Happy New Year to all my visitors - the world over.

Did you know......

.........that today is the Bowling Ball's 150th Birthday?

The bowling ball was invented on this day

(29 December) in 1862. 

The bowling ball is made from plastic, reactive resin, urethane or a combination of these materials. 

The first bowling balls used in the United States were made of wood, especially oak, and lignum vitae wood.

Naughty Boy Alpacas 
over here "PHOTO BLOG"

HAPPY 27th

Welcome, one and all to the strangest week of the year.. Starts on a Thursday, but nobody really knows what day it is or whether you should even be making that journey or going to work. Your fridge is still bursting with food as indeed you are. You are in reflective mood - well you have to work out who to apologise to for your antics of the year/holiday season before thinking about who will be upset by your New Year resolutions that you know you will not stick to past 12th night!! So Happy 27th!

Happy Thanksgiving in the Solomon Islands/St Stephen's/Family/Good will/Boxing/Wren/Alexandria/1st of Hanzaa/1st of Junkanoo/James the Just/Mummer's/Mauro Hamza DAY*
Oh to hell with it HAPPY DECEMBER 26th!!!!

'Tis the season.....

I didn't notice last year just how busy the shops opposite to where I live actually were on Christmas Eve. One is a general hardware store that sells Christmas decorations and yes of course it's busy but the shop next door is a pet store. So have a guess which one they were queueing to get in at 8.30 this morning and was 'non stop busy' for two hours...... Yes the pet shop! I've come back now and the shop is closed and the window is totally devoid of product! Every seasonal thing imaginable for your every pet has been bought and presumably will be wrapped for the spoilt pets of Neston!!

So I had the pleasure this year of sending two overseas packages from the same on line American retailer to two different American addresses. I guess I should alter that slightly as it is only a pleasure if they arrive at their destination which as of now because of time differences etc. we are not totally sure about! Anyway with the power of the internet I have been able through UPS to track their progress and I have to say, next year I may well package myself, put a bar code on me and send me somewhere with UPS. These parcels both small have had an absolute ball! They have both been to places that I as the #1 Americophile could only dream of! All the destinations and the times have been scanned - right down to the very last minute! Wow one of them was even at Dallas/Fort Worth airport for 4 hours, how cool is that? The other checked out of Columbus, Ohio at 6.47am, that's Christmassy cool too isn't it?

Buses should be larger for Christmas Eve as all the last minuters bags take up seats just for themselves! Yes it was one of those buses!! Guy on the very back seat taking up 2 and a bit seats, not bothered one little bit about how much space he was using, was opening up a box, the cardboard being discarded everywhere. Lots of tut tut tutting! All of a sudden he speaks very loudly... "Does anybody here know whether you have to charge these Macbooks up before you put them on?" Next minute two guys, one of them the biggest tut tut tutter were talking animatedly and there was an impromptu I.T. masterclass between the three people that had only been cruelly thrown together because of travelling on a over crowded Christmas Eve bus!

ROBIN REDBREAST.

There are two popular stories about how the little Robin came to have such a beautiful red breast. Both are based deep in religion and shrouded in myth and mysticism. Both feature Jesus but the one I prefer at this time of year of course is the one that relates to the Christmas Story. Even just this story has some variation but I don't think it's actually necessary to include the part of the story that talks about, the red being where the Robin kept on fanning the fire, all night and was burnt and nearly died. After all if it is to fit in with the Christmas Story then there may be children around!!

Check back around Good Friday for the other story!!

I wanna Rrock!!

Christmas shopping tip - hot off the press!! If you have any Mayan friends the ideal gift would be a calendar, because theirs has just run out!!

"Don't count every day of the week; make every day of the week count." Happy week before Christmas Eve day!!

Senseless tragedy.

Are you happy in the Summer or Winter?

"PEOPLE DON'T NOTICE WHETHER IT'S WINTER OR SUMMER WHEN THEY ARE HAPPY"

Now as you know I don't usually question quotes, just post them and occasionally give credit where it's due.
This one for the record I am questioning! 
Almost every woman and a lot of men that has been in my life, yes including Mothers, Lovers and Sons have, being polite here, felt the cold! I have never found this a problem, but I don't feel the cold in the same way as them and even if we only look at that from a statistical viewpoint then more people feel the cold and adversely like the warmth.
Seasonally here in the Northern segment of this planetary orange, people prefer the warmer seasons!! (Canada being a slight exception to this!! However more Canadians go for 'Winter Sunshine Breaks' than any other nation so that equals it up, I guess!)
Thereby People are happier when it is Summer and yes they do notice whether it is Winter or Summer!! 

