Destination Canterbury

This is Wednesday 24 June and we join our Globus tour group who will be our travelling companions for the next 22 days. Heading straight from London to our first stop Canterbury.

The South Bank Lion bids us goodbye as we cross Westminster bridge.

Looking through a Canterbury street towards the great cathedral. (Following the scaffolding trend that we seem to have, the famous gate to the cathedral is undergoing maintenance, so I can't get a shot of the church through the arch unless I want it with unasthetic metal bars and green mesh..)

Canterbury cathedral is the most important church in England being the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury who is the chief cleric for the Church of England. Thomas Becket was murdered here and a candle burns continually to his memory. It was to his shrine that loyal pilgrims would travel, telling each other stories to while away the time - hence the inspiration for Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

This building is suitably impressive in size and style. Naturally, I went shutter mad and the following is a collection of impressions.

On the Thames

This is still recording our first day in London. After going on the London Eye, we took a boat tour which is also run by the Eye group. It takes you along a stretch of the Thames from the Houses of Parliament to Tower Bridge. We had a very amusing tour guide called Leighton who basically rewrote London history with his dry wit, Londoners obviously do not hold their politicians in high regard, nor their modern architects...


It seems on this trip that most of what we want to see is undergoing refurbishment and repairs. The historic Savoy, home to so many Gilbert and Sullivan premiers is completely under wraps and unphotographable. Tower Bridge is being repainted so it was impossible to get the classic end to end view, and I had to content myself with a detail shot.


Houses of Parliament with what our guide called an inferior boat company's vessel in front - rather possessive of their bit of water.


The Eye in full next to the refurbished County Hall which serves as the administrative building for the Eye group and a museum.


Shades of my first operetta, The Yeomen of the Guard, as we go past the Tower of London. Look out for the entrance to Traitor's Gate.

The London Eye

After settling in at our hotel, we are met by our cousin who takes us on a spin through London. More gawping as the famous landmarks go flying by – Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, The Houses of Parliament with the famous clock tower... We will be revisiting these in about a month’s time, so for the moment, the camera stays silent while I absorb this City that practically oozes history and literature.
On one’s first day in London, may as well get the bird’s eye view, so we are kindly treated to a ‘flight’ on the London Eye.

View along the bank while waiting in the queue to ride the Eye.

Charing Cross Station

The Houses of Parliament. Big Ben is not actually the name of the clock tower, but the bell inside.

No picture of London is complete without St Paul's! Also look out for the Gherkin, built in 2004

Arrival London

It has been a long night waking in fits and starts, a poor baby has been crying nearly the whole trip. I am awake as we fly over Lahore, looking out for the Big and Little Dippers in the clear sky. It is something special to be just that bit closer to the stars and think of their Maker. Tuesday 23 June - We had breakfast over Russia while chasing the sunrise. Heathrow is surprisingly straightforward and apart from the queue for border clearance, we are in and out in a jiffy and soon on the Globus courtesy shuttle which takes half an hour just to tear around Heathrow. Once we hit the road to London, I am gawping out the window at the houses, foxgloves, willows, beech trees, oaks, general Englishness and snapping indiscriminately and inartistically at The First Pedestrian Light and The First Double Decker Bus... Hopefully the child-in-the-lolly-shop feeling will die down a bit soon and I can take some decent photos!

Bound for the UK!

After months, even years of planning, my sister and I are finally off on our Big Holiday to the UK and Switzerland.



We flew out on Singapore Airlines on Monday 22 June. This is the A330 that took us from Brisbane to Singapore. Pleasant flight with a bit of turbulence. Terminus 2 was singularly deserted as we trickled around by foot to T3 with some mild experimentation on the travelators (yes you can almost skate on the things) The terminus is a good slice of the country with glossy shops springing out from every corner to foist onto you Burberry, Coach, and Godiva chocolate. Some half-hearted attempt at photography still couldn't do much with a boring transit lounge...



It was the middle of the night when we transferred to the famed A380, so couldn't really see it to appreciated its size. However the top deck alone feels like the A330 so it was something to realise that there is another whole layer of passengers below us.

The Merry Widow - costume shoot

Things have been a little quiet on the photography front because they have been quite vocal on another front. I have been busy in rehearsal for an upcoming production of Franz Lehar's best known operetta, The Merry Widow. It is very exciting to be playing the title character!
With the run six weeks away, I have been issued all my costumes for the three acts and thought they would make a nice set of shots in the style of some of those historical clothing pictures one sees in stately home guidebooks or the "making of" for a period movie.
Here are my "widow's weeds" in order... Naturally these are detail shots, if you want to see what the whole costume looks like, top to toe, please come to a performance :-)

Glengallan Revisited

Sounds like a book title...
One of the images from the Glengallan shoot has been begging for a reworking. So in my quest to recapture the look of antiquity here are the trees again almost as if in another season or era!
The actual print of this is more impressive with lots of lovely grain, something I've been wanting to introduce into the digital image for some time

I think this is a much more romantic image than the original, but am happy to have two 'prints' that tell separate stories.