Pics from the Archive (28)

Moscow 1985, Sparrow Hills (Vorobyovy Gory), with the Olympic Stadium from five years earlier prominent in the background.

Here Baksheesh and the then Hon. Eddie Vaizey — now the Rt Hon, Under Secretary of State for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, and lesser of the two Old Paulines in David Cameron's coalition government — simulate corrupt western activities then considered criminal by the men in the Kremlin.

On September 24 this year Eddie's name appeared at No10 in the 2010 Guardian Film P0wer 100, much to the bemusement of Simon Mayo, whose regular sidekick finally shows up close to the relegation zone. (75th). In fairness, Eddie had just abolished the UK Film Council.

At this historic moment in Soviet history, Konstantin Chernenko had 'a cold' and Gorby was waiting in the wings.

Pics from the Archive (27)

Britain was in the grips of a very minor political scandal this week when Tory peer Howard Flight used the verb form of breed in reference to the procreational activities of the less affluent.

"We're going to have a system where the middle classes are discouraged from breeding because it's jolly expensive. But for those on benefits, there is every incentive. Well, that's not very sensible."

Conservatives usually mean something else entirely when they speak of breeding, especially good breeding.

Here in Guatemala we're OK with the idea that human beings rut like beasts, or indeed that the close to thirty different ethnic groups in the country can be categorised like show dogs. (This particular sign adorns the highway leading down to San Antonio Aguas Calientes.)

Pics from the Archive (26)

A view of Dubai, from way back in August 2005, when the cranes were really starting to go up in earnest. (Taken shortly after take-off from the Dubai International/Sheikh Rashid Terminal.)

Pics from the Archive (25)

Back in 2005 we drove down to Rome for a friend's wedding, stopping here on day four in Genoa for supplies — at this highly unusual supermarket-sur-mer whose car-park backed onto a black sand beach. (On our roadtrips we often used to cut some eucalyptus leaves and store them in the back to maintain the pleasantness of the in-car aromas.)

A quiet spot

A lovely pair of pics V took in Cherry's favourite spot in Antigua recently.

November is our own favourite month in Guatemala, breezy and florid, with enough mositure still in the ground to put a damper on those swirling clouds of dust.

Pics from the archive (24)

Festive street scene in Bruges, Belgium
Taken 5th January 2002

Pics from the archive (23)

Christmas decorations in Locarno, Switzerland
Taken 3rd January 2002

Well, if I'd stuck to the original itinerary, I would now be de-planing (as the Septics say) at Heathrow from a BA jumbo recently arrived from Singapore...and contemplating the possibility of the first proper white Christmas in the London area during my lifetime.

The other day I realised that I belong to the decrepit generation who can still remember the days when Heathrow was known as 'London Airport'. Say that to a cabbie these days and you will certainly get a quizzical look.

Anyway, here I am in Guatemala still and frankly glad I am too to have avoided the deep European chill. There has been a heavy, settling snow fall in the south-east of England twice in the same calendar year now, when for Greater London at least, such things tend to only happen once a decade. My father reckons that the last white Christmas in the capital occurred back in 1962.

The wait may not be over just yet however, as it poured with rain there yesterday in spite of the sub-zero temperatures and warmer air is predicted for Christmas day and the weekend that follows.

We're almost all set now for tonight. Just a few more goodies to collect from Epicure which we ordered yesterday. This morning my mother rather typically described the notion of holding a buffet dinner when you don't really know who's going to turn up and when, as "uncivilised".

We're likely to be beset for the rest of the day with the niggling feeling that the one thing that can still go wrong is that the gas will run out. (According to V it should have run out in October.)

Pics from the archive (22)

Venice Beach, Los Angeles
Taken 21st October 2007

Pics from the archive (21)

Assorted graffiti carved by nineteenth century sailors on the capital of one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon (5th century BC) at Cape Sounion, a few hours drive south of Athens.

Taken Tuesday 30th April, 1985

Byron too inscribed his name on the temple but I couldn't find his mark. I tried and failed again when I returned to the cape in the autumn of 1995 whilst working on the online component of the Athens 2004 Olympic bid.

