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UK Trip – Januar 2012

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:06:39 +0000

In January I visited the UK. I wanted to visit my various family members, and to take Juliane to meet them too. And I needed a new passport. And I had to be in Southampton to work on a cruise ship.

So Juliane and I hired a car for a week, and caught up with everything we wanted and needed. It’s fun to return to places I used to live, over 20 years ago. Ah… memories…

To get ready for our 5 week trip around Africa, I carried my 60D camera and Juliane carried my old 500D camera. We can swap lenses and other gear, and take photos of each other, and help each other out. As it happens, 15 of the 64 photos below were taken by Juliane, though I selected and edited them. Can you tell which ones?

UK trip – January 2012

Waiting in the airport.

Old mill in Nidderdale.

How Steen Gorge.

Statue at How Steen Gorge.

Walking down How Steen Gorge.

Bridge crossing.

Tom Tailor’s Cavern.

A barn I slept in many times as a child. That sounds strange, but I had a strange childhood.

Flooded playground in Pately Bridge.

Durham Cathedral.

Harry Potter was ‘ere.

On the roof of Durham Cathedral.

Durham Cathedral.

The Angel of the North.

Group photo at the Angel of the North.

It’s made of metal.

The Pennine Way in Teesdale.

Taking photos of waterfalls.

Taking photos of the sun.

Don’t rock the bridge!

Sheep in the sun.

I went to school here in 1989 to 1991.

It’s a very small school with only 20 pupils in two classes.

Forest of Teesdale School.

I lived here in 1989 and 1990.

Sheep!

I lived here in 1989 and 1990.

More sheep!

High Force.

Filming for the International Juggler video.

At High Force.

Danger!

Walking in the sun in Teesdale.

I lived in this house in Middleton-in-Teesdale from 1991 to 1997.

This is funny only to Germans who remember a Loriot sketch.

Or, as it happens, mis-remember a Loriot sketch.

The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle.

I worked at this school in 1998 and 1999.

The setting of a clip from my Rocky video act.

Barnard Castle in Barnard Castle.

In Barnard Castle, a historic market town.

Barnard Castle in Barnard Castle.

When sorting through the gear in my parent’s attic, I found some juggling trophies. This is the IJA People’s Coice Award from 2004, won by me.

RIT 2005 games prizes. I’m not quite sure why I flew these trophies home.

Rae family in the car.

Uncle and niece.

Invisible nephew.

Waiting in the hospital.

Family gathering in the hospital (iPhone photo).

While in the hospital I checked my height. Turns out I’m 185cm tall. Or 6′ 1″, in old money.

Quick photo with my sister.

I ended the trip with a cruise to Barcelona and Athens.

Flying home.

Burnie, Tasmania

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:55:16 +0000

I’ve written a new script that automagically compiles a blog post out of a folder of images using EXIF data. It took about an hour longer than I thought it would due to Lightroom 3 not using standard EXIF fields and labels, but in the future it should make posting photos to this blog way easier and less time consuming than my previous blog-post-creation script. Over the next week I’ll catch up with as many old batches of photos that I never got around to sharing here when I took them.

But first a quick test.

In December I visited Tasmania for the first time. I only had one goal: to spot a wild platypus and take a photo. Thankfully I found a very cheap and handy bike hire place and cycled out to a small reserve near Burnie, the port where our ship had docked.

Burnie, Tasmania

A platypus! I tried taking a good photo, but this was the best I could do.

Bike ride.

Broken knife!

Thankfully this happened during a practice session, not during a show.

I love to read comments and feedback about my blog posts. Please email me, I reply to every message: luke@juggler.net

Crossing the equator on the Zaandam – The King Neptune Ceremony

admin — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:22:09 +0000

Crossing the equator on a cruise ship is a good excuse for a party! The King Neptune ceremony is a fun spectacle for the guests, and a chance to haze new crew members who have never crossed the equator on a ship before.

It involves judges, pirates, mermaids, doctors and nurses, and other dressing up. The band plays everyone in with a march. Then, after the cast is introduced, they march in the “pollywogs”, the crew members who haven’t crossed the equator yet.

They pollywogs are let out of the prison according to department (deck, entertainers, bar staff, front office, cast, spa, etc) and are accused by the judge (fictional crimes). Then King Neptune announces the punishment, ever more disgusting interactions with the fish (kiss, lick, suck, french kiss, lick the eye, etc). Then every pollywog is covered in dish water and goo. Finally the officers put thumbs up or down, and the pollywogs either get to wash off in the pool right away, or sit to bake in the sun.

I was asked to be a pirate, but in the end I opted to take photos. I missed the very start due to forgetting to put the battery in my camera, but had a lot of fun capturing the event. The cruise director shared the photos on the internal ship network, and it’s been very satisfying hearing all the compliments from all the crew who took part and liked my photos.

Unexpected travel adventures around the Pacific.

admin — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 20:14:37 +0000

Above: New Caledonia.

I love my job! I get paid to juggle, and as a cool side effect, I get to see the world. Sometimes I see more of the world than I first expect, and sometimes I see more than I want. For example, on my next flight between ships.

I’m currently on the HAL Zaandam, sailing from Hawaii to Pago Pago, American Samoa. This takes about six days, with five days at sea in a row. That’s cool, because I had a few amazing days in Hawaii.

My schedule said I would leave the Zaandam on the 14th of November, and join the HAL Amsterdam in Sydney on the 15th. Then I’d stay on the ship in Sydney overnight, and sail out on the 16th. Shouldn’t be a problem. Right?

But someone at head office didn’t think this through, and I didn’t catch the mistake either. Not at first. I realized that due to crossing the International Date Line, I’d lose 24 hours. If I set off from Pago Pago on the 14th, I wouldn’t arrive in Sydney until the 16th. But if the flights worked out, I could still make the ship.

The flights didn’t work out. There’s good news and bad news.

Good news:

My flight from Pago Pago isn’t until 2320 on the 14th. This means instead of going directly from the ship to the airport and seeing nothing in American Samoa, I’ll be able to explore the island for the entire afternoon.

The bad news:

I have an overnight flight to Honolulu. I arrive at 0530 on the 15th.

The good news:

I have 5 hours free in Honolulu. I intentionally didn’t do any tourist stuff in the city when I was there a few days ago, instead I opted to take a bus ride to the North Shore to see Sunset Beach and the Pipeline. I thought “If I return to Honolulu, I’ll not have time to do such a trip again, but I will have time to visit Pearl Harbor.” It turns out I was correct, but I didn’t expect to return within a week.

The bad news:

A nine hour flight to Tokyo. I take off on the 15th and land on the 16th.

The good news:

My first visit to Japan! Also, according to my records, this will make Japan the 100th country I’ve ever visited, according to the Travelers’ Century Club country list.

The bad news:

I won’t have time to do anything in Japan except walk around the airport.

More bad news:

My next flight is ANOTHER overnight flight. Twice in one trip. And this is what breaks my brain: each of the three times I fly I’ll take off on one day and land the following day, but I only have two overnight flights.

The good news:

I arrive in New Caledonia at 0730 on the 17th. This means I have the whole day to do whatever I want on the island. Considering New Caledonia is a place I’ve wanted to visit for the last 20 years or so, since I first saw photos in a book about dinosaurs, I’m very happy with this development.

More good news:

Instead of spending two days at sea between Sydney and New Caledonia, I’ll be spending those days on New Caledonia. That means I get to spend two nights in the hotel, and a second full day exploring the island.

And then I’ll transfer to the ship on the 19th, probably do my show that night, but then have ANOTHER two days on various islands of New Caledonia.

From there we sail to Fiji. From Fiji I then transfer to another ship in New Zealand. Who knows what will happen during that connection. I really, really hope I get two days to do what I want in New Zealand before the ship turns up.

The bad news:

10,791 miles flown between two islands in the Pacific. How close if I could get a direct flight? Maybe 1,000 miles.

So balancing the good and the bad, I’m sure this will end positively. At least I hope this will end positively. Two overnight flights in a row is a small price to pay for unexpected adventure opportunities.

The Italian Chapel, Orkney.

admin — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:51:43 +0000

Years ago I read a book about WWII, and it mentioned Italian prisoners of war building a chapel for themselves somewhere on the Orkney Islands. The photos fascinated me, and I’ve wanted to visit it ever since.

And because every time I sail on the Prinsendam I visit somewhere new, it was only a matter of waiting before I ended up visiting the Orkney Islands. I took a bus to the chapel, and spent about 30 minutes checking the place out. As you can see, 30 minutes is plenty! It’s no Vatican Museum trip.

