Sunday, June 26, 2011

18 years.jpg

18 years.jpg by karlakp
18 years.jpg, a photo by karlakp on Flickr.

After 18 years of marriage, the ideal present is a silly rubbery toy. Who needs paper, silver or diamonds.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Great Naked Bike Ride coming to a Portland near you

This article conveniently ignores the naked bike ride in London, which was awesomely wierd, but hey, you guys Stateside can see a bunch of naked guys on bikes, too, just go to Portland!

Go here for the details.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

slow tv

Wanna go on a Norwegian coastal cruise from the comfort of your La-Z-Boy?

Now you can.

One Norwegian station is live broadcasting an entire coastal cruise up the length of Norway's west coast on the Hurtigruten. 5 days on a boat, just looking around.

I honestly can't decide if this is brilliant or the most boring thing I have ever heard of. (And are the exhorbitant tv taxes they charge me paying for this?) The fact that it is proving popular also shows that the state of Norwegian national broadcasting might leave something to be desired. But still, an interesting idea. I clicked on it for a while last night. They showed some mountains slowly going by, some shots of the deck, the bridge, and went down into the kitchens to check out what's for dinner. The food looked good.

This might be a really good ad for a Hurtigruten cruise, actually. 5 days non stop advertising!

Still, not every country can do a 5 day live broadcast of its scenery and keep it interesting. Norway, being quite possibly the most gorgeous country on earth, may well be the only one able to carry it off.

If you read this before Tuesday, you can watch the broadcast live, yourself, here.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

ye olde cheshire cheese.jpg

ye olde cheshire cheese.jpg by karlakp
ye olde cheshire cheese.jpg, a photo by karlakp on Flickr.

Terrible name for one of the great pubs.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

oldest pub.jpg

oldest pub.jpg by karlakp
oldest pub.jpg, a photo by karlakp on Flickr.

Having drinks in what is said to be the oldest continuously inhabited pub in England. We went on a walking tour of St Albans and it bucketed cold rain all day. Froze my arse off. Nice to be in this warm woody space.

sunday lunch.jpg

sunday lunch.jpg by karlakp
sunday lunch.jpg, a photo by karlakp on Flickr.

Sunday lunch in st albans

Saturday, June 11, 2011

obamawoman.jpg

obamawoman.jpg by karlakp
obamawoman.jpg, a photo by karlakp on Flickr.

And the winner is.....

wow.jpg

wow.jpg by karlakp
wow.jpg, a photo by karlakp on Flickr.

Nsfw! But wow what a tourist photo opportunity!!!!

naked london.jpg

naked london.jpg by karlakp
naked london.jpg, a photo by karlakp on Flickr.

Just a normal saturday in London.

best coffee ever.jpg

best coffee ever.jpg by karlakp
best coffee ever.jpg, a photo by karlakp on Flickr.

This is the best tasting cup of black coffee I have ever had and I am drinking it now. Ohmygod.

Friday, June 10, 2011

giving you the bird

I met this guy on Tuesday on a boat cruise around the fjord. He just sat there, unconcerned. Pretty sure I could have pet him had I wanted to.

Monday, June 06, 2011

This is me in the kitchen. I swear.

This Is Norway

Bank strike rumoured to start tomorrow.

As of midnight, we are told, all the ATM's will cease to function and you won't be able to use your debit cards anywhere.

Seriously? Bankers go on strike and I cannot get access to MY money? MY money is being held hostage to pay bankers more? Where the hell is MY raise? Don't I pay enough in bank fees to these fuckers already?

Bankers who already give me shitty service when I go to the bank, bankers who work from 9 to 3. Bankers who I have to either go to work late or leave work early to go visit to talk about MY MONEY? Note in the article I linked to the part about 'increasing competence' in the staff. Uh, yeah, as in they suck and maybe they could be more service minded? I always, every time, get pissed off when I have to go to the bank. EVERY TIME.

Excuse me if I have no sympathy.

I hear that tourists who come here will be out of luck also, as they won't be able to get any money. Imagine going on holiday and having no access to your own cash because there is a strike in the country you visit.

Grrrr......

So I am watching a huge queue at the bank outside, people lining up to get their own money out of the bank that employees want to strike to get higher pay so that we can pay more fees to support. Hmm.

Sunday, June 05, 2011

dinner.jpg

dinner.jpg by karlakp
dinner.jpg, a photo by karlakp on Flickr.

Chicken fajitas. Marinated overnight. Served with fresh homemade guacamole and fresh homemade pico de gallo. Damn I deserve this.

Saturday, June 04, 2011

cherries.jpg

cherries.jpg by karlakp
cherries.jpg, a photo by karlakp on Flickr.

sometimes life really is just a bowl of cherries

random photo


This is from our trip to Egypt, the photo info tells me it was in 2004, but I can't believe it was that long go? Anyhow, me at Aswan, 2004. (I just went into my hard drive and picked a random picture...)
We were on a Nile cruise and we had to get up at like, 3am to take a bus to the site. (I have lately found out that a fair percentage of those buses crash and tourists get killed all the time....I do remember the bus driver going REALLY fast in the pitch dark of the Egyptian desert.)

So it's a good thing that in this picture I have the hat and the scarf, because I was looking rough that day.