Flibbertigibbet

I’ve been following the Red Bull Air Race on TV after seeing it by chance last year and being astounded - what these pilots can do with their planes is incredible! They put their bodies through a lot too in order to be the fastest round the course. It is breathtaking to watch.

I was particularly pleased to see that one of the pilots is Nigel Lamb, a familiar name from days visiting air displays with Mum and Dad. This photo was taken at Chivenor in the early 90’s when he was flying as part of an aerobatic team. Nigel is doing well in his gorgeous Breitling plane, currently in 9th position, but it would be great if he finished higher this year. Another Brit, Paul Bonhomme, is in the lead and proving tough to beat with his skilful flying. I shall be cheering them both on and hope to see the London leg live which has to be even more spectacular.

I am raving about these at the moment, probably because they are easy to bake! Having found the tin first in Steamer Trading (one of my favourite shops) I had to find out what on earth they were. Located the recipe, baked them, then felt justified in going back to buy the tin. That’s female logic for you Read the rest of this entry »

Christine, a friend of mine, is spending 6 days in September trekking across the Carpathian Mountains in North East Romania to raise money for Link Romania’s projects there which help the poorest people. She is paying for the costs of both trek and flights, all money donated will go straight to the charity. Her target is to raise a whopping £2,000.

Next Saturday she is organising a “Putting on the Ritz” tea party at her church - complete with cucumber sandwiches of course! I’ve so far helped with posters, menus and as an extra pair of hands, but there is a lot to do to reach such a target. I think she is very brave, undertaking this completely on her own without knowing anyone else on the trek. It is also going to be physically very demanding.

Her sponsorship page can be found at http://www.justgiving.com/christinelepoidevin if you have a moment to look, or to make a donation if you are feeling generous and know like me that you could never undertake such a challenge!!

46% Geek

I created this poster using a photo taken earlier today and a great website. The hardest part is thinking up some funny or deeply meaningful text to put with it!

The other night Tim and I started talking about sweets we remember after I read a bit in my book mentioning Spangles. Apparently “remember Spangles” is the usual opening line to a conversation like this and I later found lots of chat on the Internet about favourite remembered confectionery. It’s amazing what you can find out if you start looking and also surprising what is still available to buy, brought back by popular demand, if only online.

Alas Spangles are no more although apparently they did return for a short while in the 90’s. Probably today health & safety would have an issue with the razor sharp hole that appeared in the middle as the sweet dissolved in your mouth. I couldn’t find a photo of the 80’s packaging anywhere but I did find an early advertisement (pictured left) which made me laugh!

From Spangles we moved on to other sweets:

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This will be my new favourite album of the moment - not very promising judging by the cover art is it! I had been trying to track down the artist of the song which turned out to be “Casino” for YEARS. ITV kindly provided the answer after it featured on one of their programmes recently. I’ve listened to samples on Amazon and it all sounds fantastic. I’d never heard of this band but they are in fact huge in their home country of Norway and very popular throughout Europe. Their live shows have gained massive reputation for combining various percussion instruments and using pyrotechnics (thanks Last.fm for that information). The tags at Last.fm describe them as chillout, dance, electronica, downtempo, lounge. Somebody reviewing the album on Amazon actually said “Casino” should feature on the “Oceans Eleven” soundtrack and I’d looked on those! Very very cool - if you are looking for something different I recommend giving them a listen.

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I thought I was going to get my answer today regarding a song I’ve been trying to track down for 4 years no less! Alas I have to wait at least another month. I heard it on holiday in 2003 and part was caught on our video camera when we were filming outside a beach bar. It was such a lovely relaxed beachy sound, I never dreamt it would be impossible to identify. Read the rest of this entry »

I can’t be the only person who just doesn’t get “Second Life” - the alternate reality virtual world thingy. After watching the “Wonderland” programme on BBC2 earlier it has left me more bemused than ever! Isn’t this world big enough, beautiful enough and REAL enough to live in all the time? Why would you choose to inhabit a cyberworld where everything is made up? People create their own “Avatar” to represent them (but mostly not resemble them) which is often a hilarious over the top representation of everything they wish they were but aren’t. I can understand using the computer for a million things, I love playing the odd computer game, but this I can’t get to grips with. Each to their own but I see it as somewhere those who are lonely, unhappy and dissatisfied with their real lives go and so pray I never feel the need to sign up!!

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