Stalking Simon King

I was off on Friday cos the weathermen said that it was suppose to be the best day of the week and torrential rainfall was predicted for the weekend.  Why? We wanted to check out the Rutland Water and Birdfair 2008. The site was near Egleton village at the west end of Rutland Water.

It was about an hour drive in the lovely sunshine through lovely rural countryside. We'd to wait about 20mins for parking cos the organisers had to clear the field of horses. I guess they weren't expecting that many people and had to open up another field. It was hilarious to see them rounding up the horses and lead them to another field.

We checked out all the 8 marquees which was filled to the brim with the best that birding had to offer.There were several trusts and charities represented, from regional bird clubs to international organisations. The Art Marquee was an Aladdin's Cave of treasures and I fell in love with a £4k sculpture of a kingfisher, of all things.

We tested top-of-the-range optical equipments at the Optics Marquees. The who's who labels in optics, cameras and accessories were all there. And at the Carl Zeiss Sports Optics we came across Simon King.

Man, he was looking good. I'd always enjoyed his presentation of wildlife documentaries  and he is passionate about his subjects. Was I able to get close? Nada... He was surrounded by his people and his hoards of fans. I was hoping to attend his talk later in the afternoon.

So we went round checking everything out. We attended a bird-ringing session, browse the Birdfair Auction, watched wildlife artists from around the world create a giant mural and swayed to a steel band from Trinidad and Tobago. We wanted to checkout one of the hides. But it was turned into another exhibition centre.

By the time we reached the events marquee for the talk there was standing room only. People were even spilling out of the marquee. Hmm, being 165cm, all I could see was people's back. And it was getting very warm. When I turned, there was Simon King being interviewed in front of us. Eek, Kevin says we might as well leave or else we could be seen in the background. Man, I feel like a stalker :-).

Will we be coming next year? NO. I was quite taken aback by the huge number of bird tour stands from all over the world. The growth of this birding business (birdwatching tourism) will surely kill the birds not save them from extinction. Imagine the air miles, the forests destroyed to meet the needs of tourism...

We passed this beautiful village along the way. Rockingham is a village and civil parish in the Corby district of Northamptonshire. The tiny village was overshadowed by the very impressive Rockingham Castle formerly a royal castle and hunting lodge. I just love the brick houses with the thatched roof, different to what I'm used to which is on black and white buildings.

Yesterday, in the city centre we saw this. The Star Wars trooper was being sent to Coventry. They caused quite a stir and caught the Saturday shoppers by surprise. It was a very good publicity stunt for the release of Star Wars: The Clone Wars DVD. 

Today, Britain's sailors, rowers and cyclists won four more gold medals to match the team's Saturday surge. Team GB reach third in the Olympic medal table after behind China and the USA. And well done soon to be Dame Rebecca Adlington and may she have more pairs of Christian Louboutin shoes. Babe, I would love one, too. :-)

And Malaysia got its first Olympic medal. Lee Chong Wei  was outplayed 21-12 21-8 by China's Lin Dan in the badminton men's singles. Tahniah.*

Just heard that five people were killed in a mid-air collision between two light aircraft in Coventry. The first plane came down close to Coombe Abbey and the second aircraft crashed in nearby Brandon Woods. It was quite eerie cos last week we were in Coombe Abbey and if Kevin wasn't sick, we would be trampling around Brandon Marsh today. Our prayers are with the families.

*congratulations in Malay