Neil's Slightly Random Wiblog

…Ivonne posted some pictures of Stoneghenge here!.

And people, well more specifically men, are needed to do her Survey…

Been a busyish week since back from London, still not sorted out the flat properly, but hoping to hear in the next few days, it is less than two weeks until I have to move out now, so it will be a disaster if it falls through really! We also went to Jennie and Rich’s wedding, which was really really nice, I went to Wiscombe Hill Climb again on Sunday with Dad, the weather stayed nice and the racing was good as ever (pictures coming later, I could not get Flickr to work last night for some reason).

Watched the Richard E Grant film Wah wah last night, it is really great, but even if it is only slightly biographical it is frightening, and certainly explains why he is teetotal!

…The last London update, no pictures for this one! After a nice lie in Chelley cooked a lovely roast and then we were on out way home. Was night much fun driving through the chaotic London traffic, but once we were on the familier A303 it was plan sailing, we even stopped so Ivonne could see Stonehenge for the first time.

It was a great trip, and managed to do it in just over my allocated budget of £100, so that was not bad at all! Noticed the pace of life was quite a bit more frantic than Devon though, and although I would not rule out living up there for a while I am not sue I would want to spend all my days there, although perhaps you adapt to it?

Anyway, I will get up to speed with what’s been happening the rest of the week soon…

Saturday morning we got in Chelleys way for a while and then went back into London, we mwt up with one of Ivonnes friends, went to the British Museum, wandered along Oxford Street and ate some food at Strada. I also saw Bush House, which satisfied the media geek in me.

Then the main event in the evening was the Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall, Prom Number 11, some French stuff (My knowledge of classical music is still lacking) It was really good and great to be in that vast hall! Great to see a proper orchestra as well, and the huge organ in the hall.

And for Ian here is another one of the Albert Memorial…

As soon as we got to Chelleys we were rushing out againg to get back into London for the mini wibmeet. We were only an hour late, but we made up for it by bearing gifts (Wetherspoons vouchers for cheap drinks…)

We had a good time, and sorry if I was a bit tired, I felt like I had been driving and rushing all day!Had a good time though, and the view of Tower Bridge was only slightly obscured by the cash machine sign.

Here is a picture of Dave trying to operate the timer on my camera…

Before finally getting it right…

…On Friday morning it rained harder than I have seen for a long time, my sisters garden started to fill up with water, but by the time we left the weather was fine! We went to Windor for a few hours on the way which was lovely, and we had a nice lunch in a cafe/sweet shop and bought some really nice sweets there too!

Then it was off to Chelleys… running just a little late…

More soon!

…We pottered around the South bank for a little longer then went off to the Royal College of Music Museum, a small museum of musical instruments hiding under the college. An excellent selection of instruments, including Harpsichords dating from the 15th Century and the biggest bassoon I have ever seen…

The College is located oppoiste the Albert Hall, so we had a walk around that from the outside and then a stroll through Kensington Gardens. Ivonne was amused by the “Princess Diana Memorial Playground” and didn’t believe me when I said it had bumper cars… (It doesn’t).

It was then off to get something to eat and a sit down in Starbucks before the exciting events of the evening, the recording of Radio 4’s The Now Show. It was so brilliant to see it actually being recorded, to see what they all look like and see how much material is recorded to make a half hour show. Well worth the chance of going if you can, and it you can apply for thr tickets free online!

I forgot to take a picture of broadcasting house, but did see this on the wall in the nearby Starbucks…

I will do this in bits, and will still manage to forget lots because we have had a fairly manic few days!

We left for my sisters house on Wednesday afternoon, and the TomTom did a good job of not getting us lost, although it did stop speaking to us for a long time, and I had wondered what I had done to upset it!

Anyway we arrived in one piece and on time then my sister fed us lots of nice food and John provided lots of nice beers.

Then on Thursday we headed into London, here is Ivonne on the journey…

We walked along the south bank for a while, grabbed something to eat and I popped into the Royal Festival Hall to see the refurbishment, I like it in there as it is always peaceful and quiet!

If you look closely you can see one of Gormleys sculptures looking like they are about to top themselves, there are about 30 of these figures along the South Bank.

There is also a fun fountain that you can walk into, and the watery walls change position and make it like a small maze, I got rather wet trying to get out!

More soon…

…Off to London tomorrow, have the TomTom to save us getting lost, and have packed a variety of about 25 CDs for the journey, which is a bit excessive.

We are going to have a mini Wibsite meet on Friday night, so if any of you wibloggers are in london have a look at this thread.

Please help Ivonne by filling out her new Survey. Thanks!

That is the sad sight you get if you try and visit Fopp/MusicZone in Exeter, Wesley Owen, the christian retailer in the same street also closed down a few weeks ago too.

On the plus side sales at our shop are up 30% on last year, and new shops are opening all the time in Exeter, so hopefully retail is not facing a slump quite yet.

Talking of shopping, I am fairly sure Ivonne is going to have another survey to put on here soon…