Santa and the souvenirs

Another souvenir shop shot, this time coming from Cyprus. Amongst the usual bibelots, jewellery and kitchen notepads, sits a lonely Santa clutching a Christmas tree with one hand and ringing a bell with the other. Ho ho ho.

I took this photo earlier this month in a souvenir shop in Pafos, Cyprus. This was the only Santa in the shop.

It's sales time

Sales aren't just for locals, they're also for tourists. I love those expressions of amazement and delight on the two girls' faces. Snapped at a souvenir shop in Oxford Street, London's retail centre.

Harry Potter weather

This summer has been unusually warm and dry. The effect can be seen all over our parks and open spaces which have turned a crisp yellow instead of their usual bright green. I took this photo just before a summer storm last week (our first in a long time), literally minutes before the skies opened. It reminded me of the opening scene from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Fast-food reflections

There's so much happening in this photo, I don't know if it's interesting or just plain ugly! It's a quick snap of a Burger King restaurant facade in Peckham, South London. I don't usually do reflections, but I was crawling past as a car passenger at the time and was so bored I took photos of absolutely everything. If you enlarge it, you can see me taking the photo - I'm in the little silver car on the very left.

You can see more pictures of Peckham here and you can read about our roadtrip ordeal that made this photographic burst possible here.

Greek dancing

Last time I was in Athens I watched a dance performance given by the Dora Stratou Dance Theatre. This photo shows the tsamiko dance, one of the most popular in Greece. When performed for an audience, tsamiko is at first danced in a circle by men and women, followed by a solo performance given by the head male dancer while everyone else remains stationary. The solo involves a serious amount of jumping, hopping and twisting. I didn't take any videos at the time, but there are several in YouTube if you're interested. See here and here.

Athenian open air cinema

The open air cinema is a Greek institution. As soon as the weather warms up sufficiently (usually around the end of May), many of the normal four-walls-and-a-ceiling cinemas close down and open air cinemas take over. They are situated on rooftops or open spaces like courtyards, parking lots and parks. There are close to 100 open air cinemas in Athens alone.

This one is situated within the Flisvos marina complex. The sea is just behind the projection screen. We were there to watch Knight And Day, starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.

Haircut, anyone?

Recently I started taking photos of "people at work". This is my Greek hairdresser in her salon.