It’s ridiculous.

Still going through photos from Paris and getting them onto flickr so feel free to stroll over now and then. I quite like this one. It’s funny going into the room where it is because there’s suddenly this mass of people who you just know are only there to see the Mona Lisa and nothing else. Y’know, like they’re on a coach tour of Paris and are trying to fit in all the big things. I wont lie, there wasn’t a massive amount in the Louvre that I was fussed about seeing but I’m happily ignorant about art. The Egyptian sections were great and it was nice seeing the Venus De Milo (though all I could think of was the Gummi de Milo) but I was really just too tired to take in much else. It’s overwhelmingly big (the museum) and there’s so so so so much to see if you’re into that type of thing.

Regardless, more photos to come!

Spent the weekend just gone in gay Paree and had lots of fun. It’s slightly odd that I’d not really been before (except as a very very young child) considering it’s a mere 40 minute flight away from Southampton (or a painstaking 6 hour flight/coach home via Birmingham - but the less said about that the better). Thankfully, the weather pretty much held out and we did the whole tourist thing in fairly decent sunshine and almost no rain. By ‘tourist thing’ I mean, queuing to get up the Eiffel Tower, queuing to get into Notre Dame and queuing to see the Mona Lisa in the Louvre amongst other things it was fun. Most of the sights are within walking distance, but we ended up getting the metro to most places after the first day. Probably one of the nicest/easiest public transport systems I’ve ever been on. Good stuff.

Venturing into cafes for brunch or a quick pit stop occasionally only served to remind me how bad my French is but we got by with some really nice (if not a tad overpriced) meals. I’m so so so glad we never actually got ’round to ordering Steak tartare though. Ewww.

A selection of photos from the thousand or so that I took will be up on Flickr in dribbles over the next week or so, so have a look over there for the goodness. Til then, enjoy the 1 that’s attached to this post. Les parcs à Paris sont magnifiques!

During what proved to be a overly busy weekend traveling around Southern England, we also hopped on the train to go to the London Taste Festival on Saturday. While the weather wasn’t quite as nice as you’d've expected on the Summer Solstice, at least it didn’t rain - so the afternoon walking around Regents Park eating random foods was actually rather splendid.

I really don’t even remember half of what I ate but somewhere along the line there were scallops, fish and chips, curry, marmite crackers, strawberries, fondue, prawns, pie, spitroasted pig and Onken yogurt. Not to mention an abundance of free samples of wine/beer and various nibbles. It was great. You have to pay for the food using ‘crowns’ (1 crown = 50p), and most dishes were around the 8 crown mark so it’s not massively cheap but not at all expensive. Definitely worth it to try things cooked by all those fancy chefs in restaurants you hear about or walk past but could never afford to go to. We even saw Gary Rhodes and Angus Deyton so I can finally tick the ‘been-to-london-and-seen-a-famous-person’ box.

The Bath event is next week and then it’s in Birmingham the week after before hitting the rest of the country again next year. We’ll almost certainly be going again and if you even remotely like food, you should too.

‘sunset over the river nile‘ by Matt Northam (me )

A couple of months ago, I went to Egypt and had fun. It was nice. I also took a couple of thousand pictures, most of which aren’t anything special. They’re holiday photos - you know what they’re like. However, I did take a few that I thought came out rather well, and you can see them in a ‘egypt’ set on flickr. I also submitted one of them to the Guardian Unlimted (The Guardian Online) travel section (Been There) and now, many moons later, I’ve been awarded the ‘February 2008 Photo Of The Month‘. Awesome!

I’m still fairly surprised and genuinely stoked to have won because it puts me in fairly illustrious company. It’s an honour and all that.. I’ve been smiling all week.

My winning photo is recreated above in all it’s glory but you can also see a larger version on flickr, or the individual photo page on ‘been there’, or the rest of the months entries.. Whatever takes your fancy.

Ranjit Dhaliwal, the Guardian’s assistant picture editor, says:

“This is a wonderfully evocative travel image, it oozes atmosphere. The use of an architectural feature to frame the subject shows that the photographer has a good eye for composition.”

I says:

Oooooh yeah!

Apparently I win a canvas print of the photo so we’ll see how that goes..

So Fidel Castro has announced his retirement. He’s not had a bad run has he(?) It’s been a long time coming really and I don’t think anybody can really say they’re surprised what with his obvious health issues.. He said himself:

“It would betray my conscience to take up a responsibility that requires mobility and total devotion, that I am not in a physical condition to offer”.

and that’s fair enough innit(?) 49 years in power! Must’ve done something right.

I went to Cuba a couple of years ago and it really is(/was) a superb place to travel around, albeit in a limited fashion. It’s a beautiful country in so many senses and we’ve often talked about going back. However, I think it remains to be seen how much the country will change without Fidel at the top.. As long as America doesn’t get it’s grubby hands on it, I think it’ll do fine. There’s a quote on the BBC page from Bush, saying “…we’re going to help. The United States will help the people of Cuba realise the blessings of liberty“. Wow. Lucky Cuba. Because that approach always turns out well doesn’t it(?)

BBC Video of Castro’s ‘career’

Oh, and the reason my ‘new year‘ post was so late into 2008 was because I spent the first chunk of January in Egypt. Sharm-el-Shiekh in fact. The Ghazala Gardens to be precise. It was very nice.

I took a few photos which I’ve yet to sort through but they’ll pop on flickr shortly so if you’re remotely interested in photos of ancient sites (specifically the ones around Luxor) then have a look.

I finally got around to putting a few photos onto flickr of my fun trip to California. 101 photos to be precise (so far). Feel free to go and look at them in this set here. (Or even, look at the map that has been generated thanks to me spending far too long working out their location).

Or if you’re lazy, I’ve included a few of my favourites below..

Anyway, like I said, go and look at the rest.

California was superbly great. Words cannot describe the gloriousness of the whole trip so forgive this brief attempt. 18 days, 3000 miles, 10 cities (and multiple small dwellings which probably just about count as towns), 7 state parks, 1 wild sea otter and 0 McDonalds-esque meals(!!!) later, it really does feel shit to be home. I don’t think there could be a worse time to come back either, with a massive chunk of the country underwater.. It’s odd that only two weeks ago I would’ve happily lopped off an arm for a glass of ice cold water while stood in Badwater in temperatures touching 50°C, and now I’m finding it hard to picture what the sun feels like.

Blah.. It’s amazing how far 14 hours on a plane can take you

Anyway, stacks of work to be done, loads of emails to catch up on and lots of reality to get back in touch with.. Maybe going away for quite so long isn’t actually that good(?) I’ve got thousands of photos to sieve through too, so expect some updates on my flickr page very soon (the one accompanying this post is of pelicans in front of Alcatraz. Innit nice?) and I’m sure I’ll have a few more things to write about California when I can get ’round to relaxing for a bit. Til then, keep it gangsta.

photo by kelsana

Well, not ‘back’ because I’ve never been before.. but it’s a song.. blah..

A wee note to share with the world that I’m off to California (and Nevada and Arizona) for the best part of a month as of tomorrow so don’t expect any thing on this site. If you see stuff, it’s because I’ve been hacked. That’s bad.

Photos and whatnot upon return.

Here comes the sun..