Thursday, October 29, 2009

Halloween 2009 (decorations)

This year, we made a little bit of effort decorating the house for Halloween.

Getting started, and the babies just wanted to taunt me and play on the back room sofa!


The first place to be dressed up was the hall...


I think that the hall looks better without using camera flash, it looks spooky.

Then the front room....


Spooky Eeyores...... Witch Flowers............

And my favourite little Witchy! And my beloved sofa-bed.



Some Nightmare Before Christmas Decorations........



Look at pumpkin Eeyore! and the crow with my lego dollies.

pumpkin guys!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Blackpool (End of September 2009)

My little girls absolutely love Blackpool illuminations (so do we!) So, after a day of doing shopping for shiny glittery pink things and going to the park, we took them there.
We saw some lovely tableaus first. This is one of Postman Pat.

There was an Egyptian one.

This is one of a spooky hotel.

And a spooky house....

And, I don't know what the theme for this one was, but it was pretty.

Moving on from the tableaus, we saw the overhead lights, and a tram all done up as a train.

These lights look like fancy lamp shades!

And these lights look like party poppers..
And we saw the tower...
A famous fast food place has a lights section too.

I saw a hotel that I instantly fell in love with...


We saw a big wheel on one of the smaller amusement piers...
Another lovely photo of Blackpool Tower.
And, finally a photo of the front of the Pleasure Beach.




(I asked for a transfer to a bigger house today, my nerves are shot! I have lived here for 10 years!)

Monday, September 07, 2009

Oakwood and London 2009

Night\Day One Sunday\Monday

On the first evening of the holiday, Darren told me that we were heading for London.
As I was sewing a corset to wear on the holiday, I didn't look up until we crossed the Severn Bridge, I was very confused by the, 'Welcome to Wales' sign!
Darren then told me that we were going to ride Bounce, Speed and Megaphobia, at Oakwood theme park the next day!!
It was a wonderful surprise, Megaphobia is my favourite wooden coaster. Speed was my first ever Euro fighter coaster, and Bounce was my first ever shot and drop tower.


In the late afternoon, after discovering that the bar was not open, we went on our way to look at the White horse in Uffington.
I was getting very miserable attempting to read the map to Darren, I almost put the map on my head and grabbed a beer out of the boot.
Fortunately for Darren, I spotted the road that we wanted...

My image of the horse is not very good, so I have used the image from the wikipedia page to show how nice it is.
The information sign says, "No one knows why the white horse was made. During the bronze age communities settled, divided and fortified the land. The white horse was certainly made to be seen and may have symbolised territorial ownership. Strangely, the horse can only be seen in full from the air - perhaps it was a religious symbol for the ancient gods. It is such a clear landmark that it was covered up during the war to confuse enemy aircrew.
Legend says the White Horse leaves its site once a year to graze in the manger."

After admiring the horse, we drove on to London for a late dinner and some rest.

Day Two\Tuesday

We went to Thorpe Park to try the new coaster Saw - the ride.


Saw was scary and exciting, we loved it. Five goes was enough though!
My head was banging and Darren could hardly keep his neck up. We went on Stealth about three times, which isn't much compared to 18 times last year, our bodies just couldn't take it after Saw - the ride.

Day Three\Wednesday

We got the train into London, and went to the Dali exhibition. There were sculptures of women with drawers coming out of them, and an old black phone with a lobster for a handset, biblical images and many other mad items. It was amazing, but the man must have been madder than a box of frogs!

After a quick lunch at Subway, we went to Camden to do some clothes shopping. We didn't buy many clothes, because it started raining.
Instead, we went into the Cuban bar and got rather merry, on cocktails and beer.
There were some interesting paintings on the wall of what may or may not be a cow, and some women having cigars.


After a very giggly afternoon, we went and bought Daisy some patent leather baby pink Doctor Marten boots (which she wants to wear ALL the time, since we gave them to her!)
Then we had a meal at a lovely place called the Piano and Pitcher, where the couple next to us were slightly tipsier than us, which made getting in and out of the table hilarious for everyone.
After the meal, we went back to the hotel for the evening, to play cards and drink some more.

Day four\ Thursday

In the morning we went to Legoland, mainly to look in the BIG LEGO shop and to admire the LEGO buildings and miscellaneous creations (The rides usually have massive queues that put us off going on them).
Here are some images...



This is a LEGO Angel of the North, next to Anthony Gormley's 'Real' Angel of the North.




And here are some giants invading LEGO land.

It wass fascinating watching the technicians working on the buildings and scenery, I am so envious of their great job, playing with LEGO for money!
Some pictures of Darren and I squinting in the sun.

(Darren and I do not like getting our photo taken!)

After Legoland, Darren parked miles and miles and miles away from the tube station in Fulham Broadway *raspberry*, we walked for about 5 years and reached the station.
And, we made our way to Baker Street.


Then we went to Madame Tussaud's Waxworks.


Do you like the TV camera?




I wonder who those guys are!
Towards the end of the Wax works tour, there was a ride in a black taxi showing the history of London, it was very surreal!




After the Wax Works, and some wanderings, we got a photo of the maddest traffic lights we have ever seen.


After that we ate some lovely noodles and went for a boat ride to Embankment Station, then we went back to the hotel for the evening alcohol ration.

Day 5\ Friday

We parked at Wimbledon station and got the train to Notting Hill gate, then another train to White City to see a massive shopping centre near or on Wood Lane.
The shopping centre is called Westfield. We didn't need any shopping, we just had a desire to see a place big enough to house several Liverpool ones.



After getting lost in the big shop for a while, we got back on the train, and we got off at Oxford Circus and went to Hamleys toy shop.
Mini Hamleys from Lego land was on holiday in big Hamleys!


After that, we went to Carnaby Street, where I saw a building with what looked like wallpaper on the outside of it.



Then it was time for a cup of tea and a piece of cake, in a place called C'est ici brasserie, that was outside under large umbrellas. It was nice being sat in very heavy rain with the rain not hitting us.
After the tea break, we went to Forbidden Planet and admired the cool collectables in the window and in the shop.
There was the Angel puppet from the Smile Time episode and a Gonzo doll, and inside the shop was a figure from Final Fantasy VII.



After a brief sit down at Covent Garden, and a visit to Cyber Candy, we decided that our feet were very tired, and it was time to return home.

Some people watching a street performer at Covent Garden. This shot was taken while I sat on the pavement and waited for my feet to stop aching from all the walking.