Greetings from the World Heritage Rock Climbing Centre..

Avebury
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Avebury! Hehe, actually you aren't strictly supposed to climb on the rocks, but that's blatantly what this site originally was. You just have to look at all the chalk all over the floor - it was the world's first outdoor rock gym!

We fancied a bit of a mini holiday yesterday, so we set off for a day trip to Wiltshire! The weather was a bit rubbish, but we thought we'd risk it anyway - it turned out to be such a cool day out! It was drizzling a bit when we arrived at Avebury, but it wasn't long before it cleared up and we had a bit of sunshine! We walked all around the whole stone circle, it's such an amazing place. It's apparently one of the largest and finest Neolithic monuments in Europe, around 5000 years old, older even than Stonehenge. It's a very interesting area, just a few miles away you've got Silbury Hill, and West Kennet Long Barrow, and within 20 miles is Stonehenge! There is lots for archaeologists to have fun with there, we saw loads of them with their Indiana Jones hats! =)

I read an interesting theory that the stone circle was used for ancestor worship, with the tall thin rocks representing men, and the short fat ones representing women. Isn't that charming?

Here's a bit of the circle..

Avebury
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Lots of nice hand grips..

Avebury
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

DO NOT CLIMB ON THE ROCKS!

Avebury
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

There were so many thatched cottages in Wiltshire, beautiful..

Avebury
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

There's a strange circle on this one, I wonder if it was carved in, or just a freakish natural feature of the rock..

Avebury
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

A settee?

Avebury

Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Check out that weather front - I think we were pretty lucky!

Avebury
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

We got back to the shop just as it was starting to drizzle again, what a good excuse! =) And I was glad there was, because I made a super-lucky find..

Polish chess board
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

The Polish chess board I wanted!! Some kind soul had brought it all the way over from the Tatra mountains for me to pick up! The giant one for £30, not bad at all considering the price of the ones on the Internet!

When we were heading back to the car, we were wondering how far away Silbury Hill was.. and then we looked up to see..

Silbury Hill
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Oh! Not very far then! We drove over to take a look, and then headed off to Stonehenge..

via Woodhenge!

Woodhenge
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

(I think the wooden stakes were originally a little more impressive, but if you will make a henge out of wood, what do you expect)

Stonehenge
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Skywatch Friday: Beautiful day!

Dorking
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

I was starting to think I would never see the blue sky again, but it has come out to celebrate Skywatch Friday! Woo! Blimmin cold though! It hasn't stopped raining since last Sunday I think, and we are due even more rain until Tuesday if Yahoo! weather is to be believed. I don't think I have ever seen Horsham so flooded, there were actually queues up to the station because of all the flooding in the road, and whole new lakes seem to have sprung up in the fields all around!

We went for a walk around Southwater after work this evening - you can see how much the water level's gone up - you can normally read both those signs, and the water normally ends at those logs!

Southwater
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

We thought we'd take a look at the Southwater Watersports Centre while we were there - what with the rock climbing success, we were thinking it might be fun to try out kayaking on the lake when it gets a bit warmer. We'll see! I think pottery might be on the horizon at some point too, if we can find someone to teach us! Ooh so many hobby possibilities..

I meant to blog about getting stuck on top of the rock archway at the Salfords climbing wall on Tuesday, but I couldn't find a photo, doh! I will be sure to take one next time we go, and then I will tell you all about it!

As for tonight, we are just settling down for a nice healthy Dominos pizza and our latest film from lovefilm - Starter For 10. Let's hope its good!

Southwater
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Skywatch Friday: 5 minutes of blue!

Dorking
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Well I am amazed I managed to get this photo today! It was supposed to snow again, and there was really thick grey cloud all day, but just as I slipped outside at lunchtime to grab a photo I managed to catch 5 minutes of blue sky and sunshine! Yay! I am starting to really not like boring grey days on Skywatch Fridays!!

Location: View towards Denbies Vineyard, Dorking

Box Hill

Box Hill
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

James picked me up from work this afternoon and we decided to get a nice burger from Rykers (for bikers), and then go for a walk up Box Hill. They do the best veggie bean burgers, James kept nicking bits of mine! They come with added pineapple, and 2 burgers come as standard.. good old biker portions! =) We just about caught the sunset by the time we got up to the top, good timing! It's so nice to see some sunlight after work now! We walked along to the cafe/shop hut at the top, and it appears they're doing a bit of a revamp. There was a lady on a ladder hand painting a gorgeous mural covering the whole front wall! I managed to get a photo of the bit she'd done earlier..

Box Hill
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Computer Engineer Barbie!

Haha, I don't believe it! Check out the one on the right.. due to popular demand, Barbie are introducing Computer Engineer Barbie! How cool is that?! What a good career choice! I just love the binary t-shirt.

Tree heart

Tree heart
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Valentines Day flowers!

Valentines Day flowers!
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Yay!! Look what James surprised me with this morning! =) I got the best husband ever! <3 Choccies, Starbucks for breakfast, purfume and a new Danny Wallace book too, I am spoilt big time! XxXxXxX

Monkeys in a dinosaur play area

Monkeys in a dinosaur play area
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

We just received our latest batch of nephew art, and I just had to share this one.. just look at the smiles on those dinosaurs! =) Smiling dinosaurs and a long weekend, you can't beat that!

Skywatch Friday: Uh-oh

Dorking
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

I think I may have tempted fate a little bit talking about Spring coming last week on Skywatch Friday! Today has been nothing but rain, and very cold rain too! Brr! I'm just glad there's no snow yet though (although there is still a stack of it left in the car park from a month ago?! That's Dorking for you!). Needless to say, I did not eat my lunch outside today.. in fact I completely forgot to eat my lunch at all, until about 3 because I was too busy trying to break websites! Thanks to Will's parting gifts though, I am now full up of yummy sweets from China! =) ..and I am wondering where I am going to find some more of that warm coconut drink!

Skywatch Friday: Spring is coming!

I can't believe it, I am actually sitting outside, eating my lunch in the sunshine without a coat on! It's actually quite a nice day for Skywatch Friday! This morning I even did a bit of gardening before coming into work.. It's definitely getting warmer and lighter now, finally!

Location:Box Hill, Dorking

That's about right..

I've just finished reading 'Are You Dave Gorman?' by Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace, so sad! That's the final Dave Gorman book now, what am I going to do?! I've really got into these books since I randomly picked up 'America Unchained' a few months ago. Each book is a true story about some crazy drunken-bet induced adventure Dave Gorman has got up to in his not so distant past. He certainly is an admirable procrastinator, I would love to have the time and lack of nagging conscience to be able to dedicate a year to hunting down something completely pointless, for no particular reason. It sounds like lots of fun! To weave a career out of it too, it's brilliant!

There are three books, which I actually ended up reading in reverse order:

-'Are You Dave Gorman?' in which Dave's flatmate Danny, in jest, bet him that he wouldn't be able to meet 54 other Dave Gormans.. little did he know what kind of housemate he was dealing with.. for the following 6 months he would be dragged all around the world to prove himself wrong!

-'Dave Gorman's Googlewhacking Adventure' in which Dave was supposed to be a grown-up novelist now, and putting all that crazy adventure business behind him, but instead ended up getting obsessed with Googlewhacking, spending his publisher's advance on travelling around the world to meet other Googlewhacks. This time, his friend Dave Gorman (from the first adventure), bet him that he couldn't find a chain of 10 Googlewhacks before his 32nd birthday. Tense, compulsive, and hilarious is all I can say.

-Finally there is 'America Unchained' in which Dave Gorman decides to travel coast to coast across America without using a single chain store, no chain store petrol, food, hotels or anything! What a nightmare!

One thing you learn about Dave Gorman is that he never turns down a challenge. Particularly if there is tequila involved.

Now, this is something I totally didn't realise -

We went to see the Jim Carrey film 'Yes Man' last year, it's all about a guy who decides he's going to make a positive change in his life, and from then on will never turn down a single offer of anything. He decides that whatever he sees advertised, whatever he is invited to, whatever he is offered, he will respond 'Yes!' and deal with the consequences. Sound familiar?

Well, this morning, I was looking at Goodreads to check whether there were any more Dave Gorman books for me to read, and low and behold, up popped 'Yes Man' by Danny Wallace! I had no idea the original novel was written by Dave Gorman's flatmate, but it totally figures! I think that will be the next thing to be added to my reading list..

Skywatch Friday: I see some blue!

Dorking
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Yay! Blue Sky for Photo Friday!! Maybe Spring is on the way.. there are buds on the trees, the grass is starting to look extra green, the daffodils are coming up in the garden, and it's definitely getting warmer now.. that probably means it's about time for a bit more snow!

Yazoo!

We passed our rock climbing safety test last night, so we are now official members of the rock climbing centre and don't need supervision anymore! We also got 25% off in the shop so we got all kitted out! The shoes are great, we couldn't wait to try them out at home.. It turns out they work pretty well for climbing up the ledge on the outside of the stairs! Hehe.. Won't be doing that too often though, I don't fancy forking out for new banisters!

Cool!

I love this Super Mario wedding cake! I just spotted it on cake wrecks and had to share.. the detail is absolutely beautiful, all the little mushrooms and banana skins and flying turtle shells! Perfect! The only thing missing is Yoshi, but maybe he's around the other side, eating apples..

We just got back from our final rock climbing lesson of the beginner course. It was loads of fun, and neither of us fell off at all this time! It's amazing the improvement we've both made in just three weeks. Things that were so difficult in the first session are so much easier now. It's nice to be able to see marked changes over time, like being able to get up the wall faster, and getting up higher than before. Today we blitzed the beginner routes, and didn't do to bad on the intermediate either, so I'm happy with that! We also tried bouldering, which is less of the climbing up, and more of the climbing across - staying not far off the ground, and trying to get all around the edge. Very fun! Luckily there weren't too many people trying to climb up the wall for us to get in the way of, or we'd have had some annoyed climbers I think!

Skywatch Friday: Rain, rain, rain

Dorking rain

Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

It's Skywatch Friday-day again! The snow's gone, and now it's the rain! Bad photo I'm afraid, I had to take it quickly because people were looking at me like a freak for taking photos of the rubbish weather!

The wall

So here's a picture of the wall we practiced falling off on Sunday ... and of course, James looking slightly scared at the price of all this climbing equipment we're going to have to fork out for at the end of the course!


The good news is, not so much pain this week! I think the muscles must be getting used to it a bit more now.. Bouldering next week apparently, that should be interesting! I will be surprised if I can get off the ground at all!

Location:K2

Vegetable Tagine

Inspired by Fink's absolutely delicious tagine I tried a few years ago, on Thursday night I thought I'd have a go at making one myself. Tagine and couscous is just so yummy, and definitely the sort of thing that warms you up when the weather's all cold.

So I did a bit of investigating, and decided to mix up a few different recipes to see what happened. I remembered that Fink prepared his over a few days, and most of the recipes on the Internet pretty much agreed, but I was feeling impatient and wanted to eat it that night, so that's what I did!

I combined Fink's lamb tagine recipe with Anthony Worrall Thompson's version, with a vegetarian version called Jossy's Moorish vegetable tagine found on Times Online, with a bit of extra customisation from me. I think it turned out pretty well, although funnily enough I saved some of it in the fridge overnight, cooked it up as a side to go with supper yesterday and it was so much more delicious and nowhere near as spicy hot! So, if you fancy using this recipe, I would recommend leaving it to stew for a nice long time.

Serves: 2/3

Ingredients:

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- Juice of 1 lemon

- 1 tsbp tomato purée

- 1½ tbsp paprika

- 1 tsp cayenne pepper

- 1½ tbsp ground ginger

- 2 tbsp ground cinnamon

- some ground black pepper

- 1 x 400g tin of plum tomatoes, chopped

- 1 large onions, grated

- 2 cloves garlic, crushed

- 1 red pepper, cut into small pieces

- 75g flaked almonds

- 55g/2oz sultanas and raisins

- 115g/4oz dried apricots, cut in half

- 55g/2oz dates, cut in half

- baby carrots

- 600ml/1 pint vegetable stock

- 1/2 tin of chickpeas

- 1 tbsp clear honey

- 2 tbsp coriander, roughly chopped

Method:

1. Put the baby carrots (each chopped in half) on to boil for 5 mins.

2. Put the olive oil and lemon juice into a separate (I used a wok) under a low heat.

2. Mix in the tomato puree, paprika, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, black pepper and ground ginger

3. Next add the chopped plum tomatoes and red pepper, and let it simmer for a while.

4. In a frying pan, fry the grated onion and garlic until lightly browned, then add this to the wok.

5. Strain off the carrots and add to the wok.

6. Add a cube of vegetable stock to the wok, along with some boiling water.

7. Leave to simmer for about half an hour.

8. Add the flaked almonds, raisins, sultanas, dates, apricots and chickpeas, then leave to simmer for another half an hour.

9. Lastly, add the honey and then the coriander.

10. Serve with lemon and coriander flavoured couscous.

I think the key to making this work is to keep trying it to make sure that the flavour is right, and definitely leaving it to simmer on a low heat for as long as possible, because it will just make it tastier!

I'm afraid I don't have any photos because we gobbled it all up! Tonight, we are travelling North in our food style and heading for Spain.. it is tapas night! I will try and remember to take some photos this time..

Skywatch Friday: Denbies Vineyard in the fog

Denbies Vineyard
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Yay, it's Skywatch Friday again! Err, slight problem.. what sky?! Well, it looks like the snow hasn't melted yet in Dorking! I walked over to Denbies at lunchtime today to get some photos in all the fog. It was unbelievable, you could hardly even see Box Hill.. first snow, then fog, I think we're due the rain tomorrow!

Tree house

While I remember, I just have to post a link to this.. The Tree House, Castle Cottage B&B, Petworth in our very own West Sussex!

I saw James playing around on Playstation Home earlier - it's this 3D environment you can walk around and interact with as an avatar, a bit like Second Life but on the PS3. It's amazing how many different locations they've added since it first came out! Anyway, I noticed this beautiful house that he was walking around, it was a huge tree house, with a great big tree running up through the middle of it! Fantastic!

It reminded me of Dave Gorman's America Unchained book I was reading a while ago where he stayed at a variety of unusual hotels all across America, including a tree house community! So, I was looking it up to show to James, and I ended up stumbling across a tree house B&B right on our doorstep in Petworth, hooray! A visit to this place is definitely going on my to-do list!

Rock

Kew Gardens
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Hmm.. something has definitely happened to my brain since our rock climbing lesson last Sunday, I am now looking at this picture trying to see hand grips! Rock climbing was lots of fun, but I am definitely paying for it now! 2 solid hours of climbing up 12 metre walls and then abseiling down again has made me acutely aware of many many muscles I never knew I had before! I think we were doing slightly more climbing than beginners usually get to do actually, as normally there are about 6 people on the course we're on, but this time it's just the two of us, so lots more time for climbing! He had us doing a wall that tilts backwards and everything, but ouch.. hand pain! Goodness knows what next week will bring, better have lots of hot baths before then!