Hallo.....

if you're wondering.. I'm still alive.. just been a little slow in posting to the blog. It will be updated shortly as I'm working on some photosets now.

In the mean time.. Compliments of the season and Happy New Year!!!

M@cAlfie

Perth Getaway

Went to Perth for a week to visit the 'old neighbourhood'. Was fairly pleasant and fortunately the weather cooperated. Wasn't warm enough to take a dip in the ocean as originally intended but at least we managed to get some good pics of the sunset on a couple of days. Here are just a couple of my pictures from the short trip. As usual, more are available on my Flickr site...

Phuket Getaway

After that long trip I had almost a week off so we decided to take a short trip to Phuket as the original plan to visit Perth fell through while waiting for some administrative tie-ups.

Overall the trip was a great relaxing break and the resort was so commfortable that we never left it during the entire trip. Our days were filled with lounging by the pool, soaking in the sun, beach massages and wonderful dinners.. plus lots of photography practice as well.

Chicago

I was actually in Chicago a couple of days before Brussels and these are some of the pictures I took during my one day walkaround. If you read some of the comments attached to the pictures (you gotta go to the Flickr site to see them) you'll know that its was a quite a strange day (to me anyway) because of the rolling fog off Lake Michigan coupled with the bright sunshine.

Chanced upon the 'Bean' (top picture) and was quite taken in by the distorting effects it had on its reflections and I was intrigued enough to take quite a few pictures using this perspective.

If you like the concrete jungle, Chicago is quite a beautiful city with a very nice skyline. The next time I'm there I'm hoping to go up the John Hancock tower to take more pictures of the cityscape.

Brussels By Night

These are a two of my night shots taken in the Grote Markt in Brussels at dusk/ just after sunset. I must admit that I'm not too pleased with the way the Hotel De Ville turned out as I didn't have my widest lens on hand. This photo you see here (the top one) is actually stiched together... Fortunately I'm going to have another crack at it (hopefully) in about a week's time, hopefully with better results.

Bruges, Belgium

I visited Bruges on my second of four clear days in Brussels. A lot more untouched, this Bruges, in the northwest of Belgium is a predominantly Flemish town and about 90 minutes by train from Brussels. The improved weather I was hoping for didn't materialise and I was constantly darting in and out of small shops to avoid the regular drizzles. I spent only about half a day here and as such didn't really get a chance to explore the whole town and its museums and galleries. I did, however, go into the Stadhuis (top picture) which is like their town hall and has a very nice display on the second floor. Unfortunately no pictures of that (as usual its not allowed).

Another feature of this town is the river or canal that runs around it. Taking a boat ride along the canal seems to be a popular tourist activity.

Getting Lazy ???

If you've been wondering if I've been slacking off on the updates.. the answer is.. not really. Just to give you an idea of what I'm currently processing, I've posted this picture of a bipane.. one of many aircraft I photographed at the aircraft museum in Brussels.

Well... back to 'work'. Hope you enjoy the picture.

Brussels Trip Day 2

Day 2 of my Brussels trip was actually my third day there. Confusing? Well, with the bleak weather in Brussels the first day I decided to head out to Bruges in search of better weather to take pictures... More on that in the next posting.

Back to Brussels... On day '2' I went exploring the Upper Town. In particular I headed to Parc du Cinquantenaire.. The biggest park in Brussels. What's there? Well, I can tell you its the aircraft museum, or autoworld or one of the many other interesting sites... But the truth is.. I went because of... "The Way". I saw the tree lined avenues in the travel handbook and knew I had to go try to capture the picture myself. Sadly I didn't really get the lighting I needed and because of the long cold winter in Europe this year the trees didn't have a full canopy yet to affect the lighting. Well.. I'll be back....

Brussels Trip Day 1

I arrived in Brussels in the morning and as it was a fairly long 'overnight' flight from Dallas, I needed to take a nap before setting out for my photoshoot. Fortunately during my rather long layover in Chicago a few days earlier I managed to pick-up a guide-book for the region and actually read the book prior to coming over, so I felt fairly well prepared for the next four-days before my next flight out.

After my nap, I headed out to look for the Centre Belge de la Banda Dessinee (Belgian Centre for Comic Strip Art). Apparently there are huge strret-art comic strips painted on the sides of buildings around the city. I didn't have time to go hunt them down but as I'm sure to go back to Brussels soon I decided to leave it to my next visit. You can see one of the examples in the pictures accompanying this post.

I was hoping for good weather and I did get my wish... in spurts... There were times during the afternoon when i thought the photoshoot would come to a premature end but fortunately there were enough windows of sunlight to allow me a pleasant afternoon. I decided to visit Parc de Bruxelles, the nearest 'big' park to my hotel and wasn't disappointed. Surrounding the gardens were the Royal Palace and some nice churches, as you can also see from the photos.

Unfortunately the fine weather didn't last forever and I packed it in when the rain started to fall heavily, returning to the hotel and hoping for better weather the following day...

What's Next??

If you're wondering what else is around the corner, picture wise, I've just finished editing some pictures taken locally which are posted on my Flickr site and am about to start on my Brussels and Chicago pictures. Stay tuned to this blog for more updates. In the meantime... here's a quick preview...

Cheers.

End of the Road

New Town at night
Originally uploaded by M@cAlfie.

Well... that brings me to the end of the Prague Diary. I hope you enjoyed my narration of some of the more interesting things that happened and also all the photos that helped tell the story. We definitely had a good time and a sense of sadness overcame us as we started packing and getting ready for the trip to the airport on the last morning. There was a little excitement remaining though.. someone, who shall remain nameless, forgot to inform the owner of the apartment that we wanted a later check-out so when we came back from a long breakfast, we were surprised to find that the cleaner had already started preparing the apartment for the next occupants and wasn't too pleased that we hadn't left yet.
About the photo... well, its one of the last shots taken as we made our way back to the apartment after our dinner on the last night. Quite a fitting picture as it was taken on our last walk through Charles Bridge and its a shot of a path we walked along quite often as we used to take the tram to the National Theatre to start many days journeys.

Prague Diary Day 7 & 8

Church of St. Barbara, Kutna Hora
Originally uploaded by M@cAlfie.

On day 7, we went on our second excursion. This time we decided on a ‘guided’ tour to a nearby ex-mining town called Kutna Hora. The tour started-out fairly strangely as we had to shuttle around the city to the various pick-up locations before finally changing buses just outside the city. To cut a very long-winded story short, the excursion was a disappointment… probably the only one of the entire holiday as the running commentary was almost non-existent and when the guide did try to explain things it was all garbled. The tour through the town was also very rushed (as can be expected) and because of an added stop at the ‘Bone House’ everything was cut short. Adding insult to injury, the trip back into Prague was also a disaster as we got stuck in a massive jam just outside the city. All I can say is that at the end of the trip we were both happy to get off the bus!

Day 8 was the final shopping day and we only had two big events planned, both in the evening. The first was a concert in St. Georges Church within the compound of Prague Castle and the second was a dinner at a theme restaurant. The concert was very nice and we suspect that it was being used as a warm-up session for the upcoming concert season in Prague. The dinner was held in a Medieval-style setting. Unfortunately we don’t have any pictures to show as the lighting wasn’t conducive and we were also more intent on focusing on the food and atmosphere. We did however take the opportunity, between the two events to take pictures of the city as seen from the castle grounds.

Prague Diary Day 6

Day 6 marked the first of 2 days of excursions outside Prague. Today's trip was to Olomouc.. A small but quaint town near the south-eastern border of the Czech Republic. There were 2 options to get there.. Train or bus... We decided bus as it was supposedly more scenic. Wasn't too bad a choice in the end as we passed through a few of the major towns, including Brno.

So what's in Olomouc? Well, as the picture shows.. fountains. Six to be exact, all with interesting histories which you should be able to read if you access the exif data of the photos in my Flickr site. In addition, not pictured in this blog post is the Holy Trinity monument which was added to the UNESCO list of world heritage sites in 2001.

We also arrived in the city on a day when a group of European students were holding a 'Cultural Day' in the town square. Another thing we realised was that outside of the major cities, not many locals spoke English so getting from the bus station to the city centre was also an exciting event. Fortunately we found a guy in a bar near the station who spoke sufficient English to point us in the correct direction.

Hope you enjoy the pictures of our visit to Olomouc.

Prague Diary Day 5

Day 5 was a 'rest'day for us... actually it was scheduled as a shopping day... so I basically took a rest from taking photos.. almost.

