Tim and I spent Thursday night bopping round the St Albans Arena in the company of Jools Holland and his rhythm and blues orchestra - unsurprisingly, they're even better live than on CD. To our especial delight, one of the encores was 'Well alright, OK, you win, I'm in love with you', which we danced to at our wedding.
Of course, in order to go to this concert, Tim had to miss the band AGM (slightly annoying) and I had to miss Bedford Music Club's AGM (not very annoying). We do seem to be very busy in the evenings these days, and are considering changing choirs/bands so that rehearsals coincide and we have a couple of evenings in together. A difficult decision, as we both enjoy the things we do now and are just starting to feel part of the groups we sing/play with. We shall see what the future brings...
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Thursday, May 18, 2006
We are one
It's been a while since we posted, but that's because we've been away. On the 7th May we had been married for a whole year (hasn't the time flown?) so we went on holiday for a week to celebrate.
We stayed in another Landmark Trust property, as we did on our honeymoon. This one, St Winifred's Well near Oswestry, was a 14th century chapel building that had also been a court house, bath house and cottage in its long history. It was built over a small spring, which flowed into a series of pools, and was just big enough for two armchairs, two beds and a dinky kitchen. The bathroom was in the old pigsty the other side of the public footpath which ran past the house!
Apart from relaxing at the cottage, we also did quite a few activities - kayacking on Lake Vrynwy, mainly round in circles; a 10 mile Walk along the Offa's dyke path and back over a boggy, peaty mountain; and most fun of all, the go ape course in Delamere forest park. I'm scared of heights, but was far too busy enjoying myself clambering between the trees to think about that!
We spent the weekend in Shrewsbury with Catriona and Ian, then pottered home on Sunday and started planning the next LT break. A holiday around our wedding anniversary seems to be a good habit to get into!
Monday, May 01, 2006
A little holiday
This weekend's holiday was visiting Trish & Cory in Aberdeen. It was about time we visited, as last time Elspeth saw them was before she and I even knew each other, and it was a great weekend. Superb weather, lovely Scottish scenery, great company, smooth whisky, and plenty of chatting. I don't want to spend all day blogging, so I'll stick to a description of the whisky festival.
By some great coincidence, the weekend selected for visiting was the weekend of the Spirit of Speyside festival. Speyside is one of the homes of malt whisky in Scotland, and is only a few dozen miles from Aberdeen, so we spent Saturday being properly introduced to malt whisky. By "we", I guess I mean "I". Elspeth declares that a sip of whisky is enough for her and Cory and Trish are already quite (usage #1) well-versed in the subject. We had a good tour of the Glenfarclas distillery followed by a decent dram of the 10- and 15-yr olds (as Trish notes, I was forced to help out with clearing the table given that Elspeth had had enough, Trish is pregnant and Cory was driving) and a fun time trying out a range of different whiskys at the Dufftown tasting event. The whisky shop was visited more than once!
I've only recently realised that I like whisky. I definitely prefer the Speyside whiskys to the smokier Islay malts, but am looking forward to further explorations. For the record, my list currently stands at:
Glenfarclas 10 years
Glenfarclas 15 years
anCnoc 12 years
Tomintoul 16 years
Highland Park 24 years
Smoky Islay single cask
Cragganmore 12 years
Black Bottle blend
All in, a great weekend. Thanks to Trish & Cory for being excellent hosts and their whisky advice!
By some great coincidence, the weekend selected for visiting was the weekend of the Spirit of Speyside festival. Speyside is one of the homes of malt whisky in Scotland, and is only a few dozen miles from Aberdeen, so we spent Saturday being properly introduced to malt whisky. By "we", I guess I mean "I". Elspeth declares that a sip of whisky is enough for her and Cory and Trish are already quite (usage #1) well-versed in the subject. We had a good tour of the Glenfarclas distillery followed by a decent dram of the 10- and 15-yr olds (as Trish notes, I was forced to help out with clearing the table given that Elspeth had had enough, Trish is pregnant and Cory was driving) and a fun time trying out a range of different whiskys at the Dufftown tasting event. The whisky shop was visited more than once!
I've only recently realised that I like whisky. I definitely prefer the Speyside whiskys to the smokier Islay malts, but am looking forward to further explorations. For the record, my list currently stands at:
Glenfarclas 10 years
Glenfarclas 15 years
anCnoc 12 years
Tomintoul 16 years
Highland Park 24 years
Smoky Islay single cask
Cragganmore 12 years
Black Bottle blend
All in, a great weekend. Thanks to Trish & Cory for being excellent hosts and their whisky advice!
Tales from the tank
It's nearly a year since I got the fish tank so here's a round-up of recent events.
