View allAll Photos Tagged Congested
Late morning on Monday, October 5, and we step off the train into yet another quite warm autumn day, this time in hectic Varanasi, at the eastern edge of Uttar Pradesh. Though we’d be going to Delhi/New Delhi on the noon train tomorrow, I didn’t realize at the time that this would be the last of my photo shooting in India for this trip. (We were in Delhi for roughly 48 hours, but I got sick from train food on the 18 hour journey between Varanasi & the capital. Since the capital seemed way too smoggy, dirty, congested, disorganized…I didn’t feel like I’d missed out terribly, though there were a few places I would have liked seeing there.)
I’ll finish this posting on a good note, though, and focus on Varanasi. Before getting there, I wasn’t terribly excited about the tourist attractions I’d read about, but that’s not why people come to Varanasi. Varanasi is to Hindus what Mecca & Medina are to Muslims, or Jerusalem to Christians. It’s their holiest city. On the banks of the Ganges, people come here to die, then have their ashes spread in the river.
Varanasi has a lot of poor and indigent people as well, who come and hope to be cremated and buried in the river, and there are a few places that serve as pseudo-hospices to help them. They tend to try to collect donations from anyone to afford to pay for the wood – it’s a specific wood they use for the cremation – so they can help these people.
So Varanasi is an interesting place. There are many ghats (ghat is like…a pier, or a place where you can access the river), and the most famous are probably Dashashwamedh Ghat (the liveliest and most colorful) and Manikarnika (the Burning Ghat). There are many other ghats, as well, and some have specific histories attached to them.
For me, the best plan was to stay in a hotel near the ghats in the Old City so we could enjoy the sunrise and stroll around. The Hotel Alka was my random choice, and it turned out to be good. It’s cheap, riverside, has a decent restaurant (though, as it’s a hotel restaurant, not as good as many of the others where we’d eaten in the past two weeks), and overall a comfortable room.
After getting checked in (and this place was pretty crowded), I took a shower, then headed off with a local guy who gave me a tour of the Old City. Now, a word on that… It’s not recommended that you go with any local who offers because most of them will steer you into various businesses, or towards people who are all too happy to try to get your money. I was very firm with this guy, though, and told him the maximum price I’d pay regardless of what he showed me, and that he should plan accordingly. He didn’t, and was a bit disappointed when I paid him exactly what I said I would.
The tour included stops at a few temples – they all started to look a bit alike after the second one – and at Manikarnika (one of the places where you’re herded and they try to make you feel guilty if you don’t fork over five million dollars to pay for everyone’s cremation). The last stop was at his boss’s store, well away from the old city, over in the Muslim Quarter, where I had to sit patiently through a whole lot of lecturing on textiles and their pleading that I buy the entire building. I tried to be as polite as possible with the last part, stating up front that I wouldn’t buy a thing before going in, though that disappointed them to no end. In the end, perhaps it’s better to go on your own…
After about four hours with my guide, it was already dusk and the city actually felt less safe than others. (There were a lot of police out and about.) It turns out that there wa s a religious ceremony that the police were banning this particular year for some reason, so there was a bit of tension. And since Varanasi isn’t a city that is lit up much at night, there wasn’t much to see, so I was glad to just get to my room and call it a day.
Waking early on Tuesday morning, I caught the sunrise over the Ganges, then wandered up and down the ghats for an hour or so. This really was an interesting experience as it seems the entire city comes to bathe in the river, and everyone seems pretty happy. There are plenty of boat tours, too, which I skipped, as I just wanted to take a walk.
After an hour or so of wandering the riverside, I went back to the Alka, had breakfast, and enjoyed my remaining few hours just watching the sun rise higher before heading to the train station for the unofficial (though still unbeknownst to me) end of this trip to India.
In hindsight, this was a terrific two weeks. Though I enjoyed Uttar Pradesh, I wouldn’t go out of my way to return here – unless going to different parts of the state, and I would certainly include a trip to Agra in that – but Rajasthan…I would gladly go back to anytime. However, India has a lot to offer, and I’m not sure if I’ll return here or go to different parts of the country. Anything is possible…
February 4th - Day 35
Today woke up pretty congested again. Made my way to church where Warren preached on King Nebuchadnezzar's pride from Daniel 4. It was great hearing the word preached, worshiping, and catching up with people.
