Count

Tomorrow there is a Parliamentary by-election in a place called Makerfield, that may determine the next leader of the Labour Party and therefore our Prime Minister. 

Thank goodness there are people like this guy to keep our democracy, at the very least, from not becoming boring. It is true: Count Binface (of the Count Binface Party) is standing as a candidate, alongside more run-of-the-mill* hopefuls LOL.

Happy Days.

*It should be noted Howling Laud Hope, leader of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, is also standing.

New World

My Postie delivered something of a little surprise today, an item I had completely forgotten I had ordered. How foolish of me!

This year the Royal Mint is celebrating one of the ships to carry the name HMS Beagle, although likely the most famous one. Originally built as a gun ship for King George IV, it was repurposed as a survey vessel and undertook three important voyages of discovery. On the second journey, Charles Darwin joined Captain Robert FitzRoy on the expedition of the New World.

After the third voyage, in 1859, the Beagle was stationed in Essex as a static Watch Vessel to deter smugglers, before being auctioned and broken up.

Coffee Anyone?

According to this article in the Daily Mail your choice of coffee shop can make a real difference to the amount of the "good stuff" you actually receive in your morning cuppa. The item also goes on to demonstrate the price you pay isn't a barometer of quality/strength either.

Might explain why I prefer Costa...

Here's Some I Made Earlier*

I got busy in the kitchen the other day, baking these...

These biscuits are full of Golden Syrup and Oats, very tasty mmmm.















Sometimes these are called Australian Biscuits but are more correctly known as ANZAC Biscuits. They are traditionally baked to mark ANZAC Day and the start of the Gallipoli campaign (25 April 1915 – 9 January 1916), and the first major battle involving the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.





* In the best tradition of long-running TV show, Blue Peter LOL.

10,004

According to Google, that's the total number of pages views this Blog has received thus far. Either that's a whole bunch of visitors or one person with far too much time on their hands...

Greedo

Another day and another clutch of medals for team GB.

Great Britain remains in second place with equal gold with Russia (32) but many more silver and bronze awards. For the record at the end of today team GB have a total of 114 medals, that's 42 bronze, 40 silver and 32 lovely golds mentioned above.

In the cycling road race team mates Karen Darke and Rachel Morris crossed the finish line hand in hand, in an act of sportsmanship, expecting to each be awarded bronze. In the end the judges announced Morris had crossed the line just ahead of Darke and awarded them third and fourth places respectively.

In athletics, Paul Blake secured bronze in the 800 m final. His father played Greedo in the original Star Wars film. Who shot first- Greedo or Han Solo?

Bronze
Susannah Rodgers		Women's Swimming 4x100 m Freestyle S7
Ben Rushgrove		Men's 200 m T36
Paul Blake		Men's 800 m T36
Ola Abidogun		Men's 100 m T46
Rachel Morris		Women's Cycling Individual Road Race H 1-3
Lucy Shuker & Jordanne Whiley		Women's Tennis Wheelchair Doubles
Will Bayley & Ross Wilson		Men's Table Tennis Team Class 6-8
Jane Campbell & Sara Head		Women's Table Tennis Team Class 1-3
Silver
Heather Frederiksen		Women's 100 m Freestyle S8
Dan Greaves		Men's Discus F44
Heather Frederiksen, Stephanie Millward, Louise Watkin & Claire Cashmore		Women's Swimming 4 x 100 m Medley relay
Gold
Josie Pearson		Women's Discus Throw F51/52/53

Tubular

One of the (minor) consequences of watching the televised coverage of the opening ceremony of that London event is that I was reminded just how much I used to love the music of Mike Oldfield. What better way I thought to myself to be reminded how good it was- while brewing beer (more later)- than to dust down my trusty copy of Tubular Bells? Well a digitally remastered version on CD which was released a few years back to be truthful. I do still own a vinyl copy, from the dark ages, but nothing to play it on at present.






