Sunday, November 19, 2006

Our Weekend: From Birmingham to Nottingham

I have been extremely busy the past week and weekend, so just a quick update again today - unfortunately pictures & quick captions only this time, readers. Um, sorry for not replying to comments on the previous post guys but I promise I will - but maybe tomorrow or the day after. OK, on with the show:

We woke up from the weekend full of plans.

Sarah was extremely happy at the prospect of meeting her friends again.


Selfridges, The Bullring , Birmingham at Sunset.
This weekend, we had the utmost pleasure of planning a meeting in Birmingham. It was supposed to be a get together between our family, Uncle and Auntie De's family, Rosli & Mama Daniel's family as well as Arep & Dina. The children would have enjoyed chasing each other around the city centre, the women would have enjoyed drinking coffee together and the guys would have enjoyed another photography meet up. Alas, Rosli & family had to cancel and Arep & Dina was stuck in a massive traffic jam (one of the main junctions was closed).

The Bullring, Inside.
The last picture I managed to take inside before I was asked to stop by the security guards. In the UK it seems that in most shopping complexes, pictures are not allowed. Actually, even taking pictures of some buildings are restricted (for example, we were stopped by security guards while taking pictures of the Wales Millennium Centre too). Did you know that you could get into trouble if you photograph things like security cameras, bridges and power grids?

Anyway back to the story, Birmingham was jam packed with people. It was too crowded for our enjoyment to be honest. Especially with push-chairs and many little children to take along.

Beautiful Day.
Despite the gloomy weather forecast (huh!), the day was bright and sunny with blue skies. Don't let the clear day fool you though, it was freezing cold. Winter is coming!


Another lovely weekend travelling and photo-taking.


For lunch we made a stop at one of our favourite restaurants: Wagamama.

Sarah was showing off her mad chopstick skillsz.

Uncle De enjoying his Amai udon with gusto...

...and me enjoying mine.


Puan Mama Sarah ordered fried rice (which tasted almost exactly like Malaysian fried rice)


Heh heh do I have lurvely pictures of Auntie De enjoying her food, but I decided to post this sensible one, right Auntie De? *wink*

Our weekend was far from over after the Birmingham visit on Saturday. After Birmingham we entertained Arep & Dina at home (I finally got to try Arep's 70-200 L lens - wow!) and much later that night we travelled to Nottingham. But that's another story. I'm happiest with this picture from our Nottingham visit:

Radcliff(?) Power plant - these are the (?) cooling towers. Apparently the white clouds emanating from those cone-like grand structures are steam i.e. not pollution, according to our resident engineer; Uncle De. It was fun taking pictures with Rosli again, and thanks Uncle De for driving us here.

Over and Out. See you guys soon.

PS: More high-res pictures on my Picasa Web Albums. Best viewed with Firefox (because of the added functions e.g. slideshow & full screen view).

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just my two cents (maybe not worth it); in my consideration, although what Radcliff Power Plant is releasing into the air is just steam (particles of water), it is still contributing to global warming.

dith said...

I like looking at the pics here and I have created a few captions for them too:

Of Sarah and her noodles: "Mama, I think there's a fly in my noodle!"

Of Sarah and chopsticks: "Wait! I've got something stuck in my teeth. These chopsticks make good toothpicks as well"

Of Uncle De holding Safiyah " Tidur anak ku. Ayah tengah lapor nih"

Of Mynn spotting a sharp side stare, "Apesal mee ni tak nak putus?"

Of Nisak looking at her wrist before eating. Are you doing a skin allergy test before taking the fried rice? :p

I think the last pic of the powerplant is a fine composition. I like the way you cropped the pic and make the plants sit on a third of the composition. It reminds me of the ant 'house' in Nisak's Mio Mao youtube, hehe

Anonymous said...

Yes, what dyanna said is true, water vapor is the biggest contributor to global warming. and if you think about it, more water vapor=more global warming which in turn would cause more evaporation of water.

But man-made contribution of water vapor to the atmosphere is quite small. and im guessing that the power plant contribution is insignificant. anyway hiding away behind those stack of cooling towers are the real pollutant, ratcliffe power station is powered by coal, and I'm sure lots and lots of carbon dioxide and other pollutants are coming out of the smaller chimneys not seen from the picture.

Muh, if you do a search on wikipedia for 'Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station' you will find that you guys are not the only one who's been taking picture of the power plant.

Anonymous said...

Muhaimin, I love the first 2 pictures. Dari mata saya, gambar2 itu sangat cantik.

Dith, MS tu tgk wrist dia sbb dapat gelang baru kot dari Muhaimin? Hehehe

Why is it that the power plant reminds me of The Simpson?

Anonymous said...

Mynn, do you always eat udon with a slightly demented look? Hehe!! :D

Anonymous said...

finally finished the presentation, such relief! okay, on to the comments

dyanna
you are right, water vapour also acts like a blanket to trap heat thus contributing to global warming. However, as long as we don't get drowned from the melted icebergs i dont mind warmer winters :D

dith-who-loves-to-read
sorry, not much for you to read from the blog post today, not that there was much to read previously anyway :D boleh upah DITH utk letak captions for all my pictures on picasaweb & flickr ni, right guys? hahaha.

uncle de the environmentalist
water vapour is the biggest contributor to global warming?? i thought United States is.

Naja
while in the car towards the power plant, we were remarking how it looks like the simpsons too hahaha.

moby
LOL demented look? i wonder what you mean, probably the udon looks like it's dribbling from my mouth
:D ~~

i could imagine auntie de laughing reading the "dementia" part. to me i look cautious, as if sarah is about to steal my udon!

Anonymous said...

mynn, ur udon looks a lot like mee goreng mamak! hehe ignore moby, mynn, *ugh* juz becoz he eats fried chicken crisps with a demented look, he thinks everyone's as demented as him. Moby itu bukan muka demented lar, itu muka control hensem tau

Anonymous said...

taste like mee goreng mamak too!

mynn said...

i was just about to write this much earlier, but found uncle de already commenting: the amai udon tastes like mee mamak.

no offence taken moby & anne, infact, i find your comments quite funny.

chicken crisps? ..... oh i get it! you're referring to moby's KFC post on his blog. hahaha. high in cholesterol moby, watch out eating those chicken skins.