Big city on a raining day. London, UK

Raining in London is not the most uncommon thing. One day I will write something about visiting big cities under the rain…I have some experience: NY, Tokyo, Berlin... Nevertheless, our raining day in London in the Christmas season end up in a magnificent food experience. We went to Fifteen restaurant. Everybody knows about Jamie Olivier from the TV shows at cable TV, where he cooks at the speed of sound some delicious things, which even may sound easy to the common men. In 2002, Jamie Oliver combined two ambitions and opened a top class restaurant. But Fifteen is much more that a simple “bistrot”. Fifteen Foundation as a second goal, allowing to the disadvantaged youngsters the chance to gain professional training that would set them up for an independent, inspired and productive life in the cooking world. In 2008, Fifteen is still achieving these two goals. We have to options in discovering this magnificent experience: The Trattoria, on the ground floor, open for breakfast, lunch and dinner where we can enjoy great food in the typical Italian style. This space is rustic and relaxed and has a friendly service. The Trattoria is a great place to meet friends at any time of the day. The Trattoria opens from 7.30am Monday to Saturday (8am on Sunday) for coffees and breakfast, moving on to serve some truly delicious lunch and dinner dishes from “á la carte” menus. Downstairs we have more at Fifteen! The Dining Room, the retro styling and open kitchen where combine to make a relaxed and friendly environment. The emphasis is on top quality seasonal produce, simply prepared with care and passion to create the best in modern Mediterranean dishes with an Italian influence. For something more extravagant, in the evenings they serve an amazing tasting menu giving our guests the opportunity to taste all of Fifteen's favorites. I was impressed for the food, for the “ambiance” but mainly for this social enterprise that has directly supported and helped transform the lives of many young persons. For the moment they are running Fifteen restaurants (each with their own foundation and apprenticeship schemes) in Amsterdam, Cornwall and Melbourne. Once here’s so much more to do, I hope Lisbon can be in the Fifteen map too. I offer my self to help. Well done Jamie. Fifteen London is at 15 Westland Place, London N1 7LP, just under 600m from the Old Street roundabout.

Tricky Traveler reshaped.

Six months is time to celebrate but also to evaluate. During this first six months I received some critics and some demands too. A few of those suggestions I was able to incorporate in the old format. However, a few others required some more layout changes. Keeping the basic spirit, we are about to get in into a new Tricky Traveler era. The texts should be shorter they say, to let the photos speak for themselves. Done! Some more traveling tips were required! I will try to add, in some cases, maps, and some specific suggestions from the place and some other tips for the visitor: how to get there; opening hours, roads less traveled, what to eat, the stories and other curiosities behind the scenes. With all these information it is easy to lose the focus, and move to other fields’ music, literature, etc. But I promise to do my best preserve the initial spirit: One photo and a short story about traveling to interesting places. About the layout! I realize in fact that it is not practical for the reader to display permanently all the Tricky Patterns. It gets difficult to get to end of the page and reach the other items: Tricky List; On the spot; or to the Archive. I will erase the older ones and keep just the new one. I hope you notice that among all the Patterns, the one just at the right side of the main photos is always linked somehow with the photo. For my Portuguese friends, and after many and powerful requests, I start a page called “Mundigrafia” (with a direct link from Tricky Traveler) with more photos and some stories in Portuguese. This page is less strict, and everything related with traveling is possible. I hope you like it. Suggestions and critics are, naturally, welcomed. By the way, the photo is from Brussels, Belgium.

Contradiction. Formentera, Spain

Six months ago today, I had this blog idea and I posted my first photo on Tricky Traveler, which was about one of my favorite places: Formentera, in the Balearic Islands, in Spain. In my opinion, one of the best beaches in the word. From that date until now, a lot has happen: we have passed true 56 different photos, with the same amount of short stories, we visited 30 different countries in the several continents and, in the right side of the page, we also discover also 37 different patterns inspired from traveling. But early this morning when I was righting this text, I realize that the “6 month anniversary” is the wrong expression! In fact “6 month anniversary” is, in English, an oxymoron, because an anniversary is an annual event. [An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms]. I guess I really should have said my “one half” or “point six” anniversary. Right? It doesn’t make sense! Often, the best way to say something is not grammatically correct, or linguistically correct, or even technically correct. It’s the way that best facilitates understanding by the reader, and that usually means writing the way you speak (or talk, if you prefer). It is the game of evidences. Sometimes it is just not so evident, what it seams, it is not what it means, or what it means, is not what seams is. It happen the same with sunsets. A perfect clear sunny day do not always means a perfect sunset. But, by the contrary, usually in the summer, a lousy day can result in a perfect sunset. That was the case in this photo. I apologize to go back (again) to Formentera, but I had to display this beautiful sunset taken in the interior sea of the island last August. This is the perfect to celebrate the “6 month anniversary” of Tricky Traveler. I thanks to the 835 visitors and all friends who posted a comment.

Mayfair district in the West End. London, UK

I just arrive from London, from a short visit. I stayed, for the first time at Mayfair district in the West End of London. What a surprise. I realized then, that Mayfair district is London's most exclusive district and in many ways an amazing place to live, work and visit. Named after the fortnight long May Fair that took place there, Mayfair is a fashionable district that includes the most important retail shopping activity in the United Kingdom. Mayfair W1 set roughly between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane, is at the very heart of London and is the most expensive property on the British Monopoly board game! Mayfair is truly a microcosm - all life is here from all over the world. Yet with its beautiful squares and parks to rest in, it also remains a peaceful haven in the centre of the great city of London. Most of the area was first developed between the mid 17th century and the mid 18th century as a fashionable residential district, by a number of landlords, the most important of them the Governor family. The freehold of a large section of Mayfair also belongs to Queen Elizabeth II. The hart of Mayfair is Shepherds Market, between Piccadilly and Curzon Street, was named after Edward Shepherd, who built it in the mid-18th century. Today, Shepherd Market is a pedestrianized enclave of small shops, pubs, restaurants and out-doors cafés with a great London atmosphere.

Floating market. Ratchaburi, Thailand

Damnoen Saduak in Ratchaburi about 109 kilometers south of Bangkok is a place full of life and color and a well-known and attractive traveling site. In my view, it is one of my greatest places I ever visited. Historically, Damnoenssaduak was actually the name of the canal dug in the reign of King Rama IV by the military men and the people of Rajburi, Samutsakorn and Samutsongkram Province directed by Phayasrisuriyawong, the minister of Defense. Nowadays Damnoensaduak is one of a provincial district of Rajburi Province. Most people live densely along both sides of the canal from one end of the canal to another. The majority of this people are agriculturists. They grow several different kinds of fruit and vegetable for examples oranges, grapes, papayas, cabbages, bean, onion and etc. The land in this area is naturally fertile. Apart from providing transportation, Damnoensaduak Canal also provides farmers with adequate water for agricultural purposes for the whole year around. More than 200 small canals were dug by local peasants to connect with it to get water to splatter their land. Moreover; these small canals also become propitious ways of taking their agricultural products to the markets in neighboring provinces and Bangkok. Day in and day out from about 8 a.m. to about 11 a.m. the Floating Market is routinely crowded with hundreds of vendors and purchasers floating in their small rowing boats selling and buying or exchanging their goods. They usually travel on their small rowing boats. However; today the long-tailed boats pushing by engine become very popular. People tend to use them instead. Anyhow because of the shortage of fuel today long-tailed boats are quite unavailable compared to a few years ago. The progress is arrived by the charm stills the same.