James May's lego house warming!

James May's lego house
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Well it seems as though today is the day of James May's lego house warming! I read on the Denbies blog yesterday that the house was complete, so James came to collect me from work today so that we could go and take a look!

We were slightly disappointed when we got up to the top of the hill to find that the house was a bit more fenced off than last time, and was surrounded by security guards.. we initially thought, ho hum, we'll get a few photos from a distance and then be off again, but then I thought I'd be cheeky and asked one of the security guards if there was any way we could get some photos from the other side.. he told us that we could walk around a whole load of grape vines over to the left, and that way we could get to the top barrier.. cool! Just as we got there, we were lining up our photos, and who should appear out of the house, none other than James May! =) Hooray! Good timing!

James May's lego house

Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

According to another one of the security guards (who was helpfully holding on to the barrier for me while I climbed on it to take some photos), this evening was the climax of the whole project! We watched James May and another guy pouring out champagne, and drinking from champagne glasses made out of lego! If you zoom in on that photo you can see them..

James May's lego house

Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Not sure how much he liked it though, judging by this one!

James May's lego house

Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

We also saw them smashing the lego champagne bottle, although no photo of that because the security guy was telling us all about his dog at that point! hehe..

James & Tiff Needell

Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Then came the coolest surprise, we were just walking back through the car park and we spotted Tiff Needell sitting in his car! He was on his mobile, but he waved to us (probably because James was saying "it's Tiff, it's Tiff!!", and I was saying, what are you talking about?! That's a man! Hehe.. we were loitering about a bit near his car wondering how rude it would be to take a photo of him while he's on the phone, and we'd just decided that the answer was *very*, when he called us over saying "Are you waiting for me?".. it was quite funny, he was hoping that we were going to give him a lift up to the lego house for the house warming! We told him that probably they wouldn't stop him driving up there, but we'd probably get escorted off the premises! Anyway, he was a lovely bloke, and kindly agreed to let me take a photo of him with James! =) It was kind of tempting to hang around Denbies for a while to see who else was going to show up, but dinner called.. we'll soon find out when we watch James May's Toy Stories - I can't wait!

Update: Mo has just pointed out another celebrity in these photos! The bald guy with James May drinking all the champagne is Oz Clarke from Oz and James' Big Wine Adventure, and Food & Drink!

Update Update: Oh my goodness, I just had a look at the 'Save James May's Lego House!!!!!' group on facebook, it's got pictures inside! It looks amazing!! More here too..

Egg Yolk Candy of St Teresa (yemas de Santa Teresa)

Avila
Originally uploaded by canduela

These Spanish sweets from Ávila de los Caballeros are really interesting! After trying one at work, I was intrigued and decided to check out how they're made.. I found this cooking video (Spanish, dubbed into English).. I guess, knowing the ingredients, it tastes exactly as you would expect! Really sweet egg yolk flavour, slightly vanilla-y, with a soft but slightly crunchy outside, with a centre that's runny! They're a strange texture, but surprisingly tasty! Who would have thought you could make a candy out of just egg yolk, sugar, and lemon rind?!

I <3 Eva Solo

We went to John Lewis in Kingston today to pick up our wok from Mum and Dad, and also to spend our wedding vouchers, and we managed to find some super good bargains! =) We managed to pick up a lovely Tefal non-stick wok for half price - through James' amazing bargaining skills, and then we spotted one of these...

Yay! It's an Eva Solo CafeSolo - it's funny actually as we were talking about this thing on Friday! When we were on our honeymoon, we stayed one night with some friends of ours in Germany, and they had the coolest coffee purcolator that they'd bought in Denmark.. it's a glass flask which wears a kind of surfer wetsuit type jacket to insulate, and on top it has a clever bung thing with a filter attached. It works in such a way that your put the ground coffee in the flask, along with about 6 mugs worth of boiling water, and the filter keeps all of this in, while allowing the filtered coffee to pour out around the side of the bung - it's all very clever! Anyway, after remembering about this thing, we decided to look it up on the Internet on Friday, and it turned out to cost around £70?! We thought we'd give up on the idea, but then what are the chances.. we saw it in John Lewis today for £25! Brilliant! They actually had a whole stand of stuff from the same designer, and we actually ended up getting these too..

