RobArt

My new art publishing endeavour has started. I've previously talked about outgrowing the photogallery and that a more discoursive and flexible replacement was required. I have now opened up the new site. It is called RobArt, simply because RobArt is a nice if a little light hearted and cheesy way of describing my work. I invite you to visit and take a look. I also invite all comers to make comment. One of the aims of RobArt is to encourage discussion. As I write this you will find two entries. One a new piece and previous to it, an opening statement. The statement was placed a two days ago as a kick start. I then waited as I checked the site out. Then I placed the new first artwork to truly open it up.

For the moment the site is open and tested with the bare requirements for doing it's job. I suspect that in due course I'll be adding some static pages to cover essential information.

So go, visit and I hope enjoy.

Summary Reference

The Grande Tour is complete, but the rest of my life goes on, including this blog and my photostream. There was a danger of losing track of blog entries and also in future times having essential information regarding the trip hard to find on the Grande Tour website. Also a trip like this needs a sense of closure on it's main website that isn't going to just vanish off into a blog archive.

Hopefully I have just circumvented this by placing a new page - Summary Info on the Grande Tour site.

Getting On with It

Ok so I'm back home and it's time to get on with the rest of my life.

Actually I've been back 2 weeks and that is pretty much underway.

It looks as if I have a new place to live sorted out. Just waiting for what I hope will be formalities to complete.

Development work is nearly done on my new art site. This is important to me. It's an area of my life I want to assign an increased importance too. The new site uses blog technology and will I hope allow for both an easier presentation and if all goes well actual discourse and communication surrounding my work. The original photogallery site will remain online and if anyone orders from it - I will honour those orders. However from this point on it is to be more of an reference as to how I got to this point; which was really it's primary aim anyway. I'll be announcing the new site once testing has completed and it is in a healthy enough state to accept visitors.

This blog and the associated Grande Tour flickr photostream will continue. I will oddly enough continue to both to post. I see the Grande Tour as being an event, and although it is over the idea of moving through and looking at the world will never stop. New photos of things I visit and see will be posted from time to time and the Grande Tour site will echo this blog. The blog is of course the findingviews blog, although it was always meant to cover the grande tour with that over the content will alter but I hope the read will be interesting. I'll need to come up with an updated title to cover all this, but that's not a priority. Just a sentence that needs some focus.

I think I can sum all of this up simply as - I'm putting my life back together - but taking account of all I have learned whilst doing the Grande Tour.

It's going well.

The Homebound Catchup and Peter Gunn

Good news - I've caught up with my photograph backlog. Pictures from the South Seas, and the USA are now on the photostream. It's taken over a week to get these online after getting back. I'm sorry for the delay; it's a combination of exhaustion, jetlag, and catching up with family and friends.

Making this a waypoint in the blog.

So what happens next?

Well this blog started as the blog of the findingviews project that was round the world bound. I think it's best is this blog continues and takes on the job of both what happens next plus anything else of interest that is going on and potentially related to the findingviews idea. So keep on reading and I'll keep on posting.

The Flickr account was always focussed on the Grande Tour, I think a plan here is to use it to record any trips, travels and interesting things I see. If there has been one result from the Grande Tour it's been the realisation that all trips be it down the street or around the world are valuable. So I'll continue adding onto the Flickr Photostream.

This leaves the photogallery website. I think my work has grown and changed. I also want to expand how I present my artwork and photos online. Allowing more scope for both description, discussion and adding in more points of interest on the site. I have a plan for this and will start testing some new technologies soon. In the meantine the Photogallery will remain as a record of how I got here. I'll also always honour any picture purhcase requests made on the photogallery.

So the main part of the adventure is over. The next adventure is building everything up, according to what the Grande Tour has taught me.

I've started that already, by buying a guitar.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

I'm back!!!! (that'll be a plasma launcher in the 40Mw range please)

Ok I've been back for a couple of days. Well physically been back; I've actually been caught in a strange miasma of extreme jetlag, and emotion. It's odd to not be planning the next phase of the trip and possibly stranger to be home. But also very very good to be home and exciting to be putting life back together. Of course the real fun starts now - as I try and build a lifestyle that incorporates all I've learned on the tour.

The one thing I'm looking forward to is catching up with everyone I know.

So right now all that can be said is that I'm recovering from travel.

I will also be updating the backlog of pictures on the flickr gallery. So that should start to substantially rise over the next few days. Once I've done this the blog will be updated to let you know it's done and to also start planning the next phase. The blog will not stop. Instead the focus will switch. More information to come on that in the future.

