Buying decisions….to buy or not to buy, that is the question
Thought for the day…”A goal without a plan is just a wish”
“Success with a negative attitude is called Luck. Success with a positive attitude is called Achievement”.
To buy, or not to buy. That is the question. Having recently upgraded the camera to the newer Fuji X-T10 (great camera, and highly recommended), the finger is now poised over the ‘BUY’ button. This time it is the new Fuji XF 100-400mm lens. All the reviews have been great, and the people that have posted their comments praise the lens, so it is undoubtedly a wonderful lens. I gave the lens a try in the camera shop, and it felt very good, and the extra zoom would be very welcome BUT here is the problem….the lens costs about 3 times as much as the camera did, and with the teleconverter, will cost around 2000 euros. So the finger is hesitating on the ‘BUY’ button. Quality always costs more, and the Fuji products are great, but the thought of almost 2000 euros on a lens is difficult to accept. To buy, or not to buy, that is the question…..
A couple of photos from the north of Norway, taken with the standard 18-55mm Fuji lens on the X-T10. The first photo is from the small town of Vardo, at the top of Norway.
and another photo from north Norway…Hammerfest
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Up to the top of Norway – Finnmark
Thought for the day….”You will never win if you never begin”.
“The purpose of life is a life of purpose”
Today’s photo is from the fishing village of Vardo, in north Norway at 70 degrees north in the province of Finnmark. Vardo has three names, one in Norwegian, one in Finnish (Vuoreija ) and one in Sami (Várggát). Russia is also just a few kilometres across the bay, and the island is now connected to mainland Norway by a 2.8km subsea road tunnel. Vardo is also the name of the gypsy caravan used by romany gypsies in Britain. Vardo has a history of witchcraft, including trials of witches and also a witchcraft museum. Curiously, it also lies further east than either Istanbul or Kiev. It also hosts the yukigassen, a snowball fighting competition. The average annual temperature here is only 1.3 degrees, not helped by the long, dark artic winter in this part of Norway.
and a couple of photos from Oksfjord, near the top of Norway at 70 degrees north. About 500 people live in this fishing village, although the fish processing factories have all closed. As there are few roads in this part of Norway then ferries are an important way of getting around, including the daily Hurtigruten boats. Hammerfest is the nearest major town.
and another photo from the archives….a beach in the Seychelles islands…..
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Last light of the day – sunset
Thought for the day….”Success is more aptitude than attitude”
“Heaven on Earth is a choice that you must make, not a place that you must find.”
As part of my job, I get to travel a lot, and you tend to notice the differences between countries. At Singapore Changi (code SIN, and possibly the best airport in the world) recently the drinking fountains were closed for maintenance. Being Singapore, with its fantastically well run services, the airport managers had thought to provide bottled drinking water at the water fountains so that passengers were not inconvenienced. Travel further up to Norway, which you would expect would also be a well run country and things are the opposite. In the Scandic hotel in Bergen, the orange juice machine was out of order, but nobody had thought to provide juice in jugs next to it. Next hotel (again a Scandic hotel) and the coffee machine was out of order. Just a handwritten sign on the machine saying that it was out of order. Again, nobody had thought to provide a thermos of coffee to make up for the failure. And as part of the ‘improvements’ to standard rooms, they do not now provide tea/coffee facilities in the standard rooms. Gone also are tissues in the rooms, individual shampoo and conditioner and soaps.
And as if that was not enough, the Scandic hotels in Bergen (not cheap, as nothing in Norway is cheap) have decided that they will not put cutlery, cups or serviettes on the tables. It is the same as the airlines, customer service is disappearing. Scandic hotels may be happy to ask high prices in order to stay in their hotels. The prices rise, but the service levels fall. There comes a point when you say that enough is enough. Why pay high prices for less service?? Perhaps they should let Singaporeans run the hotels in Norway??
And to end the day, a photo of the sunset near Alesund on the 18th July 2016….wonderful end to the day..
and another photo from the archives…..happy boys in Albania
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Norway this morning
Thought for the day…” Life is too important to be taken seriously” (Oscar Wilde)
“Life is like a 10 speed cycle. Most of us have gears that we do not use”.
