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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.











Thursday 31st January 21:16

Did very little tonight except catch up on last night's 'Grand Designs'. It has to be one of my favourite programmes on television... sometimes wish I had the money to design our own home and manage it from start to finish... may be one day!

grand designs live

Wednesday 30th January 21:59

Well, I'm sat here in wonderment having witnessed one of the most amazing free-kicks ever. Tanya and I watched Manchester United v Portsmouth tonight and sadly, the game was over after the first quarter of an hour - Ronaldo made sure of that!

Tuesday 29th January 22:21

Tonight was my chance to show a little of what I know in Photoshop to the members of Havant Camera Club. Both myself and Steve Frost were in charge of entertaining and I had chosen to do the first stint.

Having recently had my 'Toilet Roll' manipulation misinterpreted by a judge, I thought I'd show how I achieved the finished article. The evening went very well all in all, although I ended up rushing my part due to worrying about whether I had the time to talk through it all.

toilet roll

It was also hand-in night at the club and after a lot of deliberation, I chose to enter the following two shots which will be judged next Tuesday... here's hoping for a third straight '10' but I very much doubt it...

nail brush whichers gate farm

Monday 28th January 22:29

It was one of those days where you wished you weren't at work... nothing to do with me not liking work, more to do with the fact that there was an early morning mist. Whilst driving past Butser Hill, the mist had began to break due to the morning sun and it looked magical. Never mind, you can sometimes be at the right place at the right time, just without time!

Sunday 27th January 15:56

Had a trip to Emsworth today and walked around the Mill Pond and from there we went to Broadmarsh. Tanya wanted to try and capture more images of seagulls, so once again, I was Chief Breadthrower. Once the bread supply had ran out, I found the nearest litter bin to put the plastic bags in. As I was putting them in, I noticed the sunlight glinting off one of the many beads of condensation on some KFC packaging that had been thrown away. Quite an abstract shot on the whole!

condensed chicken

Saturday 26th January 11:11

Every day on the way into work, there's a particular view which, despite of the weather, really captures my imagination. The part of the view which makes it for me is a large tree (possibly Oak) that sits halfway up a grassy hillside. At the bottom of the hillside lies a farm, a large barn and other paraphernalia linked to farms. The farm is called Whichers Gate Farm and is found on the outskirts of Rowlands Castle, a village near to where we live.

whichers gate farm

Bad luck goes to the very brave Havant and Waterlooville squad for giving it absolutely everything they had against Liverpool at Anfield. To go 1-0 up within eight minutes and then manage to go 2-1 up just after half an hour is something else, particularly as 123 places separate the teams within the football league! Even though I wasn't born here, I can still feel a certain passion towards any local side, particularly an underdog. You did this town proud!

Friday 25th January 17:43

It's the weekend!

Thursday 24th January 19:57

Finally completed the test I had been set, which also included designing a promotional poster and part of a six-page ticket for the event.

road expo test

Wednesday 23rd January 12:16

There is a woman who delivers goods to where I work and her dog travels with her wherever she goes...

jake

Tuesday 22nd January 22:00

Started redesigning a logo for an exhibition, held at Kempton Park Racecourse.
This is the old logo...

road expo old

And this is my redesigned one...

road expo new

Monday 21st January 17:30

Had a meeting with potential clients, both of which were impressed with what I could do in Illustrator and Photoshop. They decided to set me a task to see what I was capable of.

Sunday 20th January 21:34

Quite an involved day... at Havant Camera Club, we're having our annual 'Same File' knockout competition. As it states in our programme, it allows us to use our lateral creativity and vision to produce an appealing print from the digital image supplied. We're all emailed the same image and no elements may be imported from an other image although effects and colour may be added.

Here's my interpretation of what we have been given to work from for this year's competition.

samefile07

Same file competition - 2008

manipulation07

Same file manipulation - 2008

Saturday 19th January 17:08

It's been a horrible day down here, cold and incredibly windy. Tanya and I decided to spend our day indoors and we both worked on images for Amateur Photographer's monthly competition entries. The brief?

This months theme is "Self portrait"

Is it really you?

For this round take a picture of yourself as you would like other forum members to see you. The picture might show you exactly as you are, but you are also free to distort the truth. How would we ever know whether you are lying or not?
You should include your camera or some reference to your photographic interest – and that will be the only part of the image that is definitely genuine.


looking through the lens

Friday 18th January 22:00

Friday night is another great night for TV, particularly starting from 'QI', presented by Stephen Fry, BBC2, 22:00. Following on from that, 'Friday Night with Jonathan Ross' at 22:35, BBC1. Both are exceptionally funny programmes, QI having the edge for me. More details found by clicking the graphic below.

QI

Thursday 17th January 23:46

I don't seem to have time to do anything for myself any more.

Wednesday 16th January 21:58

Whether it was a miraculous win or not, Havant and Waterlooville have progressed into round four of the FA Cup, one of the most prestigious trophies in the world of football. Not only did they beat Swansea City, who are 83 league places above them and leaders of League One, their prize is a trip to Anfield, home of Liverpool FC, a week on Saturday.

Havant and Waterlooville were 3-0 at one point and went into the break 3-1 up. Swansea managed to pull one back before the home side slotted a further goal past them to seal a 4-2 victory. Incredible and well-deserved.

I wouldn't want to hazard any sort of guess about the outcome to Anfield but I'd hope that Liverpool take their visitors slightly more seriously than Swansea's 'pub team' description... seems to fire the team up!

hawks

Tuesday 15th January 21:36

One of the wettest days in a long time - if I recall, there were 64 flood alerts all over the country tonight. I have to say, I do feel sorry for anyone who lives on a floodplain, particularly as they may have lived their whole life not knowing that they lived on a potential floodplain! What's even more disturbing is that some are bracing themselves for the possibility of their homes being flooded for the third time in six months.