Platies: Saddest news is that Baby Fish, the platy who was born in my tank and survived to adulthood, now has the property Alive=FALSE. He'd been moping about for a while although I couldn't determine the symptoms. Maybe there just wasn't anyone his age to play with. I now have 2 platies surviving from the first batch of fish - the dominant male and one of the females. Here she is stalking the flakes, emerging from cover like a big fat orange fishy submarine.
Apistogrammas: The observant will have spotted an unknown fish in the above photo. It'd been a while since I added any new fish and so I took myself to the shop a couple of weeks ago and found a lovely pair of Apistogramma Viejita. These are dwarf cichlids which are fairly rapidly turning into my favourite bunch of fish. I have a yound adult male (pictured above and below) and what was sold to me as a female, although I'm starting to think it might be a juvenile male - it is getting some red colouring around its fins which I understand is restricted to the males. Anyway, the big male is a lovely fish - really colourful and graceful.
And here's a fairly blurry photo of him, but I find it quite pleasing when zoomed out.
Rainbow fish: I probably mentioned that the male praecox rainbowfish died a little while ago. The female is still going strong although was always a bit less fun than the male. She seems to have taken to the new apisto, and they hang around together a bit, which is nice.
Penguin Tetras: Whereas I think of the platies and the tiger barb as the elders of the tank (Mr Platy even looks like he's going bald on top), the tetras are definitely the teenagers. By turns enthusiastic, stroppy, aggressive, and entertaining they bring life to the tank at all times. Among my favourites.
Tiger barb: He's a survivor. oh yeah, he's a survivor. The one that didn't die with the other tiger barbs, he keeps to himself and, pleasingly, doesn't do any of the fin nipping which they're known for. He's started coming out of his corner a bit recently so I'm hoping he's on the up. It's still the major disappointment of my tank that the other 5 died within a week or two of getting them. I'd love to have more as they're great fish, but I'm a bit nervous of that now.
Upside-down catfish: This is one cool cat(fish). I've not got a great picture yet for you - it definitely likes hiding during the day - but am still trying.
Corys: The other disappointment. I've given up trying to work out if they're unhappy or just plain boring. They're billed as the among the most entertaining and endearing of catfish, but they just hide all the time in the same old places - can't remember the last time I saw one roaming around the tank.
Oto: He's still cute, still there, and still hanging onto whatever he can find that might have algae on it.
End of story. I hope I haven't left anyone out.
Platies: Saddest news is that Baby Fish, the platy who was born in my tank and survived to adulthood, now has the property Alive=FALSE. He'd been moping about for a while although I couldn't determine the symptoms. Maybe there just wasn't anyone his age to play with. I now have 2 platies surviving from the first batch of fish - the dominant male and one of the females. Here she is stalking the flakes, emerging from cover like a big fat orange fishy submarine.
Apistogrammas: The observant will have spotted an unknown fish in the above photo. It'd been a while since I added any new fish and so I took myself to the shop a couple of weeks ago and found a lovely pair of Apistogramma Viejita. These are dwarf cichlids which are fairly rapidly turning into my favourite bunch of fish. I have a yound adult male (pictured above and below) and what was sold to me as a female, although I'm starting to think it might be a juvenile male - it is getting some red colouring around its fins which I understand is restricted to the males. Anyway, the big male is a lovely fish - really colourful and graceful.
And here's a fairly blurry photo of him, but I find it quite pleasing when zoomed out.
Rainbow fish: I probably mentioned that the male praecox rainbowfish died a little while ago. The female is still going strong although was always a bit less fun than the male. She seems to have taken to the new apisto, and they hang around together a bit, which is nice.
Penguin Tetras: Whereas I think of the platies and the tiger barb as the elders of the tank (Mr Platy even looks like he's going bald on top), the tetras are definitely the teenagers. By turns enthusiastic, stroppy, aggressive, and entertaining they bring life to the tank at all times. Among my favourites.
Tiger barb: He's a survivor. oh yeah, he's a survivor. The one that didn't die with the other tiger barbs, he keeps to himself and, pleasingly, doesn't do any of the fin nipping which they're known for. He's started coming out of his corner a bit recently so I'm hoping he's on the up. It's still the major disappointment of my tank that the other 5 died within a week or two of getting them. I'd love to have more as they're great fish, but I'm a bit nervous of that now.
Upside-down catfish: This is one cool cat(fish). I've not got a great picture yet for you - it definitely likes hiding during the day - but am still trying.
Corys: The other disappointment. I've given up trying to work out if they're unhappy or just plain boring. They're billed as the among the most entertaining and endearing of catfish, but they just hide all the time in the same old places - can't remember the last time I saw one roaming around the tank.
Oto: He's still cute, still there, and still hanging onto whatever he can find that might have algae on it.
End of story. I hope I haven't left anyone out.
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