2011 has gone……

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. How kind.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,000 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 33 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Drinkies……

…… mmmm.  This is the delightful “fruit” and rum based thing that was concocted at Deb’s birthday do on Friday evening.  The most revolting drink I’ve seen for a long time.

No idea if it got drunk by anyone.  I hope not.

Early mornings……

…… don’t seem to be as bad as they used to be. I’ve been swimming every morning for the past two weeks, and it’s a rather nice way to start the day. It’s dark and a bit horrible, and I’m not sure how compos mentis I am at driving at that time in the morning, but I am rather enjoying it.

Stuffed……

…… with lovely food.  Hours later, after having Sunday lunch at Chris & Karen’s, I am still stuffed.  It was lovely, and great to have time to catch up with them, Tony & Lesley.  Not much else got done today, on account of the lie-in, too much food and lying on the sofa watching movies.  I like Sundays like this sometimes.  Mmmm.  Pie.

Lunch in Bakewell……

…… sometimes I really do like my job when I get a proper lunch break.  I spent the morning in Chesterfield and had a 2.30pm appoinment in Bakewell.  This gave me enough time to get there, park up, walk into the town centre and find a cafe to have a proper lunch in.  So much more civilised than sitting at a desk eating a sandwich and dropping crumbs in my keyboard whilst trying to answer the phone and type at the same time.  And I found a decent bookshop which I didn’t have time to explore, so I may have to go back.

Another event over……

…… and thank god for that.  I sometimes wonder why I get involved in LRP event organising – it’s such a pain in the ass.  Months of planning, organising, costume and prop making, spending money, getting money in, budgetting, site visiting, player and monster wrangling, stressing, arguing.  The list could go on.  But we’ve finished running Buaireadair aig a’Muileann – Raven’s Shadow.  And it seemed to be a success generally speaking.  There were a few chaotic behind-the-scenes episodes, but the players seemed to enjoy themselves, and the monsters/crew worked their arses off making everything run as smoothly as they could.  All good.

Penguins in Jumpers……

…… are cute.  Get knitting guys.  Anyone who’s got spare wool (who isn’t donating it to a, ahem, cause next weekend), can put it to good use by knitting these wee guys a jumper.

Since the Rena hit the Astrolabe Reef off Tauranga, there’s a awful lot of seabirds washed up onshore covered in oil and needing help.  These little blue penguins aren’t the only ones affected – dotterels, albatrosses and storm petrels are amongst the species affected.  For those of us not in NZ – just remember that your local wildlife rescue centre may need jumpers for animals and birds that have been taken in.

 

10 places……

…… I’ve always wanted to visit.  Maybe I will some day; maybe not.  It doesn’t matter.  But they’re on my wish list.

1: Isfahan, Iran.  For as the proverb says “Isfahan is half of the world.”

2: Antarctica. Because of Apsley Cherry-Garrard:

Exploration is the physical expression of the Intellectual Passion.
And I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge and the power to
give it physical expression, go out and explore. If you are a brave man
you will do nothing: if you are fearful you may do much, for none but
cowards have need to prove their bravery. Some will tell you that you are
mad, and nearly all will say, “What is the use?” For we are a nation of
shopkeepers, and no shopkeeper will look at research which does not
promise him a financial return within a year. And so you will sledge
nearly alone, but those with whom you sledge will not be shopkeepers:
that is worth a good deal. If you march your Winter Journeys you will
have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin’s egg.

3: Sana’a, Yemen. For the architecture alone.  And for a jumping-off point to Soqotra, home of the fantastical Dragon’s Blood Tree.

4: Cape Reinga, New Zealand.  Where the spirits of the dead enter the underworld.

5: Galapagos Islands.  For the schooling hammerheads.

6: Sistema Chac Mool, Mexico.  Have a look.  You’ll want to go too.

7: Delphi, Greece.

8: Shetland.

9: Mount Kailash.

10: Tromsø, to see the Northern Lights.

Where do you want to go?

Thank you……

…… Dave, for your suggestion that I blog about hobo comparisons.

“A comparison of ‘hobo with a shotgun’ and ‘the littlest hobo’ ?”

…was his response.  As I know nothing about hobos, and am not about to fritter away hours of my life on Google researcing hobos, here is a picture of a baby giraffe.

The fishies can see……

…… at last!! The tank is clean, water changed, pump scrubbed, filters changed and a new lightbulb put in.  The downside of this is that there is enough light to inform us that there are only two fish left – two lonely looking Danios.  Bum.  Maybe I’ll go to the garden centre later in the week and look at neon tetras.

They’re now swimming round wildly, presumeably wondering why they are no longer in perpetual gloom.  Happy fish.