The beaver is a proud and noble animal

Katy bullied me into taking two days off last week so we went on a pair of day trips, one to Cadbury World and another to Hunstanton seaside.

Cadbury world was a childhood fantasy for Katy and was actually more fun than I thought it would be – once we managed to lose the 5 busload of hyped-up ADHD kids. We came back with a bit more than a kilo of chocolate and a stuffed parrot for Katy. I almost bought a 5kg bar of dairy milk, but I couldn't justify it. It would have gone bad before we'd have been able to eat it all without getting sick. Figure that one square of the bar is the equivalent of 3 normal dairy milk bars…

Our second trip was to the seaside, via Norfolk Lavender, a huuuuuge lavender farm. Hunstanton isn't the nicest of seasides. It looks a bit old. It probably didn't help that it wasn't completely open when we got there, but the bits that were were less than impressive. Southwold is nicer for a non-commercial seaside and Yarmouth is nicer for a commercial one. Still, we saw otters being fed and the beach itself was nice. The sea was completely calm and the sky was the same colour as the water, so both were indistinguisheable from each other.

The cliffs were also very cool. Apparently, they're a great source for fossils. As we were walking along the beach, we came across a rather unusual sight. An old dude was working at the base of the cliffs, apparently sorting out the fallen rocks into colour-coded piles. We didn't ask why; we figured he was probably bored and it took him out of the house.

The tide as out and had left tons of boulders covered in seaweed. Very funky indeed. The day itself was a bit overcast, but the sun was trying to shine through. I still managed to get a bit of a sunburn on my arms.

It was nice to spend some quiet time with the girl though :)

More pictures online at:

http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/hunstanton_may_2007/

http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/cadbury_world_may_2007/

Coach driver set fire to Germans' towels for 'bagging' all the sunbeds. Glyn Bowden twice took the towels away and left them on the side of the pool – but on the third day set fire to them.

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This made me giggle this morning:

Meet the iGasm from Ann Summers, a sex toy that hooks up to your iPod and tweaks your hot spot in time to the beat of whatever is playing. Orgasm is assured and youd think most people would be satisfied with that but over at Apple theres a whole different kind of spasming going on.

The Trendy One does not want its shiny white ear stimulator associated with any other kind of stimulator, especially not the sticky kind. The cheeky promo material says:

“Go at it hard and fast with a pounding drum 'n' bass track or chill with ambient classic.”

Apples response to the iPod-esque poster has been to let loose the dogs of law, with a legal letter that concludes:

“We hope this request to remove it immediately will prevent us having to consider further action.”

Maybe Apples peeved because the iGasm puts a bigger smile on your face for £30 than its own, overpriced little white plaything.

From: Gizmondo

The U.S. Navy staged its latest show of military force off the Iranian coastline on Wednesday, sending two aircraft carriers and landing ships packed with 17,000 U.S. Marines and sailors to carry out unannounced exercises in the Persian Gulf.

My spidey-sense stupidity sense is tingling. This can't bode well. Surely they're not that stupid, are they?

Last time we saw our Hero, he's just voted in a National Wiretap Bill for the Internet that would force all ISPs to buy and install online wiretapping infrastructure to make it easier for Big Brother to look in on your online activitires.

We now resume the action with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his posse at the Justice department who will be getting even harder on copyright infringement, targeting repeat offenders. The new 'Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007' is headed for Congress promising to 'hit criminals in their wallets' hoping to ensure that any 'ill-gotten gains' are forfeited.

This will give even more powers to the RIAA to sue grannies and 3-year olds, as well as go after anybody with a “give us 3000$ and we'll make this go away” lawsuits.

The more I see how things are headed, the more I think about “Rainbows End”, a book by Vernor Vinge. It's not an easy ready, and it's not his best book, but damn if it doesn't hit the nail on the head on a few issues; most notably invasion of privacy and the government cracking down on “really important crime, like pirating music and movies”.

I love this quote from an AC on Slashdot:

“Bah, when copyright is infringed, corporations lose money, and when corporations lose money, the terrorists win! Why do you hate Freedom so much?”

Wonderful!

We went to the Greene King Brewery in Bury St-Edmunds last weekend. It's a nice little market town about 30 minutes from home. There's a big parc where an old Abbey used to stand and the brewery offers hour-long tours with tastings of about a dozen beers for only £8. We discovered a shop that specialized in game meats. We need to go back there.

  
   

More pics here: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/bury_greene_king_may_2007/

Next weekend: WINE!

Source: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,2078667,00.html

British Asians are role models, says Cameron

British asians provide a model for the rest of the country, David Cameron declares today, as he argues that many Asians cannot be blamed for failing to integrate.

'Many British Asians see a society that hardly inspires them to integrate. Indeed, they see aspects of modern Britain which are a threat to the values they hold dear. Not for the first time, I found myself thinking that it is mainstream Britain which needs to integrate more with the British Asian way of life, not the other way around.'

And this dude is the leader of the Tories??

Mystery cat takes regular bus to the shops

Katy and I went to Leics last weekend to go wash the car and generally annoy her folks. On the way back, we caught a patch of rain; at the edge of which there were rainbows. I'd never seen before a rainbow where you could actually see both ends of the arc. My camera didn't have a wide enough lens to be able to capture it, but it was beautiful.

  

 

Oh, and if the pictures seem a bit blurry, they were taken while we were going about 70 on the M11 :)

More here: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/rainbows_may_2007/