Let the blogging begin. This is the start of what I hope will be a daily blog. So there will be mistakes as I learn. As 2011 comes to an end it is opportune to reflect on the year. It started slowly. The first frisson was an overnight stay at the Werribee Open Range Zoo in January.

Champagne and a beautiful sunset. Watching grazing zebras and rhinos. A perfect evening. Weird weather brought stunning sunsets and many nights were spent on the beach watching the spectacular free show with friends and a couple of chilled wines.





Heads down concentrating on work until April. Then to Mumbai. We realised that we had to set up a physical office and hire more staff in India. We had people in Mumbai who had been sending photographs of offices and had signed all the documents by the time we arrived.

We found the office had been stripped of everything including the taps in the bathroom. So we spent a hectic ten days meeting with electricians, painters, architects and furniture designers.







From the ridiculous to the sublime we flew from Mumbai to Budapest. Budapest is a fascinating city still trying to find it's feet after the fall of Communism. The Hungarians have a great sense of humour, instead of destroying all the statues of the communist era they have turning them into a theme park for tourists. There is still a lot of evidence of the destruction and death that occurred during the various uprisings.
Hotels are being returned to their former glory after years as storage depots and the main cemetery contains a wonderful collection of Art Deco angels and statues.









From Budapest to Munich for a couple of days checking out the shop windows and mannequins. Took two side trips from Munich. One, a very sobering visit to Dachau. And a crazy train trip to Schloss Neuschwanstein. A real fairy tale castle in the Alps.







Back in a plane for London. Pure work as I hit the streets with the cameras to record the windows and mannequins.







After a frenetic couple of days back to the airport heading for New York. Only a couple of days in New York and then on a train for Upper Westchester to catch up with friends. We drove to the Brimfield Antique Fair in Massachusetts. So vast. So many stalls. So much junk.





 Back to New York and spent a day with some Coney Island friends.









Flew up to Hamilton, Ontario to visit with family. My brother-in-law decided that after so much city I needed to go for a walk along the Bruce Trail in the cold and the rain. Brrrr....there is a reason I'm a city person





But he did take me to visit the local hair salon where I found an amazing array of mannequins.





I then spent a couple of days in Toronto, once again with family. It was exciting to met up with some friends that I had made through Flickr.
They welcomed me into their work place and gave me free rein to shoot what ever I liked. Much thanks to Clinton and James.









From Canada I went down to San Francisco for no other reason than I hadn't been there since 1977.





And then to home.