Kung Hei Fat Choi

Last Sunday marked the end of Chinese New Year celebrations in London for the year of the dragon. Tens of thousands of people descended on London (well, those that didn't already live there) to see the festivities around Chinatown, Shaftesbury Avenue and Trafalgar Square.

The procession went around Chinatown, with the streets packed with crowds vying for a spot to see the dancers and musicians go by. Once they finished the route, people headed off towards Trafalgar Square to see the main stage for the firecrackers, dragon dances and other shows.

The main event was scheduled to start at 12 o'clock (midday), but as people started arriving from Chinatown, it was obvious that if you hadn't got there by 11.40, you weren't going to get a spot where you could see anything.

Luckily we managed to get spots on the stairs, which were elevated from the main floor and the many heads. It must be said that the weather was freezing, definitely below zero, and felt like about -5. Everyone tried to keep themselves warm and busy whilst waiting for the clock to strike 12, and on the dot the presenters came onto the stage.

They then started to introduce the festival committee, which consisted of about 15 people from the UK and China, each with relatively long titles. As each one was introduced, they came to the front of the stage and started to thank every one of the others standing up there with them ,never missing their titles as well.

Once everyone realised that we were in for a long wait before we would actually see anything, people started to leave the area. Not only had they introduced themselves, but then they had to do the painting of the dragon eyes, each minister at a time...

By the time the dragon dances started ,people had been waiting in the freezing cold for over an hour. As you can imagine, they weren't too pleased (those that had stayed - many had already left by now).

The dragon dances were very colourful and skilled, and were great to watch, it was just a pity that the day was let down by the amount of waiting before seeing anything. Next time maybe they will do an introduction between each show, so that at least people can see something before they got frozen and had to leave for home.

Spam, Burns and Retirement

We all hate those emails that arrive in our inboxes selling various pills and financial services. The fact that around 90% of all email is now spam, doesn't help matters.

However, this is not what I am wanting to talk about today. No, this is a much more favourable topic, namely SPAMALOT. Yes, we went and saw this theatre production last week (specially discounted tickets made it well worth it).
Based on Monty Python sketches, this production had us in fits of laughter many a time. A musical production, it still managed to keep non-musical lovers content by the sense of humour that MP brought to the world. As such, young children, OAPs, and everyone in between were in the audience enjoying this show.
Heartily recommended!

The 25th of January is celebrated throughout Scotland, but not many people outside of this area actually know the history of Burn's Night, so click on that link to find out more. South of Hadrian's Wall we don't normally celebrate this day, but you do see some related changes around you. For instance, at the local Cornish Pasty shop, they were offering Pasties with Haggis in them. Now this is a weird combination, being a mix of the far north and far south, but it worked surprisingly well.

Also a local pub was offering the traditional Haggis with neeps and tatties, which we just had to try yesterday (didn't we Diego?).
We didn't go the whole hog, however, and left the whisky on the side and opted for a more refreshing pint of Scottish ale. After eating we were accompanied by Eva, Kyle, Elena, Clea (+1), Gaia, Simon, and Irina, filling up the Swan and Castle (ok, just one area of it) and being able to say goodbye to Diego in style before he leaves these shores for those of a French nature.
See you soon !

For those of you who read my last post, went and watched The Artist, and loved it, you will be sad to hear that the dog (Uggie) is set to retire. Yes, after the tiring life of a movie star, he has decided to go off to Florida and spend his days relaxing on the beach, apparently :)
Rumours that he might come out of retirement for a sequel are unfounded, as he has not been offered the amount of dog food that he is demanding.

Bogota reached the news spectacularly the other day, as it was amongst the top 15 cities for business according to Fortune Magazine. Some positive publicity like this definitely does wonders for th country's image, so lets hope things keep on going this way. Well, celebrations tomorrow in London for the Chinese New Year, so hopefully have some great photos to put up soon.

Always look on the bright side of life !

Now for something different

Sometimes it's difficult to find the time and possibility to get out of the run-of-the-mill day. Over the past week we made the effort, and had the luck of having interesting opportunities turn up on our door.

We saw The Artist the other day, which although I believe it's a great film, well thought through, and interesting throughout, I don't think we're going to see an emergence of lots more silent black and white films in the future, there's too many people brought up on just computer generated films that they won't be seeing this film, unless it's shown at school. But for the rest of you - go and see it, well worth the visit, even if you haven't liked silent or black and white films in the past.

 

Last Sunday we headed off to London with a short list of things we would try to do. We wanted to see if we could get in to see the Leonardo exhibition at the National Gallery, get discounted tickets for an afternoon performance of Cirque du Soleil's Totem, and depending on the weather, go around some of the famous sights taking pictures with my new camera (see previous post "Oxford Shooting").

 

The weather couldn't have been any better. Slightly fresh, but very sunny and not a cloud in the sky. We got on our early train to find that it's heating system wasn't working, so spent the whole journey (luckily only an hour) with hat, coat and gloves on. Arriving at the National Gallery at 10.30am we went to the ticket desk to ask about tickets to the Leonardo exhibition. The lady was a bit surprised that we would ask such a question at this time of the day (the box office had only been open 30 mins). Apparently people had been queuing since 5.30am to get a ticket for later in the same day. Pleased that we didn't freeze for four and a half hours outside to see pictures on tiptoes in a huge crowd of people, we set off to some of the other works in the gallery, which were also quite nice.

 

Exiting the building onto Trafalgar Square, it was the perfect moment to start taking some photos of such landmarks as Nelson's Column, Westminster, and the fountains around the square. We also happened across a gentleman that had a bird of prey he was showing off flying above us, hopefully scaring some of those pigeons away.

 

Working our way down towards Westminster, crossing the river and then taking a bus from the South Bank also gave some picturesque opportunities to try to capture. Arriving at Covent Garden we had a warming snack of a Ben's Cookie and Hot Chocolate drink whilst walking around the market stalls and shops.

 

We then set off to Leicester Square and after not finding any tickets for Cirque below 70 pounds per person, decided to pop into the Prince Charles Cinema where they were just about to show Melonchia. This is not a Hollywood film, so can be considered a bit weird, but sitting back in those leather chairs, we enjoyed it all the same.

 

With hunger starting to set in we headed off to Chinatown where we sat down and had dumplings, duck with pancakes and lemon and chili chicken. A quick walk to help digest, and then we caught the train (this time with the heating working) back to Oxford.

Later in the week we went to the Oxford Playhouse to see "Flamenco - Rafael and Friends". This was a great mix of Rafael on the guitar, with different types of drums / bongos, and lots of tap dancing (sitting down as well as standing up). The speed of those feet, and the mixes of voice, music and tapping really made for a great night.


What a great set of experiences to have enjoyed...

(more photos can be found here)

Oxford Shooting

Don't worry, it hasn't suddenly become some violent crime hotspot (well, not to my knowledge anyway). Last Saturday, after finally receiving the last part of my self-given Christmas present, and with lovely sunny weather, I went into town in order to test shoot some photos.

So, walking around the grounds of Christchurch, along the high street, and around the Radcliffe Camera, we had a few opportunities to frame some of the typical architecture and tourist sights of Oxford.

Christchurch of course being famous for being used in the Harry Potter films most recently. Unfortunately nobody from the films was here to pose for the shot, so I got a local to pose instead (see photo above).

Not all of Oxford is old stone-coloured buildings, as you can see below, there are also nice examples of pastel colours being used for external walls in amongst the other church-like structures:

 

And just to stop you thinking everything is square here, we also have fine example of cylindrical buildings, which are the perfect shape for storing all the books that are published in the UK (admittedly, most of them are in the underground cellars...):

There are also some unsavoury sights and stories around town. To find out all the details you will have to come visit, but I leave you with one example of what you can expect to find:

So what are you waiting for? Come and book your place to visit now :)

If you are still undecided, take a look at the rest of the photos here, and see if they can persuade you...

Revisiting 2011 Goals

As mentioned in my previous post, there was a bit of a goal to achieve by the end of the year. The Oxford Ale Trail from Brakspear involved 19 pubs dotted around Oxford, whereby one had to drink a pint in each one to receive a stamp in the booklet. Once 10 stamps were collected you are given a t-shirt, and once all have been visited you get a tour around the brewery in Witney.

When you start on this quest (booklets are given out in October) you have all the time in the world. Three months to get 19 pubs done, easy !
Of course, as you get further on in time, you realise you don't actually have many free nights when you can go to some of the out-of-the-way pubs.

As December looms, you start to panic, with still 10 pubs left and needing to do your Christmas shopping, you can't seem to find the time to collect any more stamps. This is when the logic thinking comes into play, and you ascertain that you will have to do a good few pubs in one night.

So on December 30th we set off to visit the Cape of Good Hope, Hobgoblin, Chester Arms and finished at the Royal Oak. Despite the weather trying to put us off, the fact that the Chester Arms was well hidden, and that we'd heard many a story about the Hobgoblin, we actually made it to all of them, having the last pint at the Royal Oak just before closing time.

What a great end to the year, and I'm sure we'll revisit many of these pubs again as we did not have chance to taste all the different ales, nor the food that we often saw being served whilst drinking our pints.

So 2012 allows us to prepare ourselves for completing this trail with more time to spare hopefully.


Cheers !

Old Year's Goals and New Year's Party

The last three months has seen some very dedicated concentration in order to achieve a certain goal before the end of 2011. Finally on Dec 30th we succeeded. Yes, 19 pubs later, The Oxford Ale Trail was completed, and with one day to spare, no less.

The work towards this goal saw us visiting many a drinking house within the confines of the city which we would not normally have seen, let alone entered. With the t-shirt collected, just have to organise the tour of the brewery in Witney some time soon. What a good feeling having achieved that goal of goals in time for the new year to start with new ones.

Following on from the party we had in Oxford last year with Ali, Luigi and Roberto, New Year 2012 was seen in with Doug and Gem. A 20s theme was on the cards (although we didn't know about this beforehand) which meant the bar staff were dressed very fancy. Great food was consumed (the 9oz steaks and Bailey's Creme Brulee were of note) and afterwards the disco in the marquee picked up the spirits too. A very good time had by all, and a great reunion.

So now it's 2012. A new year with new resolutions. I wonder what yours are? In any case, here's wishing you all the fun, enjoyment and success for the coming twelve months, and hoping all your dreams come true.

More pictures can be found here.

To a healthy and prosperous year !