Is this a cat show or.....

There's enough stress at cat shows without having to endure Lord Andrew Lloyd 'I've Composed an unbelievable load of tat' Webber. What's the world coming too. Oh dear, now it's Abba, margainally better I guess. Still, the dancers are good I guess..

Photos and a full show report later, Vegas and Esk Pike won there respective classes, Vegas got his certificate and went up for nomination but no further.

VL blogging live from The Scandanavian Winners show deep in the middle of Sweden.

Photo Added 08.06.2007 apologies for the poor quality but you can appreciate that it doesn't look very cat showesque

Sweating with envy.

We're here in Kuopio, Finland visiting the other cold one, the pshycologist, the budding violinist and no. 2 in their new home.

I have to say, I'm somewhat jealous, they've got a Sauna, and I havn't. Oh dear, that's moved that project up the prority list.

Very Lazy Beds

Who needs garden help when you've got guests like these!

After the great success of last years "Lazy Beds", I duly arranged a delivery of a large quantity of cow muck for this years attempt.

Yesterday morning I left for work and the large heap was still one steaming mass, I came home and this was the scene.



The saw sharpner had recieved permission to buy us a new garden fork and as you can see, subsequently proceeded to put it to good use. We have calculated that we have space for 50% more potatoes than last year, so we'll be heading down to the garden center on Friday to purchase around 30Kg of seed potatoes.

As if this wasn't enough, I also came home to find the rest of the 1st vegetable terrace dug over and the strawberry bed weeded. I am eternally grateful, In one day this years veg garden has taken a great leap forward.

Before and After

We're in wet and cold Cumbria for a long weekend visiting our old haunts and checking up on The Thoughtful Scotsman.

Blog regulars will be well aware of what happened last time he came to visit for the aborted skiing holiday.

I can report that TTS is in good spirits but 12 weeks on from his winter break he's still on crutches and only after todays trip to the fracture clinic is he finally allowed to begin weight bearing on his leg.

Here's the fracture immediately after the repair,



and here it is 4 weeks ago, 8 weeks after the event. Todays X-rays didn't look so different but there was progress.



You can see a huge amount of bone has grown, but as the gap was pretty wide there's a fair bit more to go. Mrs VL assures us that begining to weight bear will help the bone to reshape itself to it's original shape. Hopefully he'll be off his crutches and pacing in his true fashion inside the next month.

Photos courtesy of TTS

It's passed

Great News.

It's been over 8 years, but the Triumph is finally complete and approved as technically sound for use on the public highway. A quick trip to "biltilsynet" last week to check out the few things I had had to fix got the required stamp of approval.

We've decided to delay paying the extortionate registration fee and organising insurnance until the wheels and the rest of the body work is complete. Working on the car knowing that registration is now a purely paper work excercise which can be completed in one day will be a big motivation.

Summer motering is one step closer.

It works.

After much anticipation, and to everyones surprise, the Charcoal experiment worked.

The charcoal produced last weekend lit, took a little time to get going and did not simply dissapear in a ball of flames. I think the burn time was perhaps slightly shorter than commercially available charcoal, but the heat output was more than satisfactory. Here are the resutls.

A new Starsprung Star, anyone fancy a trip to Sweden?

One of the kittens from Asia most recent and final litter, Starsprung Esk Pike, aka Luna, and her owner have been enjoing great success in the show arena.

This photo is from NORAKs show the weekend before I came back to Norway. This is taken during the "panel" to decide best in show after Luna had been nominated and won best of breed.



I'll think, even those of you who are not feline experts, will agree that she looks absolutely stunning. The show before, LIRAK, she won best in show and best overall club cat.

Her she is with her proud owner.



As a result of all of this Luna has qualified for the Scandanavians winners show on the first weekend of June. Unfortuanetly, both Lunas owner and Mrs VL are not available that weekend, so I have been volenteered to take both Luna and Vegas (being an International Champion he also qualifies) to Sweden for the weekend. I may have already found company, if not, anyone fancy a weekend in Sweden surrounded by the best cats Scandanavia has to offer?

Bar-b-q Season Approaches.

Be Prepared, That's what Baden Powell has taught me and what better way is there to prepare for the first days of outdoor cooking than by the production of charcoal.

Last years efforts to use this highly advanced charcoal production facility



produced some fine ash on the first attempt, the second attempt fairing little better, with this measly quantity resulting from hours of hard work filling the apparatus with cut branches.



