Happy New Year

A fine sunny start to 2007 here in Bruges! This is a view of the friendly cafe with the very home-made gluhwein near to the hotel, which is in the background just behind the bridge.

And the people in the snapshot do all seem to be enjoying the start of the new year, too.\

tags technorati : rashbre, Belgium, Brussels, Bruges

Last evening of 2006

Not a bad view from the room, for the last evening of 2006? The canals of Brugges and a sky later to be lit by the fireworks of Silvestre, which is a co-ordination in much of mainland Europe which ich is still fairly uncommon to we British. So in Brussels, I suppose chocolate and champagne will be on the agenda at some point.

tags technorati : rashbre, Belgium, Brussels, Bruges

Eurostar

No prizes for guessing I'm in Bruges, Belgium.

Well, put it another way, I wouldn't have been able to guess this, even when I was being bundled onto the Eurostar from London. This is a great surprise for New Year! So it is a time for meandering around the picturesque lanes of an ancient town, once the largest trading centre in North Western Europe.

Nowadays, its an endearingly pretty location where every corner creates another scenic view, of old buildings, canals, churches, statues and cobbled pathways.

tags technorati : rashbre, Belgium, Brussels, Bruges

clean

So I finally cleaned the car

tags technorati : rashbre, carwash, car, filthy

crank it

A certain amount of black smoke today as I restarted the blog after several days of offline festivities.

Its been a great break, with people, parties and presents and, in my case, a certain amount of driving as well. In fact, at certain points it was challening to figure out how to get people, presents and general luggage into the car together.

tags technorati : rashbre, blog, blogging, blogs

questionable

Music quiz, as played at Chez Val et Ray.

tags technorati : rashbre, blog, podcast, quiz, pubquiz, music

Christmas

Enjoy the festive season and be filled with the wonder of new possibilities. There is fun going forward.

tags technorati : rashbre, Christmas, Xmas, Holidays, festive

Friday Firteen (V36)

A Thursday Thirteen on a Friday? It must be Christmas.
1) I've go the Christmas lights working, although one of the transformers has died. This year's lights have a different style of connector, too, so I've just had to buy a new complete set.
2) This year's bulbs are a different colour also from last year. More white than yellow. Planned obsolescence?
3) Someone gave me a box of chocs at work. They were Green and Black's and we put them in an open area so that everyone could try them. An hour later they had all gone except the cherry ones.
4) I had to (ahem) borrow some selotape (3M, Scotch) from work, because I don't have any. I will replace it, of course.
5) I could not park in Sainsbury's. This is a first. It was full.
6) Fog has disrupted a lot of UK travel today. roads are bad and the airport was struggling.
7) I was working until 02:00 in the morning yesterday and then started again at 07:30. At least I have finished most of the pre-Christmas tasks.
8) I shall try to find some time to play guitar during the break.
9) My work inbox has started to slow down and I've received a few more amusing end of year pictures and thoughts.
10) Its quieter this evening, like a silent night, oops I feel a carol coming on.
11) I have seen four sets of carollers today.
12) Seasonal Greetings
13) Time for a mince pie and a tipple.

Here's a few version of Silent Night to entertain.
Sinead O'Conner
German choir
Christina Aguilera
Trans Siberian Orchestra
Bad Beatles remix with fake vox ouch


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Tag: Thursday Thirteen, free link friday, 82ask

OTA Wordless Wednesday

saddest street corner in New York celebrates Christmas

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Tag: Wordless Wednesday

replacement bulbs

More from Santa tonight.

He seems to be having the same problems as me about getting the Christmas lights working again. I need some B12 bulbs, but they don't seem to make them this year. The set of lights with the computer controlled chaser won't light up at all, let alone chase and I suspect that it is suffereing from a programming error.

Never mind. Here's something festive.

run santa

santa vision

My first woodland Santa sighting has occured in the last day or so. I was driving along the M3 motorway, when I saw an MGB car parked on the hard shoulder, and in the nearby wood were two Santa Claus.

Regular readers know I usually publish completely factual accounts with proper photographs, but on this occasion I must declare that I am using a Santavision recreation of the event, complete with virtual reindeer.

tree

Shopping today for a Christmas tree, it turned out that the shop had run out of the netting to make the tree compact for travelling. Apparently this weekend was peak for buying trees in the UK so the shop had to send out for netting from another garden centre.

I've also heard my first proper Christmas carols this weekend..."We Three Kings", sung by some carollers and then "Oh, come all ye faithful." on the television tonight.