Just about sums Birmingham up

Xmas at 'Goodwood'


Matti explains 'Christingle'

I cooked for Xmas Eve
(had to borrow casserole dish from Peter "yes, I was given this 10 years ago, hav'n't used it yet" next door

#1 Xmas Present 2007

We went to Wagamama - this year we graduated up to 'Number 42'

(see also... here)

HOC Club Champs 2007 - Frith Wood

Wedding Blessing for Cousin Deb and David Knowlton - photos are here

Extreme Close-Up (This is the inside of my left eye, photo taken
during eyetest...)

I went over to Cambridge - to talk chocolate with Year 4
Excellent!

Looking after Kirstie...



The baby sitter...



The babysittee..

I was called for jury service - by turns interesting, frustrating and stressful
(Luckily we didn't get a murder or a 6 month fraud case - just child molestation - hmmmm)

Nero on his favourite chair

Matti & Bethan & David all went shopping in Merry Hill...



Where is Imelda Marcos when you need her?




The order could have come a little more quickly


In Frankie and Benny's



Boots: £15, Jumper: £10, Belt: £2

Primark will be the end of civilisation as we know it...

A huge jumper for £10 - how can they do that?
Folks will just buy stuff, use it once and throw it away
as this will be cheaper than dry-cleaning it...

A little trip to Silkeborg...




The potato comes in its own little jar...



The Radisson in Silkeborg (it was formerly a paper mill),
restaurant Michael D.

Scallops and rhymed Halibut, Danish apples, cress
and caramelled Jerusalem artichoke,

followed by:

Outdoor Pig, puy lentil, heartsalad and sage

with:

Nordic Cheeses (on a floor tile no less)

and finally:

Clara fris, white chocolate & viper's grasses, jelly and sprinkle of oats*

and like the rest of everything we saw in Denmark:
Relentlessly well designed and reassuringly expensive

Is nobody scruffy? Does nobody ever just "bodge it"?
What would happen is someone just said "I just can't be bothered today"

its the domestic terminal at CPH


--------------

* it makes more sense in Danish:

Mellemret

Kammuslinger og rimet helleflynder,

danske æbler, karse og brunede jordskokker.

Hovedret

Frillandsgris, puy linser, hjertesalat og salvie.

Oste

De nordiske oste.

Dessert

Clara fris, hvid chokolade, skorzenerødder

gelé og havredrys.

A 'mad'* italianate restaurant round the back of the Holiday Inn,
Wrocslaw - amazing 'fusion' menu - and, actually, the food was
really good

*look in the background



An old bunker on the way to the airport

There was a snail on the fern at the end of my driveway...

Kirstie and Anna



At the (always freezing cold) swings - after "feeding the ducks" -
in Frimley




At Alice Holt

Martin opening for Berkshire U10 against Hampshire

A weekend in the Faroes...




I was divebombed by a (Great?) Skua - just like John Noakes
when he went to Iceland for Blue Peter in 1971

How come I remember this some 36 years later?





It is a stunning place...


Click here to see some one elses better photo

and of course, having been occupied by the British in WWII
they just love Cadbury Dairy Milk:

I even went orienteering - from the village of Gjógv,
(one of the 'controls' was misplaced), the village website says:

"The trip also takes you to the refreshing water spring at Háls - a favoured resting place for the local shepherds. You look down on Ambadal, a beautiful valley all covered in grass except for a single stone, Festirsteinur/Festarsteinur, which, of course, also has its own story..."

Unfortunately I can only find the story in Faeroese.

ODI at Edgbaston...



We sat in the "India" section next to Sikh Superman and Sikh Batman
and surrounded by their extended family and other guests...




Erik was not amused...