The difficulty is shutting all the air out at the right time (when the smoke changes colour, although that's all very subjective). After some high tech modification, (a bit of fire proof material and a couple of pieces of wire) Saturdays attempt could, at best, be called underdone. However, it is black, lighter than it was and something I can place in the bar-b and set fire to....



Needless to say, we'll be enjoying tommorrows bank holiday with a bar-b-q lunch. Mrs VL's convinced is going to light, burn with a good flame and dissapear inside 5 mins. If you don't hear anymore on this subject, that's probably what happens!!

Groundskeeper Willie was involved in the last attempt, and will surely advise that it's so cheap to buy it's not worth the effort. The Saw Sharpner and Peggys Aunt are visiting week after next. He's bound to have some good advice, when he's done with the saw, we can set to work and have another go....

The great wood pile of 2007.

I got back from Southampton to find that I had recieved a delivery of firewood. For those of you who remember the great wood pile of 2005/6, I'm pleased to say this is not quite as daunting but I've got some work to do...

The wood in the trailer is the final bit of 2005/6 where it's been waiting all winter to get chopped up.

Looks like we're covered for another couple of winters.

Under the bridge and home at last.

I'm finally back home after too many long hard weeks onboard "Liberty of the Seas".

The trip from out of the Baltic sea involves going under "Storebelts brua" or "The great belt bridge" which connects 2 parts of Denmark together. The worlds largest cruise ship is built with this in mind, and passes under at full speed, with the stabilisers pulling the boat down and clears with a mere 2 metres to spare. Spectacular to be on top, here are some photos for your appreciation.

The Office. Part 8 - Moving In

I was at home, and the Misses was in Bergen during easter. When she got back she had the surprise of finding the office ready to move into. The long weekend was 3 days of hard work, but since I left for Finland on Monday afternoon and I won't be back for a couple of weeks, I wanted it to be ready for use in Mrs VLs studies.

I have to say, I'm very satisfied, almost proud and I was dissapointed not to be present at the unveiling to my dear wife. It's taken way longer than the blog posts suggest and it's still not finished, but it's useable and I hope that Mr's VLs study experience is enhanced from now on

I hope the pictures speak for themselves, all that remains are the drawers and the permanent phone/adsl connection (hence the extension lead).

My Old Girls....

My Spitfire is 31 years old and my Landy 41 Years. It's good to see the older generation helping each other out. The Landys been back on the road now for over two years (and way too many miles!) and the Spits getting ready for it's return to the spotlight...

I did some work on the brake lines and the need to take a test drive was an excuse to get the engine running after the winter break. She needed a little help, greatfully provided, as you can see.



The Spits due a new windscreen this week, then I've got to stamp the chassis number in the chassis (I changed the bit of the chassis where it used to be), and shes ready to be registered for the first time in nearly 9 years. Then it's simply repair and paint the boot, bonnet and doors and fit the interior and we're done....



It's worth the effort.

The Office. Part 7 - Round, A new challenge

Both the legs for the end of the desk and the supports for the top shelves are 43mm round posts. This provided a new challenge, as you can see from the photo's, in my opinion, I rose to the challenge.

Caption Competition

Witty Captions Please, and a prize for correct answers, "What am I"

The Office. Part 6 - The first trial build

After the complexities of the drawer unit, constructing the rear part of the frame and the less visible legs was pretty simple. By now I had enough bits to start trying it all together, the living room turned into a construction zone and Mrs VL, seeing the progress being very tolerant.... As you can see, it was starting to look promising.

The Office. Part 5 - Ikea, eat your heart out.

The evening that I built the carcass for the drawers left me feeling quite satisfied. I didn't really have a plan about how this was going to fix together, all I had was the 2 sides and the base cut to size. Flat pack, you could call it.

After studying the problem and the drawer sides/runners that I had bought on a recent visit to Kaunas in Lithania, I came up with a plan. Some time with the router and a tenon saw later and, as you can see, hey presto, flat pack, glue and some assembly required, but no bits missing....









What's more all the bits for this came out of a single 2m x 0.6m sheet, and nothing else. I think this was the point at which I really started to believe that the office could not just be a reality but something really quite special.

The Office. Part 4 - There's always a catch.

Obviously, whilst going to all the effort of building a new office, there's no point in putting it in the same old poorly decorated room. When first spending time and money on painting the walls and wood work, it seemed a shame to keep the same old carpet, which was a little past it's prime.

Carpets and cats don't go so it was decided to sand the wooden floor down and apply some new coats of varnish.

