Fink's Links #45

I know - it's Boxing day - and trust me, I'm relaxing with a beer and cold cuts at Flyingpops folks right now (if everything has gone according to plan!), this I wrote before Christmas and scheduled...heh, cheated... ;)

So just in *case* you are bored enough to be on the internet today, it's link time!

Lets make a start with a Tetris ice cube tray...yep, too late to ask for it for Christmas now!

An ingenious Umbrella/knuckleduster combination, so you can carry your briefcase, hold your umbrella and still lash out at others during difficult commutes in the rain...! Why has it taken so long to fill this obvious gap in the marketplace? ;)

A really interesting animation made from 45,000 still photographs (thank you Times newspaper)...

Take a look at this really odd ID card this blogger found in a Chinese made wallet...

Discover that the Spanish are building a Lord of the Rings theme park (in Spain)...might be tempted to pay a visit when they've finished it (if it's any good)... ;)

Check out these really cool imbedded-looking Shuriken 'fridge magnets...

Meet Wooly Tiny (a minature laser-cut mammoth skeleton)...

Try to prevent yourself fainting as you discover something interesting actually happened in Second Life...

Scratch your head in a confused way at the antics of South Carolinas Banana Derby, people really still force animals to do this kind of thing...?

Watch as a couple of guys pour loads of concrete into a huge ant nest (and then dig it up when it has set)...sad because lots of animals died, but annoyingly extremely interesting to see the amazing chambers and huge tunnel network that is revealed...

...and finally a titter-worthy childrens book fail...

More links next week and you can find previous round-ups back in this direction...!

Now get off the internets, eat some cold turkey, consume too many chocolate liquors and fall asleep in front of the TV...it's the LAW! ;)

Happy Christmas

We hope you have all been good boys and girls and Father Christmas delivered you all nice presents...!

Wishing you a very HAPPY CHRISTMAS and Best wishes for 2009!

FinkAngel & Flyingpops,
Colin the Camper & Poppy Matlida ;)

Happy Birthday Fink

Please all join me in wishing my darling husband a very happy birthday...

  

 Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear Fink,

Happy Birthday to you.

We have been fairly busy celebrating over the last few days and are off tonight for a meal so expect pictures and a write up soon.

Love you Fink x

Fink's Links #44

Friday again! And just because you were ever-so good last time and finished up your greens, it's link time -

This week we kick things off with "One Whale Extracts his revenge" (the true story behind the classic tale Moby Dick)...

A nice collection of Shoe-tossing GIFs...hehe...

Watch the happiest dog on the planet...

This link is with my Dad in mind an archive of every Radioshack catalogue (pretty much) since 1939...

...and then (quite literally) the saddest dog on the planet (for it's lack of ability)...no need for a garden fence with this puppy!

Read about Jill Price, a woman with perfect "episodic memory" (and no, it isn't nice)...

Learn about the vast secret tunnel network under London up for sale (hmm, that would speed up the commute, might be a bit costly to heat and light it though)...!

World War II as an online multiplayer game chat interface (rather amusing)...

A rather interesting book-case...

Watch a guy who I confidently predict is going to be *very* dead *very* soon mucking around with a very patient Great White shark...

Check out El-E the robot assistant for the disabled...(closes eyes - (Homer voice) - mmmm...point laser...machine brings beer)... ;)

Following the theme - America announces free prescription guns for the elderly and disabled...

Discover that helicopters can just spontaneously fall to bits thanks to an effect called "ground resonance"...that's the last time I think about getting in one with more than two blades then!

...and finally an excellent menu fail and a funny breakfast option fail...

More links next week and you can find previous round-ups over here...! Make the most of Saturday and Sunday! ;)

Secret Santa - Hunters Biltong

Hehe, second year in a row a -killer- Secret Santa pressie! Last year's gift has been useful about 100 times (from fixing broken glasses, replacing a fuse, countless "have you got a pen?" requests etc. etc.), and this year (although obviously not going to be *useful*) I get a large bag of Hunters Biltong (classic variety)...it was all I could do to only eat one strand for my breakfast! 

So naughty... ;)

Our Tiny Christmas Tree

Here we go, finally got around to taking a picture of our tiny Christmas tree...it's a live, pot grown spruce pine, apparently they grow about a foot a year, so next year it should be a little more impressive!

Had a bit of trouble actually decorating it though, almost every single decoration we owned was *way* too big (put the bauble on the branch and it simply sagged towards the ground and fell off), the smallest set of lights we could find in the house was a set of 200(!), which frankly would have completely buried the poor thing, so Sunday morning was spent on a bit of a mission to find the absolute smallest of everything on offer...

Tesco was a let down (only coloured light sets, or ones far too long), Woolworths we skipped thanks to a report that they had been already stripped of everything good, Dorking Car boot sale yielded a tiny set of hand-made painted wooden stockings and presents (for a pound), Dorking Garden Centre netted us a small pack of white glass baubles, but again no suitable lights...we finally scored a white set of 20 (just what we were after) from Knights in Betchworth (they even tested them for us before we left!) along with some adorable little hanging signs that say all sorts of festive catch phrases...and actually, it was Knights that had by far the best selection of Christmas decorations (for both inside and out) having turned over at least half the store to the purpose, so if we ever need any more, I know where I will be heading first... ;)

New Timetable - New Earlswood woes

So yesterday the new Winter timetable came into force, Flyingpops was over the moon as our normal train has now turned into a "fast" train (i.e. it doesn't bother stopping at Merstham/Purley/Coulsdon) getting in 10 minutes earlier, however, I am a bit miffed...first off it's now only 4 coaches (which isn't nearly enough, it came in to Earlswood today "full and standing" and 99% of the time we used to get not only a seat, but also seats together, from the looks of things this is now going to be rather unlikely moving forward), secondly it then wastes much of the advantage of not being a stopping service by adding in a coupling up maneuver at Redhill which also doubles the potential for delays (if one or other bit of the train is running late)...thirdly, and this isn't really a big deal, but I have a slightly more "schmoke and a pancake?" attitude to the commute than Flyingpops, preferring to relax and watch movies/TV or play games, using it as quality recreation time (rather than plugging away on a Blackberry)...now it's about 10 minutes shorter (although don't get me wrong, I like getting into town earlier as the tube is less likely to have got itself into a pickle)...it's just that a whole TV episode used to fit into the commute, and now it doesn't...

Humph...

Redhill Belfry Christmas Carols

So yesterday we decided we would have our roast dinner a little early (started cooking at 3pm as the lamb at Tesco was a third off, so I got a whole leg...mmm)...and hurry into Redhill (once we had finished stuffing ourselves) for the Carol singing in the Belfy -

- which was looking jolly festive sporting it's usual adornment of a colossal tree -


- glowing animals and giant stars...and because we got there early enough we managed to bag some chairs from the coffee shop and pop ourselves just behind the band -

- (on previous years we have arrived a little later and been relegated to standing on one of the upper levels) I popped up in the lift before everything kicked off, just to get a couple of shots of the assembled congregation -

- which was quite considerable...

The theme this year was one of recognition that the Christian community (and, of course, the community at large) of Redhill has morphed into an extremely multicultural affair...as each Hymn/Song was reached, a different member of the congregation (from the country where the Carol's author originated (Germany, Poland, America, Africa, etc. etc.)) stood at the lectern and gave a little potted history of the piece before we embarked upon it...and some interesting new Chrismas songs emerged as a result, all of which were easy to pick up and very catchy...

So now we are allowed to feel properly festive, still struggling slightly though thanks to work being a little on the busy side, still, this week (barring one day on the 24th) is all I have to struggle through until my Christmas break...

If my fingernails hold out I'll drag myself there (somehow... ;)

Fink's Links #43

Another week is over! So, if you have finished off all the vegetables on your plate (yes, even the cold spinach), you may proceed to the desert -

Starting this week by getting the felines over and done with - the great picture "Abort! Abort!"...and secondly "Maybe tonight when you are sleeping"... ;)

A reasonably priced hands-free whisk...(whatever next)!

