Naquada

We were feeling up for going out last night to the Spice Thames Valley 18th Birthday party.. The theme was 80’s, so I took that literally and decided to go through an aging process to fast track me the forward the odd 45 years or so..

Michelle decided to go the opposite direction and head back to the 80’s, big hair, lace gloves and all. Surprisingly both of us took the same amount of time to do our make-up!! It was a great party and we took a few photo’s and I also like this one

We’re feeling a little jaded this morning, me possibly down to the antibiotics, antihistamines and wine, on reflection possibly not a good combination.

We’re off to the cinema tonight, and an early night I think, although I’m feeling a lot younger this morning, I could have possibly got an OAP’s discount to see Harry Potter later on…

..next project is America for longleat center parcs..

So it’s been quiet this week, mainly as last weekend we decided to tackle the garden, which some help from some friends..

Now it seemed like a good idea and the 6 foot high grass, and weeds, and the brambles that seem to have almost taken over the 120 foot plus of garden were submitting to the trimmer, and mowers. However I’m allergic to insect bites, I blame my parents, as both of them are also reactional to the little buggers, at least four insects of some description decided I was breakfast, lunch and evening meal.

My arms swelled to twice their size (more in fact) my limbs ached like someone had just broken my arms in two, and I started to get a red tracer line up the inside of my arm along my veins..

Tuesday, when nothing seemed to be getting rid, I submitted and headed to the doctors, confirming a blood infection and allergic reaction to the bites.

The rest of the week I spent on strong antihistamines and antibiotics so combat the injections and swellings, plus pain killers. Thankfully I slept most of the week. We’re planning to go out tonight, to a fancy dress party in town, although I guess I’ll be on the non-alcoholic stuff as I’m still on the antibiotics..

I think I will be wrapping up and covering up tomorrow when we attack the garden again!!!

Last night we headed down to Henley on Thames for a full fat, blow out evening of Champagne and Puddings. Obviously we were going for the Charity side of it, supporting Guide Dogs for The Blind, and not the all your can eat home made puddings and as much champagne as you can drink side of it!!!!

We were meant to be having the event in the beautiful gardens of Courtyard House in henley, but due to the downpour that started at about half an hour before the started, the organisers admitted defeat and moved the event inside their house, which thankfully was a converted barn/farmhouse with a huge conservatory. The “joss stone” style singer sat on the landing, and played two sets as we tucked into possibly every type of home made pudding you could imagine.. With three tables of at least 20 different types on each, (and additional cheese and biscuits!) picking ones to fill your plate was a difficult choice.. thankfully there were always second.. and third visits!!

After careful balancing and arranging.. 5 puddings made it onto my first round (plus a side order!).. Trifle, New York Cheesecake, Tiramisu, Strawberry Cream Pavlova, some other chocolate thing (much goo!!) and on the side, Apricot Brandy Fool. The second helping was some of that raspberry swirl mouse cheesecake, the lemon meringue pie next to it, some banoffee pie, and some fool fool!!

It was a great evening and well organised by Spice and Oxfordshire Fundraising arm of the Guide Dogs for the Blind, There are hundreds of Guide Dogs Branches across the UK, staffed solely by dedicated volunteers,and this was a great event to help raise vital funds for them.

The Henley-on-Thames Branch is run by Jill Stewart (JillStewart@shaunandjill@onetel.net.uk)

Today and tomorrow I’m in Paris, Le Defense to be exact, at the IBM facility. I’m running through some SOA roadmap tools to help customers establish suitable projects, benefits and entry points into IBM’s SOA offerings.

It’s a little in at the deep end really, since I’m new into the IBM SOA team, but from what I’ve seen, there should be a good amount to offer going forwards, for IBM’ers there should be a bit more about the tool on my internal blog next week when I return from the training..

Of course on a social note, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner this evening, although we were aiming to go to Spoon, they couldn’t fit us in, I’m not sure if it was actually Mark’s wonderful french, or our bedraggled state from the downpour outside that didn’t endear us to the staff, so we ended up across the road in a small traditional restaurant..

I’d not actually planned to do any magic over dinner, but someone asked if I’d brought something with me (totally unprovoked I promise!!), so I did some bits between courses… a bit of mentalism which went down well, in-fact better than my normal magic stuff to be honest, and generally a bit of talking about human behavior and peoples predictability..

..I really enjoyed the performing and the discussions afterwards…

So I actually did make both the London Mentalism Meeting and Marvellous Festival at Wellington Country Park yesterday. It was a bit of a rush though…

The London Mentalism Meeting was fantastic, about 30ish people turned up in the end, and we had a long discussion around mentalism, performance and the like in a little room under Treadwell’s bookshop.

The afternoon started with an introduction of everyone that was attending, before we took a break for lunch (sandwiches supplied!!), during that time I met up with quite a few interesting people, and we discussed some of the aspects of the art I’ve been having trouble with (like how do I practice this stuff really!?!) and listened to their stories and advice on getting into it all. I also managed to hook up with a few new, and some old acquaintances during the day.

After lunch we started to perform. I didnt (obviously!) but I did chip in a few ideas of some peoples stuff, and suddenly got that buzz again from thinking about stuff and coming up with new ways to get to an effect. My mind did start to wander a bit into other effects once the seed was sown, and I did come away with lots of notes and ideas on things to peruse later on..

At five o’clock we had to leave treadwells, most of us headed off for drinks and food, but myself and Dale Shrimpton decided to jump into a cab and head back to Paddington. There was an outside chance that I could also make it to Wellington Country park to Marvellous.

I did actually just manage to get home, changed and call a Taxi with a bit of time to spare. Bizarrely my local taxi company I use for the airport and local trips seems to have ‘upgraded’ me, in that when I go to the airport I get a BMW or Mercedes, then I go into the station I used to get a normal run of the mill car, however lately I’m always seeming to get a BMW or Mercedes regardless. So it was interesting to get one to drop me down at the festival!! I was waved straight through the barriers to almost as close as you could get to the stage.. I’m sure they thought I was the last act arriving late!!!

I was met at the gate by Colin and we got down to our pitch of the field to enjoy the rest of the acts (in fact I think I only missed the first and part of the second art!). I then enjoyed the rest of the evening drinking, eating and dancing with my close friends and my fiancee..

..it was a wonderful day..

Technorati Tags: gigs, magic, mentalism

I’ve not vanished from the face of the earth (yet!), blog updates have been few and far between the last week or so, mainly down to the intensive hunting for venues for the wedding.. Which we’ve now pretty much got to the end of..
The whole process of picking a venue is far more complicated than I ever thought, we tried to narrow it down to three final options; Trunkwell House, The Manor Hotel in Datchet, and Silchester House, each had their merits (and price tags!), and we’d thought when we took our mums out to see the venues, we’d get a final nod from the new in-laws..

Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, we had a late runner come in on the friday before we were due to visit the final three. Heckfield Place in hook, looked quite nice, and even though they weren’t expecting to show us round, they went out of their way to make us welcome at short notice..

In fact we liked it so much, we moved our wedding date.. The house is lovely and the 400 acres of grounds, lake and woods are apparently at our disposal for the day. They also have amazing gardens (which should make the whole wedding photo experience good), and we get to have the marquee!!!

Needless to say, we’re very excited.. if not very tired!!!

Technorati Tags: berkshire, hook, datchet, venue, wedding

Given the last few days thunderstorms, you’d be forgiven in thinking this was a celebration of the weather, but it’s not. The annual Reading Water Fest, takes place this weekend (saturday and sunday the 23rd and 24th of June 07 from 11am onwards) along Chestnut Walk, the Riverside Walk and up to the Bel and the Dragon restaurant in Reading.

The event, run by Reading Borough Council and the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust, is one of the town’s best-loved events, normally signaling that the internationally renowned Reading Festival and WOMAD are fast approaching, but obviously the council didn’t deem it important enough to grant or make the effort to give WOMAD more space, so it moved on..

The event winds its way through the abbey ruins, along Chestnut and Riverside Walks and ending up at Bel and the Dragon and the Riverside Museum. The event is a celebration of canal, and includes traditional music and dance in the Chapter House of the Abbey Ruins, as well as other entertainment throughout the Water Fest site throughout the day. Childrens activities and entertainment normally take place in the Abbey Ruins throughout the day,

Chestnut Walk is transformed into the Water Fest ‘craft avenue’ where you can browse among the hand-made products and take in the beautifully painted narrow boats along the towpath. later in the day there’s a boat parades along the river and a best-dressed boat competition, canoeing demonstrations, a duck race and a boat tug of war on the water too.

