a big guy in a big city

Posted by Bone at July 31st, 2006

Me and Neil went up to Tarn Hows on Friday evening so that he could pick some wild blueberries, I just sat on the hill at one end and took in the view, no way I was staining my fingers with blueberry juice. I noticed a load of geese down at the waters edge and thought I’d go in for some closer photography. They were pretty placid, and didn’t go crazy when I got close. The pic is well worth the full view.

Posted by Bone at July 31st, 2006

I bet you’re surprised that I managed to reach a magical triple!

Went to Ro’s for a party on Saturday, and even though I really, really, really didn’t think I was going to drink I ended up downing a few cans (all free, thanks to Ro and Tiggy) and then I stayed at Tigg’s, so the T-man was pretty much a lifesaver yesterday. If lifesaver means gave me the means and opportunity to get a bit tipsy. The rain barely dampened spirits, turning it into more of a garage party than a sat-out-in-the
-garden party, but it was still a lot of fun, even if I’d only met 4 of the attendees before, but Ro’s friends from Leeds ski and snowboard society were a welcoming lot, and tried to keep us involved in activites. Then as the rain cleared and the fire slowly burned, we sat under the stars and it was freakin’ awesome. Also awesome, and very sweet, was that Rosie and her boyfriend Matt put up a tent for me when I went to pick up Tigg, which was soooo nice, but given the choice of a tent (when I’d left my sleeping bag at Tiggy’s house) or Tigg’s spare room, it wasn’t too tough to make up my mind!

Then today I thought I’d walk up Black Crag to watch the airshow that was happening in Windermere. Tigg’s sister Kathy had told me that it started at 2:15, so I got home early, had a bath, some lunch, checked my e-mails, then packed up a picnic and grabbed my camera and headed off in the car, you didn’t think I was going to climb an entire mountain did you?

It was a hard hour walk in the baking sun (no stops, no drink break), and the sweat was literally dropping off me (savour that image), but I managed to get up the the summit for 14:00, and was surprised to find myself all alone (only 1 other person and 2 dogs came in the hour and a half that I was there), and set up my picnic. I was pretty disappointed by the airshow, there was a modern jet, a couple of spitfire’s, what may have been a Lancaster bomber, and then a few helicopters, then nothing for ages, so I packed up and headed back. My dodgy ankles made the trek back down a bit of a pain, but it wasn’t too bad. Then when I was sat in the living room at about 17:30, I see 5 jets flying vertically, coming up from behind the hill on the horizon. The Red Arrows.

Bugger.

Posted by Claire at July 28th, 2006

Well, it has come to the time where I post to you on my very last night here in Regensburg, Germany.  I feel like it should be something truly massive & amazing, however, I’m not on my own computer, it’s very late & we have to be up at stupid o’clock in the morning, so unfortunately the creative juices aren’t flowing as well as I had hoped.  Still, all that is left to say is that it’s been one hell of a year & I’m so honoured to have been given the opportunity to do take part in such a brilliant programme.  Sure, I’ve had my sad times here, and you’ve heard about them all I’m sure, but on the whole, I couldn’t have wished it to be any better…

Next time I post to you I will be in the bosum of Windymere, happy to be re-united with my best friends, surrounded by people speaking English, who also have the ability to smile & will no doubt have visited the wonderful Wheelhouse.  However, I know for a fact I’ll be missing the easy life with very little work, German beer, Apfelschorle & Schnitzle.

Germany 2006.  Oh, the memories!

Posted by Bone at July 28th, 2006

I’m not one of those people who usually says that Microsoft is the devil, but why did they have to take hotmail and make it suck?

Almost all the e-mail I get on my hotmail address is spam (in the main inbox, there’s even more in the junk-mail folder), whereas before I joined the Beta programme there was almost no spam coming into my inbox.

If I compare this to Gmail, I get no spam, except for 1 e-mail every two days that is written in Chinese/Japanese, but that gets put into the spam box anyway.

I haven’t noticed any digg or blog chatter about this so I may well be an isolated case.

Did I just devote a post to e-mail? Dang, the boys only went to Tenerife today and I’m already bored…

Posted by Bone at July 27th, 2006

There’s a show on BBC3 now called ‘Lord of the Dance Machine’ about a guy who is the best Dance Dance Revolution in the country. He also happens to come from Leicester, and whenever they show him practising DDR he’s in Leicester Megabowl (now torn down to make way for a John Lewis’). Ther’s loads of shots of him walking through Leicester, and even a scene where he’s playing pool in Retribution, at the table that we always used to get when we went there!

Nostalgia-fest!

Posted by Bone at July 25th, 2006

I’d like to point out that this picture is in no way photoshopped, I just have the almost magical ability to stand on water, or y’know, rocks….

(Czech it in full view for the Blea Tarn loveliness)

*I hadn’t noticed it before, but this is post number 666 for the blog, how ironic/coincidental! (y’know, because I look like Jesus…)*

Posted by Claire at July 25th, 2006

Faith has played a large part in my life over here in Regensburg over the past few weeks.  Firstly, my faith has been restored by German people after they helped me out a lot the other night.  They are actually human.  I wouldn’t have known it!  On the other hand, I have unfortunately come to realise that there is a person here, who I trusted a lot & was honest & open with, who I don’t have any faith in anymore.  It’s such a shame that it’s come to this between us, considering we only had a week left to go.

(And if anyone wants to trade those 2 stories for something juicier, or even telling me which fool thought Katy Naik couldn’t speak English, hit me back!)

But speaking of having very little time left, we are down to 4 days & counting guys!  Before I leave this city, this country.  I cannot wait to be tucked up safe & sound in little old Windymere.  The past few weeks have been awesome though, we went to the Hofbrauhaus in Munich again, before seeing James Blunt at the Olympic Centre there.  He was really good, though made some interesting sexy faces throughout the set!  Then this weekend I was in Salzburg with my parents & sister (who are now in Munich, yes, same country, same Bundesland as me!) & we had a great time.  Though if I hear “The hills are alive with the sound of music” again I might just… well, I dunno what I’d do… but it wouldn’t be pretty…

So apart from having crisises of faith, I am also stressing about my exams.  I missed 2 last week due to a reason beyong my control (and beyond blogging) & still they wont let me re-sit them.  Which has kind of set me off with a bad mindset for the next ones.  I’ve done 2 & know I passed today’s, though it was a poor, poor effort, but still got 2 tomorrow.

Yep, that’s why I’m posting….

Posted by Bone at July 25th, 2006

Another fun-filled couple of days for the Bone.

Went to Ullswater on Saturday and rented a boat on the lake, I ended up doing a lot of rowing (good thing I’d brought the guns, huh?), but it was still a lot of fun making our way past the shore whilst Green played a few songs on the acoustic. Just so we’re clear, it wasn’t just me and Green in the boat, that would be slightly weird. Then later that night I enjoyed the classic line-up of going to the Angel Inn, Churchill’s, and finally to the Wheelhouse, where I got a bit of a migraine, but I didn’t really want to impose on anyone by asking them to look after me, since everyone was having a great time, so I improvised with this line of thought.

Now, even I didn’t think this was amongst my best plans, but to my surprise it actually worked, so for the first time in my life, I was actually glad that Greeny had decided on his round that it was a good idea to buy us shots of Sambuca and cheeky vimto’s. We ended up sleeping on the floor at Scott’s new house (which he moved into this weekend), and ended up with quite an angry neighbour at the door at 4a.m., though I swear we weren’t being that loud, what a way to introduce yourself to the neighbours!

Went for an all-day barbecue down at Clarky’s on Sunday, his house is right next to the lake, so we had an amazing view all the time, and even though a few people didn’t show up it was still a load of fun being all manly building a fire, and not a single person got food poisoning, result!

And today I swam across Blea tarn, the deepest tarn in the Lake District. It started out as me just taking a few pictures, then I wondered if my brother could walk around quicker than I could swim to the other side. The race was on! I started out at quite the pace, but began to slow by half way ( I am in no way fit enough race across a tarn, even though I’m a good swimmer), when I got closer to the edge the weeds started to slow me up as I couldn’t do as deeper strokes with my arms, then the rocks started getting in the way, and I had no energy left in my arms, I was pretty much pusinh and dragging myslef through the shallow water at the end, but my desperate efforts were to no avail, Neil proudly stood atop the designated finishing point when I was about a metre away. Then I lay there for about 5 minutes trying to get my breath back whilst all the little fish nibbled at me, I can only presume this was because I kicked up lots of stuff that they eat, and because I’m naturally tasty.

Posted by Bone at July 23rd, 2006

Just seen this on Digg, thought it deserved a bit of an airing on BGBC, pretty amazing, and I love the single shot pull out.

Posted by Bone at July 20th, 2006

Yesterday after me, G and my brother went swimming in a river off Little Langdale Tarn (it was awesome, the water was warmer than the sea in France, and the private pool in France), I got bit on the palm on the hand by an insect, probably a clegg (sp?), and now I can’t grip things anymore, and my fingers don’t seem to be moving too easy. But I can still type, I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear.