Ben's picture of the day.

Day 847 – 19th July 2009

2009-07-19T20:11:00.001+01:00

Ah the Pyrenees – one can’t fail to love the fresh air up in the mountains. It took seven hours, as predicted, to get here; the drive was noisy in my car but bearable. My dad, in his much faster car, got here 45 minutes before us (my brother came along for the ride with me) so he opened up the house etc… which made life less stressful.

On the way, we got to the scene of an accident about five minutes after it happened. People still bleeding, no police, no ambulance – it’s difficult to see how it occurred though as the road was completely empty, it can’t have been past seven in the morning (we set off at five). There was another car behind, which hadn’t rolled, its front was smashed in, so I guess one hit the other. As far as I could tell, the driver of the car pictured here got out safely – can’t have been completely unscathed though…

Anyway, as I’d hoped the internet works here but it’s extraordinarily slow – I’m just going to stop typing, hit send and hope for the best. See you on the other side.

Day 846 – 18th July 2009

2009-07-18T20:22:00.001+01:00

It’s the last time I’ll be seeing this place for a long while. We’re heading off to the Pyrenees early in the morning, then from there I’m off to spend the next year on Mallorca. So, it’s goodbye Provence for now. Obviously I’m going in my car, so there’s a seven hour drive ahead to get to the mountains – it’ll be nice, I like driving.

My dad has unlimited 3G internet on his mobile and I’ve just worked out how to tether it to my laptop. With a bit of luck then I might just about be able to get online without having to sponge wifi off a bar ten miles away…

Day 845 – 17th July 2009

2009-07-17T22:01:00.000+01:00

I know it’s easy to complain about ‘nanny government’, particularly when it comes to the EU, but this leaflet I have been asked to keep in the car is really quite helpful. It’s about what to do in the event of an accident. Now, before I read this, if I had a bump I would have stopped the car, pulled the gun out of the glove box and pressed it up to the offender’s windscreen – who knows I might even have capped him in the leg.

Lucky for you shit drivers out there, I’ve read this leaflet. It says ‘Do not get angry’. ‘Stay polite’. ‘Be calm’. Wow – that’s so enlightening I think I might just stick to it. Thanks EU! What the hell do I do with my gun now though?

Before I sound like the bastard love child of Jeremy Clarkson and the Daily Mail, I should perhaps move on. In fact, I’ve just got back from seeing the new Harry Potter. I didn’t really want to go, but hey, I don’t like saying no to a free trip to the pictures. As it happens, my premonition was sadly correct. It was dull, uninspiring and nothing happened. Of course it was well put together but its main let down was that it was way too long. As in, an hour too long. If you want to go see it, just stay away.

Day 844 – 16th July 2009

2009-07-16T22:20:00.001+01:00

Finally, after a week that seemed like an age, I’ve got my car insured and hey presto – off I go.

So, I went to get bits and bobs needed for it – a new gear knob (the existing one was crumbling away), emergency triangles and a yellow jacket as required by French and Spanish law.

Today’s picture comes from Martigues, by birth town if you’re interested. From there I went with my brother to a sports shop to try and pick up some empty bicycle boxes – something to do with the charity bike trip across France he’s planning. As it happens, we have to go back tomorrow to have any chance of getting anything…

Day 843 – 15th July 2009

2009-07-15T22:26:00.001+01:00

I’ve really not been up to much today. The heat has remained high and humidity is spiralling upwards. It’s truly, truly uncomfortable.

So, as a remedy, I decided to watch this – a boxed set someone gave me a month or so ago. It was actually aired in 2006 and went by pretty much unnoticed – can’t say I heard of it myself either. However, much like Sean Lock’s ‘Fifteen Stories High’, it truly is a hidden gem. It’s dark and often confusing, maybe slightly crude at times, but the music is ingenious and there are running themes which give it a clever edge. Sadly, they only ever made one series of Snuffbox, so I watched all six episodes in one go. If you can find it cheap somewhere, it’s really worth a look.

A quick car update: registration papers are sorted, I have to go to the insurance office tomorrow to get that all signed off. It’s another delay, but the good news is that the insurance shall cost the equivalent of about £380 – more than half the price of what it costs in Britain.

Day 842 – 14th July 2009

2009-07-14T21:21:00.001+01:00

We all know French drivers have a reputation for driving with a hand out of the window, but this takes it all to the next level…

It’s Bastille day today, and I think this fits the bill perfectly – I don’t think I’ve taken a picture which sums up French driving more. There’s always a casual disregard for common sense – even if it means you can’t change gear most of the time. If he could, I’m sure he’d have both feet out of the window.

It does show quite how hot it is though – today got up to 35C. It’s getting to that point where the heat stops you doing much; it’s just about bearable though.

Day 841 – 13th July 2009

2009-07-13T22:38:00.001+01:00

Ten days after independence day in America, it’s France’s turn to have a crack at a national holiday. It’s not today mind you – tomorrow is Bastille day, but the festivities start tonight to take it over midnight and through to the actual day. It marks the fall of the Bastille prison, but nowadays it marks a day off work.

Now, it’s Monday today, and the holiday is tomorrow on Tuesday. There’s a tradition in France in situations like these - ‘faire le pont’. This literally means to ‘make the bridge’. That is to say, when the break is on a Tuesday, or a Thursday, you might as well fill in the gap from the weekend – the Friday or in this case, Monday. Makes a long weekend you see. In Britain, we just make sure all holidays land on Monday – oh well.

Only about half of the country take this extra day off, so you’re never 100% sure what’s open and what isn’t. Turns out, the town hall was closed, so getting the paperwork done on my car has once again been delayed. It’ll be Wednesday before I can go now at the least. Oh the bureaucracy.

Anyway, here’s a picture of the village member’s club having it’s party – I live just next door so it’s kind of keeping me up. Sorry it’s so blurry, but as I said, you have to be a member to get in, and I thought it might seem weird having a total stranger wondering around trying to find a steady spot for a picture of something he’s not attending…

Day 840 – 12th July 2009

2009-07-12T22:03:00.000+01:00

Ants! Hundreds of the little bastards, all over the side of the house! Don’t even know why I’m mentioning it – but there they are.

It’s been so hot, so sticky today. It’s not really a holiday when it’s like this – sweat clouds my vision as I type. Hopefully it’ll be fresher tomorrow – looks like a thunderstorm tonight. Having said that, it’s midnight and there’s still no rain so maybe I’m too optimistic.

Day 839 – 11th July 2009

2009-07-11T00:01:00.000+01:00

That wasp in the picture is a helicopter. It’s been flying around all day. People set up on the hill below it offering rides above the countryside. That’s been annoying me all day.

I’ve spent the evening installing Ubuntu on my crappy old laptop – it works, but my brother wants to get a crappy cracked game working, and it just won’t. Everything else will, but not this one. The worst thing about it is that it’s Pro Cycling Manager – something extraordinarily boring anyway.

Day 838 – 10th July 2009

2009-07-10T21:11:00.001+01:00

As suggested yesterday, here’s a picture of my new car. It’s a funny shot because it’s parked in a funny place – it’ll do.

I’ve spent a while doing the washing up today – nothing else. Nothing. I was going to go for a drive, but I’m not insured yet. I was going to go for a walk, which I normally do, but it was too hot. Next week I shall be insured, so I’ll go somewhere nice – maybe with my brother if he wants to come.

I’ve said this before, but France seems to really sap any inspiration from me – just typing this is an effort! Maybe it’s just from being stuck in the house all day – I’m sure the picture of the day will be exciting once I start getting about the place a little more.

Day 837 – 9th July 2009

2009-07-09T21:33:00.001+01:00

I got bored so went for a walk today. I noticed that like so much of rural France, this place is falling apart. The houses, including this one, crack up every year because of subsidence and the road has been torn in two. As a result, when you walk through the village (or hamlet) and there’s nobody around, like today, it’s like walking through somewhere that everyone had to flee because it got nuked or there was anthrax or something…

I’ve got a car now, a Peugeot 306, it’s not bad, bit rough round the edges, but I’m sure it’ll run. It’s a bit dull though, so I’ll get a picture of it on a day where there truly is nothing else. Like tomorrow probably.

Day 836 – 8th July 2009

2009-07-08T21:17:00.001+01:00

Can’t say I’ve been up to much today – the morning was spent putting together a voice over project I recorded before leaving on Saturday. Then for lunch we went to the area’s over-priced, slightly average nautical themed restaurant with a few of my dad’s colleagues on a visit from Vietnam. As I said, it’s a fairly expensive place, not over the top – but the food is nothing special at all. Can’t say why they keep going back there…

Looks like I might end up with a Peugeot 306 for next year – I spent the afternoon looking at options, and it seems like one at a local garage could well be the best idea. So there we are.

The heat is taking it’s toll slightly, although it was cooler today, but I have to apologise in advance for any typos I might make – stupid as it may seem it’s more difficult to spot them when you’re all hot and bothered.

Day 835 – 7th July 2009

2009-07-07T22:11:00.001+01:00

Outside my window, right now this very moment, the moon is shining through the clouds like something from a film. It’s like the sun at night. Sadly, my camera only has autofocus and it won’t fix onto anything in the distance at night. That’s annoying.

So, today’s picture is of a rusty chair also slightly out of focus, but when you look at it, just imagine what I’m seeing right now and think about how much better today’s picture could have been.

