Monday, 27 June 2011
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Scotland....the roadtrip! Part One
Its always the case. Back in the office today after a wonderful trip to Scotland and its hot and sunny outside. Luckily we were prepared for the Scottish weather, but not for its beauty! Someone in Scotland (or was it England) told me there are two kinds of weather in Scotland. Its either raining, or it is about to rain. And dear friends it rains a LOT in wee bonnie Scotland. Sammy and I didn't really notice though, because it is a fabulous place!
We left on Tuesday morning as it is at least a 7 hour drive up from Southampton to our first port of call in Glasgow. Now I am used to the driving by now, and most familiar with the scenery and roadways until just north of Manchester. Sammy has not been up so much so it was going to be mostly new to her. I didn't really have a chance to ask her for the first two hours, as I spent them on three seperate conference calls whilst Sammy disappeared into her own world and her iPod. She was very patient with me, the conference calls can be a real bore, but it kept me occupied at least. The scenery on the way up the A34 is really very very pretty. I can't wait to show all of you when you visit. (yes you, don't look behind you, I am talking to you!) You pass Shrewsbury and Oxford, past rolling green hills, with lots of fields of Oil Seed Rape, and cows and sheep. I happily refer to sheep as sheeples now. Its become a habit. Sammy thinks its very funny and cute, but most would find me annoying as I shout out SHEEPLES! every time I see any sheep. And there are a lot of sheep in those hills.... Anyway, once the A34 bit is done, we had to travel along the mercilessly boring M40 and then M42. These are four lane motorways with wooded board fencing on each side so you can't take in the scenery. SO much of boring. The M42 links into the M6 which took us past Birmingham. We did not go into the city but it took a while to drive past, probably because the city is the second biggest in England. That's it. Nothing else to see there I don't think. We stopped for some lunch somewhere around the Manchester area on the M6, the scenery from Birmingham had been more of the same, a few hills, more than a few grey houses and generally not the best looking part of England. But dear friends once you pass Manchester on the M6, the motorway opens up to some achingly beautiful scenery. We had patches of rain, but lots of sunshine, groups of cars travelling together over the miles like the Hobbit and his friends heading towards the Misty Mountain. You pass the outskirts of the lake district, and Sammy and I have made a mental note to visit soon. The afternoon sun through the rain clouds lights up patches of the hillsides like a stage, and the countryside gets steeper and more beautiful by the minute. The lake district in that part looks like Dullstroom with a few more trees, and a lot moresheeples sheep. You cross the border between England and Scotland at Carlisle and it is not immediately obvious, other than the great big St Andrews cross on the side of the road. But as you start to near Carlisle you see the stone walls separating fields instead of hedgerows, and the cows start to get woolier. Yes that's not a typo, the Cows (pronounced Coo's in Scotland) are hairier than most sheep. The run into Glasgow reminds me of the natal midlands around Pietermartizburg with man made forests of pine and other trees, and makes for an awesome drive. We arrived in Motherwell, near Glasgow late afternoon and checked into our hotel The Dakota. Click here to see. Its a funny kind of hotel really, in the middle of a business park, a large black rectangle of a building. Very dark inside but very nice rooms and a great restaurant and bar. As the purpose of going to Scotland was partly to work, I met with my colleagues and introduced Sammy to them and we had a great evening together rounded off trying some Scottish single malts. There are worse things to do on a Tuesday night. Strangely we were so mesmerised by the scenery in the way in that we didn't take any pictures of the drive! (I know bad form, but can't change it now!). Instead below some pictures of my colleagues. In part two Sammy goes to Glasgow for the day whilst I work at the Seminar and we transfer to Glenrothes for the night for some more work meetings.
