Tony's Web Site

Welcome to my web site. As I add items the old stuff gets pushed down the page so you will need to scroll down to see it. This front page only shows the most recent eight entries – for older stuff click the “Older entries” link at the foot of the page or the Index link to the right. To get the various random items on the right to change just re-load this page.

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Please note that all the photos on this web site are my personal property and cannot be published without my prior permission.

This is the second short video from our Scottish trip made with my new Stickpic gadget. This one was shot on the Isle of Arran when Isabel and I hiked up Glen Rosa and up and onto the Saddle separating it from Glen Sannox.

The Video starts at the high point on the Saddle looking down into Glen Sannox and then there are a couple of clips during our return journey down Glen Rosa.

Just got back two weeks walking in the west of Scotland, we started on the West Highland Way at Crianlarich, went on to Loch Lomond and Lochgoilhead and ended up on the marvellous Isle of Arran.

Of course I took hundreds of photos and will be posting some shortly when I have finished sorting them.

In the meantime here is a very short video I shot as we approached the summit of Ben Lomond. Hiking to the top of the mountain was hard, not least because it was sunnier and hotter than we expected, but we both found the decent the hardest on our tired legs. In the background you can sometimes see Isabel in her orange shirt and also Loch Lomond which had been our starting point three hours previously.

I shot this video using a wonderful little gizmo called a Stickpic which lets you attach a compact camera to the end of your walking stick – the result is a video that almost seems as if it was shot by an accompanying camera man. Spinning around with the camera, which I do a couple of times in this video including at the summit, produces a really impressive visual effect.

I shot some action photos of my three nephews playing football this weekend, they take it all very seriously. It was an opportunity for me to use my 300mm lens and pretend I was a sports photographer. The photos are here.

I spent a delightful evening with a couple of old friends, I have known John over 30 years and Jo nearly 40 years. We got together to look through John’s collection of posters which included several from the Poster Workshop, a collective that Jo had been a memeber of, but really it was a just a great excuse for a good natter. The conversation was as good as gets. The photos are here.

The weather forecast for Tuesday was “brighter later” so we decied to drive down to Broadstairs, stroll the esplanade, eat fish and chips and then doze on the beach. And it it was indeed brighter later. Photos are here.

Of course one couldn’t relax completely because, as the sign below explains, Broadstairs beach holds all sorts of hidden and worrying perils. Thank god someone did a risk management assessment on it and could put up such a reassuring warning.

We gathered at Chris and Camilla’s on Sunday to celebrate Charlie and Ronnie’s birthday and also to celebrate  Chris’s excellent performance in the London Marathon. Click here for the photos.

I left my job as European Manager at islington Council today, after nearly twenty years in post. Over the last couple of weeks I have had various farewell events, meals and gatherinings. People have been fantastically nice to me and thus made me feel a little sad about leaving.

The first farewell was at the last Board meeting of Islington Training Network, an organisation I set up ten years ago and the Board of which I have Chaired for the last few years. The staff clubbed together and bought me an engraved iPod – a very lovely present.

Next I had lunch with the staff team and members at ACBBA – The Association of Community Based Business Advice – an organisation I helped set up to promote a new way to support enterprise in socially excluded and migrant communities based on a long piece of EU funded development work. More nice presents and speeches.

Finally I had a meal with some old colleagues from Regeneration – I have worked with these people for a very long time.

It snowed heavily in London for most of today, the schools were shut and the transport system wasn’t running – so the only thing left to do was to drag the kids and some toboggans over to the Heath and charge about like lunatics. The photos are here.