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Dear Kids,

There is no Santa. Those presents are from your parents.

Love,
WikiLeaks

Over the fields....

Mrs T is the sort of girl who likes to drag here husband out for a walk in the Siberian wastelands that is the Suffolk countryside during winter. The weather would make your average penguin shiver. Still at least I can take the camera now. Heres a few shots I took and played with on the laptop....

Bleak fields....

Mrs T heading off into the distance, when she gets to the hedgerow Ill tell her she is going the wrong way...

The bridge to the church

The raging River Fynn

The memorial cross in Witnesham

A few dried and frozen flowers....

Bleak fields no. 2

The tundra, with ext years crop poking through...
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The way home...

Playing with the filtering, some nice differences you can create...

Bleak fields no.3

Berries outside our house

A wee bit chilly in the heart of Suffolk

This year we have had volcanic ash and now the cold making our travels more interesting. Luckily I managed to get out of Cairo and into Heathrow hours before it turned into Siberia, and although it took 5 hrs to navigate the usual 2 hr journey home we managed it. Now doing our crazy run around to people and shops before having to return to Egypt on the 27th - if we can of course, artic blizzards and Heathrow chaos all predicted at the moment. On the 28th the plan is we all fly to Damascus.

We managed to get in one football game here, watching the mighty ITFC beat Leicester 3-0 on a snowy field, all the more exciting as we won 80 of your english pound notes on the result. Been walking in the fields to the country church for carol service, having snow ball fights (boys v girls) etc so Mrs T happy.

Santas Winter Wonderland in the Middle East

I just managed to leave Cairo to go to Damascus as the Khamaseen wind was blowing up a storm and luckily I was one of the last flights out....A bad weather front from Europe has been sweeping across the Mid East and had certainly left an impression on Damascus when I arrived, over 5-10cm of snow in places. Of course the meeting I was over for did not take place, think the average Syrian looked out from underneath their duvets and said "I don't fancy work today". To be fair tits not a common occurrence. Heres some quick snaps, wish I took the good camera now.....

The mosque from the office window, during the snow..........then during the rapid melt

Cairo Biggest Loser is...........

well, it depends how you measure it! Most weight or greatest percentage. After a couple of difficult weeks (Eid and parties) here are the results at 14 weeks. Both feeling pretty smug with ourselves, losing just under 10% and between 13-16lbs (ca. 7kg). We are carrying on with our challenge till Xmas, not that we are competitive at all.....

(note as a gentleman I have taken the weights off tinas chart!)

Hello global viewers.....

I have just been playing around with blogger and our world map widget. I did not quite realize how wide our page has been viewed. From England - Hello regular viewers in East Anglia, Kent & Somerset. Friends in Europe, mainly NL and Germany, our good friends in the US, Ohio, Louisiana and Texas, and various other locations around the globe from remote Russian islands (Sakahlin) to remote Australian towns, Perth. Remember to drop a comment from time to time and let us know what you like to heard about!

The Khan Al Khalili in Black and White

Feeling all arty again I have turned some of the photos I managed to take whilst escorting the parents around the Khan Al Khalili Bazaar in Cairo into B&W photos. Just playing around with the contrast and colours gives very different images.

This is the Bab Zuwiela, with its two beautiful towers, close to the Tent Makers Bazaar. I upper the levels on this image to bring out the sky. Notice the election banners at the base.

In the Tent Makers Bazaar, with the sun high and traffic moving along the dirt path the dust made for great photos and I took plenty. Used quite a high contrast here to reflect the bright sunlight and dark bazaar...

On of the towers of Bab Zuweila with wall of the Mosque of Saleh Talai in front giving strong contrast.

The hustle and bustle of the working bazaar was going on around us and I managed to snap this image of one of the guys who collect the cardboard for recycling. They carry impressively massive bags off the stuff to central collection points. This image give a sense of the weight and speed tis chap was moving.

We stopped at the famous Fishwary Cafe for a mint team, a refreshing break so I kept on snapping.

Shisha are everywhere in the souk, and in fact everywhere in Cairo where they are used by the locals and tourists alike.

Most things in the souk are handmade locally. These lamps are made of a light metal (aluminum?) which is beaten and engraved with koranic verses and arabic patterns.

Inside the Mosque of Barquq, on the of the Maramluke mosques in the Khan. I left the contrast high here to show the bright sunlight streaming through the coloured windows.

Another one in the Barquq Mosque, again with the widest angle I could get!

Close up of the detail of the doorway to the Mosque of Barquq whilst I played around with the field of view.

Using the telephoto I managed to get some good images of the impressive Marmaluke towers and minarets on the mosque. These guys did not know the missing of fussy! Spectacular carving.

Some lamps in the Khan, should have played around with the depth of view here....next time

I was struck by the minaret and shishsa together, so got down low and took a few images with the shisha in the foreground

All around in the souk there are open doorways into peaceful mosques and madrassas that promise tranquility from the noise and movement in the bazaar. I like the lamps in this image.

Played around with the contrast and brightness on this image a lot. The beautiful recent building with lovely lattice work constrast against the 14C minaret.

Looking up at the wooden lattice work over several floors in this building in the Khan

Towers and domes of the Barquq mosque in Islamic Cairo.

Istanbul for Eid: Food and random images

Heres some images I took whilst just wandering around following Mrs T into the shops and passing the food vendors.

Pomegranate juice seller

Mussels for Sale at Galata Bridge

Fish in a roll is the national favorite

Pretzel-like bread-things

Sweets n Turkish Delight

Chilli-ville! and a rather large Kebab

Some photos of hats, ceramics, evil-eyes, glass ware

I took a run one morning to the fish market bazaar which was just starting to open.