We left on Tuesday morning as it is at least a 7 hour drive up from Southampton to our first port of call in Glasgow. Now I am used to the driving by now, and most familiar with the scenery and roadways until just north of Manchester. Sammy has not been up so much so it was going to be mostly new to her. I didn't really have a chance to ask her for the first two hours, as I spent them on three seperate conference calls whilst Sammy disappeared into her own world and her iPod. She was very patient with me, the conference calls can be a real bore, but it kept me occupied at least. The scenery on the way up the A34 is really very very pretty. I can't wait to show all of you when you visit. (yes you, don't look behind you, I am talking to you!) You pass Shrewsbury and Oxford, past rolling green hills, with lots of fields of Oil Seed Rape, and cows and sheep. I happily refer to sheep as sheeples now. Its become a habit. Sammy thinks its very funny and cute, but most would find me annoying as I shout out SHEEPLES! every time I see any sheep. And there are a lot of sheep in those hills.... Anyway, once the A34 bit is done, we had to travel along the mercilessly boring M40 and then M42. These are four lane motorways with wooded board fencing on each side so you can't take in the scenery. SO much of boring. The M42 links into the M6 which took us past Birmingham. We did not go into the city but it took a while to drive past, probably because the city is the second biggest in England. That's it. Nothing else to see there I don't think. We stopped for some lunch somewhere around the Manchester area on the M6, the scenery from Birmingham had been more of the same, a few hills, more than a few grey houses and generally not the best looking part of England. But dear friends once you pass Manchester on the M6, the motorway opens up to some achingly beautiful scenery. We had patches of rain, but lots of sunshine, groups of cars travelling together over the miles like the Hobbit and his friends heading towards the Misty Mountain. You pass the outskirts of the lake district, and Sammy and I have made a mental note to visit soon. The afternoon sun through the rain clouds lights up patches of the hillsides like a stage, and the countryside gets steeper and more beautiful by the minute. The lake district in that part looks like Dullstroom with a few more trees, and a lot more
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| Maz, Commercial Product Manager, part time singer, bad golfer, and TOP TOP chap. We like him. |
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| Garth, Senior Internal Sales, Master Dell Boy impersonator, also a top chap, we like him too! |
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| Mark Cleaver, Regional Manager, former league cricketer, Coventry lad. Top chap too and we like him! |
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| Adam from Motorola Enterprise, new to the crowd but an all round nice guy |
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| I have no words, but Garth is screamingly funny most of the time. |
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| A wee dram of single malt, late the same evening. |
Sunday, 19 June 2011
A few quick pics
Sundays are always good on the island. So much so that we celebrate their arrival a little too hard on a Saturday night. Take this Sunday for example, BIG party last night, and cotton wool heads all round today. Nothing wrong with that. Off to Eegons for a very greasy english breakfast and we are right as rain again. No rain here though, perhaps a few suspect clouds but nothing that will ruin our afternoon. I found some pictures we took of Knighton Heath so here they are. And two others you will see below! Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there, and happy birthday to our dear friend Shelley Thomas. It was fun to chat to all of you a few minutes ago, we appreciate them all the more living in another country now! Enjoy your Sunday peeps and chat to you from Scotland later this week!
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| Two of my favourite things! Nandos Peri Peri and John Smith Extra Smooth (pronounced John Smiffs) |
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| THE best crisps in the world! Co-op Sea Salt and Chardonnay Vinegar. Special! |
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| Front Door |
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| Parking, no more searching for a parking, YAY |
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| Neighbors |
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| Open field opposite the house, Tigger and Jinx will be pleased. |
Friday, 17 June 2011
We are moving! Oh and visiting Scotland too.
Hello dear friends, from a rainy Friday evening in the south of England. Another busy week for us but lots of things happening. Just a short post to tell you about a few things, not my most humorous work, but I promise a tongue in cheek one soon! SO, the big news is that we have finalised a place to stay! Woohoo. It is a nice simple three bed spot in Knighton Heath in Bournemouth. Has a nice proper Englishy ring in the name don't you think? Best of all the home is only 5 minutes drive from my office so it will be a very short commute. I will be riding my bicycle to work in the summer months, and will be so glad to get back into riding. Also it is at the end of a road so the boys will not have cars roaring past putting them in danger. We will share some pics as soon as we move in. The boys will be pleased too as the home even has a proper cat flap for them. So we are preparing to take the next step in our adventure, and although we will miss the Isle of Wight, we will visit often enough to see all our mates here. Speaking of mates, Shaun came down to visit the other day and we had a good day driving around the island, a proper pub lunch and a walk in Cowes. Awesome day it was, even a spot of rain which was badly needed. We also had a kiddies birthday party a few weeks ago and Kerry had made some kiddies cakes. Take a look below at the amazing cakes that Kerry made for them. First Class! I was away up north again this week, and next week Sammy is coming with me to Scotland. I am sure we will have some adventures once I have finished my conference, and we will be sure to post them here on our blog.
