Someone to look up to

The headquarters of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) on The Corniche is a landmark in Abu Dhabi.

It’s also where I toiled (figuratively speaking) for the last ten years of my working life, the final part of which was spent in an office on the inner side of the left hand tower, somewhere near the bottom of this image. It was on the 23rd floor, so from ground level you’d certainly have to look upwards.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: point your camera upwards

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Scale

Petra is built on a colossal scale, as is evident from this view of the Treasury from the Siq – the 1.2km long narrow passage that is the most common way to enter the ‘rose-red city, half as old as time’.

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Scale

Monday Window: Abbaye de la Reau

Who’d be a window cleaner here at Abbaye de la Reau?

#MondayWindow 9 March 2020

52 Week Smartphone Challenge: Week 10 – Hometown

Week 10 of the Smartphone Challenge poses me something of a dilemma. Does the theme of ‘Hometown’ refer to the place I grew up, or where I live now? There is a vast difference.

I was born and grew up in in the town of Birkenhead, in north-west England. Its principal redeeming feature is that it is just across the River Mersey from, and therefore boasts a very good view of, Liverpool, which I think of as much more my spiritual hometown.

Now, however – and since 2012 – we live in a very small French hamlet which for blogging purposes I refer to as ‘Tranquility Base’. We really wouldn’t want to live anywhere else and we certainly think of it as our home.

It’s where we want to watch our sunsets.

52WeekSmartphoneChallenge 10

 

 

Circulation Perturbée

Down here in la France profonde, the more common causes of circulation perturbée (traffic problems) – such as roadworks or a jack-knifed lorry – are just as likely to be supplemented by finding yourself on a country road  behind a local farmer in the process of moving his flock of sheep from one field to another.

The ubiquitous white van is the modern-day sheepdog.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: must end in ‘ock’

Glass Masters

In the entrance to a factory on the Venetian island of Murano, rightly famed for the manufacture of glass.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Glass

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Junk

In the UK, the conventional wisdom is that, if you’re looking to sell your house, you make it clean and tidy; perhaps brew some fresh coffee, even bake some bread, in order to create a cosy, welcoming ambience for the prospective purchaser.

In rural France, however, as we discovered on our own house-hunting trip, it’s common practice just to pile up a load of junk and invite the viewer to use their imagination and see past it.

(We didn’t buy this one – although that isn’t to say that the one we did end up acquiring looked any better on first sight)

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Junk

Monday Window: Limoges Cathedral

It’s a week for stained glass again on the Monday Window Challenge hosted by Ludwig. This is to be found in the cathedral of Limoges.

#MondayWindow 2 March 2020

52 Week Smartphone Challenge: 9 – Mood

Mood, you ask?

Faintly baffled, as usual.

52WeekSmartphoneChallenge 9

Portents

Well, if it’s not actually raining, it soon will be….

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Clouds