Thursday, May 31, 2007

A visit to Prague...

One of the best advantages of living in the UK is that the cost to travel to Europe is very reasonable. We recently took advantage of the low fares and traveled to Prague. The city is absolutely incredible. Buildings throughout the city are intricately carved and decorated. From far away, it looked like the buildings had been painted, but when you moved closer you could seen that the designs were maid by scratchings on the stone. Today, we enjoyed walking around the Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral. We watched the changing of the guard and enjoyed walking through the magnificent cathedral. I am still amazed at the history and how far back it can be traced. When I saw the dates of service of this person, I joked to myself that they made up the dates! This piece of history is most amazing when one considers that Prague has been claimed by various kings and empires, survived occupation by the Nazis followed by the Communists, ending only with another revolution in 1989 and has only been part of the Czech Republic since 1993. As I walked through the streets of Prague, I tried to imagine what it was like living through the last 50 years of this city's life.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

English football

The 2006-2007 English top league football season has come to an end and Manchester United is the league winner. There are no playoffs and no superbowl... the regular season winner is the league champion. The three bottom teams are removed from the top league and replaced by the top three teams from the lower league. Every year this provides a bit of drama. This year the last team was relegated based on the results of their final game of the season.
English top league teams also qualify for European Competitions based on their finishing place in the English league. The top 4 teams this year compete in next year's UEFA Champions league with the other European top league winners. Teams finishing in 5th, 6th and 7th place qualify for the less prestigious UEFA Cup.
English football teams are becoming very international. Nowadays, as many as half of the players on a top English team may be foreign born.

Stay tuned... I'm going to try and figure out Cricket next!!

-Dale

Monday, May 21, 2007

And now in the center ring...



Introducing our fabulous plate spinner!!!!! Nathan performs his amazing plate spinning technique at Hardwick Community Primary School's Circus Day.


Wednesday, May 9, 2007

My buddy "Phog"...


Have you ever heard a pheasant's song? It is actually closer to the sound of sqidding tires than any sound made by birds. It is also quite loud. It is loud enough to travel through shut windows to wake you up in the morning. So, I have attached a picture of "Phog the pheasant" that frequents our back garden. I am not sure it is him all the time as there are quite a few pheasant around us. However, that is what we call every pheasant the ventures into our yard. Phog is now my alarm clock in the morning. Somedays he slacks a bit and I don't get up quite as early as I need to, but most of the time he is very punctual.