I found a quirky little site on the web today...
Thanks to indexed
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Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Photos
Not from me this time, but from Douglas Gayeton, documenting his travels in Tuscany, and worth taking time to browse through.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gayeton/sets/512868/show/
x
Not from me this time, but from Douglas Gayeton, documenting his travels in Tuscany, and worth taking time to browse through.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gayeton/sets/512868/show/
x
It's a man's man's world...
Over the summer months its not unusual to see the press zooming in on the rich and famous vacationing; either looking stunning on the beaches or catching them at an inelegant bikini moment (insert any Paris Hilton photo here...).
Whilst most try to shirk the media's attention over their summer break President Putin bared all (well most) this week giving Russia something to oogle at...
Did Putin bare his 'vigorous torso', to boost his personal appeal to voters? or was he simply relaxing during his Siberian vacation? One thing's for sure is that Pres' pecs have set Russia ablaze.
Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russia's nationwide daily newspaper who posted the photos on their website reported women visiting their site as "screaming with delight and showering (him) with compliments." And its not just the women he's turned on. Russia's gay chat rooms are equally abuzz.
Whilst Russia's media and the Kremlin speculate his motives its clear that Putin, who has a reputation as being a great skier and a black belt in judo, is not shy of his bod.
France, or at least the French celeb-mag 'Paris Match', it appears is not so proud of their leader this week as it becomes clear that they air-brushed out the President Sarkozy's 'poignées d'amour' (love handles).
Whilst Putin parades proud, the BBC reports Sarkozy as having 'scolded' US photographers who snapped him and his family during his summer vacation but it may be too late, the French blogosphere having picked up on the scandal and more unflattering images coming to light daily.
Like Putin, Sarkozy has a reputation as being a sportsman and a great jogger. Although lacking a judo belt those 'poignées' don't appear out of place in the sumo circuit.
Being President cannot be easy but for Russia's ruler its definitly a man's man's world. For Sarko however, it ain't nothing without a woman or a girl (preferably skilled in the art of Photoshop).
Over the summer months its not unusual to see the press zooming in on the rich and famous vacationing; either looking stunning on the beaches or catching them at an inelegant bikini moment (insert any Paris Hilton photo here...).
Whilst most try to shirk the media's attention over their summer break President Putin bared all (well most) this week giving Russia something to oogle at...
Did Putin bare his 'vigorous torso', to boost his personal appeal to voters? or was he simply relaxing during his Siberian vacation? One thing's for sure is that Pres' pecs have set Russia ablaze.
Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russia's nationwide daily newspaper who posted the photos on their website reported women visiting their site as "screaming with delight and showering (him) with compliments." And its not just the women he's turned on. Russia's gay chat rooms are equally abuzz.
Whilst Russia's media and the Kremlin speculate his motives its clear that Putin, who has a reputation as being a great skier and a black belt in judo, is not shy of his bod.
France, or at least the French celeb-mag 'Paris Match', it appears is not so proud of their leader this week as it becomes clear that they air-brushed out the President Sarkozy's 'poignées d'amour' (love handles).
Whilst Putin parades proud, the BBC reports Sarkozy as having 'scolded' US photographers who snapped him and his family during his summer vacation but it may be too late, the French blogosphere having picked up on the scandal and more unflattering images coming to light daily.
Like Putin, Sarkozy has a reputation as being a sportsman and a great jogger. Although lacking a judo belt those 'poignées' don't appear out of place in the sumo circuit.
Being President cannot be easy but for Russia's ruler its definitly a man's man's world. For Sarko however, it ain't nothing without a woman or a girl (preferably skilled in the art of Photoshop).
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Weapon of mass transport...
On a dark night about a month back the invasion started, and in a matter of weeks the streets of Paris were alive with Vélibs...
Bertrand Delanoe, Paris' left wing mayor, has put 10,700 public bicycles on the streets in the last month and with 1,451 parking stations roughly every 300m they've instantly become part of the fabric of the city.
