Get bloody on with it

This is blog is in semi hibernation mode as I get bloody on with stuff, mainly college assignments (Oh deja-vu moment.....)

Other news:
I have a beautiful new niece Arwen Elizabeth, she is two weeks old today.

Not seen the little munchkin yet, as she lives in Hamburg, Germany, with my sister and rest of their family. My younger nephew Connor was not happy that I stayed home to do bloody college work, whilst my parents went over to see the new baby. So the little bugger decided to stab me in the heart with this note, that he gave to the mumborg to pass onto me.

Dear Claire
Why did you stay at home?
Love you lots
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Connor

Wow that kid takes after me, emotional blackmail or what? I will have to kick his wee arse when I see him in May. Well by kick his arse, I probably mean photograph him to death and get him to chant 'Claire is awesome'.

Still doing photo a day thing, if you want to check out those HERE

I am still floating around in the blog aether, don't forget about me xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

PS: Listen to this, I love it:

Yeasayer "ONE" By: Radical Friend from ODDBLOOD on Vimeo.

Happy Mumborg Day and Stuff

Today its Mother's Day in the UK (Mumborg Day), so I thought I would share a few photographs, a wee video and generally record what I have been up to this week gone by.

The Mumborg was allowed home this weekend so that she could go to my Grandpa's 80th party and spend some time with my sisters and nephews while they were home for the weekend. I was not that happy about it, as I really thought she wasn't up to it at all, but of course she just ignored my sage advice(stubborn bugger).
To be fair The Mumbrg has improved since she has had the Vacuum Closure System installed/inserted or whatever last week, but is still very weak and fragile. When they were cleaning out the wound to finally stop the bleeding, it was in fact going septic, as things in there were going black and generally looking bloody awful.
So I was a right grumpy bastard when she decided to ask the doctors for leave and I told her I was going away for the weekend. She of course knew I was just being a shit and arranged things anyways. The district nurse had to come out 5 times a day to administer IV antibiotics and check on her, as they are still very anxious about her getting any sort of infection.
The vacuum closure system also comes in a handy portable size, which is basically a vacuum sucking the gunk out of the wound, through a sponge and into a container. I was going to take pictures, but it really does look horrid, so I just took a pic of the IV thing instead.

Grandpa's party was yesterday, although his birthday is today and everyone enjoyed themselves. Most importantly The Mumborg and the Grandpa did.
I had spent a ridiculous amount of time working on a photographic slideshow, totally messed it up several times by trying to save it in the wrong format, scanner breaking etc etc. So I was late to the party and upset that it wasn't as perfect as I hoped, but it went very well in the end. People laughed and cried in the appropriate places and the Grandpa loved it. The photographs from that slideshow will eventually be made into a Photobook for him to keep, so it was worth spending all that ruddy time on it. I will probably flood flickr at some point with all the images from it, but for the moment I need a break from looking at all those ugly mugs.

Heather and Jemma both headed back home today, Heather to Scotland and Jemma plus Kids to Hamburg. As The Mumborg can't have real flowers in hospital we compromised and got the flowers in the photographs. They are ridiculosuly cheery, but rather fun and at least there is no nasty pollen on them. Although I hope they are machine washable, as dust bunnies may take over....

Just to remind folks that I am a bit mad creative,in case you forgot, here is a video of the mini mumborg ( a wind-up toy for the mum off the Jemma). Somehow, after watching it, I ended up wandering the streets with five toasters, a microwave and a hairdryer, odd.

Farewell Olga!

Alas the strapping gal known as Olga has legged it! This time she has gone for good (unless she comes back next year) and is off to her next victim/host. Fingers crossed she gets there safely and doesn't end up in prison, its not like I would plant drugs or clam porn on her.
I connected with her via a psychic link and produced this video, which includes strong imagery of my last hours with her and a few memories from the last few weeks.

(There are some interesting sounds in this video)
(In some of the photos I may be drunk)
(Its not me vomiting)

I hadn't realised just how long Olga had been here with me and how much she has been up to, until today when I looked through all the posts. I have had loads of fun and having Olga about definitely gets you off your arse. I have been pulled up a few times for calling Olga a 'she' instead of an 'It' or even just a 'bra'. I know its hard to describe the phenomena that is Olga, but just go with it. It has been a delight having Olga with me and I would like to point out that behind every great bra is a great mistress.

If you have missed any Olga posts click the link and have a read! You will be amused.
Olga's time with Claire

Don't forget that Olga has her own blog, so make sure you keep up with her adventures!
You never know whose blog she will turn up on next.
Olga the travelling bra

Olga and The Beatles

After the trauma that Olga suffered I figured she needed and deserved a wonderful treat, but what? After interviewing her, I found out that she loves The Beatles and guess who lives right near Liverpool..... Me!
I must confess to not actually being much of a Beatles fan, so this whirlwind photographic adventure was a education for me too.
The areas that we took photographs were Strawberry Field, Penny Lane and Mathew Street.
The majority of photographs where taken in and around Mathew street, which is a veritable treasure trove of all things 'Beatles'.
If you want to see the photographs individually Click here: Olga does Liverpool.

Farewell post for Olga tomorrow!
She is finally leaving me.
(Hooray)

Fembots are not a threat!

For some reason Dr Evil and Fat Bastard agreed to a phone interview.
Here is how it went.
(it gets rather disturbing so be warned!)

What on earth is going to happen next!
(No really, what is going to happen next?)

Hiking in The Devil's Kitchen

To see more photos and these photos individually visit my flickr page by following this link:
Twll Du photos on Flickr

Welcome to Twll Du which translates into the black hole in Welsh, but in English it translates into The Devils Kitchen. It refers to the narrow cleft which you can see in the top right hand photograph. It is found in the hanging valley called Cwm Idwal which is in Snowdonia, Wales.

I have been to this place quite a few times, even with school,as its an area that was formed by glaciation and is absolutely beautiful.

In those past visits I had not attempted any hiking. So its starts as a lovely nice stroll, then its a rather tough scramble to the top. You will see that if you watch the video located at the bottom of this post.

Unfortunately once we did get to the top in one piece, the devil decided to come out to play and we were battered by hailstones and a little snow flurry. Although that did pass fairly quickly, the clouds came down fast on the mountain tops and visibility decreased. This meant it wasn't safe to carry on as we weren't familiar enough with the area for that to be a wise decision.

This also meant I didn't get to see some rather cool rock formations, but I will be going back so will get them next time.

The scramble down was worse as it was a lot more slippery and I had to hold onto to the mountain at some points. No doubt you will be amazed to know that for once I did not fall on my arse, a miracle I know.

The Devil himself appeared in the form of a mountain goat on the scramble down, but stayed still long enough for me to take a picture. A fellow walker told us that one of the mountain goats butt you if you don't feed it. That would of meant goat curry if the furry blighter tried that with me.

Even though the weather spoilt some of walk, overall it was still a gorgeous place and I am looking forward to going back in better weather.

The video is filmed with the same camera that I use to take the photographs, a canon powershot A630. I wish I had a good quality hand held camera but at the moment this does the job.

As its an ominous place I went with ominous music to set the theme, also you could hear that I was out of breath at times, so that had to be edited out.

I forgot to say that the music is by Matthijs Vos, which I found on Jamendo thanks to my chum Tech Fun aka JD. It is track seven, Strings Adventure, and from your comments it definitely adds an eerie factor to the video.

A view from my bedroom ....

Okay the weather has gone seriously pants over here in the UK, from freakish hail stones as seen in the video below, to howling winds that keep me awake!
Shit I am blogging about the weather, can you tell I am a bit blogger blocked?

I have no curtains in my bedroom as I like to be awakened by the sunshine, whatever that is. Luckily there is a lovely row of cacti to stop anyone getting in (I have a view stalkers). Unless people like getting pricked? hmmmmm....

In the meantime:
Britain Braced for Storm Battering!.

Don't the weather gods know what that will do to my bloody hair! I may have to resort to wearing a plastic hood like this babe:
If you think I wouldn't wear something like that to protect my hair, then you're wrong!

Strange Christmas present

Want to know where Willy came from and why on earth I post about a Non Sex Toy?

If you have ever doubted that my mum has a very unique sense of humour, check out what she bought me this Christmas.

This video was made under the influence of cold and flu medicine whilst battling severe amounts of sinus juice.