#dailyat6am, Asia, China, Hong Kong, Travel, Wild Horses

Simply Being Kowloon

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Daily Photo – Somewhere Along Nathan Road

I took this photograph somewhere along Nathan Road, although I couldn’t tell you exactly where. To be honest, it hardly matters because there are countless buildings like this throughout Kowloon. They aren’t landmarks, yet together they define the city.

At first glance it’s simply an ageing concrete building. Then the details begin to emerge. Washing hangs from balconies high above the traffic. Windows are propped open despite the humidity. Every floor has been enclosed, altered, repaired, extended, or adapted over the decades until the building has developed its own wonderfully untidy character. Air conditioning units cling to the outside walls in such numbers that they seem almost structural, as though removing them might cause the whole place to collapse.

The more I stood there, the more I realised I wasn’t looking at architecture. I was looking at thousands of ordinary lives stacked one on top of another. Homes above offices. Businesses beside apartments. Families, shopkeepers, accountants, students and retirees, all sharing the same block while Nathan Road flowed relentlessly beneath them.

It struck me that this was exactly the sort of thing I like about traveling. Not experiencing a famous attraction or a postcard view, just an ordinary building quietly getting on with the business of simply being. In this case, simply being Kowloon.

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#dailyat6am, Australia, Travel, Victoria, Wild Horses

Exploring The Goulburn River In Northern Victoria

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Daily Photo – The Goulburn River

I spent an afternoon near the banks of the Goulburn River, which has the honour of being northern Victoria’s largest river. Yet this peaceful stretch of water was once one of the busiest crossroads in colonial Victoria. Long before Shepparton existed as the quiet city it is now, when gold was discovered and everyone went bonkers heading for Victoria’s northern goldfields, sooner or later every miner came to a single river crossing known as McGuire’s Punt. It was a simple and crude, yet effective, set-up, with a decidedly rickety and primitive punt that carried people from one muddy bank to the other by way of a rope.

That also made it an ideal place for the less respectable members of society to take advantage of the busy crossing. Miners carrying pokes full of gold dust, merchants with wagons of supplies, wandering gamblers, escaped convicts, bushrangers, and every variety of drifter all passed through here, while others looked for an opportunity to relieve someone of their possessions.

These days the Goulburn drifts quietly past towering river gums, yet it’s fascinating to think that this tranquil river once held up the entire traffic of the Victorian gold rush. Before there was a town, before there were bridges, there was simply a river, a punt, and a queue of hopeful souls waiting to cross.

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#dailyat6am, Australia, Melbourne, Travel, Victoria, Wild Horses

The Secret Life of St Paul’s Cathedral

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Daily Photo – Melbourne’s Grand Cathedral

Stepping inside St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne is a bit like walking through a time machine. One moment you’re surrounded by trams rattling along Flinders Street and thousands of commuters hurrying to catch a train. Next, you’re standing beneath soaring arches where the noise of the city simply disappears. It’s quite the contrast.

What I particularly enjoyed, though, was discovering that the cathedral has one of Australia’s more unusual traditions. Hidden away inside is a set of bell-ringing ropes connected to thirteen enormous bells housed in the tower. Rather than chiming automatically, these bells are still rung the old-fashioned way by teams of volunteers. It’s called change ringing, and instead of playing tunes, the ringers perform intricate mathematical sequences that can take hours to complete. To the untrained ear it sounds delightfully random. To the people pulling the ropes, it’s a carefully choreographed performance requiring remarkable concentration and teamwork.

I find something rather comforting about that. In an age where almost everything is controlled by computers, there are still people happily spending an afternoon hauling on ropes simply to keep a centuries-old tradition alive.

The cathedral itself is magnificent, but it’s knowing that somewhere above your head a group of enthusiastic bell ringers is quietly practising an ancient art that makes the place feel just that little bit more special.

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#dailyat6am, Northern Ireland, Travel, United Kingdom, Wild Horses

The Secret Hidden Beneath Belfast City Hall

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Daily Photo – Reflection of Belfast City Hill

If buildings could talk, Belfast City Hall would probably spend half its time gossiping about pigeons and the other half complaining about people climbing onto its lawns for the perfect photograph. Completed in 1906, it’s an absolute showpiece, built to celebrate Belfast’s brief but spectacular spell as one of the richest cities in the world. By day it’s impressive enough, but at night, when it’s bathed in coloured lights and reflected in rain-soaked pavement, it becomes one of those buildings that practically insists on having its photo taken.

The quirky part of its story, though, lies beneath your feet.

Hidden under the grand entrance is a sealed time capsule placed there when the foundation stone was laid in 1898. Packed inside are coins, newspapers and documents from Victorian Belfast, all intended for people who haven’t been born yet. It’s the architectural equivalent of stuffing things into the attic and hoping your great-grandchildren find them one day.

I rather like that idea. While thousands of tourists wander around admiring the domes, columns and Christmas lights, there’s a little snapshot of everyday Belfast quietly waiting underground. One day someone will eventually open it and discover what people considered worth preserving. Hopefully they’ll also find instructions on how to keep the pigeons off the statues, because judging by the evidence outside, that mystery still hasn’t been solved.

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#dailyat6am, New Zealand, Shag Point, South Island, Wild Horses

Whalers Discover Matakea (Shag Point) Coal

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I’ve shared images from this location before, it’s offical name is Matakea/Shag Point and you’ll find it a few minutes north of the small town of Palmerston in East Otago. There’s a tiny, deeply indented natural boat harbour there that was originally used by Ngāi Tahu as a canoe landing place. The whalers used it to shelter their boats, and it later became the primary loading zone where boats would load coal once mining operations started.

Daily Photo – Boat Ramp at Shag Point

The problem with boiling whale blubber down into oil in a large trypot on a beach is that large amounts of fuel are needed to keep the fire burning long enough for the process to be successful. To do this, naturally, whaling stations used coastal timber as it was immediately available. However, when that source was depleted, they had to begin scouring the shoreline for alternative fuel. So, in the early 1830s, when the timber supplies near a whaling station at Matakea (Shag Point) began to thin out, the whalers went looking for something to keep the trypots bubbling away.

Exactly what type of fuel source they were looking for is hard to say, but what they found was something that would burn longer and hotter than anything they had previously been using. What’s more, it turned out to be right on the coastline, and was something they could simply chip large hunks off with an axe and toss into the fire: coal!

It turned out that, during their search for fuel, they noticed dark, thick bands running through the yellowish sandstone cliffs, which proved to be coal. It could simply be broken off from the outcrops, thrown into the fire, and it burned exceptionally well. The significance of all this is that while local Tainui and Ngāi Tahu Māori had long known of the heating properties of waro (coal), it is recognised as the first European discovery and use of bituminous coal in New Zealand.

#dailyat6am, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

Inner City Strolls

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Daily Photo – Sunlight in the Window

Here’s an image I grabbed on a stroll through Dunedin’s inner city. On this occasion, I’d been looking at some of the older buildings in the area, trying to find different angles and interesting points of view. That’s when I noticed the sun reflecting off one of the windows of a nearby office block. When the light caught it, I liked the contrast between the modern glass and the older architecture that surrounded it.

#dailyat6am, Dublin, Ireland, Travel, Wild Horses

Strolling Along Harcourt Street

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Daily Photo – Krystle & Diceys

The plan for my first morning in Dublin was simple: a quick stroll through the city centre, followed by breakfast with a few friends. So it was that we soon found ourselves pushing through the crowds of Grafton Street, past the Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre, and continued along St Stephen’s Green before crossing onto Harcourt Street. We were heading for what I was reliably informed was one of the best spots for breakfast in the whole of Dublin. 

Along the way, I found a nice bit of symmetry in the Dublin buildings, all decorated in Christmas cheer, before ducking into the Iveagh Gardens to work up an appetite.

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#dailyat6am, Asia, China, Hong Kong, Travel, Wild Horses

Sedan Chairs, Peak Trams & Victoria Peak

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Daily Photo – Victoria Peak in Hong Kong

This is a view from one of the lookouts on Victoria Peak. The best way to get there is to take the Peak Tram, a 138-year-old railway line that slowly rattles its way to the top over a vibrating ten minutes, making numerous stops along the way as it still functions as a genuine piece of public transport.

Once you arrive at the top, you get pretty much the same view as the original residents of Victoria Peak in the 19th century. Before 1888, however, residents reached their homes by using sedan chairs, which carried them up and down the slope. No doubt this was much slower and considerably harder work, especially for the unfortunate souls doing the carrying rather than the sitting.

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#dailyat6am, Europe, Geneva, Switzerland, Travel, Wild Horses

Avenue de la Paix

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Daily Photo – Musée Ariana

Back in 2002 I was strolling down a grand thoroughfare called Avenue de la Paix when I came across what I later found out was the Musée Ariana – one of Geneva’s architectural and cultural gems. I know this because I took a photo of it. 

Exactly what I was doing there, the route I took or in what direction I walked to get back to my hotel, I just couldn’t say. What would be a pretty good guess is that on the way back I probably stopped at the brilliant little neighbourhood bar right across the road from our hotel and used my non-existent french to order a beer – Kronenbourg 1664 I’m guessing.

