#!/giles/rapkin.com

Greenwich and the docklands

We decided to go for a wander around the docklands on Saturday. I’ve decided I need to get some practice in with my new camera before we go to China. We started off at the thames barrier, and I took these:-

I think I might have to pay another visit when the weather’s a bit better. It was a bit overcast yesterday.

After the thames barrier we headed for Canary Wharf for lunch. There wasn’t a great deal to take a picture of around there. Just a load of boring glass buildings. There was this big wireframe snowman though:-

After lunch we headed for Greenwich for a walk around the park and the old naval college:-

We decided to leave climbing the hill up to the observatory to another day.

The iPhone

The iPhone has finally been unveiled. I soooo want one! Looks like everybody in Europe is going to have to wait until at least October to get their hands on one of these though.

Shame :-(

Lunch at The Wolseley

As a treat for my birthday Andy took me to The Wolseley for lunch. The restaurant is in a magnificent grade II listed building next door to The Ritz on Piccadilly. It has high vaulted ceilings, grand pillars and elaborate marble floors throughout.

Apparently it started out life as car showroom in the early 1920s for Wolseley Motors. Unfortunately the company went bankrupt a few years later. It then spent the rest of the 20th century as a bank, before Chris Corbin and Jeremy King (who previously restored The Ivy to it’s former glory) opened it up as a grand café in 2003.

The service in The Wolseley was faultless, despite what I had read to the contrary on some restaurant review sites. The food on the other hand was a different matter. The menu contained a lot of dishes based on classics from other European grand cafés. But as a result the menu looked a bit bland and uninspired.

Apparently The Wolseley is good for star spotting, though when we were there for lunch it just seemed to be full of American tourists that were staying at The Ritz next door.

Though not as fun as dining out at The Ivy, eating at The Wolseley was a pleasant experience nonetheless :)

New Camera! :)

My parents got me a digital camera for Christmas :-D. A Panasonic DMC-FZ50. I’ve been thinking about buying an SLR for ages, as I’ve started to feel the limitations of my little Canon compact camera. I decided I wanted to get my hands on a DSLR before I go to China in April, but I’ve never really had the money to spend on one. But now I have one :).

Well, kind of. It’s not really an SLR, as you can’t change the lens, but It has a couple of advantages over a traditional DSLR. I can use the screen as well as the viewfinder to compose shots. The screen also swivels out at various angles, making it possible to take photographs at waist height or above a crowd. As the lens is fixed to the camera I will never have problems with getting dust on the sensor. The Leica 35-400 lens is quite compact. It’s only roughly the same size as a standard 18-55 kit lens, yet offers a far greater zoom.

It still feels pretty much like using a traditional DSLR too. It has manual focus and zoom rings on the lens barrel, and dials for controlling the aperture and shutter speed on the hand grip. Yet it also has a handy set of built in presets if you just want to point and shoot or are in a hurry. It’s a fair bit cheaper than an entry-level DSLR too, at about £200 less than the Canon EOS 400D with kit lens.

I haven’t had much of a chance to play with it yet, but keep your eyes on my flickr photostream ;)

Public transport hell

The piccadilly line was rammed today, due to the central line being part-suspended in West London. It seems that some idiots decided to steal some power cables at North Acton. It took me an hour and a half to get to work this morning thanks to that.

After living in london for just over four years I can safely say I’m not London Underground’s biggest fan. Every time something goes slightly wrong on the tube you can guarantee your journey home is going to be hell. The system just doesn’t cope. I can see why so many people still choose to drive into central London despite the congestion charge. Instead of punishing people financially for not using public transport maybe the government should be doing more to improve the tube.