Robin the Robin - a blog about a bird called Robin

Robin at Euro 2008

2008-06-15T23:18:00.010+03:00

I know it's been ages and ages and ages since I posted, but I couldn't let a major football tournament go by without taking Robin along. So, here are some pictures from our trip to Innsbruck last week, to see Spain vs Russia (which ended 4-1 to Spain). Very much doubt anyone will read this, but if you do, then welcome back!

We drove across the Alps from north Italy to get to the game. Was a lovely day. This pic was taken when we stopped off for a sandwich, by a pretty-looking truck.

Some official Euro 2008 apricots in a supermarket near the stadium

In the stadium. Don't the back of those two security chaps look like Robin's eyes?

This is the next day, back in north Italy - Bergamo, to be exact. Was a lovely day, as you can probably tell.

This is over-looking the old town of Bergamo.

This is one of two funicular railways in Bergamo, taking us back down from where the previous pic was taken.

Was a fun trip.

Robin and a rainbow

2007-09-26T19:53:00.001+03:00

I'm not sure it comes across in the picture, but this was one of the best rainbows that I've ever seen. A full half circle, taking up the entire sky. Lovely.

Of course, Robin, being the selfless little bird that he is, was happy to have his back to it while I took the picture. Seconds later, it had completely disappeared.

Hope someone got the pot of gold before it did...

Robin is back: a trip to Arsenal

2007-09-24T09:53:00.000+03:00

Wow, has it really been that long? If anyone is still reading this, then I apologise profusely! I guess since fatherhood (the little fella's 10 months old now) I a) haven't been out and about to interesting places so much and b) haven't had a whole lot of time for blogging (sleeping is my favourite form of recreation these days).

But, here I am, back again with some more pictures of Robin (who's keeping well). On Saturday, we went on a trip to see Arsenal - currently top of the English Premier League - at their Emirates Stadium, which dedicated readers may remember Robin visited while it was being built and then for a friendly between Argentina and Brazil. They were playing Derby County, who my sister-in-law supports, but who aren't having a very good season. It ended up 5-0 to Arsenal. Anyway, here are the pics...

On the train, on the way to London

At Highbury & Islington tube station

A few drinks before the game

The game kicks off!

I'm going to try really hard to post more often now. It's nice to be back.

Robin at Wembley!

2007-05-14T20:23:00.000+03:00

Sorry, sorry, sorry - I've not posted in ages. Wonder if anyone's even looking any more. Can hardly blame them if they're not.

Well, on Saturday, myself, the missus, the little boy and the Robin went to the brand new Wembley Stadium for the first ever competitive game there. It was the FA Trophy final between Stevenage Borough and Kidderminster Harriers. Kidderminster
were 2-0 up by half-time but, amazingly, Stevenage came back to win 3-2 with a winning goal a minute before the end. Pretty exciting stuff!

The new stadium was very functional and comfortable, with amazing legroom in each seat. But I don't think it quite had the character of the old Wembley Stadium. I guess that's hard when you have rows and rows of plastic seats and no pillars or anything to get in the way of the view. Still, it was an extremely impressive structure and we had a top day out.

Not sure if I'm doing anything interesting in the next few days, but I will definitely try to post again soon. Was there anything quintessentially English that any of you wanted me to take a picture of Robin next to? Perhaps I can grab one next to Phoebe, my brand new niece who was born yesterday (this may well be the first the world has heard about her...)

:-)

Happy Easter! More Helsinki pics!

2007-04-08T21:29:00.000+03:00

Hello again folks. A very happy Easter to you - here are some more pictures of Robin from our recent trip to Helsinki...

At the gorgeous big church in the middle of town

Attempting to mimic statues at the station

A swing with a view, on a little island opposite the harbour

On a boat. Moments later a man came and rowed away in it. Luckily Robin got off first.

On a jolly large anchor that someone appears to have dropped from a great height

Standing on a life ring

Lazing on a rather prettier life ring

That's about all from the Finland trip - more pics to follow soon!

Robin in Helsinki

2007-03-22T16:39:00.000+02:00

Hello again. Sorry it's been such a long time, but I never seem to have time to blog what with the nipper (who's nearly four months old now!). But we're in Helsinki for a couple of weeks, so I've just been for a wander around town to take lots of pictures...

1. In a bronze seal's mouth

2. By a kiosk for the zoo

3. By a nice building site, with a big crane

4. By a man looking at a very large map of Helsinki

5. Trying to look like a freedom fighter

6. By two ferries that are probably about the same size but look totally different, because of the magic of perspective. Despite appearances the further away ferry would not fit into Robin's beak. We know, because he tried.

More to follow in the next few days...

Robin and Gwen Stefani!

2007-02-20T12:52:00.000+02:00

Yes, Robin's been hanging out with pop superstars again, this time with multi-million selling popster Gwen Stefani. She's turning her key-shaped necklace in his head, to wind him up (because she's got a single called 'Wind It Up'). Nice lateral thinking Ms Stefani.

She was a very nice woman. You'd like her.

More snow!

2007-02-08T12:22:00.000+02:00

So it snowed again, only this time it did it properly. Although, from what KJ is saying in the comments below the last post, it's a *lot* colder where she is!

The snow's been coming down for a few hours now and doesn't look like stopping anytime soon. As soon as we get any snow in the south of England, the whole place goes to pot. The neighbours' kids are all in the gardens, because their schools have shut (even though most are walking distance away!) and when I just tried to call the phone company about something, a recorded message explained they've got staff shortages because of the extreme weather conditions.

Oh well, I love snow and I very much hope it keeps going for days! More pictures to follow if it does...

Robn in the snow

2007-01-24T11:08:00.000+02:00

Woke up this morning to find that it snowed last night. Of course that meant Robin made me jump out of bed and take him down to the garden (most robins like snow). So here he is. It's melting now, but don't tell Robin that...

KJ asked in the comments of the last post if High School sport is popular here, drawing crowds etc. Sadly not, I used to play for my school team and the crowd would usually consist of 2 or 3 pushy parents screaming at their kids for not doing well enough. We don't even get crowds for our sports teams at university/college level, whereas it seems in the US some college teams get crowds of 100,000! Crazy. Must be very odd being a superstar when you're 18 to 21, then coming down to earth with a bump when you leave college and get a humdrum job. However, we do have several hundred soccer teams who get paying crowds each week from your Manchester Uniteds getting 75,000 people to your Hitchin Towns, who play 7 or more division below, getting a couple of hundred.

If anyone had any more questions about UK culture, feel free to ask!

Back of the net!

2007-01-13T13:42:00.000+02:00

Hello again. Here's a picture of Robin which I took at Hitchin Town FC this morning. I was up there at 8.30am helping them get the pitch ready for this afternoon's game (there's been an awful lot of rain, so they made a call for volunteers). Hopefully it looks like the game will go ahead now (after some stirling forking and sanding work from myself and a few others). Got to say, even though Hitchin are in the 7th tier of English football, I was still quite excited to be allowed on the pitch of a proper football team with a proper football ground!

Talking of football, did you folks over in the US hear that David Beckham is heading your way? Are people over there interested?

Robin by an old shoe shop sign

2007-01-04T22:13:00.000+02:00

Here's a picture of Robin taken by an old shop sign in Hitchin, the town where we live. It's a lovely old sign, built into the wall as a mosaic, above the door of the shop.

Freeman, Hardy and Willis was a UK shoe shop chain set up in 1875 and named after three employees of the company. Their catchphrase was "Shoes For All The Family". I'm guessing this sign would date from the first few decades of the 1900s. In the early 1990s, there were 540 of them in the UK, but the chain collapsed in 1996 and is no more.

Still, at least this gorgeous sign remains and still looks in great condition.

Happy new year!

2007-01-01T13:30:00.000+02:00

Hope you all have a top one.

