Historical shopping

Despite the blandness of modern highstreets, London is still home to a good deal of shops that look as if they've come from a previous age; and you can bet many of them have. The above is one such retailer, specialising in old maps, located near the British Museum, a good quarter of town to explore if you're in search of specialist shops.

"I bless this train..."

I've seen some strange things of the tube before: a carriage full of Santas, and quiz time at Earl's Court station; but today was a definite first. A man got into the carriage, where I was stood on my way to Green Park on the Piccadilly line, and with what I assume was a gold Catholic cross started blessing the carriage. He then hopped off and managed to get on the next carriage just before the doors closed. It was absolutely bizarre. Everyone around me gave each other quizical looks with supressed smirking. Words failed me at the time. Did this man know something we didn't? Was he doing what he thought to be his Christian duty, or perhaps he was employed by Transport for London. We shall never know, but it reminded me to always expect the unexpected when out and about in London.

In the past seven days...

Not a great deal of photography has been possible during the past week for one reason or another, even though the weather has been reasonable for the time of year. A visit to Ally Pally in North London at the weekend did however bring some unexpectedly good views across the city and further opportunity to experiment with the telephoto lens.

I've been able to find some time to update a little content, with a reorganised front page and an expanded links page, which can be found in the features section of the site.

More photos soon!

Ahoy: New photos

It was off to the Schroders London Boat show at the weekend. This wasn't my first boat show; I've happened upon and visited a few others on my travels in the past, Orillia in Canada, Genoa in Italy, even the America's Cup visiting Valencia last Autumn. It was about time then I felt that I headed to the local show and perhaps looked into the possibilities of getting some experience out on the ocean waves.

A few photos taken at the show gave me good reason to review some of the photos I'd taken this month so far. It's by no means the best time of year to head out with the camera, but I've manage to find a few opportunities as they arrive, and I've put some of my favourites onto my photo gallery.

As near to summer as you get in winter

The past couple of days have been fantastic in terms of weather and photographic opportunities, to the extent that I've spent my lunch hours in a local park getting to grips with a new lens. Yesterday the squirrels made good subjects and today it was the turn of the insect life. I was actually surprised at just how many insects were around. They were probably taken just as much by surprise as the human population that the sunshine was giving quite some warmth in the depths of the winter. Even the bees were out, I kid you not, collecting pollen from the few remaining plants in flower. Here's a shot of just one such example of parklife in evidence today:

'Let us trim our hair in accordance with Socialist lifestyle'

I woke up on Monday morning to the Today programme on Radio 4, which at that moment was featuring a story about a crackdown on bad haircuts in North Korea. I only caught the end of it so I wasn't sure I'd actually heard what I'd heard. It sounded unlikely, and at the time I'd missed that it was taking place in North Korea, although I should have guessed; I mean, where else could it happen?

It seems that the North Korean government isn't keen on the shabbiness of men's haircuts, has authorised just 4-types of hair cut, and suggests that men get their hair cut every 15 days. 15 days! Here that would cost a fortune, and I imagine the number of barbers would explode overnight. However perhaps in the socialist dream of North Korea, barbers are provided by the state at reasonable prices. The idea is that those found to be guilty of toting poor hair-dos will be paraded on a TV show entitled 'Let us trim our hair in accordance with Socialist lifestyle'. Belief in ideology it burns still bright in a small corner of the globe it seems.

Read the full story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4157121.stm

Back to the norm

Well the first (almost full) week back at work is over, and it's back to the normal routine. I've just about got through the last of the Christmas chocolate, so the post-Christmas diet starts here. I forced myself to go on a long walk this weekend, due to the calorific few days at work, where we've been striving, and largely successful in getting through all the remaining chocolate and cake to allow wall-to-wall healthy eating to ensue from this next week.

I went from Wimbledon to Richmond via the common and the park, which was as fine as any way I could think of spending a largely sunny Saturday afternoon. I'm definitely out of practice: I was well and truly worn out after the 3 and a bit hours it took, but it got me well in the mood for more walks as the unpredictable weather will allow.

I've never been to Richmond Park before, and aside from the traffic I was largely impressed, not least by the fine views of the central London and Wembley Stadium currently under reconstruction. It's definitely a park I'll be visiting again, as is Richmond itself, which from just outside the entrance to the park offers a remarkable view to the West, following the Thames and the inbound Heathrow flights which pass directly overhead.

All over bar the coughing

Later today (after some hours of sleep, a spot of breakfast, and a drive to the local mainline station) I shall be heading back to the thrills and spills of life down London-way. It looks as if my various festive ailments will have largely subsidied just in the nick of time for me to start work again on Tuesday, although I have a suspicion that the irritating, tickly cough I'm currently hosting will prove just as endearing to my work colleagues over the coming days as it presently is proving to myself.

I blame the in-flight air-conditioning on the train up for distributing all of the bugs, bacteria and virii which would have otherwise been limited to a few unlucky carriers and their intimately held partners. All of these modern trains are hygenically sealed, as it's a well known fact that if a train tilts at 125mph with the windows open, all the air will fall out the side and everyone on-board will suffocate. So it is then that we have to endure recycled air instead, even though there's tonnes of the stuff in full fresh form rushing around the edges of a train at any given moment. Hopefully I'll avoid picking up a further bout of the lurgi tomorrow, but since I've not got over the first lot myself yet, I'll probably still have the honour of being one of the kind passengers passing around complimentary ailments along with a copy of the Times and a trademark BR curled-edge sandwich.

Next stop "you stun".

2005

Happy New Year by the way. Bah, the holidays are almost over, but then all good things must come to an end I suppose.

Back down south tomorrow.