Spooktacular II

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, we are proud to present some footage taken at Spooky Splash, the Halloween event at Blue Lagoon…. 

Spooktacular

People are still raving about the Spooky Splash event held at Blue Lagoon the night before Halloween, so I thought I’d belatedly post some pics of it. The line-up of forthcoming events at Pembrokeshire’s premier water park is due to be announced shortly, so watch this space for details (or, at least, a link to where you can find the details).

Lake Placid

Fraught? Stressed? Tense, nervous headache? Chill yourself out by gazing at the utter tranquility captured in these beautiful shots, kindly sent in by Tetsu Sugiuria. Thank you Tetsu. Your gift of calm is much appreciated.

If you’ve taken some cool pictures at Bluestone, or elsewhere in Pembrokeshire, we’d love to share them with our famously discerning blog readership. Please e-mail jpgs to rharris@bluestonewales.com.

Fawkes Facts

It’s November 5 again, the time of the year when millions of people throughout the land have a few drinks then go and handle explosives (though I feel to obliged to state that the fireworks displays here at Bluestone are, of course, conducted with paramount regard for health and safety;))

In the spirit of the season, I have whipped up the following Fawkes Facts, which you may or may not find interesting…

• In 2002, Guy Fawkes came in at number 30 in a poll conducted by the BBC to find the 100 greatest Britons.
• The English have been burning effigies to mark Guy Fawkes’ treason for over 400 years. The tradition started in 1606, the year after the gunpowder plot failed. In many of those early bonfires, it wasn’t an effigy of Fawkes that was burnt, but one of the Pope, a practice which lasted for about 200 years.
• Fawkes spent a large proportion of his life in the Dutch town of Maastricht, which in 1992, was the setting for the signing of the Treaty on the European Union. The Treaty bound the countries of the EU (at the time, still the EC) more tightly together, which in the view of some commentators in the UK, undermined the sovereignty of Parliament – exactly what Fawkes was trying to do.
• The origin of the word ‘bonfire’ is uncertain, but it may have stemmed from ‘bone -fire’ , ie, fire as a means of human sacrifice. Medieval people believed bonfires – or ‘bone-fires’ – repelled dragons which were said to hate the smell of burning human bones.
• The word ‘bonfire’ may also have originated as ‘bane-fire’ or ‘fire of woe’. In French and German, however, it’s known as ‘feu de joi’ and ‘fredenfeur’ respectively, meaning ‘joyous fire.’
• The Japanese word for firework is ‘hanabi’ which means ‘fire flower’
• A sparkler burns at a temperature over 15 times hotter than boiling water. Three sparklers burning together generates as much heat as a blow torch.
• Apparently, the Chinese made the first fireworks in the 800s, by filling bamboo shoots with gunpowder and exploding them at new year in the hope they would scare away evil spirits. Today, over 90 per cent of fireworks sold still originate from China.
• The first recorded use of fireworks in Britain was at the wedding of Henry VII in 1486.
• At family, back-garden displays, sparklers cause more injuries than air bombs, bangers, rockets and Roman candles combined.

If you’re having your own bonfire and firework display this year, then you don’t need me to urge you to be careful. That’s somebody else’s job. Still, as I like to think I’m a responsible kind of person, I offer the clip below, as a fine example of how not to have bonfire…

Garbage Burning Fail
Uploaded by failblog. – Watch more comedy videos and sitcoms.

Countdown to Copenhagen

This week, it’s back to Bluestone’s environment manager, Lucy Hoggins, who is counting down to Copenhagen..

Count Down to Copenhagen; what is it?

The Copenhagen climate change conference from 7^th-18^th December will bring together world leaders to set targets to try and slow down the effects of climate change.  It is the culmination of two years of negotiations and will result in a crucial global agreement to address the causes and consequences of green house gas emissions.

So, what does this actually mean?

The deal will hopefully see world leaders commit to a reduction in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions generated as a result of industrialization and a reduction in the destruction of forests and vegetation that absorb carbon dioxide and act as the Earths lungs.  

If we continue with business as usual, the probable rise in global average temperature relative to pre-industrial times will be 5⁰C or more.

Ironically, although developed countries generate the most CO₂ emissions from lifestyles, it is the least developed countries in the world that will be among the first to suffer as a result of a warming planet, compounding their efforts to tackle poverty.

Climate change is resulting in flooding from rising sea levels from the melting of the Polar Ice Caps, drought in other regions and hostile extremities of weather patterns will cause massive population movements and inevitable conflict around the world. 

The effects are already in clear evidence around the world.  The Maldives is being steadily eaten away by the ocean, resulting in a population who will have to look elsewhere for a place to live. In Northern Kenya, a prolonged drought over several years has led to 10 million hungry people searching for food; many are heading to the cities where they face life in the slums.  There are often droughts in Tanzania leading to once fertile soils turning to dust and no food can be grown, floods in Bangladesh caused by the glaciers in the Himalayas melting and swelling the rivers has left land used for growing food becomes water logged and destroyed.

In the UK, rising sea levels have already resulted in changes in fish stocks with bass being caught of Scotland and a tuna being caught in Milford Docks!

What’s all this got to do with Bluestone?

In some areas, the private sector is leading the way on climate change with innovations and technology to secure energy supply with a low carbon footprint into the future and minimise consumption now.  The economic benefits of running a more efficient business are clear and have encouraged businesses to minimize energy consumption and use of transport where possible.

At Bluestone, we have a pioneering 1.6MW biomass centre generating heat for the Blue Lagoon and Landsker Sports Club which saves up to 3000 tonnes of CO₂ per year compared to if we were to use conventional oil boilers. We have 100 solar thermal panels across park providing hot water for the Caldey and Dinas lodges, harnessing free energy from the sun without having to burn fossil fuels. We have an energy management strategy in place to reduce our consumption with set ongoing targets and last year we were able to purchase a ‘green’ energy tariff, supporting the development of renewable energy technology.

Last year, we also hit some pretty big wins, reducing the amount of CO₂ released as a result of our energy consumption in September 2009 by 45% compared to September 2008 levels!   However, now we are running on a more even keel after opening we have set more modest targets in line with the Welsh Assembly commitment to reduce emissions by 3% year on year and are on target to achieve this goal. 

There is a huge and obvious commitment across Bluestone by all employees in every department and role to support efforts to minimse impacts and to take that ethos home as well.

Thank you to everyone for contributing – don’t forget to ‘switch off’ before going to bed tonight !

And watch this space for further commentary on Copenhagen…

A Blistering Performance

Some people would consider running 13 miles a fun test of stamina. To me, it would constitute a cruel and unusual punishment. To Shelly Lloyd, one of our sales and reservations consultants, it was a challenge, and a challenge she – along with the four other Bluestoners who completed the Cardiff half–marathon last week – rose to in fine style. Here she tells us how it went…

The Bluestoners who recently completed the Cardiff half-marathon: Glenn Hewer, Keith Harber, Debbie Davies, William McNamara and Shelly Loyd

Back in late January, William [McNamara, Bluestone CEO] issued a challenge for a Bluestone team to run the Cardiff half marathon. There was a lot of discussion about this in the office and I mentioned it at home to my husband and son, who readily agreed that I had no hope of running for 13 minutes never mind 13 miles! So I signed up.

My training didn’t start until March when I bought myself a nice pair of trainers and some new t-shirts. The first official training session was in April. We tried out the Nautilus One equipment in the gym and then went for a run around the park. Well, I thought I was going to collapse. I was so unfit. Looking back, it was probably less than two miles, but at the time, it felt like a full marathon. But, rather than being disheartened by this, it made me more determined to do it.

I started running a couple of times a week, increasing my distance every few weeks, and there were times when I did actually enjoy running (these were usually after I got back and was having a nicely chilled glass of wine.)  As October grew closer, I had to decide which charity to raise some money for. I chose Barnardos and as I had to collect money as well as train, I did have second, third and fourth thoughts about what I had signed up for.

We went to Cardiff on the Saturday afternoon so that we didn’t have to get up too early on the Sunday morning. We had a bit of retail therapy, and then went out for a lovely big meal and two or three pints, then back to the hotel to watch Muriel’s Wedding, and then a good night’s sleep. I was woken at 6.45am by my friend Michelle wanting to know if I had any spare safety pins to pin her number on. So much for not getting up to early!

I met up with the rest of the Bluestoners for photos at 8.30am and that’s when I got a bit nervous as they all looked like they were runners and I didn’t look anything like a runner. We had a bit of a discussion to see what times we were hoping to finish in. At 2 ½ hours I was hoping to be one of the slowest.

Photos finished, we headed over to the start. This is where I lost everyone as we all started behind different pace markers. It was quite exciting waiting for the gun to go off; looking around and seeing the fancy dress costumes and all the different charity vests. The starting gun went off and nothing much happened. I was so far back that it took nine minutes to shuffle to the start line.

The first two miles went quite quickly. There were a lot of people running together and you had to watch to make sure you didn’t trip over anyone. We passed a man carrying a cross, but I don’t think it was Jesus as he didn’t have a beard.

As we got down to the bay, there was a woman encouraging people, telling us we were nearly half way. This just confused me as we hadn’t long passed the three mile marker and even my terrible maths can work out that half of 13 is not three! As we ran along the bay, all you could see were thousands of people in front, running in both directions. I then realised I had to run all that way, then turn around and come back.

At five miles, we stopped for the toilet – not that I needed it, I just thought if I don’t go now I might need it later when there wasn’t one. Everything was going well until about eight miles and then I’d had enough. My feet hurt; and I had pins and needles in my feet, legs, arms, hands and even in my bum. I was really starting to regret my three pints of lager from the night before. I had to keep running though as it was worse when I walked. I’m also sure that someone was moving the mile markers because the distance between mile nine and ten was a lot farther than the distance between two and three!

I was a little bit grumpy at this point and could only grunt at Michelle when she was trying to encourage me, which, luckily, she found very funny, so she kept doing it to amuse herself. As we came out of the park at mile 12, our husbands were there cheering us on. This was the perfect place for them to be as it gave me a boost. I could pretend it made me run faster, but the truth is it stopped me from stopping.

As we came around the last corner and saw the finish line, I really did think that I would never get there and had to dig really hard to find the energy to finish. Crossing the finish line, I was full of lots of emotions. Relief that it was all over was the main one.

We were given our medals by one of the volunteers and a ‘goody bag’.  I must admit that I was a bit disappointed by the goody bag as there was no chocolate in it. My husband caught up with us just past the finish and gave me the biggest squeeze, which I think meant he was proud of me. We had to hand the our timing chip back in so that we could get an accurate time. I managed to do 2 hours and 34 mins, which was a bit slow but considering the large meal I had the night before, wasn’t too bad. It took about 10 minutes for me not too be quite so grumpy; I got my chocolate and a can of diet coke and then I was happy.

People keep asking me if I enjoyed it. Well, ‘enjoy’ isn’t the right word, but I’m glad I did it. Will I do it again? Definitely!

Fearsome Fun and Ghastly Games

The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundary between the living and the dead dissolved. Fearing that the dead would spread sickness and damage crops, they held bonfire-lit festivals to try and placate the spirits.

At Bluestone, we don’t take things quite so seriously. We just like dressing up and having a bit of a laugh. In fact, we’ve got a whole cauldron full of ideas boiling away, ready to be ladled up at Halloween, but even if you’re not coming to visit us for the spookiest time of the year, you still might like to cast an eye over these ideas – fresh from the spell book of Activities and Entertainments Manager Stacey Burch – for Halloween fun and games that’ll get the kids cackling even more maniacally than usual…

 

Potion-making

To whip up a devilishly delicious potion or two, you’ll need a few bowls and bottles, and the following ingredients…

Bats’ Blood (or Ribena)

Intestines (or spaghetti)

Green food colour, to dye the ‘intestines’

Cats’ eyes and spider juice (or soft sweets)

Zombie blood (or lime/strawberryade)

Bat droppings (raisins)

Magic powder (Canderel)

And various other ingredients if you have a good imagination!

 Simply fill the bottles and bowls with the ingredients and label them accordingly. The children can then mix their potions before settling down to consume them.

Pick Their Brains

Cook a large pot of different shaped pasta, such as spirals or macaroni, then add red or green food colouring. Drain and cool completely. Place cooled pasta in a large plastic bowl and add a few olives. Then add some wrapped sweets or treats like fun-sized chocolate bars.

Cover the bowl with material that you’ve cut into a decorative shape like a pumpkin or monster’s head, or use a scary cloth or rubber mask that  you don’t mind cutting into. Once the bowl is covered, cut a slit which is just large enough for the children to put their hands through – no larger. They should not be able to see the contents of the bowl.

Sit the kids in a circle and let them take turns digging into the bowl to find the candies. They won’t be able to see into the bowl and the icky texture of the pasta along with the olives will feel like brains!

Mummy Wrap

Buy some cheap rolls or toilet paper and perhaps some crepe paper streamers in Halloween colors. Split the kids up into teams of two. One child will be the “mummy” and the other is in charge of wrapping up the child like a mummy…

When you start playing the music, the teams can start wrapping up the mummy. Try to play some fun Halloween songs like ‘Monster Mash’. When you turn the music off, the kids need to stop.

The team whose mummy is more mummified (or wrapped) wins.

Older kids can have even more fun if you turn the lights right down when you turn the music on – it makes it much harder and they will get the giggles!

See who can use the tissue paper to wrap up one of their teammates the fastest. The first one to complete their mummy using the entire roll wins. Alternatively, play this as a competitive game – just let the kids go to town!

