A little more sunshine from Brazil

 

 

 I hope your weekend is ending well.

 

 

 

Merry Christmas from Rio

So I find myself back in Rio to celebrate Christmas with my wife's family.

Today is boxing day so its sort of a down day which if I was back in the UK would involve digesting yesterday's turkey and likely nursing a hangover whilst watching the grey sky drizzle away the afternoon.

What do the good people of Rio do?

Go to the beach and play football. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Hope your x-mas was as great as mine.

Poppies in London

I've decided to start publishing the blog again after a long hiatus.
This post was uploaded over a year ago,and contains pictures  of an installation by artists Paul Cummins and Tom Piper at the Tower of London as part of Remembrance Day commemorations here in the UK.

Entitled Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, the installation marks the 100th anniversary of Britain's involvement in World War I. It consists of 888,246 ceramic poppies filling the moat around the Tower of London with each one representative of a British fatality during the conflict.The result is remarkable, beautiful and thought provoking especially as this was supposed to be the war to end all wars.

Between Novemebr 11-17th each day at sunset the names of 180 commonwealth soldiers killed in the conflict were read out from a podium in the moat.. Each poppy was sold to the public  and raised millions of £'s for the charities serving the 6 branches of the military in the UK.

So, with this post I'll start this little project again though I'm not sure how many if any the readers who used to drop in regularly will do so again.
I've been busy during the last couple of years and logged a ton of air miles as well as taken 100's if not 1000's of pics. As I sort through them I'll post when I snatch a hour here and there.
Thanks for dropping by.
T

A long 20 months

I started at University of Cambridge a little under 2 years ago, and now I'm finished. Medieval graduation ceremony to follow later this month.
Phew!
 

Belfast

 

I was in Belfast briefly over the holidays and the weather was BAD.
Wet, cold and windswept.
Apart from Christmas with family I did little other than eat and sleep.
I did take a trip down the Shankill and Falls roads and document a few monuments to the bad old days. The different factions are still arguing about much the same things as they have over the past 3 decades though outside of dissident Republican groups there is  little appetite to return to the violence of the past.
Sobering how bad things were back in the 1970s.



























Police station on the present day " peace line" separating Protestant  East and Catholic West Belfast.







The opposite view from the IRA below. 





































 

This is my first post in 6 months.

I think I should get back in the saddle.

Love to all

T