Who, Me?

I am very suprised and flattered to have been awarded the all-new, original Shutter Bug Award by the brilliant writer, photographer and all round blogger extraordinaire, Pat Tillett. If you're not already reading his blog, you really should be as he has led an amazing life and has many fascinating stories to tell and great pictures to share....plus he is a very supportive blogger buddy.

Thanks, Pat!

patricktillett.blogspot.com

A very warm welcome to my new followers and a big thank you to all my early, faithful ones for staying onboard :-)

Where In The World Wednesday: Brussels

The lovely Classy in Philadelphia is back from her Caribbean cruise and hosting her 'Where In The World' feature today. If you'd like to take part too, all you have to do is post a picture (or many like I do!) of someplace in the world. Don't forget to use the WITWW button in your post, and to visit Classy in Philadelphia later to post a comment on her WITWW, so that other participants can visit your blog too.

Today I'm in Brussels, capital of Belgium and the EU.... and not the place to be if you're on a diet! Temptation is everywhere....Belgian chocolates, Belgian waffles and Belgian beer.

Belgian chocolate waffles

A great place for a long weekend... just a short train trip from London onboard the Eurostar and if you go after the European Parliament breaks up for the summer holidays (at the end of July), there are fantastic deals to be found on luxury hotels.

Here are a few of my photos of the city...click on any to enlarge, hit back to return to my blog (click on the links to read more)....

Brussels Town Hall on Grand Place

The Maison du Roi (King's House) on Grand Place

Manneken Pis

I loved these shop shutters!

'Tintin' created by Hergé , scene painted on building

The Atomium in Heysel Park

Move Your Feet!

Two months today, I'll be taking part in the 10 km (6.2 miles) Cancer Research Race For Life.

Then in September, I'll be walking a half marathon (21 km/13 miles) to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Time to get moving!

A Day In The Life Of Nat

6.30am: Alarm goes off...curse and question WTF I'm waking up earlier than a week day on a Saturday (?!)

6.47am: Finally drag sorry ass out of bed and into shower

7.10am: Shovel breakfast cereal while watching TV news...learn about horrific plane crash in India, apparently few survivors (poor souls!)

7.36am: Start driving to parents' house, wonder at misty morning and question summery choice of clothing (weather forecast said sunny and 26 degC)

8.15am: Almost have accident with white van driver (WVD) on motorway

8.45am: Almost have second accident with second WVD

9.15am: Almost have third accident with man in blue van (obviously another graduate of the WVD school of driving)

9.27am: Arrive at parents in time for coffee and second breakfast (toast)

10.00am: Start helping B mow lawn, trim hedges and rake and sweep cut foliage

12.30pm: Finish up gardening, sit down to lunch (chicken kiev and roast veg followed by raspberries and ice cream)

1.45pm: Set out for shopping mall with mom

5.15pm: Arrive back at parents' home with new pjs for me, cardigan for mom, two shirts for B and shirt for dad for Father's Day.

6.30pm: Start driving home. No WVD in sight....

8.30pm: Arrive home, start watering and sorting out wilted garden (it has been a real scorcher of a day after all)

9.15pm: Finish sweeping and tidying garden (thank goodness for long summer evenings, still light enough to see outside)

9.30pm: Start whip-around clean of house (high speed hoover, flick of duster and express bathroom freshen-up) in anticipation of lunch guests tomorrow

10.05pm: Give up on the housework, whip together omelettes for quick supper

10.30pm: Log onto google reader, quick catch up on today's posts

11.00pm: Start writing up this drivel

11.05pm: Publish and log off....

[11.07pm: Collapse in an exhausted heap]

Global Citizen.....Or Nationless?

“What do you think of the new government? Personally, I’d rather have seen the Icelandic Volcano Party in power.... it’s done more to stop immigration than Labour managed in the last 13 years!”

This was relayed to me last night by the owner of our local Indian takeaway...an anti-immigration joke told by one immigrant to another - he the son of Bangladeshi immigrants, me born elsewhere and to parents who were themselves both immigrants to that country. I’m not too sure the jolly Tandoori owner saw the irony.

Immigration is a highly contentious issue in the UK, and one that can sometimes make me feel a bit uncomfortable. Do those born and bred here look at me as “one of them, coming over here and stealing our jobs!”? Not that I am perceived as a typical “immigrant”... for one thing, with my father being British born, I have always held UK citizenship. Years ago I forfeited the citizenship of my birthplace...dual nationality is forbidden in Zimbabwe, and since the late 1990s, anyone born to parents who themselves were not born in that country is deemed a foreign national unless they renounce their parents’ ancestry.

