pghinternational

1 February

2012-02-01T12:14:00.000Z

31 January

2012-01-31T14:28:00.000Z

It has gotten cold. The winter here has been pretty mild so far but this week brought bitter, windy, deep-down and busting through the double-glazed windows, cold.

When packing for our Christmas trip to Pittsburgh, I pulled out my trusty £3 mittens purchased on a blustery night at Waterloo only to find them moth-eaten and full of holes. I went gloveless and was determined to buy some good old-fashioned gloves when we made it to the US. The day after we arrived, Jay and I went for a walk with my parents to Walnut Street so they could run some errands and I could look for gloves. Nothing in the shops we passed fit my tiny, creepy hands that wasn't somehow bedazzled or completely impractical. So, we had some pumpkin spice coffee and walked back home.

My mother offered me a pair of my grandmother's gloves that she had found when sorting through her things after she passed away in November. I was skeptical until she showed me the gloves and I tried them on. They fit me, well, like a glove, because G Buck had tiny hands too. Of course, they are comfy, understated and sturdy because she only owned quality goods.

In short, these are the nicest gloves I have ever owned. I have a terrible track record with gloves though, so I have been leaving them at home most days out of fear that I will lose them or, even worse, lose just one. But today when it was freezing I knew G Buck would be telling me to stop being ridiculous and put my gloves on because this weather is more than anyone should have to abide with bare hands.

30 January

2012-01-30T14:17:00.000Z

On this day we became pub quiz champions!

29 January

2012-01-29T22:24:00.001Z

Hi. Do you remember earlier this week when I had a meltdown because I took a photo of someone on the train without their knowledge/permission? Well, apparently I have double-standards.

So, why was this okay? Because it was funny? Because I know that if I had gotten their attention from the opposite platform across the train tracks (I took this from within the train once it arrived) they would have been only too happy to let me snap their photo? Because they were already drawing attention to themselves? How was this not exploitation where the photo of the girl on the train reading Malcolm X was? Was it really just all the race, religion, and politics charging up that image? Looks like I need to re-read my books from my Race and Class in American Photography course at university before I start positing any answers.

Regardless, that photo cheered you up a bit right? It was at Acton Central station today, on our way to Harrow to see our friends for the afternoon. I've got a few more photos.

We had a long, lovely, late lunch at Semra and Steve's with never-ending food. After we visited for a few hours, we walked back to the station but stopped at Sarah and Mark's house to meet their new baby boy. He is absolutely adorable but wasn't in the mood for photos or strangers so no baby portraiture here for now.

We had a convoluted journey there and back because of engineering works. On the way there, we got to ride a new Metropolitan line train which smells and feels a bit like being at the dentist. On the way home, we rode an old Metropolitan line train which smells and feels a bit like the photo above.

28 January

2012-01-28T21:49:00.000Z

I secretly enjoy putting off my ironing until I have a huge stack of shirts. This guarantees that I can watch at least two episodes of The X-Files while ironing, which is the critical mass to make it worth the effort.

27 January

2012-01-27T21:47:00.000Z

After a fun evening of drinks with friends from work after a long week, Jay and I headed home a bit early via the kebab shop. We ate dinner and Jay fell asleep while I proceeded to watch hours of David Foster Wallace interviews on YouTube (the entire Charlie Rose interview is up if you are going for the full effect) and flip through random chapters of different books, DFW and otherwise. Then, I remembered that I hadn't taken a photo.

26 January

2012-01-27T00:31:00.000Z

Let's take this down a notch. I work near Cecil Court with its amazing (and prohibitively expensive) bookshops. I spotted this absolute gem at lunch today (the Salinger, the pink one) and if anyone is feeling particularly generous I would gladly accept it as a gift.

25 January

2012-01-26T21:37:00.000Z

Something else happened and I can't show you the photo. I was riding the tube home when something happened and I photographed it but I can only tell you what happened, not show you.

I was standing in the carriage and there was a group of people standing opposite me and one of them was a Somali girl wearing a headscarf. (I am not inventing that she was Somali-- I am making that assertion based on what she said to the other people with her, they could have been friends or colleagues.) At Earl's Court, everyone with her got off the train and she was left on her own. She got out a copy of the Autobiography of Malcolm X and started reading it. It was the Penguin Modern Classics edition with a big full-bleed portrait of Malcolm X speaking into a microphone and holding up his hand on the cover. And I surreptitiously snapped a photo. It wasn't amazing, but it was pretty good.

Then I felt sick with myself and deleted it. I turned around at Hammersmith and took this photo of the empty carriage out the window.

Something came up at the Restless Cities talk I went to last week where a photographer said he imagined himself as just a vessel to show others the world. It bothered me as soon as he said it and it has stuck in my craw for days. It reminded me of religious fanatics saying they were just carrying out God's will. It was arrogant and ignorant at the same time. He was claiming that somehow he could just be this pure vessel, just clean machinery, through which messages of humanity were passed on to the lucky recipients, untouched by emotion, circumstance, or prejudice. He was claiming that he could somehow eliminate himself and all of his history before he showed up, made a killer composition by divine intervention, snapped that shutter, and produced another nugget of truth.

I was acting that way when I took that girl's photo without even introducing myself. I was acting as though I didn't exist and I was just a magical portal through which the image would pass into being. I would take, carry, process and present that image all in ways that I am sure I would regard as detached and fair, while of course my own predispositions would be tarnishing it every step of the way. In the end, it would have my fingerprints all over it while I pretended or believed it was saying something about something else entirely. And so I would have made this girl collateral damage in my own pursuit.

So I deleted it. And I am happy I did but of course I have gotten all mixed up over it and decided to send it up into the great wide internet. None of this was helped, by the way, by the fact that I had read the Esquire article on The Falling Man earlier that day so everything seemed very serious by this point (link -- trigger warning: 9/11 and suicide). It is a good, long, serious read.

24 January

2012-01-24T22:23:00.002Z

Whenever it rains (which has been a lot the last few days), I think I won't get a photo taken. Or that, God forbid, I'll have to photograph something indoors (I am also paranoid of running out of things to photograph in the limited indoor spaces I inhabit). So it rained again today and I remembered that everyone says you should go out at night when the streets are wet because everything is beautiful with all the city lights reflecting off of the damp pavement.

Hey, guess what? Everyone is right.

Then, sometimes things are easy and exciting as hell. I was stopped outside the tube station talking on the phone on my way in and there was this glorious naked advertisement board with no advertisement on it.

Yeah, that's a pretty crap shot given the amazing opportunity to stand there for hours grabbing silhouette after silhouette but I was already late for an appointment with Dr. Go For A Run You'll Feel Better and it was very crowded and damp. Who knows if that board will still be naked tomorrow. It might not be. I might have lost the opportunity forever. Or tomorrow it could be a million times better because maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't be soaking wet while being a total creep.

23 January

2012-01-24T22:07:00.000Z

On the bridge to Waterloo that I used to walk across twice a day when we lived in Twickenham.

22 January

2012-01-22T22:51:00.000Z

I didn't put a whole lot of rules together for this whole photo-a-day experiment.

Yesterday's post was elusive because I didn't want to go into too much of Royal's personal business on the internet. Let's just say we spent multiple unscheduled hours at the vet's office during the afternoon (coincidentally with our friend Emma who happened to be dropping by for a visit). Jay and I were generally distraught and I may have made some poor choices regarding late-night Googling of frightening things. This is to explain today's photo work by telling you I didn't sleep very well last night.

(The cat is okay by the way. Not to worry.)

So, things I could have photographed today: the inside of the duvet while I debated the merits of actually removing myself from the bed before lunchtime, the double-mug of coffee I gulped down, the tangled state of my headphones that I recently sent on an adventure through the washing machine, the painfully blue sky above our street as I dragged myself to the gym in order to gain some sort of clarity, the sparse aisles at the Iceland where I searched among loosely organised goods to find tomato soup, the elaborate grilled cheese sandwiches I made for a late lunch, etc. etc. etc.

What I did photograph was a pair of shoes (above) which I am selling on eBay so I needed a photo anyway. I bought them to wear to Emanuel's wedding in August, but the sad news is that I bought them a size too small so it was a rather painful day. I'll be happy to send them to a better home.

To add to this (in the hopes that two half-efforts really will make a whole), I include a screenshot from my late evening video chat with Mom. At this moment, she is expounding on the presidential election, telling me she has never given this much thought to Republicans in her life. Immediately following this, I had a video chat with my sister and Jeff where we celebrated their impending move away from the great state of Texas.

I am taking today as a learning experience. Why didn't I take the photos I could have? Was I ever meant to be writing this much? Do two wrongs ever make a right (see: vigilante justice)?

21 January

2012-01-21T23:09:00.000Z

So, I will admit something to you all now.

I was trying to see how long I could undertake this project without posting a photo of our cat.