The slightly ironic - Alignment... ;)

Gape in disbelief at "It was when I was a child when I lived in Africa. We always went to the same butcher and then suddenly - we were there a couple of years - the meat started to get so much better" *shudder*...

An awesome collection of abandoned towns and cities (urban exploration style) this is getting really popular now...!

Find out what it's like in a frozen pizza factory (in Ireland)...

Following the theme, take a peek inside the Nokia damage test labs (or "why they refused your warranty claim" - yes, they know...) ;)

Watch a considerably large meteor hit Canada, courtesy of a vehicle mounted police camera! And some pictures of (bits of) it, sticking out of the ground...

Life not complete without a chair made of shotgun shells? No problem sir/madam...

Read - "Oh shit," he mumbled. "I just broke the Internet." - an excellent article from Wired...

Watch a guy using the worlds greatest anti-zombie weapon, yes, a chainsaw mounted assault rifle...

...finally a nasty ad location fail...and a totally classic "infedelity fail"...you definitely would/wouldn't want to be that guy! ;)

More links next week and you can find previous round-ups back in this direction...! Have a jolly good weekend! ;)

Take over Disneyland!

Hehe, sorry, couldn't help myself, (I know) it's *blatant* advertising, but it is so cleverly done I just had to share...Well, admittedly some bits of the grammar don't work too well ("It's a Angel World" for example), but I really enjoyed it none the less... ;)

So don't miss out, it's your chance to rename Disney World to something completely different, although not swearwords I'm afraid...(Yes, I knew what you were thinking, you cheeky little imps)... ;)

When you get to the landing page scroll down to the bit at the bottom to generate code to embed it on a website, that saves you having to fill out the form at the top... :)

Happy "holidays"... ;)

Jolly Farmers Christmas Market

On Sunday we were lucky enough to spot this Christmas Market running at the Jolly Farmers pub/restaurant/deli/thingie in Betchworth (that link was from our last visit - a slightly disastrous day) on our way to the car boot sale to get some of our wedding pictures framed...We decided to stop by on our way back, pulling into the car park to be asked if we had made a reservation for lunch (we hadn't) and being directed into a muddy field as a result of our negative answer (even though there were spaces in the hard standing one) where we were met by an absolutely manic man (with a crazed look in his eye) as if he had been doomed to an eternity of trying to organise thousands of cars in hell, rather than (roughly) 1 car every five minutes for two days...

Obviously with Poppy the Beetle being all new (and just having been washed on Saturday) Flyingpops was rather loath to park where the mad, bellowing gentleman was yelling at her to drive (amid babbling assurances we wouldn't get stuck or muddy "It was perfectly alright yesterday you know!"), but as he started yanking large poles from the ground and twitching uncontrollably, she yielded...We slid our way across the car park (slightly frazzled) to the sounds of the guy shrieking at his next victim and struggled up the hill, past a chap who appeared to be making broken tent pegs from perfectly good pieces of wood -

- (as we passed him he commented, to no-one in particular "Oh no, now it's busy, that's when things normally start to go wrong", causing me to gaze with some confusion as he shredded more of the tent peg to one side with a large blade, wondering how it could possibly get any worse), and then we were into the market itself...


...which was actually rather good, lots of local produce (or so it was claimed), including all sorts of meats and fish -


- a good selection of tasting, including cheeses and Hepworth Beer from Horsham (so I know that definitely was local) -

- all sorts of crafts (including the wood some of which was for sale), Flyingpops was actually quite taken by the Christmas trees -

- (oh, and it turned out the tent pegs were supposed to be parrots) -

- an excellent selection of veg (shame we had already been to Tesco), (the extremely popular) mulled wine, and a Christmas BBQ of festive burgers and sausages (which no-one seemed interested in, but perhaps it was a little early for lunch)...

When it came time to leave, we *did* (as Flyingpops feared) get stuck in the mud, much wheel spinning (*covering* the car in mud), pushing and shoving (covering the windscreen in muddy hand prints) from me and the parking guy (serving him just about right), we finally managed to get back on the firm stuff and escape...

