Changing Lanes

Wednesday, 18th March

1) Today our main place to visit was the Saint Pauls Cathedral. One of the top places to visit, so we had to. We reached there at 10:30am, got inside half an hour later while waiting for the others to meet us. Unfortunately photography was not allowed indoors.

2) There were some very cool paintings and statues all over the cathedral which I would have loved to capture but most of it was plain pornography. I don't get the concept behind this so called art where they love to show the private parts of kids, men and women. Quite disgusting in my opinion. Also no offence to anyone but why do people (my friends included) want to sit through a sermon that might be going on while visiting a church. I know it's a show of respect, but why listen to something that you don't believe in. I find the practice a bit stupid.

Then we made our way to the Stone Gallery that encircle the outside of the dome. The Stone Gallery stands at 173 ft (53.4 metres) from ground-level and can be reached by 378 steps. Here we were allowed to take pictures...
Above the Stone Gallery is the Golden Gallery which is the smallest of the galleries and runs around the highest point of the outer dome, 280ft (85.4 metres) Visitors that climb the 530 steps to this gallery will be treated to panoramic views of London. Unfortunately it was closed when we were there.

3) After that we made our way back down to the basement called 'The Crypt'. Here the Dead people are buried and people are allowed to walk all over their graves. We didn't realise it initially but on asking one of the staff members, we were enlightened that each of the marked graves indeed had dead bodies inside. We managed to snap a few pictures here cause we thought photography was allowed as we saw a bunch of other tourists clicking away. But soon my camera was back into my bag as we were told that photography wasn't allowed there either.
We then made our way carefully around the graves to make our way to the over priced Gift shop where no one bought anything. We exited after that and decided to make our way to Trafalgar square.

4) We passed several ancient looking and important looking building on way their like the Royal Courts of Justice (pictured below), a nice looking church (pictured below), the Indian consulate, London school of Economics campus etc.5) We had a quick lunch at Subway (Veggie sandwich...), we headed towards Trafalgar Square. We decided to visit the National Gallery which was like the head quarter for pornographic art. I only saw one exhibit (by some big shot guy who's name I don't care to remember) who's artistic skills revolved around nudity. Disgusted, I quickly made my way out and sat on the stair watching the people pass me by. Their were quite of performers in the square...plenty of graffiti artists...a guy trying to balance a ball(pictured below) and some musicians.

The Guy below was having a bad day as his master trick wasn't coming through. Over and over again he tried and he kept failing to get it right. I still liked what he was doing.The two boys picture below played some of the coolest music ever. And they were enjoying it a lot. I sat therr listening to them for a good half an hour while I waited for the others to join me.
6) After that we decided to head towards the shady place called soho and then checked out the not so shady place called China Town. After that it was Home Sweet Home.

(Picture below is the Charing cross tube station.)
Thursday, 19th March

7) Below is a shot of the Hungerford bridge that we crossed to make our way to the Eye.
8) The London eye looks amazing at night.
9) A shot of the Parliment building from the London Eye.Then we went to a Lebanese restaurant on Edgeware road that is the place to go for Halal food. After having some kebabs, shawarmas and orange juice, we headed back home.

Tuesday, 17th of March

Now back in London, we decide to start the site seeing procedure.

1) It was 11:30pm when we got out at the Londen bridge tube station. It was yet another late beginning to our trip for the day. Anyway we saw this nice looking church opposite. Took a few shots and moved on.2) We walked across the London bridge followed by a walk under it as we headed towards Tower of London. Our main site to see for today.3) I wanted to go near the water but no one else seemed to have noticed the stairs that led us there so disappointed I followed them away from the stairs. This man was busy looking for metallic objects in the mud.4) The Tower of London was a royal palace, fortress and prison. The Tower of London is often identified with the White Tower (pictured below), the original stark square fortress built by William the Conqueror in 1078. However, the tower as a whole is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat.5) The building where the crown jewels are kept. We were curious to see the Kohinoor but it ended up into an anti climax of odd disappointment regarding the importance of such a not so important looking rock.6) A chain mail shirt in one of the towers. There were various towers with certain exhibits inside as per the importance of the tower during its days of royalty.7) A miniature model of the Tower of London.8) This is where some of the prisoners were kept where some of them have left their marks in the form of graffiti on the walls that are being preserved.
9) The torture chamber exhibit. From what vibes we got from the tour, the British people seemed proud of their disgusting bloody past.10) A prayer room. A managed to sneak this shot as we were not allowed to enter the room11) A view of the Tower Bridge from Tower of London.After we were done checking out the Tower of London, at 4:30pm we headed towards the Tower Bridge. Last admission to the top of the tower was at 5pm so some of us decided to come back later. I regret that decision as we didn't get a chance to go later.

