Crogen Coach House

Just before the holidays started I went on a family weekend holiday for my Grandad's 70th birthday. The house itself is called Crogen Coach House and is based in Wales, Corwen.

Dating back to 1380, Crogen is a Grade II star listed building. The front of the house displays gothic architecture with many original features. The rest of the house dates to 1837.

The gilt work to the ceiling in the dining room, large stone fireplace and mahogany floor have remained unchanged. With 14 bedrooms, drawing room, dining room, numerous sitting rooms, original kitchen (with larders and pantry), cellars and magnificent grounds.

Apparently it is said that this exact house used to be Queen Victoria and husband Albert getaway house. Her exact words were, "We've arrived in paradise."- Queen Victoria visiting the estate in 1889.

It is truly an amazing house with lots of space. The views are absolutely out of this world as it has acres of land surrounding it. There is a much larger house just down the road where it is said that one of the Queen's bodyguards owns the land to this day.

It was really nice aswell as I love spending time with my family. I am a very family orientated person. I think just seeing my Grandad's face happy inspired me to put this on my blog. This is something that I will definately be wanting to do again.

Here are a few photographs of Crogen Estate below:

Las Vegas Stratosphere Insanity Ride

I have never been on this ride but during the holiday I received an email showing one of the scariest rides in the world. This fascinates me to think who would actually go on this type of ride?! It is a ride on one of the tallest buildings in Las Vegas.

I like the way it is structured for a thrill adrenaline factor. I don't think I would have the courage to go on it though!




















As you can see from the launch position diagram you get on the ride which is attached to the building then it slowly pulls itself out so it is hovering over the tiny city below it. It spins aswell as lift backwards so you are leaning forward with nothing but a harness to save you!

Here is a video of how it works below:

Big Brother House

Over the holidays I have been very in to watching the reality TV show on channel 4 called Big Brother. There are around 10 people that were put in the house in the beginning and as you probably know the housemates go to the diary room and choose two people who they want to be put up for eviction for the public to vote off the following Friday.

This program had become routine for me to watch and became addictive as it was so entertaining. The housemates were not celebrities and were normal people which made it even better.

What drew me to this program is that by word of mouth somebody told me that the Big Brother house had been changed drastically from the last series. I understand that the house gets changed every series that they do but when I turned on the television I agreed with that person that it is the best they have made it yet. They had a snug, a glass bathroom, a funky kitchen a garden where the smokers bit was a carousel and a huge bedroom. Here is a photograph of the garden below:












I also really like the new Big Brother logo made of flowers above. Here are a few older designs:



























Here is the Big Brother 2010 advert before it came out below:

Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King Liverpool

When I have been visiting my friend that is a student herself in Liverpool I have always had to pass this Cathedral on the way to where she was staying. The Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King in Liverpool The cathedral's architect was Englishman Frederick Gibberd, the winner of a worldwide design competition. Construction began in 1962, and took five years. Earlier designs for a Catholic cathedral in Liverpool had been proposed in 1853, 1933, and 1953, but none were completed.

Being Catholic myself I think that this piece of architecture is modern and eye catching. I like the way that its roof is shaped in the form of a wigwam. The cathedral is built in concrete with a Portland stone cladding and a lead covering to the roof. Its plan is circular, having a diameter of 195 feet (59 m), with 13 chapels around its perimeter. The shape of the cathedral is conical, and it is surmounted by a tower in the shape of a truncated cone. The building is supported by 16 boomerang-shaped concrete trusses which are held together by two ring beams, one at the bends of the trusses and the other at their tops. Flying buttresses are attached to the trusses, giving the cathedral its tent-like appearance. Rising from the upper ring beam is a lantern tower, containing windows of stained glass, and at its peak is a crown of pinnacles.

The entrance is at the top of a wide flight of steps leading up from Hope Street. Above the entrance is a large wedge-shaped structure. This acts as a bell tower, the four bells being mounted in rectangular orifices towards the top of the tower. Below these is a geometric relief sculpture, designed by William Mitchell, which includes three crosses. To the sides of the entrance doors are more reliefs in fibreglass by Mitchell, which represent the symbols of the Evangelists. The steps which lead up to the cathedral were only completed in 2003, when a building which obstructed the steps path was acquired and demolished by developers.

I decided to take a trip down to Liverpool with a friend and take a few photographs of the Cathedrals exteria.

Theatre of Dreams

Recently I have been really getting in to my football and I have always been brought up as a red. Manchester United are who I support. I went to my first match not so long ago and we played Portsmouth and won 5-0 which was brilliant for my first match. I know it is not the most best built stadium in the world, but I like it so much because of the hoards of people that holds 65,000 united fans that all sing the same songs. The atmosphere is just totally out of this world. I was more fortunate to get a seat in the Stretford End where it really is bouncing! These people are fans with season tickets and know every song and mainly start them off.

It is a fantastic ground and now I can really see why it is called the 'Theatre of Dreams'. Not only does it hold and immense amount of United fans but it looks fantastic and has good players which normally win against their opponents!














Here are the goals from the match that I was at for the first time below: