Red Meat

For those who say eat fish at least 1-2 a week.

Ooops!!! Wrong House

A policeman rescues a woman from a house that is on fire, unknown to him it is the wrong house.

Finally arrived in Sydney

......continuing from Melbourne.
From Melbourne we finally went to Sydney on the 30th of May. It was only a few hours flight from Melbourne that went by uneventfully. From the airport we took a taxi to our hotel where we would stay for the next 2 days. We stayed in the Old Sydney Holiday Inn. From the view of our hotel room there was no mistake about it. We had arrived in Sydney!!!

It was good to be back in Sydney and it seemed like we had never left. We knew the area around the Rocks well because we used to live just off Martin Place for 4 months. And the 'do you remember when we/I...?' were around every corner.
The Botanical Gardens were also great to see again too. We shared it with a whole flock of noisy Sulphur Crested Cockatoos when we were there.

Although our hotel was nice and we really enjoyed our time there we had to move to our new home for the time being. It was a self catered apartment on Bond Street in the CBD which we had let for a month. It looked just like a hotel room because it was part of the hotel, without the housekeeping and room service.
Then we started looking for a place to live and do all the administrative stuff (Medicare, drivers licence, bank accounts, etc), again the weather had caught up with us. The worst storm NSW had seen in 30 years hit us.

(Needless to say we were glad we didnt go to Manly that day)

On top of that there is/was a housing shortage in Sydney which meant some people look for months before they find anywhere to live. And the way it all works here with viewings only in time slots of 30 mins on a Saturday between 10.00-14.00 with 10-15 people queuing to watch one property our chances of even finding a house were slim to none. But we found one purely by chance walking into an estate agent who was about to show a townhouse to someone else if we cared to look at it. And we liked it, it was far better then the other houses we had seen before. The street we are at is parallel with a busy shopping street, but the great part is where we are it feels and is like being in the middle of suburbia, hardly any traffic/people deserted almost. Another nice feature of the area with water on either side of us is you can go to the heart of the city by ferry which we plan to do when summer is here.
The suburb we live in Sydney is called Five Dock (Google map).
And because the house came unfurnished......

...........the race was on to buy all our furniture and have it delivered ASAP. Not to mention all the other stuff we needed from bins to teaspoons to mattress covers to you name it. On the bright side everything is new and to our liking.
But every once in a while you find you are still short of a certain item. Especially when cooking. We went to the Dutch shop in Smithfield 't Winkeltje to stock up on some frikandellen and kroketten almost as soon as our fridge arrived........and then you find yourself without a deep fryer.
After weeks of waiting we finaly received our sofas. We dont have to sit on the benches we use for the dining table any longer.

And today all our stuff from the UK arrived. Minus one paperweight we bought in Death Valley , but we had declared it and that was seized for quarantine reasons. Leaves us to unpack it all. It almost feels like Christmas.

Talking Cats

If you place a video about talking dogs you have to place one about cats too.

Talking Dogs

Talking dogs.

Visit 171 Starbucks in Manhattan in one day

This guy visits all 171 Starbucks in Manhattan in just one day.
I thought going to all the Walkabouts in London in one day was hard work.

One Rat Short

One Rat Short a nice and sad short about 2 rats who find each other.....

Sam the shoplifting Gull

Sam steals crisps, but only one particular flavor.

Homer vs Cerne Abbas

Homer vs Cerne Abbas

A doughnut-brandishing Homer Simpson was painted next to the giant on the hill above Cerne Abbas, Dorset, to promote the new Simpsons film. The painted Simpsons character has been painted with water-based biodegradable paint which will wash away as soon as it rains.

Melbourne

............... Continuing from 'We had a great time in Hong Kong and Macau'.
From Hong Kong we flew to Melbourne where we landed on 26/05/07.

