Santa came early

Oh yes, we know how to do a proper office party round here.....Toblerones all round this afternoon when Santa turned up with his little helper....

.....and he stuck around long enough to drain a bottle of Chardonnay before hiccuping off to his sleigh. Then we had a few drinkies......

Yippee....2 weeks holiday....now,where's that bottle of port......cheers!!

In the dark

The boy in the attic is still in full-on download mode....this post may take some time. Thought I'd try another couple of 'nightime in the city' shots tonight on the way home from work....mixed success. If I'm honest I prefer this hopelessly blurred one.....

(just so you know what it is.....lots of rain, cafe chairs under some particularly lurid lights, chap with a big bag, lime green shop awning, motion blur courtesy someone with an umbrella bumping into me just as I pressed the shutter...every picture tells a story!)

This track seems to fit the bill....



OTHER STUFF....

It's no secret that I love vintage images, don't know why, I just do...so Shorpy is a regular stop-off point, it's packed with thousands of hi-definition images (predominently from the US) But why 'Shorpy' you ask? It's named after "Shorpy Higginbotham, a 'greaser' on the tipple at Bessie Mine, of the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Co. in Alabama. Said he was 14 years old, but it is doubtful. Carries two heavy pails of grease, and is often in danger of being run over by the coal cars." And that's Shorpy up there.....I can't help but wonder what cards the rest of life dealt him.

Wasn't sure whether to post this one....it's an alternative to 'the other place', works on the same basis (one post allowed a day, but because it's based in the US their 'day' starts at GMT -6), easy sign-up, with much the same features.....and it seems friendly (I posted a pic just to try it out, whoohoo, 2 comments so far!)

Interestingly they say "Is this site limited to photography?
No! We have been waiting for some creative people to come along with a neat idea we haven't thought of. A drawing a day? A poem a day? A news clip a day? We would be interested to see anything you can think of!"


Link to ShutterCal.....just in case any of you malcontents (you know who you are!) decide to give it a whirl.

And another photography link just because I rather like underpasses........

Laura Lean ' A project photographing the South Kensington tunnel that links the underground station with a number of museums.' (don't panic.....it's only 15 images!)

Roger Wilko, over and out!

Hitting the wall

I'm still here....honest!! I was suffering culture shock over the weekend (but lots of sleeping sensibly balanced with copious amounts of alcohol got me through it) then it was back to work on Monday for the 'stewards inquiry' into what went wrong on the fieldtrip.....don't get me wrong, there were no recriminations or any unpleasantness, just having to go through everything bad that happened yet again, this time with the Dean and School Registrar. A word to the wise, never EVER stay at the Amaryl City-Hotel if you happen to be in Berlin, they're down-and-out crooks! (note to Paul and Irene.....it wasn't just the ant infestation, there was more.....oh yes, so much more!) I think it's the first time I've come home thinking 'do I really want to do that again next year?' (probably will though....I'm a sucker for punishment, ask anyone!)

OTHER STUFF.....

You can find some lovely animated 3D vintage Japanese stereoviews here at Pink Tentacle, and the original images here on Flickr (with lots more) Definitely worth a couple of clicks!

Silly stuff to do with your pics.....

can be found here

Rather long pause there, one of the effing darling kittens walked over the keyboard, thought everything so far had disappeared into the ether....

I always come back from Berlin with more questions than I went out with.....found this sound and video archive at the BBC that might just get dipped into sometime soon.