Highlights include the boat trip to Totnes, a meal at the Michelin star restaurant “The New Angel” (all 11 insanely delicious courses of it), and a lot of beer (for me) and wine (for Abby) in a lot of lovely pubs.

Go there, it’s fab. That there white house in the picture is where Agatha Christie lived! I know!

Basically I arrived, worked, then flew back, so you can imagine I had a wide and varied experience which involved seeing almost entirely the inside of hotels and absolutely nothing else.

From my previous post you’ll have seen that I might have had a moment or two to spend in a jacuzzi overlooking Dubai creek, which I suppose was alright, if you like that kind of thing. Which I do!

Since all I saw was the hotel, I’ll tell you about the room. It was a five star hotel so the room was nicely appointed and the bed was comfortable beyond belief! One odd thing though – the bathroom and bedroom were separated by a glass window.

Now I don’t know about you but I don’t want my wife to watch me having a poo – and I most certainly don’t want to watch her – I’m sure that’s a thing some people enjoy but as Alan Partridge would say, “They’re sex people Lynne!”

Moving on, when at the hotel I mostly saw it during the hours of darkness as I was working during the day. It looked better at night including the view in the distance of the ludicrous Burj Dubai, by a long way the tallest building in the world. Visible below, it’s the lit up tower to the left of the image in the distance

Finally because I apparently go away on work and always take a photo of a big wheel, here is a photo of a big wheel.

Any questions on Dubai? Ask me, obviously I’m an expert.

Having said that, there are a few benefits…

All I need to do now is pray that the ash cloud doesn’t stop me from flying home!

More on Dubai when I’m home.

I took a few photos when I was there, not least a couple of enourmous panoramic ones which I’ll share at a later date. Until then, please do enjoy these, and if you don’t enjoy them, then you are a stinker, plain and simple.

This here below is the 3 train, I know this because I am some sort of expert on all things New York because I don’t know if you know this but I’ve been there you see.

This is something called a “Yellow Taxi”, there are a lot of these in New York which you would know if you had been – I’ve been, this is how I know these things.

This is a “School Bus” which if you went to America like what I did, you might see, because in America school buses are yellow.

More valuable, exciting and interesting lessons in the American and New York city way of life coming soon. I bet you can’t wait.

My sister got married in central park, it was flipping amazing, you honestly couldn’t imagine a nicer location for a wedding. I’m sure it helped that the weather was nice. The previous day was the hottest day on record for this time of year!

My wife and I had already been to New York once before so we took the opportunity to relive some things and experience some new things – it was very relaxed with the only problem being I ate far too much red meat and drank far too much Brooklyn Lager (yum).

At least we beat the volcano and got home safely! More New York posts will follow over the next few days…

Anyway, on to the point – I got the photos back this week. First up, this really hurts – partly because I have no memory of the camera coming open at any time, but mainly because I’m now utterly convinced that the photo in the middle would have been the best photo ever taken by anyone ever.

The ones either side don’t look that special, but I’m not letting that deter me from my belief. Moving swiftly on from my apparently never ending ability to make ridiculous mistakes with what is basically a very very simple camera, I did manage to get one or two that I liked. First up, hanging the camera out of the window of the safari truck I just did a hopeful shot to see what would come out.

I think this was taken on the first day, and was our first experience of what a lot of the roads in Kenya are like – red – and horribly uncomfortable. Next up, a random street scene in Kenya – like nothing I’ve ever experienced before or since.

This is a local shop – and is fairly consistent with all the other local shops you see when you aren’t in a city. Finally – out on the safari trail, a couple of shots that I feel OK about sharing:

I simply can’t understand why I didn’t take more pictures with the Holga whilst I was there – I guess I was too busy having a good time to think about it, most unlike me!

I’ve written what has turned out to be a very long description of our time on safari – which I have no doubt that nobody will read, so if you want to look at the pictures, click on this thing here: Kenyan Encounters photos

Hope you like them – I liked taking them!