So I'm back, with more interesting things to come.

To JFK and Beyond

I'm writing this from the Holiday Inn (free wifi) at JFK airport. I'll shortly be heading for an early check in - so that I can meander through US border security and then head for some terminal shopping; not my last shopping ever - just last for the US).

It was tough getting here. My flight from LA to Vancouver was perfect. Even if LAX was a disappointment as an airport. Just found the terminal facilities to be small, old and minimal. Far from my expectations of LA. Just guess that sometimes myth and reality just refuse to match up. Vancouver airport on the other hand was nice. Had to pass through US immigration whilst in the airport. That felt a little disquieting. After passing through US procedures all passengers to the US are then segregated from everyone else. Boarding the plane to New York was on time.That was when it all went pear shaped. Preflight checks found an engine sensor fault and we were forced off the plane as it was repair. The repair turned into a summoning of a new plane and the flight much delayed. We were originally due into New York around 10.30pm. We got in at around 3am the next morning. Strange though this wasn't too bad. My hotel arranged for a late check out at no extra charge (due to my Amex booking) and on the flight got into conversation with the flight attendants (not paid whilst held in the airport during the delay), and some boat designers heading for New York to work on the fire boats there. Quite cool.

I'm writing this from my hotel at JFK airport and will shortly head for the airport to do an early check in and do my final meandering through a terminal.

Feels odd not really exploring New York, but there's a stack of good reasons.

Will have to come back one day.

Also feels odd knowing that the tour is heading for a close. But I think that what comes next will be exciting and of course - blogged.

One last strange feeling. Feels like I am on a boat. Must be tiredness

Strange Times

Ok I'm in LA

I've seen Hollywood.

I've seen the studios

I've walked around Beverley Hills and had a nice lunch on Rodeo Drive, and seen some more of LA.

Now I'm back into Journey mode.

The plan was to go to New York (via Vancouver - the story involves an earlier change in plan leaving me with a ticket to use). I'm still doing that. The sad fact though is that I'm not spending time in New York. Day after I arrive I head home.

There's a lot of reasons for this. Some are financial, some are the fact that I found getting a decent hotel in New York very difficult and some relate to the fact that I feel the need to stop traveling and do something more useful. It's more than a bit disappointing to be missing out on NYC. One day in the not too distant (perhaps with all the airmiles I know have) I'll have to go back and give it some time.

Until then - I'm heading home.

There's a backlog of photos to display. I will be putting those on line. Also there will be some more notes thoughts and retrospectives in this blog. I suspect the journey is not nearing the end. It's nearing a beginning. And besides - it's not over yet, Still time for news to happen.

Does the Shark look fake?

Of course the shark looks fake. Still makes you jump when it lunges near your face though

As you might have guessed I spent a day at Universal Studios. Great fun. The classic studio tour is tremendous and everything I'd expected it to be; and then there is the theme park. The theme park is not huge. However it terms of ride quality it rocks!

Top favourites - for me at least (excluding the studio tour) are

Terminator 2: 3D. Far far better than I was expecting. This is a slick show nicely merging stage actors, and film sequences. What makes it work is the imaginative use of 3D projection. This is the best 3D work I've seen and it is simply great.

Van Helsing - Castle Dracula - Simply put - this is a house of horror. You walk through it and things scare you. There's all the usual tricks - rotating walls, mirrors, animatronics, sound effects, projections. So far so ok. Add to that beautifully done sets and actors. Yep live actors. The actors don't talk to you. They're just there to add the human touch to some scares and it really really works. Scariest fun ride I've ever been on. Really had me yearning for a fear of the dark game.

Jurassic Park - The Ride - Ok this is just a boat ride with some animatronics. Nice dinosaurs the animatronics. Nice water jets. Nice 84 foot vertical drop into more water. Wet would be the word to use.

Of course there's plenty of others to enjoy. Those were just by 3 faves.

Hooray for Hollywood

I've made it back to the Northern Hemisphere. Toilets now flush in the right direction!

It was tough getting here - the flight from the Cook islands was long and delayed.

Tougher on Arrival. Mostly due to my first hotel. I've stayed in a huge variety of places on the tour; ranging from fantastic to bad, but this one - it made me feel ill (or was that the strange smells?). And very unsafe. So in the morning I arranged a new place and made for it post haste in a yellow cab. The good point was that it was near Hollywood Boulevard. So I got the see the Walk for Fame and the famous Chinese theatre on my first night.

