Dogeared Photos

12 of 12 (v6.0) - December

2011-12-15T20:17:00.002Z

I'm working on getting all my 12 of 12s posted, I'm just also shaking off a stinking cold this week.

12 of 12 (v6.0) - November

2011-11-15T02:56:00.002Z

Placeholder - I am coming back to this, promise. I finally got August's up! (I know...)

This month I was doing the Lord Mayor's Show (something about the new Lord Mayor of London pledging allegiance to the Queen I think?), as my workplace had a float in the parade. So some good photos coming.

I'll catch up on posting things, and then comment on everyone's 12s, which is how you'll know mine are up.

Thanks for your patience guys :-)

12 of 12 (v6.0) - October

2011-10-15T12:57:00.000+01:00

Coming soon.

12 of 12 (v6.0) - September

2011-09-14T00:51:00.001+01:00

Coming when I get 5 mins - had to archive and sort my photos before I can download the new ones.

12 of 12 (v6.0) - August

2011-08-15T00:50:00.003+01:00

This one was during a weekend away seeing friends up north, including their two kids.

1) Somewhere near Barnsley, Yorkshire

We went to the little retail park where there's a Starbucks and a Krispy Kreme (where you can see the conveyor belt as they make them I think). Will enjoyed his Starbucks!

Lens: Helga Viking
Film: Kodot XGrizzled
Flash: Cadet Blue Gel

2) Somewhere near Barnsley, Yorkshire

Starbucks for me!

Lens: Salvador 84
Film: DreamCanvas
Flash: Standard

3) Somewhere near Barnsley, Yorkshire

Oh the choice... Krispy Kremes...

Lens: Melodie
Film: Blanko
Flash: Off

4) Somewhere near Barnsley, Yorkshire

The Krispy Kreme sign.

Lens: Melodie
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: Cherry Shine

5) Somewhere near Barnsley, Yorkshire

Jake likes Krispy Kremes too. Very thoughtful gazing there.

Lens: Watts
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: Standard

6) Barnsley, Yorkshire

Beans on toast for lunch back at Gem's house.

Lens: Melodie
Film: DreamCanvas
Flash: Off

7) Barnsley, Yorkshire

Gem made meatballs for dinner later.

Lens: Watts
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: Standard

8) Barnsley, Yorkshire

Molly pops up to say hello!

Lens: Melodie
Film: Pistil
Flash: RedEye Gel

9) Barnsley, Yorkshire

Dinosaurs love pasta too... (helping Will eat his meatballs and pasta).

Lens: Buckhorst H1
Film: Big Up
Flash: Standard

10) Pugney's Lake, near Barnsley, Yorkshire

Jake finds the bug on his Daddy's coat interesting...

Lens: Libatique 73
Film: A0 DLX
Flash: Laser Lemon Gel

11) Pugney's Lake, near Barnsley, Yorkshire

View of the lake that Gem and I ran around.

Lens: Libatique 73
Film: DreamCanvas
Flash: Standard

12) Pugney's Lake, near Barnsley, Yorkshire

Gem rocking some free sunglasses, post-run.

Lens: Bettie XL
Film: A0 BW
Flash: Laser Lemon Gel

Bonus - Barnsley, Yorkshire

Izzy cat enjoying some fuss and love.

Lens: Matty ALN
Film: Claunch 72 Monochrome
Flash: Berry Pop

Thanks for waiting - if anyone has!

12 of 12 (v6.0) - July

2011-07-16T02:11:00.002+01:00

This month's 12 was the day after I came back from an 11 day holiday, so I had a lot to catch up on both at work and outside. I managed to get the time to choose my photos and watermark them, but somehow the motivation to then turn that into a post with accompanying text and any necessary hyperlinks, vanished.

For the record - I'm happy for comments. If you can take the time to read this and leave a comment, I'm grateful. That doesn't mean though, that people can come on here and leave a criticising comment - no matter how jokingly you make it seem - when you yourself are not perfect. I don't ask much from readers other than courtesy.

Thanks as always to Chad for creating this - you can read the other July 12 of 12 contributions here.

1) My office, Canary Wharf, London

Remembering it's 12 of 12, and a work day (plus my first day back in the office after holiday), I snap one of a meeting I had that morning. A mid year review with my main manager, Claudio.

Lens: John S
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: Off

2) My office, Canary Wharf, London

A photo of my to do list at the start of the day. I break things down, as I find it frustrating to spend a morning on something and not be able to tick anything off. So rather than say "expenses", I break it down into "Claudio expenses, Rich expenses", etc. Long list, but more satisfying to work through.

Lens: Libatique 73
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: Off

3) My office, Canary Wharf, London

Notes my manager made, at my mid year review. We discussed my work so far this year, any improvements to make towards achieving my objectives, etc. - and he suggested a few things to take on. This particular bit is referring to training.

Lens: Matty ALN (new lens)
Film: Ina's 1935
Flash: Off

4) My office, Canary Wharf, London

Lunchtime - I had a quick catch up with my other main manager (it's a little complicated) over lunch, which he kindly bought. This is the close up of my drink can.

Lens: Libatique 73
Film: Blanko
Flash: Off

5) My office, Canary Wharf, London

And the actual can itself - San Pellegrino's Limonata.

Lens: Watts
Film: Blanko
Flash: Standard

6) My office, Canary Wharf, London

And the completion of an expense report - cover sheet and receipts in an envelope to be sent for scanning.

Film: Melodie
Lens: Blanko
Flash: Off

7) My office, Canary Wharf, London

End of day, and my updated to do list - lots done!

Lens: Chunky
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: Off

8) Canary Wharf DLR station, London

Waiting for the DLR back to my flat.

Lens: Libatique 73
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: Off

9) My flat, Lewisham, London

One of my tomato plants.

Lens: Watts
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: Standard

10) My flat, Lewisham, London

Self portrait.

Lens: Libatique 73
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: Standard

11) My flat, Lewisham, London

Watching my newest addiction, Castle. I'd heard bits about friends liking it, but didn't know much about it. I knew that it was on a UK satellite channel (which I don't get), and that it wasn't on UK DVD. You could get it on region 2, but as an import (same as region 1 from the US/Canada). So I'd blocked it off my radar, as being unavailable to me right now. That was until I was in Germany, and saw they had seasons 1 and 2. Not that cheap - about 23 EUR (£21?) for season 1, and 37 EUR (about £34?) for season 2. But I bought season 1 anyway, taking a chance - I loved Nathan Fillion in Firefly, after all.

I started watching the pilot episode in Gemany, and was hooked within 10 minutes. I went back the next day or so, and bought season 2. I finished all 10 episodes of season 1 in Germany, managing to get my friend Christin loving it too - she was half paying attention partway through an episode midway in season 1, but ended up getting pulled in and watching the end of the episode, and then the other episodes to up to the season finale too. When I got back to the UK, I started watching season 2 - hence this photo.

Lens: Lucifer VI
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: Standard

12) My flat, Lewisham, London

Phoning my parents for a chat. Technically taken after the chat, as I used my iPhone for the call and also the photo, so I couldn't take a photo at the same time as being on the call...

Lens: Matty ALN
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: Standard

Bonus - My flat, Lewisham, London

I can't remember why I took this photo. I wasn't reading the book at the time, or even that day - I've not read it at all yet. Anyhoo - this is book 5 in the Skullduggery Pleasant series, by Derek Landy. I'd never have picked them up normally, as I don't read much YA literature. But I happened to be in a bookshop with a friend who was browsing the children's and YA section - and I saw a display of books on offer. Waterstone's had picked 4 YA series, and were offering the first book in each series for £1, and then the remaining books were 3 for 2. I figured for £1, I'd try all 4 intro books - so I got Skullduggery Pleasant, Artemis Fowl (which I'd heard about), How To Train Your Dragon (heard of from the film), and another one whose title I can't remember and I'm not getting up to check.

Anyway, I started reading the first Skullduggery book, and LOVED it. I was shocked when I looked on the back and saw it says 9+... it's like Harry Potter in that it's aimed at kids but appeals to adults too, it has magic and darkness in there... but is very very funny too. Skullduggery is a warrior magician skeleton - who's dead. Give it a try - and I bet you enjoy it.

Lens: Matty ALN
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: Off

So that's it! August's 12 of 12 should be more entertaining, as I'm visiting my best (non-work) friend Gem, her hubby Jon and their two young boys. It will be late though, I warn you now - I'm away the 11-14th.

12 of 12 (v6.0) - June

2011-06-16T02:01:00.006+01:00

Yes, another month late. I'm sorry. I'd been thinking about 12 of 12 either the night of the 11th, or the morning of the 12th, but then I left the house to go to the Regent Street Apple store on the way to an afternoon with a friend. And I forgot about 12 of 12 then, somehow. I remembered partway through the afternoon, so took photos then with the Hipstamatic app - I'd downloaded new films and lenses, so it was fun to experiment. And anyway, most of my day (or the fun bits) were spent at my friend's flat, so you didn't miss much in the morning.

Click here to read the other 12s for June, and thanks as always to Chad for the idea.

1) Whitehall, London

Black and white, from the bus to my friend's flat.

Lens: Melodie
Film: A0 BW
Flash: Laser Lemon Gel

2) Jenny's flat, Old Kent Road, London

Watching season 1 of NCIS, as Jenny's not seen most of the show I think. We both have a thing for Mark Harmon ;-)

Lens: Melodie
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: Off

3) Jenny's flat, Old Kent Road, London

The plan was that after always posting on FB about the yummy roasts she cooks, I said she should invite me over so I could stop drooling, and we could watch DVDs. This is the chicken par way through cooking.

Lens: Melodie
Film: Ina's 1935
Flash: Off

4) Jenny's flat, Old Kent Road, London

I had recently downloaded some new packs in Hipstamatic, and was playing with the Salvador Dali one I think - sometimes it flips an image and duplicates it at 90 degrees, or mirror image copies it, or as here, makes a bigger copy but faded. Jenny thought I needed bunny ears.

Lens: Salvador 84
Film: Ina's 1935
Flash: Off

5) Jenny's flat, Old Kent Road, London

Another Dali one - mirror images, creating a funky look. Almost made me think it was like henna on her face, but it's the mirror of her smile.

Lens: Salvador 84
Film: Ina's 1935
Flash: Laser Lemon Gel

6) Jenny's flat, Old Kent Road, London

Self portrait, minus bunny ears this time :P

Lens: Salvador 84
Film: Ina's 1935
Flash: Laser Lemon Gel

7) Jenny's flat, Old Kent Road, London

Glass of rosé wine, and another Dali flip - this time over a horizontal axis. Looks cool, right?

Lens: Salvador 84
Film: Big Up
Flash: Cherry Shine

8) Jenny's flat, Old Kent Road, London

Finished roast - chicken, carrots, brussel sprouts, spring onion mashed potato, sage Yorkshire puddings, and some onions. Yummy.

Lens: Melodie
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: Cherry Shine

9) Jenny's flat, Old Kent Road, London

I'd meant to bring pastries over (I'd got lots to eat up), but forgot. Jenny whipped up some quick single layer mini sponge cakes, slathered jam on and topped with sprinkles. Yummy again!

Lens: Melodie
Film: Ina's 1969
Flash: Off

10) Jenny's flat, Old Kent Road, London

Dark chocolate courtesy of Jenny, while we watched films - 13 Going On 30 and Practical Magic (I'd seen the first, not the second).

Lens: Melodie
Film: Big Up
Flash: Cherry Shine

11) Jenny's flat, Old Kent Road, London

Jenny proving how awesome a friend she is - after giving me bunny ears, when I tried to get a photo of her to include in my 12, she grabbed a mouthful of chocolate and smeared it all over her teeth for a true chocolatey grin. She told me to post this photo! See, she laughs at herself as much as she laughs with other people.

Lens: Melodie
Film: Big Up
Flash: Cherry Shine

12) Jenny's flat, Old Kent Road, London

Another Dali self portrait, but a little fuzzier.

Lens: Salvador 84
Film: DreamCanvas
Flash: Cherry Shine

BONUS - Old Kent Road, London

Waiting for the bus back to Lewisham.

Lens: Salvador 84
Film: Alfred Infrared
Flash: Cherry Shine

And that's your lot for this month! Hope you enjoyed them, even if they were late!

12 of 12 (v6.0) - May

2011-05-16T00:26:00.007+01:00

Way late posting this - June 21st! Sorry guys, I'll try to do better next month - though it'll be my first day back after holiday, so who knows what time I'll get back from work. Damnit, I should have gone a day later, so I could have done my July 12 in Germany!

Anyway - here we go. Here's the list for May, and thanks to Chad for organising. No times on the photos as I'm just trying to get this posted!

I'd taken the day off specially, so there are more than 12 photos. I had a job getting it as low as 18, so before wasting more time, I'll just post these, OK?

1) My flat, Lewisham, London

Drying my hair after a shower - I liked the photo, which is why it didn't get cut out.

2) Lewisham Station, Lewisham, London

The river by the station. There was a plaque showing the river's course and the wildlife areas/marshy bits along the route. I forget the name of it now, and I archived all my photos to an external HD and haven't yet transferred things back. But I like the river here :-)

3) St Martin in the Fields courtyard, central London

Reading one of the Aurelio Zen detective novels by Michael Dibdin (who's from my home town of Wolverhampton), in the sun with a Starbucks (well you have to see one in my 12 of 12). The courtyard is behind St Martin in the Fields church, off the Strand and near the National Gallery.

A few photos for the next one, as they go together and I gave up trying to pick one, OK?

4) Edmund J. Safra Courtyard, Somerset House, London

Ai Weiwei has an exhibition, the Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads, which are bronze animal heads positioned in a semicircle around the fountains. I got photos of all, but these were the best, as the weather was patchy and I had grey sky for most of it. (one thing about posting this on June 23rd, is that I saw he was in the news today, something about not being able to leave Beijing and tax evasion maybe? He was the guy who had the sunflower seeds exhibit, if you heard about that - the Tate Modern I think?)

5) Waterloo Bridge, London

Walking over the bridge, intending to check something out on the South Bank (I forget what now, as I write this 6 weeks later...). I liked the person walking into frame with the London Eye in the background.

6) Waterloo Bridge/South Bank), London

View of the South Bank as I finished crossing the bridge - I like the trees around there, and the little spit of sandy beach.

7) South Bank, London

Little sandwich/food thing I spotted - cute :-)

8) South Bank, London

Sand artist at work.

9) South Bank, London

Looking over the river at the buildings along the Embankment.

10) South Bank, London

Sign says it all really. As part of the Festival of Britain (history here, link to current festival here), they created a fake beach along an area of the pavement (not down by the river itself like my previous photos, which is a natural mini beach). There are boards for a boardwalk, benches where you can sit and wiggle your toes in the sand, and buckets and spades at the end for kids. Plus banners like this along the railings, saying things like buckets and spades.

I sat for a while and just enjoyed the feel of my feet in the sand. There were two people with a mic and camera, and I think they videod a bit of my feet in the sand lol, and then interviewed a family. I read for a while but a family came and sat down next to me - nice enough, but I was looking for a bit of quiet alone time, so I sat and continued reading for a while, then headed off to find more things.

11) South Bank, London

Mini beach further along. With old posters advertising the beaches of Essex I think.

Another multiple:

12) South Bank, London

What I went over to the South Bank to see - the beach huts! Not all were open, but those that were had exhibits in (I wasn't quite sure how some of them linked in, but hey ho). They're part of the festival.

Inside one of the huts - this had a blackboard and then information about various beaches around the UK such as them featuring in books or films, or having famous people from that area.

Funky beach hut - they all are really!

Bonus - South Bank, London

Exhibition near Royal Festival Hall. I took a photo of the sign explaining, but I archived it, so I can't tell you, sorry. They were all poems I think, on paper suspended on wires.

That's it, and finally up! Thanks for reading and being patient.

12 of 12 (v6.0) - April

2011-04-12T23:24:00.005+01:00

This one's going up on time! I know, I'm as surprised as you :P I suddenly realised last night that it was the 12th tomorrow (now today), but even so, I kind of forgot until I got to work. I got photos through the day though, and I kind of like this month's - all Hipstamatic on iPhone. I got through commenting on most of last month's posted 12s, but if I didn't get to yours, I'll try and do that when I do this month's 12s comments. Also, if you can spare a comment and some love for Matt and Scott, they could do with some from the 12 of 12 friends *hugs*

You can see everyone else's here, and thanks to Chad for creating it.

1) Work, Canary Wharf, London

The monthly Starbucks photo!

Kaimal Mark II lens
Ina's 1969 film
Standard flash

2) Work, Canary Wharf, London

Empty soup cup at lunch - leek and potato soup from the work canteen with a buttered baguette for dunking. Largely I think, the reason my Wii Fit said my BMI went up when I looked tonight...

Jimmy lens
Ina's 1969 film

3) Work, Canary Wharf, London

Reading at lunch - Eye of the Needle, by Ken Follett.

Jimmy lens
Float film

4) Work, Canary Wharf, London

A Wispa while reading. Current favourite chocolate bar.

John S lens
Ina's 1969 film
Standard flash

5) My flat, Lewisham, London

Plan in the garden that my flat looks out onto. Liked the colour!

John S lens
Ina's 1969 film
Standard flash

6) My flat, Lewisham, London

And a view of the garden - with recently mowed grass. The tree by the gate is blossoming, which is pretty.

Helga Viking lens
Ina's 1969 film
Standard flash

7) My flat, Lewisham, London

Doing the body test on Wii Fit before I eat (I went back and exercised on it after I'd had time to let the meal go down).

Lucifer VI lens
Ina's 1969 film

8) My flat, Lewisham, London

Watching NCIS s4 while eating.

Lucifer VI lens
Ina's 1969 film

9) My flat, Lewisham, London

Tea - (Quorn) fishfinger sandwiches.

Lucifer VI lens
Ina's 1969 film

10) My flat, Lewisham, London

I wanted chocolate, and my options were either some that's been in the fridge for a long long time, or the chocolate chips I bought a while back to use in baking. Given I had old fridge rocky road last night, I thought I'd go with the baking chocolate chips.

Helga Viking lens
Ina's 1969 film

11) My flat, Lewisham, London

One of my blankets. I drape a fleece blanket over the sofa to sit on, and then sometimes have one over me. This was from when the World Cup was on last year.

Lucifer VI lens
Ina's 1969 film

12) My flat, Lewisham, London

I've been taking photos of London with the Hipstamatic photo app on iPhone. Not taking a photo each day - or even posting one every day... but posting one for each day of the year, in batches. I'll end up with 365 photos, but it takes time to take the photos, watermark them, upload to FB and add comments... so I do them every 3 days or so.

John S lens
Ina's 1969 film
Standard flash

Bonus - My flat, Lewisham, London

Reading an email on my work Blackberry.

Jimmy lens
BlacKeys SuperGrain film

See you next month!

12 of 12 (v6.0) - March

2011-03-14T23:36:00.003Z

Late again, but I was away in Devon seeing my Mum and Dad for the weekend, and then busy the rest of the week - a Magnum photographer gave a lecture on his career, then there were celebration drinks for someone who passed the CFA level 1 (big deal apparently in finance, tough work), and drinks for someone who swapped from one job to another...

Anyway, these are all from Devon - a mix of being out in Paignton and Teignmouth, and my Mum and Dad's house. The two Trade Winds photos (the curry and crumble) are normal iPhone photos, the others are all Hipstamatic on iPhone (with the details).

You can see everyone's 12 of 12s here, and thanks to Chad for creating it all.

1) Paignton beach, Devon

The pier at Paignton - been going there for holiday since I was little, and then we moved to Devon when I was 16. So we'd then go to the usual holiday spots at the weekends!

Helga Viking lens
Blanko film
Standard flash

2) Trade Winds restaurant, Teignmouth, Devon

Dad's birthday's the 13th, so we went for an early birthday meal. I had the chicken curry, which was huge! (and also came with a plate of chips).

3) Trade Winds restaurant, Teignmouth, Devon

Yummy apple crumble for pudding! Not the traditional lots of crumble topping, but more like just scattered over baked apple. Very nice!

4) Teignmouth, Devon

Mum and I checked a nearby charity shop while Dad ran an errand - lots of books in the PDSA charity shop (the PDSA provides veterinary treatment for animals belonging to people on low-incomes). I don't think I got any books there this time.

Helga Viking lens
Ina's 1935 film
No flash

5) Teignmouth, Devon

Some interesting wind thing outside a cafe - it'd twirl round every time the wind blew. Think I got an odd look from some people sitting outside the cafe, when I took the photo.

Helga Viking lens
Ina's 1935 film
No flash

6) Parents' house, Devon

Daffodils that Mum bought while we went food shopping.

Helga Viking lens
Float film
No flash

7) Parents' house, Devon

Book I was reading - one that Mum lent me. I was trying to finish it before I went back to London.

Funny story - I was speed reading towards the end, and knew I'd not finish before we had to leave for my train. So I took photos of the unread pages (there were about 18 or so). I managed to read a few more in the car on the way to the station, but was still about 8 pages short. I actually went into a Waterstone's in London to read the last few pages! (I would feel bad, but I had recently bought quite a few books from them, and I've no idea where I'd get a copy of this book otherwise, as I'm not a member of any local library and don't know where my nearest is).

Helga Viking lens
Ina's 1969 film
No flash

8) Parents' house, Devon

Recent acquisitions - I'd ordered the NCIS s2 and the Annals of Imperial Rome (by Tacitus) from Amazon, but I wasn't sure where was best to have them shipped to - at my flat they might sit in the conservatory until I got back, ditto for if they went to work. So I had them shipped to Devon and figured it they arrived before me or while I was there, great - if not, I'd collect them next visit. Luckily they came while I was there, so we watched a few episodes.

The Jo Nesbo book was one I had been in the middle of before stopping to read Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, and the 31 Bond Street and Spies of the Balkans are ones I picked up at the supermarket when we went food shopping.

Helga Viking lens
Ina's 1969 film
No flash

9) Parents' house, Devon

Yummy chocolates Mum and Dad brought back from Belgium (which they cross through going to Austria I think).

Helga Viking lens
Ina's 1969 film
Standard flash

10) Parents' house, Devon

Mum and Dad have a Wii Fit, which is what made me want to get one after Christmas. So Mum and I exercised a bit together - she showed me how good she is at hula hooping, and I showed her how to do a few like the boxing and rhythm parade. Because I registered as a guest, it only gave me the basic balance test at first, so told me my age was 21 (I'm actually 29). It gave Mum the usual 2 tests - agility and mental - and told her 20! (she's 58). She'd managed to get down to 21 before, but this was a new low for her, and she beat me! (though it judged her on 2 tests, e.g. prediction and memory), and only one for me).

Helga Viking lens
BlacKeys B+W film
No flash

11) Parents' house, Devon

Mum doing the rhythm kung fu. My Mii is second from the left, and Dad's Mii is second from the right.

Helga Viking lens
Ina's 1969 film
No flash

12) Parents' house, Devon

I hate the walking test, as it's hard to walk naturally on the spot. By some bizarre thing, I got 100% on it this time, so took a photo to prove it.

Helga Viking lens
Ina's 1969 film
No flash

Bonus) Parents' house, Devon

Watching Tomorrow Never Dies, with Mum and Dad. Pierce Brosnan getting a shower in a street with Michelle Yeoh.

Helga Viking
Ina's 1935 film
No flash

And that's your lot for this time! I took my dSLR home, but never took a photo with it - must get back using it... See you next month!

12 of 12 (v6.0) - February

2011-02-13T11:34:00.002Z

A weekend day, so out and about!

Thanks as always to Chad for creating it, and check out everyone else's 12s here!

1) Bank of England, London

I live on a DLR route, so I got the DLR all the way to Bank, and then figured I'd walk the short distance to the Museum of London, seeing what photos I could get on the way. I've not been out much around that area for a few years now. This is the Bank of England.

2) Guildhall, off Gresham Street, London

An old Police public call post! Not quite TARDIS size though...

3) Gresham Street, London

Lloyds Banking Group building. I like the architecture, and how if you look in the middle gap, there's tiered planted shrubs!

Zoomed out look, with the sunken gardens of I think St Zachary's graveyard in front:

4) Noble Street Roman ruins, near London Wall, London

They've excavated some Roman ruins, from the original London Wall (it helped slow the Great Fire of London, preventing damage on the other side). This is standing on the Noble Street viewing walkway, looking down and towards London Wall now. For more Roman London places and sights, see here.

5) Museum Of London

The last time I was walking around this area, I think I came at it from a different street, and I could not for the life of me see how you got up to the museum. I could see people walking over the raised walkway, but it was a cold, grey day so I didn't try finding out. This time I found it quite easily.

6) Museum of London

Horse statue outside the museum entrance.

7) Museum of London

Entering the Roman Britain section (the only one I really looked at today).

8) Museum of London

Looking at a model of Roman life - down by a harbour I think.

9) Museum of London

Signs (I assume authentic ones that were once used in London at some point), by the entrance/exit.

10) Walking towards St. Paul's Cathedral, London

Around this time, I ducked into a Tesco Metro to get something to eat. And then (for the second time this week) was incorrectly charged for something. I disputed it, and even went to take a photo of the price tag, and showed it to the sales person. Still didn't believe me, and he asked another guy to go and check. This one seemed inept too, coming back to ask again what I was querying. Finally I gave up and just dumped the few things I'd tried to buy, and left. Tesco, FAIL.

11) Paternoster Square, near St. Paul's Cathedral, London

Man and sheep. Not much more to say than that! (I'm sure it has some reference to the name of the square... and it seems it does. Paternoster means "our father" (I thought that much), and the statue is of a bronze shepherd and sheep. OK, makes a bit more sense now.)

12) Starbucks, Paternoster Square, near St. Paul's Cathedral, London

I'd been trying to be good, but after Tesco wound me up, I went for a Starbucks. They didn't really get my drink right, but I'd already had to ask them to put the caramel drizzle on, so going back a second time (on top of the Tesco faff) was just not on.

Bonus(es)

St. Paul's Cathedral, plus a little sliver of the moon in the top right corner.

New wellies I bought. I've not had wellies since I was a kid, but I've volunteered for a Trees for Cities tree planting day at the end of the month, and I don't have any suitable shoes! These are funky, and I can wear them on rainy days to walk to/from the Tube or DLR (my boots tend to let in water as a stone pierced the sole).

12 of 12 (v6.0) - January

2011-01-14T00:43:00.005Z

Firstly - this is almost on time!

Secondly - November's, December's and the end of year review are all now posted.

Thirdly - towards the end of last year, I downloaded the Hipstamatic app for iPhone (I'd gone looking for the Rightmove one, and iTunes were doing their own 2010 review, with this as one of the best). I thought I'd seen some US photographer Blogs I follow, using it, so I thought I'd try.

It actually creates some awesome photos. Vintage feel, grungey, colour boosted or faded, funky borders (you'll see soon...). So as this 12 was a workday one and I wanted to leave my big camera at home, I went for a Hipstamatic 12 of 12. Hope you enjoy!

No times, as used iPhone. As you can change lens and film, I have put the info down as:

Lens
Film
Flash (if any)

1) My flat, Lewisham, London

My favourite skirt. Odd angle due to it using the mirror in my wardrobe.

Lucifer VI
BlacKeys B+W

2) My flat, Lewisham, London

My snowflake necklace - gets compliments every year. I was meant to go to a work Christmas party one year, so needed a dress, shoes, etc. I had no enthusiasm and only ended up with the necklace (from Next). I tend to wear it from about October to February.

Lucifer VI
BlacKeys B+W

3) DLR to Canary Wharf, London

Reading The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell, a new Scandinavian crime writer I've tried (new to me, I mean). Featuring Detective Kurt Wallander.

Jimmy
Ina's 1969

4) My office, Canary Wharf, London

Making a call. This is one of those films where the edges are different, as I mentioned in the intro.

Lucifer VI
Kodot XGrizzled

5) My office, Canary Wharf, London

Going down in the lift, to get a Starbucks outside. The lift is either your friend and doesn't stop, or you end up on one of those trips where someone for almost each floor gets in with you, and therefore the journey takes forever. Going down isn't usually as bad as going up.

John S
Alfred Infrared

6) Starbucks Canada Place, Canary Wharf, London

Getting my caramel hot chocolate, and a survey to fill in from the manager. Bit of a different composition of the photo this time (see my end comments about using the app), rather than my standard Starbucks cup photo.

John S
Alfred Infrared

7) My office, Canary Wharf, London

My workplace!

John S
Alfred Infrared

8) My office, Canary Wharf, London

Writing down a mini to do list on a Post-It.

John S
Kodot XGrizzled

9) My office, Canary Wharf, London

Taking minutes during a lunchtime telco.

Roboto Glitter
Ina's 1969
Berry Pop flash

10) Elverson Road DLR, Lewisham, London

On my way back to the flat.

Roboto Glitter
Ina's 1969

11) My flat, Lewisham, London

I used my Christmas money towards a Wii and Wii Fit, and I've done it every day since getting it (once for about 30 minutes when I tried before work, but usually 45-75 minutes in an evening). Here's day 14!

John S
Ina's 1969

12) My flat, Lewisham, London

I forgot to photo my meal, but as I had Wii Fitted a long time, I didn't feel like cooking, so had Quorn dippers with curly fries and mayo. Yes, undoing the Wii Fit and then some... But here's the arty photo afterwards (like another one I once took).

Check out the frame on this too - has a date added, 30 years ago.

John S
BlacKeys B+W
Berry Pop flash

Bonus - My flat, Lewisham, London

What I'm reading at the moment in bed (the Wallander book is a DLR commute read, as are two e-books I have on the Kindle app for iPhone). Charlaine Harris' omnibus of Aurora Teagarden Mysteries. Good stuff.

John S
Kodot XGrizzled

So yes, the app is funky. It says "wiping off lens" when you first open it, then "warming up transistors" after you change a lens or film. You have to wait while it saves the photo. And if you flick the flash switch, you hear it whine as it heats up, just like an old camera. Though the viewfinder is small and deceptive - which easily leads to heads being cropped off for example, or you think you've got something in the middle of the photo, and it ends up being bottom right. Leads to some new compositions, as you saw with the Starbucks photo.

That's your lot this month - I'd love to hear what you thought of this Hipstamatic set. Thanks to Chad for hosting, you for reading, and make sure to check everyone else's posts out!

See you next month :-)

12 of 12 (v5.0) - end of year review!

2011-01-13T22:00:00.001Z

Always fun to do - pick your favourite photo from each month you participated. I didn't see a linky list on Chad's Blog, but I'm doing mine anyway.

January - Waterlow Park, Highgate, London

Squirrel in the snow.

February - Greenwich, and my flat in Lewisham, London (double)

I couldn't choose, sorry!

The ball at Flamstead House, Greenwich (at the top of the hill, next to the Royal Observatory:

Wire robot picked up in Greenwich market:

March - My flat, Lewisham, London

Pretty berries outside my flat.

April - Cabot Square, Canary Wharf, London

Canary Wharf can look really pretty!

May - Canary Wharf, London

Maybe not my favourite of the month, but one of them, and it features a banner for my company (Thomson Reuters).

June - Liverpool

A Superlambanana.

July - Southbank, London

Funky fake hedge big furniture. There's always something along the Southbank...

August - Canary Wharf, London

My tidy desk - a rare feat. I'd just acquired the in/out trays and was revelling in a tidy desk!

September - National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London

Lovely building.

October - Ischia, off the coast of Naples, Italy

View of the beach from high up on the road.

November - Starbucks, Leeds City Centre

If you don't have a camera, you improvise with your fingers!

December - Coventry Street?, Leicester Square, London

Night time colours.

12 of 12 (v5.0) - December

2010-12-14T21:56:00.005Z

(My End of Year 12 of 12 review is here!)

Late posting, but I'm here now! I came to add the photos, and found I had 15 followers who had joined this Blog. It wasn't that big last time! Most I know in person or through 12 of 12, but some were just "how the hell do you know me?" - no bio, foreign names I didn't recognise... so I blocked a few. If the remaining strangers see this, could you say hi/how you found my Blog? Cheers!

Anyhoo - more than 12 photos because I'd already spent ages cutting this lot down and some of them were "well this is my photo for 12 of 12, but this shows you the whole thing", etc.

I took the day off work, and had a wander around London - so here we go (no timestamps - it's late and I want to go to bed)! Thanks for the Christmas wishes (those who left comments) - hope you had a lovely holidays too!

1) Starbucks, The Strand, London

Reading Stratton's War by Laura Wilson. I liked it throughout, though the ending was a big flat for me. I liked DI Stratton, the main male character, anyway. And of course, the featured Starbucks.

2) Covent Garden, London

Funky cider van!

3) Apple Market, Covent Garden, London

Christmas decorations from the roof.

And a bigger picture of the indoor market, with the sunken area where there's a cafe and more shops.

4) Covent Garden, London

Funky hedge reindeer.