Robin does moblogging

2006-12-30T20:50:00.000+02:00

I was telling a friend the other day how easy it is to post blogs via a mobile phone (Hello Clive! Hope you and Gwyn made it to Oz ok!). After that, I thought I should put my money where my mouth is and give it a crack. So I've set myself up to post Robin pics on the go (in this case, "on the go" involved being in my kitchen!). And very simple it is too.

Of course, this gives me even less excuse not to post regularly!

Robin on Boxing Day

2006-12-30T18:59:00.000+02:00

Hello again - hope you all had a good Christmas. Mine wasn't as sleep-filled as they have been, but it was nice to celebrate our first as a little family!

This is a picture of Robin at a football match that happens every Boxing Day (Dec 26) in the village where my mum lives. It's the oldies of the village versus the youngies (though the boundaries between what constitutes the two aren't all that clear) and it's been going for a good 20 years now - possibly more. The ball is behind Robin's head and was about to be volleyed home by the chap in the blue shirt sprinting in above Robin's right eye. He was playing for the youngies, who won the game 4-0 (I think, I wasn't paying all that much attention by the end). It's nice that the tradition goes on.

Sorry I missed a week!

2006-12-15T18:24:00.000+02:00

Sorry folks, I missed last week's Thursday posting and I'm a day late with this one. It's obviously been pretty hectic since Junior arrived - and I haven't really left the house much!

Oh well, better late than never - here's Robin next to the Christmas candle thingy that's sitting in our window, which my wife's mum kindly brought us from Helsinki when she came to visit the baby. Looks very fetching as you pass it at midnight. I know this, because I've had to take the little one out in his pram at that time to calm him down from one of his crying spells...!

Look who came a week early...

2006-11-30T20:49:00.000+02:00

Yes, a week earlier than planned, our little boy turned up on Monday night/Tuesday morning. My missus was a total superstar and little Yan is absolutely lovely and seems jolly happy. Needless to say, Robin is very impressed.

Happy, happy days.

Red sky Robin

2006-11-23T17:16:00.000+02:00

Hello again. So, as promised, I'm going to be blogging every Thursday from now on - and here's a picture taken with my brand new super-fancy digital camera. It has a function on it where it can automatically swap one colour for another - in this case the blue of a clear blue sky for the red of Robin's chest. Very clever. And quite dramatic looking. I think I'm going to like playing about with this camera.

Thanks to those of you who commented on the last blog - Rob, KJ, Dawn and, of course, my mum - it's nice to know you're still paying attention. We still get quite a lot of visitors to this site every day, which is great. So if you're looking, do say hello in the comments - you don't have to register or anything.

In other news, it's just 12 days to go until my missus is due to give birth to our first child. Scary. Exciting. Mind-boggling. And brilliant.

See you next Thursday. Who knows, I might be a dad by then...

Robin meets Johnny from Razorlight

2006-11-16T12:56:00.000+02:00

Hey folks - sorry it's been *such* a long time. I've been super-busy with moving house, being busy with work and having a pregnant missus. It's all good, it's just not left as much time for blogging as I would've liked. Hope some of you are still there though, I'm aiming to post once a week from now on - every Thursday. And now that I've said it, I'll feel bad if I don't! But keep the comments coming, it's nice to know someone's reading.

Anyway, this is a picture of Robin with Johnny Borrell the frontman of multi-million selling UK rock act Razorlight. And a lovely chap.

Robin at Hitchin Town

2006-10-05T17:19:00.000+03:00

Here's a pic of Robin at Hitchin Town vs Bognor Regis Town in the 2nd qualifying round of the FA Cup last weekend. The game ended 0-0. The official attendance was 353 people and 1 robin. Hitchin won the replay to progress to the next round (if they win four more games, they could entertain Manchester United in this little ground...)

Robin meets Lily Allen

2006-09-12T20:46:00.000+03:00

So, this week Robin met Lily Allen, who's widely known as the poster girl of MySpace, because she caused quite a fuss on there with her music before she got famous and started having hits - in fact her songs have been played over 4 million times on there and she's got 74,000 friends (click here to see her profile). Robin hasn't caused quite such a fuss on MySpace yet, but he's got 101 friends, which seems pretty good. You can see his profile here.

Robin at Brazil v Argentina

2006-09-07T20:13:00.000+03:00

Hey folks. Here's a picture of Robin at the Brazil v Argentina game last weekend. Sadly, we weren't on a trip to South America, but it was the next best thing as two of the best teams in the world came to play a game at Arsenal's brand new stadium, just a couple of miles from our house (Brazil won 3-0).

Oh, by the way, we're moving house in a couple of weeks, so I might not be posting too much as I'm so busy with packing, but it should lead to a whole new set of Robin pictorial experiences...

Robin hits MySpace

2006-08-28T12:42:00.000+03:00

Hey folks. Yes, as the picture proves, Robin has finally made it onto MySpace (I've been meaning to sort him out with a profile for ages). If you'd like to join him on there, do head to his profile at www.myspace.com/robintherobin and click 'Add to Friends'. Thanks folks. Oh, and he's not really 69 years old - he's 5, but you have to be at least 14 to get on MySpace. Shhhh...

Robin and deer

2006-08-23T10:22:00.000+03:00

Hey folks.

So this is a picture of Robin with the deer at Dunham Massey, a National Trust house and gardens near Manchester that we visited last week when we were up there for the England v Greece game. Click here to see its home page. We had a lovely walk around the grounds with our pals Simon and Evelyn, who'd taken us there. Top ice creams too!

Robin at England v Greece #1

2006-08-19T11:34:00.000+03:00

Hey folks

So, on Wednesday, me and the missus went to see England v Greece play football at Old Trafford in Manchester. We decided to go in the Greece fans' section (as you might rmemeber, my wife's family are Greek). Unfortunately, Greece lost 4-0, but it didn't matter too much because a) it was only a friendly (ie not part of a tournament) b) the Greek fans kept singing and jumping about all the way through the second half, keeping everyone in the ground entertained and c) um, I'm English, so it was quite nice to see us play well and score a few goals!

Oh, and note the St George's flag being created by the England fans behind the goal at the other end, using red and white paper. Very creative.

Robin at England v Greece #2

2006-08-19T11:32:00.000+03:00

Here he is, outside the home of Manchester United FC, Old Trafford - which holds around 72,000 fans. Which makes it rather big.

Robin in Belfast

2006-08-03T11:41:00.000+03:00

Hey folks

Here's a shot of Robin in front of the Albert Memorial Clock in the middle of Belfast, Northern Ireland - which actually leans four feet off the vertical, making it the Belfast equivalent of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I was only in Belfast for about 24 hours, having not been there for around 20 years, but it seemed a quiet, pleasant sort of place these days - even if the police cars do still drive around with armour on them.

A record-breaking hot day!

2006-07-19T17:15:00.000+03:00

Hello. Here's a picture I took a moment ago of Robin on what they're saying will be the hottest day in London on record! Apparently temperatures will get as high as 38C/101F. It certainly feels like it - it's baking out there! We've got a little electronic temperature sensor on the window sill. It's in the shade but apparently it's 36.6C/98F out there at the moment! Hot hot hot hot hot. Robin is currently chilling near our over-worked fan...

Robin at the races #1

2006-07-11T19:26:00.000+03:00

Hey folks. On Saturday I took the missus to the races at Sandown as a birthday treat. We had a top day out and didn't lose too much money despite our particularly rubbish gambling skills. This picture shows Robin standing very near to the finish line, with number 4, Road To Love, galloping to victory in the 5.25 at odds of 9-1 (naturally it wasn't the horse that we'd bet on). It's great to see the horses up close - they really do travel at an amazing speed. See below for Robin's first foray into horse riding (on a horse that doesn't move quite so quickly)...

Robin at the races #2

2006-07-11T19:24:00.000+03:00

This is Robin on a bronze horse at Sandown races on Saturday. Self-explanatory really. Good balancing skills though - a career as top jockey seems to beckon...

