Another Train

Yes, yes, yes I admit it I have a passion for trains and yes it started at a very young age. My grandmother used to live in a house that had the railway line run right past her back yard. I remember standing out there one day with my uncle Steve and watch a train go by and at that point I made a decision. I decided right there and then that I was going to be a train driver. Yep at four years old my career path was set! I left high school at the age of sixteen and I joined British Railways as a Youth Training Scheme Trainee. After a hiring freeze and a couple of interviews I finally got to be a Train Drivers Assistant, which was at the time the apprenticeship to become a train driver. After working at Waterloo and Euston I got my promotion to become a train driver at Colchester, one of the depots local to where I lived. I spent 6 months in training and I was there, I had achieved my childhood dream of becoming a train driver by the age of 21. I did that until 1999 when I moved to California. But in the 10 years I have lived here I have never lost my love or passion for trains, but now I just get to watch them go by. This photograph was taken at Hunter Park in Riverside where a club has a large model railway running around the park and offers rides for free a couple of Sunday's every month.

Hey Look Clacton Pier

Just kidding, it's really Santa Monica Pier here in California, as if anyone that knows Clcton Pier wouldn't be saying to themselves "Where's the Jolly Roger at the end of the Pier?" Mind you it is kind of uncanny how much Santa Monica is just like the seaside town I grew up close to, Clacton-on-Sea. Now take out the expensive house prices, the endless sunshine and the warm temperatures of California and you would have an identical town, honestly you would. Janet and I were walking around Santa Monica on Saturday and just like Clacton there were homeless people, very drunk people, loud people, weird people and lot and lots of tourists. Now tell me it's not just like Clacton or any other seaside town you have ever been to. It was just strange to me that two places 6000 miles apart could be so alike. Of course it could also be that Santa Monica has a very strong British contingent, with plenty of good pubs selling English food and beer (that totally works for me). I'm sure a lot of the Brits find their way to Santa Monica for two reasons:

    1, It's really close to Los Angeles International Airport

    2, It's just like being in an English seaside town

This also seems like a great time to answer a question that a very good friend of mine Lynn, has asked me twice over the past few weeks and that is "Are you missing home?" Well Lynn the answer is yes, very much, now is not the time for me to go into the details of why, as the answers I have are long and deep. For anyone that is concerned it's not of a personal nature, it's just this can be a strange place to live and doesn't always make sense. I promise to write some deep insights into what it is like to live here and hopefully you will understand why I am missing home. In fact one of the reasons I started this website was to write what it's really like to live here in the USA. I'll let you know when I post the first one. Thanks for listening, Martin.

The Lookout Tower

Let me start with a sorry for no picture on Sunday, I got busy and ran out of time cleaning up a room in the house for Janet's daughters visit. On Saturday I mentioned one of our radio sites that I visited called Red Mountain, that over looks south east Hemet and north east Temecula. I told you I would post a photograph of an interesting building, so here it is. Spread all over strategically placed mountain tops in California are fire lookout towers. They give such a great view that one person stationed in the tower can see smoke and signs of fire from miles away. Red Mountain just so happens to be one of those locations. It's quite a trek to get to the tower involving some substantial off road driving, so don't take your BMW, but if you get a chance to visit you'll really enjoy the view.

My Work

When someone asks me who I work for or what I do I give my official answer, a Communications Analyst for the County of Riverside. What does that mean, well really for me that means that I design, build, support and troubleshoot data networks for the County of Riverside. Right now though I am very fortunate to be the only data network engineer on the County's new radio system project being built for our public safety departments. The radio system will support not just voice but data connectivity for mobile users such as Fire personnel or Sheriff deputies while in the course of their duties. So why am I really fortunate? Well because I get to travel to places that a lot of people never see. I get to go to hill and mountain tops where current and future radio sites will be built. In some cases I even get to do some off-roading in our Jeeps to get to those places and when I get their I get to enjoy the view and take photographs. This photograph was taken at Red Mountain, where I spent the best part of Thursday getting sun burnt, after we escorted our contractors to the radio site. Red Mtn. overlooks the south east of Hemet and the North East of Temecula and Murrieta. It takes almost 2 hours to get there on some pretty rough roads but, when you do the views are amazing. On Monday I'll post a photograph of the strange building up at Red Mtn. and tell you why it's there.