Another fantastic summer day in Norway….and one photo taken early this morning. Taken today near the centre of Bergen. Time to put on the sun cream again….
and another photo from the archives..a 737 about to land in Funchal, Madeira…
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Great colours from the Fuji camera
Thought for the day….”Too many people overvalue what they are NOT, and undervalue what they ARE”
“It is not the load that breaks you down, it is the way that you carry it”.
Norway has been enjoying some fantastic summer weather…with unbelievable temperatures, even in the far north. Not only have there been many long, sunny days, but some days with wonderful clear air too. Today’s photo comes from Svolvaer, the ‘capital’ of the Lofoten Islands, about half way up the long coast of Norway. The photo was taken in the main harbour, and shows the traditional cottage that was previously used by fishermen, called a rorbu. These cabins were traditionally built out over the water, so that boats could moor directly alongside. Many of these have been converted into holiday homes, although the ones in this photo are actually part of a hotel. At this time of year, there is 24 hour sunshine in this part of Norway, so even late evening it is possible to get photos like this. Expect to pay around 200 euros a night for a typical cabin during summer. Taken with the Fuji X-T10 camera and standard 18-55mm kit lens, with almost no editing of the photo. Once again, great colours from Fuji.
and another photo from the archives…some great colours in Mindelo, Cape Verde islands….
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More depressing news from New Zealand
Thought for the day…”If things do not go right, go left”
“Success – keeping your mind awake and your desire asleep”
More depressing news from New Zealand….even more flights and even bigger aircraft. As well as increased numbers of flights from the USA and also from China, Emirates airline has announced that it is putting a 4th Airbus A380 on the route to Auckland. This will mean that there will be 4 A380s at Auckland at the same time in addition to another A380 from Singapore Airlines. Whilst the tourist board in NZ may be congratulating themselves on record numbers of visitors, the country just cannot cope with ever-increasing numbers. The country has a population of just over 4.6 million people, but now receives over 3.3 million tourists, many of whom want to see the same few places. The last 2 summers have seen accommodation fully booked, and tourists having to sleep in cars due to the lack of accommodation. Buses and flights have been fully booked, and it has even become necessary to reserve some mountain huts ahead. Queenstown (known as the adventure capital of the world), with a population of around 22 000 people, is now receiving over 2 MILLION tourists a year. You can imagine what the town centre is like there in high summer. But the tourist board keeps encouraging more and more flights, thinking that more and more tourists are good for the economy. Yet the very nature and beauty that these tourists are attracted to is fast becoming destroyed (there have been attempts to build a monorail in one of the national parks already).
Some of the popular walking tracks (such as the Abel Tasman coastal track and the Tongariro Crossing) are now so crowded that they are considering giving people starting times for the walks, in an attempt to spread the crowds out. Clean and green New Zealand it once was. Now it is crowded and busy NZ. So the news that the airlines are putting on even more flights to cope with this demand is hardly surprising, yet nobody in government has had the courage to stand up and say that there is a limit to how many tourists that NZ can accept. It seems that every month that a new record for tourist arrivals is being reached (China is the big growth area for incoming tourists), with no sign of it easing up. So when those millions of tourists do finally arrive in NZ, then the fun and games trying to find accommodation, rental cars and domestic flights begins. Those politicians who think that unlimited numbers of tourists are good for the NZ economy should take a trip (assuming that they can get a seat on a flight or bus) to Queenstown or Milford Sound in summer and see just what sort of effect the millions of tourists are having. Start queueing now !!!
Early morning in Geilo, Norway for the photo today….great colours from the Fuji camera together with clear air helped make this such a good photo. The early morning mist had almost burnt off when the photo was taken.
and another photo from the archives…two tourists admire Lake Wanaka, Pembroke Wanaka on the South Island of New Zealand. Two tourists managed to creep into this photo even !!
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Queen of the Skies – the Boeing 747 400
Thought for the day….”Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.”
