Rancho Texas, Lanzarote

Flying vulture at Rancho Texas in Lanzarote, it passed so close to me I could feel the wind from its wings.

La Santa, Lanzarote

Teguise, Lanzarote

What I Did On My Holidays

The Moonlit Mind - Dean Koontz 6*
The New Rules - Bill Maher 9*
Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins 7*
Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins 7*
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins 8*
Snuff - Terry Pratchett 8*
The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse - Vicente Blasco Ibanez 8*
Soldiers Of Salamis - Javier Cercas 4*
127 Hours - Aron Ralston 9*
VSI Sikhism - Eleanor Nesbit 7*
Tiger, Tiger : A Memoir - Margaux Fragoso 8*
On The Third Day - Rhys Thomas 7*
The Good Women Of China : Hidden Voices - Xinran 9*
Songs Of The Mexican Seas - Joaquin Miller 4*
Blackout - Connie Willis 3*
Antique Works Of Art From Benin - Augustus Henry Lane-Fox 8*
The Man Who Would Be King - Rudyard Kipling 7*
Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs 7*
The Insatiable Spider Man - Pedro Jaun Gutierraz 6*
Band Of Brothers - Alexander Kent 4*

The Blog Isn't Dead...

Image via Wikipedia

...but it came close this time.

I know I've been rather non-existent on the blogging front for nearly a month, a busy period at work, uni work and then our annual holiday all got in the way.  The holiday was wonderful, we spent two weeks in Florida and did all the touristy things including the Universal theme parks, Gatorland, watching the Mars mission being launched and, er, shooting a Glock handgun. Not at anybody you understand.

After Florida we spent a weekend at the UK's premier classic/hard rock festival, Hard Rock Hell, drank slightly too much, got a new tattoo and heard some great, and hugely loud, bands.  Magnum, Black Stone Cherry, Therapy?, Michael Monroe, Voodoo Six, Quireboys, Wolfsbane, Kobra and the Lotus and a host of other bands made it a great weekend.  We have booked our tickets for next year's festival already as they tend to sell out rather early.

I got some rather good news from The Open University yesterday, I passed my foundation module with flying colours and received a Distinction.  I managed seven maximum scores from the eight marking points and a good score on the online multi-choice exam.

Now that I am a quarter of the way through the 60 point module AA100 The Arts Past and Present, I am very glad that I did the foundation module as nearly all the work we did on art, poetry and history is highly relevant to this course as well.  My first essays on this course, on Plutarch's view of the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra, and a critical comparison of the styles of Cezanna and Zurbaran, were both marked as being only a fraction short of Distinction level so I am really pleased with that as well.  The second essay, a re-write and reflective analysis of the Plutarch essay I handed in while on holiday. The next essays are on Michael Faraday, and a critical analysis of some poetry about cats, due in the first week of January 2012

Sweetest Fridays: Good Holiday Dogs. Snow Dogs, loldog, Christmas Dogs

Chiuauas and Huskies and Labs--Oh My!


From The CALENDAR more chiuaua HERE


 more sled dogs HERE

Beautiful argentinian dogo from KSU!

SNOW DOGS HERE
More snow dogs click  HERE  scientifically proven: gazing at these pictures will lift your spirits.

Beauty Dogs HERE
Snow cats Click HERE

More from calendar HERE

click for  corgis and  boxers  and bulldogs 

and mastiffs!

Labs HERE and HERE

Pretty As A Picture ?

Closed Market Stalls Amsterdam

Sea View From Dunstanburgh Castle

Alnmouth Beach

This was back in August. Meg took me on a day trip to show me some of the places that her parents used to take her as a child.  Alnmouth beach is lovely, hard flat sand and lots of interesting rock pools, and a golf course on which you almost tee off from the sand.

