Last weekend I took a trip to South Wales to get a bit of fresh air and to explore a part of the UK I’d never been to before. It takes about two hours to reach Cardiff, the capital of Wales, from London by train making it ideal for a short getaway. While travelling around this region by public transport can be a bit limiting I did manage to get out of the cities to somewhere a bit more remote and moreover stunningly beautiful… Read more
LinkedIn, the social network for professionals (think Facebook, but more serious), has launched a new service called InMaps that visualises your ‘connections’ to other people as a single network graph. I had a play with it earlier and here’s how my network of 163 people who I’ve connected with through work looks like: Read more
In the morning of my final day in Kyoto I headed back to Northern Higashiyama to follow the Philosopher’s Walk (哲学の道), a pedestrian path that follows a cherry-tree-lined canal between Ginkaku-ji and Nanzen-ji, passing a number of temples and shrines along the way. As it was early I virtually had the place to myself and was about as idyllic as you can imagine. Read more
Last weekend I visited The Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) garden at Wisley in Surrey, south of London, which is one of the three most visited paid gardens in the UK (alongside Kew Gardens). It probably wouldn’t have been somewhere I’d visit usually but the opportunity arose and it was nice to get some fresh air and enjoy the newly opened “Butterflies in the Glasshouse” event. Read more
The last few weeks have been pure madness. After Christmas my plan was to return to Shenzhen from the UK, finish my job, say goodbye to people, pack up my apartment, and then move across to Hong Kong. In the end I only spent 4 days in China before unexpectedly being summoned back to London after some complications with work permits arose. Read more
Shenzhen is generally regarded as the epicenter of the world’s electronics industry with most of the worlds major brands manufacturing their products here. You can find virtually anything you want in the many electronic markets which can be found around the city, most of which are clustered around Hua Cheng Be (Hua Qiang Lu Metro Station, exit A).
As 2011 begins the time for reflection and change is upon us again. 2010 was a bit of a mixed bag with plenty of highs and lows along the way. Most of the highs were travel related, the pinnacle being a trip to Japan, but also adventures in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and a return to South Korea. Another highlight was having the chance to present some of my photos to an audience and being interviewed. The lows are not worth revisiting but sufficed to say it’s hard to believe the year passed so quickly. Read more