Memories of Minehead
The last few pics from my trip to Minehead back in August last year, the weather was pretty overcast so I went for Black and White conversion and a couple of HDR thrown in for good measure.
Happy Train Man

Thirsty?

2006 The Year That Was - A Summary - Part II
Happy New Year All!
Sepang was awesome! Loads of updates coming soon...promise!
May - Archives
May was a pretty happening month with a good variety of different types of events.
My quest for decent Siao Loong Pau started and still continues to this day.

Minehead - Part III - The Sunset
After our walk I suggested we headed up to the top of the hill to catch the sunset over the bay, here I captured some of my favourite pictures of all time, including my number 1 all time favourite!
A couple I took from the car window on the drive up.

The Moors

Minehead - Part II - A Walk Along the Seafront
Well after lazing around on the terrace all day we went for a walk along to the harbour and down towards the beach (the opposite direction from Butlins!) to get away from the people and get a bit of fresh air and exercise.
It was a nice walk, along by the harbour, the lifeboat station and down along the beach.
Quay Street - Minehead

Moored in the Harbour

Minehead - Seaside Relaxing in the UK
I still have quite a few posts from UK, so back to normal service again for a while, until I decide to whinge about the stupid SE K750i I bought in January that now doesn't work because the screen is totally white...and the LCD warranty is only for 1 MONTH, yes I just found out today when I looked at the back of the warranty card..
Anyway, whilst I was in UK I suggested to my Mom we pop down to my Aunt's cottage in Minehead, Minehead is a small coastal village towards the south of Bristol in UK. You can read more HERE.
We had beautiful weather thankfully and it was a incredibly relaxing couple of days, the first day we did nothing, we just sat on the terrace, had lunch Al Fresco and enjoyed a good bottle of wine.
My Aunt's cottage is a quaint little place build into a rock hill, the back is actually joined to the hill it's ancient and she spent a lot of money fixing it up, it's really beautiful now.
She has a new neighbour too, this is their dog Jessie a beautiful Golden Retriever.

The stairs up to the terrace.

NOT a Good Weekend…Car Broken Into - Camera Stolen
Yes my beloved 3 month old Nikon D70s is gone..gone I tell you.
It was supposed to be a good weekend, good plans, good company, good food..
I'd just done my research, asked around, saved up and bought a new SP AF90mm F/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 lens too on Saturday afternoon, I was excited to go home and try it out.
It all went wrong on Saturday night after having dinner in Section 17, we stopped by SS2 to buy some DVD's near Murni Mamak, I forgot to take my camera down as it was brightly lit and there were lots of people around..
Unfortunately that made no difference at all the whole of my car window was ripped out and discarded underneath my car.
I didn't even notice at first until I saw glass on the ground..and saw the whole window under the car, I was in absolute shock for quite some time.

Dubai Desert Safari - A must do!
Ah finally back from Dubai, my sleeping pattern is a bit screwed though because of the 4 hour time difference and the 7 hour overnight flight..
It'll get back to normal soon enough I guess..
Well yes, finally I'm back! Dubai was...hot and sandy and it makes me fat as you can order everything under the sun there without moving your ass off the sofa...Pizza, fried chicken, chinese food, arabic food, indian food, iranian food, lebanese food, groceries..basically whatever you want. And the portions are all huge!
We managed to grab a couple of days off towards the end and relax, we planned our trip out and went for a Dubai Desert Safari the day before we came back.
I recommend the Desert Safari to everyone, it's an amazing experience, if you are ever flying with Emirates, just stop over in Dubai for a couple of days, check out Jumeirah, perhaps the Mall of Emirates and do the Desert Safari, that's enough
The Desert Safari includes sand duning (driving fast up and down sand dunes in a massive jeep which feels like it's about to turn over!), a camel ride, belly dancing and a bbq in the middle of the desert, oh yah and some shishas!
It costs between Dhs 150 and 280 depending which company you go with (that's equivalent to the same amount in RM as the exchange rate is 0.99 = 1) and is worth every cent!
You leave for the safari about 3-4pm as it's too hot before that, and it's a good time to head out and catch the sunset on the dunes.

After quite a long journey and a quick stop at a buggy place (you can take a buggy on the dunes for Dhs100 for about 20 minutes and get sunburnt for free), which none of us took up, we hit the dunes.
The driving is crazy, it's fun, it's like a rollercoaster, up and down, sliding sideways down sandunes in a heavy 4.5 litre Toyota Landcruiser GXR.
You stop off a couple of times to admire the view and take some pictures of the dunes, it's a beautiful peaceful place and is suprisingly windy.

A Walk Through Worcester Back Streets
So after the cathedral I had a walk through the deserted streets of Worcester City center.
There weren't many people around as it was a weekday afternoon and it was getting towards the time when the shops close...yeah 5.30pm
Shocking eh!
I had a walk through the oldest part of Worcester near the city wall, Friar Street. It contains a lot of grade I and II listed Tudor period buildings.
Enjoy!

My Mom’s Garden, Steak & Lemon Cheesecake
Sorry for the lack of updates, was travelling back from uk, then resting, then had to rush to office, then was re-installing OS, finally time to move into the 21st century, gone is Windows 2000, here is Windows XP! I've been using Win2k since the advanced BETA leaked in early 1999.
I took some pics in Mom's garden, mostly as I was teaching her to take macro shots of flowers, so just used those in the garden as examples so she could get the hang of it.
Technically she picked it up fast, but needed some ideas on being more creative, framing the pictures etc as at the beginning she just took the flowers straight on, which is boring!
She got the idea towards the end, here are my efforts anyway..

A Trip to The Garden Center - If You Like Flowers Look Here
I went to see my decrepid old gran, who's reaching 100 soon..
We took her to the Garden center for lunch, it's quite nice there.
English weather still get's me though, if you sit in the shade, and there's a breeze you need to put a jacket on..but if you move out into the sun you break into a sweat.
Crazy.
This is my Gran's street.















