Lost in Translation 3

There seems to be a catering theme with these lost in translations. This one was spotted at a restaurant in Dunoon whilst on Holiday.




so how exactly do you bake things in a pillow and is it a feather pillow?

Florence

I managed a day off in Florence the other week, it has been said that it is a really beautiful city which it may well have been but I was short of time so didn’t get a chance to soak it all in and there were a lot of tourists about. I suppose if you have a high expectations a place can never live up to them and if you have low expectations a place can seem to be fantastic.

I arrived in Florence at midday and I had to go to the airport to pick up the boarding cards for the flight the next day. this done I had to get them to my customer who had invited me to a performance of the Cirque du Soleil at 4PM the photos were taken on as I walked across town.

This was an interesting outdoor statue park; I haven’t seen anything like that before

and lots of interesting buildings....

This is a really famous bridge but I cant remember what its called

And I think this building featured in an opera

the icecream was great....

It was Easter and there were some great decorative eggs in the chocolate shop.

but the highlight of the visit was the Cirque Du Soleil performance, it was outstanding

Morning over the Alps

An early morning flight to Italy allowed some nice photos to be taken of the Alps on the way down.




This is the sort of sight I wake up to a lot, a sunrise seen from the air is beautiful.

This photo was taken as we were in the decent to Pisa airport; the Alps are really impressive as you fly over them. Interestingly because they are so high air turbulence is quite common as you fly over them, this takes place about an hour after leaving London and on a long haul flight that just as the drinks trolley is coming round so if you ever wondered why you were wearing your drink .... Now you know

This last photo shows the highest peaks sticking out above the cloud layer, its not often you get the chance to take a photo like this

Flying Horses

Today was an easy day coordinating a horse flight transiting my local airport. The flight was en-route from Dubai to Los Angeles with a stop in New York to drop of some of the 18 horses on board. The Horses are all thoroughbreds and included the winner of the 2010 Dubai Gold cup, Gloria De Campeao. I understand the prize money for this race alone was $10 million.





The aircraft used was a DC8 which can accommodate up to 45 horses, this time it was relatively comfortable with just the 18 horses and, I understand, 27 grooms. None the less it can be a bit smelly after a while!

Lost in Translation 2

the second in an occasional series of places or things that may not translate well into English

This is a cafe in the Science centre near Montreal Harbour, Why would you choose this name for a cafe? maybe it works better in a different language

Montreal

Last week saw a visit to one of my favourite Canadian cities Montreal, March in Montreal can go either way weather wise on this occasion it was mixed, the Sunday was pouring with rain which disrupted the St Patricks Day parade. This begs the question why is there a St Patricks Day Parade in Montreal? There can’t be many Irish people can there? I suppose like everywhere it’s just an excuse for a party.
The Monday was a fantastic day beautiful sunshine and temperatures of 16C. Given that it can be still in the region of -20C at this time of year it was very pleasant. As I walked around the waterfront and old town there was a real sense of a city coming out of hibernation and getting ready for another busy tourist season.


Quebec has multiple flags, from the left the Candian National Flag, The fleurdelisé which is the flag of Quebec, The Flag of Montreal and one other I dont know.

This is really clever, the building is undergoing renovation and what you see is not in fact the building but the hording around the building designed to protect the public during the renovation. It has been designed so that the hoarding has a picture of the building behind it and it fits in really well with the surrounding area and does not spoil the view. I really think we should do this in the UK particularly the major tourist sites in London.

This photo was taken at Montreal harbour, During the winter the ships are laid up and the harbor freezes, as can be seen the ice was melting and the ships were being prepared for the summer season. The ship behind was the Gordon C Leitch a “lakes steamer”. its history can be found at http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/leitch.htm . launched in 1967 its as old as me, because the ships never leave the great lakes which are fresh water there is no corrosion and the ships last for longer than they might in the ocean

Back down South

just catching up after a few trips in March. The first trip was back to the Falklands again, hopefully this is to be my last visit for a while because its a long old trip. this time the weather was fantastic and I managed some pictures on the approach to Mount Pleasant.

The above photo shows Port Stanley (all of it) I was sat next to a visiting Surgeon who tells me the blue building at the top of the picture is the hospital.

The wreck of the sailing ship the Lady Elizabeth can be seen in this photo, more information on the ship can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Elizabeth_(1879)

The aircraft above was photographed at Mount Pleasant and is operated by the British Antartic Survey from the Rothera base in the Antartic. it had arrived the previous day with a passengers leaving after the southern summer operation and was on the way back to the ice. The crew were saying the flight takes about 5 hours and that this was their last trip South for the season. the following day they were due to fly to Punta Arenas with more passengers before continuing on to Calgary where the aircraft spends the Northern Summer and will be flying South again next season. more can be found on the BAS at http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/index.php

on departure we got an escort from the Eurofighters, I have made four trips and this was the first time I have managed to take any air to Air photographs.

There were some Girl Guides on the aircraft that had become trapped in the Falklands as theri flight back to the UK via Chile had been cancelled due to the earthquake there. they had managed to get a lift on our flight and were waving at the pilots out of the windows, the polits of the Eurofighters waved back .... too cool !!!