I'm going through an aerial photo phase as the moment, as anyone glancing at my blog, or my flickr photo stream will have noticed.
Partly its because I'm fascinated by the view from 3,000 or 30,000 feet, whether of familiar places such as the Cairngorms, or completely new parts of the world, such as the Gulf of St Lawrence last week.
It's also because it seems that its only when I'm sitting down in seat 12a that I have any time to point a camera and click the shutter. Life is very busy at present, very busy indeed.
Looking over to the Parliament from the steps of Dynamic earth, on a glorious March Morning. I was just about to give evidence to the Enterprise and Life Long Learning Committee on Creative Industries in Scotland. They were gathering evidence for the new Creative Scotland Bill. In Committee room 2.
Its was only after my hours grilling that I looked out the window and realised that the photo that I had taken that morning was of Committee room 2
A rather spooky looking sociable robot at the MIT Medialab, in Boston, where I have been for the last week. In fact my stay in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has been rather longer than planned, as I my flight back to the UK was cancelled yesterday.
I understand that there was a little bit of snow in London.
So here I am waiting to return - luckily through T4 rather than T5 in Heathrow (I'm returning from the USA with lots of new shirts and socks as most of mine liked T5 so much they stayed there for an extra four days when Ruth and I transited through Heathrow last week). My problem is that I'm now on the "red-eye" the overnight flight that gets into the UK at 5:15 in the morning, and then I need to get around the M25 to Gatwick to get the 9:30 flight home.
Fun
I usually try and fly back on a daytime flight from the states, as you leave the US at 8:00am local time and arrive at 8:00pm local time. \straight to bed, and jet lag is pretty well sorted.
Not so with the red eye. A sleepless night in a recliner, and then the torment of the M25 and Gatwick South Terminal.
Wish me luck.
Strange mixed weather here in Boston, and quite different from Lisbon last week, and a the warm spell that seems to be hitting Cromarty this week.
Bright and clear in MA, but a cold cold wind. Snow can still be seen just outside the city, and the puddles have ice in the morning.
Its clearly the dog end of winter, but the early morning sun hitting these neoclassical sand stone columns does give a deep rich range of colours,
FlyBe's shiny new Embraer 195, on its first flight out of Inverness. Replacing the old BA 146's its rather a smart aircraft, with 2 by 2 seating, and quite fast.
This was the first stage of what turned out to be quite a long journey to Boston, plane to Gatwick, bus to Heathrow (bus station) train to T4, a wait for a couple of hours, a 8 hour flight to Logan, stacked over Boston, then a very long wait to get through Immigtation.
Made it to the hotel at 1:00am - 6:00 am Cromarty time, and by then I was way past wanting to sleep.
Its now 6:00 pm, and we are at the end of a long day in the MIT Media Lab. Its now time for the evening meal, and trust me a beer never tasted so good.
I'm back in Boston