Robin outside the World Cup final stadium!

2006-07-09T16:17:00.000+03:00

Hey chaps

So here's a picture of Robin that my wife took, while sitting on my shoulders (!), over the fence outside the Olympic Stadium in Berlin where the World Cup final will take place this evening between Italy and France. It's been a great World Cup and I was very pleased that Germany managed to clinch third place in the play-off against Portugal last night - they hosted the tournament with real style and the people we met in every city were really friendly. Good job Germany.

So, onto the final. I don't mind too much who wins (leaning towards France slightly, I think) just hope that it's a really good game and that it doesn't end in penalties.

ps... Happy Birthday to my wonderful wife!!

Robin and Zidane!

2006-07-08T11:13:00.000+03:00

Hey folks

Here's a photo taken in Leipzig, Germany of Robin next to a huge picture of Zinedine Zidane, the French football captain who will be playing his last ever football match in the World Cup final tomorrow, before retiring. He's a wonderful player and, seemingly, a lovely man (when he swapped shirts with his ex-Real Madrid colleague Luis Figo after Portugal v France the other day, you could see the care that Zidane was taking to make sure his shirt wasn't inside out when he removed it handed it to Figo!). Me and Robin would like wish Zidane and the French boys all the best in the final tomorrow. Or, as the French fans put it, Allez les Bleus!

Robin at the World Cup #4

2006-06-25T12:54:00.001+03:00

Hello and welcome to the 301st post on this blog (sorry, didn't notice the big 300, so we'll have to celebrate 301!). This is a picture of Robin at Angola vs Iran in the World Cup in Leipzig on Wednesday last week (Iran are in white, Angola in red). I've decided to put the picture 'large' rather than 'medium' to see what it looks like, but I won't know until I click 'Publish Post'. (Edit: mmm, looks quite good)

So, the Angola vs Iran game ended 1-1, which was a shame as I'd hoped Angola would win and go through to the next round. But all the fans were very nice - from both countries - so at least a draw sent them both away feeling a bit happy. Notice all the empty seats in the corner even though Fifa keep insisting all the games have a capacity crowd (all the tickets *have* sold, but that's a slightly different thing to people actually turning up).

Leipzig is in what used to be East Germany and it seemed like a really nice town. It's been interesting to travel around Germany a bit during the tournament as it's a country I haven't seen much of before. But all the places we've been to were really pleasant, friendly and excited about the World Cup.

Now, let's just hope England can get a victory over Ecuador this afternoon...

Robin meets Nelly Furtado!

2006-06-20T12:53:00.000+03:00

Yes, here's Robin with top Canadian pop star Nelly Furtado, who is currently Number One in the charts in the UK and riding high in the hit parades across the globe! My wife met her recently and took along Robin so that the very-friendly Nelly could join the growing list of stars (Kylie Minogue, Chris Martin, Dave Grohl, Shakira, Andre 3000...) to have shared an audience with the little red-breasted bird!

Robin at the World Cup #3

2006-06-18T14:55:00.000+03:00

Hello again!

So, yesterday we went to see Ghana vs Czech Republic in Cologne, which turned out to be one of the best games of the World Cup so far. Czech Republic, ranked 2 in the world, got beaten 2-0 by Ghana, ranked about 48th, and it could have been more than thst. The Ghana team were breathtaking to watch - they passed and moved so quickly. Me and the missus feel very lucky to have seen a game as good as that. The Ghana fans were great too, creating a real party vibe both inside and outside the stadium.

Interested to hear that you folks in the US *know* about the World Cup, but just don't *care* about it! Well, hopefully you'll know that last night USA came very close to causing a major upset by beating Italy, one of the best teams in the world. In the end, it finished 1-1 - but the US side played a lot of the game with just 9 men after two of their players were (questionably) sent off and yet they still nearly beat the Italians (only a disallowed goal stopped them). Must be quite sad for the American players to know they're the only team in the world where the folks back home don't care whether they win or not. After a result like yesterday's, you chaps should be proud! And you should definitely cheer them on in their final game, against Ghana on Thursday.

We've just got one more match to see (amazing to have seen four though!), we're off to see Angola vs Iran in Leipzig on Wednesday. Can't wait.

Robin at the World Cup #2

2006-06-16T15:44:00.000+03:00

Hello again!

So, this is another shot from the World Cup (see below), this time during the England vs Trinidad & Tobago match yesterday afternoon in Nuremberg. We only found out we had tickets the evening before (big thanks to my bro Rob for that!!) which meant we had to hastily arange a hire car to get us the 300 miles (500 kms) down to Nuremberg for the match. Luckily you can drive as fast as you like on German motorways (faster than I'd be willing to admit I drove to my mother...) so we made it down in plenty of time.

England didn't actually play too well, but it was amazing being there and I'm happy to say that we won 2-0 in the end, thanks to two late goals - cue mass celebrations from tens of thousands of English who'd made the journey over for the game (it also made our 300 mile drive home afterwards much cheerier than it would've been if we hadn't won!) There was a nice atmosphere at the game, with the Trinidad fans mixing merrily with ours and not a hint of the hooliganism than the media always seem to anticipate so eagerly.

That chap second from left with the blue boots is David Beckham - probably the most famous footballer in the world, who made the pass for both our goals. We're off to another game tomorrow, Czech Republic vs Ghana in Cologne. Should be fun.

Oh, by the way, those of you who've followed this blog for a while may be interested to know that my wife is pregnant (yee-ha!). As of December, I'll be a dad and Robin will be, um, an uncle.

:-)

Robin at the World Cup #1

2006-06-16T15:35:00.000+03:00

Hello folks

Long, long time no post - sorry about that. I've actually gone freelance from my full-time job and in the final weeks at my old job was sort of doing two jobs at once (the old job in the daytime, the new freelance stuff before and after work). So I really didn't have a moment to myself. But I should be a bit more regular now. That is if anyone's still reading (please post comments if you are!)...

So, here we are at the World Cup in Germany. For those of you in America who don't know too much about it, the World Cup is a massive football (soccer) tournament that the whole world gets very excited about. It's like the Olympics only with just one sport and with a bigger TV audience! We're out here for a week, staying with my wife's sister in Duisberg, just north of Cologne. And I'm positively giddy with excitement about it.

This picture was taken at South Korea v Togo in Frankfurt on Tuesday afternoon. The game ended up being won 2-1 by South Korea, but this picture was actually taken at the point that a lot of people are talking about. Before the game, the teams lined up to sing their national anthem (as happens at each World Cup match). The South Korean anthem went first, then it was the turn of the Togan one. Unfortunately, they managed to play the South Korean one again by mistake! So they played that through and all the flag bearers and ballboys ran off thinking their work was done. At which point the real Togan anthem started. A bit of a shambles really, but quite amusing!

Oh, and those of you who read this blog during the Olympics will be scandalised to hear that whereas a bottle of water in Athens cost half a Euro, here, where temperatures have been almost as hot, they're charging four Euros! Outrageous.

Anyway, I'm going to post this and write another one, so better go (two blogs in ten minutes after not writing one for weeks...)

Helsinki on May 13

2006-05-14T12:42:00.000+03:00

Here's a picture of Robin, taken near my wife's parents' flat in Helsinki at about 9pm on May 13 2006, when the sun was still shining brightly. See below for what it looked like on December 30 2005...

Helsinki on December 30

2006-05-14T12:39:00.000+03:00

Here's a picture of Robin, taken near my wife's parents' flat in Helsinki on December 30 2005, when the sea was frozen. See above for what it looked like on May 13 2006...

Robin and a train!

2006-05-11T10:44:00.000+03:00

Hello folks. So my mundane pictures continue, with this shot of Robin and a train at Leytonstone High Road station in East London. We'd been there to visit the two day old baby of some friends of ours. Big up to Xavier (that's the baby's name) who I was going to take a picture of with Robin but, um, forgot. So I took one of the train instead. It's a nice train. But not quite as nice as little Xavier.

Right, got to pack my bags, we're off to Helsinki today. Now my mundane pictures won't be quite so mundane, because they'll be Finnish too!

Robin at England's HQ!

2006-05-08T17:22:00.000+03:00

Hello again. Here is a picture of Robin outside the headquarters of the Football Association, who run football in England (that's the Three Lions badge of the team over Robin's shoulder). I was down there just as Sven-Goran Eriksson announced England's squad for the 2006 World Cup (for those of you in the US, that tournament is a MASSIVE deal). He wasn't actually announcing it at the FA HQ, but I could see it happening on a TV above the reception. Bizarrely, Sven chose to include a 17-year-old striker called Theo Walcott who hasn't even played for his club side yet, let alone the national team. Only time will tell if Sven's a genius, a madman, or a bit of both...

Oh, and I've worked out how to block spam comments - you just have to type in a word thingy now.

A post about not much!

2006-05-07T20:55:00.000+03:00

Hello, hello, hello.

Apologies for not having posted in weeks - the problem is that I've been so busy I haven't really done anything all that interesting. In the end, I thought I'd post you a boring picture of Robin, as that's better than posting nothing at all. Right?

So, here he is, in the middle of the road! In an area of London called Bounds Green! Just near a very good Greek restaurant called Vrisaki, which is down that street on the right! Note how I've worked out how to do the picture slighter bigger than usual! With the text sitting next to it like an old friend! Note the Greek flag on the left, proving that Vrisaki isn't the only Greek establishmeny on that street! Note the white van pulling out and moving ominously towards Robin!

See, it wasn't that dull after all...

Robin at England's national stadium

2006-04-07T18:36:00.000+03:00

robin at wembley stadium
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey folks.

So, here's Robin at the world famous Wembley Stadium, the home of football/soccer in England and an ongoing national farce.

The original stadium opened on the site in 1923, but they closed it to build a new one in October 2000. It was supposed to re-open in May 2006 with the FA Cup Final, but they've had a whole load of problems with it and it's now not going to be finished until 2007 (which means lots of sport and music events have had to be cancelled).

Still, when me and Robin were in the carpark the other night (we went to a gig at the venue next to the stadium) it did look very impressive. Here's hoping that when it's finally finished, it'll have been worth all the trouble!

This is what it used to look like - http://www.britac.ac.uk/news/reports/archaeology/wembley.jpg
And this is what it should look like when it's finished - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/graphics/2005/03/08/sfnwin08.jpg (note the huge arch which you can see above Robin's head)

Life's a blur for me and Robin!

2006-04-02T21:24:00.000+03:00

robin goes to the dogs
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey folks

Sorry not to have posted in such a long time, but I've been super, super, super busy with work. Hope you're all keeping well and thanks for still coming to look at the site - it's appreciated.

So, this is Robin at the Nottingham Greyhound Stadium, where we went a couple of weeks ago - as I'd sponsored a race for my mum and stepdad as their 60th birthday present. They got to present the trophy to the winning dog's owner and everything. Top night had by all. Although as you can probably tell from the picture, the dogs run jolly fast and, thus, don't photograph too well!

Right. Lots of updates coming soon. Promise.

Robin in Bergamo

2006-03-08T11:19:00.000+02:00

robin and the old city
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey folks - hope you're all well.

This is a picture of Robin taken this weekend in Bergamo, a beautiful town near Milan, Italy.

The picture was taken on the site of Bergamo castle, and it looks out over the old city of Bergamo, which is set up on a hill above the new city. It's a stunning view from up there - round to the other side you can see right over to the Swiss alps (will post a picture of that later).

I thoroughly recommend that if anyone's ever in Italy and near Milan, they go over to Bergamo. Me and Lex have been twice now, it's just a gorgeous, relaxing place to spend a couple of days wandering the windy streets and taking in the feel of old Italy. It's amazing how few tourists you get there too - especially considering one of the Milan airports is a 15 minute bus ride from the centre of Bergamo.

Robin at the League Cup Final

2006-02-28T15:33:00.000+02:00

robinatcardiff
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey folks

Here's Robin at the League Cup Final (aka Carling Cup Final) at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff at the weekend, as the players line up before the game.

The chaps on the right in blue and white are Wigan Athletic, while the chaps on the left in red are the world famous Manchester United, arguably the biggest football (soccer) club in the world. Given that, you probably won't be surprised to learn that United beat Wigan 4-0 (Robin was pleased - as he's clearly more red than blue).

Robin figure skating!

2006-02-18T17:30:00.000+02:00

robin the ice dancer
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Yes folks, as voted for by you - here's Robin being a figure skater, in honour of the Winter Olympics.

They seem to have changed the judging/scoring this time around, but in the old days I reckon his performance would warrant a

6 - 6 - 6 - 6 - 6 - 6 etc...

Hope you like!

Dress Robin as a Winter Olympian!

2006-02-15T02:01:00.000+02:00

Robin - an Olympic bird
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Now, obviously the Winter Olympics are on at the moment in Italy and this site was *born* to talk about the Olympics, so we thought we ought to do something to celebrate. (The Games have been ace so far - sadly we won't make it out to them, but I've been following it online and on TV).

So, I've decided to dress Robin up in the costume of a Winter OIympics sport. But which one? Well, that's up to you. Post using the comments link below this post (you don't need to register or anything) and choose your favourite from the list of sports below. Then, on Friday, I'll make him a costume and you'll get to see him in all his Winter Olympic glory! Be nice to hear from some first-time posters too.

The sports you've got to choose from are...

Alpine Skiing | Biathlon | Bobsleigh | Cross-country Skiing | Curling | Figure Skating | Freestyle Skiing | Ice Hockey | Luge | Nordic Combined | Short Track Speed Skating | Skeleton | Ski Jumping | Snowboard | Speed Skating

Remember, I'll dress Robin up as the one that gets most votes...

In the Beatles' footsteps!

2006-02-15T01:21:00.000+02:00

Robin at Abbey Road
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up folks

This is a picture of Robin in front of the zebra crossing on Abbey Road, north London - as made famous by The Beatles on their album cover (which you can see if you click here)

We were there to see Robin's old pal Chris Martin and his Coldplay boys play a special gig in the Abbey Road studios - cameras weren't allowed inside though.

Happy anniversary to us!

2006-02-12T21:09:00.000+02:00

Robin at the beach
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up folks

Yes, today is exactly one year since me and the missus got married in Athens. Top, top memories.

To celebrate, we stayed last night at a lovely hotel in Whitstable, a little seaside town in Kent where we went on our first date almost six years ago.

The hotel overlooked the sea - in fact, this picture was taken by me leaning out of bed and holding Robin precariously out of the window! You could hear the waves crashing from the bed - utterly relaxing way to go to sleep.

While we were down in Kent, we also got my Grampa hooked up to the internet (wireless broadband and everything!). So hopefully he'll be reading this at some point. If so, then HELLO GRAMPA!!

So near, so far...

2006-01-31T11:00:00.000+02:00

Well, Panionios gave it their best shot last night against top of the league Olympiacos. We went 2-0 up inside 20 minutes, but, sadly, the mighty Olympiacos came back and eventually beat the Panthers 3-2. Still, it was a mighty effort from our boys. You can read a little report if you click here.

C'mon Panionios!

2006-01-30T11:32:00.000+02:00

robin at panionios
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up folks

This is another picture from our trip to Athens last weekend. This is Robin at the Nea Smyrni stadium, the home of the football team I support in Athens, Panionios (that's what it says - in Greek script - on the seats behind Robin). The number says 1890, which is when they formed - making them the oldest club in Greece.

Anyway, we popped down to buy a shirt from the club shop and managed to wander into the stdium through an open door to take this picture.

