Twitching at Fowlmere

We went to Fowlmere Reserve just 10 minutes drive from where we live. It's a peaceful place with wide expanses of reed and lakes that attract lots of birds. Needless to say, I went armed with my bins and bird book, and was on the look out for megaticks to add to my life list. Did you know they call us birders "twitchers"? That's because when we see an exciting new bird, we tend to twitch so much we can harldy hold our binoculars. Birding is fast becoming a hot pursuit in the UK and is even starting to lose it's dowdy perception as little old ladies in tweed jackets peering at lesser spotted thingameebobs.

Hornet´s Nest

One of the birding hides had been taken over by a hornets nest. What a beautiful structure. Hornets eat wood and then regurgitate it to create a sculptured palace of warrens as thin as paper. Each warren contains a little grub that will later become a hornet. We were fascinated. This photo was taken behind the safety of a glass window.

A megatick



I was most excited (almost twitched in fact!) to see this lovely lesser spotted pink fairy wren. She was perched by tree, so close i didn't even need binoculars. A gorgeous speciment to be sure...

The thirsty bee

We decided to give the "macro" on my little camera a try and were very impressed with the results. When I was hunched over taking this shot, Ally suddenly started an emergency bout of murmuring and I looked up to see a bee perched on her lip, sipping at the juice from the apple she had just eaten. I managed to flick it away but it wasn't a happy bee. Ah, the dangers of an English country walk!

Red berries

Another challenge for our macro lens. Lovely red berries that looked like cranberries, but we're not sure. Looks a bit like a Xmas card.

I hope you dance (Ally)

I heard a lovely song on the radio today and its lyrics really touched me. So I looked it up on the web and found the words. Then Graeme downloaded it from iTunes for 79 pence. Pretty cool. The lyrics remind me a bit of "The Dance" and "The Invitation", two of my favourite poems by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.

Here are the words:

Sung by Lee Ann Womack
Music and Lyrics by Mark D. Sanders/Tia Sillers
From the Album: I Hope You Dance

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat
But always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you'll give fate a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances
But they're worth taking
Lovin' might be a mistake
But it's worth making
Don't let some hell bent heart
Leave you bitter
When you come close to selling out
Reconsider
Give the heavens above
More than just a passing glance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always)
I hope you dance
(Rolling us along)
I hope you dance
(Tell me who)
I hope you dance
(Wants to look back on their years and wonder)
(Where those years have gone)

A blogging landmark: 20 000 words

Wow, this blog has just reached 20 000 words, as indicated by our blog stats. Also 270 links to other sites and an average of 12 posts per week. Haven't we been prolific! It's been just over three months now that we've been blogging and we'll definitely continue. Both a fun way to keep you up to date with what we're up to - and also a nice archive for us later in life. As Ally says, it's like a big digital scrap book but doesn't take so much space.

Me at work (Ally)

Here's me in my office at World Challenge Expeditions. Less than 6 weeks to go - I'm starting to get excited! Not to sure what I am going to do yet but looking forward to a little bit of a break. I have a couple of projects to finish off but nothing to taxing. Next week is our company training when we will spend 4 days closseted on a boat - should provide some interesting blogging tales. The company party is part of it - and we all have to come dressed as "Pirates of the Carribean". Finding an outfit should be entertaining - party shop here I come.

Olympic highlights

I've been really enjoying the Olympics - and there's lots more to come this weekend. It's a real pain having to goto work when there's so much good sport to watch. The highlights for me so far have been South Africa's amazing win in the 400x100 metre swimming relay (how fantastic was that!!) and also Paul Hamm's amazing come back in the all round men's gymnastics. The American was leading this event, then crashed horribly on the vault and fell down to the 9th position. And that was the end of him, or so i thought at the time. But then, somehow, he managed to claw his way back, event by event, back up the field. Finally, after an almost perfect twirl on his last event - the high bar - he edged back into the gold postion. Amazing to see how you can triumph if you don't give up.

Talking about Americans, as I wrtite this, Michael Phelps, the swimmer, has just won his 5th gold medal. The commentator calculated that if he was a country, he would currently sit at 9th in the olympic medal table. That's eight positions ahead of the UK and 11 ahead of SA. Amazing stuff

I'm in Movie Heaven

I've recently found a brilliant new service that is heaven for movie lovers (i.e. me!!)

Love Film stocks just about every DVD that exists, including the obscure, older movies that I'm after. You pay them £ 15 months per month and then can watch an unlimited number of their movies during the month. You simply select the movies you want from their enormous database, and then they send them to you by post - three at a time - with a stamped return envelope. Getting them to you takes one day - and getting them back one day too. I've been finding it really hard to find some of the remaining items on my top 250 IMDB list but now it's going to be a synch! My first movies arrived today: Rear Window, Seven Samarai and The Sting; so i have lots of watching to do in between the Olympics.

Other movies I currently have queued on the system to get are:

• Mr Smith Goes to Washington
• Paths Of Glory
• Touch Of Evil
• The Apartment
• The Big Sleep
• Das Boot
• Metropolis (Silent)
• Spirited Away
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Midnight Cowboy
• King Kong
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• Rebel Without a Cause
• French Connection
• The Wild Bunch
• The Searchers

Life Trove (2004 - )

Purpose

A living, organic record of me, my life journey and beings I shared the journey with

• A coherent expression of my values (Oneness, Love, Lover of life, Connection, Sacredness, Wisdom, Insight, Wonder, Beauty, Creativity)
• A record of those I loved, connected with.
• A record of my photos and my photographic journey.
• A record of my passion projects and their unfolding.
• A record of my personal growth and insights. (Compass in action)
• My memoir & spiritual journey (Progress, moments, spiritual moments, special connections, teachers, healers, books, events, insights, challenges)
• A record of my time in history. Technology, internet, digital, cameras, movies.

An expression of gratitude & appreciation

• A celebration of all I most value (a key aspect of meaning)
• A celebration of my life and my most cherished relationships, connections, memories, experiences, moments.
• A gratitude journal →  Love, Lover of life →  Spiritual power
• A curation of all that I treasure most. Priceless memories, moments, special connections, photos, blessings, insights, my spiritual journey.
• The joy of regularly looking back and & reliving & savouring. (E.g. through random memory)
• Story telling & appreciation, especially humour & insight.
• A celebration of Life as experience: Special moments and connections.
• A record of gratitude expressed to others, lists of things to be grateful for, progress, service and connection, food, moments, spiritual moments, synchronicities, mystical experiences, insights, challenges overcome.

A celebration of wonder and beauty

• Inspired me to take up photography in 1st place and see, capture and share beauty.
• A celebration of wonder, beauty and the sacredness and the specialness of life and the world.
• Celebration of the world and life as God's work of art.
• Photos of wonder and beauty, poems, spiritual writing, moments.

Deepening intimacy with life (past, present & future)

• A form of appreciating & savouring of past, present and future.
• A sense of purpose in terms of life experiences.
• An incentive to get out and experience.
• Taking photos by being in senses, noticing beauty plus excitement for blog
• Editing and blogging - reliving and sharing with others (there and not there)
• Revisiting (time dividend). Savouring the past.
• Add to photo collection for Wonder Trove

Connectedness to The Ground of Being (Life)

• Life Trove is an integral part of my relationship with Life.
• A lover & celebrator of Life
• Adds to my love of Life + Sense of Meaning (Coherence, Purpose, Significance) + Gratitude, Appreciation, Celebration → Deepens my connectedness to Being and access to spiritual power.
• Presence while experiencing through photographing while in my senses. Noticing. Clear seeing without labels.
• A sense of divine order, orchestration and benevolence.
• Like Life Trove with labels, no experience is lost but vibrates in the timeless Now with experience fields.
• A form of life appreciation & reflection. A taste of a life review in the between life realm where I get to reflect on this life & others with all memories accessible.

Inspires me to live fully & deeply, getting up & out, embracing adventures

• Inspired me to take up photography.
• Inspires me to get out more, to experience and explore more, to embrace life more, to take photos.  Embrace new experiences and adventures.
• Travel, Outings, Photography, MeetUps
• Purpose: Get out and take photos to enrich blog. Joy of taking photos in Presence.  Joy of editing and curating (reliving). Joy of remembering years later.
• Incentive to get out and take photos, add to my collection of photos and memories. 
• Enjoyment while I'm out in the world. Noticing and photographing.  "This will be great for my blog."  "This will be remembered."
• Wishing to live an inspiring life worth blogging about.
• Through my photography, gave rise to Arctic, Antarctica, Iceland & Greenland, Kruger.
• A record of progresss → Momentum & motivation
• Sean: "Amazing zest for life."

Increase well-being & resilience

• Looking back at happy memories and photos increases happiness. Memory dividend.
• Emotional well-being: Happiness, lift mood, Serotonin & oxytocin.
• Resilience in tough times when challenges arise. Remember Xmas 2005.
• Nostalgia & reminiscence: Nostalgia often increases feelings of meaning, belonging, identity continuity, and emotional warmth.
• A sense of meaning (purpose, coherence, significance, value)
• A sense of progress.
• A sense of a life fully lived.
• Mood chart giving perspective.
• Record of challenges transcended or not eventuating.
• Calms and soothes me: Life in order, Meaning, Nostalgia, Perspective, Softens hard times, they ended up ok

Add meaning (purpose, significance, coherence, value), perspective, insight to my life

• Coherence: Self as a narrative
• Value: Knowing what I value and living by that.
• A sense of life in order
• Provide perspective on my life (big picture, see the journey and evolution, find meaning)
• An incentive to self-reflection and recording of lessons and insights.
• Recognise my story as a fiction I can enjoy but not be overly identified with (It's a movie and Graeme is a character)
• See the perfect mosaic of my life's unfolding, how it brought me to this moment  → Benevolence & Trust
• Narrative therapy: An affirming story that empowers. Reframing the past. Celebration of the journey, growth, expansion & insights.
• Record of my insights, learnings, reflections & books
• A source of info for AI to create self-insight from

A treasure trove of memories & moments to savour and reflect on

• Looking at old photos and memories makes us happy.
• Collector's instinct: Collecting memories & experiences.
• Creating memories is one of the very purposes of life. I am a memory curator / collector.
• Keeps important memories organized and readily accessible, avoiding the risk of physical loss and fading.
• Look back and savour my life memories, the experiences I had. Nostalgia & reminiscense.
• Labels & highlights: All memories of a particular year, person, place, trip.
• Keeps memories alive. Memories crystalised and immortalised. Freezes time.
• Increases the value of experiences. Makes them worth investing in.
• Collecting memories (experiences) over things. Memory dividend.
• Family memories and research.  A sense of continuity, connection with past family members, pets & friends. Keeping their memory alive.
• Resilence and reminder of good times in midst of challenging times.
• Look back in old age and savour my life memories.
• Annual highlights and reviews
• Beauty of nostalgia

Creative expression: A work of art

• Photography as a creative art.
• My life as a work of art.
• Life Trove as a work of art.
• A platform to express sentiments through photos, writing, poetry and storytelling.
• Incentive to express love in creative ways.
• Curation of all I treasure, created, selected, arranged and ordered, related, shared, made accessible.

Integrates with and adds to Wisdom Trove & Compass

• Compass → Life Trove:  Record my progress, share different facets of Compass in action, spiritual journey shared.
• Wisdom Trove → Life Trove (Profile link)
• Life Trove  → Compass:  Reflecting, recording, gratitude, curating.
• Life Trove   →  Wisdom Trove:  Html skills, inspired multiple views & overviews, curating, links to quotes & books.

Deepens love and connection with family and friends

• A way to express love and gratitude  (tributes, letters, videos, cards, songs)
• A way to be fully open. Let others in.  Open up and share my experience.
• Connect to mum and Jo and close friends, giving them a sense of my life experience.
• Keep mum, Mike and Jo intimately involved in my life despite distance. Close friends too.
• Posts labeled with loved ones, allowing me to savour the relationships.
• Enables tribute videos  (Jo, Elna, Shushann, Liz)
• Enables tribute songs (Mum, Jo, Tina)
• Enables letters & cards (Mum, Jo, Sam, Matt, Sue, Jilly, Chrisel, Tina)
• Give loved ones a window into me: Openness, intimacy, authenticity, realness.
• In my life-time, geared at people I know and cherish, not strangers.
• Family members past: Celebrating their lives, keeping their memories alive.

A family & cultural legacy

• Treasured moments, family photos and stories are captured for future generations.
• Sam, Mat, their kids
• Vanderbecks
• Family research
• Photo and letter archives
• A record of a life in my era. A time capsule.
• A record of a mystic and lover / student of life.
• A link at my funeral (slide show, program)

Encouragement and affirmation from people I care about

• Not thousands of strangers (privacy, pressure, judgement).
• Deeply drunk by loved ones. Mum, Jo, Srini, Gavin, Liz, Shushann, Chris, Russell, Julian, Dani, Jane, Trish, Ana (English student)
• A record of beautiful, affirming comments over time → Confidence, love, connection.

Inspires others to appreciate life, live fully and to blog.

• Inspire others to embrace and appreciate life and its sacredness.
• Inspire others to live life to the full.
• Inspire others to curate their lives.
• Raise consciousness of people who view it.
• Open eyes to wonder, beauty, sacredness, oneness and joy of life 

Developed skills

• Html: Ability to create sites (Wisdom Trove, sites for others)
• Photography and photography editing

Vision  

Gratitude, Appreciation, Celebration, Savouring

• A lovingly curated collection of all I love and cherish most

Look back and savour

• Regular look backs through "random memory"
• Look back in old age and savour my life memories.
• A sense of meaning, coherence and divine order.
• Nostalgia, Reminiscence
• Gratitude & appreciation

Life Trove & Life as a work of art

• Creative, So much love invested
• My life as a work of art. A beautiful narrative.

“Wow, he really embraces life and lives it to the full. I can too."

• My entire life curated showing a full life of a passionate liver, lover of life and the world, artist at living, spiritual mystic and photographer.
• Link at my funeral + Content for slideshow

An expression of love and gratitude

• Photos, letters, cards, tributes, videos, songs, memories.
• A celebration of a full, greatly appreciated life.

Connection & authenticity

• An expression of pure openness, allowing myself to be seen.
• Loved ones able to share my experiences → Intimacy.
• A sense of family, memories to celebrate.
• Love & gratitude expressed

Future family and cultural record

• A record for future family members.
• Looked back at by future generations as one of the first and purest examples of digital life curation: a work of art.
• Added to digital archives. A time capsule.

Guiding Principles

Life in order, Coherence

• Coherence: Meaningful connection between parts, fitting together to form a unified whole.
• Narrative, Life as story (a meaningful, coherent collection of experiences), Life journey
• Order: Systematic arrangement, Clear structure
• User friendly
• Easy access (Left nav highlights, Introductions with lists, Labels, Related posts)
• Multiple views (left navigation, landing page links, post labels, related links)
• Overviews (Helicopter view) → Detail
• Up to date
• Divine order and orchestration, Benevolence, Gratitude

Life curation

• Experience collecting & curating
• Experience & photograph →  Select, Edit, Arrange & Order →  Publish and Share →  Revisit & Savour
• Collect memories, moments, connections and photos of things I cherish.

Meaning (Purpose, Coherence, Significance)

• Big picture, Perspective
• Life as a journey
• Turning experience into meaning & wisdom
• Life as a coherent, integrated narrative → Divine order
• Self-identity & self-discovery
• Expression of life orchestration, divine order → Trust,  Divine benevolence
• Life Trove as an incentive to get up and out in the world

Appreciation, Gratitude, Celebration, Savouring

• Celebration of all I treasure most
• Sacredness of life experience: a gift to appreciate and savour
• Wonder, Beauty
• Sacredness of all
• Gratitude,  Appreciation, Awareness of Grace & Blessings
• Recognise what really matters
• Carpe diem,  Embrace living, Lover of Life
• Enjoyment, Savouring, Fun
• Reminiscence, Nostalgia, Anticipation
• Tributes: Posts honouring people, places, and objects that shaped my life.

Up & Out in the World

• Exploration, Travel
• Adventure
• Nature, Wilderness

Life & spirituality as an unfolding journey

• Journey of a mystic: Awakenings, spiritual moments, insights
• Spirituality as a journey
• Life as a narrative / story
• See my growth and evolution over time
• Life divided into meaningful eras
• Synchronicity
• Spiritual moments
• Divine order, Divine benevolence

Love & Connection

• Love expressed
• Loving the beings I share life's journey with and the experiences we've shared
• Expressing love and gratitude
• Tributes, Videos, Letters, Cards, Songs
• Lover of life
• Loving being this character
• Connection to Life, Love of Life

Wisdom & Insight

• Learning, Insights
• Growth, Transformation
• Reflection
• Teachers, Therapists, Books
• Growth, Evolution, Sel-transcedence
• Transcendence over limitations

Authenticity, Realness, Intimacy

• The hard bits and the wonderful bits
• My challenges & limitations
• Openness, Vulnerability, Intimacy

Accessibility

• Easy to find a memory
• Browsing: Few clicks
• Introductions
• Labels
• Descriptive title → Easy search

Accessibility to experience fields  (through labels & lists)

• By place: Country, city, landmark (e.g. Cape Town, Table Mountain, Clifton)
• By person
• By year
• By travel / trip period (e.g. 1997 travels, South Africa 2023)
• By activity or interest (e.g. hiking, nature, movies, passion projects, technology)
• By theme of experience: (eg. sunsets, eagles, boats, mountains, beaches)

Related

• Life Trove purpose, vision and strategy on Evernote
• Posts tagged as "blogging"

Usability testing

I don't mention much about work here - so thought I'd add this picture of me "in action". Here I am at "The Usability Company" late last year where we did usability testing on our new sites. It's an interesting process - the Usability Co gets people who represent your target audience to perform real life tasks on your site. In this way, you get to identify any areas where they get stuck or confused. It's a real life eye opener to see users clicking around "your baby", especially when they get lost or confused in ways that you never dreamed of. You get to watch them (as I am here) from behind a one way mirror. It is also vieo-taped, and you can watch the user's face (for signs of frustration and confusion!) on a big screen, along with their mouse clicks on the site. Very scientific - and useful. After all, if your user can't find what they're looking for on your site, you're doing more damage that good to your company's brand. And competitors are just one click away...

Platform 9 & 3/4

One of our suppliers, "The Usability Company" is bringing out a new service and wanted input ftom some of their clients. So they organised a workshop in London and enticed us with the promise of lunch at London's top fish restaurant, One - O - One in Knightsbridge. It turned out to be an extremely good morning with good networking opportunities and not at all a sales pitch as i was concerned it might be. Oh, and the scollops at the restaurant was absolutely to die for!

I got into London via Kings Cross station - my favourite station in London because it is home to the famous 9 and 3/4 platform featured in Harry Potter. They've even put up a little placcard there (see photo) which is very popular with tourists.

Lynette and Andrew at Nandos

Lynette is visiting us from the US. She's great fun and always up for a laugh. She, Andrew and I went out for dinner last night - and settled on Nandos. It's very popular here in Cambridge as you would expect in a student town. All the staff are South African so it must be a little confusing for the Brits who are expecting an authentic Portuguese flame grilled experience.

I, Robot

I saw the new movie I,Robot last night and am happy to say it far exceeded my expectations.

It is based on a book by Isaac Asimov about the world in 2040 or so when robots do all our manual work for us. The robots are hard programmed with the "Three Laws of Robotics."
1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Imagine the suprise then when one of the robots apparently murders a person - and the movie then follows the investigations of Will Smith, a cop, trying to solve the mystery.

Good special effects but some really thought provoking themes too. Definitely to be recommended...

Sammy and Matthew

Well, this site is fast becoming a collection of all things special to us - so it would not be complete without a photo of my adorable niece and nephew. I adore this photo of Sammy and Matthew which was taken a few weeks ago.

A weekend in Guernsey

Puffin Air

It was off to Guernsey this weekend to spend time with Rosemarie and Nick. What a great weekend we had. I was immediately impressed with Aurigny, the airline with whom we flew, because their symbol is a Puffin, one of my favourite birds. We didn't see any puffins this weekend but apparently there are plenty of them on island, so next time i come, i'll definitely have my bins on me!

Nutters!
Rosemarie and Nick were as wonderful as ever and it was brilliant to spend some time with them. They took us to their favourite fish and chip restaurant where the fish very much lived up to its reputation. The restaurant had a great sense of humour. On the menu were the words: Food may contain, be cooked by and be served by nuts! (and enjoyed by us nuts too I might add..) We then went off for a brisk swim in the ocean, an important landmark as it was Nick's first dip in the Guernsey sea.

What a lovely pair of Scollops
Saturay nignt, Rosemarie and Nick went out to watch Shrek some friends (which they loved) but we opted for a quiet evening together. Went to a quaint pub restaurant for local scollops (delicious) and Ally wore a new dress. Lovely she looked...

A Sunday Stroll

Sunday it was off for a brisk stroll. As you can see, the roads in Guernsey are very narrow and quaint. The island really does have a delightful atmosphere, especially with it's mix of English and French influences.

The Navigators

We left the important role of navigation to the girls but never found the elusive reservoire we were heading for. But never mind, we found something far more exciting and historic...

The German Bunker

A tiny gap in the hedge piqued our interest. Nick and i being the boys we are dived in to explore - and found it led to a brilliantly disguised second world war bunker set deep in the thicket. It was fascinating to explore a slice of history. Guernsey was occupied by the Germans during the war and the island is riddled with German defense structures. If you look at the photo on the left, you'd never know there is a bunker set in the hedge. The view through the peep hole was panaramic; you could understand why the Germans chose this spot...

The intrepid explorer

To get into the bunker, we had to climb up a small "chimney" Here's Nick making his way back down. The girls stayed on the road and let the boys be boys...

Guernsey Castle

After a delicious lunch (we haven't eaten so well in a very long time!) where we met two lovely friends of R&N, we went for a drive around Guernsey and got to see some great views. Here is a view of the local castle. We look forward to exploring the island in more detail in the future. Thanks to R&N for a great weekend - they always make us feel like family.

Trip to Salzberg

Good Bavarian beer

On Wednesday night I flew to Salzburg in Austria. On arriving, I met some colleagues at a local beer garden. What a great invention - drinking your beer in the fresh air without cigarette smoke everywhere. The guy on the right is Andreas, a colleague of mine from Duxford - a great chap with the most infectious laugh you ever heard. He's just completed a triathlon in London (which I wimped out of!) and he's getting married in just over a week. Peter on the left is the IT manager of the Austrian dealership - the chap who we came to see about CRM (customer relationship management!!)

The hills are alive

After a very full day on Thursday, i escaped into the hills above Salzburg. What a beautiful city! I was here earlier this year in the winter and loved it then too. This is where Mozart was born. It's got beautiful mountains and high hills everywhere which i really miss in the UK. Lots of lovely old buildings too.

City View

The castle on the hill in the background forms a lovely backdrop to the city. It's a relatively small place - only 150 000 people. I always love to see a city from high to get perspective. It's also enlightening to watch all the people rushing around, heads down, frantically busy, busy, busy - and realise that I'm one of them most of the time too...

The Cathedral

Salzberg's most imposing cathedral.

Through the foliage

I took this photos because I liked the way the foliage framed the shot. I'm back to my small "snapper camera" which is lovely and compact but I do miss the bells and whistles of the Volvo camera I had over the weekend.

Another tree

Well, as you may have gathered from previous blogs, I love trees - and photographing them. Problem is they never come out as beautiful in a photo as in real life. I really liked this one, growing with gnarled roots on top of a very old man made wall. Must have been built a very long time ago based on the height of the tree.

From the lion's mouth

This is why I love Europe. This little water fountain was tucked away in the hills in the midle of nowhere. Sprouting gorgeous drinking waters. It's little touches like this that give Europe its special flavour.

Yes, that is snow you see!


Here is a photo of me in Salzberg earlier this year. I came out to do training for all the internet editors of the "Bavarian region" and it was a multicultural fest. In my class, there was an Austrian, a German, a Croatian, a Slovakian, a Hungarian, a Czech and a Swede! Six languages between them and not a whole lot of English... An interesting challenge but it actually went really well and was a lot of fun.

My wish list (Ally)

Graeme is always complaining he's not sure what to get me for birthdays and Xmases, so i thought i'd create a wish list for his benefit which i'll keep updated. Who know, it might come in handy for others to! So here it is:

• Pretty but small phone book
• Palm which acts as a phone as well
• DVD – Beaches
• DVD – Bridget Jones Diary
• DVD – Calendar GirlsDVD – Nottinghill
• DVD – Four Weddings and a funeral
• DVD – Monsters IncDVD – Thelma and Louise
• DVD – Cider House rules
• DVD – Bagger Vance
• DVD – Somethings Gotta give
• Different things to make cards with

Graeme's List

• Band of Brothers (DVD)
• Garmin GPS

Just in a days work (Ally)

Today started off as fine and sunny apart from the alarm going off…. Belted down to London to start my turn at doing World Challenge operational duty. Basically ensuring the people in danger or have problems on our expeditions get helped. There the team are merrily helping challengers get home after appendix operations, ensuring teams got looked after robbed at gun point etc - and then all of a sudden, the heavens opened with thunder and lightening cracking all around us.
We know every year that the road we look down onto from our office has a huge dip and this gets flooded in a down pour which it duly started doing. We all lined the windows and watched (as only a crowd out of the rain can do) as the cars slowly went through the water. But also in wonderment as the water level rose and rose as the hail storms continued to fall. (Small digression – this is the height of summer!)

It rose and rose – about a foot in five minutes. Cars were turning back and so started a traffic jam that would last well into the night; in fact i'm still stuck here at work at 9 pm as i write this. One car decided that he was man enough (we did not know it at the time but it could only have been a man - sorry chaps we love you, but…) to drive through. So he revved up and hit the water at about 30 miles an hour much to our disbelief which quickly turned to amusement as we watched the water swallow the wheels and slowly rise. The wheels at the back started to float and then the front left the bottom and the car floated around and around.

So there we were, an emergency operational room, watching in awful fascination as this car floated around a little lake in a London Road. Suddenly it dawned on us that the guy might actually be in danger as the water level was continuing to rise – so swiftly it all turned to action. So, we called the fire brigade and so job done, all went back to their work stations …

But then a cry went up and we looked out the window to see two of our chaps out in the rain, throwing a rescue rope and swimming in the lake/road to get this chap out of his car as it was starting to sink badly. They dragged the car toward the fence where they could help him out (themselves chest high in water) and got him out of the car. The rescued chap spent the next three minutes not thinking about how close he had come to drowning - but beseeching the boys to save his car. They put up a valiant fight but had to be told to just leave it - and it promptly sank! I'm embarrassed to confess that a great cheer went up from all the offices. After clothing the wet heroes, it was back to work rescuing challengers off the top of mountains

Then the fire engine arrived...

The photos

Ally told the amazingstory about the flood outside her work and the rescuing of the man from his car. Well, here is the pictorial evidence! Taken by a happy snapper from World Challenge while the rescue was taking place. Here's how the road looks when it's not flooded.

The rescue

Here's the World Challenge team recuing the chap from the sinking car. Look at all that water. This photo appeared in the Evening Standard the following day with the story - but not as entertaining as Ally´s version.

Trying to save the car

Sinking

They were not successful and soon the car had sunk beyond retrieval. Within 5 minutes of this photo, the car disappeared completely from view. Needless to say, it was a complete right off...

It's Mr Wynne!!

Mr James Wynne is passing through town on his way back to sunny SA. We met up with him for dinner at Amanda and Jonathon and had a wonderful evening - apart from my atrocious cold that's making my nose and eyes stream. In fact, to be honest, i'm not too nice to be around! I'm glad to report that good old James has lost nothing of his naughty sparkle and we all shared many great laughs. A very special evening indeed. It was the first time i got to see Amanda and Jonathon's new garden. What a great job they have done. Shame, we were all rather boistrous out on the patio - Amanda and Johnathon have some making up to do with their elderly neighbours... .

Friday Night Skating

Ever since i heard about it, I've wanted to do the Friday Night skate throught the streets of London from Hyde Park corner to Picadilly and back. It is one of my life goals. 13 miles of exciting skating through streets that are normally packed with taxis and buses. Check out this video taken by a fellow skater. It captures the whole vibe really well.

Bridge Crossing

Crossing one of the bridges over the Thames. As you can see, it's getting dark. We left at 8 pm and the skate only ended at 10 pm. We did have a bit of a break at half time - much to the delight of the caffee owner at the spot where we stopped. He must have sold his entire week's quota of cool drinks in 10 minutes.

At the finishing line

Me at the end of the 13 mile skate. Sore, stiff ankles. More exhausted than i've been in a long time. Wet with perspiration. And totally exhilerated. Can't wait to do it again!

A great day out in London

London Bridge

We decided to spend Saturday doing touristy things in London. One of Ally´s life goals was to walk across London Bridge so that was the first thing we did. Caught the tube to Tower Bridge and it was a short stroll from there. It was a gorgeous day; close to 30 degrees.

Another View

Another view of London bridge. I borrowed our camera from work (a £900 gadget with all the trimmings) so it was nice to have some optical power. The zoom on my little camera is a little limited - but then it is a tenth of the size!

Big Ben

No tourist trip through London would be complete without a photo of Big Ben so here it is - snapped from the top of our double decker bus as we whirled past (we used one of those hop on - hop off tourist buses to get around.)

Hamleys

Ah, aint the little one adorable! The little doggie is also quite cute... As you can see, next stop was Hamley's in Regent's Street. 6 floors of wonderful toys, enough to bring out the child in anybody.

The Royal Coach

We visited the Royal Mews where they keep all the horses and coaches for use in the Royal processions. The highlight was this Golden Coach immortalised in such grand processions as the Queen's inauguration and the 50th Jubilee. It was very impressive.

The coach is so heavy it can only be pulled at a walk by eight horses. The 24-foot long, four-ton coach, was built in 1760 for the then-astronomical sum of £7,562. Despite the expense, it's apparently not very comfortable if this BBC article is anything to go by.

Dinner with Sally at Belgo´s

After our sight-seeing, we met up for dinner with Sally in Covent Gardens. I haven't seen dear Sally in a while so it was great to catch up. She's working at the moment at Kew Grill as their "dessert specialist" (chocolate and almond spring roll is her most recent creation - mmmmm!) having completed a cooking course in Ireland.

Lobster!

Belgo's specialises in lobster, along with it's other Belgian delicacies like muscles and waffles. I haven't had lobster in years so succumbed to te temptation. Delicious and fun digging all the flesh out of the legs and claws with the special tool they give you.

Go, go Joseph!

After dinner, Ally and I went to watch "Joseph and his Technicoloured Dream Coat" at the New London Theatre in Covent Garden. Watching Joseph has been a life goal of Ally ever since she listened to the record as a little girl. I'd already seen the musical a couple of times but was delighted to see it again as it is one of my favourites; especially since I got to play the part of Pharoah in a school play. The show was fantastic and we both loved it. Joseph was played by H from the band, "Steps" who Ally thought was deliciously cute...

Visiting Sanjay

After Joseph, we went to visit Sanjay - a good friend who I met hiking in the Himalayas in Nepal back in 2001. He's a wonderful guy who always makes me laugh. Sanjay is a doctor specialising in Pediatrics at a local hospital. It was great to see him as always.

London times (Ally)

Congrats Bronwyn!

After a hectic weekend I headed off to London much to my dismay. The last thing I wanted to do was be away from home. Bron had arranged a dinner with Sally and I on Tuesday evening which turned into a celebration as we heard that she has just been promoted and is now Assistant Marketing Brand Manager! It was a lovely dinner and I got to talk all about our holiday.



Dinner with Kerry

Last night we went to Ker's for dinner - delicious chicken and salad where I got the talk about our holiday again! There was much laughter about my photo where I am swimming - they all reckon I just need a set of whiskers and I would look like a cutie seal. Not sure if that was a compliment or not. It was great to see Puds again and now we are all looking forward to Ker's birthday celebrations in mid August.



The Three Musketeers

Re-united again...

Using Dreamweaver to create my first web site

In 2004, I used Macromedia Dreamweaver to create a home page and extended pages for Life Trove.