Ain't snow pretty?

Even a man who suffers from an alergy to nasty winter weather has to admit this snowy snap we've had has been delightful.

My daughter and I had great fun creating our new friend here. The ideas for the eyes, nose and clothes all came from her, and I think she did a great job. Any suggestions for a name?

Surely it can't get colder!? Brrrrrrr.........

The English and talking about the weather, it seems to be our speciality. I'm no exception to this as the weather is definately my main subject of conversation at the moment. Ok Ok so it's not the Arctic here, but the cold seems relentness none the less. Apparently we are going through the milder spell right now. (I hadnt noticed it myself) According to this BBC report though we are due for an even colder snap with temperatures in the South East hitting as low as -6 C which is blooming cold!!!

I'm just desperately looking forward to the spring now, where it'll be warm enough to go out the house again!! I expect our friends in Sweden, will laugh and say this isn't cold like they get. Which is true enough I guess, but for some reason us English are just never prepared enough for the variety of weather we get. Maybe thats the problem. Our climate is such that we need too much equipment to cope with the weather differences in a year. I was in a DIY shop on Tuesday and they were selling sledges for the kids to ride in the snow. Do I buy one, or don't I? Will the snow last long enough for us to try it out? Problem is even if we get snow now, we probably wont see anymore for about 10 years. By that time we'll need a new sledge as the old one has crumbled.

Oddly last night in bed I was thinking about things I can do when the weather is milder. Something my daughter has pestered me about for a couple of years now is to camp out in the garden one night with her, something my son and I did a while back. It'll be great having a feast in our tent and reading the Beano. I bet She'll want me to tell her stories too. So I must do that, along with thinking about other positive things to look forward to when it warms up AND stays dry for long enough.

Minnie the Moocher

This is the first of 2 videos from the 'talent' show last weekend. Come on join in....Hi-De-Hi-De-Hi-De-Hi!!!! People enjoyed it and we had some fun.

One for Jo......the skies the limit!

Jo recently had some photos of the sky from locations she had visited. It made me think about the lovely open sky view we get in Bexhill down by the sea. Here are some examples using my trusty camera phone.

This was viewing the sky towards the South East from the beach.


This time looking more South West. I love this image although it's a bit dark because I was facing the sun. See how the rays shine down from the cloud and make a bright reflection on the sea. My mum use to call those rays "God's glory". (click to enlarge)


Again the same view but just a couple of minutes later. If you click the image to make it bigger, you can see the sun's reflection on the sea getting smaller because of the cloud.

Am I feeling blue yet?

We've had our first major rehearsal for the show and the triumphal return of the Blues Brothers, along with other less interesting acts. At this point I can confirm we were complete rubbish. It all went so wrong....

1) Didn't get the intro music ready in time to practice my warm up words.
2) Sound tech was farting about with our first song and it bombed out half way through our performance.
3) Missed my queue in the song and couldn't get back into it properly.
4) Sang out of key. I sing low as a contrast in 'Everybody Needs Somebody' but I just don't sound right, and I don't have enough power. (I need more power Cap'n)
5) Wasn't close enough to the microphone, and thus people couldn't hear me. Paul was fine, as he naturally eats the mic when he sings anyway.
6) Both of us arrived in bad moods and headache's, it's safe to say both of us left like that too.

To top it off, someone asked which Blues Brother am I? The short fat one, or the thin tall one? It didn't take Einstein to work out that i'm both, taller and fatter.

At this rate I don't think we are on a mission from god, rather, we need some divine intervention to make us good!

Knock Knock...

A smart little video of (i think) a Kestrel with its trainer, swooping about. So beautiful.

This was taken on a great day out in October with friends and family to Knockhatch Farm not too far up the A22 from Eastbourne.

other highlights.....
There is something very disturbing about the way that 'widget' thing on its nose/beak moved around independently on this turkey.......yuk blahhhhhh.

We were able to pet these Llamas as apparently they are very sociable animals. The wool was very soft. Llamas seem to be a bit of a theme here in East Sussex, we have a Llama farm at nearby Norman's Bay.
These guys are quite near the entrance to the farm looking look like a comedy double act. They remind me of Statler and Waldorf from the Muppet Show.

Did I accept the King's Shilling?

You may recall from history lessons how men were coerced into joining the navy.

Becoming a sailor for the King's navy wasn't a pleasant job and recruits were reluctant. To try and overcome the shortage of men for the job, 'Press Gangs' were used to find men, however unwillingly, to sail the ships. To give some morality to the task, the Kings regulations stated that the press gang master could not assault you and take to as a new recruit, He had to see you take the "Kings Shilling". A common tactic of the Press gang master was to ply a potential recruit with ale...several pints later the unsuspecting victim would find a shiny new Silver Shilling coin at the bottom of the his tankard. This was enough to seal the deal and the man was led to the ship, or dragged as was often the case. It was for this reason that tankards began to have a glass bottom, so you could check your drink in case of the Kings Shilling being slipped in.

This is an exaggerated example of the sly and underhanded tactics used to get me involved in a local community talent show. Years ago I did a 'Blues Brothers' act with a mate for his parents 25th wedding anniversary. Although we were asked to do it for some other family celebrations after that, I felt it had a limited life. To be honest it wasn't that good either, so I decided nearly 20 years ago that i'd not be doing that again.

That was until one of my new Bexhill mates called Paul came up to me just before we went away to California on vacation and said, "I heard you want to do the Blues Brothers with me for this talent show". My reply was something like.." wha...the, how? who?...no I don't..blah". It works out that my wife was speaking to one of the organizers (her mate Sharon), and told them I did this 'Blues Brothers' thing in the past, and they decided between them that Paul and I would be good at it. So we were booked in as an act, without any input from me.

After that shock, I've had some time to get use to the idea now. If you recall in past posts my desire has been to overcome my personal inhibitions and to have a go at singing. It seems that my prayers have been answered, although not quite the way I was expecting. I've decided now that I just have to go for it. Paul was hoping that we'd just get up and sing, then get back off again...but oh no. If we are going to do it, then we shall do it properly! You can't go up on the stage dressed in black with the hat and sunglasses, and not expect to give a bigger performance than just singing. The poor chap looked pale when I expressed some of my ideas. Something that makes it easier this time and no disrespect meant to the fella I did this with before. Is that this time my partner has got some talent. He can both sing and dance. This means we can have a proper go at being entertaining, and have some fun whilst we are at it. Almost every time we meet to rehearse one or the other of us has a new suggestion to improve the act.

Maybe doing this is just what the doctor ordered, I think I need an outlet, and if the truth be known I'm starting to love the idea of it all. So going back to my point at the start, did I accept the King's Shilling? Well just like a sailor I think I got this job after being press ganged by some dodgy people. I have to admit though, now that i'm doing it I do seem to have found my sea legs.