It was nice to be back in Australia especially to think that this time we didn't enter it as backpackers but as permanent residents. More shocking Caroline and I arrived together as husband and wife!!!! Something we couldn't have imagined 3 years ago when we both backpacked Australia.
In Melbourne we once again stayed with friends of Caroline. They live about a 15 minute ride from the city. And of course the weather wasn't on our side again.... with lots of rain. But that was GOOD!! So we kept saying to ourselves. Our new country is in the middle of a drought with severe water restrictions in some areas.

Above the gallows where Ned Kelly, the infamous bush ranger, was hung and his death mask. We saw them at the Melbourne Gaol a museum and former prison.

Another thing we did in Melbourne was visit Cook's Cottage a cottage built by the parents of Captain James Cook (originally standing in England). Unfortunately it has been lost in time whether Captain Cook has actually lived there or not. But as his parents had lived there he must have at least visited it.

Tooheys Extra Dry

Baseball Expirement

If you drive a van at 100km/h and from that van you shoot a baseball at the same speed in the opposite direction what would happen?

Drunk Monkeys

See how Vervet monkeys in St Kitts steal drinks from tourists in order to get drunk.

The M500

This is a water resistant mobile phone watch. Made here in Australia.
The water-resistant M500 works on GSM Quadband frequencies which are 850Mhz, 900Mhz, 1800Mhz and 1900Mhz. This allows any individual who has a GSM SIM card to use the M500 in any country around the world. The M500 has a built-in MP3 and MP4 player, Voice Bluetooth, Data Bluetooth, 128MB standard memory and U Disk functionality for all JM2E (Java) applications. For further information visit SMS Technology Australia.

The Simpsons Inside the Actors Studio

Inside the Actors Studio, the people behind the voices of the Simpsons.


Just in time for "the Movie"

Help!

The Beatles' Help!

Yellow Submarine

The Beatles' Yellow Submarine

We had a great time in Hong Kong and Macau

On the 20th of May we left the UK for our new homeland Australia (that is why the lack of recent updates). But first we would make the most of our journey and have a stopover in Hong Kong.

It was very hot and humid and it rained quite a lot. If you didn't get wet because of the rain you would get dripped on by the many airconditionings working overtime overhead.

A ferry ride or 2 is not too be missed so we did and there for we didn't miss out on the magnificent views it gives you of the city by day and night. One day we took the ferry to Macau for a daytrip.

We walked everywhere in Macau as it isn't that big, everything is local. We had walked all morning and were looking for a place to eat and cool down. When we finally found a place and were seated by the waitress and given our menus the waitress came back to say in broken English the chef had walked out?! No lunch.... That was okay at least we had a chance to cool down and enjoy a coke. We went off and close by there was an ice cream shop with the weirdest ice creams. Ginger, yellow beans and other flavours I can't think of right now. One caught my attention the Durian ice cream. It is a fruit I only knew from TV as being foul smelling and therefor banned from public transport and hotels. I just had to try it. I asked if I could have a sample. The flavour was nothing like I have ever eaten before and hopefully never will again. Caroline was not impressed when I convinced her to try it as well. It took a decent meal for the taste to finally disappear.

For those of you collecting stamps in their passports going to Macau on a day trip is a very good way to get some. Once you have returned to HK you will have a full page in your passport of entrance and exit stamps just of HK and Macau.

Another thing we liked doing in Hong Kong was going to the different markets (bird-, flower-, goldfish-, jade- and night market). A visit to a wet market is also a must as it is quite different from the markets we are used to in the West. I must say it is not for the squeamish.

The last 2 days we stayed with friends of Caroline's who live in a nice area of HK. Away from the city and away from all the traffic and people. Their apartment has floor to ceiling windows with a great view of the South China Sea and several islands. At nighttime you could see all the little fishing boats with their bright lights fishing for squid and during the day we saw several dragonboats practising for the race below.

Getting around was very easy and the ferries and taxi's are very cheap. All in all we had a great time exploring downtown HK and Macau. HK was nothing like I expected it to be. We would definitely like to go back. And when we do, we'll be taking empty suitcases, there are plenty of bargains to be had.

