The Caterham Mirror -a bit slow off the mark!

The Caterham Mirror -a bit slow off the mark!
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Oh dear, I can't believe it took the Caterham Mirror this long to work out that those fire lanterns weren't UFOs! It would only have taken a quick google to find out! ;-S

Khoom Fay over Godstone green

Khoom Fay over Godstone green
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Driving back home through Godstone this evening, we were quite bemused and slightly concerned to be greeted by a giant, red, fire filled lantern, floating (unattended) about double-house-height above the green.. when we stopped off to fill up with petrol at the garage, we noticed a whole line of the things hovering over the village! We grabbed a photo as we headed towards Oxted and saw yet more of them rising up from one of the fields! After a little investigation, it seems they are Khoom Fay, Thai fire lanterns.. used as an alternative to fireworks for special occasions. They did look very pretty, but I am very glad that the wind was blowing them away from our house!

20/07/07 Flooding in Dorking

It kept raining and raining in Dorking on Friday! I took a peek out of the window of the office, and started to wonder if I should be building an ark..

Fire on the prairie! (well, Station Road West actually)

It turned out that the fire engines in Croydon were not the last we were to see yesterday. At about half past 10, we decided to grab a spot of supper at the Oxted Inn, little did we know that they stop serving at 10. What an outrage, lol. We were just walking down to the bank on Station Road West, past the clothes shop 'Personality', when James noticed smoke rising off one of the shoes in the window! They had placed the said item right on top of one of those large high wattage spotlights that always get left on after closing time. It had obviously been just too much for the shoe to handle, and it looked to us as though the thing was ready to catch properly alight. We were a little hesitant about phoning up 999 at first, as it wasn't as if it was a huge blaze or anything.. James kept saying.. "well, it's not actually an emergency", lol. But sure enough, in about 5 minutes, up turned two whole fire engines, and about 15 firemen! We wondered if they were going to have to bash the door down or something so get in, but it seems they have a special high-tech bit of kit for this very purpose! A pole. Through the letter box it went.. and there started a kind of fishing game. It look them about 20 minutes to hook the pole under the shoe, and knock it to safety. It was quite interesting to watch! One thing I did find surprising though, was that they didn't have an emergency contact number for the owner of the shop. I would have thought it might be a good idea for the emergency services to have access to that kind of information, especially if this kind of thing happens quite often! But as it was, they were looking around all of the neighbouring shop fronts for out of hours contact numbers -not ideal really!

Ants and storms..

Sorry I haven't written here for a while, I have been pretty busy with one thing or another..

I couldn't quite let yesterday pass without comment though. It seems to me that the weather is getting very strange. Yesterday we decided to go over to Croydon to choose me my free phone upgrade from the O2 shop, and no sooner had we stepped out of East Croydon station, we were in the midst of a plague of what looked like flying ants, but a bit larger. They were everywhere! People were power walking down the street, waving their arms, and squinting in a vain attempt to keep these beasties out of their eyes and clothes.. people running into shops for cover.. I've actually never seen so many of the things, or so large. We darted into a shop as soon as we could, and already we were covered in the things, and had to brush them off our clothes.

This swarm literally filled the whole of George Street which runs from the station down into the town centre, and North End, the main shopping street. I'm not sure if it stretched any further, as we didn't venture that far, strangely.

Anyway, we finally made it to the O2 shop, and just as I had selected the phone I wanted.. the flash downpour started. Bear in mind that we had just left home wearing summer tshirts and sunglasses. It was a warm Summer's day. And then ~crack~, thunder right above us, and a simultaneous flash of lightening.. and again, sounding like it hit something just down the high street this time. Then the heavy rain came.. and the high street was suddenly deserted, save for the groups of people huddled at the shop entrances, looking out in dismay. Within about a minute the whole street was awash, and then, about as quickly, the storm was gone and the blue sky returned.. along with two fire engines. It seems that the lightening did in fact hit something down the high street, somewhere in between the Whitgift Centre and Centrale, but we couldn't make out what.

What I find wierd about these storms that we keep getting, is that the seem to come with no warning. It's just like.. wham! You're in the middle of a thunder storm, in the space of time it takes to walk from one shop to another. I don't know how they move in so quickly. I'd be interested to see a satellite image of one of these things..

As we walked back to the station, I wondered where all of the flying ants had gone.. and then I looked to the ground, and I saw. What a stupid time to take your nuptial swarming flight. They won't be doing that again!

My Little Trojan Pony

My Little Trojan Pony
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog.

Wow this pony took a long time, I don't even want to think about how long ago I started this one! Anyway, it is now complete.. My Little Trojan Pony.. (ooh check out the magnetic foot btw.. lol.. I don't know why they give them all one magnetic foot!)

Ferry to Calais

Ferry to Calais
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog.

We took an evening ferry to Calais on Easter Sunday, and began our drive south. Before we set off, James popped into Halfords to check the list of things that you are supposed to have in your car when you're driving in France -warning triangle, reflective jacket, spare headlight bulbs.. although we bought everything, we didn't actually realise the significance of the last one until the sun went down, and we were travelling along a toll road in the dark. No cats eyes. In addition to this, there were no street lights! At one point James turned off the headlights to see what it would be like if the bulb went.. scary is the answer! Pitch black complete darkness! It's funny, you would have thought there would be no shortage of that sort of thing on roads that you have to pay to travel on, but hey, I am not complaining.. we had the whole road to ourselves almost all the way to Reims, and there was not a single pot-hole in the road!

Oui, bonjour

Paris, France
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog.

So a couple of weeks ago, we decided on a whim to take another little tour. Last time we did a mad dash around the UK, but this time we thought we would head a tiny bit further, and take our small pug back to its homeland.

Armed with our invaluable French phrase book, (it is always a bad sign when you can only say 'J'ai onze ans'), we jumped on a ferry and headed to the south of France.

Saturn

Saturn
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog.

I spotted this out of the window last night at around 9pm. Never seen anything so bright like that, apart from perhaps one of Mohammed Al Fayed's helicopters! We watched it for about half an hour, and it didn't seem to move. We also had a peek through the telescope, and it appeared to me to be rainbow coloured, although James says it was just green. With a little investigation, it seems likely that this is Saturn.

First view over downtown Manhatten

View from the top of the Rockefeller centre
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog.

This was the view over Manhatten that greeted us from the 'Top of the Rock', the observation deck on the roof of the Rockefeller Center. If you look towards the top right of the picture, you will see the Hudson river, and a very tiny Statue of Liberty! If you check this out on flickr, you will be able to zoom in a bit more!

New York: Hudson River Harbour frozen

New York: Ferry port near Battery Park
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog.

On our first day in New York, after landing at JFK, grabbing a taxi minibus to our hotel, which was in fact an amazing sightseeing tour in itself, dropping off our bags, and jumping straight onto the subway at 110th Street, we decided to head straight off down to the Statue of Liberty. For some reason, the Statue seems like the good and proper thing to see first.. the icon of America that has welcomed immigrants, and visitors, since 1886. In fact, I think the best way to arrive in Manhatten, would be by ferry from New Jersey. [Maybe they do that if you arrive at Newark airport, who knows..] It would be awesome to have that grand NY skyline arrival, but without the epic ocean voyage from Europe first -the flight was long enough!

After a brief stop off at the Rockefeller Center at 51st Street, where we spied the Statue from the 70th floor observation deck(!), we jumped back on the subway down to Ground Zero, still labelled, and referred to, as the World Trade Center stop. We had been informed by a very nice Eastern European guy, who told us he knew Belfast well, lol, that it was only a short walk from the financial district down to Battery Park.

We were amazed to find the harbour, where the ferries usually depart from, actually frozen over! It was *very* cold though.

New York: Central Park West

New York: Central Park West
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog.

Here's a photo taken from the sidewalk near our hotel to the west of Central Park a few weeks ago, can you believe that snow?! Maybe not as impressive as upstate New York, but really! Never seen anything like that before! I love how New Yorkers just scrape all the snow off the pavement and pile it up in the road, lol.

Star Trek XI update..

here! Paramount Pictures has confirmed the next Star Trek movie will be released on Christmas Day 2008. =)

Kipperfrog & Ninjabathy take Manhatten...

Oops, I just remembered I had this saved from a while back, it's about time I published something!

So, we are back from the land of falling ice! I would call it a minor miracle our plane made it back to London at all after the runway was turned into an ice rink, (all the previous flights cancelled), the safety video on the plane didn't work, the intercom system kept cutting out, the video projector nearly shook off the ceiling when the engines started up, the lunchtime bacon roll was frozen, and to top it off, lol, someone in the departure lounge said they had a "bad feeling" about the flight.. reminded me of that episode of Friends where Phoebe phones up Rachel on the plane and said she has a feeling there was something wrong with the felange, and everyone freaks out and gets off, lol. I always feel it's a bad sign when the pilot announces the wrong destination when you set off, and the air hostess says a prayer and signs herself with a cross during landing. Don't you just love American Airlines!

Anyway, what an awesome place New York is, we really did have the best time! =)

Here's the view towards upper Manhatten from the top of the Rockefeller Centre -what an amazing view over Central park! This is the first thing we saw after arriving in NY and dropping off our bags at the hotel.. needless to say, it was *extremely* cold, I would say this may be the very moment I vowed not to leave the hotel without a hat, gloves and 2 jumpers again!

