Friday 10 October 2008

Life sure is full of sunshine...


Slugs, Snails & Puppy Dogs' Tails...

Some sluggish facts !

Slugs are owed much more respect:
  • They have shells! Ok most are inside and offer miniscule protection but they do have shells, along with a heart, lung and kidneys.
  • Apparently if you boil three in milk and swallow whole you can cure TB!
  • They are hermaphrodites and can fertilise themselves. They do this by coiling their corkscrew penises around each other to exchange sperm. Trouble is though that they often get tangled up with their partners and are forced to gnaw each others' penises off! This then makes both slugs effectively bio female and remain so evermore.

So before you salt one- think about what the poor buggers have already been through please!

Thursday 9 October 2008

What a Day!!

Woke up contented and snug with my arms wrapped around my beautiful girlfriend.

After snogs and breakfast I entered into the most amazing day filled with neon blue sky and the sun shining through reddened leaves.


Walked into work along the magical river and took these four pics....

Path to Pylon!


Web design





Sunday 5 October 2008

Some of the jobs I'd love to do...

  • paramedic on bike
  • bird handler (feathered or human variety)
  • helicopter pilot
  • pyrotechnic
  • rubbish collector
  • sewer fat cleanser
  • National Park ranger
  • sunbather
  • life guard (on nudist women's beach)
  • Fire fighter
  • Supadyke (cape and powertool belt)
  • Lumberjack
  • Massage receiver
  • Nature photographer
  • Food critic
  • anthropologist
  • Motorcycle instructor
  • CEO
  • Professor (though not have to do any work)
  • Mountain rescue
  • Sex toy trier and examiner
  • Dog walker

I wish I was a Pyrotechnic...

I LOVE FIREWORKS!

I can't wait until Springtime

I really can't wait! I've got the feeling that this Winter is going to be extra dark and extra dense. What I do love is donning my leather riding gear (although I do look like Darth Vader in a nappy!) What I hate is having to stay off the motorbike on icey days (I didn't do this last Winter and ending up on my arse!- Neither cool nor clever!)

Anyways, every Spring for the last 12 years I've fucked off to Valencia for the Fallas.

One solid week in March the Spanish celebrate the Fiesta of the Fallas ("fire stick"). It's been going since 1497 and started when carpenters toiling through the Winter would extend their working days by using a lamp made of candles (called a "parot"). Upon the arrival of Spring the lamps would no longer be needed and the carpenters would celebrate by taking the parots into the street and burn disused wood. Soon whole villages would bring their old items out for burning and hence was born the Fallas Fiesta.

I go to Denia (lucky to have my ex-pat mom there- better than Brum!) 12 areas in the town spend a whole year building a Fallas. They are made out of wood and papier mache and are the size of an 8 story block of flats. The effiges are then judged on which one is the best- on merits of most artistic, best sattire, best constructed etc.

Post fire fallas


Making sure that onlookers and buildings don't set alight the firefighters spray everything- including my backside it transpired!
If you love Spring, fires and fireworks get your arse over to Valencia next March.
Makes me feel alive!

Fallas Fire


The sight of a Fallas on fire is amazing. They are covered in fire crackers, the heat is immense. Crowds push back to avoid the heat and the spray from the fire fighters.
I get so excited I jump up and down like a kid!

Pre lit Fallas




Here's a Fallas from last year- think this came in at 3rd. Every detail is so intracate- a real shame to burn it.

Flower Procession- The Fallas


There's a big flower procession and everyone comes from miles around. Bands are playing, firecrackers going off in the background- one massive celebration of Springtime.

Hidden Hackney...


Hidden Hackney...


Hidden Hackney...


Hidden Hackney...


Hidden Hackney...


Hidden Hackney Treasures


Flapper bathing after his Icelandic expedition...


The adventures of flapper.....


Flapper is a bossy little so and so. He always has to be the one in charge- I just let him think he's the boss! Here he is at a bus stop in Iceland. He insisted we wait for a bus in -15c and trecherous blizzards.