Wednesday, May 24, 2006

The drive home

So we checked out of the hotel after breakfast and then drove back to the top of Kirkstone Pass - about 1500 feet above the lake and since it was sunny were able to take some photos down into the valley below. Actually at the pass, you can't see back to Lake Ullswater, but you can see down the other side to Lake Windermere.

We drove about halfway down to Windermere when Marie said we've not really taken many pictures of the sheep (And the bleat goes on!) ... so we stopped and took some pictures of the sheep and the lambs.

And then we drove down and into Kendal. Which reminds me of something I meant to mention yesterday - driving back to the hotel along some very windy roads, so narrow at some points that there really was only one cars width available. We were going through small villages and hamlets that probably didn't even have the horse to allow them to be called "one horse towns". Anyway, I had my PDA running Tom Tom satelite navigation software so that we would eventually get back to the hotel. But I had forgotten to turn off the wireless network adaptor on the PDA and as we drove along through these no horse towns I was picking up loads and loads of wireless networks. It made me chuckle in a nerdy kind of way.

And today was the same, but different. After driving through Kendal we hit the M6 just north of Lancaster and all the way down to Stoke where we headed east towards Nottingham. All the way down the M6 - I had 3 wireless networks available - one was called Testbed, another was called T-mobile and I forget the other now. The possibilities are interesting though - again in a nerdy kind of way.

Anyway, we're home now. I'd like to back again soon - but for a little longer than just 3 days - we did pack rather a lot into yesterday in particular. It would be nice to be up there when it is a bit warmer, a bit sunnier and just be a bit lazier.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Sometimes you do get ...

... what you wish for! We woke up this morning to bright sunshine and after a hearty cumbrian breakfast we ventured out to the edge of the lake to take some photographs. Artistically, I am really please with the first shot but the second shot is even better memento of the trip. Since the sun was shining we decided to go and for a trip on one of the steamers on the lake - the round trip from Glenridding to Pooley Bridge and back takes about 2 hours. The scenery was breathtaking and lots of new pictures are in Simes' Gallery as a result.

After the boat trip we took a long drive out to the coast and down to a small village called Ravenglass, so small in fact that my satelite navigation gizmo didn't know where it was. So, instead I set course for Egremont, since I knew Egremont was close to Ravenglass. Egremont puts me in mind of Mike Harding's double live album "Captain Paralytic and the Brown Ale Cowboy" which I really must try to get hold of.

The target at Ravenglass was a narrow guage railway trip. Which after two hour drive was the third trip of the day for the sake of it - since we arrived when the only option left was to travel from one end of the line to the other and straight back again. This followed by another two hour drive back to the hotel via some very narrow roads - but we did get to see Coniston Water and Lake Windermere en route home.

As yesterday, Marie spent most of the day making an "awww" sound, except the sound that Marie made was more like "mu-awwww". Why, you ask? Sheep, lambs I say. It is lambing season a-go-go here, Marie even spotted one being born yesterday. She's totally sheep obsessed. Tonight, in the restaurant while I was eating the best duck I have ever had - we were being serenaded by Georgi Zamphir again and his pan-pipe rendition of songs such as Careless Whisper and Abba's Knowing Me, Knowing You .... Ahhhhh haaaaa.

This led to the two of us spending the rest of the evening mentally designing a website. Marie's Panpipe Midi Resource combined with being the ultimate web sheep resource - with song titles such as "Do Ewe Really Want To Herd Me". I could go on at length - but the sexual connotations don't bear (!!) thinking about.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Lake District Day 2

So, after breakfast this morning we just chilled out for a while in the hotel lounge. The weather was pretty mediocre and so we decided to head off to Carlisle to go to the cinema to see The Da Vinci Code. Ron Howard's done a good job of transferring the book to the screen in my view - we both enjoyed it. Afterwards, we did a little essential shopping - which included a compact flash memory card. I'd tried to take some pictures outside the hotel earlier in the day only to find that my camera's memory card was AWOL - I suspect it is at home in the card reader of the computer.

Anyway, on the drive back from Carlisle we stopped and took a few pictures. The first one is Lake Ullswater, you can see it is overcast and misty, but even so a very nice view. The lake is some 12 miles long and the hotel we're staying at is right at the south-western end of the lake. I'd love to see it on a bright, sunny summer day - it must be even more spectacular then.

The second shot is the hotel we are staying at showing the fell in the background. It is such a peaceful and relaxing setting - in a small village called Glenridding. Anyway having braved the elements for a few minutes to take some pictures we decided that it looked much cosier back inside the hotel with a cup of tea by the fireplace.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Mellow ...

So anyway, here we are, in the Lake District, Marie and I. We left Nottingham shortly after noon today and arrived at our hotel, Inn on the Lake (Ullswater), shortly before 4pm. That was pretty good time since we stopped for a sandwich en route.

The hotel is smashing, sort of old fashioned and right on the edge of Lake Ullswater and mossy fells towering all around the place. Even with fairly heavy rain and low cloud and mist it is a tremendous location. I keep waiting for Connor MacLeod to come striding towards the hotel.

