Life In These United Kingdoms » pics

It’s just not cricket. Well, actually, it is.

bendy — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 15:21:14 +0000

Some of the people Tim works with in Germany managed to get some cheap(ish £60) tickets to the fourth day of the 1st Pakistan vs England Test Match at Lords. Going to Lords being one of those things one must do while in London I fernangled myself one of the tickets.

Lords Cricket Ground

Since we were picking the tickets up at the ground we organised to meet out the front at 10 (an hour before play started) so we’d have plenty of time to get in. I also had to catch a flight to Berlin at about 7 or so that night (work related) and was going to have to miss the last session so made sure I got there right on time for a change. I was 2 minutes from the ground at about 9:55 when Tim rang saying that they’d just woken up and were still in the outskirts of northern London. Apparantly after we’d left the pub the night before they all went home and polished off a bottle of some form of Japanese moonshine and no one remembered to set an alarm. So I had to hang round outside the ground watching old men scalping for tickets (which was fairly amusing) and listening to the cheers as the final Pakistan wickets fell (which wasn’t) until they dragged their sorry arses over. Finally after about an hour and a half they turned up and we ended up missing the first 45 minutes of play. Bastards.

Anyway… Our seats were actually pretty good as you can see. Good view from the side of the pitch though we were a bit far. What was surprising was that even though there’s all these apartment blocks around the ground with great views of the pitch there was only one balcony with people watching the match. I would have thought they’d be packed. Though since the game was obviously heading for a draw and play was pretty lackluster maybe people just weren’t bothering.

Tim embarassed all of us by insisting on drinking tea rather than beer, making some weak excuse about his head pounding. Luckily he soon got his act together and started sinking down the pints as is expected in England. Had a good day overall despite getting in late and having to leave early. And it was good to see Tim again even though I knew I was seeing him the next weekend in Germany. We seem to always organise things so we’re swapping countries at about the same time. The last time he was coming to the UK I was in Berlin the day before he came over. And this time I was going back over to Berlin just before he went back to Mainz.

Took a whole bunch of photos of course. Wish I’d had my 300mm lens back then though so I could get some better close ups. Still came out pretty well I think. Got some one off photos and a few full ball sequences.

some bowling

some batting

a drive

another drive

fumble

whack

Greenwich

bendy — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 19:06:05 +0000

Had Tim come over from Germany for the weekend at the start of June. Spent a lovely early summer sunday down at Greenwich around the Maritime Museum, Old Naval College, Park, Observatory and standing either side of the Prime Meridian going “I’m East!”, “You’re West!”. Hours of fun. And we got to catch the District Light Rail which is really just a glorified tram line, reminded me of home.

We picked a random direction after coming out of the tube station and soon came across the Cutty Sark, yet another old ship which has been preserved. So I had to take a photo.

From there we found some of those useful signs which point the way to where you want to go so were soon heading towards the Greenwich Observatory which was the goal of the trip. On the way we found various items of interest. Outside the Maritime Museum was a Harrier Jump Jet to mark its decommissioning later this year.

Was also various anchors and lifeboats and more maritime stuff. In the background is the Museum itself and The Queen’s House. She doesn’t live there.

You go through the archway and get your first glimpse of Greenwich Park. As it was a lovely summers day all the local lads were out with the shirts off running around and trying to look buff. It doesn’t generally work. You can see the observatory on top of the hill and tell that it’s not 1pm because the ball is at the bottom of the pole. Of course!

Around the corner was a statue of our beloved discoverer (well, if you don’t count the Dutch, or the native inhabitants) posing heroically. This was to prove most inspiring later on.

Up the top of the hill looking back towards the river. This gives one of the best views of London, albeit from quite a distance. You can see the city itself, Canary Wharf (or Torchwood Tower to those in the know) and the Millenium Dome all at once.

And after a long slog we finally had finally found our way to Greenwich Observatory. Here you can find out what the time is, how long things are and how high you are above sea level. Below you can see a small child being measured.

And here we have it, the main attraction, a line in the ground that bisects the hemispheres evenly. On the wall behind you can see a red line which marks where a laser is also shot out of the wall to mark it. On the left is some form of modern art which is there purely for people to queue up in front of and have their photo taken on the line.

However these people don’t seem to notice the fact that the line continues behind the sculpture (as you’d expect) and that there is no line for getting your photo taken behind it.

And here we have it, the climax of the trip.

Young Timothy Heroically bestriding the hemispheres.

And my good self doing the same.

Now we just need to find a way of getting ourselves here or here and get photos with a separate limb in each of the four hemispheres. Shouldn’t be too hard.
The observatory itself was also very interesting. They had the four timekeepers what Harrison made when he was solving the Longitude Problem. Not replicas but the actual clocks he made. There’s also an old observing room which is one of the few remaining internal examples of Christopher Wren architecture in London.

A380

bendy — Thu, 18 May 2006 19:39:03 +0000

The first Airbus A380 to come to the UK landed in Heathrow today. Where I work at the 10 storey Vista Centre in Hounslow is right under the flightpath so we went up on the roof to watch it come in and take a few photos. It was a typical cloudy and hazy day in London so they’re not necessarily as clear as you’d hope

For those who need to know these things it was 004 F-WWDD, landed on the 18th May 2006 at about 13:18 (depending on the accuracy of the clock in my camera).

Here it comes

With accompanying lear jet

Just flying by

Approaching…

And landing

I don’t usually mention this with photos but in this case these photos are copyright © to Brendan Hack and can’t be used without permission and can’t be linked to from other websites. If you want to use them get in touch.

Hyde Park Pics

bendy — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 18:31:43 +0000

Photos I took in Hyde Park with my new camera on the first day of good weather since I got here.

ericle

bendy — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 13:21:02 +0000

I miss my little eric so I just had to show her off to you all. Isn’t she cute!

I miss my other birds: barry, jackie and russell too. Hopefully jackie isn’t trying to kill barry any more.

thanks to nads for sending me the pics.

around home

bendy — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 22:25:29 +0000

where i live!

ealing common, the big park out the front of my place

my block of flats

the first backyard, there’s another behind it

lounge room

london photos

bendy — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 22:51:36 +0000

Done a bit of touristy shit.

a big clock a big wheel

and things you can see from it

probably should go in the morning rather than the afternoon since the sun is behind all the good stuff otherwise

a guy who stands around a lot and marchs a bit. I wanted to find out how quickly he could run but David wouldn’t scale the fence to find out

went on a picnic at regent’s park with aaron and some of his friends. didn’t take many pics

view from outside the lifts at work

bendy — Sat, 15 Oct 2005 22:01:37 +0000

will get some more plane pictures at some point

a day in berlin

bendy — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 22:39:54 +0000

Was only there for a day and was working for all of it so not much to see here.

views from mental images

there was a big foos ball table too

weekend in cambridge

bendy — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 20:24:03 +0000

spent my first weekend over here up in Cambridge with young Matthew who used to work for Luminova. Went on a Real Ale pub crawl around Cambridge all Saturday afternoon and evening then on Sunday wandered round near his place then went to Kings College.

the river cam

ducks

classic english laneway

there’s a fake whale skeleton at Matthew’s old college

King’s Bollege Bambridge

the punters club, don’t think they have any good bands though

around the college

i can’t imagine what this lawn is worth
and you can’t even walk on it

some cool clouds

countryside and a village taken from the train home