And relax...

The last few weeks i've been jetting all over the country doing various bits of work and volunteering at a an easter club, but this week was time for relaxation, and where better to relax than a part of the country where nothing happens? That's right, I went to Norwich!

I stayed with two friends in norwich, both showing me completely different sides of the city. Thursday was a quite full but probably the most relaxing day of the week. Starting with a bike ride to the village of Wymondham about 9 miles from the outskirts of Norwich, we had a cooked breakfast from Cafe Creme and some pastries from the village bakery, before leisurely strolling to the nearby abbey ruins.

These ruins are HUGE, the picture really doesn't do them justice, but the arch you can see at the front  is about 4 storeys tall!

Most of the abbey has crumbled and eroded below the ground but at the back there is still a working building which serves a similar purpose to the original.

Following a cycle back to norwich we went to the cinema to see How To Tame Your Dragon in 3D, and I was very impressed.
I became even more impressed when i remembered to put my glasses on so I could see everything clearly. The focus pulls combined with the 3D technology make the whole thing seem very realistic. And although things weren't jumping out of the screen at me it was still a very exciting experience, even for a kids animated film.

Following the cinema we went to a pub called The Murderers, which has various newspaper reports around it detailing history's most famous murders and assassinations. While this might seem a bit morbid the pub itself was almost a blueprint of what pubs should be like (or city pubs at least) It was slightly dark inside, lots of old wooden beams, new technology subtly mixed into old decorations, plus 8 local ales on offer at the bar!

I'll be sad to leave Norwich, every day I spent here i found more things that I wanted to do, maybe I'll come back next year to see what's changed.

Ve vant to suck yur Bluuuud!

I've been neglecting my duty as a blood donor for a while, probably coming up to a year since I last donated.
I went to a mobile donation centre (a big trailer in a carpark), filled in forms, and sat in the waiting room (a minibus parked next to the trailer) patiently awaiting the command for the next donor.

I tend to become hyper sensitive to the way my body feels before giving blood, or just after an injection. Questioning every little thing; like an itch that could turn into eczema, or a mis-timed sniff that could be the starting point for the next international health crisis

Giving blood is a rewarding experience, you get to lie down for a bit, then get given a cup of tea and biscuits while you sit and chat with the lovely nurses, and you walk away with a feeling of having done something positive for humanity.

According to the national blood service website, there is only about 8 days of blood available for the most common type O+.

Click on the links below to find out more.

Welsh Blood Service
National Blood Service

Image by Stuart Buckley

I Met the Walrus

John Lennon is interviewerd by a 14 year old kid. The kid sounds together enough to give a proper interview, and John sounds his usual peace-loving self, but after a while i stopped listening to the dialogue and marvelled at the animation in the video.

If you can, watch it in 720p, its worth it.

The Youth of Today

On the way to the post office to collect my pension I came across this vehicle, carelessly parked after what looked like an accident (note hole in bonnet and loose headlight). The driver was clearly under the influence as they left the roof down on a rainy day, and gave scant regard for the authority of "no parking" signs.

I don't know what they're teaching these kids in school these days, but when i was young, we at least parked parallel to the kerb when we abandoned vehicles.

Rugby? What Rugby?

I heard there was a rugby match on in Cardiff today, Wales vs. Italy. I only know this because we were giving away tickets in the union last night in exchange for dunking people in a tub of murky water.

Obviously I had to make it seem to my welsh cousins that I was taking an interest in the sport that was happening less than half a mile from my front door, so under the cover of darkness I crept into town.

...and took some photos of buildings.

I feel so patriotic, I may shed a tear.

30th Post!

It's not your usual milestone, its not as impressive as 50 or 100 posts, but since I started this blog I wondered how long I would keep it up for. 


At first I thought maybe it would be a summer thing, just something to help me report back to people about my many, many adventures. Then it became a way of getting my thoughts and observations into the big wide world. 


Now though, I try and use it to share interesting bits and pieces that I find lying around, hopefully some stuff will interest you, but if not, please hang up and try again.

Oh...

If music be the food of love, steal it!

I've been trying to put some video or a photo with my blog posts, but sometimes you just feel the need to share something else, some music, a sound, a rousing monologue perhaps.

Seeing as millions are made each day hosting videos and photos on the web, surely there is an audio equivalent of photobucket, or youtube. but apparently not!

I've been wanting to share this song by a young american singer/songwriter for a while but try as i might, I couldn't find any sites that wanted to host my file in a simple photobucket-like way. In the end i created a new folder on my website server so that i could share sounds with the world.

This is a song called Smile by Kaylin Alexis, i randomly found her on myspace, like a couple of other artists i've been honoured to listen to.

Big Brother is watching...

I've always had a book by my bed for the last few years. They've  mainly consisted of bill bryson, random books bought just because I liked the cover, or biographies of soldiers, pilots, generals, etc.

It occurred to me just before Christmas, that there are one or two books which have always eluded my increasing pile of bedtime reading, one of which is Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. So when it came time for the annual pilgrimage to Waterstones a
week before Christmas, i was determined to get it. And get it I did.

I'm just over halfway through it now and it's quite a chilling tale of what the world could become like if governments turned from their current paranoid "nanny" state, to a more controlling "big brother" state, run on media spin and oppression.

If you haven't read it I heartily recommend it! Though maybe not so much if you have an abduction complex or a fear of alternate pasts...

Asleep

Asleep
Originally uploaded by WierdyBeardy

The internet can be a strange place sometimes.

I uploaded this photo of me yesterday evening on flickr, but somehow it has already become the most viewed image in my collection.
I'm not sure what people find intriguing about it, are they looking for an interesting back story? do they think there will be some deep and meaningful reason for this picture to be taken at all?

Personally I'm baffled.