After service I had a leadership meeting for Seeds of Life. After the meeting I made a boba run at Le Arbre Tea House in Rosemead before heading home. The rest of the afternoon and evening consisted of photo editing, video editing, and catching up on emails.
Yup, no SuperBowl party. Too tired for that.
Looking over the congested Downtown Connector and the skyline of Downtown Atlanta, from the Pryor Rd overpass
The thick turgid and somewhat congested pods are distinctively held erect similar to the closely related and likely ancestral species, Astragalus canadensis. This site is in the Horseshoe Bend campground area along the Bighorn River, northeast of Lovell.
Sudan, Khartoum, minaret with congested houses in the background against clear sky
After driving on the motorbike on congested roads, my face would be covered in black soot from the exhaust pipes of other motor vehicles on the road. However, the largest contributor were the large trucks transporting cargo.
You can refer to another mug shot of mine a couple days after this when my face was even more black after 11 hours of riding from Sa Pa to Hanoi.
My head got so congested, it exploded. I'm sorry I didn't catch the moment with all of the mucus and skull bits flying everywhere. However, I did record it smoking.
- - -
Going to school is torture when you're sick. Shoving information into an already aching head does not do one good. My radioactive cold had a complete vertical spike in symptoms.
Late morning on Monday, October 5, and we step off the train into yet another quite warm autumn day, this time in hectic Varanasi, at the eastern edge of Uttar Pradesh. Though we’d be going to Delhi/New Delhi on the noon train tomorrow, I didn’t realize at the time that this would be the last of my photo shooting in India for this trip. (We were in Delhi for roughly 48 hours, but I got sick from train food on the 18 hour journey between Varanasi & the capital. Since the capital seemed way too smoggy, dirty, congested, disorganized…I didn’t feel like I’d missed out terribly, though there were a few places I would have liked seeing there.)
I’ll finish this posting on a good note, though, and focus on Varanasi. Before getting there, I wasn’t terribly excited about the tourist attractions I’d read about, but that’s not why people come to Varanasi. Varanasi is to Hindus what Mecca & Medina are to Muslims, or Jerusalem to Christians. It’s their holiest city. On the banks of the Ganges, people come here to die, then have their ashes spread in the river.
Varanasi has a lot of poor and indigent people as well, who come and hope to be cremated and buried in the river, and there are a few places that serve as pseudo-hospices to help them. They tend to try to collect donations from anyone to afford to pay for the wood – it’s a specific wood they use for the cremation – so they can help these people.
So Varanasi is an interesting place. There are many ghats (ghat is like…a pier, or a place where you can access the river), and the most famous are probably Dashashwamedh Ghat (the liveliest and most colorful) and Manikarnika (the Burning Ghat). There are many other ghats, as well, and some have specific histories attached to them.
For me, the best plan was to stay in a hotel near the ghats in the Old City so we could enjoy the sunrise and stroll around. The Hotel Alka was my random choice, and it turned out to be good. It’s cheap, riverside, has a decent restaurant (though, as it’s a hotel restaurant, not as good as many of the others where we’d eaten in the past two weeks), and overall a comfortable room.
After getting checked in (and this place was pretty crowded), I took a shower, then headed off with a local guy who gave me a tour of the Old City. Now, a word on that… It’s not recommended that you go with any local who offers because most of them will steer you into various businesses, or towards people who are all too happy to try to get your money. I was very firm with this guy, though, and told him the maximum price I’d pay regardless of what he showed me, and that he should plan accordingly. He didn’t, and was a bit disappointed when I paid him exactly what I said I would.
The tour included stops at a few temples – they all started to look a bit alike after the second one – and at Manikarnika (one of the places where you’re herded and they try to make you feel guilty if you don’t fork over five million dollars to pay for everyone’s cremation). The last stop was at his boss’s store, well away from the old city, over in the Muslim Quarter, where I had to sit patiently through a whole lot of lecturing on textiles and their pleading that I buy the entire building. I tried to be as polite as possible with the last part, stating up front that I wouldn’t buy a thing before going in, though that disappointed them to no end. In the end, perhaps it’s better to go on your own…
After about four hours with my guide, it was already dusk and the city actually felt less safe than others. (There were a lot of police out and about.) It turns out that there wa s a religious ceremony that the police were banning this particular year for some reason, so there was a bit of tension. And since Varanasi isn’t a city that is lit up much at night, there wasn’t much to see, so I was glad to just get to my room and call it a day.
