Sunday, May 9, 2010

Farewell Dinner

The same day we rode the circle line, March 21, our friends threw a lovely dinner in honor of our friend who headed back to the Motherland (aka Utah), even though he's from New Zealand: Dan Jones.

Great weather, great location, great meal and best of all, great crew in attendence.

The man of the hour, Dan Jones.

As I may not see him for years to come, I thought it'd be a cool idea to do some age progression estimates.

A fellow artist hard at work

View from the window. Your typical London residential street which is always atypically gorgeous to me.


With about 12 hours left in London, what do you want to do...learn how to french braid of course!!! I was Dan's test subject.

His first ever attempt which was really quite good.

Prepping for our photo session. With my mind-reading abilities, I decided to help you the viewer out and interpret everyone's thoughts (click to enlarge)

The crew
We miss you Dan!

Ridin' the Circle Line

For those of you familiar with London transportation, you've probably heard of the circle line. It's a tube line that goes...in a circle! So if you wanted, you could go in circles around and around and around the city. Well...sort of. It used to anyway.

Even though you now have to get off and change at Edgware Road, what better way to spend a late Sunday morning than riding the circle line! And eat lunch....with a fully spread out table of course.

It made for quite a good time. Mike joined Monica and I, we got a round of applause from the car when we first boarded, and later some other tourists even posed for pictures with us. We were a big deal. All in all, a fun event. Next time, we're going even bigger and better....stay tuned.

Here are some photos from the day:

Our pensive "it's tea time" look.


The Mon and the Mike

Our first unwilling participant. We initially sat next to her and slowly the rest of the car emptied until it was literally the four of us at one end. It was a bit awkward for a few stops until she left. She wasn't really amused.

Our second friend. He was happy to play along.

Problem: jerky stops, starts and bumps on the way.
Solution: grab the table so nothing falls off.

A Ukrainian tourist. She thought we were hot stuff.

We even brought napkins. We are so proper.

A view from the other end of the carriage.

Our "look natural, like you're having fun" pose:

Our "we've got British [missing] teeth" pose:

After lunch, card games and palm reading by Mike.

Photographic Inspiration

On March 26th, I met up with a few friends and saw the exhibition at the Natural History Museum of the Veolia Environmental Wildlife Photographer of the Year for 2009.

Let's just say, it was really amazing and definitely was a great reminder of the inspiring beauty in our world.

They presented probably around 50 large prints. It got me a bit motivated to really try to learn some photography skills, but I was definitely humbled: these folks were really talented. They even had a young kids section with winners photos: there was some crazy talent as young at 8 years old!

If you're interested in the pics (which I highly recommend) you can browse what was on display here: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/onlineGallery.do

This was my favorite photo, which of course they didn't have in their shop for sale. It's called Magical Morning:

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Scotland: An Awesome Trip

I went up to Ballater, Scotland the last week in February with an amazing group of people. Here are my favorite shots of the winter wonderland that I was able to enjoy.

All these pictures were pre-snow storm which snowed us in for a few days. [Un]luckily we were able to leave when we'd planned.

The Queen's residence, Balmoral Castle, up close and personal. We stayed just a couple miles down the road.

Mike and I hopped the "fence" and frolicked in the field leading to the castle (which you can see in the background). I'm just making my permanent mark: a snow angel.


Mike is in the background; he was hit by the sniper protecting the Queen's land. I impressed the sniper with my dance moves so much he spared me.


The snowflakes were awesome, and the frost was covering everything.


View from a bridge over the gorgeous river in the area.

A tree


Perhaps my favorite shot; the back roads in the Queen's estate. It was a true winter wonderland.


Monica and I eagerly looking forward to the 9 hour drive home in a jam-packed car.

"Family Portrait" Fun

After a fabulous week in Scotland filled with lots of: relaxing, sleeping (at least for me), snow, hot tubbing, food and fun, we had a photo session with those who'd stayed to the end.

I'm so glad we took these shots of the crew as these are a few of my closest friends here in London.

Cronologically these go from serious -> awesome.


Our version of American Gothic. I am shamed to point out that yes, I was the only one who couldn't maintain a straight face. Ugh!
For posterity sake, here's who we've got. Left to right. Back row: Joff Smith, Justin Carmichael, J, Sarah Baugh, Emma Baker. Front row: Monica Hubrich, me, Dan Jones, Zinta Jaunitis
This is our "we're such a happy family" pose. I promise the hand gestures/facial tilt/smile Dan and I both made were spontaneous and unplanned, yet somehow perfectly synchronized.

This was our "go crazy" pose. Zinta did a WWF-style slam down on those on the couch.

Just a word of advice

If you're ever planning on taking a week off and heading somewhere with a lot of snow, it might be smart to bring waterproof clothing. If you don't have any yet, you should probably get some. I know from experience.

Let's just say even living in Provo Utah for 4 winter seasons, I'd still never accumulated much waterproof clothing (and the one item I do own, I didn't bring to London. Don't ask....because I don't have an answer why I made that bright decision).

Thus, although my week in Scotland with a ton of friends back in February was absolutely awesome, it could have been a bit better if I was more prepared.

Once again, my thoughts can be summed up in a graphic display:

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Class System

Anyone else think it's annoying the not-so-hidden class system that's involved in nearly any product or service? We've got premier, platinum, diamond, bronze, gold, business, coach in everything--airlines, credit cards, cell phone plans.

I think things should be sorted more clearly.

AKA:

Rich:


Poor: