Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decreasing, regrets mounting
– Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance
for WordPress weekly photo challenge – Textures
*Image(s) shot with iPhone 6S and merged with Snapseed*
Do you mean to tell me that you’re thinking seriously of building that way, when and if you are an architect?
– Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
Back in August last year, I shared a series of photos of The Shard, shot with my Nikon D700 and Nikkor AF 80-200mm f/2.8 D lens.
Yesterday, equipped with my Fujifilm X100F with its fixed 23mm (35mm full frame equivalent), I made these images.
But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
– W B Yeats
I like to contribute to the weekly photo challenge hosted by WordPress and must confess I hadn’t quite found inspiration for this week’s prompt, which frankly is quite unusual for me, which seems apposite as this week’s theme was indeed unusual.
Having arrived at Heathrow this morning on a red-eye from Lagos, and finding myself unable to check in to my hotel for several hours, I took to the streets like any other self-respecting homeless person, by which I mean no disrespect to actual homeless persons, it is of course no laughing matter.
I had two main goals, one was to find breakfast (which I did, and I must have looked particularly hungry as an additional slice of bacon was added to my bacon roll and coffee), and the other, that was to walk along the South Bank to the Tate Modern. My plan being to spend six hours or so in quiet artistic contemplation, before the hotel would throw open its portals (or at least activate a smart card) to me and my battered luggage.
I also had the foresight to bring my camera with me, my Fujifilm X100F, which has now has become my constant travelling companion.
‘This planet has – or rather had – a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy’
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
I took this shot through a dusty and dirty emergency exit window on a British Airways Boeing 777, en route to Abuja from London, whilst standing in line to use the toilet. The image, taken on my iPhone, is, I believe, of part of the Sahara desert, and does not do justice to the grandeur of the site nor the feeling of isolation the view conveyed.
I read an article in flight on design plans for aircraft without windows, this would apparently save cost as the inclusion of windows requires additional strengthening of the fuselage. The windows would be replaced by cameras and clever screens. I wonder how often, when people look out the window on long haul flights, they reflect on what is passing by so far below. How different that world is, that earth, from the bubble in which we flash across the sky?
Anyway, I thought it worth sharing for this week’s WordPress challenge – Earth
iPhone 6s shot at 4.15mm, 1/1600s, f/2.2 and ISO25
How would it be,” the police officer asked him severely, “if everybody did that?”
– Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt
Douglas Adams may not be an established literary giant, but for me (at least) he has long been an inspiration. His original The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy series, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4, captured my heart and mind many years ago. Captured my mind as I was figuring out who I was, what I wanted to be. Gave me an early insight into alternative perspectives.
Made me think.
Last week, I (or at least my business alter ego) was privileged to be invited to speak at the Baltic Project Management Forum 2016. The subject of my presentation Cultural Diversity: Making the Project Fit the Culture.
In the lead up to the Forum, I was invited to give an interview to Simas Čelutka at IQ magazine, a Baltic publication affiliated with The Economist.
The questions posed to me, the contributions of my fellow speakers, the warmth of the welcome extended to me by the organisers of the Forum reminded me of those days long ago when the world stretched out ahead of me, waiting to be discovered. And so, again, I realised that no matter how rich one’s experience, there is so much more to be learned.
The interview I gave to IQ, transcribed below, reminded me of how lucky I have been, of the opportunities I have had, to learn more about our world, about how much more there is to learn.
Always.
For we can never stop learning.
Or sharing.
Continue reading
tune in, freak out, get beaten
― hunter s thompson, fear and loathing in las vegas
de based de braded de cayed de filed de funct de graded de humanised de hydrated de jected de marcated de meaned de natured de railed de ranged de sired re viled de sert in Paradise, NV
deliberation
My prompt for this week’s Poetry 101 Rehab is DELIBERATION and it was inspired by a walk below the strip in Las Vegas on a hot spring afternoon as I prepared to leave.
You can find our more about my trip on the strip here.
What are your DELIBERATION(S)?
You can link to your post in response to today’s prompt by leaving a comment on my post and / or by clicking on the poetry | 101 | badge below and leaving a link.
And you can also tag your post with Poetry 101 Rehab so that it shows up in the WordPress Reader.
Please feel free to copy and paste the badge across to your own post and your own site 🙂
More information can be found on my poetry | 101 | rehab page.
I pour a drink
And I pull the blind
And I wonder what I’ll find
– Sheryl Crow
The strip.
A landing strip. Designed to attract, seduce, and ensnare.
Carefully trimmed, cleaned and preened. Daily.
Dis-infected. Air-freshened. Continue reading
you (you, you)
were my oppressor
and i (i, i)
i have been programmed to obey
the handler – muse
*further reflections on life in las vegas captured on iPhone 6s*
andy townend 