Since I'm on a roll, I thought I'd might as well put these photos up for my mum. My parents left London back in May but mum has been constantly asking me about the family of swans near our home. It's not how am I doing but have you seen the swans? Have the cygnets grown? Hmmmphhh....

The family back in April
In June
...July
I'd probably be taking a couple more photos before heading to HK with my brand new camera =) So, watch this space.

KL's heading to HK for a project this coming week. Guess who's tagging along?? Me!!! The timing is just perfect - my contract job finishes tomorrow so I'm flying over to join him. As he's going to be working his ass off (excuse the language) - I intend to fully utilise the nice boutique hotel the company has booked him in and take the time to explore Hong Kong. We didn't do much of sight-seeing the last time round since we were there for only a night. So I hope to change that this time round.

A couple of weeks ago, I've met with an old buddy from school, Reena who was in London for work. I haven't seen her for ages ... so it was nice to catch up. A lovely dinner by the Thames with Tower Bridge nearby, followed by a tour of Canary Wharf and a brief visit to our home. We ended up chatting until 3am in the morning until we sent her home. Boy..were we tired! Can't even remember the last time we stayed up so late. I'm definitely getting too old for this!

I've (or should I say KL bought me) finally got a myself a brand new toy, a Canon S5 IS. My old Canon Powershot A80 died on me when we were in Argentina. And around the same time, KL's SLR got stolen. Talk about coincidence!! Anyway, we've been living off a very basic digital camera which we bought in Patagonia for a very high cost.

Over the weekend, we took the new camera for a walkabout. Here are some shots round the corner from where we live.

A resident moorhen in her nest with high-rise Canary Wharf towering in the background.

The moor hen guarding her eggs closely.

A view from Millwall Dock.

Funny signs

The signs below are taken from our trip around the world.

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. I couldn't agree more - we could do with no mosquitoes in this world! This photo was taken from in a hostel we stayed in Zambia.
Hermanus, South Africa.
Miami, Florida. I'm sure a lot of people will agree with that.

A town outside Kyoto, Japan.
I just included this photo in because I thought it was quite cute. Though I think residents of Churchill would not agree with me.

Wimbledon

3 weeks at work and I have not been sacked. Not bad eh…. for a person who has not been working for over a year. That said, it’s still a struggle trying to wake up at 7 in the morning especially when you are used to waking up at noon just in time to catch ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ on TV and of course Wimbledon recently. =)

KL and I did manage our annual pilgrimage to Wimbledon this year. It was definitely a shock to us when there was absolutely no queue in getting the ground tickets. We did manage to catch a reasonably good match of Miss Hingis though KL was rather disappointed not being able to watch Hantuchova before the rest of the evening got rained off.

Hingis responding to KL shouting 'I love you!!'
Due to the rain, for the first time we actually took the time to visit the grounds instead of rushing from one court to the other.

Fans refusing to budge from their seats..
A view of Court 1.
The die-hard fans waiting for a break in the weather.

Cusco

It was a terribly long flight from Miami to Lima. It didn't help that our flight was a couple of hours delayed. Arriving slightly dazed in Lima, we took the next flight out to Cusco.

Even though we were well aware on effects of the altitude sickness since Cusco was over 3,000m above sea level - we were pretty confident that we would have no problems. After all, we used to frequent the Alps and have never suffered from altitude sickness. And, boy were we wrong!!! KL and I were sick the first few days - we were confined mostly in the hostal. That said, those knowing KL - we did still managed to get some nice chinese takeaway nearby to compensate for the pain and suffering.

Plaza de Armas - at the main square of the city.

Houses perched on the slopes of the hills.

Locals adorned in their traditional attire are especially for the tourists. You see them on the streets stopping tourists for photo oppurtunity for 1 Peruvian Sol. It's either that or kids trying to sell you postcards or constant harrasment by touts attempting to sell you travel packages to Machu Picchu etc... I guess tourism comes with a cost.

We ventured out on the local bus to a nearby town called Pisac. There wasn't much to do there except for the archealogical ruins and the local market.
KL having a go at llama herding.
An elderly selling powdered dye. The colourful embroidered shawls.

Many varieties of corn found in the market.


A statue of Jesus watching over the city.
One of my many favourite photos taken by KL.

Since we were not up for the 4 day trek up to the Lost City - blaming it on the altitude sickness and the heavy rain season, we cheekily took the comfortable and easy way up instead - the mountain train. Signs of old age (KL was suprsingly quick to agree this time - probably due to the delapitating effects of the altitude we experienced days earlier)! And so we joined the throngs of people queueing up to get tickets to get into the ruin. And, to think this is not even peak season!

The map outlining the layout of the Inca ruins - it's huge!

Locals hawking their wares to passengers in the train. If we were not backpacking for the next few months, I'd definitely be tempted to buy!

The terraces use for planting crops.

The llama happily posing for the classic postcard shot.

The magnificient Inca ruin, Machu Picchu.

The sun dial. If you look closely at the right-hand corner of a sun dial (that's the block of stone on the bottom right), you will see that it's slightly chipped. Apparently, a beer company thought it was a good idea to bring a crane up to film for an advertisment. The crane swung the wrong way mid filming and knocked a chunk off the block.

It was so hard to get so close to a llama - we struck gold when we came upon this friendly fellow sitting pretty on the terrace. We managed to get this shot, though as you can see I was slightly apprehensive - taking into consideration my big brother's advice (fan of the comic Tin Tin) not to get too close less you want to get spit on you.

Patagonian Range

Seven more days before I officially end my travelling-bum days and rejoin the rat-race (oh yes, got the job offer last Friday). Thought I'd better get on with organising our photos from our Round-the-world trip. KL and I have been meaning to do it for so long since we returned to London but, somehow we've managed to keep putting it off.

Anyway, as I plonk myself on the sofa, sifting through the many many photos (a shocking 40GB!) we took - I have ( yet again) managed to get myelf distracted; ending up on my blog site instead. So, here you go - some shots from Patagonia, Argentina.

El Chalten, a small remote village located at the foot of the Fitz Roy Mountain Range. It really reminded me of a cowboy town that you see on tv - unpaved roads, full of dust and a place where you see more horses than people.

A view of the mountains from the Mirador.
The magical sky of Patagonia. The sunsets are like none we have ever seen - a different display every evening.

Perito Moreno Glacier, one of the world's natural wonders.

The vastness of the glacier in comparison to a cruise ship.

The flora and fauna of the Patagonian... a fox enjoying the view.

... the Ilamas, well, the Llamas were keeping themselves occupied. Mind you the big guys was still at it even with a bus load full of wide-eyed tourists filming and snapping away.

Stunning sceneries in the National Park.

Parilla - succulent barbecued patagonian lamb. A meal we had practically every day - we've never eaten so much red meat in our lives.