Kuala Lumpur - what an exciting city!

Inherently I prefer the countryside, but once in a while time spent in a big city is exciting.

I’ve recently spent a few days in Kuala Lumpur and loved it.  It was my first visit to what is a true 24 hour city with its very own distinctive smells and ear-numbing noise.

I recently visited Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia on a short business trip.  Living in Cyprus with no railways at all, I just had to make the time to explore Kuala Lumpur’s Light Rail Transit systems.  Bear in mind as a dedicated gricer, the previous time I’d pointed a camera at a railway subject was in October 2010. Withdrawal symptoms?  You bet!

During my visit, I managed to check out three of the systems:  the Monorail, the Ampang Line and Electric Train Service.

The Limassol Auto Club organised an Autosprint at Episkopi, Cyprus on 14 April 2013.  The 1km course driven eight times attracted 45 entries comprising rally prepared cars.  As a day’s entertainment it was terrific - a beautiful sunny day packed with full-on action motor sport and some great photographic opportunities.

The coastal plain around Mandria in Cyprus is intensively farmed as a series of small holdings.  That leads to the village being almost a museum of interesting old tractors – many of which are still in daily use.  Yesterday I found three interesting examples – a Serbian IMT 5539, a USA Massey Ferguson 165 and a Czechoslovakian Zetor 4011.

Recently I was contacted by Mike Richardson, a guy who served with the United Nations in Cyprus during and after invasion in 1974. Mike served in the village of Melandra, now one of the deserted villages of Cyprus.  His story and pictures from the time are fascinating.

Back in 1986 a business trip to Milan unusually featured a few hours of free time here and there - which was my first (and so far only) opportunity for a quick bit of gricing Italian style.  The stuff I saw was a great mix of vintage and modern - scanning the original sides certainly makes me want to go back for a deeper investigation.

Last Saturday 16 March was carnival time in Paphos!  Lots of fun, lots of colour, lots of noise - this year all apparently with a Chinese theme.  Cheesy?  Sure.  Not to be missed?  Equally for sure!

February in Cyprus is when Spring really gets moving.  The hazel trees in the countryside are covered with delicate white and pink blossom.  Everything is growing like crazy.  For a photographer, it's a rewarding time of year.

I stumbled out of bed, bleary eyed this morning.  I reached to roll up the window blind and as I did my eyes nearly fell out of my head.  The sun was shining brilliantly on the most perfect rainbow I’ve ever seen, perfectly framing a mountain and against dark menacing clouds.  I thundered downstairs to find a camera – any camera – I had to get this.

The CFD X2000 series were the first ‘modern’ railcars when they were delivered to Corsica in 1975.  Whilst in many ways they were progress, in others they weren’t.