Welcome to the family......

In preparation for the nice summers here in Seattle and all those day trips that I plan to do, I decided to add another lens (Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens which will provide a longer range - I only had a 50mm and an 18-55mm lens before), an external flash (Canon 430EX Speedlite Flash as the build-in one with the camera is not that great) and a wireless remote control (Canon Wireless Remote Control RC1 which is good for taking night photos as I don't have steady hands) to my collection of accessories for my Canon Rebel XTi DSLR camera. Each of these should hopefully help me improve my photography skills, which at this current moment can be classified as a novice. Attaching everything onto the camera actually makes it very heavy so I think I should go to the gym more and beef up a lot :-)


Last Saturday, I decided to walk down over the Ballard Bridge and take a couple of pictures of the boats in Fisherman's Terminal. Here are some of the shots I took. The first was at 28mm and the second was zoomed in to 135mm (this is the boat that is on the center right hand side of the first photo) - the third is just random shot. I was happy with the range and it should enable me to get some good photos when I go Whale Watching some time during the summer.


Oh, I also finally watched "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" in the cinema (or theater for my American readers) - if you have not seen the film and don't want to read what I thought about it, please stop reading here. Although it was good to complete the trilogy, I actually had mixed feelings about the film. Maybe I just did not get the plot - I blame my brain not functioning properly due to old age :-). So who was betraying who or was it just all a scheme to get Jack Sparrow on the Flying Dutchman? And what was so frightening about Calypso? Was it just the little whirlpool? I did think it was funny having Keith Richards play Jack Sparrow's father though as to the best of my knowledge, Johnny Depp based Jack Sparrow's mannerism on him. I will probably watch it again when it is on HBO in the future as the action is quite good and it was good to see Chow Yun Fat in it. Maybe I should train up my brain by playing the "Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree" game on the Nintendo Wii in the meantime :-)

Fremont Fair at the Center of the Universe

With the beginning of summer, it is the time of year for the Fremont Fair and the Solstice Parade held at the Center of the Universe. This parade is famous for the naked cyclists (body paint optional), but unfortunately, my bus was late so I miss them :-( I did get to see some of them participating in other parts of the parade later though and let's just say that they left nothing to the imagination - especially the woman trying to hula hoop and doing leg kicks which was definitely not a pretty sight. The rest of the parade was interesting and quite cultural. Some of them sent a message like promoting recycling while others were just weird. Here are some photos for you all to determine which ones are weird:

The last of the naked cyclists

No idea what is this is - answers on a postcard to.....

Egyptian Belly Dancers

Be Green!!

It is summer, not Christmas!!!

Too much plastic surgery??

Did you want mustard on that hot dog??

Who wants a hug??

Beware of the trees!!

This got a big cheer from the crowd. I wonder why.... :)

Music!!!

And more music!!!

After the parade finished, I went to Gasworks Park and started chatting to some of the people who took part in the parade. They were actually the hula hoopers who were encouraging people especially kids to try it (luckily the naked woman was not one of them and just a participant). They were really cool people and glad to have met them - just a bit of promoting for them, if you are in Seattle and wants to hula hoop then they meet on Thursday 7pm at Green Lake. For me, I doubt I will ever go though as I will never see myself hula hooping. People, including men who wanted to show off, did have a good time doing it though.

The Hula Hoopers!

As part of the fair, there was also a Solstice Pageant which sounded interesting to watch. Of course, silly me, in a desperate attempt to find food, I completely forgot about it and missed it. Oh well, there is always next year. Hmm, maybe I will even participate. Anyone up for naked cycling??? OK, only joking, I cannot even ride a bike!!!!!

My first blog!!!!

Since leaving my home town of London for just as rainy Seattle two and a half years ago, I have been very bad at correspondences with all my friends and family back home. Hopefully creating this blog will help me keep people up to date with what I have been up to here in Seattle. With time, I am hoping that I will become more creative but the people who know me well will know that English and creative writing is not my strong subject so don't hold your breath :-)