Ryanair fails again!
Well I had a few more posts in the bag before this one but I am in a hotel room that I do not want to be in, in a place I am not supposed to be in, all because of Ryanair.
Breaking the Ice on the Moskva
Whilst Lou and did a boat cruise on the River Moskva in the summer (on Moscow day) on a small boat with about 20 other people, in the winter this isn’t possible, however there is a longer cruise on an icebreaker.
Moscow by night…….And Day
Last week we tried to have a wander around Moscow at night time to take some photos, but the temperature dropped rapidly as we approached the river, but luckily by this time we had already gone through Red Square to take a few photos, and so we made our way home via Ulitsa Varvarka.
Walking in a winter wonderland – Serebryanyy Bor
The weekend after we returned to Moscow we went to visit a colleague of Lou’s and his Family who live in a reidential area of a park in Moscow – Serebryanyy Bor. By the time we were walking around the sun was dropping so there were some fantastic colours in the sky.
The park itself is on an island on the River Moscow to the west of the city, has a number of private residences, and a large number of small paths crossing through the forest. It seems like a popular location with cross-country skiers, we even saw an older lady being pulled along on her skis by a huge Mastiff dog, which had our friends’ rideback puppy cowering when it pulled its master over to greet the pup.
The Finca Project – Part 1
My brother and his wife already have one great house in Fortuna, Murcia, Spain, but they have been on the look out for new possibilities for a while, and in the summer they bought a new place. It is an old wrecked Finca (Spanish Farm) with one other wrecked building on the grounds, and 9 acres of land, mostly with Olive and Almond trees.
Where have I been? – Part 2 – UK and Spain
When I left Moscow I was only in the UK overnight down at my Mother-in-law’s house before leaving in the early hours to get to Bristol airport (the cheapest flight to Spain I could find by a long way). When I arrived my parents were there to meet me at the airport and my Dad seemed a lot better than when I left them only a few weeks earlier when he was still in hospital.
Where have I been? – Part 1 – Last Few days in Moscow
Well it has been a while mainly because I have been with family a lot for the last 6 weeks or so, and I had unpredictable internet access and laptop availabilty wasn’t always great.
So, when I came back from Spain in Novemeber I was only coming back for a couple of weeks or so before heading off again to see my parents again in Spain. After a week or so of being back in Moscow the miserable grey, rainy weather was getting me down – there was only 10hrs of sun in the whole of November 2009 in Moscow, and I am pretty sure that all came on a day I was out of the country.
Two weeks in Spain
Normally I would welcome a couple of weeks away from the grey Autumn in Moscow, but the circumstances were not great. My dad was taken into hospital when I was still in Kuwait, so I booked the next reasonably priced flight out from Moscow to London, and then from there to Alicante.
Kuwait – Family Portraits
Whilst I was in Kuwait last week I got the opportunity on one of the days to get some portraits of my Niece and Nephew. My Nephew as ever whilst in the apartment wasn’t too co-operative so I had to get some candid shots whilst he was playing with toys.
Moscow – Autumn in Sokolniki Park
Sokolniki Park is in the North East of Moscow and gets its name from the area of the city that the Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich’s Falconers used to live as Sokol means Falcon in Russian and he was a keen hunter.
Moscow – Autumn Weekend
Here in Moscow the Autumn days of falling leaves in parks seem to be all too short but this last weekend was one such weekend, nice ‘crisp’ (cold-ish, but no rain) weather, and still had to catch up that the failed attempt at a walk in the park last weekend.
Moscow – A Walk in the Park
When we got back the temperature change was very noticeable, we left and it was 20C, when we returned it was at most 11C but has since dropped to 5C in parts of the daytime. Anyway this last weekend we decided to go for a walk around Moscow to one of the many parks, we decided to go to Victory Park.
Corporate Photography – Traditional Headshots
A couple of weeks ago I did a corporate photography shoot with the senior management of the Russian offices of a large multinational company. The brief was to produce a single usable portrait shot for each of the team for a large conference they were hosting for their largest clients, all household names throughout the world.
Moscow City Day 2009
Over the first weekend of each September Moscow celebrates the birth of the city with parades, open air concerts, even a waiter race. The city is usually crowded, lots of security, especially when entering key areas (Lubyanka Square, Red Square, etc) where there were bag checks and metal detectors, and there was also a lot [...]
Moscow – the first month or so
It has been about 6 weeks since we moved here to Moscow and it feels like we have done so much, and so little, from multiple trips to Ikea (a necessary evil!), to being overawed in Red Square, once again multiple times.
So the apartment we settled on is in the area of Kitai Gorod (China [...]
Moved to Moscow……..Finally
Well I had to delay posting this for a week due to not having the photos for it but here goes, and I have just linked to the photos on Flickr for this post.
After a mad few weeks seeing people, getting our stuff packed away and either shipped, moved into storage, or moved to Lou’s [...]
Travel Photography – Egypt – Aswan
Aswan is probably best known to former Geography students of a certain age due to the Aswan dams, and more specifically the Aswan High dam. The building of the High Dam formed Lake Nasser, this vast reservoir stretches from Aswan down to into the Sudan where it is refered to as Lake Nubia. When the [...]
Travel Photography – Egypt – Kom Ombo
The Templeof Kom Ombo is actually a double temple dedicated to two gods, the falcon god Horus and the crocodile god Sobek. The temple was built and added to by the Ptolemys, but like a lot of ancient Egyptian temples it was also used by Coptic Christians as a church, and hence some of the [...]
Travel Photography – Egypt – Temple of Horus
The Temple of Horus is known to be the best preserved acient temple in Egypt and second in size only to Karnak temple in Luxor. The strange thing you will find as a photographer is that you can get up close and personal with the ruins and the hieroglyphics and large inscribed pictures. This strikes [...]
Things ain’t what they used to be
A few things have got me feeling nostalgic recently, not least of which is a book I have been reading called ’Things ain’t what they used to be’ by Philip Glenister the star of the BBC shows ‘Life on Mars’ and ‘Ashes to Ashes’ The return of the former to the screens with it’s [...]
Photography – Trying to make money from it
I have been thinking about ways I can make a bit of cash from my hobby of photography, it looks like I have two options, building a portfolio website or selling via stock photography website.
Portfolio Website
I could use this option to display my best work and hopefully sell some work directly and get offered work [...]
Enter the Snarks!
I was going to write this when I knew for sure what was going on with the move to Moscow but I figured I would wait until I was a little calmer and had considered the situation better.
In anticipation of our visas coming through my wife had been talking to head of HR Europe, and [...]
Visiting the Folks
So after Moscow and a bit more work on the house I went off to Spain for a few days to see my parents last week. It wasn’t exciting, nor full of incident, but I enjoyed it all the same, just seeing them. Most people reading this won’t know that my Dad was pretty ill [...]
First Moscow Visit – Part 3: Quiet reflections
We are on the flight on the way home now and I am enjoying a beer, and listening to last weeks TWIT podcast quietly reflecting on our brief Moscow experience. Well after our meal last night it is clear that the people are very friendly, and being in the city has affected us in such [...]
