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Halo panopticon we visited last week. (at Haslingden Halo) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBsWtsinLV8/?igshid=zccosns2et0q

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Red Admiral butterfly photo I took the other day on our permitted walk the other day near home. (at Standish, Wigan, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-umH9ZAhsv/?igshid=1k8wpmu6cchte

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Well, this is a bog standard bidding war.... #anyonefortoiletroll #anyonefancyabid #trendthisnow https://www.instagram.com/p/B9xJ2wJHGL0/?igshid=1qk1kmna87f63

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Berlin.

Day One.  So, Of we go again. This time we chose the capital of Germany of all places. “Why?” Some people may ask.. because, it simply, just caught our attention. 

The day of our next adventure came. We woke up, got dressed, had breakfast, checked our things, and zipped up our cases, ready for the trip to the airport.  Having already checked in online, we already had our boarding passes (etc...) in hand, so it was straight towards bag check and security process for us. Once we passed bag check (etc...) we decided to find somewhere to have breakfast. Of course we chose the obvious choice... Costa Coffee. Bacon butties all round (plus obviously a hot chocolatey brew for Andrew, and a less than obvious Latte coffee for Sammy...) We sat down, overlooking planes landing and taking off. After wasting around an hour, our gate number appeared and it was time to head towards the plane (Almost time to leave Manchester. YAY!). Flying with Ryanair, it wasn’t always going to be plane-sailing, or rather. plane-flying... as we got head up (only for an hour and a half, mind you.. due to the plane not actually at the airport when they said it was..). But anyway, we set of smoothly, even if it was a rough landing. But that’s Ryanair for you. We went through arrivals and security, and then bought our ‘Berlin passes’ for the week (Free travel and discounted attractions for 5 days!), and headed for the train, wherever that was. 

Trying to find our way to our hotel in Ostbahnhof, Berlin, wasn’t exactly... as straight forward as we hoped it would. The German stops along the way sounded similar to each other, so to change trains at one particular stop to get to our station meant asking a shop owner in the station a stop to early. She didn't seem to particularly like being bothered by us lost travellers. Some students spoke some English and happened to be going to the same station as us (As if like magic!). We boarded the right train, and made it to Ostbahnhof. We thanked the students for their help, and then made our way to our hotel. When we got their, we checked in, paid up, went to our designated room. Ahh! Wrong room.. they gave us a twin room by mistake. (Not what the doctor ordered!) We went back to reception, and explained, they apologised and gave us the right room, we could then.. relax, before having a wander to find somewhere for tea.  Well, this is the fun part of the adventure.. (Not really!!) where to start...  We did find (eventually...) a place for tea (that’s for the non-British..). Looked like a nice restaurant, and popular, so we thought. why not? Big mistake! We got seated, and ordered drinks straight away..but took around 30 minutes to arrive at our table. And then the waiter was pestering us to order our food, but we were struggling to understand the German written menu and needed a little time and help (which he didn't give us.. it was kind of obvious we weren't locals. When we decided what we wanted, we had to wait a therefore 1 hour to receive our food after ordering, even though people who order after us had received their food at least 20 minutes earlier. Bad service. After finally receiving our food and feeling like we were being treated badly, we thought about dessert.. but decided against it (Yeah we really did chose not to hand dessert!) we asked for the bill, paid, and waited for a change. After the waiter was confused why we hadn't given a tip and just wanted our change. He stormed off and we never got our change. Out-radged, we left, and went back to the hotel to relax. 

First impressions of Berlin: A bit pushy. disappointing but yet nice architecture. 

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Camping in Clitheroe.

August, 2017.  We went camping. We heard from Sammy’s parents who camp a lot (bit of an understatement, haha!), who are part of the camping and caravan club, that this campsite in Clitheroe (which is also a farm), is the perfect place to see shooting stars on a particular weekend in the Summer. So after Sammy finished an extremely long and exhausting shift, we decided to go up and join both her parents and her brother and his girlfriend, to enjoy a lovely caravan cooked meal at the campsite with plenty of good company and alcohol.  Unfortunately, Sammy was so super shattered, that she continuously fell asleep. :( :(

Although, fortunately, she did manage to stay awake long enough to see some incredibly pretty and spectacular shooting stars.  After this we grabbed one final drink each and decided to go to the tent. Sammy went straight to bed for some well earned rest, but Andrew finished his drink while sitting outside staring at the stars (no surprise there... as he loves the stars!) Andrew finally decided to get some sleep too, after being mesmerised by the night sky.  The next morning, we woke up to bacon, sausage and egg butties (that is Wiganese for Sandwiches, for those posh people out there..) Then packed up the tent, and decided to go for a drive towards Skipton, but got very lost as there were loads and loads and loads of roadworks and diversions which sent us in continuous loops... (no surprise there for typical England!) We eventually escaped this loop and set our sat-nav to Boundary Mill stores in Colne. Neither Sammy’s or Andrew’s scene. But nevertheless, carried on afterwards to trafford centre to have a stroll. We decided to go to frankie and bennys at middlebrook, bolton. Yeah, quite a lot of driving for poor tired sammy. She did get a lot of tender loving care from her boyfriend as her reward though. (we didn't really get any photos from this trip because it was all just too spectacular for words, and Sammy was just way too tired! Loved the trip though, recommend it to everyone! Definitely a great location for viewing shooting stars!) 

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Sammy’s Bluedot 2017 photos (day two)

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Andrew’s 2nd bluedot july 2017 photos

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Sammy’s photos from Bluedot 2017. 

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Andrew’s Bluedot July 2017 photos.

