BABBACOMBE MODEL VILLAGE (part 3).

This is the final part of the Babbacombe model village blog series. This Model village is around 1.5 miles from Torquay town centre in a village attached to Torquay called Babbacombe. The model village is open most of the year only usually shutting in January. Originally we took 268 pictures which I've had to condense to around 30, so as you can imagine it hasn't been an easy job. These last few are to me not quite as good as some of the other ones in snow scenes.During December they have a very good Santa's Grotto with Reindeer and all his helpers.
This first picture could easily be mistaken for real if viewed quickly.
Do please click on any picture to enlarge it.
Below a street scene, showing the busy entrance to the football stadium, note the wind turbines in the distance.

Below, a couple of perhaps Victorian style houses, complete with "ice Cream van".
Perhaps I should apologise at this stage for the length of this blog.
I "sneaked " this picture in from the snow scenes (below) because I just love it, it just has a "nice feel" about it.
Below. another street scene, this was a nice quiet cul-d-sac.
Not such a real feel scene this one.
Anyone loving Dolls houses would be in their element here.
Below, A coach arriving at the Hotel. Typical Road works in the main holiday season.
Model fire station, with some one hanging out of the window.
This BT sattelite dish (below) and station does look very lifelike.
A very narrow entrance to "merryvale Castle", i hope it doesn't get to busy because you have to get out to pay.
A lorry load of "Artefacts" arriving at the Museum, below.
Lastly, no town is complete without its "Disco".
So to conclude, if ever you holiday in Devon then make this a "Place to visit".
Joke of the day.
A couple had been married for 50 years.
They were sitting at the breakfast table one morning when the old gentleman said to his wife, "Just think, honey, we've been married for 50 years."
"Yeah," she replied, "Just think, fifty years ago we were sitting here at this breakfast table together."
"I know," the old man said, "We were probably sitting here naked as jaybirds fifty years ago."
"Well," Granny snickered, "What do you say...should we get naked?"
Where upon the two stripped to the buff and sat down at the table.
"You know, honey," the little old lady breathlessly replied, "My breasts are as hot for you today as they were fifty years ago." ...........

"I wouldn't be at all surprised," replied Gramps............ "One's in your coffee and the other is in your porridge!.

Boxing day Bike meet on Exmouth Sea Front.

Todays blog is going to be about the CX-GL motorcycle club meeting on Exmouth, Devon's sea front. The meet is actually organised by an Exeter classic & Vintage bike club and they do it every year. This year there must have been 45 to 50 bikes there, we hi-jacked it a bit because 6 were our clubs bikes. The day was really bright and sunny although the morning (10.00am) temperatures didn't rise above around 9c and there was a cool East wind. A few of the bikes and riders had come 35+ miles so were chilled to the bone. On the journey we climbed up out of Teignmouth over Haldon Moor the Temperature dropped to 3c.
The first picture is of the first of our club members arriving.These are Richard and twin brother Dave from Plymouth.
This a group picture of our members. They are L to R, Richard and twin brother Dave,Me, front Sue, behind Sue is Monty, alongside Monty is Simon, in front Skippy, then Pete, Owen,Peter H, and Ollie.
A very nice 70s or early 80s Honda CB 900 F.
This 500cc Benelli is one of only 2 that I have ever seen, this one was in nearly mint condition.
This Honda 700cc Night Hawk is a bike Sue has had her eye on for a few years now, Just the Coppers/pennies that have stopped us. This one is an 80s model.
A very lovely Vintage Vincent HRD there were two of these parked together.
Sue's other dream machine, this is a Honda CM 400 T of 1980s.
Joke of the Day.

A teenage girl is staying at Granma's house, She comes downstairs for her date with this see-through blouse on and no bra.
Her grandmother just threw a fit, telling her not to dare go out like that!
The teenager tells her, "Loosen up Grams. These are modern times.
You gotta let your rose buds show!" and out she goes.
The next day the teenager comes down stairs, and the grandmother is sitting in her chair knitting with no top on. The teenager wants to die.
She explains to her grandmother that she has friends coming over and that it is just not appropriate.........
The grandmother says, "Loosen up, Sweetie. If you can show off your rose buds, then I can surely display my hanging baskets."

Happy Gardening.

BABBACOMBE MODEL VILLAGE. (Part 2)

This is part 2 of the Babbacombe Model Village blog, as described in part 1 this is an amazing place. Most of the images we show here would easily pass as real homes, towns, villages. The picture below shows a big house with an old Camper Van in the drive.
In the picture below you can imagine a small remote village, in maybe the 15th or 16th century, with the stage just pulling in for its last stop and rest over.
This picture (below) shows the stage Coach nearing the end of its long hard journey, horses pulling at the bit as they enter the village.
Below, a Snow bound, tree lined town street. The Town is fully lit and made to resemble (very well) Piccadilly Circus, its one of several from different angles.
Below, again a lovely Winter Hamlet scene this could be a copy of just about anywhere in Great Britain during wintry weather.
This is the first (below) of 4, of a good night time view of what looks just like Picadilly Circus.
The way these Signs flash just like the real Picadilly Circus is amazing.
All these were taken from a slightly different angle, so show different shops.
This one below is the last of Londons Picadilly. I do hope they get paid well for allowing these Advertisers to post here, its a really good advert and gets photographed thousands of times a year.
This is a model of the village Inn, aptly named "The Way Inn" and has inside tables, chairs, pool table, bar and lots of model people.
Lastly but not least we have the local "Manor"peeping out from among the trees.
This ends part two of this blog. I expect one or two of you will be getting a bit bored with it by now,but I'm afraid there will be a third. The third and final part will be about what I call "Toy Town", this part of the village is not snow covered , so to me it isn't quite as good, perhaps you may disagree, I will post it soon.
Joke of the Day.
Head and Shoulders.
A blonde and a brunette both board an elevator and push the buttons for their respective floors. As the elevator reaches the next floor, the door opens and a businessman wearing a black suit boards the elevator. Its evident that the man has a dandruff problem because it can be seen on the shoulders of his suit.
Two floors later the man gets out, and the two women remain. When the door closes the brunette says, "Someone should give that guy some Head & Shoulders".
The blonde then responds, "How the hell do you give shoulders?"

BABBACOMBE MODEL VILLAGE, (part 1)

Today this blog is all about the famous Babbacombe Model Village here in Devon. It was to be in two parts, now it may have to be three, as Blogger, in its wisdom wouldn't allow me to enter two small pictures alongside each other, then down in a row. That would have allowed me to put in 12 or 14 small pictures keeping the length minimal. When we arrived home from our visit I started to transfer these pictures I found, we (Sue) has taken 268 of them. Trying to trim these down to a single blog size as you can imagine was impossible. Anyway Format is now as my norm (but long I'm afraid). This Village is open virtually all year around and attracts thousands of visitors. We had never been to visit it before but I'm very glad we did. We recently passed it on the way to Torquay and noticed that from 13th it was going to be a winter display, a lot of it snow covered. Also for two weeks up until Christmas it also has Santa & his Grotto.
PLEASE do click on a picture to enlarge it and see the detail in the pictures, they are very lifelike.This first picture was taken looking over the garden from the kiddies ski slope area. It isn't obvious from this picture but this garden slopes gently away to the left for around 300 metres in length.
This one below is like a lot of these, very lifelike indeed.
Below Santa and Reindeer arriving in the village, but the kids still aren't in bed !!!.
This one below reminds me of looking down from maybe a small mountain. The miniature trees they use are really good.
Below, note the railway running through the Avenue of trees, not sure what "Stonehenge" has to do with it though.
This lovely little cull- d- sac (below) even has foot prints in the snow.
Below, This one shows a Communications and weather Satellite station.
The view below could so easily have been taken across the estate lake to the "Stately House".
We both love this lovely little Terrace (below).
This below could easily be kids enjoying sledding down the village slope.
So do you agree with us it was worth a visit and a blog?. I will do at least one more on this subject, one will be on the Toy Town section of the village, which wasn't quite so lifelike.
Comments Please, don't just lurk, COMMENT even if they are negative.
Joke of the Day.

NEW BOOTS.