Tonight, Panionios play Olympiacos - the big guns of Greek football - in this very ground. Panionios really need a win (they're having a terrible season). So let's all wish the Panthers (as they're known) our best.

I'll let you know how they get on...

Robin and a wonder of the world...

2006-01-26T11:41:00.000+02:00

Robin at the Acropolis
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up folks

Yes, we're just back from a couple of days in Athens, where we thought it was about time we got a picture of Robin at the Acropolis (or Parthenon) which was built about 500 years before Christ was born and which still stands over modern Athens.

Nice to be back in Athens almost a year after we got married there. What with the Olympics too, we've got so many happy memories in that city.

:)

Happy birthday mum!

2006-01-10T11:15:00.000+02:00

birthday bird
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

A very happy 60th birthday to my mum (and to her husband Peter, who also turned 60 a week ago today).

Hope your seventh decades treat you both very well!

Robin visits Platform 9 and 3/4

2006-01-09T16:06:00.000+02:00

robin potter
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up folks

Yes, the very weekend it was announced that the latest Harry Potter was the best selling book in the US last year (shifting over 7 million copies) me and Robin happened to be walking to get a train from Platform 11 at Kings Cross station in London, when we came across the famous Platform 9 and 3/4 (note the trolley disappearing through the wall) which, I believe, is where young Potter catches the train to his school from.

Nice touch by the folks that run the station, we thought.

Happy 2006!

2006-01-01T11:24:00.000+02:00

Happy new year!
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

To all of you reading this from me, Robin and my missus - we'd like to wish you an absolutely marvellous 2006!

We celebrated it in Helsinki where thousands of people came out onto the harbour outside our appartment and fired fireworks randomly all over the place. Then, by about 12.15am, most people seemed to have gone home!

By the way, Robin is sporting a little 2006 necklace that was sent to my wife by the jeweller in Athens who made our wedding rings. If you think it looks nice on Robin, you should see it on my missus...!

:)

Robin and the Jokerit jester

2005-12-31T12:49:00.000+02:00

Robin and the Jokerit badge
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

To make up for the slightly dodgy picture below, here's a picture of Robin with the Jokerit badge (Jokerit means jester in Finnish).

Jokerit were bought by a rich owner in the mid 90s which has made them a little unpopular with other Finns who don't agree with the way he's injected money to make money (modelling the club on the razzmatazz of the NHL). There are even anti-Jokerit websites online. But the rich owner's money obviously isn't working this year - as the team lie fourth from bottom of the league (having finished second last season). Apparently they got quite a few players from the NHL last season when there was a shut-out in America, and lots of them went back to the US when ice hockey started again, leaving Jokerit with a much weakened side (their star goalkeeper, for instance, joined Boston one day before the Finnish season started).

Robin at Jokerit!

2005-12-31T12:45:00.000+02:00

Robin at ice hockey
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Apologies for the slightly dodgy quality of this picture, I took it on my phone cos they don't really allow cameras into the ice hockey games - but here's Robin at our first Finnish ice hockey game, featuring Jokerit (the home side, from Helsinki) against SaiPa. Sadly, despite my purchase of an over-priced woolly Jokerit hat, they lost 3-1 (didn't take their chances and the SaiPa goalkeeper played very well). But, despite the score, there were 8,400 very passionate Finns there and it was an enjoyable evening out.

The sea is frozen!

2005-12-30T15:36:00.000+02:00

Robin In Helsinki
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up

So here's a picture taken in Helsinki, just near my wife's parents' flat. This is a harbour that would be filled with boats in the summer, but, at the moment, the sea is frozen! It's been very, very cold here in the past few days and weeks, getting as cold as minus 15 Celsius (about 20F). It's very odd to see a frozen sea, but very beautiful too. Literally all the ice you can see in the background would be normal sea in the summer.

This evening we're off to see ice hockey - a massive sport in Finland. Naturally, I shall take Robin along to document it...

Robin in frozen Finland!

2005-12-30T12:25:00.000+02:00

Brrr! Robin in Finland
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up folks

Yes, we're out here in Finland for a few days, visiting my wife's parents who moved to Helsinki in August.

This picture was taken in a beautiful little town called Porvoo, about 50 minutes' drive from Helsinki. We're actually standing on a bridge and that long white thing behind Robin is the frozen river! A few minutes before the picture was taken we saw a cross country skier skiing along it!

It's a very pretty town - in the background you can see some of the wooden houses the town is famous for. It wasn't actually as blue as it looks in the picture - but for some reason all my pictures came out blue. Must've been something to do with all the snow and my camera not being used to it!

Hope you all had a good Christmas. We're off into Helsinki itself in a few minutes, so I'll try to take another picture there...

Happy Christmas!

2005-12-24T11:33:00.000+02:00

Robin the wrap star
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Yes, it's Christmas Eve and me and the missus and Robin will be offline for a few days now. So, before we go, we wanted to wish you a very, *very* happy Christmas.

Hope you all have a great one.

Christmas in London #2

2005-12-20T23:49:00.000+02:00

Robin and a tree
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up folks

Here's another picture of Christmas in London for you. This is Robin in Trafalgar Square, standing in front of the 25 foot Norwegian Spruce just next to Nelson's Column.

Every year since 1947, the people of Norway have given a Christmas tree to the people of London to show gratitude for Britain's support of Norway during the Second World War. A nice tradition and a very nice tree.

Hope you're all having a nice build-up to Christmas.

Robin parties with Dave Grohl!

2005-12-16T14:46:00.000+02:00

robin and dave grohl
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Yes, last night Robin bumped into rock legend Dave Grohl - former drummer with Nirvana and current frontman of the Foo Fighters - at a party in London.

As you'll see, they were partying rather hard and Robin woke up with quite a hangover this morning.

Christmas in London #1

2005-12-14T20:40:00.000+02:00

Robin and a bow
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up

So, as promised, this is a picture of Robing with some of London's Christmas decorations. This is a building around the corner from where I work and they always seem to go to town decorating their building. This year, as you'll see, it's a giant holly wreath. And very nice it looks too. Not exactly sure what they do in the building, but I'm guessing they're not short of a few quid.

More to follow...

Caution!

2005-12-11T21:52:00.000+02:00

beware the squirrels!
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up folks

Sorry it's been a while, but me and the missus (and Robin!) have been away for a lovely relaxing week in the Lake District, in the north of England. No mobile phones, no internet, just lots of relaxation and walking and good food. And now back in London and back to work tomorrow. Sigh...

Anyway, thought you might like this sign, which we saw just outside the village of Patterdale. The Lake District is one of the very few places left in England that still have red squirrels - as, sadly, their grey cousins have taken over. As Wikipedia puts it:-

"Although not thought to be under any threat worldwide, the Red Squirrel has drastically reduced in numbers in the United Kingdom. Under 200,000 individuals are thought to be left, approximately 70 to 75% of which are in Scotland. This population decrease is likely to be due to the introduction of the Eastern Grey Squirrel from North America as well as the loss and fragmentation of its native woodland habitat."

If that above stat is right, and most of them are in Scotland, then there are less than 50,000 of them in England - so naturally we have to look after them, hence the crossing! We saw two of the little cuties outside our cottage, so it seems to be working.

So, onto your 'off-topic' questions. At the moment, no, it doesn't look like we are going to the Winter Olympics. We were toying with it for a while, but now we've got my wife's 14 year old sister coming to stay with us in London for one of the two weeks, so it doesn't look like we'll make it. We will though, be going to the World Cup in Germany (the soccer tournament) so Robin will definitely be there.

As for pictures of Robin with Christmas trees and lights - yes, we go pretty big on that here too. I shall get onto it when I'm back in central London tomorrow...

Hope you're all well and that you've managed to get most of your Christmas shopping done.

Don't worry, it's only a drill...

2005-11-29T16:42:00.000+02:00

Robin takes shelter
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up folks

Hope you chaps in America had a lovely Thanksgiving - I tried to remember to post something on the day, but we don't celebrate it over here and, um, I forgot. But I hope you all had a nice one.

I took this picture this morning down by London Bridge (breaking news: it isn't falling down). The sign is on the side of a WWII museum that commemorates the air raids that London had to put up with during the war. I didn't actually know the museum existed until I walked past it. Might have to visit sometime...

Shakira bites Robin!

2005-11-18T16:39:00.000+02:00

Shakira and Robin
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Yes folks, today Robin met Shakira, the bona fide pop superstar whose last English-language album sold 13 million copies around the world (and her current Spanish language one is the biggest selling Spanish record in US history!).

Although the fact she's biting Robin;s wing might make it appear she didn't like him, she was actually very fond of the wee bird and seemed quite reluctant to give him back. Lovely woman. Me and Robin were very impressed by her niceness.

1of4: In York

2005-11-17T23:29:00.000+02:00

robin and a minster
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up folks.

As ever, sorry not to have posted in a while - but I've been busy. I know, I know, I always say that. But it's true. Honest.

So, here are four pics of Robin from the past couple of week - three in York, where my dad lives, and one in Cologne in Germany (see below for the rest, obviously).

This first picture was taken of Robin last Saturday night in front of York Minster, which has been on the site since the year 627AD when a wooden structure built was hurriedly built to provide a place to baptise Edwin, King of Northumbria. Edwin wouldn't have lived to see it blossom into the structure you can see today. Well, not unless he lived to be 802, which seems unlikely (let's face it, the health care back then wasn't anything like as good as it is today. Chances are Edwin didn't make it much past, um, 500).

2of4: At the Castle

2005-11-17T23:08:00.000+02:00

Clifford's Tower
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

This is Robin at the bottom of York Castle - which is known as Clifford's Tower. This structure was built between 1245 and 1265 replacing a wooden castle built by William the Conquerer in the previous century.

That castle was burnt down in 1190 when the following tragic story unfurled (taken from Wikipedia).com:

Richard de Malbis of York was a debtor of Aaron of Lincoln, an influential Jewish banker of the late 12th century. When a fire broke out in the city of York, De Malbis used the opportunity to incite a mob to attack the home of a recently deceased agent of Aaron of Lincoln named Benedict of York, killing his widow and children and burning the house. Joce (Joseph) the leader of the Jewish community of York obtained the permission of the warden of York Castle to remove his wife and children and the rest of the Jews into the castle, where they were probably placed in Clifford's Tower. This was surrounded by the mob, and when the warden left the castle the Jews in fear would not readmit him. He appealed to the sheriff, who called out the county militia; and Clifford's Tower was surrounded for several days. On 16 March 1190 the Tower was set on fire, and many Jews either perished in the flames or took their own lives rather than be attacked by the mob, those who did surrender were killed. In all around 150 Jews died.

Quite a chilling history. They still have memorial services to this day and Jewish groups have fiercely opposed redevelopment of the site.

3of4: Minster from the city wall

2005-11-17T23:02:00.000+02:00

York Minster in the distance
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

So this is York minster again, taken on a glorious late Sunday afternoon from the York city walls.

York has been protected by a city wall since back in the Roman times, with most of the surviving walls built in the 12th to 14th centuries. There's still a couple of miles of walls more or less circling the city - it makes a lovely walk. And, as you can tell, you get some great views.

4of4: Robin in Germany

2005-11-17T22:55:00.000+02:00

robin in cologne
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

So this is a picture of Robin in Cologne, Germany taken by my wife when she went there with work a couple of weeks ago.

This is outside the sprawling cathedral (known to locals as Kölner Dom) in the centre of the city. Apparently it took over 600 years to finish (they started it in the 13th century and frankly didn't work as hard as they could have). When it was finished, the spires were the highest structures in the world. That was until 1884 when some Americans went and built the Washington monument in DC.

My wife describes the cathedral as 'vast, absolutely huge, you can't get an idea of how huge it is.'

So how come Robin is about half as big as it?

Robin in NYC #1 of 3

2005-11-05T12:00:00.000+02:00

Robin at the Empire State Building
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up folks

Sorry I've not posted for a while - I've been a busy bee - but here are three pictures I took of Robin when I was in New York this week.

You might remember that he's been before - there was a picture of him at Time Square - but we had a little bit longer to look around this time (although it was still only a Monday to Wednesday trip). I've been quite a few times now, and developed a real fondness for the city.

This one is Robin at the base of the Empire State Building, which I've been up before, but which we didn't have time to go up this time around. But I did get plenty of time to wander the streets and visit some friends.

Actually, talking of wandering, about 3 weeks ago I was brushing my teeth at our flat in London and walked out into the hallway and felt a massive pain in my foot. I'd obviously stood on something sharp - it felt like a nail or something - and, sure enough, whatever it was had gone through my sock and punctured my foot, which started to bleed.

So, my good lady wife had a look at it, said it looked like whatever it was had just made a hole, cleaned it up and that was that. We had a look on the carpet to see what might've done it, but there was nothing to be found.

For the next couple of weeks, it was still hurting, but it didn't look like there was a splinter in there or anything, so I just assumed it was healing.

But then, after walking from Time Sq to E65th and 2nd (about a 40 minute walk) the other day, my foot was numb with pain! It clearly wasn't healing.

So, the next morning, in my hotel room, I resolved to investigate what was happening in there. So I managed to pick away at the skin, dig around a bit and soon managed to push out...... a jagged shard of glass!

Ah, so that would be why it was hurting! (Mum, if you're reading, no, it didn't cause an infection and, yes, it feels much better now thanks!)

Hope all you folks are well and that you're managing to ignore the spam comments that have been appearing recently. I actually got a spam email from one of them offering me the chance to spam the comments of other people's blogs for a fee! I'm hoping the folks at Blogger.com will be sorting out a way of preventing it before too long.

Right, now check out the other two NYC pictures, below...

Robin in NYC #2`

2005-11-05T11:47:00.000+02:00

Robin looking over upper Manhattan
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

This one was taken from the roof of my friend Bernadette's appartment block - quite a view!

In the distance you can see the trees of Central Park spreading from left to right. Really shows how you've got a park right in the middle of all the hustle and bustle.

Robin in NYC #3

2005-11-05T11:45:00.000+02:00

Robin in Central Park
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

This last picture shows Robin in Central Park, one of my favourite places in New York, where I went for a lovely walk with my friend Bernadette and her gorgeous 6 month old baby Andrew.

I love that there's such a beautiful park in the middle of such a massive city. You feel like you're lost in greenery and lakes, and then you look up and see the skycrapers towering over it all, reminding you where you are!

Robin at Stonehenge

2005-10-17T01:09:00.000+03:00

Robin at Stonehenge
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Yes, here's Robin at Stonehenge - the ancient stone monument in the south west of England which is thought to have been used for some sort of religious ceremony and was built 2,800 years ago!

We took the picture as we drove past it (hence the fence) on the way down to visit some friends who live not far away. But I'm sure nobody minded that we didn't stop to look properly - the site gets over a million visitors each year!

(Doesn't the phrase 'hence the fence' just trip off the tongue?)

Robin at Bristol City FC

2005-10-17T01:02:00.000+03:00

Robin at the Robins
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

This is Robin at Ashton Gate - home of Bristol City Football Club, where we went yesterday. There are 92 professional football (soccer) teams in the four major leagues in England and I'm gradually trying to get around to all of them - this was my 74th out of 92, so I'm getting there....

Bristol City's nickname is The Robins (nobody seems too sure why) and they had a giant Robin mascot wandering about on the pitch. Sadly he didn't come near us, or I would've got him to pose with his namesake!

Naturally, with all those Robin mascots in the ground, Bristol City got a much needed 1-0 victory to climb out of the relegation zone...

Robin at the British Museum!

