I have rarely* had cause to complain about the food in the Middle East and the offerings here at the hotel in Dubai are no exception. It is no coincidence that this is the second shot from here to feature food, and in only four pictures thus far — see this similar effort from March 2019.
[*] there was one legendarily bad meal in Jeddah, though — the exception that proves the rule? Either way the memory of a liver-and-banana stew still lives with me.
The house pooch of the Star Inn, Penzance, doesn’t necessarily take his guard dog duties all that seriously, at least not where the breakfast buffet is concerned. Then again I was the only guest, so presumably he’d decided I was legitimate.
In Donegal one sometimes feels one has gone back in time. Definitely, the tourist facilities need to catch up a little. Our B & B was kind of rustic, as you can see.
I’m only joking. Actually this was a scene in one of the reproduced historic Irish cottages in the Glencolumbkille Folk Centre. This village, out on the west coast of the world (well, Europe anyway), thereby becomes the 400th different named location to feature on the blog. (See the stats page if you really want the full list.)
We can’t have the more resource-efficient carafes of fruit juice because that way we will get the plague, or something Then again, there seemed only three people breakfasting this morning in the hotel, like the scene in Invasion of the Body Snatchers when the main characters go out for dinner and it’s like, ‘where is everyone?’. Nah, we don’t do that kind of thing, in the anticipated future. The mirror in the background doubles up on the number of cartons, and also makes this a self-portrait, kind of.
The sun deigned to make a brief appearance this morning, shining on the chairs of the breakfast room at our hotel. Though it was the last chance to see it on our trip to Eskdale, as we were back in Hebden by lunchtime. But even if the weather has been somewhat dubious, how good was it to have got away for a while.
On Sunday morning this room was full, but clearly Clare and I were the only people who felt like extending their stay at the Arundel Park hotel into Monday morning. What the hell, it’s been an excellent weekend.
I’m sure this is a sign of the decay of Western civilisation or whatever, but hey, at least we’re all around the same table at the same time.
Early picture today — in fact, the earliest true morning picture since 5th August last year (in Tanzania).
We had gone out last night to celebrate Clare’s birthday and stayed over in Leeds. I was inspired by great light in the hotel breakfast room but C. did the ‘no pictures!’ thing, perhaps not feeling as if she was looking at her best after the night before.
Last morning in Byron Bay. To prove that it isn’t just a beach and a cool sunset, here’s a shot to show it has cafés too. Lots and lots of them in fact. I passed the time in this one while waiting for my bus.
In the 126 days of this blog, few have been harder than today was when it came to finding inspiration. I worked at home all day, not leaving the house; the weather outside was flat grey skies and rain; I didn’t even have the other family members as subjects as both were out from early on and aren’t coming back until tomorrow.
But I have a duty to fulfil, so here is my best effort – given a little tweak by going black & white, which works on this shot, I think (and disguises how faded is the coloured fabric of the duvet cover). It also gives the eagle-eyed among you a chance to vet my sense of humour and football-related reading matter.
Being 42 