Changing Lanes

Shooting Date/Time : 6/29/2009 16:37:18 PM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/60
Av(Aperture Value) : 8
Metering Mode : Center-Weighted Average Metering
ISO Speed : 200
Lens : 50mm f2.8 macro

Focal Length : 50 mm

A shot of the Rain from the window of the house we were living in. The poor neighbours must be thinking that the flashes created by my flash must be lightning. ;)

Woke up in the morning really early as we had to catch the tube to get to the London bridge station to catch a bus to the Stonehedge and the town Bath. The bus ride was a long one, approximately 4 hours. I thought it would be boring but it wasn't. It was fun sitting around talking to my friends, taking pictures, posing stupidly though there was a time when I was completely bored as everyone in the group was sleeping apart from me. I did get some funny sleeping shots... :)

Shots at Stonehedge.

Shot on the way to Bath

Woke up at 4am after a short nap. Made a quick last minute check to make sure everything was packed. Left home in a cab with a feeling that I had forgotten something. After a more than 1hour long ride to the airport through a completely deserted city of London and zooming onto the highway topping out at a speed of 107mph we reached in one piece. Thinking that I won't feel cold as I'd hardly spend anytime outside, I did not bundle up at all. I was wearing clothes I would normally wear in Dubai. On getting dropped at the airport, the time it took us to get the trolleys, unload the luggage and walk to the airport I was shivering like crazy. Took me a good 5 minutes inside to warm up.

We checked in, luckily none of our luggage was overweight, had coffee, waited on a closed counter to get back our VAT (which we did not get), checked out the rather small Duty free and then made our way to the boarding gate. Waited there some more time and then boarded the plane and got seats in the middle. No window seat for me this time which was depressing. So I spend 8 hours staring at the small box in front of me while my friends had to experience the bad part of economy class on a long flight i.e. front passenger leaning their seats to sleep. Anyway landed in Dubai at 9pm in the night, got received by my Brother, sisters Husband and my Niece.

And so ends my very long series on my UK trip. I'm glad I didn't do a series on my India trip....so that!!

Today was the day we had to take our Cruise ride on the River Thames. After missing the cruise which we were supposed to get on, we managed to get on to the next one. It was a cold day with dark clouds flying by. I almost froze my right hand while holding the camera without a glove. Some shots from the boat

Then we made our way to the Kensington Palace where atlast finding it open, some of my friends checked it out while the rest of us waited in the Gift shop. It had started raining outside (first rain in London) and I was happily getting wet. The following shot is of a building near Harrods while the second shot was taken near the Kensington Palace.

Then we made our way back home as some of my friends were flying back to Dubai so there was some packing to be done.

At 5:30pm we made our way back home....

1) Natural History Museum was huge. I wasn't even able to cover 40% of it in the 4 hours I spent inside. It was one of the best parts of the trip. Loved the place and wish I had atleast a week more in London so that I could spend all of it in the Museum.
2) Some not so prehistoric animal bone structure at the Natural History Museum...3) Blue Whale skeleton....The biggest whale at the Natural Histort Museum.
4) Food area
5) The Earth Section....They have an earthquake section where the ground starts to shake replicating the feeling millions of japanese had in the devastating earthquake they experienced about 20 years back.
6) Being the only one left inside the Natural History Museum, I was made to join the others in the Victoria and Albert Museum which had some more nudity in the name of Art. I exited the place immediately and made my way to the Sciene Museum. This Science museum isn't as interesting as the Natural History museum but it's still a lot of fun if you're into electronics, space technology and mathematics etc...

A shot of the WWI plane hanging from the ceiling.
7) Not sure if this was the real thing (can't remember). The shuttle used to come back to earth..
8) I spend about 2hours in the Science museum where I broke my head trying to figure out things that were just above my intelligence. I felt quite dumb in the end. After that, all alone I made my way to Hyde Park. Not sure where I was going I somehow managed to wander off into the Park. There I met with D and fell in love.....with the Park.. :P
9) Hyde park is a must see and I just spend most of my time there lying on the grass watching the tress and the beautiful sunset. Unlike Dubai, you are allowed to play on the grass, skate, cycle etc so you'll find a lot of people in groups enjoying themselves. I had a lot of fun watching a bunch of skate boarders practising with 2 dozen cones. Their skill level was great.
10) I experienced one of the best sun sets of my life over the Beautiful Hyde park as we made our way to Kensington Palace where we were supposed to meet the others.
Sunday, 22nd March

Today was shopping day or in other words the most boring day. I was in a very bad mood and spent most of my time wandering off all alone. Oxford street is known to be the Hub for shopping so while the other shopped, I decided to walk towards this huge tower towards the west of where we were. It's called the BT tower and is very tall. It used to be open to public but now is used for telecommunication so is off limits. Would have made a great shot from up there.