Christmas is coming

Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat... Jason took the fantastic picture above of our Christmas tree this afternoon. Yes I know it is not even December yet but it is so dark and bleak outside at the moment, having Christmas come early helps cheer us up! We put the tree up this afternoon and there is a picture below of all of the tree. The tree is over dressed as ever, the colour scheme this year being silver, blue and purple. The LED lights are really cool we have them fading in and out slowly, but they do have a setting so they flash on and off like a disco if we fancy a Christmas boogie!
I almost bought a giant musical snow globe from Marks and Spencers but thought better of it in the end, I do have a singing Santa and Rudolph at work which I can bring home on Christmas Eve. Not long to go now!

Manchester

For the first time in over a year I am staying in Manchester. After visiting Manchester regularly for a number of years whilst working for the DRC I have only been back once in the last 15 months. I'm staying at a lovely hotel I'll post details when I get back. We had a gorgeous meal tonight at EastzEast restauran which I was first taken to when travelling around England with a bunch of stand up comedians performing on buses. Yes it was as surreal as it sounds. But I did get introduced to EastzEast on that tour. The food is always delicious and hearty while the service is attentive and charming. All women are given a single red rose on leaving. Cheesey maybe but very, very sweet.

London photos

Jase and I went to a rather freezing London this afternoon to take some photos along the Thames. All the pics below are Jason's. We walked along Queens Walk past City Hall and then along Shad Thames and back before crossing over Tower Bridge pictured below.
Jase got the picture of the stairs below but doesn't like the McD's cup in it but I think it adds something to the picture, like commenting on modern London and it's urban, global corporate litter ;-)
Below are two views of City Hall where I used to work.

By the time the sun was setting it had got too cold for me although Jase was just wearing a t-shirt and jacket and not feeling the cold at all. The German Christmas market was about 10 times busier than yesterday - it was heaving and bad tempered so we escaped to Clapham for tea.

Cologne Christmas Market

This afternoon Andrew, Carla and I went to the Cologne Christmas market on the Southbank. Carla and Andrew are pictured below. The German market promised ginger bread hearts, mulled wine, sausage and all manner of festive goodies to buy. It didn't disappoint - except for the gingerbread which was full of additives and preservatives and vacuum wrapped! I did get the most divine bath melts which are scented with orange and cinnamon, really Christmassy.

The solitary merry go round - which is a permanent fixture of the Southbank was made German by way of organ music and made festive as it was belting out popular carols and Christmas tunes.
There was also a "Slow food" market on the Waterloo side of the Southbank Centre - with lots of tasting opportunities and some lovely meat, cheese and bread on sale not to mention the hog roast and lamb burgers! The slow food thing is back on the weekend of the 19th December!

Weddings, Monkey and more

After a week of fairly prolific blogging (for me) at the beginning of November things have been busy and I have been bad at keeping my blog up to date. Last weekend we attended Nikki and Phil's wedding reception at The Carlton Mitre Hotel opposite Hampton Court. Jase and I loved the hotel so much we have booked to stay the day after Boxing Day! I can't wait. Check out the history of the hotel section of the website linked above - it's great especially the bit about the trench that was dug for all manner of filth to be flung in!

On the Sunday we went to see Monkey Journey to the West at the O2 which was amazing! Although the specially built theatre was a bit cheap and cheerful and the seats were small and tightly packed in. As we were on the front row and I am rather short it was hard to see all of the action on the stage sometimes but if we had sat further back then I would not have seen as much as the gradient of the seating wasn't very steep. So the seats were the best for me. There was some silly mix up with the wheelchair seating which was a shame to see happen but they seemed to sort it all out in the end.