Wallace and Gromit A Grand Day Out

Wallace is wondering where to spend his holiday?......
Wallace and Gromit A Grand Day Out by Aardman Animations

Best of Statler & Waldorf

The best of Statler and Waldorf (the grumpy old men from the Muppet Show)

Shaun the Sheep

A funny animation series from the makers of Wallace and Grommit

The History of Hacking

The History of Hacking a documentary shown on the Discovery Channel.

Shipping-day

We just have little over a week left in our house and today is the day we had the removal company over to ship our stuff over to Australia. All in all about 10 medium sized boxes and 3 packages. It will take 8- 12 weeks before we are reunited with it in Sydney. Crikey!!!

Derren Brown - "Paying with Paper"

Derren Brown, psychological illusionist manages to buy things with blank paper????
Unfortunately I haven't seen this show on the air yet, but I will look out for it.

Bangkok Insurance

Battle of the Brains

Horizon takes seven people who are some of the highest flyers in their field - a musical prodigy, a quantum physicist, an artist, a dramatist, an RAF fighter pilot, a chess grandmaster and a Wall Street trader. Each is put through a series of tests to discover who is the most intelligent?

London Marathon 2007

Sue getting encouragements from her dad (Ken) just past the 18 mile marker

Sue my sister-in-law ran the 2007 London Marathon and we went to cheer her on.
We were fortunate to see her at the 9 -mile and 18 -mile mark but also close to the finish line.
She ran 26.4 miles the least we could do was to be there and support her along the way.
Her official time was 5:28:35 and out of the women she came 7643.

10 km	1:06:27
20 km	2:25:17
half	2:33:17
30 km	3:44:19
40 km	5:11:40
finish	5:28:35

Walk About London

Last Sunday 15/04/07 we said goodbye to Matt and Dave in London. Our two friends that seem to appear everywhere and anywhere we went in Australia. It is always hard saying goodbye, but we rest assured in the knowledge we'll bump into them again sooner or later. Caroline was given a voucher in January for her birthday for the Sanctuary in Covent Garden for a day of leisure with her girl friends. Which left me alone with M&D (behind the laptop) and they had a great plan. They were going to give me a taste of Australia by doing a Walk About London pub crawl throughout Central London. Although they all belong to the same chain prices can vary quite a lot a stubby of Tooheys New can cost you anywhere from £ 1.50 to £3.00 for example.

High Voltage Powerline Inspection

We'll be moving to Australia soon and with it comes a new job, but I think I will have to pass on this one if it' s offered to me.

Emperor Penguin

This Emperor Penguin in Japan loves to buy dinner for its family.

Parallel Universe

A great BBC documentary about Parallel Universes we just happen to live in one.

Nintendo Than and Now

All the 'old skool' Nintendo's transforming into todays Wii.

What happened to Baz?!

Cane toads are a major pest in Australia endangering hundreds of indigenous species.
This recent news article from the National Geographic News website tells about a giant Cane Toad found near Darwin:

I reckon it's Baz!!!

March 27, 2007—Mark Twain told tall tales about fantastic frogs, but a "monster" toad caught yesterday in Australia might have given the author a run for his money.

Volunteers found the football-size cane toad in a pond near the northern port city of Darwin (see Australia map).

Nearly 15 inches (38 centimeters) long and weighing about 2 pounds (0.9 kilogram), the croaker is one of the largest specimens ever caught in Australia.

"It's huge, to put it mildly," Graeme Sawyer, coordinator of the group that caught the toad, told the Associated Press. "The biggest toads are usually females, but this one was a rampant male. … I would hate to meet his big sister."

Sawyer's group was "raiding" Darwin's ponds last night as part of its mission to correct what some see as Australia's biggest environmental blunder: the introduction of the poisonous cane toads in the 1930s.

The toads were imported from South America to eradicate scarab beetles that were feasting on sugar cane crops. But soon it was the toads that were the pests, causing the deaths of countless native animals that eat them, from snakes to crocodiles.