The Tree in Black & White

After posting The Tree today my friend and co-worker Priya mentioned that The Tree may look good in Black  & White. So I tried it and this is what I came up with. What do you think?

The Tree

So I am not a tree or plant expert by any means, so please don't ask me what type of tree or vine or whatever this is, as i won't be able to tell you. All I do know is, that while I was walking around the gardens at Muckross House in Ireland this one really caught me eye for it's strange growth pattern. As much as I don't have green fingers I love walking around gardens. I find them beautiful, fascinating and when done right a work of art all at the same time.

O'Brien's Tower

O'Brien's Tower is located at the highest point on the Cliff's of Moher overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The cliffs rise just over 700 feet from the Atlantic to the tower location and provide a spectacular view out over the ocean and the Aran Islands. The tower was built in 1835 by Sir Cornellius O'Brien as an observation tower for the tourists that visited the cliffs at that time. This photograph was taken about 90 minutes before sunset and is another HDR image combining 3 differently exposed photographs.

The Queen's Guard

The Queen's Guard is the name given to the infantry contingent that is charged with guarding the royal residences in London. The Tower of London, where this photograph was taken, is also classified as a royal residence. I am in awe of these guards because I don't understand the will power these men have to stand and not be distracted for so long. In fact on one visit to Edinburgh Castle in Scotland on a bitterly cold day, my ex-wife decided to see if the old adage that a true Scotsman wears nothing under his kilt is true. She knelt down in front of the guard and waited for him to begin his march, which he did every 5 minutes or so and when he lifted his leg to begin the march she pronounced him a true Scotsman.

This photograph was taken outside of the Jewel House, home of the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London. The Jewel House is a pretty amazing place, unfortunately they do not allow photographs inside so I cannot show all those gold crowns encrusted with dazzling rubies, diamonds and other expensive stones. I find it  amazing that the jewels on display are the real crowns and jewels used by the Royal family. At first I had to wonder if they were just replicas, but everything I have read says they are real and my mum told me that when she visited the jewels a notice said that a particular item was missing because it was currently in ceremonial use.

Doolin Cave

One place to add to your list of things to do if you ever make it to the Cliffs of Moher is a tour of Doolin Cave. The tour starts in the village of Doolin with a 5 minute bus ride to the cave entrance. When you arrive at the cave a tour guide will give you a brief history of the cave before leading you down a flight of stairs made up of 125 steps, just remember you have to climb back up those steps. You will be lead through a tunnel into a totally dark cavern. When you arrive in the cavern the guide will turn on the lights and you will be confronted by what can only be described as a natural chandelier hanging from the ceiling. This formation, made up of calcium carbonate and other minerals is 1.5 million years old, 23 feet in length and weighs 10.5 tons. This amazing natural wonder was discovered in 1952 by two nineteen year olds who crawled on their hands and knees and sometimes on their bellies, for over 4 hours following the path of the stream through the hill side. The passage that they crawled through was no bigger than 24 inches tall and sometimes a lot smaller. As you walk through to the main cavern the guide will show you their original path and it makes me claustrophobic just thinking about it. By the time they reached the main cavern their lights had gone out, so they had no idea what it contained. The following day they brought the whole team back and when they reached the cavern and lit it up they discovered this enormous stalactite. This stalactite is recognised as being the longest in the Northern hemisphere. Click here to see a photograph of how the stalactite is made up of what appears to be sheets and is not a solid block. Click here to see a photograph that shows the size of the cavern that the stalactite is in.

The Burnet Rose

The Burren as I mentioned previously is a 135 square mile limestone plateau in County Clare, Ireland. When you are there it looks like one of the most inhospitable places you could ever imagine and I'm sure that during the winter months it probably is. The strange thing about places like this, just like the Grand Canyon they are spectacularly beautiful. Amongst all the cracked limestone, flowers and plants grow like the one above. This one I found, growing all on it's own while walking back from the portal dolmen. It just looked too colorful in such a grey bleak surrounding that I just needed to photograph it. So I laid prone on the ground about 12 inches from the flower and took this photograph. I got some strange looks from the bus loads of tourists walking past me, but I read once that when photographing flowers you should get down to their level to get that unique photograph. By the way as the title says this is a Burnet Rose, which is not just native to the Burren, it just likes to live in hardy, limestone conditions..