weekend log

This weekend we visited Ormskirk. There are many nice shops and resteraunts, since it was Saturday it was a market day. All of the pedestrianized streets had clothing and food and anything else you can think of for sale. There were some nice pickings in the charity shops and book stores. One little one we wandered into is called the "The Fairy Wing Repair Shop". Very eclectic little shop of statuary and cute prints, trinkets, gemstones. Megan and the kids were happily occupied for almost an hour, very nice staff who were pointing out the hidden sprites around the store to the kids.


There was a very good park with modern playground, bowling green, and lots of opens pace, right off the town centre. We walked around the old church, which was interesting because it had both a spire and a separate tower. Also, a very creepy graveyard that the girl was just not feeling...



Later we drove into Liverpool and did a little shopping at he new Primark, what a mad house...they had to hire a private security firm for extra croud control!

On our way home, we decided to stop and see the Anglican Cathedral, I've been to that city 100 times now and have never gone inside. It dominates the skyline of Liverpool. The red sandstone it is made of (like so many other walls and buildings of the area) gets dirty...kind of a black fadded look. But the place is absolutely massive, I was very impressed and will go back some day for a trip up to the top.





This picture is actually just a chapel off the the side of the main church!

Weekend log

Saturday we spent doing misc things at home and in the town. Mainly I was setting up all the wireless devices to work with the new pre-n router... I think there was a kids birthday party to go to in there somewhere, oh yes, and a trip to the library. Widnes has an absolutely terrific central library, housed in a very fancy historic building near town centre. Put that together with good schools, frendly people, low crime, and the excellent "Vicki" park, it adds up to a great place to live.

Today we went to the Manchester Printworks, saw the Silver Surfer for 5 pounds (total, for 4 of us!). Ate at the Hard Rock. That part was the boy's idea but they have some good grub and atmosphere even if it is a bit... I'm not sure... tourist-franchizy-merchandice-rich-shallow-rock-veneerish. Guess it shouldn't matter. We seem to visit that area a lot because we much prefer that area around the Arndale than the Trafford Centre or Cheshire Oaks or anything in Liverpool. Another couple of chains nearby that area we seem to eat at are Nando's and especially the Wagamama noodle bar.

Bristol

The lack of posts recently has a direct but opposite correlation to the amount of post worthy activities that have gone on. My blog is missing 2 months of the busiest time of my life!

Families have come to call, and we've gone to Germany, Nederlands, France, around UK, etc. But that isn't what this post is about.

This weekend we went to an eco-festival in downtown Bristol. It is a terrific city with a harbor and quays, all done up very nicely with museums, parks, housing, resteraunts, pedestrian bridges, mature trees, coblestone streets, all very nice. The festival was mostly focused on healthy / sustainable lifestyles and food. It was not really a vegetarian focus, but more about organic methods, the negative impacts of flying foods around the world to be consumed, consuming them in season, that sort of thing.

There were music acts, variety shows, acrobatic performers, kids activities, all around a very good family friendly event. We took a harbor cruise on the Matthew, a replica wooden sailing ship with modern amenities. A ship like this is what John Cabot discovered Newfoundand with. Another famous replica ship we were able to tour was the Amistad, which has been to Toledo before, in 2003 I think. We met a young lady on board from Toledo, who lived near UT like us. Small world!

We also went to the Create center, which is full of eco-friendly exhibits and educational materials. One of the neatest parts about it is the eco-home which is right next to Create. The natural heating and cooling of the structure is based on convection, similar to Enertia homes. The most amazing thing about these facilities is that they are city government sponsored projects and maintained by volunteers!

We spent a couple of hours at the Bristol City Gallery, what a terrific museum. It blends fine art, living history, and natural history together, all for free admission.

Also in town is Explore@Bristol which is a very nice science museum, we had a quick walk through part of it but not enough time to stay :-(

We traveled via the Virgin speed train, and stayed in the youth hostel. The hostel was decent basic accomodation at a perfect location, breakfast was excellent. I'll post some pictures when I can.

An evening at the Prince Edward Theatre

Tonight after a trip to the Tate Modern I took Megan, Carol, and the kids to see Mary Poppins. One of the most amazing productions I've ever seen, incredible cast, set, and nice venue. Megan's mom said it made her whole trip so anything extra from that point would just be bonus.

The girl was pleased to finally see a Jackson Pollock up close, but I think later in our trip while visiting the Musee de Orsay the boy and I convinced her that impressionism like that of Van Gogh and Seurat is worthwhile too.

crazy busy

Life has been hectic lately... still haven't caught up on the last holiday memories and they just keep rolling on.

Had a crackin' double rainbow tonight, very beautiful...

Cornwall - Day 3

First, a couple photos with the kids.



We traveled back to the Minack theatre to see it in nice weather. It was built by a lady named Rowena Cade and her two gardners. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING story and one of the most beautiful places I've been to. We will go back to see a play there someday. Currently is playing "Man From La Mancha", which is not family friendly so we had to settle with walking around a bit and snapping some photos.



