DLR, London City Airport and the Emirates Air Line Cable Car

Yesterday was my first day of going out "exploring". The main reason was I wanted to be sure of the route to London City Airport for my flight on Saturday, but I also wanted to have a general look around. I started by re-familiarising myself with the areas around the Embankment and Westminster tube stations [this is where Parliament is as well as a number of other attractions]. I then headed back to the Bank tube station and found my way to the Docklands Light Rail [DLR] station, to work out how to get to London City Airport.

I'm glad i did, because it appears there are no direct routes to London City Airport from Bank [I could be wrong]! In any case, it;'s just a matter of taking one of the other routes and changing to the correct route at a later station. No drama's as it turns out. Phew!

On the way back, I did a bit of exploring via the DLR and ended up at the Royal Victoria station, which is right next to the Emirates Air Line cable car. Take a guess at who the sponsor is :-)

It is expensive, but it does give a great view over the city at up to 200 feet above the ground as you'll see from some of the following photos. I reckon it is well worth doing at least once - a bit like the London Eye [which I've taken on my previous visits to London], or a Thames River cruise.

Anyway, here are some photos. The first is of the London City Airport DLR station, followed by a number of views of the cable car. The 5th photo shows the Olympic Statium at Stratford in the distance. Enjoy! Wish you were here! :-)

On holiday and at the Paralympics!

Well, I've made it to London and am now "officially" on holiday!

I won't bore you with all the details of the flight [it's probably enough of a description to say 31.5 hours of travel, 5 or so hours of sleep], but I'm here, relaxed and happy!

I'm staying with my sister, brother in law and little niece, so that makes for fun times as well. It seems that 14 month olds can go from super cute to super grumpy and back again, in the blink of an eye. Fun times!

On Tuesday Rochelle [my awesome sister], Ferne [the niece] and I went to London Zoo... I forgot to take my camera [!], but in my jetlagged state, I did manage to put on my "animals taste good" t-shirt... Doh! This was commented on by the staff at the zoo entrance [I think they had a sense of humour about it!], and I felt somewhat self conscious for the rest of the trip... not the mention mocked by Rochelle! ha ha. More fun times!

Tuesday evening, we went to the Paralympics at the Olympic stadium. Wow! It was awesome! The place looked almost packed out, and the crowd was in a great mood. All of the athletes got cheered, and every who was able stood for the national anthems, irrespective of who won. Mind you, and unsurprisingly, when "team GB" won, the cheers did get louder.

I only heard two "boos" the entire evening. One was very good natured when a long jump competitor, who had already won the gold, but had one jump left, gave it heaps and got red flagged for overstepping the line. The poor umpire, but I guess everyone knew it was fair enough :-)

The other was when the British Home Secretary, Teresa May, was announced as presenting some medals, virtually the entire crowd started booing! Ha! Looks like politicians the world over are loved the same! Oh well.

Security was well organised, and everything flowed well. Even that great British tradition, the queue, was mercifully short to get in, get food, whatever.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the evening. Enjoy!

Trip to Cambridge and Lake Karapiro

Earlier this month I spent a couple of days in Cambridge [NZ] with relatives. A nice relaxing time, including all the stories about the dodgy things other family members had gotten up to, in days gone by. My lips are sealed. Sort of.. :-)

One day we went for a bit of a drive to look at the local area. What follows are a bunch of photos from various parts of Lake Karapiro [famous for world-class rowing training and championships], including the hydro power station dam. You'll see from the pictures that this is a particularly picturesque part of the country - helped in no small part by having a cool, but nice day.

The first 4 pictures are from one part, the next 2 from Hora Hora Domain, then the big rowing centre and the last 5 from the Karapiro Dam.

The so-called "super moon"

There has been a fair bit of publicity about the "super moon" the past few days. The name "super moon" appears to have come about because it is both a full moon and passing relatively close to the earth.

So, here it is. I really really really want a bigger lens now :-)

Pretty much close to my first night photography...

With the recent arrival of a good tripod and a remote shutter switch, I thought I would have a go at getting some night time photographs. What better subject then than the night sky?

Some careful [but probably totally wrong] selection of camera settings, I set the camera up looking at the southern cross. A couple of photos later and I headed home.

I still have a LOT to learn...!

What follows is an approximately 10 minute exposure. You'll need to click on it for a better look, but be warned, I've left it at full size, so it will take some time to download. Also, once loaded, you might need to right-click, open in a new tab, then resize that :-)

When I get some time, I'll experiment more and see what different effects I can get with the various settings...

Christmas Holiday in Wanganui - daytime

In these final pictures of my quick break in Wanganui, a few daytime photos. As you can see, Wanganui had the same great summer days as everyone else had. Great timing :-)

The first is on an "art" installation on the river front, right next to where the regular Saturday market operates from. Lots of sunshine. The second and third pictures are from the beach walk. Lots more sunshine! The last photo is a rough and ready panoramic stitched image from some pictures taken from the tower on top of the Durie Hill elevator tower [click on the image for the larger version!].

Christmas Holiday in Wanganui - Virginia Lake at night # 2

Here's the second set from my nocturnal visit to Virginia Lake in Wanganui - this time a few of the fountain.

Christmas Holiday in Wanganui - Virginia Lake at night

Most of the Christmas break this year consisted of a trip to Wanganui to visit family. While there, we went out to Virginia Lake to see what the Council has done with lighting some of the trees and the fountain in the middle of the lake. This first post consists of some of the photos of the tree lighting, the next post will have photos of the fountain.

Enjoy!

What is it with this Christmas and money?

No, I'm not going into debt for Christmas... that would be unnecessary and [most probably] cause more trouble than what it's worth. Nor is it about the unwanted brochures sent to my letter box, only to be dumped in the rubbish the next day.

It's just that this Christmas for some reason, I've received a couple of unsolicited offers to help me spend my money faster, and, sadly, for no further worthwhile benefit.

Example 1: Air NZ is making a big deal about its new OneSmart card, which seems to be a debit card with fees that would generally sit between the cost of a debit card [ATM/ EFTPOS] and a credit card. It looks like a reasonable proposition, except that I don't travel internationally that often and it won't be a suitable replacement for either my debit or credit card. In other words, mainly extra cost. Maybe if I were travelling overseas regularly...? Oh yeah - they'll send it to me and all I have to do is activate it! Am I willing to spend more so that I can reduce ATM fees when [I am infrequently] overseas? Probably not.

Example 2: BNZ have just sent me a nice letter saying that they have approved me for a flash new credit card. Nice, except that it costs almost twice as much a year in fees, and offers only a little amount extra in benefits, which do not appear to make up for the extra in cost. Oh yeah - last time they did this, I turned them down.

Come on folks! It's rapidly approaching Christmas! Most people don't actually need extra expense in their lives, especially at this time of the year.

It's OK to go out and make a dollar or two out of people, but I'm starting to think that this is a bit much! At least target your audience a bit more. Both Air NZ and BNZ must be able to see that these "offers" will be extra expense and little extra benefit for me! The only way that they "save" me money is if I spent a lot more!

Not good.

If I have missed anything, Air NZ and BNZ are welcome to contact me [not that they will]! I'm always happy to have a chat, and if I'm wrong, I'll say so. Just please, stop trying it on!

Anyway, that's my moan for Christmas!

1 8 ton dead whale and a 1/2 ton of explosives. Hilarious!

You have to watch this Youtube video! It is hilarious to the very end!

"The blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds" :-) Enjoy!