Number one with a sibling. That is in deed the voice of Severus Snape on the second one*. 













The main thing of course is to find time at actually sit and appreciate it, without disturbances. Oh and to play it very loud. Pity the neighbours LOL.

* Viv Stanshall of the wonderfully named Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band provided MC duties on the 1970's original, fact fans.

It's Not That Bad, Australia

Just for my Aussie readers, I've done a little bit of basic maths, 'cos I know how much it must hurt to be "beaten" by the Mother Country at the last two summer Olympics.

Using the font of all knowledge that is Wikipedia I've compared the last 4 games, that's Sydney in 2000 through to the most recent and looked at the final medal tables to produce some simple averages. Here's what I found, assuming my maths/Excel skills are up to scratch :

Country           Av. Gold   Av. Silver   Av. Bronze   Av. Position
Australia         13.50        18.00         15.75           6.00
Great Britain   17.00        12.75         12.75           6.75

Bet you don't feel quite so bad now? LOL

1927

Tomorrow Reading entertain Aston Villa in the FA Cup quarter finals. It's the first time since 1927 the Royals have got this far and, fact fans, they are now the only non Premiership club left in this year's competition. Finger's crossed they can pull out all the stops, put on a good show and maybe even create an upset.

Elsewhere SFX magazine are reporting the new (final) series of the excellent Ashes to Ashes starts on BBC1 at the end of this month. Further they state Matt Smith's reign in Doctor Who starts Saturday 3 April. Officially this is series 1 although executive producer Steven Moffat has said it's valid to say this is series 5 of New Doctor Who and also the 31st in the programme's history... confused? LOL

Matt Smith and guest star James Corden (Gavin and Stacey) filming an apparently football related scene of BBC's Doctor Who.

Commonwealth Day- 60 Years

How sad this momentous day passed by yesterday with barely a murmur in the media.

Read about it here.

To Raise A Smile

Thought I'd share an image of the Headington Shark in Oxfordshire, not far from me. Anyone not prepared for it as bound to say "WT..." as they drive past LOL. It's been there 22 years now.
















Have a good weekend everyone.

Not So Exciting Quiz Result

The answer to last Sunday's question is Acer palmatum or Japanese Maple.


Same family as the great big trees famed in New England for producing the syrup (yum) and closely related to the Sycamore, dontchaknow. In fact often you'll find a Maple grafted on to the root stock of a Sycamore, fact fans.

Now you know LOL.

Talk Like A Pirate Day

(Captain Pugwash, remember him?)

I won't even attempt to do this in a pirate style but every year 19 Sept is the international day for having a bit of fun and putting on your best pirate voice. Arr!

Go to http://www.talklikeapirate.com/howto.html for some hints and tips on key phrases, me hearties!


Whilst on the subject of Pirates, we realised this week that at some point the Pikey's must have returned and helped themselves to our battery box they had emptied last month. Charming.

And would you look at that- I've just hit 200 posts! Well done me. While I'm on a role, let's hear it for Marmite flavour Rice Cakes. At less than 3% fat, an ideal snack food that might just help me lose some excess weight. LOL

To Lighten the Mood

The Olympics are coming up shortly in China, in case you were not aware.

Team GB have just over 300 competitors taking part however the BBC are sending over 450 people to cover the event. Go figure.

Fact?

Apparently the Welsh for Microwave Oven is Popti-Ping. How cool is that LOL?

Fact?

Apparently the word Solstice is derived from the Latin for 'Sun stands still.'



Latin scholars please form an orderly queue to correct me.

Random Fact

British singer Gary Numan is 13 days older than actor Gary Oldman.

Just thought I would share this random piece of information.

Disney Fact

This morning I spent a brief few moments in bed reading the manual for my recently acquired Disney branded MP3 player.

Apparently the noise from a Rocket launch pad has been measured at around 180 Decibels and constant exposure to this can be dangerous.

I'd better be careful then.