So I’m in Portland. I love this city, I always feel so inspired photographically when I am here. There are so many cool and bizarrely odd things here that it’s very interesting from a photographic point of view. I’m currently sitting here in my favorite coffee house, the Portland Coffee House (where I wrote this blog entry at Christmas).

I managed to lose my luggage in Chicago O’Hare airport yesterday. I was really tired and somehow managed to leave my bag with all my clothes and stuff in the terminal! I couldn’t believe I had managed to be so utterly stupid. United Airlines were really cool about helping me though. They located the bag in Chicago and have put it on a flight to Portland today so it should be here later this evening, and fortunately my friend Missy doesn’t live far from the airport so it’s not at all out of the way to go there again and pick up my luggage.

I’m hoping to meet fellow Xanga blogger Christine in the next few days. I’ll also be meeting up with other friends here in the city then heading out to the coast for the 4th July weekend.

It’s great to be back here in America again.

Well I leave for America on Tuesday and after a short little stop in Chicago I’ll be in Portland, Oregon that same evening. I’m looking forward to seeing loads of my friends on this trip and hopefully going to some cool places too along the way.

In Oregon I believe we are heading to the beaches around the 4th of July. Of course everyone else will be there too, but hopefully it’ll be cool. In the week leading up to that I’ll probably be spending a great deal of time in the Portland Coffee House (due to their free wifi) working on some overdue projects I have to try and progress. That’s annoying but the customer has held things up badly so it’s eating into my America time somewhat, but hopefully not too much.

After Oregon it’s onto California. I’ll be seeing friends in the Central Valley area and might take a little trip to SanFran too… maybe. (And yes, I know, no one who lives there refers to it as SanFran.) Then it’s down toward LA to spend a little time hanging out with my friends who live in the area known as ‘porno valley’ on account of the fact that something like 90% of the worlds porn comes from there – not exactly a great claim to fame, but there ya go.

The final part of the tour takes me to Houston, Texas via Denver. I’m only there for a very brief time so hopefully I’ll get to see a few of the people on this here xanga while I am there. Then I leave on the 23rd to fl through the night and arrive back here on the 24th.

So I created another one of those mosaic pictures made up of loads of my pictures from the last 4 or 5 years in America. It should be screamingly obvious what it is, but if you’re having a dosey day I’ll reveal that it is indeed an American flag.

The image is made up of a staggering 5300 unique pictures and includes a few of the Texans known to you lot. They include Erin, Shaun and Amy, Edith, Cameron, Jess, Carey, Matt and Jude, Roy, Chad and his wife (I think), and some bloke giving me the V’s (pictured right).

I decided to get the picture printed but felt that it needed to be way bigger than your average 12×8 so I needed to go to a specialist repro lab in town. The result is a spectacular A0 print that is a lot of fun to study up close. it cost a whopping $170 to print that on quality photo paper, and maybe I shouldn’t have bothered. Maybe it would have been wiser to wait and be less hasty, especially considering I’ll have more pictures to add from this upcoming trip. But I felt impulsive so what the heck.

The only problem is that in my apartment you’re never far away from a wall and I feel that the overall effect of the picture night be lost if people can’t see it from far enough away. All in all it might have been a shocking waste of company money, but I figured I needed to print one to see how they work in ‘the flesh’ as it were.

I got my laptop back from Apple today. It’s had a few little problems and was supposed to be away getting fixed, only they returned it in a worse state than when it left. I was so mad! I leave for America on Tuesday and need the laptop working for the trip as I have to work while I am away if needed. My options are limited. Apple can’t fix it before I leave so it looks like when I arrive in America the first thing I’ll need to do is buy a new iBook and transfer my data from the PowerBook onto the iBook – what a drag!

It wound me up so much that come 5 o’clock I decided to go to the beach for a little walk to chill out. I found a nice little spot and watched a selection of joggers, cyclists and other walkers go past. It was just what I needed to chill. The sun of my face and a light sea breeze to keep it all fresh.

I walked on for a while and came upon a piece of lined paper on which some kid had obviously been told to write the same thing over and over and over again as punishment, apparently for not bringing their homework to class.

‘I will brieng my homework in’ declared the misspelled lines in not the best handwriting I’ve ever seen. But how come these lines ended up fluttering their way along the beach? Weren’t they supposed to be turned in to a teacher somewhere? And if that was indeed the case, then I can’t imagine that teacher is going to buy the excuse that the lines were lost on the beach. It sounds as believable as ‘the dog ate it.’

I was no angel at school and seeing these lines reminded me of the thousands I must of written in my school days. It put a smile on my face recalling the excuses I used to come out with. Elaborate tales of drama and excitement just to get out of some task or homework assignment. My end of term reports made for humorous reading, well maybe not at the time, but in retrospect I mean. At the time of course I dreaded getting them because it would mean another talk with my parents who would then spectacularly mismanage the whole situation.

I wandered on a little further. Picked up a few rocks here and there and skipped them over the surface of the retreating tide. Then I decided to wander back to my car just as some horse riders slowly walked along the beach in the other direction.

I’ve still got loads to do before I leave. I really shouldn’t be going for walks on the beach but what can you do?

It’s a beautiful evening here in England. It feels very English, so I finished up work and went to the farm and bought a handful of things to make a salad. Rather then going home right away I decided to drive a little way down the road to Raby Mere to sit there and enjoy the early evening sun while watching ducks on the pond like people have been doing for many years. I love that this place and others like it are so close to my house.

If any of you find yourselves in this neck of the woods be sure and give me a call, well go here feed the ducks then head off to the beach to watch the sunset into the Irish Sea. Sound good to you?

I’m not wishing my life away here, in fact quite the opposite. Can you believe that we’re not half way through the year, in fact being in England I am a little ahead of you guys, for me it’s already the 22nd of June, but I can still pick up the phone and call you all in yesterday if I want to extend my midsummer’s night just that little bit longer.

I didn’t do anything special. I’m working real hard here trying to get stuff done before I fly to Chicago next Tuesday. I’m going on vacation for pretty much a month then I have more time off in August when an American friend is coming here to visit, so I have LOADS to get done.

I did take time out to go to the gym. Did my usual workout which involves jogging… past the gym then sitting in the sauna and steam room watching people in the pool. Then I left and decided to go and sit by the river for a while and smoke a midsummer cigar in a mellow moment or three. It was high tide, very high tide as it turned out. The familiar city waterfront of Liverpool danced among the ripples as huge tankers and industrial looking boats made their silent way in and out of the scene like thieves under the cover of darkness.

I listened to the water sing accompanied by distant sound of a siren announcing that someone’s go to hospital or jail tonight. The full moon looked strangely large as it hung over the city appearing to be so close that a long ladder might lead to another great step for mankind. A little further away a plane was banking hard ready to descend and land at John Lennon airport. Three other planes circle above like birds of prey waiting for their opportunity to swoop into the sleeping city. I hope the people getting off that plane are met by people they love. That’s the best part of arriving at an airport, the moment when you see a loved one or close friend as you scan the gathered crowd of people who are themselves looking for familiar faces. They’ll be home soon.

When I was a kid I would wish the rainy days away. Time was treacle and minutes were moon-dust. I raced into adulthood at full throttle, like I might miss it if I slowed for even a second. And now here we are in the middle of the future. I can’t believe we’re already half way through 2005.