Waking early on Tuesday morning, I caught the sunrise over the Ganges, then wandered up and down the ghats for an hour or so. This really was an interesting experience as it seems the entire city comes to bathe in the river, and everyone seems pretty happy. There are plenty of boat tours, too, which I skipped, as I just wanted to take a walk.
After an hour or so of wandering the riverside, I went back to the Alka, had breakfast, and enjoyed my remaining few hours just watching the sun rise higher before heading to the train station for the unofficial (though still unbeknownst to me) end of this trip to India.
In hindsight, this was a terrific two weeks. Though I enjoyed Uttar Pradesh, I wouldn’t go out of my way to return here – unless going to different parts of the state, and I would certainly include a trip to Agra in that – but Rajasthan…I would gladly go back to anytime. However, India has a lot to offer, and I’m not sure if I’ll return here or go to different parts of the country. Anything is possible…
Queens Boulevard, Elmhurst, Queens, NYC
After one passes westward from the congested environs of the Queens Center Mall, the commercial lifeline of the subway corridor veers to the north and the Boulevard suddenly becomes nearly desolate, with auto shops, cheap motels, and abandoned stores like this...
February 13, 2011
"Let's walk to Brooklyn"
-turned into a daylong, wandering, 13-mile trek through Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. We set out at about 2 pm and, after many little food and drink stops here and there, arrived to some friends at Culturefix (http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=72082456%40N00&q=culturefix&m=text) around 10:30.
Passing through congested and dusty towns meant that apart from dodging thousands of motor scooters, we were also sometimes following slow, lumbering lorries, which were difficult to overtake on crowded and narrow streets within the congested town limits. Here is one such situation. Although this was not an ultra long semi, it still was a large and heavy lorry lumbering it's way just ahead of us. After staring at the dull silver back of this lumbering lorry, I tried to divert my attention to the shops by the roadside and just managed to capture these lovely floral bouquets on display and ready to go. I could unfortunately not get a better picture under the circumstances. (Ha Long Bay, Vietnam, Nov. 2016)
Due to car parking restrictions in the congested city areas, our car had been parked some distance away from the Shanghai French Concession, so that meant a good ten minutes walk back to where it was parked. On the way we crossed this rather imposing building with Roman style pillars. I do not recall what my guide said about it, nor do I seem to have taken notes about it, but I think this is a side view of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Upon reflection, I think that the golden bull in the foreground (I'm talking about that statue) probably made it obvious as to what that building is all about, which is probably why I did not take notes about it. I am open to being corrected, in case any of you knows otherwise. (Shanghai, China, May 2017)
Apena sleep
Medical conditions. Congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and Parkinson’s disease are some of the conditions that may increase the risk of obstructive sleep apnea. Polycystic ovary syndrome, hormonal disorders, prior stroke and chronic lung diseases such as asthma also can increase risk.
Central sleep apnea
Risk factors for this form of sleep apnea include:
Being older. Middle-aged and older people have a higher risk of central sleep apnea.
Being male. Central sleep apnea is more common in men than it is in women.
Heart disorders. Having congestive heart failure increases the risk.
Using narcotic pain medications. Opioid medications, especially long-acting ones such as methadone, increase the risk of central sleep apnea.
Stroke. Having had a stroke increases your risk of central sleep apnea or treatment-emergent central sleep apnea.
Complications
Sleep apnea is a serious medical condition. Complications can include:
Daytime fatigue. The repeated awakenings associated with sleep apnea make normal, restorative sleep impossible, making severe daytime drowsiness, fatigue and irritability likely.
You might have difficulty concentrating and find yourself falling asleep at work, while watching TV or even when driving. People with sleep apnea have an increased risk of motor vehicle and workplace accidents.
You might also feel quick-tempered, moody or depressed. Children and adolescents with sleep apnea might perform poorly in school or have behavior problems.
High blood pressure or heart problems. Sudden drops in blood oxygen levels that occur during sleep apnea increase blood pressure and strain the cardiovascular system. Having obstructive sleep apnea increases your risk of high blood pressure (hypertension).
Obstructive sleep apnea might also increase your risk of recurrent heart attack, stroke and abnormal heartbeats, such as atrial fibrillation. If you have heart disease, multiple episodes of low blood oxygen (hypoxia or hypoxemia) can lead to sudden death from an irregular heartbeat.
Type 2 diabetes. Having sleep apnea increases your risk of developing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
Metabolic syndrome. This disorder, which includes high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol levels, high blood sugar and an increased waist circumference, is linked to a higher risk of heart disease.
Complications with medications and surgery. Obstructive sleep apnea is also a concern with certain medications and general anesthesia. People with sleep apnea might be more likely to have complications after major surgery because they’re prone to breathing problems, especially when sedated and lying on their backs.
Before you have surgery, tell your doctor about your sleep apnea and how it’s being treated.
Liver problems. People with sleep apnea are more likely to have abnormal results on liver function tests, and their livers are more likely to show signs of scarring (nonalcoholic fatty liver disease).
Sleep-deprived partners. Loud snoring can keep anyone who sleeps near you from getting good rest. It’s not uncommon for a partner to have to go to another room, or even to another floor of the house, to be able to sleep.
A typical congested street corner in Pattaya. The pickup truck with the "camper top" just below the Manhattan Cafe sign is a "Baht Taxi" - these run in large loops around town and you pay 10 Baht (about 30 cents) when you get off.
You take your life in your own hands if you chose to drive in this traffic - someone sticking the nose of their vehicle in front of yours immediately gives them the right of way. Can be absolute mayhem - not recommended for the faint of heart!
This is Naples. It is the craziest most congested city I had ever seen. There's never a dull moment here. Walk out of the train station and you are confronted with the most chaotic traffic in Italy. Cars, buses, and pedestrians assert themselves and it's almost always the pedestrians who get the right-of-way. You're almost expected to walk in front of the cars to cross, no matter how fast or how close they appear. If you don't proceed, the Italian drivers yell at you for psyching them out and hesitating, so go! I tried to get in the flow of things, but most of the time I walked in the shadow of the experienced Neapolitans. Somehow it all works. These people are so used to urban chaos, they've learned to deal with it.
During my one night in Naples, I went to a famous pizzeria called da Michele (Michael's) and had the spongiest simplest margherita pizza and, as usual, enjoyed gelato to my heart's content at the closest gelateria. Why didn't I take more photos of this place? This is the only one; a perfect excuse to go back.
Early the next day, I took a train to Rome. I talked with an elderly Italian doctor from Florence on the train, me in elementary Italian, him with his better English. He wanted to talk about the war and was definitely anti-war, if not anti-US foreign policy. He reminded me of a fat Ebenezer Scrooge. The train ride took two hours and as soon as I caught sight of aqueduct ruins out in the Lazio countryside I knew that I was heading towards ROME! Where else would they lead to?
The yard was congested with House Finches all day. I’m starting to think they have nested in the monkey tree at the Englishman River estuary in Parksville, BC, Canada
Paddington, London
Although not far from congested roads and the commuters streaming out of Paddington Station, Little Venice is an oasis of peace and tranquillity. It's thought to have been so-named by the poet, Robert Browning.
Dozens of narrowboats, day trip boats and water cafés line this calm stretch where the Grand Union Canal meets the Regent's Canal. The famous Little Venice mansions provide a stunning backdrop. And the triangular pool, complete with willow tree, is home to several floating businesses such as the Waterside Cafe, London Waterbus, a floating art gallery and a hotel boat.
Feeling congested today. What better way to spend the time, than under a quilt-in-progress, learning how to finish the binding?
As viewed from a bridge, the streets of Bangkok are congested and noisy. Motorbikes squeeze into any available spaces between cars.
Stagecoach ADL E300 27682 works the 7 to the University outside North Gate Bus Station when not congested. - Dec. 30 2014.
Noon today at the corner of Rideau and Dalhousie in Ottawa. This corner is normally very congested with traffic.
Built 1961-66. Designed by Richard Seifert and Partners for the developer Harry Hyams; leading design partner George Marsh
St Giles's Circus, one of London's most congested intersections by the 1950s, was earmarked for redevelopment by the London County Council (LCC) for the creation of a gyratory system. In March 1957, Hubert Bennett, the new LCC Chief Architect, produced a design for an 18-storey building, with nine and eleven-storey blocks to the east to rehouse the people living on the site. Legal disputes beween the LCC and landowners over compensation were circumvented by Harry Hyams' Oldham Estates Co, which purchased the land as a speculative undertaking whereby the LCC would receive the land required for road widening in exchange for a higher development than would normally allowed under the LCC's 'plot ratio' regulations. Hyams engaged Richard Seifert and Partners as his architects. Seifert's leading design partner was George Marsh, who had previously worked for Burnet, Tait and Partners. In November 1959 an application for a 29-storey office block, with an 8-storey block of shops and flats, linked by a bridge over a gyratory, received outline planning permission from Camden Council, and designs for a 31-storey curtain-wall tower with a lozenge-shaped plan, closely resembling the Pirelli Tower, Milan (1955-60 by Gio Ponti, Pier Luigi Nervi and others), were drawn up. Further modifications were required due to the LCC's demand for wider roads, and Seifert negotiated a reduction in the tower's footprint in return for two more storeys, plus an extra storey on the link; the lower block was subsequently widened. Work began on the lower block in 1961. A revised application for the tower received planning permission in January 1963, and the scheme was completed in 1966. The pond and fountains in the open area to the front of the tower, designed by the German émigré artist Jupp Dernbach-Mayen (1908-1990) were removed in 2009 as part of the Crossrail development.
Centre Point received limited but mainly enthusiastic reception. The design of the tower, which shows a deliberate move from the smooth regularity of International Modernism towards a more inventive, sculptural approach with strong contrasts between light and shade, was admired at the time and since for its confidence and originality. It rapidly becoming a symbol of the sixties: Ernö Goldfinger dubbed it 'London's first pop art skyscraper while Building (24 May 1968) enthused that 'like the Beatles and Mary Quant, this building expresses the supreme confidence of sheer professionalism... more than any other building Centre Point made London swing, it backed Britain, a product of real team work which must figure as an invisible export.' By 1966 however the market was saturated with new offices and Hyams, who had assigned the freehold to the LCC in return for a 150-year lease at low rent, chose to hold on to his portfolio until he could get a better price. Centre Point, including all the flats, thus gained notoriety for standing empty for many years at a time of housing shortage. It was not unique in this respect, but it was the most prominent empty high-rise and came to symbolise 1960s speculative greed. It has been more fully occupied since 1987 when it was sold and refurbished. In 2000 the area at the base of the tower was adapted to create a new entrance hall.
[Historic England]
It looks empty back here because I shot these daily shots when no one was around. Actually, it was quite congested most of the day.
Viewing the 13th century chapter house can be a little chaotic owing to the fact the building now serves as the cathedral's / college's gift shop with a display of items from the treasury at the centre. It is thus usually a somewhat congested space.
Officially known as Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford's diocesan church is unique in many ways and a bit of an anomaly amongst English cathedrals, being not only one of the very smallest of the older foundations but also the only cathedral anywhere to also serve as a college chapel (a strange and not entirely easy marriage of roles to the uninitiated visitor as this feels more a part of Christ Church College than the mother church of Oxfordshire Diocese).
Its history is even more varied, having originally been founded as the monastic church of St Frideswide, a community that ended its days prematurely ahead of the Dissolution when Cardinal Wolsey suppressed it in order to implement his plans to turn the site into his newly founded Christ's College. The western half of the nave was demolished as work began on the college quadrangle in its place and the truncated remainder would have followed had the founder's original vision of a new chapel been realised. In the end Henry VIII continued work on the college after Wolsey's demise and it was refounded as Christ Church, retaining St Frideswide's monastic church as the chapel. He also raised Oxford to the seat of a diocese in 1542, initially raising the newly dissolved Osney Abbey (to the west of the city) to the rank of cathedral but only two years later in 1544 that role was transferred to Christ Church and St Frideswide's / Christ Church College Chapel has served the role of Oxford's cathedral ever since. Osney was abandoned and one of the city's grandest buildings (and perhaps a more suitable cathedral in many ways) has sadly has all but vanished today.
Entering the cathedral for the first time can be a slightly bewildering experience, it is unlike any other cathedral in the country in that the exterior of the building is really quite elusive and inaccessible for the most part being surrounded by private areas of the college complex. There is no west facade, this was demolished to build the vast quadrangle through which it is now entered, thus one walks into the east side of the college quad with little sense that one is about to emerge inside a small cathedral. The other main route for visitors sends them via the former monastic cloister on the south side, and this is the only area where the public gets to see the external appearance of the cathedral in any detail, otherwise only the 13th century central tower (rising from a Norman base) with its short spire asserts itself above the masses of the college's various wings and courtyards.
Inside it is clear that this is still largely a cruciform late Norman church, the short nave and choir beyond the crossing both defined by round Romanesque arches of c1180, though here with a surprising twist, with a double row of inner and outer arches into the aisles, one superimposed over the other at different heights, a quite eccentric design. The outstanding architectural feature here however is the choir vault, a stunning early fan vault uniquely designed with lace-like ribs in stellar formation and hanging pendants, the visual climax of the interior. The east wall with its rose window was redesigned in the Victorian restoration by George Gilbert Scott to replace a large window (a later insertion) that had filled the entire space.
The most interesting area of the cathedral is the collection of chapels that fill the north east corner, the largest being known as the 'Latin Chapel' and containing medieval tombs including the reconstructed base of the former shrine of St Frideswide. There is much 14th century glass in this chapel too, although the very finest ancient glass here is in the chapel off the south transept where the traceries are filled with some of the most beautiful and richly coloured pieces of medieval glass that have survived.
The post medieval glass here however is equally significant and includes a delightful enamel-painted window by the Van Linge brothers, sadly the only complete window of a sequence installed in the early 17th century to have survived the turbulence of the Civil War. Better known is the sequence of Pre-Raphaelite windows designed by Sir Edward Burne Jones, most in his familiarly graceful style but the earliest (the St Frideswide Window) is quite different and full of rich glowing colour.
Exploring the cathedral doesn't take as long as most of its kind owing to the small scale of the building, but a visit isn't complete without taking in the small cloister and the impressive rectangular chapter house on the south side, a vaulted room of c1300 that has notable carvings and surviving medieval paintings in medallions on the vault.
Christ Church Cathedral is a rewarding place to visit, but it can be a little frustrating and less relaxing than most owing to the constant flow of visitors in a relatively small space. Entry to the college isn't cheap and is the only way for non-residents to visit as one cannot view the cathedral in isolation (visitors currently have to follow a pre-set route around the college dining hall before reaching the church). It does make me wonder how this building manages to function as a diocesan church, but whatever the complications it never fails to deliver with its beautiful architecture and stunning glass.
Worth the telephone wires - I just read more on these: "... Mathews established a new housing paradigm that was a welcome departure from the congested tenements of the Lower East Side. The three story apartment buildings were simple, sturdy, and relatively cheap to construct, and therefore became the standard for subsequent tenement house construction. Exhibited at the 1915 Panama Pacific Fair in San Francisco, the Mathews Model Flats were heralded as an exceptional achievement.
In keeping with the 1905 fire code for this part of Queens, these attached row buildings were composed of load-bearing masonry walls. Though every block appears the same at first glance, each row was artfully designed with its own intricate corbelling pattern made from variations of light and dark yellow brick from the Kreischer Brick Manufacturing Company in Staten Island. In another attempt to distinguish one block from another, the houses boast a variety of elaborate Romanesque or Renaissance Revival details.
Over 1,000 Mathews Model Flats were constructed between 1900 and 1925. The New York Times reported that the apartment houses, “if placed side by side, would make a line over four miles long.” In December 2008, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on the proposed designation of the Ridgewood North Historic District which is composed of the earliest examples of Mathews Model Flats." www.mas.org/the-mathews-model-flats-a-place-that-matters/
the traffic was congested so I wasted my time at Starbucks Kota Raya and try to finish my Luigi Pirandello's One, No One & One Hundred Thousand…what a masterpiece!