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Bluedot 2017

Day two: So, what an amazing sight seeing a big dish right in front of you as you wake up in the middle of a field. Its like a whole new world, which is funny because after all, this is a science and music festival based at one of the most famous observatories in the world. 

First on the agenda.. Bacon butties!! :D with our choice of sauce. Ketchup or BBQ... Tricky choice. Whilst eating, we refreshed ourselves by having some very nice thirst quenching juice. Apple for Andrew, Orange for Sam... haha! Just kidding.. we both had orange this time. Shock horror! :o  After breakfast, a quick toilet stop, before heading off for more exploration. The planet field. We witnessed a Jedi fight. We watched Jedi wannabes, training for the future space wars, yet to happen.  Next, we both took it in turns play a very scientific game, we had goggles over our eyes that altered our vision to make it difficult to through a ball into a bag from distance. It was a draw, typical.. Next we headed off to get some lunch in the form of crepes. Andrew had a Banoffee whilst Sammy stuck with a favourite and had White chocolate and raspberry. :D We sat down on the grass in the burning sun, overlooking the Lovell telescope. What a magnificent sight and experience. After lunch, we decided to look at the pop up book shop, while watching an author reading to a few people. He didn't look familiar to us. After this, we had a stroll down a pathway that led to even more scientific stalls and exhibits, all while having a large telescope watching us - The Lovell telescope. We held rock that was very much like moon rock and we held parts of meteorites all while collecting postcards. After this we looked through a smaller telescope (much smaller) that was designed to look at the sun only. We even saw how graphine was made. We decided to be childish, because well, you only live once (Oh, dear me, Yolo!) We decided to make something called a polsar out of a polystyrene ball, pipe cleaners, paper and felt tip pens. After this, we decided to buy a little something  for ourselves to remember the weekend. We then bought another drink, and decided to go and explore near the Lovell stage. There were lots and lots of food stalls and a few bars and gift shops. We stayed here for a while sitting down somewhere and had another drink (No we didn't just sit down and have drinks all weekend, we swear, It was a hot sunny weekend.. :) ) After passing an hour or two away, we thought it was best to think about tea. We decided to get chips. Andrew had cheesy chips, and Sammy had Chips with Ketchup (Yummy!) while watching Warpaint perform on the stage. After tea, and a very...interesting performance, went over to see a Whovian comedian in one of the other tents. “For love of Doctor Who” by Toby Hadoke, which was hilarious. Laughing or sonic screwdrivers and psychic paper away. Always remember ‘Bow ties are cool!!’  After this brilliant comedy act, it was time for the last act, the main music performance on the main stage, ALT-J. This was the cherry on top of the weekend (okay, not literally..). This was a truly out-of-this-world performance, getting everyone up on their feet, dancing and singing away with some truly catchy and amazing tunes. (Well, others danced away, but we cuddled. Everyone say... “AWWW”, Alright, don't then..) haha!  This was a truly Awesome experience. It has blown our minds. Thank you Bluedot and Sky at Night for this truly amazing opportunity to go to our first ever festival. 

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Bluedot 2017

Day one

Well, just to update all of our friends, Andrew won a spacey competition through sky at night magazine’s facebook page. He had to name all 7 moons of the solar system. nah... just kidding. theres more than that, more like 300+... :) he had to name the main telescope at Jodrell bank observatory. Which is of course the lovell telescope. He got an email confirming the win. He was given a pair of weekend camping tickets for this years Bluedot festival (Science and Music) at Jodrell bank observatory in Cheshire. We went after sammy had been given the Saturday afternoon off from work (8th july), we got parked up after the long journey, paid £10 each for parking there, and started taking our camping stuff and food and drink with us to the campsite. After about 3 - 4 trips to and from the car, we pitched up the tent, put our belongings in the tent, inflated the mattress and then we were ready to enjoy the first day (technically the second day of the festival) of our very first festival.

We went off to find somewhere for our tea and somewhere to drink as we were incredibly hungry and parched. We bought ourselves a soft drink each from one of the many bars and bought a very tasty burger from one of the many food stalls. We went and sat on the grassy field in the middle of the pathway. There were many things going on here, from entertainment for the kids to live music, to scientific talks and comedy events. As time went on, we decided to watch Orbital live on the main stage called the lovell stage. It wasn't really us so we got another drink and went for a stroll. There was so many things going on. From glowing colourful trees to a robotic sphere shining a lazer everwhere in time to some very spacey noises, to flame walls, and more music on the five stages. The lovell telescope was putting on a very spectacular show too with many colours and lighting effects which could be witnessed until 3 in the morning. 

We were extremely tired so we decided to go back to the tent and get some rest and enjoy our first night under the spectacular lovell telescope at Jodrell bank observatory.

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Scotland Roadtrip:

Day 6: After Kielder, we moved on to Hadrian’s wall. Here are some pictures from our visit. :) 

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Scotland Roadtrip:

Day 6: We left Peebles :’( :’( On the way to our final hotel, We returned to Kielder Observatory to take better, more detailed photos in the day time. More photos to follow...

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Scotland Roadtrip. Day Five: Went to Edinburgh, tried to the find the castle, we knew it was there somewhere... Enjoyed the day, despite the weather, exploring a new city. :D  

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Scotland Roadtrip.

Day Four: more photos!! Surprise Surprise. :D :D

(have you guessed yet? :D)

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Scotland Roadtrip. Day Four: It isn't a proper roadtrip without a trip to the zoo!!  :D :D :D  (Guess who wrote this post.. :D ) 

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Scotland Road trip:

More photos from Day 2 & 3. :)