Christmas snaps '09

The Christmas break is almost up and I head back to Santiago early next week. Having spent Christmas catching up with family back home I spent a few days in London with old friends. Christmas day itself we headed to the University Parks in the centre of Oxford to go for a walk, bumping into old friends as we strolled in the low winter sun. Getting to the river the golden light was fantastic, shining off the trees across the water:

As more family turned up after Christmas day we headed towards Port Meadow, accompanied by bright sundogs:

and although we weren't kitted out to get muddy in the fields, clearly other people were:

Time in London flew and I'm back home now, but I fitted in a reasonable amount in a few days, starting with going to the Moctezuma-Aztec ruler exhibition at the British Museum (goes on until the 24th of January) which was extremely impressive and well worth going to if you're in the city in the next couple of weeks.

Unfortunately one cannot take photos of the exhibits but the building itself is great photography fodder. The wide angle (10-20mm) lens takes in a good swathe of the remarkable Norman Foster architecture:

After a little Brownian shopping along Oxford Street, some Covent Garden mooching and a trip to the National Gallery to go to see the newly acquired Titian (Diana and Acteaon) I headed with a friend to Vauxhall bridge to see the New Year's countdown and fireworks. Through an hour of cold we stood with the festive crowds as a million people gathered around the London Eye. The fireworks were fun but frankly nothing is the same once you've spent a Spring Festival in China. Given the freezing temperatures however, and despite the lack of clouds, the smoke from the fireworks seeded the sky, and the frozen footed were treated to a local blizzard of snow a few minutes after midnight. A really wonderful start to the New Year.

Have a great 2010 everyone!