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#dailyat6am, Australia, Melbourne, Travel, Victoria, Wild Horses

The Coop Shot Tower & Flanking Lead Factory In Melbourne

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Daily Photo – The Tower & The Dome

Being left to my own devices in Melbourne for a few hours, I found my way into the Central Place mall, one of those bustling, multi-storey hubs that seamlessly blends Melbourne’s love for heritage and the arts with a healthy dose of modern retail therapy. I instantly felt completely overwhelmed and started examining what series of decisions had taken place to lead me here.

Thankfully, I was able to distract myself with the large glass dome that covered the complex, beneath which sits Coop’s Shot Tower and Flanking Lead Factory. I’d read earlier that it was completed in 1889, with a 50-metre-high brick tower that, at the time, was the tallest building in Melbourne’s CBD until the mid-1940s. I’d also read that it was designed to manufacture lead shot for shotguns and that, from 1919, it was run by Ellen Coop, a position that was incredibly rare for a woman to hold at the time, and one in which she was extremely successful for more than two decades, until she was tragically killed after falling from the back of a Melbourne tram.

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#dailyat6am, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Travel, United Kingdom, Wild Horses

A Visit to The Shankill Road

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From the late 1960s to the late 1990s, Northern Ireland was gripped by “The Troubles”, a bitter nationalist conflict. On one side were republican paramilitaries (like the IRA and INLA), predominantly Catholic, who fought for a united Ireland. On the other were loyalist paramilitaries (like the UVF), predominantly Protestant, who fought to remain part of the United Kingdom. For today’s photo, we travel to The Shankill Road in Belfast, which became the heartland of the loyalist groups.

Daily Photo – Memorial wall, where the wreaths Rest


Major William Marchant
On a rainy Tuesday afternoon in April 1987, William Marchant stood outside the UVF’s headquarters above a Shankill Road chip shop. A hijacked car pulled up, and Provisional IRA gunmen opened fire, killing him instantly before abandoning the vehicle nearby. The IRA targeted Marchant because he was a high-ranking UVF figure, historically linked through intelligence reports and rumour to major loyalist operations, including the devastating 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings. His assassination was a calculated strike by republicans against the UVF’s leadership structure during a decade defined by intense, cyclical tit-for-tat violence between the rival factions.

Lieutenant Colonel James Trevor King
On June 16, 1994, senior UVF commander Trevor King was standing near a public phone box at the corner of Spiers Place, deep in conversation. Suddenly, a gunman from the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), a republican splinter group, approached and opened fire. King was critically wounded and died of his injuries weeks later in hospital. The INLA carried out the hit to disrupt the loyalist command structure during a highly volatile period. With rumours of a ceasefire looming, paramilitary groups on both sides were aggressively targeting key figures to maximise their leverage before the political landscape shifted.

Volunteer David Hamilton
Davy Hamilton was standing beside Trevor King on that fateful June afternoon and was caught directly in the same sudden volley of INLA gunfire. He was rushed to hospital but died of his severe injuries the following day. King was the primary target of the attack, while Hamilton was an active UVF volunteer and part of the local command unit. The INLA struck them together, delivering a dual blow to the Shankill UVF’s operational core by capitalising on a rare moment when two key figures stood exposed on the open street.

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#dailyat6am, Dunedin, Otago Harbour, Otago Peninsula, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

Old Wharf Near Ōtākou

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Daily Photo – Old wharf near Ōtākou

I seemingly had the road to myself, the harbour’s captivating reflections keeping me company as they appeared out of the passenger window while I swung in and out of bays. Boats, boatsheds, swimming pontoons, harbour markers, and the hills of the western harbour bounced off the water like glass. I passed the famous Wellers Rock just as Harrington Point Beach, Taiaroa Head, and the harbour mouth came into view.

A ray of golden light flooded a rustic wooden wharf, its weathered, spindly piles casting sharp reflections into the glassy tide. A fishing boat sat moored at the jetty, gently swaying on the calm sea. The deep blue water shifted to a clear, sunlit turquoise near the shore, mirroring the bright afternoon sky. I pulled the car over, grabbed the book I’d been reading, found a patch of grass in the sun, and read for a while. It was all rather delightful.

#dailyat6am, Dunedin, Otago Peninsula, Ōtepoti, Travels in small-town New Zealand, Wild Horses

Rummaging Through The Back Shed

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Daily Photo – The Portobello Museum

The wonderful thing about small, locally run museums is that they’re like rummaging through the back shed and discovering an antique clock. I mean that in the most affectionate way, I really do, because that’s exactly how I came upon the story of Portobello’s original lockup. It’s one of those small but fascinating chapters of Otago Peninsula history that could easily be overlooked.

In late 1883, after years of lobbying and persistence, the local community finally achieved what was then considered something of a luxury: their very own policeman. To accommodate him, the authorities erected a modest wooden police station and lockup on the corner of Beaconsfield Road and Landreth Street, just a short stroll from the waterfront. It was hardly an imposing structure. There were no grand stone walls or iron gates, just a practical little building designed to keep order in a growing settlement.

Yet for the people of the Peninsula, it represented security, stability and a tangible sign that Portobello had arrived as a community worthy of official attention. Remarkably, it continued to serve as the district’s law-enforcement headquarters for more than half a century, until new quarters were built in 1938.

#dailyat6am, Dublin, Ireland, Travel, Wild Horses

The Theft of The Irish Crown Jewels

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Daily Photo – Dublin Castle

In the early summer of 1907, when it was announced that King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra of Britain would be calling by Dublin Castle the following month to pop in for a visit, a cup of tea, and to tap Lord Castletown on each shoulder with a sword, everyone got very excited. Clearly, there was much to-do in readiness for the four-day royal visit and naturally, everyone wanted to put their best foot forward and present a good showing. 

The visit meant, among other things, that the Irish Crown Jewels would be required for the King to admire and show off a little during the ceremony. Normally, they were kept under lock and key in a steel safe located within the Bedford Tower at Dublin Castle and a man named Sir Arthur Vicars was entrusted with that key.

Of course, before the King laid eyes on the regalia, just like the household silverware, it required a bit of a touch-up, a clean and polish so it would look its best for the King’s arrival. Yet, as the date neared and the time came to prepare the royal jewellery, the safe was unlocked, opened, and to everyone’s surprise, the jewels were gone! 

Which really wasn’t much of a surprise at all, as Sir Arthur was perhaps not the best man for the job. 

The problem was that Sir Arthur had three notable character flaws. Firstly, he wasn’t particularly nice to those who worked beneath him. Second, he was very fond of a drink, extremely fond, it seems. Thirdly, he had a habit of losing his keys. As far as character flaws go, it was the perfect trifecta: condescension, inebriation, and forgetfulness. Something his friends and co-workers took full advantage of. 

It seems it was an open secret that Sir Arthur would regularly wake from a stupor to find his drinking companions playing practical jokes on him, frequently using his own safe keys as props for their late-night amusement. So, when the safe was found empty, with a distinct lack of evidence for detectives to go on, all eyes naturally turned to Sir Arthur. After all, the thieves had simply walked up and turned a key. 

Naturally, the King was furious and Sir Arthur was immediately sacked, his career ruined. The investigation that followed read like a Victorian melodrama. Accusations flew wildly. High-society aristocrats were accused, as were Dublin’s artistic bohemians. There were even whispers of a secret society operating right under everyone’s noses. 

Yet the jewels were never found and the mystery remains unsolved, to this very day, more than a century later. No one is any the wiser and the disappearance of the Irish Crown Jewels remains one of history’s most enduring mysteries.

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Asia, China, Hong Kong, Travel, Wild Horses

Confidently Confused in Hong Kong

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Daily Photo – The Vertical Everyday of Sai Yeung Choi

It was my first, full day in Hong Kong. I love travelling and finding myself in a world filled with signs I can’t read, food I don’t understand, maps that are confusing, and street layouts that seem to make no sense at all. Trying to decipher the public transport system can feel like an attempt to crack the Enigma machine. There are unfamiliar social etiquettes that you unknowingly break, currencies that feel like Monopoly money, bathrooms you can’t operate, and plugs, switches, and electronic systems that appear to defy all logic.

Most of all, I love being unable to read, write, or speak a word of the local language. And when I do attempt to converse, I inevitably butcher it, usually with profuse apologies and reducing my method of communication to a game of charades, accompanied by a confident smile and a great deal of pointing.

And I wanted to embrace the experience completely.

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#dailyat6am, Europe, Geneva, Switzerland, Travel, Wild Horses

On Rue de Lausanne

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Daily Photo – Wandering the Les Pâquis District

Digging through an old archive from twenty-four years ago is a dangerous game. You stumble across frames from a past life that your memory has completely let go of. Case in point: a gritty, textured photograph of a magnificent corner building in Geneva that I simply couldn’t place. Any memory of standing there had long since evaporated, leaving behind only an image of heavy stone blocks and a stack of wrought-iron balconies.

A bit of modern digital detective work eventually cracked the mystery. The building stands at 55 Rue de Lausanne, on the corner of Rue du Môle in Geneva’s Les Pâquis district. It’s a handsome survivor from the late nineteenth century, built during the city’s expansion after the old medieval walls came down.

Looking at it now, I discovered that the ground-floor premises are occupied by a barber shop that has been operating there since 1932. The truth is, I can’t remember a thing about taking the photograph nearly a quarter of a century ago, but there’s something deeply satisfying about knowing this sturdy mountain of a building is still standing watch over the same intersection today.

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#dailyat6am, Australia, Melbourne, Travel, Victoria, Wild Horses

The Blue Door Cafe in Melbourne

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Daily Photo – The Blue Door Cafe in Melbourne

While roaming the streets of Melbourne, I decided to follow a hot tip I’d been given earlier in the day and went in search of the Blue Door Cafe, which I’d been assured was a great little spot with a nice vibe. After a couple of false starts, I found it in an unassuming laneway off Little Bourke Street. Three or four young professionals were busy on their laptops, tapping away furiously at their keyboards, while a few people were hunched around a table outside, engrossed in conversation around an iPhone on the table in front of them. I made my way to the counter, ordered a coffee, found a table towards the back, and happily read my book for a while.

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#dailyat6am, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Travel, United Kingdom, Wild Horses

The Belfast Bean Stalk

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Daily Photo – Victoria Square Shopping Centre

To clean and tidy up the city, Belfast officials poured £400 million pounds into a new complex which they named Victoria Square Shopping Centre. The crowning glory of the entire complex was a huge glass dome that sat an impressive 45 metres off the ground and provided an impressive 360-degree panoramic view of the Belfast skyline.

As impressive as all this was, the thing about building a viewing platform 40 metres in the air, under 635 panes, providing a 360-degree view of the city, is that once it is there, you have to get people up there to use it! This was solved by constructing what looks like a space-age plant from a futuristic version of ‘Jack and the Bean Stalk’. So everyone could see the wondrous complex on their way to the top, a glass elevator was installed so shoppers could soak up the vista on the way up, while a glass spiral staircase was wrapped around the outside for those feeling a bit more enthusiastic.

Earlier in the day, my wife and I had met up with a close family friend from home who happened to be in Belfast too, largely because she grew up in a village just down the road. Faced with the choice of catching up over coffee or joining me for a hike to the top of the dome to see the skyline, they had opted for the coffee, agreeing we’d all regroup once I’d finished.

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#dailyat6am, Dunedin, Otago Harbour, Otago Peninsula, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

Reflections of Otago Harbour

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The Unspoken Rule of the Information Kiosk: Is it just me, or when reading a faded, sun-bleached outdoor information plaque about a town or a walking track, do you feel a subtle social obligation to stand there squinting at it for at least thirty seconds longer than it actually takes to read? Just so passing locals think you actually know what you’re doing, rather than simply being confused and lost.

Daily Photo – Reflections of Otago Harbour

On a lovely bright winter afternoon, I was driving along the Otago Peninsula Road between Broad Bay and Portobello when I rounded a point and the road dipped into a bay. I pulled the car over, got out, and crossed to the cycleway that runs along the edge of the harbour.

The Otago Harbour and Peninsula are wonderful places and, if you stopped at every interesting or captivating sight, you wouldn’t get anywhere at all. Most of the time, you simply drive on and enjoy the scenery as it slips by. On this occasion, however, what made me stop was the fact that the harbour was so perfectly still it looked almost like glass. Rarely have I seen reflections on the harbour look so remarkable.

Seemingly having the road all to myself, I’d been resisting the temptation to stop and take a few photographs for some time. Yet when I reached the edge of Latham Bay, I could no longer resist it.

#dailyat6am, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

The Meridian Mall

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The “No Exit” Allure: Why is it that a faded, slightly bent rural road sign that explicitly reads “No Exit – No Turning” acts as an immediate, irresistible invitation to carry on and see if it’s fictitious?

Daily Photo -The Meridian Mall

Before the Meridian Mall was a fashionable retail outlet and Arthur Barnett was one of Dunedin’s most recognisable department stores, and long before shoppers wandered between chain stores carrying takeaway coffees, this entire block was something quite different.

In fact, if you had stood here in the 1860s, you may well have found yourself ankle-deep in mud.

The land occupied by today’s Meridian Mall sits on what was once part of the lower floodplain of the Water of Leith. Early Dunedin was a city of hills, swamps, and ambitious dreams. As settlers expanded north from the original settlement, marshy ground was gradually drained and reclaimed, transforming wetlands into valuable commercial land.

Then came the gold rush.

The discovery of gold in Central Otago in 1861 brought an explosion of people, money, and opportunity to Dunedin. The future Meridian Mall site became part of a bustling commercial district lined with small businesses. Drapers, bootmakers, tobacconists, jewellers, photographers, tailors, boarding houses, and hotels occupied the narrow sections that once covered the block. Horses clattered along George Street while miners, sailors, merchants, and travellers crowded the footpaths.

