There was a cake in that plastic box. Looked like a home made chocolate cake. If there hadn't been so many people around, I would have mugged her and made off with the cake.
It was bloomin' cold today and they say it's going to get colder.
The brownie won: but it was a valiant effort for a two and a bit year old.
Weekends go far too quickly and this one has been no exception.
Cold but scenic. An early blog today, as P has invited us round to her place for dinner. We're looking forward to it :-)
Same place, different inflatable thing, still no idea...
It's the weekend!
A few weeks ago, I posted a photo of the dummy tram which had appeared at the west end of Princes Street. The tram disappeared a few days ago and now, in the same spot, there is an inflatable white thing. And a blue tent. I have no idea what the inflatable white thing is supposed to be but I daresay I shall find out soon enough.
Almost the weekend :-)
I've taken many photographs of this view, but I can't remember whether I've posted any of them before now. It's the service entrance of the office building next door and it's where I go when I want a fagbreak at lunchtime but don't want to go far because of the weather. I've been complaining about the weather all month, and with some justification, but today was beyond a joke. I can just about handle the cold, the wind or the rain, but not all three at once... and it was relentless... There were plenty of dead umbrellas to be photographed, but I wasn't going to stop and get myself and my camera soaked shooting them.
Today's song is more upbeat than yesterday's. It's rather amusing to see Hüsker Dü scrubbed and smiley on the Joan Rivers show...
I have photographed this car park before. Today, the weather was lousy and I was uninspired, so I photographed it again.
This song has been going round in my head all day. It isn't cheery but it's very, very good. I remember seeing this when it was first broadcast and it has stayed with me ever since.
Judging by the comments on other people's blogs and on Flickr, I'm not the only person suffering from a lack of inspiration at the moment. Which is why we have legs today. With some wheels for a change.
Today was a busy day at the office, but there have been worse Mondays.
Jeremy Paxman got himself into trouble with a subset of Scottish society a while back for referring to Burns' poetry as "sentimental doggerel". I would have used the phrase "sentimental shite", but it amounts to the same thing. There are many things I love about this country and some things I hate: that poster sums up much of what I hate. Not too keen on the weather either. I also hate Mondays, but not just Scottish ones...
A dark, damp day, brightened up by some nice cups of tea. Scrummy food later, I'm sure. Tea and food. Not bad for a Saturday :-)
It's Friday and I'm full of tasty food. Very tasty food. Imp will be saying more about the food very soon. I'm going to sit and burp.
Happy weekend all!
I proceeded. The waiting room was full of people coughing and sneezing.
In case anyone is thinking of expressing concern, there's no need - it's nothing serious :-)
One thing that IS serious is my lack of inspiration at the moment. I blame the weather and the dark evenings. But it's almost the weekend, so hooray for that!
Today even more so. I saw two policemen on bicycles and took a squinty photo of them. That's as exciting as it got.
Gotta love the British weather. This morning: drizzle. Lunchtime: sun (see above). This afternoon: torrential rain. No snow. Yet.
Aside from the weather, there was nothing remarkable about today. But it did bring us one day closer to the weekend :-)
I don't know when Jacobs opened this shop in Shandwick Place, but judging by their website it seems to have been sometime last week. As can be seen, it's 2 doors down from Jessops, which is a bit cheeky :-)
Good things about Jessops: prices and availability are good for mainstream items (such as popular DSLRs) and some of the staff are friendly and knowledgeable. Bad things about Jessops: prices and availability for anything out of the mainstream are not good, and the rest of the staff are useless. And given their recent financial difficulties, they may not be around for much longer...
I popped into Jacobs for a couple of minutes - they are clearly aiming more at the pro/enthusiast market, which is a good thing for me, and the prices seem to be a little better than Jessops. I expect that I shall spend some money there sometime.
It has been a long, long time since a photo equipment shop opened in the city centre. I think the last one was Jessops...
... these are a few of the things you can take photographs of and post them on daily photo journal sites without any danger of getting into trouble...
That came to mind because I was listening to John Coltrane on the bus again. My favourite recording is the one from Newport in 1963, but that isn't on Youtube, so here's one from Belgium a couple of years later. Well, part of a performance: unfortunately the first bit is missing.
Nothing unlucky about today... at least, so far... Busy day at work, train to Glasgow, tasty food will be coming soon and I'm happy :-)
Have a great weekend everyone!
Today at Festival Square... presented by the Unite union... a little scenario for our amusement and education... Some people dressed in comedy suits, representing the "fat cats". Some people dressed in regular attire, representing the "ordinary bank workers". An obstacle course, including such activities as "jumping through hoops" (seen here) and "avoiding the sack" (sacks visible on the ground). A woman with a microphone, giving a "witty" commentary.