An elderly couple, Margaret and Bert, moved to Texas. Bert always wanted a pair of authentic cowboy boots, so, seeing some on sale, he bought them and wore them home.
Walking proudly, he sauntered into the kitchen and said to his wife, 'Notice anything different about me?'
Margaret looked him over. 'Nope.'
Frustrated, Bert stormed off into the bathroom, undressed and walked back into the kitchen completely naked except for the boots.
Again he asked Margaret, a little louder this time, 'Notice anything different NOW?'
Margaret looked up and exclaimed, 'Bert, what's different? It's hanging down today, it was hanging down yesterday, it'll be hanging down again tomorrow!'
Furious, Bert yelled, 'AND DO YOU KNOW WHY IT'S HANGING DOWN, MARGARET?'
'Nope', she replied.
'IT'S HANGING DOWN, BECAUSE IT'S LOOKING AT MY NEW BOOTS!!!!'

Without changing her expression, Margaret replied, 'Shoulda bought a hat, Bert.
Shoulda bought a hat...'

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS 2008.

Today I am going to do a very short blog, this one is about Christmas at the "Story's" Teignmouth. Firstly, as a lot of you probably know we lost our adopted son Stephen about 6 weeks ago, so this will be the first time in 45 years that we will have spent Christmas on our own. We are used to having quiet festive holidays as my Daughter and her family are in the relief pub managers trade and flit all over the Country. My son has lived all over, including the Midlands and is now in the North. My grandson recently got his own bungalow so he obviously wants to Christen Christmas there with his mates. We are not great social beasts so it isn't any real problem for us, in fact in a way it will be nice to "do our own thing". No worry about set mealtimes or present opening, just a relaxing break. Back to the blog, after much deliberation we eventually decided to put up our "Lights" and decorations, this will almost certainly be our last year of doing this as we aint so young as we used to be. Our Treats this year are going to be a few social evenings in our local pub, probably Christmas eve Boxing night and new years eve.Anyway because its probably the last time for our lights we will share them with you all.
Not much I can say about these except they are taken from different angles.
This one and the next were before we did the bedroom window.

Finally a Video of inside the front lounge, I think there is a peep of me sitting at the Computer with my music on. The tree is around 6ft tall and artificial but sue loves the job of dressing it, usually managing to down best part of a bottle of wine whilst doing this.


Joke of the day.
Man driving down the road
Woman driving up the same road.
They pass each other.
The woman yells out the window, "PIG."
Man yells back "BITCH."
Man rounds the next curve.
Crashes into a huge pig in the middle of the road and dies.

Ps. My next blog will be in two parts and will be of the Babbacombe Model village in winter.

THE VERY LATEST.

So Here are the last pictures that Sue has painted. I think we are going to offer a few for sale in the local art shop as we are now getting short of walls to hang them on !!!!. This first one is the very latest just finished last week. It is the biggest yet, at around 36" by 24". All the photo's here were taken outside but they still do have the odd shadow or reflection.
Do click on any picture to enlarge it.
The one below is quite small at around 14" by 9" and was completed (Varnished) a fortnight ago.
This one is around 24" x 18" and Sue finished it in early October.
The next few are one's I had forgotten about they hang in the hall and the one below is of "Blaze" who was a really hugh family dog, he was a cross Alsatian (German Shepherd) and Pyrenean mountain dog, he stood nearly 6ft tall when standing on his rear legs. This picture was painted about 15 years ago. Its 15" x 12"and framed, these are not going to be for sale.
This Doberman is around 12 years old now and is 15" x 12", this was painted especially for some one who sadly moved abroad before it was finished.
Below "Blaze" again, this time just a facial close up. Sue painted it straight after the full body picture of him, 18" X 12".
Below this "Lion" was painted at around the same time, Sue was never really happy with it so it has stayed in a cupboard upstairs for years. Its quite a large one at 24" x 18".
Now you are completely up to date. Currently Sue is working on three more, when she gets fed up she goes to another then comes back to original later.One is three small Tiger cubs, one is Dolphins and the third is a Landscape of a dartmoor River bridge.
Joke of the day.
This one borrowed from my Australian friend Merle.

A woman walked into the kitchen to find her husband stalking around, "What are you doing?" she asked.
"Hunting flies," "Oh, Killing any?" she asked.
"Yep, 3 males and 2 females," he replied.
"How the hell can you tell them apart?"
He responded, "Easy 3 were on a beer can and 2 were on the phone."