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THE BLOGGY BIT...

Having had this page as a 'guestbook' for eighteen months and not doing anything with it, the least I could do is promote this page to 'BLOG' status.











Friday 29th February 23:38

Apparently it's tradition that women propose to men every leap year on this day... nothing has happened as yet!
Today has been a day of rest and it has given me the time to sort out a few things, including this blog. It has also meant that I've been able to look up a band called 'Elbow' that featured on Jonathan Ross last Friday. Below you will find both a link to their website along with a YouTube link to the video for their up-and-coming release, 'Grounds For Divorce'.

elbow

Thursday 28th February 16:00

It's Thursday evening already. Where has this week gone? Since arriving home at 4 o'clock, we've unpacked and have spent considerable time looking through the images that we took whilst we've been away.

Wednesday 27th February 14:30

I always find it quite baffling as to how quickly time passes. No sooner had we arrived at my parents, we were on our way back. We had two excellent days with them, both in Liverpool and in York and now it was time to meet up with some of the members from the PhotoPortal forum at the NEC in Birmingham. Around the end of February every year, FOCUS ON IMAGING is held at the NEC and is Europe's biggest annual imaging show, covering every need from image capture through to output and beyond. More can be found out about the exhibition by clicking the graphic below.

focus on imaging

Tuesday 26th February 17:27

A very unusual thing happened today... on the way back from York, I'd asked my parents whether 'The Golf Balls' were on the route back. My Dad said that if I took the A59 out of York towards Harrogate, I'd see them. This is what we did. We arrived there and tried to find a suitable spot to take photographs of them... no sooner had we pulled into a lay-by and taken shots, two Police Land Rovers, lights flashing, pulled up. They were the armed response team, I kid you not. Having said that though, although they wanted to know why we were taking shots, they were firm but friendly. I had to give them my name and address and then they did a vehicle check before we were allowed to move on. It was all rather exciting!

It turned out that by law they could have stopped us taking shots due to the Official Secrets Act and I have since found out that RAF Menwith Hill is the largest electronic monitoring station in the world, so the Police had every reason to be suspicious!

raf menwith hill

Monday 25th February 12:31

Decided to take Tanya to Liverpool for she hadn't seen the city before. It had changed an awful lot since I was last there! It seemed quite apt that we should visit since it's the European Capital of Culture this year. What is unfortunate though, is the fact that very little of it seems to be complete... the skyline is inundated with cranes and there appears to be building of every nature going on in just about every part of the city. Nevertheless, there were still a good deal of photographic opportunities - see the North West Gallery soon.

city of culture

Just before we had our evening meal, we met up with JohnB from the PhotoPortal forum, along with his wife at the Royal Oak in Westhoughton - it was great to meet them both and we look forward to seeing them again. Later on that night we had planned to go to Chorley Photographic Society so that I could catch up with some of the members who I had not seen in more than two years. I was astounded to hear that membership had risen to 74, mainly due to the advent of the digital camera.

Sunday 24th February 10:45

Today, Tanya and I headed 'Oop North' to spend a bit of time with my parents. We'd agreed that Tanya drive the first section and I the second. Warwick services on the M40 is the nearest point to halfway where we could swap over. All in all, we managed to do the 270 mile journey in about 4 hours. We were going to stop off at Didcot Power Station but the weather wasn't that fantastic so it was put on hold for the time-being.

I'd also been up half the night and a good part of the morning designing a logo... here's an idea of what it will look like - I shan't reveal it all as yet for I'm not totally happy with it.

the square

Saturday 23rd February 18:24

Well, I can honestly say that it's about the first time today that I've started to feel human again. I didn't drink copious amounts of alcohol but nevertheless I have felt rough all day. I didn't surface until around mid-day and even then I wasn't fit for much! At around 3 o'clock Tanya and I decided that a trip to our local drive-thru Burger King was on the cards. Apart from catch up on a few television programmes, we really haven't done anything today!

burger king

Friday 22nd February 19:00

Having had a busy day work-wise, it was great knowing that we'd be going out tonight. We went on Tanya's (albeit belated) Christmas do. It had been postponed twice due to unforeseen circumstances and it was definitely happening this time!

Dave, Tanya's boss, had booked us into The Bull's Head in Fishbourne, not far short of 10 miles from where we live, for a beer and skittles night and it was a fantastic night out. There was a choice of food... and plenty of it to... and it was a case of 'help yourself'... either Lamb Curry or Sweet and Sour Chicken with either jacket potato or rice... or a mixture of everything if you so wished. I have to say that the food was excellent.