Today had to be exception to my self-imposed rule. For those of you just tuning in, meet Royal Tenenbaum.

He had a tough day today but was a brave little toaster so let's give him a round of applause, everyone.

20 January

2012-01-21T22:46:00.001Z

Greyhound pub in Shepherds Bush.

19 January

2012-01-19T22:41:00.000Z

Finally plucked this out of the bottom of my backpack and pinned it on the ol' jacket. Classic merchandise from the Rite Aid in Pittsburgh Airport.

18 January

2012-01-18T22:26:00.000Z

On Wednesday night, I was fortunate to get last minute tickets (many thanks to Estelle) to a talk organised by the London Street Photography Festival with the editors of the recent book Restless Cities and two photographers. I met Leyla after work at Housmans bookshop, my new favourite radical haunt. Despite the Q&A being somewhat derailed by the never-ending debate over whether social media will be the ultimate demise of everything we all hold dear, the talk was really engaging and I very much look forward to actually reading the book.

And, cheating again. Here is the ghost bike that has sadly been installed outside King's Cross, sparking recent cyclist protest over safety at the junction.

17 January

2012-01-17T21:50:00.001Z

Yawwwn.

I left my memory card at home today. So, when I went out for my walk at lunch today with the intention of taking a photo-of-the-day, I had a lovely droopy moment when I pulled the camera out of my pocket and turned it on to see an error message that seemed distinctly disappointed in me. And I'd left my phone behind in the office.

So I had to wait until later in the day and here we are. Inside the creepy lift at Acton Town station. Jay and I only use the lift when we have luggage on the way to the airport and this ridiculous signage makes us laugh each time. It made me laugh again this evening when I got in the lift especially to take a photo of it with my phone. After I took the photo, I realised I was being recorded on CCTV and probably looked quite suspicious, so naturally I started to pretend I was talking on my phone until I got out of the lift. Smooth.

16 January

2012-01-16T22:07:00.003Z

15 January

2012-01-15T21:28:00.001Z

If you know me, you know I love books. You also know that I have an overly complicated relationship with books since the dismantling of my library (read: stacks of books) before the great move across the ocean and prefer to have flings with library books rather than risk getting too involved with the permanence of a book purchased. If you know me, you would also know that I am prone to being dramatic about trivial things like whether or not to buy a paperback.

Over the holidays, I treated myself to a crisp new copy of If on a winter's night a traveler which I have been wanting to read for nearly five years. The time just never seemed right I guess. I hope it was worth the wait.

14 January

2012-01-15T21:17:00.000Z

The view from the back window of Pizza Express, Kennington, where we gathered to say goodbye to Zoom In instead of painting it as that was a task best left to trained professionals.

13 January

2012-01-15T21:12:00.003Z

One or more of these is actually ice water. Fact.

This represents the near-end of a good night out with the work crew. The actual end came after a walk to the tube via Trafalgar Square fountains and a splash fight (I lost), followed by a very Pittsburgh farewell and a quick visit to the chip shop on the chilly walk back home.

I say a lot of things when out drinking and I mean every word, so thanks for making London so great, each and every one of you.

12 January

2012-01-12T22:50:00.001Z

The house my parents' bought had a spiral staircase in it before we moved in but they took it out and put in real steps. Pretty dangerous stuff, spiral staircasing, as you get all spun around and the foot spacing is nothing like your quadrangle staircasing systems. Not to mention the never-ending railing that can just end up spitting an unsuspecting customer right out into the air given one mis-step. It's nothing to mess with without careful thought.

Anyway, this is inside the Cidre Tap near Euston.

11 January

2012-01-11T16:58:00.003Z

10 January

2012-01-10T20:55:00.001Z

Some call it a snicket.

9 January

2012-01-09T22:04:00.000Z

8 January

2012-01-09T01:05:00.000Z

Must be post-season. Featuring the streaming game from some kind person out there in the strange internet, A Christmas Story beer glass (one of two, gifts from my parents), and popcorn with adobo seasoning. I am always really happy when I find adobo in the cupboard when we're in the US and it never occurred to me to just bring some back to London until this last visit.

Anyway, besides the game being really depressing it was a nice little evening.

7 January

2012-01-09T00:45:00.001Z

Brea warned me that there would be days which were dull and boring and hard to take a photo. I've just had two of them, but I am not complaining. This weekend was glorious. On Saturday, we had a veggie box delivered. I made balsamic roasted beetroot and carrots and a pan full of cabbage and beans.

I have a really hard time knowing what to do with cabbage besides making up a big pot of haluski so thank goodness for Veg Web.

6 January

2012-01-07T13:06:00.001Z

Last night we spent the evening in an Irish pub bidding farewell to two family members who are off on separate 2012 adventures. One is going to work as an acting instructor on a worldwide cruise for four months while the other is moving up north to change careers and start a brave new role as a teaching assistant. It was a lovely time including "most disgusting experience" story swapping and identifying which of the staff were actually Irish (most of them). And of course, Guinness! Of all shapes and sizes!

Also, cheating again, but I do like this one of bro-time at the bar.

5 January

2012-01-05T21:24:00.001Z

In Oval tube station, someone on the staff writes inspirational thoughts every day on a white board. They used to write them on one of normal tube information boards but last summer they disappeared for a short while. Later, a note reappeared on the information board pointing interested customers to a dedicated "Thought of the Day" white board fixed to a wall above the escalators, accompanied by another note alluding to someone higher up who is a stickler for the rules.

4 January

2012-01-04T21:21:00.001Z

Inside my busted black umbrella.

3 January

2012-01-04T13:50:00.002Z

When Jay and I travel home from the US, we always take an overnight flight and arrive the next morning. In between take-off and landing, we lose five hours to the timezone fairies and inevitably get little or no sleep. This makes the rest of the day at home a grueling exercise as we have nothing to look forward to other than unpacking our bags and returning to work the next morning. One tradition we have for Jetlag Day is eating pasta with readymade tomato sauce. It is comforting and consists of ingredients that don't expire while we are away. This time I jazzed it up with a little asparagus and olives from our groceries we got in the afternoon.

2 January

2012-01-04T13:42:00.004Z

Just starting this and cheating already. I am posting two of these because I like them both. The second one is the photo I intended to take when I walked back into the center of the terminal with my camera while we waited for our flight home to London. However, I really like the first one which was one of the test shots I took while waiting for the sculpture turn. The news ticker near the information desk is always listing out terrible occurrences that I am sure none of the travelers in Pittsburgh International Airport are reading.

2012-01-01T21:45:00.001Z

hey, folks. I am going to do a photo365 project for 2012. I will take one photo for every day and post them here.

today: 1 January. Midnight fireworks in Friendship viewed from my parents' back door. Happy New Year, everyone. I couldn't be luckier and I am happy to start 2012 surrounded by amazing family and outstanding friends.

a few istanbul shots

2011-12-01T20:13:00.000Z

30 October 2011. Istanbul.

So many more shots to sort through... these are a few from my new TLR which is making me rethink a lot of things. Lots of very colourful ones from the old digital will come through eventually.

2011-11-10T12:35:00.002Z

Just a quick one. Took this photo last night from the window of my office. This is to illustrate how dark it is a 4:30pm in London.

Almost two weeks ago, I spent a long weekend in Istanbul with Jay and have some great photos to share from that trip, but things have gotten a little out of control so I haven't had time to scan the film yet. Just something to look forward to.

occupy lsx

2011-10-26T17:58:00.003+01:00

15 October. St. Pauls.

holland park

2011-10-01T15:01:00.001+01:00

17 September. Holland Park.

take me to the riot

2011-09-14T22:48:00.001+01:00

So the night that Jay and I were hurtling across the Atlantic back towards London, Tottenham had begun burning. We returned to work the day after we landed, after waking to news of more riots in north London overnight. That next evening, the Monday, the violence spread widely through the east, south and even nearby in our own west London. On Tuesday, fear had spread as more and more people were affected and everyone seemed to at least know someone who'd be in the riot areas. That day, businesses closed early in the afternoon. Everyone hurried home from work and stayed inside. I must say that we were completely unaffected and did nothing drastically different than we would have done on a typical Tuesday, but the oppressive feeling of being forced inside was palpable even for us.

I snapped these few photos on my way home from the station that evening. I didn't capture a particularly striking scene on the high street though. The local mosque had stationed small groups of stewards wearing neon jackets along the road. This isn't uncommon during Ramadan where crowds can form on the way to the mosque, but this particular evening there were more stewards than I had ever seen and it definitely gave a feeling of control and security to the situation.

