Panorama: Tower Bridge & City Hall

Since the screen of my old camera somehow got crushed in my suitcase when I last travelled, I bought a brand new one since it was cheaper than fixing the old Canon.

The new toy - a Kodak if you're interested - has this cool feature where you can take up to three shots and the camera magically 'stitches' them together to create a panoramic image.  I'm pretty impressed at how easy it is to use.   Anyway, I've decided to take various panoramas of places I find interesting, wherever that may be.  And here's the première!




This photo takes in the historic Tower Bridge to the left, and the futuristic globe to the far right is City Hall, which is where the current Mayor of London is based.  The current mayor is the bumbling Boris Johnson.   Lets hope he only lasts one term.

I like this panoramic shot because it contrasts the past with the future, and is a lot like the rest of London, where modern, glass skyscrapers jostle for space among ancient buildings that are centuries old.

I didn't mean for the above to sound like a paragraph in a tourist guide.  Oh well.

Damn vomcanos

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past week, you must have heard of the volcano in Iceland that's erupted and wreaked havoc, closing European airspace and grounding all flights because of dangerous ash in the air.

At first, I found it mildly amusing - in the sense of "oh wow look at that, we have all these wonderful technologies and have made huge advancements but nature trumps man every single time" - especially as I know a good number of people that are stranded worldwide and unable to complete their journeys.

Now that this vomcano business is dragging into the fifth day, that feeling of amusement is now partly mixed with a little anxiety. I've planned everything around the day I leave. My rental contract expires the morning of my flight, and I handed in my notice so my last day of work is the Friday before my Monday departure, leaving me with the weekend to do last minute frantic packing.

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the temping that I am doing, especially as it is for Cancer Research, a charity that I support anyway. The charity I worked on before CR was the World Wildlife Fund, which is cool I guess but even I, as a marketing assistant, didn't really buy into some of their ideas. Yeah I know it's important to save wildlife etc etc, but when you hear about some of their campaigners throwing themselves in front of a bulldozer to save the habitat of an exotic Peruvian insect from being destroyed, you have to ask yourself... really? What about people? Is that beetle going to turn up at your house with a bunch of flowers in gratitude?

The work I'm doing for CR is rewarding but pretty physically draining and I couldn't bring myself to do it for even an extra week. So if my departure ends up being pushed back I'd probably just sit at home and wait it out for a new flight, rather than do more marketing work. Well, even that wouldn't happen because my rental contract would have expired by then and my parents live abroad. So 3rd May is when I HAVE to leave.

I was at Heathrow last Sunday and the world's busiest international airport was a complete ghost town. Rows and rows of planes parked, a handful of passengers floating around in the huge Terminal 5... It was eerie in a strange way, like there was some national state of emergency and all human activity had ceased to exist.

Look at the photo of the arrivals board.  Every single flight.  Cancelled. 



The check-in area was pretty much dead, apart from a few weary passengers looking dejected and some ground staff sitting around looking bored.


So in summary, the volcano is cool in a way, the skies are actually blue rather than being filled with jet contrails, but thanks Iceland.  Nice performance, but we want our flights back.

P.S. Just as finished this post, I saw some aircraft contrails jet over London.  I hope it's a good sign.

30 days

So exactly a month from now, I will be in Rio, probably horrifically jetlagged from a 12hour flight and trying to make sense of my new surroundings.

I got a really good Brazil travel guide earlier this week and I've used it to get some ideas about where I want to go.  Someone suggested going up to the northern part of the country, to places like Belem and Manaus deep in the Amazon.  Apparently there are all kinds of plants and wildlife there that are unique to the area.  Now I don't mind seeing new kinds of animals that I might not have come across before.  But I am definitely not going to go out of my way to travel to an area where there is a chance I might end up rubbing shoulders with a python, or snake of any kind, no matter how exotic or unique it might be.  I will admire (or stare with part fascination part revulsion) at one from a distance, if it is in a tank.  But you won't see me going near one if it has draped itself around someone's neck, sunning itself in freedom.  The only thing you could learn from getting me within ten metres close to an uncaged snake is that it is actually possible for a healthy 21 year old to die from heart failure.

Anyway, since for now I am working during the weekdays right up until the weekend I go away, I've been trying to sort out all the things I need for my trip during the weekends.  Today I went to have a look at some backpacks.  A lot of choice out there, and pretty confusing.  After wading through all the different terminology and brands, I thought I had found the backpack that was both practical (i.e. not large enough to pack my entire house into) and easy on the bank account.  But then I noticed the zips were partly made of fabric.  So even if I put a padlock to secure it, any would-be-thief could just cut away to the material to get inside.  Completely redundant.  It made me wonder though.  Why would the manufacturer pack all kinds of wonderful complicated-sounded technology into the backpack, such as an ergonomic back support system, this and that, even more of this and that, but then scrimp on the zip?

The only other backpack by the same brand that did have proper zips was too big and also a lot more expensive.  I have a feeling the manufacturer did that on purpose.

Anyway I decided that to be honest, the only things of high value that I will be taking with me are my passport, wallet and camera, and those items will either be on me or in a secure safe at all times.  So if someone does make a grab for my backpack and run for it, all they will find is clothes, shoes, and maybe a pair of sunglasses.  Items that are easily replaceable.

So I'll get the cheaper backpack and just put a (redundant) padlock on it, to at least deter the thief if s/he is in a hurry.