A wedding at zoo

Chris and Louise got married at Chester zoo and it turned out to be a brilliant idea.



The days and weeks prior to wedding were very miserable but the wedding day itself was wonderful bright day with odd cloud but no rain, I arrived with Andy, Heather and kids and met Jeff, Lucy, Matt and Sam at gate.



We then spent the morning wondering the zoo, I had brought tie and jacket with me but left them in the car and unfortunately that's were they stayed for the whole day leaving looking a bit of scruff compared to the rest.

Starting with a quick monorail ride which took you only half way around the zoo we took in quite a lot before returning mid day to the hall within the zoo for the wedding. There people like Grum, Colin, Lotti, Gareth, Leslie, James, Dom, & Brian were waiting along with the groom, Karen was best man well I suppose best person. The bride was hidden away in wedding dress somewhere.



Called into the hall we were seated and waited for the bride who looked wonderful when she arrived, although Chris looked smart in his wedding suit.



The civil ceremony was conducted with a bit humour by the registrar or whatever you call her, followed by poem, all of which went well with the rest of the style of the wedding, they even managed to forgo best man speeches apart from quick thank you to everyone, which I thought was great.

After the wedding and bite to eat were told we could wonder the zoo again until it closed at which point we asked to return for cake cutting, more food and special treat.

I wondered the zoo with a few of those listed above, you can see some pictures below. Unlike Twycross which is a monkey/ape zoo Chester seems to concentrate of cats more than anything, although like most zoos it has a fair share of everything, including a bat cave which is pitch black until your eyes adjust and then full of bad whizzing past you and no doubt pooing on the odd person.








Chris and Louise cut the very nice giant chocolate cheese cake, then the zoo keepers turned up to give a personal public free tour of zoo and watch them feed the animals which was ace since some of the shy animals turned out especially for us. I particularly like the black panther which was invisible in its enclosure, but quick call and thrown fish and the panther darted out the undergrowth and incredible speed, ran along the windows and disappeared back into the undergrowth turning invisible again, what a wonderful animal.


Chris & Louise then took a few of us larpers off to see a statue he had found in corner of zoo not very visited while having professional photos taken, the statue photo below must have been created by some sort of cthulhu horror fan see photos below.




After the tour we returned to chocolate fountain and disco, chocolate fountain was yummy, although I should not have had that last chocolate covered strawberry which left me bloated and uncomfortable, but it was a chocolate fountain with quality chocolate so how could I resist.

I can honestly say the best wedding I've ever been too.

Got home early next morning since I decided not to stay locally.

A few more zoo pictures

Visit to see Julie, Dave and Meredith

Went to see Julie and Dave with their new daughter Meredith on Saturday, nice to see them all looking fit and well, if a little tired and hear about the last few months adventures.

Easter week.

Easter weekend I started a weeks holiday with lots of plans starting with a trip to Stratford upon Avon with JulieS to visit the Butterfly Farm which was great, especially to practise your camera skill, took loads of photos a small sample below (wish I took my SLR). The Butterfly Farm is quite warm being kept between 25 and 30deg C, and at 80% humidity since its full of tropical butterflies as well a few fish, reptiles and birds that don't like the taste of butterflies.





This photograph is stolen from Julie and shows me with a butterfly.


Photo of Julie taking a photo


Mr Iguana


After the butterfly farm we had quick wander around Stratford, which looks interesting, didn't visit any of the other attraction or Shakespeare properties although we did pop in Nash's house garden which was free and full of odd but interesting sculptures inspired by Shakespeare plays.



During the following week I mainly spent my time making steam punk guns, a sniper rifle and kind of grenade launcher which I converted into stun gun for the weekends larp event.



The sniper rifle was made from a old cap gun stock,plenty of screws, bit of brass tube, some smaller tube cut to act has spacer for a toy telescope sprayed with brass paint for the gun site. Added to this was decoration in the form the nozzle from old brass paraffin blow torch,some drawing pins, and a bit of wood stain/varnish.


The grenade launcher used the rest of the paraffin blow torch, a cardboard tea tube, a couple of pipe fittings, a sink strainer, another old cap gun stock, a few screws, a bit glue and some more brass spray paint.


After several days of searching for bits I now have lots more junk to make several more steam punk guns or gadgets.

Last weekend I crewed a larp event and got to play a new long term character, currently called the Hermit, he was a bit of grumpy and plenty of fun to play.



The crew (excluding me and AndyL)


The weather on Saturday was the warmest of the year and with lots of carrying kit up and down slopes quite hard work for a unfit chap like me. Sunday was much better, well cooler anyway.

ChrisA with his new steam tech gun and also the one I made.


Took plenty of photos most are the ascendancy website.



I did also go to see Kick Ass, yet another new movie based on a comic book. Enjoyed it, although found myself quite shocked by the language coming out the 13year old girls mouth, I suppose that was intended. Very funny dark humour, don't go and see if don't like comics books

Day out in the Black Country.

This weekend I went with Julie and Dave the Black Country Museum at Dudley to celebrate Dave's Birthday.

The Museum as can be seen from the photo below is mainly about reproducing what it was like to live in the Black Country area at the beginning of the 20th Century. A whole village as been built from houses taken down from the local area and then rebuilt creating a fascinating authentic place to visit.



Julie and Dave riding a Trolley Bus, basically a tram without tracks or bus that has to follow overhead power cables

A Trolley Bus at the museum.


The village has many working shops that sell their goods to visitors, this is Julie and Dave outside the sweet shop, Dave bought us all a cake from the shop next door, further down the street was a fish and chip shop. We visited the cafe while there for lunch all of use deciding to have the large black country sausages which were yummy.


Unfortunately it was a cold day, since most of the museum is outside I would recommend you go when its warmer.


Most of the shops and houses had working fires which were lit to keep the costumed characters that worked at the museum warm and were excellent to keep us visitors warm.


Julie knitted me a cowl for Christmas, it was very helpful in keeping me warm, not that I wore it pulled over my face like in the photo below, most of the time I wore it just around my neck. I highly recommend a cowl as a alternative to scarf.


Picture of the canal inside the museum.


I had a great day out, I assume Julie and Dave did, I wished it was better weather since it may have been more enjoyable, next time we pick a indoor place to visit in winter.