Parking aside, it was actually really good, and on the face of it, all very local produce...so one must applaud the effort and hope that they do a similar thing next year...

Bravo... ;)

Christmas Decorations

So we've made a *start* on the Christmas decorations -

- Flyingpops popped up into the loft on Saturday to put a load of summer things (like the big fan) up into the loft, and bring a lot of winter things (like the Christmas decorations) down...I busied myself stringing the lights around the front of the house while she tidied up the front garden -

- although we have agreed that we are going to be doing things a little low key this year for the simple reason that we are spending Christmas day and Boxing day away at the respective sets of parents and then spending the rest of the break down in Cornwall (so there didn't seem much point in really going to town)...

- and this includes the tree - we decided to go green and buy a living one (after taking advice from the staff at Priory Farm) -

- (it's also a bit of a waste of money to spend £50, as we normally do, if we're not going to be around to enjoy it)...we had a little look around Christmas Tree Land anyway (as it is jolly festive)-

- but actually more people seemed to have come along to ride the train than actually buy any trees -

- anyway, we picked our little tree out...because it is alive and there is no danger of needle dropping we were able to go for a traditional spruce pine (with that perfect Christmas Tree shape) rather than the oddly squat and twisted non-drop ones that are popular at the moment...

It's out in the garden at the moment (where it can live inbetween Christmases from now on), I think we'll get around to actually decorating it next weekend (although it might look a little odd with the usual 200 light set smothering it)...so that might have to change!

Fink's Links #42

...(very Douglas Adams)...Gosh, only ten more weeks and I've been doing these weekly roundups for a whole year! Ah...Seems like only yesterday... ;)

Let's get underway with a video entitled "the most horrible day of my life"...how can people get so...involved...amazing... <:0

A movie of a very strange Japanese piggy bank...

Now let's check out a fantastic shot of the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone park...

Some good and spooky urban exploration, this time an abandoned hospital in LA...

Chickens break up a fight between two rabbits...(yes, you read that correctly)...

"I do not have any money so am sending you this drawing of a spider I did instead" (you may need to click the image once to make it large enough to read)...an internet legend is born! ;)

The really quite moving story of the butler at the White House...

A Darth Vader toaster...

"Only when the last tree has withered, the last fish has been caught, and the last river's been poisoned, will man realize we cannot eat money"...

Suffering Souls - A search for the roots of psychopathy...

A fairly dangerous trampoline...

An interesting piece by Psywar on the role stamps played (both the forgeries and authentic propaganda uses) during the World Wars...(more interesting than it sounds)!

...and if you're smart, you'll stay down...

A really nasty ketchup dispenser...

...and we'll round things off with an excellent road sign fail and a hilarious hero fail...

Don't look at me like that, it's all I have! Honestly! Links will be back next week though and until then you can find previous round-ups back in this direction...! 

Have a jolly good weekend! ;)

Cameraphone photography

Can't tell you how impressed I am with the tiny camera on the N73, it's reached the stage where I don't feel like I have to lug the Fuji all over the place - although the image quality is unquestionably hugely superior - for general purposes (i.e. the daily grind) the N73 does *okay*, which does mean I can get away with a slightly easier to carry rucksack...

...it's good with deep colours, even in fairly low light, but actually I think it lends itself especially well to black and white shots (with the slightly grainy results from it's Carl Zeiss optics)-



- I would have said that there was no chance of it ever replacing the S9600, but actually...in some situations...it kind of has... ;)

Born of Hope - New Hobbit movie - Casting call

Well this is all quite exciting, a group of British film makers (led by writer/director/producer Kate Madison) are pursuing a "not for profit" project to make a motion picture rival to Jackson/Del Toro's "The Hobbit" inspired by a couple of paragraphs of Tolkien's (regarding Aragorn's parents) from the appendix of "The Lord of the Rings"...the exciting thing about it is the sheer number of people getting behind it to offer their support for free, props are being begged and borrowed without a fee, and all number of people are giving their time and resources for free, from make-up artists to all the actors (over 100 have lent their time and talents so far), filming is taking place in Epping Forest (near London), Bury St Edmonds (in Suffolk) and Snowdonia in Wales, so if you can cobble together an appropriate costume and get yourself to one of those locations you may be able to join in the fun as they are currently appealing for extras...!

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas...!

Well, the trees and tinsel have re-emerged from storage in the office making the place look extremely festive -

- and classes full of school children are frantically busy sliding around and falling over on the Canada Square ice rink...so here we are - December - and only 3 weeks to go!

Am I too early to wish Everyone a very merry Christmas? ;)

This does (of course) mean that once again I am going to be up a ladder this weekend, risking life and limb to put up all our lights...*gulp*... ;)

Canary Islands come to Canary Wharf

Hehe, this made me giggle when I got into town this morning, in a move (apparently not unusual in Spanish circles) the PR Bus for Islas Canarias wasn't quite ready in time to catch the morning commute with whatever message it was they had to convey...

It's okay though, we can try again mañana... ;)

Ys, and Violence against Women

Okay, I am forced to reply to Ys' post of this afternoon with regards to this all too common occurrence and this shocking event...I respond with a posting I wrote back in 2005 which I hope will give her some faith back in the human race...

Sorry Ys, I should have commented after I read what you wrote, those couple of posts were some of the finest blog writing I have been privy to, even if just for the sheer honesty and skill of expression, they really merited a more carefully measured response from your readership...I hope this goes some way towards making that up to you...

Fink's Links #41

A very pleasant Friday to you, thanks for dropping by! You are just in time for another little collection of the interesting, strange and amusing wandering lost on the world wild web, herded into this little post-shaped pen by yours truely...

Let's start with checking out that little one in the corner - the work of Aaron Huey, a photographer for National Geographic, especially his time investigating the Afghan drug war...stunning stuff...

More cool urban exploration next, this time Robot City, Pittsburg...

The haunt project...

An *awesome* fancy dress costume...

Check out (rather retro-looking site, and they have a truely terrible camera, sorry) a guy who has built a working replica of the Nautilus submarine from 20,000 Leagues under the Sea...

Supermarketing, an excellent site crammed with all those amazing small ads from American comic books, and then testimonials from people who actually fell for them and coughed up...

Proof that MC Escher is working for Google maps...

Take a little visit to Nasa's industrial design centre (they are working on the moon base and a pressurised manned rover at the moment)...

A rather amusing (in the darkest possible way) shower curtain (thanks to my folks for pointing this one out)!

Enjoy a rough few months for Bigfoot true believers "They can cover 90 feet in just three steps, or 30 feet per step. So obviously, they have immensely powerful thighs"...oh apparently they enjoy a diet rich in peacocks...absolutely *hilarious*... ;)

Check out some exploding teddies...

A 9 volt tragedy...

An amusing Redneck thermos flask...

...and finally a good "Engrish Menu Fail" and (for bonus points) a rather amusing Welsh translation fail...

No more now, look the packet is empty! Worry not though, plenty more for next week of course and until then you can find previous round-ups back in this direction...! Have a jolly good weekend! ;)

Earlswood Station - Power Cut

The last few days have been a bit of a pain for us (nothing like the track works though, this is just a very minor inconvenience)...because of the arrival of Poppy the Beetle Flyingpops has taken to parking on the far side of the station, necessitating a daily wade through the puddles in the spooky underpass that allow the wealthy residents of Royal Earlswood park to access the (comparitively) "chavy" side of the tracks (where the station entrance is located), however, probably because of the frequent flooding, it was deemed necessary for there to be some resurfacing works which closed off the underpass completely (and blocked off 3 of the parking spaces at the station) where it appeared several workmen slept the night in their van between/during working sessions...as a result the usually easy job of finding somewhere to safely leave Poppy for the day has been a little more challenging...

