Tag: travel

B231 – JUST A DOG WEARING SHOES

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It’s weird not posting these each day, I’m not really enjoying it. I love following the stats and getting to see what people think of my photos, it’s one of those things if I post each day I really try and set my self a brief for each day, ie something to concentrate on, but at the moment I’m just snapping shots when I can.

Not really sure if that’s a good idea, but at the moment it’s the best I can do.

Today is show day and I can now say that I’m working on Victoria Secrets Fashion show in Shanghai!!!! The rule of posting photos still stands, so if your expecting to see Back stage photos of Super modes wearing underwear and wings. This is the wrong place, instead I can offer a shot of a dog wearing shoes.

One thing has really surprised me is that amount of bikes that are in the city and the comparison to London. A few months back someone introduced this public bike scheme where you can pick up these yellow bikes via an App and then drop it off where ever you want, two days later the bikes had been destroyed, seats stollen and wheels buckled. Not in China, they literally have exactly the same bikes but times a thousand, there are hundreds on every street and not a buckled wheel in sight. China is this country where people stick to rules and one of the coolest things is everyone has a job (apparently). From what I saw which to be fair is very little, the streets are cleanish and there’s this proper hustle and bustle about this place, it feels like a super power city and I suppose that’s exactly what this place is. 10 years time and Shanghai will be this place with hovercrafts and jet packs, I promise you!

 

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– Victoria Secretes fashion show 2017 –
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– one of the weirdest buildings Ive ever seen –
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– just a dog wearing shoes –

 

B227 – UP IN THE CLOUDS

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Im staying in the Grand Hyatt hotel which is pretty cool, the hotel reception is on the 54 floor and when you take the lift up your ears pop. my room is only on the 79th floor which gives you this cool view of Shang hi, the only time i have been this high up is when I went to the Shard for some drinks and even then I think I was only on the 60th floor or something. Waking up with a view of the city is insane, even when theres loads of fog and all you can see if the clouds moving slowly past your window it creates this cool effect. 

When you come out of the tower and look up all you can see if the building disappear into the clouds. our building is trumped completely by the Shang Hi tower which is right next to us, that tower is the second tallest building in the world and stands at 635 meters tall and has 128 floors! it literally feels like two times the size of out building.

for the next week, Im going to just be using my Iphone, I cant really carry my camera around with me, which is annoying but I hope you like these photos. I got this taxi the other day and cant work out if the driver had a fake iphone or what phone is was, does anyone know? Shang hai is pretty famous for all the fake designer markets I really want to make it over to one and see what I can get hold of but not sure if I will have time.

 first impressions of Shang Hi, it’s absolutely massive and China is actually a pretty cool place, but not as futuristic as I thought it would be, I was expecting to see loads of really modern things but its actually quite traditional. 

Heres my photos from today, I hope you like them.

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– looking up from below the hotel –
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– the view from breakfast –
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– is this a fake iphone?

B226 – THIS IS NOT THE END! I PROMISE!!!!

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Day one of China, is off to a great start after landing Wednesday morning completely jet lagged) I did that thing where you don’t sleep on the plane and it just completely throws you off, always try and sleep on long flights). I went out on a little adventure the some of the crews and explored Shang Hi a little, this place is pretty cool and naturally one thing turned into another and we ended up in this weird secret tunnel which runs under the Bund river. its kind of like something out of a low budget James Bond film, with loads of LED’s on the walls and theres weird sounds like Joshua in War Games.  Im trying to compare everything to films I know as Shang Hi just feels like everything is out of some classic film. Naturally after spending 40 minutes explores it quickly turned into a hunt of classic Shang Hi bar which then turned into us in a local Irish bar down the road. why would we go any where else? it was a great afternoon / evening bar crawl and I wish I had more stamina to make it to the club but my bed was calling.

Im now laying in bed and have been awake since 3am its now 6am and I thought I would spent sometime and get this post done. before I jump in my bath and watch the sunrise over Shang Hi, how cool does that sound. I just hope the smog doesn’t ruin my view.

Tomorrow is the first day of production and Im looking forward to seeing everyone and getting stuck in with work so this next bit isn’t easy to write, but I am now going to have to stop posting my daily photos till I get back to the UK. I need to respect the production company I am working for and if they say no photos, that has to mean no photos. I am still going to write these posts and find something to photograph outside of work, but I wont be posting until I get back to the UK and get the green light. its the one thing I really didn’t want todo, I am determined to keep this up for 365 days but the next six days are going to have to be posted next week. I will still take at least three photos a day I promise!

If you cant take not reading my posts on a daily basis, then why don’t you just start reading from B001 again. I will buy the first person to tell me how many photos I have posted up to this date a christmas gift.

Heres my photos from today see you guys in a week when I promise I will post all the days that Ive missed!!!!!! Ill post 5 pictures today so its not all doom and gloom.

Also dont forget I have my first print for sale, heres the link.

https://joshfspear.com/about/prints/

GET INVOLVED!

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– the view from my room, cant complain about this one –
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– the view from my bath, definitely cant complain about this –
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– taking the secret tunnel to the otherside of the river yesterday, one of the weirdest experiences of my life –
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– just your average street, I cant get over how big the traffic lights are –
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– this place is open 25 hours a day –

 

B225 – IT HAD TO BE ME THAT SAT THERE!

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Im writing his mid flight and have just flew over the border between Belarus and Russia, its about 7 hour 45 minutes till we reach shanghi. I could go on to talk about what I did this morning but my travel buddy bean thinks we should do a review of the plane and to be honest I could agree more.

Today we are travelling on an Airbus A380 with Virgin Atlantic travelling in Premium Economy, which is actually a good flight for a number of reasons.

  • The space. As someone who is 6ft 1 AND A half inches tall, I have a problem when it comes to travelling and that is my arms and legs they basically make me langkey and mean that I’m either squashed with the person next to me or have my legs spread out half my down the asile. It means long journey’s can feel even longer. It also mean that’s you can have your laptop out and not take up the seats on either side of you, perfect for trying to get a blog post done by the time I land. I’m determined to keep these post scheduled for 10am each day.
  • The service is really good, long flights can be a pain but nothing is better than some good service and some good food. The Air hostess is really good and that cant bring food and drinks around enough, after dinner they even brought round brandy and some amertotto liquor, what more could you want.
  • I don’t want to go on about it but when you get on the plane they even give you this little Hershals pouch thing with all your tooth brushes and stuff inside. It’s a small thing, but compared to last month flying on Air Canada Rouge where you need a tentnus shot before you get on the plane. so this little pouch is a big deal.

 

My only problem with the flight is that I kept on backing the chair, I accidently sat on the side arm and now it plastic cover keeps on falling off and now its fallen off completely, and my table now bounces around when I try to eat of use my laptop, the air stewardess did they and help me but I think it’s a lost cause.  Its kind of my fault anyway but could probably do with a little redesign. Not biggy Richard, I know you have a lot on at the moment.

Im looking forward to seeing this part of the world and exicted to start taking pictures of the completely new place. Im also exicted to crack on and get to work, its so hard for me not to say what it is im doing here, but I promise as soon as I get the green light you guys will know.

UPDATE: Im at the hotel and we may have a problem, google doesnt work and thats where I look up words I dont know how to spell or words im not too sure on. Im now officially in trouble, my spelling could get a lot worst over the course of this week. So sorry for that, and please just ignore them

Heres my photos from the plane.

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– this is bean taking her pre flight instagram shot –
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– B&W photo of a plane window –
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– always working, and enough space so she doesnt hit me with her elbows –
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– dont mind if I do –
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– I broke the chair, not sure its completely my fault, more wrong place wrong time I think –

 

B224 – I dont like being an adult

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Well the day in a life of josh is one of pure excitement, today was the first time in over two months that I have actually had a afternoon during sun light at my flat for me just to enjoy. My plan head home at 2pm quickly edit some photos from the short film I have been working on yesterday and this morning, before sitting down to watch some tv and chill. well, that quickly went out the window. after turning on the kitchen tap I quickly realised it was blocked like properly blocked, my only option was to take the sink piping apart and see if I could fix it, with no luck and time not on my side I had to make the call to a local Plumber and cough up the money for him to turn up with a £3 plunger and fix the proper in under 20 minutes. lets just say I had to pay him enough money to buy about 55 plungers, but least its fixed now and I suppose I can no fix the problem if it happens again. so I guess I’ve learnt something new today.  I dont want this to be what its like being an adult, why do I have to worry about these kind of problems.

tomorrow is the day I fly to China for a week long job and as some of you may know China doesn’t allow social media and I think that include WordPress. The job im also going on have said that not a single photo can be taken which means that for at least 15 hours of the day Im going to be somewhere I can take photos. Making this blog even more harder todo each day. Im basically going somewhere, that its literally impossible for me to Blog from both by the government and by the production company. But I am josh spear and I can make this work, just like I managed to get my kitchen sink fixed…

any way here are my photos from today, I would like to say how much fun I had the past two days on that short film and cant wait to share it with you and i would also like to add that everyone should owner a decent plunger. it will save you a lot of money in the future.

