Leersum (December)
Boxing Day at my parents’. Cooked Indonesian meal.

Paris (December)
It’s hard to pick favourites in a year of many highs, but I did like this one a lot. A bit of family. A lot of G. Everything was small and intimate. Saw ‘Handsomest Drowned Man’ again and it worked so much better than in Brighton.

London (November)
Saw Scott Walker’s Drifting and Tilting twice. Lovely time with Hg, Pixeldiva, B. and R. Traveled by Eurolines coach. Really, surprisingly comfortable. And cheap.

Galway (October)
Didn’t like staying in a hostel (hell very definitely being other people), but other than that it was good to get away and I think I shot my best picture of 2008.

Dublin (October)
The Dublin/Galway trip was my ‘summer holiday’. It was freezing, of course, but sunny anyway when the rest of Europe was awash with rain. Had an amazing time in Killiney filming G. and listening to his new songs.

Antwerp (August)
Unplanned trip to compensate for not getting the Lowlands festival photo gig I’d been promised. Bad karma… nearly got my head kicked in taking pictures in this Belgian city. And that’s no joke.

London (July)
Rogue’s Gallery at the Barbican. Only got photo access to the soundcheck. Light was bad, vibe a little dull, but the gig was good. Really enjoyed staying around Brick Lane. Quiet lunch with G. at morose Italian place.

Dublin (July)
Rogue’s Gallery in the Dublin Docklands. Fa-bu-lous experience. Great access all day, fab to hang with Davey, Gugs and G., lovely vibe in the photo pit, nearly killed myself shooting with the 70-200 for four hours.

Paris (July)
Quick trip to see the deafening My Bloody Valentine. Loved it.

Paris (May)
Became my nephew Louis Gustave’s godmother. Pretended to be Catholic. Everything in French of course. Lovely, but strenous.

Brighton (May)
Brighton was relaxed, just enjoying sea, sand and sun. The gig (‘The Handsomest Man in the World’) was unremarkable.

London (May)
Rather fraught and confused start as I was given the wrong medication hours before my flight and I felt poorly and disoriented. Fire alarm at Gatwick on my return.

Cologne (April)
Birthday trip. Didn’t enjoy this much. Party town, stag nights, large groups. No fun on your own. Crap weather too.

Dublin (Feb/Mar)
Sick as a dog, but I went anyway and coughed and sneezed and dripped through a Marc Almond gig (meeting Gini Ball backstage) and lovely dinner with G. at Eden. Also… Bambi!

Dublin (Jan)
No particular reason. Scouted some photo locations. Saw 30 seconds from Mars on a whim.

I don’t think I will be travelling quite this often in 2009.

KOFFERS voor AFRIKA – Antwerpen, originally uploaded by Caroline.

Sunday morning. Bag shop advertisting ‘suitcases for Africa’. It looked straight out of Tintin (Kuifje).

Small set of Antwerp pictures, nothing spectacular. I’d rented a bike and was cycling more than stopping and taking pictures.

Cranes in the Antwerp docklands

I nearly got my head kicked in taking pictures this weekend in Antwerp. I escaped with a few bruises, mainly to my ego. I don’t want to go into the whole sordid tale, but the moral of the story is: ask people’s permission before you take their picture in the street.

Or, you know, stick to lovely, peaceful cranes.

A Flemish waiter and customer discuss the rowdy Brits in the square. ‘I thought the Dutch were loud, sir, but the English, they are worse, eh?’

The Filipino barman in the hotel lounge starts talking to me simply because he can see I am ‘Asian’. An ex-policeman, he isn’t proud of his former employers and corruption in general. Glad to be making an earnest living, aiming for citizenship in four years time. Very American dream-ish. But in Belgium. Says he: ‘You were lucky to be born here.’ I am?

Young Englishman on stag night sticks head around the corner to tell us, restaurant guests, to go ahead and hurl abuse at the Brits at the other tables. Followed by older Englishman who says: ‘That’s not my son.’

view it large

Long, rambling and mostly unintelligible monologue by James Hong look-a-like, trying to get me to eat in his recently opened restaurant: ‘seats 120′ and ‘from Hong Kong’ is just about all I understood of his broken Flemish.

A 12-minute film by Dutch photographer Ed van der Elsken at the Photo Museum. Shot, by himself, during the final stages of his illness, he prepares to say goodbye to the viewers. He has become too weak to work: ‘Be well, all of you. Be strong. Do your best. Show who you are. Bye.’

Hello from absolutely roasting Antwerp, where the mussels are a little overcooked and the keyboards are funny.

Two things accomplished: shopping and the Zoo, the first being a treat, the second a little disappointing. Especially since I had forgotten to bring my free entry voucher. The Emperor penguins and the sea otter were great, but.

I have a strong urge to go home sooner than planned. Depends on how I (or rqther, my legs) feel in the morning.

We’ll see.