Providing a 24/7 mode of transport the scheme is aimed equally at making it easier to get around the city and cutting greenhouse gases. But a distinct lack of cycle paths (and helmets) makes pedaling around the city a high adrenalin sport...
Not known for its compassionate drivers Paris has never been an incredibly cycle-friendly city, but with another 10,000 bikes being delivered before the end of the year manpower stands a better chance of overpowering motor in the very near future....
On a dark night about a month back the invasion started, and in a matter of weeks the streets of Paris were alive with Vélibs...
Bertrand Delanoe, Paris' left wing mayor, has put 10,700 public bicycles on the streets in the last month and with 1,451 parking stations roughly every 300m they've instantly become part of the fabric of the city.
Providing a 24/7 mode of transport the scheme is aimed equally at making it easier to get around the city and cutting greenhouse gases. But a distinct lack of cycle paths (and helmets) makes pedaling around the city a high adrenalin sport...
Not known for its compassionate drivers Paris has never been an incredibly cycle-friendly city, but with another 10,000 bikes being delivered before the end of the year manpower stands a better chance of overpowering motor in the very near future....
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Lyon Road Trip
With a full tank of gas and a dodgy collection of 80's music Doug and I hired a car a couple of weeks back and headed South to Lyon and Bourgogne.
Rather than boring you all with words i'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
x
With a full tank of gas and a dodgy collection of 80's music Doug and I hired a car a couple of weeks back and headed South to Lyon and Bourgogne.
Rather than boring you all with words i'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
x
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
Flying visit
Its all very well being jet-set and international but there is always a schedule to meet and a budget to adhere to. Sometimes the former takes priority but mostly the latter, hence this trip to HK following a very roundabout route.
The direct Paris-HK flight prices were not only astronomical but there was zero availability for the dates we needed so Christophe (IT Director) and I are flying via Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur! It makes the journey hell but nearly cuts the cost in half and means we get to spend a day in KL and take in one or two sights...
Honestly, from the small amount i've seen, KL doesn't rock my world ( I doubt a nation governed by Islamic law ever will...) but just 20 mins by taxi outside of the city sits FRIM (the Malaysian Institute for Forest Research) which has some of the oldest rainforest in South East Asia in a peaceful and well preserved park.
After a week of solid concrete and giant tower blocks it was fantastic to be dwarfed by such beautiful trees and for a couple of hours to escape the noise, dirt and pollution of the city. I took literally hundreds of photos in an attempt to capture the beauty of the forest so if you're in need so some green check out the latest album on Flickr.
x
Its all very well being jet-set and international but there is always a schedule to meet and a budget to adhere to. Sometimes the former takes priority but mostly the latter, hence this trip to HK following a very roundabout route.
The direct Paris-HK flight prices were not only astronomical but there was zero availability for the dates we needed so Christophe (IT Director) and I are flying via Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur! It makes the journey hell but nearly cuts the cost in half and means we get to spend a day in KL and take in one or two sights...
Honestly, from the small amount i've seen, KL doesn't rock my world ( I doubt a nation governed by Islamic law ever will...) but just 20 mins by taxi outside of the city sits FRIM (the Malaysian Institute for Forest Research) which has some of the oldest rainforest in South East Asia in a peaceful and well preserved park.
After a week of solid concrete and giant tower blocks it was fantastic to be dwarfed by such beautiful trees and for a couple of hours to escape the noise, dirt and pollution of the city. I took literally hundreds of photos in an attempt to capture the beauty of the forest so if you're in need so some green check out the latest album on Flickr.
x
Monday, June 25, 2007
Back in the Kong...
Just visiting for a couple of days to follow up on the project I worked on here and took my camera out with me for the day yesterday. For once the weather was behaving itself and the pollution joined in to give some stunning scenery at sunset...
More photos and news to follow when I ditch the jet lag.
x
Just visiting for a couple of days to follow up on the project I worked on here and took my camera out with me for the day yesterday. For once the weather was behaving itself and the pollution joined in to give some stunning scenery at sunset...
More photos and news to follow when I ditch the jet lag.
x
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Two for the road
Just a quick post as I'm busy packing but rather than reading my ramblings I'd much rather you read the posts of Will Okun & Leana Wen, the two candidates who won the latest 'win a trip with Nick Kristof' competition.
They're currently traveling in Africa with Nick and my friend Naka posting some candid, enlightening, horrific and heartwarming observations and photos giving us all a much needed reminder of how much help is needed and how powerful hope can be.
Please do take time read and also check out their fantactis video posts.
x
Just a quick post as I'm busy packing but rather than reading my ramblings I'd much rather you read the posts of Will Okun & Leana Wen, the two candidates who won the latest 'win a trip with Nick Kristof' competition.
They're currently traveling in Africa with Nick and my friend Naka posting some candid, enlightening, horrific and heartwarming observations and photos giving us all a much needed reminder of how much help is needed and how powerful hope can be.
Please do take time read and also check out their fantactis video posts.
x
Thursday, June 14, 2007
My Dad
Its Father's day in the UK this weekend; another commercialised celebration giving everyone the opportunity to consume goods they dont need and feed those materialistic desires cultivated by the media. Yep, as far as i'm concerned Father's day is up their along with Easter, Christmas, Halloween and Valentine's day in the top ten of marketing marvels, and it seems that each year theres another new 'day' to add to the list.
My Dad (much to his disappointment but probably not to his surprise) will not be getting a gift from me but I want to take this opportunity to let him know just how much he means to me and that frankly a new fangled fishing knife, a book or CD would be a pretty poor show of my appreciation.
Many of my traits I can trace back to my father; my passion for reading, my love of the Rolling Stones and my basic knowledge of plumbing and central heating systems. And for each similarity between us there is a difference; Marmite for starters, I dont have a watch, shoe or trailer fetish and if I go to the rubbish dump I come back empty handed. And as I get older I notice a few more of my Father's traits in myself; I run around turning the lights out, tidy up before the cleaning lady comes and look for the yellow discounted stickers in the supermarket.
Behaving more like my father doesn't scare me - quite the opposite in fact. He is someone I'm incredibly proud of and have enormous respect for. Although we've had our differences, looking back on my childhood and youth I cannot fault him, quite the opposite in fact. Right from the word go my dad chose a path that many other fathers would have shied away from and he stuck with that path through some pretty shitty circumstances.
Today despite being geographically distance I think we're probably closer than ever. Its ironic though as when I was younger he and Yvonne didn't always have much spare time (they were busy working hard to provide for me & Hayden), yet now their retired and its me that's working my arse off with little time to play. Although Hayden maybe jealous of my lifestyle I'm jealous that as he lives just around the corner from Dad & Yvonne and therefore gets to hang out with them much more often than I do.
I find it hard to show my emotions and therefore hard to tell my Dad face to face just how much he means to me. If a plasma TV, Bang & Oulfsen stereo, swanky watch or shiny new trailer would cut it then I'd be having them gift wrapped as I type but as I said, they wouldn't even come close. So Dad, don't be surprised and please don't be disappointed this weekend. Just know that I love you very very much.
xxx
Its Father's day in the UK this weekend; another commercialised celebration giving everyone the opportunity to consume goods they dont need and feed those materialistic desires cultivated by the media. Yep, as far as i'm concerned Father's day is up their along with Easter, Christmas, Halloween and Valentine's day in the top ten of marketing marvels, and it seems that each year theres another new 'day' to add to the list.
My Dad (much to his disappointment but probably not to his surprise) will not be getting a gift from me but I want to take this opportunity to let him know just how much he means to me and that frankly a new fangled fishing knife, a book or CD would be a pretty poor show of my appreciation.
Many of my traits I can trace back to my father; my passion for reading, my love of the Rolling Stones and my basic knowledge of plumbing and central heating systems. And for each similarity between us there is a difference; Marmite for starters, I dont have a watch, shoe or trailer fetish and if I go to the rubbish dump I come back empty handed. And as I get older I notice a few more of my Father's traits in myself; I run around turning the lights out, tidy up before the cleaning lady comes and look for the yellow discounted stickers in the supermarket.