12) We then took the tube to Canary Wharf where you can find a few very tall buildings.13) The Canary Wharf station where we caught the DLR to make out way back home.

Sunday, 15th of March

1) The first part of the train ride was us passing through the northern part of London that seemed a bit rundown in places. The only landmark that I remember passing was the huge Emirates stadium (for Arsenal). Anyway we got to a station who's name I conveniently don't remember(be prepared for me to mention lots of nameless places cause I suck with remembering names and I forgot to use a notebook).2) Over here we had to catch a bus that took us to Peterborough where we had to catch a train to yet another nameless place. Anyway we had about an hour to kill before catching the train so we decided to head towards the huge cathedral (picture below) that I spotted from the bus. Being Sunday, we could not enter the cathedral as it was time for the mass I think, so made do with roaming around as I clicked away.3) We headed back to the train station, picked up some food and drinks and made our way onto the train that to my happiness had FREE WIFI!!! :D

4) Initial impressions of Sheffield were somewhere between the second nameless town and Petersborough. It was pretty but had this industrial look to it also. I was hoping for it to be colder but was kinda disappointed. Here we were picked up by D's friend (lets call her Am) who made us walk through this totally inefficient way to her dorm (I figured that out immediately as I'm a genius when it comes to directions). Anyway we stopped over at the dorm for some time, were joined by her friend and made our way to have lunch. After having a decent serving of fish and chips, Am showed us around town which wasn't really too big. Basically the main city center comprises of three parallel streets full of shops of everything and anything. After doing some shopping, Am went off to her dorm as she had some work to do while we looked around for a decent hotel to stay the night in. We were recommended a shady cheap hotel but that is totally unacceptable for me.

I think this was an office building

Peace Gardens

Winter Garden

6) Woke up at 7:30am, checked out, walked to the other side of Sheffield, took some very cool shots (IMO atleast!!) and then made our way to the station where we had to catch a 10am train to Leeds.

Funky painting on the building opposite the hotel

Greenery on the other side of town that had some shady looking buildings
Stairs leading to the Train Station from the other side

Tallest building in Sheffield...under construction

7) It was only a 1 hour ride with free WIFI yet again. I wish we could have stayed on the train and made our way to Edinburgh to see some snow. But we had tickets for Leed so Leeds it was. 

8) It was a bit colder here than Sheffield and I had to get the gloves out. Anyway we made our way past lots of funky looking buildings(one of them pictured below) to reach the main entrance for Leeds university. Unfortunately there isn't a main gate as such, just a map showing us the 30+ buildings that constitute the university which are littered over a huge area among 100+ buildings. So feeling a little confused and with my genius skills of direction, we made our way to the journalism building that was on the other corner (READ: a few miles away). After lots of walking uphill and downhill while losing D's notebook, we did not manage to get to the building. We had walked a lot (READ:10km minimum) in Sheffield while looking for a good hotel which also constitutes lots of uphill's and downhill's, adding that to this long Leeds walk, the whole package of walking over two days had gotten to us, even me the champion walker was hampered by the cold. 9) So we somehow made our way back to the station stopping over to watch a chess match between a 7 year old and maybe a 25+ year old (the kid won btw). We had some time to kill before catching the train back. So we made our way to McDonalds where I had French fries and potato wedges...

10) The Train ride back had no stop overs and being a very Fast train with the 'oh so wonderful' free WIFI, we got to King Cross station by 4:30pm and we then caught the tube back home where exhausted, we simply chilled out!!!

As requested by Zanzibar...I am going to try to replicate the Salalah Trip series of pictures with text for my UK trip also. Hopefully I'll be able to do it!!!

