Where have you been?

Our Latvian roommate could fix pretty much anything. He is very technically skilled and incredibly patient. Fridges, ovens, cars, and mopeds. Nothing was a problem.


Naturally this talent required space to tear things apart and that ended up being our back yard. These show his 250cc moped in the "pre" condition.

Our flat was a 5/6 bedroom monstrosity. I've already been through some of the pictures, including our funky TV room and our messy ass kitchen. You can access those pictures by clicking on the Cambridge link in the Label column down to the right. All of the posts labeled with Cambridge will be shown.



I was living in what used to be the garage in a huge pink room. It must have been a girls room at one point, I can't see any reason for such a hot pink color. Fortunately it was quite roomy and had plenty of book shelves.

Our other full time roommate was this lovely lady from Jamaica. She was good fun but a bit messy. Not sure where she ended up after we got kicked out but I had enough to deal with myself so I never followed up.

At Chapman court there was a range of people - all pretty cool and from funky places, at least to an American. Above was our part time roommate from Lithuania. He was in and out quick but I continued to see him on a regular basis as he was buddies with my two other roommates with whom I am still in contact.


My clubbing friend here is also from Lithuania or is it Ukraine. Depends on what day you ask him...


Third roommate and still good buddy, shown here on the right with the two others, is from Latvia. He was the best man at our wedding. All three of them are still in England, two still in Cambridge and the other in London. Good times.

It has been difficult to get back into blogging after such a long time and I think I am just going to have to power through until I get back into things. Lets continue where we left off years ago with a summary of things in England.


You might remember I lived in Cambridge for two years and worked at the University there. It was a great time and not only did I have a lot of fantastic friends but I also met my wife there.


Part of the fun was the carefree life style I had there. Everything was fairly relaxed and where I lived the people were mostly easy going. We are looking at pictures here (and this pick up just were we left off previously) from my flat from Chapman Court. This place was pretty crazy will all the things that went on and the odd people coming and going but as these show it was also pretty beautiful as well.


I lived there for only maybe 6 months before we were unceremoniously thrown out right before Christmas but that is another story for another day.

Just over a week ago we lost Kobra to renal failure. He was a dear, dear friend for the past four years and we miss him greatly. Thank you to everyone who has sent their condolences. Time heals all wounds but we will never forget our beloved friend.

Joshua Tree National Park in the California desert.


The Grand Canyon in Arizona.


Florida after one of the hurricanes.


Long Beach, California.

Although I have a nice fisheye lens it is sometimes necessary to stitch together a few images. Previously I have been doing it manually using GIMP, my preferred image manipulation program. It took a bit of work and I could make some acceptable panoramic images but no matter how much I tried I could never get it just right. The above as a prime example.


Then a colleague of mine turned me onto Hugin. This is an absolutely fabulous panoramic stitching program. It has built in settings for a number of lenses and effects plus is simple enough to figure out. I have only used the most basic of functionality but the results are fantastic. Using the same source pictures and maybe three clicks of the mouse this picture is the result.

Through travel and change life always goes on. In the past two years I relocated from Europe to LA, went unemployed on and off for about 1.5 years, lost my mother to a short battle with cancer, landed my dream job and relocated again but this time to the east coast, and have been looking for a home for my wife and I so we can begin the next stage of our life. Much has changed in that time but still things come one day at a time.



One major thing happening now one day at a time is Kobra's health. Recently he stopped eating which prompted a visit to the vet. Blood work showed major liver and kidney damage and since he has had good days and bad. He is a tough cat and has been fighting for life as best he can and we have tried to help him as much as we can. In the end though all of our time here is finite. Remember to enjoy it one day at a time.

Due to popular demand I'm getting back on-line. Starting July 1st I'll start posting on a regular basis. It will initially be a mix of current events and high lights from the past but where it goes from there is up in the air.