501 Places

I can spend hours flicking through our picture albums from the last few years. However good our memory might be there are moments that get lost in the mist of time and that are rekindled simply by a glance at an old photo. So while I’ve never really invested in my camera gear (it probably shows to a serious photographer) I do value the chance to capture a scene or an occasion for future viewing.

I had a dig through my albums and selected a set of 10 photos that I was particuarly happy with. They are not technically perfect in any way; in some cases these pictures have captured the moment and the place exactly as I remember it (perhaps they now form that memory); in other cases (as in the eclipse or the weird clouds, they just act as a stamp to remind me years later that I really did see those very rare events.

Setting sun through hole in tree bark. Causey Arch, Durham on my very first digital camera, 1999

Kyrgyzstan mountains in evening light. Plus toilet.

Amber Fort, Jaipur - I just love how there are so many things going on here (most that I didn't notice at the time)

Mammatus clouds over St Albans - I looked out of the window at the right time

I never knew icebergs would look so blue. Lago Grey, Torres del Paine, Chile

Aurora Borealis, Kattfjord, near Tromso, northern Norway

Along the Thames from top of London Eye at sunset - probably the best view of London at the best time of day

Annular solar eclipse. Durness, NW Scotland, 2003

Krakow by night. One carefully placed full moon.

West coast of Barra, Scotland. Some of the best light I've ever seen. The colours on my photos from this day are so vivid they could have been photoshopped.

A few days ago several thousand people (me included) clicked on a random link that appeared on Twitter offering us a chance to find out our ‘Twifficiency’ – it was a pointless but ultimately harmless link, proof if it were ever needed that those on Twitter are by nature a fairly narcissistic bunch. Offer us a chance to give ourselves a pat on the back and by and large we’ll take it.

Those of us who waste spend a great deal of our time on Twitter will probably be familiar with many metrics that judge our online influence/credibility/ranking. You can measure your number of followers, number of tweets, Twitter influence, Tweet Rank etc etc. I’ve long been convinced that these are hollow and meaningless figures that tell nothing of how much value a person is bringing to their online community. Yet it’s only after talking to my friend and knower of most things social media Adam Gray that I found concrete proof of the absurdity of these statistics.

Adam set up a Twitter account (@agsocialmedia) at the start of June as an experiment. The no. 1 rule that covered all of these actions was clear: he wasn’t allowed to do ANYTHING to interact with followers. The plan was simple: he linked the account to Twitterfeed, set up Google Alerts for certain keywords and Friendfollow to build his follower numbers. He automated a series of actions which allowed him to send tweets which are both topical and unique to any followers (all of whom he followed back; and they received a nice introduction DM of course).  In other words, the entire account management was automated.

I’ve ran the stats on Adam’s account this week and learned the following:

Following 1,629

Followers 1,669

Tweets sent  1,660

Klout Score 23  “@agsocialmedia is a Conversationalist: you love to connect and always have the inside scoop. Good conversation is not just a skill, it’s an art. You might not know it, but when you are witty, your followers hang on every word.” Really?

Twitter grade: 97.5% (higher than the vast majority of genuine folk)

Tweet Value: $658 (sell it Adam!)

There are other metrics but I’m sure you get the point. To the casual observer, this account might look very much like any number of Twitter accounts we see every day. According to these and other sites this is a highly ranked and credible Twtter account.

While Adam’s experiment is a fascinating one it does leave me wondering whether I should find the results more depressing than I do. After all, now that I know this account is automated, how many others that I have followed thinking they were real, are in fact equally bogus?

And so to my main concern. How many people out there, particularly corporate managers who employ a person fully or partly to manage their social media, still judge the performance of their social media campaigns based on these ridiculous statistics? And while this post has focussed on Twitter the argument carries equally for Facebook and LinkedIn use.

There’s a management truism that states that what you choose to measure determines the outcomes you get. If companies are appraising and rewarding their social media teams based on these objective metrics, perhaps Adam’s experiment should serve as a wake-up call.

Lord's: the spritual home of cricket on a gloomy day

Cricket has a hard time selling itself to non-believers. In its original form (test match cricket) a game can last for five days, with each day lasting for around seven hours including breaks. And at the end of those five days? More than 1 in 3 finish as a draw.

The game stops when it’s raining, and also when the light is poor. So you might pay £40 for a ticket to one day of a five day game and spend an hour or two staring at an empty field while the players sit indoors waiting for the clouds to lift enough to satisfy the umpires that play can resume. See what I mean?

Yet if you’ve never been to a game and you happen to be passing through a major cricket country (India, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, England or the Caribbean) I would recommend a day at the cricket to see one of the world’s oldest sports and learn what is it about the game that so many of the local people find so fascinating.

