Skydive without a parachute?!

Skydive without a parachute? Why would you want to do that? That's obviously not a concern for local stunt man Gary Connery who I watched yesterday jump out of a helicopter at 2500ft and skydive without using a parachute. A world first. Instead he flew a wingsuit into a huge pile of cardboard boxes (18000 of them they tell us...).

So yes, he walked away apparently unharmed. But why? Who knows!

Apologies that the video resolution above is so poor that he is only a dot for most of it! A better one is on the Telegraph's website.

The Telegraph's take on it all: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9285794/Gary-Connery-stuntman-in-amazing-2400ft-skydive-without-parachute.html

House Progress

We spent a wet and miserable bank holiday Monday in Ikea, getting some odds and ends to furnish the house. Some of the rooms have come on nicely lately!

Our living room is looking less dated, although much is still to be done:

...remember it used to look like this?

And our study/guest room is close to finishing now. Just a few shelves and pictures to put on the wall we think...

Which used to look something like this:

(unfortunately Char started on this room before I managed to get a proper 'before' picture!)

Shark Attack

One day while sitting on the top deck of the double-decker bus heading into Oxford, we heard a mother telling her children to look out the window so that they could see the shark. We were intrigued and kept our eyes out for the shark... and were really impressed. The Headington Shark is a famous local landmark, and pretty unique I think!

Music for a Rainy Day

Some Florence and the Machine to cheer up a rainy day.

Carbon Life

Last night we went to the Royal Opera House to see the Royal Ballet triple bill: Polyphonia, Sweet Violets and Carbon Life. I was blown away by Carbon Life - the innovative dance style choreographed by Wayne McGregor(not your traditional ballet), amazingly fresh costumes and fantastic music featuring Mark Ronson, Boy George (Boy George!) and orchestration by Rufus Wainwright.

Our seats were right at the front, in the circle stalls which meant that our view was restricted but made up for it by being so close that you could hear the dancers breathing.

We've been so busy with DIY lately this was a welcome escape for some inspiration. Thank you, Kathy for the tickets!

Marshall's Broccoli

Can you tell that it's his favourite food?

Please Vote for Magic!

Our friend Denise's dog Magic is in the Brecon Beacon Canal Dog Competition - please vote for him, he's a wonderful dog! Full of enthusiasm, friendliness and enough energy to climb the Brecon mountains several times over in a day. We are going to visit both Denise and Magic in Wales this Easter.

Thank you!