almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea

it's a bit quiet around here, innit?

*prods*

random things:
I won a stool from a Twitter competition. It's really rather lovely and custom made by some lovely people in Devon. Advantage to winning a stool? You're guaranteed a seat on the packed train home.

I made biscotti. They were nice.

I also won yet another book in a twitter competition. Twitter keeps me amused in reading matter. This competition involved saying 'yes' in the most original language. I went with 'whey aye man' (Geordie) on the basis that everyone else would go Klingon/elvish etc.

Allotment is coming along well now the incessant bloody rain has stopped.

Oh, Doctor Who. How I've missed you.

Asylum of the Daleks. Pretty good, very stylish, witty banter. Plot holes the size of... something pretty big, but fun. Nice twist, didn't see that coming, etc.

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. That was distinctly... average. Though Rupert Graves. Yay. Quite why the Doctor suddenly has/needs a posse though?

Do *you* know where your towel trowel is?

This weekend was spent camping at Cheltenham racecourse with some lovely people at Greenbelt 2012.

In no particular order, there was:

• rain
• thunder
• more rain (oh, so so much rain)
• mud
• hail
• the ever lovely & splendidly blazered Hope & Social
• nutty folk songs about a slug from Folk On
• The Proclaimers (who very nearly didn't make it on stage)
• primitivepeople
• a truly awesome pie from Higgedy Pie
• lots of juggling chat with the lovely folk at Butterfingers
• an invitation to 'come and play' at Butterfingers shop in Harrogate
• a performance of my juggling skillz at an impromptu talent contest
• more rain
• herding various kids to allow the more religious of our group to go see the talks they wanted to
• sunburn

Oh, and Bellowhead.

Oh. My. Word. They were truly brilliant. Eleven of them up on stage, rockin' the mudflats of mainstage.

They're playing Bradford in November. I've just booked tickets. I can't wait.

:-)

How was your weekend?

Rather than do a blow-by-blow account of our adventure to northern France, some thoughts.

1. the swimming pool was 'heated'. By what, I'm not sure. Perhaps the sun?
2. The Bayeux Tapestry is not, in fact, a tapestry. It is utterly brilliant.
3. The French are exceedingly good at biscuity snacky things.
4. Normandy is 'very French', according to K.
5. I had to use 'je ne comprends pas' once in the entire week we were away, trying to explain to the non-english speaking maintenance dude that our gas hob was kaput. My last french lesson at school was in 1984. I reckon I did ok.
6. Framboise ice-cream is utterly delicious.

and other stuff. Ate lots, saw lots of things, took lots of photos.

( the photos )

Crikey, lj is quiet these days. Can't work out if I'm just used to the fire hose of life that is twitter or what.

Hi!
*waves*

Still in Olympics mode. Who's coming with me to Rio?

Cor. Olympics, eh?

 

Am addicted to all manner of sports now. Sad to have missed a lot of the cycling what with being in France, but caught Hoy, Pendleton and Trott doing grand things on two wheels.

 

Have now also had to explain at least a dozen times why team GB lost the cycling road race!

 

Um... Yes. Usain Bolt! Awesome. The 800m world record? Awesomer. Yorkshire beating the Aussies in the medal table? Hilarious.

 

Right,  off to find Adams' golden postbox.

 

I leave you with this thought. Jade Jones, taekwondo gold medalist, and Kaylee from Firefly. Never seen them in the same room.

held an actual olympic torch today. Very shiny!

Mr Bradley 'Wiggo' Wiggins has just won the Tour de France, the first brit ever to have done so in the race's 100+ year history.

And his team also contains Mark 'Cav' Cavendish, aka the Manx Missile, the best sprinter in the world, bar none.

Typically the maillot jaune (the yellow jersey) will take the final day as a formality, trundling round with the rest of the cyclists. But this year, Wiggo promised Cav that his team would deliver him to the finish in style. Which is why, with 1km to go, you have the race leader at the front of the bike race, pedalling his bloody heart out to make sure his team-mate is in the right position to win the stage.

THIS NEVER HAPPENS. EVER.

Cavendish did not fail to deliver. He's unbeaten on the Champs Elysee,

When Cav gets going, it's like the others have stopped. He's that fast.

Watch from about 16 seconds in. They're travelling at an enormous rate. Then Cav just breezes past.



We've had a Brit finish first in le Tour, with his team-mate Froomey second, a fellow brit. And Cav, another brit, winning the most important stage in the race.

End result: us brits are AWESOME at cycling. We kicked ass, and dominated the race.