Paris, at last!

I can't believe it took me so long to visit Paris but I'm definitely glad I have and it looks like it will be the first of many visits.

Not only is it extremely easy to get there from Birmingham - particularly if you live within easy reach of Birmingham airport - but it also provides the kind of relaxing atmosphere that is hard to find in England.

Maybe it's simply to do with being 'on holiday' and not being constantly reminded of the ever-increasing to-do list that seems to stop easy weekends at home being as peaceful as they should be. Even so, the plethora of sights available, interesting places to visit and things to do, and the abundance of street cafes selling great food and drink don't half help.

Personally I enjoy spending time in London (when not on work duty anyway!) and, for me, Paris is very much like a more spacious, more relaxed, less populated version. It still has the hustle and bustle of a capital city, but with room to breathe at the same time.

One day I'll definitely be returning with full camera kit to make the most of the sights - in the meantime I'm still quite happy with these holiday snaps taken with my Canon Ixus 50, the perfect travel companion (as long as you have a spare battery to hand as well!).

I've got tickets!

I've got tickets!
Originally uploaded by thornj.

Hmm... this post is mostly because I'm testing out the whole 'Blog this' feature in Flickr and checking it all works correctly with the new version of blogger. If you're reading this ok then clearly it all worked fine.

Did I mention I've got tickets to the 2nd semi final in the 2007 cricket world cup in the Caribbean? Marvellous.

Let it snow, let is snow (etc...)

From a sunny day at the beach to a snow covered winter landscape in just a few days - isn't weather absolutely fascinating. It's no wonder that we spend the majority of our time talking about it.

It did also provide the opportunity for me to take yet another photo of Selly Park from (roughly) the same viewpoint to compare different conditions.
So far we have autumn, frost and now snow.

Looking briefly at the stats for this site the other day made one point very obvious. Thanks to my ongoing survey of different cider brands, and therefore the number of cider related posts, the majority of people who appear to stumble here by way of a search engine are doing so whilst looking for cider related content!

...and now I feel guilty for not having reviewed any cider recently - don't worry, I'll be back on the case soon.

Finally for now, after reading this post on View From The Hill about using public transport I thought, yes, good point well made. So isn't it a shame then that this year saw the bus prices in Birmingham rise by 17%, way above inflation, from £1.20 to £1.40 standard fare.

Now I'm not necessarily saying that £1.40 is a bad price for a bus fare, particularly for those that live a good distance out of the city centre (not me!) - but a sudden rise of 17% isn't exactly going to encourage people to jump onto public transport and save the environment now is it?