07 October 2007

Eat, drink and get fat...

Nothing much to report this week. I’ve been at the gym a couple of times, used the bike to get to and from work on four occasions and then spent the past two days undoing all the good work I’d put in!

Last night, I went out for a couple of drinks with a friend of mine and that turned into five rather nice pints of cider, which washed down an extremely nice bacon, lettuce and tomato baguette! Rather more calories than I needed. Still, it was a good night out even though we did finish up staying in the same pub all evening. We had talked about visiting three or four different places but in the end we decided that the drinks in the first pub were going to be just as good as anywhere else, so why move?

Then today, Lynda and I have been to a Game and Country Show at Belvoir Castle. Once we arrived there, my second breakfast (I had a bowl of cereal before we left home) was a rather tasty bacon cob and a cup of coffee - more calories, but it was quite a good way of soaking up the cider from last night! I didn’t feel too bad this morning, but I have felt better!

Looking across the show ring, towards Belvoir Castle.

The show itself was rather good… lots of trade stands to look around, plenty going on in the two show rings, a demonstration in the art of glassblowing which was just superb and then there were the free food samples! Everything was going fine until I tried one of the curries - hot does not even start to cover it! I only had the smallest of tastes but my mouth was burning for ages! The bag of cookies we bought home with us was much better - while they lasted. Yet more calories!

Birds of prey had a much larger part in this event than they did at Elvaston Castle, with flying displays taking part in one of the main show rings and also a separate falconry area. As well as the usual Harris Hawks, Saker Falcons and Gyr Falcons there was also a Martial Eagle, a Golden Eagle and a very noisy Pale Chanting Goshawk amongst others.

The Martial Eagle.

The Golden Eagle.

As we left the show, at around 5:00PM, one of the birds that had been used in the final flying display showed that you can never quite rely on nature. The bird was being flown for the first time in public and, after giving a great display over the show ring for a short while, it decided that it would much rather go off on its own and have a look around the surrounding countryside!

After watching the bird slowly disappear into the distance and then giving it more than enough time to return, Chris and Helen from the falconry display set off in a Land Rover to try and retrieve the young escapee. Luckily, the bird was radio tagged and they found it a few fields away sat in a tree watching a load of horses!

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