Good to see a great photographer celebrated!

One of Googles more (only) endearing items is it’s ‘Google Doodle’ – very often this celebrates the birthday of a historical figure that you have never heard of – which can be quite educational!

Other times it can be amusing – especially when it is animated or interactive….

It is nice today however to see that they are celebrating what would have been Sir Norman Parkinson’s 100th Birthday – if you don’t know anything about him do a Google search – he was an interesting man and a great photographer…

 

Only a singer…

We live in a culture that ‘loves celebrity’ – this is not a good thing in my view, and sometimes it creates ‘monsters’.

The Anne Frank house and visitor centre

This last weekend has seen frankly one of the most ill-judged comments by a celebrity for a long time. The celebrity? – Justin Bieber – apparently he is quite a popular Canadian singer, not one that I have really listened to (or intend to). My only knowledge of him to date is that recently he failed to turn up for some concerts at the O2 (he was hours late on stage). I don’t do late – it is rude and inconsiderate unless you have a very good excuse (and apparently he didn’t) – so not a good start for ‘the Bieber’ in my eyes!

The comment he left this weekend in the visitors book at Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam was however unbelievable!

“Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber.”

It is 68 years since Anne Frank died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, her story is a reminder to us all of the horror that was the holocaust. Something tells me that in 68 years time no one will remember who Justin Bieber was!

Obviously self publicity doesn’t stop with someone like Justin under any circumstances.

How sad….

 

Do something amazing – give blood, or at least try……..

That’s what the strap line on the blood service website says and they are always keen for donations – so why do they make it such a slow and disorganised experience? I have given blood on and off for many years – in the old days you turned up to a session and they fitted you in – the experience was OK and normally took around an hour.

So why when we now have an appointment system does it tend to take twice as long to give the same amount of blood?

This time around I had an appointment at 6:50 – as I work this is ideal for me. On arrival I was told by the receptionist “we aim to get you through in an hour from your appointment time” – sadly experience told me this wouldn’t happen – and it didn’t, it took almost an hour before I was even seen!

Don’t get me wrong, I really want to give blood, but the system seems to do everything it can to frustrate me. I get the impression that the people at the top have no idea how it actually works in the real world – someone needs to tell them…….

 

Preconceived ideas…..

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I have always been a lover of a good cup of tea – not the sort of tea from a tea bag, that is just a drink (and I do lots of that!) – a proper cup of leaf tea – earl grey or Darjeeling! Equally I have always thought of tea as a very British thing, something that we do more than any other country of the World.

However, a recent visit to Paris suggests that the French drink lots of proper tea – this tea shop was frankly amazing. The selection of teas was huge and they have shops all over France (this one was in the Carousel next to the entrance to the Louvre).

I would love to think that we have educated the French in the ways of tea – sadly I don’t think this is the case though!

Interesting how wrong our preconceived ideas can be….

 

Europe’s most romantic city?

This week I have been in Paris with my family – including two teenagers – so not at all romantic, but great fun. Paris is often sold as the most romantic destination in Europe, whether this is true or not remains to be seen (depending on a couple only trip in the future), but certainly there are signs that it may well be!

I am aware that the idea of locking a padlock onto a bridge to show your love for someone is not a new one – and I have no idea where it started (I have certainly seen it in various parts of the world). However the locks on the Pont de l’Archevêché which lies very close to Notre-Dame are the most I have seen yet – and perhaps prove the French claim that theirs is the most romantic city?

 

More French flair

I am a fan of the French (really! – despite what I said yesterday) and the way they do things – they have a certain flair and also appear to get things done! I realise this is not a generally held view in the UK, we love to bash the French – I really don’t understand why……

A classic example of the flair that the French have can be seen in the design of the metro station at Arts et Métiers which has its roof finished in a ‘copper style’ – it feels like something out of a Jules Verne book or Captain Nemo’s Nautilus (perhaps that is the idea), whatever the reason for the effect it has a real impact when you first see it and just adds to your day.

You’ve got to love the French………

 

How not to manage one of the worlds busiest museums….

Ok, so I admit I am not averse to complaining – in my opinion no one should be, it is the only way things improve. So when there is a total lack of information or perceived management of a situation it annoys me…..

The situation I refer to relates to the closure of the Louvre in Paris on Wednesday 10th April – now the French are very proud of the museum (quite rightly) as it is one of the largest and most visited in the World. This would therefore assume a good level of management. So when we arrived as a family and found barriers up, security staff guarding the doors and very small messages saying the museum was closed – but giving no reason why and no idea when it would reopen – we were naturally somewhat annoyed.

But what really didn’t help was the total lack of real information, it took us at least 45 minutes to discover the reason the Louvre was closed – a strike by staff due to pickpockets – and also that there was no chance of it opening at all on that day. This last point was not clear from the note at the entrance (and the ‘help line’ mentioned on the message was never answered – on strike too?)

Who did I find out from? A security guard – no one else was around from the museum staff.

But what really annoyed me? The fact that the message on the website (which only appeared many hours after the strike started) was so incongruous. One might almost say it was deliberately vague – perhaps they didn’t want visitors to know that the staff strike and that pickpockets are a big problem? I would hardly call a strike in France ‘exceptional circumstances’!

Come on – this is Paris, France – the home of strikes and now it appears Europe’s capital of pickpockets!

So in trying to ‘keep it quiet’ it appears to me that the Louvre’s ‘management’ may well have scored a huge own goal – typically French?

 

Getting to grips with it…..

Around Christmas I splashed out on a new camera – an Olympus EM-5 – it was a bit of an extravagant move, but I felt it would help me further develop my photography which had been in the doldrums for a number of years until I purchased an Olympus PEN EP-1 a few years ago. The time was right for the next step…..

I was right and have been amazed by the cameras capability to produce stunning results even in my hands! It is well up there with the quality of a full frame digital SLR (it is a 4/3rds camera). And it has allowed me to hopefully develop my artistic side a bit more….

This photo was taken at the orangery at Calke Abbey in March, I quite like it, especially the way the shadows run…..

 

There are still some decent people out there…..

It is great once in a while to have your faith in human nature confirmed, we do live in what seems to be an increasingly uncaring society, so an act of kindness is great to see. The reason for my comment?

Last week my son lost his wallet, he didn’t actually realise this until Friday (he is 15 so doesn’t carry it all the time) when he was about to go into town to meet some friends. A brief but frantic search ensued, but it was soon apparent that it had been lost. Phone calls followed to the bank to cancel his debit card, Nottingham City Transport to cancel his bus pass etc – you get the idea. He was also rather cross as he had left rather a lot of cash in the wallet (despite various warnings to remove it!)

So all in all, a bad start to the weekend! But, due to the act of a very kind gent who found the wallet and delivered it to Lloyds Bank in West Bridgford, who then rang us to report the delivery to them (the card was from Lloyds) he got it all back!

The wallet was delivered to Lloyds because the finder was not ‘confident’ that the Police would be the best place to take it – a rather damning indictment of our boys in blue…..

I wonder what percentage of people finding the wallet would have acted in the same way, unfortunately I believe we fell very lucky.

 

Spam texts!

I find it increasingly annoying that the level of spam received via both email and text message is not reducing. We have been suffering an increase in spam mail at work – although it does now appear to be under better control now due to the work of our spam filter providers arcanza – who are excellent.

What I find most annoying however is the spam text – we have all got them, and increasingly they relate to PPI insurance claims. I received the attached earlier this week, and the urge to reply is so strong, but apparently the best course of action is to ignore it – otherwise you are confirming the phone number is still in use.

Then forward the text to 87726 – which adds it to a black list. Sadly the mobile operators don’t appear able to sort the issue (in the same way the ISP’s have failed with Spam email).

A recent report indicates that over 80% of spam comes from about 3 small areas of the world – surely something can be done?