The above quote is even less credible when you consider who actually said it, Anton Chekhov!! 
Now I don't mean to be funny but if you come from a country where temperatures range from huge huge minuses in temperature to not very positive at all even in the height of summer temperatures then I don't think you are qualified to relate temperatures or seasons and what they are best known for, to happiness!! 

Geek - time!!

Ok I’m a geek, there’s no way I can or would want to deny it! As a geek my favourite accessory is without doubt Sky Plus. This allows you to be a geek at the time of your choosing! Any fellow geeks will appreciate that this is of course a big part of being a good geek. I really do like trains, not in a taking and collecting numbers kind of way but in a tv programme and photography kind of way. However Thursday night at 9 o clock is without doubt the wrong time to watch Great Train Journeys of Europe, with or without Michael Portillo. Enter Sky Plus and the last one of the series, mentioned above, the same week as Chris Tarrant’s Extreme Railways started its global journey. Fantastic watch them back to back on a Saturday evening with a vodka and Dr Pepper accompaniment timed to avoid the X Factor! Excellent!! Enhanced with Sky Plus. On reflection however I do wish, mainly because of my political stance, that ex Conservative minister, Michael Portillo, was the one stuck in a tunnel in the dark in the Congo and not Chris Tarrant, but hey ho!!!! 

December 8th

Webby stuff

So these days there are so many on line forms asking for a/your date of birth and they are a sure fire way of making you feel even older than they should. If it takes more than half a second to scroll down to the year you were born, then you were born in the fifties – there is no escape!!

Over the years through Wilko News and beyond there has been all sorts of ask… type of sites like askjeeves etc and pseudo sites like ask.. dad/ask.. si etc etc. So I got to thinking how much you could tell about a person based on their Google searches and internet history ……….. Here’s a sample of some recent ‘Wilko News’ searches : Banana Cake ; Spartan sprint ; “On a silver black phantom bike” ; Iris ; Hard Rock Cafes in airports ; Chicago Fire ; Marmaris Imperial ; Virgin Atlantic ; Liverpool Echo ; Wrecking Ball tour and Gatlinburg. 

So what do you think?

Fruit art

For the most amazing fruit art like this US flag 

just click along this line!!

In Mathew Street, Liverpool, birthplace of the Beatles, there are ♫ 8 days a week ♫

Spotted on Hoylake Beach today - around 21,000 Knot, 1000 Sanderling and 480 Grey Plover...tired and hungry from their flight from the Arctic, around 2250 miles away (Canada and Greenland). Here in Hoylake to relax, recover and get a good feed over the winter, before their flight back next April where they will meet a nice partner and build a nest back in the Arctic. A 5000 mile round trip to chill out in Hoylake...

Did you know... ... that today is Shakespeare's Wedding Day? In 1582, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway.

26th November

It was two years ago today that Mum joined the angels, I say no more.




My ex fiancee wrote a tribute on her blog and for your information if you haven't read it before can be found by clicking *"Here"* it remains the most beautiful thing ever said about Mum and again I thank you Jules. 

Facebook and the Photoblog are featuring this pic,  and on Friday Matt's flowers were thrown in to the river just up from the Maritime museum.

Musically of course, just in case you didn't know the day is sponsored by the two pieces featured throughout her wonderful life. Be surprised if you didn't already know....

The Boss

and the mighty Meatloaf.........

UPDATE

Mum never met my Grandaughter, or her Mum if it comes to that!! She would have loved Elise - despite the fact that she always said if I'd have been a girl I may not have made it past 4 years old and the same for my boys!! Far easier to show an older pic of Elise here because of severe 11 month old grumpiness!!

However I can hear her saying, "But I've always been a Great Grandma!" Of course that is true but of course she would have loved to have been a Great Grandma!! 

Mum was world famous for her hot chocolates, so today was a good day to sample the opposition!! The hot chocolate wasn't as good but the Tia Maria in it just made it a winner!! 

