I took Nero to the Cattery - you can tell from his expression that he was not amused




Then on to London to see Bill Baily in "Tinselworm"





With a short stop at the Darwin Exhibition - A religious experience for me and



This is the ceiling at the Gielgud - where Bill opened with
"Thank God for Darwin..."
"..............",
"... OK Pinter, I now have your level..."

Reading FC V Cardiff: Cardiff score in the 89th minute, fans invade pitch

but in the last minute of extra time the Reading Goalkeeper scores the equaliser,
players jump on goalie!

For Xmas eve we had a Polish Wigilia - not quite managing all 12 proposed dishes - but we made Bigos, Barszcz (with uszka) and Compote. The 3kg carp in aspic was reserved "for next year".
Thank you to Klara for the recipes and guidance. Technically as it is a "Black Fast" we should have saved the Bigos until Boxing day!



The PIERNIKCZKI never really softened up - even though they were made 3 weeks in advance as recommended...

Xmas outing to Lasan - rather nice and rather up-market Indian cuisine

Steam over Northfield Baths - it was -1 Celcius here - but -5 in Bewdley

4th December HOC WEE - View from Monument Lane

I finally finished my LED headlamp - 12 Watt, 650 Lumens, 115m throw

The bits came from:http://www.led-tech.de who were very helpful and http://www.taskled.com/ who supplied the current regulator - which is excellent and easy to use (5 light levels, thermal protection, one click high/low beam selection, low voltage warning and cutoff - which saves your battery pack)

I did a little video - Nick Barrable took the time to tell me it is boring - but it does show how bright the LED is compared with the best 1990's halogen technology. It is less boring if you have the sound turned ON and UP - otherwise it won't make sense at all...

Waiting for my lift to site I saw this knife on the ground... strange...




The 5 minutes later I noticed a complete windscreen a few metres away


And eventually I realised that the car I was standing next to was entirely-sans-windscreen

It was very early in the morning - that is my excuse for poor observation skills

Wroclaw Trip - w/c 17th November


Above - Sofitel, Wroclaw - 80 Zloty total - just the soup was 27 Zloty
Below - Student Cafe - 17 Zloty Total - and I preferred it!

So here is where I will be eating in future...

Sebastian comes to Birmingham...



Must be the only Pole who had never visted UK before

Sebastian recommends "Stomach Mint Vodka" - David says "Yes it goes down vry nicely indeed - not as nice with apple juice as Żubrówka but a close second. The with-apple-juice drink being known in Polish as tatanka or szarlotka - one of which means "apple pie".

Above - how I did Bagworth
Below - what Bagworth did to me - I can see why city centre and park orienteering is becoming more popular
We need a good old fashioned winter to knock the brambles back

Chris Evans - Master Chef - Somerdale October 2008

Chef at work says Martin can come and do work experience any time at all...

OK - I came 6th!

World Radio Orienteering Championships - South Korea

(Fantastic - the championships and South Korea both)
I have an album here



Above - early morning start on the 80m day and below - the entire RSGB team take the stage...




The 2m day was hard:

But at the end there were volunteers to massage aching legs and feet - and FREE BEER!




The prize given was a little repetitive (as usual) - the international jury seem to be suffering but my friend from Slovakia got the Bronze...

A family trip to Upton House - better than your average NT property
because they have restored it to as it would have been in the 1920s.
This was when it was a weekend 'party' house for the family that owned "Shell Oil"


The garden was very cleverly laid out - not visible from the main lawn



Nice Pot!





Surreal Poster - would any firm now want to claim "journalists use our product?"

Interesting message... thanks to www.uckg.org

Please - can anyone identify this moth?

Birmingham, West Midlands, UK / Late August