Unlike today’s enclosed shopping centre, the area was a patchwork of separate buildings, each housing its own trade and its own stories. A visitor could buy a new pair of boots, sit for a portrait, order a suit, and find a bed for the night, all within a few metres of where shoppers now browse modern retail stores. Beneath the polished floors of the Meridian Mall lies ground that has witnessed more than 160 years of Dunedin history, from swamp and gold rush to department stores and shopping malls.

What all of this shows us is that cities are never really finished. They simply keep reinventing themselves, one generation building over the footprints of another, until a modern shopping mall stands where horses once splashed through mud and gold-rush merchants haggled over the price of a pair of boots.

#dailyat6am, County Wicklow, Hollywood, Ireland, Travel, Wild Horses

Hooray for Hollywood

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Daily Photo – The Wild Uplands of County Wicklow

A few years back, I had the pleasure of spending Christmas with my wife and her extended family on the Emerald Isle, and at one stage we gathered near a village called Hollywood in County Wicklow, Ireland, for a little post-Christmas get-together. It was a delightful affair filled with good company, good food, and plenty of good humour. At one point, I took a moment during the festivities to step outside with my camera and tripod, which is when I took this photo.

Now, if you’re anything like me, you’ll be asking the obvious question: is Hollywood, California, named after Hollywood in County Wicklow, Ireland? Well, according to local folklore, a local named Matthew Guirk emigrated from the village to California following the Great Famine. Being a blacksmith and horse breeder, he built a cabin and a small racetrack in the northwest of Los Angeles, naming his homestead “Hollywood”, and thus the name stuck! Unfortunately, the truth is somewhat different and doesn’t involve the little Irish village at all, but let us not let the truth get in the way of a good story!

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#dailyat6am, Asia, China, Hong Kong, Travel, Wild Horses

Mong Kok In Hong Kong

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Daily Photo – The Bustling Mong Kok Street in Hong Kong

Here’s a statistic for you: in Hong Kong, there are roughly 2,100 kilometres of paved road and over 800,000 licensed vehicles. If we do the maths, that means there are around 380 vehicles for every kilometre of road. Consequently, Hong Kong has the second-highest vehicle density in the world (behind Monaco), yet 90% of all daily passenger journeys are made by public transport.

Looking at those statistics, you’d think that when the motor vehicle first came on the scene, Hong Kong would have wholeheartedly embraced it – but no! Initially, early cars were widely disliked by the general public and viewed as noisy, smoky, unreliable nuisances that terrified horses. That didn’t stop the wealthy from getting their hands on these new “toys,” which is exactly how they were viewed: as novelties. Although completely useless on Hong Kong’s steep hills, the very first cars were imported by wealthy merchants who had made fortunes through international trade. They bought them for the exact same reason billionaires buy hypercars today: conspicuous consumption and bragging rights.

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#dailyat6am, Europe, Geneva, Switzerland, Travel, Wild Horses

Meanwhile, Back In 2002

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Daily Photo – Somewhere In Geneva

The mind plays funny tricks with old travel photos. It strips away the grand itineraries and leaves you holding ordinary scraps of memory.

Take this shot from Geneva, back in 2002. If you asked me for a detailed guide, I’d fail you. What I actually remember is a beautiful blur of aimless wandering, a nagging wish that my French was fluent rather than non-existent, and a brilliant little neighbourhood bar right across the road from our hotel.

Look closely at the quality and you are seeing the cutting edge of early-2000s consumer tech, or, more accurately, the cutting edge of casino promotion. We were armed with twin pint-sized digital cameras, courtesy of the Birmingham casino. They had run one of those loyalty schemes that felt like it required three million visits and a pint of blood to claim a freebie. In reality, it took thirty nights of dedicated, shameless commitment. Our routine was based on efficiency: we’d walk through the doors, collect our stamps, order a Coke at the bar, and vanish within ten minutes. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Back then, pocket-sized digital cameras were still an evolving novelty, a glimpse into a sci-fi future. Getting one for “free” – if you don’t count the month of nightly detours and the sheer volume of Coca-Cola consumed – felt like a good win. The interesting thing is that now we have programmes to recreate the exact look!

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#dailyat6am, Australia, Melbourne, Travel, Victoria, Wild Horses

The (Very) Big Laugh Out

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Daily Photo – Fed Square & The Big Laugh Out

On one of my wanders through Melbourne, I came across Federation Square on my way to a place named the Transport Hotel – Public Bar. I was meeting my brother-in-law, who had promised me a beer before catching a train across the road at Flinders Street Station, and I seemed to recall being told it was just across the square near the bridge. Casting my eyes across the square, I noticed it was filled with deckchairs neatly arranged in rows and occupied by people, which I thought was very lovely, presumably so everyone could sit and enjoy the sunshine free of charge. It was only when I noticed that every chair was facing a stage that I realised something was going on. A performer was entertaining the crowd at an event called ‘The (Very) Big Laugh Out’, part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and I’d happily strolled straight into the middle of it. I apologised to those around me, spied a sign saying ‘Transport Hotel – Public Bar’, and headed directly for it.