Nothing could really beat the all-nighter pulled in '85, when I watched the sun sink behind the temple, then stayed up to watch the stars arc across the night sky before daylight came up again behind them.

Pics from the archive (20)

Foot-shaped Roman terracotta scent bottles, British Museum
Taken January 4th, 2002

The nails along the bottom of the left-hand bottle are arranged in the shape of an alpha and an omega and a swastika. I wonder why Roman perfumes came in patas?

Pics from the archive (19)

Prussia Cove, Porth-en-Alls, Cornwall
Taken 15th July 2003

Four years earlier Surfer and I watched the total eclipse of the sun from the top of the hill at the back.

A month or so ago I was reading Iain Banks's Transition and came across the passage where a lecturer insists that alien tourists would come to our Earth not to see the Grand Canyon or the Great Wall, but to witness an eclipse...which may well be a near unique phenomena amongst inhabited worlds.

So all you have to do to spot an ET, he insisted, is look out for the weirdoes amongst the masses gathered in anticipation of totality. Easier said then done however, because on that day in 1999 Surfer and I appeared to be in a very small minority of 'ordinary-looking' folk on that Cornish hillside!

Pics from the archive (18)

Amsterdam, taken August 1984

Pics from the archive (17)

Street scene outside the peasant market in Moscow.
Taken Tuesday 2nd April 1985.

The people on the far right are examining local classifieds posted on the exterior wall of the market - a kind of analogue Craigslist and what in the pre-Glasnost USSR was one of the few forms of petit-bourgeois capitalism tolerated in the Soviet capital...though the peasant market itself was entrepreneurial on a small scale. (I bought a wooden cochino in there which currently sits on top of my bookshelf downstairs.)

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A family conduct a sacrifice in the hills above Chichicastenango
Taken Sunday 15th October 1989

Pics from the archive (16)

Igreja da Misericórdia in Viseu, Portugal.
Work commenced in 1775 under master mason António da Costa Faro.

Taken September 2002

Pics from the archive (16)

Taken August 2005

"I would like to tell capitalists that Dubai does not need investors, investors need Dubai and I tell you that the risk lies not in using your money but in letting it pile up. It is dormant and dead if it is merely a figure in an account. I tell them not to hold onto it and kill it in safes, let it breathe and be active because money is like water - if you lock it up, it becomes stagnant and foul-smelling, but if you let it flow, it stays fresh. If it does not flow, it will become stagnant and its colour will change. When I encourage you to invest, I am not asking you to put your money into a fire - I guarantee that your money will be invested in carefully studied projects. I want to be frank with you - I have the courage to take decisions and to bear the responsibility for the consequences. Do you have the courage to be frank and decisive?"

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

Duabi owes 107% of its GDP

The ironies of the Sheikh's foul-smelling water analogy can be fully appreciated here.

Pics from the archive (15)

With their neighbour in financial meltdown Abu Dhabi seems pretty keen to snatch control of Emirates.

The in-flight catering I was treated to was dreamily wonderful when I flew with them to Dubai — that's Iranian caviar over there on the right amidst the Arabian mezze. (And all this is just the first course!)

However, I learned a hard lesson (actually, not so hard...) about the dangers of overstuffing oneself on aeroplanes.

Emirates Airbuses have a camera on the underside of the fuselage towards the nose-cone and passengers with personal video systems can select the appropriate channel to check out the view that this camera takes in....not a lot, it has to be said.

Taken August 2007

Pics from the archive (14)

I wonder whether his little real estate project in Dubai ever happened?
Taken August 2005

The BBC's Robert Peston said on Monday: "It was no secret that of all the world's property bubbles, one of the very bubbliest had been in Dubai - or that the bubble had been pricked a year ago. Even the International Monetary Fund (in its latest report on the prospects for the global economy) noticed that the United Arab Emirates had suffered the third-worst fall in house prices during the first three months of this year of any country (a fall of nudging 40%; only Latvia and Estonia suffered worse drops). Dubai was not an accident waiting to happen: it had already happened, locally at least."

Pics from the archive (13)

More Dubai bling!
Taken August 2005

Dubai World's debt stands at $59bn out of the local state debt of $80bn.

Pics from the archive (12)

Something topical today: a bit of insane Dubai bling
Taken August 2005