Ipswich Christmas Lights

Tonight after work I walked around the city centre getting pictures of the Christmas lights. Shops were open late tonight; normally these high streets are mostly empty.

Not to Plan

I did not bring a little girl into the world in order to do this. Is it too late to trade for another one?

Day Trip to Lowestoft

We did indeed make a day trip to Lowestoft today. Parking near the shore, we walked toward the town centre and the high street.



Doesn't this fellow make you want to buy a bag of chips?





Despite all photographic evidence, there were times in the day in which Sarah's tongue stayed inside her mouth.



There was supposed to be a Christmas market, selling Continental European foods and crafts, along the high street today but the only evidence of it was a mere two stalls. It was disappointing. There must have been more of a turnout Friday and Saturday. So we wandered and shopped, and gave Sarah a ride.



As we walked back to our car, the darkening skies gave us a few drops of rain, but on the drive back, we got some more sun, showing off the fall colours.

New Camera

Christmas came early for me today. Weeks ago Margo gave me a budget and let me get a new DSLR camera. After lots of research I settled on the Nikon D40X.

This is a big step up from our seven-year-old Olympus digital camera. We go from 3.3 megapixels in our sensor to 10.2. From 32 megabytes of storage on a long-obsolete format (capable of storing 42 JPEG pictures at 2048 x 1536 pixels), to 8 gigabytes of storage (capable of storing over 660 RAW pictures at 3872 x 2592 pixels).

But there are three big advantages for me. I get much better low-light performance (from ISO 400 to 3200, plus the ability to work with vibration-reduction lenses), so the next time I'm in a cathedral (for example), I'll have fewer pictures blurred by camera shake. My startup time is a near-instant 0.18 seconds, instead of several seconds, so I'll miss fewer shots when interesting things happen. And I've also got a fistful of sexy kit.

At this price point, there were several worthy alternatives, and I'd gladly bore you all with the detailed reasons why I chose this one. But thinking of this as the beginning of a long-term and probably ludicrously expensive hobby, the choices really narrow down to two players: Canon and Nikon. Which family do I join? The competition between both is very intense, so either choice is a good one in that respect - neither side is clearly inferior. I decided on Nikon as I like their ergonomics more.

I'm looking forward to sharing (marginally) better pictures with you all. Tomorrow is our first chance to take some. We are planning to visit the Christmas village in Lowestoft, on the Norfolk coast.

Sarah Designs

Sarah recently emerged from her bedroom to show us her latest Lego designs. I was impressed by two things. In designing her race car, she added cockpits so the two "people" (the figures with the eyes) fit inside it. (Not atop it - inside it.) And the brickwork of her house is perfectly symmetrical.

Unity

Tonight (as I type) there's another telethon on. This is for the charity Children in Need. On BBC One, for a total of seven hours, there's loads of entertainment. We just saw the Spice Girls perform their new single written just for the event. Shortly after was a sketch featuring two Doctor Whos: the current Doctor David Tennant and a previous Doctor Peter Davison. Like I wrote earlier during Red Nose Day, I really admire it when so many people come together for a charitable cause.

Similarly, people all over the UK are wearing a poppy this month. It's a way of acknowledging the nation's soldiers and veterans.

Whatever

Sarah showed me something new she learned from her mates. "W" for Whatever, pronounced "wot-evah".

Fall Colours, and a Trip to London

Yesterday I went out for the day and brought my camera along. (Margo and Sarah wanted to stay home.)

On the way to my Saturday morning coffee on the Ipswich waterfront, I went through Alexandra Park and got this picture. There was a decent wind, and I could see lots of leaves falling. I got the feeling that these trees would be mostly bare by the end of the day.



London's an easy choice for a day out for me. There's loads to see, and it's free for me as I get a monthly pass for my rail travel.

My first stop in London was the Rough Trade music shop on Brick Lane. There happens to be a Brick Lane movie on current release, which focuses on the immigrant experience in east London.

Next I went southwest to the Knightsbridge neighbourhood. First, I wanted to visit Harrods, since I was too early last time I was there. I walked the mens' department, and started to feel silly after a while as I was dressed casually, so I didn't explore much more.

Next I continued down the road to the Victoria and Albert Museum. It's a museum of textiles: clothing, furniture, interior design. It's one of the few major London museums I haven't seen. I didn't expect to spend much time there, but I did get drawn into a few exhibits: a room on artwork based on maps; collections of design artifacts from recent decades of the 20th century, including trainers, album covers, mobile phones, and portable electronics; and fashion photography.

This is the lobby, dominated by a chandelier which I'm pretty sure is by Dale Chihuly, a bit of Northwest familiarity.



I didn't realise the signifigance until later, but I did, on my way out, ask a V&A security person, with no conscious irony, "Excuse me, could you direct me to the Albert Hall?" I even used dierect instead of deerect. Guess I'm going a bit native ...

I walked the two blocks to Hyde Park and from there, got a good picture of the Hall.



You may have seen that before, but did you know that, across the street, in Hyde Park, there's this monument to Prince Albert? I didn't.



As I walked north through the park toward Oxford Street, the sun came out briefly, allowing me to capture the fall colours in another park that day.

Fireworks

All weekend, and Monday night (the Fifth of November, remember, remember) we're seeing amateur fireworks at night for Guy Fawkes Day. They're not nearly as annoying as the Fourth of July fireworks for a few reasons:

• The fireworks stop at a sensible hour (I don't recall hearing any after 10pm);
• This time of year, we don't have our windows open, so it's easier to ignore the sounds and smells;
• All the roofs are slate, so there's less danger of accidental fires.
  

Star Wars

ITV has been playing the original Star Wars trilogy Sunday nights at the family-friendly time of 4.25 pm, starting last week. Tonight we watched The Empire Strikes Back. Over dinner I mentioned I wished I had Darth Vader's ability to silence Sarah when she pestered me. I mimicked, "My dad is a tro- ack- ack-".

Sarah took to it immediately, and so for quite a while over dinner, she'd pester us until one of us would waggle some fingers at her, at which point she'd pretend to choke.