Photos of the day: Shanghai

Below are some pics taken last Saturday from the top of the Shanghai World Financial Center (inset - the one that looks like a giant beer bottle opener). It's an absolutely massive building - one of the tallest in the world. It's a spectacular view from there I must say - everything looks unreal like toytown! Even the other skyscrapers look pathetically tiny from the top of this beast. As impressive as the view is, I wasn't too keen on Shanghai. The tower was a sod to get to from my hotel, requiring a subway journey (just to cross the river), and much scrambling across building sites. I was also harrassed by every scam-artist, beggar and "art teacher" during my very short visit to Shanghai. I was actually glad to leave in the end!

Read up about the "Shanghai Scam" here and here. Male tourists beware!

Photo of the day: Revolving restaurant

DrGaz in New York

This was taken last Sunday in Times Square in New York. What an amazing city! Only had a weekend to explore - nowhere near enough time to do the place justice. Stayed in a hotel literally around the corner from where I took this photo. This hotel, although not lavish, was clean, tidy, recently refurbished and great value at $130 per night. That's amazing considering the sort of s**thole you'd get in the middle of London for that money.

Photo of the day: Sainsbury's "large" onions

I don't have a complaint about the quality of these onions, but Sainsbury's are taking the piss with their description. I can't see how an onion with a diameter of 60mm can be considered large, and at £1.29 for 3, these tiny onions are damn expensive. I bought these onions online, so had no way of actually telling how big "large" would be.

Photo(s) of the Day: Weird world

Here's some more of my weird experimental stuff for you. I borrowed the peephole from the door and took these pics. They're quite surreal and I'd like to experiment more with this technique (preferably taking pics of slightly more interesting stuff outside). I'd better get down to B&Q and buy a spyhole (I think they're pretty cheap) so that I don't have a hole in the front door!

Photo of the day: Spyhole 2

Another treat for you! It's another pic taken through a spyhole! I hope you're enjoying visiting this strange world as much as I am, folks. This one's through the spyhole of a Spanish apartment I stayed in last month. Seriously - I might even keep the spyhole photography thing going. Perhaps I should publish a picture book - "DrGaz's Peepholes of the world" or something. What do you think? Anyone? Someone?

Photo of the day: Spyhole

This is the view through the spyhole of my flat (or "apartment" if you're an estate agent or American). Quite a surreal world through one of these isn't it?

Photo of the day: Posters

Photo of the day: Passage

Photo of the day: Aircraft

Photo of the day: Cooking stuff

I cooked my "DrGaz's nice Italian-style tomato & basil sauce with pasta" earlier.

Photo of the day: One hell of a view

This was the view from my window for the last 4 days (click to enlarge). It's Nice in the South of France. Please excuse the my dodgy Photoshop job - you can clearly see that it's a composite of 5 photos. I have to say it wasn't exactly the cheapest 4 days of my life, but to wake up to this every morning for a just a few days made made me forget about my wallet entirely.

Photo of the day: Metal Mushrooms

Some mushrooms... and they're made out of metal.

Photo of the day: The Bike of DrGaz

Earlier today I stopped off on the nice new cycle bridge on the way to the library. This is my bike - it's held together with bits of sticky tape. It's been so windy today - it was really blowing a gale when I took this photo. Cambridge is generally quite windy, which as a cyclist drives me mad as it makes pedalling really hard work.

I dropped of 3 piano music books at the library. They were a week overdue and I had to pay around £4.50. An unbelievably huge fine! I though library fines were pathetic. It doesn't seem long since I recieved fines to the order of 5p and 10p for much more serious offences.

Photo of the day: Green stuff

I left a plant pot full of water on the balcony two months ago. It is now full of green slime (see photo). Maybe I will post another photo of it in a few weeks time so that you can see how this stuff develops

Photo of the day: Grand piano

This photo of the day is hot off the presses - taken less than an hour ago. It's the grand piano in chapel of Churchill College, Cambridge and I was bashing it this evening. My piano teacher organises a bi-annual "adult pupils' soiree" there and I went along and knocked out out a couple of tunes.

It may seem from looking at the photo that no bugger showed up, but that's just the angle I took at it. There was actually around 40 -50 people in the room. I played "The Old Cuckoo Clock" (one of the pieces I did for my Grade 1 last Saturday) and my own piano version of "Maybe Next Time" by Rainbow. Here is a link to my guitar version of the song. I hope to make a video of my piano version soon to put on YouTube.

This was a seriously nice piano to play - so expressive. Yamaha certainly know how to make them. As good as my digital Yamaha Clavinova is, I fully understand that there's absolutely no subsitute for an acoustic piano. One day I will have one. One day...

Photo of the day: Platform 2

"What the hell is going on?" I hear you scream. That's three "photos of the day" in one week! This is absolutely insane. A sheer triumph of quantity over quality. This was taken last night at about five to midnight while I was waiting for a train back to Cambridge after a few beers in Royston.

Photo of the day: Phone box

Here's another "photo of the day". That's two of them in two days folks! This is an impulsive shot of a phone box I took on the way home this evening that I have Photoshopped within an inch of its life.

I have a strange affinity with phone boxes. They are of course British icons and design classics, but I think my obsession with Doctor Who probably has something to do with it. It's a shame there's not a few more Police Boxes around too.

If you have nothing at all to do and want to read up on the history of British phone boxes, then www.redphonebox.info is an excellent place to do so. There's a secton on Police Boxes there too.

Photo of the day: Down the docks

I happened to be in the London docklands today (Royal Victoria Dock). This is a view down the towards the dome and Canary Wharf. Such a beautiful day and it was very peaceful down there. I really like the rows of preserved cranes on the dockside.

Photo of the day: Hong Kong

Well I just happened to be in Hong Kong the day before yesterday, and had a bit of time to look around before I flew back. This is a photo I took at Victoria Peak. I took the Peak Tram up there which travels up the side of the mountain at a ridiculously steep angle. At the top there are amazing views of the place. It's a shame it was a bit cloudy on the day I was there. Hong Kong is a great place, but I couldn't really do it justice with a mere few jetlagged hours at my disposal.