Hello all,
Go to http://tinyurl.com/4hvwqn to view a selection of 99/243 pictures taken on our recent holiday.
Creating the album and putting it on the web was fairly intuitive, and, like everything else, things will improve with practice. I find I am very very critical when it comes to photos; I am easily displeased with either my own or other peoples pix. Conversely, when a picture appeals to me and stands out of the pack then I heap praise on it. I like pix that have plenty of subject matter and that are well composed and balanced. Pleasing to the eye.
I am not a fan of my own image on photo, but they say that the camera never lies. On one trip on the Docklands Light Rail in London I was interested in the camera techique of an American tourist who said that he often got better pictures by just vaguely waving the camera at the subject and pressing the button...that is to say he did not use any viewfinding to set the picture up. I must try that technique, because often, in attempting to compose a picture, I still cannot escape that lamp post sprouting from someones head or the pile of food and plates in front of the group of people. I also believe that the professionals will take dozens of photos of the same subject and sort through them for the best, so that by sheer weight of numbers they will come up with that 'perfect' photo.
There must also be room for those posed studio shots that I find in my family history studies; wonderful family groups in their best or borrowed clothes, with a backdrop screen behind and those rich sepia or black & white tones. My family history studies leave me in perpertual awe of the fact that those shots were taken and have survived...but how important it is to know the who, what, when and where of the subject matter!!!
Enough for now...I am pleased to have posted the album!
Friday, October 10, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Back in Canberra
Well folks, the show is over. Lynne & I arrived back into a cold Canberra at 2100 last night after a good 24 hours of travel from the door of the Ibis Hotel in Charles Street, Manchester to home in Canberra. It was indeed a grind through the fatiguing hours of flying, then the hassles of transferring between planes.
We started off at about 0600 on Monday morning, well organized to get a minicab [Somalian driver] to the departure terminal at Manchester Ringway airport. We had not read the ticket properly, and found ourselves at the wrong terminal!! Luckly, our early start meant that there was good time for us to transfer on the free shuttle bus; later, once on board the jet and sitting on the tarmac, the departure was delayed an hour...not a good start!
Service was impecable from the Singapore Airlines cabin crew; who kept us fed, watered and amused for the 12 hours across Europe and then Asia, through a day and night, before we landed at Singapore Changi airport in a tropical dawn on Tuesday. En route there were glimpses of the Black Sea coast and Caucasus Mountains behind Georgia.
Only a few hours on the ground there, including a free transfer on the automatic monorail shuttle trains, before we were on our way to Sydney through the daylight hours of Tuesday. The transfer bus at the tired looking Sydney Mascot airport was $11.00.
After a few hours wait at T2 we boarded the Virgin Airlines Boeing 737 for the short flight to Canbera and so to home.
Canberra has a springtime feel, with grass, trees and weeds bursting out of their winter hibernation. Daylight saving started on the weekend, so we are now GMT +11 hours. A huge blue sky and a chill wind; swallows dipping to and fro and on the nearby pond proud parent black swans with their two downy grey cygnets. The resident magpies lost no time in realizing that we were back and so came down for their usual feed of bread.
Before winding up this blog I plan to download all the pix we took and create a Picassa web album; I also want to do a check of all the gear I packed to go away with that I did not use as well as note the favorite gear of the trip. The only souvenirs that I came back with were about seven maps and two scarves... more details later.
PSD
We started off at about 0600 on Monday morning, well organized to get a minicab [Somalian driver] to the departure terminal at Manchester Ringway airport. We had not read the ticket properly, and found ourselves at the wrong terminal!! Luckly, our early start meant that there was good time for us to transfer on the free shuttle bus; later, once on board the jet and sitting on the tarmac, the departure was delayed an hour...not a good start!
Service was impecable from the Singapore Airlines cabin crew; who kept us fed, watered and amused for the 12 hours across Europe and then Asia, through a day and night, before we landed at Singapore Changi airport in a tropical dawn on Tuesday. En route there were glimpses of the Black Sea coast and Caucasus Mountains behind Georgia.
Only a few hours on the ground there, including a free transfer on the automatic monorail shuttle trains, before we were on our way to Sydney through the daylight hours of Tuesday. The transfer bus at the tired looking Sydney Mascot airport was $11.00.
After a few hours wait at T2 we boarded the Virgin Airlines Boeing 737 for the short flight to Canbera and so to home.
Canberra has a springtime feel, with grass, trees and weeds bursting out of their winter hibernation. Daylight saving started on the weekend, so we are now GMT +11 hours. A huge blue sky and a chill wind; swallows dipping to and fro and on the nearby pond proud parent black swans with their two downy grey cygnets. The resident magpies lost no time in realizing that we were back and so came down for their usual feed of bread.
