China 2 - off to Shanghai

After a few days in Beijing I needed to head south to Shanghai. Rather than flying I decided to take a train so that I'd get to see something of the country. I love train travel anyway; the fact that you just turn up a few minutes before you're scheduled to leave and literally walk on and walk off is so much more appealing than waiting around for hours at airports. Plus trains are usually more reliable and comfortable. The high speed train to Shanghai travels at up to 300 km/hour and reaches it's destination in less than five hours. The adventure started with the taxi ride to the station...if you've never been to China just imagine you are in one of those Bumper Car rides at a fun fair, with the only rules being you've got to stop just before you actually smack into the car in front and it's compulsory to keep one hand firmly pressed on the horn at all times. I eventually made a conscious decision to just not watch where we were going any more because I was convinced we would never arrive in one piece.
Once at Beijing South train station however I was hugely impressed. It's as big as an airport, super modern and easy to navigate. Check in is similar to an airport with all luggage x-rayed, and only ticket holders can access the gates to the platforms (Europe could learn from this!), where we were greeted by chic hostesses and stewards. The high speed trains are super modern and stylish, a first class ticket is still cheaper than flying and if I lived there, I'd never get on a plane again!

It seemed to take forever just to get out of Beijing...that city is truly enormous. In fact it's one of the most populous cities in the world with close to 20 MILLION people living there. Makes you feel a little claustrophobic just thinking about that many people in one place, right?
Gradually the dry brown planes and windswept subsistence farms of the province gave way to signs of spring. Green grass shoots started to appear as we headed south and about two hours out of Shanghai we started passing through hills and even some low mountains. Then suddenly we were passing through the outskirts of a city...and arriving.
Now I know it seems obvious to say it, but Shanghai is really, really big. I hadn't realized beforehand that it's the largest city in China with...wait for it....23 MILLION residents. In fact I'd kind of been looking forward to a slightly larger Singapore, I suppose. Wrong. Shanghai may have a reasonable ex-pat population but there the similarity more or less ends. This is hard-core Asia whereas Singapore is Asia-lite. One of the biggest hassles? You can't just jump in a taxi and go anywhere unless you speak Mandarin. Almost no-one speaks English except for tourist places. If you go anywhere, you have to make sure you get a friendly local to write down in Chinese characters the name and address of any place you need to visit including your hotel so you can get back again. It felt weird to climb in a taxi, say hello, then point to a piece of paper and hope like hell you arrived where you were hoping to go. However it was all part of the fun and I was determined to squeeze in as much as I could during my time there.

China - Part 1, Beijing

This has been a busy month for travel as I spent a week in China, recovered for a few days than popped down to Italy for a quick visit. It's all to do with work and I won't bore you with the details, but the good part is that I got to spend a little time being a tourist and having a look around.
I'd never been to China before so was really looking forward to the experience. I started off in Beijing, visiting a nuclear energy conference which was held at the National Conference Centre, inside Olympic Park. It was kind of strange seeing the famous Birds Nest Stadium, the torch  and the Water Cube, which were such iconic features of the last Olympics.
However the day I arrived I headed into Beijing city with my collague. Figuring we were going to be jetlagged anyway having missed a night of sleep we may as well just keep going and get to see something, we braved a Beijing taxi and walked around the Forbidden City, People's Palace and Tiananmen Square.


"ummmm...do I stand out here?"