2 thermal cups for £11, not bad! We just tested them out with the coffee from the purculator and it was crazy - I'd poured boiling water into the CafeSolo about 10 minutes before, and just left it while I was doing some washing up, then poured it out into the cups.. the cups just stayed the same temperature, so we were thinking maybe the flask wasn't so great at retaining heat as we'd thought.. then we went to try the coffee and the water was pretty much as hot as it had been when it came out of the kettle! Amazing design all round, I can see why they've won so many awards. Highly recommended. I now have a bit of a wish list from their range!

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

Buffalo
Originally uploaded by cewoldt

I can't believe that is a grammatically acceptable sentence! But if Metro says it's true, who am I to say it isn't.. hmm.. it took me a little while to get my head around it, actually I had to look it up on Wikipedia! Apparently buffalo has 3 meanings: 1. buffalo the animal (bison), 2. Buffalo the place in New York, 3. to intimidate, confuse or deceive (I don't really see what's so confusing or deceptive about buffalos, so I'm not really sure how buffalo ended up meaning all that! -maybe someone found out how deceptive they are, and was confused about it..). It's quite funny, I've never heard that expression before, but it reminds me of an American lecturer I had at uni who used to refer to scary things as bears, like "this exam is a bear". I can't really think of any English examples apart from saying that something is mammoth if it's huge.. I'm sure there must be some!

Anyway.. I did find out what all those buffalo in a row meant.. in case you're interested, this is how it goes:

[Those] buffalo(es) from Buffalo [that are intimidated by] buffalo(es) from Buffalo intimidate buffalo(es) from Buffalo.
Bison from Buffalo, New York, who are intimidated by other bison in their community also happen to intimidate other bison in their community.
THE buffalo FROM Buffalo WHO ARE buffaloed BY buffalo FROM Buffalo ALSO buffalo THE buffalo FROM Buffalo.

OK, William J. Rapaport has single handedly made buffalo confusing! I do find it pretty funny he was an associate professor at the University of Buffalo, typical.

Vermont in Autumn

vermontspacelucy
Originally uploaded by ninjabathy

Here's a beautiful desktop image James made up for me last night, it's a photo of Vermont in Autumn with an image from the Hubble Space Telescope as the sky.. =)

Baby Buddha Pears

Rishon LeẔiyyon
Originally uploaded by ralphreijs

These pears are amazing! This guy in China is growing these in baby Buddha shaped moulds! I just love some of the things you find in Metro! You can read all about them here. It certainly would be cool if they did start selling them in the supermarket. Not sure if I'd really want to eat one though.. :-S It just reminds me too much of the baby-eating Bishop of Bath and Wells!

Google street view lucky finds..

Sunnydale High School from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Torrance High School, 2200 W. Carson Street, Torrance, CA)

Disneyland, Paris

Daily Planet from Superman 1 & 2 (Daily News HQ, 220, East 42nd Street, Manhattan, New York City, NY)

Daily Bugle from Spiderman (Flatiron building, 175 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, NY)

Dave Gorman in Bethnal Green (462 Bethnal Green Rd, Tower Hamlets, London E2, United Kingdom)

Friends apartment building (Grove Street, Manhattan, New York City, NY)

Abbey Road Zebra Crossing, and Abbey Road Studios of Beatles fame (3 Abbey Road, London NW8, United Kingdom)

Elstree Studios where the Big Brother house is (9 Shenley Rd, Borehamwood, WD6, United Kingdom)

Paramount Pictures (5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, CA)

Extraterrestrial Highway next to Area 51 (Tonopah, NV)

Alcatraz, San Francisco, CA

Sydney Opera House (2 Macquarie St, Sydney New South Wales)

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

Cockney Rhyming Slang ATM

Check this story out..

Moth

Moth
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Just took a macro of a little moth that landed on our settee, they are quite cute really!

Cheeseburger Cupcakes

These are soo cool! I'm going to have to try making some of them!!