The performance its self was spectacular the acrobatics and martial arts were cool, the music great and the costumes gorgeous. I would have liked to have seen more of Jamie Hewlett's animation which is great.
Otherwise this last week or so we have been playing a lot of golf on the Wii - I had the yips for a while with the old power shots but seem to have regained my technique :-)

Barak Obama

I thought it was important to mark today on my blog Wednesday 5th November 2008 as the day Barak Obama was confirmed the President Elect of the United States of America. Below is a picture I took last week of a rainbow in Cornwall. I thought it symbolizes well the hope so much of the world is feeling today!

Glendurgan Gardens - Tuesday 29th October

On Tuesday last week we went to Glendurgan Gardens a National Trust gardens with beautiful autumn foliage and a maze. Some of the autumn colours are pictured below.

At the bottom of Glendurgan gardens is Glendurgan village which is situated on the Helston River which is pictured below.
Tuesday was my last full day in Cornwall, and in the afternoon we went to Marazion to walk round in the rain. I picked up a book of Cornish ghost stories and folk tales.

Porthleven Monday 27th October

Last Monday the sun arrived in Cornwall and so I rushed out in the morning to capture the blue sea in the picture below.We then traveled to Porthleven to have lunch and walk along the coast. Below is a picture of the harbour wall and buildings and below that the boats in the harbour.

The picture below shows the pub we had our lunch in, I had sea bass which was delicious.

We then walked in the rain to Loe Bar and Loe Water one of the most unusual places I have ever been to a fresh water lake sepparated by a sand dune from the sea, surrounded by trees. Below is an arial shot of the bar and water.

Perranuthnoe Sunday 26th October

Last Sunday we walked to Perranuthnoe to have lunch at a pub called the Victoria Inn their website does not do justice to the pub its self. I had pork with black pudding and apple which was the most delicious pork and black pudding I have ever eaten! Below is a picture of Perranuthnoe as we saw it over the headland from Acton Castle.

In Perranuthnoe there is a craft workshop called the Cowhouse which I enjoyed looking around mainly pottery, jewelry and paintings. There was also a tea rooms and craft shop opposite which sold clothes as well. In this Aladin's Den of a shop an elderly local woman was chatting the the young shop assistant who she had clearly known since the shop assistant was a child. They were chatting about the local woman's pig which had just been slaughtered, it was chops for tea that night. The shop assistant casually commented that it would be the goose for the cop next; in time for Christmas, the older woman agreed with a smack of her lips.

On our return home the field below the castle was full of cows who were rather friendly. I took quite a few pictures of the cows but this was my favourite of them.

Although Sunday had largely been overcast in the evening the sky brightened and lead to a beautiful sunset. Below is a picture of St Michaels Mount just before sunset.

Sunset over the Penzance headland across Mounts Bay.

Arriving in Cornwall Saturday 25th October

A week ago today I was on my way down to Cornwall. We had an event free journey down. We stopped on Dartmoor to have a meal at the pub pictured below.

In the pub garden there were 3 kittens playing. The little black kitten below was speeding about the patio area chasing pebbles. He had a ginger brother who I also snapped hiding in the grass and a tabby who I wasn't able to get a picture of as he kept moving!


We arrived in Cornwall before it got dark and went out exploring straight away. We were staying at Acton Castle which is near to Marizion on the east side of Mounts Bay. Below are two pictures I took as we explored east of the castle, The walk involved stomping through muddy cabbage fields and nettle fields. I got stung rather a lot.
These pictures were taken on our way to Prussia Cove.

When we returned back from the walk we explored the garden of the castle whilst my Mum and I were in the garden we heard voices, coming from another part of the small garden, we assumed it would be some of the other people staying at the castle but when we got to that part of the garden there was no one there. In fact no one else was anywhere near the garden. My Mum and I put it down to the wind carrying the sound of someone quite far away and making it sound as if they were a lot nearer. A few days later I bought a book of Cornish ghost stories that included the tale of a ghostly young sailor who haunts Mounts Bay he is heard calling out around Mounts Bay most usually calling "I will, I will" a pledge to his dead fiance who haunted him in life. Maybe it was the phantom sailor we heard in the garden that night.