Proving it’s a nice day, its a great (and free!) day out in an area of Reading most people don’t see and some don’t even know exist!!

Technorati Tags: avon, belanddragon, berkshire, canal, freedaysout, kennet, narrowboats, publicevents, waterfest, reading, readingabbey

We got home last night from Paris, the whole trip was amazing, the first part of the week I spent out at TLE in Disneyland, and the second part of the week, Michelle came over and we spent the weekend, and our anniversary exploring Paris.

The week started very very hot, and it was only really the Sunday and Monday that was wet, we walked over Michelle’s favourite bridge; the Pont Alexander III bridge, and then headed back there on the Monday after giving up on trying to get up the Eiffel Tower.

Monday was probably the most important day I’ve had in my life, lots of things have come and gone in my life, people have passed by, some have stayed and some have gone, good and bad things have happened, but just before Christmas 2005 I met someone who would change my life forever, and most definitely for the better, and someone who I wished to spend the rest of my life with.

Michelle and myself started going out on January 28th 2006, and around September 2008 she will become my wife. Michelle is my closest friend, my soul mate, my confident and advisor, the woman I love, and on the 28th May 2007, the woman, under Pont Alexander III who I asked to marry me.. Thankfully she said yes, and all my fears and worries about the day vanished..

There’s little more I can say, other than she is singularly the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I am so glad she wants to spend the rest of her, and my, life together.. I am very lucky to have such a wonderful person in my life..

..and for the rest of the time we where in Paris… the large number of photographs we took are here

Technorati Tags: paris, photography

Tonight, well actually tomorrow, is our anniversary, and since we fly back tomorrow night we thought we’d have a nice dinner out this evening instead. We’ve walked up to montmarte a few times in the last day or so and we’ve passed this restaurant a few times. OK so the photo is a windmill, but theres a restaurant under it; Moulin de la Galette, which apparently translates to windmill of the biscuit!!

I have quite a few other photos of the windmill, but the restaurant itself looks fabulous, and since dinner at the Eiffel Tower and cruise was fully booked for this evening. This option seemed to be just as good.

When it comes to eating, we’ve actually done our fair share this week, that and drinking the rose wines, there’s been quite a few afternoons and evenings that we’ve felt like we needed a long lay down and sleep following one or two many of the local wines..

Today was actually very very wet, It started raining just as we left the hotel, and required me to head back here to pick up a jacket, which thankfully check most of the rain off me. So todays sightseeing was mainly based round inside activities such as the Louvre, and the inside of the l’arch de triomphe.

I have so many photos to edit when I get back, that and geotagging them all so we know exactly where they were taken. I took a few HDR pictures as well, so it will be interesting to see how they come out.

I dont think I’ve enjoyed a few days away before as much as the last few days, and it makes a great change from the business of TLE at the start of the week.

One more day left, and half a two gigabyte compact flash card to go before we have to head back to England.

Tomorrow will be interesting, busy and nerve wrecking..

Technorati Tags: montmarte, moulin de la galette, paris

It was a year ago this weekend that we headed down to Falmouth for a long weekend away. We went down to see Jeff McBride and Eugene Burger perform, and took in some of the sights round Cornwall as well.

A year ago last night we sat on the beach eating fish and chips in the rain, watching the fishermen cast their lines out into the dark water, looking forward to a good weekend away.

So this weekend we decided to go on a Fish and Chip excursion in Bournemouth. I only took the small Ixus 700, but I managed to get some nice shots, as well as having a lovely walk along the beach, skimming stones, and then Fish and Chips sat on the groyns.

We watched the sun go down over the aquarium before heading back to the car and home.

There’s something about Bournemouth out of season.. still quite warm.. slightly busy.. but with an air of quite relaxed and peaceful.

I did wish I’d have my Canon 350D for the shots of the fish crate that was washed up on the shore though, I think I didn’t do too bad a job on catching it though.

We came back tired, relaxed and sleepy..

Technorati Tags: beach, bournemouth, photography, sea, sunsets