Greetings From Amsterdam

Image via Wikipedia We're here just having a quick four day break, my first consecutive days off since April I think.  The flight was fine, we had to take a bus from Schipol to catch a train from another station to get into Amsterdam, but that was fine. There was an arse in suit playing hell with the ticket guy and demanding to know why they hadn't informed people in advance of the change of plans, but really, what's he supposed to do, phone everyone in Europe and say "Hey, if you're coming to Amsterdam on Sunday there are some engineering works on the lone so you'll have to catch a bus and that will hold you up by 20 minutes." The thing is, sometimes people in suits are dicks.

Amsterdam on arrival was much like Ilkley, mostly raining.  We had arrived later than decent restaurants open on a Sunday and ended up in a burger place where one half of the customers looked like drug dealers and the other half appeared to be the end of week get together of the Amsterdam National Front.  There's something about groups of skinheads that always makes me mildly nervous.

This morning though the city showed itself in a better light. After sleeping in until 8.30am, and there's a rare treat in itself, we had breakfast at the hotel and then set off on a bus tour of the city.  Meg fancied looking round a diamond workshop and so we looked at the beautiful, glittering and expensive things for a while, and then she said she could stand being bored for a bit and allowed me to drag her around the Rijksmuseum.

I was rather impressed with the collection of Dutch masters and the demonstration the art provided of what an impressive trade and military power the Dutch Republic was.  The museum is having a refit for the next couple of years and the display space has been vastly cut down, but the art on display is a visually stunning Dutch greatest hits parade, including the almost overpowering and vast 'Night Watch.'

After a quick lunch we took a canal cruise around more of the city, including the river and a cruise past the vast river cruise ships and the old sailing ships, the we had a walk around the fringes of the red light district and Chinatown.  Dinner was a huge pile of noodles and Peking duck, then a few pints of Heineken back at the hotel.

Tomorrow ? We haven't quite decided yet, but the floating flower market and Anne Frank's house are possibles.

I Have Returned

Image by Rob J Brooks via FlickrThe blog isn't dead, yet. The past two weeks have been exceptionally busy here at Ilkley Golf Club with the Autumn Senior's Open, Ladies Invitation Day, Yorkshire Golf Guide Qualifying Event, Clitheroe Ladies Exchange and a host of visiting club and golf societies to look after.

The whole team have done a wonderful job, but as the season draws to a close there have been some changes on the staff front.  The summer uni student brigade have gone back to their palaces of learning, so it is goodbye for now to Rob C, Calum and Izzie.  Little ray of kitchen sunshine Hannah is moving on to become a shop assistant, bye Hannah, it has been fun working with you. Staying on with chef Rob W and myself we have Fred (although he wants to work away in the ski season over the winter), Laura, Rachel and Ellie.  We had a bit of a false start with new girl Brook, although we will welcome her back if her circumstances change, so our latest addition to the team is Maddy.

I like this time of year, the brutal long shifts and work patterns are almost behind me, the nights are drawing in so we can get to close earlier on evenings when there are no bookings, and it is very nearly holiday time.

We bought some flights at a fund raising event for Ilkley Rugby Club (and I'm still waiting for an invite to look around the place !), so we are having a few nights in Amsterdam in October.  For our big holiday this year we pondered over going to California and doing a long distance driving holiday, but then we changed our minds and decided on Florida and a single base holiday.  So we will be going to some of the big fun parks, Harry Potter at Universal's Islands of Adventure, Seaworld, and then a few lazy days at the nice villa we are renting.

Image via WikipediaWe arrive back from the USA just in time to get to Hard Rock Hell V for a fairly raucous weekend featuring Girlschool, Magnum, Black Stone Cherry, Therapy ?, Ginger Wildheart, Lizzy Borden, Ace Frehley, Michael Monroe and a host of other bands.

On Christmas Day, the one day of the year when the club is closed, I will of course be cooking for the family, and no doubt the twins Alice and Jack will be the stars of the day, adored and pampered by everyone.  I will try to get up to Ripon Cathedral to watch Joe singing, and a big hug from Ellie, plus some chin pie for Ellie, are compulsory.

Who knows, with the nights drawing in, I might even do things that normal folk do, like having nights off and going to the pub, see you in Bar'Tat, mine's a bitter.