Things largely quieted down after that around London, however the violence did spread around the rest of the country. It has now been over a month now since the riots began and the fighting over the causes hasn't ceased.

a brief excursion

2011-09-11T11:40:00.002+01:00

So at the end of July, we went home for awhile. After being stuck overnight in Toronto because of a late connection, Pittsburgh was even more a welcome relief. We went to a Pirates' game, had cookouts and tried not to die in the gorgeous, gorgeous heat. My parents and Jay and I spend four days at the lake visiting my grandparents where the weather was lovely and the conversation plentiful. Jay and I took an overnight trip to Niagara Falls which was Jay's first trip to Canada that was not a layover in Toronto.

Things were great. Time went slowly and we forgot about London. I ate and drank my weight in everything. When it was time to go back, we calmly packed up and had an uneventful trip home. Jay's dad picked us up at the airport and told us all about how the night before London had started burning in the riots.

as long as it's talking with you, talk of the weather will do.

2011-09-05T21:34:00.002+01:00

Hello.

Yes, it has been awhile and I know that is bugging you. Actually, it is probably not bugging you since you have given up on me altogether and you aren't even thinking about this dusty corner of the Internet. Well, I haven't given up.

I took the photo a few months ago from our living room window. It was a very heavy rain shower but the sunset was shining through. This whole summer I have been thinking about the weather. I know this may be the most boring topic since what-I-ate-for-breakfast but give me a post or two to get back into the swing of things.

When this summer started, I was on fire with a passion to enjoy every drop of sunlight the sky could throw at me. I wanted nothing more than heat, heat and more heat. I wanted to cycle to work in blistering sun and spend every weekend running through a tropical paradise in Gunnersbury Park. My friends, I was deluded.

There is no such thing as blistering sun at 7:30am when I am cycling to work, nor at 6:00pm when I am cycling home. It just doesn't happen. Strangely enough, in addition to that striking fact, every day in London is not sunny. Gosh, I hope you were sitting down when you read that one. Most of the time, it is actually not sunny, it is cloudy, and a good deal of the time it rains. What bothers me about the rain in London is that it is long and boring. Perhaps I am romanticizing the Pittsburgh and Ohio of my ancient past, but summer rain to me means cracking thunderstorms, tornado sirens, floods. I don't know how to react to this rain. The answer is really to just not react. Jay reminded me a few weeks ago, while we were sitting damp in a pub, that if you never do anything in London when it rains, you never do anything.

I spent one memorable week, at the height of my summer-means-sunshine delusion, cycling to and from work in a seemingly endless rainstorm. I don't think that at any point in that week did my cycling clothes even have the chance to dry. One day on the way in, a shelf of rain water rolled off the top of a truck and right onto me. When I got to the office, I was soaking wet and the work clothes in my backpack were covered with a mysterious brown patchwork of stains. I blamed myself and bought a new backpack.

Things got a little hectic after that stage. I started riding my bike less and spending more time after work volunteering with Zoom In and teaching Photoshop classes there. I devoured some amazing books. I ran in the mornings and in the rain. I started giving up on a broiling summer. I don't even know at this point why I was so invested in it in the first place. I think I thought the heat and the power of summer would awaken something in me but then I realized I was already awake. This is all now.

That pretty much takes you up to the end of July when we took our semiannual trip to the US. I hope that has all been clear. I'll write again soon.

Canal path success!

2011-06-19T23:07:00.002+01:00

From a nice long walk with our friend Amy along the edgy Grand Union Canal back to sunny Acton.

Two day weekends are for suckers.

2011-06-19T22:56:00.002+01:00

These are from the end of May bank holiday weekend where Jay and I took an extra day off to enjoy the V&A, shopping for yarn and grill pans, the art and beer of east London, and more. More posts to come now that I got this silly Blogger app sorted out.

birthday!

2011-05-18T16:28:00.001+01:00

Double Bank Holiday Bumper Edition

2011-05-08T17:26:00.007+01:00

In honor of Easter and the royal wedding, (some of) the working public of the UK was treated to two glorious four-day weekends in a row. While many Londoners took the opportunity to get an 11 day holiday by just taking off 3 days of work and fled the metropolitan area, Jay and I stuck it out, stayed in town and enjoyed a lovely stay-cation in west London. I tried to document most of it for the blog. I know that sometimes things get a little stagnant around here so I thought the long weekends would be a good opportunity to show off good times in London.

22 April. Gunnersbury Park.

We kicked off the first weekend by heading out for a run together on Friday morning, something we rarely get to do together due to alternating injuries and work schedules. We jogged around the small but lovely Acton Park which had turned into a veritable beach vacation spot due to the amazingly warm weather. Afterwards, we packed up a picnic and headed to our favorite local outdoor location, Gunnersbury Park for the rest of the afternoon. Formerly the summer home of Princess Amelia, it is now a public park. Most of the original buildings are still in tact, if in disrepair because of lack of funding, and the grounds feature two lakes, an orangery, rose gardens and a pitch-n-putt golf course. It gives the feeling of being allowed to just hang out on the grounds of a stately home.

