Tuesday Ten

Ten Pictures from the Summer

I had grand plans for a Tale of Two Cities post about Kuala Lumpur and Prague, but it is languishing unpublished in my drafts and I fear it may never see the light of day; so I thought I would at least share some pictures, before the summer fades into distant memory.

I was very lucky to have a lot to do this year and, although I was afraid it would mean I felt unrested by the time term started again, actually it had to opposite effect: the holiday felt stretched out and seemed to go on forever. I visited, in order, London, Sheffield, Malaysia, Glastonbury, Prague and Portsmouth, and still had time to see friends in Bristol often.



Flowers at the V&A. I went there for the Grace Kelly exhibition the day before the Google thing and passed a couple of hours in the courtyard and around the sculpture gallery while I waited for my time to go in. I know people think we didn't have a very nice summer but we did have some gorgeous weather on occasion!



Thistle Resort infinity pool, Port Dickson, Malaysia.
When it's overcast in the pictures I forget how darn hot it was! This was the adult pool at the hotel, right on the beach, and lovely, until the bunch of young adults turned up and started having wrestling fights and taking pictures of each other. I have concluded, in my two visits there, that Malaysians are obsessed with taking photographs.



Feeding an elephant at the elephant orphanage, Pahang
This one was proactive in sucking peanuts up with his trunk and putting them in his mouth. Others insisted peanuts be placed in their upturned trunks. Very cute.

And then I got to ride one.....



At one point the guide seemed the think the elephant was about to roll over and I had to hold on tight. It was tense. But luckily she remained upright for the entire journey.



Larking around at the Petronas Towers. I think quite interesting results can be achieved by setting the camera on a timer and putting it on the ground, although you have to be prepared for (a) a LOT of bad pictures, (b) funny looks from passersby and (c) the possibility that someone will snatch your camera off the ground mid-picture, though that might just be my paranoia.



Glastonbury Tor, a trip with Mother Hand. She wanted to go. I remembered, when we got there, that I hate it, because I can never figure out where to park. When we found the bus to the bottom, the car park was full; when we got to the tor, we found the bus driver was going on a lunch break and wouldn't be returning for two hours; and when we got to the top, we realised how close it was to walk back. Le sigh.
It is a stunning view though, and a good climb.

I was thinking my hair looks suspiciously tidy in this picture and then realised it was a mere five days after I treated myself to a Brazilian Blowdry in Malaysia. The effects are starting to wear off now but MAN was it easy to handle for that first month.



Parpy Jo and me in Bed, a trendy bar in Prague, just round the corner from our holiday apartment. That cocktail I am drinking was a negroni: it was potent. A good gin-based drink, a comfortable loungey sofa, a requirement to go barefoot and fashion TV: it was heaven.



Messing about on the river. When we spied the pedaloes and row boats we decided to go for it, but I don't much care for pedaloes and so Jo consented to me rowing her around for an hour. I very much enjoyed this; I like a good row, especially when it's the right weather for it, which it most certainly was.



Kutna Hora ossuary. I like this one, because I appear to be wearing some sort of extremely creepy headress fashioned from human bones. The ossuary itself is a fascinating, if macabre, sight; well worth a visit if you're in the area. It felt sort of wrong to be smiling but I do seem to be grinning in most of my pictures there.



From the garden. I like to play with the macro settings and took quite a lot of pictures of our flourishing tomato plants to get some practice. The tomatoes did better this year than ever before, and are still fruiting now.

Next summer: Australia. Mother Hand has been planning it for years so it should be quite the adventure.

Happy birthday Father Hand! 60 today!!