Hot, Cold and Creamy

One of the perks of the job is that I get to travel abroad, which means that I get to see lots of little snippets of the world.  This week I'm in the Netherlands for a training course called "Hot, Cold and Creamy".  Although this title is dripping with innuendo, I assure you it was very innocent!

On one evening during the course, the hosts took us into Amsterdam and we got to have a little tour.  Unfortunately I didn't have space in my luggage to bring my digital SLR, but hopefully the camera on my phone will do the city justice.

Keeping in theme with the title of the course, our hosts first took us into an ice cream parlour/chocolatier, where they roasted their own chocolate and made their ice creams from scratch.

They had every variety of ice cream you could imagine and all were amazingly tasty.  My favourite was the Cinnamon flavour.  But then again I am addicted to this spice.

They even had chocolate in all kinds of formats; spreadable, dipping, standard bars, powder for drinking and snorting with rolled up money!  We were definitely in the party capital.

We then made our way to the canal where we were to start our boat trip.  To get there we had to walk through the red light district.  Some could say this was the "hot" part of the trip!

I was quite surprised at how blatant and in your face it was.  Buildings had floor to ceiling windows with women behind them of all shapes and sizes flaunting their assets, trying to get punters.  There was even one lady who looked like she could have been a school teacher and looked very out of place next to all the other women that were quite heavily done up.

The whole thing is very hard to imagine if you have never been before.  One of the girls in the group tried to take a picture of them, which had them banging on the windows and shaking their fingers at her.

The boat trip was an amazing way to see Amsterdam and I recommend it to anyone.  The canal tunnels had lights on them which looked beautiful under the dark sky.  The houses that lined the canal were huge and had high ceilings ornately decorated with chandeliers.  No doubt living by the canal is expensive business.

Butterfly Galore

Inspired by the exhibition in the Botanical Gardens and wanting to further play with my new camera, I decided to go to the Butterfly Garden in Stratford-Upon-Avon this weekend.

This place was huge and there were thousands of Butterflies fluttering around everywhere.  It was also very humid.  I had to wait 10 minutes for my lenses to de-steam, before I could start taking pictures.  It was very toasty.

The Butterflies also seemed more used to being around people as they were quite content sitting on your head, arm, leg or any other part of the body that they could perch themselves on.

The colours of the Butterflies were also more vivid and vibrant.  And I hope that my pictures do them justice.

Birmingham's Hidden Treasure

I have a new toy; a new Canon digital SLR.  I was itching to use it and to have a play, so I decided to go to the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham, which has fast become my favourite place in this city.

This hidden treasure is just outside the confines of the city centre and is a beautiful place.  Walking among the flowers and different gardens you would never guess that you were in Birmingham.

It has somewhat a Central Park feel to it, but it is only a fraction of the size and it's also not free.  But it is the closest thing we have to it and it does remind me of my time in NYC.  I think I will be a frequent visitor.

The gardens are quite British.  Full of roses and wild flowers that you see in the British countryside.

There are also lots of animals.  They had a Butterfly exhibition, which was nearing it's end.  There weren't many Butterflies fluttering around.  Sadly many had died.  But I did manage to get a few snaps.

In addition they had a bird sanctuary, where I got greeted by several parrots, and my favourite was this Tom Cat; sweeping the benches and rummaging around to see what was left by the visitors of the Gardens.

Moves Like Jagger

It's mid-September already and who knows where the time has gone.

Since the last post there have been 2 Trini parties in aid of celebrating a housewarming, 2 birthdays and a leaving do.  And both times they have been very fortunate with the weather.

As per usual these parties entail copious amounts of alcohol, stuffing our faces with Curried Goat, music blazing from the speakers, Amrika showing some classic Trini dance moves and Ross showing that he can "move like Jagger".

The Trini moves vs. Ross' are very different.  Trini moves are fast, involve a lot of hair shaking and are full of blatant innuendo - if you know what I mean! :-)  And no one can do them as well as Amrika, even though she does try to teach others her skill.  There is an air of confidence that you need to have to be able to pull it off, which cannot be taught.

Ross doesn't have a variety of moves but one signature move.  The waving of his arm and the swaying of his hips.  Usually it encourages the removal of his shirt, but only if Amirka is not looking!

I think one day we need to have a dance off and see what other moves they can both pull out of the bag.

Princess' Birthday

Princess is 1 today.  Who can believe it? 

It only feels like yesterday when I got the emotional call from Pete to say that Cerys Grace had arrived in the world and that both mother and baby were doing well.

And now here we all are to celebrate her 1st birthday.

Her party dress was a white dress, that I had bought for her.  It's a beautiful flower concoction that I just fell in love with and couldn't resist buying.  You're probably thinking, "practical for a 1 year old", but let's face it, she's only going to wear it once.

Like all birthday parties there was an abundance of presents.  I think this was probably the best part for her as she got to rip up paper without anyone telling her "No" or taking it off her.

And there's no party without the cake.  A vanilla and chocolate sponge, decorated with green icing and Princess' favourite characters from a TV show, that only adults with kids would know about.

It came out when everyone was in mid chorus of singing "Happy Birthday".  I took a picture of her whilst everyone was singing.  She's looking at the cake and I wonder what does she see?  Does she recognise the characters?...

...well I think the next picture says it all on what she was looking at.  The concept of blowing out the candle is lost on Princess on this occasion!

Happy Birthday Princess.

x

The Olympics Are In Town

The UK has been in the limelight a lot over the past couple of years.  2011 was Kate and Will's Royal Wedding.  This year it was the Royal Jubilee and now it's the Olympics.

The advantage of living in a big city like Birmingham, is that there is a big screen in the middle of Victoria Square that allows you to watch big events in public.  Tonight I watched the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in London.

Luckily this week has been a hot sunny one, compared to the very wet summer we've had so far; so no umbrellas needed.

I have to hand it to Artistic Director, Danny Boyle, the opening ceremony was fantastic and original.  I haven't seen anything like it.  It was a fantastic depiction of how this country has evolved and how it went through the Industrial Revolution, mixed in with some British humour.  James Bond jumping out of the plane with Queenie in tow was fantastic and was rewarded with a lot of cheers from the crowd.   How the torch was put together was also very original.  Kudos to whoever designed this petal flaming cauldron and the flaming rings.

One aspect of the Olympic Games that always amazes me is the Geography lesson that you get as you see all the competing countries do their walk around the venue.  Half the countries I have never heard of.  Think I'm going to have to get the map out.

"Mack, Macks" and Dinosaurs

Cerys' first words are "mama", "dada", "ta" and my favourite, "mack, mack".  I think all are quite obvious apart from the latter which is a bit abstract.  But then if I were to tell you that it's her word for duck ("quack, quack") then perhaps it is obvious.  Actually she uses "mack, mack" for any creature with a beak, but it's still cute to hear her make the noise and to see her begin to associate words with what she sees.

Today we saw lots of "mack, macks" at Birmingham's Nature Centre.  For those of you that haven't been, it's a cute little Centre that has lots of different animals in well maintained grounds.  At £4 entry free, it's also great value for money and great for little families.

The Centre is not just full of "mack, mack's", but a wide variety of animals.  Ranging from Guinea Pigs, to Monkeys, to Lynx's, to Dinosaurs...

Actually the latter is refering to a Crane; there was one excited little boy at the Centre who went up to the enclosure that the Crane was in and at the top of his voice shouted "Wow Mummy! Look, it's a dinosaur!"

Cerys was also very fascinated with the little monkeys, watching their antics, as they jumped from rope to rope chasing each other.  At one point she started screeching like a monkey, so perhaps this is another animal she is now recognising.

I can't wait to see what other words she will come out with next.  So refreshing and so much fun to see the world through a 1 year old's eyes.