Ugh...88% Humidity...

...so sticky and it's only 18 degrees (so far), 32 degrees expected by lunchtime!  It already feels like being in the hot domes at the Eden Project...

...and the storms last night were just astonishing, pretty sure they woke baby Annabelle up when they started (at about 2am), I did a zombie-like walk around the house closing all the wide-open windows and sealing all the blackout blinds as best I could to shut out the thunderous noise, gale-force winds and pretty much continuous flashes of light...

Thomas managed to sleep through the whole thing, of course...!

Indian Summer for England?

Well, what a lovely surprise! After two really very nice days in town (working, obviously), I check the weather report on the BBC and the weekend is actually forecast to be jolly nice too! If it weren't for all the hair colouring (for Timmy and Gayle's impending wedding) going on this weekend I might very well have suggested getting away in Colin the Camper for a lazy weekend!

Still going to do my best to enjoy it...maybe a last minute BBQ or something of that ilk would be in order... ;)

Canary Wharf Summer Series

Lots of little signs like these have popped up around the Wharf, advertising the (apparently completely free) "Summer Series", from the looks of things that great big TV wasn't there just for Wimbledon, they show all sorts of sporting events on there, including the Grand Prix, the British Golf open and the Olympics, and it's not only that...

...there is all *sorts* of things going on (kind of makes me wish I could afford to live around here) from outdoor Jazz festival, a couple of big concerts in Canada Square park (BBC Big Band and the London Symphony Orchestra), two operas (Don Carlo and The Marriage of Figaro), lectures, even a film festival...

...and all sorts of other things, loads of performance art and art installations including the intriguing sounding "Skyscopes" ("peer through the periscope trees planted in the park to discover stunning views from the top of One Canada square and beyond")...

Looks like we're in for a lot of fun! ;)

Summer River Cruise down the Thames - Summer 2001

Been going through a few *very* old pictures just lately (just tidying up and sorting), and came across some pictures from the very dawn of the (popular) digital camera age, having borrowed my Dad's cutting edge Fujifilm MX-1500 for the occasion (I was still using a point and shoot 35mm at the time), which started with a coach trip (although quite how Flyingpops' folks managed to drag her onto it, I will *never* know)... ;)

So, please set your wayback machines to the truely magnificent summer of 2001 and come with me to the glittering metropolis that is the City of London, still hung over from the Millennium celebrations, for a cruise down the river Thames...starting at the (recently useful) Thames Barrier which isn't quite so shiny now -


- around the (doomed) Millennium dome (now the thriving O2) listening to the guide telling us how it hadn't quite been possible to remove all the toxic waste from the surrounding areas during redevelopment -

- past the place (how spooky to see it here) I had absolutely no idea I would end up working -One Canada Square (now, of course, utterly lost in a forest of equally impressive companions, and soon to be joined by several taller ones!) -

- and along the river -

- under Tower Bridge (ooh!) -


- past HMS Belfast (which has managed to hang onto it's name and resist sponsorship, thank goodness) -

- the Tate Modern (complete with failed wobbling Millennium Bridge, you can clearly see the scaffolding in the second shot towards St. Paul's..hehe...!) -


- under Blackfriars Station/bridge (which would be, again unknowingly, my route to work in Kings Cross for all those years, really don't miss the Thameslink line ;) -

- followed by a trip on the "Millennium Wheel" (as it was known at the time, now known as the "London Eye", of course) in probably the best possible conditions...


...most suprising to me is that a number of these pictures I am actually still really very happy with (even today being 50,000+ shots practice further down the line towards being an "enthusiast")...

Anyway, I'll post a couple of shots from the "Millennium Wheel" itself when I get to them, and perhaps a few more (if I find any interesting ones) as I continue forward through time...

Welcome back to England...

Rain rain rain...bleugh...just lucky I was backing up all my photos and found some nice pictures of the garden from the summer that I had forgotten about (just to cheer us up) -


- oh and out of interest, I was rather shocked to discover that since the 5th of May (when I got the new camera) I have taken over 9000 photographs(!), that's 21.7Gb of data to burn...urk!

Aqualand, Corfu

And so to the last full day of the holiday, and it was with some surprise that we awoke to gentle rain (still about 28 degrees though) having had glorious sunshine all week, however, luckily we had booked up a trip to the biggest water park on the island (and rain is no problem if you are planning to be getting wet anyway!)...we were the first pick up, the coach was as on time as usual, but we were quite used to that by this stage. The driver (who looked a bit like Sawyer from LOST) was extremely friendly, but his grasp of English was cursory at best, this didn't deter him from nattering away for about the first 20 minutes of the journey, during which time I *think* we got the following bits of information from him -

1. He is married, and his wife is pregnant (that was indicated mostly by miming)
2. They are moving to England shortly as you can earn much more money being a coach driver in the UK, plus UK coach drivers are reluctant to work the 12 hour shifts that really bring in the cash (he is more than happy to)
3. He doesn't mind the cold, as long as his pockets are full of money
4. Aqualand (during peak season) can have as many as 5000 visitors a day, from 10 resort towns over the island and queues for the slides can take as long as two hours(!)
5. Roads in Corfu are extremely dangerous in the wet

- we stopped at a couple of other places to pick up a small number of further brave souls, and barring one quick stop along the way for a young German lad to go for a pee (the coach driver told him to just find a bush "All Corfu is toilet, it's natural! Where dog go, you go!"), we finally pulled into the completely empty car park at Aqualand...we basically had the entire place to ourselves...!

So, after paying for a "Family sized" locker for the day (it was barely big enough for 2 rucksacks, let alone all the crap a family would be carrying around for a day out!), we got changed and then headed to the nearest slides (absolutely no queues at all anywhere in the entire park!) -

- goodness only knows why, but the first slides we went for were the ones right at the top of the tallest tower, were also the narrowest pipes, and the one that I went for turned out to be a "Black Hole", and the rail you normally use to get some speed up was missing...I did have second thoughts as I was staring into the darkness, and even looked back, a little concerned that there was no life guard on duty, but threw myself in (as best I could) none-the-less...and just as I had passed the first bend (so I was in *total* blackness) I came to a complete halt...

I'm a bit claustrophobic, and this was the stuff of absolute nightmares, no-one above me to stop anyone else diving in and hitting me, total blackness, the muffled sound crashing water and feeling it building up behind me, hands slipping on the plastic, scratching desperately in order to shift myself down and what seemed like an eternity later I managed to drag myself to the next slope, where suddenly things got very steep indeed followed by 90 seconds of bedlam and then, thank goodness, daylight...where Flyingpops was standing wondering what on earth had happened to me (we should have learned by this to stay away from the tubes where you can't see what's going on...but more of that later) -

- it quickly became obvious that by far the best rides were the ones where you were allowed to use a two person "inflatable family raft" (as the rides went *much* *much* quicker with the weight of two plus gravity), but we had a go on everything, I suppose the place must have had about 25 different tube rides of various sizes and speeds from the insane vertical drop rides (that just *hurt*) all the way to the "Crazy River" (complete with 3 crash pools on the way down that tend to end up turning you backwards!) -

- confidence regained (despite difficulties with some extremely "Slippery Sarfaces"), and after Flyingpops had tried the much larger inflatable-only "Black Hole" with a single ring and come out saying it was completely tame, we thought we would try it on a two seater...big mistake...we were going so fast by the time we got to the last turn that Flyingpops lived up to her name and completely flew off the raft as we almost past horizontal on the side, smashing down into the tube (a fall of about 1.5 meters) head first, but also banging her hip, and after this, the raft and I basically ran her over and ended up driving her out of the tube and pushing her right under the surface into the landing pool-

-suffice it to say we decided enough was enough (having done about 40 rides in the space of an hour) we were knackered and Flyingpops was a bit dazed, so we hopped into the "Lazy River" for about 20 minutes to ride back to the other side of the park and then spent a similar amount of time in the wave pool (the third biggest wave pool in the world!), and it really did make some incredibly large waves (way over two meters), people were being thrown from their rubber rings!-

- After this we had a little wander around, to see what else there was around the place, and one of the most amazing things was the kids "Pirate Adventure", every 90 seconds or so -

- a massive container filled with water and tipped over absolutely covering everything, I have *no* doubt at all that if it hit a small child then they would be knocked completely off their feet by the force of the wave...did look like a lot of fun though... -

- there were three "Adventure pools" with stepping stones, slides -

- and even a giant jacuzzi, but by this stage we had started to feel a little hungry -

- Hmmm, yes, looks like something out of "Theme park world" doesn't it... ;)-

- the food though was superb (as long as you avoided the "burger and chips" or "pizza" options), my rotisserie plate was packed with tender meat in a fresh pitta, and accompanied by an excellent salad (not quite sure why it took them 15 minutes to prepare it though, not exactly "fast" food) -

- anyway, once we had let the food go down we repeated a few of the rides, then got changed (nursing our pruned hands) and back to the resort to enjoy our last night... ;)

Kassiopi, Corfu - in pictures

Okay, so this time we headed eastwards along the northern coast of Corfu from the Blue Bay Escape Resort to the only major town in that direction -Kassiopi- it's a slightly longer journey in the minibus-

-(still only about 15 minutes though), travelling from the Blue Bay out to Kassiopi at 0930hrs, 1000hrs, 1900hrs and 1930hrs, and going back in the opposite direction at 1130hrs, 1200hrs, 2130hrs and 2200hrs. Remember, you will need to reserve your seat at reception in advance, and these particular trips fill up fast, so make sure you book your place early-

- you are dropped off right at the top of the high street, if you follow it down about 200 yards you will come to a road off to the left (just by the supermarket, which incidentally is smaller and more expensive than the one in Acharavi), follow this for a few more shops -

- vast majority are either tourist, clothing, shoe or leather goods, with the odd olive wood shop (this particular one was all hand-carved by the shop owner's son) and restaurants, but they peter out after about half a kilometre, however, if you carry on heading slightly downhill you will eventually find yourself at the real gem at the heart of Kassiopi (and what kept us going back), the amazing (and still working) harbour -

- mostly full of fishing vessels, but a few tourist and pleasure launches populated the walls also, and here we sat, watching the sunset until the street lights drew their patterns on the gentle waves-

- to be honest, the food could have been terrible (there are about 12 restaurants that share the fantastic view) but it really wouldn't have mattered...

-(I even let the "Chicken Gordon-Bleu" pass with a mere half-smile before my gaze returned happily to the calming shimmer)-

- for my dinner that night I decided to go for the Stifado (a traditional Greek dish of pork in a red wine sauce with shallots (and in this case, chips...)), very nice, but they did the exact same thing at the Blue Bay resort for lunch the next day and it was just as tasty...oh well, it was only 6 euros for the plateful!

Anyway, we stayed for a very enjoyable, and extremely peaceful couple of drinks (even when the Blue Bay was virtually empty there was still a pronounced difference in the noise levels between there and here), then wandered back up through the shops, passing various places advertising morning fare -

- including the "Little Britain Big Breakfast 'I want that one!'"...not entirely sure it's been officially sponsored or approved by Messrs Lucas and Walliams, but it does look like the sort of thing Mr Lucas might be found enjoying if he came into Kassiopi for a visit... ;)

In a nutshell, it's the biggest resort on the north coast, and also quite the prettiest, lots and lots of places to eat and drink all of which were still open and reasonably busy even this late in the season, this place deserves more than one evening of your attention, most certainly... :)

Acharavi, Corfu - in pictures

Now, on to one of the local resorts you can visit (as frankly Ag. Spiridonas really only amounts to one (small, part-time) travel agent, one (mini-mart sized) supermarket (although they do promise to inflate anything rubber you purchase there as many times as you like "it go down on first day? Bring back and we make pump again!") and 4 tavernas (of various levels of quality)), however, all is not lost, book at reception onto the free minibus (here you see it waiting outside the hotel)-

- trips from the resort to the nearest town to the west (Acharavi) leave at 0900hrs and 1800hrs and return at 1100hrs and 2100hrs (each trip taking no more than ten minutes), but unless you are out for an evening meal, two hours is *way* more than enough time to see the best this town has to offer...unfortunately, three hours in the evening (unless you know exactly where you are going) might be cutting it a bit fine to actually find, eat and waddle back to the meeting point, so not ideal transfer times, but you can always grab a cab back to the resort -beware though, they are rather on the scarce side...

Arriving in Acharavi, you are dropped (and picked up) by the "famous pump" in the centre of town (ahem), which really just looks like a mini roundabout...in case you miss it, it's next to "Lollas Junior Smoking Accessories"-

- stocking such wonders as "Cigars in Special moistend container" and "Nautical Goods" (making it probably a slightly more memorable landmark)... ;) Anyway, having got here, carefully skirting some poor, prone biker who had tangled with a coach (to cries of "Kids, No look!" from our bus driver), we set down, a little unnerved, but none-the-less, decided initially to explore the "old town" (following a battered sign from the pump roundabout) -

- which actually didn't look that much older than the rest of it, was pretty much 100% closed, and the only life we encountered was an aged gentleman slowly filling a cement mixer, so -

- we gave up, walked back the way we came and then and headed off down the (apparently only other) street in town (the high street), first up passing the "Lemon Garden", not a restaurant (as it appears to be), but (in fact) a "Barbeque Collection"...whatever that may be... ;) Then past lots of other small shops (all tourist stuff), restaurants and bars (it might actually look quite nice at the height of the season, but with half the places closed and the rest completely empty, it was a bit like walking through a ghost town)...

- spotted a lovely blue 1303s beetle (that actually looked like it had seen quite a lot of investment at some stage, most of the cars here look like they have been in at least one accident)-

- and then we found the first really good reason to actually visit Acharavi - the supermarket - it's actually a proper sized affair, packed out with locals (good sign, even if they don't understand how to queue) and the prices were absolutely rock-bottom, I got a large bottle of island fresh extra virgin olive oil which I placed next to the largest bottle of Ouzo in the world (ever) in the picture above just for comparisons sake...not sure you would even be able to lift it, let alone drink it! ;)

- the second really good reason to pay a visit to town is on one of the little roads to the beach, clearly signposted from the main road is one of the best little Olive wood workshops we found and it was also one of the cheapest, Flyingpops bought a shoe-box sized carved Olive wood VW Beetle (with working doors) for about £3! It even came with free authentic cobwebs... ;)

Just towards the end of our walk (not far on from the supermarket actually) we started to see some interesting old architecture, but by then we really had to stop exploring and go back to meet the coach...so, an interesting little place, for about two hours, but it would probably be more bearable in high season... ;)