Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Leith Hill
Friday, December 25, 2009
Happy Christmas!!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Christmas lights!
Amazing Grace Techno - Computer Controlled Christmas Lights from Richard Holdman on Vimeo.
Amazing.. I am guessing this is not a very fun time of year if you suffer from epilepsy though!
Friday, December 18, 2009
The only trouble with all this snow photographing..
is that I've gone and given myself a cold! Last night, I kept waking up all through the night, and at one point James had to wake me up because I was having a nightmare about a shark.. I guess being all coldy is a bit like swimming underwater, but I'm not really sure where the shark came from!
James' school was closed today, due to it being at the top of a snowy hill and all, so he is now officially on Christmas hols, yay! I've just got 2 more days to go now, and I worked from home today - didn't fancy going anywhere much further than the front door today, it's way too cold!!
Luckily enough, we had our first 2 DVDs show up LOVEFiLM today. Laura sent us a 2 month free membership voucher the other day, so I decided to sign up.. it's a great service! You can pick out all the films and TV series' you fancy seeing, and make up a list on their website (they just seem to have every DVD ever on there!), and then they post them to you two at a time! It's a DVD rental service, whereby you can keep the DVDs as long as you like, but it's actually in your best interests to watch them and post them back as soon as possible so that you can be sent your next batch. It seems to be pretty much next day delivery, which isn't bad! We got 'The Proposal', and 'Oz and James Drink to Britain' today, very cool. We just watched 'The Proposal', which was pretty funny. Very interesting to see Alaska too, in a non-survival scenario! Oz and James later.. we've been watching the other two Big Wine Adventure series' they did, which were excellent! I just love all their bickering! Sound wine advice too, we tried their recommended 'decent wine for under a tenner' -a Californian Zinfandel called 'Ravens Wood', and it was very very nice!
LOVEFiLM
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog
Anyway, to go with the films, I got us a nice giant bar of chocolate, because nothing fixes a cold like chocolate! =)
James' school was closed today, due to it being at the top of a snowy hill and all, so he is now officially on Christmas hols, yay! I've just got 2 more days to go now, and I worked from home today - didn't fancy going anywhere much further than the front door today, it's way too cold!!
Luckily enough, we had our first 2 DVDs show up LOVEFiLM today. Laura sent us a 2 month free membership voucher the other day, so I decided to sign up.. it's a great service! You can pick out all the films and TV series' you fancy seeing, and make up a list on their website (they just seem to have every DVD ever on there!), and then they post them to you two at a time! It's a DVD rental service, whereby you can keep the DVDs as long as you like, but it's actually in your best interests to watch them and post them back as soon as possible so that you can be sent your next batch. It seems to be pretty much next day delivery, which isn't bad! We got 'The Proposal', and 'Oz and James Drink to Britain' today, very cool. We just watched 'The Proposal', which was pretty funny. Very interesting to see Alaska too, in a non-survival scenario! Oz and James later.. we've been watching the other two Big Wine Adventure series' they did, which were excellent! I just love all their bickering! Sound wine advice too, we tried their recommended 'decent wine for under a tenner' -a Californian Zinfandel called 'Ravens Wood', and it was very very nice!
LOVEFiLM
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog
Anyway, to go with the films, I got us a nice giant bar of chocolate, because nothing fixes a cold like chocolate! =)
Skywatch Friday: Horsham snow!
Well, I spotted Skywatch Friday on Øblog last week, and I thought it sounded like quite a nice idea. It turned out that this week was a pretty good time to start!
Skywatch Friday: Horsham snow!
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog
Skywatch Friday: Horsham snow!
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog
Wait, there's more..
SNOW!! Here's how it was looking in Horsham this morning..
Horsham snow!
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog
Horsham snow!
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Mystery pudding
I was a little dubious about the thing on top, it looked like a Chinese lantern! After the multicoloured cherub decoration that I was tempted to sample in the Chinese restuarant last week turned out to be made entirely of salt, I didn't think I'd chance it! You can't take for granted that the things put on your plate are actually food! Any ideas what it is?!
Location:Red Lion, Betchworth
Sunday, 18:00, BBC2
James May's Toy Stories is back on.. This week it's the Denbies Lego House! Hooray! Wonder if you'll see us talking to the security guard about his dog in the background..
Monday, December 14, 2009
Custom My Little Ponies
My nice flickr friend just sent me a link to this:
It's a brilliant collection of custom my little ponies for sci-fi geeks, I love it! How could they neglect to include our ones though?! Outrageous!
Box Hill at night
On the way home on Saturday, we were driving past Box Hill just as the sun was going down. It's funny, I'd actually been up there at night just last week for a work Christmas meal at Smith & Western, and I'd noticed the amazing view over Dorking with all the lights glowing, so I was desperate to go back up there with a camera to get some photos.. lucky timing! So here you go, Dorking from Box Hill at dusk.. one day we'll have to take the big camera up there!
Winchester Cathedral Christmas Market
Well, I was very very pleased with this tip-off, I'm just amazed that I've never heard of this before.. just behind Winchester Cathedral is hiding an amazing German style Christmas market! 84 chalets selling all kinds of crafty things from all over the world, and an ice rink in the middle, absolutely brilliant! The whole place smells wonderful with all the dried orange and cinnamon stick decorations for sale, and all of the lovely festive food and drink - stollen, Glühwein, roasted chestnuts, waffles.. yum! We actually bought one of the orangey things and now it is making our kitchen smell rather nice!
Here are some photos of the market..
Here are some photos of the market..
ice rink..
Charlie and the Fudge Cottage..
Yummy smelling orange and cinnamon stick string..
The market goes on for 18 days, spanning half of November and December, I think we will definitely be going back next year!
The town has definitely embraced the Christmas spirit, on the high street there were Morris dancers with bits of Christmas tree on their heads, carol singers, shops with holly garlands draped over their frontages, and excellent Christmas lights! Much better than Horsham, I can't believe it actually made the National news over it's poor show of lights, boo.. must try harder!
We grabbed a bit of lunch at a pub near the river, and old Ælfrēd the Great (wow, I just found out his Dad was called Æthelwulf, you can't beat that for a name!)..
and then went all touristy and visited the Winchester Castle Great Hall to see the Round Table..
check out my arty iPhone photography..
and with a bit of exploring out the back of the Great Hall, we found the army barracks..
a bit of a lucky find! Tanks in the car park, hehe..
Rather tempting.. I've always wanted a tank!
Friday, December 11, 2009
I'm kipperfrog, I've served with the British Junior Sea Cadets, I've climbed to the summit of Box Hill..
..and crossed the choppy oceans of The Channel. Now I'm heading into the remote Dorking wilderness, hundreds come here to pay tribute to the magical silver cockerel, but each year 60 people will need rescuing. I'm going to show the skills needed to survive here..
This area gets the most extreme rubbish weather than anywhere in the UK. All I've got with me is my knife, my water bottle, and my survival bracelet..
James has got the skills, I love my survival bracelet! =)
This area gets the most extreme rubbish weather than anywhere in the UK. All I've got with me is my knife, my water bottle, and my survival bracelet..
James has got the skills, I love my survival bracelet! =)
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Christmas tree!
Hooray, it's Christmas tree putting up day! We went to a few places this morning to try and find one to buy, but it seems that this year the standard price for a tiny little tree is around £30?! We're talking £50 for one the same height as me.. it seems a little excessive! Well, we decided that we wanted a completely oversized, sitting room dominating tree to get us properly into the Christmas spirit, so it was time to dig out our 6-footer plastic one from the loft! I think it does the job rather nicely, and manages to completely block off the way into the kitchen, now that's what I'm talking about! =)
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Pretty Gibson SG Zoot Suit Guitars
We went to Brighton today, and spotted these beautiful Gibson SG Zoot Suit guitars in GAK. I've never seen anything like them before, very very nice..
Apparently the body is built with multiple birch wood laminate pieces (each one approximately .075” thick), each dyed with a different colour then compressed and bonded together to form one solid block of wood.
I dread to think how much they cost!
Apparently the body is built with multiple birch wood laminate pieces (each one approximately .075” thick), each dyed with a different colour then compressed and bonded together to form one solid block of wood.
I dread to think how much they cost!
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Oh no, not more Star Trek links!
I'm afraid so..
I've managed to find a couple of pretty entertaining documentaries you can watch online, all about some of the most extreme Star Trek fanatics ever. The first one, produced in 1997, was filmed in America, whereas the follow-up, 7 years later, goes all over the world to see how the Trekkies in different countries match up. It's a bit of a freak show, but it certainly is quite funny to see just how far some people go! I must admit I am a little scared of that lady who stalks Brent Spiner though :S
I've managed to find a couple of pretty entertaining documentaries you can watch online, all about some of the most extreme Star Trek fanatics ever. The first one, produced in 1997, was filmed in America, whereas the follow-up, 7 years later, goes all over the world to see how the Trekkies in different countries match up. It's a bit of a freak show, but it certainly is quite funny to see just how far some people go! I must admit I am a little scared of that lady who stalks Brent Spiner though :S
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Looking forward to seeing this..
