Prowling my world, camera in hand

The highlight of the week was my first-ever trip to Oxford to attend a conference on trademark economics research at the university there. The conference was Friday and Saturday, and I then went to visit my daughter in Cardiff and my son in Bath.

But I also had some interesting light at home, and a walk in an Alicante neighbourhood which I rarely visit.

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Morning light on the mountains in the distance, as seen in the street where I live:

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Benches in the park in morning sunlight:

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Tuesday morning I went to Carglass to replace my windshield that had fallen victim to an errant golf ball. The shop is located in a dodgy neighbourhood, at least by local standards:

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Another construction project in suspended animation:

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Not sure what the idea is here, but at least there are foreign language skills on display:

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Vivid colours:

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Faded colours:

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Looking south from my office:

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The Cheese Lady. She owns La Quesería de Tibi, based in the inland mountain town of Tibi. They produce all manner of goat cheese, all organic and delicious. Once a week she comes to our office and sells her cheese out of her car. The orders are placed using a spreadsheet on Google Docs:

The rest of the images are from Oxford and Cardiff.

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I flew to Bristol on Thursday morning and took the train to Oxford. At this time of year it gets dark early, so even though it was only around 5 p.m. when I walked from the Oxford train station to my hotel, it was already dark. The first picture I took was what I think of as a typical university town scene:

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The weather was not great:

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So it was better to seek shelter:

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Friday morning, while walking from the hotel to the law school where the conference was taking place, I was delighted to see a menorah on Broad Street:

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Same menorah, at night:

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Another angle on the menorah, in morning light:

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Sundial, St Cross Street:

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Oxford cyclists clearly have as much respect for rules as cyclists everywhere:

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Friday evening we had the “official” conference dinner at Balliol College, an awesome location:

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The Ashmolean Museum. Sadly, I did not have time to visit:

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The St Mary Magdalen church is right in the middle of town:

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Another city cemetery, on St Cross Street:

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The Sheldonian Theatre:

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Quiet morning street:

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Saddle advertising:

Around lunchtime on Saturday, I made my way from Oxford to Cardiff, where I was going to visit my daughter and spend the night.

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I had to change trains at Didcot Parkway and passed the time photographing the nearby cooling towers:

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Once in Cardiff, I checked into my hotel, walked to my daughter’s dorm to see how she lives, and then we went into town for dinner. Monica is now a young adult, but she was still happy to see Mario:

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Facebook picture with Mario:

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On Sunday morning we went to the neighbourhood where Monica will live next year. At UK universities students usually live on campus the first year but are then expected to find their own accommodation for subsequent years. So even though it is only December, Monica and her friends have already lined up a house in a multi-ethnic neighbourhood. This is one of the landmarks, the Royal George pub on Crwys Road:

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City Road, the main street of the neighbourhood:

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If the pizza makes you sick, you can get cured next door:

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Polish pickles:

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New York Deli in the centre of Cardiff. We had delicious vegetarian burgers for lunch here:

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We walked past the magnificent Millennium Stadium, the high temple of Welsh rugby and the place which hosted the FA Cup while Wembley was being rebuilt:

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And then I said goodbye to Monica (not for long, she is coming to Alicante next week to spend Christmas here), and headed to Bath. This is the last picture I took in Cardiff, at the Central Station: