Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Lazy Sunday in the park
This weekend the weather in London was supurb so after a boozey night out Cynthia and I took our hangovers and our books and lay in the park for the afternoon. Was bliss.
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
Celeb spottings
OK so I met some friends last week in a posh hotel bar and as I walked to their table I spied Sarah Ferguson (ie the former Dutchess of York)! Had this place not been so posh we might have been tempted to ask for a photo with her....Then last night when leaving the pool a Coronation Street star passed me on the street dressed for the gym....
Cynthia says these things happen in threes so heres hoping the next one is a real mega star!!
Monday, 11 May 2009
Tweaks....
Had a little play on Picasa to see if i could make any photos look a bit better..
So black and white for this one.
And some serious brightening for this one...
So black and white for this one.
And some serious brightening for this one...
Sunday, 10 May 2009
Walking in East Sussex, England
Last weekend Cynthia, Richard and I decided to get out of London and do some walking out in the beautiful English countryside. Well actually I think it might have been my idea which I soon regretted due to my lack of fitness when walking up and down the rolling cliffs of The Seven Sisters. Anyway it was a great weekend and the perfect opportunity for me to practice my photography.
See the full album here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dionnejane/200905EastSussex?authkey=Gv1sRgCLrZ74iInv6yYQ&feat=directlink
See the full album here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dionnejane/200905EastSussex?authkey=Gv1sRgCLrZ74iInv6yYQ&feat=directlink
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Summer hits London
The sun has been shining now for a couple of weeks and it is fabulous. Shorts, t-shirts and picnics in the park are all go.
I went for a walk from my place in Maida Vle along the canal to Regents Park and Primrose Hill and along the way we saw some amazing homes that back onto the canal. Apparently one of the homes is that of the US Ambassador and so when Obama was in London the other week he stayed there and they closed off all access to this path along the canal.
We had another loely sunny weekend just gone and I spent a lovely relaxing day in the park reading my book. Oh how London has missed the sun shine. So fingers crossed we have a better summer than last year...
I went for a walk from my place in Maida Vle along the canal to Regents Park and Primrose Hill and along the way we saw some amazing homes that back onto the canal. Apparently one of the homes is that of the US Ambassador and so when Obama was in London the other week he stayed there and they closed off all access to this path along the canal.
We had another loely sunny weekend just gone and I spent a lovely relaxing day in the park reading my book. Oh how London has missed the sun shine. So fingers crossed we have a better summer than last year...
Sunday, 5 April 2009
The Falkirk Wheel - Scotland
This ones for you Dad!!
This is my second visit to the wheel as it is pretty cool.
http://www.thefalkirkwheel.co.uk/
The Falkirk Wheel lies at the end of a reinforced concrete aqueduct that connects, via the Roughcastle tunnel and a double staircase lock, to the Union Canal. Boats entering the Wheel’s upper gondola are lowered, along with the water that they float in, to the basin below. At the same time, an equal weight rises up, lifted in the other gondola. This works on the Archimedes principle of displacement. That is, the mass of the boat sailing into the gondola will displace an exactly proportional volume of water so that the final combination of ‘boat plus water’ balances the original total mass.
Each gondola runs on small wheels that fit into a single curved rail fixed on the inner edge of the opening on each arm. In theory, this should be sufficient to ensure that they always remain horizontal, but any friction or sudden movement could cause the gondola to stick or tilt. To ensure that this could never happen and that the water and boats always remain perfectly level throughout the whole cycle, a series of linked cogs acts as a back up.
Given the precise balancing of the gondolas and this simple but clever system of cogs, a very small amount of energy is actually then required to turn the Wheel. In fact, it is a group of ten hydraulic motors located within the central spine that provide the small amount, just 1.5kw, of electricity to turn it. Thats like boiling the kettle 10 times!!
This is my second visit to the wheel as it is pretty cool.
http://www.thefalkirkwheel.co.uk/
The Falkirk Wheel lies at the end of a reinforced concrete aqueduct that connects, via the Roughcastle tunnel and a double staircase lock, to the Union Canal. Boats entering the Wheel’s upper gondola are lowered, along with the water that they float in, to the basin below. At the same time, an equal weight rises up, lifted in the other gondola. This works on the Archimedes principle of displacement. That is, the mass of the boat sailing into the gondola will displace an exactly proportional volume of water so that the final combination of ‘boat plus water’ balances the original total mass.
Each gondola runs on small wheels that fit into a single curved rail fixed on the inner edge of the opening on each arm. In theory, this should be sufficient to ensure that they always remain horizontal, but any friction or sudden movement could cause the gondola to stick or tilt. To ensure that this could never happen and that the water and boats always remain perfectly level throughout the whole cycle, a series of linked cogs acts as a back up.
Given the precise balancing of the gondolas and this simple but clever system of cogs, a very small amount of energy is actually then required to turn the Wheel. In fact, it is a group of ten hydraulic motors located within the central spine that provide the small amount, just 1.5kw, of electricity to turn it. Thats like boiling the kettle 10 times!!
Run run as fast as you can
Excercise guru Cynth loves running half marathons so Richard and I joined her in Bath to cheer her on and pretend we were paps with our SLR cameras pretending we were cool and that we knew what we were doing.....
In actual fact we missed her passing on one occassion because we were of at the bottley trying to get some beer!! Not sure why since we had drunk far ro much the night before while poor Cynth had to watch adn drink water. Boy she is a good sport!
It was a really hot day and there were 15,000 runners (London marathon is 30,000) so there were a number of people who did not make the end due to heat exhaustion. Stink.
Anyway well done Cynth for finishing the race and and in good time.
Hope you are having fun in NZ x
In actual fact we missed her passing on one occassion because we were of at the bottley trying to get some beer!! Not sure why since we had drunk far ro much the night before while poor Cynth had to watch adn drink water. Boy she is a good sport!
It was a really hot day and there were 15,000 runners (London marathon is 30,000) so there were a number of people who did not make the end due to heat exhaustion. Stink.
Anyway well done Cynth for finishing the race and and in good time.
Hope you are having fun in NZ x
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