Behaving more like my father doesn't scare me - quite the opposite in fact. He is someone I'm incredibly proud of and have enormous respect for. Although we've had our differences, looking back on my childhood and youth I cannot fault him, quite the opposite in fact. Right from the word go my dad chose a path that many other fathers would have shied away from and he stuck with that path through some pretty shitty circumstances.
Today despite being geographically distance I think we're probably closer than ever. Its ironic though as when I was younger he and Yvonne didn't always have much spare time (they were busy working hard to provide for me & Hayden), yet now their retired and its me that's working my arse off with little time to play. Although Hayden maybe jealous of my lifestyle I'm jealous that as he lives just around the corner from Dad & Yvonne and therefore gets to hang out with them much more often than I do.
I find it hard to show my emotions and therefore hard to tell my Dad face to face just how much he means to me. If a plasma TV, Bang & Oulfsen stereo, swanky watch or shiny new trailer would cut it then I'd be having them gift wrapped as I type but as I said, they wouldn't even come close. So Dad, don't be surprised and please don't be disappointed this weekend. Just know that I love you very very much.
xxx
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
What makes me tick?
Fishing around on my friend Pier-Andrea's blog the other day I found his visual DNA - a collection of images hes selected, which strung together represent his take on life. Its an interesting concept and if you scroll down past the labels and links you'll find my cluttered collection of x&y chromosomes represented in picture form. The whole thing got me thinking though about if I had to represent myself (not the me that goes to work every morning or the me that goes out with friends or curls up with a book but the real 'me') which images would I choose? And so my reflexions started.
This all kind of links in nicely with the fact that since i'm back from that little Irish jaunt i've had this niggling, gnawing feeling that something is missing, and after a weeks deliberation I think i've identified it. I'm craving the open road.
Let me be a little more precise. Its not just the road i'm craving, but the car, and the driving; the feeling of liberty and the spontaneity that comes with 4 wheels and a full tanks of fuel. Something that has been all too absent in my life the last couple of years.
I grew up in an area where a car was essential. From the aged of 7 I was saving frantically for my first car and have always loved driving, yet I haven't owned a car for the last 12 or 13 years and I now climb into a plane more often than I get into a car, let alone drive.
Driving and the open roads are however not the only thing that makes me 'me'. If I could choose where i'd want to be whenever I have time it would definitely be up a mountain.
I've been lucky enough to trek and hike in many beautiful places, two of which i've found truly awesome. Awesome in the true sense of the world in that i'm left dumb by the impact of the scenery; the vastness and strength of it. Trekking in the Annapurna region first did this to me in Nepal in 2000. I remember waking up early one morning, climbing on to the roof of my hut and watching Annapurna's silhouette slowly turn pink as the sun rose.
At that moment in time I left so small, so insignificant, and yet at the same time so young. Young because unlike us adults who simply recognise the environment around us and take little notice of the details I felt more like a child watching the world for the first time; noticing leaves, stones, wildlife and seeing how it all knitted together.
El Chalten in Argentina had the same effect on me. Faced with one of the most stunning vistas i've ever seen I took literally hundreds of photos of the same view, realising now that I wasn't trying to capture the image I saw but more the emotions I was feeling sat before that image.
Looking at the photos now its difficult to conjure up those same emotions, whats not difficult to materialise is the craving to relive those same or similar moments.
There is one other activity that I think totally liberates 'me' and gives me a similar childlike sensation and one that again I find myself doing very rarely; flying my kite.
I remember my first kite. I remember failed attempts at making kites during school holidays and I remember the sting and burn as the rope has run across the folds of my fingers on countless occasions but what I remember most of all is how I feel when I fly my kite. The Australian cartoonist 'Leunig' sums it up best...
