Goodbye Rio

I left Rio on Saturday night and as is the way of these things the sun finally made an appearance the day I was leaving. The weather was still unsettled enough that a planned helicopter ride had to be ditched.

We  did what most people do in Rio when they have time on their hands....we went to the beach.

GLOBO and iced tea seem to be a Rio beach tradition. GLOBO are round potato- chip- puff type junk food which to my palate at least are tasteless.
They're part of childhood memories for many from Rio and are as much part of the beach as the surf and lack of cloth in the bathing suits.

 Having been forced from the favelas I'm told that violence has begun to make its presence felt on the beach. Apparently all that sand is a convenient hiding place for knives with which to separate fat Germans tourists from their valuables. I didn't see or feel anything threatening.

I was in Leblon mind you. 

Along with Chanel and Apple stores the neighbourhood has its own police beach patrol. 

Like many cities, you get a different perspective when you gain a little altitude. One of the things to strike me about the city in summer is the amount of greenery that goes relatively unnoticed at ground level. The  canopy of trees enclosing the streets only really stand out when viewed from above.

That's it for today.

Next stop London and Glasgow.

Stay well everyone.

T

Brazil

I never get tired of taking a picture of the dude on the mountain.
I'm on my last day of a whirlwind trip to Brazil having been in 3 cities over 5 days.
Pretty much all of the time its been raining.
The day that I leave, the sun comes out.

I'm going to try to fit in a helicopter ride this afternoon before my flight and if I do you can be sure there'll be more pictures of this guy.
Stay well and stay tuned.
T

Back in London

I got back from the Middle East late Saturday night for what was supposed to be a delightful Sunday afternoon with Jess on her birthday.

Alas it was not to be.

Sometimes it pays to hope for little because  little is often what you get.

I saw her on the way through last week and took the precaution of giving her the birthday prezzies a week early.

Glad I did.

 We did have a lovely afternoon last week though and came across this bizarre elfin statue in a church courtyard off Piccadilly.
Not sure what to make of it.

 The rest of the pictures are just random snaps going to and from appointments.
There's a new (ish) bike rental scheme in London.
Did I ever mention it before?

 Consider it mentioned.

 I came across the sign below late afternoon today.
Is it a Banksy?
Is it a Banksy wanna be?

 The fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square has a new occupant.
Not sure what to make of it.

 Final piece of news:
I had my pocket picked this afternoon.
Wallet gone.
All my cards etc.
The window of opportunity was about 2 minutes and whoever did it knew exactly what they were doing.
Quite an astonishing bit of light fingered work.
I didn't feel/notice a thing.
Well I did feel pretty sick once I realised what had happened.
Usually I separate out cards/money etc. when travelling bringing only what is absolutely essential when venturing out.
This is London and I used to live here.
I didn't do that this time.
Silly me.
I can only be thankful that this happened on the last day of this trip.
All is well.

I fly early in the am back home.

Toronto Wednesday and Brazil Saturday.

How's your week look?

Love to all

T

Quick trip to Doha

I made a whistle stop trip to Qatar yesterday and landed the day after a sand storm. As you can see the air was still thick with minute particles throwing up a hazy flat light. As a consequence there aren't any spectacular pics today.

Doha is in the midst of a building frenzy reminiscent of Dubai in its "go-go" heyday. That gold rush ended in tears in the  UAE, but given Qatar has 35% of the world's natural gas reserves, its pockets are a bit deeper.

Since the 2022 world cup was awarded to this tiny place, they're determined to be ready and presenting a shiny western face to world.

Except there's no booze to be had .

Well very restricted access anyway.
This country of 300,000 doesn't have any football stadiums of note but will build 8 with a capacity of 90,000 each by the time the games begin. 

A seating capacity of 720,000.

More than double the population.

 If you do the math its easy to see that if all games are played at once and every citizen goes that still leaves 420,000 visitors.

Where will they stay?

Hotels are being built but there's no way you can create that many rooms for a one off event.

Solution?

Qatar is building a new city for 80,000 from scratch.

Yes,that's what they're going to do.

The stadiums will be state of the art.

Open roofed they will have an "artificial cloud" hovering above which will move with the sun to keep the field in the shade.

Really?

it will be circa 100 degrees F.

even at night.

What will they do with these palaces when the World cup is over?

Dismantle them and give them to African countries.

That's the plan.

Now anyway.

Stay tuned cause it will be interesting.

For Qatar's sake the next winters in Europe better be cold ones.....

That's it for today folks

Stay well

T

Speakers Corner

I was in Berlin all week but had no free time so didn't take any pictures. I did swing back through London on my way to Dubai and saw my daughter on Saturday but was at a loose end on Sunday.

Speaker's Corner is always worth a look so that's what I did.

I've been coming here for years and have talked about the history of the place on earlier posts.

I cant help but feel it isn't what it used to be. Gone it seems are the political crackpots and conspiracy theorists. Its dominated now by religious zealots exhorting the crowds to choose the path of God  albeit different religions vie to get you onto their version of said path.

With the exception of horsey head and Mohawk boy it was  pretty much variations of the same story.

Pity.

It used to be a bit more interesting but is still a good way to kill a Sunday afternoon.

I'm in Dubai and Qatar until Saturday and though my schedule is tight I'll try and do a better at getting some pictures than Berlin.

Stay well

T