I've been a bit slack about both taking pictures and getting them online lately, but here is a selection:


( Read more... )

The other day my sister, brother-in-law, and I all actually had the day off together. Unprecedented. So knowing that I wanted to see a bit of the English countryside the brother-in-law (hereafter to be referred to as the bil) took us for a ramble in the fields just outside Reading. How English is that?!


( Read more... )

You would think having travelled half way round the world that I would want to make the most of every moment and get out there and see the sights. Today, however, I am feeling distinctly lazy. It's grey and cold outside. It's warm and cozy in here. Yesterday with the sun shining on them the trees were decked out in their best autumn colours. Today ( Read more... )

Not a lot to report. Work is keeping me busy and I'm coping with it better. Autumn is beautiful here. Today the sun is out and shining brightly on all that colour, and I'm about to head out into it.

I've been very slack about updating pictures lately but I was going through my photos from Denmark and realised I never put up the rest of my Hans ( Read more... )

Reading may not be a tourist mecca, but it is conveniently located for day trips. I'm limiting the travelling somewhat until I address my cash flow problem, but my sister and I did venture out to Windsor Castle on Monday. My British tourist efforts have been launched in appropriate style :)


( Read more... )

The following picture was taken near the Great Wall of China, Yellow Cliff Pass.  Note the disabled sign on the door and the ramp leading up to the toilet. In all other ways it appeared to me to be a standard Chinese squattie. To get to the area where this toilet is, inside what I would describe as the 'tourist maze' (you have to go through the ( Read more... )

Who can come to Denmark without doing a bit of a Hans Christian Andersen pilgrimage? Certainly not me. I'm going to Odense, where he was born, to see the Hans Christian Andersen museum on Tuesday, but I have already hunted down references in various corners of Copenhagen. I still have to load most of the pictures but I thought you might like to see ( Read more... )

I just thought you'd all like to know I've fallen in love with Copenhagen. It's so beautiful here. After being in Beijing arriving in Denmark was like walking into a story book.


( Read more... )

OK, I'm back from my lightning speed trip to Xi'an. Next time I visit China I'm going to plan things better. I got a bit slack when I ended up here for almost four weeks instead of two and so of course didn' t start planning anything until the last possible moment ...

I enjoyed my brief stint as a proper tourist, met some fellow tourists, got a ( Read more... )

In the last week or so  have been doing some more exploring, visited Beijing briefly, been taught how to make jiaozi (dumplings) and climbed along the Great Wall, or at least the part of it near Tianjin.

I'm still in Tianjin, and have been enjoying being able to take it slow and come back to K's to collapse. I've put in a few more hours at the ( Read more... )