Album

2011

I visited Chicago again (for work) and this time made it to the Aquarium and took a couple of videos.

These jellyfish looked good as well. I also visited the Field Museum and Moreton Arboretum.

We had a very nice few days in Geneva in the summer. Of course Lake Geneva and the Jet d'Eau are visible from everywhere.

There's some great architecture around, old and new, like these Gaudiesque flats.

The archeological digs under the Cathedral were unexpectedly fascinating with layer after layer of history, and I was pleased that my new camera worked well in low light.

Lots of momentous decisions have taken place here at the United Nations.

When colleagues and friends visit London I often show them around. This is the view of Tower Bridge I see every day, lucky me. Near here there's The Tower, Monument, St Paul's, Southwark Cathedral, Borough Market, the Golden Hinde and the Clink.

I try to make time for the tour of the Globe Theatre, which has lots of interesting detail about Shakespeare and life in his time.

Even if visitors aren't into art galleries I try to quickly show them some of my favourites in Tate Modern and the National Gallery as we pass.

There are dozens of sights around Westminster - the Cabinet War Rooms, Parliament, the Abbey, Downing Street, Whitehall, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Chinatown, Soho, Covent Garden.

If the center of London is closed (this time it was for the Marathon), there's always South Kensington and the Science Museum, Natural History Museum, V&A, Albert Hall and Hyde Park.

Here are the Carshalton ponds and river Wandle, near our house.

On the day of the Royal Wedding, we closed our street and had a party despite the risk of rain, as is the British tradition. I helped supply some music.

Local businesses donated some great raffle prizes, and the local police and fire brigade showed up, to the delight of the children.

A weekend in Prague for the company "kickoff". These trams are now a stationary café. Marks and Spencers provide a familiar touch.

Houses are rarely as decorative these days, sadly.

Prague felt very European (and cold). We rode up to the castle on a vintage tram.

A day at Royal Horticultural Society Gardens, Wisley to see the butterflies in the glasshouse.

Lots of very colourful butterflies - our cats would have loved it!

Some nice bonsai as well.

2010

We had snow here in December, which is unusual and caused (almost) all transport to cease.

There were some interesting icicles when it melted.

All very pretty, but everyone was trapped at home, and a concert I was supposed to play (violin) in was cancelled.

In October I started a new job at Informatica and went to the suburbs of Chicago for two weeks of training.

Lots of interesting architecture, skyscrapers and museums. This is the "silver bean" at Millennium Park. The Institute of Art near here was fantastic.

There's an atmospheric elevated railway "the el" here forming part of "the loop".

Some back streets look like the set of "West Side Story".

The Chicago river - which has had its direction reversed, so it flows away from Lake Michigan, reducing pollution of the drinking water.

The Chicago lights sprawl for miles, seen from the 92nd floor of the John Hancock building.

I used the train for the 30 mile journey to the city centre one day. Railway stations here don't have fences or platforms, and freight trains are more common than passenger ones.

Suburban houses in the centre of Naperville, the closest town to the office.

I discovered I was right next to Fermilab, home of the Tevatron, the famous particle collider. That's the main building from my hotel room.

The hotel was nice - there's even a television in the bathroom mirror for some reason.

In the hope of starting a business with a colleague distributing Canadian vertical-axis hydroelectric turbines in the UK, we went prospecting for fast-flowing rivers in Scotland.

Another stunning location with easy access to water and power but no flow.

There was evidence of small-scale hydroelectricity.

Most rivers were too shallow or slow-flowing for harnessing kinetic hydroelectric power. The larger ones have many salmon as well, which are a valuable industry that can't be disturbed.

We had our kitchen renovated,

I visited my parents and brother in Melbourne. This is the old Quarantine Station at Point Nepean, where the belongings of passengers from infected ships were fumigated.

One of the ocean beaches on the Mornington Peninsula.