GIMPing

Above you see a photo taken in York Castle Museum, before touch up with GIMP.


Above you can see the same photo after touch up with GIMP



I am quite a fan of the free software GIMP. I started touching up some photos a few weeks ago, and I was so impressed with the results that I decided to rework my entire digital photo collection.

Not being able to afford anything as expensive as Photoshop, GIMP is perfect for me, and easy to use once you get used to the layout of it. I have found it particularly good for the photos I have taken from aircraft windows and also in dimly lit museum rooms.

Travel

Travel is one of my passions. There are so many places I would love to visit, and sometimes I will just go and get a travel brochure from the travel agents just to browse through.

I would like to see Japan and go on the Bullet Train, visit Singapore, Australia and New Zealand again, Canada, South America - the list goes on.

Pity I can't afford to actually see those places, but I like to see them on TV and read about them.

Currently my favourite holiday spot is Belgium - we have had holidays in Brussels, Brugge, Mechelen and Oostende, as well as visiting many places by train while we are there. We have spent the past two Christmases in Brugge, where there is a big ice skating rink in the market square, stalls selling snacks and very welcome hot drinks (the chips are very good too!) and a fabulous atmosphere.

We are going to Oostende again this year, and hopefully the weather will be good. When we had our holiday in Brugge in 2006 it was very hot (especially when we went to Zeebrugge) but in Oostende last year it was not as good for weather and we saw more rain.

When we go on holiday we always fly.

Welcome to my World

A good title for the first post!

This blog is about my life and interests, so there will be a bit of everything in here. I like animals, aviation, good food, Belgian beer, travel, photography, listening to music and sometimes writing stories and poems.

I help in a museum between March and November, which is very interesting.

I have a mad cat called Brussels, who is almost four years old, and two birds - a gouldian finch and a Gloster canary.

That is all for the first post, but I will be writing more soon :-)