Been to camera club tonight so I still haven't had the chance to sort through all the photographs from West Wittering yet but here's a taster of what's to come...

rainbow hut rainbow hut two

Monday 14th January 19:00

A day which comprised of nothing but work!

Sunday 13th January 22:24

Didn't do an awful lot today. Did a fair bit of work early on and then nestled myself into our settee to watch two Premiership matches, the first being Sunderland v Portsmouth, the second, Bolton Wanderers v Blackburn Rovers.
Both bitterly disappointing results, 2-0 and 1-2 respectively.

Saying that though, I did witness one of the most amazing goals I have ever seen... the goal by Kevin Nolan will undoubtedly go down as one of the all-time greats... pity that the same cannot be said about Bolton's overall performance.

Saturday 12th January 11:48

What a beautiful day! Tanya and I went to West Wittering... more about that tomorrow... along with a good deal of images!

Friday 11th January 18:18

Well, what do you know...? Anelka has gone to Chelsea. I can't blame him to be honest and I'm sure he'll hold Bolton close to his heart for Big Sam and Bolton were the people who gave him that second chance.

First and foremost, he made his mark with Arsenal in the Premier League but let's face it, when Liverpool signed him in 2001, he was continually being left out of the first team squad and whilst at Manchester City, he expressed his dissatisfaction there also.

Bolton signed him in January 2006, for a club record deal of £8m. He scored 12 goals in 38 games in the 06/07 season and managed to score 10 of the 23 goals that the club had managed to score until his move to Chelsea. He went for £15m to Stamford Bridge... not a bad return for someone who had been left out of many first team squads!

Thursday 10th January 21:00

Highlight of the day... Never Mind The Buzzcocks, 9pm, BBC2, presented by Simon Amstell.

thursdaysarefunny

Wednesday 9th January 19:52

Big Sam is no longer at Newcastle United. There has been speculation as to whether he chose to walk or whether there was a boot behind the walk - either way, he's gone and I have a sneaky suspicion that he's probably thinking he made the wrong move.

newcastle

I'd rather he didn't come back to Bolton now, if he was offered his old job back. The club has suffered since his departure and I doubt he'd be able to turn it around for them - saying that though, Redknapp managed it at Pompey, so who knows?

Tuesday 8th January 21:30

Went to Havant Camera Club to see the entries for the latest slide competition. The judge, Ken Scott, was excellent and I totally agreed with his comments/criticisms, which is an unusual occurrence!
His website, Touching The Light

Monday 7th January 17:45

Miserable day all round.

Sunday 6th January 13:15

Tanya and I had a walk around Emsworth Mill Pond as it turned out to be a very pleasant day.

emsworth harbour

Whilst walking, we both spotted this duck and I just wished I'd had my long lens on so I could've captured it better - as it stands, this is a huge crop down from the original image.

duck green

Saturday 5th January 10:57

Yes, it took me until almost 11:00am to get out of bed. I was really annoyed with myself and it was all down to pain I had experienced whilst turning over in my sleep. Every muscle, joint and bone that you can think of, midriff down, ached - needless to say, Tanya and I literally did nothing all day, except watch TV or be on our computers.

Friday 4th January 14:03

For some reason, I wanted to set myself a quest today. I wanted to do something that would make people be either envious of me or just think that I was an idiot. I decided to walk from home to West Wittering - for those of you who know this area, you'd appreciate just how far it is. I also decided to take my Sony V1 with me, just in case I stumbled upon anything inspirational to photograph.

I set off along Southleigh Road, towards Emsworth. Once in Emsworth, I took a left and headed towards Southbourne and carried on along the A259.

My plan was to get onto Salterns Way (primarily a cycle route which covers just over 11 miles from the centre of Chichester to East Head at West Wittering). Anyway, by the time I reached the Crown and Anchor pub at Dell Quay, I was wincing with pain. A few years ago, I doubt I'd have had any problems but it's quite a while since I walked this sort of distance, especially all of it being road walking.

Ahh well, I still managed to cover 10 miles which is good going for a spur of the moment thing!

Thursday 3rd January 22:05

Having spent quite some time installing the latest Mac Operating Software, 'Leopard' onto my computer, I was rather reluctant to have to spend even more time updating my website. Believe you me, it's a daunting task knowing that you not only have to update the site because it's a new month but also the fact that we're in a new year.

Anyway, it's done now, as is this blog so I can sleep easy tonight!

Wednesday 2nd January 20:00

It seems quite some time since Bolton Wanderers had been given any sort of coverage on the sports channels. Tonight's match was a must-win one against fellow-strugglers, Derby County. The two teams met within the first few weeks of this season at Pride Park (Derby's ground) and we only managed a 1-1 draw against them. This was the start of me having serious doubts about Sammy Lee's capabilities as a manager and my resentment towards Big Sam for leaving Bolton in the shit.

Anyway, after enduring the dreadful game and thinking that it was going to be a goalless draw, Stelios managed to score a very well taken goal, although I have my doubts about whether he was offside. Derby didn't deserve to lose, if I have to be honest.

bwfc

Tuesday 1st January 2008 12:52

Happy New Year to all!

New Year's Day is another one of those days where you just seem to be deflated after all the hype of the night before. We had planned to go out for a walk but we've had trouble with our central heating and boiler for a few days and had to call them out for a third time over the Christmas period!

With it being the start of a new 'First View' on the Amateur Photographer forum, I decided to take a photo of the beautiful Swatch watch that Tanya bought me for my 40th birthday...

swatch irony

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