Newport Pagnell Revisited

Well, I thought it was about time to revisit Newport Pagnell and post all the photos I took there. When I went out with Tissa, I wasn't sure what to encounter, and as such, so save weight I brought only the small lens with me, not the big one. While the small lens is awesome for flora & fauna, it doesn't work well for large buildings, so you'll have to make do with what you got.

Spring is in the air here in the UK and all the flowers are in full-bloom. While it was windy, we were lucky to have very warm, sunny temperatures.

Several lovely sights along the High Street.

This is the church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Newport Pagnell. Parts of it are over 700 years old. Unfortunately it wasn't open. You'll see a larger image later on.

I just love this door handle.

The church graveyard was really beautiful and wonderful to photograph.

This is the full-view of the church. Up close it wasn't as old-looking as many of the other churches I've come across, but still lovely. The town itself was quite small, although it did have a wonderful shop selling antique prints which Tissa and I spend quite amount of time in!

I will return one day, especially since on the way back to London we saw some sort of ruins just outside Berkhamstead Rail Station, and I'd like to go back to find out what they were.

Milton Keynes and Newport Pagnell

Spent the day out in the countryside with my friend and workmate Tissa - she had to get some documents officialized in Milton Keynes (a very modern, boring city), but afterwards we hopped a citybus to a neighbouring city called Newport Pagnell and had an afternoon full of wandering around! Tomorrow will post the rest of the pictures and stories, but for now enjoy this one. It's bed time for me! x

Blossoms

There is a lovely little park just beside HMV that I see all the time on the way to work - I'd never stopped in before (usually because I was heading to or from work), but today felt like a good, warm, windy day, so I trekked over to take a look. The trees were just starting to blossom and the sky was lovely and blue.

Yes, I do believe, ladies and gentlemen, that spring is in the air.

Springtime in Wimbledon

Didn't go too far today, went to the mall with Amanda to pick up some groceries to bake banana bread (that hasn't happened yet), then took a little walk down to the park to give the ducks the rest of my bread and snap some photos. Everything is starting to emerge as spring is well on its way here, and so I managed to get a couple nice photos. Until I get my bottom back in London next week, enjoy!

Yep, spring is in the air. x

Some Entertainment to Keep you Occupied

Right. Well. Until I have something new to offer you in terms of photography and travel, I would like to keep you entertained with some of my favorite recent YouTube finds. So I hope you'll enjoy.
This is the Daily Mail song sung by a group called Dan & Dan. It's not as funny if you don't know anything about the Daily Mail. It's a much mocked newspaper here in England, mainly because it's a tabloid that masquerades as a newspaper. It usually has outlandish, bold, and generally exaggerated (read: false) headlines. And it's all wrapped up quite nicely in this little song:



While seeing Hugh Laurie dressed as a woman isn't necessarily something new for most people that are familiar with British comedy, for some people, it would be a shock. Either way, this video montage is pretty damn funny.


This lovely video is called "Lost Things." It's quite pretty and artsy, and it was first posted on my friend Shelley's blog. Makes me want to collect more antique things.


This is the trailer for the next Academy Award Winning Movie. Literally.


If you enjoyed that, the same people made another funny video called "The 9 Ways to Treat a Woman". It's very funny and can be found here.
And finally, here is a video of two guys playing a Hang. The Hang is a musical instrument, and you can read all about it on Wikipedia. It has a lovely sound, and I first saw it being played on the Southbank of the Thames.

And finally, my favorite - the Old Spice "I'm a Man" Commerical. Don't smell like sunsets and baby powder. Smell like like jet fighters and punching.

For now, I hope this has all kept you entertained for at least a half-hour. Back to regular-programming soon, I promise. x

An Update

Hello everyone. So sorry that it's been such a long time since I've updated. Most of you know that I've been picking up hours at a different HMV, an HMV that is open until the late hours of the night (10 p.m.), so my hours have been all over the place. However, my contract has now been terminated (sounds harsh, but it's not, it's just that time), so for now, my HMV jumper is strictly pyjama-wear. It's the end of an era....

Now, because of all this, I haven't gotten out to see/photograph anything new. So, while laying around in bed the other day, I decided to snap some photos of the things that surround me here in London. I certainly don't take enough photos of my room/house, and I think in a couple years time I'd very much like to remember what my walls looked like here. So, I'll share with you...

This is the collection of stuff I have sitting on my radiator and adoring the wall above it. You can see as follows:

• A collection of Christmas cards, including the lovely hand-drawn one of the monster from the SkiFree game from my sistah.
• Some artifacts from the London Underground, including a "No Gambling" sign, a mis-printed no-drinking metal sign, a sticker meant for the closing doors and a Northern Line roundel. No, I didn't steal any of these, they were purchased at the Acton Depot.
• Various newspaper clippings, including a story about Polaroids, a story about Stephen Fry, and some pictures of the English countryside.
• An Oyster Card holder signed by Alan Davies.
• Three vintage 1950's Daci box-cameras (one has film in it, ready to use on my next big adventure!)
• A "The Stig" stress doll bought on sale for 40p at Sainsburys.
• A "Keep the Post Free" squeezy given to me at a protest a long time ago.
• And several of my favorite books (pictured later).

Here is a tiny bit of what sits on my windowsill. In the mini-ketchup bottle are bits of shells collected from the beach in Brighton. The larger holder is the bottom of a 1700-1800s bottle found on the shore of the Thames, and it's filled with old, broken bits of watches found at a stall in Portobello Road market.

Here is a collection of photos that I've taken (most are found on this blog or on Facebook, if you have me on Facebook). These are the only photos that I've had printed of my own since I've been here, the rest of the photos on my wall have been purchased. Having all the photos together like this really shows me what colors/themes I seem to gravitate to... Hmm.

And finally, my four favorite books here in London - there would be five, but Kirsten borrowed the Richard Hammond book when she was out here. Nothing too exciting, and sadly enough I've only read one of them to completion, but that's okay. I'm cherishing them. Especially the bottom on. 'Cuz that one's signed. And in this photo. Mmm.

I'm afraid for now I don't have much else to offer you. I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my room, for those of you who haven't yet made the trek to come and visit me! By the weekend the weather should improve and I should have more (new) photos to show you! x

(Insert Willy Wonka Song Here)

In celebration of my boss/friend's birthday on Thursday, I took it upon myself to make rainbow cupcakes! I'm not sure they were worth the effort it took to layer all the colors, but damn are they colorful! (Picture hasn't been adjusted at all... that's really how colorful they are).

And I made my own butter cream icing, too. My house-wife training is near complete - where are my pearls?

Final Round-up of Dresden

Hello again, and welcome back to Dresden. I know I had previously posted some of these pictures in another post without any text, but I thought I'd repost some of them with explanation and some of the new ones I took in my last couple of days in Dresden. So enjoy!

This little green walking man is called Ampelmännchen (meaning: little traffic light man). He is the symbolic person shown on traffic lights at pedestrian crossings in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR - East Germany). Prior to the German reunification in 1990, the two German states had different forms for the Ampelmännchen, with a generic human figure in West Germany, and a generally male figure wearing a hat in the east.

Since reunification he has attained cult status, and a huge amount of popularity with tourists. You can buy Ampelmännchen everything (I bought cookie cutters), and he is, well, rather cute.

This is one of the photos that I had previously posted. It is of the square just outside the Frauenkirche (Church of our lady) in Dresden.

This is the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady). It was built in the 18th Century, although essentially destroyed during the fire-bombing of Dresden in World War 2. The church was rebuilt in 2004 with pieces of the original building (the darker-coloured bricks).

Inside the church isn't particularly stunning, it's very... gaudy. But still worth a look if you're in the area.

Here is some classic, communist architecture for you. And in yellow, to cheer you up.

The pictures on the left, right, and below here are of a church Matt and I came across while taking the tram into town. The sign outside the church said no more than "Trinity"-something, with no other information. Obviously the church has been destroyed, whether through war or other means, but is in the process of being re-built. It was mostly locked, so I couldn't get a good peek inside, but the outside sure was stunning.