Jung Typology Test -INFJ

Your Type is  INFJ

Introverted	Intuitive	Feeling	Judging
Strength of the preferences %
56	12	38	1

Idealist Portrait of the Counselor (INFJ)

Counselors have an exceptionally strong desire to contribute to the welfare of others, and find great personal fulfillment interacting with people, nurturing their personal development, guiding them to realize their human potential. Although they are happy working at jobs (such as writing) that require solitude and close attention, Counselors do quite well with individuals or groups of people, provided that the personal interactions are not superficial, and that they find some quiet, private time every now and then to recharge their batteries. Counselors are both kind and positive in their handling of others; they are great listeners and seem naturally interested in helping people with their personal problems. Not usually visible leaders, Counselors prefer to work intensely with those close to them, especially on a one-to-one basis, quietly exerting their influence behind the scenes.

Counselors are scarce, little more than one percent of the population, and can be hard to get to know, since they tend not to share their innermost thoughts or their powerful emotional reactions except with their loved ones. They are highly private people, with an unusually rich, complicated inner life. Friends or colleagues who have known them for years may find sides emerging which come as a surprise. Not that Counselors are flighty or scattered; they value their integrity a great deal, but they have mysterious, intricately woven personalities which sometimes puzzle even them.

Counselors tend to work effectively in organizations. They value staff harmony and make every effort to help an organization run smoothly and pleasantly. They understand and use human systems creatively, and are good at consulting and cooperating with others. As employees or employers, Counselors are concerned with people's feelings and are able to act as a barometer of the feelings within the organization.

Blessed with vivid imaginations, Counselors are often seen as the most poetical of all the types, and in fact they use a lot of poetic imagery in their everyday language. Their great talent for language-both written and spoken-is usually directed toward communicating with people in a personalized way. Counselors are highly intuitive and can recognize another's emotions or intentions - good or evil - even before that person is aware of them. Counselors themselves can seldom tell how they came to read others' feelings so keenly. This extreme sensitivity to others could very well be the basis of the Counselor's remarkable ability to experience a whole array of psychic phenomena.

Mohandas Gandhi, Sidney Poitier, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jane Goodall, Emily Bronte, Sir Alec uiness, Carl Jung, Mary Baker Eddy, Queen Noor are examples of the Counselor Idealist (INFJ).

The Counselor (INFJ) can be found in the field of education as a professor , teacher, counselor, or educational consultant. Sometimes they feel a strong calling toward the religious life as clergy, nun, or director of religious education. Social service jobs, such as social worker, social scientist, or mediator can fit their needs. Some Counselors work in human services, marketing, or as a job analyst. Others are drawn to the arts as a novelist, designer, or artist.

INFJ Profile by Butt & Heiss

Take the test here.

Portsmouth

Portsmouth
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

We went for a drive all around the south on Monday, we started off going to Arundel, headed down to Selsey, and then ended up in Portsmouth for a very late lunch at about half four! We walked around and had a look at all the ships in the historic dockyard, then had a look around Gunwharf Quays. I was amazed to find the number of retail outlet stores there, which, if my understanding is correct, sell returned/discontinued products at heavily reduced prices. I think the next time I need some new clothes this will definitely be the place to go! Also, I noticed there is a whole Cadbury's shop, which is just awesome!

Anyway, we met up with our friend James down in Gunwharf Quays, and decided to go up the Spinnaker tower to see the sunset. It was well worth it, the view was amazing! Unfortunately none of us had our cameras, but we managed to get a few with James' phone. I don't think they came out half bad for a camera phone in the dark! Take a look at my flickr for the photos. You can actually see the whole length of the Isle of Wight from up there! In retrospect we really should have taken a piccie of the cuddly Spinny spinnakers they were selling in the gift shop at the top though, sorry! ;-p

The world's weirdest hotels..

Take a look here and here! 

Snow Day!

Snow Day!
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Hooray! It's a snow day! James had a call this morning to say school was closed for the day, and all the trains to Dorking are suspended until further notice.. so no work for me! =) I also just found out that my office has been closed, everyone's been sent home, and possibly the same will happen tomorrow too! We will have to wait and see.. We've had a couple of inches of snow here in Horsham, enough to make snowman, and it's still coming down.. it wouldn't surprise me if we have another couple of inches by this evening! I just hope we don't get stranded in Crawley when we go to drop off our car for repair!!

Buchan in the snow

Buchan in the snow
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

It was nice and snowy when we woke up this morning, so we decided to nip over to Buchan Country Park to take some photos.. the lake was partly frozen over, and it was all looking very pretty, as we thought it might! It was way too cold to stay out there for too long though, so we didn't bother walking all the way around the lake this time!

Glow Worms!

Glow Worms
Originally uploaded by Pip@rd

Have a close up look atthis photo I found on flickr.. amazing! A whole tunnel lit up with glow worms in Australia. I never realised that glow worms existed in the UK, but I was very pleased to find out that they have been sighted and photographed all over the British Isles, even as close as Southwater.. how exciting! I think I will have to go on a glow worm walk!  The only glow worm I have ever seen is my one of these!

Some Celebrity Big Brother 2009 links..

I think it was a bit of a shame the way this year's CBB6 ended.. I think Big Brother's Big Mouth, shown directly after the final really finished off the series leaving a bad taste in the mouth!  I was highly embarassed watching the guests being insulted by both the host (Jack Whitehall), and the audience members.. it must have given the American guests a very bad impression of the British public.  I felt particularly sorry for Ulrika, who having won, was not only booed on her exit from the house, but was then effectively told she wasn't a worthy winner, and was told she probably only won because she was the only woman left.  The audience member who made the 4x4 dig too, I would say that was just plain rude really!  I don't really blame her for being defensive.. I think they should bring back the psychologists, and axe the dodgy comedians for these types of shows, much more entertaining!

Anyway, I found a nice bit of footage from the press conference afterwards, which I think would have been a much nicer way to round it off.. much more professional.. and, when Ulrika was asked a personal question, both Coolio and Verne stepped in and told the press to back off.. good stuff!

I also found this quite entertaining TV show that aired in the US last year, Coolio's Rules, which you can watch online!  It's a reality show about Coolio, his teenage kids, and his attempt to launch himself as a "ghetto gourmet" in the web show "Cookin' with Coolio".  We've only watched the first part so far, but what we've seen is good!  I can't seem to find any full episodes of Armed & Famous though, which is a shame.. just a few exerpts on youtube are all that seem to remain, doh!

St Leonards Forest, Horsham

St Leonards Forest, Horsham
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

I really like this photo, the way the light shines through the trees in the Autumn is very cool..

We bought a book of walks in Surrey & Sussex last year (Pathfinder Guide: Surrey and Sussex Walks) .. unfortunately we only managed to fit in one before the weather got ridiculously cold! We decided to do the most local one first, St Leonards Forest.. home of the last dragon in England, before it was killed off by St Leonard.. it was a very nice 4 mile walk, but probably best off not done in November unless you want to get stuck in the mud!  It's also definitely worth setting off early in the day so that you get out of the woods before sundown!  It was a close one for us!

I've drawn up a map of the route here, and you can see photos here.

La Toya Jackson - Armed & Famous

This is a pretty funny clip from the US TV series Armed & Famous, where La Toya Jackson and some other celebrities were trained as cops.  

read more | digg story

Hobbit house in Wales for £3000

I think this is absolutely brilliant!  I really want to build one.. 

'Unsuitable' Crucifix

This is an interesting local story I heard about at work today.. I couldn't quite understand why people were making such a fuss about this crucifix outside St John's Church in Horsham, until I saw a photo of it here.. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/4140960/Vicar-orders-removal-of-unsuitable-crucifix-from-church.html

This definitely would serve as a reminder of Jesus' pain and suffering for the sins of mankind, and forms a very striking piece of artwork.. but I think I would have to agree that this 10ft sculpture is possibly not the most welcoming image to display on the outside of your church..

Wind Turbines..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1108973/Unmanned-stealth-bomber-UFO-responsible-destroying-wind-turbine.html

Hmm.. well I couldn't really let this pass without comment!  It's a shame they found that missing blade right below the turbine, otherwise this would have been pretty baffling!  