We started the day by taking a tram across the river northwards then coming back again and stopping off in the Jewish Quarter. Took a few pictures and had some light refreshment before roaming around to look for stuff. We wanted to visit the Harley Davidson shop.. which took some finding as it didn't have the usual obvious signage but when we got there it was a let down as we couldn't find what we wanted in the correct sizes. The rest of the day was spent roaming around the various streets looking for good buys and knick-knacks. Fortunately in Prague the prices aren't anywhere close to the more traditional European cities (i.e., much cheaper here) so we managed to pick up quite a few good bargains.

Overall it was a good day out for us and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Prague Diary Day 4

After a short break... I'm back with Day 4.. so here's how it goes...

Another early start and today's destination is Petrin Park, on the other side of the Vatla River in Little Quarter. Since its early, we decided to walk across Charles Bridge and to our surprise, its almost deserted at around 7:30 a.m. What we'd realise in the days to come was that the bridge only gets really busy after 10 a.m. so on this glorious sunny morning, we had very little human traffic so I could admire and photograph the statues in peace.

After a quick bite we headed towards the bottom of Petrin Park to catch the funicular tram that brings people to the top. Along the way, we did a quick stop at the church where the original "Infant Jesus of Prague" resides.

Petrin Park sits atop a hill and one of it's claims to fame is a miniature Eiffel Tour. From this tower, you can get a spectacular view of most of the major attractions of the city, from the Castle, to Charles Bridge, Prague Tower in the distance, and most of the Vatla surrounding Prague. Unfortunately since we were looking up-sun, a lot of the pictures taken didn't have a nice contrast to it so you'll only see a few in the Flickr photostream. Nevertheless, it was quite a view and well worth the entrance fee.

After lunch, we walked down the hill towards a monastery where a famous library exists and showcases the travels of the monks and the original writings dating back centuries.

Later that afternoon after we had returned to the apartment I changed to the long lens and we went out Old Town again for another photoshoot (and shopping) so that I could capture all the little plaques and motifs that were 'out of reach' with my normal lens...

Stay tuned for more.....

Prague Diary Day 3

Day 3 saw us visiting Old Town, aka Stare Mesto. We took the tram to Powder Tower then commenced the stroll down Celetna Street towards the Old Town Square where the famous Astronomical Clock can be found. It also marked the first opportunity to shop as the walk took us thru the shopping area. What fascinated me was the numerous plaques on the buildings, some of which are captured in the Flickr set. Unfortunately on this day I only had my general purpose lens with me so I couldn't really zoom in to capture some of the more interesting plaques mounted high up, but of course since this area wasn't far from our accommodation, I did make another trip to this area a day or two later with the long lens.

The stroll thru Old Town eventually leads towards the Vlatva river and hence Charles Bridge where I managed to capture a number of interesting statues on the Bridge, including the 17th Century Crucifixion and St John Nepomuk, a statue that brings luck to those who touch it...

Hope you're enjoying the pictures...

Prague Diary Day 2

On the second day we woke up quite early only to remember that the sun shines really brightly from about 5:30am!! On today's schedule we were to visit "Prazsky Hrad A Hradcany" aka "Prague Castle and Hradcany" in the northwestern corner of the city. After a leisurely breakfast we made our way down to the tram stop for the ride to the castle area. I must acknowledge that the average Czech is very helpful towards tourists... One spotted Mei Lan with the guide book and guessing, based on our tram direction, where we were headed, proceeded to give us advice on where to get off the tram and what to look for in order not to get lost.

We arrived early for the opening of the gardens so we decided to stroll into the Courtyard area of the castle first to take a look. While the weather there was very pleasant throughout the trip, it did get a little uncomfortable when the wind started to blow...

We enjoyed strolling through the gardens and then through the castle grounds. After leaving the castle we strolled down the road towards the Loreto, a beautiful building which unfortunately we could only take pictures of from the outside.

On the way back to town we stopped off to take pictures of Charles Bridge with the Castle and the distinctive spires of St. Vitus Cathedral in the background.

Prague Diary Day 1

Finally managed to pick and edit sufficient photos to start the diary, so here goes...

In the previous post I put up a picture of where we were staying... We did arrive fairly early in the day (around noonish I think) and since it only gets dark around 9pm my tour coordinator made plans to go for a short excursion to Vysehrad Park, just south of the town area to get a 'feel' of the place and also to check out the transportation system which we were looking to make use of a fair bit.

Fortunately the metro experience wasn't as stressful as the one's we had in Rome and we reached our destination without too much difficulty... Once out of the train it was a slightly different story as it took us quite a while to get used to the directions in the guide book to get to the gardens.

Overall I thought it was a nice experience and the views were a good prelude of what was to come during the following days. I also managed to catch a glimpse of Charles Bridge and Prague Castle from one of the vantage points along the walk.

Finished off the evening with a traditional meal in a Czech Beer Hall.... Cannot really say much for the food, which we both found a little too salty for our taste but the beer... Excellent!

Stay tuned for the next installment. As usual, there are more pictures on my Flickr site which you can reach via the link embedded in the title...

The Prague Holiday Story Begins...

We're finally back from the trip. Smooth voyage home. The pictures are still not ready for full posting so here's just a sneak preview.... It starts with the accomodation. I was only shown pictures of the inside of the apartment but when we arrived I was pleasantly surprised to see that right below the apartment was a HUGE camera shop and behind the apartment was the Langhans Galerie.... given that I went on this trip with a major objective of bringing back some nice photographs, the surprise really set the tone. Not to say that the location didn't pose problems... it was kind of hard to get out of the shop the first few times as its really big and stocked full of really neat stuff...

More to come...

Watch This Space...

We're about to leave for the much anticipated, long delayed trip in a few days. Hopefully to come back with lots of memories and more importantly photos and videos of the time spent there.

Stay tuned...........

Paris Trip Day 2 29 Mar 06

Finally, the weather improved and I managed to trot down to the Trocadero to snap the Eiffel Tower. It was getting a little late in the day so I didn't venture down to the tower site itself or the gardens behind. Nevertheless, was happy that finally... after som many attempts this winter season to take decent photos in Europe the sun came out.

Earlier that day I went down to the Musee de la'air at La Bourget to take view all the aviation artifacts and displays. Its really quite an amazing collection of stuff right from the time people tried to get off the ground till the present day.

Overall a very well spent day... The pictures here are of course just a few from the many taken that day. The full set can be found on my Flickr site... as usual...

Happy viewing.

Paris Trip Day 1 28 Mar 06

Finally another trip to Paris when the weather isn't too cold. Decided to take the camera for a walk to see the sites, but unfortunately the weather wasn't very cooperative as the rain kept coming and going with very little sunshine. Nevertheless I managed to take a few shots and here are some them. There are a few more on my Flickr site. Was hoping to make it as far as the Trocadero and the Eiffel Tower to update my pics (the previous shots were taken with a P&S Canon) but unfortunately as the rain got heavier I had to junk that idea.

Hopefully Day 2 will be more successful. I'm supposed to go visit the Aviation Museum which is supposed to be quite good.

Stay tuned for more pictures...

Airbus A380 @ AA2006

Wasn't too keen to go to the airshow this year... I guess too much of the 'been there done that' syndrome, plus was told that its rather disappointing compared to previous years. Fortunately, they decided to bring part of the show to me. The pics were snapped after the bird finished its display routine and was setting up to land in Changi.

The Dawn of a New Era...

Yes... its finally here... for those who guessed correctly, kudos to you. Went down to Leng Kee this afternoon to collect my new bike, nicknamed "Valentino" as he was collected on Valentines Day. The picture on the right is of me checking out the bike prior to riding away from the shop...

Pic on the left was taken at Tuas after dinner to celebrate Valentines Day and the acquisition of the new machine...

Farewell to the Beast

After 6 years, almost to the date, its time to bid farewell to the 'Beast'... my Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird. While I may not have ridden her all that much or that often, I sure had fun when I did. Hopefully the new owner will love it as much as I did.

So what now? Is this the end of the bike riding era???

Stay tuned.....

High Tea at the Savoy

Mei Lan and myself at the Savoy Hotel in London taking High Tea during my recent trip to London during Chinese New Year. We were really looking forward to it since we tried to get in the previous year to no avail. It was really a beautiful setting and after a 'little' over-indulgence, we paid the price later that night... Pity the lasting memories were tainted by the end result :-(

Late Afternoon Snap

Swisshotel Singapore
Originally uploaded by MacAlfie.

Was walking around Marina area in the late afternoon when I snapped this pic of this icon. Had a little difficulty getting the exposure correct...

Post Dinner Discussion

Post Dinner Discussion
Originally uploaded by MacAlfie.

Fortunately we called the correct crew... they helped polish off everything... Kat as usual is a little photo shy....