Reason to Rejoice...

....today I wasn't sick!!!!

The other day, the only photo I took was the above....that is because we were at a hut, and hadn't started to make upward progress yet. After taking said pic and setting off, I wasn't really up to much that was either great or good - sigh. FYI read: digilbert.blogspot.com/2012/04/going-high.html

Today, however, breakfast, lunch and last nights' tea all stayed in - brillant :-)

Going mainly uphill...

Have spent the past few days doing quite a lot of uphill skiing....the views have been great; company fab; coffee and vino scrumptious; legs and lungs, however - pants.

As a consequence of my preoccupation with trying to breathe, the notion of taking photo's has passed me by, so for info/entertainment, have a look here: 

So was it cold....

...on the Laurie Island penguin fiddling holiday????

...hmmm - might have been !

Orphanned Chickeeee Says....

...it's a REALLY stupid idea to swim into the jaws of death...

...the outcome is seldom pretty...

Little Chickeee Says....

                      ...it's probably not a great idea to stand in the firing line of an airborne shit....

Have just spent 5 weeks at Cape Geddes on Laurie Island in the South Orkneys working with Chinstrap Penguins.

 

They are ace although their default setting is : peck!

Some of them are not really the brightest - lets face it, if you try and incubate a skull instead of an egg it suggests some of those southern-hemisphere synapses aren't firing....

Lots of chickees hatched at the start of the new year - super cute, and very good Skua and Petrel food...will save some of the gory pics for later.

Little Chickee Says

WARNING

Smoking can damage your health....

Heading North

Currently on a Norwegian krill fishing boat on the way north....albeit slowly 'cause they are fishing for krill along the way.

Contrary to expectations, it is the most comfy ship I've been on...monumentally clean with amazing food.

I've even got a little spot to myself on the front deck, although this southern hemisphere-being-upside-down thing pisses you off after a while....

Beginning to look a little like this after one too many fatboy breakfasts/dinners/evening meals........

Puntaaaaaaa

In Punta Arenas waiting to fly south....

It is windy - very very windy....

There is plenty of very fine wine & great steak....

And it's quietly reassuring to see that graffiti across the globe is oh-so-similar...no translation needed :-)

Ooooooh......

It's 17 yrs old and it has been well and truly pimped....

New cushions....fully patchworked....

                                                                  Woof woof!

Bring on the Tempest....

So things have been hotting up in the sewing loft with all this wind and rain...it's getting dangerously close to stitching something with the C word on it, but maturity prevails for the moment....

The very lovely chairs above are my first commission - woof woof!

The very lovely cushions are dead posh - Harris Tweed no less....so if anyone would like to buy a posh twat, posh arse, or posh git, feel free to get in touch.

Could also be persuaded to make some thing that wasn't quite so offensive :-)

So it's been raining lots....

...in fact it's been raining forever. So - in order to keep entertained, I might just have been trawling junk shops and visiting the auction room...


Productivity rates have just gone up :-)

WMD 5 - Tribute to Father Ted

Coupled with the previous WMD, we now have the Father Ted set....suitable for any respectable home :-)

Whatever next????

WMD - Project 4

                                                         
                                        Victor mature lives on :-)

WMD (wet ming day) - Projects 2 & 3

A little something for the poor taste emporium...Check out those claw feet...not yer average flat pack...

These are a bit more grown up...but will clash beautifully with everything else in the room - perfect!

It has been suggested that I don't give up my day job.......

So what d'ya do on a rainy weekend in Wales???

Pimp up a dining chair of course...

Cortinaaaaargh

So what do you do with a forced mini-break in Cortina???

Walk into town for starters. One of the very fine things about Cortina is the bike path that runs up the valley for about 40km into town...this means you can walk the 10 miles from Fawlty Towers to town without having to deal with traffic - brilliant. And on the way, there are loads of super groovy buildings with great roofs...they have a hint of 'Psycho' about em, but I have to admit, I'd quite happily have a roof like that on my house.

So...the Cortina challenge was 3 fold:
1: Find Internet access (failed)
2: Get a good cup of coffee (failed - in Italy of all places)
3: Find something cheap in town (not on your nelly).

The town is dripping with furs...if they aren't wearing em, they are walking em. I've never seen so many shops with 5000+ euro price tags. There was a very nice petrol blue fur  jacket - reduced to 4000 - oooh hold me back!

And as for the dogs...you've never seen so many lap dogs, particularly the ones that look like they've been smashed head first into a brick wall...which brings me onto the dog launderette...I kid you not!

A real life dog launderette - for those who don't want to get fur balls down their own plugholes...comes with sinks, shampoo and conditioner, doggy nibbles(!), hair dryers (!!)....amazing.

I somhow can't imagine that the fur-wearers will be doing the dog-wash thing...suspect it's the preserve of the serfs.

I never knew things like this existed, but I guess when it comes to dogs, I'm of the eat 'em rather than walk 'em school....






Impressions of Cortina overall weren't too favourable - far too smart for its own good. However....and this is a big however...the galleries where you can buy art were AMAZING...and a reflection of the money about. There were works by Miro, Warhol and Keith Haring for sale...originals too...we're talking LOTS of zero's on the price tags!

Also - some stunning bronzes by someone called Fernando Bottera and another guy who's name began with 'R', but my memory fails me.

And finally...having raved about the art fart, there was an exhibition in town called 'real forgeries' where you got to see forgeries of the mona lisa and other such works....but you have to ask...what the hell's a real forgery - the whole point of a forgery is that it's fake...so does that make a fake forgery the real thing...I'm very confused.

Didn't like Cortina...wouldn't go back, but thought the Dolomites were speccy and worth another visit :-)

1.27 hrs...

...is about the time it took from the medley of phone calls for the nice little recovery man to come and pick me and the yellow peril up. Didn't need to hack off an arm or anything -all very civilised! The only arm action needed was offering various hand signals to irate Italian drivers who were giving me a hard time for taking up road space on a Saturday morning.

As a kid we had a Ford Cortina (Saluki Bronze -SOE 308H - remember it well).It was very unreliable and broke down all the time. In fact...the only time it didn't break down was when it did a trip to Austria, which was nothing short of amazing.

It therefore seems a curious twist of fate that after 15yrs of owning 205's, the first time I should experience a breakdown is in Cortina in Italy...the heart of the Dolomites, and the most expensive place known to mankind.

After lots of fast chat, hand waving and pointing, the nice breakdown man reckoned the issue was with the pomp-uh, and the gist of his chat was...it's bygered and it's easy to fix, but we don't have the parts and it's a saturday, so I hope you've got somewhere to stay cause you aint goin anywhere till monday at the earliest :-(

And that is how I came to have a few days in Cortina.

So -  some top tips for European Breakdown:

1: Have Breakdown Cover (tick);
2: Breakdown where there is a view and it's in the sun (tick);
3: Breakdown where there is full mobile reception (tick);
4: Have the mobile fully charged (tick - a miracle!);
5: Don't even begin to feel smug that you will be put up in some swanky hotel in Cortina - fat chance love!
6: Don't breakdown in a French car in Italy -  the parts are wallet death.
7: When you get separated from your car at the garage, remember to take out your waterproofs (doh).

Oooooooo - a little pocket of heaven.

 A little jaunt up the Col du Font Froide with Jim. We did suffer a bit, having to do a reasonably lengthy ski carry up through the woods to start....maybe this was why we were the only people on the hill?

 A day out with Mark and Jim up the Col de la Grande Clausis (this involved a carry of about 100m - heaven). Once again, a quiet day on the hill with only one other person sighted. Fantastic views with some rather scrumptious spring-like snow on the way down.

 Jim above the Col de Vars. A particularly busy day on the hill, with at least 6 other folk around...and a rather interesting ski off :-)

Hmmm - there's a lot to be said for getting away from the more crowded hotspots!

Touring Daahn Saaf

Aaah -  the little yellow peril made it all the way across to Seyne- les- Alpes, which to be honest is the arse end of nowhere.

However...after 4 days of wandering up some fine peaks, and even getting a spot of cragging in, I have to admit that this is a little pocket of heaven that I shall have to visit again.

Interenet connection is a bit slow, hence only one photo for now...but team Saga of myself, Mark B and Jim S had a particularly fine day out today, managing to crawl up to Ste Anne in said yellow peril, then hoofing up to the Col de la Grande Clausis. Some rather fine snow on the way down...woof woof!

Pretty Pics

  Had a little jaunt up Mont Colmet in Italy today - hardly saw a soul all day and had some excellent snow on the way down - magic!

Have now had 4 days of mainly skinning up hills in gorgeous spring sunshine. Not complaining or anything, but have to admit that I might be feeling a bit like this little fella on the left :-)         

Upload pixie isn't playing ball this eve...so that's all the pics you're going to get for now!