My caption of choice for the photo above would be 'spot the tourist'.  Kay and I were literally the only pale skinned blonds in a crowd of thousands. It was the week of China's most important public holiday, Tomb Sweeping, kind of an All Souls day. Tens of thousands of locals take the opportunity to play at being the tourist and visit spots of national importance. The crowds were horrendous. Mao's tomb (above) was hugely popular and at one stage we found ourselves literally shuffling shoulder-to-shoulder through a long pedestrian tunnel which funnelled us into an ever-narrower press of humanity. Just when we felt things were starting to get a bit hairy the crowd in front of us suddenly turned around and started pressing back! The doors had been shut at the far end so we had to make our way out the way we'd come. Fortunately there was no panic and we all eventually spilled back out into the large square but it was an uncomfortable sensation accentuated by the fact that there were soliders and police everywhere, both among the crowd and watching from the edges. Apparently there had been talk of protests being staged on China's social networking sites the week before, so the government had shut down Facebook, Twitter, and all the Chinese equivalents. Locals later told me that as a result probably a fifth of the crowd in Beijing was undercover police/military but fortunately we didn't have any problems.

I was looking forward to seeing the famous Tiananmen Square (above), although it would have been more impressive if it didn't have six lanes of traffic whizzing over it! I never realized that it's used as a major thoroughfare in the city. 

Beijing is an unusual city, very business like and despite China now being relatively open to foreigners most of this capital city was surprisingly untouched by Western influence.It was only early spring so it was quite cold and bare of greenery, which exacerbated the problem the city has with dust being blown in from the Gobi desert. Deforestaton is making this problem worse every year, and as one fellow conference delegate said, it's the only city he's been to where he wants to shower three times a day. In the evening we found a small local restaurant and using sign language and a menu which thankfully included photos we ordered some delicious dishes of celery and lily buds, prawns, and garlic kai lan. It was great to be eating real Asian food again! 

Weeding

This has to be the ultimate recycling plan...I pull the weeds out of the garden, the bunnies eat them, then they fertilize the lawn! Punky Muffin and Dumpling are grateful for every bit of greenery at the moment as the lawn is practically a desert. This winter we had almost no snow so the grass was uncharacteristically exposed for the entire time. This meant the bunnies chewed it back down to the roots and beyond. Hence the wire netting in the background; I've put down grass seed and am trying to get it to grow, although the chilly nights aren't helping at all.

After a winter with no greenery they've become used to me going out several times a day with andive leaves, broccolli stems, apple, bits of banana...basically anything I can give them for a bit of variety to pellets and hay. It's reached the point where as soon as the kitchen door opens they line up and start demanding their snack. At least I can cultivate the dandilions for free!

Off To Camp...

With the weather warming up, the camping season has started for Scouts. Niels is away this week with the Land Scouts, last seen heading east this morning with 4 other boys clutching a GPS. Hopefully they'll find the rendevouz in time to be collected tomorrow!

Carl had a camp with his group recently - thankfully a father & son camp - with a military theme. Here's No. 2 and Proud Dad, ready to report for duty.

Wind In The Willows..Without the Annoying Toad

Spring is definitely, almost certainly, practically here. The weather is warming up, the birds are singing up a storm, and it's the season to prune the willow trees, which means time to treat the bunnies to one of their favourite snacks. I usually to visit my friend in Vorden around this time of year and bring home a huge pile of willow and apple branches.

Bunnies LOVE to eat these, and since there is absolutely no grass or any sign of edible greenery left in the garden by now, they make a welcome snack, full of juicy sap and with the bark softened from the first weeks of spring growth. If I'm feeling really motivated and have the time I'll make something for the rabbits to play with while they eat, and since it was a quiet weekend they ended up with not one but TWO toys this year.

It keep me busy for a day and a half and my hands are aching, finger tips red and tender and popped blisters dripping gently onto my keyboard as I type. However it was all worth it once I was finished and Punky Muffin and Dumpling were happily munching inside their new toys. The round one was a new effort for me; I will admit that yes, I had something a bit more grandiose and well-porportioned in mind when I first planned it. What was going to be a large round beehive-shaped structure has ended up looking a bit like a pile of cow-poo, but Dumpling loves it neverthe less and is practically invisible once he's happily sitting inside, nibbling on the walls.



'I am ze Master of Disguize...only my muztache can be seen, yez?"



Punky immediately claimed the tunnel; this is the second time I've made one of the these and to be honest I had completely forgotten how much bloody hard work it was to make the first time! However it was nice to spend the day in the garden, endlessly snipping branches into shape while the rabbits stayed companionably close, interested in what I was doing. That's what I tell myself anyway; in reality they were probably circling me in a pissed off temper demanding "Get out of our garden you hairless bi-ped!!"



Get out of my garden or I eat your face!!!



Sentayehu Teshale - an inspiration

If you think you've had a hard day at work, or that life just isn't fair/easy enough/is too complicated etc etc...take a look at this guy who has the inner strength to achieve something truly remarkable.

Seeing Double...Or Triple...Or....

Whilst trawling through my emails deleting old posts I came across these two photos from my friend Liesbeth who runs Opvang Franky, a rescue centre for rabbits in Eindhoven. At Christmas she saved 32 rabbits which were destined to be slaughtered for the cooking pot. It was a major operation involving several volunteers and lots of effort. I spent a day with Liesbeth helping to prepare enough hutches and organizing carry cages for them to be collected, and afterwards she sent these photos of the rescued buns. Sadly so far only 1 has been adopted as large, red eyed rabbits are not "in fashion" at the moment. Sixteen have been placed with other shelters, the rest remain in Eindhoven, waiting for a loving home and a new start.
If you are interested in giving these worthy creatures a second chance in life, contact Liesbeth today, by following this link.

And remember, don't ever buy any pets from shops or breeders; always contact you local rescue centres first! They are filled to bursting with every possible pet, from rabbits to chinchilla's, hamsters, cats, guinea pigs, mice, dogs... Buying animals only keeps breeders in business and makes this enormous problem even worse.

Places I'm Glad I Don't Live #2

Some of you may recall my earlier post which showed very clearly why I wouldn't want to live here . Today I've found a more than appropriate #2 location for what must be a very creepy place to live at the moment: parts of Australia. More specifically: Wagga Wagga, where localized flooding has apparently driven all the spiders to crowd into trees to escape the rising waters. The result is these incredibly scary looking trees...I seriously pity any birds who were nesting when this happened.

And if you really want to see another creepy spider posting, see this. 

Patience

Don't get me wrong, I'm the first to admit I'm not a very patient person. I think I used to be, but maybe that's just my own delusional memory twisting my memories to suit myself. In any case, I can vividly remember in about 2004 when I worked for my former employer, a major publisher with a huge office in Doetinchem, and I passed a colleague on the stairs one day. I worked for the International Department, a relatively small group of about 30 people in a building containing more than 600.  My office was on the fifth floor but I never took the lift; too slow. One lunch time as I ascended a woman I didn't know passed me on the way up, and said something like "hi Joanne...yes I know who you are, you're the one who's always in a hurry!".
Right.
I was pondering my lack of patience last week, the day after hubby left for his first assignment for his new job. Exciting times, starting a new job. I'm thrilled for him that he's doing something new and so interesting, he's excited by the challenge. However he has spent the previous seven (yes SEVEN) weeks at home and to be frank, I was spoilt rotten by having a 'House Bitch' on hand 24/7. I'd become accustomed to going to work and having more or less everything domestic done by the time I'd arrive home. So there I was, taking down the washing in the attic and bemoaning the fact that he uses two (yes TWO!!) pegs for every item of clothes. The waste of time! It's not like there's any wind inside, why not just use one! I could save at least 30 seconds on each load of washing! I know, trivial stuff unless you've got a really busy day. And you're really impatient. Like me.
This was all brought into painful perspective for me yesterday when, rushing to get the kids ready for school and myself ready for work by 8:15, I asked Niels to hang up the washing for me while I took a shower. He's never done it before so I gave the briefest (time effcient!) explanation then left him to it. I had my usual 3 minute shower, dressed in 2 minutes, almost ready to go. I called up the stairs: "Niels, are you still up there?"
"Yeeeeeeees" was the drawn out answer.
I joined him in the attic to find him half way thru the wash. Facing me with a damp towel in his hands, he declared, in a style that clearly shows he's inheritied his mother's genes: "Now I know that being a parent SUCKS!!!"

This is NOT a Valentine's Story...

Every now and then one of my colleagues, Jan, travels abroad and invariably something so awful it's funny happens to him. Fortunately, he is happy to share his experiences and I'm pleased to be able to give you his latest adventure. Enjoy! 

Hi lovely colleagues,

Just back in the office, want to thank you all for the really nice time I had in Shanghai, it was nice to see you all again. Now suffering jet lag. Let me tell u a small story that happened to me, I want to share something...

The flights were all on time, no delay and all went smoothly, unbelievable!!!

But one day in Xian I maybe ate something wrong but at the end of the day I told Gert and Hui, I need to go to my hotel and go to toilet. 

I jumped in a taxi and had to cross my legs hehe, soon as I arrived in the hotel I ran to my toilet and.....well u know sat there and the smell was really not like roses. I flushed the toilet and then the story began. My toilet could not handle it and water didn't flush away, oh my god....... I was thinking what to do, then called the house keeper that I had trouble with my toilet and needed someone to fix it. 

I felt sooo ashamed when looking at my cute toilet but anyway I need to go again but couldn't go otherwise it will flood on the floor, so after 10 minutes I called again, told them my room number, (I think it was not even not needed they only had to follow the smell hehe) then after another ten minutes they sent the cleaning lady. I pointed her at the toilet, she ran away and said she will send a guy to fix it. 

I couldn't wait that long but had to. I still didnt felt well and then Gert called me and asked how I felt, during our talk I could feel that I had to throw up too and that stupid toilet was still not fixed, what a hell. After I finished the  call I had to run to the bathroom again and the only choice I had was to throw up in hand basin. After I did I felt better again but then my sink was blocked too, so now toilet and sink were broken, I really felt sooo dirty. 

Then I put my hand in the sink and took out the thow up stuff because I didn't want the house keeper to see I damaged both toilet and sink. It was disgusting but I had to do it. Put everything in a plastic bag just before he rang the bell of my room, I scooped the last bits out of the sink with my hands and then I let him in.

He saw the mess in the toilet and started to unblock the toilet...he did it in such a fast time hehe, I think because he also didnt liked the smell of my roses. But at least he fixed it and he ran away from my room, 

I closed the door, even locked it and finally could sit on my toilet again, I stayed there for maybe 10 minutes and then felt better again. After taking a shower I jumped into bed and the next day I felt much better again.

The next day I saw the Terra Cota warriors and I felt happy for them that they are just terracotta clay and don't have stomach problems hahahaha.

Ok dear colleagues , welcome back in the dragon year

Bye for now,

Jan 

...Where I Don't Complain About The Cold

 

No need to use the bridges over the canals...we can just walk over!

Anyone who has read this blog for a while will know that I'm not a fan of the winter. Give me heat, humidity, the sweaty damp extremes of the tropics any time...just don't give me winter. Problem with that obviously is that we live in Europe where the winters are getting more extreme and if climate change reaches its seemingly inevitable conclusion, we will eventually be chipping ice off the windscreens from November until March every year.

However...we didn't really have a winter over here until about 10 days ago. The weather wizards had predicted this would be a "severe winter" with temperatures dropping to an estimated -23C!! Bah humbug I declared, and then bugger me if Mother Nature didn't open that big fridge door in the sky, with the mercury dropping to a record low of -22.9C a couple of days ago!! It's never been so cold in the Netherlands before. The good news is that we only had one day of very light snow, meaning the outdoor ice skating rinks are enjoying perfect conditions. Dry and extremely cold, the ice is dense and uniform and ideal for skating. We bought the kids some new skates (they outgrow them every year) and even Holger decided to treat himself to a decent pair.

Beautiful blue skies and sunshine have tempted them out onto the ice almost every day, and we're lucky in that the rink is right behind our house. I tell you, nothing makes kids fall asleep more quickly at night than racing home from a busy day at school to skate in the freezing cold for 2 hours, followed by dinner and a hot bath.

And me? Well, despite the fact that it looks lovely outside the temp is regularly -10 to -15 in the mornings and only moves up a couple of degrees throughout the day, so I'm hiding inside as much as possible. Tomorrow I'm taking my slippers to work because the floors in the office are so cold that by lunch time I'm numb from the waist down, and gusts of wind force blasts of icy air in through the wall sockets!! But I am definitely not complaining.

Tunnel through the centre of the earth...

This is a very cool app that allows you to tunnel through the earth and see where you would come out. If I tunnel through from where I live in Holland, I come out just a little to the east of New Zealand! So it would save me time if I could just go through the centre of the earth. A little hot though.

Enviro-what??

While Germany is patting itself on the back for its environmental and energy policies, it's worthwhile taking a moment to add up the costs both financially AND to the climate change issue. I can't help but wonder if its sustainable at all. Keep reading until you reach the bit about the extra 370 MILLION tons of CO2 they'll be belching out. 

Eye-watering cost of renewable revolution

23 January 2012

Germany's energy policy could cost some €1.4 trillion ($1.8 trillion) by 2030 even before the cost of the nuclear shutdown is taken into account.

Germany is to forego 14 years of low-cabon generation from Neckarwestheim 2 (Image: EnBW)

The figures were announced by the head of Siemens' energy division, Michael Suess, at the Energiewirtschaft 2012 event organised by the Handelsblatt newspaper in Berlin and later confirmed to World Nuclear Newsby Siemens spokesmen.

For several years the country has planned an 'energy revolution' designed to tackle climate change and establish renewable technologies at the centre of a new power supply system. Two years before nuclear generation ends in 2022, Germany wants to have cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40%, doubled renewables to supply 35% of electricity and cut primary energy consumption by 20%.

Siemens' calculation of the total investment in generation and transmission to do this came to €1.418 trillion ($1.848 trillion) in the period from 2011 to 2030.

However, Germany's ambition were dramatically increased on the heels of the Fukushima accident in Japan by the shutdown, almost overnight, of eight nuclear power reactors. The operating lives of the remaining nine reactors were also reduced from the terms of a 2010 agreement, costing some as many as 14 years.

Siemens' costing of the nuclear shutdown was vague, ranging from €11 billion to €252 billion ($14 billion to $328 billion). But this comes on top of the general cost of the energy policy and takes the total to €1.670 trillion ($2.177 trillion). This incredible overall figure is equal to 68% of German GDP in 2010, or slightly more than the value of the Brazilian economy - the fifth biggest in the world that year.

In September 2011 research from the KfW Bankegruppe, which supports domestic development, put the total investment to achieve German policy goals at €239-262 billion ($321-352 billion) to 2020.

Two immediate effects of the nuclear shutdown have been a rush to finish building 10 GWe of fossil power plants, and short-term reliance on an oil-fuelled plant in Austria. A Deutsche Bank report estimated that the carbon dioxide increase from the permanent shutdown of the seven reactors and the early phase-out of the rest would result in the emission of 370 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2020. Before the shutdown, Germany's nuclear sector had been the biggest source of low-carbon power.

Source: www.World-Nuclear-News.org

Oh.My.God........Seriously.

Hubby has a good friend who is a Loading Master/Mooring Master in Equatorial Guinea. For those of you (like me) who are geographically challenged, that's off the west coast of Africa. He enjoys his job but it's a challenging region, to say the least. On the equator, the ratio of humans to nasty creatures you'd really rather not meet is seriously in favour of the reptiles/insects/parasites/bacteria. Every now and again he sends us a photo of something truly...unique...and this is the latest. His (edited to prevent any akwardness) description follows:

"Hi Holger, thought you might want to show this to the kids at home.It was taken 1st thing in the morning in *** (1 mile from here) a couple of weeks ago. Its not a wind-up."

All I can add is that every time I look at this photo I get goose-bumps and feel slightly nausuous. Frankly, it's made me think the cockroaches in Singapore weren't so bad after all.

Petrolheads

I was going through the memory card in my camera when I came across some photos of Niels birthday, waaaaaay back in May, and realized I'd never posted these. Turning 10 was a big thing for him and he wanted to do somehting a bit more adventurous than in previous years, so we booked a carting track nearby and took along a few friends. We weren't sure how it would go, but they had a blast.

Fortunatley none of them had done it before so they were all at the same level. Driving there in the car the boys were so excited we were wishing we had earmuffs of our own. Details of just how fast and daring they were going to be and the types of stunts they were going to do became more elaborate with each passing minute. So it was pretty funny to see them each doing their first couple of laps, not daring to go faster than walking speed and looking for all the world like a bunch of grannies on the track!

However they soon got the hang of it and were zipping about. They stopped for a break to scoff down some lunch before heading back out to the track again.

By the time we left they were all total converts to carting and unanimously declared it to be the best birthday party they'd ever had!

Because We Can

Kan u not zee, I iz buzy?

One of the fun things about bunnies is that they are constantly busy, and no matter how domesticated you may think your Flopsy or Coco or Rocco or Dumpling may be, the heart of a wild beast pumps beneath that cute fluffy coat. Spring and Autumn are the busiest seasons as the rabbits instincts kick in to dig a burrow for breeding for the former, or a shelter during the winter in the later. Punky Muffin is a particularly fanatic digger a tthis time of year, takes her projects very seriously. Her first autumn excavation occurred about a month ago; I came home for work to find her crashed out exhausted and filthy on the lawn with what could only be descirbed as a suspiciously satisfied look on her snout. Turns out she'd been digging a tunnel in the sand pit (good bunny, that's why it's there). However after a couple of days of tunneling the tunnel became too deep and long so I filled it in; I didn't want it collapsing on her, or have her get so far down I couldn't get her out again.

Not to be thwarted, she waited until her aching muscles were back to normal then took to one of the borders. It's fascinating thing to watch a rabbit burrowing; this is excavation as an art form, not just digging out dirt in some wild frenzy like, say, a dog would. Being prey animals rabbits seems to hae a built-in instinct to conceal their work. Not a successful strategy in a garden, true, but in the wild it must come in handy.

First the hole is started; frantic digging wth the front feet, and when a small pile has built up between the front legs its flicked out through the back legs to create a long pile behind. Once this pile has started to build up the bunny turns round and uses its front legs to push the pile out flat, spreading the loose dirt in a large fan shape. It repeats this process and keeps spreading the loose dirt out in an increasing radius so the resulting build up is not more than about 3-5 cm deep. I guess in the wild this would make it harder to spot, and it would quickly wash away in rain, disappear into grass and leaves, etc.

Pushing the dirt away with her front feet

As the amount of loose dirt increases, she will alternatively pull dirt towards the edge of the pile with her front feet, and then turn around and push it away and flatten it. Finally, the whole thnig is smoothed down by hopping over it, with those big back feet doing a perfect job.

It's a time consumering process, but if every there was therapy for a rabbit, this must be it. The only problelm is figuring out when it's time to go and piss her off by filling it all in again. Trouble is, I know she'll just go and do the same thing somewhere else until winter arrives...

By the way, one bunny is flat out doing all the work while the other spent most of the time fussing with his hair and 'supervising' - not much equality in the rabbit world!

Magical Cameleon Bunny

Dumpling has surprised us all by changing colour, seemingly overnight. When he arrived he looked like a scruffy mix of breeds that had been splashed with white paint. Now he's grown his winter coat, he looks like...a scruffy mix of breeds without the white paint. His formerly short curly white bits are now long soft grey bits, and he's more uniformly camouflage colour than before.

No need to guess who taught him this trick...

Guilty as charged! Punky Muffin demonstrates her startled "guilty as hell" look.


Who, me??



Normandy 4

I've just realised I never showed you the photos of the amazing house we stayed in during our second week in Normandy. La Chapelle is a 15th century chapel which was lovingly restored about 5 years ago. I'ts actually the former chapel and priests living accomodation together; the door separating them has been removed.

The original leadlight window is still in place, and there are niches evenly spaced down the walls of the living room - the former chapel- which once would have held statues. Above you can see hubby at the massive wooden table which seats 10 people, checking emails in quite a profound contrast to the ancient surroundings. The stone walls were incredibly thick and that, combined with the stone floor, kept the whole place quite cool.

One of the most amazing features was the vaulted wooden ceiling which went throughout the length of the building. It's obviously been replaced when the restoration was done but they certainly made a great job of it. Even the staircase leading to the upstairs - there are four bedrooms, sleeping 9 people with 2 bathrooms - was handcrafted and held together with wooden pegs rather than nails in keeping with the original style. Despite the age of the building it was fitted out with all the modern equipment you could want, although it was the massive garden the kids loved most. So if you're looking for a fab place to stay in Normandy, we can recommend La Chapelle.

Scouting About

There have been a few changes with our wee scouts recently. Both boys have moved up to the next group: Carl to the Welps (ages 7-9), and Niels to the Land Scouts (10-14). This involved of course a change of uniform, the chaotic ceremonial changeover involving the entire combined Scout group, then the official 'proper' ceremony for each of the chapters where the boys have to say the Scout  code and promise to obey the Scout law in front of their leaders and own personal group. All very important stuff. Oh, and don't forget the bit where Mum gets to sew 10 badges by hand onto the new shirts. Have I ever blogged about my sewing skills before? Well, there's a reason for that: I don't have any. Suffice to say there may not have been sweat or tears involved but blood was definitely shed. The top photo shows Niels, pre-ceremony, demonstrating his new salute (3 fingers for Landscouts!) and if ever you needed proof he is growing up, this is surely it.

Niels managed to learn his new Scout code by heart, then promptly forgot most of it in the heat of the moment. The leaders are all quite young and is was amusing for the parents and grandparents gathered around to watch them going red-faced and looking flustered trying to remember the code in front of an audience as well. Above he is shaking hands with the leader of the gruop - Scouts always shake with the left hand as it's closest to the heart (bet you didn't know that!).

Carl was quite nervous about his ceremony, and forgetting that there were 7 kids moving up to the Welps, I saw him looking stricken when 3 boys were called forward to go through the ceremony and he thought he'd been forgotten. We quickly whispered in his ear that he would be one of the next, and his lip stopped trembling and he waited, at full attention with his back ram-rod straight, in tense anticipation until his name was called. After it was all over he allowed him self a little smile, befitting a boy who is "not small any more but medium sized" to quote him.

I've included this last photo of Carl getting his new shirt before the ceremoney as it shows the one essential item apparently no Scout can do without. Never mind the shirt, the tie, the friendship knot or the badges; a grubby pair of blue jeans is apparently an absolute must, and our little Scouts are able to turn a perfectly clean pair of jeans, laundered especially for the ceremony, into something looking like this in the 30 seconds it takes to walk from the car to the club house.  Amazing.

Places I'm Glad I Don't Live #1...

....anywhere near where this monster crocodile was found! Captured in the Philippines, this enormous salt water crocodile weighs an amazing 1075 kilos and measures 6.4 meters in length. So far it's being hailed as the biggest croc ever caught, and almost a meter longer than the previous Guinness World Records holder 'Cassius' from Australia. See that little guy behind him? That's a fully grown man. Looks like you'd fit a few of him inside this beasty.