The previous few nights in London saw mist.

The entire day yesterday saw heavy fog. I had my stuff packed way ahead of time, for once, and that allowed for a bit of shooting in Hyde Park before I had to leave for the airport.

Photos :: Fog in Hyde Park

While in the cab with Kamil and Vincent, who saw me off (thanks guys :)), we had a good chat on global citizenship and the Londoner identity with the driver, who’s from Somalia. I suppose I’ll be writing more on that later.

The radio reported that there were some cancellation and delays of flights at Heathrow and the other airports. But I was lucky: my flight was merely grounded - with us on board - for a little over an hour, and I managed to fight my way from an aisle (boo on the Singapore Airlines website’s technical problems!) to a window seat. Heathrow was unusually quiet; most people made off yesterday. No queues, no crowds, no hustle bustle. Wasn’t that fortunate on the plane though. The man who sat in the seat next to mine could have totally passed for one of London’s unshaven homeless.

He stared at me (or rather, my camera) when I took my baby out to take a shoot of my view from the window. I could barely see the outline of the wing tip!

Went about doing the necessary once I got back to Singapore.

Orchard Road was a sea of people, I had to - perspiringly - weave through crowds and my top was all damp by the time I made it back home after getting what I needed. The Christmas street light-up is one of the best I’ve seen in years though - a pity I couldn’t get out there to take proper pictures. Had a Christmas Eve dinner with family and family friends, and we saw the parade floats go by when we were heading out.

Just finished packing now - I’ll be off to Japan till the end of the following week for a family trip and to visit relatives.

A good Christmas to all; rest well and be merry!

While it may be said that the camera doesn’t lie, the framing and interpretation of reality lies very much with the photographer and the viewer.

This is right outside our flat. My street’s not actually this quiet. Not a street, in fact, but a road, and a major road at that. It takes a bit of patience and good timing to stand by the kerbside to get a frame where no cars and light trails could be seen, giving a serenely quiet atmosphere. It’s definitely not as eerie as what the photos suggest it to be, but it was certainly not what you’d call a normal Friday night. Would have been perfect for a Jack the Ripper thriller-mystery genre setting (or a romantic one - you decide). It’s been a misty few nights, and thus rather warmish. The moon’s bright and clear though, unobscured by the usual layers of clouds.

Meanwhile, inside the house, we were enjoying our little Christmas party…

Photos :: Misty night
Photos :: QuGee-LG Christmas party

I’ll be returning to Singapore this weekend, but not before we have a quiet little reunion of QuGee and the extended circle and enjoy an evening meal with our friends.

A refreshing breath of chilly winter air away from the city centre was just what I needed to wrap up this season in London. The ponds have frosted over, ducks and geese are sliding on ice. The watervoles are, supposedly, hibernating. It’s a frosty winter, this.

When The Red, Red, Robin
Comes bob, bob, bobbin’
Along, along,
There’ll be no more sobbin’
When he starts throbbin’
His old sweet song.

Wake up, wake up you sleepy head,
Get up, get up, get out of bed,
Cheer up, cheer up, the sun is red,
Live, love, laugh and be happy.

The red, red, robin himself

Hark how the green-finch bears his part

Dusk falls in the early afternoon - Hush, hush, hush

Photos :: London Wetland Centre

Recently I’ve been taking photos of Christmas lights-ups, festivities, fairs, people, shop displays. But it is not the festive spirit that is motivating me. Instead I am driven by a modern sense of humbuggery - a railing against the commercialisation of Christmas. The very thing that repels me is what attracts me to, all the more, have it documented and presented.

What a grip consumerism has on society. Nevermind that Christmas was originally meant for celebrating the Nativity, and nevermind the common values of peace and giving that transcends all religions. Christmas does not inspire to give, give, give. But encourages to buy, buy, buy.

Just look around you. Do you hear what I hear? iPhone.

The big X’mas tree at Trafalgar Square

Carolling in the cold

Possibly Rudolph’s wife

Photos :: Christmas in London

Was at Liverpool Street’s Old Spitalfields and Brick Lane markets over the weekend. Nice weather, for once, and great company.

Its markets sell anything and everything you can think of, mostly second-hand, but some are quality wares. Fruits and vegs are sold fresh and cheap, and the entire neighbourhood is a diverse, densely multicultural area, being home to London’s Bangladeshi community, and formerly of the Jewish and Huguenot communities. Vendors and visitors are not limited to the Middle East and Indian subcontinent though - there are Chinese, Japanese and other Europeans who have set up stalls there. Its street corners with tattered posters and stickers, and graffiti walls (photographers are drawn to them like seagulls to bread) are a constant visible reminder of the area’s vibrant artistic and political culture.

One thing dismayed me though - the Square Pie shop is gone!

Photos :: London East End Album

Bankside Frost Fair

St Paul’s from the south bank

Inside Tate Modern

Finding that perfect educational Christmas gift

The ghosts of Christmas?

More photos: Bankside Frost Fair and Tate Modern

Flowershop in the park

London Eye Junior

Curious crowds

Ice rink at Natural History Museum

More photos: X’mas at NHM and Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park

Since I don’t have my handwritten diary with me right now (the high school volumes are in Singapore), I’ll just post here from time to time some random selections from my ‘Updates’ series - not the most original of titles, but they served well as regular emails/newsletters to friends during my high school days in Sydney. It’s all rather interesting to re-read them. My thoughts, my observations, my adventures and misadventures, they were all shared with my close friends. Steadfastly for the first year and a half, at least. That was before the blogging days, and that was when I only had more or less one main circle of friends (who were geographically-distanced!), so it was still quite practical back in those days.

For starters…

for breakfast they [the Aussie boarders] like to put spaghetti on bread, they also put lots of ketchup on scrambled eggs on bread and for dinner they sometimes put custard on rice…

~ From early 2001 (Year 11 Term 1 - first term at boarding school)