Before winding up this blog I plan to download all the pix we took and create a Picassa web album; I also want to do a check of all the gear I packed to go away with that I did not use as well as note the favorite gear of the trip. The only souvenirs that I came back with were about seven maps and two scarves... more details later.
PSD
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Manchester City 2 Liverpool 3
On a sparking sunny autumn day, after 12 hours of overnight rain, Manchester has delivered a magnificent finale to our holiday. Steve, Lynne & I had bought seats for the Premier League match Man City [10th on table] v Liverpool [2nd on the table]. The match was a sellout with 45000 vociferous fans in the City Stadium. The match was a thriller with all five goals scored at one end, the end where we were sitting, in line with the penalty box and just a few rows back from the sideline!!! I bought a Man City sky blue scarf as a souvenir and a practical one at that to keep out the chill.
We are staying at an Ibis chain hotel in the city centre and after a last supper with Steve we fly out for Oz tomorrow morning. We have been away four weeks and it feels like four months... a sure sign of a good holiday.
Thanks Reg & Linda and also Juliet for blog comments.
Peter
We are staying at an Ibis chain hotel in the city centre and after a last supper with Steve we fly out for Oz tomorrow morning. We have been away four weeks and it feels like four months... a sure sign of a good holiday.
Thanks Reg & Linda and also Juliet for blog comments.
Peter
Saturday, October 4, 2008
The Davis Expeditionary Force back from France
Hello folks,
Our five day excursion across the Channel to France was another amazing episode in our holiday. Rachel & Kevin got up early last Sunday morning to get us to Victoria Coach Station. There we boarded the Eurolines coach, destination Antwerp, with Lille as a stop off. On a sunny and very hazy day we drove through Kent to the white cliffs of Dover, then a one hour ferry crossing on dead calm seas. From Calais it was a one hour drive on the autoroute through the northern French countryside to the sprawling metropolis of Lille.
We had checked in to the modern All Seasons Hotel in the middle of the Lille centre for one night but ended up there for the four nights. The very small bedroom was more than compensated for with comfortable beds, spacious lounge & dining area and sumptuous continental breakfast. The location was also very convenient.
From the centre of town a vast network of buses, trams and metro stretches out across the Lille conurbation, right to the Belgian border, where we visited Armentieres. Our plans to cross the border to visit Ypres in Belgium did not eventuate, but as always we took a path of lesser resistance and opted for a day trip to Dunkerque. In a howling gale we at least saw the edge of the beaches from which the famous evacuation took place in World War Two.
Lille is a bustling young city; there is a huge university population. Immigrants of various complexions crowd the street, the latest and very obvious arrivals are the swarthy Romanian gypsies living in broken down caravan campsites on various industrial wasteland sites.
The Moslems in town, mostly Moroccan, Tunisian & Senegalese celebrated the end of Ramadan. The city is dirty, smelly, broken down and decaying; at every step you are plagued by smokers and cigarette butts. There are very obvious beggers and homeless derelicts.
For all that a great visit and my French worked wonders.
Back now in a cold and grey Manchester before our return on Monday. News from our son Jeremy is that he and Claire are expecting a child, and that will make us first time grandparents in the new year!!!!
See you all soon back in Oz.
Our five day excursion across the Channel to France was another amazing episode in our holiday. Rachel & Kevin got up early last Sunday morning to get us to Victoria Coach Station. There we boarded the Eurolines coach, destination Antwerp, with Lille as a stop off. On a sunny and very hazy day we drove through Kent to the white cliffs of Dover, then a one hour ferry crossing on dead calm seas. From Calais it was a one hour drive on the autoroute through the northern French countryside to the sprawling metropolis of Lille.
We had checked in to the modern All Seasons Hotel in the middle of the Lille centre for one night but ended up there for the four nights. The very small bedroom was more than compensated for with comfortable beds, spacious lounge & dining area and sumptuous continental breakfast. The location was also very convenient.
From the centre of town a vast network of buses, trams and metro stretches out across the Lille conurbation, right to the Belgian border, where we visited Armentieres. Our plans to cross the border to visit Ypres in Belgium did not eventuate, but as always we took a path of lesser resistance and opted for a day trip to Dunkerque. In a howling gale we at least saw the edge of the beaches from which the famous evacuation took place in World War Two.
Lille is a bustling young city; there is a huge university population. Immigrants of various complexions crowd the street, the latest and very obvious arrivals are the swarthy Romanian gypsies living in broken down caravan campsites on various industrial wasteland sites.
The Moslems in town, mostly Moroccan, Tunisian & Senegalese celebrated the end of Ramadan. The city is dirty, smelly, broken down and decaying; at every step you are plagued by smokers and cigarette butts. There are very obvious beggers and homeless derelicts.
For all that a great visit and my French worked wonders.
Back now in a cold and grey Manchester before our return on Monday. News from our son Jeremy is that he and Claire are expecting a child, and that will make us first time grandparents in the new year!!!!
See you all soon back in Oz.
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