Jamie's Italian..

Jamie's Italian, Bath
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Wow, it has obviously been too long since we have been to Brighton and Guildford, because I have just found out that Jamie Oliver has opened branches of Jamie's Italian in both towns, wohooo!! =) Surrounded! We actually went to the one in Bath on the second leg of our honeymoon, and it was fantastic, highly recommended! We were really lucky to get in actually, the owners of the farm/B&B we were staying at said that it was normally impossible to get a table, and it was only 2 years after it opened that they were able to get in there for a meal!

Here's some pictures of the inside..

This is the bar, right by the entrance, where you wait for your table - you can order olives and music bread to eat while you wait, but we were optimistic and just ordered a couple of cokes!:

Jamie's Italian, Bath
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Jamie's Italian, Bath
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

I like these lanterns that were on the tables in the bar area..

Jamie's Italian, Bath
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

So after about 15 minutes we were seated at our table.. not bad!

Jamie's Italian, Bath
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

We admired the decor while we waited for our starters to show up.. these chandeliers reminded me of the ones we had in our hotel room in Venice!

Jamie's Italian, Bath
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Interesting wallpaper.. hmm..

Jamie's Italian, Bath
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Ooh! The starter arrived! After eyeing up the musical bread in the bar, we decided to order 'WORLD'S BEST OLIVES ON ICE: Large green olives with my special black olive tapenade and music bread'

and a 'SELECTION OF TOP ITALIAN BREADS: ocaccia, ciabatta, sourdough country bread, grissini sticks and 'snappy music bread' with lemon and rosemary gremolata served with single estate extra virgin olive oil and fine balsamic vinegar'

Yum! I went out and bought some of Jamie's balsamic for home after that..

Jamie's Italian, Bath
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Next up, my main was 'RAVIOLI CARAMELLE: Sweetie shaped and stuffed with pumpkin and ricotta cheese with breadcrumbs, parmesan and beautiful rosemary sauce'.. very delicious!

Jamie's Italian, Bath
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

and James had 'PRAWN LINGUINI: Pan fried garlicy prawns with tomatoes, chilli, rocket and fennel'.. also very tasty!

Jamie's Italian, Bath
Originally uploaded bykipperfrog

Well, we thought it would be an awful shame not to sample the puddings while we were there.. so out came the Tiramiso and Panacotta! Wow, amazing! It would be worth a trip just to try all the puddings really! =) It was a very filling and delicious dinner, it could be a real problem having two nearby now though!!

Jamie's Italian, Bath
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

There's a spider in the light!

There's a spider in the light!
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

It seems to me there are way too many spiders around the place this year! Our garden is absolutely full of them, and they've all linked up their webs together to block off pretty much the whole patio! I was watering the plants, and the hose didn't even penetrate the webbing, it 's crazy, I even saw one doubling up its threads for reinforcement when I went near it! We've now got one living in the porch light too, I'm not really sure how it got in there, it's huge! Apparently the conditions are perfect for spiders in the UK this Autumn, so they're on the increase.. just as long as those false widow ones stay away though, that's all I ask!

Spiders
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

My home made scraggy owl

My home made scraggy owl
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Now here's something I forgot to blog 2 years ago! This is a picture of a my home made scraggy owl cuddly. I remember picking up a design magazine a few years back, which I think was partially responsible for this! I really like Japanese inspired vinyl character toys, like the Moofia series, and this magazine was all about how you could make your fortune designing characters and creating all the spin-off merchandising like plush toys and vinyl toys.. it all sounded like lots of fun, so I thought I'd have a go at making a random little character! While I'm on the topic of these things, it's definitely worth checking out these two on flickr: mypapercrane and Ana Paula Rimoli, who both make amazing custom character designs to sell, these are really cute! Anyway, what I did was just make up a quick sketch of a few different characters, chose one, and then headed off to the haberdashery (Knights in Reigate).. these places are dangerous!! The upstairs of Knights is just full of every sort of fabric, loads of different buttons, sequins, felts, stuffings, stick on noses.. amazing! Then you have to try and choose from it all.. we were in there I'd say probably an hour and a half just trying out different combinations of fabrics and colours combinations! I settled on denim in the end, with red stripey cotton fabric for the head, yellow felt for the big eye O.o and the stripes, and corduroy for the other eye and the heart detail..

Here's the owl pre-sewing and stuffing. I flipped the front and back sections inside out before sewing them together most of the way around the edge (to hide the seam on the outside), I made sure to leave gaps for the wings to be attached at the end.. then I turned it back the right way out, and filled with stuffing.

Owl in production

Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

What's a stworek?

I found this picture on Google image search when I was looking for Polish handmade wooden chess sets for sale.. all the English and American imports are really expensive, so I thought I'd do a translate on wooden chess set into Polish to try and get one off a Polish site - it turns out to be.. "drewniane szachy kupić". Quite helpful actually! Google was then returning me nice folding chess sets from the Tatra mountains for approx £8 rather than £70 (and a picture of a stworek)! Any ideas what this picture is of? It looks a little like a chipmunk, but not quite! Google translate doesn't want to translate the word back into English for me, but when I do an image search on "stworek" it seems to bring back loads of pictures of monsters! I think that's a little unkind.. it's quite cute!

Update: ooh.. it's the translation of "Kreature" (Harry Potter), I guess if creature is "stwór", then it all makes sense! No wonder it wasn't in the dictionary.. still not sure what it's got to do with chess though..

Robo-Dustcart Ate Our Wheelie Bin! :-O

Well, in Horsham we have these special dustcarts, they are very futuristic. The first time I saw one I was really freaked out.. they park up next to your wheelie bins, and just as you are wondering where all the bin men are, a long robotic gripper arm emerges out of the side of the truck and grabs your bin, lifts it high up into the air, and then shakes it around, tipping all of your rubbish into the back of the cart. It's very clever really, but the first time I saw it I happened to be walking past one of the bins it was grabbing! It reminded me of something out of Wallace & Gromit, and I was just imagining all the scary things that could happen when you're not paying attention around a gadget like that.. most of which end up with you as dog food! Funnily enough, when I was googling these beasts just now (trying to find a picture of one for this post) I came across a bit of a nasty story.. you don't need to read it, but the moral of the story is, don't sleep in wheelie bins, just remember that!

Here's one from the Netherlands!

Image source: Wikipedia

Anyway, I digress.. I started to like these robo-dustcarts after one morning I forgot to put the bin out on time, and had to chase the dustcart down the road with our wheelie bin. The dustcart driver must have noticed me legging it down the road, so he leaned out of the window and asked if I wanted to have a go with the grabber.. there it was.. the day I got to feed the robot! It was great!

Now, it seems that today, it has all turned sour, this robot is getting greedy.. rubbish is no longer enough.. it seems our poor wheelie bin was eaten for breakfast! Unbelievable! After a tip off from our neighbour, James phoned up the council to complain about our bin being stolen by the bin men, only to be told that unfortunately it had dropped into the rubbish pit in the back of the truck, and fallen casualty to the dustcart's crushers! Meep!

Crazy Florida

OK, so this is an old piece of news, but pretty funny in a funny-unless-it-happened-to-you sort of a way! I think I would have been unimpressed! See the story here. Why would you need a concealed weapons permit anyway?!

Red Sky at Night

Autumn sunsets are the best! This was the view from our front door a couple of evenings ago.. I'm not so sure about "shepherd's delight" though, it's getting freezing! I've had to put the heating on already, the blanket has come out, and I've gone down with a horrible cold thing, yuck! I think I caught it off the dead-ish/highly drunk looking guy on the train back from London on Friday, who sprawled himself all across the seats opposite us, blocked us in by lying half on the floor, and repeatedly spluttered on us in his sleep.. all the way home.. niiiice! Either that or it's some kind of lovely freshers flu that I'm specially entitled to as an added perk of being married to a teacher.. hehe.. =)

Autumn Sunset

Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Autumn Sunset
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Autumn Moon
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Progress

Pumpkin plant
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Well, today I spied 2 little flower buds on the biggest pumpkin plant, yay! I think it must like living on top of the radiator, nice and warm like its Mexican homeland! I don't think that's half bad going though, there's still hope for my Halloween pumpkin/pumpkin pie - c'mon c'mon.. a month and a day to go!!

Well hello there husband o' mine..

welcome to the blogosphere! You have somehow managed to write more posts in one night than I have in the last 2 years, perhaps I need to raise my game! =)

The coolest view in London at night

View from the Millennium Bridge
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

The middle of the Millennium bridge at night, has got to be just about my favourite view in London at night! We went up to Vinopolis on Bankside last night for a comedy night, and we decided to go for a walk along the South Bank afterwards - absolutely beautiful at night, and not full of tourists! We walked past the Globe Theatre, and up to the Tate Modern, then up across the Millennium Bridge.. I love the way they've placed the bridge so that it lines up directly with St Paul's Cathedral, all lit up at night, and to the left - London Bridge - it's pretty much as central London as you can get I think! There look like some nice restaurants along the South Bank, there was one with great big flaming torches and drum music outside which looked pretty cool. It makes me want to go back with the big camera, and go up the London Eye at night too, I think that would be amazing.. one day!

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

View from the Millennium Bridge

Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

View from the Millennium Bridge

Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

View from the Millennium Bridge

Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Southwark Cathedral

Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Pumpkin plant experiment

Pumpkin plant
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Hmm.. well the other day I decided I quite wanted to grow a pumpkin! I think it's just because it seems like a really Autumn-y thing to do, plus it would be really cool to have a home grown pumpkin to carve for Halloween! I also have this really random curiosity about pumpkin pie at the moment -for some reason I'd really like to try it! I'm really interested to know if it can possibly be nice.. I have seen a couple of recipes involving pecans and maple syrup, which do sound quite promising, although with pumpkin?! I just don't know! (I do realise I could just go and buy a pumpkin, but where's the challenge in that..)

Anyway, the closest thing I could find to a pumpkin plant was a packet of pumpkin seeds, which I picked up in Denbies the other day.. funnily enough, it even said 'New England Pie' on the packet..

The only trouble is, the guidelines say:

Indoor planting: April - May

Hmm.. how about September?! Well, I'm far too impatient to wait until April, so I planted up the seeds in the propagator a few days ago, and already I've got 4 pretty big plants! Now I just have to figure out a way of keeping them alive through the frost.. I think it might get a bit like The Day of the Triffids in here! It'll be interesting to see how they do though. By my calculations, they should be producing pumpkins by January.. we'll see!

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! =)