Entering the Public Bar, the place was full of a lively crowd who were either incredibly well co-ordinated when dressing that morning, or a sporting event was on. Pushing my way through the mass of people, I noticed on one of the many TV screens that the Richmond Tigers were playing the Port Adelaide Power that afternoon in the AFL at the nearby Melbourne Cricket Ground (an imposing colosseum of a sporting ground if ever there was one) and, judging by the colours and paraphernalia, this was a Richmond crowd. The chatter seemed to be that although the Tigers had had a tough start to the season, and were yet to win a game, they had a good chance against ‘The Power’ that afternoon. Not that all of this really meant anything much to me!

Later that evening, I read in passing that Port Adelaide defeated Richmond 90 to 48. So it really wasn’t even close. Meanwhile ‘The (Very) Big Laugh Out 2026 was deemed an overwhelming success. Maybe all those Tigers supporters should have stayed in the square!

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Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Wild Horses

The Dome

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Daily Photo – The Solar Sail in the Belfast Dome

When Belfast needed a central city upgrade after the signing of the Good Friday agreement in 1998,they poured £400 million pounds into a new complex which they named Victoria Square Shopping Centre. Its designers had ambitious and lofty goals with the crowning glory of the entire complex – the cherry on top if you will – was a huge glass dome that sat an impressive 45 metres off the ground. Made up of 635 individual triangular panes of glass held in place by a massive steel framework weighing 200,000 kilograms – it was the equivalent of roughly 40 adult elephants floating effortlessly above the city. When finished, the dome provided an impressive 360-degree panoramic view of the Belfast skyline, which the public could enjoy from a public viewing platform, offering views that stretch from the historic Belfast City Hall and the contours of Cavehill, all the way across to the towering yellow Harland and Wolff cranes in the Titanic Quarter.

The only problem with all of this was that engineers quickly discovered during the design process that what they had created was in actual fact a giant hotplate above the streets of Belfast. On the rare occasions that Belfast had a sunny day, the dome would act as a massive glasshouse and without intervention, the viewing platform and streets below would become unbearably hot. The solution was a stroke of genius. Instead of pulling the whole thing apart, the solution came in the form of a simple rotating fabric solar sail designed to track the sun throughout the day, filtering out the intense glare and heat of the Belfast sun, naturally regulating the open-air microclimate below so everyone could happily go about their day without having to worry about being burnt to a crisp or spontaneously combusting while shopping for socks!

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#fromthefootpath, Creativity, iphone, Wild Horses

More From My Live Feed

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A selection from my Live Feed, or you can head over to the page right now using this link: Live Feed

Daily Photo – “I wander thro’ each charter’d street”

Uni Book Shop
The Papanui
Salt
South D Lib
The Circus Is In Town
The Lindo Ferg
The Saddle
The Pacific
McBride

Here are a few more photos from my Live Feed for you to enjoy as “I wander thro’ each charter’d street”.

#dailyat6am, Aotearoa, Auckland, New Zealand, Wild Horses

Reconnect A Few Dots – Selwyn Village In Auckland

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“It used to shock me, even at that age, to see old ladies singing in the streets, and soldiers returned from World War One selling matches in the gutter to survive. This made me realise I had to do my best to do away with all this sort of thing. That is where it all began.” – The Rev Canon Douglas Caswell

Daily Photo – The Chapel of Christ the King

On my second morning in Auckland, as I watched the rain blow sideways, I remembered I’d made a promise to myself to visit a place called Selwyn Village. I stared at the deluge, finished my coffee, and pulled out my phone to consult the Auckland bus timetable. It was immediately apparent that this was going to require multiple bus changes and a heroic amount of patience.

The village was the vision of Auckland City Missioner Reverend Douglas Caswell, who is, among other things, my grandfather. When the village officially opened in 1954, it transformed retirement care for the elderly by creating a compassionate, self-contained community for vulnerable seniors. The last time I was there was at least twenty years ago and, despite the rain, I was keen to reconnect a few dots in my memory and see what had changed.

Arriving, I stepped off the bus into puddles and took a moment to reorient myself. The buildings I was used to seeing, including those my grandmother once called home, were gone, replaced by something more modern and less 1950s-ish. My main focus, however, was the village chapel, where a memorial to my grandfather stands. I made a dash through the rain and, after shaking myself off like a shaggy dog, was greeted warmly by two village chaplains, who also happened to be two of the nicest people I’ve ever met. We chatted for a while and they showed me around before apologising that they had to hurry off to conduct pastoral visits in the nearby apartments. 