Today groups like Sawyer's conduct regular excursions to capture the toads, which are then killed with carbon dioxide gas, frozen, and processed to neutralize the toxins.

"It turns out to be sensational fertilizer," Sawyer said of the resulting by-product.

But evidence suggests that the toads may be staying one jump ahead. A study last year found that the toads now cover five times more ground annually than they did in the 1930s—in part because they have evolved longer legs.

—Blake de Pastino

What if....?!

What if...?
What if, we could make robots to police the streets?
Tetra Vaal/Neill Blomkamp

Heineken

Heineken

Priceless!

A bottle of wine $12.00
Asking your girlfriend .... while...
Priceless!!!
For anything else Mastercard.

Lee Evans Live in Scotland

I hope you can spare 1hr 13 min for this one : Lee Evans Live in Scotland
Lee Evans is one of the best stand ups around today.

Australia update:

UK- Holland-UK-Hong Kong-Melbourne-Sydney

We've handed in our notices for work and rent, booked our flights arranged a 'farewell' party packed most of our belongings and we are almost ready to go now.
April the 28th we have organized a 'farewell' party where our guests are encouraged to take anything they like that we aren't taking with us to Australia. What's left after that we'll donate to one of the many charity shops here in Witney.
April the 30th will be our last working day here in the UK.
May the 8th - 16th we'll quickly pop over to Holland to say goodbye to the rest of my family. May the 20th we fly off to Hong Kong. We think five days will give us some time to acclimatise and as an added bonus we are meeting up with friends who live there.
May the 26th we fly to Melbourne again where we'll meet up with some more friends
May the 30th we'll start our new lives in Sydney.
It is all happening very quickly at the moment and it is all working out so well for us.

Goofy in NO SMOKING

I don't think you will ever see this one on TV again.

Clever Crows

How do they figure it out? Narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

All the countries in the World

All the countries in the world pointed out to you.
Thanks to Animaniacs

Our visa timeline

Here is a timeline of how long it took us to get our skilled independent visas.
The actual processing time came to 8 months and 14 days. Start to finish.
The time it has taken us about 2 years.

15 March 2005
We arrived in the UK after our trip around the world that took us 10 months in Australia, 1 month New Zealand and 1 month in the USA.
30 March 2005
Around this time we realized we wanted to go back to Australia and Sydney in particular.
After looking in to the matter we find out to our horror we did not meet the requirements for the visa we are after by just a hair. The Skilled - Independent visa Subclass 136 Caroline meet all the points required 120 is what is needed and I believe she came to 130-135.
The only requirement she didn't meet was that you have to have worked in your field for at least 12 months out of the last 18. And because we just spent 10 months in Australia where Caroline couldn't work....we didn't meet that criteria. You can imagine our disappointment. Such a small detail and the irony.
April 2005
We went to Holland and Caroline meets the rest of her new family. And it is the first time she has visited it.
May 2005
We find a place to live in Witney, Oxfordshire
June 2005
We both find jobs.
7 July 2006
We finally meet all the requirements and send the application in. We had decided to try and do it ourselves rather then go through an agent. The reasoning behind this was, is that you will still have to provide the immigration agent with all the information. Although it was a bit of a struggle Caroline and I managed to fill everything in. (Correctly as we never had to redo anything or provide additional information)
12 July 2006
Application received
10 August 2006
Creditcard debited
12 August 2006
Acknowledgment received
28 October 2006
I took my IELTS test.
I had to take this test to prove my understanding of the English language for the Australian Migration department.
10 November 2006
We sent my IELTS results in.
29 January 2007
We had a Case Officer assigned to us. And he requested for our medicals and my Dutch Police Certificate of good conduct by the 26th of February
14 February 2007
We sent our medicals off.
21 February 2007
We sent in my Dutch Police Certificate

Now we had done everything that needed doing..........and the agonizing wait began.
Every morning first thing Caroline would check her email and every time there wasn't anything we were wishing the day away. Just so we could check her email the following morning.