We settled into our room and then came down to the bar for a drink before a splendid dinner in the hotel restaurant. We both opted for the same fishy starter followed by Aspargus soup. Marie opted for pork and I had some lamb, nicely washed down with a bottle of French Merlot. Dessert and coffee to follow.

The hotel really is quite quaint - has a 1950s feel about it and the music, or should that be muzak, is very amusing. During dinner we had some guy on pan pipes doing Robbie Williams "Angels" and later Clannads "Harry's Game" and then in the bar "Time to say Goodbye" as done by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Boceli.

And that's all for now folks ... because after some beer and a bottle of wine I am feeling distinctly mellow.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

This weekend ...

... has been quite interesting. Firstly, I made contact with an old college friend who I have not seen for the better part of 28 years. I had a good rest - in as far as the weekend was more restful than most tend to be. I listened to some music again which is something that I have not been doing enough of lately (lately being a long time). And I've finished it off with my latest de-stressing technique - that being travelling to Leeds on a Sunday evening, rather than having a mega hectic Monday compounded by 2-3 hours in the car.

And on that note I shall bid you all goodnight. Oh and yes, I am still not happy about Chris Daughtry's premature departure from American Idol and no I don't expect to get over it anytime soon.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

I slept on it ...

... and I am still pissed off that Chris got the boot from American Idol.

GRRRRRRRRRRRR !!!

Friday, May 12, 2006

American Idol gets it wrong again.

Jeez I really wonder why I watch these programs when I should have the basic intelligence to understand that the mainstream TV voting demographic will never pick out someone with an edge as the winner.

This combined with more rumours of a telephone number screw-up. Claims from Chris Daughtry's fans that they voted on his number and got the voice of another contestant thanking them for the vote.

As much as I like Chris - I don't think he was that good with the Elvis songs. Elliot was outstanding and Taylor did good too - but come on Catherine was diabolical on her first song and through no fault of her own, the arrangement screwed her second performance too.

But there is no way Chris should have gone. I am really disappointed - more disappointed than I was then Bo lost the final last year.

Apparently though there is talk of Chris perhaps becoming the lead singer for the band Fuel - read more about that here >> http://www.fuelweb.com/.

Whatever happens I really do hope that we get to hear more of Chris Daughtry.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Maximum Cuteness



Need I say more? More pictures here

American Idol - 2 for the price of 1

OK so I slacked and didn't post anything from last week when Kellie Pickler bit the dust and now this week Paris Bennett has gone. I was not surprised to see Kellie go last week nor Paris this. Kellie had really been struggling for a couple of weeks and her time was up. As for Paris, I think that a couple of factors led to her departure - one Simon Cowell decided she was not for him and has been making it very clear for a number of weeks now. But most of all - it kinda struck me that do the American public really want to idolise a 16 year old kid that talks like Minnie Mouse? Clearly not.

So we've got Catherine left - she's got the look but half the time she ain't got the voice. As my friend Stuart said "Everytime she tries to raise her game it all goes wrong" - she did the Phil Collin's song no favours at all last week. Next week I think that Elliot could well go, but Catherine has to be at risk as well. They're doing Elvis songs - which to me would seem to be an advantage to the guys. I am sorta hoping that Catherine does go - because despite the comments earlier, if she gets a couple of songs that suit her then she can appear to be outstanding.

My favoured outcome at the moment is for Catherine to go next week - and then Chris will win - because neither Elliot or Taylor are going to get more votes than him in a straight sing-off. The risk is that Catherine doesn't go and she gets the mainstream , conformist vote and wins. I hope not!

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Bill Bryson cracks me up !!

Over the past 3-4 years I have done more reading for pleasure than I had probably done in the previous 40 some years combined. When it comes to reading I am a lightweight and enjoy the simple things in life like Harry Potter, Dan Brown's books, etc. It has to be fast paced and quickly gripping or else I lose interest quickly. Anyhow, having read all of Ms. Rowling's and Mr. Brown's output I decided to pick on some other unsuspecting writer - Bill Bryson. I read his book about his final trip around the UK before taking his family back to the USA and then moved onto "The Lost Continent - Travels in Small Town America".

This was back in January - and I am still hovering somewhere around chapter 8 or 9 - not because I don't like it, but because I do like it and I keep re-reading bits over and over because they make me laugh so much. This is a new pleasure for me.

My favourite bit so far is this:

I drove out to the Little White House, about two miles outside town. The parking lot was empty, except for an old bus from which a load of senior citizens were disembarking. The bus was fromthe Calvary Baptist Church in some place like Firecracker, Georgia or Bareassed, Alabama. The old people were noisy and excited, like schoolchildren, and pushed in front of me at the ticket booth, little realizing that I wouldn't hesitate to give an old person a shove, especially a Baptist. But I just smiled benignly and stood back, comforted by the thought that soon they would be dead.


Sheer genius, makes me laugh out loud everytime I read it. It is harsh and dark but we all know in our innermost thoughts that we have probably pondered much worse at some time or another.