I’ve now lived exactly half of my life in a country that is not the one of my birth....the past nine years in the UK, and the previous nine as a student in South Africa. There, I had to abide by the Aliens Control Act, allowed temporary residence provided that I paid my repatriation deposit (a lump sum of money to cover the costs of deportation if I misbehaved and had to be hoofed back over the border). I also had to promise not to seek employment in South Africa when I finished my studies.

And so I left Cape Town a week after graduation, and came to live in the UK. I arrived with no standing on ceremony, no pomp or circumstance, no “Britishness test” or citizenship ceremony to swear allegiance to Her Majesty and sing the national anthem....B went through all that three years’ ago, with me present as his guest. I simply landed at Heathrow late one night, joined the EU Citizens passport control queue and started living my new life....one that has been good so far. I am close to my family, I’m building a fulfilling career, I've made new friends and have many older ones that are living over here too, we've bought our own hovel house and travelled a fair bit.

I’ll never forget my background....I’ll always be told that I have “a slight accent” of indeterminable southern African origin, but I don’t exactly know how to classify myself..... just “British”, “British, originally from Zimbabwe” or “Zimbabwean now living in the UK”...and does it even matter? Perhaps I’ll be an “International Woman of Mystery”...

One Would Probably Not Approve

Mascot Or Monster?

Meet Mandeville and Wenlock....the official mascots for the London 2012 Paralympic and Olympic Games, respectively, that you can see in action over HERE.

Some say they look like Sonic the Hedgehog interbred with Mike, the one-eyed monster from Disney's 'Monster Inc'.....but love 'em or loathe 'em, these creatures (supposedly fashioned from droplets of steel used to build the stadium) are going to be all over Britain for the next couple of years.

Maybe they'll grow on me.....call me an old fart, but I hated the 2012 logo when it first come out in all it's eyeball-aching, technicolour forms. Nowadays, I've learnt to live with it.

What do you think?

Pictures found on the BBC website.

Where In The World Wednesday: San Francisco

The ever fabulous Classy in Philadelphia is currently on a cruise in the Caribbean (lucky thing!)....but her 'Where In The World Wednesday' feature is still running while she's away. If you'd like to take part too, all you have to do is post a picture (or many like I do!) of someplace in the world. Don't forget to use the WITWW button in your post, and to visit Classy in Philadelphia later to post a comment on her WITWW, so that other participants can visit your blog too.

Earlier this week I showed you a photo that I took of the 25 de Abril Bridge in Lisbon....it bears a striking resemblance to the famous Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco...today's destination! This amazing city was the last stop on our 2008 road trip through western USA that I've already written about HERE and HERE.

On the Golden Gate Bridge

I loved San Francisco....the beautiful Bay setting, the hilly streets, and the relaxed, arty vibe of the city reminded me strongly of Cape Town. We had perfect autumn weather the three days we were there...not a cloud in the sky, no sign of the famous Bay fog and barely a breeze.  Our stay coincided with Columbus Day weekend and we watched the parade and Blue Angels' aerobatics display from our hotel, just off Fisherman's Wharf...

Columbus Day Parade

Blue Angels' aerobatics display seen from Hyde Street Pier

We took an evening tour of the former state penitentiary, Alcatraz Island...really spooky by night, but worth the spine-tingling moments in the prison block just for the views from the boat on the way over of the sun setting behind the Golden Gate Bridge, and the city scape by night seen from "The Rock".

Truely Golden Gate

"The Rock"

Cell block

Prison cell

While we were on Alcatraz, a fire broke out on neighbouring Angel Island, and we watched while firefighting helicopters tried to dampen the blaze. Apparently a camp fire had gotten out of hand. The next morning we could see the island still smouldering from our hotel room.

We spent the day exploring Chinatown and Little Italy by tram and on foot....

Tram stop in Chinatown

Chinatown

North Beach

Steep roads

There was just time for a quick trip to strain our necks looking up at the magnificent redwood trees (Sequoia sempervirens) in the Muir Woods....

If you're going to San Francisco

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco

You're gonna meet some gentle people there

Scott McKenzie - San Francisco

The Week That Was....

