Dusk in New York

Captured this photo last week in Bryant Park, near the New York State Library, looking up towards the Empire State Building. I particularly like the way the leaves and buildings are silhouetted against the fading light, and frame the photo.

At the UN...

Right now I am sitting in the High Level Event on Climate Change, a special meeting at the United Nations hosted by the Secretary General. Am listening to various delegates talk about the issue of climate change, and where the world needs to go next. So this is just a quick post to publish another photo - will write more about the summit later when I am not trying to do something else at the same time...

This photo was taken around dusk, and captures my favourite building in New York - the Chrysler Building.

A Manhattan Pigeon

This is a slightly odd photo I have to admit. I am not a big fan of pigeons - I once heard them described as 'rats with wings'. Now whilst I don't really share that view, and they are one of planet earth's little creatures, there is something about them that just doesn't grab me.

Anyway, this one was loitering around at the top of the Empire State Building on Friday. He was pretty content sitting on the ledge, clearly not intending to fly away. This became all the more evident when some stupid guy started poking the pigeon to see what it would do. The pigeon fought back quite nicely I can happily report, and remained on the ledge.

So it seemed like an interesting photo to silhouette the bird against the Manhattan skyline.

More tales of Manhattan soon, but right now I need to go to bed, since we have to get up at 4:45am to head out and run a half marathon in Queens. The things that some people do for fun...

Blogging from the Big Apple

Since my last post, I have crossed the Atlantic, and am now in New York. Started the week with a couple of days in Washington DC, catching up with colleagues in our US office, as well as a few other folks I know down there.

First night I got in I had one of the funny travelling moments. Went for a latish dinner near Dupont Circle, and ended up in the classic American diner. The waitress came by to take my order and picked up on my Australian accent. Turned out she was not long back from studying in Australia. She was very excited to show me the tattoo she had on her foot - a nicely done Southern Cross. Having been scheming to get just such a tattoo for a while, it was pretty cool to meet someone who was so excited by being down under.

Travelled up to New York mid-week to meet up with a few Greenpeace colleagues and prepare for our meeting with the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon. We were meeting him to talk about climate change and the preparations for the big climate meeting at the end of the year in Bali. Whilst I was in the background on this one, it was a great opportunity for our organisation to talk talk to the Secretary General about an issue he has spoken out on a lot. You can read more about the meeting here.

Have spent the rest of the week working, but took a few hours off yesterday afternoon to meet up with an old friend who was in town and go play tourist. Sarah used to work for Greenpeace, but is now with Amnesty, and is also in New York this week. Neither of us had ever been up the Empire State Building and it was a beautiful clear day, so we headed up to catch the view. And that is the source of today's photo - the view north up Manhattan, with Central Park in the distance.

Have some more great photos that I want to post, so watch out in the coming days...

Poor neglected blog!

The last two weeks have been just crazy, and the blog always gets neglected in those circumstances. I am currently sitting in Barcelona airport, having just attended a two day conference on Corporate Communications and Reputation. I ended up at the conference somewhat by accident, but it was pretty interesting. Very much a corporate affair, with presentations from the likes of Shell, Addidas, Philips and Syngenta. The crowd got a bit of a surprise when they found they had someone from Greenpeace in their midst, and I found myself invited to be on a panel, "to offer a different perspective".

The corporate attitude to Greenpeace was fascinating. Of course you shouldn't draw generalisations from small samples, but the classic was when a guy from a Nordic telecoms company walked up to me in the lunch break yesterday, shook my hand, and said 'hey it is great to meet someone from the opposition..." Now, aside from the fact that I am pretty sure his company has never been targeted by Greenpeace, that is just a bizarre way to introduce yourself. One can only imagine what his pick up lines in bars are like...

Anyway, flight leaves soon, but once again I am back after a bit of a hiatus. Today's photo comes from my recent birthday picnic in Vondelpark. It was taken by a colleague Jan, and features the Boxing Kangaroo I was given for my birthday. My friend Kim in Australia saw the recent post on the Australian Youth Orchestra, trawled the shops for one, and posted it to me for my birthday. Love ya work, Kim! Am now set to be a true Aussie spectator at any sporting event in Europe where an Aussie team is strutting their stuff.