In the US - being Muslim ain't going to fly

This makes me angry...

The article from Tripso, "What really happend to the Muslim passengers who were kicked off the plane?"

This relates to a US airline. Working in the "global" airline industry I am of course acutely aware of passenger safety, 911 and what has happened since and the need for safety.

However, everyone has a right to fly. But in the US it would seem that this is not the case.

The story goes as such - 9 people (Muslims) were asked to leave a plane in Florida. So far, perhaps, we might say that this is reasonable - Passengers has suspicions and the captain agreed with the air marshals and so they were marched off the plane.

Now my patience ends. Read on if you can believe what happened;

These innocent people (and let me remind you, innocent) people waited patiently for the FBI, and let me say again the FBI???! Anyway, after several hours the FBI said they were OK to fly and removed any doubt that they were innocent.

And AirTran said no, they could not fly! AMAZING.

Words fail me. Honestly, no evidence (other than a family wanting to go on vacation) and a load of ignorant, racist passengers. How can they get away with this you ask? Welcome to the US airline industry. I hope this is an isolated case but I have a feeling it may well not be.

I hope that the airline I work for and am proud to work for would always treat its customers with the upmost respect with of course, safety in mind. Caz and I plan on flying through the US later this year - It won't be on AirTran thats for sure.

Safety of passengers has to be every airlines top priority, but when people are innocent of any crime or suspicion they should be allowed to fly regardless of religion, colour or anything else.

Read the full story here

‘I know that half of my advertising money is wasted

… I just don’t know which half’

Very very good posting from a guy called Joe Fry - This kid might turn out quite well.

Read more here

2008 in Photos

2008 has been a good year for me and Caz. We have been on our adventures (as usual) traveling to San Francisco, Macau, Shanghai, Japan (on the bullet train!) and of course the Olympics in Beijing something that blew me away and I will remember for a long time.

2008 also involved a very tough (both in a physcial and emotional sense) to Sichuan, photographing the earth quake zone, people and some of the dogs that have survived this tragic event.

On the dog front, Padstow and Ivy were joined by a new one called "Mini" who was only 1 kilo when we brought her home. I published a second book for the rescue charity.

On family matters, we saw just about everyone in Hong Kong and back in London Fi and B asked me to be godfather to Finn which I was so very proud to accept.

Yes, all in 2008 has been a good year. 2009 is shaping up to be a tough year with the financial crisis that we have all seen but I can only hope that 2009 brings health and some travel if we are lucky. We are planning trips planned to Vietnam, Bali & Longwo, Osaka, Sapporo (Japan) NYC and Las Vegas... I can only dream of where this adventure will take me next.

Wishing you a good 2009 - To see the 2008 photos click here

ali & Caz

New designs are on the way

My main web site has been worked and re-worked throughout most of 2008, and to be honest I am tired of how many times I have said, "its live," only to test it, find an issue or decide that something needed to be changed.

Well, happily the site is finished and you can see the new design here: alibullock.com

The next step has been to re-work (but not redesign) animalsinphotos.com - I have simplified and tidied up the site and all in all I think this site will do really well in 2009 as we get this company up and running.

And, of course as you are reading this blog - alibullock.com/blog you will notice that this site/blog has been redesigned as well.

All in all the idea is to gain some consistency over all the sites I work on. You will see the same logo (Padstow's head) across everything that I work on inluding my presence on twitter and flickr.

On the day I become a god father

Well it seems that everyone has to grow up at some point. Some loose it, some never had it, some are lucky, many don't know what a good life they have...

As I'm about to become a god father I wonder what advice I would give Finn about my life, his life and the road that lies ahead of him... All I could come up with is this quote from Apple. Its something that i use everyday at Cathay Pacific (whether they like it or not!) in my design and photography and even in the decisions I make with Caz (and I'm fairly sure I drive her crazy at times...)

But there you go, I'm a god father thanks to Fi & B, still have some very good friends in London, 2 published books and 3 wonderful dogs in Hong Kong and a job at Cathay that I love and challenges me every day.

Most importantly is that I have Caz in my life.

So I guess I must be doing something right.


Finn, from your god father

alibullock.com { LIVE }

Yes, finally the new site is live and the design is done.

You can view the site here: www.alibullock.com

If I could get a photo this good everyday

Of course this means little if you haven't met "Mini Cooper," but damn she is a cute dog...

See her paws here

In the bean bag

Work on the blog and my other sites

I have almost finished work on my main site { alibullock.com } and work has been finished on my charity site { animalsinphotos.com } which also serves as my commercial site for pet photography.

Next up is work on re-working this blog. Its no longer going to be called "The Hong Kong Diaries," but rather just the slightly more simple "ali bullock." The reason for this is that I am planing to bring a lot more coordination between all of my web sites and web 2.0 resources and I want to get everything aligned.

So when I upload my latest photos { orangutans shots form Borneo } you will see the photos updated on alibullock.com, flickr.com/alibullock and Facebook. Supporting this I will also be updating this blog and Twittering about it as well.

The more web 2.0 sites that spring up the more the complexity so hence the need for me to align all these sites so that instead of spending more time at my Mac, I'm actually outside doing what I love.

ali