Say Cheese!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 ~ 3 comments so far

Well not you obviously, and no, before anyone asks I didn’t JUST take photos of the scenery, there are photos of family too I just don’t upload them often.

Here then, the best of the 100 or so photos I took.

Home again, home again

Tuesday, June 9, 2009 ~ 1 comment so far

I’m currently operating on about 4.5hrs sleep having landed earlier this morning and suffering the return of the 6.30 alarm.

Spain was warm, sunny for the most part, a little misty some mornings, blowing a gale for two of the days and we saw a beautiful lightning storm rage over the Mediterranean.

I read books (more on those later), drank beer, sang at the karaoke (a rare event, I was quite spectacularly drunk mind you), sunbathed and did pretty much bugger all for the entire week.

I couldn’t half do with a siesta right now though.

Aside from a vigorous can of cider erupting all over my sister on the plane on the way there, and my sister-in-law deciding to get herself a tattoo there isn’t a huge amount to report. Like I said, the sky was mostly blue, the sun was mostly hot, the beer was always cold. Same as it always is.

It was good to get back to my bed last night though, and I’m REALLY looking forward to spending a bit longer in it tonight! Only a few thousands RSS feeds to read, a handful of photos to upload and, if I can be bothered, I’ll jot down my thoughts on the books I read.

Enough about me though, how are you? Aside from the political goings-on (anyone want to own up to voting in the BNP? No I didn’t think so), what did I miss?

Panic!

Monday, May 25, 2009 ~ 5 comments so far

There is a sense of mild, but controlled, panic in the air.

I’ve only just realised that, a week today, we’ll be flying to Spain for a week in the sun. Don’t quite know how this has taken me by surprise but there you have it. All of a sudden I’m in the “pre-holiday zone” where every choice of t-shirt needs to be carefully considered, and the locating of cables, chargers and other sundry essentials starts in earnest.

That said, we are taking hand luggage only, and all I’ll need are:

• 7 Books – already stacked and ready to go.
• 5 t-shirts – I have so many t-shirts that I’ll just take whatever I pick up on Monday morning
• 4 pairs of shorts – 2 longer ones for the evenings, 2 shorter ones for the sunbathing
• 5 pairs of socks
• 5 pairs of boxer shorts
• 1 iPhone + cable
• Speakers for iPhone
• 1 Camera + battery charger
• Mains USB socket
• Sunglasses
• Hat
• Passport + Money
• Toothbrush

Thankfully I’m pretty well organised to I can leave all of my packing until Monday morning. So the only real panic is deciding what music and movies to put on my iPhone. I mean, I’ve only got a week!!

The festive period

Tuesday, December 9, 2008 ~ 2 comments so far

December the 24th is Christmas Eve. I mention this not as a startling revelation but because it’s the first of eleven days that I have off work. So if I discount the 25th and 26th of December, as well as the 1st of January as I’m Scottish and by law we are not allowed to go to sleep until at least 4am on New Year’s Day, I have approximately 8 days or so with nothing planned.

That will, of course, change.

I reckon, if I’m generous with my estimates, I’ll have five or six days to myself. I’ll say five just to be on the safe side.

That’s five whole days in which I can, within reason, do what I want. Watch some old movies, play some games, read a book, generally chill out. That kind of thing. Five days is a lot of time, so let’s presume I do some chores around the house as well, a little decorating or general DIY bodgery.

Yes, I could get a lot done in five days and I have to admit I’m looking forward to the time off as it’s been manic these past few weeks and whilst it’s probably partly because the holiday is getting closer, I’m definitely feeling a little ‘punchy’. Yes, five days is plenty to recharge the batteries all the better to start the new year afresh.

Except we all know what’ll happen.

Person X will decide to pop over and that’ll turn into dinner, which’ll turn into tidying up, shopping for food, preparation, entertaining and finally punting them out the door sometime before midnight.

Person Y will suggest that we could go out for a meal and a movie, which’ll turn into a late afternoon meal, a movie, then drinks and we’ll get home sometime after midnight.

Person Z will phone and ask us over for dinner, or just to see if we are going to visit and that’ll turn into “well if we are seeing Z, we could go and see Y and if we are seeing Y we are as well staying over with X” which means that we’ll need to prepare, pack an overnight bag and leave early morning, getting home sometime later the next day.

