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!