There will be a pause...

While in the middle of compiling my "year in pictures" post, we've gone and moved house. And we don't have an internet connection in the new house yet.

There will be a pause of at least a week until we get that sorted...

That was 2008, that was. Part 1

As we draw to the end of 2008, I will post the photos which sum up my year with a camera.

January
Walk along the Thames in Henley, looking for a photo on the topic "Reflections", but getting sidetracked with the sea gulls:

February
In February I got a belated birthday present of a circular polariser filter. I used this on top of Dover's Hill.
We also went for a walk in Simon's Wood in Crowthorne, and found a burnt out car. I discovered the "vignette" effect in photoshop, along with a few other bits and pieces.


And I tried my hand at long exposures and "painting" with light.

March
In March we went to the lake district, and it snowed.

We also went to the Eden Project in Cornwall.


April

In April we "roadtripped" from Germany to Italy, via Switzerland. The weather was pretty bad in Germany, so the pictures are from Switzerland and Italy:

I'll leave it there for now (going out for dinner in two minutes...) and post the rest later...

Good news!

We eventually exchanged contracts on our flat sale on Monday. Yay! After accepting the offer on 30th August (while sat in Twickenham Stadium waiting for REM to come on!) we finally finally exchanged.

So now we've found a new rental house (an actual house! Whoo!)

So we now trying to pack up the flat, which is nice just before Christmas. We took the tree down this evening, which was a bit sad as it's not even Christmas week.

I made it home!

I got home at about half past nine. Yay.

The plane left 20 minutes late, it landed 10 minutes late, my suitcase was on the right flight, the passport desk at LHR T5 was empty, my suitcase was one of the first out on the baggage carousel.

The Avis bus was there waiting for me, my Avis Preferred car was there waiting for me, and the roads were empty.

And when I got home, Missus G was in the bath.

I've had a cuppa tea, and now I'm going to bed.

Yay, I'm through. After all the panic, and being told it was 4 hours / 3 hours, it only actually took about 90 minutes.

Which meant I was just in time to catch the flight before the one I'm meant to be on. Sadly, my suitcase is already (hopefully) ready for the 18:15 flight, and I thought it better to travel with my suitcase.

So I've found a seat, and a power socket, switched on the ipod and am sitting writing this. I should probably be doing some work...

The queue!

In the queue at Budapest airport

BA allowed me to check in 6 hours early, and I'm now half way down the queue for passports and security.

Its a mass of people about a hundred long and thirty wide. We're all stodd still, then every few mins we all shuffle forward like penguins.

It would be funny if I wasn't trying to get home :)

Last day in Budapest. Or is it...?

Today my boss and one of the PMs came to visit me on my visit to Budapest. They just popped out for the day to do some management stuff.



But this evening it all got interesting. They were on the 18:15 BA flight to Heathrow. They left the office just after 15:00. An hour to the airport, through security and on the plane. No problems.


Except there is a strike at Budapest airport, and the security people aren't turning up to work. So it took them almost four hours to get through passport control and the xray machine. So they missed their flight and have to stay the night and get the first flight home tomorrow.




So now I'm worried about getting home on the 18:15 flight tomorrow. I even looked into hiring a car and driving to Vienna, and flying home from there. That's not a cheap option, but at least I might get home tomorrow...



But I checked in for the BA flight tomorrow anyway. I'm planning on getting to the airport for 1pm, and trying to convince BA to take my suitcase stupidly early, then getting in the security queue. Who knows. I might still be here on Saturday. Or Sunday...



So take my mind of that, I went for another stroll up and down the banks of the Danube. This time I walked North from the hotel, over the Bridge at the end of Margaret Island, back down the Pest side past parliament and then over the Chain Bridge and back up the Buda side.


A few things to mention about the photos:
1) It's quite cold. By the time I was half way round this trip I was starting to lose feeling in my fingers.
2) As previously mentioned, I don't have a tripod with me, so these are all hand held
3) My work laptop has The GIMP installed, but I only have a trackpad, so there is no trickery going on here. All the long exposures are "in camera", and it's a compact so they aren't RAW conversions. The only manipulation is resizing, crop and straightening. (So don't tell me about the lights being burnt out and needing to be dodge/burned - I can't do that with a trackpad!)


So here goes...


I left my hotel (the Novotel Danube) and walked North to the bridge. Crossing over the bridge and looking South looked like this:





This is the same view but moved right a bit. The Novotel is the blue building on the far right.






See what I mean about the graffitti thing? This is part of the bridge:

I was quite chuffed with the long exposure plus flash method on these photos to get the foreground but also the context of the background.

This is the Pest side of the bridge. Reflections in the Danube and streaky cars on the road.

Continuing along the road got me to the Opera House. At least, I think that's what it is...


Then turning onto a (deserted and a little spooky) sidestreet brought me to the back of the Parliament building, where there was a closed Christmas market (it closed at 8pm and I got there at about ten past)

Fantastic tree!

Then a tram went past:

Continuing South I got back to the Chain Bridge. By this point I was starting to get cold, and I really needed the toilet, so they blurriness probably gets worse from here on...)

Someone had put flags on the bridge tonight. Here's my attempt at getting a photo of a fluttering flag in the dark...

On the other end of the bridge is a tunnel which runs under the palace. Apparently when they did last years Red Bull air race, some crazy pilot wanted to fly through it in a plane..

Underneath the end of the Chain Bridge is another fine example of some graffitti:

Walking back up the Pest side there is a nice church, with two random chairs outside it:

And finally, peering through a glass door I saw this:

The photo hasn't really come out very well. I loved this doorway because it reminds me of a cross between the Chernobyl level of Call of Duty 4, the Matrix (the de ja vu scene) and the film Nightwatch. I really wanted to go in and take some more pictures, but the gate was locked...

So then I came back to the hotel, and have spent a long long time writing this post. :)

And now I'm chatting to people on Skype, and trying not to worry about getting home tomorow.

G'night.

Thoughts on Budapest

My third day in Budapest. It's a little cloudy, still pretty cold, and here are my thoughts so far:

It's clean, yet dirty
The streets are very clean. But every single flat surface is covered in graffitti. And not graffitti art, just scrawlings and (presumably) names. Of course I can't read any of it as it is all in the worlds most crazy language...

It's busy, yet empty
The roads are rammed with traffic. The jams are huge, especially at home time. But the pavements are almost entirely empty. I walked from my hotel along the river to the Chain Bridge, then over to the Pest side and along to a Christmas market (about 45 minutes walking). The market was the only place where there were any people. I probably only saw about 20 people the whole rest of the time.

I should always have a camera with me
I've missed some interesting photos. And I should have brought my DSLR, rather than just my compact.

Hungarian jokes translate surprisingly well into English
Turns out the same things are funny wherever you are (within reason...)

Hungarians like their meat
And jolly tasty it is too. Although it isn't cheap, but I think I may have got the "tourist menu". Actually, the waiter last night seemed a bit put out that he could not charge me more as I was out with five Hungarians who understood the bill. :)

Better do some work now...