This is the market that Matt and I went to on the last day I was in Dresden. It was a lot of fun, and full of things I would've liked to buy had I had the space... or money.

All these buildings above are located along the Elbe river, along a particular stretch called Bruhl's Terrace. You can read more about Bruhl's Terrace here on Wikipedia. Safe to say that it's a lovely, picturesque area of Dresden.

Matt and I later took another walk along a different stretch of the Elbe river. There are some very impressive manor houses along the river, along with some lovely views.

This house, believe it or not, is a hotel. It's called Castle Eckberg (website here) and it's a fancy hotel you can stay in - previously a manor house. It's all modern on the inside, but pretty fancy from the outside.

Well that's it, folks. That's it for this vacation and Germany. I'm back in London now, although I'm not sure for how long now. Time is a-tickin' and hopefully the weather will hold and I'll be able to get out and see some more countryside before I'm forced to leave!

Hope you enjoyed.

Reflections in Berlin

This is my last post about Berlin, and a slightly more artistic one, I suppose. I found that on vacation this time I seemed to be extra keen on taking photos of reflections. Perhaps it was the abundance of water and the blue skies. Either way, I ended up taking a lot of reflection-type photos and I like them a lot. So I hope you will, too.

The Berliner Dom.

The band in Pariser Platz.

The building that was previously the armoury.

The band in Pariser Platz.

Berlin

Welcome to a collection of random photos I took in Berlin that didn't deserve their own blog post. So I squished them all together. Ready?

This is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. The original church on the site was built in the 1890s. It was badly damaged in a bombing raid in 1943. The present building, which consists of a church with an attached foyer and a separate belfry with an attached chapel, was built between 1959 and 1963. The damaged spire of the old church has been retained and its ground floor has been made into a memorial hall.

I kind of like that they didn't try to repair any of the damage done during the bombing raid. Somehow it's a better reminder than any kind of memorial.

Where would you like to go?

This is a large tower in the middle of a big roundabout. I don't have much more information than that. It's on the road that leads towards the Brandenburg Tor.

This is one of the few pictures I took while standing atop what formerly was Hitler's Secret Bunker. Of course, the bunker is underground, and not much remains of it other than rubble, because it was destroyed when they were building the buildings that now stand around it. But these little birds seemed to be enjoying their bath, and I thought that was cute.

More signs.

This is a memorial located in a large building that used to house the guards/soldiers. It's not empty except for this one statue and a hole in the ceiling letting light it. It was designed by a woman who had lost her husband and all of her sons in the war. Sad.

These are the birds (ravens?) that I shared my crackers with. They were pretty friendly and seemed to enjoy the crackers. Eventually they must have gotten full, because they started taking the crackers and burying them in the snow. So I stopped giving them out. Cheeky birds.

Flowers that someone left on a Russian war memorial just outside the Reichstag building.

This is a panorama view of the Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin. If you are thinking to yourself that those two cathedrals on either side look identical, you'd be correct. Except for a few things. Such as the fact that the German cathedral is just a wee bit taller than the French one. Take that.

One of them is the French cathedral and the other is the German cathedral. Both of them were heavily damaged and/or destroyed during WW2, and not rebuilt until after reunification, so they are quite modern.

You can read more about them here.

This is a plaque on the site where the Nazis burned well over 20,000 books that were deemed 'Un-German'. The quote on the left reads:

Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen. (Where they have burned books, they will in the end burn people.) It's interesting that this particular quote was written in 1821, and it rings eerily true for WW2.

This is the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral), oddly named because Berlin has never been the seat of a Catholic Bishop. The site was consecrated in 1454, although the current structure dates from the 20th Century. My tour guide didn't like it very much, he said something about good design having thrown up all over it. It's made to look old, which is appealing, but I didn't go inside, since it's all new and it's pricey to get in.

While this may look exciting, it is simple the city hall building. I can't find much more information about it, and given that most of the city was levelled in WW2, it can't be that old. But it looks cool.

This was the last picture I took in Berlin. I snapped it on the way back to the train station, while standing in the middle of the road. Don't worry, the road was empty. The sacrifices I make for a photograph. Heh.