An idea from 'The Guerilla Art Kit.' 

Page 95. 

'Making Friends.'

Maybe someone will like my eyes!

This one was great!

Really

tasty 

one. 

Can't remember where I bought it but I wish I'd bought more than the one bottle. The Ruby Cabernet I had before was a real disappointment but this was quite nutty on the nose, full and juicy on the palette. Label said black cherry but I thought blackberry.

Istanbul, last month. Some snap shots

guerilla art

Mini-me got 9781568986883 for his birthday and I'm going to nick some of the ideas out of it. So, today I have planted up 12 sunflower seeds in prep for some guerilla gardening later in the spring. Once they have germinated in their little peat pots, I'll take them down by the river, somewhere I regularly walk my dog, and plant them. It'll be fun walking past them every day to see how they're doing and also imagining other people's surprise and hopefully enjoyment when they see a random patch of up to a dozen sunflowers where you wouldn't expect them. Might even bring you pictures if you're very lucky.

Twitter kickback

Somewhat irked by Twitter only allowing you a few characters.

Back to blogging.

Have been covertly putting together an adventurous proposal to give to the management when the management came to me and asked if i thought the very ideas i had been putting down would be feasible! Nice work.

Just bought a remote controlled aeroplane. For work. Now, obviously, scared that it won't work and I will have spent £20 on a piece of tat. We shall see.

A story I heard today...

My aunty Nigel had been dead for three days before anyone knew. Uncle Sally had been talking to her for three days before he realised. He didn't smell anything because he'd lost his nose in the war. A pigeon ate it.

I know Trevor Brooking















's second cousin. But just found out today. Interesting huh?

more cool work stuff

BBQ with the guys from work on a beautiful warm Friday afternoon




Results of sewing skills project at work.

bush tucker

Today, at work, we took a bunch of the guys out to the woods with someone who leads day trips out learning survival skills. We put up shelter then started a fire. He showed us how to make fire by wood rubbing, making tinder from denim, getting sparks from batteries and steel wool and another contraption i don't remember the name of. We built up a 'fast burning' fire from tiny sticks and it grew into a real blaze. Once it had settled down, we cooked a whole chicken over the top of it. We whittled sticks to heat up our, not so survival style, sausage rolls. It was a fantastic day. The guys got on really well and I now stink of smokey wood fire. So much fun!

Today I was asked...

'Have you ever, in an outrageous burst of childhood idiocy, tried to sharpen a body part?'

New job: week 2

Went bowling in Milton Keynes at the end of the week. For work.

New job: week 1

This afternoon I'm going up the driving range. And it's work!

international man of mystery

I couldn't take enough pictures of the pack ice at the glacier. It was one of the things I really wanted to see while on Svalbard. Of course I wanted to see a lot more wildlife than could reasonably be expected but i did see a whole lot of birds that a) you wouldn't see in the uk and more importantly b) my parents haven't seen yet!!


We were really lucky to get to this glacier. It was only because the weather was good and there weren't many people in the boat that we made good time and could fit it into the schedule. It was the best moment of the holiday for both of us.

a canine theme

Huskies are very common in Svalbard and are used as working dogs. We had the opportunity to go sledging with dogs while we were there. As it was summer there wasn't enough ice so the sledging was on wheels but as excellent compensation, there were puppies!! There were five at the place we went to and it was a wrench having to leave them with their owners. Even the tour guide for the day checked the insides of my coat to see that i wasn't stowing any away!

We harnessed up 8-9 dogs at the front of the sledges and took it in turns to drive. I thought initially it was a bit harsh on them pulling us just for the pleasure of it but as soon as we got to the cages where the dogs were kept the racket of them all howling to be allowed out and work was deafening. These guys love working! They jumped at the leashes when we had to put the breaks on.

On another occassion we went for a 3 hour trek with a husky and while we were struggling to cross rivers of melt-water, the dogs just trotted through never noticing the cold (literally glacial!) or current. Awesome beasties!

One night we went to a villmarksgrilling - wilderness BBQ - and learnt more about the dogs there. The guy running the evening presented a slide show of his annual trips out to the arctic wilderness with the dogs. They snuggle down outside at night but he told us not to feel sorry for them because it doesn't affect them at all and that they would often come out in the morning and see no dogs at all because of the snow then gradually ears would appear and then the rest would follow!

glacier

There will be more of these to follow but i can't wait to show you this one. It just got more and more stunning the longer we stayed.

midnight sun

Here's a picture from a trip I have just come back from in Finland. This was taken at two thirty in the morning, many miles above the arctic circle on the island of Spitsbergen, Svalbard. We went on a split site visit of Norway, starting with several days in Oslo. Svalbard was by far the most exciting part of the trip as I hope my entries will show.


This may also a 2:30 am snap (there's really no telling between them!) showing where we stayed during our four days. Svalbard lies approximately 700 miles south of the north pole and is fabulously rich in wildlife. We had some incredible trips out that really made this one of the best trips of my life.



The scenery was stunning and we were really fortunate with weather. It was pretty nippy at times as you'd expect but we had a lot of clear skies and of course the sun never went down!

Edinburrow

Taking a week's holiday with my travel bud Margaret from The States. We've had a blast so far; the zoo, portrait gallery, st andrews, fishing villages of fife, oban, castles and lochs, cinema, stand up comedy lunch time and a pile of other stuff i can't remember.

All good stuff though....now just checking the temperatures in Svalbard for my holiday later in the month!

Two working days left .... new job starting September 1 .... house nearly complete .... mini-me finished exams ....