New York

Ooh my goodness.. look at the weather in New York next week! Better pack our snowsuits!

<- There's a photo of upstate NY already, eek!!

Star Trek convention photos..

I've uploaded my convention photos to flickr.. there are quite a few, so it might be easier to go and check them out there for now!

Eeeeek!

Our neighbours' house, right across the road, has just gone up in smoke!!!! Firemen and police everywhere!

Update: Oxted school had the day off due to anticipated snow problems, so with lots of time on their hands, it seems that a group of them decided to break into our neighbours' garage, for a bit of drinking and smoking fun.. surrounded by stockpiled petrol. So that is how it started. They were spotted running away, apparently. It was lucky for the couple across the road that their son decided to stop by, as he was in the area, and noticed the smoke coming out of the garage.. I only saw what had happened when a siren outside our house jumped me, and I looked out of the window to be greeted with all the billowing smoke! Luckily everyone was fine in the end, and the house looks alright, so all is well.

First snow of the year!!

Borat update.. (Jak się masz?)

Ooh dear.. It looks like I was right about Borat.

"The Villagers Of Glod…
Borat's Kazakhstani village as it appeared in the film was actually a remote Romanian village called Glod. The villagers who appeared in the movie claim to have been paid a mere £3 each by the production, completely unaware that they were about to be portrayed as incestuous primitives. Having gathered the evidence against Cohen, the villagers' attorneys have filed for $30 million in damages. "

Annoying songs..

Do you ever have the sort of day, where you wake up with the most annoying song in your head, and it won't go away until you hear it? Of all the random things, this morning I woke up with the 'Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise' song on repeat in my mind. I wasn't entirely sure if I'd made this song up or not to be honest, it sounded a little unlikely to me, but sure enough when I googled it, there it was. I think it was the Star Trek convention that did it.

In fact, when I listened to the song it made the problem worse, because then I could remember snippets of the lyrics, and eventually I had to look them up. As if this was not bad enough, I happened to mention to James that at least I didn't wake up with that other song stuck in my head... now what was it...

It look me a second, and then I remembered. How could I forget.. Magical Trevor! So now, the song that took me near on 6 months to rid from my brain is back, and is now accompanied by Jean-Luc Picard. Help!

Star Trek 40th Anniversary Convention, Hilton Metropole, London

Yesterday, James and I went to our first Star Trek convention!

We set off at the crack of dawn, on an empty train, save one angry ticket inspector who told James off for feet on seats.. tut tut..

Stopped off in Croydon, and waited for our connecting train up to Victoria..

we couldn't decide whether this was the site of an ex-platform, or if it was the foundations for part of the Croydon regeneration project that they're advertising on the posters.. hmm..

At Victoria we grabbed a bagel and crisps, and then headed straight for the underground, eagerly anticipating carriages full of klingons. Lol, after our careful predictions about who exactly would be accompanying us to the convention, it became apparent as we got closer and closer to Edgeware Road that everyone else was headed elsewhere. We started to wonder if we perhaps had the wrong day, when not even a single pointy eared companion joined us. Mild concern as we departed the train alone.

As it happened, no sooner had we emerged from the station, we saw the Hilton, and a nice reassuring sign telling us that the door wasn't working, and we had to talk through some kind of secret hole in the side of the wall! Actually, it was quite cool. Luckily, when we got inside all the signs for the convention were up, so we merrily wound our way upstairs to the registration desks. We were met with a queue of about 30ish people..

to begin with it looked like it was a no show on the uniform front, although we were quite pleased when we realised the guy in front of us playing on his PDA had a next generation computer theme, including sound effects, hehe! Then, gradually, more people joined us, and the trench coats started to come off..

and by the time we had got our tickets we could see quite a few! <---

(you might need to zoom in to spot them)

This is the view of the foyer at the Hilton, I liked the completely transparent lifts in the centre, they were very posh.

The convention actually took up a couple of floors. The mezzanine level had rooms packed full of merchandise, and minor celebrities (like the crocodile alien that Kirk drops a boulder on); the basement conference centre was taken over for the main programme of the day, namely Q&A sessions with Connor Trinneer, Dominic Keating, and Patrick Stewart, autographs, the sci-fi auction, and various presentations by Richard Arnold.

Happy New Year!! =)

Happy New Year everyone!

New year's resolution -more blog posts lol.

Wow, the London fireworks were awesome, I loved what they did with the London eye, and that crazy boat with fireworks shooting from it! I'm really glad it wasn't my job to drive that thing.