topless

This afternoon we'd decided to get a large group together run a treasure hunt followed by a pub quiz. We headed off towards a nearby stately home and in teams of four we tried to solve many difficult questions.

Some were about the gardens and some were about the inside of the house. Our team found some very helpful ladies who were visiting to properly study the plants and knew rather a lot of the answers to our complicated questions.

Then, inside the house, a helpful guide took us to look at the areas where we would be most able to solve some more of the clues.

After this, we headed from the house to another nearby spot (an old long hall called the Refectory) and here we enjoyed refreshments and a supper along with the answers to our quiz. My team didn't win anything but it was still a lot of fun. And further fun was that I'd had to borrow the little convertible coupe you see in the picture.

Tag: sunshine, surrey, convertible

grad

jam today

Today - my M6 Motorway traffic jam - UK @ 35 degrees Centigrade

Tag: Wordless Wednesday, England, traffic

pocket full of kryptonite

I've just seen "Superman returns" which has some great visual moments and those rumble effects that make the whole cinema shake. However, I found the film dutiful rather than exhilarating.

In the Reeves movies there were some moments of crackle, like when Lois was killed and Superman had to mess with time to replay the scene and rescue her.

This film has its share of action moments and whizzy visuals, but somehow doesn't have the heart of some of the previous films. I suppose I was hoping for something new, but this is essentially a paraphrase of the first Superman movie, but somehow managing to capture less plotline in more elapsed time. Some of the camerawork is really quite stunning and technically accomplished, but a langorous edit, poor pacing and some wooden acting made me think at the end of the film that I'd rather watch the first Reeves movie again.

cycling on a sunday afternoon

I've just been out for a bicycle ride. Only a few miles, but beautiful sunshine and a chance to head off along some country lanes, finishing in Hartley Wintney, Hampshire.

There were a couple of adjustments to the bike along the way but nothing that the all-in-one bicycle tool couldn't handle.

And everywhere was quiet, with only a few cars, but when closer to houses it was more sounds of barbecues, plates being moved around and generally of people taking advantage of a lazy sunny Sunday.

the sun machine

I've just watched the Glastonbury music festival documentary on the television. Glastonbury has been running with the occasional year off for 35 years!

Last year there were 300,000 people there and I featured the event in my early attempts at blogging!

a scanner darkly

Another part of last week involved me taking some psychometric tests. You know the sort, answer a lot of seemingly unrelated questions and get classified as a certain type of person. I did a Jungian variant here at rashbre central once before with the Briggs Myers result ENFJ (just redid the test and still ENFJ!)

The one I did during the week was about core behaviour and adapted behaviour. To reduce stress its always best to operate as much as possible from core behaviour rather than adapted behaviour (pretending to be different). So don't sniff any Substance D or you might find your left and right cortexes going autonomous.

Be yourself.

a bit of a week

I havn't been blogging as much this week because I have been quite busy. Last weekend was Priddy, with around 40 bands and singers playing at a fine series of gigs in sunny Somerset. A relaxed weekend with a combination of friends, music, sunshine and cider.
Then back home on Sunday evening, a rapid pit stop and away to a hotel where I was hosting a gathering of people from around the world. We had that calm moment whilst we waited for the first people to arrive and the stories of their varied travels.
One evening we had a great barbecue in the pleasant evening sunshine and on another day we hired coaches to travel to a nearby riverside restaurant where we could eat well whilst watching the sun set over Windsor Castle and the river Thames.
A friend in the restaurant was on his way back to his family in Lebanon. They normally live in Denmark. Next day he arrived at Beirut airport one hour before it was bombed. We have been texting as he finds his family and drives a rental car out of the country.
An event like the one I describe has its share of late evenings and I'm afraid I was starting at 07:00 each morning with various breakfast sessions but finishing at around 02:00 or even 03:30 one memorable and somewhat riotous evening.

And then for the end of the week I've been with an American friend as we plan some new ideas before he comes to live in the UK. He has been figuring out schools and houses and this weekend plans to hire a British car for the first time.

And me, I shall be taking it easy this weekend.

Thursday Thirteen Unboomed (V27)

Tonight's TT is for internet star Amanda Congdon.

1) One of my favourite blogs has been Rocketboom
2) It consisted of a wall, a map and the lovely and slightly crazy Amanda
3) It fired itself into the internet firmament and through Amanda's strange attractor created huge readership with its three minute bursts of daily energy
4) A combination of excellent content filtering and whimsical presentation made it a daily internet peak as a new episode was published
5) It was breaking a mould and used strong personality to drive a new model
6) Amanda taught us all kinds of crazy things
7) Amanda normally hosted the show from the studio, but also reported directly from Internet seminars, conferences as well as some red carpet moments.
8) There was a famous "build your own Rocketboom" episode which provided editable content to build a show.
10) Sadly, Rocketboom then somehow imploded under its own forces of high acceleration. Here's Amanda's account of what happened with about 200 comments from friends and supporters.
11) And a special unboomed episode from Amanda explaining the ownership 49% and 51% situation.
12) And Amanda is making plans
13) And I'm sure something fabulous will happen.

Add a comment, trackback or a link if you are a Thursday Thirteener!


Tag: Thursday Thirteen, free link friday, Amanda Congdon, rocketboom

OTA Wordless Wednesday

folk music marquee

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Tag: Wordless Wednesday

mayhem or mists?

Additional mayhem provided from the more offbeat sounds of the Incontinentals, and simply fine singer songwriting from Scottish singer Jo Hamilton, taking our minds to Highland Scotland .

folk songs are your friends

Priddy Folk Festival originated from a Parent Teachers' Association. Now it is a good sized event with a very friendly vibe and a great selection of bands and singers, over a long weekend interspersed with cider, beer plenty of sunshine and a variety of tasty foods from around the world.

Everyone is friendly and the bands and singers happliy sit amongst the visitors between gigs and play and sing from the grassy areas around the venues. There's the larger tents with well-known names and the smaller club tent which is showcasing new singers. We wandered around happily between all of the areas and found almost exclusively accomplished, entertaining and tuneful singers and musicians.

So here's a few samples...We started with KTB, singer, songwriter, performing with a small ensemble of accompanying guitarists and violin players. Tuned 'Close enough for folk' and entertaining.

Then it was Ember, who I particularly wanted to see. The photos from the set were rather blurry, so see instead a moment captured on the grass the next day, with engaging and humourous troubadours Emily and Rebecca playing alongside KTB. Next we rushed to see the end of the Jim Moray set which included some sonically experimental moments. By co-incidence, we met Jim's sister and then Jim the next morning and had a good chat about life on the road, guitars and clever effects.

The final act of the evening was Waterson and Carthy, who are proper folk royalty, playing a strong set and on this occasion complemented on accordian by Tim van Eyken. We enjoyed the set which ended around midnight; an appropriate time to stroll back through the starlit village.