Storm Imogen

How can such a wild and angry storm have such a pretty name? The wind has been blowing an absolute hoolie here and last night, the rain that was lashing against the windows was quite frightening.

Today I went up to London to meet some friends for a reunion lunch. It was relatively calm when I left home, although still very windy, but when I got to London and was about to exit the tube station, the wind blowing down the stairs was freezing cold and so strong. It was raining and blowing a gale - this is the only shot I managed to take, of Trafalgar Square with people walking past the National gallery. By now my umbrella had blown inside out, my freshly washed and blow dried hair was whipping all around my head ending up in a complete tangle, and I was not going to linger for any longer to get another shot.

I arrived at the restaurant looking quite bedraggled - we all did - but we had a wonderful lunch. Those set price fixed menu lunches are such a good deal, especially when offered by an upmarket restaurant whose a la carte menu is rather pricey. It was warm and comfortable in the restaurant, the staff did not rush us and so we chatted long after our lunch had finished and then realising the time, all rushed off to get various tubes and trains home again. By now the train from Charing Cross station had been cancelled due to high winds, but luckily I did not have to use that line.

I missed my train home by a minute - you know that sinking feeling as you see your train gliding out of the station - and so decided to look at the Landscape Photographer of the Year Exhibition one more time while I waited for the next train. However, the exhibition finished yesterday, so I missed seeing it again. It was an excellent exhibition and what I really like about it is that under each image they give details of the camera used, camera settings, details of tripod and filters used and if it is an HDR or not. Why can't more exhibitions do the same?