Vivo en Bizkaia (y otros sitios tambien)

But the next time i spend a day in the sun photographing a fiesta I will enjoy it soooooooooo much more.

Went for a wander between the two piers early this afternoon. Unlike Boxing Day (see previous entry) the sky was a typical English gray :(

Walking back through the Laines I heard some music which I at first thought was one of the dreaded horrendous samba bands demonstrating how even a lot of enthusiasm cannot overcome musical incompetence but in fact it was some Morris dancers!

They were doing their thing for a very appreciative crowd and it was good to see some traditional English dance culture. There are some vague similarities between the costumes of Morris dancers and Basque dancers (if anyone has done a proper study of these please let me know).

Anyway despite the light being lousy I decided to take some shots, and of necessity these had to be with the camera in my phone, a Nokia E90. Two shots are shown below.

The quality of these images (JPEG originals of course) were pretty good in terms of sharpness and colour. The main problem with using a phone for taking photos is the delay between pressing the button and capturing the image. So you end up pretty much shooting at random.

However if you don't have anything else to hand the phone will do.  

Zorionak eta Urte berri On as we say in Brighton... well, my flat anyway!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Mark :)

At the moment I am sometimes getting txts two days after they were sent to me - so if you need to have a txt exchange with me you had better do it 48 hours in advance.

Well my mind is anyway.

Have just been talking on the phone to Tractor Chica who is taking a rest from her travels in Cambridge and, apart from the fact it was lovely to talk to her again, she reminded me that what I do is take photographs - not do geeky internet stuff!

Thanks TC, remind me to buy you a curry lunch when I see you!

And also thanks for reminding me how much I miss Euskadi! 

And how it is not just me, but Basque and Spanish people do have more love of life than English people! You just have to listen to them. 

So I will now be spending the festive season updating my stock library.

Today is of course Santo Tomas and yet again I have missed it :(  

And Bilbao is 15 degrees warmer than Brighton today! Ideal weather to stand outside eating tallo con chorizo and drinking txakoli with your family and friends - here it's just queueing at Sainsburys :( 

This week I have been commuting by train to London from Brighton and this is much better than commuting from Hidden Dip.

For a start it takes me less than two hours to get into central London, just over an hour by train and then the wonderful tube system of which any third world country would be proud of.

But the trains are much better from Brighton - real seats and a table! And there is none of the stupid announcements on ONE every damn stop telling you the umpteen laws and regulations that govern rail travel in this country:

"Passengers are reminded that they are only allowed to read books of less than 240 pages"

"Passengers are reminded that they may only look out of the window of this train between alternate stations."

"Passengers are reminded that the consumption of cheese and tomato sandwiches on this train is forbidden"

"Only passengers taller than five feet eight inches and shorter than six feet two inches  are allowed to sit in aisles seats"

Get the picture?

Anyway, its better. 

The highlight of my commuting week was standing next to two Spanish families on the tube as they chatted, completely oblivious to the fact that I could understand them. I enjoy listening to Castellano being spoken so much. Or maybe it is the people who speak it? 

Well I thought a cup of tea would be nice.

Oh.

You mean the life thing?

Well.

Depends really.

For the moment I have a lovely room in a lovely flat near Brighton station so that makes getting to London to earn pennies and it is much easier than living in Hidden Dip. 

For the moment it is just nice to be living in Brighton again and catching up with old friends and hopefully making some new ones.

However if we are supposed to be: meeting for coffee to catch up on old times / will see each other soon / must go for a beer / ooh you are just round the corner / I thought you were still in Bilbao / ooh haven't you grown / then I shouldn't wait too long to call, as I might well be off again soon. ¿Cafe con leche en Plaza Nueva tal vez? ¿Mejor que ´Star-Bucks', no? Tomemos un cafe, pintxos, un periodico. Eso es. Estoy feliz.

Euskadi is still close to my heart (creo soy medio vasco) but there are other places I want to see.

And of course I still have photographs to take. 

But for the moment I am here.