'The return to Paris'

It was very nice to visit Paris again after quite a few years. Aside having a wander around they city and sitting in their cafe, we also made our way to Giverny checking out Monet's garden and pond - it was a beautiful day - perfect excursion!








Monet's house















Vernon station, 45min train ride from Paris, where we catched a bus to Giverny village.










The weather was very nice so we decided to spend our time mostly outdoor. No strolling through galleries (for once!), yet a quick walk around The Louvre wasn't missed.







The day (above) does look much better than during my first visit (right, May 2002), doesn't it?

Dayout to Amsterdam

A few hours train ride North from Brussels, there goes the Dutch capital Amsterdam. I had a good time wandering around the lively city, the highlight was a visit to Anne Frank's house where the Jewish family was hiding during WWII.

Since it was a sunny warm day, I spent most of my time there outdoor.





'Almost Venice,' houses by a canal.

















Something very Amsterdam to do, renting a bike cycling around the city. I didn't do that, yet managed to get lost on foot anyway!
















The Van Gogh Mesuem, south of the city, housed an extensive collection of his work; famous ones are 'The Bedroom' and 'Sunflower'.

Oh by the way, as you may have already realised the man having a snooze by his bike is just a prop. :)





A gothic architecture next door to Anne Frank's house.

























'Amsterdam Centraal'












Living by a canal, or actually given the fact that I found this corner while I got lost wandering out my map, it perhaps was their Amstel river.

Atomium, Brussels

Atomium, a monument of the World Fair 1958 reopened in 2005. I missed it when I last visited Brussels in January, this time it was a hit! Cool building, with mini-Europe nearby.

'Feature film production'

Made my presentation yesterday, felt so relieved. All seemed going alright.

My dissertation titled "Feature film production: a combination of traditional and digital technologies" using examples of four films - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Star Wars (1977), The Matrix (1999) and The Lord of the Rings (2002), video clip below.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf5o0hh7C7Y

Italy holiday

Returned from holidaying in Italy last night, it was a long journey from Milan > Bologna > Gatwick > Oxford. I had a great break going way for a while, here's the travel tale:

Milan - there was the last day of my holiday, we checked out Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper in the afternoon after arriving from Venice. After that was making our way to San Siro stadium watching traditional friendly match AC Milan 4 - 1 Juventus, great stuff!










My favorite square, Milan. I had a wonderful cup of icecream there.


Venice - looked spectacular and impressive as much as you see any postcard from there, worth the time in the crowded city. We checked out their musuem and wandered around town, with two-night stay in Murano, a smaller island north of Venice where they make glasses.











































The 'leaning tower of Bologna'



















Roadside corridor, Bologna














Other than Milan and Venice, I was going around quite a bit: Bologna, Modena, Mantova and Verona - the city where Shakespeare's fictional Romeo & Juliet took place, we checked out the famous balcony.

Happy Beijing 2008

Alright, there come the party has started. Beijing has impressed the world immensely with much-anticipated exciting opening ceremony at 08.08.08 at 08:08:08pm (local time). It does sound like the Chinese planned it, eh?!

I must say my most fav Games was Seoul since it was in Asia and it was the first of my memory, and then Sydney come just right after - not that I remember much about the Games, guess it's must have been their habour that stuck in my head!

Wonder who else has hosted before? Here come the history brought to you by the International Olympic Committee:

Athens 1896
Paris 1900
St Louis 1904
London 1908
Stockholm 1912
Antwerp 1920
Paris 1924
Amsterdam 1928
Los Angeles 1932
Berlin 1936
London 1948
Helsinki 1952
Melbourne / Stockholm 1956
Rome 1960
Tokyo 1964
Mexico 1968
Munich 1972
Montreal 1976
Moscow 1980
Los Angeles 1984
Seoul 1988
Barcelona 1992
Atlanta 1996
Sydney 2000
Athens 2004

It'd be nice to see Bangkok as a host one day but it's certainly too expensive for us, oh well, you never know - they may like us one day. Cheers.

Summerscreen again...

For the past two days we've been working outdoor helping out on Harry Potter and The Golden Compass tours around Oxford, all went alright - good to see all the kids having a good time, also glad it's all over now.

Check out their news report www.ofvm.org/summerscreen

Time to get back to my summer paper, better make sure I finish up the final draft before I'm off to Italy this Sunday. So looking forward to it! I won't think about the final presentation by the end of August just yet though.