Lebkuchen

Last Christmas when I went to Nürnberg, I posted a picture of German Lebkuchen. Lebkuchen is a traditional Christmas market treat. A common sight at German Christmas markets is decorated Lebkuchen hanging from the stands. Often they will be shaped like hearts with messages written on them in icing.

Because the picture I uploaded last year was not particularly great, I thought that I would upload this one from my trip to Stuttgart last week. This particular star shaped piece of Lebkuchen is decorated with almonds and had something in the centre which I can't remember.

NFL Game at Wembley

Yesterday I went to the Rams-Patriots game at Wembley Stadium in London. Before kickoff, they had everyone hold up a coloured bag to form the US and UK flags. 

Kinetic Edinburgh

I came across this pretty cool stop motion, time lapse video of Edinburgh. It includes a clip of the Speed of Light on Arthur's Seat, which is part of the Cultural Olympiad, and the Forth Bridge at night.

 

Meet the Superhumans

Channel 4 did a great job with this promotional video for the Paralympics. 

The Essex Lion

One of my favourite recent news stories happened yesterday. It was reported that a lion was on the loose in Essex and everyone went crazy. The newspapers were having a field day interviewing everyone who claimed to have seen the lion. My favourite quote is this one:

"Rich Baker, 39 said: 'A man started running towards us yelling 'It’s a f****** lion!' He looked so panicked you knew it was not a joke.'"

The funniest thing is how serious the sighting was being taken. There was a full-blown manhunt for the lion. It was like the police were trying to track down an escaped serial killer. They even had two helicopters armed with heat-seeking cameras attempting to track down the lion.

In the end, it turned out that the lion was probably nothing more than a large American Longhair cat.

I won an Olympic competition

You are reading the blog of someone who has won an official Olympic competition. In each of the daily "Join In" emails LOCOG sent out during the Olympics, they included a contest to win Olympic memorabilia. I won the 11 August contest. My prize was a bunch of stuff signed by John Regis. John Regis is an British sprinter who won a silver medal in Seoul and a bronze in Barcelona plus several medals at the world championships. My prize pack included a signed Team GB t-shirt, a small framed print and an autographed copy of The 100 Greatest Olympians and Paralympians.

Team GB shirt signed by John Regis

Does anyone know what the thing next to his signature is supposed to be?

Olympics Pictures

My pictures from the Olympics have been uploaded here. Some of the more interesting ones have been posted below.

The Olympic Stadium at night

My tickets

The Orbit Tower

Basketball Arena, aka the marshmallow