TODAY'S SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT IS RIGHT HERE.

Thanksgiving Day!

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.  ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

"Thankful"

Week before Thanksgiving,

I limp around real strange.

Huddle in the corner,

As though I have the mange.

All the other turkeys,

Just gobble, gobble on.

I'm silent, and I act

As if my gobbler's gone.

Everyone is thankful

On Thanksgiving Day.

Friday it's forgotten.

You all go on your way.

I know what thankful is

So listen when I say.

"It's great to be a turkey,

After Thanksgiving Day." 

More Thanksgiving 'stuff'....here and here!!

Turkey Vulture.........

"Well the news isn't all bad Mr Turkey Vulture! It's not all good either, I have to say!!
Since there are no Turkeys on Cuba, where you are native, people that celebrate Thanksgiving on Cuba will eat you! That is of course if they can catch you, because you unlike your American Bird cousins can fly and boy do you fly!! Also you fly mainly over water which is an additional problem in catching you!
Thanksgiving since 1959 has been deemed by the Cuban government as "too American" to be openly celebrated, therefore most people settle for the Cuban Catholics harvest celebration on the third Sunday of October, which doesn't involve the eating of vast quantities of any meat at all.
For those that do celebrate Thanksgiving as a turkey eating competition will therefore be able to afford to go to the large hotels where at a considerable cost 'real' turkey can be brought in special!!"

"From a photographers view point, this pic was the result of nearly an hour of watching you and your friends and family flying seemingly aimlessly around the harbour, never landing for a second!! Thank you for getting maybe just a tad tired or for landing briefly to let me take my pic so I would go and stop bothering you!"

Thanksgiving Week

Welcome to Thanksgiving Week across all three of my blogs.

Here, there and of course here!

So here it’s everybody else’s art as well as my own but obviously on the other two it’s only my own pics….. but you know that already don’t you……..

So to Tuesday and there I was looking through Google, say it like it's a library and you don't feel so guilty, for Thanksgiving inspiration and found mention of a film called, 'Thanksgiving'. 

Yay - success. 

Strange  that I hadn't heard of it though? Well it is only a 13 minute short!!

It is 'HERE"!

Does just go to show though doesn't it? There hasn't been a movie made about any other fourth Thursday of a month!!

Tuesday over here too!!

Hell in Texas.

So because of the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix the world is looking towards Austin, Texas but it's not the first time that Texas has been in the spotlight, so to speak! 

Every dreamer knows that it is possible to be homesick for a place you've never been to.

Puppy Text

Aww this is brilliant!! Puppy Text!!

Look at this closely.... yes they are all puppies!! Chocolate Labrador puppies at that!!

Recipe time....

Once again this year ive had request for my Tequila Christmas Cake recipe here you go, follow carefully!!!-
1 cup sugar, 1tsp baking powder, 1 cup water, 1tsp salt, 1cup brown sugar, butter, lemon juice, 4 large eggs, nuts, 1 bottle of Tequila, 2 cups dried fruit. Sample a cup of Tequila to check quality. Take a large bowl, check Tequila again to be sure it is of the highest quality then repeat. Turn on electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add sugar, beat again At this point try the Tequila again just to make sure its still ok, a cup of it. Turn of mixerer thingy. break 2 eegs and udd to the bowl and chuck in cup of dried fruit...Pick fruit up off floor, wash it, put it in the bowl a piece at a time. Mix on the turnerer. If the fried druit getsa stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a drewscriver. sample tequila to test tonsisticity. Next, sift 2 cups of salt, or something. Check Tequila. Shift Lemon juice and strain ya nuts. Add one table and a spoon or whatever it is. Grease the oven. Dont forget to beat off the turner. Finally, throw the bowl in the window,finish tequila and wipe counter with the cat......And Hey Pesto!!!

"THE INQUISITIVE MIND OF A CHILD"

Why are they selling poppies, Mummy?
The poppies, child, are flowers of love.
For the men who marched away.
But why have they chosen a poppy, Mummy?
Why not a beautiful rose?
Because my child, men fought and died in the fields where the poppies grow.

But why are the poppies so red, Mummy?Red is the colour of blood, my child.
The blood that our soldiers shed.
The heart of the poppy is black, Mummy.
Why does it have to be black?
Black, my child, is the symbol of grief.