I do quite like the Daily Mail theory about the unmanned aircraft, Taranis, being tested along that coastal stretch, but unfortunately, according to the Telegraph:

"The MoD has denied earlier reports that any testing of new Taranis unmanned stealth aircraft was taking place and confirmed that the nearby Donna Nook test range was closed to any low flying aircraft over Christmas until the January 6. Taranis is not due to begin testing until 2010. The Civil Aviation Authority also confirmed that they had not granted any permission for the flight of unmanned aircraft, which are banned in UK airspace without special arrangement. "

I've had a little look on YouTube, and it's amazing to see the amount of damage a wind turbine can do to itself (see video).  The only problem with this theory that I can see, is that maybe the Conisholme turbine remained a little too intact! 

Leeds Castle, Kent

Leeds Castle, Kent
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

This is a picture of the castle from the other side of moat. I just had a little look on Wikipedia and found out the castle was built in 1119 by Henry I, and later became a royal palace for King Edward I of England in 1278. King Edward II beseiged the castle in 1321 with the use of ballistas (I'm guessing they repaired it, I couldn't see any sign of damage!). It went on to be used by King Richard II in 1381, and later by Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Elizabeth I was also imprisoned there for a while prior to her coronation.

Quite an interesting royal history it has there! When we visited the inside of the castle it was decorated in a very bizarre way.. it took me a while to realise that the Nutcracker event they were advertising was not in fact a ballet show, but a theme for the castle's Christmas decorations! I think maybe it was a little slow of me not to realise this when the main bedroom had a mouse king in it, and the bed and floor were covered with toy mice!

Frozen lake

Leeds Castle, Kent
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

We decided to do a day trip over to Leeds Caste in Kent on Tuesday. I think it was the coldest day yet this winter, or it certainly felt like it to me anyway. It was so cold the lakes and moat were all completely frozen over! I thought the patterns in the ice were quite interesting though! I was quite pleased with the entry tickets, we thought they were a bit expensive to begin with, but it turns out they allow you entry for a whole year, so we'll hopefully go back when it's a bit warmer. I noticed they do hot air balloon rides over the castle which could be fun! Also the swans and peacocks in the grounds are really friendly, and will eat bread from your hand, so we need to go back and get some photos I think!

Happy New Year!

Virginia Water
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

I hope you are all looking forward to the extra second we are being given this evening, I'm still wondering what to do with mine! A 61 second minute has to be good for something! (I think I will look into breaking a world record or something.. hehe..) Anyway, happy new year everybody, I hope it's a good one! =)

Friendface

It exists! Hehe..

http://www.friendface.co.uk/

GenderAnalyzer for http://kipperfrog.blogspot.com

GenderAnalyzer for http://kipperfrog.blogspot.com
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Neural networks never cease to amaze me! I'm very glad this gadget got my gender right, I've already been called "Mr" inadvertently this week, I don't think I could have coped with being told I write like a man too! Test it out on yours at: http://www.genderanalyzer.com

Star Trek (2009)

They look the part to me!

Pumpkins!

Pumpkins
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Here are this year's Halloween offerings! Amazingly we didn't get a single trick or treater, although we did see a few vamps and pastey looking people in Tescos.. We indulged in special Halloween Krispy Kreme doughnuts (no pictures, they didn't t last long!), ooh and very cool fireworks in our back garden! =)

Newly released UFO files from the national archives..

It's always fun catching the train and picking up a free Metro! Today I found out that the MoD have released the next batch of their UFO files to the National Archives in Kew.. I was pleased to find that they have made them available online too! http://ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ Should make some fun reading..

How to remove a ring sized by H Samuels

How to remove a ring sized by H Samuels
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Thank goodness for Dremel is all I can say! The good news is, after measuring James' finger 3 sizes too small, they still accepted the ring back in two halves and have ordered in a bigger one free of charge.. phew!

Buchan Country Park

Buchan Country Park
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

When we were househunting about a year and half ago, we actually looked at a house right on the edge of this country park, and yet it has taken us until now to actually get around to visiting it! It's right on the road between Horsham and Crawley, so we pass it pretty much every weekend! It's definitely worth a visit if you fancy a nice walk, and this time of year is perfect for that I think.

Dorking fire (17/09/08)

Dorking fire (17/09/08)
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

We left work a bit early today due to the view out of the window! There were helicopters circling all around, and sirens coming from the town centre.. I'm not sure what it was in Dorking that had caught alight, but it looked like something quite large.. hopefully it wasn't the Dorking cockerel! It didn't smell like it..

