Foodie Heaven

I had an excited Gail on the phone this afternoon whilst I was at work. She said that whilst she was arriving back home from work, she saw a film crew down the road. With cameras and everything. I said get her camera out and start taking photos, as something special might be happening.

So a little while later, she rang again and described what was happening. I said that I would put a message on Facebook to see if anyone knew what was going on. A few messages appeared saying that they might be making an episode of the tv cooking show Come Dine With Me.

Fortunately they were still there when I got home, so I was poised with my camera too. I chatted to a couple of the crew who told me that it was a cooking show being made, but not Come Dine With Me, but a new show called The Kitchen Rules, based on the Australian show of the same name. It's where a well known chef eats a meal at different people's houses and decides who cooked the best food. In this case it is Michael Caines. Sadly not the actor from the Italian Job and Alfie. Now that would be a scoop, but a very well known chef. Sadly not with me, as I've not heard of him before.

Similarly to Come Dine With Me, the other contestants also join the chef in eating the meal. The winner gets £10,000. I popped down a bit later and chatted to the lady who was doing the catering for the production team. She said that they were filmed an episode yesterday in Chesterfield.

Apparently it's a very popular show in Australia, and so Channel Four have bought the rights to it, and are making their own version. Also involved is tv presenter and cookery writer Prue Leith. The show will be screened later in the year. So it will be interesting to see what Beeston looks like through their camera lens.

Something In Tents

The Spiegeltent has come to town for a few days. I must admit that I have never heard of such a thing before, but according to Wikipedia,  they are large travelling tents that were first built in Belgium during the late 1800's and the word means Mirror Tent.

The one that landed in the Old Market Square on Monday is called "Salon Perdu" and the opening is tonight. I popped in during my lunchtime to have a look round. There were some people dressed up and playing some sort of tag game which I didn't really understand.

The tent is massive, and holds 300+ people. But when I was there, there were only about six. There were indeed lots of mirrors around, and stained glass windows to let the light in.

Didn't see tonight's show, but will pop in tomorrow lunchtime, as there is meant to be some sort of dancing event on So it might be a good photo opportunity.

Gong Hey Fat Choy

 It's the Year of the Goat this year in the Chinese calendar and their New Year celebrations took place today in Beeston, on a smaller scale than usual due to the budget cuts in community events.

They of course had the dragon dance, some demonstrations of martial arts and how to write your name in Chinese. I didn't do this, as having a pretty long name, I would be there all afternoon!

I bumped into a couple of friends of mine, one being a filmmaker and puppeteer, who was putting on a show in about ten minutes time. I had not seen his show before, so I went off to find a seat. I was quite surprised that there were more adults wanting to see the show than children.

The story revolved around a girl, her father, a teacher and a yak. The Professor (my friend Melvyn) did all the voices and actions. Quite amusing to hear one sentence in a man's voice and then another in a woman's. The audience appeared to thoroughly enjoy it.

Trippin

I' paid a visit to The Exxopolis when it first came to Highfields two years ago. It came last year as well, but I couldn't go as they had closed it due to bad weather. It was really windy if I remember rightly.

It has not been brilliant today with raining all the time, but happily it was up and open, and even better, tonight was for adults only.

For those that have not seen it before, The Exxopolis is a massive inflatable structure which is made from a thin coloured rubberlike material which is naturally lit. New age music constantly plays as you walk through the different coloured sections. You can sit or lay down and relax. Some people may even drift off to sleep as they imagine to be inside their own coccoon.

The installation has been created by the Architects of Air and has travelled across the world. It has recently been to Sydney where it was sited by the Opera House.

It is only here until Sunday, as it's one of the shows that is part of the neat14 festival. So get down to Highfields before then to enjoy this unique experience.

The Cars That Ate Wollaton Park

Today was the day for the annual classic car show at Wollaton Park. When it is advertised, I get quite excited and look forward to wandering around all the cars, vans and buses. Although I have to admit, some of them I have seen many times, but as it was lovely and sunny today, I didn't mind. I had a great time, and came across quite a few vehicles that I hadn't seen before.

I thought this converted 1967 VW Beetle looks like a real life Hot Wheels car. I saw that it was for sale, but didn't enquire how much.

If I did have any spare cash, and lots at that, I would be tempted to go out and get a E Type Jaguar, like this one from 1969. Only six years younger than me, but worth a lot more. Probably £30,000.

If you have less money to play with, you could try this 1972 Ford Capri, which may only cost you about £5000. Made famous of course by being driven by Bodie & Doyle in the TV series the Professionals.

Finally of course, if you have a leaning towards pre-war vehicles, you might like to hunt out an old van like this Austin from the mid 1930s. I just thought I would give the picture a little tweaking in Lightroom, to give it that old look.

Lighting Up Time

Tonight saw Nottingham city centre lit up once again, as it was the annual Light Night festival. The yearly event where buildings are used as cinema screens, strange things pop up in all sorts of places and it is generally very cold.

Well this year was no different. The castle was tonight's backdrop, where a group calling themselves 'Elemental Force' projected a show containing animation, photos and pyrotechnics. It seemed to relay the history of Nottingham, and included of course Robin Hood, lace making and Raleigh bikes.

I was pleased to see that the Daleks and the Tardis were making a return visit. They looked very good last year standing next to the Robin Hood statue, where they were trying to terrify the fabled outlaw. This year they were placed outside the Theatre Royal. I must admit it didn't look so good. Possibly because where they were was quite bright, and so they lost some of their impact, as where they were before was quite atmospheric and darker, so they all stood out more.

Still I suppose I shouldn't complain, as we were lucky to get anything with the continuing cuts in finances and relative poor state of the economy, as it is funding for the arts that always seemed to get trimmed first, rather than say sport.