It's SNOW Neil !!

What a beautiful sight to wake up to, england has been in the grip of an "Arctic Blast" which has presented the earliest snowfalls for 17 years. Weve watched the news over recent days jealous of the snow falls all around but not for us. Then, this morning we awake to the beuatiful crisp clean white snow covering the rooftops and gardens :)

we went for a little walk around the village...

only about an inch was covering the gound... but made for beautiful sights nonetheless...

home to the back garden...

The video is again a long one... so dont bother if your on a slow connection


we arrived back in the houseNic advised that the Gloves are not good enough... I advised i need welly boots, and we both advised our love for central heating. Off to the Ashby theatre tonight in the snow and cold.

Kerr-plunk!

Just by the way... 2 further games have gone the way of Glenn...oh yess, i am back!

few random pics....

Leicester Vs Derrrrby

woohooo, I managed to win 2 tickets to the City/Derby game...gotta love the bbc.

So down we headed for the game, a smooth simple trip to the game park on Saffron Lane and a 10-15 minute walk to the game, sunny but cool and a predicted maximum of 8 degrees, Nic was well rugged up as was i. the game was the remeberance day game, so it began with the match ball being delivered by helicopter, then the last post and, a minutes silence... alwasy impressive when a crowd of 25-28,000 people can go completely silent... its when you realise the human race aint as bad as we make out sometimes. At half time there was a march of veterans around the ground, and again the respect shown by the crowd was a credit to all... a very moving experience.

The game started brilliantly for City, still playing great football and with the pulling power of sven weve picked up a few great players... anyway, the game ended LCFC 2 - 0 Derby... a terrific result.

Yes ill smile for the picture...but.. the game is over there... :)

we headed out and the cold had certainly bitten by the end of game, the sky was beautiful  and the 15 minute walk was ..umm " bracing" thank goodness the mouldy old Astra has good heating if not much else.

Sunday... we barely stepped out of the house.

Bonfire night

What a wonderful evening, Keith and Gill's for Keith's birthday and bonfire night and a night of lovely company and many many laughs. Such a friendly and funny group of people meant we had the best laugh we have had for many a month.

Keith was kind enough to instruct me on all of the safety requirements of rocket and fireworks lighting and lol, provided me with the essential Hi-vis safety jacket, we began using the supplied fire works lighter which is really a small spark version of a sparkler... which makes lighting the firework actually more difficult... a few exciting launches and we decided the best way to go was with good old fashioned matches which saw me trying to light as many rockets as possible at one time... then running away like a 7 year old.

The night went off without a  hitch.. well..except for the one firework that fell over and shot ball after ball of fireworks into the hedge and fence.. but that was all part of my plan anyway ;)

note the cold "frost "covered ground...

Diwali (Deepawali)

In each legend, myth and story of Deepawali lies the significance of the victory of good over evil; and it is with each Deepawali and the lights that illuminate our homes and hearts, that this simple truth finds new reason and hope. From darkness unto light — the light that empowers us to commit ourselves to good deeds

As we all know, Leicester has a huge Indian/Hindu population and subsequently the Diwali celebrations are the biggest held outside India. We decided to head nto the city centre to see the lights, enjoy the atmosphere and watch the fireworks.

Good old fanny is called on to guide us in and we set off, went particualrly smoothly until we arrived at the centre and realised that the 35,000 other people had decided this was a good spot to be... a couple of "interesting" driving manourves meant we actually were right alongside the closed off streets and somewhat stuck in the traffic...as we edged toward the roundabout along with 2 gazillion other cars... i decided that, i might be in the left hand lane...but i needed to turn right...and turn right i would... and turn right i did 
:)

We once again were lucky to find a great park.. just a 5 minute walk and we were in the heart of the Diwali celebrations, thousnads of people wandering the streets, beautiful lights on every posts, music drifting through the streets, firecrackers going off all around and the vibrant and beautiful colours of Sari's in the windows of the shops.

Oh, did i mention it was raining? just a light drizzle which seemed to enhance the lights even more. All in all it was a fabulous evening and such an interesting comparison to going to fireworks in OZ... for example, sky show.. you all get there.... layout your blanket and watch as kids run about kicking up the dust... in england.. you get there.. try really hard to not slip over on the wet muddy grassed area.. watch the kids skidding along on the wet ground...then try to find a position where you can see some of the stage between the myriad umbrellas... heres an interesting idea.. if someone can come up with a use for broken, discarded umbrellas... there is a fortune to be made, on every corner, in every bit of empty land you will see the bent and broken umbrellas trapped under trees and squashed against walls.

The fireworks were delighful and we made our way out of town and off on the trip home...again wonderfully smooth and just a pleasurable evening.

My next update will cover bonfire night :)

Autumn in Bradgate park

Well a busy week at work so not a lot of action during the week, but last sunday we took a drive to Bradgate park which is about 20 miles away.. to the east.. south east.. kinda.

Anyway, was just glorious, a drizzly day but the Autumn leaves in full colour and as we walked through the park, we saw some beautiful wild deer and then onto some lovely old ruins of an abbey and home.