For the men who never came back.
But why, Mummy are you crying so?
Your tears are giving you pain.
My tears are my fears for you my child.
For the world is forgetting again.

A history lesson of sorts.

I really didn't like history at school and for a long time after. Until maybe when I was in my thirties and very strangely enough it may have taken a trip to North America to start really appreciating it. That is so ironic and I can't believe I just wrote it!! North America and history in the same sentence!!
Political involvement, going back to school and working in a museum over the years has obviously changed all that!! I love history, especially local history but in one way it's a bit late.
Today I went and took pictures of the first house I lived in and the first church I ever went in to and was in fact christened in. It was great I love creating an adventure! With photography you have to be historically, geographically and culturally aware so it was great to take pictures of the house on St. Matthew's block of Queens Drive, Liverpool's busy ring road. A house I lived with my Mum and Dad and Grandma for four years. I don't remember anything because it was the first four years of my life.
Thereby lies a problem. I am the last surviving member of the family that had any history in that house, at that church. I have no one I can ask questions of and get answers from and that is the essence of social history, enquiring and getting answers.
Did I get pushed to the local shops in my pram or did I get a bus or even a tram? Where my first toddling footsteps down towards the church? How often did we go to church? What was on the other end of the block, before Macdonalds?
Oh this isn't about poor pitiful me!
This is about asking questions, if you can, of your folks while they are around and while you can remember the answers, whether you like history or not!! The answers that you get are invaluable especially when you yourself are on the older side!!
For your information there are a couple of pics here and more over here. No questions!!

Did you know.......

...that today is Rolling Stone Magazine's birthday?

In 1967 the first issue of the magazine featured John Lennon on its cover.

The person who has been on the cover most in all time is Rolling Stone himself, Mick Jagger who has been on the cover of the magazine 27 times.

Aren't the movies just wonderful?!!

15 things we wouldn’t know if it wasn’t for the movies

1. The ventilation system of any building is the perfect hiding place. No one will ever think of looking for you in there, and you can travel to any other part of the building you want without difficulty.

2. You're very likely to survive any battle in any war unless you make the mistake of showing someone a picture of your sweetheart back home.

3. Should you wish to pass yourself off as a German officer, it is not necessary to speak the language. A German accent will do.

4. A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds.

5. If staying in a haunted house, women must investigate any strange noises in their most diaphanous underwear, which is just what they happened to be carrying with them at the time the car broke down.

6. If a large pane of glass is visible, someone will be thrown through it before long.

7. If someone says, "I'll be right back", they won't.

8. Computer monitors never display a cursor on screen but always say: Enter Password Now.

9. It is not necessary to say hello or goodbye when beginning or ending phone conversations. And none of your friends have to knock when they come for a visit.

10. Even when driving down a perfectly straight road, it is necessary to turn the steering wheel vigorously from left to right every few moments.

11. All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red readouts so you know exactly when they're going to go off.

12. A detective can only solve a case once he has been suspended from duty.

13. If you decide to start dancing in the street everyone around you will automatically be able to mirror all the steps you come up with and hear the music in your head.

14. Police departments give their officers personality tests to make sure they are deliberately assigned a partner who is their total opposite.

And last but not least -

15. When they are alone, all foreigners prefer to speak English to each other.

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

A MESSAGE FROM THE QUEEN 

In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictio

nary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except North Dakota, which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

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

1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.' Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary').

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

2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ''like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the elimination of '-ize.'

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

3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

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

4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not ready to shoot grouse.

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

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

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

6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

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

7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

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

8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

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

9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

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

10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialect in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.

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

11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

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

12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

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

13.. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

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

14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

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

15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen!

NO sun--no moon!
No morn--no noon!
No dawn--no dusk--no proper time of day--
No sky--no earthly view--
No distance looking blue--
No road--no street--no "t'other side this way"--
No end to any Row--
No indications where the Crescents go--
No top to any steeple--
No recognitions of familiar people--
No courtesies for showing 'em--
No knowing 'em!
No traveling at all--no locomotion--
No inkling of the way--no notion--
"No go" by land or ocean--
No mail--no post--
No news from any foreign coast--
No Park, no Ring, no afternoon gentility--
No company--no nobility--
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member--
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds--
November!

Thomas Hood

31st October!!