I've now recovered from my flight and first night and am heading out to see Universal studios in the morning. So the states is looking up!

First thing I've noticed - the Cars. The roads aren't just awash with cars, they're filled with hi spec luxury cards. This is huge change after the Cook islands (motor scooters and old British buses), Fiji (everything is rebuilt over and again), New Zealand and Australia (lots of utilitarian vehicles - mostly from Asia). That and huge signs advertising TV shows and films.

Not squashed any movie stars with a classic fall yet, but my time in the states is young!

On Fiji Time

Here is the promised discourse on Fiji. Written on September 3rd - Posted When I reached Los Angeles

In Fiji, staying on Bekana island the phrase "Fiji Time" was adopted utterly and completely by all guests. Simply put it described the pace of life. Life there worked at it's own pace. Never early, sometimes late yet always happy, relaxed, polite and helpful. Between the small number of guests and incredible staff there developed a real sense of community. It was strange but as everyone worked on the important business of total relaxation everyone also helped it each other out. If you needed help - it was there and no one who didn't want to be alone was alone. Making Bekana island the friendliest place in the whole of the Grande Tour so far. The friendliness was overwhelming, quite fantastic.

Oddly as I write this Fiji was also the place that as furthest from Western Civilisatin - so very alien, and disquieting. I'm at bit of a scardey cat when it comes to bugs. My first morning I encountered a cockroach the size of a family car, and various our crawly things with too many legs. This made sure that in a couple of days I got through a big family sized can of bug repellent and also tucked in my mosquito net tight everynight.

So nighttime was scarey. Perhaps an infestation of Aliens would have calmed me down a bit, a more familiar sight you see.

The stark contrast between what we have and what the Fijian people have is also very obvious. This is a poor country. Everything is old and repaired time and time over again. Yet it still runs. Nice and easy - on Fiji time. In fact - and this is special the Fjians runs everything for people. People come first. Not schedule or procedure. It's nice to see that. It's a lesson a lot of places could do with learning.

Fiji was always intended as a recharge lay over for me. A place to stop charging around - to lie still and get ready for the Cook Islands - recharge part 2, but since the place is so small - perhaps some additional looking around, and then the States - no point in relaxing. Best to just go see and do things. After that of course - comes the flight home.

It's also the Geographical halfway point of my trip. I'm sitting just before the International Date Line. My flight to Rarotonga takes me over the line. Instead of travelling further ahead of the UK - I fall behind and then catch up. This means I have to do the 3rd of September twice over. Once in Fiji and once in Rarotonga.

So I leave Fiji. A happy place, a little scary, a little disquieting and uncomfortable yet something special and to be remembered.

Gecko on Toast

Still in the Cook Islands (Yay!!!)
Having dinner in a house over looking a perfect tropical bay. To ensure the house is truly tropical - geckos are having territorial disputes accross the inside of the roof. For those who know me - this is not the house where I am staying. I have small studio near the beach - I can always hear waves breaking on the lagoon reef. We just spend time having meals in this house.

There are an army of chickens here that crow on the hour every hour after 4am - if they ever get together with the Japanese umbrella machines then it's curtains for humanity
. The chickens check everything and I think run this remote island

Overwise...

This place is paradise on earth.

Saturday the third - part 2

I've left Fiji and arrived in the Cook islands. Arriving at 2am in the morning - after leaving 8pm the same evening. Giving me two Saturday September the 3rd's for 2005. Amazing thing the International Date Line.

Fiji was strange. I've a lot of thoughts on my time in Fiji - there's a blog entry written on this - but with no way of upoading it. The short version is that it counts as probably the friendliest place on my travels but also disturbingas well. I'll get the full version online as soon as I can. At the moment I'm having trouble receiving my current load of emails. The Internet here seems to be collapsing under that load.

Today has been simple. Do some shopping. Need sleep after the oddest times on something like -22 hours jet lag.

Been through the largest town, travel here is fairly easy - Rarotonga is a very small island.

Feeling oddly stymied on typing anything up. I suspect there will be a big outpouring of thoughts and observations at some point over the next few days - for now though everything is calm and peaceful.

This also means that geographically I'm past the halfway point. All travel from now on instead of taking me further from home will take me closer to home.

And finally - is this lack of thought something today with today being a repeat. Repeats or sequels are never as good as the originals?