You’ve probably seen this video. The ‘highlights’ of walking around New York for 10 hours, but not in a good ‘look at all this tourist stuff we visited’ The video troubled me and not just because it seems to be a very narrow selection of choices of the types of men who do interact with […]
A New bathroom is delivered
If you follow me on Facebook, you’ll have seen my daily photos charting the renovation of my bathroom over the last few weeks. Finally it’s done!!! After 2 weeks of having to shower at work, it’s over and I get my own bathroom back. I’m pretty sure that the bathroom was original, with the suite […]
Hedone again
So Andy Hayler, a great food blogger (who is from Chiswick too), pointed out that there are 992 foodblogs writing about London, or at least 992 who have signed up for Urbanspoon’s blog list. I don’t pretend to be a regular food blogger but I do LOVE eating out..and taking photos of the food, so […]
Emergency Surgery
I had a lovely weekend planned. A haircut, lunch at one of my favourite restaurants, the the British 10k race on Sunday. All of that got blown away Friday afternoon when I looked up to find my eye full of floaters, dark strands filling the vision. They settled down, but over the next few hours, […]
2014 – Week 1
It’s a New Year! 2014 is here and has done its best to make its mark with the weather. Reading How to run the perfect marathon by Beer Belly Running. I’m going to be reading a lot more like this as I have no idea what to expect (pain, I know there’ll be pain, but […]
2013 – Week 49
Reading Odon Childbirth device: Car mechanic uncorks a revolution. A feature about Jorge Odon, a car mechanic from Argentine, who has invented a new device to help with childbirth. What we can learn from fake tears on social media (The Kernal). Why people push their grief onto social media when a celebrity dies. (something you […]
2013 – Week 48
Reading 18 Ways to take Mobile seriously from Inma. It’s been the year of the mobile for years and years, but it’s permanently tipped that way now and this provides a list of the basics to make sure you’re meeting needs. I’m not Angry. After my meeting with Ben, this is where my searches took […]
I met Ben today
Sitting on the bus, a man is helped on. He says he can’t see, although he does not seem to have too much trouble moving around or slapping his Oyster card down. He says he’s disabled, cheerfully, as that’s the armour against the world. He sits down next to me and just starts to talk. […]
The Churches of Sir Christopher Wren
Yesterday, I used up one of my remaining holiday days to play tourist in London. Usually, holidays are used for holidays, somewhere else, but occasionally it’s nice to use one to explore my home town. The plan was made to tour the churches of Sir Christopher Wren. After the Great Fire of London in 1666, […]
2013 – Week 47
Winter is definitely here! it’s getting a bit cold out there. Not sure of it’s the cold but it was a very quiet week. Reading Not that musch this week. The NSA Files: Decoded from The Guardian. An assessment of the impact of the revelations about the NSA spying on everyone. Saints of the Shadow […]
My Media Consumption
I opened up iTunes this week, sometimes that does not happen too often. There was my full list of all the songs I had bought this year. A grand total of THREE. That’s it, just the 3 songs. When I mentioned this to colleagues, it seems that I’m not alone in my minimal of songs, […]
2013 – Week 45
Reading The Ofsted Report on Hogwarts. This is from earlier in the year and is a lot of fun. What would the regulatory bodies make of a school of Wizardry, especially one with such a high accident rate! Up in Arms (Tufts) A look back at the hstory of the US and how the different […]
2013 – Week 43
The plan to do weekly blog posts lasted nearly 3 months, so it was a start. Let’s see if I can finish off the end of the year with weekly posts. Reading On holiday, I read a lot of books about Japan or by Japanese authors. When looking up what would be good to read, […]
Japan: The Last Days
After the touristing of the last 2 weeks, the last 2 days were basically travel. First of all we travelled from Hiroshima back to Tokyo via Shinkansen, the bullet train. We were staying in the Shinjiku area, so wandered along to the park Hyatt (as all the reviews say, made famous by the film Lost […]
Japan Day 14: Hiroshima
Today feels like our last full day in Japan – tomorrow is travelling back to Tokyo and getting ready to leave. We’re still in Hiroshima and the plan today was to walk round the Peace Memorial Park and visit the museum and memorials there. First was the A-bomb Dome. As a concrete building, it was […]
Japan Day 13: Hiroshima and Miyajima
An early start to the day as we headed to the station to catch another Shinkansen, heading further west to Hiroshima. It takes just over 2 hours (discounting the standing at stations) to travel the 224 miles, speeding through the countryside. Except it wasn’t really countryside, as you’d call it in the UK. There’s no […]
Japan Day 12: Nara
There’s so much to do in Kyoto we haven’t even started to scratch the surface. But today, we took the decision to head to Nara, the old capital of Japan. Or should I say older, as it was capital from 710 for 75 years. It’s about an hour SE of Kyoto. Like most of the […]
Japan Day 11: Kyoto
A day in Kyoto. Despite the many, many temples and shrines, World Heritage Sites and Cultural Treasures, the main part of Kyoto is basically ugly, like most cities in Japan it appears. Any charm has been destroyed as buildings are built and rebuilt, modern, flat, grey. Electricity lines snake down streets, not underground but in […]
Japan Day 10: Kyoto
A new city! Today we travelled from Nagoya to Kyoto, to continue with out sightseeing touristy part of the trip. We boarded the Shinkansen for the 40min trip. We had intended to forward the luggage, but it turns out, that it takes 24 hrs, so we took them with us. Somehow, despite not really buying […]
Japan Day 9: Race Day at Suzuka
Today was the day of the Japanese Grand Prix. The 15th race of the season. A race where Vettel could win the championship. My second GP of the year. And the reason why Sofia and I are in Japan. But this isn’t a race report. These blog posts are more about my travels in Japan. […]