 Oh don't get me wrong, if you've got kids and you live in the right environment/neighbourhood, like carving not eating your winter squashes, then I do think there is a valid reason for Halloween.

If you are religious and need a day for all souls then this is the day!!

If non of the above, then what the F?, no seriously folks, what is it?

A selection of pics from the Halloween Humbug album oh and by the way Happy Halloween. 

15 cemeteries to visit.

CLICK HERE

Halloween special!

So I think we've gone too far when a online dating site offers a membership discount for Halloween!! Join now and get your witch at 40% off!! Wonder if it's backdated? For all the witches they've let me know about when I was paying full price!!

Typically Topical - Oh it's all to do with a new TV series and some fire engines, I mean fire trucks!! Oh just click anywhere - it's not here it's on the photoblog!!

Alice, through 'a' looking glass!!

Everyone see's things differently and interprets things the way they want to and that is all well and good and makes us all individuals.
A little girl called Alice Liddell was Lewis Carroll's inspiration for Alice in the 'Alice' books. Alice used to stay in Llandudno on holiday and after that rumour takes over! However Llandudno has 'used' the best parts of the rumour linking Alice and Lewis Carroll and everywhere there are links to the little girl.
Now then whenever I think of Alice I have a cute picture of a pretty little girl, strangely naive but very feminine.

The latest series of wood sculptures (June 2012) around the town however do not display her like that, to me, at all!! Frankly they scare me! This to me is an ugly Alice, maybe more suited to the fishing ports around the coast than to the "Queen of Resorts." 
But of course each to their own!!
For further info on Llandudno click *HERE* and for an insight in to an Alice *HERE*. 

"Still around the corner there may wait. a new road or a secret gate." 

~ J. R. R. Tolkein.

Wisdom is the principal thing.Therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting, get understanding.

Some chart stuff!

The top 10 Male Artists by combined record sales of all time....HERE

Breakfasts!

50 

of 

the 

worlds 

best 

breakfasts!

World wide webby thing!

I love this world wide webby thing, no really I do!! Long time readers will of course already know this!!
It fascinates me that you can watch an advert on the telly, like the music, tap a few things in your computer and should you wish to have a CD winging its way to you in seconds or download it in less time than the advert itself. Or you can have the lyrics printed before you can say O2 Priority Sports Commercial. This time though I have done all those before, this time its the official video from You Tube of Woodkid's Run Boy Run. 
Now's the time for you to go through the process, that I did, yeah that's the other thing you can do, blog about it and let everyone know what you think!!
You will say, I don't know it, I've never heard it. I will then say to my US readers, it was on So you think you can dance in August and to my UK readers, it's the music for the above mentioned TV commercial!!

Oh yes I like that!!

So press the button.


Oh Wow yeah I do like that!!

Weekly update...

So quite a week with Columbus Day and Canadian Thanksgiving in the same week!! Now  I have absolutely no problem at all with my North American cousins as most readers will already know, I can’t help but being a bit annoyed at my own country!  For a long time we have been a day or two behind in the public holiday league but even with Royal weddings and anniversaries we still fall a long way behind almost every other country in the ‘Western’ world. England and Wales are even behind Northern Ireland, another country within the United Kingdom! Unfortunately last Monday ust brings it all to bear!! We in the UK do not get a public holiday between the last Monday of August and Christmas Day. I’ll leave you to do the maths! At the same time especially you North Americans think about how many you have – just in that period!! I rest my case!! 

One of the pictures that I posted on Monday for Columbus Day was of a Greyhound bus numbered 1492. The year of discovery! 1990 was the year and that bus featured in my own year of discovery and my first visit to the American continent! By featured I mean it was my home for 37 hours and my first and longest Greyhound bus ride - so it was the big feature! Somewhere the second chapter of my story of my “Voyage of Discovery” is titled, wait for it…… “Me and you and a dog named 1492.” Even that title alone ages me significantly! If you don’t know what the hell I mean you may not be old enough….. (Google, ‘Lobo’)

I’m such a geek! Most of you already know that!!  I’m saying no more other than to relate three things in as many weeks that proves it, all strangely provable in photographs, which may indeed say something far more. So yes I am a geek photographer!! (1) Special diesel train pulling old coaches through Wrexham station. (2) A talk on a tree trail at the local botanic gardens, then pictures taken that are already in the Tree Trail booklet. (3) Eddie Stobart trucks, I say no more!!

Loving season 21 of The Amazing Race, only wish it wasn’t such a struggle to get hold of the episodes, mainly due to the gracious hospitality of CBS….. NOT!! All I can really say is, if you are in North America, you must watch it!! Sunday evenings CBS 7 or 8 or after the football!! If you wanted to follow it in the UK I can get you the link sometime on Mondays but unfortunately no guarantees. 

Also HERE is the Sunday Supplement on the Photoblog!!

Finally they have named a beer after me!!

" "

"Nature is forever arriving and forever departing, forever
approaching, forever vanishing; but in her vanishings there
seems to be ever the waving of a hand, in all her partings a
promise of meetings farther along the road."

Try looking at this and not thinking of sunshine and smiles!!

Did you know......

.... that today is the birthday of San Francisco? In 1776, Spanish missionaries began the first settlement in the area that was to become the city of San Francisco. Yerba Buena was the original name of San Francisco. It was taken from the plant with the same name that grew around the settlement that was adjacent to the Mission San Francisco de Asis, "Mission Dolores."

8th October.....

Today the 8th October 2012 is 
Canadian Thanksgiving.
Today the 8th October 2012 is also 
Columbus Day

Driving passion.

I just love the passion that is created by the Italian Ferrari F1 Grand Prix and its Spanish and Brazilian drivers and multi national race team. After the Japanese Grand Prix today the Spanish driver tweeted this, "5 Great races still to come. If the enemy thinks in the mountains, attack by sea, if they think in the sea attack by the mountains." Meanwhile the Italian race director pointing at their rivals said, "See they laugh now, next week they cry." Wonderful!!

The weekly update.......

Hey would you believe the CD was 30 years old this week? Personally however I can’t see it making 40. So who’d of thought that vinyl would be the longest running music media? Not me that’s for sure!!

Match.doodah presents : Liverpool’s most quirky dates. Sounds good I’m single and I can do quirky. Clicking here as instructed I was faced with the top ten quirky places to go on a date, including the Cavern! Not quite what I was expecting, oh and I’ve been to most of them either on my own or in a previous strictly non quirky life!

I love this www stuff, yeah including Facebook and never cease to be amazed that with just a click somewhere on my lappy I can cross the Atlantic and another I can cross the US or Canada and back again. WOW!

The other thing about crossing both the Atlantic and America is the time differences so I am thinking of starting an Insomniac American’s helpline! Only partially kidding!! But there has been a couple of occasions just recently where me being on this www thing in the morning has been a great time to talk online with a couple of Americans, one 5 hours behind, the other 8 and this has been enabled purely because they could not sleep. 

No more ice creams at the Trevi Fountain.

Rome tourists face €500 fine for snacking......... this is a disgrace!! Full story HERE.

Amazing Race Series 21 Episode 1........

So last night saw the beginning of the absolutely amazing The Amazing Race 
<CBS 7/8 Central Sunday nights - USA and Canada only, sometimes delayed because of football > 
and we are up to series 21, isn't that unbelievable? 
No not really..... What is unbelievable is that there is still no platform or real legal way of watching it in the UK. Thank you CBS, thank you very much...... "The video you requested is not available in your geographical location." or "Due to You Tube's terms of contract this video has not been uploaded."
Or the worst one, Download this, get this toolbar, click this and pay this and we still won't let you watch it....
                       BLAH DE F*CKING BLAH!!!
If you are able to watch it in the US or Canada then you must, it is as it says on the tin 'Amazing'. This series looks to be just as good if not better than ever! In a previous life there used to be a sweep, where you chose two teams and you got points and got eliminated when your teams did and it was great fun..... the message though is simple if you've never watched it and you can you must!! 

As for me, well as luck would have it there is a person in the Phillipines that uploads it on to You Tube, say no more. There are no guarantees though but I am not going to put it on here every week, if you want to follow it every week just email me here or leave a mention in comments and I will send you the link when I get hold of it.





Oh and of course it's not too late to organize your sweep or whatever but as one team has already gone I would watch the above first before you choose your teams!!!

HB CD!!!

Big big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the CD!!
30 years old today!! 
Nothing much more to say really!!
Click anywhere on this line for the best sellers of all time!!

