Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Wacky Waving Arm-Flailing Inflatable Tube-men. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Wacky Waving Arm-Flailing Inflatable Tube-men. Sort by date Show all posts

Monday, September 07, 2015

A visit to Bridlington

Blog from a couple of hours in Bridlington.

In July we had a fun, albeit short, trip to Bridlington. The seaside town has long been on our to-visit list and it did not disappoint. We're already really looking forward to going back for longer next summer.

By the Crazy Golf course on the Foreshore
By the Crazy Golf course on the Foreshore

Well be posting more pics and videos from the minigolf, crazy golf and adventure golf courses we played there, but before we get to that I had to post a snap of this great inflatable that we saw at the Bayside Fun Park on the seafront!

Photo of Bayside Fun Park in Bridlington
'Homer' in Bridlington. Notice the little Frog bin too

Photo of Bayside Fun Park in Bridlington
A view of the Bayside Fun park in Bridlington. I picked up some great amusement park tokens for my collection of seaside exonumia there as well

I'm always on the lookout for quirky and fun stuff to spot on our travels. We see quite a few Wacky Waving Arm-Flailing Inflatable Tube Men aka Airdancers. And next door-but-one to the Treasure Island Adventure Golf course there was one sat atop the Tidal Treats shop!

Photo of a Wacky Waving Arm-Flailing Inflatable Tube Man in Bridlington

Videos:
- Crazy Mini Golf Hole-in-One at Treasure Island Adventure Golf in Bridlington
- Mini Golf Hole in One at Treasure Island Adventure Golf in Bridlington
- Foreshore Sands Crazy Golf course in Bridlington

Like the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour on Facebook, check out our YouTube channel and follow me and Emily on Twitter.

Saturday, October 06, 2012

A Quarter of a Million visits to The Ham & Egger Files!

Today The Ham & Egger Files received its 250,000th visitor!
 
From my first blog post in December 2006 until the end of December 2011 the site received 100,000 hits and in the last nine and bit months it's received a further 150,000 visits!  People that like "Ham" and/or "Eggs" must be sorely disappointed to find a blog predominantly about Minigolf upon their visit.
 
Thank you to everyone who has visited, read, commented and linked to content on the site. It’s very much appreciated.
 
Some of the most searched for terms from visitors to The Ham & Egger Files are 'minigolf', 'crazy golf', 'crazy golf London, 'laser quest' and 'mini golf London'. From 1,527 blog posts the most visited with 21,053 hits is the 'Minigolf and Crazy Golf courses in and around London' blog post.
 
In addition to details of our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, The Ham & Egger Files also contains posts about a number of different things including Air Hockey, Amusement Arcades, Arm Champs II Arcade Games Arm Wrestling, Brussels Sprout Competitive Eating, Bun Throwing, Christmas Tree Throwing, Conga Dancing, Crazy Air Squash, Crazy Golf, Crystal Maze Games, Darts, Dodgeball, Egg Throwing, Fake Alligators/Crocodiles, Gluten Free Food & Places to Eat, Guinness World Records, Lazer (Laser) Tag, Picnicking, Piers, (Ping) Pong, Pirate Flyer Laser Monorails, Rock Paper Scissors, Shooting Shacks, 'Tat' Challenges, Tea Rooms, Thumb Wrestling, Town Criers and Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm-Flailing Tube Men!
 
The most views of the site have come from the UK, some 171,530 hits. In second place with 38,705 is the USA, while there have been 3,935 visits from Germany and 3,649 from Russia. Visitors from Canada, France, Ireland, Australia, Netherlands and South Korea make up the rest of the all-time top ten page views by country.
 
The blog has now received hits from over a quarter of a million people from 112 countries! Quite what the person from RĂ©union, a French Island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, was looking for I don’t exactly now. Here’s a list of the 112 countries that The Ham & Egger Files has been visited from:
 
1. Afghanistan
2. Algeria
3. Andorra
4. Argentina
5. Armenia
6. Australia
7. Austria
8. Bahrain
9. Bangladesh
10. Belarus
11. Belgium
12. Bermuda
13. Bosnia and Herzegovina
14. Brazil
15. Brunei
16. Bulgaria
17. Burundi
18. Canada
19. Chile
20. China
21. Colombia
22. Costa Rica
23. Croatia
24. Cyprus
25. Czech Republic
26. Denmark
27. Dominican Republic
28. Ecuador
29. Egypt
30. Estonia
31. Ethiopia
32. Finland
33. France
34. Gabon
35. Georgia
36. Germany
37. Ghana
38. Greece
39. Guatemala
40. Guernsey
41. Hong Kong
42. Hungary
43. Iceland
44. India
45. Indonesia
46. Iraq
47. Ireland
48. Isle of Man
49. Israel
50. Italy
51. Jamaica
52. Japan
53. Jersey
54. Jordan
55. Kuwait
56. Laos
57. Latvia
58. Libya
59. Lithuania
60. Macau
61. Macedonia [FYROM]
62. Malaysia
63. Malta
64. Martinique
65. Mauritius
66. Mexico
67. Moldova
68. Mongolia
69. Montenegro
70. Morocco
71. Myanmar (Burma)
72. Namibia
73. Nepal
74. Netherlands
75. New Zealand
76. Nigeria
77. Norway
78. Pakistan
79. Panama
80. Peru
81. Philippines
82. Poland
83. Portugal
84. Puerto Rico
85. Qatar
86. RĂ©union
87. Romania
88. Russia
89. Samoa
90. Saudi Arabia
91. Serbia
92. Singapore
93. Slovakia
94. Slovenia
95. South Africa
96. South Korea
97. Spain
98. Sri Lanka
99. Sweden
100. Switzerland
101. Taiwan
102. Tanzania
103. Thailand
104. Tunisia
105. Turkey
106. Ukraine
107. United Arab Emirates
108. Uruguay
109. USA
110. Uzbekistan
111. Venezuela
112. Vietnam
 
Here's to the next quarter of a million hits to the blog.
 

Saturday, January 07, 2012

100,000+ hits - Thank you for reading!

Towards the end of December 2011 The Ham & Egger Files had its 100,000th 'hit'!

I’d like to start the New Year by thanking everyone for visiting and reading the blog over the years.

Looking at the web stats, The Ham & Egger Files has been visited by people from 32 countries outside of the UK, including Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, France, Finland, Germany, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Moldova, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Turkey, the USA and Venezuela.

So, wherever you are from and whatever your interests are, be it Miniature Golf (Air Hockey, Amusement Arcades, Arm Champs II Arcade Games Arm Wrestling, Brussels Sprout Competitive Eating, Bun Throwing, Conga Dancing, Crazy Air Squash, Crazy Golf, Crystal Maze Games, Darts, Dodgeball, Fake Alligators/Crocodiles, Gluten Free, Guinness World Records, Lazer Tag, Picnicking, Piers, (Ping) Pong, Pirate Flyer Laser Monorails, Rock Paper Scissors, Shooting Shacks, 'Tat' Challenges, Tea Rooms, Thumb Wrestling or Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm-Flailing Tube Men) do keep checking back for more...as I'll be continuing to write about our travels on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour (and other sports and games).

If you have any suggestions or comments to make please do let me know, it’s always good to hear feedback from visitors from around the world.

All the best for 2012.

Richard

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Wacky, Waving, Inflatable, Arm-Flailing, Tube-men

Spotted in Luton:


And in Guildford:

Friday, September 13, 2013

Plaque-ing Interesting

Doing a spot of historic plaque spotting on our travels.

Travelling around as much as Emily and I do its inevitable things leap out of the surrounding area and catch our eye.

While we are primarily interested in visiting each and every seaside in the UK (175 and counting) and all of the country’s Miniature Golf courses (currently at 536) over the years our interest has been piqued by a wide-range of other bits and pieces.

From funny signs to interesting places, missing letters to brown tourist signs, bollards to bun throwingabandoned shoes to Bar Billiards tables, and wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men to milestones we’ve spotted and done a lot of very different things on our thousands upon thousands of miles of road trips around the British Isles.

The latest ‘thing’ that’s piqued our interest is Plaques.

Last year I bought a book called 'Signs of life', by Dave Askwith and Alex Normanton, that contained photos of spoof signs and mock street furniture the pair had created and put up around the country. One of the photos showed a faux 'English Heritage' Blue Plaque commemorating the ‘famous’ Jacob von Hogflume (1864-1909) – a noted Time Traveller who lived at the site of the blue plaque in Golden Square, London in the year 2063! Oh yes he exists, he’s even on twitter so he must be real.

Sadly when I visited the location in the book the plaque was no longer there, instead I snapped this legitimate blue plaque put up by English Heritage.

A Blue Plaque
The Marquess of Pombal lived here. Jacob Von Hogflume will live there in the future

From there I found the Open Plaques website and online resource (with a very active Twitter and Facebook presence).

Historic plaques come in a number of shapes, sizes and colours, and act as historical markers commemorating links between famous people or events. There is a range of criteria as to how one gets installed and by who, and we’ve spotted a lot of different types on our travels. One of my favourite ‘spots’ to date was in Enfield, Middlesex recently.

Me and the plaque that commemorates Reg 'Stan Butler' Varney's use of the world's first cash machine in Enfield!

Ahead of our visit I’d consulted the excellent Londonist website for ideas of places to go and things to see in Enfield. As well as the great riverside pub – The Crown and Horseshoes – the Londonist article reminded me that Enfield’s branch of Barclay’s bank was the location of the world’s very first cash machine – opened and used by Reg Varney in 1967!

As a big fan of On the Buses I had a chance to see the Reg Varney Star Plaque on the Elstree & Borehamwood Walk of Fame by the train station during the On The Buses Fan Club 40th Anniversary event in 2011 and it was great to follow this up with the chance to have a photo at ‘Stan Butler’s’ cashpoint!

Do check out the Open Plaques website for details of plaques worldwide. If you spot any that aren’t on the site do let them know as they are keen for more contributors.

So far we've spotted a variety of plaques including blue, green, red, black, brown, gold, silver ones; ones that are official, some unofficial; round ones, square ones, rectangular one, oval ones; plain ones and some more fancy. And by the looks of the Open Plaques website and community there are thousands more to find!

As well as the English Heritage plaques we've spotted those put up by the Cecil Court Traders' Association, the Stone Federation, the City of Westminster, Westminster City Council, Hastings Borough Council, the London County Council, Bournemouth Borough Council, Worthing Borough Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Walton Community Forum, Barnard Council Town Council, The Corporation of the City of London, The Ipswich Society, the Greater London Council, Barclays Bank Plc, Luton Borough Council, the African Caribbean Community Development Forum, the Rotary Clubs of Worthing and Worthing Steyne, Heritage in Sutton and the Republic of Texas!

Here’s a selection of our favourite plaques spotted so far…

Plaque at the headquarters of the Monster Raving Loony Party
At the headquarters of the Monster Raving Loony Party in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales with my World Alternative Games Egg Throwing Championship winning team-mate Jas Kukielka

One of the many plaques on the Barnard Castle Blue Plaque Trail and one of many about Charles Dickens in the UK

A black and gold plaque from the Stone Federation

London's Cecil Court has blue plaques...

...blue paper plaques...

...and a green plaque.

"The Concrete King's" plaque in Hastings, East Sussex

Chatham House didn't keep this huge blue plaque quiet

The Old Bank House in Hastings, East Sussex

The Communications Building in London's Leicester Square has two brown plaques for Sir Joshua Reynolds

A fuller view of the lower brown plaque for Sir Joshua Reynolds

An elaborate Corporation of the City of London plaque

The Piece of Cheese Cottage in Hastings, East Sussex

One of The Ipswich Society's new blue plaques

One of a number of plaques about Sir Winston Churchill that can be found around the country

A part of Market Hill on George Street in Luton won a design award in 1998

A rectangular blue plaque in Luton, Bedfordshire

The new Minigolf course in Barnard Castle, County Durham has a plaque in memory of the man responsible for bringing Minigolf to the town

A close-up of the dedication plaque to Alan Wilkinson on the Barnard Castle Minigolf course

The train station in Needham Market, Suffolk has a variety of blue plaques on the station house building

The Tom Cribb pub on Panton Street, near Leicester Square has a blue plaque...

...a blue board/plaque...

...and a gold plaque detailing the history of the pub and the fighter it is named after

Heritage in Sutton has put up quite a few very interesting red plaques around Carshalton

One of the redder red plaques in Carshalton

A small and high up plaque in Hastings' Old Town

The house where T.E. Lawrence lived in Westminster, London

The City of Westminster has a lot of green plaques dotted around the borough


There's an intriguing plaque at Pickering Place in London

A close-up of the Texas Legation gold plaque in London. The Texas Legation was a type of Embassy for the Republic in the 1800's

A black plaque from Westminster City Council on Victoria Street in London

One of Worthing's many plaques

A nice plaque on a nice building in Worthing, West Sussex

Sir Dan Godfrey's blue plaque in Bournemouth, Dorset

A plaque at Enfield train station

Hastings has a Winkle Island

The Pedestrian Shopping Street in Hastings was re-opened by Carry on... star Bernard Bresslaw in 1987! 

The blue plaque at the train station in Walton on the Naze in Essex

A close-up of the Walton Station Hotel blue plaque

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