Razor clams and chorizo, to scallops and lemon – seafood-y week!

Saturday night Miguel and Begonia came for dinner. I cooked razor clams with chorizo and wine followed by vegetarian lasagne, both of which were very well received (especially considering Miguel is not a seafood afficionado like me and Bego). A couple of bottles of very nice white later I was feeling no pain at all! Stayed up very late chatting, and Sunday was a bit painful indeed!

Was going to a film on Sunday night, or possibly visiting Sarah and Pim, but I was truthfully in too delicate a state.. It’s been a good while since I was like that! ;)

Monday to Wed 6th I was on holidays – trying to use the last of my paid holiday before I leave for my new job. Monday was recovery day, though I did make a run to tesco for supplies. Tuesday was cleaning day, and I got a haircut. No change, just a bit shorter. Wed 6 August the two people I’ll miss most from this job took the afternoon off and took me to Mersea Island for a seafood lunch at The Company Shed.. (photos now up on Flickr)

Now, we’ve been here before and loved every minute, and we always promised ourselves that we’d go in summer when it was warm, and go in Sarah’s convertible beetle just to make the day complete. Well, the day started muggy and rainy, so there was only a little topless driving, but about 5 mins after we arrived at The Shed the sun came out and stayed for the most glorious afternoon at the seaside!

We had to wait for a table for perhaps 30mins, but we were happy enough with our lovely wine and chatting to fellow ‘waiters’. Once inside and situated on the end of a table of ‘ladies who lunch’, we ordered the seafood platter, tiger prawns in garlic and lemon, scallops with bacon and lemon, green-lipped mussels with herb coating and a salad to share. All of it was fresh off the boat, all of it was fantastic, but the tiger prawns and scallops were so good we got another helping!

A lovely couple of hours spent before buying fishy for home and setting off back to The Beagle (Sarah’s topless beetle) for the 90min drive home. I sat in the back, drunk and a bit giggly by now but incredibly happy, and Sarah & Christine put the top down! YAY! Oh, it was a lovely drive home. I do like topless cars, I have to say.

Got home about 4:45pm, finishing off a bottle from The Shed that Sarah couldn’t finish cause she was driving, and ended up in bed fairly early – as you can imagine.

Work on Thursday was a bit of a trial, but I was more tired than anything else.. Could’ve been a whole lot worse!

So I’ve got fresh scallops for dinner tonight (they’ve been in the freezer for a day and then out last night) which I’m going to do with bacon and lemon, try and get them like we had at The Shed. A bit of fresh bread to soak up the juices, a nice glass of wine.. fantastic!

xxx

self portrait – Sat 19Jul07

I’ve been experimenting with the self portrait setting on my camera, cause truthfully I have problems with almost every photo ever taken of me, and I figure that if I take it myself I’ve got the option of deleting before anyone sees it, right? :)

Anyway, took a fairly reasonable one…

 

Of course, getting a haircut next week, so it could be all change again, but this is me at the mo.

xx

Photos up!

As promised, photos from aussie up on Flickr…

I’ll add more if/when I get then from relatives (Jen??)

xx

ah – that’s nice!

I found an email this morning from Schmap (www.schmap.com) :-

I am writing to let you know that two of your photos with a Creative Commons license have been short-listed for inclusion in the fourth edition of our Schmap Salzburg Guide, to be published later this month.

 Nice!

Of course I said yes, as long as I get the photo credit.

Nice thing to find – makes all this blogging/photo loading stuff sort of worthwhile, really.  Not that it’s not worthwhile just having my friends & family see then – but you know what I mean.

So thanks Schmap for the honor – and I’ll be sure and load a link when it’s all done..  :)

Berlin Photos up on Flickr!

Click on the photos in my sidebar to access

Gliding

Oh what an adventure! A magical evening, and one I’ll remember for a long while…

After a day of the predicted thunderstorms and rain, I was getting worried that gliding would be cancelled. But come 5pm it had cleared beautifully andwe were on our way for the 20mile drive to Gransden to the airfield of Cambridge Gliding Club. I had a car full of people, one of whom was a pretty bad navigator, but we managed to find out way to the airfield and were the first to arrive.

After signing the necessary ‘death or dismemberment’ forms we headed into the hangar for a safety briefing, shown how to put on the seat belts and required safety equipment (a parachute) then headed out to the runways.

Thanks to my enthusiasm, I was the first to go up! Got in and buckled myself down in the front of the two seater, with pilot Colin behind me, and we hooked up to the winch. Perhaps 20meters of bumps later we were off the ground and starting to climb steeper than a rollercoaster – which was a bit freaky and stomach churn-y, until I remembered to look out the window instead. The ground was falling away very quickly, 950feet was reached in about 10 seconds.

And oh, it was wonderful! The rush of the air over the canopy, the gentle passage of the glider through the sky – more magical than ballooning, and much much better than powered flight! Took some super shots as we banked and dove, and one that truly looks like it’s been photoshopped! About 7 mins later we were down, gentle bumps over the grass runway and an amazing experience.

With 25 of us flying there were 3 gliders operating, and 3 gliders to be manouvered into position again after each landing. The club had a golf cart, which I offered to drive about and tow the gliders back to the winches. Spent most of the rest of the afternoon doing this, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Asked if I could pay off my club membership driving the cart about, unfortunately no go… But £450 is a lot of money for a hobby, and I’m thinking whether I want to sign up or not…

At the end of the day, about 8:30pm, everyone from the group had their flight and most had headed off to eat the BBQ that had been put on, but there was still time before the sun went down to do a 2nd flight for anyone who wanted one. ME! ME! ME please! Went up again into the setting sun, stunningly beautiful vista but I didn’t have any batteries left in the camera. Pilot George let me fly, gentle banking left and right, incredibly sensitive controls, then took me into a tight right hand turn that got to 1.5G. Never G-d before that I know of, except perhaps on a rollercoaster, and my stomach really didn’t like it. Really. Struggled through with much moaning and ‘no,no,no,no,no,no,no,’ and we landed safely soon after. But I was told that if you are in control of the glider and manouvering the turn yourself the g-force is much less because you are prepared for it, and because you’re concentrating on something other than your stomach.

Finally got to the BBQ and dinner at about 9:30, after a beautiful sunset.. Plenty of food left though – so much that we offered the pilots and ground crews a share.

Arrived home about 11pm, after an amazing afternoon. Can’t wait to do it again!

BigOceans is almost on his way….

DNR Productions has made a trailer about Nick the intrepid, inspiration to many, who’s planning to sail to Australia later this year… I wish I wish I wish…

Go to BigOceans.com for more info on Nick and to help him out with cash, spare rigging, life jackets, tins of beans, etc :)

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Do you ever get the feeling that someone else is living your life, and doing a better job than you? A sense of displacement, of helplessness.. that you’re just being carried along with no say at all in what happens?

I’ve been thinking about this today, and maybe feeling a little displaced myself. Oh, I know it will pass, but it’s a very strange way to spend time. It’s all that bloody Kilbey’s fault! :) read his blog this morning and gone all introspective!

*sigh* It’s Friday, the sun is almost shining (I’ve given up on the British summer. Total garbage.) I’ve got another hour at work then I’m off for two whole days.

Nell’s birfdy next week. Wish I could be there.

ENOUGH! OK. Cheery now. To quote: Act as if ye have faith and faith shall be given to you. In other words, fake it til you make it. :)

Happy Friday and a good weekend to all. May the sun shine on you and wind fill your sails.