Quote of the Day

Bad artists always admire each other's work. They call it being large-minded and free from prejudice.
- Oscar Wilde

Quote of the Day

There is always more books than brains in an aristocracy.
- Oscar Wilde

Quote of the Day

It's Oscar Wilde week!

I can resist everything except temptation.
- Oscar Wilde

Quote of the Day

If there is only one Creator who made the tiger and the lamb, the cheetah and the gazelle, what is he playing at? Is he a sadist who enjoys spectator blood sports? ... Is he maneuvering to maximize David Attenborough’s television ratings?
- Richard Dawkins

Off to Engerland

At the risk of jinxing this whole house selling thing, I've booked a flight to Engerlandshire on Tuesday September 27, with a return on Thursday October 20. This time I plan on doing the south, which I've sadly neglected so far on my numerous trips to Ole Blighty. Apart from a weekend in Eastbourne I haven't really been much south of London at all.

This is my itinerary so far. If you have any tips, hints, ideas please share in the comments section. I'm especially looking for stuff in Cornwall, Chester and the area between Chester and Crawley (yeah, I know... not very specific).

9/27: Arrival at Gatwick in the evening. Pick up rental car & spend the night in Crawley.

9/28: Maybe start the day with a quick detour up to Gravesend to catch the Pocahontas memorial. On to Canterbury to see the Castle and the Roman Museum*. Also the City Museum*, maybe next day.

9/29: Sometime before noon make my way to Dover to see the Castle.

9/30: On to Hastings to see the local Castle* and take in Battle, where the actual shit went down in 1066.

10/1: On to Pevensey Castle, then Lewes Castle*. Spend the night in Chichester.

10/2 & 10/3: Isle of Wight. Take a ferry from Portsmouth, then stay on Wight for two nights. I got two things on my list - Osborne House and Carisbrooke Castle. Probably spend the rest of my days there just walking and driving around.

10/4: Ferry to Lymington, then drive north to Salisbury. See the local museum* plus maybe Old Sarum.

10/5: North to Stonehenge, then southwest to the Exeter area where I'll spend the night before entering Dartmoor National Park.

10/6: Here's where it gets cloudy. I'm planning on driving through Dartmoor and into Cornwall. I have six days to do & see Cornwall before I hit Devon again, but I haven't booked a single hotel room between the 6th and the 12h. I have a rough list of things to see in Cornwall, most of them connected to English Heritage properties, where I can get in for free due to my Life Membership in Historic Scotland (insert mad cackle):

St Catherine's Castle, Fowey
Restormel Castle, Lostwithiel
Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro
St Mawes Castle
Pendennis Castle, Falmouth
Lizard Point
St Michael’s Mount*
Chysauster Ancient Village, Newmill
Land’s End
Wayside Folk Museum, St Ives
The Arthurian Centre*, Camelford
Tintagel Castle
Launceston Castle

10/12 & 10/13: Drive up to Ilfracombe in Devon. Spend two days there, probably doing Exmoor National Park.

10/14 - 10/16: Long ass drive up to Chester, which is almost in Wales. Spend the weekend, meet an old friend, do the town.

10/17 & 10/18: No idea. Prolly make my way south again.

10/19: Maybe do Ashdown Forest, which was the inspiration for A. A. Milne's books about Winnie the Pooh. Anyway, I gotta make it to Crawley sometime during the day.

10/20: Fly out from Gatwick in the morning.

(* = Places I will have to pay actual money to get in, which will probably cause me to cry blood from my beady little eyes)

Quote of the Day

In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.
- Andre Maurois

Quote of the Day

Only servants apologize.
- Alan Clarke

Quote of the Day

A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.
- Fred Allen

Quote of the Day

No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand.
- J. Michael Straczynski

Quote of the Day

A mob is the scum that rises upmost when the nation boils.
- John Dryden

Quote of the Day

'tis Woody Allen week...