Now this all should have been over by today, so we zoomed over the rail bridge to park in the nice car park as usual, only to find that (although the resurfacing work has apparently been completed - perhaps too well - worryingly all the drainage channels appear to have been completely filled with tarmac too) somewhere along the line someone has managed to cut the power...so the tunnel was pitch black (luckily I had a mini LED torch)...but the platform and the ticket office were dark too, and the PA system was down, even the displays showing when the next train is due (and how it's getting on with staying on time)...so we had a bit of a tense wait this morning, with no idea if the trains were delayed or cancelled (as they frequently seem to be)...heaven only knows what anyone that needed a ticket had to do, just get on anyway and try and blag it I guess...!

Strepsils - Charing Cross Station

So, it appears Fink is not the only one to get freebies on his commute into work. Strolling across the concourse at Charing Cross this morning, I suddenly broke from my conversation with Sarah and grabbed not one, but TWO free Strepsil samples... I can't tell you how they taste as they are still at the bottom of my handbag, but it will be moved into the top drawer of my desk and will be taken out when I get a cold (So far, I've managed to avoid coming down with the one that struck Fink at the weekend).



Special thanks to my commuting friend Sarah, who scanned this image and sent it through for inclusion on the blog and regularly listens to me twittering on (when I'm sure she would rather be reading the paper). I hope your head and arm are feeling better after that very very nasty man let his bag fall from the overhead locker onto you this morning
;o)

A stroll around Dorking (in pictures)

Vinopolis - A wine tasting evening review

So last Thursday was my old bosses leaving do, and to (urm...) commemorate the occasion, he opted for a wine tasting tour at Vinopolis (which is situated in the now extremely famous Borough Market near the banks of the Thames at London Bridge)...We started the evening with a few drinks at the Old Kings Head just opposite the market entrance -

-nearly getting into a fight with three drunk scaffolders when they overheard us ordering beers on the company tab, apparently our paper's coverage of Millwall fans behaviour hasn't been the most sympathetic over the years, and frankly they did absolutely nothing to redeem themselves (I think only my extreme height prevented things from turning ugly when one of them stood up to push his point home - gazing up at me, saying he didn't care how tall I was and then promptly excusing himself to the toilet)...

When the appointed hour arrived we all grabbed our coats and trickled across the road (taking a slightly longer route than needs be) to the venue -

- leaving us standing around in the entrance for a while as they found someone to look after us...Apparently (Flyingpops has been here before on a similar event) normally, you pay your money, drop off your coat/bag in the cloakroom and then are left completely to your own devices, wandering the themed halls -





- completely at will, stopping at the occasional stall to be poured a centimeter or so of a selected wine (don't expect to come away swaying or singing) and reading the signs or watching instructional video footage -

- however, either enough money had been paid, or we looked rowdy enough to merit a proper somelier, who led us to a secluded location and proceeded to talk us through each wine, gently encouraging us to look for the flavours and aromas present in each grape variety -

- we were taken through six bottles in all (shared between our group of about fifteen people), so (as I already mentioned) not a *huge* amount to actually drink on offer, but the atmosphere was thoroughly intellectual and highly entertaining...when we had tasted everything and compared notes we were dropped off in the "Gin Bar" for a free cocktail - the one I had completely changed my opinion about Gin - frankly loathing the stuff beforehand this was actually quite good (lots of citrus), but I'm still not going to call myself a fan...

I think there is something to be said for both ways of enjoying the place, when our tour finished everyone just decided to go back to the pub (there was still money behind the bar apparently), but had I just come to Vinopolis (with no peers to worry about) I am almost certain I would have been lured into the room one further on from the Gin Bar...a large restaurant...I can certainly imagine a leasurely stroll through the arches tasting and sampling aromas and then settling down for a hearty meal with a bottle of something that took my fancy matched to the food...as it was by the time I had run around with the camera (and found the "gentlemans salon") everyone else had already vanished off to continue their evening, so I took this opportunity to bow out (living miles outside of London), grabbed a BK Angus Burger with cheese at London Bridge and headed home to bed...yes, I'm that classy... ;)