York stags

Today I'm off to York for a mates stag do. I set off from Stafford train station earlier today and am just on the way to Manchester picadilly where I change trains to York. The plan is to go to the races today, meal tonight, go-karting tomorrow and then another meal and then home Sunday. Weather looks good so should be a great weekend!
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Location:York,United Kingdom

Bull Ring Bull

This was on display the other day in Selfridges in Birmingham. The whole thing was made entirely from jelly beans... cool...


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Location:A4201,London,United Kingdom

Red Bull

Saw this at the motorway service station yesterday. Apparently it's one of David Coulthard's old ones. I assume it hadn't stopped for fuel!


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Location:A4201,London,United Kingdom

RHS WISley

The other weekend, my parents came down to Radlett. We went along to RHS Wisley. This is the Royal Horticultural Society's show garden centres and I must admit it was pretty spectacular. ITs down in Surrey so not too far away - about an hours drive. They have all manner of different gardens, including Bonsai, fruit, rose, herbs, rhodedendron's etc, etc. We're just replanting the Rugeley garden so it was worth the trip.

Drayton Manor

Its been years since I went to a Theme Park and longer still that I went to Drayton Manor. This is a theme park just souteside Tamworth in Staffordshire. We went there yesterday with the kids - they (and us) had a great time. The weather was excellent and there was hardly any queuing as we were not in school holidays. Everything was pretty much as I remember it, with a few changes - a couple of new rollercoasters, Apocalypse had replaced the Parachute Drop and some minor ride alterations. Interestingly, rides like the Buffalo coaster were still going strong.

I went on pretty much everything except the Pirate ship and Maelstrom..they're just too "swingy"for me.

The garden

For my birthday my parents have very kindly offered to restock the garden in rugeley. We lost a lot of plants this winter particularly the palms. The worst one was the very big one nearest the house. This had grown to be quite substantial but the frost and snow had gotten to it. I'd picked out some plants and my mom had chosen the rest. Looks really good now and certainly will when it matures.








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Location:Coach Central,Lawley and Overdale,United Kingdom

Finally on holiday!

At last I've broke up from work for a couple of weeks! Having said that I'll probably be glad to get back - sj's sister, husband and three kids are over for three weeks and the intention is we spend some time with them. We pocked them up from heathrow on monday and then drove up to Staffordshire on Tuesday. Today we're out in Telford. Got a few things planned, perhaps Go Ape tomorrow, party Saturday, christening Sunday, etc, etc.

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Location:Woodhouse Central,Lawley and Overdale,United Kingdom

Hot summer

Wow. How hot is it today? Summer has arrived! It's about 28 degrees today and very sticky...

This weekend is a little busy. Today has been down cleaning the house and tidying up the garden. Tomorrow it's off for a BBQ at some work friends house and the England game of course. On Monday sj's sister, husband and three kids arrive from New Zealand for a thee week holiday so it's going to be busy busy!

This is the view as I write this - outside Tzar deli...

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Location:Roman Rd,Aldenham,United Kingdom

Back in vienna

I seem to spend more time in Vienna airport than any other nowadays. It's like the gateway to everywhere! This trip I've been to Austria then Slovenia then Austria then Slovakia and then back to Austria. All in the space of two days...

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Last night we were invited out by the team who had arranges the conference I'm speking at. We walked around the town of Ptuj , apparently earmarked for the 2012 European Capital of Culture. It's a nice town with some interesting spots. Very old as well, it can trace it's heritage back to roman times.

We went up to the castle first of all where we had a pretty decent view of the town. Then it was on to Pullis Winery where we spent a very enjoyable couple of hours wine tasting, both from the barrel and the bottle. We ate at the Pullis restaurant where it was a six course meal with six accompanying wines. All in all an excellent evening.


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Location:Pot V Toplice,Ptuj,Slovenia