And now for something completely different....

Cambridge University Starts it's 800th Birthday Celebrations

So it seems Rob is doing all the posting so far. I thought I had better give some encouragement from the CreeksandShaws Homelands - Cambridge :)

So all this new fangled technology has got me a bit lost, give us academics a quill and ink any day of the week. As you know we Cantabrigians are steeped in knowledge and learning. Up to our eyeballs in it round here, whether we like it or not. Not a day passes when I'm not pondering a quadratic equation on my way home on the train, or flicking through some 200 page thesis on "string theory" or alike.

And why is this so? Why is the average Cantabrigian Brain so busy and feverish? Becuase of Cambridge University! One of the worlds oldest Uni's and a Mecca for Japanese toursits far and wide.

Well 2009 sees Cambridge University celebrate 800 years. And this weekend saw the celebrations begin. A laser show took place on Saturday night and the image above is the normally plain white facade of the University Senate Building on Kings Parade during part of the animiated display. When I have a bit more time this week I'll try and link to one of the many You Tube videos showing it in all it's glory.

So there you have it. The first Cambridge entry on the blog. 800 years in the making :)

Toodle Pip for now as we say round here.

Another win?!!!

Yep, the title say's it all - Lucy and Teasel won AGAIN yesterday! Just because they've moved up from Starters to Novice, doesn't mean they're breaking their winning streak!!

Yesterday (Sunday) we got up early to set-off to Ryton for the Paws-n-Music association's show. On the way we saw this fantastic sunrise...
We got there for about 8:30am, once we arrived Lucy and Teasel registered and then we found Kathryn (with Dillip) and Lizzie (with Millie), both from our Dog Club, and Kathryn's Mum. We had ages to wait so we watched the previous competitions. Kathryn was entered in the Starters heelwork-to-music, which she won, and then her and Lizzie were entered in the Starters freestyle. Sadly Lizzie and Millie had a bad round but Kathryn and Dillip won again! Eventually, after even more waiting (about 2:30pm) Lucy and Teasel got their chance to compete...

...it wasn't anywhere near as good as the practices - Lucy was feeling very tired and unwell, and Teasel is obviously very switched-off, as she was very lethargic and sloppy - i.e. nothing like herself. However, everyone seemed to be having a poor day, as it was awarded 1st Place!

So we're really proud of the hard effort they've put in! After their go, Lucy's friend Richard Curtis competed. Demonstrating why he's one of the world's best he put on an amazing act based around the Hawaii 5-0 tune, which showed masterly control and a clever, entertaining and funny choreography which raised the roof - I've videoed it, and if he give's us permission, I'll upload it for all to see. For the time being, to get an idea of how good he is - have a look for his 'k9freestyle' website in the 'Useful Links' on the right.

Yet more!

Whilst fiddling about late into the night, I finally downloaded the piccies from Christmas. I'll put them onto the picasa album soon (and they'll appear in the slideshow on the right-hand side of the blog). However, there are some really nice ones from Boxing day of Lois so I'll put them in here... it look like somebody likes to be photographed!

I also loved this one - Me, Lucy, Andrew and Jonathon took the dogs for a walk by the river that afternoon, and I snapped this view as the sun was starting to dip.

Doughnuts for breakfast!!

How-do?

Following a mix-up and late start, Lucy and I decided that the best course of action was to have a custard doughnut each for breakfast - good to see we're being such grown-ups!!!
My new Mobile (cell-phone) turned up today, so instead of doing my work, I spent a lot of time playing with that - whoops!
Lucy and Teasel have spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks preparing for a 'Freestyle' Dancing-with-dogs competition this Sunday. Today we went for a really hard challenge - training on the Chase (a BIG distraction) when the temperature had just dipped back under 0°C (32°F) - but it went reasonably well. I videoed it and have included it here (it should be to the tune of 'Nelly the Elephant' but the iPod battery ran-out on this last practice! I guess you'll just have to hum to yourself!)...

Blogging!!!

Okay,

So this is what it's all about then. Blogging. I've never really mananged to keep a dairy before, but as I don't have any cows or skill in milking that's hardly surprising. I've also struggled at keeping a DIARY as well, so I'm hoping to try and do what I can to remedy that with this 'forum'.

This isn't just mine though, and as soon as I can, I'll try and get the other relevant Family authors signed up to it.

There seems to be a tradition of spleen-venting on bloggs but I'll try to keep my personal and political ranting to myself......well for now anyway....!

To keep things interesting and upbeat I'll try to put in some pictures (and video, once I've worked out how) whenever I get chance.

This picture is of Lucy, Me, Teasel and Spider up on the Cliff to the west of Sidmouth back at the end of May in 2008 - Behind the camera is Lucy's Dad Tony and her Brother Matty. Yes we look scruffy, but it was a bit of a climb and rather humid (plus I'm wearing my mucky 'dog walking' ski jacket - lovely!)

Set-Up

Hiya,

This is Rob, just testing out a blogger account to see how it goes. Just as part of the test, I think I'll add a photo...

This is a picture of Teasel and Spider sleeping in the car returning home after Christmas 2006 - yes they are asleep on a Didgeridoo - long story...