Why does kite flying do this to me? Maybe because being able to fly properly involves being out in the country or on the coast, preferably without too many people around. Perhaps its because being up high helps where the wind is stronger and more fickle in its currents. I guess there are all kinds of analogies that could be drawn but honestly the reason is not important, its the sensation and emotion that counts for me, and hence kite flying is an integral part of who I am, even if I dont get to do it that often.
The psychologists and therapists amongst you are now probably all brimming with theories and facts that will enable you to compartmentalise me into one of your little boxes but although the images of my visual DNA described above may differ from those on the VisualDNA website i'll stick with their definition of my character type thanks.
If you get a chance do check out their site and do the test yourself. If you feel like sharing drop the code for your DNA or the images you'd choose to represent yourself into a comment. Lets see what makes everyone else out there tick.
Fishing around on my friend Pier-Andrea's blog the other day I found his visual DNA - a collection of images hes selected, which strung together represent his take on life. Its an interesting concept and if you scroll down past the labels and links you'll find my cluttered collection of x&y chromosomes represented in picture form. The whole thing got me thinking though about if I had to represent myself (not the me that goes to work every morning or the me that goes out with friends or curls up with a book but the real 'me') which images would I choose? And so my reflexions started.
This all kind of links in nicely with the fact that since i'm back from that little Irish jaunt i've had this niggling, gnawing feeling that something is missing, and after a weeks deliberation I think i've identified it. I'm craving the open road.
Let me be a little more precise. Its not just the road i'm craving, but the car, and the driving; the feeling of liberty and the spontaneity that comes with 4 wheels and a full tanks of fuel. Something that has been all too absent in my life the last couple of years.
I grew up in an area where a car was essential. From the aged of 7 I was saving frantically for my first car and have always loved driving, yet I haven't owned a car for the last 12 or 13 years and I now climb into a plane more often than I get into a car, let alone drive.
Driving and the open roads are however not the only thing that makes me 'me'. If I could choose where i'd want to be whenever I have time it would definitely be up a mountain.
I've been lucky enough to trek and hike in many beautiful places, two of which i've found truly awesome. Awesome in the true sense of the world in that i'm left dumb by the impact of the scenery; the vastness and strength of it. Trekking in the Annapurna region first did this to me in Nepal in 2000. I remember waking up early one morning, climbing on to the roof of my hut and watching Annapurna's silhouette slowly turn pink as the sun rose.
At that moment in time I left so small, so insignificant, and yet at the same time so young. Young because unlike us adults who simply recognise the environment around us and take little notice of the details I felt more like a child watching the world for the first time; noticing leaves, stones, wildlife and seeing how it all knitted together.
El Chalten in Argentina had the same effect on me. Faced with one of the most stunning vistas i've ever seen I took literally hundreds of photos of the same view, realising now that I wasn't trying to capture the image I saw but more the emotions I was feeling sat before that image.
Looking at the photos now its difficult to conjure up those same emotions, whats not difficult to materialise is the craving to relive those same or similar moments.
There is one other activity that I think totally liberates 'me' and gives me a similar childlike sensation and one that again I find myself doing very rarely; flying my kite.
I remember my first kite. I remember failed attempts at making kites during school holidays and I remember the sting and burn as the rope has run across the folds of my fingers on countless occasions but what I remember most of all is how I feel when I fly my kite. The Australian cartoonist 'Leunig' sums it up best...
Why does kite flying do this to me? Maybe because being able to fly properly involves being out in the country or on the coast, preferably without too many people around. Perhaps its because being up high helps where the wind is stronger and more fickle in its currents. I guess there are all kinds of analogies that could be drawn but honestly the reason is not important, its the sensation and emotion that counts for me, and hence kite flying is an integral part of who I am, even if I dont get to do it that often.
The psychologists and therapists amongst you are now probably all brimming with theories and facts that will enable you to compartmentalise me into one of your little boxes but although the images of my visual DNA described above may differ from those on the VisualDNA website i'll stick with their definition of my character type thanks.
If you get a chance do check out their site and do the test yourself. If you feel like sharing drop the code for your DNA or the images you'd choose to represent yourself into a comment. Lets see what makes everyone else out there tick.
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