Is this how New Malden will look at the end of the world?
Radioactive New Malden
Copyright Chris Bushe
Arcticterntalk.org
The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world
Archive for the tag “holiday”
Enormous Custard Cream Biscuits
Is there a better biscuit than a Costa enormous Custard Cream? So logical, make a biscuit of the size that one might want a cake to be.
Custard Cream. Copyright Chris Bushe
Custard Cream. Copyright Chris Bushe
Hilton Helsinki Kalastajatorppa
A truly amazing hotel situated on the outskirts of Helsinki essentially by the edge of the sea and in a forest. The hotel has three buildings that are connected by tunnels. The rooms are warm, the people friendly, the hotel quite different. Well worth a visit. These photos were taken outside the hotel and in the foyer. The photos are all taken with the I Phone so not a great standard of course.
Casting Spells in Finland
After a mere 24 hours in Finland I can only say that this is quite a magical place. The people are kind, intelligent and interesting, also interested in other people. The food is great. The hotels are interesting. The temperature is cold, minus 8 this morning. What however struck me the most is that for children to learn spelling is not so easy. I had to sit through 2 hours of lectures in Finnish, which I did with good grace ( and my blackberry). One noticed that they used a lot of long words, and I counted 21 letters in one word. At dinner I was informed that the words could get and did get longer. Here is an example:
levyseppahitsaasaopiskelna = 26 letters
The Shocking Cost of food at London City Airport
For anyone who does not know, LCY is an airport easily accesible from the centre of London and is used by many city types and those that inhabit Canary Wharf. Mere mortals like myself may use the airport when it is easier than travelling out to Heathrow. Tonight I was shocked beyond belief at the cost of meals on offer in essentially a bar area.
The layout of LCY is essentially open plan with a few barriers separating out a few areas. There is only one bar and that is in the main section of the deparature lounge and in fact one has to walk through the lounge with tables on either side to get to the departure gates 21-24. So there is a constant stream of people rushing past these tables to head off to the airport.
The cost of meals in this area is astonishing, ranging 20£ up to 35£ for a single main course. So for a couple with a bottle of wine eating a quick meal before flying off they will leave with their wallet emptied by potentially over 100£.
Prices of Food at London City airport
Rant Against Banks, Not Bankers
Seems a negative kind of week, far too many rantings on here but here we go. What seemed like a simple request for my wife became ” not possible”. To open a new bank account. No need for boring details but something I thought simple and normal and needed doing today. The first bank Abbey National said not possible, but could be done midday thursday? ” Sorry have to work”. Next option midday friday “Sorry have to work”. So exit Abbey National and into The Halifax. Seem to recall they ” give something Xtra”. Certainly do, an extra time to contemplate, have a holiday or even spend all one’s money. The first opportunity to meet the wonderful person who could deal with the complexity of opening a bank account was in one weeks time. Bizarre.
So Lloyds bank to the rescue, yes possible and all done in minutes. I do wonder how exactly The Halifax and Abbey National expect to do business. Have a guess where our family will not go to?
A quite extraordinary story really.
A Competition with No Prize
A competition to see if anyone can correctly identify some of the more bizarre things that have ended up on the dining table over this year. There are five things to identify, of which one is a plant type.
Iceland. A land of Photographic opportunity.
Iceland is a place not to forget your camera. A few hours and this is what you might capture.
Paintings of Iceland
Iceland is a land of waterfalls and geyers. What if they erupted again as a volcanic island? What would the Geysers and Waterfalls look like. Here you have my impressions. To see much more of my photography please visit
http://chrisbushephotos.ifp3.com
Copyright Chris Bushe
Copyright Chris Bushe
Iceland. Reflections on a short visit. Pingvellir
Iceland is not a country that I have been to before but some knowledge was there regarding the banking crisis, the ash cloud and more positive reports of good nightlife and interesting places to visit. Reyjkavik is a place that cruise ships now venture to. The first challenge was spelling Reykjavik. I failed when trying to input the city into my I Phone weather app. Thankfully the more intelligent and literary members of my family also failed similarly. In summary this is an interesting island that maybe would be good for 3-4 days maximum. There are plenty of things to see . The first impression as the plane comes into land is that firstly the plane flies low for quite a while whilst out at sea and the first image of Iceland is uncannily like the introduction scene to Father Ted where one views Craggy Island. In fact did they use Iceland? The people are friendly and rather Scandinavian like and most speak excellent English.
I had only 4 hours to see the isalnd and visited 3 places that seemed fairly special. Firstly the tectonic plates that divide west from east and literally these stones represent a dividing line in the Earth’s crust. Secondly some Geysers and lastly a massive waterfall that makes Niagara Falls look quite small in many ways.
The place to see the tectonic plates is called Pingvalla or Pingvellir. Neither is spelled correctly as the Icelandic alphabet has 32 letters which thus include letters that do not feature in our alphabet but also do not include the letters, C, W, Q and Z. The Icelandic parliament was founded here in 930 AD before even my time. And even functioned as a court of Law till 1798. Curiously Iceland has only been independent of Danish and Norwegian monarchy since 1918. In 2013, it was ranked as the 13th most-developed country in the world by the United Nations’ Human Development Index.Gender equality is highly valued in Iceland. In the Global Gender Gap Report 2012, Iceland holds the top spot for the least gap, closely followed by Finland, Norway and Sweden. Furthermore among NATO members, Iceland has the smallest population and is the only one with no standing army. The population of Iceland is less than 350,000.
Here are a few images of Pingvalla.
Pingvallir. copyright Chris Bushe
Pingvallir. copyright Chris Bushe
Pingvallir. copyright Chris Bushe
A Great Place
The rants and warblings of an active and some would say disturbed mind. A Brentford Fc supporter and a psychiatrist and photographer. Welcome to my musings and rants.
chris1957
Arcticterntalk.org 