Friday, 30 September 2011
Bridleways
In the past I have written about public footpaths in the United Kingdom. Since moving to Northamptonshire, I noticed a sign for a similar type of path: public bridleways.
On a bridleway you are allowed to ride a horse down it, unlike public footpaths which are limited to people and dogs: other than that, I do not think there are any other differences between them, though I guess that bridleways are more common in rural areas. I suspect I did walk on some bridleways in Nottinghamshire and Cambridgeshire, but I do not recall noticing signs similar to the one pictured above.
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Hot
We seem to be going through a bit of heatwave here in the United Kingdom! For the most part, the morning and afternoon have been about 76F/24C in temperature, and has now started to noticeably cool down. We had a breeze yesterday, and today has been far more still. A few people have said we are supposed to get snow sometime soon, but I am happy with the current weather, although it would be nice if it was a little cooler, or at least more windy.
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Rumbles Fish Bar
Back in June, I wrote about North East Cambridgeshire and what where we used to live in Littleport was like. I mentioned about the local fish bar, although I did not refer to it by its name, Rumbles Fish Bar. Prior to us leaving Littleport, my brother was able to take a picture of the take-out place:
We have not had any fish bar take-out meals since moving to Northamptonshire, although we have found a local Chinese restaurant that is very nice.
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Richard Pearce
A couple of weeks ago I learned that a friend of ours from a few years ago, Richard Pearce, died last month. Although it was a long, long time ago we last saw and spoke to him, the news of his death did upset me; and upon reading his obituary in the Mail Tribune I was shocked to learn that he had died from Alzheimer's Disease.
Richard Pearce, or "Dick", as we knew him as, was an extremely kind man. When we moved to Southern Oregon, he was the first of our neighbors to introduce themselves to us: he and his wife, Anne, helped us during our first years there, especially giving advice on how to manage the land and providing some history on the area. We went to their Christmas Eve parties to celebrate the season with them, with the first one we attended taking place a little over a month after we had moved up. Dick once took my Dad, brother, and myself to one of the speedways to watch a race, and during the wildfires in 2002, when we all had to evacuate from the valley, we were able to stay with him and Anne at their son's house with their family until we could return home.
They moved away in mid-2003, and we only had occasional contact after then. I regret that we did not speak much after their move (there was not a falling out or anything along those lines), but it is too late to change that now. I can ensure that Dick is remembered for the decent man he was.
Here are the links to his obituary and to his Alzheimer's memorial fund:
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110828/NEWS04/308289999
http://act.alz.org/site/TR?pg=fund&fr_id=1060&pxfid=31412
Richard Pearce, or "Dick", as we knew him as, was an extremely kind man. When we moved to Southern Oregon, he was the first of our neighbors to introduce themselves to us: he and his wife, Anne, helped us during our first years there, especially giving advice on how to manage the land and providing some history on the area. We went to their Christmas Eve parties to celebrate the season with them, with the first one we attended taking place a little over a month after we had moved up. Dick once took my Dad, brother, and myself to one of the speedways to watch a race, and during the wildfires in 2002, when we all had to evacuate from the valley, we were able to stay with him and Anne at their son's house with their family until we could return home.
They moved away in mid-2003, and we only had occasional contact after then. I regret that we did not speak much after their move (there was not a falling out or anything along those lines), but it is too late to change that now. I can ensure that Dick is remembered for the decent man he was.
Here are the links to his obituary and to his Alzheimer's memorial fund:
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110828/NEWS04/308289999
http://act.alz.org/site/TR?pg=fund&fr_id=1060&pxfid=31412
Richard Pearce
February 12, 1934 - August 21, 2011
Monday, 26 September 2011
Parents and music
A couple of weeks ago, my Dad heard the current Katy Perry song, "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)", and he found it to be one of most prominent earworms he had heard in a long time. However, he liked the song, and it encouraged both him and Mum to listen to One of the Boys and Teenage Dream this past weekend in the evenings.
Mum and Dad's opinions of the album were exclusively positive: they really liked everything, from her vocals, to the sound of her songs, to her sense of humour. They also expressed an interest in listening to Katy Hudson to compare her modern works with her first record.
I have heard about children (including people my own age) being embarrassed about their parents listening to their music., and in some cases, the parents even like it, much to their kids' disgust. I, on the other hand, am not really bothered if my parents listen to any from my music collection and decide that they like it. After all, before I had my radio and any of my own albums all I had to listen to was my parents music, and there were plenty of songs and artists from their collection that I loved. It seems pointless to me to get defensive over it.
While my parents listening to my music is of no consequence to me, I will admit that the language used in music did concern me at one point: when I received Under My Skin by Avril Lavigne several years ago (it was among the first albums I received), I was deeply worried about what their reaction would be to her swearing in one of the songs. In the end, I was just being paranoid, as hearing swear words does not bother them, and besides, a few months after I received Under My Skin they bought an Eminem album for themselves!
I do not expect them to listen everything that I have in my collection: I doubt that they would like Fergie or Evanescence, but I have been surprised before. Perhaps I should introduce them to Hilary Duff, Sara Bareilles, or even Pink next.
What about you? Are you bothered by your parents listening to/liking your music, or is it a non-issue?
Mum and Dad's opinions of the album were exclusively positive: they really liked everything, from her vocals, to the sound of her songs, to her sense of humour. They also expressed an interest in listening to Katy Hudson to compare her modern works with her first record.
I have heard about children (including people my own age) being embarrassed about their parents listening to their music., and in some cases, the parents even like it, much to their kids' disgust. I, on the other hand, am not really bothered if my parents listen to any from my music collection and decide that they like it. After all, before I had my radio and any of my own albums all I had to listen to was my parents music, and there were plenty of songs and artists from their collection that I loved. It seems pointless to me to get defensive over it.
While my parents listening to my music is of no consequence to me, I will admit that the language used in music did concern me at one point: when I received Under My Skin by Avril Lavigne several years ago (it was among the first albums I received), I was deeply worried about what their reaction would be to her swearing in one of the songs. In the end, I was just being paranoid, as hearing swear words does not bother them, and besides, a few months after I received Under My Skin they bought an Eminem album for themselves!
I do not expect them to listen everything that I have in my collection: I doubt that they would like Fergie or Evanescence, but I have been surprised before. Perhaps I should introduce them to Hilary Duff, Sara Bareilles, or even Pink next.
What about you? Are you bothered by your parents listening to/liking your music, or is it a non-issue?
Sunday, 25 September 2011
A joke
Here is a joke I wrote back in 2008, done for our homemade Christmas crackers that year. I later used it for homemade Christmas crackers in 2010 at the party with relatives, and it attracted the most laughs of all my jokes:
"What element is not in the Periodic Table? Surprise."
Out of all the jokes I have written, this one is among my favourite. What do you think about it?
Saturday, 24 September 2011
My "Recipes": "Andrew’s Fruit Salad"
Episode six in the My "Recipes" series is entitled Andrew’s Fruit Salad:
1 large grapefruit.
100 grapes.
20 raspberries.
5 strawberries.
40 blueberries.
1 cranberry.
1 watermelon.
Lime Juice.
Bowl.
How to make it:
Mix everything inside the bowl.
Put a huge spoon inside it.
My verdict: this seems like any fruit salad with a variety of fruits, except it just has arbitrary numbers that distinguish it to make it “my” recipe (one cranberry?). Other than that, I think this one is fine.
Friday, 23 September 2011
Florence, Oregon
I was looking up what happened on this date in my family's history, and I learned that it was five years to the day that we were on vacation visiting friends in Florence, Oregon, a coastal town. We went up to Florence on the 22nd then journeyed back home on the 25th, and the friends we visited were two of the people who went on the rafting trip with us. We did not sleep at our friends' house, rather, we slept in a cabin they owned, located a mile or so away from their home.
Our trip consisted of visiting old-town Florence, going to the beach, watching sea lions, and going on house tour. The house tour was first on the list (although it occurred on the second day, as we spent the first day traveling), and it involved looking at the various styles of homes in the town: originally, we thought we were going to look at three or four houses in the space of an hour, but instead it ended up being several houses (I do not remember the exact amount) over the course of five hours! After the tour we spent an hour or so in old-town Florence, and bought a couple of kites for when we went onto the beach (there was a nice breeze at this point).
On the next day we went (without our friends) to Strawberry Hill, a place to watch the sea lions go about their daily life; then we had a look at a few manufactured houses before lunch. Afterwards, we met up with our friends on the beach and spent the entire afternoon there. My Dad and brother attempted to fly the kites we had purchased the day before, but amazingly, the wind was not strong enough to sustain the kites, despite us being on the beach. Once it became clear they were not going to be able to fly the kites properly, they put them away and we all went on a long walk on the beach. We had dinner at our friends' house last night, and they had invited a couple of their other friends over as well (they were two more of the six people Dad and I went rafting with three years prior).
The proceeding day was when we went back home. It was a fairly uneventful journey back, although we drove through a town called Coos Bay, and were glad we never stayed there (my grandparents, brother, and I were going to vacation there in 2003, but my parents drove through it and said that the hotel we would have stayed in was sandwiched between traffic). We also drove past another town, this one called Bandon, which was where we ended up going to that year instead: I am sure I can cover Bandon in another post.
I have fond memories of our trip to Florence, though there are three parts that, to this day, stand out for me: one was in the store where we bought the kites; a Shania Twain song played on the radio, and I remarked to Dad that it was her. Another was whenever we traveled in our truck around Florence, as we had our windows open, and I loved the feeling of sunshine combined with a breeze blowing into the vehicle. Finally, the third part was at the last house we visited on the tour; it was located in a neighborhood on top of a mountain overlooking Florence. From the balcony beheld a spectacular and far-reaching view of Florence, the ocean, the other mountains and houses, and the sunset. As I am writing this I can almost feel as though I am on that balcony again, taking in the scene.
I would be glad to go to Florence again: whenever I get the chance to come back to Oregon, it would be good to fit in a trip to the coast. That Florence trip is currently the most recent time I have been to the actual coast of the western US, as well as the most recent time I have even been to any coast in general.
Our trip consisted of visiting old-town Florence, going to the beach, watching sea lions, and going on house tour. The house tour was first on the list (although it occurred on the second day, as we spent the first day traveling), and it involved looking at the various styles of homes in the town: originally, we thought we were going to look at three or four houses in the space of an hour, but instead it ended up being several houses (I do not remember the exact amount) over the course of five hours! After the tour we spent an hour or so in old-town Florence, and bought a couple of kites for when we went onto the beach (there was a nice breeze at this point).
On the next day we went (without our friends) to Strawberry Hill, a place to watch the sea lions go about their daily life; then we had a look at a few manufactured houses before lunch. Afterwards, we met up with our friends on the beach and spent the entire afternoon there. My Dad and brother attempted to fly the kites we had purchased the day before, but amazingly, the wind was not strong enough to sustain the kites, despite us being on the beach. Once it became clear they were not going to be able to fly the kites properly, they put them away and we all went on a long walk on the beach. We had dinner at our friends' house last night, and they had invited a couple of their other friends over as well (they were two more of the six people Dad and I went rafting with three years prior).
The proceeding day was when we went back home. It was a fairly uneventful journey back, although we drove through a town called Coos Bay, and were glad we never stayed there (my grandparents, brother, and I were going to vacation there in 2003, but my parents drove through it and said that the hotel we would have stayed in was sandwiched between traffic). We also drove past another town, this one called Bandon, which was where we ended up going to that year instead: I am sure I can cover Bandon in another post.
I have fond memories of our trip to Florence, though there are three parts that, to this day, stand out for me: one was in the store where we bought the kites; a Shania Twain song played on the radio, and I remarked to Dad that it was her. Another was whenever we traveled in our truck around Florence, as we had our windows open, and I loved the feeling of sunshine combined with a breeze blowing into the vehicle. Finally, the third part was at the last house we visited on the tour; it was located in a neighborhood on top of a mountain overlooking Florence. From the balcony beheld a spectacular and far-reaching view of Florence, the ocean, the other mountains and houses, and the sunset. As I am writing this I can almost feel as though I am on that balcony again, taking in the scene.
I would be glad to go to Florence again: whenever I get the chance to come back to Oregon, it would be good to fit in a trip to the coast. That Florence trip is currently the most recent time I have been to the actual coast of the western US, as well as the most recent time I have even been to any coast in general.
Thursday, 22 September 2011
More roses
I know this is my third post in a row on roses, but the replacement batteries for my camera arrived and I wanted to take a few pictures of the roses myself to put on my blog:
Unlike when my brother took pictures of them, today has been cloudy and (very) windy. I did, however, get a picture of flowers from another rose bush in our back garden:
I am glad I was able to take pictures of the roses, especially the white roses as I do not think we had any of them before I took this photograph.
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
A yellow rose (again)
Well, I can use another one of my brother's images of the yellow roses in the back garden:
Some new batteries for my camera should be arriving tomorrow. Providing the roses remain (which they should do, since they are fine today), I shall see if I can get some pictures of them too.
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
A yellow rose
Our house has a garden in the backyard, and we are fortunate to have a few roses growing. My brother took multiple pictures of the roses, but I can only use one:
The rose bush had to be trimmed in a few places the other day, but rest assured that the beautiful heads are still intact, even with the current rain.
Monday, 19 September 2011
Stefani Germanotta
While on the topic of pop singers who appeared in other media prior to their fame and look radically different nowadays, one video I recently came across on YouTube was of Stefani Germanotta...Lady Gaga.
This was filmed on an MTV show called Boiling Points a few years before she achieved fame. Essentially, the show is about trolling members of members of the public: if someone keeps calm for a certain amount of time, they win $100, but if they are angered and/or resort to profanity, they do not win the prize. Unfortunately, Stefani Germanotta ended up swearing and was the only one of the group who did not win anything! I doubt she is bothered, though, judging by her success.
I am a fan of Lady Gaga, her music, and am often interested in what new bizarre costume she comes up with next, but I like her natural look shown in the video above. I think it would be neat if she decided one day to make herself look like that again, even if only temporarily.
I am a fan of Lady Gaga, her music, and am often interested in what new bizarre costume she comes up with next, but I like her natural look shown in the video above. I think it would be neat if she decided one day to make herself look like that again, even if only temporarily.
Sunday, 18 September 2011
Katy Hudson
Ever heard of Katy Hudson? Well, if you listen to pop music regularly then you probably hear her voice every day and do not even realize it...even during this typing one of her songs played on my radio. She is colorful, full of fun, and has a great sense of humor, singing about waking up in Vegas, how wonderful California girls are, and being ecstatic about Friday night.
Yes, I am talking about Katy Perry. It may surprise you to learn that before One of the Boys came to be, Katy Hudson released her eponymous debut album in 2001. Unlike One of the Boys and Teenage Dream, Katy Hudson is a gospel album with rock and pop sounds, and is far, far, different in sound and feel to her later records. I do not normally listen to this style of music, but I found myself wanting to hear the whole album when I once listened to some clips of the tracks.
I do prefer the music of Katy Perry, but to give credit where it is due, Katy Hudson is a good album, and her vocals then are as strong as they are now. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to get hold of a copy of the record, as the label that released her album closed at the end of 2001, thereby ceasing the production of Katy Hudson. The album is rare, and the copies that are available for sale are very expensive.