Bigger picture:

5) Covent Garden, London

The Pearly Kings and Queens!

6) Covent Garden, London

There was a big Christmas tree there, with a pressure-sensor pad in front of it. When people stepped on the pad to kiss under the mistletoe, the lights on the tree lit up! It was called Merry Kissmas.

Bonuses:

The mistletoe:

The tree lit up as some people kissed (using bokeh for the soft look):

7) Leicester Square, London

Off to the cinema to see what I thought was the third of the Steig Larsson films, only I'd had a blonde moment and forgotten it was the second one... well I'd seen the cinema say the third was coming soon, but as it's a second run cinema, that could mean a while off, and they were still showing number 2. The Prince Charles shows films that have finished elsewhere (and so the license is cheaper), as well as cult, indie and old films. They have theme nights and sing-along shows too, pretty nice place.

8) Coventry Street (I think), Leicester Square, London

Wandered out afterwards, and checked out HMV nearby - grabbed a load of books!...

Book pile from HMV (taken at home, later):

9) Piccadilly, London

The horses in the fountain near the Eros statue.

10) Piccadilly, London

Cool Britannia window display (I forget the shop - Lillywhites, maybe?

11) Piccadilly, London

Night time in the circus...

12) Regent Street, London

Several photos walking up the street:

Bokeh shot (above) of these lights above the street (below):

Zoom zoom!

Little walkway off to the left, leading to some bars and things:

Back on Regent Street, the banner for Veeraswamy, restaurant which featured in the book I was reading in photo 1 (the police station in the book was bombed, and the Veeraswamy staff offered them tea).

Bonus: my flat, Lewisham, London

Jelly candle I bought in Covent Garden Market. Smells lovely.

Bagel with home-made jam from a colleague - yummy!

Thanks to all for reading, and to Chad for organising. Everyone else's are here!

12 of 12 (v5.0) - November

2010-11-15T22:27:00.003Z

Man alive, am I actually posting this late! January 11th, in a whole new YEAR. Sorry about the delay folks, I needed to get a new PS Elements for watermarking photos (and sometimes editing and resizing), and that required Snow Leopard... long story short, I'm back!

In the meantime, I discovered the Hipstamatic iPhone app, which is awesome - funky colour-tinted photos, vintage looking, bold colours... wild! That will be my 12 of 12 for January.

Anyway, back to Novermber ;-)

No timestamps, as I'm not getting my camera out just for that. I was visiting two friends from Uni, and their two little boys for a few days, as Gem was running a 10K that weekend (her first, which she rocked).

1) Leeds city centre

Went into Leeds with Gem and the boys, as we were dropping Jon off at his workplace (he had his Christmas do that night, so couldn't drive home after, obviously). We needed to visit Bravissimo so headed into one of the old-style arcades in Leeds city centre after dropping Jon off. I liked the look of the quietish arcade and architecture.

2) Leeds City Centre

And the Christmas decorations!

3) Leeds City Centre

Close up number 1 of one of the balls making the Christmas tree above.

4) Leeds City Centre

And close up number 2 of of of the balls making the Christmas tree. Looks like that watercolour effect you can get in some photo editing programmes :-)

5) Starbucks, Leeds City Centre

Will playing at taking photos of me (that's what his hands are doing - improvising a camera). When I took some photos of his brother Jake, Will suddenly stopped being shy, and charmingly kept ducking into the photo, hee.

6) Bravissimo, Leeds City Centre

The shop hadn't been open when we first tried, so we'd ducked into Starbucks for a drink. When we came back, Gem did her shopping and fitting, while Will and I amused ourselves in the main bit of the shop. Lots of fun wandering round an underwear shop with a 3 year old boy, asking him what colour Mummy likes (hey, it kept him busy, OK?). I have a lovely (though slightly blurred) photo of Will holding up a sheer black thong, so you can just see his face through the fabric. Gem - I will send you a copy of it :D

7) Leeds Museum, Leeds City Centre

Drawings of two dinosaurs I liked in the museum (read what they are saying). Hee. Rawr.

8) Leeds Museum, Leeds City Centre

Jake wandering over one of the exhibitions about the local area - a large map. Giant Jake!

9) Leeds Christmas Market, Millennium Square, Leeds City Centre

I got some nutcracker decorations from this stall - very nice!

10) Leeds Christmas Market, Millennium Square, Leeds City Centre

Merry-go-round at the Christmas Market.

11) Somewhere on the drive back to Barnsley

Leftover McDonald's cardboard cutout (not from November 12th), propped up in Gem's car on the way home.

12) Barnsley

Leftover cupcakes Gem had bakes (and the boys had decorated) when we got back.

Bonus - Barnsley

Yummy squash and lentil curry Gem made with a Slimming World recipe. I really must try making this myself.

Thanks to Chad for coming up with the 12 of 12 idea, and you can read (though you surely have already) all the other participants' entries here.

Thanks for reading and waiting!

12 of 12 (v5.0) - October

2010-10-14T23:04:00.003+01:00

Late I know, but I lost my copy of Photoshop Elements when my MacBook's HD broke, and although I've searched twice at my parents', I cannot find the disc. Very annoying, as I can't easily watermark without it. Gimp I didn't like, and Photobucket is a pain in the backside - I added text to all of last month's 12, but only one showed up, and this month it kept crashing every time I tried to add text to the first photo, let alone any others. So I'm just hoping the people who read this honour that these aren't photos to be taken (and certainly not without credit).

On that note, on to the 12!

Let me preface this (as I did in the placeholder text), by saying that it was not my favourite 12. Ever. It had the potential to be - I was on holiday in Italy, I'd planned a day on the island of Ischia (next to Capri), the weather was pretty good bar the end of my visit (including being mostly overcast on the 12th, naturally). But no sooner had I gotten off the boat at Ischia, than I lost my work Blackberry. I'm not sure how - believe me, I've tried reliving it, but all I know is that one second it was in my hand as I read an email, and the next thing it was splashing into the sea. I froze in one of those "oh SHIT, did that just happen? NOW what?!?!" moments, and half considered jumping in after it (before rightly remembering I had a rucksack with camera, wallet, money etc. in that I couldn't just leave on the quayside). So after sitting down and crying for a good 15-20 minutes (estimate, as I never wear a watch and my BB was the only timekeeping piece I used), I got up and figured I had to get on with the day - whatever problems replacing the BB might bring, I couldn't do anything until I got back to work.

So, here's the 12. I was going to put the extras in a separate post, but 1) I'm not sure who'd read that, 2) I'm tired of fighting with Photobucket and 3) this is already late being posted. So just ignore the counting, OK? Cheers ;-) I'm also not going to timestamp these as it's just a hassle after so long.

Ischia main harbour

Police boat and a snapshot of the weather. Then I lost my BB.

La Mortella Gardens, Ischia

Pretty much all the following were taken at La Mortella, a famous gardens on Ischia. Created by a British composer, William Walton, and his Argentinian wife, Susana, it really is somewhere you could lose yourself for hours.

Funky view through some palms:

View of a nice fountain and surrounding area:

Interesting plants:

Great little fountain as you head up to the Orchid House:

Giant lillies in the Orchid House. Apparently these change sex overnight? Go figure.

Can't remember what these are but they remind me of plants I associate with Grandad (Busy Lizzies, I think?).

Susana outlived William Walton, and each have an area of the garden for their memorial. I believe this little water feature (with pergola and seating around it, plus another little nook at the side) are Susana's area. William's you'll see in a minute.

View from beside Susana and William's memorial spots:

The rock with William's ashes I think:

Funky astrology thing on the floor:

The crocodile pond (including close up - and don't worry, these are fake!):

Lovely little bird house thing by the pagoda:

Pretty flowers near the pagoda I think:

Honestly forget what this was officially called, as it was the end of my visit and I'd seen a lot. But I liked the fake "lake":

Close up on the "lake" of blue pebbles or glass (I forget):

Close up of a pond, I liked the light:

Coastline of Ischia

Having left the gardens and started heading back to the harbour, I jumped off the bus to get some photos of a big of beach and coastline:

View down onto the beach from up high (using the auto fix feature in iPhoto, so it didn't look like this but I like the effect):

More beach:

Di Matteo's pizzeria, Naples

The pizza I had twice there, with a fried egg on. Very yummy, very cheap. One of the best pizzerias in Naples (the other being Gino Sorbillo's, but I preferred Di Matteo's).

Hotel Santa Chiara Meuble Suite, Naples

Watching "Qui Vuol'Essere Millionario?" (yeah, you guessed that one). But seriously, look at the price splits! In the UK you hold at £32,000 or I think £125,000? This gets you only up to 30,000 EUR by question 11 of 15!

So that's the overdue month. Thanks for reading and any comments you leave, and I assume you've all read the other 12s (full list here)? Thanks to Chad as always.

12 of 12 (v5.0) - September

2010-09-14T21:51:00.005+01:00

This one's an iPhone 12 of 12. Yes, I got one towards the end of August! I had a rough plan to go out earlyish, do something in London, then see two films at the Prince Charles Cinema (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and To Kill A Mockingbird). Then I found out the Thames Festival was on, and there were fireworks to close it, which clashed with TKAM.

I ended up adjusting plans, but having a good day anyway! It's an iPhone one because the last time I'd charged my camera was in Devon a few weeks before, and I couldn't find the charger so I needed to save the (pretty full actually) battery for the fireworks.

So with thanks as always to Chad for organising this (full list of participants here), I hope you enjoy the photos! Everyone loves comments :D

Allrighty, so here we go. No times because these aren't exactly timestamped on an iPhone and I'm already 2 days late posting, mmkay?

1) Just after midnight - My flat, Lewisham, London

I've been eating Oreos recently since they were on offer in Tesco (well they're a bit overpriced any other time). This is me being all arty and stuff with an Oreo cookie. I was playing with the iPhone camera, thinking maybe I'd use this shot in my 12 of 12 - I wouldn't realise about my missing camera battery charger for another 12 hours or so...

I'd been drunken MSNing with a friend (well I wasn't drunk), and it was fellow 12er Christin's birthday, so I YIMed her to say hi and happy birthday - that's why I was up late.

2) Mid morning ish? - My flat, Lewisham, London

Reading in bed. Literally the view I had, lying on my side. For the curious, it's the second book in the His Dark Materials trilogy, The Subtle Knife. I just finished it tonight (14th Sept).

3) Lunchtime ish - My flat, Lewisham, London

Looking at the PCC's webpage for the film times.

4) About 2pm - My flat, Lewisham, London

So there's been a big spiderweb over the outside of the gate for a while now. At one point I walked through it, and the spider moved its web sideways and up a bit when it rebuilt. This I'm OK with, as I know it's there now and avoid it. But there was a little spider who kept building a web over the latch on the back of the gate, and I had to break it every day to open the gate. I felt bad, but I had to get out! So finally, here's a photo of the big web outside.

5) Mid afternoon - Lewisham rail station, London

Waiting to get a train into Charing Cross station. I can either get the DLR and a Tube into central London, or the train (and then sometimes a Tube if my destination's not a close walk by). Part of my DLR route was being worked on this weekend so that left me with the train. Which is OK - I like the train - it's a bit further walk from my flat, but it's quick into Charing X and I only pay for 1 ticket then, whereas the DLR/Tube takes 2 tickets (I'd have to change at Canary Wharf, and the CWharf Tube and DLR stations are separate, so I'd need one ticket into CWharf DLR, then another from CWharf Tube to my end point). How many Americans did I lose with that explanation? ;-) (it wouldn't make much sense to anyone who's not used our underground with an Oyster card).

6) Mid afternoon - Trafalgar Square, London

The National Gallery in the sunlight. I think it's a very pretty building.

7) Mid afternoon - Trafalgar Square, London

Fountain, Nelson's column and the sun. All good things, I loved this photo.

8) Mid afternoon - behind the National Portrait Gallery, London

Recently, London introduced a bike hire scheme similar to that in Paris (and rpesumably other places). I've not been out and about much since it started, so this might be the first stand of them I've seen.

9) Mid afternoon - Foyles bookshop, Charing Cross Road, London

When I went back to Devon in August for Mum's birthday, I happened to find a bunch of books in a charity shop - 7 out of the 10 Martin Beck detective novels, written by a Swedish husband and wife pair (once journalists, they became crime writers). For 75p, and interesting cover blurbs, I thought I'd give them a try - at worst, I'd have wasted about the cost of a book on Amazon, at best, I'd have got 7 books cheap and given money to charity.

Anyway, I am missing books 1, 5 and 9 so I thought I'd try the bookshops on Charing Cross Rd. But unfortunately many small/independents have shut, and the handful that remain didn't have them. I went into Foyles, but these weren't in a 3 for 2 offer and at £7.99/£8.99 each, they were a bit pricey for me. I did pick up another book though by a different author.

You can see here, that all the books are numbered and have a letter on, spelling out Martin Beck's name (well, apart from book 1, Roseanne, as that is face out on the shelf).

BONUS - Late afternoon - Starbucks, Charing Cross Road, London

Ah, another 12 of 12, another Starbucks. I'm actually trying to cut down though...

10) Late afternoon - Starbucks, Charing Cross Road, London

Reading more of The Subtle Knife.

11) 5pm ish, Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Square, London

I'd been thinking about becoming a member of the cinema for a while now (a least a year). It's £10 for 1 year, or £50 for lifetime membership. Mostly, this gives you discounted tickets (for afternoon matinees, this can be as cheap as £1.50 for a ticket, though usually you'll pay £4 instead of say £6.50 for a film). So see about 4 films in a year, and it's worth it. It also gives discounts at a few shops and places around London, including Forbidden Planet (and my geeky friends rejoice...).

Membership card (with Wall-E sporting a PCC crown!) and ticket for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

12) 8pm ish - Trafalgar Square, London

Walking back past the National Gallery, on my way to the McD's on the Strand for some quick food, then down to Embankment for the fireworks. No photos of that in the 12, as I've not yet downloaded them from my camera and apparently have no way of watermarking them since my harddrive broke last month (I got it replaced free with Apple, but I can't find my Photoshop Elements CD, and I looked at Gimp but didn't suss it in time for this).

Thanks for reading! Hope you liked them, see you next month (at least a day late, I warn you now - I'm in Italy then!)

12 of 12 (v5.0) - August

2010-08-13T13:53:00.004+01:00

And here we go with the proper post, finally! It was a work day and I left early at around 3pm, to get a coach up north to see friends - their oldest boy turns 3 today (17th), so it was the party weekend.

Approximate times because it's late and I'm tired, and really can't be bothered to get my camera to check them. Thanks as always to Chad for the idea, and here's the master list.

1) 7am - my flat, Lewisham, London

Switching the Blackberry alarm off. Don't like mornings.

2) 7:30am? - my flat, Lewisham, London

Drying my hair - arty shot.

3) 8am? - my flat, Lewisham, London

Picking up some reading for the coach ride. OK, these are the books I got for the birthday boy's little brother, so he would have something to open and enjoy while big bro is the centre of attention.

4) 8am? - my flat, Lewisham, London

Jeans into the suitcase, packing almost finished.

5) 8:50am ish - my office, Canary Wharf, London

I thought I was first on my team, but then saw a laptop on one desk (the owner being away getting a drink or something). It was my Italian manager's first day back in the office so I thought I'd be early/on time, and he wandered in at 9:30am (with a good excuse, he'd got back late the previous night from holiday, and found a cat trapped in the house). I was in early and he didn't see! :-(

6) 10am ish - my office, Canary Wharf, London

As I'd skipped the Starbucks run to be in early, I waited for my manager to say he was too busy to sit down and catch up with me, before I ran to make up my Starbucks need. You have to have one in my 12 of 12 each month!

7) Sometime early afternoonish - my office, Canary Wharf, London

Graduate colleague (Yang), who sits opposite me. I thought I might be needing photos, so he helped me out with one.

8) Sometime early afternoonish - my office, Canary Wharf, London

As we're supposed to be moving desks some time soon, I'd been going through my pedestal drawers, the 3 piles of papers at the edge of my desk, and the 2 big piles of expense reports on my pedestal - sorting, throwing away, recycling, scanning things into the harddrive. I'd nabbed an in/out tray from my American manager (who was just using it to dump stuff), and then I sorted my tidy desk into an organised tidy desk! I think I'd done this earlier in the week, but this shows you what it looks like now. When I first tidied and sorted it, it looked so lovely and professional officey, that I just sat smiling and looking at it for about 5 minutes! :D

9) Late afternoon - coach ride north, somewhere on the M1?

Megabus reflected in a car. Rain showers came and went, leaving reflective surfaces. Btw, bit of a mix up on my return journey and I missed my coach back to London - but Megabus sorted me out and got me back (via a driver picking me up and driving me to his coach, then driving me with his pre-booked passengers by coach to a train, and then me getting that train back to London. Can't recommend Megabus highly enough right now, their customer service is the best I've found of anyone).

10) Late afternoon - coach ride north, somewhere on the M1?

Pretty sky.

11) Late afternoon - coach ride north, somewhere on the M1?

A twofer, as I seriously couldn't narrow it down more, I liked both of these sunset photos!

12) 10pm ish? - Barnsley, Yorkshire

Relaxing with some wine, at my friends' house.

Bonus - midnight ish, Barnsley, Yorkshire

Book, sleeping bag, sofa, and lap to read by. Hey, if it means I can see my friends, I'll do it. Hotels would mean I just never saw my far away friends, and that would make me sad.

So that's your lot, hope you enjoyed it - sorry for the wait! I'll start reading a few people's 12s now, but the rest will be read soon. I'll leave comments, as I know we all like them! ;-)

12 of 12 (v5.0) - July

2010-07-12T23:18:00.004+01:00

Another month, another 12... and this month's is on time! I went back to taking the day off, though I didn't end up doing anything wildly exciting. I left the flat around noon, and was back by about 5pm! In my defence, I'd intended to sit in Regents Park for a while and read, but it started lightly raining so that put the kibbosh on that plan...

Anyhoo - thanks as always to Chad for coming up with the idea, and see here for the master list of all participants! Here are my 12 (*coughishcough*)...

1) 12:01pm - Lewisham, London

A cat that lives on my road - most of the others are shy and skitter away, but not this handsome fellow. Who I've called Ginger. Yes, my creativity staggers even me sometimes.

2) 12:57pm - Southbank, London

The London Eye with a nice sky behind it. But look carefully at the middle pod... or lack of! They've obviously still not replaced it - I was walking over the bridge a few weeks ago when a lady behind me noticed it was missing and pointed it out to her friends.

3) 12:58pm - Southbank, London

And a cool shot of the London Eye that I liked. Elegant in its simplicity, says I.

4) 1:03pm - Southbank, London

Udderbelly, at Southbank. Run by one of the national TV channels (Channel 4), it has food and drink in there and things like comedy acts. And yes, it is a giant purple cow on its back.

It's London, what do you mean you're surprised?!

(Yes, I know the website says Underbelly, but read the text on the page and they call it Udderbelly).

5) 1:30pm - Southbank, London

A fountain further along, next to Queen Elizabeth Hall I think. People having fun running in and out of it. I had fun getting photos of the water against the sky.

6) 1:35pm - Southbank, London

There were 3 panels of comic-style painting on the wall of a nearby building, I think by a Brazilian artist who is featured at the Udderbelly. This amused me.

7) 1:55pm - National Theatre, Southbank, London

The reason I'd come to the Southbank - the Press Photographer's Year exhibition. I hadn't realised it only opened today. Reuters represents! I spotted 3 photographs from Reuters folk, I think!

8) 2:01pm - National Theatre, Southbank, London

Outside the National Theatre, and again, quirky London. Giant sofa, armchairs and tall lamp, all covered with fake grass (like that stuff you see at greengrocers'). Of course!

And because I tweaked the contrast on a b&w one, here's a second shot of the sofa:

9) 2:27pm - Waterloo station, London

Was feeling hot and humid by then, so got a lovely mango chiller from Krispy Kreme.

10) 2:42pm - Bakerloo line, London Underground, London

Getting the Tube to Regents Park.

11) 4:41pm - Lewisham, London

Walking up my road.

12) 5:02pm - My flat, Lewisham, London

Leftover chicken, broccoli and egg noodles in black bean sauce, while I watch some of the end episodes of Heroes s3.

BONUS - 3:58pm - Canary Wharf Tube station

Recreating this shot, one of my alltime favourite 12 of 12 photos I've done. I actually got this in b&w again, but it was so similar to the original (just less people) that I went for the colour option this time.

Thanks for reading, and comments always appreciated! See you next month, same date, same batchannel.

Extra to 12 of 12 - Liverpool continued

2010-07-01T21:24:00.004+01:00

Here are the ones I couldn't squeeze into the 12 of 12 post, no matter now much I tried!

The full Andy Warhol-themed artwork in the Walker Art Museum (you saw a close up in 12 of 12):

Dory and Gil's look-a-likes in the aquarium bit of the museum next door:

Shopping in the sunshine, the centre of Liverpool's shopping area, with World Cup theme going:

John Lennon (sort of) propped outside the Cavern Club in Mathew Street:

Different view of the bricks, showing you just how many there are:

The Beatles are everywhere...

Lovely pizza and pretzels at a food stand in the shopping centre:

In the Cathedral gardens, there were several stones like this. Very old too. Sad messages sometimes - read the bottom of this one, marking the woman who died looking after the two young children when they were ill.

More feet in the grass...

And playing with the light coming through the leaves and trees:

Thanks for reading!

12 of 12 (v5.0) - June

2010-06-14T22:26:00.007+01:00

OK, placeholder text deleted, and here's the actual post! It was delayed due to being busy at work, going to Geneva for a workshop I was organising, and Elephant Parade (in which I walked over half of London, photographing lifesize baby elephant models).

Right, so this was a different 12 of 12. I'd had train tickets to go up to Liverpool for a work thing, but for various reasons it didn't happen, so I rescheduled them and picked June 12th, thinking I'd have a different 12 of 12. It was a fantastically sunny day, though with Liverpool seeming very windy, you rarely felt hot. I got a load of photos I liked and finally narrowed it down... to 29 [doh]. So what I've done is put about half here as part of the 12 of 12 (couldn't do a bonus "revisit an old 12 photo" as it was the first time I'd been to Liverpool), and I've put the remaining photos here in a second post.

I don't usually ask for anything from people reading here, but I would love it if you have a few minutes to read the second post too! Partly I want to also see people's thoughts, comments and likes on the second lot, but also I want people to see and hopefully enjoy them. Liverpool was a lovely place full of friendly people, I really had a fantastic day out there and want to share a bit of it with you, as many readers here are outside of the UK. So taking those extra few minutes will let you travel vicariously a little more. The second post with extra Liverpool photos is here.

As always, thanks to Chad for the idea, and here's the master list, though I'm sure you've seen them all already!

Oh and no time stamps because I've long since deleted the photos from my camera, and I'm not about to go through Adobe Bridge to look them all up!

1) Walker Art Museum, Liverpool

Close up of a piece in the museum, which I liked. The full picture is in the extra, top up post.

2) Forgotten-the-name-of-it Museum, Liverpool

Outside of a museum right next to the Art Museum.

3) Forgotten-the-name-of-it Museum, Liverpool

If you look closely at photo 2, you can see a large inflatable rose in one alcove, and a large inflatable purple flower in another. This is a close up of the rose.

4) Forgotten-the-name-of-it Museum, Liverpool

In the entrance part of the museum, was this unusual statue. Having paused mid-elephant quest to come up to Liverpool, I was delighted to see a reminder of one of Liverpool's own parades. I soon learnt that this was a Super LambBanana (a lamb, but with the body of a banana).

Originally, there was the Super LambBanana, which sparked a series of smaller Super LambBananas as part of Go SuperLambBananas! (that gets hard to type after a while).

In the museum gift shop, I found a book with all of the Super Lambananas in, as well as one for Go Penguins, another former parade. I'd just missed the penguin one by 5 months, but I got both books to look at.

5) Forgotten-the-name-of-it Museum, Liverpool

The museum had a small aquarium, where I could see Dory, Gil and Nemo :P (group photo here, Dory and Gil are in the extra post).

6) Main street through Liverpool's shopping area

See, my books! And a Starbucks hot chocolate. Well, it is a 12 of 12 after all.

7) Waterstones, Main street through Liverpool's shopping area

I had a look in Waterstones, hoping for the new Janet Evanovich (well, the new paperback, number 15. Number 16 is newly out or soon to be, but in hardback). I was looking at getting the 3 books on the left, and taking a photo of the other 2 as ones to maybe look at in the future. You can also see my nice Gap bag in the background - big, roomy (like a cavern when trying to find my keys in it), it's pretty and floral and summery. And you can bung it in the washing machine. A bargain at £8.

I ended up swapping to another book instead of the Eye of the Needle one, but I forget what I got instead. Oh, a Donna Leon book, About Face.

8) Mathew Street, Liverpool

Engraved bricks on a wall in Mathew Street (Wiki article here), where the Cavern Club is (famous for being the host to the Beatles). I'm glad I read the Wikipedia article, as it told me this fascinating snippet...

The fame of Mathew Street led to the arrest of 3 men in 2006 when a resident of Dallas, Texas, viewing the street's webcam, saw a burglary in progress and called Merseyside Police.^[4]

9) The Cavern Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool

Speaking of the club... Only took a photo of the sign outside.

10) Mathew Street, Liverpool

Funky bench opposite the Cavern Club.

11) Duke Street?, Liverpool

Pretty building as I walked up what I'm sure was Duke Street, heading towards the cathedral. The bright colours in the lovely sunshine just screamed for a photo.

12) Just off Duke Street?, Liverpool

OK cheating here, and putting 3 photos, as they are all funny, and showing you the Super LambBananas I found.

I just keep thinking of Tommy Cooper with this one...

And the one on the left here makes me think of Andrex toilet tissue (famous for using Labrador puppies in its adverts). As I'm sharing fun facts, here are some about Andrex (which I keep typing as Andrew):

One and a half million rolls of Andrex are used in the UK each day - enough to go round the world one and a half times, and the equivalent of 18 rolls a second. Each year, 8.25 million miles of Andrex are used in the UK. 12 years of usage would be enough to stretch to the Sun. White is the most popular colour. In 2006, Andrex was the UK's 7th top selling grocery brand, below Nescafé and above Lucozade, selling £303m. It has been in the top 10 UK grocery brands every year since it began and is the top selling non-food brand in the UK. It has a 35% share of the market and has been the market leader for 40 years. One mile of Andrex costs £36.

You can also see a caged yellow Super LambBanana in the background, and also below:

Gratuitous bonuses, Liverpool

Chinatown, Liverpool

Nice pagoda!

Liverpool Cathedral Gardens

Reading my new Stephanie Plum in the sunshine, with springy grass under my feet. LOVELY.

So that's June's very late 12 of 12 - thanks for reading, and I'll try to be on time for July!

12 of 12 (v5.0) - May

2010-05-15T14:11:00.004+01:00

Another month, and this one late - had a bit of a social life this week! Wednesday 12th, I was at work - it's been too busy this month and last, to take the time off. And there were drinks and a meal (got back late). Thursday evening there was a PA Network event at a hotel (show us the rooms, meet travel bookers and have free drinks and nibbles - got back late), and then Friday night was a BBQ at a colleague's place with other people on the graduate programme (as my colleague is). So here I am, Saturday afternoon!

I was thinking most of my photos would be in the morning on my way to work, as I wasn't sure I could take photos at the evening event - maybe one of a drink, but I was a bit self-conscious about taking photos of things like that, at a work event. With friends yes, but they know me and know I'll take photos of seemingly random things to practice photography, or get an arty shot.

Anyhoo, on to the photos! I couldn't narrow down below 15 this month, so after 4 years, I'm finally having more than one bonus shot. Sue me - plenty of other people have broken the rules or bent them!

1) 7:58am - My flat, Lewisham, London

French plait! I had a bit too long of a lie in, and as my hair was still pretty clean, I decided to skip washing it and just plait it (I normally wash my hair every day).

2) 8:02amMy flat, Lewisham, London

I bought new skin care at the weekend, and thought I'd be stuck for photos - but was also stuck on how to make a photo of skin care products interesting. So I went for an arty water shot - I'm using a 3 step cleanse/tone/moisturise thing.

3) 8:24am - My flat, Lewisham, London

OK, this I thought was a bonus (this year's theme being a recreation of another 12's photo) - but I can't find it. So Maybe this month I just have 15 photos, not 12 and 3 bonus...

Anyhoo - putting on mascara before leaving for work.

4) 8:38am - My flat, Lewisham, London

I'm trying to eat a bit healthier to lose some weight, so I've started having breakfast - in this case, a toasted bagel with jam.

5) 8:41am - My flat, Lewisham, London

Pretty flower in the garden. See the light sunshine? Didn't last long that day...

6) 8:42am - My flat, Lewisham, London

And the garden. Looks nicer and better weather than the photo from March's 12 of 12...

7) 8:54am - Elverson Road DLR, London

Heading over the footbridge to get to the platform for the Bank/Stratford train.

8) 8:56am - Elverson Road DLR, London

Eeeep, spider on the pillar.

9) 9:18am - Canary Wharf, London

I work for Thomson Reuters , and they've just launched the new Reuters Insider - hence the banner on the DLR bridge. Lots of marketing inside and out the building.

10) 9:20am - Canary Wharf, London

A banner on the other side of the plaza, with buildings and sunshine.

11) 9:23am - Canary Wharf, London

See, a little outside marketing again - opposite the Canary Wharf Jubilee line station, is I think a little temporary studio. They filmed some interviews inside I think, which got aired on Reuters Insider.

BONUS) 11:16am - Canary Wharf, London

Bonus of sorts, I guess - I got the same photo last month (I thought the bonus had to be recreated from last year or earlier, but oh well, this was meant to be a normal 12 photo, not the bonus, as I wasn't expecting to take photos after work due to the meal/drinks.

Anyway, I want to lose weight, as I said earlier - so this week is the slow start. Have breakfast, more fruit/veg, less chocolate/cake etc., and cut down on the Starbucks Hot Chocolates! I'd been having one each morning before work, so I'm going to allow myself one a week, no more. Probably on Fridays, but I did this on Wednesday as it's a 12 of 12 tradition with me. Although I thought I'd got money on my Starbucks card and hadn't... so it was a wasted trip. I went down in the afternoon though.

12) 10:55pm - South Quay DLR, London

After the drinks and meal at a Turkish place near work, I walked to the nearest DLR station, a few minutes up the road. Quiet at that time of night.

And because I like them and have already got 12 photos, two extra bonuses...

BONUS 2) 11:00pm - Canary Wharf, London

Pretty night lights through the DLR window, including reflections!

BONUS 3) 11:20pm - Lewisham, London

Walking back up the hill to my flat, and liking the dramatic sky (clouds still visible).

And there we go! Sorry I'm late, I know a few people were waiting with varying degrees of impatience :P

Thanks as always to Chad for creating the idea - check out the list of people who joined in, and I'll give a shout out to Christin who is also late with her 12 because she was on holiday until yesterday. If she does post something, hers will be a mini 12 because she had used up most of her memory cards by then!

12 of 12 (v5.0) - April

2010-04-12T21:36:00.002+01:00

Another month, another 12... Whereas for the last 9 or 10 months I've taken the 12th of the month off (if a work day), this month I didn't. Mostly because I'd taken 1.5 days off last week (and with the bank holiday on top of that), and partly because I was meant to have 2 big team meetings today. Which ended up only being one big meeting, but still... I figured with it staying light for longer now, I could still get enough decent photos.

So anyway - Chad's idea as usual, and here's a full list of people joining in, check them out!

1) 7:47am - My flat, Lewisham, London

Morning shower - a small photo of my new shower and bathroom, as you've not really seen my new flat.

2) 8:50am - My flat, Lewisham, London

Going for a self portrait close up - thinking I'd be short on photos today (turned out not to be an issue, but I liked this anyway).

3) 9:01am - Lewisham, London

Spring buds on the trees, hurrah! On my way to the DLR station to go to work... Hi ho, hi ho...

BONUS) 9:27am - Canary Wharf, London

Ha! No photo of my Starbucks drink this time, but the place! I thought, as I was putting this post together, that I'd not managed to get an actual bonus shot this month. I'd got 13 yes, but one of them didn't qualify as a bonus theme for this year (recreating a previous 12 of 12 photo). But as I came to add comments, I realised this counts! I accidentally recreated photo 6 from November 2008's 12 of 12! (that photo taken from the left side, this month's is from the right side of the sign).

5) 12:21pm - Work, Canary Wharf, London

Checking Facebook on my lunchbreak. For photographers, I'd recommend checking this group's website out - I'm a photographer, not a terrorist! Too many people getting stopped and even being arrested, for simply being amateur photographers. Because God knows, a terrorist is going to scope a target out with a pricey dSLR, lenses, camera bag and tripod. It would never cross his mind to use an iPhone, cameraphone or point and shoot and therefore blend in with the hundreds of thousands of tourists (rather than the mere hundreds or few thousands with dSLRs).

6) 12:23pm - Work, Canary Wharf, London

Lunch - bean and Quorn chilli with rice and a soft tortilla. Wolfed down in half my lunchbreak as I had to finish something up before going for food, and had to stop lunch early to set up a telco.

7) 12:53pm - Work, Canary Wharf, London

Setting up the telco - a conference call with a Webex to share my desktop. One room in the Canary Wharf office for people to join in person, some dial in from their desks, and several more dial in from Europe and NYC.

8) 5:39pm - Canary Wharf, London

Leaving the office, and finding a new angle to photograph these buildings. Say what you will, but I like a lot of the buildings in Canary Wharf. Who says functional can't be beautiful too?

9) 5:46pm - Canary Wharf, London

Walking around for some more photos, before I stop at the Tesco for ingredients and then get the DLR back to the flat. This is Cabot Square, up the road from my office. See, pretty! Trees, lamps, tall buildings...

10) 5:47pm - Canary Wharf, London

... and fountains too! This is a fountain whereby it's several steps high, and the fountain encircles the edge of Cabot Square (with another fountain in the centre). Playing with the shutter speed here for a little blurring.

11) 7:50pm - My flat, Lewisham, London

Chopped veggies, ready to start cooking the risotto.

12) 8:35pm - My flat, Lewisham, London

And the finished product. Yum.

Bonus - 8:36pm - My flat, Lewisham, London

Ah, Malcolm Reynolds. Cap'n Tightpants. Or as he is here, Cap'n No Pants :D I watched "Out Of Gas" last night, and then as the DVD was still in the player tonight, I watched the other episodes on that disc. "Trash" (seen here) while eating, and then "Ariel" and "War Stories" while making this post. Funny how despite seeing this episode several times, I don't remember noticing the tattoo on Mal's right hip...

Thought it'd make my geeky friends smile, to see this photo at the end :D (for the non-watchers out there, this is Firefly, a show that got cancelled criminally early. It spawned the film Serenity, and you should watch both the series and the film, and fall in love with both. Just too damn good.

So there you go, another 12 of 12 done. Hope you enjoyed it!

12 of 12 (v5.0) - March

2010-03-12T16:29:00.005Z

I really had no ideas what to do today. But I have kind of been needing new work clothes and a few bits, plus a baby present. So I donned a helmet and elbow pads, and headed off to Oxford Street for a bit. Sorry it's boring, but you do get to see a bit of the new flat too, so maybe not all bad.

Thanks as always to Chad, and you can see the links to everyone's 12 of 12s here - have a read, people love visitors and comments!

1) 11:11am - My Flat, Lewisham, London

Some pajamas I ordered from La Senza recently, using up some of a gift card. Pretty!

2) 11:56am- My Flat, Lewisham, London

The garden - nice! My flat is basically a granny flat, long and thin, occupying one half of the back of my landlady's house (the other half of the back is the conservatory). My flat has doors that open onto the garden path, and large windows to look at the garden. That's my flat you can see on the right.

3) 12:57pm - Bond Street Tube station, London

Self portrait, I thought it was recreating a 12 of 12 shot from last year (which is the bonus theme this year), but maybe not.

BONUS - 12:58pm - Bond Street Tube station, London

Kind of recreating a photo from the January 2009 12 of 12, heading out of the Tube station.

4) 1:17pm - Oxford Circus, London

A rare moment when there's a gap on Oxford Street. And blue sky. At one point as I was shopping, it rained pretty heavily.

5) 1:31pm - Next, Oxford Street, London

Looking for new work trousers. I pretty much have one pair and a skirt, unless I want to use my last choice stuff. Out of the ones you see here, I went for the middle pair - though a size larger than I'm used to. Eep.

6) 3:11pm - Tottenham Court Road, London

Ah, Centre Point. So often called ugly. It's not really *that* bad. And it does tell you which way to walk down Oxford Street, to get to Tottenham Court Road... Also mentioned in Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, remember? Old Bailey was up there at one point.

7) 4:10pm - Lewisham, London

Looking down the very steep hill I live on. Seriously, it stops just short of needing crampons and climbing gear, ask any of my friends who've visited...

8) 4:11pm - Lewisham, London

The garden gate that leads you through to (duh) the garden and my flat.

9) 4:13pm - Lewisham, London

Berries outside my flat. Pretty!

10) 6:33pm - My flat, Lewisham, London

The evening's entertainment - Singin' In The Rain, nice!

11) 6:49pm - My flat, Lewisham, London

Mmm. Quorn dippers are on offer in Tesco, and after some people had chicken dippers at a work meal the other night, I wanted some. I've actually had this 3 nights running now! Quorn dippers, onion rings with mayo, and mixed veg.

12) 7:26pm - My flat, Lewisham, London

And pudding I picked up specially to have with the film - raspberry trifle. Yum, and some left for tomorrow!

So that's it - not wildly exciting, but I got all the shopping I needed and you get to see a bit of the flat... Here's to next month!

12 of 12 (v5.0) - February

2010-02-13T20:29:00.004Z

A day late, I know. It took me a long time to narrow the selection down last night, then I got into an online chat with some friends, then fell asleep... And I've been out with my parents today, who were visiting London for a day before heading up to my brother in Saffron Walden, then up to Manchester.

Just a note - this is the first 12 of 12 from my new flat! I moved on January 15th (which was why I was so late commenting on some people's 12 of 12s). You don't really see it in any of the photos - the ironing board in the first one, and my desk in the last (bonus) one, but that's it. Maybe next month, when I've properly finished unpacking ;-)

Anyway - enough chatter. The idea is Chad Darnell's, and you can see everyone's 12 of 12s at this link. I'd taken the day off as is usual now, and planned to go out to Greenwich. I left about an hour or a bit later than I meant to, but no worries - it had been a grey, rainy, slightly snowy even morning, and I wasn't missing much by staying in the warm a bit longer!

Starting with the bonus theme as the first photo this month. The bonus theme this year is to recreate a photo from the same time and place as last year's month. I only found that out after I'd done my January 12 of 12, but I'd luckily done a recreation of a photo from a different month's 12 of 12. So I'm going to continue that slightly variation - a recreation, but not necessarily from the same month. This time actually was the same month, by accident (I knew it had been February or March last year, but hadn't checked before doing this new photo).

BONUS) 11:47 am - My flat, Lewisham, London

Recreating the Creme Egg shot from February last year, albeit with a twist. This one is black and white, and not reflective. I no longer live in the flat with the mirrored black table (I've moved twice since then!), so couldn't do the reflection again. I did go colour, but then tried black and white and loved it.

1) 11:50 am - My flat, Lewisham, London

My Big Gay Hollywood Bear, close up. I say that affectionately! He's got a cream jumper, leopard-print furry trousers, leopard-print inside his ears, and sunglasses. I got him at the Hard Rock Cafe at Universal City Walk, Los Angeles. On my birthday and first trip to the US! (I went Oct 20-Nov 6, 2008, covering LA and Atlanta).

2) 1:00 pm - Greenwich, London

I'd been getting some photos of the street, when some mounted police officers rode by, so I turned to get a photo of them. Note the Starbucks in the photo, I went there later!

3) 1:00 pm - Greenwich, London

The photo I was trying to take when the police and horses went by. The sky was throwing me off lighting-wise, so I had a few photos before I got it semi right. This was a little washed, so I boosted the contrast in PS Elements.

4) 1:02 pm - Greenwich, London

Unusual thing I saw in a wall at the front of a building next to Greenwich Market.

5) 1:21 pm - Greenwich Market, Greenwich, London

I've only been to Greenwich a couple of times before, and not in a year or so now I think. I've always been to the market at a weekend, not on a weekday - so I was surprised by how quiet it was. Probably a mix of it being a Friday and also cold. Anyway, I was wandering around the edge of the market first which is made up on actual brick shops (the stalls are in the courtyard middle bit), and I saw one shop called Arty Globe. Seemed interesting from the window display, so I went inside... and wow. The guy works from aerial photos and his own on the ground walks, and creates these doodle/cartoon-ish drawings of places. I looked at quite a few of his prints and gifts, and then read some newspaper/magazine articles on the wall about his work.

I found a print I liked (you'll see if later), and went to pay for it... then twigged that the guy at the desk was the artist himself! We had quite a chat, and he signed my print for me. I explained about 12 of 12, and asked if I could take his photo, so here he is, with one of his wall canvases. He doesn't always come into the shop, but he had that day so thanks to 12 of 12, I met a talented artist, and got a signed print! Check out his site - he also has prints from NYC, Berlin and I think Amsterdam.

6) 2:23 pm - Greenwich, London

Royal Naval College - beautiful buildings (I think the one on the left houses the Painted Chapel, but I'm too tired to check it and also what the building on the right is).

7) 2:37 pm - Greenwich, London

Inside the colonnade of the building on the left in the previous photo.

8) 3:41 pm - Greenwich, London

A view over Greenwich and east London, from the Royal Observatory at the top of the hill. I love going up there for the view! (even if it's one steep-ass climb!)

9) 3:43 pm - Greenwich, London

Tree and Flamsteed's House, with the red time ball that featured in another 12 of 12 I think (too tired to look it up - I fell asleep and woke up at 1am, so just want to finish adding the links and times, and sizing the photos). It was nice in colour (the bluey clouds made a nice contrast with the red ball and dark tree), but more striking in black and white.

10) 3:52 pm - Greenwich, London

Standing on the Prime Meridian line :D

11) 5:42 pm - Lewisham, London

My Arty Globe print! I loved the red and white. It's a drawing of Greenwich, appropriately enough!

12) 5:45 pm - Lewisham, London

Another purchase from Greenwich Market, where a guy made robots out of wire. This one just looked slightly evil with the grenade-type weapon! Still not sure whether to put him on my desk at work or keep him in the flat ;-)

Thanks for reading!

12 of 12 (v5.0) - January

2010-01-12T18:50:00.002Z

Another year, hopefully a bit better than 2009 was. I'm getting one big area of my life hopefully sorted, as I move house this Friday, into a studio flat much closer to work. Then to have a crack at the other big area, though that might be a bit out of my hands. We'll see, anyway - but 2010 has the potential to be good.

You know the drill by now - the idea for 12 of 12 is Chad Darnell's, and you can find the master list of participants here. It's the last year Chad's hosting 12 of 12, and he's suggesting a bonus photo for each month - for those who've done 12 of 12 for a long time, you go back and recreate an old photo, from the same date and time. I didn't see that before doing my day today, but as it happens I have recreated an old 12 of 12 photo - just from a different month.

So here we go :-) As I started doing last year, I took today off to get photos. The plan was to go to Highgate Cemetery and around Muswell Hill. When I told one of my managers, he suggested trying Waterlow Park which is nearby, too. I started there today, but due to a late start and it being bloody cold, I skipped Highgate Cemetery, and just went to Muswell Hill after.

I've gone pretty much permanently onto manual mode, so that explains why some of the snow pictures are a little over-exposed - I was trying to get the overcast winter lighting right and the snow too, and it was hard to judge if I'd succeeded when I only had the small LCD screen to see the photo on. So sorry for that - it's all a trial and error game with me, I simply can't learn from photography manuals!

1) 11:54am - East Finchley, London

Walking to the Tube station (ended up bussing instead).

2) 12:15pm - Bus to Archway, London

Currently reading this, and finding it quite good. It's the first Ken Follett I've tried, but it's the story of an all-female parachute Resistance group called the Jackdaws, in WW2.

3) 12:16pm - Bus to Archway, London

Empty bus - largely because I didn't look too closely at the one I got on, and it was near the end of the line so I had to jump off and get another one.

4) 12:21pm - Bus to Archway, London

Someone needs to clean the bus windows, they're filthy!

5) 1:10pm - Waterlow Park, Highgate, London

Bitterly cold, but I traipse off looking for the views of London, my manager told me about. See, we have snow!

6) 1:16pm - Waterlow Park, Highgate, London

In a historic walled part of the park. I swear I saw two people sitting on benches, reading. Crazy people, it was way too cold to do that!

7) 1:17pm - Waterlow Park, Highgate, London

View when I turned round, out over the park.

8) 1:21pm - Waterlow Park, Highgate, London

Quite a few squirrels around - they'd run off at noise, but if you were patient, they'd come quite close. Clearly a few park goers feed them ;-)

9) 1:32pm - Waterlow Park, Highgate, London

Brrrrpph! Someone obviously feeds the pigeons too, because when I stopped at a lookout over a frozen pond, they all came and sat on the wooden fence railing by me.

10) 1:32pm - Waterlow Park, Highgate, London

One of the frozen ponds. Probably frozen enough to support someone's weight, to be honest. It was just that cold outside.

11) 2:23pm - Starbucks, Muswell Hill, London

Needing something warm and sweet (and to thaw out a bit), I headed for a Starbucks caramel hot chocolate. And a sit down and read. Just over halfway through the book now :-)

12) 5:02pm - East Finchley, London

Using up some of the food in the cupboard, before moving. I'd wanted something warm, so I grabbed a nice M&S baguette in Muswell Hill, and came back for some hot tomato soup and bread. And very nice it was too.

BONUS - revisit (5:07 & 5:03pm)

This was just me trying to get a photo of my wine tonight, but as it happens, it fits Chad's suggestion for a bonus (see top of post) - I just hadn't seen that when I took it! You actually get two bonus photos, because I love the first, but also like the second.

Have a look at the other guys' 12s, it's great to see people's days around the world. And everyone loves comments ;-)

12 of 12 (v4.0) - end of year review!

2009-12-13T19:38:00.004Z

Because it's kind of a tradition that a few of the longtime 12ers have done. Posting one of your favourite photos from each 12 of 12 you posted.

January
V&A (Victoria & Albert) Museum, London

The One Where - I went for some culture and museums.

February
My Flat, Stratford, London

The One Where - I nearly forgot, but had another homely night after being at work and forgetting my camera...

March
Canary Wharf tube station, London

The One Where - I had a black and white and architecture day, with some of my favourite 12 of 12 photos, including this one:

April
My flat, Stratford, London

The One Where - I stayed home and had a food/abstract photo day.

May
Gem and Jon's house, S. Yorks

The One Where - I went to visit my two best friends but the timing sucked a little.

June
King's Cross Station, London

The One Where - I did a Monopoly 12 of 12!

July
House, N2, London

The One Where - I stayed home and was boring.

August
St Paul's Church, Covent Garden, London

The One Where - I went out for the day and saw some unusual things.

September
Borough/London Bridge area, London

The One Where - my friend Christin visited for her birthday weekend!

October
House, N2, London

The One Where - I had the day off for 12 of 12 but stayed home feeling ill.

November
Science Museum, London

The One Where - I finally met Becca, another 12er!

Two, as I couldn't choose!

December
Bedroom, N2, London

The One Where - I went to see a flat and got stood up so came home.

12 of 12 (v4.0) - December

2009-12-13T19:03:00.005Z

Not sure this will be my most interesting 12 of 12... but I've got a lot going on right now, so sometimes just doing anything is an effort when you want to curl up in bed and forget issues!

Cliff Notes version - I rent a room in a house with 2 Polish couples. My room was converted from a lounge into a bedroom with en-suite bathroom, and now has mould on the walls. This is frutrating and upsetting, it's damaged some of my things, and I have had enough of one couple in the house, so want to move out. It sometimes all builds up to get me thoroughly in a funk and crying. I'm trying to find somewhere to move to in January, and keep myself going with that thought.

I had a slow start to my 12 of 12, while I basically flat hunted online and rang a few agents, then got going. Due to being stood up for a flat visit (after a long and awkward commute there), I felt even more down, so just chilled out last night, which is why this is a day late.

Thanks as always go to Chad for the idea. You can see the list of people joining in here, and there are lots of good ones this month - have a look and leave a comment, as people like that!

1) - Bedroom, N2, London

Looking at a flat's details. I'm looking for either studio or 1 bed flats. This one turns out to be a studio flat in the landlady's house, which is fine by me. I've set up a visit for tomorrow.

2) Bedroom, N2, London

Representative of lots of calls on my Blackberry to agents, and a few to my parents on the landline (I forgot they were away this weekend, so no answer there). Spoke to them tonight instead.

3) Bathroom, N2, London

Post-shower. Free hotel toiletries from the Hotel Maritim in Frankfurt, Germany - where I went with work in October for a workshop we were hosting. I'm trying to use up almost empty bottles and other things, so I have less to move when I sort something out!

