Museums and tea bars

 

If you ever want to visit the British Museum and you can visit the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford instead, you should give it a serious thought! I’ve been to both and from my experience at the British Museum, I can just say that it’s way too busy to my taste. I definitely prefer the Ashmolean Museum where it’s much quieter and you can enjoy the exhibitions and the information in your own time and space. We found that there’s a lot more on display at this museum about Ancient Egypt. As we visited quite a few other places in Oxford, sadly, we couldn’t go through the complete museum and had to leave after visiting the two sections: Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. At the British Museum, I feel ‘pushed‘ by the crowd and it’s really not a pleasure. Maybe I’m too much of a ‘reader of information‘ than some other people who just go to ‘look’. Also, I try to avoid crowded places and this is my experience at the British Museum. When you’re finished with your visit to the Ashmolean in Oxford, you surely need to find the Formosan tea bar, which is an independent business established in Oxford by a local Taiwanese entrepreneur. Enjoy your visit!

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I’ve been there

Click on images for a larger/clearer view.

These images were taken just after Christmas when I wanted to see “the largest shopping centre in Europe”. Westfield is in West London, just a stone-throw from where we live. I can now also say “I’ve been there”. I can also add and say this place is great, but it wasn’t more impressive than shopping centres in Pretoria, e.g Menlyn Shopping Centre and Kolonnade Shopping Centre and in Durbs the Pavillion Shopping Centre. I know there are more shopping centres to name and even new shopping centres that shoot up like mushrooms everywhere in SA.  What I liked about Westfield, are the indicators of how many parking bays are available so you don’t have to drive around hoping for a space. On image 3 you’ll see I couldn’t miss De Beers and if you don’t know this South African name, you should google it straight away and I might say you know “nothing”..hehe…The 4th image might look great but I’ve thought they could have done better with the artificial display as it looked a bit shabby- for such a “posh” shopping centre.  If you look closely, you can see a live model on the 3rd last image! She waved at us and first I thought  my eyes took me for a ride and I had to look again. We took this shot with the mobile phone as we didn’t want her to know we were taking the photo, but she actually saw us! haha..she was fun and laughed when she saw us taking the photo. My general feeling about this place…a lot of wasted space. They could have had smaller shops and a bigger variety or even more levels with more shops. Of course I couldn’t resist the chocolates and it was difficult not to want something from everything!

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Let it snow Let it snow Let it snow!

What a winter-wonderland when we got up this morning!

Click on the images for a larger view.

Do you now how much exercise you get from building a snowman! haha…

 

Please click on THIS LINK to create your very own snowflake – interactively! This is great fun for kids! The link will open in a new window.

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What a mix!

This is just a mix. Books I found people like to read on the Underground whilst travelling into London and some other news.

Review 1: Amazon.co.uk ….Margolan, so prosperous and peaceful under King Bricen’s rule, has been reduced to starvation in less than a year. Everyone knows of the usurpation of the crown of Margolan by “Jared the Tyrant”. He and his fire mage, Foor Arontala, have also broken the truce with the Blood Council and are hunting down all vayash moru (vampires). Things are going from bad to worse as the night of the Hawthorn Moon approaches. On that night, half a year from now, Jared and Arontala plan to feed all the souls captured in the Soul-catcher orb to the Obsidian King. Once accomplished, the Obsidian King will have the power needed to break free of the prison, which the Summoner named Bava K’aa had thrown him into, and evil will claim the entire Winter Kingdom.

He is Prince Martris “Tris” Drayke, son of Bricen of Margolan, Summoner and mage-heir of Bava K’aa. However, anyone looking at him would never imagine that he was more than a simple peasant enduring hard times, just like everyone else. The Sisterhood grudgingly agree to train Tris for his upcoming battles, but there is no guarantee that he will survive the training. Arontala is not only a strong fire mage, but is using blood magic (via sacrifices) to increase his power. Arontala will also draw power from the Obsidian King once he is freed.

Tris may very well be the strongest Summoner since Bava K’aa, but it is still going to be a royal battle indeed.
Review 2: Amazon…———–This story lacks the vigour, pace and imagination of the first book in the series. It feels as though the story has been padded out to achieve a deadline and had less enthusiasm from the author than the first book.
I have around 3 chapters to go to finish it and I will do so, however, it is proving necessary to force myself to complete the book. Perhaps the finale will change my view, if it does I’ll come back and amend this.
That all aside, it is readable if you have read the first one but I would have preferred to buy this second hand!

Review: Amazon.co.uk …This book was a fabulous read! It’s entertaining but also informative. It’s a great balance between fun & useful, and isn’t dumbed down to cater to the uninitiated – it’s just explained better than the average scientific text.

It’s funny, insightful and fascinating! Highly recommended for anyone with the slightest interest in discovering our universe.

Review: Amazon.co.uk…..If you’re looking for a PS I Love You part two, then you will be sadly disappointed. Instead you step in to the world of Rosie Dunne and her best friend Alex Stewart. Rosie is an ordinary woman trying to get on with her day to day life who quite simply misses her best friend. What starts out as an innocent childhood friendship turns to love, yet neither of them realise it.
This is a beautifully written tale of two people who share a deep rooted friendship who are seperated at a young age. It is a cleverly written story told in the form of emails, instant messages, letters and text messages which span 45 years. It contains a variety of emotions, one minute you are laughing and the next you are wiping away the tears, but throughout the book you carry the hope that this time they really will get it together. Quite simply, you’d be really stupid to pass up the chance to read this novel.

NEWS:

In today’s The London Paper on page 8, the headline of a newspaper article: Mandela off terror list
“Nelson Mandela has finally been removed from the US’s terror-watch list. The 90-year-old former South African President was in a national security immigration category which classified him as a terrorist …..”

https://time.com/5338569/nelson-mandela-terror-list/

 

 

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Snow

 

Voila!! Test with blogdesk! Due to the picture-uploading-problem with WordPress, which is still not sorted, one of my friendly blogger-friends…suggested I use blogdesk and this is my first post with blogdesk! Thank you, Chris…from “kop-op-n-blok”…see the blogroll for his blog… he’s always willing to help me with anything “technical”…these pictures were taken yesterday! Beautiful snow! It snowed a bit more later the morning and the snow was a bit thicker than what you see on these pictures.
Enjoy this video! Dogs and Polar Bears play together!

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Snow…..

These pictures were taken about 9:30-ish this morning… it didn’t snow that much…as you can tell from the pictures……this is our front garden…

This is our back garden…with the “garage”… not a garage to our “standards”, I would rather call it  a storage room…we have two guinea-pigs in there too! They are somewhere on my blog! 

This last picture was taken about 2 hours later than the others, just to show you how little it snowed actually…. we had snow here, quite thick, last year – I think it was  during  January…

This is a picture which “Squirrel” from the chess site has sent me … he lives north…about 2 hours from London….

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London’s burning!

SkyNews –

Firefighters appear to have contained a fire which has ripped through the top floor of a world famous London hospital leaving patients and staff desperately trying to flee the flames.

It is believed some patients, who were undergoing surgery, had to remain in operating theatres and others who were gravely ill had their rooms filled with smoke.

All of the patients and staff have now been taken to safety.

The roof of the Royal Marsden hospital was engulfed in flames with smoke visible for miles around.

Police have closed off all roads leading to the hospital building.

Some patients were laid on mattresses in an ambulance area on a nearby street, with nursing staff in attendance.
Read the rest of the article HERE on Yahoo.

Cancer hospital evacuated after fire
Read the news article HERE …

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Merry Christmas!

 

 

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!!
 

 

Click on this Christmas-link to download a big pdf document with about 10 Christmas images. It will open in a new window and it does take a few secs to downlaod as it’s a big file.

Read about people being stranded at Heathrow due to bad weather! Hope you all are soon where you want to be! The link will open in a new window.

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London relief

LONDON (Reuters) – First came SatNav for lost drivers. Now there’s “SatLav”, a toilet-finding service to help people caught short in central London.
On Thursday, Westminster City Council launched a new text message service that will guide Londoners and tourists to their nearest public lavatory.

Anyone who sends the word “Toilet” to 80097 will receive a reply giving details of their nearest public convenience.

Student Gail Knight, 26, came up with the idea for an innovation competition run by the council.

“When I’m out with friends we’re always ducking into McDonalds or department stores to use their loos but we feel a bit bad about it,” she said. “I thought a text service would be really useful for people on the move.”

The service is available across the Westminster, an area that includes many of the capital’s most popular sights, such as Big Ben, Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace.
Read here more.. on yahoo .

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Osterley Park 2

My topic is “green”. Green is the colour that changes into different colours! During Autumn, it is amazing to see all the changes….if you look closely, you will see the seed of the Horse Chestnut on this tree…
Here it is, but it has changed! And it has dropped down….ready for another cycle?
The English call this a “concker” and earlier, they played games with the conkers and children knew how to keep themself busy with it!

In the corner of the garden, green, but with an invader….
Once again, beautiful green! Some children in London say that they hate green as a colour, because there is so much green in the country! …..never thought someone will say that…
…..more green……
And…..there’s the invader…he thought I would never see him, I think he was ready to jump….wonder how fast that would be…Another Osterley-link with images I took in the park.

https://chessaleeinlondon.wordpress.com/2008/05/11/on-my-bike/

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

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Osterley Park

WOW! I think this is my best picture of today!!

And I think I’m slowly getting the hang of my camera…

Osterley Park is so tien minute se vinnig stap van ons af waar ons bly. Dis ‘n lieflik groot park. Dis baie besig gedurende naweke, mense kom hou graag piekniek in die park, stap sommer net rond of ry fiets…daar is verskillende paadjies, maar ongelukkig is van hulle nou toegemaak en moet jy betaal om daar te ry met jou fiets of om te stap. Wat ‘n jammerte! Dis so pragtig om daar rond te ry, nou is ons baie beperk met die beweging van ons fietse. Ek dink hulle wil op ‘n manier fondse insamel. Die “huis” wat op die foto gesien word, is ‘n historiese gebou en soms word daar kuns uitgestal. Ons was self nog nie daar binne nie. Een Sondag was daar ‘n troue op die grasperk voor die gebou. Asiese troue en dit het baie indrukwekkend gelyk, ek dink net dis baie onpersoonlik met al die ander mense wat oral op die gras rondsit of rondloop. Die ander gebou is ‘n winkeltjie – die een met die klok – en daar kan jy sit en iets bestel, lekker skons met room, ens. en hulle verkoop ook allerhande tradisionele goed, soos konfyt wat self gemaak is…..ens. ‘n Ander pragtige park, omtrent 15 min per motor, is Richmond Park. ‘n Verskriklike groot park, pragtig bokke en uitgestrekte dele vir stap/ry/fietsry/piekniek en selfs perdry! Ek eksperimenteer bietjie met die kamera wat ek het – hy is iewers op my blog – en daarom sit ek van tyd tot tyd foto’s, ek wil graag beter “close-ups” neem, maar met die kamera van my, is dit ‘n kuns…af ek is maar bietjie dom met die ding! “Practise makes perfect”, soos hulle se, so dit sal seker nog tyd neem voordat alles perfek is!

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

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Volkspele..Folk Dance

 

You want to know more about this fold dance, then visit this link:

http://www.volkspele.co.za
On this link, you will find tons of files of South African fold dance music, free to download and you will also find the lyrics of the songs too.
http://tortel.net/~lochner/blerkas/index.html

In these photos: Year 1’s doing a South African folk dance at a London school. The teacher asked me to teach them a dance as part of their topic of countries across the world. I taught them ‘Afrikaners is plesierig’. 
 

This is the actual dress when you do “Volkspele”…or  Folk Dance the South African way!

Jan Pierewiet in Korea!

 Volkspele on youtube! See more videos there…

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