Now, I have every sympathy with "ordinary bank workers" and no sympathy at all with "fat cats", but this display was neither funny nor informative. It was embarrassing. If I were in senior management at a bank (which I'm not), I would have concluded that my staff were idiots. If I were a member of Unite (which I'm not), I would have questioned why my representatives were wasting their time and my money on this nonsense. As it is, I just snapped and moved on...
The photograph, not my mood. This is Grindlay Street reflected in the new Usher Hall extension reflected in the window of the (empty) TSO shop on Grindlay Street. I'm mildly intrigued by the pole in the middle. It didn't look like an old street lamp, but nor did it look like anything else...
The waste is delivered there, they squash it up and it's sent to landfill. The building is a bit of a landmark.
I don't know if this was the first frost of the winter in Edinburgh - it may have been frosty last week or on Saturday or Sunday morning for all I know - but it's the first I've seen.
Back to work today. Unexpectedly, my cold or pig flu or whatever it is improved as the day went on, so I was in the unusual, possibly unprecedented position of feeling better at the end of the working day than I did at the beginning. Can't be bad.
Here's a shot which would have got me into big trouble if I had posted it at a certain other place...
Still feeling crap, still fed up that the holiday is over, definitely not happy that I have to go to work tomorrow. But I'm lucky that I have a job and can go on holiday and I have my lovely Imp, so I'm going to try to concentrate on the good things, of which there are many :-)
Fed up that the holiday is over. Fed up that I'm still feeling lousy. Never mind, I'll feel better soon enough and then we'll have to plan our next holiday :-)
I'm looking forward to catching up with everybody else's blogs, but maybe not tonight...
It was sunny in Berlin today, just in time for us to come home. I had deliberately booked our flights with a five hour stopover in Amsterdam: just enough time to pop into town for a leisurely coffee and pancake. Bacon and syrup, of course.
It's good to be home. It would be good to be in Berlin too. A return visit is definitely in order.
Sunshine! Well, a bit of sunshine. And a bit of rain.
We're both definitely unwell. We've been feeling a bit under the weather ever since we got here, but last night was a night of sniffling and snuffling and getting up in the middle of the night and drinking water and moaning and feeling sorry for ourselves. By the time we got out of the hotel, it was apparent that I was slightly more unwell than Imp, but neither of us was up to going very far, so we wandered around the nearby streets stopping for numerous coffees on the way.
The highlight of the day was meeting Mo, which was every bit as much fun as we thought it would be :-) It was an absolute delight, my dear, and we shall come and invade Whitley Bay sometime soon!
We have to go home tomorrow. Our conclusion on Berlin: we like it here. We would like it even better if the weather were fine and we were feeling well. So, we shall just have to come back sometime :-)
Snow.
To chaiselongue and Jan - thank you for your good-weather wishes. They didn't work.
To Jon - yes, I think those blue pipes were water pipes. They were heading towards the river.
Regardless of the weather, it has been good to wander and hang out... and check out Starbucks... Looking forward to meeting Mo tomorrow :-)
Persistent drizzle. Cold.
Visited the Helmut Newton foundation, which was, as you would expect, full of photographs of naked ladies. It got a bit boring after a while, but rather that than no photography museum at all.
Visited the Reichstag. Long wait to get in, which we had been warned about. Pretty amazing once inside. The view was good but would have been much better if not for the persistent drizzle.
Visited the Brandenburg Gate. Busy with workmen putting up scaffolding and laying power lines for the U2 gig on Thursday.
More pictures on Flickr. This weather really isn't conducive to photography.
I slept well last night and I think I shall do so again tonight.
Pissing with rain all day. We wandered gently, got our bearings, drank lots of coffee. As we ambled along Ku'damm, not far from our hotel, I spotted a sign with a Leica symbol and an arrow pointing down a side street. That seemed like a good way to go. Sure enough, a short way down the street, there it was. I pressed my nose against the window but didn't go in...
Having complained about the cost of the internet access here, I suppose it's only fair for me to mention that at least it's bloody fast :-)
This is Sunday's entry, though I'm writing it on Monday, as we arrived at teatime and couldn't be bothered blogging last night...
First impressions:
Weather - lousy. Dry but very cold last night. Pissing down all day today.
Hotel - great. I chose well. With a lot of help from Tripadvisor. One big complaint, though: internet access is neither free nor cheap. €42 for 4 days. Oh well, we're on holiday...
Waitressing - an art not yet perfected in Berlin. Now I know how Americans must feel when they visit the UK.
Litter bins - everywhere, with built-in ashtrays. Why can't they do that at home?
