The Prodigal Hamster

Like so many Folk Tales, Bible stories and legends before, Harry has returned to us on the third day after his departure. Certain he was dead, killed by bandits or on a ship to the far east to be sold as a slave we never thought we would see our little man again. On Monday night Harry sheepishly emerged from the hot water cupboard and burst into tears. Harry had not realised but Cirque de Soleil has a strict "No Hamster" policy and thus could not give him the job he had dreamed of for so long. The only bonus for Harry was that they said his Triple roundhouse reverse back flip was 2 nd to none. Harry has decided to stay with us for a bit longer and Corinne has promised to close his cage at night now too.
Harry we love you and please never leave us again.

Brecon Beacons NP

Last weekend we met up with liv and downy in a village called Talgarth in the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales. We stayed in a B&B called the Old Radnor Barn - more to come on that later. We had dinner in a nice mexican restaurant nearby and the next day we went Horse riding in the hills. Both Friday and Saturday night we went out and had a pint at a couple of the local pubs. On Friday night we arrived back at our B&B to find the door locked, thats fine we had keys. Ah but no the stupid, stupid owners had dead bolted it from inside because they were sure we were already in bed. 15 minutes later after knocking, trying to break in through the windows and barging the door one of them woke up and let us in.

Saturday night we had probably one of the best meals we have had in the UK. We went to a quaint village called 'Three Cocks' and had dinner at the Old Barn Inn. I had venison, Corinne had chicken wrapped in prosciutto with a stilton cheese filling - delicious. Sunday we left the B&B only to find they had not receiced our deposit cheque or so they said. We ended up going to the bank and filling in fraud forms only to find the mentally deficient people had receivede the cheque and had to send us one back in return. Suffice to say I highly do not recommend the Old Radnor Barn in Talgarth. Sunday we went to some Caves with a long name - check out liv and downy's blog for the name.

We also went to a nice pub for lunch near the caves and had a sunday roast.

Goodbye my Love

Harry our hamster has broken a new record for Corinne and I. He has become our shortest owned/lived pet. Unfortunately we woke up saturday morning to find a small letter beside his cage. Harry said that although we had provided him with lodgings, a wheel to run on and a lot of food to store away he was just not happy. He has always dreamed of being a circus hamster and has left to find himself a position with Cirque de soliel. We now know why harry has been spending so much time on the internet looking at circus sites and learning french.
We are sad but harry left us a few numbers to ring if we want another one.
Goodbye my love:(

1 year Wedding Anniversary

Today is our one year wedding anniversary. True to form we have spent the early part of the day with a big hangover after going out with Rob and The Stoff last night. We hunkered down into a big grease up this morning and have just come back from seeing pirates of the caribbean. Tonight we are off to a snooty Italian place in the Brum.
The last year has been great, like a walk in a green field on a spring day with flowers and birds singing - corinne said I had to say something nice.
Cheers

Harry the Hamster!

This is Harry our new pet. He's a Syrian hamster and is very cute. We figured we should have one of these over here as we can't have them in Oz.
They only live about 2 years. He's a bit shy at the moment but he's getting used to us.


This is his cage which we got free from Ben's clinic. He loves his tubes- you can just make him out sleeping in the very top part of the tube. This is where he's decided his bed is. They are nocturnal so he sleeps during the day and is crazy overnight. When he wakes up he runs down to look around. He grabs every bit of food he can find and stores it in his cheek pouches to carry it back to his bed. Next to his bed (in the green tube) is where he stores all the food he has collected!

Harry's favourite new pastime which he only just discovered is running in his wheel. It's so funny to watch him running aimlessly. He runs for ages then hops off for a drink and gets back on. Here are some still photos and check out Harry's own youtube entry for the real thing.

Who is ................Harry?

Harry is coming, but who and what is he? -

stay tuned for more news on

Harry

Beer is the essence of a happy Life

Hello fellow beer lovers. This is one of the coolest beer bottles i have drunk out of yet. This is a dutch beer modelled on Belgian Trappist monk beers. They are fruity in flavour and have a lot of sediment which is meant to be drunk. This one is in a stone/pottery bottle and is wonderfully delicious and very refreshing after one of my arduous days at work. There is also a "Dubbel"flavour which is quite disgusting. It is high in alcohol 7 or so % and tastes like cordial mixed with beer. High % beers are quite common over here and they have many 8 or 9 or even 10% beers here; all of them horrible.

More Paris

Here are some more pictures from gorgeous Paris. The Eiffel Tower at night is spectacular. The statues are mainly from the french sculpture area in the Louvre which we liked the most. Ben is standing at the Place de la Concorde- we were there when Nicholas Sarkozy was elected new president of France. There were tonnes of supporters and everyone was very excited.

Food, Glorious Food

Despite not feeling well over the weekend it didn't stop us from enjoying the fabulous food in Paris.


In this restaurant in Les Halles, the Cafe Maitre Kanter, Ben had a fantastic seafood platter with some crazy winkles, sea snails and mini shrimp as well as crab and scampi. I had a three cheese Flammentarte (lots of melted cheese!).

Escargots!

Montmartre and The Sacre-Coeur

Here is a selection of the wonderful sights of Montmartre including the famous Sacre-coeur church.
We spent sunday morning here on a warm sunny day checking out the church, food, tourist shops, sex street and moulin rouge. We ate baguettes for lunch on the grass of the Sacre-Coeur and watched the African men harrassing all the tourists with their crappy plaited bracelets. We then walked down the road along the Sex strip and had a look at the famous (toulouse lautrec) Le Chat Noir Cafe and also the Moulin Rouge theatre. A great morning in the parisian sun.

Cheese Heaven

This is the fromagerie which we found within minutes of leaving our hotel. This was a brilliant shop with hundreds of varieties of cheeses that you will never see anywhere but france. The shop was brimming with brie de meux, camembert, washed rinds, blues, chevre and many variations as well as wine and dried meats.

We ended up getting a normandy Camembert which was tres stinky, a pappilon washed rind goat cheese and a slice of Maroilles, a famous washed rind from the calais/normandy region also tres stinky.

Perfection - French baguette, beautiful cheese, some beer and a few neurofen to wash it all down - bon appetite.

PS - Unfortunately in paris i had an ulcer the size of tasmania on the side of my tongue - slowing down the food intake and corinne had a stomach bug - not good in a food heaven like paris.

Paris!

Over the Bank holiday weekend (public holiday) we flew to Paris for two nights. We left sat morning and got into Paris around lunch time. This is our first trip overseas since we started work here.
We stayed in the 7th arrondissement, about 5 minutes walk from the Eiffel Tower.

We went for a bit of a walk and of course the first thing we found was a fromagerie (Cheese shop). The shop was mind blowing and corinne and i cried tears of happiness over the stinky selection (see next post). Over the weekend we visited a lot of the goodies like Eiffel tower, Champs elysees (main road in paris), Arc de Triomphe, Monmarte and the Sacre-coeur and the Louvre. We also walked through many nice parks and gardens like the Jardins des tuileries and ate lots of great tucker.

Arc de Triophe surrounded by one of the craziest roundabouts in the world.





This is me forcefully made to drape myself over a large breasted nude statue in the Jardins des Tuileries with the Louvre in the background. Corinne wanted me to do something else to the statue but of course, being a gentleman, I refused.