He also paid for our taxi both there and back and put £400 behind the bar for everyone to use. He's a one-in-a-million boss and there should be more of them around in my opinion. He'd spent his earlier working life being treated like dirt and he said that he had no intentions of doing the same to his workforce.

Thursday 21st February 23:55

Bolton Wanderers made history tonight by beating Atlético Madrid (on aggregate) by 0-1 and have now gone through to the final 16 in Europe. It's amazing since they're having one of the most appalling seasons in years!

atlético madrid

Wednesday 20th February 07:53

Whilst doing some research via Google images for logos, I stumbled upon this and did find it incredibly amusing!

google

As usual, Tanya and I sat down to another episode of 'Grand Designs'. Once again, it was a stunning property, built within the heart of Bath and was engineered by three separate companies, two of which were based in Germany. The third company was Bath Stone Company, literally two miles down the road from where their property was being built and yet even by the time the building had reached completion and the programme filmed (both of which were sometime this month), the company within spitting distance had failed them miserably. Just proves how efficient companies and workers are on the continent compared to local ones!

Tuesday 19th February 10:15

It's been quite a while since I had anything seriously exciting to report about with regards to successes within photography. Today however, is an exception. I received an email from Black Dog Publishing in London and a particular writer, Paul Antick, is in the middle of preparing a book entitled, 'Auschwitz: who goes there?' and I have been asked to submit five images for the publication. More to follow with regards to this story.

Please click the image below to see the whole of my Auschwitz-Birkenau gallery.

auschwitz

Monday 18th February 21:00

Tonight brought us the third episode of the five-part wildlife documentary, 'Life in Cold Blood' by Sir David Attenborough. It's a stunning series and may well be his last major series - here's hoping it won't be and that there will be many more to come.
As the two previous Mondays, click on the image below to view the latest episode.

life in cold blood

Sunday 17th February 21:33

Spent virtually all day cleaning my new car, not that it was particularly dirty, I hasten to add! I valeted the whole of the interior and washed the outside as well (I also ended up cleaning Tanya's!)
It just so happened that I managed to finish everything just in time to watch the FA Cup clash between Preston North End and Portsmouth which was fought out at Deepdale. As much as I wanted Pompey to win, I cannot help but feel that Preston were completely robbed with a 93rd own goal winner, particularly as Preston had been by far the stronger team in the second half. They were unfortunate enough to have a penalty and a couple of good strikes saved by David James.

preston v pompey

Saturday 16th February 16:22

Having scoured the Portsmouth area in almost its entirety for a car, we had almost given up until we had a last-ditch attempt at going to view one over in Littlehampton (approximately 25 miles away). I am now the proud owner of this car... more to follow. I can finally get rid of my old Vauxhall Cavalier 1.7TD - hated it from the moment I bought it but won't go into why I bought it.

Friday 15th February 19:24

Had an incredibly busy day at work, particularly designing a tender for Ginsters. I shan't include the actual tender booklet for that is between work and their client. So, for now, here's their logo, click on it and have a look at their great site.

Ginsters

I ended up working until nearly 7 o'clock and managed to catch the train from Petersfield to Rowlands Castle, with Tanya picking me up at the other end.

Had our usual viewing of 'QI', BBC2, 10pm. Incredibly funny in places and Anneka Rice made her first appearance... not sure why though... sorry Anneka.

Thursday 14th February 13:43

Whilst having my lunch at work today, I received a 'phone call from Tanya to thank me for the flowers that I had sent her to work. I shall leave Tanya to take the superb shots of them but I thought I'd take a quick one for posterity's sake...

valentines

Also caught up on last night's 'Grand Designs', since we missed it last night. It was a fantastic project with a couple who lived in Scotland and seemed to have an indispensable amount of cash to play with.

Wednesday 13th February 20:04

Had a meeting with a potential client over in Gosport tonight... fingers crossed that we will be quoting the right price!

Tuesday 12th February 19:15

Opted against going to Camera Club tonight so that I could concentrate on several items of work. Thoroughly depressing on the way to work today, Petersfield was shrouded in quite thick fog which looked amazing as we descended at the other side of Butser Hill.

Monday 11th February 21:00

Having had a very busy day indeed, it was very refreshing to sit down and watch the second installment of 'Life in Cold Blood'.
If you happened to miss it, you can click on the image below and watch it via the BBC iPlayer.

BBC iPlayer

Sunday 10th February 22:41

Woke up very early again, although we didn't venture out until late morning. We went to Langstone Harbour, parked at The Ship Inn and had a walk around the surrounding area. The weather was incredible, much too warm for mid-February! It seemed that everyone else was making the most of the day. Took this close-up of a horse's eye along the way...

horse's eye

Saturday 9th February 08:19

Another early rise for us both, in the hope that there may have been the beautiful early-morning mist that we had witnessed yesterday on the way to work. Unfortunately, there wasn't a mist but there was a fantastic covering of ground frost, along with some fantastic early-morning light.

feeling the cold

We made the most of it and had a lovely walk around Rowlands Castle and along a bridleway that cuts past Rowlands Hill Farm and on to Whichers Gate Lane which is at the other side of the village. We then took another bridleway path which led back into the village centre. Once there, we had an English Breakfast at Sienna's In-house Bistro which is part of The Fountain Inn.

three

Friday 8th February 18:03

Got home from a very busy day at work so it was time to have a chippy tea.

I don't know about anyone else but as I have gradually got older, I've noticed that certain foods don't particularly agree with me. Unfortunately, chips and greasy food in general, including pastries, have an adverse affect on me - nevertheless, I still enjoy them, regardless of how ill they make me feel after! There are two great chippys within 3 miles of us, Whistlers in Westbourne and Mother Kelly's in Emsworth.

Thursday 7th February 21:39

Had an immensely busy day at work... productive too... I managed to design this logo for a local nursery...

noah's ark

Wednesday 6th February 23:15

It was England's first time out under the management of Fabio Capello at Wembley Stadium. They won 2-1 with goals by Jenas (40) and Wright-Phillips (62). I've got to say though, I lost interest quite quickly and found Grand Designs over on Channel 4 far more entertaining!

Tuesday 5th February 20:18

It was time to hear the judge's views at Havant Camera Club... would I gain my third successive 10? The answer is yes, although having received a 7/10 for my Whichers Gate Farm shot, which just happens to be my Photo of the Month, I very much doubted that I'd score a 10/10 with my Nailbrush image. How wrong I was!

During the judging, the whole area had a power cut, which meant that the judge ended up having to score the set subject prints under the emergency lighting within the kitchen of the building where we meet. I have never encountered such a surreal night at Camera Club!

Monday 4th February 21:00

Ever since being a child, I have been fascinated with wildlife and the Godfather of science and nature programmes has to be Sir David Attenborough. He's now in his 80s and yet he has the same enthusiasm about his subject as I did as a child. He's a remarkable man and we're lucky enough to be given the final chapter of 'Life on Earth' with his new programme, 'Life in Cold Blood' which is a five-part series being shown at 9pm on Monday.

The first part can be viewed via BBC iPlayer by clicking on the image below.

life in cold blood

Sunday 3rd February 22:46

It's not been particularly pleasant, weather-wise, today. Luckily we made the most of it yesterday. Today has been bitterly cold and very windy so we've had a day in. I've spent most of the day working and then making important updates to this website. This is one of the jobs I've been working on, a redesign of a logo... let's hope it's what they wanted...

chives

Saturday 2nd February 16:15

Had a fun-packed day today... we got up and were out of the house by 07:45 in the hope to capture some frosty shots around Petersfield and its neighbouring areas. We both took a lot of photos (of which I still need to sort through) so keep an eye out in the recent additions section.

Having spent about four or five hours exploring different villages, we drove to Emsworth to do our grocery shopping and then stopped off at the Driftwood café for a quick coffee.

After we had both seen a trailer for 'Cloverfield', we decided to book tickets and go to the 16:15 viewing. I have written a short review of it: The storyline is nothing new (strange alien being lands on Earth and causes havoc), neither is the documentary-type filming (similar to Blair Witch or Evil Dead), nor is the ending (yes, there will definitely be a sequel)... BUT... have all three styles been combined before? I can't think that they have. I thought this was a brilliant film, even with its faults. Can't wait for the sequel!

cloverfield

Friday 1st February 2008 07:25

It's February already which meant that it was time for AP's 'First View'... on the casting couch this morning was our good old friend, Tim Id. He's a very cute teddy that we've adopted... okay we're both in our 40s but who cares?!?!

tim id

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