I took over 3,000 photos, of which I’ve no doubt about 2950 will go straight in the bin. Here’s a photo of the Alps from 33,000 feet to get things started; full post to follow.

Bye for now!

So the good lady wife and I took a little week off work to go to Menorca. We’d neither of us been to the Balearic’s before so weren’t really sure what to expect, in addition it was a last minute “bargain” style booking so it was a gamble for sure.

Upon arrival it was raining. Yes that’s right, RAINING. I know. Happy holidays. It was basically colder and wetter than the England we had left behind three hours earlier. Abby was not impressed, I think she secretly blamed me for the rain as well, which I suppose is only fair since I’ve learned that as a married man everything bad is basically my fault.

The weather stayed pretty gray for the rest of the day but by day two were were in full beach holiday mode. The beach at Cala Galdana is pretty special I have to say – we certainly liked it.

On the second day of our holiday, we went to the Fiesta de Sant Joan in the city of Ciutadella. This was to put it quite simply, nuts. The rep sold us down the river really, explaining about the historical significance of the festival, which involves men in costumes riding around the city (picture Venice without the rivers) on horseback, saluting the mayor and so on. The information from the rep said “Find a quiet bench in a square and sit down with a glass of Pomada and watch the festival go by”.

The reality was this; two hundred Menorcan Stallions ploughing through a crowd of about 15,000 people all crammed into a small town square. Health and safety, what’s that?

It was hard to get a sense of the scale as we were jammed up against a wall by a several hundred drunken Spaniards, but this just about gives you an idea:

Menorcan stallions are famed for rearing up onto their hind legs – the locals think it’s good luck to touch the shield on the chest of the stallion when the horse does this – watching the stallion’s front legs working the air, I think it’s only actually good luck if you survive without fatal head injuries or massive brain damage.

When the horse wants to go sideways, regardless of where it is and who is around it, it goes sideways, ploughing 50 or so boozy locals out of the way as it goes. All in all, it was bedlam, and despite the slightly inaccurate description from the rep, I’m glad we went!

The rest of the holiday was your more standard beach holiday fayre, so I’ll take you back to a more peaceful scene. We went on a little walk from Cala Galdana to a nearby beach called Cala Macarella, on the way the views were pretty special:

And because no post from me these days would be complete without a panoramic or two, on the walk back to Cala Galdana I go this – click to make it bigger:

The beach at Cala Galdana is a nice place to be – it’s where they filmed the movie “The Blue Lagoon” which I’ve heard of but never seen.

I hope you like these,  I can recommend to you a holiday in Cala Galdana,  it’s alright there really. Except did I mention it rained again whilst we were there? I know.

…Anyway, in the third of what will likely be four entries relating to our trip to Cornwall, I present to you, some photies. Of stuff in Cornwall, like beaches and that. Cornwall is great.

Since these are big fat panoramics you need to click on them with your little mouse pointer thingy and make them all re-bigulated. I made all these pictures with my Leica photo machine I did.

The Beach at St. Ives:
Click it I tells you!

The view from Lands End – this right, is literally, right, the end, of the land. I know, right?!
Press it with your mouse!

Ooh look it’s Porthcurno beach, bleedin fabulous, why would you go abroad when you can holiday here? You should support your local UK economy, not go to foreign places, you disgust me. Did I mention I’m off to Spain in a couple of weeks?
Touch your pointer on it!

This do be Sennen Cove, one of the best beaches in the entire country, not according to me, but official important beach experts, so there.
You know what to do.

Moving on from panoramic ones, here’s a photo of Penzance harbour taken when I was on the thick end of many pints of Doombar and Tinners. mmmmmm ale.

And finally, another of Porthcurno, I was really taken with this place I have to admit. Just bloody look at it!!!

So to summarise, if you think there is even a chance of having good weather, you should book a holiday in Cornwall because quite frankly it’s brilliant there.

That is all.