August 31st

I am amazed at how fast August appears to have gone, for in a few hours it will be September. Still, I should not be surprised as it has been an active and exciting month, with the trip to Nottingham and all that: to think that a mere three weeks ago we were bowling, and four weeks ago I had beaten my brother in an incredibly close game of Run Off.

Summer is not quite over, but it feels like it came and went ages ago: the majority of our really warm weather took place back in spring, and summer's weather has mainly been what we are used to from about this time of the year to October (cloudy, rainy, and/or windy). Last winter was very cold even by British standards, so I am curious to see just how cold this winter will be too, but before then, we now have autumn to look forward to after this fall-like summer.

Oh, a little off-topic, but remember the rafting trip I mentioned a couple of months ago? I checked, and that adventure took place exactly eight years ago to the date.

Another rainbow

We had rainbow near our home the other day, and I took a few pictures of it. Here is one of them:

It is far more dull than the one I posted a couple of pictures of before, but still, rainbows bring joy even when they are like this.

Sweet things

Yesterday I finished the last of the candies I bought on the Nottingham trip. Believe it or not, I did take pictures of them...more for a bit of fun than anything else. Here they are:

My uncle bought this lollipop at the Nottingham Riverside Festival. To my knowledge, I had never eaten a wheel-lollipop (not even a small one like this) until I consumed this one. It was very sweet, as one would expect from lollipops, but had a nice sugary taste to it, and I brushed my teeth right after eating it.

Here is the lollipop again, with a bag of jelly babies, a nougat bar, and another lollipop: I bought those three candies from the Stratford Sweet Shop in Stratford-upon-Avon. The lollipop I bought was similar to the one my uncle bought, but it was a little more fruity; the jelly babies came in flavours such as orange, lemon, and blackcurrant (at least it tasted like that); and the nougat was tutti-frutti flavoured. All of these were delicious, and I am glad I had tried them.

This is a happy-faced chocolate lollipop from Hotel Chocolat. I had one of these last year, and wanted to buy another one: Although it looks like a simple chocolate lollipop with a smiley face, the chocolate used to make these is among the tastiest chocolate I have ever had. If you ever visit Hotel Chocolat in Nottingham, I definitely recommend trying one of these.

I prefer not to eat a lot of candies, but the occasional sweet things like these are okay. I did not buy any souvenirs like mugs or magnets on our trip, but the beauty with food is that you can share it with others!

Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station

On the way back from Stratford-upon-Avon, I took this picture of Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station:

I did it in my uncle's car while it was in motion and I had my camera on zoom. This was considered a brilliant image to family members I showed it to, and I am pretty impressed with it as well: it has a good contrast between the power plant with the vehicles and landscape, it is perfectly straight, and the light was just right. A power station is probably visually unappealing to most people, but I think my picture made this one look decent.

Post one hundred

Air Nice-to-Livelands is now up to its 100th post! It also has over 700 views, and while the majority of those views come from the United States and the United Kingdom, a large amount come from a diverse range of nations. I am pleased with my blog so far and hope other people have been as well.

I have, however, hit a little bit of a slow point at the moment, as I have been very busy these past few days, and I have not had a stream of material like the Nottingham visit! I am sure that I will pick it up again soon enough.

Still, here is to the first 100 posts! A very big thank you to everyone who has read my blog, and to those following the blog, whether they are actual followers or following it unofficially!

Rain again

It has been raining pretty much all day, with occasional gaps in the weather. My brother and I were going to take a walk, both to mail a few letters and to explore our town some more, but due to the rain, we only posted the letters and went straight back home.

Funnily enough, today's and yesterday's weathers have been reversed: according to the forecasts, we were supposed to get rain yesterday (instead, weather-wise it was a great day!) while today would rain; however, since I have been typing this, it has stopped raining for now and has even brightened up a bit. Fortunately, we got some much-needed housework done today, so I think the timing of the weather turned out well. Looking forward to a three-day weekend now with the bank holiday coming up!

"Air Nice-to-Livelands"

It certainly does seem bizarre to have the title of my blog as the header for a post, does it not? Well, this post is not to do with the blog itself, but rather, just a little more about where its name came from; I wrote in the second post that it came from a SimCity 3000 city I built a long time ago. For those who love the SimCity series, here are two screenshots I took of "Air Nice-to-Livelands", plus three of its statistics.

A view of the eastern side of the city.

A view of the western side of the city.

