Lisbon

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New Lisbon

Off to Lisbon for a day and a night to get our Portuguese dealer sold on a web site. The meeting went very well and then it was straight off to do some sightseeing (first time in this part of the world).

My hotel was right accross from the grounds of the Expo 98 so that was my first port of call. Lots of very modern, flashy buildings. I took the lift to the top of the tower (see middle photo) for a good view. The Lisbon bridge is very impressive. Built specially for the Expo, it reaches 17 km's accross a very wide river.

Old Lisbon

It got pretty dark very quickly once I got to downtown Lisbon which was a pity because it was beautiful and there were photo opportunities galore. I walked up to the castle on the hill that looked down onto the city (see last photo) and it provided a relaxing spot to contemplate. I found the city to be suprsingly run down in parts, but very atmospheric and packed with history. Not that I had a chance to see that much! Hopefully, I'll be able to wrangle another trip in a month's time.

Trip to Brussels

I went on a whirlwind trip to Brussels but managed to stop off at the Manneken Piss and Grande Place in the evening for some photos. The light wasn't condusive for master pieces but here and below are a couple of snaps. The drawn version of the little boy is photo'd off a window. Who would have thought that a little boy peeing could cause so much excitement! The little flash of light in the window shot (giving him a bit of modesty) was a complete flook of the light, i certainly wasn't trying to do anything clever. Amazing co-incidental positioning!

Grande Place

A walk with the dogs

Went for a walk with Amanda and a friend along the river with their two dogs, Geena (the collie) and Eliza (the pug). I stopped off for a dip in the Cam which was deceptively cold!!

Exploring Ely

We explored the town of Ely today with Mike and mum and had a lovely day. Started off with lunch at the local pub where we got to enjoy the stunning weather in the garden.

The highlight of Ely was the cathedral. Very impressive. Built in 1077, it took 292 years to build (stats provided by Mike after a bout of research!)

How is this for a skylight!

This swan was quite a friendly fellow.

Mike saw an antique shop full of old things an enthusiatically encouraged us in. I entertained myself by taking portrait photos of little figures around the shop.

Punting in Cambridge

We all went punting on the Cam on Friday evening (no trip to Cambrige is complete without a punt) and took a lovely picnic along. Here are some photos taken along the river. Good fun - The colleges in Cambridge always looks extra special from the river.

This duck was very inquisitive and came to say "hi" and ask to share some of our picnic. Mum and I had a little competition to see who could take the best photo and she won, despite the fact i took snapped five times more shots. Cute little fellow, isn't he. He swam around us for ages.

Titan Lilly

This lilly at the Cambridge botanical garden flowers only every thirty years and only then, for two days at a time. And Mum and Mike just happened to be there on the week it happened! The left photo (of the closed stem) was taken on Wednesday and the open flower (right photo) on Friday (Mike stood in a queue for over an hour to capture it on film.)

The Cape Town cuties

Matthew

Jo sent us some nice photos. Here's her hubby, Antony, and little Matthew. Matthew is a year and bit and a very chilled out little fellow. Gorgeous.

Sammy

Little Sammy - isn't she cute. Can't believe she is 4 and a bit already. She's wonderful with Matthew - the perfect big sister.fx

A stroll through Cambridge

Monday is a public holiday and since we have Kerry and Mum and Mike to stay (it's a wonderful, full flat!), we thought we'd go on a tour of Cambridge. We walked into town past the River Cam. Mike's got his handy rain proof hat on and it sure came in handy later on in thre day


A grand facade

Punting along

No tour of Cambridge would be complete without a shot of some punters!


Trinity College

We visited Trinity College. What beautiful lawns - though of course they're strictly out of bounds. Lawns in Britain are generally there to be admired, not walked on!

Trinity College

A pretty flower in Trinity College gardens

King´s College

Chapel always seems too lowly to decribe this awesome church. Catheral more like! The roof is my best part - absolutely spectacular. Ally and I loved watching the Choristers here at the Sunday service - brought back great memories of my own days in the choir.


