NektaR in the World Wild Web: British summer time

As you can see, I tried to update the template and backgrounds of this blog; it is not an easy task for someone with my web design skills. I will keep looking for nice templates, there are some external to blogspot so it needs some research to find nice ones to fit the purpose. Then it needs to be applied to the site which is another pretty complicated thing to do.. Today I have done my best to refresh this place so makes it more interesting and easy to read. I hope you like it!

Well, as the title say so, welcome to the British summer time! Long day hours, the smell of grass at the parks, lots of festivals, lots of rain and unpredictable weather! The last few days, there are four seasons in a day, it can start with sunshine and end up on a storm. A bit confusing especially when it comes on what to wear in the morning before leaving home. I don't complain, it is nice whatever the weather and summer rain is mostly enjoyable as long as it is not cold and windy.

Life has turned back to normal since I came back from the trip in Latin America. Last week I received the alpaca piece from Peru I bought and sent with the post. I was relieved to see it was finally arrived, I spent some good cash on it and I was concerned it may never arrive! It took sometime but I am glad I now have it with me! I am thinking to put it up somewhere in the house, maybe in my tiny room, it will cover the whole wall side.

Mum Vaso came to visit me in London for few days, it was really nice to be with her, it was about 6 months since I last saw her in Greece. We spent some nice time together, she did all the cleaning/cooking to keep herself happy and we've done some museums and sightseeing (under the rain). My housemates were away on holidays and I had the house on my own, well along with 3 cats and mum for few days. I am happy to say I met Clarisse, after quite long time, we had a wonderful Sunday, sunny and hot in the park, it was like we were on holidays!! We were lucky to meet up in the only real summer day so far this summer, certainly that assisted to keep our moods up and high! :)

I had also the opportunity to visit Northern Ireland on a business trip with work. I stayed for three days in Belfast and did few energy surveys in some big supermarkets. Now I am looking forward to go to (troubled) Greece. I am flying next week and staying for about two weeks. The situation in my homecountry is out of control (again) and I am very very concerned about the future of my fellow country people especially the young generation like my twins sister and brother. It is a long topic for discussion and I will not expand in this post about it. My very good friend Zacharias is also getting married to Evangelia and it will be nice to see them and all friends back at home.

London_June'11 from my window

I had the chance to go to a nice festival, the Sunrise Celebration festival. http://www.sunrisecelebration.com/ It was a fine British festival. Not too many internationals, I felt it was only myself non british in the whole festival! It was very well organised with many stalls, tents, stages, different kinds of music and lots of children facilities! It was not only about music, and this is what I liked most. There were all sort of different talks, presentations, demos on how to grow stuff at home even dance lessons before you hit the main dancefloors! The photos below from the first day, because the next one Sunday, a big storm brought havoc to the fest..

Sunrise fest_Tipis and yarts (for rent)

Sunrise fest_On a fest spirit

Sunrise fest_Chilling

Sunrise fest_Ikran from Avatar?

I've listened to few nice artists, inlcuding Banco De Gaia, Mirror System, Eat Static and some more. James Monroe was also playing, the dj who I've listened to in some of the most amazing locations in Greece when I was a rebelious youngster. He is still good but not as good.. :) His legendary record label Flying Rhino is not releasing any more tunes. Lamb were playing in the main stage, they came out an hour late, played for 45 minutes and that's it! Not that I was sad to see them go but I would prefer to listen few more songs of theirs.

Sunrise fest_James Monroe and Mirror System (System7)

Sunrise fest_Toby Marks (aka Banco De Gaia)

Northern Ireland was really nice! Belfast is such a lovely city. I was prepared for the worst but it turned out to be way better than I thought! First of all, the weather was great! It was sunny and, unlike London, warm and bright! I stayed in very nice hotel at the Botanical Avenue. Queen's University was only 5 minutes away so there were many students living in the area. People were out and about, in good spirits and despite what I heard, there was not a sign of violence or paranormal activity. Local independent coffee shops were full of students. Certainly different city culture comparing to London. I was lucky to find out the Belfast book festival was running, so I checked the programme and went to see an 'improvised' comedy performance at the Crescent Arts centre. There was a group of people playing sketches derived from stories suggested by the audience! No script or time to prepare anything! It's a very hard thing to do and as the director said, actors walking on 'a dangerous edge' in this acting. It was very funny, I liked it. Not all of the plays were top notch but some were spontaneous and indeed very funny!

Belfast_Fort at Carrickfergus

Belfast_City Hall

Belfast_EC is moving elsewhere

Belfast_Become a Spartan in Belfast!

In the evenings, after finishing work, I attempted some sightseeing. I went to the Botanical Gardens nearby. It was beautiful. I spent hours walking around. The sun was up and it was perfect for staying in the park. I found a beautiful roses garden. Many many different kinds of roses in a kind of labyrinth shaped garden. Got my camera out and used macro to capture the detail of some fascinating roses.

Belfast_Botanical

Belfast_Roses garden

Belfast_Rosy1

Belfast_Rosy2

Belfast_Rosy3

Belfast_Rosy4

The next couple of photos are from within the Queen's univeristy campus. I turned my attention to this sculpture below. Amazed to see its name was the same as my favourite band I was listening at the festival (Mirror System). The other photo is a fine representation of how new modern elements can be incorporated onto an old church building. Well, it is not a place of worship anymore, the university use it as a library.