St Paul's Methodist Church. Guess where? Across the road from the MFA Houston! It looks Anglican. And then, the red-brick Adamesque Presbyterian church down the road looks Methodist. Odd swaps. 

A Renaissance angel at the MFAH - again Dad took these pics and I don't know the titles, won't even guess the artists unless I can. 

A Manet at the MFAH. In this I see the silence and isolation that everyone tends towards on lazy summer afternoons. 

FYI, my Dad took all the photos of the MFAH. He likes the action paintings and the Canalettos. This one, unhorsed! 

Lobby of antiquities floor at MFAH 

Definitely 20th century room at MFAH. This looks like a cast by Picasso, one of which was sold at Christie's last year. Also nice and shiny. 

Classical bronze figure against the patron wall at the MFAH 

Outside a 1960s section of the MFAH 

The tunnel linking the classic wing with the contemporary at the Musem of Fine Arts Houston. The colours change in a continuous cycle. 

Tiffany window at MFAHouston 

A water feature outside the Museum of Fine Arts Houston 

Exterior Portland Conference Center, Oregon, USA.  

Roof of Portland Conference Center 

Windows at Portland Conference Center 

Hanging from the ceiling at the Portland (Oregon) Conference Center 

Full dress, swords drawn. Some of the Royal Horse Artillery based up the road. They pass nearly every morning, usually in regular greens. Wonder what the occasion was for this? 

With my best friends Lydia and Anthony, Sept. 04. We grew up together. 

With Natty in November. It's always Nat who gets thrust into my arms. Nat takes after his dad, and Theo takes after his mum (my cousin). They're about 5 months old now and really active, learning to turn. Nat kicks, wriggles and sneezes (I have bruises and a cold right now from last week's visit.)

See? Olivia and Christopher playing in the garden at Kingston, 1980. 

Speaking of babies, on the left there is my oldest friend and fellow-preemie Christopher, graduating from Cambridge way back whenever (that's his brother Matthew on the right)...Our Mums met in the maternity ward at Queen Charlotte's Hospital and have been firm friends ever since. 

If I put Michelle's pic up she will kill me, so here is my cousin-in-law Tony, their son Zack, and one of the twins. M & T have been together for over 10 years. They tried hard for Zack (who is now 4), and then after a miscarriage, got hit with twins. All without IVF. 

Cousin Michelle and Tony's new twins Theodore and Nathaniel in September. 

Serenaded on the train to Venice. They were tuneros from the Universidad de Salamanca, Spain on a tour of Europe. I must say, my name sits well in Spanish songs. 

Shiho and me at a restaurant in Verona, Italy, where we and another friend enjoyed 4 nights of opera and good wine. 

Dad and me cracking crab shells at Mum's apartment in Dallas. He came up from Houston to see me before I returned to London. After dinner we had a treat of baklava, visible on the table in front of me. 

Gorgeous dinner at Terry & Johanna's house. L-R: Pierre, Mum, Aunty Rita, Terry, and Jo. They've been together 10 years and finally tied the knot last summer. 

Some of my boy-cousins. On the left, Paul (15) & Mike (24) - Aunt Eve's sons. On the right, Pierre (37) and Terry (33) - Aunt Rita's sons. 

Aunt Eve and me ringing in 2005 at One99. We'd had a sherry aperitif, two bottles of Riesling, and champagne. I don't like champers so I was fine and so was Mum. But Aunt Rita got tipsy and Aunt Eve got drunk and said the funniest things to Uncle Tom in the car on the way home. 

Mum and Aunt Rita. Four of us went to the swish new One99 restaurant in Orangeville, Ontario. (It means 199 Broadway, NOT $1.99 as Mum had joked early on.) We celebrated New Year's Eve there with a 7-course meal. Even the mayor was there. It was like a huge dinner party with all courses timed and served like clockwork. 

My darling J-Jay in Canada. We got pretty snowed in during Christmas and it dropped to -minus 30 or 40. He's an American Eskimo sled dog and would make his outdoor trips as short as possible. 

Funny how they all look alike except for the youngest 

Evadney with Hannah who is now 4 

Me, Mum, Dad at the restaurant in Dallas with my cousins - we were tired, cold and hungry with the drive up from Houston. 

Compare to the sleeker trams of the Houston METRO system, just like the ones in Montpellier, France. Downtown Houston has also always had free San Francisco-style trolleys (on wheels without the rails). 

This is what the DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) trains look like. Just like the DART buses! 

Gigi and me messing about at the new train stop in Old Town Plano, Texas 

Look, my very own lane at the Legacy Drive center! 

Gigi and me at the new Legacy Drive shopping center in Plano, Texas - in November 

My Dallas cousins. Back row, Stan and Evadney with kids and me. Front row, Charlene and Amber.  

Some of my friends from uni I met up with in Houston last December. L-R: Michael, Diana, Jason, Chris 

Harewood House, Yorkshire, home of the Earl of H, of the Lascelles family. Relatively new fortunes made in the Indian colonies a couple hundred years ago. This house is Neoclassical. 

Some frontage of Longford Castle. Seriously, there was dry-cleaning hanging in the hall, a shopping list on the hall table, muddy boots and bicycles on the front porch. 

A pretty doorway through which we exited to the gardens at Longford Castle in Wiltshire. It was distracting to notice the family's TV/VCR and boxes of tissues, while our tutors were talking about the paintings...The house is not open to the public. 

No effects here, this is Carcassonne itself in the glow of its uplighting. A cold night and eerie setting accompanied by the angry rush of the river below. Brrrrrr. 

Carcassonne across the river Rhône. Doesn't look real, does it? 

Bronze statue of a Toreador at Nîmes colosseum. I added a glow. 

The Maison Carré, Nîmes. Soft focus effect here, on Vanessa and Jordan on the steps. 

All that remains of the Roman Forum in Arles, though the space is still a huge open square with cafes of course. 

One of my most dramatic yet, a short hike up the hills from the Abbey. The craggy landscape of Provence. 

I love this one. Vanessa's hippie pic in a field outside of Toulouse 

The Abbey of St-Michel de Frigolet, somewhere in Provence between Avignon and Arles 

Also at the Ascot wedding, our old neighbour from when we lived here. The groom's father, my dad's best friend, has bought both houses. 

Mum and Dad at a friend's son's wedding at Royal Ascot. 

(Phonecam) The best dim sum in Chinatown 

(Phonecam) Broughton Castle, Oxfordshire, where Lord and Lady Saye and Seale gave us the tour. They are the Fiennes family - yes, related to Joseph and Ralph! 

My parents met at my uncle's place in Cornwall Gardens, S. Kensington, 1975
I have since learned that he actually lived in the Garden House....which explains the greenery around the front steps in his wedding pics...

A surprise in South Kensington - some visiting eastern dignitary and entourage debarked here for a press shoot before entering the hotel. 

Phonecam pic from Christie's field trip. Part of Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire. Home of the Duke of Northumberland  

Hodge (who read aloud in the kitchen) 

Our house in The Woodlands, Texas 

We departing Officers preparing to install new members into the St Thomas chapter of Psi Chi (psychology). The UST spring formal was literally across the hall in the ballroom so some of us skipped over there after the banquet. 

Vanessa, Olivia, Lydia at Brown's Restaurant in 2003. Vanessa, my sister and roomie since university, got to meet Lydia, my sister since childhood.  

Olivia, Alain, Lara outside Christie's Edu (King St) after the 2002 Christmas reception 

Gigi and me at her apartment in Plano, Texas 

Early autumn 2003 at Parham House in Sussex