Forest of Dean

I haven’t been yet, but I can already predict that I am going to seriously fall in love with it when I finally visit it!

The Forest of Dean is near Gloucester, which is only about 2 hours away from Basingstoke. A very small price to pay to be near such a gorgeous place!

I have just spent and hour and a half on its website and I can’t help but being fascinated with each one of the links.

I am just speechless… Unbelievable.

I was just saying the other day how much I am enjoying autumn, and now I see myself wishing it was spring again so I can go and enjoy this beautiful place!

Symonds yat

The colours of autumn

I am really enjoying the season change right now. I’ve been noticing how the trees are changing colours for the last few weeks. They’ve gone from lush green to dull yellow and now are in the boring brown. Some others, however, have gone from dark green to red. Those are my favourite.

We drove hundreds of miles last weekend through some gorgeous areas in the UK. We spent the whole weekend visiting the grandparents, the first set up in Norwich. Once again the satnav did one of its special routes and took us through some farm land when we had to divert due to an accident. Had our car been a tiny bit bigger, we would have struggled big time to pass those country lanes. But, it was oh so worth it! The beauty of the landscape made up the 40 minute delay in our journey.

The colours on the landscape were gorgeous… It went something like this:

but in its British variant

I love the seasons in this country! Now I can’t wait to the snow in a few month’s time!

Just what the world needed

The world needed the Chilean miners to be rescued. It was a physical and a mental need.

The world has suffered some of the worst natural disasters in the last few years (well, maybe they were NOT the worst, but they certainly seemed so with all the media coverage that they got). I am talking about the tsunami, Katrina, the oil spill, the floods in Afganistan, the earthquakes, volcanos, etc.

And as I say, the media has played a very important role in the worldwide distribution of images of destruction, dispair, chaos and death. The world’s heart has been suffering these disasters and it was about time that something “good” happened.

The good thing is that thanks to human science, knowledge and advances, these miners have been able to survive what could have been the result of another of these natural disasters. Fifty years ago, when all the technological advances weren’t simply there, this story would have had a very different ending.

The whole wide world has been following the rescue of the miners in the same way as if they were part of their own families. They NEEDED this story to have a happy ending. I am positive that the general and joint mental health of the world would have been considerably affected if something “bad” had happened.

A few months ago, when the floods in Afganistan happened, I heard someone on the telly saying that the world population was overloaded with catastrophes and a lot of people had started turning their backs on the media images. This was bad at the time because nobody was bothering to give money to charity any more, and despite all the public appeals, Afganistan really suffered the effects of a series of years of natural disasters. People were tired of giving. They had lost “hope”.

And this happy event that millions of people have followed live on television for the last couple of days, was the event that everybody needed (physically and mentally) to return to the “hope state”. Yes, that was just what the world needed. Happy times.

The Dalmatian wedding

I happened to be flicking TV channels the other day when I came across this ridiculous programme called “Wedding House”. From what I saw, I gather it’s a programme where they get couples that want a “special” (aka weird/geeky) wedding and make it happen for them.

I watched about ten minutes of one of the weddings they were organising. It was a 36 year old woman and a 49 year old man. Nothing special here.The “special” (aka weird/geeky) bit comes when she says that she won’t marry him unless her 6 dalmatian dogs are present at the wedding, as bridesmaids! Of course, they had struggled for years to find a venue that would be happy to accommodate this requirement. But it doesn’t stop there. All their friends brought their dalmatians too!

And if that wasn’t spooky enough, her dress, his cravat and all the decorations were “dalmatian” inspired… And most of the guests were dressed in black and white too…

And I thought that only Americans were this tasteless and tacky…….

Today’s playlist

I am pretty much on my own in the office today and it is, so far, a very busy day. However, I have got the freedom to play the music that I like (rather than having to cope with Harry’s obsession with Santana.. arghh) so today I am indulging myself in some late 90s favourites.

In my playlist today we have, among others:

China Drum
3 Colours Red
Bush
Skunk Anansie
Terrorvision
Alice in Chains
Stone Temple Pilots
Pitchshifter
Filter
Screaming trees
Everclear
The Cure
Boy hits car
Disturbed
Chevelle

And the good old faithfull: Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam

By the way, I am in a far better mood today. I can’t stay mad at anything for too long. Not worth it! And yes, Tom, my cat is the best thing that has entered my life, after Jon (not that I am comparing my cat to my husband, but you know what I mean )

Here’s a song that I hadn’t heard for monkey’s years that suddenly put a huge smile on my face. Enjoy.