My favourite photographic gear

A little tongue in check but...my favourite photographic gear must either be my push bike or Andy, pictured below, because almost the only time I ever get the chance to take photos is with one or the other around.

Chailey Mill

I went out for a bike ride this afternoon, grabbing a sunny & warm moment between the rain showers we've had for the last few days & on my way around I spotted a view of Chailey Windmill that I had not previously noticed. I've cycled the same route no end of times and just hadn't noticed the mill on the horizon, nor the church for that matter.
>
I've never visited Chailey Mill and having lived in the vicinity for the last 7 or 8 years I think this might be something worth taking Alex to see in the summer.

Snowy pictures

I suspect along with plenty of other people around the UK over the last few days I've been taking lots of pictures of snow, children with snow and more snow. Most of them too poor to show but generally passable because modern cameras have a handy "snow" setting to avoid grey snow. However, while editting and updating some of my pictures I came across some inspirtation, nothing new really just a different way of displaying a picture. So I gave it a go....

...all I need to do now is find a decent picture and get the spacing just right and I'm onto a winner. Oh, by the way, the picture is of the start & end (& vice versa) of the Snowdown Horseshoe taken end of November 2008.

Taking one's life into one's hands

I have not made much effort to make "social comment" as such but today I thought a gripe was due.

Last night I cycled between Wivelsfield Green and Burgess Hill. It is dark out there, really dark, virtually no street lights, not a whole lot of traffic and just bike lights. To add to the collection my rucksack has reflective strips on the straps.

Clearly, I am not going to be as visible as a car but hardly invisible so why is it that some drivers persist in driving at you with full beam on. Do they thing that whilst it might blind another driver it won't blind a cyclist? Is it just because a cyclist cannot retaliate with his own full beam. Oh no, my suspicion is that both inconsiderate and stupid drivers are out there at night as well as during the day.

Well I feel better for that so if you are one of those drivers, please try thinking about what you are doing.

Butlins - a holiday?

Well we are back from 4 days spent in Butlins, Bognor Regis.

As adults without babysitters the entertainment is a little limited but for Alex (almost 4 years old) the place is fabulous. There is the swimming pool - not much space for swimming but it has a good selection of slides for all ages (I had to try them all out) & a wave machine to make things more interesting and we went every day, a soft play centre (children running around in packs for many hours) and the fairground rides along with a number of pay for activities (far too many of those actually) such as the Formula K go-kart racing (expensive but fun, shame no bumping is allowed), the electric motorbike / quad bike ride (still no bumping but all the driving can be done by a 3 year old) and there is even dodgems (yes dodgems, it used to be called bumper cars when I was a young visitor but bumping gets you thrown off now). There are also loads of fruit machines & video games - all to be paid for and dragging a 3 year old away from them can be hard work.

Then there is the entertainment, perhaps a tots disco (how loud?) or watching a fairy tale acted out by people or puppets. There were acrobats - I'm sure we will be seeing Alex doing more stunts on his bike soon following their example and the highlight of the week has been the Skyline Gang :
6 characters having fun with music and dancing, involving the children, oh yes, and the adults, he he he. Alex was completely taken with them; bright, colourful, funny (What do you call a nut with a cold? A cashew!), interactive and some great eye contact with the kids - even ad-libbing where the audience participation was more participative than expected. I have seen some live artists who were not as enjoyable to watch (both Meat Loaf and Paul McCartney spring to mind, sorry you guys you need to brush up your acts).

Accomodation is clean & comfortable and ideal for the short break and the on site restaurant selection worked well with plenty of healthy options available (if you felt the need) - Alex who doesn't like pizza did pretty well at the each as much as you like pizza place (was Pizza Hut, now Papa Johns).

Well worth the trip and in a couple more years Alex won't tire himself out so easily so he will be able to take part in many more of the activities that are planned throughout the day. My only worry is will he accept the idea that the Skyline Gang aren't the same people if it is still running......

I know, it is Butlins but for a short break it is brilliant value if you get some offers (their standard pricing makes me think their marketing department are trying to make the resort look exclusive, perhaps they are paid too much because it ain't working). We'll be back.

Grand Tour

Well, mum & dad are off to Australia for 6 months now, crikey they'd not even left the country before phoning! It is the grand tour, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand & Thailand.

Alex is hugely impressed with the enormous Australia map they have given us - he has not quite got the hang of the idea of the scale difference between that one and the little world map he has so he won't have it that Australia is both that big blob on one sheet and that little blob on the other but he will get the hang of it once we start sticking things onto it to show progress.

Even better - they have left and the fridge is actually empty and perishables are gone and inspite of the horrid rain all day Tuesday even had time to clean the pond pump! Now I've redirected the flow back into the middle of the pond even the fish are happy. Boy, we now have 6 jars of mustard (open) and a lifetime supply of marmite to deal with. Such is life.

Shoreham Airshow

From 2009 Shoreham on Sea Air Show

Once again Shoreham Airshow was a great success with the thundering Typhoon and the world's only flying Vulcan bomber (a friend in Crawley remarked on how noisy it is) and a general all round spectacle for the family

Typically, Alex & his cousin Ewan probably had more fun on the bouncy slide and the diggers than they did watching the aeroplanes. That said Alex is still talking about the "ladies who walk on the planes" aka wingwalkers.

Brouage turret

This is a picture of one of the turrets built into the walls of the town of Brouage in western France - it was a strategically important town historically and has strong walls all around in a star arrangement designed to give overlapping fields of defensive cannon fire.

I took this with a Fuji Finepix S602 zoom on a roasting hot day.

Fishing

Here is a photograph taken when canal boating - it was pouring with rain and these fisherman were huddling under their umbrellas to keep off the worst of it.

Our Honeymoon

Chichen Itza

The best preserved / restored of the Mayan sites and certainly impressive. We were lucky enough to arrive early in the day - our hotel was actually on the site (and incidently built largely from bits of Mayan ruins) but when we left at about 11am there were hundreds of people queing to get in.

The site was in active use for hundreds of years and is thought to have been a 'university town' - one of the buildings has carvings of hindus, red Indians and Greek soldiers - all dating from before America had been discovered!

El Castillo - the main pyramid at Chichen Itza & perfectly constructed for use as the civil calendar and on the solstices the light falls so that it looks like a rattlesnake is descending / ascending a stair case. Rattlesnakes are noticeable everyone on Mayan architecture.

	From Mexico

From the top of El Castillo the view stretches into the distance across secondary growth jungle, only a few buildings - mostly ruins peek above the tree tops.

Most buildings have been subject to large amounts of restorations, generally starting out as a pile of stones best, with someone labelling every stone - hard puzzles

The Observatory - perfect construction in alignment with stars and planets and used for the religious calendar.

Our hotel room was in an idyllic setting and a pool almost exclusively ours.

Valladolid

A pretty little town with a very big church and a well tended square in the centre but both are marred by horrendous concrete madonnas and Christs.

From Mexico

Rio Lagartos

A large, protected, lagoon area where wildlife and boat drivers alike thrive on the tourist industry. I suspect the boat drivers are doing better at it than the wildlife as the technique to make the wildlife look lively and attractive was simply to drive straight at any quiet animals until the ran / swam or flew away.

The flamingoes were fabulous, merely pale pink when wading in the sandy, blue water but intense, almost flourscent pink showing under their wings when flying.

The colour contrasts were spectacular - that deep blue sky with white streaks of cloud, washed out white of sand with sandy blue water, vibrant green, mangroves in the waters' edge and vivid red salt 'farms' on the seaward side This poor alligator was basking quietly in the sun until out of nowhere our boat and two others starting jostling to get their charges closest for photos, the alligator soon retreated and one of the boats grounded itself.

From Mexico

Balankamche

Set in an interesting, tropical jungle, botanical garden are the caves of Balamkanche and our second sound and light show. 5 out of 7 people had slept at least part way through the first back at Chichen but no such luck here.

The cave system is one way, about a kilometre from start to finish and no a single puff of fresh air all the way. Sweat was pouring off everyone by the end as we dealt with the strain of walking, even such a short distance with no fresh air, that air had been breathed for centuries by the Mayan people and was just about good enough for us too.

Izamal

The largest atrium in Latin America. Now don't get too excited folks. This is an impressive nunnnery because of its size and the way it utterly dominates the surrounding town.

It's all built on the base of and from the stones of a large pyramid and it's not entirely surprising that it's big. The pyramid was reported by the Spaniards to be so large that they could see the sea from the top - a sea that is 80km away.

Merida

Merida is a modern university town reputed to have more millionaires per head of population than anywhere else in the world. Most of that money was made on the back of the sizel industry which although still active and generating incomes for many farmers is a failing industry what with modern materials like nylon.

In the town centre there are tourist police whose job it was to look after toursits and nothing else. So the stunning structure (modern) situated on a roundabout in the middle of a main road was no problem to reach with the help of tourist police to stand in front of the traffic for you.

Merida was once a small town, unlike the large town of Merida in Guatemala. Somehow the plans for the local church for either town got mixed up and the Guatemalans ended up with a tiddly chapel for a large population whilst the Meridans got a full blown cathedral which only recently have they grown into.

From Mexico

Uxmal

This is a much smaller site than Chichen with less restoration having taken place so far and many more buildings packed into this smaller area.

With the air of unrestored wildness and lack of tourist hordes Uxmal had a magical quality.

The Magician's Pyramid, rebuilt from a pile of rubble but originally being enlarged for over 400 years.

The Nunnery Quadrangle so named because the small rooms reminded the Spaniards of a nunnery. The face of this building is covered is elaborate carvings of Chac.

The Dovecote has an unusual roof comb on top of numerous 'cells' believed to be small family homes.

The two headed jaguar throne was the traditional seat of rule. The last is at uxmal because the Spaniards struck a head off any they found to dissolve the ruler's power.

The Governor's Palace, a long imposing structure on top of a small man made plateau.

From Mexico

Kabah

The Puuc route follows a low ridge across the Yucatan, offering both defensive height and fertile soil all the towns along the route share a similar architectural style.

Codz Poop, the main building - not cod poop, is finely carved with Chac decorations.

Armadillo is just one of the many critters which get eaten, the children catch them in the jungle and try to sell them to tourists too! (why?).

It rained there.

Labna

Again, on the Puuc Route another small town with a large stone arch which was just a part of a building between two courtyards. Unfortunately, that photo was rubbish!

From Mexico

Sayil

Once more on the Puuc Route another small town with evidence of surrounding villages. The main feature though is this 3 tier palace with many rooms.

It took a quite a while before anyone suggested to the Mayans that buildings could exist on more than one floor.

Each tier of building was constructed in a different architectural style and period.

Playa del Carmen

Our all inclusive hotel, hot & cold running food and drink. Too many hot dogs and refreshments were had by all.

Sometimes I could get a photo not covered in hordes of people.

The sea was a beautiful colour but after about 10am the sea started getting rather choppy.

We spent a day at Rancho Loma Bonita, a ranch designed for tourists in a beautiful setting with foals running around the gardens playing together and a swimming pool and bar conveniently available for guests.

Lorna went horse riding and got wet too! I went quad biking but didn't. Good day had by all (except the woman who got squashed by an overturning bike of course).

We got to play donkey polo- a bit of a hopeless task. Mine was so small that I had to plant my feet and drag it where I wanted to go. I wasn't the only one with a donkey as stubborn as a mule.

From Mexico

Final score 0-0.

Click here to goto my Mexico album in Picasa

As a footnote, I can only apologise for the quality of the photos - these were taken before I had a digital camera and were not the finest before I scanned them in!

Ayers Rock

Travelling to Australia and driving to Ayers Rock, I sat in a presentation saying it rains once in ten years (or something like that!) there - it promptly rained for the next two days. However, when it cleared up this was the result.
Taken with an OM2-SP, everything manual on real film - scanned in & no digital retouching.