"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so."

"Don't think, feel....it is like a finger pointing towards the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory!" -Bruce Lee

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Leith Hill


Leith Hill
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

We decided to climb up to the top of the tower on Leith Hill yesterday. It's a brilliant view from up there. Apparently on a clear day, you can actually see all the way to the English channel! It is very high though, it's the highest point in the South-East, and the 64ft tower actually makes it up to the requisite height for a mountain (if sea level counts as the base). I just love that someone bothered to build a little tower on top to make up the difference! One thing I found funny too, was that one of the direction markers around the top of the tower was pointing to the North Pole. It was 2634 miles, only 238 miles further than we drove on our honeymoon. Just an extra 4 hours! =)


Leith Hill
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Leith Hill
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Leith Hill
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Leith Hill
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Friday, December 25, 2009

Happy Christmas!!


This is the awesome cuddly mug of eggnog I got for Christmas from James! =) It came all the way from America, check out mypapercrane, she makes such cute stuff! I think I will be ordering a giant doughnut cushion next!

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..


Horsham snow
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog
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! =)


Chocolate
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

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

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


Horsham snow!
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Mystery pudding


I just got back from my third Christmas dinner this year, this time with my old disbanded team. The funny thing is, after all these Christmas dinners, this pudding is the only festive thing I've had so far! It was a miniature Christmas pudding, only about 4cms across! A little on the small side, very tasty though!

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


Box Hill at night
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog
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


Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog
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..


Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

ice rink..

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Charlie and the Fudge Cottage..

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog


Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

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!

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

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!)..

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

and then went all touristy and visited the Winchester Castle Great Hall to see the Round Table..

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

check out my arty iPhone photography..

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

and with a bit of exploring out the back of the Great Hall, we found the army barracks..

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

a bit of a lucky find! Tanks in the car park, hehe..


Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Rather tempting.. I've always wanted a tank!

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Friday, December 11, 2009

Christmas tree abstract


Christmas tree
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Christmas tree
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

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..


Well, actually I forgot my knife and water bottle, but you never know when you might need 8ft of paracord and a guitar pick!!

James has got the skills, I love my survival bracelet! =)

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Christmas tree!


Christmas tree
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog
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


Pretty Gibson SG Guitars
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog
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!

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

Anyway, if you're interested, you can watch them online here:

Trekkies (1997)
Trekkies 2 (2004)

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


Rainbow
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog
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!


london oxford
Originally uploaded by Ammar Banafea





Waiting for the rain
Originally uploaded by mikehellers








































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!

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!

Covent Garden
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog















I liked the giant wonky Rudolf..

Covent Garden
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog



















and the HUGE Christmas tree!

Covent Garden
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog















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 =)