Some random things to tell you about. One of the nicest things about being here now is that the sun goes down really late in summer. (No doubt I will have a moan in winter when its dark at 3.30pm). So one day after work last week I got home at a reasonable hour and Sam and I walked down to town to buy dinner. Instead of walking straight home we took the long way around through Northwood Park. It was fun and really is a positive to staying here. No worries about having our groceries nicked! An observation though. You would really expect that in a country where they claim it rains 300 days of the year, which we know by now to be a massive exaggeration, you would think people can drive in the rain. Not so. I mean really really not so. Like Cape Town drivers could be considered skillful in comparison. (No apologies to my mates from Cape Town, face it chaps, you can't drive). One spot of rain and the highways look like the N1 North towards Allandale on an easter weekend Friday. It took me an age to get home this evening. I imagine when it snows it may be worse. Still other than a spot of bad traffic its been a great week.
In other news my absolute favourite Facebook post of the week, but none other than Sir Lord Richard Smedley-Williams, ok just Smed to us and certainly not knighted just yet. Its PRICELESS
Some random things to tell you about. One of the nicest things about being here now is that the sun goes down really late in summer. (No doubt I will have a moan in winter when its dark at 3.30pm). So one day after work last week I got home at a reasonable hour and Sam and I walked down to town to buy dinner. Instead of walking straight home we took the long way around through Northwood Park. It was fun and really is a positive to staying here. No worries about having our groceries nicked! An observation though. You would really expect that in a country where they claim it rains 300 days of the year, which we know by now to be a massive exaggeration, you would think people can drive in the rain. Not so. I mean really really not so. Like Cape Town drivers could be considered skillful in comparison. (No apologies to my mates from Cape Town, face it chaps, you can't drive). One spot of rain and the highways look like the N1 North towards Allandale on an easter weekend Friday. It took me an age to get home this evening. I imagine when it snows it may be worse. Still other than a spot of bad traffic its been a great week.
In other news my absolute favourite Facebook post of the week, but none other than Sir Lord Richard Smedley-Williams, ok just Smed to us and certainly not knighted just yet. Its PRICELESS
I told you so! One final thing on this brief update, I hear it is Fathers Day on Sunday in SA. So Happy Fathers Day Dad, hope its a great day and we are sorry we can't be with you. Watch out everyone, for our blogs coming on the Scotland road trip! Much love from both of us and enjoy the last weekend of Super 15 round robin. Go the Sharks!
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| Happy Fathers Day Bollie, love you! |
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| Postman Pat cake, complete with the Black n White Cat. Outstanding and admit it, you are humming the theme tune. Go one, I know you are...... |
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| Noddy in his car, complete with Xenon headlights. Ok not Xenons but it is also just outstanding! |
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| Even has a number plate and door handles. Sublime. |
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| Quintessentially British scenery. |
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| The lads, smiling in the rain! |
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| Gurnard, and the view across the Solent. |
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| Sammy! And some fat bloke. Oh wait that's me! Time for the bicycle! |
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| Nice pub type restaurant in Gurnard |
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| I am ze pirate......No? |
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| Top spot for breakie! Called Eegons because the owner is always visiting other shops, hence "wheres e gone?" |
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| Sammy cuddling a 5l bottle of water, she buys several a week (cheap) and then drags them up the hill to the house. I just drink tap water, less effort! |
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| Hard life walking home. Not! |
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| Sulking because Sammy made me carry the ladybug bag. Good thing no one really noticed. Until now. |
Friday, 10 June 2011
Festivals and fun in the sun.
Hello dear friends,
News first. We are now officially house hunting on the mainland with the sale of the current home confirmed. Sammy and I will be leaving the island this weekend to go and look for houses. We did this last weekend too. It didn't go so well. We had Cam with us and I mentioned that in a previous blog. When I say it didn't go well, I mean that we had chosen to look at some places in the country. Maybe a little too much "Escape to the Country" on TV for me apparently, because both places were seriously out of the way. The one place was so deep into the English countryside that the locals don't even have a corner shop. Or a post office. Or restaurants. But they do have a pub. Go figure. Anyway the place we looked at was not too bad, but far too much money for what it offered, and it did not have cellphone signal. Can you imagine me without myumbilical cord mobile phone?? Never! So that was that.
But it is a good thing that we are going house hunting because the island is seriously over run this weekend. With people from all walks of life. All coming over for the Isle of Wight festival. (see here) Now there are a number of festivals here during the year because the island is seriously a great place to be! The Isle of Wight festival is a music festival with 75 000 tickets sold. Last week we went to a smaller local festival, The Old Gaffers Festival in Yarmouth to be exact. Not a music festival but more erm, like a smallish flea market with food stalls. Pictures below. It was fun, and a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. But I digress. The Isle of Wight Festival brings a eclectic mix of people onto the island, all with the one aim of partying and listening to music, whilst camping and generally chilling out over a whole weekend. What it actually means is sleeping in tents, walking around in the mud if it rains (which it hasn't) hangovers, and shopping at the local Morrisons. Sammy and I made the mistake of shopping there at lunchtime (I know, school boy error!) But it was fun to watch all the people in the store because you could tell their age simply by looking at what they were buying. It was easy. Lots of beer, in cases of 24, Ciders, Vodka, bottles of Sprite Zero - 18 to 25yrs old. The same combination but with a few bags of crisps and some rolls thrown into the mix - 25 to 35yrs old. Some beers, some wine, some fruit, some expensive shooter type liquor, rolls and kleenex - 35 to 45yrs old. Two disposable braai's, pre packed salads, sausages, a bottle of cider, brown rolls and serviettes - 45yrs + Oh and six bottles of J&B, 10kgs of ice and a soft fold out chair - Glenn but he is not here so I didnt see that one.
The festival should be a lot of fun for the people attending and a bit of a nightmare for us who live here, but that's fine, Sammy and I are very adaptable nowadays. Speaking of which.... Sammy went to have her hair done on Tuesday and it is now seriously blonde! She is not sure she likes it, but I actually do, I think she looks funky and I like it. A lot *grins*. Pictures also below! I think the hair dye must have done something to her because she is bouncing around like an energiser bunny. She has been to two Zumba classes and a yoga class this week and is not showing any signs of slowing down. I also mentioned a new addition to the family and I really meant a new car. This one is for work and I have done 2800 miles (that's 4480kms) in her in the first three weeks!!! She really is lovely and her name is Angie. Pictured below. So now we have two cars and two cats and the two of us. Fantastic! Right and one last thing today, click here for a picture of our latest nephew Travis Morgan Wills. Standing at 7 months!! Wow, strong like his dad for sure. We are so proud and have not even met him yet! Oh and also, we have a new and very cool shop in town called Wine Therapy. Great name and a great shop. Smells like a proper wine cellar (may have been the fresh paint) and you can do wine tastings etc cheaply. Awesome! Have a great weekend everyone.
News first. We are now officially house hunting on the mainland with the sale of the current home confirmed. Sammy and I will be leaving the island this weekend to go and look for houses. We did this last weekend too. It didn't go so well. We had Cam with us and I mentioned that in a previous blog. When I say it didn't go well, I mean that we had chosen to look at some places in the country. Maybe a little too much "Escape to the Country" on TV for me apparently, because both places were seriously out of the way. The one place was so deep into the English countryside that the locals don't even have a corner shop. Or a post office. Or restaurants. But they do have a pub. Go figure. Anyway the place we looked at was not too bad, but far too much money for what it offered, and it did not have cellphone signal. Can you imagine me without my
But it is a good thing that we are going house hunting because the island is seriously over run this weekend. With people from all walks of life. All coming over for the Isle of Wight festival. (see here) Now there are a number of festivals here during the year because the island is seriously a great place to be! The Isle of Wight festival is a music festival with 75 000 tickets sold. Last week we went to a smaller local festival, The Old Gaffers Festival in Yarmouth to be exact. Not a music festival but more erm, like a smallish flea market with food stalls. Pictures below. It was fun, and a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. But I digress. The Isle of Wight Festival brings a eclectic mix of people onto the island, all with the one aim of partying and listening to music, whilst camping and generally chilling out over a whole weekend. What it actually means is sleeping in tents, walking around in the mud if it rains (which it hasn't) hangovers, and shopping at the local Morrisons. Sammy and I made the mistake of shopping there at lunchtime (I know, school boy error!) But it was fun to watch all the people in the store because you could tell their age simply by looking at what they were buying. It was easy. Lots of beer, in cases of 24, Ciders, Vodka, bottles of Sprite Zero - 18 to 25yrs old. The same combination but with a few bags of crisps and some rolls thrown into the mix - 25 to 35yrs old. Some beers, some wine, some fruit, some expensive shooter type liquor, rolls and kleenex - 35 to 45yrs old. Two disposable braai's, pre packed salads, sausages, a bottle of cider, brown rolls and serviettes - 45yrs + Oh and six bottles of J&B, 10kgs of ice and a soft fold out chair - Glenn but he is not here so I didnt see that one.