Well, I DID make it to Lisbon in the end...and back again - just in the nick of time! UK airports are gradually closing today as yet again the volcanic ash cloud shifts our way. OK, Ash Cloud....do your worst for the next three weeks or so but just sod the hell off next month when I want to fly to Canada!

My early flight out of London Luton was delayed for two hours last Tuesday morning while air traffic control cleverly worked out how we could fly around the ash cloud. Sitting waiting in the airport lounge, drinking bottomless cups of tea and watching SkyNews on a continuous loop of just two stories....the aftermath of the UK election and the RyanAir plane that had to make an emergency landing at Stansted Airport (!)... is possibly not the wisest move for someone with a small bladder, who's also terrified of flying and of using the toilet on an aeroplane (fear of hitting turbulence mid-stream, you pee see).

Finally, I made it through Lisbon airport by lunchtime...hopped into a taxi driven by a wannabe F1 race driver and got to my hotel in record time. Dumping my bags, I headed straight out again to find something to eat, ending up at a cafe/patisserie type place up the road from the hotel. The owner quickly realised I don't know a word of Portuguese and pointed to the menu saying, "Meat, Fish, Omelette"....I opted for the "omelette", which turned out to be two fried eggs, bacon, chips and pickled cauliflower and carrots all piled up on a plate. Very tasty, all the same.

There was just time for a quick stroll to get my bearings before the conference welcome reception. The city was crawling with police as the pope had just arrived. I caught the tail end of a procession of devotees....

And then the man himself in his popemobile....

Most of the week was taken up by lectures, workshops and hobnobbing networking with some interesting characters from both rival companies and potential clients. I did get a couple of free hours one afternoon and decided to take an open-top bus tour of Lisbon. My photos are pretty rubbish on the whole....my camera has anti-shake built in but is not equipped to cope with a bus on high speed vibrate. Here are a few shots to give you an idea - click on the pictures to enlarge or the links to read more.

Luís de Camões Square

Jerónimos Monastery

Pastel de Belém (custard tarts) at the famous Casa Pastéis de Belém, 160 year old pastry shop

The 25 de Abril Bridge, built by the same company (American Bridge Company) that constructed the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (not the Golden Gate)

Torre de Belém at dusk

Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries)

Map of Portuguese exploration on pavement below the Monument

Stepping back to my roots

After a delayed return flight, I finally arrived back in London in the early hours of Saturday morning, landing in a country with a new Tory-Lib Dem coalition government, and a new PM in Number 10.

Out with the Old....

In with the New....

Now I need to catch up on all your posts from the past week!

In Limbo

Chimp pic found HERE

I seem to have spent the past weekend hanging around, just wondering, watching and waiting...

Wondering what will be the outcome of the UK's hung parliament - with no one party taking the majority of seats, what will happen next? A LibDem - Tory coalition (they're unlikely bedfellows) or a LibDem - Labour - Minority Parties alliance (on paper more likely but possibly not the best outcome for anyone wanting significant change, and likely to hit funding for England, of all the nations, hardest)? Or possibly an attempt by the Tories to rule without a majority, resulting in power breakdown and another election likely within a year?

This sudden obsession with politics means I spent the most part of the weekend glued to 24-hour news channels, desperate for any bit of information....why did I bother when in reality what's going on behind closed doors is probably so far removed from what's being reported? Still, the need to keep watching could not be stifled by the regurgitation of news-that's-not-really news-just-replays...and not helped by a wet and cold weekend, with not much to tempt me out and away from the telly.

And so I waited. Waited on the political game to play out....and watched helplessly while that infernal Icelandic volcano decided to spew more ash our way and put paid to my travel plans, yet again! I'm due to fly to Portugal early tomorrow for a jolly very important and serious medical writers' conference with five of my colleagues...but, suprise!suprise! ....good old Eyjafjallajökull has started up again, this time disrupting Transatlantic flights (this does not bode well for my Canadian trip next month!) and shutting down southern European airspace.

Up until this morning, Lisbon airport was closed for business....it seems to have just re-opened, but for how long? And if we do make it to the Iberian Peninsula, will we ever get back home again? I don't fancy an epic train trip through Spain to France to get a ferry back to Dover. More importantly, given my serious and uncontrollable  fear of flying, I'm not 100% comfortable with the thought of flying through any ash, dense or not....and there will still be some lurking in the skies above! 

Who knows what the week will bring....