Light and Liberty
24 December 2019
Taken only an hour before the blizzard (below) The Statue of Liberty Illuminating the World (La Liberté éclairant le monde) stands lit in the winter afternoon sun, set amongst wave patterns from the wakes of boats in New York Harbor.
Merry Christmas to my reader, whoever you are!
A Sudden Chill
18 December 2019
Only a few minutes after getting great views of New York from the top of One World Trade Center today the whole city disappeared suddenly as snow rolled in.
Happily by then we were on a bus and in the warm, but I snapped this through the window as we passed Battery Park.
Forecast for tomorrow morning is no snow, but temperatures at -8 Celsius (17 Fahrenheit). Going to leave the camera behind in favour of gloves.
Club DeLuxe
16 December 2019
Seems a bit glib to say ‘we were walking down Haight Street in San Francisco yesterday and heard music coming from a bar, so we walked in…’. But that’s what happened. This trio were playing the Club DeLuxe. They covered everything from Miles Davis through George Gershwin to Booker T. With gusto. I feel a fraud posting this photograph as ‘art’ when these three have dedicated a lifetime to learning, rehearsing, improvising and then sharing their music – for tips – with an almost empty room.
Wakey Wakey Waikiki
12 December 2019
As election day dawns in the UK, I’m posting from Hawaii.
It was worth an early morning alarm call to get out on the beach and catch the intense early light coming up over Diamond Head at the end of Waikiki Beach.
Au Revoir Australia
7 December 2019
After a struggle with obtaining the right paperwork for me to visit the USA on the way home, we finally arrived at Sydney airport bound for Honolulu, collecting my passport from the courier’s office on the way. Then we discovered that we could not check-in because Debbie’s ESTA visa waiver was not in order and had a tense wait after applying again for an emergency turn-around to get a new one.
At last I’m writing this in the departure lounge with boarding passes issued and bags dropped. After Honolulu we stop off in San Francisco and New York for a scenic ride back to the UK in time for Christmas and family get togethers.
The picture says ‘THIS IS THE END’, but I’m hoping we’ll be back in Australia for a visit real soon.