A photo that is history now….a Singapore Airlines 747-400 taking off from Zurich airport in Switzerland. Known as the Queen of the Skies, almost 400 tons lifting off for the 11 hour flight to Singapore. Zurich (code ZRH) is a great place to take aircraft photos, as the authorities there actually encourage people to take photos, and even organize special photo tours. Great that the managers there have seen the value of photographers, and make it easy to take photos, rather than trying to prevent it like so many airports do today. Not only that, but Zurich is actually a good airport to fly into or transit, run with the usual Swiss efficiency. The photo below was taken during one of the organized photo tours, although even from the normal viewing decks, it is easy to get some great photos.
and some faces from the harbour market in Helsinki, Finland……
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Unbelievable Norway – summer comes early to the north
Thought for the day…”If you obey all the rules, you miss all of the fun” (Katharine Hepburn)
North Norway has been enjoying some unusually warm temperatures recently, not to mention some fantastic summer weather. Temperatures in the far north of Norway have reached over 18 degrees in April (plus degrees that is), along with clear blue skies, windless days and warm sunshine. At times it has been hard to believe that it is Norway, especially when the sea has been incredibly clear and such a wonderful blue colour. If this is all due to global warming, then I vote for more of it !!! The first photo is of the Hurtigruten ship “Kong Harald” in Alesund harbour.
Every day of the year, one of the Hurtigruten ships leaves from Bergen to sail all the way up to the coast of Norway to Kirkenes, just a few kilometres from the Russian border. Officially, the radar domes in the second photo from Vardo, are part of the European Space Junk monitoring programe, however, a few years ago the covers blew off the radar domes, and a Norwegian newspaper revealed that the radars were not pointing upwards towards space, but were actually pointing across the bay towards Russia. No doubt there are also radars on the Russian side of the bay pointing towards Norway !!! Curiously, Vardo, in the second photo, actually lies further east than Istanbul or Kiev, even though it is Norway.
All photos were taken with the Fuji X-T10 camera, which is proving to be a joy to use, and with the 18-55mm standard kit lens (also a joy to use).
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Where are the ‘experts’????
Thought for the day…”Don’t live the same year 90 times and call it a life”
“When life gives you a rainy day, play in the puddles”.
Computers have been around for a long time now, since the last century indeed. Some of us grew up with them, starting with the famous Sinclair ZX Spectrum and the says of loading programs with tapes. But despite computers having been around for decades, they still do not work as they should. Why is it that there are still so many problems with things that by now should be simple, like logging into wifi?? Why do computers seem to have endless problems and need endless updates? And where are the ‘experts’?? Surely by now they could have sorted out all the teething problems and have produced computers that do work without needing constant attention. I would love to sit next to Bill Gates on a long flight and pass him my laptop and ask him to make it work properly. It seems that the so-called ‘experts’ are not so expert. How often have you heard the advice to restart the computer (ie. pull the plug out)?? And why have these ‘experts’ not managed to sort out the problems after all these years. I just want a computer that works as it should and does not need constant attention. Is that too much to ask???
Off to Norway for the photo today…and to the harbour port of Kristiansund, seen here on a beautiful summer’s day.
and another photo from the archives…..fishermen returning home in Croatia….
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Some red faces somewhere…..a big error.
Thought for the day….”What the mind can concieve, it can achieve”
“You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind”
No doubt that there were some red faces at the Nabors Demolition company in Texas, USA. They recently demolished the WRONG house, and have blamed Google maps for the error. The house that they demolished was one block from the house that they should have knocked down. Needless to say, the owners of the now-demolished house were none too happy, although the Nabors Demolition company described it as ‘no big deal’. The demolition company’s motto is ” We Could Wreck The World” certainly had a good try. Apparently, Google maps has now amended the map to show the correct location of the house that should have been knocked down. Some red faces somwhere??
People photos are always fascinating, so here is another one…fisherman in the park…Fuji X-E1 camera together with the Fuji 55-230mm lens.
and another photo from the archives…Kandersteg in Switzerland….
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