theLaconic

This is Blaze

I just finished posting some pictures of Blaze (Brian and Catherine's 6 month old puppy) to my flickr account, click here to view them.

I'm tired just looking at this photo :)

Sweating doesn't work

Well the New York summer is in full effect, it's warm approx. 80 degrees but I expect that because it is the summer and I actually quite like it. But what I don't like or to be more direct, I hate the humidity.

Today the humidity is 90%, and it's oppressive. As I walked to and from the subway I wasn't sure if I was sweating or that all the water in the air was just condensing on me.

It's nasty and only going to get worse as the summer goes on.

Escape from New York

click for larger image - note the great sinbad themed ornaments.

This weekend I took flight and escaped the heat and filth that is New York in the summer. My friend's Catherine and Brian have recently bought a weekend house in the Poconos Mountains.

Brian and Catherine live in Montclare, New Jersey just 12 miles from New York but about approx. one hour during rush hour on a bus from central Manhattan. So we set off at 6.30ish and arrive in the Poconos at about 9pm.

Their log cabin is a wonderful ex-logging company cabin that must be pre war and reminds me of the log cabins that we occasionally stay when we go boarding in the alps. They bought of the Son of the original owners and were sold everything and I mean everything.

So this is what I mainly did this weekend, sleep inside, dozed outside in the shade of the forrest, play with their 6 month old puppy, annoy their 6 month old puppy, take pictures of their 6 month old puppy and eat. We ate like Kings, the food was so cheap in the local supermarket that it would of been rude not to.

What a great weekend, roll on the next one.

Roadtrip

I have been gradually posting some of the better photos from our California - Vegas roadtrip onto my flickr account.

Click here to view.

Sandy markII

Jon has been searching on the internet and has found some images of Sandy...

Dealey Plaza, Grassy Knoll, Picket Fence

Let's Go To Work, Sandy...

Back and busy

I am back in New York having thoroughly recharged my batteries on a most excellent roadtrip around California, Nevada (Las Vegas) and just a little or Arizona (the Hoover Dam). 2000 miles of fun with Nigel, Sandy and Adam in a huge American SUV called an Escalade.

We started off from San Francisico on Sunday and drove to Yosemite national park, slept in a 4 man tent because there were no other Hotel rooms available which was a rather worrying night because we had seen a wild wolf on the drive through the park and because of all the bear warnings around. But we survived the night with only really the bitter temperatures really worrying us.

The next day we drove over the Seirra Nevada mountain range via the Sonoma pass (9624 FT) which was still covered in approximately 6 foot of snow, after stopping for a snowball fight we drove down and into Nevada via Death Valley. This whole part of the journey took about 12 hours and we arrived in Vegas around 1am in the morning.

Vegas was excellent fun and what happened in Vegas stays in Vegas - well apart from the gun pictures below.

So after 2 nights in Vegas we set of San Diego were we partied hard, visited Seaworld (which was a lot of fun) and hung out on the beach. Two days were about right before we set off on the return leg of the journey, driving up the Pacific coast highway

We were aiming to stop overnight in Santa Barbara and as we were making good time we stopped in Los Angeles and hired some bikes to ride up Venice Beach.

The next day we stopped in Santa Cruz so Sandy and Sedge could re-enact parts of The Lost Boys.

All in all it was a most amazing trip and one that I will remember for a very long time. I have started posting some images from the roadtrip on my flickr account, click here to view them.

I returned to work on Monday morning and part of me wished I never had gotten off the boat, I arrived at work to find out that one of my bosses had resigned during the week I was away, which has depressed me a little. But work moves on and we are busy on several projects.

There is a phrase that I remember my old boss, Les using every time he returned from a day long meeting or a holiday.

"Never get off the boat."

And as I get older the more I hear myself using such a saying.

Guns, Guns and more Guns

So we are half way through our California road trip. We have covered over 800 miles and visited Yosemite national park (which was so amazing), driven through Death Valley at night, and finally arrived at Vegas.

After so late late night gambling and drinking we headed to our beds and awoke nice and early this morning to go and shoot some guns.

I am a great believer that a picture is worth 1000 words especially if they are my words and pictures. And I want to get back out into the sun so I will keep this short and sweet and I'll post a more detailed descriptions later.

how scary is this?

sedge plus shotgun equals hole...

Relaxing at 35,000 feet

I am currently flying coast to coast and this seems like the first time I have had some time to think all week. The past 4 days ( we had Monday off for Memorial day) has been so busy and hectic because I have next week off.

I'm writing this in a United Airlines flight as I travel to San Francisco to meet up with Nigel. Sandy and Sedge are currently flying behind me and should be changing to their connecting flight ironically in New York.

At this point I got distracted by the landscape below and we ended up landing before I could finish writing anything. After I had been met by Nigel and Connie we got a phone call from Sandy, They had missed their connecting flight and they aren't scheduled to arrive until 'sometime' tomorrow.

New Toy

I have a new toy professional piece of equipment. The Nikon d70 DSLR (a big digital camera to the non camera geeks).

It is so complicated that I don't think I will ever learn all the functions but I think I know enough to get lucky and take the odd good picture.

An oddly nice picture from last Saturday's visit to Brooklyn where I got too drunk but did learn enough about the borough to know that one day I might end up living there - it's way cheaper than living in Manhattan.

I have some:

So I have no one panning to visit but I don't think that is quite right...

I have people who are planning but no definite dates on the calendar at all. So if you fancy coming over let me know because I am starting to run out of tea bags and the scottish blood in me refuses to spend 5 dollars on 40 teabags. :)

On the other hand I am planning many trips, San Francisco and Vegas with a few days of national parks in California next week. And the mother load return trip to the UK (16 days) in August for my sister's wedding (and Jon & Lena).