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– rory wanted me to post a picture of me, so here it is. enjoy –
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– I took this sink apart and in return got covered in drain unblocker acid, smart one josh –
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– there only one place amy and me could go after that event. the pub –

B217 – SHES TAKEN OVER

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THIS IS AMY CHAPPELL WRITING THIS.  IM TRYING TO GET HER TO START WRITING A BLOG. SO SHE IS GOING TO WRITE THIS ONE AND CAN EVERYONE READ IT AND TELL HER HOW GOOD SHE IS AT WRITING THESE. BY THE WAY THE PHOTOS ARE MINE.

Day two in Paris began with a very easy going start after a heavy evening that ended with death by Baileys coffee; I reckon Josh must have poured half the bottle into them! Instead of dealing with an overpriced and fairly overrated breakfast at our hotel we headed out and found a small café that did the best ham and cheese toasties ever!

Our first venture of the day was this really cool shop called Colette on Rue-Saint-Honore which I have always wanted to visit, its like a really niche concept store that just so happened to have an exclusive Chanel takeover this weekend much to my pleasure! I think even Josh may have even enjoyed it as they even stocked a hassleblad X1D camera (I promise I have no idea what that is, he literally just told me what it was as I was writing!) If you ever end up in Paris I would recommend giving the shop a visit.

The rest of day we went on a serious hunt for moulet et frites. Can you believe it took us over an hour to find somewhere that did mussels and chips! Even though it took a while, I quickly realised this is one of the best cities to just walk around, you see something different on every street and so many interesting characters along the way. We ended up in a little restaurant on the Champs – Elysee and of course we had to order some traditional French cuisine of slimy escargot which I am sorry everyone tastes bloody great! I know what your thinking this blog post features me mainly talking about food but what’s a weekend away without stuffing your face full of local cuisine!

We couldn’t end our trip without seeing the Eiffel tower so we headed up there at exactly the right moment, when golden hour was emerging. Its amazing how one hour of the day can make a beautiful city look even more beautiful especially in the autumn with the golden brown colour palette. Check out a few snaps Josh took of our adventure today and ooh before I forget Josh thank you so much for a wonderful birthday present away, you’re alright you know!

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– Nothing beats walking around Paris in November –
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– it would be a complete trip to paris without a shot of the eiffel tower –
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– amy its golden hour! –
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– i like this guys style, he knew what he wanted –

 

 

B216 – AFTERNOON IN PARIS

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After a bit of bumpy start yesterday when we first got to paris, basically our phones wouldnt work, which meant we had no way of booking an Uber, something todo with the new Apple OS update or something. But for those of you that have been to Gaurd De Nord before you know the first thing you see when you come out the train station is a Mcdonalds and they are known worldwide for having a good free Wifi connection, something that comes in handy when you need to book a taxi!

anyway yesterday afternoon was all about getting over to the Dior exhibition over at the Musee De Arts Decorative on Rue De Ravoli, its basically this massive museum which shows you the history behind Dior and how the company has got to where it is today, so it was pretty interesting. I know nothing about fashion or Dior really, but even for me it was just cool too see what goes into it and where the whole company originated from. In the exhibition theres a massive section on photography so that was pretty interesting to see. I definitely think if your in paris between now and the 7th January you should go and see this whole thing even if your not really in to fashion, the whole thing is just cool to see and even though its a museum full of dresses they don’t really look like dresses. they are more like pieces of art I suppose.

its now the next day and we are having a bit of a lazy morning trying to think what we should do for breakfast, we are staying at the Hotel Eiffel Blomet and they seem todo a good breakfast but nothing will ever beat €1 espresso coffee and a Jambon croissant.

Today the mission is to find some prints and stuff for the flat, Amy also NEEDS to see the shop collet! so I guess we will probably to that too.

Heres my photos from yesterday Bon Appetit.

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– this was in the last room at the Dior show, all the walls are full to the ceiling in dresses and dress making stuff –
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– the new Louis Vitton shop, they went all out –
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– my photo of the Eiffel Tower. Hello Paris –

 

B207 – MY TIME AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY

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October 27th 2017, this is the day I’m going to talk about my time at Harvard University.

I had arrived at my hotel just outside Boston Massachusetts, when I had realised that I left my iphone cable in New York. On 20% battery and nothing to use as an alarm clock, I had no choice but to venture out of my hotel and try and find a iphone cable, something I felt is an easy thing to pick up. After driving 2 minutes down the road, I saw the bus which had a massive LED sign at the front which read “HARVARD”, a bit unsure Harvard was that close, I gave it a google and found out the campus was only 4 miles down the road, well one thing turn to the other and before I knew it I was following the bus to the world famous collage of Harvard, so thank you bus driver for getting me to Harvard, with out you I would never of known.

