Need a laugh? Let's go old school - COWBELL

Click on the picture:



UPDATE:
I'm still laughing. Just shared it with coworker, he didn't get it. But yeah, wait...am I...yep, I'm still laughing, it's confirmed.

Stevie doing Dave...and I LOVE Dave!

Saw this video on Perez Hilton where Stevie Nicks covered "Crash into Me" and even this version gave me goosebumps - it's not Dave but it's still a beautiful and amazing song. Have a look/listen HERE.

I just found an old video of Dave on VH1's Storytellers when he tells the story of this song and he performs it with Tim Reynolds. To compare to Stevie Nicks, you can watch it HERE. Watching/listening to it now - oh I'm so covered in chills! LOVE his songwriting!

God, I hope DMB come to UK for some concert dates this Autumn. I remember seeing some dates in the UK in previous years but I'm not sure if they do it annually like they do their summer concerts. I'd be gutted if I couldn't do my annual DMB concert(s)!

Me this morning

Weekend photos - North Yorkshire

Picture of the back garden from my room. See the croquet green?


Just to the right of the pic above, I guess in the background is what was once a tennis court, many, many years ago.


I believe this pheasant is called Fergis. David likes to feed them birdseed and they will eat it out of hand but they don't like strangers (me!)


David, Master of all things Croquet, about to share with me the secrets to winning, especially against Tonia, who as a child played every night with her brothers and sisters.

Does this photo actually need a caption? I think not.


Don't laugh, this is an exact science and being the novice I am, I needed David's expertise on where, how and why on every shot.


After one of David's delicious dinner and we enjoyed espresso - we have long sleeves on here - it was about 9pm and a tad cool, but we were weather beaten for sure - it had been sooooo hot!


Richmond Castle as seen from any number of scenic view areas in Richmond.


The River Swale - Tonia I took a "leisurely" walk around the river in Richmond, there is a path that leads around the river, by the abbey ruins and back.

Taken from opposite side of the river and the abbey ruins can be seen in the background.


Tonia as we are about to enter the ruins of this abbey, which dates back to 1100's. Doesn't she look fab?

Displayed at the ruins - this sign just makes me laugh. As if it's just this easy!

Main room of abbey.



Little ol' me!

Deadliest WII Jumper Noodles

Deadliest Catch:

Yeah, so I've downloaded and watched all the Dirty Jobs available on iTunes and in an effort to fill the TV vacuum I've had since moving here, I downloaded (and watched within 24 hours) the entire 4th season of Deadliest Catch. It really is fascinating. Rich can laugh at me, since I only sort of ever got into it back home, but I told him if I ever download and watch Mythbusters, I'll eat one of my many hats!

WII:

Has anyone got a WII Fit? Feedback? Is there any possible chance, in any corner of the universe, that purchasing one of these things could in any form encourage me to actually exercise? Yeah, I think I know the answer, but I'm still open to hearing feedback! Especially from actual users (or those who really know me).

Jumper:

Crappy movie. Found I could rent movies from iTunes but it's not as thrilling browsing iTunes as Blockbuster (though to say that's even thrilling is a tad overstated) and for $3.99 rented the crap that is Jumper. I also rented Be Kind Rewind but have not watched that yet so cannot confirm it's crappiness.

Noodles:

Last night went for dinner with my friend Lesley to a place in Manchester, which is one of her absolute favs...a restaurant called wagamama. It has an industrial feel and you sit on family style tables (benches etc) and they make it fresh to order. It was very tasty but more than that, we had a great time and decided the following activities must be done (together of course) in no particular order: weekend away (Vienna tops the list right now), golf (she loved it when she did it, there's a driving range not far from her), dancing lessons (I'm thinking clogging, or an Irish dance where I can stomp the anger and frustration at my job or anything else right out of me) and a Jewelry business. That last one was more of a joke - but we talked about how I'd design and she'd make.

My Guardian Angels

Here are some of the top guys I've met in my 3 months here who look out for me.



Kerr (he was in Kent with us for the retreat), Derek (aka David Niven or as I like to call him "Godfather") and Gary (who's just as real as it gets!) Love, love, LOVE these guys! They were on top of Mt. Snowdon a few weeks ago when this was snapped. Side note: I had actually considered going too, thank God my sanity returned and I pulled out of the trip, none of the ladies who went made it to the top but these 3 guys did!

Well it's not Quizno's...

...but popping into this pub for lunch during a normal workday doesn't seem so bad, does it?


Had a gorgeous jacket potato with a really nice salad. Potato had mature cheddar cheese and corn. Yummmmmy.


Directly across street (if you were standing at door of pub), better to click on it to enlarge to see the countryside.


iPhone takes a dark picture in this climate sometimes, but this was the carpark - so I parked here and the rolling hills were all around.

Chips, Vertigo and Mama Mia

Chips:

What is it with me the last few days? My craving for chips (English word for french fries) is insatiable. I like them with loads of salt and vinegar and any number of other sauces (A1, Ketchup or even Mayo) and eat them so fast that they put me in a food coma. I guess I'm really "looking for love in all the wrong places"...for real!

Vertigo:

This afternoon I watched Vertigo on TV. I think Jimmy Stewart must've spent half of his time in front of the camera filming driving scenes. It was alright. I wasn't awed. Maybe it was the genre, maybe it was the music of it, but I kept thinking about Rich and how he, M & Em and I had such a great time last summer watching Whatever Happened to Baby Jane at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Good times...and things sure can change in a year, can't they? Just checked the website for the cemetery movies and tonight is Valley Girl - LOVE that movie!

Mama Mia:

Mama Mia, lordy, lordy, lordy, once is a enough. As I expected, I wasn't nearly as keen on Mama Mia as my girlfriends were who saw it with me last night. I was enjoying the time with them and not exactly looking forward to the actual movie. I like the music fine but found the movie quite tiresome and annoying. However, it was packed at the cinema...sold out shows and we had to get tickets for a much later movie than we had expected. That enabled us to have a leisurely dinner together first which hadn't been planned.

Hayfield

Drove about 10 miles out of Stockport and had lunch in this lovely country pub in Hayfield.






This is a grave marker for a young boy on the sidewalk outside the church there, its date was 1839.

Just because...

From my new favorite website, meet Maddie:

Another First - Oldham Tinkers!

I had such a cool experience last night, something I'd never seen or done before. My friend Steve suggested we visit a pub near him where once a week there is a jamming session for a group of Irish folk musicians. I said, "okay!" and I'm soooo glad!

The pub was average but the atmosphere was amazing! I so wished that Shannon was there to enjoy it - it was right up her alley. But come to think of it - everyone I know would've enjoyed it, I think!

There is a musical group called Oldham Tinkers and one of the founding members comes to this pub and a group of other musicians join him. They put tables together, the pub keeps providing them drinks and they basically go around the group and each person starts a song, either just playing it or in my favorite cases, singing these old Irish folk songs. Then the others join in and the pub customers often join in on some of the songs (even I did a couple times when I memorized the words). Some of them were somber but many of them were funny. If I had had my proper camera, I'd have recorded some of it to try to show you what it was like, but instead I snapped a few low-res pics on my iPhone (below).






There's Steve on the far right of the picture standing - thanks Steve for suggesting this! Also, the table in the foreground on the right, we ended up sitting there and there were two of the jamming musicians there - they were weathered and kind and were telling us stories of how it all came about.


From that close perspective of sitting within the tables, I managed to get one more picture - check out all those pints of Guinness!

things I come up with on a Saturday night at home watching TV

IMPORTANT MESSAGE - UPDATED

UPDATE:

Compare my skills with the original speech - who really captures the spirit best, click HERE.