Wednesday, July 27, 2011

023. Watch 20 movies in the cinema (5/20)

The 'Cars' movies are not my favourite Pixar films and they're not my favourite characters, but I wasn't going to miss out on a chance to see the new movie. I especially loved the Grand Prix element and the feature of Lewis Hamilton as one of the race cars. The story line was a bit James Bond meets Dukes of Hazard, but I liked it.

I'm unlikely to own this movie and the first installment on DVD, they're not really classic Disney to me. But it was fun and I'm so happy that we got to go and see it. Now I'm looking forward to Monsters Inc 2: Monsters University that's released in June 2013 (hopefully we'll be heading back to Disney World by then!)

Saturday, July 23, 2011

067. Visit 5 countries I've never been to before (3/5)

DENMARK: Copenhagen

Last summer we spent two beautiful summer days in London at the beginning of July on the hunt for elephants! Not real elephants, they were art displays created to raise money for the prevention of the extinction of Asian elephants. It was called an Elephant Parade. In London there were 260 elephants to discover all over the city, some in the parks, others in shops and shopping centres and lots at the big tourist attractions. We managed to see just over 100 of them in London, so when I found out that other parades were taking place across Europe in 2011 I knew we had to do it again.

We had the choice of four destinations for a 2011 elephant parade - Heerlen in the Netherlands from March to May, Copenhagen in Denmark from June to August, Milan in Italy from September to November and Singapore from November to January 2012. Heerlen and Milan were small parades with just 40-50 elephants, Copenhagen and Singapore had approximately 100. Singapore seemed too far away and would be very expensive, so we chose Copenhagen!

I spent months and months pricing up hotels and flights and researching areas of the city. Finally we booked our trip and the map of the parade was released in June.

We flew from Stansted at lunchtime on Monday July 18 and stayed for three nights in Hotel 27. The hotel was wonderful, really stylish and in a great location. Breakfast was included in the price and every morning was great - the bacon was my fave. Each evening there was also a free dinner, in a buffet style - there were salads, fresh bread and a selection of hot food which ranged from beef casserole and mash, roast chicken and potato wedges and chicken curry. I'm a picky eater and was worried there wouldn't be much I'd like, but every evening I managed to find something - even if it was mainly bread and butter!

On the first evening we headed out to get a feel for our surroundings and to see how many elephants we could find - we ended up seeing 10 around the Radhuspladsen and Stroget area. Then the rain came down and we found shelter in an Irish bar with a glass of apple cider! When we were dry and the rain had stopped we went back to the hotel for an early night.

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Tuesday was an early morning, down for breakfast and then out to find more elephants. We walked the entire length of Stroget and saw all the designer shops on the way to Kongens Nytorv and Nyhavn. From there we walked down to Kongens Have (King's Garden) by the Rosenborg Slot and the Botanical Gardens. By the time we got to Osterport station my feet were struggling with all the walking - we got on the train and headed back to Copenhagen Central and back to hotel for a rest (and an afternoon nap). After an hour or so of rest we went to lunch at a burger 'joint' called Chilis which was a short walk from the hotel - the food was excellent!

Round the corner was Christiansborg where we found one elephant and then we went back to Stroget - none of the shops were open when we walked down there before at 9am so there were some elephants we missed. From there we got the Metro from Kongens Nytorv to Norreport to see the elephants at Orstedsparken. Again, my bad choice of city break footwear was failing me so we walked back to the hotel for a rest and some dinner. We headed back out for a third time and went looking for a few elephants around the Vesterport station area. By the end of the second day we'd seen over 40 elephants!

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Wednesday saw us going further afield to see more elephants and hopefully that meant less walking for my tired feet. We go the bus up to Langelinie and the Little Mermaid. From there we ended up walking to Amalienborg (palace to the Danish royal family), crowds were gathered and we wondered what was happening - turns out we were there in time to see the changing of the guard. I'd never seen this kind of thing in all the times we've visited London and been outside Buckingham Palace.

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We got the bus back to the centre of the city and walked back up Stroget to see some more elephants, visit the Elephant Parade store to buy some replica models and go to Illums Bolighus to buy some more souvenirs. Lunch was at the Irish bar we visited on the first evening, traditional fish and chips and another glass of apple cider!

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After another afternoon nap we traveled up to Norreport where there were two unseen elephants by the canal. We then went out to the shopping centre at Frederiksberg on the Metro and saw three elephants in that area. We got the bus back to near our hotel, went for our free dinner and packed our cases for an early flight the next day.

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Our flight back to Stansted was a bumpy one, Easy Jet flights don't feel great! We were back in Norwich by 2:30pm and quite glad to be home for a rest! We were up early every morning and we did so much walking, I don't think I've ever had so many afternoon naps!

There aren't any Elephant Parades listed for 2012 yet, but I'll be keeping an eye-out for them! In the meantime we aim to visit Edinburgh in Scotland for Jungle City during September 2011. It's a city we've always wanted to go to and events like this are a great excuse. But I wonder if we have to fly Easy Jet again?

Friday, July 15, 2011

026. Make 101 Disney pin trades (70/101)

Last weekend I sorted out my pin collection and actually made some trades after going 2 months without a single one. I turned off my Pin Pics trade assistant for No Buy May and that carried forward to June.

I've now gone through my collection to try and scale it down and focus my themes a bit more, rather than collecting just everything! I've listed lots of keepers as traders now and may even sell a couple of them.

008. Sign up to be an organ donor

Tidying the office I found my driving licence paper counterpart in my files and remembered that I'd been given forms at the Post Office to change my licence address. I then saw that I could change my address by applying online - I also chose to update my photo by entering my passport number (they can use my passport photo and signature for my new photocard driving licence - very clever stuff).

One of the questions while renewing my licence was about becoming an organ donor. Becoming a donor is on my 101 list and this seemed like the easiest way to sign up. Thinking about it feels a little strange, but it's the right thing to do.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

023. Watch 20 movies in the cinema (4/20)

Two of the girls at work wanted to see this movie again and knew I hadn't yet seen it, so they invited me to 'Cheap Tuesday Movie Night' - seeing a film for just £2.50, bargain. Why go on any other day of the week?

It was busy, it made eating my smuggled in Subway much more difficult - I think I still have crumbs in the cleavage!

The film was great, so funny. So many moments to quote:

Don't look at me!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

WAGES

I love this idea of recording weekly WAGES (workouts, accomplishments, goals and ETC). Maria at Chasing the Now records her WAGES weekly.

Definitely going to consider doing something similar.

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

023. Watch 20 movies in the cinema (3/20)

I thought 'Senna' would only get a limited release and not make it to Norwich, so I was really pleased to find out that it was showing at the local Vue. We'd put off going to see it so many times and it had got to it's "Last Chance" viewing this week, so we had to go for it!

I knew enough about Ayrton Senna's career during his championship winning years, but I didn't know how he came up to be so successful and that journey. So many political challenges for a man who just wanted to race.

I'm a Lewis Hamilton fan, I can see why Senna is an idol - so much of Senna's racing attitude comes through in Lewis' races.

Since Senna's death in 1994 there hasn't been a fatality in Formula One. For that, I'm thankful.

Friday, July 01, 2011

011. Take That - 'Progress' Tour 2011 [Croke Park - Dublin, June 19]

Our trip to Dublin came about purely because I could not get UK tickets for Take That's 'Progress' tour. The day that the tickets were released was crazy, I tried at 9am and at lunch, after work as well and couldn't get anything. A friend said to try Ticketmaster.ie rather than the UK site, I saw Dublin still had good availability in the standing section and with only 2 minutes to make up my mind, we went for it!

It was an expensive trip away, but I'm glad we stayed an extra night to see the city of Dublin. We had a great weekend and it was so nice to get away. It felt bizarre to go on a plane for only an hour, I actually got a little nervous before we took off and I'm always so sure of my love for flying - odd.

We were lucky with the weather pretty much all weekend - hoodie and jeans was a good outfit choice, it got quite chilly at times. No rain on the day of the show was great, the night before had been torrential!

Here are a selection of the best pics of the night.

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