21 March 2007
We received the email we had been waiting for so long. Our visas granted. That evening we opened the Champagne we saved for this occasion. And later we opened another one, just because.
23 March 2007
We sent our passports in to have our visa put in.

Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After what has been a 2 year wait we finally have our Australian visas!!!!
We are currently finishing our 2nd bottle of champagne
I'll see you soon when recovered.

Don't bite off more then you can chew

Red Nose Day

Last Friday the 16th it was Red nose Day
Red Nose Day is a UK-wide fundraising event organised by Comic Relief every 2 years which culminates in a night of extraordinary comedy and moving documentary films. It's the biggest TV fundraising event in the UK calendar.
Here follows Ricky Gervais' contribution.


Comic Relief was set up by comedians and uses comedy and laughter to get serious messages across, while making sure that everyone who gets involved can have fun at the same time.
Donate here at http://www.rednoseday.com/donate/index.php

Really, I was just lending a hand

Antarctica Time lapse: A Year on Ice

We are experiencing a cold spell this coming week. After a few relatively mild weeks of Spring like weather. We are now confronted with freezing weather once again. The wind is coming from the north blowing the Arctic weather our way. Global warming seemed reasonable yesterday, today however....

When Graphic Artists Get Bored

This is a nice example of what people can do with Photoshop.

Moving abroad

I guess we better not try to swindle UPS out of any boxes, then.
Over the last few weeks Caroline and I have been busy trying to figure out what we want to take with us to Australia. That will mostly depend on the prices different removal companies will quote us.
What we have worked out so far is that we could be looking at paying anywhere from 700+ GBP(removal quote) to just a little over 200 GBP (excess bagage/sea freight/DIY) from the items we want to ship. The items we want to ship are mostly personal affects (photos, paintings) and DVD's. Items of which the replacement value would outweigh the shipping costs.
The problem with all this is the amount of space we think our items would take and weight being secondary. In order for us to get an estimate we need boxes, hence the video above.
In Holland it is quite easy to find empty boxes when you move house. You just pick them up at your local supermarket. Most supermarkets will have an area behind the tills where you can pack your groceries in the boxes they discard. Here in England it is a bit tougher.
Although most removal/shipping companies are quite happy to give you some boxes...... That is only after you have committed yourself to them.
Meanwhile we keep guessing, but I think we are close to as we know what we want to ship and we think we know how much room cubic ft/meters that will require in a sea freight container.
It is strange that when I left Holland 3 years and 2 days ago to the day all I needed was what was in my backpack. I must admit I didn't plan on moving out to Oz forever then but to see what we have accumulated since and don't want to separate ourselves with is still a significant amount.

Top Gear Fly -drive Challenge

Finally the full version of Top Gear's USA Fly-drive holiday.
Update on previous post

UPDATE: unfortunately the full version above is no longer available. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet I found the full episode containing their Fly drive somewhere else.

End Day

One day the world will end...
5 Ways the world as we know it could end when one day is here.
Another great documentary produced by the BBC.
Official End Day website on the National Geographic Channel.

The Royal Observatory Greenwich

Last weekend Caroline and I stayed with Matt and Dave in London who had recently moved there after having lived in NZ for a year. We met them during our travels in Australia. It was funny Australia is such a big place but we kept bumping into each other here (where I met Matt), here, here and here
Together we visited the Royal Observatory home of the Prime Meridian or 0º Longitude in Greenwich.

Anyway The Royal Observatory, home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian line, is one of the most important historic scientific sites in the world. It was founded by Charles II in 1675 and is, by international decree, the official starting point for each new day, year and millennium (at the stroke of midnight GMT as measured from the Prime Meridian).
More info on Greenwich Mean Time here and the Meridian Line here.

