From London to Khobar: Forty

It’s 3^rd January. It's my fortieth post.

Have I missed the whole review of 2014 thing?

I dunno.

I’m not good with tradition and convention. I don’t usually partake or play. But, 2014 was a big year for me. It would seem a bit odd if I wasn’t to make some sort of effort to mark it passing.

I could write a stack of stuff about how it felt and how 2015 is going to shape up, but I have a stack of posts that were written at the time. I will let them tell the story.

So, as a slight alternative, I have pulled together a stack of photographs from the year with some notes. Some have been posted on here before, others appeared on Instagram and Flickr. Some have made all three. But some are new...

Anyway. As my Facebook messages have encouraged:

Read

Don’t Read

Enjoy

Don’t Enjoy

The choice is all yours. Choose your colour. Spin the wheel.

Where to start?

Here... In a toilet in London...

The view from the Management Suite Gents at Topshop Oxford Circus.

Loved that view.

The BT Tower will always be my London beacon. When I see it, I know that I am close to my true home. One day I will write about it's mystical properties and why it holds such a strong strong hold on my heart...

The Tower

A blue grey spire with a red light atop. Surrounded by trees. Dusk

I spent years away from Harrow. When I did visit, it was so different to the town I grew up that I really didn't respond to it well. This changed in the late noughties when i bought a property there and got to explore it all over again.

It - once again - became home.

Epping Forest

Battersea Power Station through the Rain

Parliament Hill... A Summer View

Through the process of sorting my life out to head out to Saudi Arabia, I managed to keep getting out and about in town and reminding myself of it's beauty. Hampstead Heath, Battersea on the way home from West Norwood Feast and green, green summer trees I found lost on the outskirts of Chingford.

The English countryside still inspired:

Detail... The Chilterns

Avenue. Pulborough Brooks

Pulborough Brooks. Sussex.

More Trees in The Chilterns. A dark wood, with a spot of sunlight.

But on a personal level. April 18th Stands out...

With Leyton Orient and Rotherham United dropping points, the win against Preston North End at Griffin Park meant that Brentford FC were promoted. Cue a pitch invasion...

Oh West London. Is Beautiful!

The Ealing Road End... Where a bit of my heart lives.

But Saudi Arabia - Bahrain and UAE - beckoned. And it's where I find myself today. Quite content...

I've found the whole experience inspiring and liberating. The key thing that I have been searching for is a change. Believe me, Saudi Arabia is a change. I miss the UK. I miss my home city and I miss my family and friends to bits but I have no regrets at the path that I have chosen in 2014.

It is good...