4) Bedroom, N2, London

Slightly blurry (sorry) shot of the Weight Watchers beef goulash I microwaved for a quick lunch before rushing out. It wasn't very nice.

5) Tottenham Court Road Tube station, London

Changing from the Northern Line to the Central Line, on my way out to see a studio flat in Newbury Park.

6) Leytonstone Tube station, London

Almost every weekend, there is engineering work on the DLR, Jubilee and Central Lines (not both weekend days, and not the entire line, but at least part of them will be down for half the time). This time, it was down between Leytonstone and Fairlop, which was the section I needed. So I'm waiting here for the rail replacement bus to take me the rest of the way.

7) Newbury Park Tube station, London

Small sunset, as I'm about to cross under the road to the other side, where the studio flat is. Except I found a voicemail from the agents at 3:36pm (visit was for 4pm), saying to call them. I called 3 times, left one VM, and got nothing back. No-one showed. I was cold, pissed off and facing another bus and two Tubes to get back to my house. What a waste of time and effort. If I hadn't had a weekly Tube card (which I usually don't), this would also have cost me £5.40 for nothing. Won't be using that agent again - especially as they asked if I'd be willing to pay more to "show my interest". Er no. I show my interest by signing a contract, not agreeing to pay more rent!

8) Oxford Street, London

I stopped off at the Tottenham Court Road station while changing lines, to get photos of the lights and a Starbucks hot chocolate.

9) Oxford Street, London

Lights again, but with a bokeh shot.

10) Oxford Street, London

Normal effect photo of the traffic and lights.

11) Starbucks, Oxford Street, London

For the hot chocolate.

12) N2, London

Back in my area, walking up the High Road to my house. Two photos as I couldn't choose.

BONUS - N2, London

I've been meaning to get photos of these trees in a pub garden, which are illuminated at night. Spooky!

Thanks for playing along :-)

And now the 2009 12 of 12 recap is up here!

12 of 12 (v4.0) - November

2009-11-13T21:56:00.003Z

This 12 of 12 is certainly a bit more exciting than last month's lol. I'd arranged to meet Becca, who I'd met online through 12 of 12 ages ago (though she doesn't do every 12 of 12). Since she moved to the UK earlier this year, we'd talked about maybe meeting up and combining it with a 12 of 12 day - and November proved to be the month.

As always, the idea credit goes to Chad, who's birthday is November 12th. You can see everyone else's posts by clicking here.

1) 9:15am - Starbucks, Tottenham Court Road/Holborn, London

We met outside the Dominion Theatre on TCR (Tottenham Court Road), at 8am, and went to decamp in a nearby Starbucks with hot chocolates (Caramel for me, Hazlenut for Becca), while we had a catch up. We'd read each other's 12s for a long time, and I kept up with her Blog in between her sporadic 12s, as I found it interesting - but we had never met face to face, so we had a good chat. As you can see by the timestamp. Hey, the museum's don't open until 10am, so we had no rush.

2) 10:46am - Natural History Museum, London

We walked around quite a bit of the Natural History Museum, trying to get to the suspended blue whale (we saw the diplodocus skeleton, and I think Becca's got that in her 12 of 12). And I liked this tree ceiling mural in one long room.

3) 10:49am - Natural History Museum, London

I don't remember this bronze guy being in the monkey/evolution bit last time, but thought he was funny/scary enough for a photo.

4) 10:57am - Natural History Museum, London

I love the building. So beautiful and light and airy, yet still with the touch of gothic splendour.

5) 11:08am - Natural History Museum

Meet a stuffed cheetah in the animals/people section...

6) 11:14am - Natural History Museum

And a selection of skeletons... You can see the blue whale model's tail behind, and an elephant to the left.

7) 11:30am - Natural History Museum, London

On a rare sunny day at the museum (for me anyway), I took advantage to get some external architecture shots. See, even beautiful outside, and you need the sunlight to show off the yellow stone!

8) 11:50am - Science Museum, London

And round the corner to the Science Museum, where we did the experiments, and some history of medicine. In the interactive experiments area, we watched dry ice on water. Very pretty!

9) 11:54m - Science Museum, London

Playing with lenses and distance, and taking a photo of Becca taking a photo of me.

10) 11:56am - Science Museum, London

Waterfalling and a well-timed hand placed against it, just as I took the photo!

11) 11:56am - Science Museum, London

Bubbles! Pretty, interesting, arty bubbles!

12) 1:40pm - Debenhams, Oxford Street, London

Debenhams has a nice diner on the 4th floor, with yummy burgers and milkshakes (like Oreo, Rolo, Jaffa Cake, chocolate brownie, various fruits...). I usually go there with my parents, and took Becca, not knowing she loves milkshakes!

I'd had somewhere between a cold/flu from mid-the previous week, and I still hadn't got my appetite fully back by this point, but my stomach was rumbling. I managed half the burger and most of the chips, as well as the milkshake. More talking with Becca, as we had somewhere comfy to sit!

BONUS - 7:20pm - Costa, Waterstone's, Piccadilly, London

I'm doing NaNoWriMo, a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November (30 days). It's my 6th year and I'm going for a 6th win. I was ahead on day 1, then ate into that cushion as I got ill, and then got behind on my wordcount - I just couldn't write and lost motivation, having a few down days. I got 2247 words at this write in though (group of us meet up to sit down and write together, away from home/work/family distractions).

And that's your lot this month! I'm happier with the selection. They're bunched around the few hours I spent with Becca, as that was the focus of the day and between the lunchtime and the write in, all that happened was walking down Oxford Street with Becca and saying bye, a trip home to pick up my laptop, going to the write in, writing, and then home again. I'd have taken a photo of Piccadilly at night, but it was raining and I didn't have my umbrella.

Hope you enjoyed them!

12 of 12 (v4.0) - October

2009-10-12T21:19:00.005+01:00

First off, I'm sorry for the supremely boring 12 of 12 you're about to see. I'd got the day off, and planned to go out and about in London, taking photos to show you. But then I got a stomach ache yesterday which persisted into today - small enough to not be worth taking something for, but noticeable enough to be annoying and make me sluggish. I spent most of yesterday just reading in bed, and a good part of this morning too. Maybe next month I can be more creative!

As always, thanks to Chad for the idea, and click here to see everyone else's 12 of 12s!

1) 10:22am - House, N2, London

One of my goals this year was to read 100 books. To motivate me (and see how I'm doing compared to my friend Jenn who's been logging her books read, pages per month, etc.), I've been putting my book totals into a spreadsheet. For those of you who even pretend to know me, my geekiness shouldn't surprise you. It is helpful to see what my predicted total is, based on the number of books read so far and number of weeks done.

2) 10:28am - House, N2, London

Checking the Blackberry, once I set it charging up. I've got the day off, but everyone else is in. Nothing came in that can't wait until tomorrow.

3) 10:50am - House, N2, London

I moderate 3 forums on the NaNoWriMo boards, and I'm still trying to catch up from having been away for a few days with work. Those people get mighty posty.

And no, I'm not sure what I'm writing this year, but it's my 6th attempt and I want another win!

4) 11:16am - House, N2, London

Having finished a book last night, I went to choose my next one. This is just my bookcase, I have 3 large stacks of unread books on my dresser... (for the curious, I went for Caroline Graham's Murder At Madingley Grange - she wrote the books which went on to become the Midsomer Murders TV show.

5) 2:54pm - House, N2, London

Watching some of the weekend's Strictly Come Dancing, courtesy of BBC iPlayer. Two things which really bug me:

1) Alesha Dixon constantly (and I do mean constantly, like for every contestant) saying "You was". No dear, "You WERE". The sheer number of times she does this is really starting to grate on me.

2) When all the contestants have walked in and lined up and the camera pans along the line, the music stops and Leila Rouass always does this annoying two handed point in the air thing. I've taken a majorly irrational dislike to this as it's every damn week. I don't like her though. Zoe and Ali being all shy and low confidence (despite being good) is one thing, and possibly genuine. But Leila said in week 1 she wanted to beat Zoe (her co-star on one show) and she came off as too aggressive.

Sorry, been holding that rant in for about 4 weeks now!

6) 3:07pm - House, N2, London

Minestrone soup, bagel, and eating while I watch more dancing.

7) 4:08pm - Post Office collection centre, N2, London

Figuring I should go out and run a few errands, I head out into my local area. First stop is the collection office, to pick up a parcel Gem (and Jon, Will and Jacob) have sent me for my birthday. It's a little early, because of the disruption of postal strikes. Gem's much more organised than me on things like this! ;-) However, the collection office is only open 8:30am-12:30pm, and as my timestamp above shows, it's 4:08pm. So I'll have to be slightly late to work tomorrow, and take the parcel with me.

8) 4:18pm - Charity shop, N2, London

Stop number 2 on my list, a local charity shop (North London Hospice). They have a wide (and often changing) selection of books, and most of them for only £1! There are quite a few pretty new books as well, some hardbacks and some which look barely read, so it's a bibliophile's dream. I picked up one book this time, quite restrained of me.

9) 4:26pm - Iceland, N2, London

Stop 3, Iceland. They have some Weight Watchers meals for £1, and recently I've been doing one of those (beef hotpot, chicken casserole, etc.) with a heap of broccoli and sweetcorn. All from Iceland. The broccoli and sweetcorn bags are big and £1 each, and each of the WW meals are only £1. And healthy too! (well OK, I add a dollop of butter to the veg, but that's all). I also love the little WW chocolate mousse cakes, which are 2 in a pack for £1. Low fat and yummy!

10) 4:31pm - N2, London

Dramatic sky as I walk back to the house.

11) 4:47pm - House, N2, London

Being healthy! Ages ago, I bought some raspberries and wouldn't have gotten chance to eat them before they went mouldy, so I froze them. Much, much later, I worked on my part of the freezer at the weekend, trying to hack off most of the ice which had formed over my food (yet only my part of the freezer oddly enough). I mean seriously, the stuff at the back had iced in like an igloo. I got one of the packs of raspberries out to defrost, and had them today with some sugar. I think frozen raspberries are OK in smoothies (I know you can buy bags of them frozen in supermarkets) or on pavlovas or cheesecakes, but on their own, they're a little soft and mushy.

BONUS - 6:55pm - House, N2, London

While ironing, I put on one of my favourite Cary Grant films (and one of his last), Walk, Don't Run. Romantic comedy set during the Tokyo Olympics.

12) 8:07pm - House, N2, London

The ironing pile when I'm done. I'd actually finished much earlier, but the landlady's Dad came to work on my en-suite's toilet, so I only got the photo after he'd left.

And that's it for this 12 of 12, sorry again for the lack of interesting stuff! Maybe next month, as I have that 12th off too.

12 of 12 (v4.0) - September

2009-09-17T00:30:00.006+01:00

This 12 of 12, I had a fellow 12er staying with me. Christin and I have been friends for a few years now, having met online. I visited her in May this year, and last week she came over for a visit to celebrate her birthday, which is the 12th! Which is partly why this 12 of 12 is up on the 16th... busy entertaining a guest, and then 2 days of crazy work and being too tired when I got back to my house. After managing to finish downloading photos and archiving others to make space last night, I fell asleep. Tonight, the Photoshop scratch disk has been my nemesis, making the whole watermarking process a royal pain in the ass.

Credit for the idea as always goes to Chad! Check out his post here with everyone else's 12 of 12s :-)

1) 00:26am - Royal Albert Hall, London

The illuminated outside of the Royal Albert Hall, home to the BBC Proms every year. Christin and I had booked tickets for the Yo-Yo Ma & Silk Road Ensemble late night Prom, but had also managed to just squeeze in for the £5 standing tickets for the earlier Prom (Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra).

Tickets for seats are sold for varying prices, but the Proms offers 500 standing seats (you stand in the circle on the arena floor) for £5, but only for 30 minutes before the performance. We'd seen the queue for the VPO and given up, but as we came by to pick up our Yo-Yo Ma tickets, I asked about the VPO on the offchance it wasn't too late. We had missed the opening short piece, but then they let in latecomers before shutting the door. Squeaked in!

This was shortly before we missed the last Tube (couldn't get into the foot tunnel to the station), walked ages and then gave up and got 2 night buses home. I felt lousy for getting Christin's birthday off to such a crappy start. I'd also been stewing over something work-related and between the two (and the late hour), was ready for a good cry in private, not a tiring two-bus commute home.

2) 08:08 am - House, N2, London

A colleague had given me some blackberry and raspberry homemade jam, so I put some on some cinnamon and raisin bagels for a birthday breakfast for Christin and me. I like raspberries but have never really had blackberries much. I wasn't expecting to like the jam therefore, but it was delicious!

3) 11:50am - Camden Market, London

Getting a crepe from the Artisans Crepe stand at one of the Camden markets. I might be biased, but I think the crepe stand at Exeter (near my Devon home) are nicer!

4) 12:16pm - Camden, London

Walking up the main road, seeing the sights and making our way to Chalk Farm Tube station (as Camden's is exit-only 12:30-4:30pm Saturdays). Eclectic, no?

5) 12:18pm - Camden, London

Looking from one side of a bridge to another, across the canal. I think that's Camden Lock Market you can see on the far side.

6) 12:19pm - Camden, London

Christin was 26, Camden's Starbucks was 7. No free drink for her though :-( I bought her a birthday cupcake though!

7) 12:48pm - Camden, London

Walking up the main road again, towards Chalk Farm. See, the Camden Lock part of the area. Says so right on the bridge.

8) 1:01pm - Chalk Farm, London

Chalk Farm Tube station, right on my estimated time we needed to be there (to get us to the theatre in time for a matinee). Lovely old-fashioned outside, with the oxblood-coloured tiles.

9) 1:09pm - Chalk Farm Tube station, London

Christin taking a photo of a moving Tube train for action photo practice.

10) 2:41pm - Borough Market, London

Cherry tomatoes on sale at the market, as we filled a little time pre-theatre.

11) 3:25pm - Menier Chocolate Factory, south London

We had tickets to see the second-to-last day of Forbidden Broadway. I'd seen it in July with a friend and loved it, and thought Christin might like it too. She laughed a lot, so I hope so! Playing with a bokeh shot of the sparkly curtain before the show, here.

12) 7:06pm - Chinatown, London

Having a delicious chicken/seasonal vegetables/egg fried rice at a place I think is called Gerrard's Cross? Eileen had taken me there once (a friend who also introduced me to Forbidden Broadway), so thanks Eileen!

BONUS - 5:37pm - Borough/London Bridge area, London

These were a tableux of panels alternating yellow and orange jackets, in various poses. They were along the street from the Menier Chocolate Factory, and skirting a building site, so I think someone with a talent for art, and knowing a theatre was nearby, got creative with the "this is a building site" idea! The last one is how I feel sometimes at work, though I admit that living in London brings out the middle guy in me too, quite often!

I'll add links to various things like the Royal Albert Hall and the Proms later. It's 1:30am and I'm frankly more than ready for bed, so the truly curious can get onto Google, and the more patient of you can wait until I've slept and worked :P

Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think! I recommend reading everyone else's 12 of 12s, there's always interesting stuff there from around the world, and people do love a comment (and tend to reciprocate)!

12 of 12 (v4.0) - August

2009-08-12T23:00:00.005+01:00

First off - this is, and always has been, the creation of Chad Darnell, no-one else. Don't accept any imitations.

Second off - this is my 3 year 12 of 12iversary! I took the day off work to get some more interesting photos (a few months ago I requested the remaining work day 12s off for 2009).

OK, here we go!

1) 9:20am - House, N2, London

Flowers I brought home from work. I love gerber daisies!

2) 10:31am - Charing Cross Tube station, London

Going up the escalator. Doesn't beat my favourite escalator photo (number 6), but I still like it.

3) 10:52am - Embankment, London

No, I've no idea either.

Came out of Charing Cross Tube, and walked down to Embankment and the River Thames. Sat on a bench for a while to just watch things go by, then picked a next destination. As I waited to cross back over the road and walk back up to Charing Cross Tube and beyond, I saw these hands attached to a lamp post or something.

4) 11:00am - near Trafalgar Square, London

Again, not what I expected to see as I made my way up to Trafalgar Square! Guess they're out promoting that sweet. Must feel a bit of a muppet, driving round London in that.

5) 11:04am - Trafalgar Square, London

At first, this was another "What on Earth?!?". She was walking and skipping up and down the top of the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square (which hosts pieces of art and statues that change). I was trying to work out what this one reflected, and found out when I went down the steps and saw a note at the base of the plinth:

One and Other

The uninterrupted occupation of the fourth plinth for 100 days and nights by 2,400 individuals drawn from across the United Kingdom from 6 July 9am to 14 October 9am.

www.oneandother.co.uk

Antony Gormley 2009

I guess this girl felt like dressing up for her section of time.

6) 11:10am - Trafalgar Square, London

Nelson's Column and a lamp post reflected in a puddle.

7) 11:13am - near Trafalgar Square, London

Walking up the side of the National Gallery, I saw this building reflected in the windows of the Gallery.

8) 12:09pm - St Paul's Church, Covent Garden, London

One of the things I'd wanted to look at, was St. Paul's Church (also known as the Actors' Church, due to it being near so many theatres), which borders Covent Garden's main square. I came at it from the side, walking up from Trafalgar Square. It was so quiet in the garden there, you couldn't hear any noise even with street performers being a stone's throw away. Or maybe that's just how I remember it now ;-)

9) 12:17pm - Covent Garden, London

A twofer, this one. Part 1 is this photo, showing the brother team doing a balancing act. The shorter of the pair had a real comic talent with the crowd. Pretty impressive stuff!

Part 2:

Giving a limbo lesson to an Italian guy from the crowd.

10) 12:59pm - Aldwych, central London

BBC Bush House, on Aldwych. I liked the building. After Covent Garden, I'd meandered up, intending to get to Holborn and catch the Central Line down to Bond Street, before going to Thornton's for some chocolate. I walked up Aldwych and after stopping to take a photo of a couple who'd been into Bush House (and having a chat with them), I headed on up Kingsway, continuing my mooching.

11) 1:10pm - Kingsway, central London

Stopping at a Starbucks for a (Signature) Caramel Hot Chocolate with cream and caramel drizzle, and a read of my current book - Donna Leon's Wilful Behaviour. A guy sat down at my table (we were outside), and we started chatting. I nearly ended up visiting a sweet shop he mentioned on my way to Holborn, but as I continued up Kingsway, I got distracted by...

12) 1:41pm - Lincoln's Inn Fields, London

Greenery! Lincoln's Inn Fields is another little oasis of green and calm. There are tennis courts there too, but also grass and trees where you can just relax.

This then led to a detour, as I changed route. Walking up Chancery Lane and catching the Tube from that stop to Bond Street, before nipping into Thornton's on Oxford Street.

BONUS - 5:49pm - House, N2, London

The reason for the trip to Thornton's - yummy Panna Cotta chocolates, on trial for £1 a bag (6 chocolates inside). I tried a bag on a whim recently and loved them, so went back last Friday for more - but there were only 2 bags. The guy said they'd be getting another delivery Tuesday, so I went today while I was out and about. There were 9 bags there, so I told the girl on till that she might think me crazy, but could I have all of them as a) they were yummy, b) addictive and c) cheap!

After that, I got the Tube back to my house, downloaded photos and watched Firefly. Nothing much exciting.

Considering I had no real plan when I left the house, it ended up a good day with some good photos! I'd got a few things in my head to maybe aim for, but the day was flexible and I ticked off some but not all of my "things to maybe look at".

Thanks for reading and commenting, and do go and check out everyone else's contributions, all the links are on Chad's Blog!

Archives - Horse Guards, London

2009-08-08T21:13:00.005+01:00

Taken one month after the Dublin photos, this is a view of Horse Guards, taken from Horse Guards Road on the edge of St. James's Park. It's a C-shaped building, with the changing of the parade being in the nook, and the sentry guards being at the two points of the C. To the right, you can see the London Eye, not far away.

Archives - Ireland from the air

2009-08-08T21:03:00.002+01:00

On the flight to Dublin, although I don't know what town/city you can see there, it's 2 years ago now (June 2007).

Archives - Dublin's waterways

2009-08-08T20:51:00.005+01:00

Taken on a trip there, June 2007. To be honest, I didn't enjoy Dublin much. It was a cheap holiday, as the flights were free (only paid taxes), I was in a cheap hostel... but the city was grey and concrete and rainy. The hostel room was cold and smelled a little damp.

I worked out that you go to Dublin for 3 reasons:
1) work trip - they pay for a nice hotel, travel and food
2) stag/hen do - with friends, drinking a lot - which Dublin is known for
3) visit family/friends - stay in a nice house with people you like

You don't go there for a holiday. It'd be like going to Milton Keynes. I got a few nice photos, but by and large I was just happy to get home.

Archives - Fishermen's Bastion, Budapest

2009-08-05T23:02:00.006+01:00

One of the stone details on the Fishermen's Bastion (or Halászbástya), up in the hills on the Buda side of Budapest. From a technical manual's POV, this is probably a lousy photo because of the angle. But I don't care. I like it because it immediately draws my eye to the top right, where the knight has a kind of wary look, as if he really if looking out for infidels coming.

London Film and Comic Con

2009-08-02T17:43:00.007+01:00

One of the advantages now of living in London, is the ability to do last minute things, and go to concerts or shows etc. without requiring long train rides and hotel stays. I'd thought about (and wanted to) go to a convention like the London Film and Comic Con - Amanda has gone to quite a few, and managed to meet lots of actors, getting photographs and such. But I'd have had no clue about the tricks and tips of getting the most from a convention - queueing for autograph and photo sessions, how to get the most seen and done, etc. So when Amanda asked if I wanted to go along with her this year, I jumped at the chance!

I'll not get into the general play by of the day - queued up, got in, got tickets for 2 photo sessions (Alex Meraz from Twilight - New Moon and Jewel Staite from Firefly), wandered around, sat in on a talk by the Heroes guys, had my photo sessions...

So here are some photos of the day! I'll say now, that I was shooting manual mode the whole time, and with the lighting set to tungsten. Even so, there was still an orangey tint to some of the photos. With each one, I tested the "auto correct colour" in Photoshop Adobe Elements - sometimes this gave little or no change, but sometimes it really changed the colour balance to something a little more normal. I've marked these photos with a *colour correct*.

All together now - "Exterminate! Exterminate!" (*colour correct*)

Sitting in on one of the Heroes talks. Despite Sendhil Ramamurthy and Jimmy Jean-Louis being the big stars of the show, it was Dominic Keating who spoke the most - when questions were asked to everyone, he'd always jump in and talk first, the others could barely get a word in, apart from when questions were directed at them! Bruce Boxleitner was also one of the speakers.

(1st only is (*colour correct*))

Spotted a Cylon walking around:

(*colour correct*)

And an Ewok - one small boy shook his hand and just stood there, shaking it, bless! Then he got a cuddle too. (*colour correct*)

R2-D2 was trundling around... (both *colour correct*)

Then some cosplay guys - Predator (L), the middle guy is possibly Stargate SG-1 (correct me if he's someone else!), and the right hand guy is Alien.

The funny thing is that after middle guy bunny-eared Predator, Alien bunny-eared middle guy too! So funny - a dog collar on Alien, doing the bunny ears sign to middle guy, himself bunny-earing Predator.

All friends though... (*colour correct*)

Until middle guy gets on their bad side! (this was a totally voluntary pose for the public, I swear) (*colour correct*)

After that, Alien did stand over Stargate-SG1 guy, squat and lift, squat and lift lol. I won't post that photo!

12 of 12 (v4.0) - July

2009-07-12T22:04:00.005+01:00

I thought this was my 3 year anniversary of 12 of 12, but it seems it's August! I just trawled back through Chad's 12 of 12 lists, and found my first entry is August 2006.

This month's 12 is a little boring as I basically spent it all in my room, bar cooking something in the evening. Maybe next month I can make it a little interesting. At least all these were shot with manual mode, and I got the lighting right again! (unlike last month, with the overcast sky making it confusing).

1) 11:01am - House, N2, London

I referred to this book last month, for the Monopoly-themed 12 of 12 (June). I've been reading it on and off for a couple of months now (while reading other books). It's very interesting and informative, and I've learnt a lot - but the writing style was sometimes a little hard to read, lots of jumping around and clauses within clauses. Do Not Pass Go - From Old Kent Road to Mayfair, by Tim Moore.

2) 11:05 am - House, N2, London

Playing Scrabble on Facebook with Simon. I've played maybe 6 or 7 games there now, and only won one. I seem to have a spectacular talent for acquiring all vowels or all consonants - whether I play the board game or online.

3) 11:34am - House, N2, London

Reading in bed, this is the view if I look up through one window. About the only blue sky and sun we had today. You can see the metal blind slat reflections on the window, on the right side.

4) 1:35pm - House, N2, London

Clean handles on the bedside cabinet, after my cleaning (see the next photo).

5) 1:36pm - House, N2, London

As I managed to spill the leftover supernoodle liquid on my bedroom floor, I did some cleaning - my bathroom, the floor where I'd spilled the liquid, and my bedside cabinet (where the person before me had spilled Coke and it had dried on the drawer handles).

6) 1:38pm - House, N2, London

Bit of dusting too - this is one of the shelves of DVDs on my bookcase. I finished watching season 2 of MacGyver today, oddly enough. So it's now moved from my "to watch pile" on the chest of drawers, to the spot next to season 1, on the bookshelf.

7) 2:23m - House, N2, London

See, season 2 ;-)

8) 4:00pm - House, N2, London

Reading some of a book I started - Eating Up Italy, by Matthew Fort. 55 year old foodie travelling from the southernmost point of Italy to Turin in the north, on a Vespa and eating los of yummy Italian food.

9) 5:55pm - House, N2, London

Quick tea I cobbled together. Red onion, Quorn pieces, tinned tomatoes and dark soy sauce, with fusili pasta. Cooked enough for leftovers, which are now in the fridge, in the new tubs I bought for leftovers.

10) 5:55pm - House, N2, London

Wanting something nice to watch, I pulled another DVD off my "to watch" pile. Before any of my close friends shriek surprise that I'd not seen it - I have! But I've seen it on TV a couple of times (including half a time in Italian), and in the Prince Charles Cinema in London - but I've never watched my DVD copy of it. I needed a dose of Cary Grant. The man can make me swoon. And there are some funny lines in there. In fact if I were Eva Marie Saint, being kissed by Cary Grant might make train travel a whole lot more enjoyable...

BONUS) 6:12pm - House, N2, London

Cary looking a little perturbed, near the start of the film. In fairness, he'd been mistaken for someone else, kidnapped and drugged, then put in a car to try and drive down a winding cliff-edge road. So it's fair enough he's looking a bit startled.

11) 6:32pm - House, N2, London

Looking at some of the photos I've narrowed down for use in a black and white photo collage poster I'm making. I had some resizing problems yesterday, and was trying again today. Whereas yesterday, they still looked too big, today they seemed too small. I gave up tonight.

12) 7:23pm - House, N2, London

Had a few work emails come in today on the Blackberry, plus one from Simon. The 3 work ones were a guy offering tickets to Morrissey in London next weekend, and two people replying to him.

And that's your lot for this month. Told you it wasn't interesting ;-) Thanks as always to Chad for the idea and hosting everyone's links. Click here to see the list of participants for this month!

See you in August :D

12 of 12 (v4.0) - June

2009-06-13T16:44:00.016+01:00

Let me just say first off - I think July's 12 of 12 is my 3 year anniversary of doing this. And after that long, I've run out of ways to make my work day interesting (even with living in different places)! I mean you've seen my shower too many times, you know? ;-) So a couple of weeks ago, I looked at the calendar and booked all the remaining workday 12ves off for 2009. The aim being to get out and see some of London - which I keep meaning to do anyway! I know 12 of 12 is meant to show your day, but there's no reason you have to keep it boring and mundane - why not plan a day exploring a place, and then 12 of 12 documents that exploration? I also wanted to get some good photos - last month was a little restricted and not a day to really dwell on.

June was going to be an experiment, and renting a tilt-shift lens which gives some pretty cool effects (like making things look like miniature villages). But they look complicated enough that I'd need to read up on them, so I benched that idea and came up with a new theme for the day. See one of the (several) books I'm reading at the moment is Do Not Pass Go - From the Old Kent Road to Mayfair by Tim Moore. It's a comedy travelogue exploring London's Monopoly sites and their history.

So it seemed a good idea to pick 12 of the London Monopoly streets/areas, and take a photo of each of them. It took me about 6 hours and a LOT of walking, but it was a nice sightseeing day and I did learn some things!

Edit - I know the lighting's a bit wonky in these, and the b&w are a little overexposed - but since I've been using the Manual mode more, I'm trying to stick to it and not run back to P mode. But it does mean changing the f.stops and whatever the 1/200 stuff is. No, I don't know the names, and photography technical language books send me to sleep in about 7 seconds. So it's an entirely self taught, trial and error process (which I'm hoping'll at least make it stick!). I read two photography books about 15 years ago or more now, but you know, no chance of remembering anything from those! I got it mostly right in Germany with decent sunlight, but London yesterday was mostly overcast grey skies and a nightmare for a Manual novice like me. So just excuse those and I'll try to get it better next month!

1) 12:25pm - Strand, London

Strand is one of the reds on the board. It runs from Trafalgar Square up to Fleet Street, bordering Covent Garden. This in particular is St Mary le Strand, a church. Reading about it now, I find it's the official church of the Women's Royal Naval Service and it's one of two "island churches" (as it sits on a kind of elliptical traffic island) in London.

2) 1:36pm - Fleet Street, London

Another red, is Fleet Steet. It's still associated with the British press, even though the last major British news office (Reuters, woo!) left in 2005. This building I'm sure housed the publications depicted on its outer walls. Quite often, several publications would be under one umbrella company - it happens a lot with magazines I think.

3) 2:00pm - Trafalgar Square, London

Trafalgar Square, another red. It's known for having Nelson's Column and its four lions, as well as having the National Gallery at its northern end (I warn you now, there's a butt-ugly painting on the website's main page!). It is often home to political demonstrations. Reading now, I find out that on the lawn outside the National Gallery are two statues - James II and George Washington. The Washington statue is a gift from the state of Virginia (thanks guys), and it stands on soil imported from the United States - this is to honour Washington's vow that he would never again set foot on British soil. I mean really, the lengths we go to, to accommodate people... ;-)

I realised I forgot to explain this one, when first typing it up. There are a few chalk artists and performers in the large open area of Trafalgar Square, and there seem to be different ones each time I go - this one had drawn out flags for many countries, along with "thanks" in their language, and a circle for people to drop coins into - either the country you're from, or one you like, I suppose! A New Zealand family pointed out that their flag was missing, so they helped him draw it. I think he was homeless, and it was a good way to get some money without begging I guess. Nice though.

4) 2:23pm - Northumberland Avenue, London

And now for an purple (though they always looked pink to me). Northumberland Avenue leads off from Trafalgar Square and runs up to Embankment. It is built on the land which once held Northumberland House - home to the Percy family (who were the Dukes of Northumberland). In case you were curious, there are several ministry buildings there including the Ministry of Defence and DEFRA, as well as the Nigerian High Commission.

5) 2:53pm - Downing Street/Whitehall, London

This photo is actually of the entrance to Downing Street, which runs perpendicular to Whitehall, another purple. Like Fleet Street, this too has a permanent association, this time though with politics - any government departments and ministries line the road. The name comes from the Palace of Whitehall which existed there until it was largely destroyed by a fire in 1698. It also has Downing Street leading off it, home to number 10 (the residence of the British Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury) and number 11 (residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Second Lord of the Treasury) of course.

6) 4:01pm - Park Lane, London

One of the dark blues, and most expensive ones on the board. Not that exciting to look at to be honest, and I was getting a little footweary after a lot of walking, so I didn't go along the whole thing. But I got a photo of the Dorchester hotel. Looks quite pretty and everything, doesn't it? Well let's also look at this slightly less zoomed photo - the Dorchester's side is along Park Lane, and its entrance way is in the nook between Park Lane and an offshoot road. The less zoomed out photo:

Here's something you might not know about it though - despite being in central London, an area which runs a congestion charge (an effort to reduce traffic, it charges you a premium for each day you venture inside the zone), Park Lane is of one the free through routes inside the zone. Go figure - an expensive property-lined road, but free to drive along!

7) 4:57pm - Down Street/Mayfair, London

This might have to be the hardest one I got. Mainly because Mayfair doesn't really exist. There isn't an actual street. I pulled it up on my Googlemaps app on my Blackberry, and it said it was at the bottom of Park Lane, by the corner of Hyde Park. But when I zoomed in, there was nothing. Luckily, I'd brought along my copy of Do Not Pass Go, and so I looked at that. It opened with "Except as a packet of cheap fags and a defunct pornographic monthly, Mayfair doesn't exist." This was not encouraging... so I read on. There is a Mayfair Place, which is a tiny strip of road laid over part of Devonshire House's back garden in 1924. It's the last before "GO", the other dark blue, and the most expensive on the board.

But Mayfair used to be a Tube station, and one you could take the Picadilly line to. Down Street station was officially subtitled (Mayfair). It opened in 1907, but wasn't active long - it closed in 1932. The Edwardian tiles - as you can see, an "ox-blood red" as the author puts it - now surround a small newsagents/mini market. There's a closed door but you could easily go past it and not know what it used to be.

8) 5:13pm - Piccadilly, London

One of the yellows, and home to the famous Ritz. Piccadilly has a silly sounding name, known the world over. It comes from piccadills - the spiked metal collars people used to support the elaborate ruffs that were fashionable in the early 17th century. A tailor who made a fortune from making pickadils bought and developed a large bit of land near what is now Piccadilly Circus. And so it got its name. Played with the manual focus here, deliberately softened it.

9) 5:32pm - Pall Mall, London

One of the purples again. Pall Mall runs parallel to the Mall. The name comes from a ball-and-mallet game played there in the 17th century. It was introduced by Irish travellers coming from Brittany in France, and stopping off in London. The game then was known as "paille-maille", possibly coming from the Italian for "ball-mallet". Charles II loved the game so much that he had a special alley built in a field round the back of Whitehall to play it in (as well as losing some of the vowels, to make "pall mall"). Apparently, according to Moore, he used to play it so ferociously that "after additional vowel surgery it spawned the phrase 'pell-mell' "!

10) 5:55pm - Regent Street, London

One of the green streets now, Regent Street. It's widely known for its shopping (it leads off Oxford Street, another famous shopping street), and its Christmas illuminations. Quite interesting to read about it now - It's named after Prince Regent (who became George IV), and is often associated with the architect John Nash. However, all of Nash's buildings have now been replaced, apart from All Souls Church. Here's something interesting though ('cos I know you've all been yawning thus far :P) - ALL of the buildings in Regent Street are listed buildings (at least Grade II status if not more). Combined, they are the Regent Street Conservation Area.

11) 6:01pm - Coventry Street, London

Coventry Street is another of the yellow set, and nowadays houses the Ripley's Believe It Or Not! museum, and the Trocadero Centre. It connects Piccadilly Circus with Leicester Square.

12) 6:15pm - Leicester Square, London

Leicester Square is another yellow, and famous now for its cinemas - though it has a pretty seedy past from what I read in Moore's book! Yikes. The square this guy was walking over is a new addition, honouring Dustin Hoffman's attendance there to watch Last Chance Harvey - it wasn't there last time I visited and looked at those squares, which are set into the floor outside the cinemas which line the square, similar to Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. It also has Capital Radio there, which broadcasts across London and wakes me up each morning. Interestingly, the main electric substation for the whole of the West End is beneath Leicester Square. And apparently, Westminster Council are planning to change the Square's apparence slightly over the next few years - not significantly change its character, but make it more film backdrop-friendly, if I understand Wikipedia's comment correctly.

Bonus - 6:42pm - King's Cross Station, London

Very foot (and hip) tired by this point, I hopped the Picadilly Line from Leicester Square to King's Cross Station, came above ground and into the rail station for this photo, then ducked back into the Underground there to get the Northern Line back to my house. It's famous nowadays for housing Platform 9 3/4, of Harry Potter fame. It is normally located (logically) between platforms 9 and 10, but as they are doing work there, it has been "magically" moved a short distance away. 'cos you know, magic can do that. There is half a trolley sticking out of the wall, but as I had no-one to take a photo of me looking like a muppet and pretending to push the trolley, I went for a photograph of the station's architecture, which I find prettier anyway ;-)

And it seems it was built on the site of what used to be a fever and smallpox hospital - nice. Ooh, and Wikipedia tells me that according to recent urban folklore, it's also built on the site of Boudica's final battle, or else that her body lies under one of the platforms - possily platforms 8, 9 or 10. Supposedly there are also passageways under the station, which her ghost haunts.

So maybe the whistles aren't trains, but her ghostly sounds.

Anyway - that's your lot! I hope you enjoyed the Monopoly-themed tour of London, and learnt something - I certainly have (and gotten a lot of exercise too!). Thanks as always to Chad for the idea and hosting everyone's links. Click here to see everyone's 12 of 12s for June!

12 of 12 (v4.0) - May

2009-05-13T20:47:00.004+01:00

Not one of the best 12 of 12s, this one. I was visiting friends and their little boys (one 20 months, one 2 weeks), and it promised to be a good potential for fun photos and activities. However, shortly before I went up, they ended up having a funeral for the 12th. I stayed in their home with Jon's Dad and Step Mum to look after the 20 month old, while Gem and Jon took new baby Jacob (the 2 week old) with them. So these are a mix of photos from early morning, play time and on the way home. Gem obviously didn't want a 12 of 12 record of a sad day, which is entirely understandable.

This post is 3 days late because I was travelling back the night of the 12th, I was worn out and didn't have time on the 13th, I had a Counting Crows concert on the 14th, and so here we are on the 15th. I'm away this weekend at a small houseparty with friends - Star Trek at the cinema, BBQ, geeky TV and laughing... all good stuff. And then off to Germany next week to see Christin. Shame most of my travelling's avoided the 12th!

1) 7:23am - Gem and Jon's house, S. Yorks

Photo of Molly, one of their two cats. Being mostly black, she's pretty hard to photograph, especially in a low light area. But let's call it arty, mmkay?

2) 7:24am - Gem and Jon's house, S. Yorks

Arty one of Izzy cat against the newly painted (to me) red wall in the kitchen.

3) 7:32am - Gem and Jon's house, S. Yorks

I checked emails on the Blackberry quickly. I was off on the 11th and 12th (Mon/Tues) but obviously everyone else in the office was still at work.

4) 8:00am - Gem and Jon's house, S. Yorks

Reading ore of New Moon, and in the background, the game of Scrabble Gem and I had played the night before. She kept getting consonants and I kept getting vowels. For almost every turn, I had 5 vowels and 2 consonants. I ended up with - wait for this - owning 8 of the 9 "I" tiles during the game. 8 of them!!

5) 8:07am - Gem and Jon's house, S. Yorks

Kitties on watch parade. Ready to spring into guard protection. Well, Molly would chase, but Izzy'd run away wewwy wewwy fast. And hide. Bless her.

6) 8:39am - Gem and Jon's house, S. Yorks

Molly cat in a very comfy position, where she shouldn't really be (on Will's mini version of his Dad's chair). No-one's told Molly that her black fur is kind of a give away...

7) 9:39am - Gem and Jon's house, S. Yorks

Will playing. He doesn't know it, but he's doing the downward facing dog yoga pose...

8) 2:21pm - Gem and Jon's house, S. Yorks

Will playing with Grandad Robert (featured arm). Will loves garages (crash!), building Megabloks, reading books, playing football, watching Fireman Sam and many other things I found.

9) 2:59pm - Gem and Jon's garden, S. Yorks

Will being a funky monkey cool dude with his sunglasses in the garden, football in hand. He's perched on some stacked flat slate rocks. Enjoying the sunshine!

10) 4:18pm - Gem and Jon's house, S. Yorks

Will playing with the Dyson hoover extension pole thing, shortly before it became an impromptu hobbyhorse.

11) 4:19pm - Gem and Jon's house, S. Yorks

Baby Jacob, sleeping. Ah to have the life of a 2 week old...

BONUS - 4:19pm - Gem and Jon's house, S. Yorks

Another picture of baby Jacob. Apparently looks a lot like his brother Will at that age (slightly narrower head and less of an upturned nose, but otherwise the same, I'm told). I have to say, I didn't see Will until he was 3 months, and I can't see the similarity by looking at photos - but I find it hard to see differences in babies. Now adults, I can do...

12) 7:53pm - National Express train, somewhere enroute back to London

The book I'm finishing there, New Moon, and the book that's up next, Seven Up by Janet Evanovich who I like a lot. I finished the one and started the other before I got to London - and in the 3 days it's taken me to make this post (I had a concert last night), I'm almost finished the Evanovich too.

As always, thanks to Chad for the idea, click here to see everyone else's offers, and thanks for reading/commenting!

EDIT - please bear in mind the fact that my own 12 is up late and I'm away this weekend, which is why Sunday night at the earliest is when I could really start reading and commenting on your 12s - sorry for that!

Postcards from London - 5 (Hampstead Woods)

2009-04-28T22:05:00.004+01:00

If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise...

OK, no teddy bears' picnics, but as I didn't go to see the London Marathon on Sunday (hadn't felt well Saturday night), I still wanted to enjoy the sunny good weather in the afternoon. So I walked over 2 miles to the Hampstead woods (on the edge of Hampstead Heath), took some photos and enjoyed reading on a grassy knoll. Then walked back ;-)

Looking up into the tree canopy:

Backlit ferns:

Backlit leaves:

I've still taken some photos since I stopped posting, mainly over last weekend - I'd had a week to try and settle into the new house a bit more. I still have a way to go, and things to sort out with the new house and people, but I'm a bit more settled. And after feeling a little narked about some stuff tonight, looking over and posting photos actually helped remove some narkedness.

Stopping Sunday Six

2009-04-19T18:08:00.003+01:00

Just a quick note to say that I'll not be keeping Sunday Six going. I've got a lot on with work and trying to settle into a new flat, and I am putting photos on hold for a while, until I get everything as I want it and more relaxed and happy.

If people want to still do Sunday Six on their Blogs under their own steam, feel free! There just won't be a post here for everyone to leave a link in a comment. Thanks everyone for joining in! :-)

I have some photos I want to post here generally, but I don't know when I'll get round to it. Right now I just want to feel more settled and happy after what's been quite a busy and stressful few weeks. Hopefully unpacking my room will be the start of that, and getting a few things fixed (or even being told "sorry, no can do", though obviously I'd like them fixed).

I'm sure I'll keep taking photos, though not as much for a while. Next weekend has the St. George's Day celebrations in London (picnic and stuff), and the London Marathon, so I'll certainly be out for that, come rain or shine (and last year we got mostly rain).

Cheers guys - hopefully I'll feel more settled, calm and happy soon, and be back to taking and posting photos. Because posting them, seeing people's comments and then reading their Blogs and commenting on their photos does make me happy.

x

12 of 12 (v4.0) - April

2009-04-12T23:36:00.005+01:00

Another month, another 12 of 12! This one had the potential to be interesting - it's a Sunday, and an Easter one to boot. But the weather was grey (see first photo) and so I chose to stay in and watch lots of films. I didn't think this would give me many interesting photos, but I was surprised (and pleased with some of them!).

You know the drill by now - take 12 photos on the 12th day of the month, post them somewhere online and leave the permalink to your post in a comment on Chad's "index link" post. You can see everyone else's links there too.

1) 8:41am - My flat, Stratford, London

This is the view off my balcony, of the Olympic site. Normally you can see the stadium, several cranes and even buildings far off in the distance. This morning, with the weather, I could only just see the stadium. No more 12 of 12 balcony shots though, as I'm moving to another part of London in 4 days' time!

2) 9:21am - My flat, Stratford, London

Sitting down to finish watching Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which I'd Sky+ed a while back. I'd watched about the first 45 minutes a day or two before, but finished it today. For the non Brits here, Sky+ is a bit like TiVo. I quite liked the film anyway - good singing allround really, and some good songs in there. Decent story too. Anyhoo, rarely for me, I had some cereal - Kellogg's Special K with red berries.

3) 9:22am - My flat, Stratford, London

And paused on Johnny Depp. This was around the 47 minute mark I think, and maybe around the song "My Friends"?

4) 9:31am- My flat, Stratford, London

Checking on the progress of a load of washing I'd set going.

5) 10:35am - My flat, Stratford, London

The washing's finished and so I set it on the rack to dry. One grey jumper and one blue towel seen here.

6) 1:42pm - My flat, Stratford, London

I was watching Fight Club by this point, having an accidental Helena Bonham-Carter double bill. I'd known she was in Sweeney Todd at the time it came out, but had since forgotten anyone's name in it other than Johnny Depp. Anyhoo, when that finished, I had 4 other Sky+ed films to choose from. I opted for Fight Club to get it watched and cleared off, not knowing that Helena was in that as well.

The funny thing was, I'd got a Daniel Craig double bill planned for the night time, with my friend Christin (we both watch the DVD, me in London and her in Dresden, and we chat online as we do). It looked like being a double double bill.

Pre-shower, this is my hair brush. I shed a lot of hair and it helps to brush it and get most of the loose hairs out before I shower, rather than them clog the shower plug. It took a while to get this one right, as I always ended up with the brush just off-centre (I was slightly balanced on tiptoes to get it at the right angle). It's a purple brush and I was torn between the colour photo and the black and white, but chose the black and white version of it (I shot it as this, no Photoshop conversion).

7) 3:38pm - My flat, Stratford, London

Back from the shops, and watching The Golden Compass, another Sky+ed film, which I'd started after Fight Club. My flatmates had come in to cook and it's harder to hear the TV with them talking, cooking and the extractor fan on. Then the phone rang so D. was talking while cooking. In the end I took a break so they could watch TV while they cooked and ate, and I went to have a shower before going on (what proved to be a futile) run to the supermarket. I say futile trip, because everything was shut - I don't remember places closing on Easter Sunday! Messed me about, as I needed wine and chocolates for someone's birthday, and loo rolls!

Anyway, when I got back from the shops, I continued the film. This was one of (by then) 3 films I'd Sky+ed, but I found it interesting that I chose this rather than the other two (No Country For Old Men, and Schindler's List). I think most of it was because The Golden Compass is lighter than the other two, and I needed that after the yawnfest that was Fight Club. The other part of the choice was because I realised that as Daniel Craig was in it, this gave me the chance for a Daniel Craig triple bill, with the two Bond films to come later! Me = big geek, in case you'd missed that memo.

Long story short, I had some grapes while watching. Then some Cadbury's Caramel. They say to have a balanced diet, right? Well it's a balance of healthy and unhealthy :P

8) 4:40pm - My flat, Stratford, London

While film watching, I thought I'd pluck my eyebrows. Fascinating day, I told you.

9) 5:36pm - My flat, Stratford, London

I've been keeping a culture book this year - I got the idea from Beth, who'd been keeping a list of books read, films watched and shows seen (plus mini reviews) on her Blog. I thought I'd keep them in a book instead, and chose colours for the different media types. Blue is plays/concerts, orange is film reviews, and red is book reviews. While continuing my film watching, I updated the book with today's films (and one I forgot from a few weeks ago).

10) 6:03pm - My flat, Stratford, London

Cooking tea - I'm trying to use up as much food as I can before I move. My plan was for Quorn pieces with chopped tomatoes, BBQ flavour powder, sweetcorn, red onion and bell pepper, with pasta. Only the supermarket was shut, so no red onion or bell pepper. Instead of the BBQ flavouring, I ended up using soy sauce. I seasoned it twice with the sauce, but by the time I'd run to get my camera after the second dashing, it had mostly soaked into the sauce. So in the name of photography, I seasoned it a third time lol - a nice circle of dark sauce into the tomatoes. Actually it worked really well and was super yummy! I had double helpings in the end :D

11) 6:08pm - My flat, Stratford, London

I'd got some rosé wine to drink with my meal (bought the bottle a week or so ago), and got some funky shots of the wine glass in the kitchen before I poured the wine. I was torn between this and two other shots, so you can see them here and here. I really liked this one though!

12) 6:43pm - My flat, Stratford, London

Starting the James Bond double bill. I'd not seen Quantum of Solace before, though I have read the collected James Bond short stories. It's the same in name only - the book version of Quantum of Solace is only about 25 pages long, and not much resembling the film at all (other than I suppose a man falling in love, being betrayed by a woman and then seeking revenge - but not connected to Casino Royale at all, and in the Quantum of Solace short story, the case is actually told as a story after a dinner party).

I realised as we watched Casino Royale, that this was another double bill - an Eva Green one, as she stars in The Golden Compass and Casino Royale.

So that's my 5 film day, with 2 double bills (Helena Bonham-Carter - Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Fight Club, Eva Green - The Golden Compass and Casino Royale), and a triple bill of Daniel Craig (The Golden Compass, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace).

Phew! Hope you all had a lovely Easter!

Sunday Six - everyone

2009-04-12T23:34:00.006+01:00

Seems some people have a Six for this week anyway lol - and who am I to stop people having photo fun? :P

I've not got one for this week as I've done 12 of 12, but I've got Sixes for the last 2 weeks which I need to put up.

Leave a link to your post in a comment!

Kerri's Six
Allison's Six
Caryn's Six
Christin's Six
.