The 20th and 21st of September was the weekend of the Open House London event for 2014. I had been to a previous Open House event with some friends and enjoyed it, even though we’d only managed to see one property, so I thought it was about time I went back and did it again. This time I went with Monica and we planned the day a little better. We had a few different places on the list of buildings we wanted to see, most of them around Westminster. We only managed to get to three in the end but I was pleased with the selection, and there’s always next year. The full set of photographs can be seen here.
The first building was the Royal Courts of Justice. It is a large Victorian Gothic style building built in the late 1800s on the Strand. Once through security you find yourself at the front of the 238 feet long Main Hall. [read more]
The year 2012 saw the Olympics heading for London for the third time in modern Olympic history. For two weeks London was taken over by the games and all the infrastructure which comes with it. Not living in London meant the games didn’t affect me directly (except with the TV schedules, and knowing that the Team GB Synchronised Swimming team train the the pool just down the road), but I still felt that I wanted to at least have a little to do with it — after all I can’t imagine London, or anywhere else in the UK, being awarded the games again in my lifetime. So, last Saturday, I headed into the capital with my cameras to see what I could find down on The Mall where the walk races were taking place.
I took the tube from Waterloo to Green Park and walked down through the park to the exit by Constitution Hill. I spent quite a few hours around the course, snapping away at what was going on before hand, before finally taking a place at the barrier right outside of Buckingham Palace, just in front of the misting shower, to watch the race. [read more]
Every year London celebrates St Patrick’s day with a big outdoor festival. I’ve been to see the event before, back in 2009, but I didn’t have anything else to do for the weekend this year, so on the 18th March I made my way to Trafalgar Square with my camera. These photos are the result of my afternoon out. There are more in the gallery. [read more]
Sunday 17th April saw the 2011 Virgin London Marathon. As in previous years I ventured out with my kit bag to shoot the event. This year’s plan took me from Charlton to Mudchute on the Isle of Dogs, then to Poplar High Street and Limehouse, and on Westminster bridge. [read more]
On Wednesday my parents came to visit. My dad had wanted to surprise my mum for her birthday back in December and bring her on a day trip down to London, catching the early train from Halifax to London Kings Cross and then going back on the last one of the day. Unfortunately the snow we had at that time last year time played havoc with the trains that day, so the trip was postponed. [read more]
The following weekend saw the annual Chinese New Year celebrations in London and another day out with my camera. This one proved to be much more successful and significantly less painful.
I was trying to sneak this in before the end of February so as to have posted something in February, but I failed. I’ll have to make do with having started it last month, even if I only managed to finish it this month. I was going to blame my lack of updates on a quiet month, but in actual fact there have been a few things I’ve mean to post about and just never got around to. In fact I’m still a blog post missing from Christmas: I had started writing something about Chrismas in Windows Live Writer — the offline editor I sometimes use when writing on the train — but that seems to have gone missing so I’ll have to start again. I think I’ll make an effort to write a load of stuff this week. But enough of excuses, let’s write something worthwhile!
Phew, it’s been longer than it should have been. I was going to tell you about the drinks with Dana, Tim and co. a couple of weekends ago and I also need to catch up with last week and end. So here goes. I’ll try to be brief! [read more]
It may be a day later than I had planned, but I’m on my way. The penultimate train, in fact. I appreciate that for normal people, saying that would be a little strange, but given it takes me 3 trains and two tubes to get back up to my parent’s house, it gives you an indication of just where abouts I am. It is, actually, the most significant train of the trip both size and time wise (although if you add up all the other trains it’s less than half the total journey time). But anyway. [read more]
It’s been an interesting week. Good by most counts, despite the odd complication. Up and down would be the best description, I think. I’ll deal with it in a few posts to stop them being too long…