The moon’s gone now. What a shame. Oh well, you win some you lose some.

Day 834 – 6th July 2009

2009-07-06T20:33:00.001+01:00

The fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square carries a different work of art every year or so. Today, it’s the turn of real people to stand up on there. They get an hour each, 24 hours a day, for 100 days. That’s 2400 people going on constantly until October.

It’s an interesting idea, it’ll be nice when the novelty wears off and people will simply be walking by casually observing the proceedings. It’s being streamed live on TV and online, so I took a look, and took a picture. It’s boring, I think the concept is better than the actual activity, but hey, it’s worth checking out in a bored moment. It’s called ‘One and other’ by Anthony Gormley. Google it and you’ll find the site.

Day 833 – 5th July 2009

2009-07-05T21:55:00.001+01:00

The day started off on the wrong foot when my bag turned out to be overweight upon arrival at Manchester airport. Ryanair, saints that they are, charge £15 for every kilo over the weight limit. I had to shed some baggage – I wasn’t going to pay anything at all at that rate. Luckily it worked and I didn’t, so we boarded the plane without parting with any extra cash.

I might have mentioned last week that it was hot in Somerset. Honest to god, it is twice as hot here in France. Stepping off the plane was like hitting a brick wall – can’t say I’ve felt like that for a long time. I’ve just about managed to get used to breathing normally again, but it’ll be a while before I adjust to cope with the constant sweating.

Last summer I was in Seville, where temperatures hit 53 degrees C, far hotter than here, but at night time the heat is just the same – I’m getting tired just typing. I’m going to try not moving for a while.

Just as I got in from the airport I saw Roger Federer beat Andy Roddick in a five set epic Wimbledon final, beating Pete Sampras’ record of 14 grad slams. It was close though, the fifth set went all the way to 16-14 – the equivalent of another set, and them some.

Right well, it’s time for some more water, then bed. Hope you’re not as sticky as I am tonight.

Day 832 – 4th July 2009

2009-07-04T23:41:00.001+01:00

Today was spent packing to leave for France tomorrow. I’ve had to choose carefully mind, as I’ve got a 15kg limit on my bag – I’m going away for a year. Difficult.

I won’t be spending my year in France though as I’m working in Mallorca for 8 months, but before all that I’m heading down to the French coast to see my family etc…

I must stop typing and go to bed – packing’s not done yet but if I’m up I can do it tomorrow. Good evening.

Day 831 – 3rd July 2009

2009-07-03T23:16:00.000+01:00

It’s been one of those days where the morning’s events feel like they took place a week ago. It was time for the cookery course to end, but we still had half a day’s worth of cooking left to do – so frying pan pizzas (being expertly flipped in the picture), cookies, beer bread and brownies were on the menu.

We’ve all eaten so much now though that the actual eating part has become a chore. Didn’t think it would come to this, but it has.

Anyway, after lunch it was time to go home, and in true British fashion a simple nip up the train line quickly turned into a nightmare journey – a train broke down up the line from us and we had to push it to Gloucester before we could be on our way. As a result we were 45 minutes late, I missed my connection in Birmingham which I’d pre-booked and getting the conductor on the next train to believe about any of it me was difficult.

I managed to convince him though, and he let me off without charging me anything so the day wasn’t completely ruined. However, just an hour or so ago, at around midnight, we got a call from my mother who’s away with friends at the moment saying that she’s really, really ill and could my dad come down. I offered to go too, but we agreed it’d be better to keep someone at home – we don’t want to both end up stranded somewhere at two in the morning.

So here I am, typing away, hoping things aren’t too bad. It’s a shame that such a lovely week had to be marred by this – if nobody’s back tomorrow I might have to give the old cooking skills a bit of a spin. Goodnight.

Day 830 – 2nd July 2009

2009-07-02T23:49:00.000+01:00

It’s the final night of cooking tonight and we were asked to think of a theme for the evening. We settled on a barbecue dinner but had no barbecue to cook it on – fortunately one of the course organisers invited us to her house to use hers.

The house I’m staying in at the moment is massive, with several bedrooms and, not surprisingly, a vast kitchen. However the house we went to this evening was extraordinary well equipped. There was a hot tub, horses with fields and even a boat. I was duly impressed.

Enough said – there’s more cooking to be done in the morning then it’s home on the train in the afternoon.

Day 829 – 1st July 2009

2009-07-01T23:49:00.000+01:00

Here’s a picture of some more food we cooked – this time it’s Blinis with various toppings.

I haven’t got much to say – I think I’ve eaten far too much though. Far too much. Oh God. Call a doctor.

Day 828 – 30th June 2009

2009-06-30T23:46:00.000+01:00

My cookery-course colleague Asef and I painted this with chocolate today. It’s a dinosaur chasing a hot air balloon. As you can tell, life isn’t bad at all on the cooking masterclass.

In fact, I’m really enjoying it – I actually like the cooking parts more than the free time; I quite like learning stuff completely unrelated to what I normally do, Modern Languages.

It is absolutely sweltering again tonight, so I don’t want to stay typing away at my hot laptop all evening. I’ve got some voice-over prep to do for a film review piece too, so I’d better be off. The problem is I’m here all week and I’m off to France on Sunday which leaves me with only Saturday to record anything. As a result, I’m being anti-social and watching the films I need to see on my iPod – thank heavens for technology.

Day 827 – 29th June 2009

2009-06-29T23:48:00.000+01:00

We’ve done quite a bit of cooking today, these canapés look good and tasted mighty fine to boot. That’s right, I said ‘to boot’ – not sure that’s ever happened before. I didn’t actually make these, everything else we made tasted just as good, but these were the most visually appealing.

It’s been a long long day in the Kitchen, but I somehow managed to keep cool despite the heat. It’s now though, late at night, that it suddenly feels stiflingly hot.

We’ve got a three hour break in the afternoon, so I went to see some of the countryside – Somerset’s not a bad place at all, although it’s far too hot to go anywhere far!

Saw Andy Murray just scrape through his five set epic match at Wimbledon – won in true British fashion, dodgy as ever. Interesting to see the new roof on centre court – they didn’t have to stop for bad light because of the lights on it, so the game went on until well past ten. Good match, nerve wracking, but the right outcome in the end makes for a good night.

Day 826 – 28th June 2009

2009-06-28T23:48:00.000+01:00

Right now, I’m sitting in bed, in a big house in Somerset, getting ready to start cooking tomorrow.

There’s seven of us here, everyone seems to be getting on well – I won’t go on ‘cos it’s time for bed!

Day 825 – 27th June 2009

2009-06-27T23:10:00.001+01:00

Having been on the road all day, it seemed to make sense to get today’s picture from the road, and very grim it was too. That’s not a bad thing though, since we were heading back from our week’s holiday on Lindisfarne – always nice to see the weather turning after the break, not during.

It’s a fair way to go – took us about five hours without counting a lunch break and a tea stop; about as far you can go before you hit Scotland in fact.

A nice week was had by all, but tomorrow I’m straight back on the train to Taunton, which I think is in Devon but it might be Somerset – all gets a bit murky down those parts. Wherever it is, it’s about as far from Holy Island as you can get; I’ll be on a week long cookery course down there. Why? I can’t actually remember. I’m sure it’ll be fine though.

Day 824 – 26th June 2009

2009-06-26T23:56:00.001+01:00

Last night, as I was typing in fact, Michael Jackson died. 24 hours on and pretty much everything that can be said has been said. There is some controversy around the cause of death, but unless something shocking or pivotal comes to light, I won’t mention it again from now on. I just thought I should say something, it’s the death of a true icon.

Went to Newcastle, as planned, to meet a friend of mine. The mill, pictured left, is no longer a mill but a modern art gallery – the Baltic. It’s free so we went in – I’m not a modern art sceptic so I did enjoy most of it, although it perhaps isn’t for everyone I think anybody can appreciate something that looks good, whatever it may be. It may seem unusual to recommend a gift shop, but I really do with this one – it’s so refreshing to see somewhere that stocks cool, fun, sometimes even inspired products. There’s stuff you’d actually buy here instead of the standard tacky rulers and shitty velcro wallets.

The gallery actually reflects what the rest of Newcastle is like – modern yet classic, unpretentious but not at all crass. Anyway, I don’t want to go on all night – it was nice to meet up with my friend, we won’t be seeing each other again for a very long time indeed.

Home tomorrow – best start packing.

Day 823 – 25th June 2009

2009-06-25T23:28:00.001+01:00

The north side of the island is, once you go behind the beach, marsh and bog. From what I hear there are interesting plants around the area, not that I saw any, but we had a walk around there for my mother’s sake, who likes to photograph plants.

Me, I just like to photograph where I am, so that’s what I did. A marsh was unlikely to be spectacular, and today’s dull weather didn’t lend itself at all to getting interesting pictures. There is a glimmer of colour here though, and some specks of light around the scene make today’s shot ever so slightly more appealing than anything else on my memory card at the end of the day…

If you’re not watching Psychoville on BBC2 at the moment – catch up with the lot on iPlayer then wait for next week’s episode. I don’t often rave about TV shows – but rarely do things combine intrigue, suspense and dark, cruel, sick, twisted humour to such brilliant effect. If you liked the League of Gentlemen you’ll like this too, but the story unfolding is so engrossing that everyone gets hooked.

Tomorrow, I’m off to Newcastle to see a friend. See you there pet.