Interactive Wednesday Movie

This one is rather interesting.

Click on the link here and then don't panic when it opens lots of different windows, just leave them alone.

Then follow the instructions and be sure to enter a proper address when it asks. It is essential to the movie. If, like me on my first go, you just type in some random shit because you thinking its phishing, then the resultant movie will not make sense. Trust me on this one.

Original posted on FB by both JohnT and Lepard - two masters of the weird wide web

And for another type of fishing - check out this one sent to me by Ben - if only it was normally this easy.

I am off to Leicester tomorrow for a PhD exam on chlorite and resistivity

My garden construction project

I have had an ongoing project to fix the garden outside the house for the last 3 years, ever since it was necessary to rip out the old steps and garden to waterproof the basement. It's never really been a priority, there was always more fun stuff to do.

The timeline goes something like...

June 2007 - builders remove old garden then disappear for the summer

July 2007 - import friends from UK to rebuild steps

June 2009 - start building garden wall with my brother

May 2010 - finish garden wall

June 2010 - lay last lot of slabs

August 2010 - shovel 10 tonnes of stone into garden for drainage with help of Sandy and Helen

August 2010 - shovel 20 tonnes of earth into garden with help from no-one

Now it just needs to be planted and it will look really nice, just in time to sell the place!

This is how it looked back in 2007, just after the basement was damp proofed
The imported workers!

By the end of 2007, I at least had some steps

Then by 2009 I had a garden wall

And finally ready for some plants

Man goes into a bar again...

A man walks into a bar with an ostrich and a cat and sits at the bar. The bartender walks over to them and says, "What can I get for you?"
The man says "I'll have a beer", the ostrich says, "I'll have a beer", and the cat says, "I'll have half a beer and I'm not buying."
So the bartender says, "OK, that will be £3.87."The man reaches into his pocket and brings out the exact change and pays him.
About an hour later the bartender goes back over to them and says, "What'll you guys have?"
The man says, "I'll have a beer", the ostrich says, "I'll have a beer", and the cat says "I'll have half a beer and I'm not buying."
The bartender gets them their beer and says "That'll be £3.87." The man reaches into his pocket and brings out the exact change and pays him. A couple of days later they come back into the bar and the bartender walks over and asks
"What do you guys want today?"The man says, "I'll have a scotch", the ostrich says, "I'll have a bourbon", and the cat says, "I'll have half a beer and I'm not buying."
So the bartender says "OK, that will be £7.53." The man reaches into his pocket and brings out the exact change and pays him.
The bartender's curiosity got the best of him and he asks, "Why is it that every time I tell you the amount you owe you always have the exact change in you pocket?"
The man said, "I found a bottle with a genie in it and she granted me 3 wishes. My first wish was that I always have the exact change in my pocket for anything I buy."
The bartender says, "That's a great wish...better than asking for a million dollars. A million dollars will run out but that never will. What were your other 2 wishes?"
The man says, "That's where I screwed up. I asked for a bird with long legs and a tight pussy."

Wednesday Movie - From South Africa to North Wales

The "Battle of Kruger" is a home made video showing a pride of lions, two crocs and a herd of buffalo fighting for the life of a baby buffalo. Who will win?

It starts a bit slow but is well worth watching all the way through, maybe with the sound off (the people are kinda annoying). The video is here. Enjoy.

And to follow on from the recently banned Newport State of Mind* here's something from Gogledd Cymru - you ain't see Ruthin yet

* How utterly childish, humourless and insecure must Alice Kays and JayZed be to get Newport State of Mind barred from youtube? Just because someone takes their whinny, drab big apple anthem and replaces the cliched lyrics with tales of off-white transits and throwing up in the back of a taxi; they get all upitty and precious. Well lossers its gone viral so you can't stop it. In fact, you can still find it here and it's still great.

More big adventures

Given that my Wife-to-be and now my child-to-be, live in another country from me it seems logical that I would, at some point in the near future move across the water to Aberdeen. It was originally planned for the end of next year and we started looking for a suitable house (or project). It was going to take something pretty special to beat the lair, especially on the view front.

So the criteria were -
1. A good view, preferably of mountains or the sea
2. Within walking distance of a nice pub (I have really missed that in Norway)
3. Within commutable distance of Aberdeen
4. A house with some character, preferably old
5. Some land

It was the last bit that created the most trouble. I grew up on a farm and have long had an inkling to have a bit of land to just do.... stuff. Preferably about 6 to 10 acres to have some donkeys, chickens, grow some veg and maybe get some llamas. So we looked at a number of places but nothing quite fitted the bill, that was fine, there was no rush.

Then we saw a place just south of Stonehaven, derelict farm up as two lots, the house and the steading (stone out buildings) each with about 2 acres. The think that blew me away, just from the photos on the internet was the position. Right on top of a cliff with an amazing sea view. We immediately went to visit and when we got there we met another couple also checking out. They were pleasant and the guy made a joke about being future neighbours. I was smiling but inside thinking "no chance, if we go for this place it will be all or nothing".

A quick check told us it was going to be popular, 13 notes of interest after the first weekend. We know we would be up against all sorts of folk, not least the developers looking to turn the whole thing into 3 or 4 houses to sell on for a tidy profit.

The Scottish house buying system is by blind bids, which means on a given day you submit your bid in an envelope and the solicitor opens them all and the highest wins. There is nothing good you can say about this ghastly system, not least because it is highly susceptible to corruption. Even without that the amount of stress of either missing slightly or bidding way over is horrible. So after lots of thinking I contacted my friend Pat in the US who specializes in "game theory and decision analysis" and asked for his advice. Armed with his wise words of wisdom we concocted a strategy. We also spoke to a variety of architects and solicitors, who gave us mixed opinions and advice.

When the final day came around we placed our bid, which was a fair way above the asking price. The advice we got from various corners was that we were bidding too much but we had decided. In our minds it was not really a question of if we would get it or not, it was how much money would we "leave on the table" and did we really want it?

The bids went in at 12 on Friday and three hours later, whilst heading up to the top of Mount Ulriken in the cable car for Sandy and Helen's wedding reception I got a call to say that we had narrowly missed out and there were two bids above us. Bugger! We consoled ourselves that we had bid our maximum and that was that. But we were both very disappointed.

Two hours later, Katharine got a call that went to voice mail to say there had been a mix up and we were in fact the winners, although this could not be confirmed until Monday. We were blown away! Despite having to wait the weekend, this was a near perfect result. We had won the auction, we had left virtually no money of the table and the brief interlude of failure had confirmed that we really did want it and we were doing the right thing.

So now we are the proud owners of a derelict farm house and steading, with four acres, one mile to a great cliff top pub that does excellent food, 15 miles south of Aberdeen, with an amazing view and loads of potential.

Now all we have to do is plan and redesign the house, fix up the barns and buy some llamas and chickens. How hard can that be?

Sandy and Helen tie the knot...

... on a mountain in a storm

This weekend we were at Sandy and Helen's wedding which started at 2pm on Friday in St Jorgens church. The interesting thing about the church is that it is not the one I thought it was! So we picked up Ross and Fiona and then spent a while driving around confused, fortunately people wandering the streets of Bergen in kilts are rare enough that we were able to home in on the right church pretty easily.

After the service we headed through horror show traffic to get the cable car up Fløyen. Last time I was in the cafe at the top of Bergen's highest mountain it served pølse and crappy pizza but it has since been renovated and turned into a rather excellent restaurant. The food was good and everyone, especially the visiting Scottish contingent loved the view. There was lots of speeches (as is traditional in these parts) and as the evening wore on the weather closed in. By the time the non-dinning guest arrived at 9pm it was a full on storm. Everyone was having to much of a good time to care that they might be stuck for the night and the band played on until after 2. We exited about 1.30 and the cable car was running at half full and quater speed! Somehow everyone managed to get home that night.

Next day we reconvened for more drinking and dancing in an old wooden warehouse in Sandviken and that party went on til 1.30. All in all they put on a fine spread and their guest, both local and from afar rose to the occasion in good fashion. I think they got a good send off...

All the best for a great life together

Karmasotra

Karmasotra has just hit a bit of a milestone. When I looked this morning it had just reached 25000 hits - thats quite a lot of people reading crap jokes, rants and the occasional piece of news.

Its being going for two and a half years and there are now almost 500 posts - thats lots of accumulated compost. had its been lots of fun writing it and reading all the comments.

So who ever you are , thanks for the support, I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you keep coming back. There is lots going to happen in the next year so there should be plenty to write about.