Lunar Eclipse

We had a lunar eclipse on Saturday 03/03/07. We came across it purely by accident. We just came back home from a nice dinner for our 2nd year anniversary, which was on 4th of March, that we noticed it. When the moon was eventually fully covered by the Earth's shadow the moon had this nice red/bronze glow to it. I found this image of it on Wikipedia
A funny fact about lunar eclipses is that unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed at a certain relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of the Earth. So when I texted my brother in the Netherlands there is a lunar eclipse going on. He texted me back saying they were already observing it from their kitchen window.
The next lunar eclipse will be the 27th of August, hopefully it will be just as clear then as it was now.

Two years already?!

We just celebrated our 2nd anniversary. Time has flown by since our wedding at the Little Chapel of Flowers in Las Vegas. And fortunately for me I didn't forget about it. Caroline had dropped many hints in the weeks leading up to it, but even so I don't think I would have forgotten it. For your 2nd anniversary you need to give your partner something made out of cotton, apparently. Therefore I treated Caroline (and myself) on a nice duvet set made of Egyptian cotton. Nothing but the best.

Copier Transformer

Think before you hit your copier, next time you have a paper jam.

Mars 2020

Where does the 'martian' flower come from?

Live Until I Die

Some very close calls....

Cordyceps Fungus

Natures Scariest Secret. From the BBC series Planet Earth

How does she do it?

You go ahead and get your car.
Don't worry, I'll open the gate for you when you get here.

Kill it Cook it Eat it on BBC3 soon

This is a promo of a program that will be aired on BBC3 soon. It raises some moral issues. One of them is would you still eat meat if you knew where it came from?
Personally I think everyone should now where their piece of meat comes from.
I am not a vegetarian/animal rights activist, I just liked the promo.
Note: Unfortunately the sound isn't that loud turn your volume up

Monty Python's Dead Parrot Sketch

Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch.

Laser- projection TV

The future of television as we now it might be all about "frickin' laser beams."

Novalux is launching a laser-projection TV in the near future that is cheaper and more power efficient then standard plasma and LCD TV's and more durable. Novalux

Bouncy balls

What would you do if you had thousands of bouncy balls? Approximately 250.000 you to would go to San Fransisco, I reckon.
The soundtrack is by Jose Gonzalez
'Heartbeats'.

No news

Sometimes there is just no news.

rockfish short film 3d blur studio

rockfish short film 3d blur studio

Top Gear Fly-drive Challenge

This episode was great. They each bought a $1000 car and had to drive it from Miami to New Orleans. The part where they were going to drive through Alabama with slogans painted on their cars,was especially funny, that nearly got them killed.
Some things you just don't do in the South.

Never do a good deed in Glasgow

And this is why.

Why men have sheds

The secret is out!!!!

How hard can it be?

Just when you found the perfect spot to park.....

Winter Wonderland

Last Thursday we could finally go for our medicals for our Australia Visa and we woke up to around 4Inches/10Cm of snow outside. Although it looked great I am glad it has all melted away now. And I am looking forward to having some nice bbq's again soon, on our lawn with a full jug of Pimm's on the table.

Pink Floyd The Wall

THE WALL le film 95' Mn

The Wall by Pink Floyd. Enjoy!!!

What is the worst that can happen?

What is the worst that can happen?
Dr Pepper.

Hahn Beer

Zwart boek/ Blackbook

We went to see Black Book/Zwartboek last Sunday in Oxford. It was quite good and we enjoyed watching it as much as you can enjoy a movie about WWII that is. A feature I especially liked was the fact that all characters spoke in their own language (Dutch/German/English/Hebrew) and that was then subtitled in English, something you don't see that much of nowadays.

We have a case officer!!!!

After months of waiting we have finally been assigned a case officer. The last hurdles for our visas for Australia are in sight. All we have to do now is have our medicals done and for me to get my Dutch Police Clearance. I couldn't apply for a Dutch Police Clearance until the Adelaide Processing Centre asked for it. We have booked our medicals and we have send an application form for my Police Clearance off today so hopefully we have everything done in the next few weeks. We are over the moon, although we do realize it hasn't been granted yet.