Synchronised swimming

Wakehurst Place
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

We went to Wakehurst today, and spied these ducks doing a spot of sychronised swimming! Not sure if ducks will be allowed to compete in 2012, but I didn't want to break it to them.. they looked like they were having fun!

Chocolate chip & raisin flapjacks

Chocolate chip & raisin flapjacks
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

I decided to make flapjacks the other day, and I think they turned out rather well, so I thought I'd share the recipe!

Preparation time less than 30 mins
Cooking time 15 mins

Ingredients:

150g butter
150g demerara sugar
150g golden syrup
300g porridge oats
1 handful of raisins
1 handful of chocolate chips

Method:

1. Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan and heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Add the oats, raisins and choc chips and mix well.
2. Transfer the oat mixture to the prepared cake tin and spread to about 2cm thick. Smooth the surface with the back of a spoon. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C/350F/Gas 4 for 15 minutes, until lightly golden around the edges, but still slightly soft in the middle. Let cool in the tin, then turn out and cut into squares.

Sushi Art =)

Mustard plant

Mustard plant
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

If you have ever wondered what a grown up mustard seed looks like.. here one is! We planted a whole load of the seedlings in our herb garden a few months ago, and now they are huge flowering mustard plants! I wouldn't recommend eating the leaves though.. they are all hairy and not very appetising! After I spent ages assuring James that they were edible, we both tried a leaf, and both ended up spitting them out! I think maybe it's best eaten like cress when it's only a few days old so it doesn't actually prickle your mouth!

First baby frog

First baby frog
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Hooray! I spotted our first baby frog emerging from the pond today!

Coincidence.. I think not!

The Sun (25/06/08)
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

The aliens are coming, and they're starting to disarm us.. it starts with the lawnmover blades, next it'll be the forks .. hehe..

It's quite funny actually, the video footage on The Sun's website actually quite reminded me of those khoom fay things we saw in Godstone. It's a shame there were no photos of the one that chased a helicopter in Cardiff though.. that one sounds much more exciting!

Lawnmover crime

Today, I was more than slightly bothered to find that my lawnmover no longer managed to cut the grass. It started up fine, so there was no problem with the power, but it just didn't sound quite right.. somehow quieter.. and when moving it across the grass, it just sort of flattened it, as if it didn't have any blades at all! On closer inspection of the underside, I couldn't believe my eyes.. the blades WERE missing.. all that was left was just the ring which used to hold them. What?! I just don't get it.. I haven't removed the lawnmover blades, James hasn't removed the lawnmover blades, I seriously doubt any of our guests have felt the need to remove them.. so where have they gone in the space of time between the last time I cut the grass at the beginning of May and now? What makes it even stanger is that I checked with Stuart that it was supposed to have plastic blades, and that I wasn't just being stupid, and he told me that not only was it supposed to have plastic blades, there was also a spare set in the lawnmover box in the shed. Was being the operative word. Two pairs of missing lawnmover blades now. I can only think that someone, for some unknown reason, has got into our garden and nicked our blades! Why? I do not know.

By the way.. Happy Summer!

Petunia 'cherry ripple'
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

It's quite funny, I was going to take a nice summery picture in the garden to mark the first day of Summer, but it's actually so grim looking outside, I thought I'd just use one I took in May instead.. typical English weather! Ah well, this will not stop the barbeques.. bring out the umbrellas!

Ooh the new Star Trek film teaser trailer is out!

Check it out here! It looks good! Apparently they've now rescheduled the release date from 25/12/08 to May 2009 to increase the potential box office takings, but I'm not so sure.. I don't think Winter releases did Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter much harm!

Yoda Amigurimi

Yoda Amigurimi
Originally uploaded by *elena

I just couldn't let this pass without being blogged.. I think this is the coolest piece of crochet work in the whole world.. I want one!!

avoid contact with brain

avoid contact with brain
Originally uploaded by Avid Maxfan

I love some of the things you find in hospitals. When James was in St George's this last time, I was reading the label on the back of the Hibiscrub soap stuff that they gave him for his bed bath, and noticed this lovely little reminder.. (if you zoom in on this picture I found on flickr, you can just about see it: 'avoid contact with brain'!) Eek!

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!!