RobClubley

Bit last minute as we've known about this for ages (doh!)

We're going this evening to the lighty up balloon thingy display

http://www.nzballoons.co.nz/

Looks like it should be good - I hope it's less windy over there than in Wellington!

Maz

Ooooh purdy! I love hot air balloons! There used to be a festival in Northampton every year in this huge park near the city centre. I never actually went to it, but we had a superb view of it from the top of our road.

Looking forward to some excellent (as usual) pics! By the way, what kind of camera do you have? I have a Canon Rebel XLT, love it to bits!

I'm guessing your brain is still recovering from the past week's work.

RobClubley

No that's just how I talk
I'm dead technical, me.

I'll do my best - gonna take my little tripod and hopefully get some good pics when it gets darker. I have a Sony Cybershot DSC-H2 which I bought with my UK tax refund after we left! Couldn't stratech to a DSLR, maybe next birthday

RobClubley

Bugger they've cancelled it - well pretty much, they're not inflating any balloons tonight due to the weather.
Bum.

Maz

That's no good! Tell them they have to go ahead with it as you're going to take photos for us!

RobClubley

Well we could go for the last event in the morning but we'd have to get there at 6:30 and it's about an hour and a half's drive.

Bit early for a Sunday I think.

cherry

We were going to attend but could not get accommodation to stay overnight in Masterton as I didn`t fancy the drive back over the Rimutakas at night,hate the road ,we had 2 for 1 tickets also from Genesis to see the night burn .
Decided to spend the money it would have cost in hotels on lots of plants for the garden ,we can recommend Super Mitre 10 in Petone for really good quality and reasonably priced plants.Also the Firemans Arms pub on Jackson St near to Cuba St for a coffee and a cooked brekky .
Took the wifes car today to vtnz seaview for its 6 month joke test ,passed with flying colours ,I know all the staff there as I go regularly taking trucks for test ,they never recognised me out of uniform as they said ,$48 well spent to stay legal
Rob, you live here now so you can go anytime its on in the future ,who knows next time it will be fab weather not today however

davec987

Nikon D80 mate Love mine.

RobClubley

True. We'll go next year.

P2L

Northampton Balloon Festival is still going strong Maz. They've combined it with the Town Show now. You get some quite good gigs there now too; the last few years have seen Tony Hadley, The Sugar Babes & some others that i cant remember now!!!! I'll see if I can find my photos of the "glow" from last year & post them later
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?im...%3Den%26sa%3DN

P2L

Our favourite balloon, Churchill hasn't flown for a few years not sure whats happened to it

The glow is my best bit of the day. i think it's very clever the waay they can get those balloons into such a small space & the way the operators of the balloons all work together to sychronise (??) the glow with the music

Maz

Ooooh lovely piccies, thanks so much Sarah! Glad to hear the festival has gone from strength to strength.

I remember when I was in halls of residence up at Nene College, I got a shock one morning when waiting for water to boil for my tea, as a huge bear's head came bobbing up over the horizon. It was that bear (George?) that was a mascot or some such for some beer or other.

P2L

FYI Nene College is now Northampton University!!! Happened a couple of years ago

Maz

I know, actually. But way back in the day (when dinosaurs roamed the Earth) when I went there, it was still Nene College. Everyone new there pronounced it as "Neen" but by the time you got to the end of the first year, you were saying "Nen" along with the locals.