Random shit

Found some bits and pieces and took some new pics when I landed in Oslo yesterday. Enjoy (or not, see if I care).

Thought this looked nice, in a vaguely pompous, symbolic way.


Blackadder. It's a real name, not just something Rowan Atkinson made up.




This was what waited for me outside the airport in Oslo yesterday. Wail, wail.


For a brief moment, I thought maybe the Norwegian army had moved to quash the growth of that cancer Starbucks, but it turned out they were just having a cuppa.

Quote of the Day

Any society that needs disclaimers has too many lawyers.
- Erik Pepke

Quote of the Day

One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.
- A. A. Milne, "Winnie the pooh"

Return to Ashdown Forest

Just like last time, this trip ends with a visit to Ashdown Forest. My small tribute to Winnie the Pooh and to the wonderful landscape of southern England with its forests and fields, downs and valleys, deer and horses and last but not least, its sweet, sweet chalk. I love this island more than I can ever put into words.

All pics.

There's just something about this landscape and this place in particular that puts me at peace. Have I mentioned that I love pines?


This is the Lone Pine and also where they built the Heffalump trap.


Views due west.


Kanga and Roo's sandy pit.


The Enchanted Place.


Inside the Enchanted Place.

Hurst Castle

The last thing I did Sunday (yes, I was very touristy) was take a trip out to Hurst Castle. Rather than walk the almost two miles out there on a ridiculously winding sand bank, I coughed up 5.50 for a roundtrip ticket on a small ferry. Small as in ten people allowed. I don't know if it was the fact that I was frozen blue from the boat trip or that the castle actually was that crummy, but I felt like I'd wasted good money.

All pics.

The castle seen from the beach.


The interior of the Tudor part of the huge fortress.


Right across the Solent is the Isle of Wright. I still haven't dragged my ass over there.


Inside the keep.


Beautiful Siberian Husky dog in the parking lot.

New Forest horses

Some pics of horses from the New Forest. The closest one was a bit friendly, so I gave him the two bananas I'd intended for lunch. Hopefully he's not dead in the bushes with all feet up in the air and a gastrointestinal landscape to rival the Hindenburg.

All pics.

Greedy horse.


Greedier horse.


Greedierer horse.


Greediest horse.


Silently judging.


I have no idea what horrible stuff had gone before; you'll have to make up your own images. This was all that was left, that's all I'll say.

New Forest Wildlife Park II

I went to the New Forest Wildlife park last year as well, and I have to say the sunshine and the fact that it was 24 days earlier in the year, made last year's experience quite a bit better. Most of the deer seemed a lot more jumpy, except for the one little cutie that kept clinging to me like dog. Like last year she was trying to eat my shirt and my trousers, and this year even had a go at my shoelaces. All the while you could pet and scratch and cuddle her like you would a large dog.

All pics.

Eating my shirt.


And my trousers.


And my shoelaces.


Wolves. Ah lubs em.






Lynx! They actually had two this year; this one was chillaxing on a platform ten feet above the ground.


The other one was pacing back and forth by the fence, no doubt wishing strongly to get at the fucking kids on the outside hollering "look, look, a big cat!".


Otters! Wheeee!


This wallaby gave me one of the funniest incidences I've had yet in a zoo. You could see he was falling asleep, as his head nodded ever closer to the ground. Then, just as his little nose touched the wet grass he woke up with a start and looked around him.

Sho tired... can't... keep... eyes... open...


Zzzzzz...


Zzzzzznore...


Huh? Who, what, where?

Quote of the Day

It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.
- Charlotte Bronte

Return to the Rufus Stone

Last year I visited one of the more obscure of English historical monuments. This year I returned, since it was on my way anyway. Whereas last year I was pretty much all alone, this year there were hordes of people and dogs out for a walk. Afterwards I went to stuff face in the William Tyrrell Inn.

All pics.

The whole story here.


There are lots of lovely trees around.




The Tyrrell is still an imposing sight.

Hardy's Cottage

Saturday I actually committed a little bit of walking. I know, I'm as surprised as you are, dear reader. I had decided to venture into the English county of Dorset, which I had neglected on my grand tour of the south last year. Seeing a spot on my map labelled "Hardy's Cottage", I correctly surmised that we could only be talking about the great poet Thomas Hardy, and promptly set course accordingly. Hardy has always been one of my favorite English writers, after Swinburne and Tennyson.

The cottage itself was a nice little structure, white painted and with a creaky, cozy interior. Hardy was born here, and no doubt spent his childhood running around the forests and fields, and much of his later literary works take place in a Dorset landscape, or something very close to it. Saturday was the first sunny day in a week, so I took the woodland path back to the car and got in quite a few good pics of the autumn colors.

All pics.

The cottage.


The living room downstairs. There was something wrong with the chimney or sumfin', cuz it was damn smoky in there.


The cottage had a thatched roof. The last few days I've driven through whole villages where every single house had a thatched roof. I love this country sooo much.


A memorial stone to Hardy from American fans. His heart is buried next to his first wife in a local church, while the rest of him was cremated and buried in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. Have I mentioned that I love this country?


Colorful foilage and winding roads galore.


The colors in these two are almost unreal.




Yellow...


...and red.

Quote of the Day

"I think", he murmured at last, from deep within his corroding rattling thorax, "I feel good about it." The lights went out in his eyes for absolutely the very last time ever.
- Douglas Adams, the last words of "Marvin the paranoid android" from "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

Quote of the Day

Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
- Douglas Adams

Quote of the Day

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
- Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

Stonehenge

You may remember my less than succcessful visit to Stonehenge in October last year. Well, I had time on my hands so I decided to give it another chance, seeing as how it wasn't raining sideways this time. It was still a boring place, made infinitely worse by the hordes of Asian tourists who were snapping away with their cameras and lining up for pictures of one another all across the fuckin footpath. I'm betting if they had a choice between some touristy Yen and less crowded national monuments, most Britons would opt to kick every slant-eyed, emperor-worshipping cunt out. Or maybe that's just me.

All pics.

Far off.


Close up.


Very far off.