Our Burns Night

Haggis what can I say. We tried it. It was okay but not really something we will eat again....ever.

Not that it was particularly bad or anything but it is just the fact of knowing what's in it and the texture of the whole thing. A bit chewier than we had liked.

Here is what it looks like on a plate mashed potatoes, mashed suede(turnip) and of course the Haggis.

Burns Night January the 25th

Robert Burns' portrait next to a Haggis.

For some reason I always wanted to try a Haggis.
And why not try it when it is celebrated most during Burns Night. An event celebrated by Scots all over the world where they commemorate Robert Burns and recite his poems and the most famous being Auld Lang Syne.mp3 text.

I don't know why I would like to try it, maybe because it just doesn't sound right? Just read the ingredients.

Haggis Recipe
Ingredients
1 sheep's stomach or ox secum, cleaned and thoroughly, scalded, turned inside out and soaked overnight in cold salted water
heart and lungs of one lamb
450g/1lb beef or lamb trimmings, fat and lean
2 onions, finely chopped
225g/8oz oatmeal
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground dried coriander
1 tsp mace
1 tsp nutmeg
water, enough to cook the haggis
stock from lungs and trimmings

Method
1. Wash the lungs, heart and liver (if using). Place in large pan of cold water with the meat trimmings and bring to the boil. Cook for about 2 hours.
2. When cooked, strain off the stock and set the stock aside.
3. Mince the lungs, heart and trimmings.
4. Put the minced mixture in a bowl and add the finely chopped onions, oatmeal and seasoning. Mix well and add enough stock to moisten the mixture. It should have a soft crumbly consistency.
5. Spoon the mixture into the sheep's stomach, so it's just over half full. Sew up the stomach with strong thread and prick a couple of times so it doesn't explode while cooking.
6. Put the haggis in a pan of boiling water (enough to cover it) and cook for 3 hours without a lid. Keep adding more water to keep it covered.
7. To serve, cut open the haggis and spoon out the filling. Serve with neeps (mashed swede or turnip) and tatties (mashed potatoes).

Some ingredients like the lungs aren't even available for human consumption in the USA and apparently there are even Haggis smugglers.

But we'll have a go at our little Haggis tomorrow... And if we don't like it we have sausages on stand-by just in case.

Steve Irwin meets Ross

A great clip, the late Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, meets Ross, a guy who is afraid of everything shown to him by Steve. Can Steve make him overcome his fears? From the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

John West

Only the tastiest and most tender salmon....
John West.

Show some respect....

Show some respect or else it might cost you!!!
Did you know we have special ''Beware of the elderly" roadsigns in Britain.

And here is where you can buy one.

I can see!!!... I can see!!!

I 've been moaning lately about the lighting in the office as I thought that must be it making my eyes go funny after a day behind the PC. Surely it couldn't be me. Well I went to my GP for something else and mentioned it to him. He said: Have you had an eye test lately? No?! Anyhoo, I went to an opticians and had my eyes measured up. And........?
I need glasses as being diagnose farsighted last Saturday I picked them up and here they are....

I am using it for the Australia and New Zealand Magazine where we gather some information about emigrating to Australia.
A nice way to kill time while waiting to get a Case Officer assigned (we hope that will happen any day soon now).

The joker (Fat Boy Slim)

The joker.
About Fat Boy Slim.
More Fat Boy Slim Music Video Clips here.

PC Cassette Deck

What to do with all those old cassettes you still have laying about? They don't fit in your new car stereo anymore. Play them from your PC!!
Install this little beauty in one of the empty slots and away you go.
For more info on the Plus deck 2 go here.

Spam!!!

I used to love Spam in my macaroni growing up, unfortunately Caroline doesn't like it and to be honest it has lost its appeal to me 'meat in a can'.
However there is still an annual Spam festival called the Spam Jam in Austin, Minnesota.

Big Fish!!!

