Welcome to my little corner of the Web

Starting Was Easy…
Keeping It Going Is Harder.

I show up here every single day and post (at least) one picture…
and it’s been going on since 5th August 2013.

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This is the follow-up of a little personal blog started in 2006 (!) when we moved to Beijing, followed up by a blog of our time in Norway (but abandoned after 2 years) but…

We are back in the ‘Jing….
Let’s the madness begin.
We are not new at this…
It’s 20+ years in the making:
USA, France, Argentina, Scotland, China, Norway & China (again) are the places we lived.
As for the places we visited… Should I do an A to Z list?!

Update: We left the ‘Jing and move to Sing’…. 20 years and we are still spinning around (with) the world

PLEASE NOTE:
The posts on this blog are auto-posted
(because WordPress is blocked in China!) from the original blog:
http://www.aTotalTaiTaiTale.tumblr.com.
Sometimes it doesn’t work perfectly, sorry 😦

 

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Un air de Singapore.

Once you start to travel a lot, you start to notice similarities between places.

Not only this little restaurant reminded us of home (one of our home for 6 years) but while I was walking downtown I notified this building. It reminded me a bit of Pompidou center in Paris with its inside-out design but it mostly reminded me of a building in Singapore where we took a family photo back in 2018

The Lloyd’s building (sometimes known as the Inside-Out Building) is the home of the insurance institution Lloyd’s of London. The building is a leading example of radical Bowellism architecture in which the services for the building, such as ducts and lifts, are located on the exterior to maximise space in the interior. In 2011, twenty-five years after its completion in 1986 the building received Grade I listing; at this time it was the youngest structure ever to obtain this status. It is said by Historic England to be “universally recognised as one of the key buildings of the modern epoch”. Its innovation of having key service pipes and other components routed outside the walls has led to very expensive maintenance costs due to their exposure to the elements.

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Maarten Baas Real time clock.

There is a man trapped in a giant clock!

The Real Time series are 12-hour films of performances indicating the time. The Real Time XL features a life size video performance of the artist working as if from inside the clock itself, continually drawing and redrawing the correct time onto the inside of the clock face. Real Time was launched in April 2009 at the Salone Del Mobile in Milan (IT), then in July 2016 the Schiphol Clock was commissioned for Amsterdam’s international airport. (I got the pleasure of seeing it when I had a 7 hours layover there!!). The Maarten Baas Real Time clock at Paddington’s Eastbourne Terrace was unveiled in November 2021.

The concept reinforces the notion of time as a human invention, and draws attention to the phenomenon of time passing at the exclusion of all else.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/UPs7Ene

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The world famous Harrod’s

The store occupies a 5-acre (2 ha) site and has 330 departments covering 1.1 million sq ft (100,000 m2) of retail space. It is one of the largest and most famous department stores in the world.

The Harrods motto is Omnia Omnibus Ubique, which is Latin for “all things for all people, everywhere”. Several of its departments, including the Seasonal Christmas department, jewellery departments and the Food Halls, are well known.

The whole decoration with Egyptian motif was commissioned by Mohamed Al-Fayed, Harrods’ former owner, to refer to his cultural heritage. He sold Harrod’s in 2010 for £1.5 billion ($1.86 billion) to Qatar Holdings.

I personally liked Liberty a lot more. It has a lot more charm.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/JvyX4w9

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Notting Hill/North Kensington

Because it was a holiday, portobello streets felt more like a Sunday.

I feel like my best photos of the area were taken last year, first because everything was new to my eyes and also the flowers were all blooming (it must have bloomed earlier this year because I was there at the same time last year)….

Check out the photos of my trip last May here.

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Kensington Palace and Garden

While I have often walked to Hyde Park I never ventured on the west side of the park toward Kensington.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/QBuYD5s

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London architecture.

There is definitely a London Architecture.

You could drop someone in a street in London and you would know instantly you are in London.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/W8Bi4lY

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St Alphage Garden and London wall.

After a few visits you start to pin places on your Google maps that are less and less on the tourists path.

St Alphage Garden is an urban garden in the City of London, off London Wall. It was converted from the former churchyard of St Alphage London Wall in 1872. The north edge of the garden is defined by a section of the ancient London Wall, which was built below the current street level between 190 and 225 AD and was crenellated in 1477 during the Wars of the Roses.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/fxic0tn

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Saint Paul

The many ways of photographing Saint Paul.

From the Reflection pool and from the Millenium bridge are still my favorite.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/DBdxgbi

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London Westminster and Big Ben.

Once you’ve been to a city many times, especially in a short period of time, you feel like you’ve photographed it better the previous time you were there because it was all new to you, so now you just keep walking.

You almost become part of the city, yet you are not there all the time so you might not be at the right time to photograph it. So you just enjoy it.

Not quite a tourist anymore but not really a local either. #InBetween

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Tower Bridge… one of the London landmarks.

Tower Bridge has become a recognisable London landmark. It is sometimes confused with London Bridge, about 0.5 miles (800 m) upstream, which has led to a persistent urban legend about an American purchasing the wrong bridge.

Tower Bridge is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894. It crosses the River Thames close to the Tower of London and is one of five London bridges owned and maintained by the City Bridge Foundation, a charitable trust founded in 1282. The bridge is 940 feet (290 m) in length including the abutments and consists of two 213-foot (65 m) bridge towers connected at the upper level by two horizontal walkways, and a central pair of bascules that can open to allow shipping.

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