I’m off to Ireland on Wednesday, for an Irish meetup in Cork. Should be interesting - I’m looking forward to meeting Robert Scoble, and quite a few other names on the list have interesting backgrounds. Should be good! Then it’s a three day break in the countryside and back home on Sunday.

Right, well, I’ve been a bit slow writing this up, but I thought I ought to comment on my America trip now that I’m over the jet lag and have had a full week and a half to do this!

Essentially - great! For those of you who don’t/only partially know I went on a trip to America with a mate, visiting New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. In eleven days we covered roughly 9000 miles and took about 800 photos between us.

New York City is exactly how the movies, TV series and stories portray it. Huge skyscrapers and wide roads, plenty of yellow taxis and horns sounding at all hours. We stayed in Manhattan, in a hostel next to Central Park - looking back we couldn’t have wished for a better place to stay. Both days included a walk through the park.

In fact, walking was a big part of our days. At one point we’d walked from 63rd Street down to Battery Park (but wussed out and took the subway back). We also walked around the usual sights - Ground Zero, UN Building, Empire State Building, New York University, Washington Sq Park, Madison Square Garden. We also took the ferry to Staten Island, wandered around there for a bit, got a Taco Bell and came back. The Statue of Liberty is nice, but smaller than I was expecting.

By the way, there’s a big hotel opposite Ground Zero - Hilton Millenium Hotel I think - I’m sure millennium has two n’s in it (Google seems to agree). A bit embarrasing if they never checked that.

As for the people: well, what a great place. We didn’t venture too far off Manhatten so I can’t be sure the smiles weren’t for tourism dollars (such a cynic, me) but the people we met were polite, patient and generally all-round pleasant folk. One minor encounter on Staten Island with an irrationally rude person I’m putting down to an anomoly.

On to Philadelphia by Greyhound on the New Jersey turnpike (which is, by the way, a great ride if you’re a Sopranos fan). Philly/Phila is a very historical city - it was where the declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were drafted (and I think, signed); the US government resided there for ten years before moving to Washington DC, and the Liberty Bell stands there to this day as a reminder of America’s freedom. It was also an important battle site between the Americans and the British in the American Revolution. We, err, came second.

From everything I saw, the locals call it Phila while the tourists (and thus, the tourism sites) call it Philly. Can anybody confirm that?

Finally, to Chicago where we stayed at the house of a very nice couple my travel mate knew from his university days. Staying with locals is definitely a great way to see a city. You get a sample of all the area as the residents see it, not the tourists (which I prefer as a more ‘genuine’ experience). We ate at several local restaurants, all with diverse backgrounds and origins. We saw the sights of suburban Chicago (including a wonderful sand beach onto Lake Michigan), travelled the tollways and Metra, and had some great evenings out.

We of course also did a few ‘touristy’ things - went up the Hancock Tower (which is free if you buy a drink at the bar two floors above the observatory!), saw the Bean (a huge metal warped sphere), went to the Shedd aquarium and rode the Loop. Chicago is, like New York, quite vertical. Donald Trump owns some land on the Chicago River and is planning to build the world’s tallest concrete-based tower there. Sears and Hancock already conquer the skyline and there are a myriad of other neck-stretching towers in the city.

So, that’s about it. We also saw a bit of Newark - the only notable thing there is the rabbits all over the grass at Newark International. I’ve never seen such ‘tame’ wild rabbits.

Other notes

• Chicago O’Hare airport has the most pathetic flightside provisions I’ve ever seen (although that’s been limited to Heathrow Terminal 4, Vienna Intl, and Philadelphia)
• Most things in American toilets (or ‘washrooms’) are automated. This includes taps, some toilets and I’m fairly sure a towel dispenser too. Unlike Britain however, you need to remember to flush urinals manually.
• Tipping is a bit odd at first, but you get used to it.
• American bills and coins are hard to identify. I spend at least 20 seconds looking for a quarter in my hand while at a corner store. It seems this is universal; the lady behind the counter asked "isn’t that a quarter there?". It was a dollar.
• You can buy a large (and I mean large) bottle of Vodka for $12. You can also buy 3 liter bottles of drinks. Americans like choice apparantly; every variety of Coke imaginable is sold in the States.
• Mountain Dew is revolutionary the first time you try it, but you quickly tire of the taste of it.
• Chilli sauce, jalapenos and other strange green liquids are as common a seasoning/topping in America as salt and pepper is here.
• American suburban roads have stop signs everywhere.
• I swear every Dunkin’ Donuts we passed had a cop car parked outside.
• Taco Bell is a genius idea and should be brought to the UK.
• Drive through ATMs are also genius ideas and should be brought to the UK.
• Turn right on red is a nice idea and should be brought to the UK (carefully).
• I have an unhealthy addiction to coffee. I drank my way through every standard item on Starbucks’ menu while in America. Peppermint frappuccino is niiiiiiice.

There we are. Photos are all on Flickr with even more commentary!

I am deeply aware that Blogwise is currently completely down. Unfortunately I’m currently in the States and won’t be back until Wednesday. I’ll do whatever I can to try getting the website back up in some form, but it’s likely that I’ll need to be back in the UK to get it running.

Many, many apologies. This is by far the most serious failure since Blogwise’s inception over three years ago, and by complete Sod’s law it happens on the 11 days I choose to take my first break!

More soon, hopefully good news!

Right, I’m flying off to the States for a while. 11 days in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. Since I won’t be near a computer for a while I’ve switched the comment moderation on, to stop all those lousy spammers getting through. Fortunately I have some people looking after my various website bits & pieces while I’m away, so Blogwise shouldn’t topple over for instance.

Much to show, photo-wise when I get back. Bought some sodding great CF cards the other day so I’ve no excuses not to take loads (unless the battery runs out…)

See you on the 16th…

Since getting the 350D (and for a quite a while before) I’ve been trying to read as much as I can about how best to take photos, what all the settings do and how they complement each other, and how accessories can be used to give effect to a photo.

There are, naturally, plenty of tutorials on the Internet, but one that stands out is Neil Turner’s. I happened to come across his site via the excellent DPReview website, which also carries a series of tutorials.

Great stuff for getting into photography.

*sigh* Saw the first Christmas advert on TV last night. WH Smith, what is wrong with you? It’s bloody October.

Now that the ads are going out, it’s time to guess when the first Christmas decorations will appear. This is actually usually quite a treat - there seems to be some competition amongst neighbours in one particular road, so the decorations get more impressive year after year.

The road has about 300 houses on it, and I reckon the first decorations will be up November 10. You are welcome to make your own predictions, and the closest guess will win my eternal respect (cash value 0.0000001p).

Well, I finally bit the bullet and got the Canon EOS 350D. Gotta say it’s a brilliant camera. For those who don’t know it’s an eight megapixel digital SLR, which refers to the mechanism by which photos are taken.

In practical terms, it means you don’t get an LCD viewfinder, and you don’t get videos. However, you do get an accurate viewfinder, remarkable battery life and the quality of photos are simply superb. The EOS 350D also allows you to mess about with all the usual parameters of cameras (aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc) very quickly. The auto focus is incredibly fast, the power-up and capture times are almost instantaneous and all round the results are great.

I also bought a Sigma 70-300mm lens - had great fun with it already, and I’m expecting to buy more as I can afford them

Among the purchases was a heavily protected backpack. In just over two weeks I’m off to America and I’m planning to take loads of photos (I’m also planning to get a bunch of 1 and 2Gb CompactFlash cards - RAW images are huge!). At the end of the month I’m also off to Cork, Ireland for three days, and the camera will be in hand there too. In the meantime, you can see my flirtations with the new camera already on Flickr.

Superb. Neil has spotted that Family Guy and American Dad both debut on BBC2 Saturday night

Gosport and Portsmouth have gone hi-res in Google Earth. The satellite images look fairly recent - the Tricorn Centre has gone and the Spinnaker Tower looks largely complete. You can also make out the naval base in a lot more detail (!) and follow the old railway line from Fareham to Gosport.

The maps haven’t been updated in Google Maps (the web version) but it’s only a matter of time…

After whetting my appetite last year with my first trip abroad, I’m now looking for more excuses to travel. The real biggie comes in November, when I will be travelling with a friend to New York, Philadelphia and Chicago over 11 days. After that, I’m hoping to go to Cork for three days between November and December, and will hopefully be hopping over to France or Belgium to get some Christmas-y goodies.

And why not, eh? Life’s too short to work all the time and after six years of pretty-much non-stop working I deserve some kind of holiday.

I’m particularly keen to get more into photography. The Canon A80 has served me well, but it’s time to move onto something a bit more ‘professional’. Little things that I would’ve been blissfully unaware of in my ignorance are now starting to bother me. Slow auto-focus. Sensitivity to noise. Limiting aperture and shutter speed are all bothering me as I test the camera in more adventurous ways. So, I’m now looking to upgrade. The Canon EOS 350D is prime candidate, and I’m already pretty much sold on it.. I’ve found a nice local supplier (would prefer this to buying online), and next week I’ll check it out. Hopefully I can finally make good use of that Flickr account that lays fairly dormant at the moment.

In the meantime, I’m preparing for America. Tickets are booked and passports at the ready. It should be a good month.