Temporary Nomad

In the middle of packing. Horrible job. But at least we have plenty of good boxes:

I’m following the time ticking down with my own version of an hourglass:

It’s a magic hermit crab – grows in the shell when you put it in water. In 72 hours it should be full size – exactly when the vase needs to be packed or taken to the kringloop winkel (op shop).

This was a big hit at our farewell house party:

The whole world on a pav – thanks Froukje!

A great day out on Wednesday on the lakes round Kaag with the NP24 guys. The last group event for a long time, sniff.

Yes, a bit cloudy to start with!

Mike and his crew.

Mike changed boats – a great source of amusement.

Bart in control.

Keeping out of the reeds.

The sun came out at last.

NP24 doing their best impression of an indie band on the beach at Scheveningen.

Relaxing in a beach tent at the end of the day.

More photos to come on Mike’s website.

Had a great weekend in Groningen with a friend. We managed to turn up for the Open Atelier day on Sunday. Lots of local artists selling their work. A nice contrast to the current exhibition in the Groninger Museum which we saw that morning – Marc Quinn Recent sculpture.

Marc Quinn Recent Sculpture Poster

Another trip to Coventry last weekend, this time for the wedding of Rebecca and Jeremy at the Warwick Uni Chaplaincy (only the 2nd ever permitted – the Archbishop of Canterbury had to give his permission).

Lovely day out, with a tasty lunch and a party afterwards at Carey’s. Here are a couple of shots of the happy couple.

Rebecca and Jeremy - photos on the lawn

Rebecca and Jeremy

A cupcake wedding cake seems to be a bit of a trend these days, at least 2 out of the last 3 UK weddings I’ve attended featured them. And fair enough too as it looks great, and tastes better than 3 month-old fruit cake with inch-thick marzipan.

Balfours frog cakes

I first saw this concept in Adelaide – my friend Kirralee was the first to come up with the idea of using the famous Balfours frog cakes as a wedding cake. She had to work very hard to convince them to make 100 white ones especially for her and husband Brenden’s cake in 2001. Now everyone’s doing it.

Last month I took a day off to travel way down to the south of The Netherlands to see stage 3 of this year’s Tour de France end in Valkenburg. After a 3.5 hour train journey from Delft I arrived in Valkenburg with about 1.5 hours to spare. I made my way to the Cauberg and set myself up on a slope looking down over the road. It was hot day by Dutch standards (32C) but that didn’t seem to stop half of the country also standing on the Cauberg.

First to arrive was the publicity caravan. This bizarre sight takes almost an hour to pass by, with lots of novelty floats advertising things I’d mostly never heard of. Or only ever heard of in connection with the Tour. What this orange devil thing was advertising I have no idea:

Strange French advertising at Le Tour 2006

I was lucky enough to snag a handy cotton shoulder bag from Le Crédit Lyonnais, which is currently doing service carrying Mike’s breakfast items on his climbing trip in the Peak District.

At last, after all the giant foam recycling bins had passed by the real event was on. And we knew exactly when to expect them. First the helicopters were buzzing in the distance, then suddenly they were almost overhead – then came the motorbikes and finally, the riders were swishing past. I had no idea who anyone was, and despite it being a category 3 climb they whizzed by too fast to have any idea who was in the lead.

But at least I had a chance to snap some blurry pictures as they went by:

Caisse D’epargne-Illes Balears Team going up cauberg

Riders on the Cauberg