After arriving at Harvard campus,  I quickly realised that I was probably one of the more stupider people in my vicinity, and from going out to get an iPhone cable to standing on the famous steps of the Widener Library, where 8 of the american presidents and some of the worlds smartest people have been to get their books, was a pretty cool story .  Mr Joshua Frederick Stephen Spear, current location: Harvard, that sound pretty cool. Ive even brought a Harvard T-shirt, so now I look like an international student.

My favourite part of this whole mini late night adventure was coming across this guy outside the main campus, dressed all in orange screaming about rhinos and Donald Trump, I couldn’t work out if he was for Trump of Against Trump or passionate about rhinos. The only thing I managed to get from the whole thing was “stand up to his orangeness, he needs you, the world will end”. He also kept blowing raspberries. so many be he had a few opinions he wanted to get across. If you want to try and figure out what was going on check out the video Ive posted on my instagram – joshfspear. and please if you figure out what his point was, I would love to know. or if you know this guy even better!

Here are my photos from my quick time at Harvard.

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– there arent any signs for Harvard University, apparently its a big talking point at the moment.  so I got this photo from the book store sign across the road –
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– this is the legend I am talking about “president of the Rhinoceros –
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– a photo from my standing on the Widener Library stairs –

B203 – I LOVE THIS CITY

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today has been just a day of travel, I woke up this morning in 23 degrees weather at 6am and quickly packed up before leaving florida and catching a plane back to the crazy city that is New York. We are back at the hotel from last time, the Vue something its called near Queens Boro bridge, this hotel literally gives us such a good view of Manhattan, I think ive shown it before when I first got to New York, well anyway Im like two floors above my last room and dead on facing the city, so this time Ive got such a better view. Ill show you it tomorrow maybe.

Its now like mid night and Ive just edited my photos from today and now just thinking of anything to write and all I can think really is how nice Florida was and how happy I am to be back in New York, tomorrow is a pretty chilled out day I think, so my plan is to explore hunters point a bit more, thats basically opposite Manhatten on the queens side of the river. Normally when you head to a city you get drawn to the main tourist spots, but im just going to walk around Hunter point and then Maybe head into town, but the main mission for tomorrow is to take some cool photos of the city and the people that live here.

I would love to write about how I plan on getting up at 5 in the morning to go and take photos of the sun set over the river or people on their rush hour commute, but that would just be a big fat lie, I dont plan on doing anything like that. part of the whole three photos a day thing, is that sometimes its just a down day with no plans and those are the days were I have to get creative with my photos and tomorrow might be one of those days. Im trying not to think about it too much other wise, Ill end up doing something adventurous and not chilled out at all and thats not the point of tomorrow.

heres my photos from today. enjoy.

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– packing up the car at silly O’clock this morning, I already miss this SUV –

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– the last palm tree I saw in florida and look at that sun rise! –

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– back in New York where everyone is constantly moving at 1 million miles an hour –

B202 – 17 HOURS LATER…

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Tomorrow we leave Florida and head back to New York, its fair to say that we are now in the middle of filming and if we can get through the next 11 days of pure craziness and long hours we will be sitting on that flight home with a beer in hand. But first back to reality, before we leave florida tomorrow morning, this place has left us with one last gift a heard of blood thirsty mosquitos, which have really just aimed for my legs and attacked both my pale white bread sticks with all they have. my legs have lost the battle and the war to these mosquitos and now I can stop itching them.

My post today is about the other famous restaurant in town, it wouldnt be fair to write about one and not the other, this time im talking about the BBQ joint called Sonnys. this place is everything I hope for an more, they know what they are doing when it comes to baked beans and BBQ meat, both times Ive gone for the two meat, two sides option and it hasnt let me down. today I had some kind of sausage and pulled pork with Mac “n” Cheese and BBQ Baked beans and it was just what I needed. its totally different to Catfish country which was more of a family run place, this is a small food chain in Florida, but it packs a punch, they even make their own range of sauces, from what I can remember I had only had the Spicy sauce and that had just the right amount of spice, not too hot not too mild. no one wants a really spicey BBQ, its just not right.

if you’re ever in Bartow, please go and try both Sonnys and Catfish Country and let me know which on you think is better! for the experiacne I would say Catfish Country but if you really want to reach food coma levels go to Sonny’s.

Anyway I think ill keep todays nice a short, I cant really keep my eyes open much longer, its been a proper long day.  the next few weeks are jammed packed, so ill do my best to keep these post top notch, but sorry in advance for any rubbish days that might pop up (like this one). I haven’t done Sonny’s justice.

Also you know the rules, any spelling or grammer just ignore them, we all know it’s one of my downfalls.

Enjoy these snaps.

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– it may look simple on the outside but this place serves some proper food –
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– It just looks like a southern BBQ joint, happy days –
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– did what to show a picture of my food, but it arrived I ate it and forgot to take a picture, so heres a photo of a beer and some of their own sauce –