If you go onto YouTube you can find a couple of interviews from her time in music as Katy Hudson. I have only watched one, then followed it with a recent interview she did. It is interesting to listen to Katy Hudson interviewed then to listen to Katy Perry.
Yes, I am talking about Katy Perry. It may surprise you to learn that before One of the Boys came to be, Katy Hudson released her eponymous debut album in 2001. Unlike One of the Boys and Teenage Dream, Katy Hudson is a gospel album with rock and pop sounds, and is far, far, different in sound and feel to her later records. I do not normally listen to this style of music, but I found myself wanting to hear the whole album when I once listened to some clips of the tracks.
I do prefer the music of Katy Perry, but to give credit where it is due, Katy Hudson is a good album, and her vocals then are as strong as they are now. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to get hold of a copy of the record, as the label that released her album closed at the end of 2001, thereby ceasing the production of Katy Hudson. The album is rare, and the copies that are available for sale are very expensive.
If you go onto YouTube you can find a couple of interviews from her time in music as Katy Hudson. I have only watched one, then followed it with a recent interview she did. It is interesting to listen to Katy Hudson interviewed then to listen to Katy Perry.
Saturday, 17 September 2011
Homemade pizza
It may come as no surprise that I do like eating pizza. Most of the pizzas I have eaten have tasted great, whether they have been from stores or restaurants; however, I have to admit that my mother makes excellent pizza too. The most common types of pizzas Mum makes are the familiar flavours of vegetable-only, chicken, meat-only, and Hawaiian.
Mum likes to experiment in her cooking, and pizza is no exception to this: she has created toppings that are not normally available commercially. For example, she once made a pizza that consisted of seafood; in this case, I do not mean little bits of mixed seafood on a pizza, instead, I am referring to substantial pieces of proper salmon. Other flavours include a steak and asparagus pizza (my least favourite, unfortunately), a spaghetti pizza (plus other pasta pizzas), and a brie and cranberry pizza. Perhaps one day she might do a pizza with burgers and/or french fries on.
None of my mother's pizzas are the same, even something as simple as two cheese pizzas from the same batch: in fact, the only thing consistent with all the pizzas Mum has made is that the breadmaker made the dough for every one of them. Last night she made a pizza with chicken, olives, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, and cheese. I do not know her exact recipe (with meals like pizza Mum does not even need to follow a recipe) and I did not help with the cooking, but here is a picture, taken by my brother:
Does it look good? I can assure you it was, and it is currently the largest pizza she has made yet!
If you like cooking I do recommend making your own pizza. You can make your own versions of the regular pizza types, or you can mix and match various toppings to make all sorts of weird and wonderful pizzas!
Mum likes to experiment in her cooking, and pizza is no exception to this: she has created toppings that are not normally available commercially. For example, she once made a pizza that consisted of seafood; in this case, I do not mean little bits of mixed seafood on a pizza, instead, I am referring to substantial pieces of proper salmon. Other flavours include a steak and asparagus pizza (my least favourite, unfortunately), a spaghetti pizza (plus other pasta pizzas), and a brie and cranberry pizza. Perhaps one day she might do a pizza with burgers and/or french fries on.
None of my mother's pizzas are the same, even something as simple as two cheese pizzas from the same batch: in fact, the only thing consistent with all the pizzas Mum has made is that the breadmaker made the dough for every one of them. Last night she made a pizza with chicken, olives, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, and cheese. I do not know her exact recipe (with meals like pizza Mum does not even need to follow a recipe) and I did not help with the cooking, but here is a picture, taken by my brother:
If you like cooking I do recommend making your own pizza. You can make your own versions of the regular pizza types, or you can mix and match various toppings to make all sorts of weird and wonderful pizzas!
Friday, 16 September 2011
Blog FAQ
I have created a frequently asked questions page for Air Nice-to-Livelands. There are a few things that I will be able to cover better in there than in blog posts, though for some questions (such as where the blog got its name) it will link to relevant posts for convenience. Currently, the page is short (two questions as of this posting), but it will be expanded upon in the future.
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