Kate O’Neill

@katefoneill

Former librarian, still disputatious, still banging on about open research. Obsessive sports watcher and inveterate wanderer.

549 Siguiendo906 Seguidores410 Publicaciones

Bluesky

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Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jul 10

Back atcha

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jul 3

And finally Bosnia and Herzegovina. No photos of the many genocide museums and memorials, but these waterfalls were a calming place to reflect on all the things I’d learned about their recent history through travelling through the Balkans. Yes, I knew about the conflicts but not as much as I should

Small waterfalls cascading over rocks. There are trees surrounding the waterfalls.

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jul 3

Croatia! I do not recommend going to the Balkans in a heatwave. This chap is meant to be Bishop Gregory but I will fight anyone who doesn’t accept this is clearly Mustrum Ridcully.

A statue of a man in robes, holding a large book. He is raising a finger in the air like he is going to cast a spell

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jul 3

A jaunt to Portugal with the girl was next. She has actual photography talent, so this is one of her pictures.

A black and white shot of a path between a Roman aqueduct and stone houses

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jul 3

On to Kosovo. A fascinating country, where they love Tony Blair very much indeed.

A road sign where the street name is “Toni Bleri”

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jul 3

Back to Europe, and Albania was next. And I climbed a mountain! Or at least a very large hill.

A Mountain View, with blue skies, pine trees and the mountains in the distance are snow capped

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jul 3

Time for a bigger trip, so I popped myself off to Guatemala. Possibly my favourite country I visited during this middle aged middle class gap year. This is Maximón, a Mayan deity, and he likes offerings of cigarettes and booze. My kind of guy.

An effigy of a man, wearing a hat and a Mayan top. There is a cigarette in his mouth and candles in front of the shrine

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jul 3

After Africa I took a little bit of time to get a job but then was ready for a lads trip. So we went to Cyprus for my birthday. This is my friend Alan, believing jumping from rock to rock makes him a daredevil. It does not.

A short tubby middle aged man is jumping over a small gap between two rocks. He has his hands in the air like he is performing a death defying leap, even though the gap is 30cm at most.

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jul 3

And the final country in Africa was Zambia. It’s a big argument as to which side of the border is better for seeing Victoria Falls, but I think for me it was the Zambian side

A large waterfall (massive, really) cascading down. The sky is blue with clouds and there are trees in the foreground

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jul 3

Over the border to Zimbabwe, and a sunset cruise on the Zambezi was something special

A sunset over a wide river. The sun is orange and low in the sky

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jul 3

Botswana was next. And this photo is not zoomed in, elephants really do get quite up close and personal

An elephant, very close to the camera. You can see her eyelashes

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jul 3

Namibia! I adored Namibia and strongly recommend everyone go. This was in the Namib desert

A dead tree in the desert. The sand is ripples from the wind and dunes are visible in the background

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jul 3

Then a jaunt to South Africa. I’ve always loved the Cape of Good Hope and fortunately this visit was on a sunny day

A blue sky, darker blue sea with a turquoise part just at the shore. The photo is taken from high on the headland, showing the edge of the continent

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jul 3

Sri Lanka was first, and seeing hundreds of Buddha statues at the Dambulla caves was amazing

A large gold statue of Buddha in seated pose, with ornate wall paintings on the cave walls surrounding him

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jun 3

Good grief, Albania is beautiful

A fast flowing clear blue river flowing over large rocks. There are trees lining the river banks.

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jun 2

Today I went to an archaeological site in Kosovo and met a chap who had studied at Sheffield Uni. We had a delightful chat about our feelings over the dept of archaeology being closed and now he is my new best friend

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· May 18

Sunrise over Tikal. Also known as Yavin 5 where the rebel alliance plotted their attack on the Death Star.

The sun coming over the horizon in an orange sky. The view is from above the rainforest canopy

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· May 13

Good morning from Lake Atitlán

Clear blue skies, a very blue lake and two volcanoes on the far side of the lake

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Mar 18

Sunset over the Okavango river. This part of the world really does have the best sunrises and sunsets.

A darkening sky with hints of orange at the bottom over a wide, still river. There are dark branches in the top right foreground.

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Mar 3

A very exciting place in the middle of nowhere

A photo of me, wearing green trousers and a grey vest top, in front of a large sign saying ‘Tropical of Capricorn’. It is in the desert and there are no other people or cars in sight.

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Feb 27

Don’t get too jealous, our truck got stuck in the desert yesterday for over 6 hours and my mate got stung by a scorpion. It’s not all glamour!

A photo of a largeish truck taken from the back. It is stuck in sand and you can’t see its wheels. There is a cloudless bright blue sky and several men standing around the truck looking confused as to what to do.

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Feb 26

Sunrise over the Orange river. The middle aged, middle class gap year is going well.

A sunrise of orange and red is low on the horizon, fading into a pale blue sky over a wide river. There are dark trees and reeds in the foreground

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Feb 24

Wine tasting in South Africa. I would very much like to win the lottery so this could be my life for the remainder of my time on this planet.

A view of a vineyard with a clear blue sky and mountains in the background

A young man holding a bottle of wine with 6 other bottles in front of him

6 bottles of wine - a pink fizzy, a red, a vermouth, a rose, another red and a white

A glass of red wine being held up with blurry vineyard in the background

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Feb 22

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jan 29

I failed to see a sign in time. This resulted in a monkey deciding he wanted to move in, me having to be very firm (I genuinely pointed at him and said ‘no you don’t, Sonny Jim’) and him then retreating to the balcony and sulking. I now think I can add Monkey Wrangling to my CV.

A small sign on a glass door of a monkey in a yellow diamond with a small red padlock in the top left of the sign.

A small monkey on the edge of my balcony, looking at me quite reproachfully

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jan 21

I am in Sri Lanka and have bumped into a chum from a previous holiday. It’s a small world

A selfie of me in a dark top smiling, with a man in his late 60s wearing glasses

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Jan 17

Little Kate angry at her lack of skips and being made to wear a dress

A picture of me aged about 3, wearing a pink dress and white shoes and socks. I have short curls and am looking very unhappy.

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Dec 5

What the friggity frig is Yacht Rock when it’s at home?

A screenshot from Spotify wrapped showing my top 5 genres listened to as: 1 yacht rock, 2 singer-songwriter, 3 indie rock, 4 new wave and 5 indie

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Oct 24

Tauranga. This is where my brother used to live, so it’s very bitter sweet being here. I can see why he loved it so much though, it’s just beautiful

A view of the harbour in Tauranga, with hill in the background

Kate O’Neill@katefoneill· Oct 23

Cricket at Eden Park tonight. Bit different to the tiny (yet gorgeous) Hagley Oval…