Happy (belated) birthday to the blog!

I feel bad, I forgot – I’m so terrible at remembering birthdays and anniversaries.

This probably should have been my Wednesday post but I lost track of the date. Anyway, it turns out that apart from a short break in January I have been blogging for a whole year now.  This also suggests that it’s now been a year since I had heaps of fun in Vietnam. But now I’m in London which is also an excellent destination and I intend to keep updating if only to keep a personal reminder of just what I’ve done and where I’ve been. My memory isn’t crash hot at the best of times, so I’m sure this will come in handy sometime Anyway, here’s some random pictures of stuff from here.

Big nosed ship at Hays Galleria

faces under our feet in Bloomsbury

scary balloons in Canterbury

Giraffe-snake, a rare creature only found in Camden (unsurprisingly)

motion sickness at the National Theatre

It's a busy city and river

Definite signs of Autumn in Southwark Park

Canterbury Tales

Not the most original post title ever but that’s what I’m working with.  I took a day trip to Canterbury for an appointment a while ago and although I’m not moving there, it was a nice day out. The town is lovely and it was interesting to see how it had changed since I visited it briefly nine years ago. I originally went to Canterbury while on a two week (I think) car trip around some of the more southerly parts of Britain with my Grandfather and Canterbury was one of our early stops on the drive from East Anglia.  This time I had a more work oriented reason for my journey but still had a look around.  The weather was really good - here’s what Canterbury looks like.

Royal Museum and Free Library (as per the sign) found on one of the main streets

Main gate of Canterbury Cathedral

This is the main entry point for the Cathedral. I didn’t get the time to visit on my latest trip but have been before and can highly recommend it (especially if you like Cathedrals). The building is stunning and the shrine dedicated to the murdered Thomas Becket is worth a look.  I would like to go again but that will have to wait for another visit.

There was a crooked house...

...and a crooked terrace of houses

The old city walls, now part of a carpark

The Canterbury Tales

And this beauty is the outside of a tourist attraction everyone should visit. It’s The Canterbury Tales - an animatronic rendering of the classic tale for everyone’s enjoyment. Sadly, like the Cathedral, I didn’t get to go in on this visit but I have been before. In fact, on my last visit to the UK I patronised a number of similar exhibits, a sort of oddly smelling, jerkily puppet-like tour of British history. I also visited the Robin Hood Tales in Nottingham because I am all class.  I do recommend it, they put a lot of work into it and they’re always amusing.

punting on the river

And last but not least, I finished the day off with a visit to Tiny Tim’s Tearoom for a delicious cream tea (also highly recommended) before catching the train back to London.

delicious afternoon tea

Thames Festival – London in the evening

After my visit to Greenwich I returned to Westminster pier and encountered the Thames Festival in full swing.  The waterfront from Westminster to the OXO Tower (that was as far as I walked) was packed with people and stalls selling all manner of things. Although crowds aren’t really my thing, it seemed silly not to go have a look at all the stuff that was going on.

Crowds on the green

Parliament in the evening

Southbank and the Eye

Embankment

Greenwich boat trip

A few weekends ago I took a river boat to Greenwich to visit the markets and the lovely park that surrounds the observatory. It was a fabulous idea that clearly many other people had, evidenced by the many tourist groups on the boat and the even greater numbers of people traipsing up the hill to the observatory. It was a good day though and sunny and warm enough to be enjoyed while the weather is still good.

Tower Bridge from the boat

current home of the Cutty Sark during its restoration following the fire

Crowds at Greenwich Park

view from the top

view from One Tree Hill (Canary Wharf skyscrapers to the right)

crowds descending the hill in the afternoon

It was a lovely day and if I didn’t have to cart all my belongings about myself I would probably have bought a few things at the market. When the boat returned to Westminster pier it was obvious that the very popular Thames festival was in full swing.  All along the south bank of the river from Westminster down to the OXO Tower was covered in market stalls and performers and packed full of people.  I’ll post those pics another time.

Greetings from the Southside

Well, I’ve moved accommodation two weekends in a row now and have ended up south of the river.  It’s thrown my posting off because I’ve spent more time on, admittedly important, things like finding accommodation and looking for work.  I’m liking the new place, though I’ve only been here a few days but it’s close to the river (the Thames that is) and it’s nice to be living in a house/unit again instead of hostel like accommodation.  Having to take keys or swipe card with me everywhere even inside the building was getting a bit wearing. And when I’m done with this other stuff, I’ll pop up a few more photos of stuff that’s actually interesting.

More Southbank images

I took more pictures of Southbank during my trip to Brisbane for the Game On exhibition.  Here’s a few of the other good ones.  It was a beautiful day to be out and about.

Surely every large city has one of these by now?

The wheel is right by the river, conveniently situated right near the tour bus drop off point.

Brisbane river with citycat and central library in view

I like being in cities with a river flowing through them (even if it is an interesting shade of brown).  The central library is the partly blue building hiding behind the bridge and flyovers.

The older Queensland Art Gallery

We also now have a Gallery of Modern Art nearby but I don’t have picture of that building yet.  This is the one I grew up visiting.  Some of the artworks are so familiar it can throw me off when they get moved (as galleries tend to do with their collections from time to time).

High in the hills…(in Vietnam)

And just for a change of scenery, here are some pics of my trip to Vietnam last year.  Most of these are from the trip north to Sapa where we went on an overnight hike and stayed in a homestay where much rice wine was consumed.

view from below - we'd been at the top just minutes earlier

terraced rice paddies near Sapa

curious local kids at the window

river flowing through a village close to Sapa

Vietnam was beautiful, my pictures don’t really do the scenery justice (though they’re not to bad by my standards).