Population: 510,909

Finances: $51,875,444

Date: 2/21/2535

As to where "Air Nice-to-Livelands" got its name, I was merely looking for something that sounded different and looked neat (both typed up and said aloud), but would not come across as cheesy. I think it suits the city, and am glad I recycled it for my blog because I think it is a good title for it as well.

In addition, although I do not play games as much as I used to, I do think SimCity 2000, SimCity 3000, and SimCity 4 are still fun to play, despite their ages (especially the first two, being seventeen and twelve, respectively). It is more fun to build things than to destroy them.

Note: the images here are technically not mine, but rather, screenshots I merely took of a computer game and am using here to portray something within that game.

Surprised bride

Now for something lighter, at least for people reading my blog: I really liked this article I found on Yahoo! News UK. It was positive and a nice little read.

http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/marry-me-today-surprise-wedding-for-bride-who-had-no-idea.html

Last comments on the Nottingham trip

So, the last seventeen posts on my blog have been about our trip to Nottingham, but I think there is room for one more, with some final thoughts on the matter. First off, even though I did this in person, I wish to thank my aunt, uncle, and cousins on my blog for everything they did for us that week, from the new places they took us to visit to things we had experienced before and wanted to do again: it was all grand, so thank you. I also wish to thank for grandparents here for letting them stay with us for the duration of the trip.

What, you may ask, was my favourite part of our time there? Was it the maze at Chatsworth House, visiting Shakespeare's Birthplace, going to the cinema twice in two days, or perhaps even the Haunted House ride at Drayton Manor? (Okay, maybe not that last one.) An easy answer would be to say that everything that we did was equally good, and to be honest, that is the case for the most part, but to me, the part that stands out the most was spending time with family as well as gaining two new friends, and just having a great time with them.

While Stratford-upon-Avon was (in my opinion) the best place we visited with everything that day being perfect, to me, getting a chance to spend time with family in a way we had not been able to do so before means even more. When we lived in the United States, it was not easy for family other than my grandparents to visit (even that was only a few times), and other than a couple of business-related trips that took Dad to the United Kingdom, it was not easy for us to visit family in turn. It was a delight to spend more than a week with them, and I know the feeling was reciprocated. To add to this, it was also great to call two more people our friends before the trip ended.

The Nottingham trip was a brilliant experience for all involved. We all have fond memories of everything that happened, plus hundreds, if not thousands of pictures of what we did together.

Finally, I shall conclude this post with another picture of the rainbow that began our trip to Nottingham:

Into Nottingham pictures

The 13th of August was my brother and mine's last full day of our trip to Nottingham. My aunt, cousin, brother, and myself walked to the middle of Nottingham, and here are a few of the pictures I took that day:

This is a view of the Trent with a little of Nottingham shown in the background taken from one of the bridges, Trent Bridge, between Nottingham and West Bridgford. While I think this is a decent picture of mine, it would have been even better with a little more sunshine.

Looking back towards West Bridgford, this is the Rushcliffe Civic Centre. I think this building was originally a hotel, but was sold to the local council.

One of the roads near the middle of Nottingham. I do not think I had even travelled in a car down this road prior to today, let alone walked on it.

Just outside Westfield Broadmarsh is a narrow path that leads you out of the main shopping district and into this alleyway. We went this way to go to Nottingham Castle.

Near Nottingham Castle is this cobbled path. Unfortunately, we did not go into Nottingham Castle nor into its grounds on this day, as apparently it is currently in season and hideously expensive to get in for what it is (especially in relation to other places we visited that week). It was nice to visit the area, however, as it was not a part of Nottingham I had been to until then.

This is a view of a small selection of buildings up near Nottingham Castle.

I took this in the Old Market Square area of Nottingham. Old Market Square is the largest market square in the United Kingdom.

Finally, this is an image that I am pleased with: while it does not look like it is a very high quality picture of the Nottingham Council House (with window panes and dirty glass obstructing the view), it was taken from the highest floor in the Waterstone's bookstore.

It was a good walk to the middle of Nottingham that day, both to buy some things that we wanted from the stores and to see some parts of Nottingham that we had not seen before. It was a wonderful walk, but we were exhausted from all the walking once we got back to my aunt and uncle's house.

Drayton Manor Theme Park media

On the 12th of August, my aunt and uncle, two cousins, my brother, our friend, another friend of our cousins, and myself all went to the Drayton Manor Theme Park. I have some pictures and at least one video of our time there:

This is G-Force, and was the only ride all eight of us went on (though not at the same time). It is the first "proper" rollercoaster I have ever ridden, and was the second one our group visited during the trip to Drayton Manor (the first was Maelstrom, which I have a video of later on in this post). I impressed everyone by being the only one who did not make any sound whatsoever while on the ride; if anything, I was more worried about my camera being crushed by the brace than I was about anything else going on. Still, it was my first-time on a real ride and it was fun.

This is actually an image my brother took while we were waiting to ride G-Force. It shows a little more of the park, and the ride pictured is entitled Splash Canyon.

I took this of G-Force's car returning to its bay: everyone except my aunt and I rode it when it went next, as there was not enough room for us to board, but we went on the following turn.

My aunt, both cousins, and I all then went on a ride called Shockwave, a high-capacity ride where you had to stand, though you did have a large "bicycle seat" underneath you (I was silent on this ride too). I did not get any images of Shockwave, but I did take this picture of Splash Canyon form the ground once the Shockwave ride had finished.

We went to the zoo area of Drayton Manor after lunch, as it is not a good idea to go on any rides for at least an hour after eating. I have to admit that the zoo was my least favourite part of Drayton Manor, as I felt that a zoo really should not be at an amusement park (too much noise from people, and animals need peace and quiet), and because I thought that the enclosures were too small for some of the animals. The tiger had a large enclosure, however, and I heard that it had actually been expanded, which I thought was good. My brother got this nice picture of a mallard with her ducklings, though none of them were part of the zoo and were free to roam!

My two cousins really want to go on this ride, Apocalypse. Essentially, a car (one on each side) takes four people to the top of the tower, and once there, it rushes back down to the ground again at high-speed (less than five seconds from the top to the bottom). All eight of us watched the people going before us so we could make a decision on whether to go on it or not: in the end, only my cousins and my aunt went on it. Even though we did not want to go on Apocalypse, it was still good to watch.

Now I certainly have a story to tell about this one! This picture is of the Haunted House: everyone except for my aunt and two cousins were waiting in line for to go on it. However, they finished their ride on Apocalypse and went to join us to see what we were up to; they had decided that they wanted to go on a ride called the Splash Canyon Rapids, and anyone who wanted to go with them was welcome to do so. Everyone except my uncle and I went with them: after all, my uncle and I had been in the queue for half an hour, and we wanted to stick with the Haunted House at least to justify the wait.

Let me say that the others made the right choice to go on the Splash Canyon Rapids! When our wait was finally over, both of us plus a large group of people (the ride is high-capacity) were herded into a small room with two monitors. Then, the monitors activated, and a man somewhat reminiscent of Dr. Evil informed us that a "team" had been sent into the house and never returned. Once the video had finished informing us of our possible doom, we were led into the house.

The first part of the house was a hallway that went pitch black, made lots of "scary" noises, and a skeleton appeared from the ceiling. We then went into a larger room with a painting of what was presumably the "owner" of the house, and the lighting went and the subject of the painting changed to become some sort of "shrunken head" (the real "owner" of the house). In the words of my uncle, the painting became "some German guy who wanted to destroy us", as the head spoke in a German accent and told us about all the horrible things he was going to do to the group. The final room of the house contained the ride itself...a pendulum with benches: the ride had only a mild swing to it, plus lots of darkness, more "scary" noises, evil laughter...and that was it. My uncle and I walked out laughing and went to meet the others. If anything, the ride was worth going on just to talk and laugh about later!

Finally, this is the video I took of Maelstrom, the first ride members of our group went on. It can be unnerving to even watch this ride in motion, so imagine what actually being on Maelstrom is like!

We had ice cream after the others got off the Splash Canyon Rapids ride (I managed to get two cones for my ice cream somehow!), and then we made our way back to the car park. One of our friends was dropped off at her home on the way back to my aunt and uncle's house, and our other friend was to spend the weekend camping with one of my cousins. The rest of us went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner: surprisingly, I never got to eat at a Mexican restaurant while living in the United States (though I had eaten Mexican food), so this was another first for the day.

Drayton Manor Theme Park was a fun experience, and if I had the chance to go again I would. Everyone had a fantastic time at the place and left with satisfaction.

More thoughts on "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2"

On the 11th of August, my grandfather took my brother, one of my cousins, and myself to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. I mentioned in my first post about this that I was completely satisfied with the film: it has been over a week since I thought that way about the movie and wrote it up here, and after some thinking, I still maintain that position, although I do have a couple of quibbles. If you have not seen the film yet and do not want to have it spoilt, I recommend stopping here for now until you have watched it!

The first was the deaths of Fred Weasley, Nymphadora Tonks, and Remus Lupin: to me, these deaths, while they all happened in the book, felt like they were "dropped" into the film. One moment, these characters were all alive, and then suddenly they were all dead, with only a minor acknowledgement of their fates. Granted, there was no need to have a bloodbath, and it was good not to see one, but due to the importance of these characters in other films/books, I think they should have received a slightly better send-off that a brief scene of their corpses.

The second was near the end of the film when Harry had the Elder Wand in his possession. In the book he used the Elder Wand to repair his original wand (and thus has his only "official" usage of the wand), whereas in the movie he merely snapped the wand in two instead of using it to make the repair. I suspect that him repairing the old wand and then snapping the Elder Wand would have been too slow a scene for a movie, but even so, it would have been nice for that to have occurred.

Still, these are both minor points, and neither detracts from the overall satisfaction I received from watching the movie: I have far more praise than criticism. On the opposite end of the spectrum, easily the best scenes from the film were those involving Professor Snape regarding his true loyalty, his love for Lily Potter, and caringfor Harry: I felt that the Alan Rickman's performance in those parts, few though they were, was truly excellent, and I thought that the film's portrayal of those areas of the story was as strong as the description in the book, perhaps even more so.

With the very last scene in the film, originally I did have concerns about how the actors would look aged, but I was relieved to see their ageing looked natural, rather than badly done as is often the case. Too many times have I seen actors made-up to look aged, and the ageing makeup either causes them appear too old or fake, but I did not think that in this case.

As I said, I am completely satisfied, and a minor point or two does not negate that. I think all the Harry Potter books have been portrayed well in their respective movies, and I am glad the film series has come to a well-deserved close.

More about cinema and bowling

I do not have any images or videos to post of the 10th of August, as all of our activities that day were indoors and any pictures that I did take all contain family members, but I do have a little more to write about the day.

For starters, the people who went out for the day were my brother and I, my older cousin from yesterday (he is the eldest, in fact), only one of my younger cousins, and our friend. Originally, the plan was for all of us to go into main areas of Nottingham and spend the day there, but we decided not to because of concerns over rioting. We went to the cinema instead to see a film called Mr. Popper's Penguins.

While Mr. Popper's Penguins was not a film I had heard of before the day began, nor was it the type of film I normally have been to the cinema to see, I thought it was a funny movie and I liked it. The cast was decent: all the Jim Carrey films I have seen so far have been good, and this was no exception; Carla Gugino is always nice to see, and long-term actress Angela Lansbury added to the charm of the film as well. I did a bit of research later on, and it turns out that the movie is based on the children's book Mr. Popper's Penguins published in 1938.

We went to Nando's for lunch after the film (the second time we went there that week), and chatted about various matters there during our meal before we went back to my aunt and uncle's house for a couple of hours (we had a ride to the cinema, and a ride back), as my eldest cousin had a driving lesson. At about 5:00, well after his lesson was complete, the five of us who were out before, plus my other older cousin, all went out to bowling.

Bowling is something that neither my brother nor I had done before, but as I wrote in the first post about this day, in the two games we played I came in fourth and then third while my brother won the first and tied in the second. What was best about all our scores was that they were all fairly close (except for my brother's in the first game, when he handily defeated everyone), with less than twenty points in margin between the highest and lowest. However, the highlight of the evening was when my brother, who had been bowling with his right hand the whole time, scored a strike with his right hand and then on his next turn hit another strike using his left hand as well. Unfortunately, no one got a picture or video of his achievement, but we can all vouch that he did it!

On the way back to my aunt and uncle's after bowling we had to drop our friend off at her house. It actually occurred to me at that moment that she did have her own home to go back to: as we had spent so much time with her the last few days, she really felt like a member of the family now! We would see her again on Friday, though.

The rest of the evening was spent at my aunt and uncle's house. My aunt cooked a wonderful spaghetti meal for dinner, and my brother and I returned to my grandparents' house afterwards. As I said in the first post about this day, it was slower paced, but still exciting.

Stratford-upon-Avon images

On the 9th of August, everyone who went to Chatsworth House on the 8th, plus an older cousin of mine all went to Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, the home of William Shakespeare. Here are a few of the pictures I took, plus some thoughts about the events of that day:

This was one of the first pictures I took when we got to Stratford-upon-Avon. I always find the skylines and architecture of a place fascinating, and Stratford-upon-Avon was no exception, starting with this spire. In fact, on the way there I also got a glimpse of the skylines in Leicester and Coventry, but it was nice to look at Stratford's landscape from the ground rather than in the car. I think the spire in the picture is from the Church of the Holy Trinity building.

The first place we walked to in Stratford, after we had some lunch at the leisure centre, was the Stratford-upon-Avon Butterfly Farm. The butterfly farm, as its name implies, houses butterflies, possibly hundreds of them. They have an enclosure reminiscent of a rainforest for them to fly around in, and although the butterflies will often land on people, you are not supposed to pick them up yourself, as butterflies are delicate, any touching of their wings will easily harm them. I have never seen so many butterflies, both in types and number, all at once before.

The butterfly farm also houses a few other animals, including reptiles, insects, and arachnids, such as the one in the picture above. This is a tarantula, though I cannot remember what type it was called. Despite its size and how fearsome it looks, I found the Black Widow in a nearby glass enclosure to be far more disturbing.

The butterfly farm was certainly a good experience, but after seeing all the exhibits, I was glad to get out. It was not because I had become bored of the place or anything like that, rather, I found the heat and humidity, both of which are necessary for the well-being of the animals housed in the farm, to be overwhelming after more than half an hour in there. My biggest regret, however, was not being able to take more pictures as my camera had fogged up from the steam emanating from the ponds. Still, if I had the chance to go again I would do so.

The next part to the adventure was a motorised boat ride on the Avon itself. The ride lasted for about half an hour, and consisted of travelling to one end then to the other of a small designated part of the Avon for boats. I took this picture of a bridge from the boat.

This is the Colin P. Witter Lock. I thought was an interesting structure, so I decided to take a picture of it: I liked the contrast of the lock with the water in the front and the greenery behind and to the sides. I wish the image was a little less slanted, though,

While these two boats are stationary, it was good to pass other boats on the river. Unlike the rafting trip from years ago, there were no water fights going on here!

The Church of the Holy Trinity is the name of this beautiful building. I am glad the boat was going at a reasonable speed so I could get a decent picture of it this close.

This has to be one of my favourite pictures from the Stratford-upon-Avon trip, as it to me is a "perfect picture": the colouring is superb and everything looks good, from the trees on the left, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in the middle, the town and boat in the distance, the sky above, and the water in front (especially the ripple from the boat in the bottom right-hand corner). In all, I am exceptionally pleased with this image.

I took this just before the boat ride ended. I am fortunate to have a camera with a strong zoom feature: this is the tower from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and was taken from quite a distance on maximum zoom.

After the boat ride, we made our way towards a part of Stratford-upon-Avon titled "Henley Street". Henley Street is name of the town's high street and main pedestrianised road, as well was a major shopping and tourist area. As we were moving and wanting to get past traffic, this was the best picture I could take of the Costa Coffee building and the architecture from this side of Henley Street. I remember seeing that building and others in its style in pictures and was glad to see them for myself in person.

Speaking if seeing things in person, the best part about Henley Street is this building: Shakespeare's Birthplace. This building is the place where William Shakespeare was born and spent the early part of his life at. Unfortunately, people are not allowed to take photographs or videos inside the house, but an outside shot is still impressive enough. I will admit that I had a "wow, I am really here" moment when I stepped inside the house, as I could not believe I was standing inside the house where one of the world's most famous and respected people had once lived.

The thing I found most interesting about the house was how large and spacious it was: someone inside said that it had a few unnecessary inside walls and more small rooms by today's standards, but I thought that the house was actually better than today's houses in some ways: it was larger than all houses I have been to so far since living over here again (even our current house is smaller); and if you added modern utilities to it or removed them from current homes, it would be a very comfortable house with plenty of space. Of course, the historical significance of Shakespeare's Birthplace and maintaining the building and its grounds is far more important than comparing it to modern houses, but even so, I thought it held up reasonably well.

This is a picture of Shakespeare's Birthplace from the back. In the group are two performers acting out a scene from one of Shakespeare's numerous plays.

Here are the two performers mentioned in my commentary for the picture above this one, and they are acting. One of my cousins and our friend had their picture taken with the lady in my photo above (done by my brother); I wish I could put it up, but I have a rule to avoid putting up images that contain family members or friends.

Once we had finished at Shakespeare's Birthplace, we went back out onto Henley Street. We then went to a pretty little restaurant that served "cream tea": when my uncle mentioned that we should try cream tea that afternoon, I assumed he meant tea with cream in, and since I drink coffee, plus a couple of other people in our group were coffee-drinkers, I was not sure what all the excitement over cream tea was. It turned out it was actually a meal consisting of a selection of sandwiches and cakes, not just tea with cream in it, and it was very nice. I should also note that I was the only one who drank coffee at tea time.

It was the early evening at the time we met the Milkshake Lady, and we had an hour and a half's trip back to Nottingham, so we left Henley Street and made our way back to the cars. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am a fan of sunny days with "friendly" clouds, so I took a picture of the sky: it was like this the for a majority of the day.

Finally, this picture was the second-from-last image I took in Stratford-upon-Avon (the last was not as good in quality as this), and it was taken from inside my uncle's car, hence why it looks a little like it was taken through a window. We went straight back to my grandparents' house that evening, and we had fruit for dinner as we were still full from cream tea.

To me, this day was what I call a "perfect day": nearly everything about it went smoothly, and anything that could have been considered "dull" normally (such as having to wait a couple of times in queues or for the boat ride to have enough passengers) were still somehow exciting. Plus, everyone was cheerful, and the weather was brilliant: Stratford-upon-Avon is definitely a place I would go to again.

Chatsworth House images

On 8th August my aunt and uncle, two of my cousins, their friend, my brother, and I myself went to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. Here are some photos of that day, plus some more about what happened:

This is a view of Chatsworth House from the back. Unfortunately, the house was being renovated in parts that day, and this is the best picture I took of the place. I was not bothered about the work on the house, as it does need maintenance for it to be preserved.

This is a piece of amethyst on display within Chatsworth. I think it is beautiful, and I have always thought amethyst is a lovely gemstone, so it was a real treat to see a piece that large.

One of the of many paintings on the ceiling at Chatsworth House. They were so numerous there that it was not possible to get a picture of every one of them. Still, they were impressive to look at...imagine painting them!

This has to be one of the best parts of Chatsworth House: although the violin on the door looks as though it is real, in reality it is a painting made to look 3D.

This is a pink vase. One of my cousins wanted a picture of it, so I answered her request. It actually is a pretty nice vase.

Now this was an impressive piece of art: I was amazed by its detail and at how shiny it was...a truly brilliant piece! Oh wait...they did not have flat-screen televisions back in the 1500s did they?

Well, it certainly took him long enough! I wonder what kept him?

The dining area was a fine room too, though I would not have wanted to have washed all those dishes on my own!

Outside on the grounds was this maze, and this is a picture of it. We spent more than twenty minutes searching for the middle before my brother found a path that we missed: before long, my cousins' friend, one of my cousins, my brother, and myself were in the middle of the maze!

Here is the tree in the centre of the maze. Our friend was the one who went out to fetch everyone in our group who had not found the middle yet. There was a nice feeling of satisfaction when we reached that tree!

The visit to Chatsworth House was excellent, and I do thank my aunt and uncle very much for taking us there. We had dinner at a restaurant called Nando's, a place where I had never eaten at before until then, before going back to my grandparents' house for the night.

Media from Nottinghamshire versus Somerset

The following are videos and pictures taken at the Friends Life t20 Nottinghamshire Outlaws versus Somerset cricket game held at the Trent Bridge stadium on 7th August, 2011. One of my older cousins took my brother and I to the cricket match that day, as it was something he wanted to take us to, and we were happy to go along with him. It is the first time my brother and I have gone to see a major sports game.

The pictures were all taken by my brother, and he had no problem with me using some of his images for this post, but the videos were all done by me:

A dance by the cheerleaders just before the game started.

The scoreboard early on in the game.

These two images just show the stadium a little later on during the game.

This video shows a brief overview of the stadium prior to the game beginning.

The players walking onto the field for the game.

It did rain during the game, but fortuantely I had brought an umbrella! This video shows a cover being wheeled out to shelter the cricket pitch and the wicket from the rain.

It was a good day, and it was an interesting experience to see a sports game live (I am not a sports fan normally, but I do think seeing sports live is better than watching it elsewhere). Finally, Somerset was the winner of this game.