus.

3 bits of web presence

I don't know, I've just got so many sites on the internet now which need updating.

Facebook,

This site,

chocolatepizza website (yes, I know I haven't updated that one for about 3 years now. But I still like the e-mail address).

someone should write a program which you update and it then updates all the other websites for you!

3 things we did in Dublin

Drink a pint of Guinness. Or if you're really thirsty, a couple at the same time. Good thing it was included in the admission to the Guinness storehouse. Can't believe they didn't have the Perez Prez Prado Guinness advert of man dancing round Guinness glass to catchy music! Should have asked for our money back.

Went on a Viking Splash tour around Dublin. Which was enlivened no end by the mad tour guide who insisted that we give 'viking roars' to unsuspecting tourists as the brightly coloured, ex WWII amphibious landing vehicle crept up behind their backs... You probably just had to be there. Viking helmets included. Therefore thoroughly recommended by all of us! Also helps if half the bus is filled with mad 20-something eejits from Belfast, Oxford, Bristol and London... Not entirely sure what the Chinese tourists on the bus with us quite knew what was going on.

And Gazman and CB entered the Irish bubble blowing hip-hop festival.

OK, the last bit isn't quite right. To be honest, not entirely sure what Gazman and CB are doing. Never mind. However, they were giving out free bottles of bubble blowing mix to children (or those having a mental age of 8) during the World Championship for Street Performers which happened to be taking place in Dublin at the time. It was all pretty cool. The standard of street theatre was definitely a lot higher than a guy who's done a metallic paint job on his clothes and is pretending to be a statue. Some of it was true comedy genius, some was amazing shows of strength and acrobatic agility and some of it involved one person biting off pieces of banana and spitting the chunks into another person's mouth to eat from a distance of 5m. So, comedy, acrobatics and gross behaviour all rolled into a day (well, actually weekend) of quality entertainment. Worth going to see, never mind the rest of Dublin!

Bank holiday blues

1. The current bank holiday weather (in England anyway) kinda reminds me of Christmas in Melbourne. What can I say, anywhere you can buy kilos of steak and huge tiger prawns for about a third the price of Tescos has got to be a good place to live. OK, maybe that's just Australia in general. Funnily enough, there's cricket going on here at the moment too. Although this time England look to be on top (yay!). However, it'll probably keep raining so we'll end up with a draw (boo!).

2. Digging through the photo archive, proof that we actually got a bit 'cultural' with a visit to the Melbourne Museum (and no, we weren't looking at pots of yoghurt in display cases - though you never know, that might be quite an interesting exhibit - yoghurt pots through the ages. Oooh, anyone remember munch bunch yoghurts? And was it just me that thought toffee yoghurt was disgusting?). It seems like they've done up the museums in Australia and New Zealand a bit more recently than say the Science Museum. There was enough in there to keep us occupied for a couple of hours. The best bit was the exhibit based on the Neighbours TV set. And the fact that they were showing the test match in the museum! Well, they did have an exhibit about the Ashes on display there. Yeah you're right. Thinking about what actually interested us the most, we probably would have got more culture standing in the supermarket looking at yoghurt pots - only the ones with the friendly bacteria in them mind.

3. And when we'd finished watching cricket in the museum, you can go shopping and then watch cricket on the big screen in Federation Square - yeah, it does sound like a good place for a Star Trek convention... Looking at the Melbourne map, it looks like we missed seeing a lot of the city. Hmm - spent too much time watching the cricket obviously. Well, I don't think any of us enjoyed Melbourne as much as Sydney (thus stoking the great Melbournite (?) - Sydnonian (??!!??) rivalry. But that is probably because we got hammered in the cricket and it rained buckets in the middle of what was supposedly summer. Maybe I'll give it another chance my next visit down under. If I can time it to coincide with the Australian Open, that might be a bonus...

3 reasons why I worry about myself

1. I think my memory's going.

2. I can write blogs about visiting mini-Abingdon - why in the first place anyone would want to visit a miniature version of Abingdon (and indeed pay money for the privilege), let alone blog about it. Must be pretty insane.

3. I thought that I'd covered mini-Abingdon in a previous blog. As it turns out, reviewing my blog archive, I hadn't!!! Gazman covers it in brief, but no pictures. What's going wrong with me. Did I mention my memory's going?

Mandurah Revisited

Some of you may remember the odd peculiarity that was Mini-Abingdon in Mandurah. Well, I've come to the source of the inspiration, Abingdon town itself to see how the real thing shapes up to the model (or should that be the other way round)? Comedy cliche dictates that I label the photos the wrong way round. Or have I??!!?? Oh, it's so confusing...

1.

Photo: Monastery, Abingdon

Photo: Monastery, mini-Abingdon, Mandurah

2.

Photo: Council Hall, Abingdon

Photo: Council hall, mini-Abingdon, Mandurah

3.

Photo: Shops, Abingdon

Photo: Shops, mini-Abingdon, Mandurah

Man, it was a challenge trying to manoeuver my camera to try and get those 'pedestrian-shots' of mini-Abingdon :-)

The last one is probably the most outrageous. Why would you want to build a Costa coffee store in real life, when you could have a birthday card shop which sells furniture??!!??

Still, at least I now finally have closure on the strange experience that was mini-Abingdon. Did I mention I won the mini-golf there?

Pictures-que frisbee pictures

3 frisbee pictures ? Again, NI themed (regular readers may have spotted a recurring theme in my blogs of late)

1. The location:

2. Giant Frisbee Action

3. The wistful glance at the knowledge that the game must end (because it's time for dinner!)

3 things that can kill you

Well, you never know, it might be a vampire bat...

OK, you'd probably only come a cropper if you were at the top of Ayres Rock, didn't see the lizard, tripped over it and fell to your death.


Yeah, it's a cockatoo. But Da_tonester looks very scared of it!!!


More wildlife pictures to follow. And maybe some cake. or some death... And other obscure comedy references...

Wetsuit Wackiness

Australia and New Zealand are starting to seem like a long time ago. Doesn't mean to say you can't do fun stuff in the UK too!

1. So, joining in with the wetsuit pictures posted by Gazman and mattandjules, here's 'my first wetsuit' picture. Taken on Whitesands beach, on the North Coast of Northern Island, after bodyboarding. Eat your heart out Australia...


2. Computer games! If you've not played these games, you should - they're absolutely hilarious!

http://www.guitarherogame.com/gh2/

Particularly good for those practising the air guitar!!!

http://www.nintendo-europe.com/NOE/en/GB/games/gamepage.do?ElementId=fcce21a5-b02a-41c3-8dcd-8b3d2ec1df27

Incredibly funny watching the faces of people playing the bongos!

3. BBQ'd lobster for the first time! Not entirely sure why my parents had a lobster in the freezer, but I'm not going to complain too much...

Admittedly omitting Auckland

To be fair, Gazman's probably covered Auckland, but I've spotted a couple of holes in my blog and of course and excuse to put yet more pictures up on show. Having taken somewhere in the region of 1400 - photos and video clips, I can probably put on the holiday slide show from hell!!!!

So, Auckland the third time we were there was blessed with sunshine! We spent one day on Rangitoto island. This place had

1. Great views of Auckland

2. Nice hiking weather


3. Lava caves??!!??

Photo comparisons

Looking at mattandjules pictures, I've realised they appear to be having better weather than we did in Fox Glacier . So, comparing pictures, Well, we have a picture of a weather station:

My version of scenery reflected in a lake...

And the view we had of Mt Cook... Impressive, no?!!?

3 Chocolate bars encountered on my travels - pt 2

Well, the Pineapple Lumps are from New Zealand and basically appear to be pineapple flavoured chewy nougat covered in chocolate, or at least a chocolate flavoured coating. Hard work on the jaws!

The Cherry ripe is from Australia. It's kinda like a bounty bar crossed with cherry and a lot thinner. Quite nice actually. But don't leave it in the Australian sun.

And the Coffee Crisp combines coffee with chocolate and wafers. I was eating a bar of this having finished skiing when in Whistler each day. Mmmmm. It's from Canada - the french writing on the packet probably gives it away. This one's my favourite out of the 3 (and actually probably one of my all time favourite chocolate bars).

3 chocolate bars encountered on my travels...

Picture of the Coffee Crisp to come.
The question is from which 3 countries are
1. Pineapple Lumps
2. Cherry Ripe
3. Coffee Crisp
made in?

Back in the UK

where...

1. It wasn't raining!

2. They'd finished the roadworks to the M40 in Oxford. And built a flyover past the hospital roundabout in Swindon...

3. The windscreen wiper stalk is back on the wrong side of the steering wheel (or is it the right side now?)

Though I'll probably still be blogging about the trip for a while yet (the problem with only being allowed 3 points per blog).

Several slips on the ski slope

The problem with the skiing in Whistler is 3-fold.

1. The weather's awful...

2. There's no snow...

3. And no-one's having any fun...

Whaddy'a mean you don't believe me?!!?

Miners hall of fame!

Oh yes, Leadville is home to the Miners hall of fame... 3 things which are in there:

1. Inspirational mining sculptures

2. Plaques commemorating those who have made a difference to the mining industry

3. Waxworks!!!