We hung out reading, napping, and trying to get a tan for the afternoon, before we headed to Ealing for a few pints of the royal wedding special ale (see photo later on in this post) in the lush beer garden at the Red Lion. Afterwards, we had a oddly delicious Mexican meal at a weird little Mexican restaurant near Ealing Broadway. I have to say, although the atmosphere was very strange, I had possible the best jalapeño poppers of my life.

Saturday, we got up early to head out of town for a little while. I had never been to Oxford, so we took advantage of the Oxford Tube (which is a bus, not a train) stop nearby and ventured to the education capital of the world for the day.

23 April. Oxford.

It was another gorgeous sunny day, so we spent some time just wandering the streets, eating sandwiches by the canal as the punters passed by, and visiting little shops. We visited the grounds of Magdalen College, which are the most extensive grounds of any of the Oxford Colleges.

23 April. Magdalen College.

Afterwards, we had a bit more of a wander and passed by an amazing cake shop with many different custom cakes on display in their windows, including the interracial gay wedding cake, which I just had to share with all of you!

23 April. Equality for wedding cakes.

I got to also visit Blackwells, the famous massive bookshop with over 3 miles of shelved books in their basement room! We finished up the day out by visiting two famous pubs, the White Horse (which is nestled in between the two entrances to Blackwell's) and the Turf Tavern (which had an old Dewar's whiskey emblem painted on the original windows). We headed home before dinner and were happy that we did as we spent the bus journey home on the top deck watching an incredible thunderstorm.

Easter Sunday we were treated to an amazing meal with Jay's family at their homestead, featuring Royal being tremendously anti-social. We spent Easter Monday just relaxing in Acton after a quick shopping trip. Then it was back to work for three whole days while London prepared for the royal wedding.

Tap for Fullers' Royal Wedding Celebration Ale.

Our friend Amy kindly invited us to her flat to watch the wedding on television, which unfortunately we were unable to do since as soon as I flicked on the TV in our living room Friday morning, I literally could not stop watching. This is not because I love the monarchy, or dresses, or William, or whatever, but because this was one of the most compelling live television non-sporting events I have ever seen. Not so much that actual wedding ceremony, but the long footage of public figures entering the church, the processions to and from the church, and the great shots of the crowds and interviews with members of the public who had stayed out for days trying to stake out a prime spot. I was simultaneously amazed and horrified. Anyway, once I was able to leave the house, Amy took us to her brother's flat for his well-timed birthday barbecue.

29 April. Wembley. Abid's birthday party and Converse convention.

We had copious champagne and Fuller's beer, along with a smorgasbord of food. The weather held out and we were able to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine all afternoon.

30 April. Grand Union Canal near Perivale.

Saturday, I headed out for a long cycle ride along various arms of the Grand Union Canal, from Kensal Green to Boston Manor via Southall. After three hours and a few snack breaks, I headed back to Acton but not before a head-on collision with a mud puddle. I spent a long time cleaning the old bike in front of the house before heading in for a hot bath. Jay and I went to dinner at Pinto, our local Thai restaurant, to finish up the day.

1 May. Semra's feast in Harrow.

Sunday, we headed up to Harrow to our friends' Semra and Steve for what we had all hoped would be an afternoon in their lovely garden, but the weather faltered. We enjoyed our gigantic feast inside and relaxed in their living room over Steve's new smartphone while we revisited the Violent Femmes. We stayed over in Harrow that night and the next morning were able to enjoy coffee in the sunny garden before heading home.

Monday, we spent the day at the flat, puttering around and preparing ourselves for the shortened work week by ironing and moping. Royal expressed general exhaustion and that was the end of our double-bank-holiday week of fun and relaxation.

2 May. Obligatory photo of our cat.

get ready for more

2011-05-07T17:00:00.002+01:00

Hello Internet-land.

Here is a quick post to let you know I am still alive and updating this blog! It is also just to pique your interest slightly in advance of tomorrow's Bank Holiday Bumper Edition post that I am putting together right now. Things around here have been great in the slow build to summertime in London. I have been cycling a lot and reading a lot and learning a lot.

I worked on a very cool project at work recently where we were asked to document a new display in a few different ways. You can see the whole thing here. I specifically worked on the timelapse video below. We hung a compact camera from a bracket near the ceiling and I used CHDK and an intervalometer script to have it automatically take a photo every minute for over a week as the display was installed. It is pretty long but oddly mesmerising.

So, enjoy that while you get ready for tomorrow's super-long post about what happens when life is good in London.

look out! it's the sun!

2011-04-10T10:01:00.000+01:00

Jay and I had a great day out yesterday in the new, sunny weather. We walked to Chiswick for sandwiches, Chiswick Gardens for a picnic and a gander at all of the dogs, down along the Mall to Hammersmith Bridge, then grabbed the tube into town to wander around until it was time for Mexican food and birthday drinks to round out the evening. We have both been very busy and working hard on various things so it was really nice to unwind and enjoy the sunshine.

the cuts don't work

2011-04-03T17:02:00.001+01:00

TUC March, 26 March.

A really amazing day.

that pittsburgh sound

2011-03-20T17:24:00.000Z

Yesterday, to my surprise, this wall was full of posters for the Black and Yellow single, but it was too crowded and (thankfully) sunny to grab a photo. So, this morning I took a run down to the Turnham Green railway bridge to get a few shots to prove that Mr. Khalifa is going global. It looks like the old posters were pasted over last night with these ones for the full-length album release.

Anyone who can score me that Pittsburgh King baseball hat will be handsomely rewarded.

Anish Kapoor in Kensington Gardens

2011-03-13T14:35:00.001Z

family time

2011-03-11T11:35:00.001Z

I Will Be Grateful For This Day

2011-02-23T22:09:00.001Z

2011-02-13T12:02:00.001Z

2011-02-03T15:54:00.001Z

Happy Year of the Rabbit!

just a few

2011-01-16T20:47:00.002Z

...random snaps from the festive period. It about sums up how my visits to Pittsburgh feel.

Some of you may have noticed the abrupt start and equally abrupt stop of the 2011 notepad project. It was one of those (many) ideas that sound really fantastic in my head. The underlying desires were to a.) post more b.) post something different and c.) start using physical paper again and maybe get a little more creative. The depressing result was that it was forced and I can't draw any more. So, that is something I can work on in my own time and not subject you to a scribbled drawing of a tombstone dedicated to my cell phone battery. You have better things to do and so do I.

I just have this very acute feeling that the parts of me that could sit down and do something with a sheet of paper (writing, drawing, etc.) need regular care and feeding. These parts may or may not be irreversibly damaged from these past months and years of neglect and the general idea that there was nothing worth doing that couldn't been done on a computer and categorized into a way to pay a credit card bill.

On the bright side, my ukulele playing is coming along!

2011-01-09T18:06:00.000Z

www.wearecitizenradio.com

2011-01-04T22:29:00.001Z

Pittsburgh. The chilly end of 2010.

2010-12-26T22:16:00.001Z

a lot of fun and more to come

2010-12-24T17:43:00.002Z

Jay and I are in the middle of another holiday trip to the USA. We got to come a bit early this year for our friends Breanna and Steve's wedding this past weekend. After a weekend of dinners, dancing and brunch, we have hunkered down at my parents' house for the duration of the festive period.

As usual, there isn't much to report, but I wanted to post a little something to say hello and happy holidays to anyone stopping by the blog this time of year. All the best to you and yours for 2011!

i've never been to texas before...

2010-12-04T16:47:00.002Z

busy little bee

2010-12-04T16:30:00.003Z

20 November 2010. Chicago O'Hare Airport.

After all of the suspense, Operation: Surprise Trip for Thanksgiving went off without a (major) hitch. There was some slight changes to my original itinerary (seven flights in seven days!) but I managed to visit San Antonio, Pittsburgh and Indian Lake (via Philadelphia, Chicago and Charlotte). It was a hoot and I will be posting more photos soon. Don't hold me to blogging much more in 2010 because it is back to the States for me and Jay in two weeks for Brea and Steve's nuptials and the festive season! Between now and then, I will be enjoying mince pies and mulled wine. Oh, and working.

2010-11-19T10:52:00.001Z

10 November 2010. Sign discarded after student protests.

i wish life had more....

2010-11-19T10:49:00.000Z

disclaimer: never actually buy these. they are disgusting.

