Turkey Part 1: Istanbul, Gallipoli, Troy and Ephesus

Istanbul

I left Hamish at home and travelled with Steph for two weeks. We did the usual tourist route passing through Istanbul, Gallipoli, Troy, Ephesus, Fethiye, sailed around the coast to Olympos, over to Cappadocia and then back to Istanbul. And I would go back and do it all again in a flash! It is definately up there on my list of favourite countries, and after receiving a job offer I tried to convince H to move there with me, but without much luck!

Special mention to Steph for being the official tour photographer:)

My first kebap - yum!

Gallipoli

Some of the trenches which still exist. They are literally about 10 metres from the Turkish trenches.

The Lone Pine memorial:

Troy

Not much to see photographically unfortunately but we had a really fascinating outing to this site. Excavations have discovered that there are nine cities built one on top of each other, dating back to 3000BC.

The Trojan Horse - a replica obviously!

Ephesus

It must have been about 40 degrees the day that we visited here, so it was pretty hard work to function both body and brain, but this was definately one of the highlights for me. It's incredible what still remains of this roman city.

The Goddess Nike - in her 'swoosh' position:

A very sweaty Gabs!

Main Street, Ephesus!

The Library of Celsus which originally held 12,000 scrolls in the niches around its walls which protected the scrolls from changes in temperature and humidity.

Niches on the facade hold statues representing the virtues of Goodness, Thought, Knowledge and Wisdom:



The theatre which could hold 25,000 people


And later in the day we visited the Virgin Mary's house:

Venice

Thanks to Julia and Kelley for inviting Fraser to Venice and thanks to Fraser for inviting me on this long weekend adventure while Gabrielle was away in Turkey.

I had no expectations and no idea about what was in Venice (I didn't even realise it was an island) so it turned out to be a real bonus weekend. This was a city break with everything we needed - fantastic food and drink (pizza, gelato and chianti), an afternoon at the beach and magnificent vista's at every turn.

We stayed in Fusina on the mainland; a 30 minute ferry from Venice itself. The lads snuggled in Fraser's 4 season tent while the girls lived a life of luxury in the cabins.

The view back to the mainland and Fusina - even industrial areas can look pretty at sunset!

With cars off the list, the straits and canals were awash with craft of all kinds. We timed it well to see the massive MSC Orchestra cruise ship depart:

Searching for the nearest gelato store before boarding the ferry home.

Julia, Kelley and Fraser.

Venice by night:

Gondola's on the canal:

The Pinhole Experiment

Below are a few photos of, and photos taken with, my little kitset manual pinhole camera from the Natural History Museum. The quality isn't crash hot but some of the blurred results can be interesting. It's photography at its simplest: open the shutter, guess the number of seconds to expose for and slam it shut again. No worries about megapixels here!

Canterbury Cricket Ground:

Canary Wharf (barely visible) from Greenwich:

Battersea Park, London:

Christchurch College, Cambridge:

And the camera:

Cricket sixes tournament with the lads

Nottingham half marathon

A couple of photos form a solid weekend in Nottingham with a fun van ride, top apartment, lots of cricket and a spot of running.

Run times:

Frasier Wilson: 1 hour, not much (winner of the fastest man on one leg category)

Angus Burger: 1 hour and quite a bit more (winner of the fastest man with no knees category)

Hamish Wood: 1 hour a bit more than that (winner of the fastest man in a visor under 30 category)

Best greasy mow of the weekend: Stephen Fleming

Worst pricing system of the weekend: Paying 15 quid for 10 overs at Trent Bridge

Goals ticked off: 1 from 2

Yes: Visiting Trent Bridge

No: Running a half marathon like I should be able to...

South Downs Walk with Phil & Maggie

In Brief:

Rating out of 10: 10

Temperature: 25 degrees celcius (a relative heatwave in the 07 summer)

Distance Covered: 20km

Wrong turns taken: 1

Pints consumed: 4

Pairs of sunburnt legs: 4

Snakes sighted: nil

Anticipated hours of sleep tonight: 12

Energy for work tomorrow: nil

Frodo, Sam and Pippin lead the way out of the shire:

A day at the cricket in Canterbury with JJ and Fraser

Ascot, Wimbledon and Lettuces

Following on from Hamish, here are a few photos from my last month or so:

Ascot

Shane came to stay for a couple of days, and took up the vacant position on the couch. We had a fun day out at Ascot, hob-nobbing with the rich and famous - kind of! We were just in the cheap seats, but it was a fun afternoon anyway (despite the torrential down pour). I opted out of wearing a hat, but managed to keep my fascinator (otherwise known as my 'poof') securely fastened to my head for most of the day.

Sandy, Shane, G and Sarah:

Kate looking surprised, Nicky loving it:

G and Sarah (after the rain):

G, Nicky and Sarah:
Wimbledon

I decided to take an afternoon off work to go and see some tennis, and was lucky enough to choose the only non-rain affected day of the Championship. And I even managed to run into Alli while queuing :)

Saw some great games on the outside courts, and also got on to Court 1 later in the day to watch Davydenko:

My Lettuces

This photo was taken in the glory days of my lettuce horticulture - unfortunately most of them died soon after! We did manage to eat a couple, but after Hamish served them up one evening including the resident caterpillar, I was a bit turned-off!

I have a very friendly duck to help out with the watering duties: