Beautiful Snow.

When the crazy snow fall begain in November last year it was time for us to move house. If things had gone according to plan we would have moved the previous week before Jack Frost even thought about making his appearance. However as we found out when it comes to new houses few things run smoothly. The picture above shows the view from our flat the morning of moving day.

The picture below is me in the garden a couple of days after moving in. Check out the depth of the snow!!! We were the only household on the street to not have a heavy duty arctic worthy snow shovel. We have learned our lesson for Winter 2011.

Resolutions.

Happy New Year to all reading this. This year I have made my resolutions much more achievable. Food wise, instead of cutting things out, I am cutting back on them. Exercise wise, instead of crazy mental daily torture I'll be taking a more Woozle friendly approach to exercise and building it up gradually. I have my Wii personal trainer to help and it is shameful to admit that despite the acres of fields and woodland around me, I am more motivated by a tiny bouncing computer generated figure and a virtual hula hoop. To be honest I blame the instant gratification of a scoreboard.

My Wii fitness age this morning ..... 23, woohoo. Super hula hoop 745 spins, hurrah!!

Oh, and after neglecting my blog since October, one of my other many resolutions is to update on here more often. Good luck with your resolutions.

Motor Neurone Disease Auction.

In September I heard about a facebook auction site which was raising money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association. It was a great idea and a wonderful way to raise funds in aid of the organisers mother, Marion May. If you joined the facebook group or bid on any of the auctions thank you very much.

The auctions all ended tonight, and the amazing sum of £1000.13 was raised in just a matter of weeks. Overall there were over 100 items donated, along with a charm necklace from SparkleSmith which sold for £19. The auction page can be seen here. A very big well done to Caryl Purdy who organised the auction, for her great idea and all her hard work.

Green Afro Man of Glasgow.

A totally random and short posting today of a man I saw many years ago with huge green afro hair. He was bending down on Giant Western Road in Glasgow, and was at the perfect angle to get his new stunning bushy hairstyle. Oh, how we laughed. Click the pic to enlarge.

Rain and Rod.

Rod Stewart was playing at Edinburgh Castle last night. We didn't have tickets but decided to go for a meal then have a wee dance along the Royal Mile to his music. We had a speedy meal at The Outsider on George IV Bridge, spent 20mins waiting to be served at Bar Kohl, then ducked into The National Library to avoid the monsoon, and spent about 20mins reading up on the history of golf. Turns out if you visit the library at 1950hrs on a Wednesday you have the whole place to yourself.

The rain got heavier as we got closer to the castle. Below is the queue of sodden Rod fans as they waited to get to in. As we walked down the Royal Mile we were offered 2 tickets (5th row from front) for just £50. They cost around £60 each at face value but fortunately we don't love Rod enough to sit in the wind and sheet rain for 3 hours. Plus the fact we were already soaked to the skin. We decided to head home.

Waiting for the bus on North Bridge the rain was so heavy we couldn't even see the other side. The picture below is of the Balmoral Hotel on the left, and the Old Post Office building on the right. Fingers crossed it's all gone for my outside fair this weekend, unlikely.

Horseboy visits Amsterdam.

Last September we went on our mini honeymoon and were lucky enough to stay in the beautiful Hotel Toren in Amsterdam. Sitting outside the hotel on Keizersgracht one morning, I saw an odd site coming across the bridge towards me. I quickly dug my camera out and managed to get a couple of snaps of the strange horseman. Click the pictures to enlarge.

Fast forward a few months and Horseboy is all over the news thanks to Google Streetview. He was spotted on it in Aberdeens Hardgate area, and then again on Hazlemere Road. Could this possibly be him on his holidays?

For a couple of other excellent Streetview images take a look here.

I want a Tigerdog.

Looking through msn's week in pictures, I found this gem of a pic and had to share as it made me laugh so much. Thankfully it's just hair fur dye, not some new tigerdog creation. I msn'd the pic to a friend who immediately pinged me back a link to the panda dogs below. All the dogs live at the Dahe Pet Civilization Park in Zhengzhou, China. They were dyed as a publicity stunt. Enjoy.

Norman. Happier times in St Andrews.

This is one of my favourite pictures of Norman. Quite happy and full of chug as he drives along Granny Clarks Wynd and across the 1st and 18th fairways of the Old Course. We were lucky to get such a great shot with no golfers on the course and hardly any tourists in the background. Unfortunately due to the vandalism of mindless idiots we had to put Norman into early retirement. He’s been in my family longer than I have and hopefully he'll be making a comeback someday soon.

Below are some brilliant mini inspired items from etsy. I love them, especially the gorgeous lower 3 items all by Vitamini. Top row, left to right - Bag with Mini print by NKanner, Mini cufflinks by Blinkphoto, fabulous Mini drawing (which could be Norman) by Annechovie. Bottom row - Mini cards and lavender sachets by Mini lover Vitamini. Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Ribbit Ribbit.

A few pics of just some of the many many frogs we dodged on the way round Arthurs Seat a couple of weeks ago. It was a pretty amazing sight. They were all over the place, literally hundreds of them. Ribbit ribbit.

The Wonders of Google.

Personally I love Google Street View, and to be honest I don't have a huge problem with Cradley Heath in the West Midlands either. Not so sure other people feel that way though.

Take a look at these brilliant street view snips. The first one you need to look up once fully loaded. The second, you might feel the need to zoom out. Enjoy.

http://bit.ly/9L2sTG

http://bit.ly/abQBiE

Fifty Marathons in 56 Days!!

Every year, along with millions of others I make a resolution to get in shape and take up jogging. This year that resolution hasn’t totally gone by the wayside, but I also haven’t quite managed the weekly run round Arthurs Seat I promised myself.

Someone who puts me to shame and has probably run further this year than I have in my entire life is Mark Cooper. Mark who lives in Edinburgh is currently in training for a massive marathon of marathons. Starting in May, Mark will be running a huge 50 marathons over just 56 days. His first marathon begins in Holland, and 8 weeks and an exhaustive 1300 miles later the last marathon ends in Barcelona.

Mark is running in memory of his mother Sheila who passed away in 1997. He is aiming to raise £25,000 for Edinburgh Headway. You can find more about Mark and his challenge here, follow his blog here, tweet at him here, and most important of all donate here. Photo courtesy of Fourtheye Photography.

The Woolpack at The Sheep Heid Inn

My favourite pub is the Sheep Heid in Duddingston Village, and luckily enough it is also my local. Usually we go for bbq's, beer festivals, banter and board games, but last night I went along for the first meetup of the Woolpack. Slightly apprehensively, as despite being given knitting needles 4 years ago last night was their first trip out the packet. Not that that mattered as I had some great coaching from Lauren and Evelyn, who were also very patient with me as a complete beginner. Good night, go at your own pace and eat tunnocks teacakes. Everyone is welcome, knitters extrordinaires and novice knitters.

The Woolpack at the Sheep Heid Inn runs on the first Tuesday of every month. Half seven till approx half nine. See the links below for more info, see you there.

http://www.woollysheep.blogspot.com/

http://www.sheepheid.co.uk/

Goodbye Snow.

So the lady in the radio said today we are starting to come out of the big freeze. Hurrah, boo!! Hopefully that means the heating bill will start to drop, other news might be mentioned and wearing gloves in the house might come to an end. But on the boo side, the thought of no more snow till Christmas makes me sad. Its lovely to see the snowflakes falling under the streetlights, and it was quite funny watching the neighbours cat slipping on the ice. Here is one of my favourite images of the snowfall across the country.

Back with a Bump.

Happy New Year. Well after two weeks on honeymoon in the sunshine, we are def back in Scotland enjoying the cold. Currently in flat with gloves and blanket wrapped around me even though the heating is on. Gotta love it. Just thankful we haven't been stuck in massive traffic jams overnight, or lost our electricity, yet.

Two weeks on an all you can eat buffet saw me put on 7lbs whilst on hols, so 2010 on a mission to lose it and the other 7lbs I put on after Sep, oops. Already lost a couple of pounds from going back to work, turns out they don't have non stop ice cream and pina colada's in the office - shame. Temperatures are apparently diving to -20 here tonight. We're off to a Russian night out this Saturday so I think the temp seems very apt for that, here's hoping there will be White Russians aplenty and the health can restart again on Sunday morning.

Happy days everyone.

So Much Food, So Little Time...

Since our wedding in September I seem to have been in a constant state of hunger. I didn't starve myself before it, or have huge amounts of stress or lose weight with nervous energy. But since, oh my god. Anything and everything thats put infront of me is gone within seconds.

This week alone I have, or will be eating at Gourmet Burger Kitchen, The Outsider, Mother India, Zizzi and possibly The Sheep Heid. On top of this I had an Indian thali delivered on Sunday (x factor final so only expected), had Chinese in London last week plus another GBK plus an Italian before getting the train home. So much in just a few days, not much wonder I've put on so many pounds since Sep.

2010 is going to see a radical change to my diet. Its only been 3 months of crap eating but 3 months too many. Big improvements coming here soon...

I'll just finish these chocolate pennies.

Flooding in central Cork, Ireland

My friend in Cork sent me some pics this morning of the terrible floods over there. Hightide and 2" of rain in 12 hours has caused disaster for many residents. Sandbags aren't going to be much help when the water is this vicious.

Ever feeling down, ever feeling sad??

This is perhaps my most favourite YouTube video ever. If you are ever in need of a quick mood boost or need cheering up watch this, it never fails to make me grin like a loon. Hamish on the left, and Oscar. My pal Karens little men, enjoy.