2005-10-12T16:42:00.000+03:00

Robin checks out the Great Court's roof
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up folks

Sorry it's been so long between postings, I've been - as ever - quite busy. And although I did go to Italy last weekend with my best pal for his 30th birthday present, I forgot to take Robin with me (I'm blaming the 4am alarm call!)

So, today I thought I'd head over to the British Museum at lunch time to take a couple of pictures.

The British Museum has been open for 251 years and holds a huge collection of Roman, Egyptian and Greek treasures (notably the Elgin marbles, which the Greek government *really* want back).

This picture was taken inside the Great Court which used to be open air (and not open to visitors) but which they roofed at the turn of the millennium. It's made up of hundreds of glass panels and was opened by the Queen in December 2000.

As I can see the British Museum from my desk, I watched them building the roof from the very first day that surveyors came to look in cranes at how they were going to build it. I'm quite attached to it now and it's a lovely place to go and relax in one of the cafes there.

It's also Europe's biggest covered square (or something like that) which makes it very handy for days like today - when it's absolutely chucking it down with rain.

Hope you folks are good.

Robin arriving the British Museum!

2005-10-12T16:36:00.000+03:00

Robin at the British Museum
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Yes, here's Robin arriving at the British Museum (see post above). Although it may appear that Robin has grown a human arm, I can categorically deny that that is the case. He still just has two little furry wings.

Six of the best: Alton Towers Air

2005-09-30T13:38:00.000+03:00

Robin and Alton Towers' Air
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

This is the last of my mammoth six posts today - another ride at Alton Towers. This is one of the newest rides and is meant to replicate the feeling of flying, so you sort of lie forward in your seat, facing down, and then go whizzing off.

And, sure enough, as you hurtle around the loops at a ridiculous speed, facing down, with nothing beneath you except the ground, it feels a) rather like you're flying and b) rather scary!

This was one of our favourite rides of the day. After all the rides, you can buy a picture that they've taken of you on it, and on this one both me and wife had massive grins on our faces.

A top day out, to end a top week of top days out.

Six of the best: Alton Towers Nemesis

2005-09-30T13:35:00.000+03:00

Robin and Alton Towers' Nemesis
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

This is another of the rides we went on at Alton Towers. You hang down in your seat, dangling below a rail above you. This is a loop-the-loop and you'll see that people's feet are towards the sky and their heads near the tracks.

This is one of the park's most famous, popular rides - but happily, because the kids are all at school now, it wasn't very busy at all. In fact, we only had to queue for about ten minutes to get on this ride (it could easily be two hours in the peak time of summer). It's a fun ride, but you do come off feeling rather dizzy!

Six of the best: Alton Towers

2005-09-30T13:32:00.000+03:00

Robin and Alton Towers' Oblivion
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

So, having been to the New Forest for my wife's secret day out (see below), on Thursday I took her to Alton Towers, a massive theme park in the middle of England (not far from where my mum lives, actually). My wife had always wanted to go and was very pleased with her surprise.

Alton Towers has some of the world's best roller coasters. This one is called Oblivion and features an enormous vertical drop into a black, smoke-filled hole. When you get to the top of the drop, they pause the car just over the edge and then - whoooosh - you hurtle down into the hole. Quite scary, but very good fun.

Six of the best: wild horses

2005-09-30T13:29:00.000+03:00

Robin and New Forest wild horses
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

This is a second picture from our New Forest trip. The New Forest has literally thousands of wild horses roaming throughout it and this picture captures a bunch of them. It's amazing to be cycling along and just come across seven or eight horses grazing or galloping about. They're obviously used to having people about too, so they didn't run a mile at the sight of us.

Six of the best: biking the forest

2005-09-30T13:27:00.000+03:00

Robin on his bike at the New Forest
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

So, the morning after our trip to Tamworth, it was the first of our secret days out - whereby, on Wednesday, my wife planned a secret day out for me and, on Thursday, I planned a secret day out for her.

Her day was a trip to go cycling in the New Forest, which is down towards the south coast of England. We had a tremendous day, cycling about, sitting in cafes in cute little towns and enjoying the fresh air.

Six of the best: at Tamworth FC

2005-09-30T12:45:00.000+03:00

Robin at Tamworth FC
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up folks

This is the first of six - yes six! - Robin pics I'm posting this morning. Myself and my lovely wife have had a few days off work, so we've been going on some day trips.

This one, on Tuesday, was up to Tamworth to watch my boys York City play. Happily, we won 3-0 - the third of which you can see being scored in the background of this picture. Moments after the picture was taken the ball flashed into the bottom corner for a goal. Hurrah!

Big chair! Big desk!

2005-09-26T10:38:00.000+03:00

Robin and giant furniture
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

If you look to the right of Robin on the kite-flying picture below, you might be able to see this giant table and chair, which is currently situated on Parliament Fields on Hampstead Heath.

It's a work of sculpture called The Writer by Italian sculptor Giancarlo Neri. It's an impressive piece of work, like something out of Alice in Wonderland or Lilliput, just sitting there in the middle of the field.

You can read all about the sculpture on The Guardian's website here.

Robin goes up to Parliament Hill

2005-09-26T10:31:00.000+03:00

Robin goes fly a kite
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

'Let's go fly a kite, up to the highest height,' sings Mary Poppins at the end of the film. And that highest kite flying height in London, as Poppins was no doubt aware, is Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath where you'll always find plenty of kite flyers on a Sunday afternoon.

We went up there with Robin yesterday afternoon to watch the pros with their huge parachute-like kites, while joining in with our little foldaway pocket one (you can see it at the very top of this picture).

We offered to tie Robin to the kite before we got it going, but he didn't seem keen on the idea.

Robin at Aldershot FC

2005-09-26T10:25:00.000+03:00

Robin at Aldershot FC
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

On Saturday Robin went down to Aldershot's Recreation Ground to see the game between Aldershot Town (in red) and York City (in blue). Sadly Aldershot won 2-1. Still, at least it was a lovely day and there was autumn sun to be caught.

Robin towers over London!

2005-09-17T10:04:00.000+03:00

Robin up BT Tower
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up folks

Yesterday evening, Robin, the wife and I were invited to a party up at the top of the BT Tower in London. It's a huge tower that stands head and shoulders above London - 189 metres high - and isn't normally open to visitors (they closed it as a tourist attraction after a bomb was placed in the toilets in 1971).

There's an amazing view from up there, as you can probably tell. The most obvious landmark behind Robin is the London Eye - the big wheel that was built on the banks of the Thames to celebrate the millennium and is now one of the most popular attractions here.

Hope you folks have good weekends.

Robin watches England win the Ashes!

2005-09-13T13:24:00.000+03:00

Robin at the Oval
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Yes, Robin was at the Oval cricket ground yesterday to watch England win the Ashes cricket series against Australia for the first time since December 1986.

This is massive, front-page news here in England and, as I write, a victory parade is beginning to make its way past tens of thousands of people to Trafalgar Square. Sadly, me and Robin can't go cos I've got a meeting at work.

Still, I was one of the lucky 23,000 who got to see us win it. An amazing day. Well done England.

Robin and the singing dogs...

2005-09-09T12:25:00.000+03:00

robin and dogs
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hello folks - hope you've had good weeks.

Here's Robin with a couple of singing dogs on a pillow. They were given to me by my mother last week when she came to visit us in London. On taking them out of the box, I wasn't quite sure why she'd bought us such a schmaltzy gift - but then she showed us a button to press which brought them to life singing 'I Got You Babe' to each other in full-on Sonny-dog and Cher-god animatronics fashion.

That was the song myself and my lovely wife sang in front of all our guests at the party on the night we got married (in truth, the dogs are probably more tuneful - but it's a lovely reminder).

Robin takes tea with the chap from OutKast!