Cricket: a statistician's dream

Cricket attracts a passionate following in its heartlands. In India and Australia crowds approaching 100,000 can squeeze into the huge stadiums to watch their national side. In England, trying to secure a ticket for an Ashes game against Australia (more on that later) is very difficult, and usually involves entering an over-subscribed lottery and hoping for the best.

People are willing to pay large sums of money to come to a game which is weather dependent (in England!) with the risk that they may see little play if the sun decides to take a day off. What is is about this strange game that captures the imagination?

England's batsmen emerge after a lunch break

Cricket on one level is a statistician’s dream. Batting and bowling averages, countless records, fifties, hundreds: there’s some milestone passed pretty much every hour of play. “These two batsmen have just passed the highest fourth wicket partnership for England against Bangladesh at Edgbaston” might be heard over the loudspeakers on a typical day.

Then there’s the intrigue of a five day game. A classic test match will change from one side being in the ascendancy to the other and back again several times before the end. Small incidents in an otherwise quiet period of play can influence the outcome of a match. A captain’s decision over where to place a fielder or who should bowl at a crucial time can swing the balance of a game decisively. I wonder if there are more subtleties and complex strategies in a Garndmaster chess match.

Haute cuisine is part of a day at the cricket

Spending a day at the cricket has developed into a peculiar ritual in recent years. Ask many supporters and they will list three main components of a good day’s cricket: beer, fast food and fancy dress. The beer starts to flow from early morning, and as the day wears on you’ll notice the singing levels increase, the inevitable Mexican wave circling the ground and some drunken idiot deciding that a 20ft high snake of empty beer glasses (plastic) is a good idea. The banter between opposing fans does however remain friendly and unthreatening.

There are always plenty of over-priced concession stands selling fish and chips, burgers, kebabs, and when the opposition are India or Pakistan, large vats of curry. And the fancy dress? It’s not uncommon to find troops of scantily-clad nuns, policewomen, Supermen or English knights among the crowd. I don’t know why; it’s just become part of the game in recent years.

T20: the sexed up version of cricket

Cricket has attempted to capture a wider audience by introducing a shorter three hour version of the game, aimed at TV audiences and part of a ridiculous attempt at wooing the American market (often denied). This T20 format of the game is particularly popular in India, where billions have been pumped into cricket’s equivalent of football’s Premier League.

Yet arguably the biggest occasion in the sport is known as the Ashes, when England take on Australia. Traditionally fierce rivals, the England team and the English media talk of little else for the four years between the times that the two sides play their contests. In recent years Australia has been dominant although their world domination appears to be over, and England will head to Australia later this year armed with their usual misplaced confidence. The atmosphere, the banter and beer-swilling always steps up a notch during an Ashes summer.

For me the five day game still emboddies what is best about cricket. There is something about watching even a day of a five day game, where no-one is in a hurry yet the game can take a dramatic turn at any point, that makes this a sport like no other. The happy acceptance of an unclear outcome, of weather delays or curtailment, and even moments where the crowd prays for rain to stop the game and prevent an impending defeat; cricket is certainly an acquired taste.

So if you are unfamiliar with the game and find yourself travelling through a cricket playing nation, why not take the chance to see a game for yourself? I would suggest that you tag along with a local who can explain what’s going on and guide you through the many rules of this historic sport. Oh, and don’t forget your umbrella.

It often ends up like this. Washed out and deserted

At every famous place in the world there seems to be one unmissable photo spot: the picture that we know will end up being printed, framed, used as a greeting card or as our desktop. Along with the almost everyone else, I too have made sure to capture those iconic images. But looking through my photo albums in retrospect, those images are not always the ones that provoke the strongest memories. Here are five of the most famous tourist attractions in the world that I’ve been fortunate to visit, and a few pictures of these sites from a less familiar angle.

1. Grand Canyon

Cottonwood Creek in the Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon; the classic view

The Grand Canyon is rightly listed as one of the world’s natural wonders. Few fail to gasp in amazement at their first view from the rim of the canyon. Yet if you are one of the few who choose to walk below the rim, you can witness the spectacular landscapes inside the canyon. There are excellent multi-day hikes that allow you to camp on the banks of the Colorado river, and also a number of good day hikes that allow you plenty of time to enjoy the  unique landscapes of the canyon interior.

2. Ayers Rock

Ayers Rock close up

Ayers Rock as it's best known

If you arrive at Ayers Rock you’ll be faced with the common dilemma: to climb or not to climb? While the argument not to climb usually runs along the grounds of cultural respect to the native cultures there is another good reason to choose to walk around the base: it gave us a completely unexpected insight into the rock, and allows us to appreciate the variety of natural life that survives around the base of this famous rock. We visited the morning after heavy rains and the waterfalls were very impressive.

3. Petra

Petra - exploring the Nabatean tombs

Petra - the obligatory Indiana Jones shot

Entering Petra through the narrow passageway (the Siq) with a guide, the standard trick a guide plays is that he will ask you at one point to close your eyes and turn around. Then he will play the Indiana Jones theme music on his phone and ask you to open your eyes, to be greeted with the inspiring view of the Treasury.

And it is truly one of those ‘Wow!’ moments. But there are other equally impressive sides to a Petra visit. Clambering up the rocks to explore the Nabatean tombs and learning about their burial rites, exploring the Roman ruins on the same site, and the climb up to the Monastery were all memorable sights, and far less busy with people posing for ‘that’ picture. The huge area of Petra will keep the interested visitor busy for two to three days.

4. Taj Mahal

An outer shrine silhouetted by the rising sun

Taj Mahal - the classic shot

From the main entrance, and sitting on the ‘Princess Diana’ bench: if you’ve been to the Taj Mahal I challenge you to tell me you don’t have these two shots at least once. I know we have several of them. Yet this site is so rich with beautifully adorned architecture that you are spoilt for choice on good photo opportunities. If you arrive at sunrise as most people seem to, and get away from the main crowds at the two points mentioned above, I found it surprisingly easy to take pictures of large areas by the different structures that were empty of other tourists.

5. Machu Picchu

The reconstructed buildings of Machu Picchu

The 'must have' shot of the Machu Picchu ruins

Was the moment when I captured this classic shot of Machu Picchu (left) one of my travel highlights? Undoubtedly. We have just walked for four days and this was our first sight of what we’d worked so hard to come to see. Standing at the Sun Gate and looking down on the ruins was something special.
But no less memorable was the opportunity the next morning to wander alone among the abandoned buildings and rocks of the site and imagine the lives of those who had been here 500 years before. Again, the interior of the site was very quiet and afforded us to enjoy the ruins pretty much to ourselves (although this was in 1996).

Chinese built plane, Lao Airlines

On a recent uneventful long flight I decided to pass time by counting the number of flights I’ve taken in my lifetime (sad, I know). I lost count somewhere over 300 and it would be reasonable to put the number somewhere around the 350 mark (I counted number of take-offs but I could have chosen number of landings; so far for me they’re pretty much equal). Considering my tally was only 6 when I had reached the age of 24 it suggests a large proportion of recent years spent in grubby airports and sitting squashed on aircraft of various shapes and sizes.

Yet even to this day, I can’t profess to being someone who enjoys flying. I put up with it and accept it as the most practical way of getting from A to B in most cases. Yet when there is an alternative such as a  decent train service I’ll probably take it.

In the early years I was a terrible flyer. I would tense up at every bump, every noise from the cockpit and every member of the crew who came rushing past me on the way to the cockpit. I have previously written about my worst moment on an internal Chinese flight with China North West in 1995 when I was convinced I was about to die. It wasn’t my only terror-filled flying hour but certainly my most acute episode of fear on a plane.

I could have easily thrown in the towel and decided to restrict our travels to European rail journeys. Yet in the years following that self-inflicted Chinese torture I flew at a greater frequency than ever before. So what happened?

My self-administered therapy method might seem unorthodox to some. You see, at the same time as harbouring a fear of being stuck in a plane I had a fascination with them. I remember sitting on the rooftop viewing area at Heathrow with my father when I was little and knowing the aircraft types and carriers as they took off and landed (thank you Top Trumps). I have also long had a morbid interest in air crashes. I can tell you about the safety history of most airlines and can recount with reasonable accuracy the major accidents of the last 20 years.

So my biggest step in overcoming my phobia was to sit and watch every documentary that I could find about air crashes. Investigations, reconstructions, movies, survivor accounts; I found them all fascinating, and would make a point to watch them whenever I could. And slowly, I noticed that when I was on a plane and heard a strange noise I gained confidence in knowing what it was (and what it wasn’t). I was able to internalise just how unlikely it was that the flight that I was on was going to crash, and started to relax a little more.

I still can’t profess to feeling completely at ease on a plane. My palms get clammy when we hit turbulence and I’m always a little anxious as we hurtle down the runway waiting to get airborne. But I have learned to control my anxiety, and when I consider the places that I’ve managed to visit that only a plane could realistically get me to, I’m grateful to the makers of those air crash TV shows for the unwilling part they played in calming my fears.