Over the course of ten days, these green-haired gremlins managed what many of my friends would dream of achieving in ten years. I’m not one to talk myself; heading as I am to Baldsville, at bullet-speed, on the main road in. My wife bought these for the children to enjoy and they sat in the dining room where I captured the progress every other morning. The first photo, below, was taken on October 1st; and the last one on October 11th.
One of my favourite apps for the iPad is Flipboard. It puts all your feeds into a nice magazine-look, making many of the images and links visible. The app is still young and full of potential. I use it for leisure reading and to stay current with all my feeds from twitter and Facebook. As well as their suggested content, it’s possible to split your subjects by your own twitter lists. I therefore started adding to the many photographers I follow – something I’d been hesitating with recently as I couldn’t effectively read the many posts. My content is now getting richer and richer by the day.
Most of the conversations with friends and family this time of the year revolve around travel. My wife’s last day at work yesterday signals the start of the family’s summer holiday, which is mostly spent outside Kuwait. I will, God willing, join them on two separate short trips – the first of which will be late July.
The images in this video are not new. Readers of this blog will have already come across them. I had some fun with the globe widget, and enjoyed trying to fit it all into 80 seconds. It’s not perfect, but I like the end result. The background singing is of traditional Kuwaiti sea songs – something I associate very strongly with travel.
Whatever you’re doing this summer, and wherever you’re spending it, I wish you all the best.
I’ve been meaning to test my new macro lens for a while now. The dusty weather last week didn’t help with shooting flowers. I want my first flower post to be from our garden. I took a couple of test shots, of flower petals and an ugly fly, holding the camera by hand. The results were fantastic.
My wife has started training for a 10km run planned for July 11th in London. She’s raising money for War Child and her target is both modest and ambitious. My job involves no running… I get tired driving 10km! So I opted for the very important and extremely stressful task of PR. In fact I think I’m doing all the work here… This post is therefore a request for donations from you: my dear readers.
The minimum donation is £2 – which is presumably to cover the transaction costs. Donating online is easy, safe and secure. It should not take you more than 5 minutes. All major credit cards are accepted – as well as PayPal. Please give what you can. Even tiny donations will help – please don’t hesitate.
Click here for more information, and indeed to make a donation. Good luck, Noreen, and thank you everyone.
хомяк, pronounced homyak, is Russian for Hamster. Scabbers, pictured here, is in fact a Russian Hamster. He lives in Yousef’s school during the week, and stays with different children during weekends. We have the pleasure of keeping him here for the long weekend!
We went bowling on Wednesday. It was our first time as a family, and I cannot recommend it enough. No gadgets, no phones, no inturruptions, just good quality family time full of fun with a competitive spirit.
I lived in London for more than fifteen years, but this was the heaviest accumulation of snow I’ve seen. My trip has changed and I’m back in London over the weekend for some meetings during the week. Colleagues, new to London, were asking me what to do on Saturday morning. I offered shopping, but they preferred to join me on my ‘photo walk’.
With many hundreds of business cards collected from various people around the world, we needed an idea. Although I didn’t intentionally collect the cards, they filled two boxes which had started showing cracks. The thing is: once I’ve scanned the cards, they’re useless… but throwing them out felt too easy.
In fact there wasn’t a single cloud in sight. I just couldn’t think of a better title to describe the feeling of my experience yesterday. Imagine suddenly growing wings… then imagine something grabbing you, rocketing you a thousand metres up and… letting you go. It was exhilarating!
It’s not a serious piece of kit, but you can have some serious fun with this little camera. When I read the review, I thought it was a little gimmicky. Then I saw the Stuff TV video review, and I couldn’t wait to buy one. The Canon D10 is the best companion on wet holidays.
After a busy day at work, and with the dusty weather outside, I needed to set myself a small challenge of indoor photography. In the blurred photo above, there is a boat, its fuel and its engine. For twenty minutes, I had as much fun as a five-year-old would with a life-sized remote-controlled car! Well, not that much fun, but you get the picture…
I thought I had seen everything they can do with a remote-controlled car, then I saw these. They’re not well built/put-together, quite ugly and not robust enough for what they’ve been designed for. For a child however, none of this matters… It can drive on walls and ceilings!
Late last week, I heard a funny fact on BBC Radio; If the Washington Redskins win in the week of the election, the incumbent party would win… Apparently this has been true since 1936! They lost – so the rule still applies.
The International Institute of Economics spoils the fun saying there were gaps. However, with a bit of magic, they add the Boston Red Sox to the equation and everybody is happy. Article here if you’re interested.
Speaking of everybody being happy – I really think everyone is!
I have to admit, I was not expecting Obama to win, not even two hours before the final result was announced. I am so glad I was wrong. Well Done America – and congratulations to the World.
 | Marzouq on Getting High |
| Marzouq on Al Hamra |
| Marzouq on Reclaimed Land |
| Marzouq on In the Right Place at the Flig… |
| Marzouq on iTelephone |
Help
My blog is strictly about photography… so for this post I wrote the above and, well, took a photo of it! I was looking for a trusted website today to send a donation for Haiti. I was planning to pay around $50, then I thought it would be more fun to involve you. Yes you!
Until 12pm Kuwait time on Friday, for every comment I get from a unique visitor to this post, I will add a dollar to my original donation. I post on Facebook and Twitter, so I will be counting the comments, replies and retweets – as well as those below. I’m optimistic, but I apologise (a little) for also being realistic. I will pay a maximum of $200 to WFP. If you know of a better organisation, please let me know.
Thank you for YOUR HELP!
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