Scuba DivingThe Water of LifeGeneral MiscellaneousMusicals

More commonly known as whisky, this spirit is an acquired taste, but once you've acquired it, you never get rid of it!  I had my first taste at 3 months old, and my liking has only grown since!  I also have expensive tastes, so I tend to drink single malt whisky, my favourites being Highland Park, from Orkney, and Edradour, from Scotland's smallest distillery near Pitlochry.

The Whisky Map will give you a run down on all the Scotch distilleries and what their products taste like - they vary greatly and there is usually one to suit most people's tastes.
I often buy miniatures of different whiskies to try them out - or try to find a willing victim volunteer to buy one for me - which can prove very interesting. One of the best selections I ever saw in a bar was in the hiker's bar in the Sligachan Hotel in Skye where I think they had at least one bottle of most of the malts produced in Scotland.

As a side note, only Scotch can be called whisky, all other similar products are called whiskey - sorry, but I can be pedantic at times!

This is just a list of various interesting sites that don't really fit into any other category!  Some have been found on other people's sites - for which I thank them profusely - and others just during general web surfing - usually whilst looking for something entirely different!  I hope you enjoy visiting some of them. 

Internet Movie Database (IMDb) - a wonderful site for any movie/TV nut. Other than the most basic of information about plot lines etc., also covers loads of other information such as actors (biographies, trivia, filmography), crew of all descriptions (i.e. if they've got a credit, they're on the list!), trivia about the films and people, goofs in films (very amusing/interesting), filming locations, release dates, and links to official and not so official websites.  How do you think I found all the links on the Movie page!!  Join the club and you can vote for the films - whether you love it or hate, you get your say - you can also post comments about the films, shows etc.

CIA's 1997 World Factbook - this is an interesting web site.  Part of the CIA site, it is the listing of all pertinent information for all the countries of the world - compiled for the US foreign service, and very useful for anyone with a child doing a geography project!  Thank you to lostpolarbear for finding this site! 

Foreign and Commonwealth Office - Travel Advice - advice from the UK foreign office on possible danger zones around the world, and which ones it is not advised to travel to.

Secret Kingdom - information about those most secret of organisations, the SAS, SBS, MI5, MI6, GCHQ - not an official site, but makes interesting reading.

DVLA - Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority - information on requirements for driving in the UK - tests, licenses, vehicles etc.

Dansel Designs - this is a small woodworking and craft shop in the village of Abbotsbury in Dorset, England.  A wonderful shop in a lovely village, where I spent all too much money this year on holiday!  Although not much of their stock is shown here, they have a wide range of unique and beautiful wood objects, from pens and lightpulls to desks and chairs. 

UK STD Dialling Codes - this may seem an odd page to put in here, but it is really useful!  Have you ever had a telephone number and wondered where the code was for??  This will solve your problem - also has access to international dialling codes.  Worth bookmarking just in case.

Postcode Search - need to know the postcode for someone? Try here - you can do the occasional search for free, but more extensive searching will cost.

Route Planner - the RAC's web page access to planning a journey in the UK - will provide you with the fastest or most direct routes, and with information about the latest road hold-ups. The service can also be set to send you an email at a convenient time with the route and the latest road news.

Web site development pages - useful for anyone considering writing or changing their web site - some of these are more advanced than others, but all may be useful in some fashion: 

• NCSA HTML resources - a beginner's guide to how to write HTML - it's very useful to know how html code works, even if you use composer software - then you can tell why it's not doing what you want!
• Dougie's color picker - a picture of html hex colour codes - make your life easier getting the right colour rather than guessing all the time - also can be used in Yahoo chat for changing text colour!
• Graphics Search Engine - allows you to search the members of the Graphics Web Ring for free graphics to use on your personal site - I found it very useful!
• Search Engine Watch - a review of how search engine's work (helps you target your searching strategies to get faster and more informative results) and how to tag your html documents to get picked up by the various different search engine bots, crawlers and spiders.

This is a relatively new section as I've just become obsessed by 

Click image for link to official site

I first saw it about 5 years ago when I went with the school where I was working at the time.  I really enjoyed it then - and collected the soundtracks etc.  The touring show came back this Autumn and I'm hooked again!  It has been a rather expensive winter - I saw it another 4 times!  Although Les Mis is really rather a sad story - people do keep dying in it - there are also very funny moments.  Well worth seeing if you haven't yet - though it is long at over 3 hours, so get comfortable!

Click for link to official site
The only other musical I've seen recently was Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.  Going with a bunch of schoolgirls meant that there were some very loud wolfwhistles from around me when Joseph (Phillip Schofield) appeared in just his loincloth!!  Very different from Les Mis, but great fun all the same.

Well, there you have it - my weird and wonderful collection of strange and odd sites I've collected from around the place.  I hope enjoyed some of them, and will visit again as I will no doubt find more!