2010-10-26T20:40:00.000+01:00

Why, yes, I *have* only been taking photos on my phone. Let me tell you, at first I was disgusted with myself. Then, I realized that using the phone had so many of the same qualities of the fun toy cameras and Polaroids. It is always with me and I know the results are never perfect and often strange. It really is a perfect way to keep this same feeling going. No, no, it will never really be a Holga or an XA2 or really look like Kodak EIR (::le sigh::), but I can't afford to shoot film right now and I still want to have fun.

a-town.

2010-10-25T19:36:00.001+01:00

2010-10-24T21:45:00.005+01:00

Holy Toledo! It's been almost a month since I posted. I promised myself I wouldn't let this happen. Why has this happened? Because my life has been about as exciting as this recently:

Okay, that's not entirely accurate, but you get the idea. I took this photo on my phone the other morning when I realized that winter's dark hand was reaching slowly into my life again.

I am trying to keep riding my bike to work a few days a week even though every morning I freeze my cojones off for the first half of the journey.

In addition to that, I am taking a web design course twice a week. I forgot how exciting (read: frustrating) it is to work full-time and also go to school. I think I will get enough of a foundation out of this course to keep me working on it independently, which is a good thing. I already feel like I have made leaps and bounds in my CSS skills, which I never was able to do on my own. We are moving on to Javascript soon, which is another thing I have tried to learn but just stalled around the basics. Having spoken to a few people, I really have confidence that once the course is over (not until the end of February!), I will have a.) the knowledge and b.) the motivation to work harder on my own. Onward and upward!

Want to see something visually interesting I did recently? Check out this link to Zoom In's Flickr page to see some photos I took of their camera obscura on a recent open day. It was mesmerizing. I spent at least 90 minutes in that little dark room.

While you are at it, check out Zoom In's homepage. If you know anyone in, on or around London interested in photography, pass it on to them. It would mean a lot to me.

workworkwork

2010-09-26T20:38:00.002+01:00

So much to do and so little time.

2010-09-19T14:09:00.001+01:00

16 September 2010. London Bridge.

it's not space mountain...

2010-09-19T09:07:00.000+01:00

...it's the DLR.

boris bikes

2010-09-18T10:56:00.004+01:00

I recently tried out London's new cycle hire scheme and, besides some pretty terrible experiences trying to set up my membership over the phone, was impressed. There are docking stations like the one above all over central London (helping no one outside Zone 1 at the moment) where you can swipe a membership key to unlock a bike. You can return the bike to any docking station you want within 24 hours but all trips under 30 minutes are free. I have been seeing people riding these bikes all over the place since the scheme started and have been really curious what the actual experience of riding them is like. One word: wobbly.

The bikes are really, really heavy. Presumably this feature is part of the anti-theft measures to prevent a similar scenario to the Paris cycle hire scheme. So, when I first started out, I felt like I was out for my first spin after graduating from the tricycle. Once I got used to it though, it was a pleasant and comfortable ride, though a bit slow. The bikes have three gears, a bell and a little bungee-corded basket area to put a bag.

It was a hoot.

2010-09-18T10:48:00.000+01:00

4 September 2010. Hanwell.

landing lights

2010-09-11T19:25:00.001+01:00

It's just been a long week and the cold mornings of autumn have returned. This season always makes me feel quiet and nice. I was walking along a quiet sidewalk last night and the airplanes were flying over me in a silent line towards Heathrow. As I watched them slide through the sky over the repeating rooftops, each one switched on their landing lights just as they passed me by. They each emerged from their dark journeys into bright machines as I watched the empty London sky. As each one illuminated in front of me, I smiled and thought, "Hello. Hello, there."

finally... a taco stand.

2010-09-09T14:35:00.002+01:00

tube strike! everybody on your bikes!

2010-09-08T21:33:00.001+01:00

6 September 2010. The cat checks my brakes.

the sequel

2010-09-03T15:56:00.005+01:00

28 August 2010. Eastbourne. Click to see them bigger.

2010-08-29T10:21:00.001+01:00

--Sent from my Android mobile.

window garden

2010-08-25T21:05:00.002+01:00

The last bloom of the Thanksgiving orchid meets the first one of the funny succulent we bought in Chiswick.

eastbourne trial run

2010-08-23T07:56:00.000+01:00

I mentioned awhile ago that Jay and I spent a day in Eastbourne for our anniversary. I finally got the film processed so enjoy the photos below. (P.S. Never go to Boots for film processing. Just don't.) We are actually going back again (already) this week for a few days instead of one. Royal will be spending the weekend at his holiday home in Twickenham.

2010-08-22T11:49:00.000+01:00