Archive for June, 2010
My Year in Photos – June 29th – “Watch Cars now daddy?”
Having been away from him for a week, it was absolutely lovely to be able to spend the afternoon with Robert today, while Sara (who it was also lovely to see, btw!) had a parent’s evening at school. It was particularly sweet when he walked over to me while I was sat down, hugged my leg and said “I love you daddy”.
The ‘moment’ was slightly dampened when he followed it a few seconds later with “… watch Cars now daddy?” – though we did to be fair, and he loved it just as much as always. He is watching Cars (clutching his Lightning McQueen) in today’s photo – I think this was during one of the sad bits!
My Year in Photos – June 28th – “Nothing like a good queue”
I should apologise again at this point for the slightly woozy nature of my dating conventions while travelling – I’m pretty sure this photo was taken on the 28th (though admittedly right at the end) though the time differences are very confusing. Either way, today’s photo was taken in Bangkok International airport (aka Suvarnabhumi International) while we had an hour to stretch our legs as the plane re-fuelled.
It was actually quite annoying, since it took almost the entire hour to walk the ridiculously convoluted route they make you walk from the plane, deep in to the airport to get your bags checked, then back to the start via a completely different route to get back on again. Not that there was much to DO in the airport, but still – I guess it was better than just staying on the plane watching the lightning storms overhead!
My Year in Photos – June 27th – “Two landmarks for the price of one”
My Year in Photos – June 27th – "Two landmarks for the price of one", originally uploaded by henweb.
I spent today getting a mini tour of Sydney -or I should probably say an ‘alternative’ tour, since we generally avoided all the more obvious stuff. With my tour-guides Aidan and Tracy, we visited: The ‘famous’ Bourke Street Bakery (queue around the block to get in, hence we didn’t bother!), the famous Bondi beach (freezing cold and windy), drove over the Harbour Bridge, visited a supermarket/mall (stocked up on ludicrous amounts of Australian chocolates to take home), had sushi in a lovely little restaurant in Darlinghurst and ate delicious Gelato ice cream in a shop I’ve forgotten the name of.
It was lovely to be shown around by locals in a car – I think I got to see lots of the back-streets and not quite such touristy things, plus I got to do it in the comfort of a BMW! Win-win!
My Year in Photos – June 26th – “I’m feeling very Manly”
This afternoon I spent some time in the company of my Australian hosts-of-sorts, who live in the beautiful Manly. Manly is a short ferry ride (or a much longer car journey) from the middle of Sydney, but it feels like a whole other country. Beautiful beaches, small buildings, sleep neighbourhoods – I think Manly is more what I had pictured in my head for Australia than Sydney is.
It was a lovely afternoon, featuring a trip to the beach to see the surfers, a walk through some authentic Aussie bush/scrub, and dinner at a lovely restaurant/bar. A good time was had by all!
My Year in Photos – June 25th – “Always Coca Cola… and scuzz”
I spent the day today doing work-related stuff, most of which I can’t really post photos of. So I opted instead to go with a shot from my evening, which was spent having post-work drinks in a bar called ‘Goldfish’ in Sydney’s Kings Cross district. I have been assured that Kings Cross, as well as being the place you generally ‘go out’ in around Sydney, is also the ‘scuzzy’ district, housing as it does all the drug dens and prostitutes. I didn’t see either of those, but I did go half deaf in an extremely noisy bar so I’ll go with it. Kings Cross also hosts the above signage, which the locals tell me is their version of Leicester Square. It’s just one sign… Have they even SEEN Leicester Square?! :D
My Year in Photos – June 24th – “I come to you from the future”
Easily the coolest thing about being in Australia is the niggling feeling of being ‘in the future’, which isn’t actually stressing me out of confusing me – just filling me with child-like glee! I’m going to do spoilers at the end of each day, so you know what’s coming up.
Today’s shot is of some of Sydney’s fine sky-scrapers, taken from the lovely surroundings of the Botanic Gardens. I took a stroll through them and round the Opera House (with my baggage) while waiting to be able to check-in to my hotel – it was a lovely thing to do, and I was very pleased to find myself at one point surrounded by bats, and not at all frightened. I think I might become Batman, if Bruce Wayne ever retires – I reckon I’d be quite good at it!
My Year in Photos – June 23rd – “Just passing through”
Today’s photo was taken in the inside of Bangkok’s International Airport, which I spent approximately an hour inside as our plane was being refueled and having some passenger changes. I’m pretty sure it was June 23rd – trouble with flying through so many timezeones is that I’ve lost track of the days a bit. I might have had to resort to uploading a very dull shot of the inside of my plane, had we not been stopping off in Thailand – worse still, I might have been arrested for doing so! Not that this stopped me mind you, it just saves you having an even duller image today :D
My Year in Photos – June 22nd – “Live, from the BBC studios…”
Today’s photo is of the famous BBC Broadcasting House, which I happened to be walking past on my way to a panel session I was speaking at. Not to do any disservice to the conference, which was very informative, but a room full of people intently listening to somebody talking about CRM systems in online customer services doesn’t really make for the best photo opps. Neither did any of the random airport shots I took later in the day, as I made my way to Heathrow for my flight to Australia. So I opted for the reliable old BBC instead – it’s a very nice building, so I hope that justifies it enough! :D
My Year in Photos – June 21st – “Burning on the freeway”
I do hope nobody got hurt in this vehicle fire, or what I has assumed would be a funny song title pun-style title to this picture might actually be very inappropriate…
Either way, this burning lorry played a major part in my day, essentially just by being there – the incident, despite being on the other side of the Motorway, delayed my journey to work by a good half hour. Not that this is much to complain about mind you, in the grand scheme of things…
My Year in Photos – June 20th – “Just relaxing in the garden”
After a long drive back from Somerset, we spent the afternoon relaxing in the garden. It doesn’t make for the most interesting photos / story, but it was very nice! :D