A nissen hut converted into a chapel by prisoners of war whose main job was casting concrete.

So instead of normal building materials for building a chapel, all they had was scrap wood, scrap iron, concrete and paint.

The first project was a St. George and the Dragon statue.

Interior.

It’s like a mini Sistine Chapel, all painted by Domenico Chiocchetti.

Here are some other photos of my cruise around the north of Scotland.

Rainbow over Dunoon.

The Prinsendam by the Isle of Skye.

The Isle of Skye.

St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, Orkney.

I visited Edinburgh too, but I’ve not looked through the photos yet.

Mediterranean Cruise with Juliane

admin — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 07:40:51 +0000

I’ve not posted travel photos here on my blog for ages. Juggling convention photos, sure, but not from my cruise ship gigs. And no photos from life in Berlin either. I have been posting them on Facebook though. I hope to post some selected travel photos over the next few months though.

This past cruise was different from others, as I traveled with Juliane, my girlfriend, for the first time. It was also her first cruise. Thankfully she had a good time, as did I.

The cruise was from Rome to Dubrovnik in Croatia; Corfu, Katakolon, Athens and Santorini in Greece; Kusadasi in Turkey; and Messina in Sicily. Enjoy these photos!

A bridge in Dubrovnik.

The Noordam.

In Corfu.

Sunk boat.

Getting ready for formal night.

Queuing at the Acropolis.

Columns.

Expensive drinks.

Super dog!

Broken flip-flops.

Sun set photo session on the bow of the Noordam.

Ready for a day riding donkeys in Santorini.

The Art Cafe in Santorini.

Knock knock!

Making my mark.

Sean leading a random tourist down the hill.

Messina, Sicily.

Sunglasses are very useful in the UK.

Couchsurfing visitor

admin — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:24:37 +0000

I signed up to a website called CouchSurfing, which puts people who have spare beds or couches in touch with people who need a place to stay while traveling. I don’t intend to use it myself while traveling, but I’m happy to be a good host!

So I had my first ever couchsurfer, Marcelo, stay for two nights in my spare bed. It was a fun weekend! It was a good excuse to go out for food, and he joined me on my daily walk in the park (daily when the weather is good), as well as the Three Minute Hero show I mentioned in the previous blog post. Here’s some photos from the last few days:

THREE MINUTE HERO: the instant ubahn open stage

admin — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 15:45:37 +0000

“Three minute hero is the new underground open stage in berlin, right on the platform of the ubahnhof schönleinstrasse.

Songs, breakdance, stand up comedy, performance whatever you want to show you can!! only limitations are the three minutes between trains arriving at the station.

Wanna show? Simply come up and you get a slot in the show. Just passing through? Well, you can always take the next train.”

Hosted by Duo Desolato.

Guitar and singing!

Hint: nobody asked permission to do this! How long could it keep going until security turns up?

Quick! Make it look as though nothing special is happening!

Magic!

Juggling!

I performed some music and juggling, but of course I don’t have photos of me.

Dancing!

Drunken singing!

Party!

Oh shit! Security! Length of show: one hour and 30 minutes.

The BVG security allowed one final act. Andy Snatch closed the show with a club routine.

Later at the Another Country English Bookshop, playing Jenga.

Sunshine in Berlin

admin — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 10:08:29 +0000

The sun is shining in Berlin! So I’ve been out for pleasant walks and bike rides to take advantage of the early spring. And I’ve taken my camera along too.

I don’t bother taking a tripod.

I’ve taken a photo of this statue a number of times, and I think I’ll keep doing so. Who knows, maybe something interesting will happen one day.

Korbinian, a juggler, contemplating the first outdoor juggling session of the year.

Hot chocolate in the sun.

Back out to the park.

Attacked by a pug.

Wide angle statue shot.

Cafe at the Mauerpark Flöhmarkt, with music provided by Rob Longstaff.

Beach seat with no sea.

Mauerpark Flöhmarkt.

Corn.

The Rupert’s Kitchen Orchestra.

The man in the Care Bear suit wasn’t part of the band, but joined in anyway!

Drinking glühwein.

Diving in Acapulco, Mexico

admin — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 21:29:28 +0000

A composite image of the highest dive of the show. It’s not perfect, but good enough!