Dun dun dun da da da da da da

We went and saw Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds at Nottingham Arena last night. Apart from being so far up in the gods that I'm sure we discovered a new planet, it was really cool. Just how I remembered the music was. Take a look at the video - Richard Burton lives.

Back in the mists of time both of us had the stuffing scared out of us when our respective older brothers had the double vinyl LPs.

If you've never heard it then get a copy and check it out. We loved it.

Dear Sinterklaas

Can we have:



Love Su



Ta Andy

Wall of Death

We saw the Wall of Death.

We loved it!

NEC Show 2007 - Brum Brums in Brum

It's great when your wife is as interested in motorbikes as I am so I get to go to the NEC Motorcycle Show every year. Yey!!

This year we managed to get new helmets at bargain prices and although my head hasn't changed from the HOW BIG size of 63cm (XL) Su managed to get hers down to small. Must have had the wrong size Arai for a few years me thinks and I have lots of information to store in my head.

We went with Stephen, Su's bro. He's very tall and even on the pegs of BMW 1200GS I'm only just taller.

Make sure you keep an eye out for the butt ugly Victory Pointless 5000cc wheely bin.

Foos Noos

Last night and in the middle of the week on a work night, yey, we actually got out of the darkness that is the world that surrounds our house and went to the bright lights of Nottingham to the Arena to see the Foo Fighters, plus support.

Now most people have seen Spinal Tap, one of the versions of Willy Wonka films and maybe the episode of The Simpsons where Goose Gladwell rips off Bart.

Imagine the character in the Top hat (Wonka); then think about System of a Down (Metal) and into the mixing plot throw some Jewish music, a man who dances like Parker from Thunderbirds and a band dressed as pawl bearers. Nice.

And basically that's what Serj Tankian's set consisted of. A bit too hey nonny nonny for us both, but it made us laugh.

A huge set of classic Foos music followed. Su had to wait quite a while for her fav 'All My Life' but both of us were very happy with the whole thang. Apart from the rip roaring, rip snorting Rock with a capital RRRRRRRR, the band had a smaller accoustic stage down a runway which meant the folks in the back seats got a chance to see the band as well as hear them. Nice touch. 2 hours of crackin' stuff and then the obligatory encore.

Four tracks. Three good and one, 'what the?'.

But hey the thing was cool.

Peas please

These little felt fellas were sewn up by me for Su over one day during the infernally nasty, rainy days we had. The pod has wire round the rim to keep its shape.

Houten about in the Nederlands

Flying off to stay with our friends Yvonne and Onno was a fantastic holiday break that we really needed. From a 3.00am start to EMA, then Schiphol to Amsterdam (where we spent the day well away from the tourist areas/ coffee shops/ window shoppers), then back to Schiphol and Utrecht, then Utrecht to Houten. Thankfully Yvonne was waiting to pick us up, tired bunnies that we were. After a good night sleeping, we ended up going to Utrecht again. Great day, except for the centipede in the salad incident - least said about this the better!

Wednesday was spent going to (via Gouda, Den Haag and other places due to a bridge out) Leiden. Leiden was great and if you ever wondered if taxidermy was still happening then check out the Naturalis Museum. Loads of animals in normal poses, and fossils and stuff. I wondered what happened to all the old stockings/ tights in the worlds and now I know that the special animal stuffers use them in Leiden. The castle (Burcht) was pretty cool and inhabited by a lot of Goths/Emos who'd obviously been enjoying the delights of the local coffee shops and the varieties of dried stuff there within.

Something we did realise was how freaky we must have looked because we were walking everywhere, the Dutch however prefer to cycle and not just any bike. Oh no, it's a 1950's Oxford university/ shopping basket/ hello vicar/ pop to the local shop type. I think I only spotted 3 BMX bikes and maybe 3 mountain bikes (ok there's not that many mountains in the Nederlands).

We've also discovered the delights of licorice tea. Nice

CHECK OUT THIS: - Slideshow

Go fast, turn left

During the summer, of rain, we were invited to go see some short track racing by Stephen (Su's bro). At the new Teeside Speedway Park we watched people going fast and turning left, sometimes with a hint of that old Spectrum game where you got to smack the other rider with chains and sticks. During a break, after a moment of fisticuffs from two of the quad racers, it was time to wander around the pits and have a look see at the bikes. A few of the obvious CCMs, a few Harley badged Rotax jobs and probably the best use of TL1000s engine ever, one of the lovely Thunderbike bikes. Given a real wish to have one of these short track babies on the road, I may however be slightly biased. Oh, I shouldn't forget a Triumph triple. Strange but true.

A Bird in the stove is worth something at least?

It's all gone a bit Hitchcock round here apparently.

Not only has a Tawny Owl decided that headbutting the window wouldbe a good idea but we had a starling set up home in the, thankfully not on, stove.

Su found it, bit like Starling TV.

He'll be coming round the mountain

Went to Cadwell Park on the last Bank Holiday of the summertime. Great racing and although Karl Harris was out with what was described as a 'hole in the elbow(?)' the racing was pretty cool. Personally, I thought the KTM Superduke racing the best thing on the day.

Went with Paul T who'd been told by a member of the Police Road Safety that he'd be safe with his Speed Triple and a race can. Guess what - Paul decided not to put it back on and we got pulled for an 'exhaust, plate and tyres check'. Hell, as the 8 unlucky contestants were being checked about 50 bikes tootled past, some with crackling loud exhausts on auto quiet (ie closed throttle) and one or two bikes with teeny plates. Nobody in the stopped group had anything to get a slapped wrist for (or fine), just peeved about being at the back of the huge queue to get in. Don't get me wrong, for such a small, proudly attended, massively supported track; it's so much better policed and organised than Donington.

The picture of Chris Walker is so that his fans can remember what it's like for him to race because if form is anything to go by he'll only be commentating on EuroSport next year. What's that? He already is? Nuff said.

Even getting out, in the huge amount of four wheeled traffic, was ok and as per, the folk of the villages up to and in Horncastle were out in their loads to wave and stare at the nutters riding their bikes in the heat and the jam. (Lucky I know a cut through).

And where was Cinders Su? At home making cracking new silver and mowing the lawns.

Hog Blog

Been busy again in the shed making a hedgehog.

Here it is.

Oh dear oh dear oh dear

Went to London for a couple of days and decided to see a show. At the box office we were kind of conned into seeing Fame. Oh dear, H from Steps, some girl from Hollyoaks/ 2 Pints of Lager and a small ensemble of over acting stage school types. By half way through we didn't want to live forever and left at the interval. Seems the show is ending September 1st. We can see why now.

Three little birds are we

More birds have been made in silver, and here they are.

More Silver

Production in the Shed workshop continues with this new design by Su, featuring a form based on fern fronds.

Three slightly different designs, each made in silver.

We made these

Shed Productions is now kind of in full swing, when we get to the workshop and we thought people might want to have a look at what we've been making.

Here's a bird pendant and a bracelet, both silver, from our latest collection.

Hope you like them.

Nature is very cruel

Very sad news. As the weather has been so bad over the last week, it looks like one of the barn owl chicks has starved to death. I discovered the body at the foot of the owl box tonight, still with some downey fluff on it's back.

New Stuff

In between dodging the showers of biblical proportion, we've been to Rufford Park's Earth and Fire ceramics show and we've been making some new jewellery. The crazy looking fella is called Stewpot, hopefully no relation to the former presenter of Crackerjack. It's by Jola Spytkowska. The three new pots are by Stephanie Black, she had loads of lovely stuff but we needed to eat that week! There was also work by Clare Crouchman, which Su really liked too.

The jewellery is our first non-guided attempt at making silver stuff and it's come out really well. Good job too seeing as we now have the kit to make it all.

Even more... it's just too much

It's almost time for the chicks to leave the box. We've seem them out and about the barn over the last few days.

Here's a few shots from the last week or so. Hopefully we'll get some more before the end of the season.

Even more owl shots

Lots more gratuitous owl shots. Watch them just pose for the camera. If you look even closer you can see the dead mouse turns from grey to black.

Twit - wooooo

More shots of the barn owl. It's nesting in an owl box which the farmer has put up in the potato barn. I sat watching it tonight going in with a few tasty rats for the chicks.

There's more evidence of owls in the area and I've been lucky enough to find a fairly recent pellet. Su thinks I'm a bit tapped with carrying owl poo home to poke at it.