1) We reached the airport at 3:45am. I was driven there by my brother and sister. Got into line for check in that took ages and then got back out, said goodbye and then headed back in to make our ways to the main Terminal. We were flying Qatar Airways and our flight was at 7:30am. We hung around the Duty Free, I had McDonalds and prayed. After that we headed off to the boarding gate where they were making the last call so we were kind of late. Anyway we boarded our small plane for our 45min ride to Doha. We sat next to the Emergency Exit and I was tempted to fiddle around. Next to us, one of the Air Host (not sure what you call the guy) was seated during take-off and landing. his chair had a 6 point safety belt. Quite odd honestly seeing how that belt is safer than the belts we get. Anyway we landed in Doha approximately at 7:30am local time. We were served some orange juice and a spinach croissant/sandwich/whatever you call it on the flight. We got off the plane into a bus and reached the terminal where we got into line again to go to our boarding gate for our London flight. I forgot to mention that the security checks at Dubai are great. No removing belts or other stuff unlike Doha where I was required to remove my belt. The toilets are dirty also in comparison. Anyway I think after one hour we boarded our flight to London after some dirty looks from the guys checking our passports and wondering why we were going...urgh!!! Reminded me of the Visa application form where they ask questions like have you taken part in any terrorist activities or are you part of a terrorist organisation. Seriously will any real terrorist confess to being one...sheesh!!! Anyway we got window seats (Yaaay!!!!!) as the plane was quite empty. It was indeed one long flight but I was having fun watching movie on my faulty screen and taking pictures. My window was the only one open but then had to close it due to my friend...annoying. The ride was fun, with hardly any turbulence, plenty of clouds under us, saw lots of towns, snow capped mountains, frozen ice on water, other planes etc. I also used the plane toilet for the first time in my life (I don’t travel much and whenever I have, it’s been a max of 3 hour flights). The toilet experience was good. We were served lunch which was delicious (shame on you Emirates). I saw a few movies but my faulty screen was annoying so I was busy most of my time smudging my window whenever I got the chance.
2) We landed a little behind schedule due to the rush at Heathrow so we kept taking rounds in the air for some time. We landed at 01:03pm, got through the security quite quickly with the whole remove belt, getting felt up (aaaaaahhh!!) by an Indian security guard, speaking to a friendly passport control guy and getting our luggage almost immediately. Though we had to wait at the airport while some of my other friends got picked up by their respective people. So at about 2:15pm we made our way to the tube station with our new Oyster cards (bought by the friend we were living at, let’s call him Jes). We managed somehow to load our luggage into the tube and got some dirty looks from the other passengers. We had to change a tube which was a pain as there were no escalators and I had to carry about 35kilos of baggage up the stairs. I fell over my bags when we got on to the second tube as it started move as the tube is not smooth. It lurches and jerks all over the place and so you have to hold on to something. We reached Jes place at 3:30pm approximately. For the rest of the day, we chilled out, went to Liverpool station to buy tickets for Sheffield and ate dinner. Note that everyone apart from fud had slept on the plane and by 10pm they were all asleep or in the process of falling asleep while I was busy browsing the internet. I went to sleep at 12am on the two seated sofa that is just too small for a person of my height but there was no place. Woke up the next morning at 6am (jet lag I suppose) and so went for a walk with Jes who was also awake while the rest of the house slept. First proper day in UK and I’m freely carrying my camera without my bag, I must have lost my marbles then but I was just lazy to carry my whole bag. As my friend explains how the neighbourhood nearby is not safe, and how a guy got stabbed in front of his son at the spot we were passing, I was still freely taking pictures without a fear in my mind. But I think it was because the whole place was empty. It was a Saturday early morning!!!3) We headed off to do some grocery shopping at a place called ASDA. We took the tube called DLR which is not an underground service. Got to the see the east side of town. You can see the O2 arena in this shot.
4) A shot of Royal Victoria Dock where we stopped over on our way to get groceries. This was taken from the Bridge that went across it. It was very windy!!!
5) There were many Swans that kept followung us expecting some food from us. Unfortunately we were carrying none.
6) The others walking back to the station.
7) Shot taken as we headed back home. We didn't go out anywhere that night, had pasta for dinner and just chilled out generally.

Shot of the stairs leading to the Train Station in Sheffield.Shooting Date/Time : 3/16/2009 09:55:27 AM 

Shot of the White tower at the Tower of London that I visited with my friends.Shooting Date/Time : 3/18/2009 01:25:50 PM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/640
Av(Aperture Value) : 5.6
Metering Mode : Evaluating Metering
ISO Speed : 100
Lens : EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5 USM
Focal Length : 10 mm

Well I was back in Dubai on the 27th of March but haven't bothered making a post cause I've been kept busy by my hyperactive niece. The trip was nice, a good vacation from the everyday life in Dubai. Anyway hopefully I'll be back to blogging now...

Here's a shot of my friend who agreed to pose for me as I practiced my portrait skills.....Shooting Date/Time : 4/13/2009 06:33:10 AM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/640
Av(Aperture Value) : 2.5
Metering Mode : Center-Weighted Average Metering
ISO Speed : 100
Lens : EF 85 f1.8 USM
Focal Length : 85 mm

24/03/2009
00:21am (London time)

Far off in this darkness
Glitters a fire that I can not see
For I am looking at the wrong end
Looking for an hand to guide me

Concealed beneath the initial impressions
Are things I wish to ignore
Cause I'm so full of myself
That everything else seems a blur

So I pretend to stand at a place
Where I can choose to lose it all
Where I can pray to keep it all
And I'm still lying to myself

I was in love with all these mirages
They're all I want to believe they were
But I couldn't see the devil hidden within
While shines a fire that no one can see

-Stained

Shot taken from the plane on our way to London on Qatar airways. Staying here till the 27th and I'm sooo glad I have wireless internet connection at my friends place.....though my netbook is a pain to work on for editing pictures especially when I have photoshop CS instead of CS3.Shooting Date/Time : 3/13/2009 13:52:23 PM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/1600
Av(Aperture Value) : 5.6
Metering Mode : Center-Weighted Average Metering
ISO Speed : 100
Lens : EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM
Focal Length : 10.0 mm

This is a combo shot where I have copy pasted the sign board from a shot taken at a different exposure but of the same scene and pasted it on this image. 

Shooting Date/Time : 3/7/2009 4:47:23 PM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/640
Av(Aperture Value) : 8.0
Metering Mode : Center-Weighted Average Metering
ISO Speed : 100
Lens : EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM
Focal Length : 10.0 mm

Took this today from Jadaf. The weather is really wonderful today....Shooting Date/Time : 3/4/2009 6:13:48 PM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/125
Av(Aperture Value) : 6.3
Metering Mode : Center-Weighted Average Metering
ISO Speed : 200
Lens : 18.0 - 200.0 mm
Focal Length : 18.0 mm

Had to take product shots for a coffee shop situated at Dubai Marina for their menu....my first food assignment that I estimated would take me 90minutes. Ended up taking me 260minutes. Due to my miscalculation I got paid for 180 minutes... :(

Anyway one of the shots that I like from the shoot....Camera Model Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL
Shooting Date/Time : 2/21/2009 8:06:28 PM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/50
Av(Aperture Value) : 7.1
Metering Mode : Center-Weighted Average Metering
ISO Speed : 200
Lens : 50mm f/2.8 Macro
Focal Length : 50.0 mm

I'm just too tired with life in general to make long Salalah type post regarding my India trip right now...Maybe I'll give it a try next week....So for now I'll just post a shot I took yesterday with a ultra wide lens that I was planning to buy for AED1800/- but got out bid by some French guy who works in Gulf News who paid AED2200/-.Camera Model Canon EOS : 400D DIGITAL
Shooting Date/Time : 2/24/2009 2:45:54 PM
Tv(Shutter Speed) : 1/30
Av(Aperture Value) : 2.8
Metering Mode : Center-Weighted Average Metering
ISO Speed : 200
Lens : Tokina 11.0 - 16.0 mm
Focal Length : 11.0 mm

Kinda upset about not being able to get the lens cause it was amazingly sharp and it's not available in the UAE. Will need to order it from the US which brings in the risk of getting a bad copy delivered plus the extra AED300-600 I have to pay for it.... :(