Thursday, August 28
Finally we have our new mini! Well, our old but new to us new mini. :) It's a red mini cooper with black racing stripes and a black roof, half leather seats etc - very smart. Looks in good condition so hopefully nothing terrible will go wrong with it. Rob's very happy, he keeps jumping up and down.
Oddly, the thing I find most exciting is where it originally came from:
Damon Hill Minis (and yes, it is THAT Damon Hill!). Wow, I have a Mini sold by Damon Hill! Hehe...
I don't know whether Damon's off doing something else now because his managing director guy has taken over, it's
Nick Whale Minis now.
Wow, cool...
Wednesday, August 20
LOL this is funny...
Joe Cornish's 'Quantum of Solace' Bond theme. Amazingly this didn't win 'Song Wars' -
Adam Buxton's did. Both are good. But someone really put effort into that video. Cool. :)
Tuesday, August 19
Part 15 of Indiana Jones and the Ring of Ra...Previous parts:
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IV /
V /
VI /
VII /
VIII /
IX /
X /
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XII /
XIII /
XIVIt was a long wait, but thankfully the Nazis were as predictable as they'd always been. Why do anything carefully when you can save time and damage priceless archaeology?
The explosion through the slabs was deafening. For a moment Indy thought that it must have killed everyone in the Stargate chamber, but then he heard voices. They had opened up the Stargate chamber to the outside world.
Soldiers started to move towards the remains of the mortuary temple. The explosion had revealed the location of the underground chamber. Now they'd have to rig up a winch of some sort to lift the device to the surface.
Indy waited for them to reach the platform. With the damage caused by their own explosion, they didn't notice Indy's explosives. Since he'd spread them out, some of them would still work. Some had been damaged, but he'd thought ahead. The plan had a chance.
He detonated the explosives. The explosion sent the soldiers flying. Lots more slabs of rock fell into the chamber, and this time the people hadn't been under cover. He didn't stop to listen to their cries for help. He ran. He ran back to the encampment, to where Professor Langford and Catherine were stealing the truck.
The guards were arguing, trying to decide whether they should go and investigate the explosions or not. One side said they should, because the escaped prisoners might have something to do with it, and the other said they shouldn't, because they'd known their boss would be setting charges. They hardly noticed as Indy leaped onto the truck and yelled for Professor Langford to start the engine.
Slowly the truck moved forward. The huge wheels spread the weight of the truck, preventing it sinking into the sand. As they gained speed the soldiers ran towards them. They shouted and waved their guns.
Indy leant out of the cab and tipped his hat to them. One of them fired his gun, narrowly missing the fedora. Indy pulled out his revolver and returned fire.
They had, after all, tried to damage his hat.
Thursday, August 14
Daisy informs me that 'chips' is 'frieten'. I did try to work it out but clearly failed completely. :)
Tuesday, August 12
So... I just got back (well, on Friday) from a week's holiday in Bruges. I went with Rob, John, Rachel and
Ali. Bruges is every bit as 'nice' as everyone says - it was a great place to spend a week. Lots to do, everything's in walking distance, and wherever you go there are interesting things to see. I could have enjoyed the holiday more than I did, but that wasn't really Bruges's fault.
Here is what we did...
1st August (Friday): Caught the train from Leicester to St Pancras, then the Eurostar to Brussels, then found a train to Bruges. All in all that was about 4 hours of trains, with gaps inbetween. The trains in Belgium are much nicer than ones in England - we went on one with an upstairs! We didn't go upstairs though. Maybe next time. :) Once there we walked to the self catering flat place we were staying, and after they'd thrown two people out who weren't supposed to be in there (hum!) we left our stuff and explored. We ate friets with various things in the Markt (I had stoofvlees, yum) and ended up watching a concert in the Burg - part of the
Klinkers Festival - Miss Platnum. I had never heard hip hop with a brass section, very bohemian!
2nd August (Saturday): Mainly spent wandering around and exploring.
3rd August (Sunday): We watched the Grand Prix - spent a while finding a French TV channel and the commentary in English from BBC Radio but I have a feeling the TV did actually pick up ITV! Then we wandered around some more, saw lots of windmills.
