Today's post is mostly just some photos that I snapped in 2006, a year after I had purchased my first digital camera. Back then, Tony Blair was still Great Britain's prime minister and George W. Bush was the President of the USA. enjoying a surprising second term.
In June, Shirley had a bunch of nursing colleagues round for a birthday get together. I am not sure who's birthday it was. That's Shirley on the right in the jeans and grey T-shirt.
That August our Ian was twenty two years old, posing here with his then seventeen year old sister. As I recall, he was quite hung over from the night before:-
And in the same month I visited the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp just north of Berlin.Terrible experiments on dead or living human beings took place in this unnerving operating theatre cum mortuary:-
In April we were visited by my old American friend Chris from Canfield, Ohio. He had never been to Europe before. It was so good to see him - like meeting up with a long lost brother.
Shirley and I visited Venice for three days in October. The water in the lagoon was high and St Mark's Square was flooded but it was still a great visit. We stayed in a lovely little hotel away from the main canals and thoroughfares. That's Wally (American: Waldo) on the gondola:-
We visited Kalkan in Turkey in August:-
At Eastertime, Shirley and I had a few days on the island of Jersey in The English Channel:-
In June, my niece Katie was married in western Ireland. Here she is the night before her wedding playing with her father, my late brother Paul. who was a virtuoso on the Irish fiddle:-
Oh and I almost forgot. That year I had also visited Madrid and Toledo back in February:-
Section of "The Garden of Earthy Delights" (circa 1500)
by Hieronymus Bosch in The Prado, Madrid
I covered a lot of miles in 2006. So many experiences. It was a damned good year. Thanks for digital images that have reminded me of it all. And now almost fifteen extra years have slipped by - like sand through my fingers...
You have a beautiful family.
ReplyDeleteNice of you to say so Debby.
DeleteA camera can capture such wonderful memories. It is good to look back on them and be reminded of happy times.
ReplyDeleteWhere will I be and where will you be fifteen years ahead? I will be 82 years old... if I make it that far.
DeleteThese pictures are priceless. There are so many memories attached to each one.I had my biggest year of travel in 2015 when (due to my daughters), I went to South Korea, Thailand and Senegal. I got burned out after that and kept my trips much smaller. The time changes and rigors of that much airplane time did me in. I made books of each trip and now you tempt me to look through them and re-visit those times.
ReplyDeleteWow! Senegal! Was one of your daughters working there Margaret? It is not a normal holiday destination!
DeleteMy older daughter was teaching, then doing research and finally lived there for a year on a Fulbright doing PhD research. She went to Senegal every summer (or year) for seven years or so. I visited twice.
DeleteMust have been a great experience for you - and of course for your brilliant daughter too.
DeletePictures are reminders and filters one and the same - I was writing about that last night. I love digital cameras for their speed, flexibility, portability, economy, publsbhaiility!... and so much more. I used to love 35mm but I'd never want to go back to now.
ReplyDeleteSome people wax lyrical about film and printing - suggesting somehow that the old techniques are better but they are not! Digital is marvellous.
DeleteI've been having a little looking back at early digital photos taken when on holidays in various parts of the world. All back in the days when we could travel freely and without fear of anything more than a pickpocket. Your travel and family photos are great.
ReplyDeleteDid we dream the way that travel used to be? It is starting to seem so long ago.
DeleteYou're right! That was a lot of miles, a lot of smiles, a lot of living.
ReplyDeleteIt is kind of nice to capture a year like that...though I neglected to mention work!
DeleteYou did have a very good year in 2006! And i notice you casually mention a great deal of talent in your family
ReplyDeleteDid I mention that I won The Turner Prize and The British Grand Prix that year?
Deleteand what year was that when you awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for literature?
DeleteThat was the year after I got the prize for Peace.
DeleteThank you for sharing these pictures with us. They show very much how our lives are made up of such a mix of happy (family, friends, trips) and sad (Sachsenhausen), of work (Shirley's colleagues reminding me of that) and play.
ReplyDeleteTime has a strange way of making itself felt. Looking at anything that happened in a year with a "20" in front makes me think, oh, that wasn't so long ago. But now what you say about 2006 seems like a lifetime ago - and 15 years is, indeed, a lifetime for many.
As I said to JayCee if I now look forward fifteen years I will be 82 years old - probably lying under the turf with moles and earthworms.
DeleteMy digital photo library can transport me instantly back to a time. I suppose we tend to take snapshots of happy events so we are always smiling. I just checked out 2006 - our first retirement year and 'permanent' move to France.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you could blog a 2006 post of your own Sue.
DeletePhotos bring a rush of emotions and memories back, happy memories in 2006 and a well travelled year.
ReplyDeleteBut sometimes it can all seem so long ago - like scenes from someone else's life.
Delete2006 was a great year for you. I treat my blog like it's a digital memory book.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good way of looking at a blog Dave - like an online diary.
DeleteWhat a difference fifteen years can make. You'd be hard pushed to visit all those places this year! Even one would be an achievement.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. Back then an international flight within Europe was like jumping on a bus and almost as cheap. We took it for granted - never imagining the travel situation might change.
Delete2006 - such a long time ago!
ReplyDeleteMany of my photos are pre digital, but I still occasionally take out an album and flick through the pages to remind me of past events. My latest photos are stored on my phone, but don't hold the memories that the old, now fading, colour prints do.
Your photos make interesting viewing YP, and I too have memories of visiting Turkey along that same stretch of coast, in 1986. A beautiful country with lovely people but now it seems to be the dumping ground for the world's dispossessed.
In September 2006 we visited Madrid too, and I spent several happy hours in El Prado.
Were you the woman who blocked my view of Picasso's "Guernica" Carol? There was no need to swear like a trooper when I politely asked you to move. In the future, no one will have boxes of old prints to rifle through. Funny how they fade with the passing years - just like memory itself.
DeleteNo, I wouldn't be so rude YP! We were in Madrid in September of that year to celebrate our wedding anniversary.
DeleteSo sorry if I have unintentionally caused offence Carol.
DeleteA great look back through some lively images. It's amazing (and kind of frightening) that 2006 was so long ago!
ReplyDelete...And yet it seems like yesterday.
DeleteI remember when my parents and grandparents pondered over what year a picture was taken or event took place. How could they be so feeble minded I thought at the time. Now decades later, I know. I'm more careful and keep them digitized in dated folders so I can more easily "remember".
ReplyDeleteHa-ha! Digital photography helps us to remember more accurately.
DeleteYou stayed in with a bunch of nurses in the house? I would not have been that brave.
ReplyDeleteNurses are very good at giving bed baths Tasker.
Delete