Let the Olympics begin!

Last night there was the spectacular opening ceremony of the Olympics held in London, i really loved it all especially the sheep, cows and smokestacks. It was like my recent MA module on the industrial revolution condensed down to a song and dance routine. My mind truly was blown, it was how it should have been for this country. Not the mass regimented armies of dancers and performers you get elsewhere but humour, quirkiness, chaos... but somehow it all works. That to be honest is Britain in a nutshell.

I shall be going down to London next week to see some volleyball but today i travelled to Coventry to see some Olympic football, womens' matches between Japan and Sweden followed by Canada and South Africa. This is the first time i've seen live football in fact and i had a great time. Coventry staged everything perfectly, even the security wasn't that much of a hassle compared to some of the dark rumours we had had before the Olympics started. You can see the photos i took today and at the Olympics in general here.

Wootton Wawen

Today i finally made a trip to Wootton Wawen in South Warwickshire, a place i usually go through on the train. A lovely village full of Saxon mystery and Bear county charm, which includes the oldest church in Warwickshire (with elements dating from Saxon England.) Naturally Wootton Wawen goes up to near the top of my list of places i want to live, maybe a new leader? No Wilmcote is still the dream but Wootton is close behind.

A good chunk of my visit (and hence photos) were at the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal of course. Anglo Welsh boats have a yard there but there is also a lovely Aqueduct over the Stratford road. See my photos here.

A night out

I don't socialise with my work colleagues much, its not that i am anti-social or hate them or anything, but i do tend to keep the work and personal spheres of my life fairly separate if possible. Last night however the CSU/Web crew went out for drinks and dinner.

Dinner was at Kinnaree, a Thai restaurant and was quite nice too. I don't usually like eating out at Asian restaurants to be honest but this was pretty fine. It was also located alongside the canal at the Mailbox in Birmingham and you know what i am like with my inland waterways.

Afterwards there was just time for one more cocktail, so how about a Long Island Iced Tea, not that it seems to include much in the way of tea...

Tank engine

Project 037, an 0-4-0 Saddle Tank locomotive is now being finished. A tough little kit, i dropped it on the floor by mistake when i was varnishing it but all that happened was that it gained a few hairs and a dead spider! Although i do have another of these kits i will leave it in my backlog for now and complete my train side project. Maybe i will do another side project later on when i get some more wagons.

Blowing my big lottery win

I won big on the lottery at the weekend (well 4 numbers anyway) and have decided to blow it on 70s pop cheese. To be precise a number of Top of the Pops CDs. These were released regularly from the late 60s to the early 80s packed with cover versions of pop hits of the day. These covers are a mixed bag, sometimes they sound just like the original (or close enough), at other times they don't sound anything like them but sometimes the cover can be good, other times it can be a bit drivel.

On occasion though the cover falls into the "so bad its good" category, on one of these albums the cover of The Who's "won't get fooled again" really should be heard to be believed.

Train building up

My Airfix railway sub-project is starting to build up nicely now with 4 wagons and a brake van. In fact all we need now is a locomotive... so the latest kit Project 037 is a 0-4-0 Saddle Tank engine! I actually have 2 kits of this engine but i am only going to do one of them for now. I aim to get some more Airfix railway kits and create a second train.

Away Day

The age of austerity bites, a couple of years ago our annual department away day was a treasure hunt in Stratford-upon-Avon, but this time it was some staff development at Walsall FC's Bescot stadium. Having said that i quite enjoyed the shabby yet honest working class environment. The morning of the day was a bit boring, with a talk on leadership though we did get some clips from the film True Blue which i'd never heard of before (and ordered on DVD afterwards, natch). The afternoon was more fun, if slightly surreal. Team games in the carpark of Walsall FC!

Ready for cows

My latest pair of railway wagon kits, Projects 035 and 036, have been completed so now i have a couple of cattle wagons. I need some OO scale cows too perhaps. Not sure what the next kit will be, i do have quite a few in my backlog but might leave it a few days before deciding.