Choir Pews

Inside King's College Chapel. This is where we came to watch the King's College Choir earlier this year. Brings back memories of my own choirs days thought the pews weren;t quite so grand. Nor were our voices if i have to be honest!

Windswept Ally and co

Ally and Mike outside the chapel

Taking a breather

fx

Love is in the air

It's been a real month for weddings. In that time, four of my colleagues have got hitched. Top left: Andreas, whose on my e-business team, got married on Friday, in Germany. He arrived back at work today, a bit of a let down i'm sure! They're postponing their honeymoon to December when they're going to Australia. Top right: Katarina married just over a month ago in Sweden, she and her hubbie have now moved permanently to UK. Bottom left: Jenny who is a consultant on an e-business project, married a chap with three kids (that sure must be love!). Bottom right: Hendrik who is part of the remarketing team who i'm also working with on a web project.

Twitching at Fowlmere

We went to Fowlmere Reserve just 10 minutes drive from where we live. It's a peaceful place with wide expanses of reed and lakes that attract lots of birds. Needless to say, I went armed with my bins and bird book, and was on the look out for megaticks to add to my life list. Did you know they call us birders "twitchers"? That's because when we see an exciting new bird, we tend to twitch so much we can harldy hold our binoculars. Birding is fast becoming a hot pursuit in the UK and is even starting to lose it's dowdy perception as little old ladies in tweed jackets peering at lesser spotted thingameebobs.

Hornet´s Nest

One of the birding hides had been taken over by a hornets nest. What a beautiful structure. Hornets eat wood and then regurgitate it to create a sculptured palace of warrens as thin as paper. Each warren contains a little grub that will later become a hornet. We were fascinated. This photo was taken behind the safety of a glass window.

A megatick



I was most excited (almost twitched in fact!) to see this lovely lesser spotted pink fairy wren. She was perched by tree, so close i didn't even need binoculars. A gorgeous speciment to be sure...

The thirsty bee

We decided to give the "macro" on my little camera a try and were very impressed with the results. When I was hunched over taking this shot, Ally suddenly started an emergency bout of murmuring and I looked up to see a bee perched on her lip, sipping at the juice from the apple she had just eaten. I managed to flick it away but it wasn't a happy bee. Ah, the dangers of an English country walk!

Red berries

Another challenge for our macro lens. Lovely red berries that looked like cranberries, but we're not sure. Looks a bit like a Xmas card.

I hope you dance (Ally)

I heard a lovely song on the radio today and its lyrics really touched me. So I looked it up on the web and found the words. Then Graeme downloaded it from iTunes for 79 pence. Pretty cool. The lyrics remind me a bit of "The Dance" and "The Invitation", two of my favourite poems by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.

Here are the words:

Sung by Lee Ann Womack
Music and Lyrics by Mark D. Sanders/Tia Sillers
From the Album: I Hope You Dance

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat
But always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you'll give fate a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances
But they're worth taking
Lovin' might be a mistake
But it's worth making
Don't let some hell bent heart
Leave you bitter
When you come close to selling out
Reconsider
Give the heavens above
More than just a passing glance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always)
I hope you dance
(Rolling us along)
I hope you dance
(Tell me who)
I hope you dance
(Wants to look back on their years and wonder)
(Where those years have gone)

A blogging landmark: 20 000 words

Wow, this blog has just reached 20 000 words, as indicated by our blog stats. Also 270 links to other sites and an average of 12 posts per week. Haven't we been prolific! It's been just over three months now that we've been blogging and we'll definitely continue. Both a fun way to keep you up to date with what we're up to - and also a nice archive for us later in life. As Ally says, it's like a big digital scrap book but doesn't take so much space.

Me at work (Ally)

Here's me in my office at World Challenge Expeditions. Less than 6 weeks to go - I'm starting to get excited! Not to sure what I am going to do yet but looking forward to a little bit of a break. I have a couple of projects to finish off but nothing to taxing. Next week is our company training when we will spend 4 days closseted on a boat - should provide some interesting blogging tales. The company party is part of it - and we all have to come dressed as "Pirates of the Carribean". Finding an outfit should be entertaining - party shop here I come.

Olympic highlights

I've been really enjoying the Olympics - and there's lots more to come this weekend. It's a real pain having to goto work when there's so much good sport to watch. The highlights for me so far have been South Africa's amazing win in the 400x100 metre swimming relay (how fantastic was that!!) and also Paul Hamm's amazing come back in the all round men's gymnastics. The American was leading this event, then crashed horribly on the vault and fell down to the 9th position. And that was the end of him, or so i thought at the time. But then, somehow, he managed to claw his way back, event by event, back up the field. Finally, after an almost perfect twirl on his last event - the high bar - he edged back into the gold postion. Amazing to see how you can triumph if you don't give up.

Talking about Americans, as I wrtite this, Michael Phelps, the swimmer, has just won his 5th gold medal. The commentator calculated that if he was a country, he would currently sit at 9th in the olympic medal table. That's eight positions ahead of the UK and 11 ahead of SA. Amazing stuff

I'm in Movie Heaven

I've recently found a brilliant new service that is heaven for movie lovers (i.e. me!!)

Love Film stocks just about every DVD that exists, including the obscure, older movies that I'm after. You pay them £ 15 months per month and then can watch an unlimited number of their movies during the month. You simply select the movies you want from their enormous database, and then they send them to you by post - three at a time - with a stamped return envelope. Getting them to you takes one day - and getting them back one day too. I've been finding it really hard to find some of the remaining items on my top 250 IMDB list but now it's going to be a synch! My first movies arrived today: Rear Window, Seven Samarai and The Sting; so i have lots of watching to do in between the Olympics.

Other movies I currently have queued on the system to get are:

• Mr Smith Goes to Washington
• Paths Of Glory
• Touch Of Evil
• The Apartment
• The Big Sleep
• Das Boot
• Metropolis (Silent)
• Spirited Away
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Midnight Cowboy
• King Kong
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• Rebel Without a Cause
• French Connection
• The Wild Bunch
• The Searchers

Life Trove (2004 - )

Introduction

• I started Life Trove (this online journal) in 2004 while living in Cambridge. 

Purpose


For myself

• A curation of all that I treasure most.
• A gratitude journal celebrating my most cherished memories. 
• A digital scrapbook I can look back on in my old age.
• A place to put my photos and see my photographic journey.
• An incentive to get out and take photos, add to my collection of memories. 
• A celebration of wonder and beauty.
• A celebration of the sacredness and specialness of life.
• Inspire Wisdom Trove (html knowledge, multiple views, curating)
• A way to express love and gratitude. 
• Connect to mum and Jo and close friends.

For others

• Inspire others to curate their lives.
• Raise consciousness of people who view it.
• Inspire others to embrace and appreciate life.
• Express love and gratitude to loved ones (letters, priceless moments)
• Give loved ones a window into me: openness, intimacy.
• A legacy for future generations.
• Open eyes to wonder and beauty and the joy of life. 

Vision   

• My entire life curated showing the life of a passionate liver, love of life and photographer.
• Looked back at by future generations as one of the first true examples of digital life curation.
• Life Trove regarded as a work of art.
• I live an inspiring life worth blogging about.

Guiding principles

• Gratitude, Celebration, Appreciation
• Enjoyment, Savouring
• Sacredness of life and the experience of life: a gift to appreciate and savour
• Wonder, Beauty
• Love, Connection, Expressing love
• Big picture
• Narrative
• Spiritual awakenings

Guiding quotes

• I want what we all want," said Carl. "To move certain parts of the interior of myself into the exterior world, to see if they can be embraced. Jonathan Lethem 
• Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy. Dietrich Bonhoeffer 
• We do not remember days; we remember moments. Cesare Pavese 
• Good days are to be gathered like grapes, to be trodden and bottled into wine and kept for age to sip at ease beside the fire. If the traveler has vintaged well, he need trouble to wander no longer; the ruby moments glow in his glass at will. Freya Stark 
• Pleasure is the flower that passes; remembrance, the lasting perfume. Jean de Boufflers 
• To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward. Margaret Fairless Barber 
• A pleasure is not full grown until it is remembered. C.S. Lewis 
• The years teach us much the days never knew. Ralph Waldo Emerson 
• Cherish all your happy moments: they make a fine cushion for old age.  Booth Tarkington 
• Memory is the personal journalism of the soul. Richard Schickel
• I really think that anyone who’s fortunate enough to live to be over fifty years old should take some time, even if it’s just a couple of weekends, to sit down and write the story of your life, even if it’s only twenty pages, and even if it’s only for your children and grandchildren… You’ll be surprised what you find. Bill Clinton  
• Your birth certificate says you were born. Your death certificate says you died. Your photographs say you lived. 
• People will look at your life and think, My God, it’s magic. They’ll be right: You created that magic. James Arthur Ray 
• Your blog is your unedited version of yourself.  Lorelle
• According to research, looking through photo albums make you happier than chocolate, music or even your favourite TV show.  Mark Goldstein

Related

• Life Trove purpose, vision and strategy on Evernote
• Posts tagged as "blogging"

Usability testing

I don't mention much about work here - so thought I'd add this picture of me "in action". Here I am at "The Usability Company" late last year where we did usability testing on our new sites. It's an interesting process - the Usability Co gets people who represent your target audience to perform real life tasks on your site. In this way, you get to identify any areas where they get stuck or confused. It's a real life eye opener to see users clicking around "your baby", especially when they get lost or confused in ways that you never dreamed of. You get to watch them (as I am here) from behind a one way mirror. It is also vieo-taped, and you can watch the user's face (for signs of frustration and confusion!) on a big screen, along with their mouse clicks on the site. Very scientific - and useful. After all, if your user can't find what they're looking for on your site, you're doing more damage that good to your company's brand. And competitors are just one click away...

Platform 9 & 3/4

One of our suppliers, "The Usability Company" is bringing out a new service and wanted input ftom some of their clients. So they organised a workshop in London and enticed us with the promise of lunch at London's top fish restaurant, One - O - One in Knightsbridge. It turned out to be an extremely good morning with good networking opportunities and not at all a sales pitch as i was concerned it might be. Oh, and the scollops at the restaurant was absolutely to die for!

I got into London via Kings Cross station - my favourite station in London because it is home to the famous 9 and 3/4 platform featured in Harry Potter. They've even put up a little placcard there (see photo) which is very popular with tourists.

Lynette and Andrew at Nandos

Lynette is visiting us from the US. She's great fun and always up for a laugh. She, Andrew and I went out for dinner last night - and settled on Nandos. It's very popular here in Cambridge as you would expect in a student town. All the staff are South African so it must be a little confusing for the Brits who are expecting an authentic Portuguese flame grilled experience.

I, Robot

I saw the new movie I,Robot last night and am happy to say it far exceeded my expectations.

It is based on a book by Isaac Asimov about the world in 2040 or so when robots do all our manual work for us. The robots are hard programmed with the "Three Laws of Robotics."
1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Imagine the suprise then when one of the robots apparently murders a person - and the movie then follows the investigations of Will Smith, a cop, trying to solve the mystery.

Good special effects but some really thought provoking themes too. Definitely to be recommended...

Sammy and Matthew

Well, this site is fast becoming a collection of all things special to us - so it would not be complete without a photo of my adorable niece and nephew. I adore this photo of Sammy and Matthew which was taken a few weeks ago.