The festival should be a lot of fun for the people attending and a bit of a nightmare for us who live here, but that's fine, Sammy and I are very adaptable nowadays. Speaking of which.... Sammy went to have her hair done on Tuesday and it is now seriously blonde! She is not sure she likes it, but I actually do, I think she looks funky and I like it. A lot *grins*. Pictures also below! I think the hair dye must have done something to her because she is bouncing around like an energiser bunny. She has been to two Zumba classes and a yoga class this week and is not showing any signs of slowing down. I also mentioned a new addition to the family and I really meant a new car. This one is for work and I have done 2800 miles (that's 4480kms) in her in the first three weeks!!! She really is lovely and her name is Angie. Pictured below. So now we have two cars and two cats and the two of us. Fantastic! Right and one last thing today, click here for a picture of our latest nephew Travis Morgan Wills. Standing at 7 months!! Wow, strong like his dad for sure. We are so proud and have not even met him yet! Oh and also, we have a new and very cool shop in town called Wine Therapy. Great name and a great shop. Smells like a proper wine cellar (may have been the fresh paint) and you can do wine tastings etc cheaply. Awesome! Have a great weekend everyone.
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| Very cool old school bus for the festival |
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| Enough with the photos! |
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| Excellent marching band - very british! |
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| Dodgy old chap as a one man band |
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| Brilliant old Aston Martin, pity about the mustard colour |
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| Beautiful countryside! |
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| Sammy pre hairdresser day |
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| Beautiful! |
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| Angie! 325 Diesel and goes like a Boeing |
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| Cowes newest cool spot - Wine Therapy - Indeed! |
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| The crowds in Morrisons |
We go Mobile!
Hello friends,
We now have both a web based blog and a mobile version for those of you who surf our blog using mobile handsets. Not too shabby......
We now have both a web based blog and a mobile version for those of you who surf our blog using mobile handsets. Not too shabby......
Sunday, 5 June 2011
Xooming around the UK
Hello dear friends. Another busy week here on Mud Island, but happily we are well settled into a routine. I have been running around meeting with customers and promoting my brand (Motorola) and the tablet called the Xoom. Its Motorola's version of the iPad2 and it is nothing short of brilliant. In fact I am writing this blog on it right now! Its raining today for the first time in two weeks and that is fine, I was about to change the name of the blog to our Desert Island adventure! It turns out Sammy and I arrived in time for the driest spring since 1896 and the warmest one since 1910! Nice! So Cam came to visit this weekend as you may have gathered from the video post last night. It was great to see him and see pictures of our latest nephew Travis Morgan. Very cute! We went to Conan and Kerry for a braai, and enjoyed it in shorts, complete with the Sharks rugby on TV and Nik Naks kindly provided by Mr Berry last weekend! Good times. I dropped Cam at Gatwick this morning and went to see the boys who are a bit grumpy again, but they are fine and we only have 3 months more to go. On the ferry back to Sammy now and going to a festival of sorts later. I will update you all on that later. We hope you are having a great Sunday and not freezing back home. The sea is getting a bit rough to type now so chat again soon!
Saturday, 4 June 2011
Amazing Video!
As most of you know my brother Cam is a professional sailor. Recently he was in the Mediterranean transferring the racing boat to another city for a race. The sea was very calm and the boat had no sails up, just running their diesel motor. The boats name is Alegre and is a Mini Maxi which is 70ft long. Awesome hey, but as they were sailing along a school of dolphins came to say hello. The footage is amazing! I hope that you can view the video, which was originally filmed in HD but reduced down for the web. Enjoy!!
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