Last Saturday we finally ate 'Nemo' the fish that filled our freezer for the last few weeks.
As you can see a nice salmon, gutted it weighed in at 3.7 Kg. Normally we would never buy such a big fish but when they sold it to us at Waitrose it was reduced from 40 pounds to only 7. We thought it would be a nice excuse to invite family over. When it came to preparing 'Nemo' we thought it had been scaled but when it came to scoring the fish I noticed they were still on. The next half hour I spent descaling the fish, the next few days were spent cleaning scales from all over the house. Chef prepared it for us following one of Gordon Ramsay's recipes and when it was time to put it in the oven we realised the oven was too small!!! We had to bend both ends upwards and slam the door shut, so it would fit in.

When it came out it was delicious. Caroline had invited her parents, sister and her sister's fiancee but with a total of six we could never eat it all. We had to give portions away "for the cat" and even so we had some the next 2 days once for dinner and twice for lunch. We really had a good time and the whole meal was fantastic. But we 've had enough salmon for now, atleast for another week or 2.

The Trinket Maker

Will he ever tell her.....?

CGI musical instrument

Some kind of weird musical instrument.

Iphone

Iphone is an Ipod that can play music, phone, go on the internet and much more.......

Iphone by Apple

Iphone launch (BBC)

SAM

SAM1 a janitor who dreams of being a pilot.

In the Rough

After his honey kicks him out of the cave, Brog discovers bachelor life ain't all it's cracked up to be.

Star Wars helpdesk

Pity the Stormtrooper having to man the tech support desk on the Death Star!

Great White (Planet Earth; BBC)

With the CD/DVD vouchers I received for Christmas I bought the complete DVD series of Planet Earth the other day. It has some astonishing footage on it from all over the globe and all sorts of wildlife like these Great White Sharks that appear to 'fly'.
For more information on Planet Earth see the BBC's Planet Earth website
or look online for the Planet Earth DVD collection.

New Year's Day BBQ

!!!!HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! Caroline and I have started what could become a family tradition of our own. The New Year's Day Barbecue. We have had our first bbq of this year 2007 on the 1st of January. We were lucky it is very mild for the time of year +/- 7C. But we did it and were the first of our family to have one this year. Usually it is Caroline's Dad who manages to have the first one as soon as weather conditions improve. We thought we should do it before we move to Australia and for having the first bbq of the year being ruled out for being summer there as being unfair to everyone on the northern hemisphere.

New Year's Eve

We spent the last day of 2006 well.
We slept in late, bought fireworks and we had decided to have canapes for lunch which turned out to be several starters instead. We made Crab filled lettuce wraps; Spicy Prawns in batter and last but not least Parmesan Baskets for our selves. The Parmesan baskets turned out best:

For dinner we thought we should have Partridge as a starter freshly caught at a local supermarket car park as you do:

Caroline and I did wonder when they would discover the bird sticking out of their bumber.

And the piece de resistance was a beautiful tender reck of lamb in a herb crust. At that time alcohol levels had rissen to a point where we just ate the thing rather then take another picture of Chef with it. It was REALLY nice though.

Fire (update 2)

Final update,... I hope. The people from the Powerboard came out on the 27th of December and spotted that the previous repair man had routed 2 power cables instead of one to a main fuse causing it to trip everytime at 23:32 when the power for the storage heaters came on. He fixed it so there is power going to the storageheaters again, but he could not turn it on for liability reasons.
The landlord had to switch the storageheaters on as there is no fuse 'protecting' it when an overload would occur. But chances of that happening again.......(knock on wood) So the landlord still needs to install a fuse there, but for the meantime it is working.

It was nice to be there while the Powerboard repaired it because at the end the electrician made some recommendations as to what the landlord might want to do which I wouldnt have heard otherwise. One of the things he said in the end was that with current regulations the house would not be up to standard for letting. If he would like to let it out after we move he would have to modernise the metercabinet.

On Friday the 28th the heating worked properly again and last Saturday the 30th the house was comfortably warm, once again just in time for the New Year