Alison Lyons: January 2009

Photographers in the Mosque

Photographers in the Mosque, originally uploaded by alison lyons photography.

I'm in chains

I'm in chains, originally uploaded by alison lyons photography.

...and before the horizon police come along blowing their whistles... I deliberately left the horizon at a slight angle to give it a slight sea sick feeling... OK!

I was pretty exicted when I found out that this week's theme was Pink Umbrellas. As one of my favourite possessions is a Pink Umbrella.

I was in Tokyo... and it was raining... fact it rained for 7 days straight. I never knew it rained so much in Tokyo. It was only when I noticed the huge umbrella lockers outside the major hotels and buildings that I realised... that and the fact the gardens were all so green.

My friend was attending a conference and I decided to take a day trip out to Mt Fuji. I didn't see it through the fog, but they assured me it was there. (I also didn't see it from the top of the second tallest building in Tokyo, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, or from the top of the Park Hyatt or indeed from the top of the Tokyo Tower, where its position was clearly indicated in Braille. (?))

And at a gift shop at the magnificent 1930's Fujiya Hotel in Hakone... I found a pink umbrella. I didn't need it as I had a very serviceable red umbrella, which had pretty much become one with the sky in Toyko from my viewpoint. I spent much of my time trying to hold onto the handle on the umbrella with the crook of my neck at an odd angle while I tried to support my camera and compose a shot in the rain... and I had got quite good at it.

And back home I hardly ever used an umbrella. There is one in the boot of my car, which seldom gets used. And there is the one I bought in Florence... but that is a story for another day.

The Pink Umbrella was exhorbitantly expensive. I would be too embarrassed to say how much I paid for it. I didn't need it, but I decided at the last minute I couldn't live without it.

It was the bane of my life for the next two weeks. Traveling around Japan, it was a tantalisingly 2cm too long to fit in my suitcase and therefore became an extra piece of luggage to lug around and guard against foul play.

It has never had even one droplet of rain touch its beautiful silk panels... and never will.

Once when one of my children, standing at the front door ready to walk out into a torrential downpour, asked me if I had an Umbrella. I said no.

”What about that one” was the response... as a finger was pointed to a gap in my wardrobe door, where the Umbrella hung smugly.

”You can't take it” I said flatly.

Umbrella-Bella-Bokeh

Umbrella-Bella-Bokeh, originally uploaded by alison lyons photography.

Um-brella-bokeh

Um-brella-bokeh, originally uploaded by alison lyons photography.

Brella

Brella, originally uploaded by alison lyons photography.

A close Shave

A close Shave, originally uploaded by alison lyons photography.

It occurred to her...

It occurred to her..., originally uploaded by alison lyons photography.

[ the ] Impasse

[ the ] Impasse, originally uploaded by alison lyons photography.

Theory of Elasticity [feline]

Theory of Elasticity [feline], originally uploaded by alison lyons photography.

click here for "Fluid Mechanics [feline]"

lip-sync

lip-sync, originally uploaded by alison lyons photography.

Macquarie Tower

Macquarie Tower, originally uploaded by alison lyons photography.

The first building constructed in La Pérouse was a round stone tower constructed in 1820-22 as accommodation for a small guard of soldiers stationed there to prevent smuggling.

Alison through the looking glass

Alison through the looking glass, originally uploaded by alison lyons photography.

I got tagged... thanks a bunch Julian ;o))) OK, so here is the 16 things you don't know about me.

I was christened on the Island of Islay in the Scottish Hebrides at Kilchoman church... I was possibly the last person to be christened there.

I am allergic to raw egg white, so I can’t lick the beaters when I make a cake... I can eat it when its cooked tho’.

I can play piano and I taught my brother how to play guitar when I was 10 years old.

I have traveled through both the Suez and Panama Canals.

I am a hopeless romantic.

I only wear Issey Miyake.

I love books, shoes, lingerie, coloured pencils and good whisky. (but not necessarily in that order, or all at the same time.)

My porn name is “Smoky Manning”
(i.e. the name of my first pet and the street name of my first house).

I don’t get hangovers.
(Yes I do drink enough to warrant one, but I’ve never had one... ask anyone who knows me... I bounce out of bed like someone in a milk commercial... its the truth.)

I can read a map... even if it is upside down.

I think coffee and other people’s hot chips smell better than they taste.

I’ve been banned from watching “Out of Africa” cos I always cry.

I consider myself enormously fortunate to have traveled to over 50 countries.

I have dual citizenship. (British & Australian)

I think the telephone and airplanes are the most wonderful inventions and will never cease to marvel at how they work.

I am deeply troubled that we live in a world where we are making such amazing advances in molecular science, technology, genetics, mirco engineering, and yet we still go to war, subjugate women and have such depressingly high levels of poverty, malnutrition and infant mortality.