It all sounded simple, but as those of you who have dealed with previously varnished floors will know, it wasn't. Mrs VL started off with the belt sander, which simply melted the old varnish and made even more mess. Next step was to rope in a poor unsuspecting visitor (the cat's foster mum in this instance), adourn chemical resistant poly bags and attack the floor with paint remover,


(Cutting edge reporting this, one can't begin to imagine how much trouble I'll get in for posting this picture...)

Success was little more than partial. Weeks later and after more chemicals, many worn out sand sheets for both the round and belt sander and with much frustration the floor was finally ready for a new coating.

Here's Mrs VL half way through the first of many coats. You can also see the new colour scheme, freshly applied.

The Office. Part 3 - The lower book shelf.

I started constuction with the easiest bit, the lower part of the bookshelf which also makes up part of the support for the desk itself.

After some fussing about with my router gig to get the correct width for the mortices that support the end of each shelf, it all came together very well, and is good and solid.

Here is the result.

The Last Spud

Last weekends Saturday dinner, kindly cooked by the mother in law whilst we were busy with other projects, saw us consume the last of the product of last years "lazy beds".

Below is a picture of the harvest of one of the 3 types we planted. All in all they all kept very well in our basement food store, and I am very pleased that we have not had to buy a single spud for the best part of 9 months.

The last Onion was consumed during our dramatic winter holiday , again you can see part of the harvest in the photo (in the sack). These also kept excellently so we'll be growing even more this year. Need to get some garlic in as well, I've missed out on that for the last two years.

Lies, lies and Damn Statistics.

As previously mentioned Mrs VL is once again indulging in some post graduate education. The field of epidemiology involves a significant quantity of statistics, with which Mrs VL was confident I could assist.

To begin with this was all well and good, a quick trip to the loft to fetch one of my old uni text books did the job. Now, a couple of months down the road, Mrs VL has become statistically wiser and wiser whilst I have sat still. Now all the talk of means, null assumptions, standard deviations and so on leave me completely baffled and attempts to get any amount of assistance out of me have a reasonable chance of failure.

The Office. Part 2 - Cutting Out

After some careful calculations and thought we purchased the required boards and planks for the office project, loaded them up in the Landrover and headed over to my partner in crime for a day of projecteering in his basement, followed by some fine food and a little competitive music identification...

When we were done with building and testing a "single phase to three phase rotary convertor",



I was very grateful for assistance with cutting the pieces for the shelving and more importantly the complicated curves of the desk top. This we did in the sober light of the next day, not all that early mind, it took our heads a little while to cope with power tools!

Partner in Crime, did a great job. After printing out the curves in full scale,



he cut out with a jigsaw, tidied up with a belt sander



and rounded of the edges with a router.



I probably could of done it myself, but as he's got twice as much equipment and twice as much experience, my result would have been half as good... Many thanks, partner in crime...

Little Man

A belated and very quick cat update.

Starsprung Skiddaw, who is now our only breeding female (living with her Foster Mum), had her first litter one week before our Winter Holiday.

Things did not go as planned, the first came out backwards, upside down and sadly dead. The second, and only other, came out full of life. however, only children can be problematic in the cat world and this was no exception. This little fellow went from 100gms to 170gms in the first four days, then stopped gaining weight, lost the will to feed at the same time as the mother lost interest, possible because of a dose of maistitis caused by the difficult birth. Day 10 was as far as he got.

We are rather fond of the name Skiddaw little man, and since we did not get as far as officially registering this kitten we will be calling the next male kitten that Skiddaw has by this name.

I havn't published any pictures by choice, but I can say that the little we saw of his quality looked very promising for future litters.

The Office.

I have a well founded theory that one project frequently leads to another.

If one considers Mrs VL's recently begun Masters Degree from the Royal Veterinary College to be a project then there is yet another data point to confirm my theory.

Those of you who have loved ones or relatives in any medical profession will know that these professions come with a huge amount of literature (which also tends to be expensive). Also, unlike us engineers, who shove our books in the loft after uni and never look at them again, this literature is often required for reference. A distance learning Masters in "Veterinary epidemiology and Public health" involves another literal shed load.

This storage issue, combined with the fact that to successfully study one requires a comfortable, pleasant and spacious office facility, has brought forward our plans to build a new office.

Originally we had designs to turn the smallest of our bedrooms into a compact but functional office. As this room seems to have been taken over by the cats and would not provide enough space for both of us at the same time (one studying and one on the computer), we have chosen to improve our existing office/guest room.