2005-09-05T17:34:00.000+03:00

Robin meets Andre 3000
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Yes folks, Robin's been rubbing shoulders with the stars again. Today he bumped into Andre 3000 (or Andre Benjamin) from the band OutKast, Atlanta's finest hip hop duo whose last album featured the hit song 'Hey Ya' (the one about shaking it like a Polaroid) and sold over 11 million copies!

Mr Benjamin was so pleased to meet Robin that he offered him a nice cup of English tea and then helped him to drink it. What a lovely man.

Robin and a London bus

2005-09-02T22:23:00.000+03:00

Robin and a London bus
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Yes, my prolific posting spell continues with a shot of Robin waiting at the bus stop about half an hour ago to catch the bus home. This is your average London bus - red, double decker and all that. Not the quaintest of bus stops though!

Dawn, absolutely take your point about the roads being out of use making it difficult to get aid to the New Orleans area, but I spoke to a pal of mine in Austin Texas today who was saying that the Austin police helicopters are still in the city - you'd have thought they'd have sent all the helicopters in the area to the disaster zone by now. There have certainly been plenty of distraught people on the news complaining about how no aid has arrived whatsoever, so it's not like those helicopters wouldn't be of some use.

And, again, take your point about the hugely foolish people shooting at the helicopters - but I'd say that although the authorities were encouraging people in advance to come to the sports stadium to escape the tornado, they don't seem to have thought very hard about how they'd look after/police them when they got there, so mob rule broke amidst some awful conditions.

Terry Ebbert, the head of New Orleans' emergency operations, has already said the slow response by the wider authorities has been a 'national disgrace' - so it's not like I'm the only one who thinks the response has been rather slow and the problems poorly anticipated (people were, afterall, well aware that the city is below sea level and that there was a very good chance it would flood).

But, I'm sure we're all very much agreed that they need to get relief there as soon as possible and thank goodness that seems to be starting to happen. I really hope that they can regain control of the city and help the thousands of desperate people who are in such awful trouble,

Anyway, my Austin pal was also telling me it's a holiday weekend over there in the States this weekend - hope that amidst these awful scenes you folks manage to have a peaceful weekend.

Robin on a famous piano!

2005-09-02T14:37:00.000+03:00

robin piano
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hello folks,

Took this picture yesterday afternoon when I had to go to a recording studio in West London. This very piano, the manager of the studio told me, has been played by Elton John, Jon Bon Jovi, Freddie Mercury and, now, Robin. Well, I say played, he just jumped up and down on the keys a bit.

Like everyone in the world, we've had crazy pictures coming to our TVs from the New Orleans area. From this distance, even given the size of the hurricane, the lack of preparation for what they'd do afterwards is just stunning, as is the fact that so little relief seems to have made it through so far. I really hope they can actually start to help people before things spiral any further out of control.

Robin hits the town

2005-09-01T13:14:00.000+03:00

robin giggin'
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Yes, just to prove that it's not all work and no play around here, here's Robin at a concert at the Luminaire in London last night by a band called The Brakes (taken on my phone, so perhaps not the best quality). It was a top night and Robin moshed his little heart out.

Also, really sorry to hear what's going on in the New Orleans area at the moment - the pictures I keep seeing on the news are just so disturbing. That and a 1000 people dying because of a stampede in Iraq makes for some of the most heart-wrenching news in years. Really hope that the state authorities can pull together and help out the people that are stuck in New Orleans and that something can be done for all the people who've lost their homes. Just devestating. Also hope none of you guys reading this have been unduly affected.

Blimey, I haven't posted in ages!

2005-08-31T22:42:00.000+03:00

Robin at my desk
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Really really sorry not to have posted in so long, it's been one of those super-busy times I get at work sometimes. So much so that I'm sitting here at 8.39pm still chained to my computer, 11 hours after I arrived. But hey, at least I've got Robin here with me - he's always happy to hang out with his pal Money Mark (that's him in the shades).

So, I really should get straight to the competition result - and it was won hands-down by Mary, who was not only the first person to enter, but also got the exact correct answer of 11 countries with all 11 listed. Impressive stuff Mary, drop me an email with your details and I'll get that tacky London souvenir in the post.

Hope you folks are all good. I'm going to try my very hardest to post more often over the next few days, so keep 'em peeled...!

More from Ibiza...

2005-08-19T16:00:00.000+03:00

A Robin on water
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up

Here's another Robin in Ibiza shot - taken from a boat going from Es Canar to Ibiza Town.

It's a very beautiful island - more famous for its clubbing (P Diddy and Michael Stipe were both there enjoying that the weekend we were there), but there's lots of lovely scenery if you go looking for it.

Robin, in Ibiza

2005-08-17T15:55:00.000+03:00

robinibizatown
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hello

Here's a more scenic shot of Robin in Ibiza - this was taken up at the top of the hill in old Ibiza Town. I was experimenting with the panoramic-stitch-together thing on my mobile phone - problem was I couldn't see the screen properly cos the sun was so bright, hence the blurry repeated bit.

Keep those competition entries coming (see below) - that tacky London souvenir could have your name on it!

Robin celebrates birthday! Competition!

2005-08-15T16:35:00.000+03:00

Robin, chillin'
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up folks

In response to Andi W's comment last week - the answer is that yes, I probably do travel more than most British people (mainly through work), but I think we do tend to leave our country more than Americans anyway. Obviously you have to travel long distances to get to another country, whereas (particularly since the advent of budget airlines) we can get to a whole host of countries in under two hours for a cost of about $100 return.

So, yet again, I was abroad this weekend - on a work trip to the Spanish party island of Ibiza. On Saturday, it was exactly one year since Robin made his debut online, and he celebrated by lounging about in the pool.

COMPETITION! COMPETITION!

And now - to celebrate one year of Robin - it's time for our first competition since the Olympics.

Guess how many countries Robin has been photographed in since he made his debut last August. And as a tie-breaker, name them. To enter, just post your entry in the comments tab below. Whoever gets the right number of countries wins. If two people get the right number, the one who names most of them correctly takes the prize.

Closing date is a week from today. The winner gets a tacky London souvenir.

Good luck!

Robin in Ypres

2005-08-10T00:53:00.000+03:00

robin in belgium
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up folks

This picture was taken on Sunday in Ypres, a lovely little town in the Flanders part of Belgium.

I was over there with my wife and my grandad, who we took away for the weekend. The mediaeval city of Ypres was very much in the thick of the action during World War One (it was called Wipers by British soldiers) and we went to a very thought-provoking trench that has been preserved since 1917.

It was quite moving to walk down the trench and imagine who'd been in there all those years ago and what they'd been feeling. Around a quarter of a million men from the Commonwealth lie in grave sites in Flanders - mind-blowing to imagine.

But it was also a very pretty town and we managed to have a lovely time exploring the fair that was going on and eating some great Belgian food.

Robin and an Arsenal stadium

2005-08-02T23:07:00.000+03:00

Robin checks out Arsenal
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up folks

Here's Robin checking out the brand new stadium of Arsenal Football Club at Ashburton Grove in North London. Arsenal are one of the best football (soccer to you American folks) teams in England and, probably, Europe.

It's not finished yet - the team have one more season at their old Highbury ground where they've been for about 80 years - but it's going up pretty quickly and looks like it will be quite a stunning ground.

They're moving because the old ground only holds 38,000, whereas this one will hold about 60,000 (which, of course, equals rather more money through the gates). Plus, they've already got a multi-million pound sponsorship deal with Emirates airline to call it the Emirates Stadium.

Me and Robin will certainly be going back to check it out when it's finished...

Robin at Beachy Head

2005-07-31T23:38:00.000+03:00

Robin and a heckuva view
Originally uploaded by athens2004blog.

Hey up folks

I took this picture this morning at Beachy Head an amazing place on the coast near Eastbourne in Sussex (we went to a lovely wedding nearby on Friday). The view of the enormous white cliffs probably speaks for itself - if it doesn't, then may I suggest 'stunning'?

Definitely worth clicking on this picture to see it bigger.