You can see how so much of a personal touch was put into the space, the chairs are inscribed with the headline titles performed through the years.


Later we made our way up the cost to see this famed St Michael's Mount. It is an island that has a cobblestone causway that can only be traversed at low tide. Tide was coming in when we were arrived, and they would close the causway shortly after. I believe it is just private residences with some public footpaths so we weren't broken hearted about walking all the way out (as most people seemed determined to do!)

Cornwall - Day 2

The weather wasn't on our side today, very windy and rainy which limited our options. We ended up driving all over the place on treacherous roads. This picture is on one where I felt relatively safe to snap a photo. Megan was gritting her teeth at various passes and I am now quite experienced in narrow winding lanes with steep grades in my 6 speed stick shift minivan! This was much worse than when I tried to cut through back roads across the Swiss alps into Bavaria.





There are a bunch of these stone formations that have been left around by the Celts in Cornwall a couple thousand years ago. These two are called Lanyon Quiot and Men an tol. Supposedly a virgin who crawled backwards through the circle about 13 times would become pregnant!?? Stranger things have happened...

The Cornwall Experience - Day 1

The kids had some time off from school so we packed up on Friday night and set off early Saturday morning for the southwest tip of England. We stopped first in the town of Cheddar and took a hike up a trail to view Cheddar Gorge. Yes, this is where the cheese comes from and every other shop sells cheese. There is a town called Beer nearby that I had to resist visiting :-)

We had our first Cornish pasties and a local tea shop. The owner complained about the new American visa requirements and how it meant his grandaughter wouldn't be able to visit him now due to huge delays in processing. But overall a very helpful guy, he told us which path to take to avoid the tourist toll up to the trails, and to watch out for the rare bread of shaggy goats we would find at the top of the hill.





After hiking a while and witnessing some lovely views, we carried on to our next destination...Glastonbury. This town is your atypical granola atmosphere (plenty of nuts and flakes). We toured the Abbey ruins, which just happened to have a church service on...the kids really admired that these people still went to church with half the walls fallen down and no roof!

Eventually, we made our way towards St Just, which is near Land's End. We stayed at the youth hostel, which we know from experience these are not always easy to find. In this case that would be an understatement... I had the GPS coordinates and general directions from the YHA website. However, this road just got smaller and smaller, until I'm driving down a farm lane with walls on either side and overgrowth scraping the sides of the car. There was no where to turn around so I just kept driving, but we lost daylight and it started raining...and felt the situation could only get worse. I started backing out of the lane until a car came up behind me... ok. So onward forward, and the path splits 3 ways with no markings as to which one I should follow. I chose the widest one which turned out to be wrong. I followed this for a while till I found a comfortable place to park and call the hostel. They straightened me out and I went back to the split and took the correct path. Eventually we found it and checked into our family room. In the morning we found out what a special place this is when we saw the view.

Steve on my mind

I've been thinking a lot lately about a colleague Steve Ruane and his bicycle accident in Sylvania. Such a tradgedy. He is a very intelligent man who lives life on his own terms. He and his family have a long road of recovery ahead.

http://z13.invisionfree.com/BikeWorks/index.php?showtopic=230

Live every day to its fullest.

Wednesday nights in Liverpool

Megan's been taking a dance class on Wednesday evenings in Liverpool...so I've been taking her and then exploring parts of the city. Tonight we went to this old manor house called Allerton Hall. Its been converted to a pub with nicely sized beer garden and playground. Also its surrounded by a public park, very scenic. The kids made friends with some locals and the boy has been asking me if we could move to Liverpool.

Manchester Museum

Today Megan went to the Indian Dance Days workshop at the Lowry. We dropped her off and then went exploring Manchester. I wanted to check out Platt Fields park because there are some events we'd like to see later this summer.



There was some serious model sailboat racing going on...interesting to watch these guys pacing back and forth at the pond's edge nearly jousting each other with the radio control antennas.

When the weather took a turn for the worse we sought out the Manchester Museum. It is sort of an anthropology and biology musuem. Dinosaur bones and insect displays, all kinds of animal displays...samurai armor, ancient coin collection, etc. It was a great day out and well worth the admission price (free!)

Liverpool China Town

While Megan danced tonight I took the kids to China town. The boy was sticking his nose into each resteraunt and begging me to go in and buy something.

signs of spring

Took a walk down to the Birchfield park today, gave some bread crumbs to the ducklings. How cute!

Most of the English really take pride in their gardens, and there are blooms of ornamental trees everywhere (wreaking havoc on my allergies...but its worth it).

Wales camping expedition

This weekend we packed our thermals set off for the beaches of Anglesey for 2 nights of cold weather camping.

I'm surprised but the kids didn't complain about the cold one time. They were a little unsure about the wind considering it uprooted the tent stakes and blew the tent upside down with our stuff inside it...but slept like rocks after hiking around beaches and dunes all day. Some friends of ours have a static caravan nearby where we went to hang out and play games for a while. We introduced them to some of our favorites like Apples to Apples, hiss, and slamwhich.

Here is a picture of the "old bridge" at Aberffraw... its over 300 years old.


On Saturday night there was not a cloud in the sky which made the moon and stars very beautiful, but also made the temperature drop. It was just 4 celcius (39 or so F) and don't know what that made it with the wind.


On Sunday we made our way to Carnerferon Castle, this is where prince Charles was ... installed? There is a nice museum there and they keep the place in nice shape. The view from the towers is pretty impressive.

weekend update

This weekend were working around the house mainly but took a break on Saturday afternoon to see a show at the Citadel theatre in St Helens: The Elves and the Shoemaker. The boy was pretty sure he wouldn't enjoy it since he had seen and heard this story "a hundred times already". From the first song both kids were taken. The songs were bright and cheerful and the actors did a nice job. My only criticism would be the costumes... might have been less distracting to have some "period" clothing?

Sunday was mothers day in UK and the kids delighted in giving Megan their hand made cards and bringing breakfast in bed.

Top movies...

Lisa tagged me about 2 months ago to post my 5 top movies... this is probably more difficult than top music.

Having trouble putting them in order, but here are 5 mainstream movies and 5 dark movies, because I couldn't possibly recommend watching the dark films to normal people!


Mainstream:
Forrest Gump (1994)
The Princess Bride (1987)
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Romeo + Juliet (1996)


Dark / alternative:
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Titus (1999)
Gattaca (1997)


And thats all I have to say about that...

Top 20 Albums

A colleague challenged me to name my favorite 10 albums. This is so difficult! Here is my 10, plus another 10 honorable mentions. There are certain songs on some albums that annoy me, but overall they are all excellent. I plan on reviewing all of these on Amazon if I haven't done so already.


Top 10

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1) Kings of Convenience - Riot on an Empty Street
2) Ben Folds - Unauthorized Biography of Rienhold Messner
3) Craig Armstrong - As if to Nothing
4) Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
5) Death Cab for Cutie - Plans

6) DJ Tiesto - Just Be
7) Nelly Furtado - Folklore
8) William Orbit - Pieces in a Modern Style
9) Beth Orton - Daybreaker
10) Joan Osbourne - Relish


Next 10 - heavier and older

---

11) Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
12) Days of the New - II
13) Stone Roses - Second Coming
14) Trail of Dead - Source Tags and Codes
15) Meat Puppets - Too High to Die

16) Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies
17) Phish - Billy Breathes
18) Dave Matthews - Crash
19) Charlatans - Some Friendly
20) Tears for Fears - Tears Roll Down

Firenze / Florence

Had an unforgettable time with Megan and the kids in Italy for the past 6 days. We spent some time in Pisa and the rest in Florence. I have so many photos and so many things to glow about, but nary the time to blog about it. Here is my highlight... my 4 year old girl trooping to the top of Brunelleschi's dome with dear old dad. 295 feet and something like 450 steps to the top. You climb up narrow steep stairs between the two layers of the dome.


By the way, the images painted on the inside of that dome are scary!!! I'm talking people getting eaten alive and the condemned being sodomized by torches...not exactly what I'd want to daydream about on Sunday morning!


We visited many churches seeing all kinds of fresco / alter / grave / relics / gardens. We saw the art of Uffizi, Bargello, Acedamia, Piatti Palace, Boboli Gardens.

We toured the science center where you can see these excellent old contraptions like one an original Pascal calculator (and one even older), astroblades, lode stones, telescopes, etc.

Walking around town we saw lots of old town ruins and little statuary tucked here and there within the city. We sampled lots of wine and local food (gelato...mmmm), ate at streetside cafes under canopies, listened to musicians and watched street performers, bartered at open air markets, ugh... I am so tired just thinking of it all again! But it was a once in a lifetime experience that I'll always cherish.

Stoke on Trent

Today we went to a place called Stoke on Trent, its like the pottery capital of UK.

There are various museums in the town, we chose the Gladstone. It is obsolete as far as pottery production goes, but they've kept the old factory nicely in tact. You can look inside the old ovens, wander around and see what it was like for the workers, and best of all, you can get your hands dirty!

The boy took a shot at spinning a bowl. The girls made bone china flowers.

Its a great experience, highly recommended. I will fix up this stiched photo someday...not great exposure controls on my mobile phone ;-)



There is a nice exhibit on ceramic tiles. You can see arabic designs from 13th century, large mosaics, see presses and how making tiles has changed over the centuries. They also have a very strange exhibit on toilets through history...toilets as functional art? Never gave it much that much thought!

Copenhagen sightseeing day

A brief selection of what I saw, many more pics to come. What a smart and beatuful city, except for that Chistiana part...more about that later.