A quick session with a tape measure, a couple of "thinking caps" and an Ikea catalog, helped us to find out that as ever, the ideal solution wouldn't come in a box and DIY was the best value for money and design effective solution.

This all started before the fateful ski holiday and construction is now well under way, you'll have to wait for more details of that though, first a sneak preview of the seamless combined application of both basic and highly advanced design methods.

Family Affair

There all at it now. Well that is with the exception of Big Sis, whose Irish, out in the country, internet connection means she's can't manage to surf more than a ripple.

They'll have to come to a better arrangement when our parents move out to join them in there newly finished granny flat, otherwise there'll be no more of the fine blogging that we're all looking forward to when that time for the big move comes.

2007 will be a life changing year for them. We're looking forward to reading all about it.

Welcome to blogger.

This time it wasn't my fault!

Arriving home after her evening as a bride, Mrs VL rather mysteriously came in the front door. My pondering about why on earth she would walk out of the car port and through the snow, both on the ground and in the air when there was a perfectly good back door was answered when she announced "The cars stuck in the hedge.."

I came out to find this scene





Fortunately someone had left a 1963 Landrover in the garage only 5 metres away. Once again, the old girl came to the rescue, although with sheet ice under all 4 wheels a little carefully placed grit was required.

Mr's VL's excuse was that she was taking after me, attempting to drift it round the corner like I do. So maybe it was my fault after all....

Wife, or Bride to be?

This was my wife on a Tuesday evening a couple of weeks back.





Don't panic, she hasn't left me to wed again and hasn't turned to her polygimistic side. You know how the saying goes, "there's no such thing as a free haircut", Mrs VL volenteered to be a model for one of the apprentices in the local salon and ended up after a couple of trial runs acting as a model for the aspiring hairdressers final exam, as seen here.



To those of you who complain there is never enough pictures of my wife of this blog, I hope this makes up a little, I certainly think it does!!!

Ski Holiday Drama

A week ago today, we set off for our week cross-country skiing at Ustaoset high up on Hardangervidda. After the enjoyment of last years winter holiday , The Thoughtful Scotsman once again joined us for the occasion.

After our four hour drive to get there, The Thoughtful Scotsman enjoyed his trip up the 2.5Km cross-country trail on the trailer of a snow scooter with all our luggage. 2 hours later, these were the scenes outside the Chalet.







TTS had gone straight outside on arrival to take some photo's, slipping on ice that he did not expect to find there, considering the enourmous amounts of snow around. By some incredible bad luck, the damage look like this.



Mrs VL, fortunately, found hidden strength reserves to haul him inside and out the cold and the snow (myself and the sister in law where skiing up the hill at the time). In a tribute to the Norwegain health services, the accident happened around 6:30p.m, TTS arrived at hospital, 200Km away by 9:00p.m., by 10:30p.m he was on his way to theatre and at 1:30a.m. he had an 18" Stainless steel pin and 3 bolts in his leg.

TTS was awake for the operation, stating, when I visited him the next day, that he couldn't see much but the drill felt a little strange and the stitching was quite uncomfortable. He also said, that there was a CCTV of the operation on which he could see what was happening, although he thought it was probably for the surgeons benefit!!!!

J'ai nais cais pas

Kid sister, it seems, is heading off to France for 3 months. The excuse is something to do with her studies, although I am a little unsure how much work will be done.

We wish her all the best. You can keep up with her goings on at Kid sister gone French.

Where have I been?

Ooff, as they say in Norwegain. Life is a little chaotic.

In response "to the other cold one's" recent comment, I thought I had better announce that I still exist. I'm writing this from a mountain chalet up on Hardangervidda, 1100m above sea level, during our relaxing skiing holiday, which hasn't quite worked out.

Work is chaos, and between this and private travelling I've been to Lithuania twice, London once and Poland once since my last post.

We've got projects galore and I've been putting together a better pc to make blogging easier...

Just to give some idea of how far I'm behind with the blog, amongst others, I have plans to write blog posts with the following titles.

J'ai nais cais pas

The Office

Wife, or Bride to be?

This time it wasn't my fault

Lies, lies and damn statistics.

Ski Holiday Drama

Little Man

All steamed up.

Your imaginations can run wild. Mobile technology makes posting pictures a little difficult, so you'll have to wait a little. Saying that, it's likely we'll be cutting our winter holiday a day or two short, so maybe I'll get to sit down at the computer on Sunday..