4th August (Monday): Today we had a boat ride along the canals, which was fun. We also went to the
Chip Museum, which was not just about chips, but also about potatoes. Amazing. It was very well done, a newish museum. We walked to the lock keeper's house and the lake and saw a turtle, and went through the nunnery though didn't see any nuns.
5th August (Tuesday): Went to another museum owned by the owner of the
Chip Museum - the
Chocolate Museum. (He also owns the
Lamp Museum!) Learnt lots of things about chocolate, yum. After that we went to the
Archaeology Museum, which was impressive since it hardly used any words, it had lots of interactives. It was very cheap to get into, which was also good. :) We also walked to one of the gatehouses on the west of the city, and saw the traitor's skull.
6th August (Wednesday): Today we went to the
De Halve Maan Brewery, the only working brewery in Bruges. It was an entertaining tour, and I did drink some of the free beer at the end (Zot) - still don't like beer though! We ended up at a church called St. Walburgha's, which was an amazing bit of Catholic splendour.
7th August (Thursday): Today some of us (not John and me) went up the
Belfry. 366 steps! But from the photos they brought back, it was worth it. We wandered around a fair bit and bought chocolate and lace (as you do) and ended the day with more friets and a ride in a carriage pulled by a horse named Lucky.
8th August (Friday): Taxi to the station, train to Brussels, Eurostar to London, train to Leicester, taxi home.
So, by the end of the holiday we'd eaten chips, waffles and chocolate and tried several sorts of beer (including apple and cherry), been on a boat ride and a horse ride and visited lots of museums. All in all, not bad going!
Found it odd that you can't easily buy fresh milk in Belgium - lots of what must be UHT. Probably some other things that we found odd but I can't remember them at the moment. :)
If you'd like to see some of my photos,
there are some here...
Sunday, August 10
Part 14 of Indiana Jones and the Ring of Ra...Previous parts:
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IV /
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VI /
VII /
VIII /
IX /
X /
XI /
XII /
XIIIIndy stood, watching the German encampment. It was light and most of them had left for the Great Pyramid. It was working just as he'd hoped.
He ran, making sure no-one saw him as he flitted from cover to cover. The motor pool was his first port of call. He slashed the vehicles' tyres and put sand in the fuel tanks. That should be enough to slow them down. The only vehicle he didn't damage was the huge truck that carried the Stargate. It was impossible to mistake it - the crate was enormous. There was only one thing that could be in it.
He moved back away from the camp, to where Catherine was waiting.
"Keep an eye on that truck," he said.
Catherine did a mock salute and readied the binoculars.
Indy moved on, towards the plateau. The Nazis were on the north side of the pyramid, at the entrance. Indy's plan depended on his theory, which was based on nothing but conjecture, being correct. Once again he was relying on an archaeological hunch.
He joined Professor Langford, who was watching the activity.
"It is all clear on the eastern side," said the Professor. "I hope you are correct about the chamber, Dr Jones."
"What, you thought it was somewhere else?" asked Indy, half joking and half deadly serious.
Indy picked up the explosives at the Professor's feet, making sure he had everything he needed. There was just enough firepower to cause momentary chaos without damaging the archaeology. Or so he hoped.
He ran down, past the Sphinx, through the mastabas of officials and workers. He was glad that there were so few people around. The arrival of the Nazis had done little to allay people's fears about impending war. Egypt had a serious tourist shortage.
When he arrived at the pyramids of the queens he stopped to catch his breath. If this worked it would be a miracle. He'd have to run a long way once he'd started his plan in motion. Hopefully the Professor and Catherine would be able to escape, even if he didn't make it.
Trying to dispel such negative thoughts, he walked on. He was almost at his destination - the demolished mortuary temple. When he reached the black basalt platform he stopped. This HAD to be where the Stargate chamber was. These black slabs had to be covering the opening. Perhaps the temple was built on the slabs afterwards, to hide the chamber. They might even have forgotten the reason for the black slabs' existence. It was impossible to say.
Carefully, Indy planted explosives in a pattern over the slabs. If the Nazis were down there, they'd soon come to the conclusion that the only way to remove the device was through the roof. He played out the fuse, making it as long as he could. The longer it was the less distance he'd have to run back to the encampment.
Then he waited, with the detonator ready.
This was it.