Here's what it says on the RSC website:
"The RSC returns to London with Gregory Doran’s production of Shakespeare’s comic tale Twelfth Night, transferring to the Duke of York’s Theatre following its run in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Award-winning actor Richard Wilson makes his RSC debut as Malvolio. Joining Richard will be James Fleet as Sir Andrew Aguecheek and many familiar RSC actors including Sam Alexander (Sebastian), Nancy Carroll (Viola), Alexandra Gilbreath (Olivia), Jo Stone-Fewings (Orsino), Miltos Yerolemou (Feste) and Associate Artist Richard McCabe returning to the Company following his acclaimed performance as King John."
It should be good! Twelfth Night is one my favourites..
Rainbow
Today, on the way over to F, N & Ts for a lovely roast and a catch up, we saw this really bright rainbow coming right out of the hospital! Beautiful! There were loads of them all through Salfords, even double ones, and at one point we drove through the end of one.. I didn't see any crocks of gold or leprechauns though unfortunately, but had we seen a leprechaun, I think he may have been run over. Does digging up crocks of gold on dual carriageways count as jay walking? I just don't know!
London Christmas Lights
OK, so I can't take credit for these pictures, but I can assure you this is what Oxford Street looked like yesterday! There seems to be a bit of a 'A Christmas Carol' theme going on, though I'm not sure what all the umbrellas and Star Trek insignia lights were all about! Very pretty nonetheless.. Although we took a camera with us, there was far too much shoulder barging going on to even consider getting any photos of Oxford Street. It was absolutely packed! Nothing, I might add, compared to the perfume department of Selfridge's though, ugh! Bottles smashing, perfume flying everywhere! I felt like Mr Bean in the Allders episode! It's a shame you need to go through that section to get to just about anywhere else in that shop.. I just wanted to get to the food hall!
The home accessories department is also worth checking out if you like that sort of thing! I love unusual things, and this floor is full of them.. a lot of restraint (and begging to go home from James) was applied to only come away with one goody.. a royalvkb self cooling terracotta water carafe! =) Although, even James did concede that it was quite cool, if not for the crowds, and his hungry appetite for dinner. Probably dinner time on the first Saturday of Christmas shopping after payday is not ideal for a relaxing shopping experience!
Anyway, we didn't spend the whole day in Selfridge's! We actually started out in Covent Garden, and it was looking very nice and festive too.. there were violinists playing Pachelbel's Canon inside the building, which was lovely. I guess that piece of music will always remind us of our wedding day from now on!
The food hall in Selfridge's is just brilliant! It has loads of random food from all over the world, all the funny ingredients you see in recipes and wonder where on Earth you were supposed to get them from (a case in point - tins of Pumpkin puree.. we searched everywhere for the Pumpkin Pie recipe!), a yummy looking deli, loads of huge gingerbread houses, every conceivable variety of chocolate product, beautiful cupcakes, and of course a Yo Sushi! restaurant, a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop, a Jelly Belly shop, Oddono’s Icecream (yum).. and I can't forget to mention.. designer water?!? Paul Smith for Evian, and Bling H2O.. it made me laugh! Please tell me nobody buys this..
The home accessories department is also worth checking out if you like that sort of thing! I love unusual things, and this floor is full of them.. a lot of restraint (and begging to go home from James) was applied to only come away with one goody.. a royalvkb self cooling terracotta water carafe! =) Although, even James did concede that it was quite cool, if not for the crowds, and his hungry appetite for dinner. Probably dinner time on the first Saturday of Christmas shopping after payday is not ideal for a relaxing shopping experience!
I liked the giant wonky Rudolf..
and the HUGE Christmas tree!
For dinner, we thought we'd have a treat, as we were feeling all Christmas-y and holiday-ish, so we headed to Crispy Duck in Chinatown! Officially the yummiest Chinese restaurant in London since Oriental City in Colindale shut down for good..
Friday, November 27, 2009
Pretty food!
Well I've never tried blogging from my phone before, so this is a bit of an experiment! It might work, you never know!
I have a bit of a fascination with pretty food, as you may have guessed, and I've been storing up a bit of a collection of pictures on my phone.. I think they do deserve a post though, because they are like little works of art! If only my lunch looked like that =)
I have a bit of a fascination with pretty food, as you may have guessed, and I've been storing up a bit of a collection of pictures on my phone.. I think they do deserve a post though, because they are like little works of art! If only my lunch looked like that =)
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