Flying kites, no strings attached

Concluding our trip to Wales

For the second part of our week in Wales (after Alfie, Kirsty and Joe had gone home) we had booked a Red Kite and Dolphin viewing tour…Now, we could have saved some money and done this tour on our own but  Carl, who runs http://www.wildlifetoursandeducation.co.uk/, brings a level of knowledge and understanding of wildlife that adds a whole dimension.  It’s like the difference between watching a foreign language film with no subtitles – You certainly see everything but generally haven’t a clue what’s going on (except maybe the sex scenes, those French animals sure are randy buggers). Carl does the talk over that fills in all the gaps (except for the sex scenes that is. Carl probably figures we can work those out for ourselves.  He does however play generic elevator music* and gives us soft focus spectacles until the embarrassing deed is done) .    

* OK, this is not strictly true, he does however play bird sounds to attract our feathery little buddies**

** No, not for sex scenes (it was not that type of tour) they generally arrive looking to defend their territory . Some of them can get quite feisty and very noisy, a bit like waking Mrs B up before the 15^th snooze cycle….

On top of that Carl treats his guests like royalty. Despite a long day  driving us around Carl cleaned his Discovery inside and out while Mrs B and I were fast asleep.  Our car is lucky to see a sponge every six months  and would probably freak if we took a Hoover to the inside.  My idea of cleaning the interior of ElleGee is to go out in a rain shower with the roof down and slow down to less than 70mph (the magic number for keeping relatively dry during anything but the heaviest of rain falls).

Red Kites

These are wonderful birds - I’m a big fan of the raptors. OK, maybe not their eating habits, which leave an awful lot to be desired.  They can’t help it though since they are, after all, the direct descendants of Velociraptor’s – that’s dinosaurs to the uninitiated - who are evidently bad parents and didn’t teach their great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great  grand children how to use a knife and fork…..That aside, watching them glide and swoop is just awe-inspiring…   

Dolphins
It took a while but after a couple of  hours of waiting we glimpsed a dorsal fin, scything through the waves , it was very exciting but despite the long wait our friend the dolphin ordained only to show us his fin and tail….not even a glimpse of an eye or face….Now don’t get me wrong I think dolphins are brilliant it’s just, aren’t they just Sharks with a better dental plan and superior PR?

The number of shark attacks are tiny and I would not be surprised to learn that more people are killed by dolphins every year.  It’s just that dolphins :-_

• Are better at covering  their tracks;
• Have better Alibis;
• Wrote the scripts for the Jaws films;

I bet Flipper (rather like Skippy the Bush Kangaroo) wasn’t trying to save people but was trying to lure them to their doom, just with clever TV editing they made him look like a hero rather than an aquatic Dexter….

Flipper - possibly not as innocent as he looks

Barenaked Ladies (featuring Stinky Phone)

A new venue for me this week – Koko in Camden

It was so hot driving into London that for once, as well as having ElleGee’s roof down, I had the windows and wind deflector down – fantastic breeze – I was really not looking forward to getting into a hot and sweaty club.

The satnav had a paddy (probably overheated) and took me on an unsolicited tour of Camden, trying to tempt me into going down one way streets......

“.....but I was only going one way officer….How, other than the "No entry" sign, the big blue arrows and the hundreds of cars driving at me honking their horns (rather too aggressively I might add…)  was I to know which was the correct way I should be going???”

It was only after I looked up Mornington Crescent tube (which is directly opposite KOKO) that the Satnav managed to pull itself together and deliver me at the destination. I even found a parking space just yards from the venue.  It was all going too well, until, as I stepped out of the car, my phone took a swan dive from my pocket.  

-          The remainder of this sequence has to be imagined in hyper slow motion…

I could see the soft case that the phone resides
in, between phone calls, tumbling over and over in a
downward spiral that any Red Kite would be proud
of.  My only hope was that it would swoop away at the last
moment from the rather rancid looking puddle it was heading
towards….The splash (well more of a splodge really ) told me
that the Red Kite impression was over.  It bounced once and then
arked up and I watched in horror as my “not so smart” phone
leaped from the case and managed to separate itself into three
distinct parts – the back casing, the battery and the rest of the
phone…..it was like watching a mini-synchronised swimming
event......if the event was being held in an open sewer rather
than a nice clean swimming pool.

Hold on to your ear lobes as the BlackLOG now returns to what passes for normal speed….

The reason for the splodge, rather than a splash, soon became clear. I retrieved the parts from the thick gooey, smelly, mucky pustule  of a puddle. Wiping as much of the smelly primeval ooze off with the soft case as possible, I attempted to reassemble the constituent parts into a fully functioning wonder of the communication world. 

The phone was having none of it….

How was I going to be able to contact Mrs B and our friends Robert and Flora ?(who were joining us for the evening)….

The answer was I wasn’t….

Do you ever ask yourself what we did before mobile phones?

It’s simple, you would arrange more sensible times and places to meet and not make yourself even later as you constantly phone to apologise for not being where you said you would be at such and such a time….

As it was I was lucky as Flora and Robert saw me as I wondered around staring at my useless stinky mobile phone.

Fortunately they had not dropped their phones into a cesspit and so we were able to contact Mrs B.  Unhelpfully Robert thought it was hilarious and christened my phone “Stinky phone”….

The concert was great.  The Bare-Naked ladies were brilliant as usual, despite the loss of Steve Page.  The support Boothby Graffoe – a singing Comedian was hilarious and as an added bonus Koko is a brilliant venue. All my fears of overheating went out of the window as Koko is fully air-conditioned  I didn’t even have to open the windows and drive the building up the Camden Road at excessive speeds in order to to keep cool…..

Show me the sunny

Monitoring our way to a fortune (or not) with our Solar Panels

KW Produced so far – 1951

KW generated in the last week – 141

This has earned us approximately – £975

Record of the week

If you want to hear the music you have to press play on the Ipod at the top....

The Dream Of The Dolphin by Enigma - And as we all know now Dolphins dream of being Sharks....Incidently I discovered this week that the UK TV show "Dragons Den" is called "Shark Tank" in the states  

If I Had $1000000 - Barenaked Ladies - In celebration of watching a great live band at a brilliant venue 

Kite by Nick Heyward  - Ok it's not red or about a raptor  but it kind of fits...

Pinch Me by Barenaked Ladies - Still celebrating discovering Koko

Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite from Across The Universe - Any excuse to include a Beatles song, even if it is a cover...

Watch of the week

The regular section in support of Joe (Stunt Cock) and his growing watch business Xupes.com.

Xupes has been trading for over 2 years and  Joe has recently developed some great contacts in the trade which enables him to pick up surplus stock and sell them at great prices. Mrs B is a regular purchaser from his jewellery section, going self service once she finally realised that her husband is not the jewellery buying type….

Breitling Bentley MKIV 19 Complications SS/Platinum

Xupes price	£  5,995.00
RRP	£10,600.00

Xupes price

£  5,995.00

RRP

£10,600.00

An unworn condition Breitling Bentley MKIV 19 Complications SS/Platinum bezel mens watch on brown crocodile leather strap with stainless steel deployment buckle. This is the mens 42mm model. This particular model is now discontinued so set to be a collectors piece for the future. The watch is in excellent unworn overall condition complete with boxes, manuals, and guarantee stamped and dated 1st June 2011 (Under manufacturers warranty for 2 years). 24 months Xupes warranty included. The strap will fit up to a 8.00 inch wrist.

Photo Finish

Sating off with Pictures taken using The Beast in Wales

A rose by every other name....



Like a scene from the battle of Britain...

"daa, da, da, da, da, da, da, da"

So its hands over your nose and...

"Chocks away Ginger"

 "I'm hit, I'm hit, I'm going down....It was nice
flying with you old boy..." 



Red kites make this flying malarkey look like a breeze ....



Red Kite at night Shepherds delight....

Red Kite in the morning Shepherds warning....

I found it much easier to swing lazily at the ball and let
Alfie take it up the beach for me....

Did I mention the barn we rented was a bit remote?
Would you like to borrow some binoculars?

It's not all over until the fat Dolphine dives...

As promised last week Mrs B and Mega Mini Beast with some shots from the holiday

And as a Bonus Mrs B's picture of a Red Kite using Carl's Canon Camera

Rooney Redkite

It had to be a straight red card - for this two footed tackle