Cotswolds

A trip to London, should include a day trip to the Cotswolds.

This is my very poor attempt in describing the Cotswolds. The money here is by raising sheep in these hills (Cotswold means sheep hills). It's made up of several small villages with some beautifully kept stone houses, with slate root, or, even older style thatched roof. Since I didn't plan on driving in England, I took a daily tour, and let the driving to the bus driver. We were lucky, the guide was also very good with talking to us, sharing his knowledge with us about this region, people, and history.


Old graveyard by the church.

Union Jack.

Stone path

As the sign would say

London in October

Trip to England - didn't know what to expect, because I have heard good and bad. I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. I found London is very trendy, more so than NYC I might add. The weather, well, just as advertised, dreary most of the time I was there, until the last 2 days, where the sun actually came out and greeted people. Speaking of people, I found most were warm and very helpful to tourists. I would highly recommend a trip to England when ever you get a chance. Oh, the food, it's 50/50, :)


Covent Garden Square

Street Performer

Tips appreciated

Paella Vendor - a little on the salty side.

TaiPei-Shimendin

Shimen, meaning West Gate in Chinese, is a vibrant shopping/nightlife district in Taipei. It used to be a hot spot in Taipei when I was living there, but it has changed somewhat.

As I indicated, this place is known for night life, so 9 o'clock in the morning, this place is fairly dead.

I thought this was pedestrian only, until I saw a truck run by..

Multipurpose Scooter, it can be a station wagon or a pickup/delivery truck.

Signs everywhere.

it's been awhile

It's been awhile since I posted anything here on this blog. A lot has happened:
sold the house in Flagstaff with a loss; moved back to Florida; downsized to a smaller place; trip to England, then another trip to Taiwan. Keeping myself busy at best.

Will be posting mmore pictures from my trips.
Here are some from Taiwan:

This is an art district in Taipei, from converted old factories into an art village. The whole place has plenty of artsy fartsy feel to it.
For this trip, I used my newly acquired Panasonic LX5, along with my old trusty Pentax DL camera. The DL is there as a spare, just in case I don't like the performance of the LX5. Well, after this trip, I have decided that the LX5 is a wonderful camera that I can use for all my trips, I will no longer take the bulkier DSLRs on my vacation trips!

Down the hall..

Election time in Taiwan. Well, it is just crazy time, but similar to politics in the US. lots of name calling and the usual craziness, and no one really talks about the issues..

Dunedin Brewery - Wednesday Open Mic Night

Dunedin Brewery is a popular hang out place in Dunedin, FL. Every Wednesday night is the open mic night, where bands, groups show up for 4 songs a piece. I was really impressed with the quality of the performances they put up. It's a nice place to hang out after work.
Please drink responsibly.