Mike’s Blog

I live and work in London since January 2007 and for the first time in my life I do no longer have a car. Until recently I have been rather happy with public transport in this great city. I use all means of transport, from DLR and tube to boats and buses.
Especially buses can be a good alternative, especially in certain parts of London which are do not have a dense underground network, but they are also a good, fast and cheap way to travel short distances.

Unfortunately buses don’t have a good reputation, especially in the South East and East of London, due to un-civilised behavior of a small minority of young people. But to be honest, so far I have never had any real bad experiences, and actually find it sometimes rather interesting to see that there is some life in the bus
Things have changed since June 1st. Let me explain why. Today was a wonderful sunny day here in London, and as such I was the whole day underway in different areas of London, using public transport to get around. This included several bus rides. But twice, those rides had been interrupted by what seems to have become something common: The Bus stops at a station, turns off the engine and doesn’t continue its travel. The only option was in both cases to get of the bus and wait for the next bus to arrive to continue the journey. Why?

Well, since June 1st it is  for every 11 to 15 year old to have a ticket with a photocard in order to be allowed to enjoy free travel on buses. The reason behind this new measure is apparently to be able to keep youngsters who behave bad on buses of the buses by revoking their right of free travel.
Unfortunately the job to enforce this new rule has been pushed towards the bus drivers. Driving a bus in London wasn’t necessarily an easy job until now, and this new rule certainly doesn’t make it any easier. On several occasions I saw rather heated discussions between the bus drivers and young people who wanted to get on the bus without a photocard. Sometimes, the discussion ends with the young guys getting of the bus again, but sometimes they simply ignore the driver an go on and take a seat on teh bus, mainly on the upper deck on the bus.
This leaves the bus driver only one choice. He stops the engine and waits until they either leave the bus again, or “help” arrives.
Unfortunately, in most cases they won’t leave the bus, and as a consequence most of the other people, who don’t have a clue what is happening (there is no communication) simply get off the bus and wait for the next one to arrive.

This clearly can’t be the solution! Taking the bus has become a joke!

Oh yes, and to make the day perfect, at one of the stops on Manchester road a group of teens started throwing stones and other stuff at the bus..sometimes it is a really an interesting experience to live in this great city

On my way back home from work I normally walk along the West India Docks at Canary Wharf. A nice, quiet and scenic path along the dock. Well, tonight, it was rather special, I couldn’t really believe what I saw. Yes, there is a seal swimming in the water. A rather unusual animal to be seen in London. After swimming around for a few minutes it disappeared again under water.
Since I very often carry a small camera with me, I took the opportunity to take a few shots of it. Enjoy.

I am kind of playing around with HD videos these days. The below video has been taken at yesterdays May Day Fayre in Greenwich using a Sony SR12 Full HD camcorder, converted to 720p in iMovie and then uploaded to Vimeo.
The Vimeo player requires a rather powerfull machine to play these clips without problems, but anyway. Give it a try.
UPDATE: Hmm, I guess I just noticed that Vimeo doesn’t allow HD in the embedded player. Click the video to go to the Vimeo site to see it in HD.
I guess I will give Dailymotion a try, which apparently allows HD in embedded players. Stay tuned…

Musket Shots - HD from mikehellers on Vimeo.

Since it promised to be a nice and sunny day today, I decided to keep my old camera running pointed towards the O2 dome during the day to capture the view I have. The first one was recorded during the early hours of the morning and shows the dome appearing out of the fog. The second one shows the dome from early afternoon until late evening.

Enjoy!

You can see my collection of videos on Youtube here:
http://www.youtube.com/mikehellers

Below is a short time-lapse video that I took last Sunday. Nothing spectacular, but anyway, I hope you like it. It was taken using an old Sony PCR-100E camera. The actual recording was done one a MacBookPro, capturing 1 frame every 10 seconds.

I found this sign recently on a wall here at the Isle of Dogs/London.

You really have to love the Brits and their fantastic sense of humour! When I first looked at the sign, while passing by in the bus, I only saw that the “Anti climbing device” was treated with Anthrax!

Only at the second view I read the last line of the sign..I love it.

I uploaded some more video clips that I took at yesterday’s Paul McCartney concert at the Roundhouse in Camden/London onto YouTube.
Enjoy and let me know what you think.
Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

I went to the Apple Store in London (Regent Street Store) tonight after work to pick up my copy of the new OS as soon as it became available..and also maybe to get a free T-shirt.

The store closed at 16h00, I guess mainly to allow them to upgrade all of the machines at display in the store to Leopard. I arrived in front of the store at 17h15, and I was expecting to see some people standing in the queue already. Well, yes, that was definitely the case..the queue went already around the whole block!

After having some fun in the queue, especially answering to all those people who passed by asking what we are queuing for, I finally made it into the store at around 18h15. The store was obviously already filled with people, but it was still easy to get my copy of MAC OSX from one of the many apple employees with they hand-held devices, allowing quick and easy credit card sales.

Every single Computer in the store was of course running Leopard already! In the theatre area, one could assist a basic introduction to the new features. But all in all, the most amazing experience was the number of people in the store taking pictures, filming etc…I guess YouTube, Flickr and many blogs will be filled with pictures and Videos covering this.

Well, here is my part…

And yes, I got a free T-shirt..actually even two.

I had the pleasure to go and see Paul McCartney playing live at the Roundhouse in Camden last evening. The concert was part of the BBC Electric Proms and sold out since a long time! It was a wonderful evening. Seeing McCartney live, in a rather small location like the Roundhouse is just amazing! He was performing some of his new songs, but the focus was clearly also on the old classics! Spectacular! Great audience, singing along during most of the songs, and McCartney clearly enjoyed his time on-stage!

Have a look at the following short clip. I captured much more, and will upload some more shortly.

Last Thursday I went to see Herbert Grönemeyer at the Royal Albert Hall here in London. I was kind of hoping that it would be a nice evening, and guess what: It was even better! It was certainly one of the best concerts that I have seen this year!

Grönemeyer clearly enjoyed playing at the Albert Hall, and guess what, the audience was amazing!

Below is a short clip which I took during the concert. I have some further clips,and as soon as I get to it I will edit them together an upload them.