Saturday, July 29, 2006

James Ride 2006


We had a ride on July 11 for James thru Islington, Newington Green and Stokey. It was nice to take it at a bit of an easier pace than the last couple of years.

We finished up at The Shakespeare in Allen Road. There's some pix from Dave's camera on my smugmug page here.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Vale the tree





A huge branch of the 50ft gum tree that graced Mum & Dad's house in Lindisfarne came down last week. It blocked the road the house is on and damaged Dad's car. The council were on the job quick smart, and in true Tassie spirit, they chainsawed the old bugger down, and its now a pile of woodchips. Not bound for Japan to be made into toilet paper, mind you, (Sorry, Gunn's, you missed that one), but the local garden centre to be used for mulch. Dad took some pix of the operation, which can be found here.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Oh I do love to be beside the seaside......


The Company Shed in West Mersea, Essex is an old Oyster shed on the harbour which has been turned into a seafood house. Pretty basic is the way to describe it...you turn up with your own bread, booze and condiments (NO salad though), get your name on the blackboard if the place is humming. It usually takes about an hour to get a table, during which time you can go and have a sly one at the sailing club up the road (they had a very hoppy local on tap, as well as Adnams).

Once you take your table in the shed, you are able to choose from the limited, but delicious menu. We had a seafood platter for six (whole prawns, prawn meat, cockles, smoked mackrel, fresh salmon, whole crab, tiger prawns, mussels) @ £8.50 a head, plus a dozen local oysters, a couple of pints of prawns and a lobster. All in all, it was £75.00..an absolute bargain. We bought a couple of bottles of plonk, some thousand island dressing, some tabasco and a few bread rolls. There was so much in our tums afterwards, we doggy bagged about a pint and a half of prawns. Twelve thumbs up from the A-Team Party!

Atter the seafood extravaganza, we waddled back to the van and on to West Mersea Beach. It was about four pm, and the temperature must have been in the low thirties. Lookingt forward to running down the golden sands into some beautiful blue water, we were somewhat surprised to find the tide was out, revealing a two hundred metre strip of mud, oyster shells and pebbles, leading to some distinctly shallow (but warm) water. It was quite refreshing really, but didn't stop most of the party pining for the likes of Thirroul, Narrabeen or Wineglass. Steve, however, was quite happy in a socks and sandals kinda way. Katie ruined her new Birkenstocks in the mud.

As usual, the requisite snaps can be found right here.

Sunday, July 23, 2006

The new Gooner's


I went for a ride around Emirates Stadium this afternoon while the first match was being played (Dennis Bergkamp testimonial vs Ajax) . You don't seem to be able to hear the crowd at our place any more, but maybe that will change when the season gets into full swing.

There's no bike racks, and the buses aren't being parked underneath the stadium as per the original plans, as the club says they're "terrorist threats". Yeah right, what you gonna do about it, Islington Council? Probably nuthin.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Blessed be the stray lambs



Katie & Hanesey had an audience with the big guy recently. I don't think it helped the situation. They're still gonna fry.

For this and some more random photos around Limey in the baking summer, click right here.

Friday, July 21, 2006

The Thirsty new Commodore


GM-H have just unveiled their new Commodore to a slathering Australian press. Apparently it's the "most powerful ever". Of course, most powerful ever inevitably means heaviest drinker. Holden's spindoctor in chief has pooh poohed the inevitable criticism of such a move thus:

".....Holden executives, meanwhile, seemed oblivious to petrol prices. The first three cars on display were V8s and the company quickly rattled off power figures for their V6 and V8 engines, the most powerful ever in a Holden.

"A car is a massive emotional statement," said Holden's executive director of sales and marketing, Alan Batey. "The difference [in the cost of petrol] is two beers a week."...."

It's a funny old world. At a time when most countries are doing that little bit more to conserve what's left of our natural resources, good old Holden releases the dinosaur burner of dinosaur burners......I guess an electrically powered version's out of the question.....