Nrthwnd

The one we have been to, since the early 1970s (!) is the small steak chain (sorry) called nowadays The Keg. It started out as The Keg & Cleaver, but the cleaver got lost somewhere along the way. Great steaks, my fave caeser salad in town, de-luscious prime rib in three cuts/oz.... so good I asked my partner David to get me gift certs. for the place...and he did! And they're mine, allllll mine, bwa - ah - ah. Here's a link to the franchise http://www.kegsteakhouse.com/en/

Strange minds are most welcome at TPR.

^ The Disco Room!!! (From Inside The Disco Ball!)

Just found I have two lovely surprises in this new year... I need a crown for one tooth, and fillings for two teeth, side by side each other. Thankfully it won't be MUCHO $$$ for it, believe it, thank you Canadian Health Care! More of a nuisance to schedule the times for molding, cleaning and filling, crowning... And apparently, besides the separate appt. for the mold, the entire appointment will be....2-1/2 hours long. Ugh.

Hansa Park - 2009 Hansa Park was the "non-Scandinavian park" we got to enjoy as part of the 2009 TPR Scandi Tour, soon to be repeated this coming June. We took a short (under two hours) ferry from Denmark to Germany, visited Hansa, then bussed back up through Denmark, eventually to our next (and a bit longer) ferry crossing. With parks in between, of course! Hansa had as it's new coaster for that year, Fluch von Nogorod, a new Euro Fighter, that was "almost" totally enclosed for the entire ride. But they were so eager to open the coaster, have it running, especially with our group visiting, some of the themeing of part of it (including the enclosed vertical lift tower) hadn't been finished yet. So with continued nice apologies for it, the staff and management put us on for ERT, and it was awesome! Even without everything working just yet, at that time. It was great. Worth several re-rides. The mug is from the gift shop near the front entrance. It's depicting a (then) evening lights parade, not unlike Disney's Main Street Electrical Parade. Unfortunately we couldn't stay long enough, into the evening, to enjoy the show. We had to leave and start bussing back into and through Denmark. Such are TPR Tours' schedules... When I get the hang of it, I can do a "panorama" of this mug. But in the mean time, here's the "left side" of it. And here's "the middle" of it with the park;s name front and centre. And "the right side" of the mug. Looked like a great night lights paradem there. There was nothing on the bottom to show, so here's where it rests in the kitchen window, Here's the coaster with the 'unfinished' tower, back in 2009. No matter. The ride was AWESOME!

That Paratroooer was nothing like the one in Hamanako Pal Pal Park, Japan. The ride op there was right on the money, braking/holding and then releasing the chairs, so several of us maintained spin after spin after spin! I got 7 in one of the four times i went on it. This one was more of a controlled-by-machine thing. And didn't work as well for myself. The walk-through Haunt House was just as un-ride opped as it was with you guys, Dan. I think we went in after you in fact, because we waited for the (^&%@# light to go on - and then it did! So in we went. You didn't wait for the light - which was good, for us LOL! It was wierd with dolls and animals in it, and cheesy bloody stuff. Any my biggest freek out at the park, was when I was on the Stand Up Coaster, just about to go into the main loop. I suddenly felt my knees starting to buckle, which meant the bikesaddle I was straddling was NOT quite locked! Eek. But I managed to stay calm and it actually worked out for the rest of the ride. Still, it was quite the initial scare which thankfully, went away just as fast. Looking forward to more, Ken!

Question: What would a miniature Disneyland look like? Answer: Hong Kong Disneyland. I tried.

??? I have no idea. Please explain?

These are great Europe connections. TROY!

And - blessings to Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto on their Golden Globe Award WINS last night, for their parts in "Dallas Buyers Club". And I am hoping when the Oscar noms come out this Thursday, there will be some Academy Award Love for them and the movie, too. Hard to believe this is what Jared normally looks like, after taking on Rayon in DBC.

Congratulations to Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto for their Golden Globe Award WINS! "Dallas Buyers Club" is an awesome movie, and should be seen by a lot more people. I'm hoping they and the movie get some Oscar Love this Thursday, when the nominations come out. Jared Leto (as Rayon in DBC) must be nominated!

^^^ Good thoughts go to you on this. Hope it goes/went well.

So, now I'm going to "show and tell" about the mug collection I have, that are more for displaying than use. Most of them are small demi tasse type cups, ones that would be great for expresso...but not for me, lol. So I will start this off with... The Italians: Gardaland and Mirabilandia - 2010 Going back to my medical probs I had just before this 2010 tour to Europe, when we arrived in Italy on a VERY EARLY flight from London, my head (and body) weren't too much into what was happening that day. We'd gotten up very early, done the flight, bus to the hotel, put all the bags in a room, then head over to Gardaland. And we walked from the hotel to the park entrance. A long walk, In the hot morning sun. For myself, that was pretty intense. So not only did I not take any photos in Gardaland, I didn't really look out for any souvenirs, until I saw this tiny teeny cup in the hotel's gift shop. I liked it and somehow I convinced myself there was a use for this little cup. The next day, we bussed over to Mirabilandia Park. I had had a good night's sleep and was much more ready for the day to come. And again, it was a lot of walking around the park, but I found it much more manageable than Gardaland (GL had a horseshoe type of layout which made any kind of short cut kind of not gonna happen). So the second the mug is from Mirabilandia, a bit bigger, with a nice blueish colouring all over it... Here they are, Gardaland and Mirabilandia! Back view. Not much to see, although I believe GLs mascots (?) are all over the little cup. They almost look like characters from the Warner Bros.Company, home of Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. The Bottom. And look - the writing's in Italian! Who knew! (o; Here's where they're being used. GL for my individual instant drink mixes. And MB for my individual instant coffees. Perfect!

^ Hallelujah, maybe it was happening by osmosis, from Japan to France, lol.

^ Well it is true, I believe. And while people squawked at the opening of the park, i.e. the small number of attractions available at HKDL... Honestly, if you check with Disneyland's 1955 opening, they had about the same number of attractions open for it's first year. And nobody complained then.

I lament the loss of the Wonders of Life Pavilion. With one of the first true thrill rides (Body Wars), that could actually make you sick, through the cycle of it.

* Proof of "membership" required.

^ QFT

I just realized.... Hong Kong Disneyland is the perfect "Starter Disney Park" for familes. And it is also the more "Relaxing Disney Park", for our elders in the community. Which is very cool in my humble opinion. And WOO HOO Iron Man Experience! And this would be located between Autopia and Buzz Lightyear. Where Star Tours 2 was originally Blue Skied for. The awesome concept art set up of the upcoming attraction(s).

Weather's still tolerable, compared to the rest of the continent.

AH, Yes ^ I do remember the last visit in...1996. And TT was, for it's short cycle, a pretty rough one to get through. I stand corrected.

Was Timberline Twister that...bad? Or not popular at all? I don't remember it being there very long.

Hate you all.

Crap. It's very hard to go to general web sites without (now) something being posted about the Golden Globe Awards. And yes, we watch them, though not at this time. And it just started, 5pm, and already stuff is going up, and I/we do NOT want to see any results at this time. Hard to mange through, but will do my best. Grrrrrr.

Barq's Root Beer at the movies.