A river runs through it

Amsterdam

Word-association.

Drugs, red-light-district, canals.



Check, check, check. It's got 'em all. Of course, I can't show you the drugs or the red light district since the girls don't like their photos being taken (and I'd like to keep the camera in one piece) and I think the drugs are technically illegal, if ignored... kinda a weird situation there.

Oh yeah... bicycles! Check checkily checky check check.... LOTS of bikes!


They have their own roads and traffic lights, even parking lots, I was suitably impressed.

However, it's also an incredibly nice place to be, not just some tourist trap. The people that we met were really nice, the scenery was gorgeous. It didn't seem too crowded even though the population density makes it 25th most densely populated place on earth (compared with the UK at 91st and NZ at, wow, this list is long... erm, 204th!)

Nice varied architecture (one of my pet-peeves about the UK, the lack thereof), cool canals running through it all, cheap reliable public transport and just a very laid-back feeling about it all.

So, on the Thursday/Friday it was all great, quiet, relaxed, thought we were onto a good thing. Then the weekend arrived, so did the tourists. Dear god they're obnoxious. Drunk/stoned/annoying/loud, swooping upon this poor place. And the locals just accept it and life goes on, bravo to them I reckon!

Oooh. A fair! :)


Still, the Netherlands, Amsterdam in particular, is a place I think I'd quite like to live, it's just got a nice feel to it all and everything (for the short time we were there) just seemed to work.

Hell, even the airport was nicely organised, clearly readable signs that all make sense and easy to work out where you are and where you need to be (anyone who's been to Heathrow back me up here, some airports are definitely worse than others)

Snow, no, really!

Remember what time of year this is, beginning of April... So, for the UK that means that spring is supposed to be in full swing and we're on our way to summer.

Maybe someone should have told the weather gods.


This is the best snow we've had since we got here, nice big fluffy piles of the stuff, makes for some gorgeous photos too.

So, we on quite a trip around various places like Nyman's Garden, Ightham Mote and Devil's Dyke, places we enjoyed in the sun and figured would be quite good in the snow too.


Cherry blossom... snow... cherry blossom... snow... erm.


Nyman's was nice and quite quiet. Ightham was also pretty good, and it appeared that every man and his dog (in some cases literally) were at Devil's Dyke.

Some people make snowmen, I tried that but my gloves were too thin and soaked-through, so I took them off, forgetting how cold the damned stuff is... frozen water... and I call myself smart :( and I was just a tad out of practise (I think the last time I did it properly I was nine.) but I helped a guy making what can only be described as a monstrosity of snowballs.


Since Devil's Dyke was at the end of the day the snow was a bit thin on the ground as everyone had been tromping all over the stuff all day and at that point we decided to head home.

Mel didn't stop grinning the whole day, she'd been hanging out for snow since, well, since last time.

A well-earned break

We decided we needed to get away for a little while and Melanie had some family history she'd been wanting to research in Cornwall so we figured we'd combine the two.

Although we had around 130 photos on this trip a whole load of them were churches and gravestones (family history, remember).

We went all over the place though and found some really cute little villages on our quest.

Cornwall's got some oddities though, for one, it's windy, all the time. Secondly, the roads... maybe it would have been okay in the days of horses to have roads/tracks wide enough to fit two horses en-passant but when it comes to automobiles that's not such a good idea. It also doesn't help that pretty much every road has a car-high wall either side of it made out of stacked stone and earth. Makes seeing around corners a bit of a challenge, oncoming traffic gets interesting too, especially trucks.


We had a good break, went roaming through the tiny villages looking for Melanie's ancestry, stayed in a cute little farm cottage and had a nice relaxing time away from the stresses of work. All in all, a few pounds well spent!

Easter Snow!

Happy Easter ya'll ...

what's better than chocolate? ... snow! and it's snowing! eeeeeee

here's a piccy of what it looks like out the back right now - it started about an hour ago - dunno if it's gonna settle but there's big fat mothers of snowflakes dancing around out there so that's good enough for me.

we didnt' buy any easter eggs this year - it just seems crazy, the packaging is ridiculous - so don't feel left out if you didn't get any chocolate from us - we didn't even buy any for each other. although I did make chocolate brownie last night ... that's our easter treat.

Eggs

Goose ... duck .... chicken.

Ohhh and ....

prolly no-one cares but me. But we are going to see Andrew Bird again on the 26th April at the IndigO2 (millenium dome ...eh?). Seats in the Kings Row ... muahahaha. Literally jumping for joy. Oh i'm such a Bird junkie, it's true.

"So I go a little overboard, but hang on to the hull
While I'm airbrushing fantasy art on a life
That's really kind of dull
Oh, I'm in a lull"

Other's ring my bell also .... Evelyn Evelyn for example.

BrrrrrRRRRR!

Not that i'm complaining or anything. This past few days has been nothing but sunny, blue, clear skies and all that. But omg so cold! It's supposed to get down to -5 to -6 ish tonight. I put the ice-cube tray outside just to see if I could make ice-cubes overnight .... teeheee.

Today we visited the 3rd oldest building in the UK (last week it was the 2nd oldest building but that's the joy of Wikipedia). Saint Peter's on the Wall near Bradwell on Sea in Essex. This wee church was build in 654 by St. Cedd, on the foundations of the gate-house for the Roman fort of Othona (Roman place-names are so grand).

I presume it was called on the wall because the walls of Othona were stilll visible when it was built. Today it is surrounded by fields, ocean and sky. Not a wall in sight.

It was a lovely sunny day - but the bristling cold wind out there on the coast totally took the edge off any warmth that was being provided by the sun. I swear my lips were so numb I couldn't pronouce B's and P's properly! Brrrrrr! 100% worth it though ..... 1400 year old buildings rock!