Just the place for a spirited experience

Pembrokeshire is rife with myth, legend, yarn and tall tale, so it’s hardly surprising that, tucked away in our history locker, we have a wealth of ghost stories – and with Halloween approaching, I thought it was time I dusted the cobwebs off a couple…

Just a few minutes drive from Bluestone is Carew Castle. Over its 2000-year history, the castle has developed from a Norman fortification to an Elizabethan country house, and with its stunning location overlooking a 23-acre millpond, it’s a fascinating and very popular place to visit.

But as tranquil as Carew Castle appears, such a long – and often turbulent – history cannot be entirely free of tragedy and, yes, horror.

Not too long ago, the local newspapers reported how a photograph taken on a children’s visit to the castle had also managed to capture the indistinct image of figure robed in white. Most people credited the image to a processing anomaly, but others suspected differently, for they remembered one of the most famous inhabitants of the castle, the Princess Nest.

Born around 1080, Princess Nest was the daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, a Welsh prince from the lineage of the kingdom of Deheubarth. After her father’s death in 1093, Nest spent much of her youth in the court of Henry I by whom she had her first son. In 1100 she married Gerald de Windsor, an Anglo-Norman baron who was much older than Nest. He was constable of Pembroke Castle at the time and was given the site of Carew Castle as a dowry. Together, they built the first castle on the site in which to bring up their family of at least five children.

By this time, however, Nest had grown famous as the most beautiful woman in Wales. Indeed, Owain ap Cadwgan, son of another Welsh prince, became utterly bewitched by her. So much so that he vowed she would be his. One night in 1109, he scaled the walls of Carew Castle and started a fire.

As confusion reigned, Nest urged her husband to escape, via the undignified route of a toilet shaft (which can still be seen today). Nest herself remained – perhaps not unwillingly – to be kidnapped by Owain and taken back to his domain. She would later give him two children.

Owain had won the battle but not the war, and six years after the raid on Carew, Gerald regained his honour by killing Owain in an ambush, and retrieving his wife. Only a year later, however, Gerald was to die in battle.

It is thought that Nest died in 1136 after a colorful and eventful life, but many hold that she still walks the stone corridors of Carew Castle, pining for her slain love. Whether that love was Owain or Gerald, however, is open to conjecture….

Carew Castle is also said to be house other, slightly less conventional ghosts.

Sir Roland Rhys inhabited the castle in the 17^th century, holding court in the north-west tower. An eccentric sort, Sir Roland kept an unusual pet: a barbary ape, said to be a wretched creature, captured half-crazed from shipwreck and now enchained for entertainment.

One fateful, storm-wracked night, a Flemish tradesman managed to gain entry to the tower. Distressed and emotional, the tradesman told how Rhys’ son had forced his way into his home and attacked his daughter.

A drunken Rhys, however, was far from sympathetic. He loosened the ape’s chains and goaded it into mauling the tradesman, who just managed to escape with his life, and fled the castle

Later that night, the tradesman saw thick smoke engulfing the tower. Warily, he made his way back into the castle – and saw Rhys and the ape locked in mortal combat, a lighted taper in Rhys’ hand igniting all it touched. The tradesman left them to it.

History fails to record exactly how the fight ended, but the ghosts of Sir Roland Rhys and that of the tormented ape are said to haunt the castle to this day.

While Carew is probably the most famous of Pembrokeshire’s haunted castles, it’s not the only one. Pembroke Castle, about seven miles or so from Bluestone, also has an, ahem, spirited reputation, and if you’re the curious sort, you just might want to check out this clip…

There is, however, one great way to find out if any of these legendary goblets holds the nectar of fact – and that’s to come and visit us at Bluestone, and have a look round for yourself. Be careful what you wish for though – you just might find it….

Jog on

Just a brief snippet to wish the best of luck to all the Bluestone people running in the Cardiff half-marathon tomorrow.

William McNamara, Shelly Lloyd, Keith Harber, Glenn Hewer, Debbie Davies and Claire Lewis will all be lacing up their trainers and pounding the streets of the capital, and a variety of good causes are set to benefit from their exertions.

Big respect to all of them for having a go, and putting us desk-jockeys to shame.

There’s lovely, isn’t it

I’d like to thank the people who kindly responded to my appeal the other day for cool photos taken at Bluestone and elsewhere in Pembrokeshire. There are clearly some talented snappers out there. The first pic I’d like to use is this one, sent in by Miss Samantha Thomas. I think you’ll agree – that’s a top bit of sky we have there.