For the next hour, I read through information about my grandfather and his vision for a better kind of care for the elderly. I read about my grandparents’ determined fundraising efforts, studied original chapel designs from more than sixty-five years ago, sat where my grandmother would sit at every service (as would we on visits), and briefly wandered the gardens between showers, admiring the Caswell Memorial Light dedicated to my grandfather.

Eventually the bus appeared and I stepped aboard, wondering why memories of grandparents remain such prized treasures in our hearts. With that, the bus rattled off into the pouring rain.

#dailyat6am, Asia, China, Hong Kong, Travel, Wild Horses

The Night Markets of Temple Street

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It’s easy to think of Kowloon as having always been a neon forest of concrete, but there was a time when Yau Ma Tei was dotted with vegetable plots, duck farms, rice paddies and fishing villages. People bought fresh produce from fields that occupied the same ground where apartment towers and car parking buildings now cast their shadows.

Daily Photo – The Atmosphere of the Temple Street Night Markets

If we were to stand in one spot outside the Yaumatei Tin Hau Temple in Hong Kong and somehow transport ourselves back to the 1920s, we would find ourselves in a very different place. The most obvious and dramatic change would be the fact that our toes would be standing on the shoreline rather than it being three kilometres further west. Gone would be the stalls offering four digital watches for $10 and silk pyjamas that dissolve into a puddle of static electricity at the very mention of a washing machine. But most of all, gone would be the restless, intoxicating neon energy of the night markets. What we would find is a dusty chaotic waterfront square crowded with fishermen stepping straight off their boats selling the morning catch while hawkers sold food and traditional herbal remedies from under makeshift stalls.

At its core, in most respects, and allowing for a little technological advancement, the market remains exactly how it was over a hundred years ago; a vibrant, bustling gathering space where people come to eat and socialise under open-air stalls.

#dailyat6am, Dublin, Ireland, Travel, Wild Horses

Dublin’s Secret Garden

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If you find the Iveagh Gardens in Dublin, and make your way to the large sunken lawn, you’ll find yourself standing on one of only two purpose-built archery fields in Ireland, which tells you all you need to know about Victorian nobility’s leisure activities. It looks like a remarkably elegant Victorian lawn, yet buried beneath the immaculate grass lies an elephant from Dublin Zoo, interred there in 1922.

Daily Photo – The Iveagh Gardens in Dublin

On my first morning in Dublin, my hosts informed me we’d be going on a little wander through the city centre before meeting friends for a spot of breakfast. Having just stepped off a twelve-hour flight from Hong Kong in the wee hours of the morning, an amble seemed a capital idea. 

After some cursory ablutions and a short car ride, we were soon pushing through the crowds of Grafton Street and past St Stephen’s Green where we meet friends. Following a round of introductions and much handshaking, it was announced that a detour through the Iveagh Gardens was required before breakfast. Not wishing to commit treason by complaining, I happily followed.

Known as Dublin’s “Secret Garden”, the Iveagh Gardens are tucked away behind walls and largely free of lost-looking tourists. On this particular morning, apart from a lone artist sketching near the Count John McCormack statue, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. So we were free to happily discover rustic grottos, fountains, winding paths and sunken lawns all combined to create a peaceful retreat from the city outside. 

The gardens spent much of their history in private hands. One early owner, the 1st Earl of Clonmell, was apparently so keen to avoid mixing with the public that he connected the garden to his townhouse via a secret tunnel. Later, the Guinness family enclosed the grounds so they could entertain other nobles with lavish parties and drink beer presumably.

The gardens finally opened to the public in the early 1990’s. Which is just as well, otherwise I’d have had to walk a heck of a lot further for my breaky.

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#dailyat6am, Australia, Melbourne, Travel, Victoria, Wild Horses

A Walk In The Melbourne Forest

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Daily Photo – Melbourne’s Floating Forest Canopy

On a recent trip across the ditch to Melbourne, I found myself stepping out of the city’s familiar laneways and into the modern retail architecture of Collins Street, which brings me to the thing I like about Melbourne. Shopping malls, arcades, and gallerias are rarely spaces that inspire creativity, but at some point Melbourne has completely rewired that perspective.

Shuffling through St Collins Lane, suspended high above the modern, minimalist paths below, is an incredible architectural installation featuring hundreds of dark green glass cylinders arranged into a giant geometric dome. Above that sits a massive arched glass skylight, specially designed to allow light to swirl through as it hits the glass bottles.

Depending entirely on the shifting Melbourne sun, natural light filters down through the grid, refracting off the emerald elements to bathe the interior in a moody, earthy glow. It is a brilliant piece of design that completely strips away the standard commercial inner-city retail precinct, transforming it instead into a striking, floating forest canopy.

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