When I was kidnapped, my parents snapped into action. They rented out my room.
- Woody Allen

Quote of the Day

All thinking men are atheists.
- Ernest Hemingway

Quote of the Day

I think sex between a man and woman is beautiful. Of course, a lot depends on the man and woman you are between.
- Woody Allen

Giving away & selling stuff

As some of you may know, I am going to sell my half of the house I live in per ultimo September and then go on a walkabout till sometime next summer. The only thing I have down as certain is a trip to the US from Oct 26 till Jan 22 (more about that later).

I'm currently in the process of cleaning out more than 15 years of accumulated mess, and a lot of it is only fit for throwing away. But I also have some books that I have read several times (or concluded that I am never going to read) and some DVDs (Zone 2, Europe) that I've also seen umpteen times and want to get rid of. Rather than throw it out I want to see if I can sell or give it away.

So I'm simply going to list all the stuff I want to give away or sell here and y'all can use the comments or go to Facebook or Twitter. Or just send an email to gilhuus@hotmail.com.

You can either make a cash offer or try to convince me why YOU should be the one to receive an item. I can deliver stuff personally in Oslo (mid September at the latest) or I can send the item by mail, in which case YOU must pay the postage. The process will end either on Wednesday August 24 at 9PM Norwegian time, at which point it's getting thrown away or at such time that I've gotten enough cash offers or good stories to wrap it all up. Aight?

UPDATE WEDNESDAY AUGUST 24 - Here's the updated list and there's still some real goodies here. Remember, these are given away (small uhm... donations appreciated):

BOOKS:

"The Thousand Nights and One Night" - A four-volume hardcover box of scholarly translations of the classic work. I haven't touched it since I bought it.

"The Rebus books" - All of Ian Rankin's series about Inspector Rebus except "Black & Blue", but there are also some Rankin books that are NOT Rebus books in there. 25 books in all, paperback.

DVD:

"Fawlty Towers" - The complete set. Don't worry, I'm not insane - I have a double!

"A fistful of dollars" - A classic movie, of which I have a double.

"Man with the naked gun" - the 3 movies in one.

Quote of the Day

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -- it is the illusion of knowledge.
- Daniel J. Boorstin

Quote of the Day

A government with the policy to rob Peter to pay Paul can be assured of the support of Paul.
- George Bernard Shaw

Quote of the Day

Efficiency is intelligent laziness.
- David Dunham

Quote of the Day

Sex at age 90 is like trying to shoot pool with a rope.
- George Burns

Quote of the Day

Colleges don't make fools. They only develop them.
- George Lorimer

Quote of the Day

Once again decent citizens will be able to enter this house of worship, kneel down in front of a nearly-naked man hanging from a wooden apparatus by a series of gruesome body piercings, and engage in their bizarre practices of ritualized blood-drinking and cannibalism without being assaulted by graphic images of attractive young women with bare breasts.
- A. Whitney Brown

Quote of the Day

I’ve never any pity for conceited people, because I think they carry their comfort about with them.
- George Eliot

Quote of the Day

I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it.
- Ashleigh Brilliant

Quote of the Day

"Automatic" simply means that you can't repair it yourself.
- Frank Capra

Quote of the Day

Early to rise, early to bed,
Makes a man healthy but socially dead.
- Animaniacs

Quote of the Day

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
- Joseph Addison

Quote of the Day

No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.
- Samuel Johnson

Quote of the Day

There is no safety for honest men but by believing all possible evil of evil men.
- Edmund Burke

Quote of the Day

If at first you do succeed - try to hide your astonishment.
- Harry F. Banks

Quote of the Day

I don’t think we’re here for anything, we’re just products of evolution. You can say ‘Gee, your life must be pretty bleak if you don’t think there’s a purpose’ but I’m anticipating a good lunch.
- Dr. James Watson, winner of the Nobel prize for his co-discovery of the structure of DNA

Quote of the Day

"If I'm not back in five minutes … just wait longer!"
- Jim Carrey in "Ace Ventura, Pet Detective"

Quote of the Day

Tradition is what you resort to when you don't have the time or the money to do it right.
- Kurt Herbert Adler

Quote of the Day

Golf is a good walk spoiled.
- Mark Twain

Quote of the Day

An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have: the older she gets, the more interested he is in her.
- Agatha Christie