Lion King

Weekly update.

"There isn't a person anywhere who isn't capable of doing more than he thinks he can."
-- Henry Ford

Andy Williams. RIP. He will be remembered as one of the all time greats. Crooning, “Moon River”, Cookie Bear and most of all at Christmas.

This week saw the publication of JK Rowling’s first adult novel and I guarantee that because its title doesn’t start with the words, ‘Harry Potter’ no one knows its name!! It is for the record called “The Casual Vacancy”. So now you know!

On an unusual political note for me, I just feel that with the upcoming US elections, I really have to say this, more as a warning than anything else. You Americans are intelligent beings and can decide for yourself which way you are going to vote and I well understand you may not like your current ‘man’ and may think a change is due. BUT. Please be very careful associating yourself with a party that has among its ‘Top Guns’ people that use the most damaging oxymoron I have ever heard, “Legitimate Rape”. Maybe, just maybe, the time for change is later when the Republicans have eradicated these inhuman monsters from their leadership.

This week had within it, Arthur Guinness Day! One of the world's best ever marketing promotions and was celebrated the world over by painting the town(s) black!!

Hopefully you should be able to view the amazing UK commercial, "HERE" 

It's of course never to late to celebrate with a pint of the black stuff!!

Sunday.......

For my regular feature at my photo blog click

HERE

31 years ago today, Liverpool FC and the entire football community lost the one man that in the realms of football strategy and planning has never been replaced. 
Bill Shankly the greatest football manager in the history of the game. 

Never replaced, never forgotten.

F1 Fun.....?

Speculation is due to end today about Lewis Hamilton's $100 million move from Mclaren to Mercedes, when the F1 team sign off on the deal at their Stuttgart headquarters.
This will end two months of rumour and indeed rumour mongering.
It is unknown at this time whether Michael Schumacher, seven times world champion, will have any ambassadorial part to play with Mercedes, the team he came out of retirement to drive for three years ago.
Good luck to both Michael and Lewis in their future careers. 

Bosses at Wilko News are as yet unsure whether allegiances may be forced to change next year as previously they have never supported a German based team.... even with British drivers!!

Right.... so within an hour of reluctantly accepting we may have to get to like Jensen Button, Lewis Hamilton's replacement at McLaren is announced..... 22 year old Sergio Perez!

Let the F1 fun begin!! 

Blind dogs!

There are a number of reasons that makes this picture newsworthy!
First of all the topicality of the replacement referees and the harm that they did to the NFL in the three weeks that the 'real' officials were on strike.
I posted this pic on Facebook purely for its comedic value in relation to 'blind' referees!
This however was a charity event for Guide Dogs held in Liverpool and the person being led by Rayma, the three year old Labrador is Luciana Berger, the Labour MP for Liverpool, Wavertree. 
I respect Luciana for donning the blindfold and to be led through a set of obstacles by the Guide Dog. A commonplace bit of work for the dog, but can you imagine how traumatic that could be for the partially sighted or the blind. More people should do this to raise funds and awareness for the Guide Dogs and those that train them. Well worth every penny of the £12,000 that it takes for every guide dog to be trained.

Update time!

ITV Drama sponsored by Sky Broadband……….. interesting and slightly confusing.

“The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.” Unusual concept these days! Especially in the realm of American politics. Made altogether more intriguing by the fact it was originally said by Woodrow Wilson, the 28^th president of the United States.

CSI in one of its varieties is apparently shown somewhere in the world all day every day, an absolutely amazing fact and certainly not worth disputing. The one thing I do know for sure is that the one person most grateful of this state of affairs is the writer of the theme music for all three varieties, Pete Townshend! CSI’s success is apparently keeping him financially in the manner to which he has become accustomed.

Ok, now I’m really confused – can anybody explain exactly WTF is the day celebrated this week - International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Jeez I don’t know! However by the end of the day and many Oooo Aaaargh’s and walk the planking phrases, I did warm a little to it!! Captain Jack’s quote sufficed at first, “Shoot him and cut out his tongue, then shoot his tongue! And trim that scraggly beard!” Then remembering that there has always been different kinds of pirates to our fictional heroes, “This is Caroline on 199, from the Mi Amigo, your all day music station!” Though you may have to be of a certain age and upbringing to fully appreciate that.