And before you know it it’s Sunday the 4th of January, 2009, I’m back to work the next day and I’ve not done anything that I’d hoped to do and I’m probably more stressed than I was on Christmas Eve.

It’s the same every year.

So, this year, I’m not planning to do nothing, and I’m not planning to do everything, instead I’m expecting to be busy most days and to make the most of the moments inbetween.

P.S. Persons X, Y and Z are interchangeable and do not, in any way, correlate with members of my family (immediate or otherwise) or any of my friends. Honest.

Memories of Budapest

Tuesday, May 6, 2008 ~ 4 comments so far

On reflection I don’t really have the words to describe just how stunningly gorgeous the city of Budapest is, we ran out of superlatives very early on and the sheer number of photos I took (even when you discount several retakes) of random buildings and parks, statues and memorials, should provide some indication of how much beauty is crammed into the centre of the city.

However it is a strange juxtaposition of ancient ornamental buildings alongside communist era concrete monstrosities and modern steel and glass constructions. Some of the older and more important buildings have been cleaned up, but throughout the city you can still see remnants of the 1956 revolution (and beyond), with bullet-marked buildings dotted around the sidestreets.

For someone of both my generation and my nationality, seeing bullet craters peppered across a building is an odd and unsettling sight. It makes the history so much more vivid, and I am genuinely glad that our Hungarian host was so forthcoming with the details of his the turbulent life of his country. On that note, perhaps we should be teaching Scottish history here in our schools, as I certainly couldn’t have gone into the level of detail he did.

He also made sure we got to try some real Hungarian treats, and so we found ourselves spending an evening grilling large lumps of bacon fat over an open flame, catching the dripping on thick wedges of fresh bread, and eating the crispy bits. And then we got to taste some Tokaji, a sweet Hungarian dessert wine that is about as close to alcoholic nectar as you can imagine, and all that was before the wine tour, the trip to the Széchenyi baths which was quite wonderful as the three different pools are all at different temperatures, and a dinner cruise on the Danube.

I had planned to write a lot more about this trip but the more I think about the more I realise that I don’t want it to be something that I try and capture, there are somethings you just can’t digitise.

It was a trip of delight, laughter, and genuine awe and wonder. We had entertaining company, gracious hosts, delicious food and drink, and even a 10 minute deluge couldn’t dampen our spirits. It is a wonderful city, full of friendly people, with an excellent transport system. A city which embraces the future whilst honouring the past, with an emerging cosmopolitan feel. If you do get a chance, go!

Snapshots of Budapest

Tuesday, May 6, 2008 ~ 3 comments so far

It’s taken a while but I’ve managed to whittle the number of photos down to a manageable amount. There is a lot ‘missing’ and a lot of detail I’m still trying to recall (thankfully someone else was paying more attention).

(click the photo to view the set)

And before anyone complains, think yourself lucky, my family had to sit through twice the number I have posted to Flickr.

Update: Our travelling companion has posted some of her photos as well.

Food and Friendship in Budapest

Monday, May 5, 2008 ~ 2 comments so far

I’m still downloading and sorting through the.. ahem.. 1568 photos I took whilst wandering round Budapest (and two videos), and thought I’d take a moment to try and capture my thoughts about our trip.

We were staying with friends in Solymár, which lies north-west of Budapest, right on the edge of the fantastic public transportation system, and you couldn’t find two more accomodating, generous and gracious hosts. A public thank you to them both, and of course to our intrepid travelling companion (herself a source of great merriment and generosity).

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from Budapest, or indeed from Hungary in general. Remnants of Communist rule was the obvious theme in my mind but the truth was so far removed that I am almost ashamed that I didn’t do a little more reading before setting off. The region we were staying in was a little like a sunny Scotland, rolling hills of lush green vegetation, forests and flowers abound.

I also wasn’t quite sure what the Hungarian people would be like, having had quite a time of it historically (their geography makes them ripe for invasion) and I despite my incoherent stutterings of Hungarian (Yes, No, and Thank You), I saw little but smiling faces. It was, of course, slightly different in Budapest with the predominant accent being American (tourists), but we had the advantage as we were touring with a native Hungarian.

And then there was the food. I don’t think I’ve eaten as much meat in such a short space of time before, and unfortunately it was ALL delicious (even including the meal mainly consisting of bacon fat!).

But more on that, and the city of Budapest itself, later. Tales of Tokaj, Baclava-toting security guards and the many mustachioed men of Hungary will be forthcoming.

That and a few photos.