Into the TENTH year?

Woah...just noticed that this month marks the start of the TENTH year of this blog...whoever would have thought?

Way back then (when I were young) we had just moved into our Earlswood house from the penthouse flat in Dorking -

- and I had been starting to play around with what gardening was all about (having only grown tomato plants on the balcony before) - the start of domestication - no kids on the scene (of course) -

- I was working in a (fairly nasty) pre-regeneration Kings Cross commuting with Thameslink (no comment), carrying an SPV-C500 in my pocket running (wow) Windows Mobile 2003 (yes, life waaaay before Android - but it could still -just about- play a converted DVD to entertain me on the train) and playing games on an original Xbox console -
 -
- on a huge cathode ray TV - HD TV broadcasts didn't even exist for another YEAR)...the very first episode of the Doctor Who reboot (with Eccleston and Piper was still around the corner)...7/7 wasn't far in the future...Flyingpops and I weren't even *married* yet for goodness sake!

What has it been?  Five(?) different jobs over that time, dragging me all over London (and New York), our perfect wedding day, amazing honeymoon in Mexico and three beautiful children later the amount of ground covered is just staggering!  Even the very act of deciding to blog strongly influenced my life - posting something every day quickly highlighted that I needed a better camera - by December that year I had the Sony Mavica, kick-starting a now almost decade-long love affair with photography (largely thanks to that love affair with my wife who spotted it and got the technology moving)...and without that how many things would have just faded into the "noise" of the past... ;)

It's proof - The human brain is just *terrible* at remembering details...Now, I just need to scrape together a couple of hours to fly my precious time machine back through the last decade to refresh things - I can already see that after the March snow in 2005 it was a rather beautiful summer (although it also looks like I have some picture links to fix that have managed to become obsolete over the years, worse luck)!  Oh well...! :)

A few things I miss...

*Proper* crunchy Buffalo chicken wings (New York Style) - with insane American Hot Sauce and salty creamy blue cheese dip...no-one in England can get it quite right (apart from Chillis - which was killed by the credit crunch)...


Waking up in Colin the Camper...


Cheeky lunchtime burgers at Smithy's...


Chilli Pepper Pete turning up to Laughton...


The view down the Thames on a summer day when stranded at Blackfriars station by First Capital Connect...


The route of the number 17 bus...


New Harry Potter books...


Being able to stand in the shed at the end of the strip at Santa Pod (and be almost choked to death by toxic fume - much better than it sounds)...


My Mavica MVC-CD500 (effortless quality)...


Our front garden, that one year (with the throw-and-grow) although it did take a lot of watering...


Widemouth Bay...


Living in the penthouse...


Breakfast in Mexico...


Wondering what would be in the window of the Porcupine Book Shop...


Holidaying in the Canary Islands...


Cheesesteak...


"All new" episodes of Star Trek...


My C500 running Windows Mobile (Smartphones didn't start with the iphone, here's to full internet, movies and apps way back in 2004, I wasn't even blogging back then)... ;)


My Nyko Airflow...


New Years Day at Hedley Wood...


All the evening papers except the Evening Standard (it's far too grown up)...


Fillet steak at the Arkle Manor (or anywhere else for that matter) I think my most recent one was before the wedding...!


James May's Lego House...

So I'm obviously in desperate need of a holiday and something nice to eat (just to start with)... ;)

Cornwall 2007 Holiday

Okay, here we go, took *loads* of pictures (as I already mentioned), getting happier with the new camera now (even though I am missing the Mavica), still, this has to be the first time I have ever got anywhere near 2Gb of pictures on *any* shoot (urm, holiday, sorry)...

...took this one at stupid-o'clock in the morning on the M25, shortly before I fell back to sleep with my head on the passenger door window, and at the first stop (for fuel) I woke up (feeling most uncomfortable) and clambered into the back...

...and the rest of the journey (even though my head was over the bass boxes under the bed during "Starlight Express") I slept until Flyingpops awoke me in Launceston...I caught some shots of the glorious sunrise...


...we got set up nice and quickly, then helped out Flyingpops folks with their rather challenging caravan awning...

...got our electrics set up and after a bit of trouble with the fridge in the gazebo (just needed levelling up), we got the fridge working in the camper (for the first time ever) after a little burning smell from the dusty workings, which was to prove to be a real life-saver, staying freezing cold even after 7 hours unplugged in the blazing sunshine on the beach...very happy with that... ;)

...and the beach was packed and hot, and wonderful...

New Camera - Fuji Finepix S9600

Hurrah! Got my new camera, had a look at the big bad boys (£400-600 starting packs) and they were either too heavy/cumbersome or were missing things that are rather important to me (like *forcing* one to shoot through the view finder, which makes working from interesting angles a rather hit-and-miss, or uncomfortable affair), and, frankly, they are just stupidly expensive for not *that* much of an improvement (imho) considering everything else you need to carry to equal the convenience...

This camera was £279, has a very decent spec - 9 megapixel, 10.7x optical zoom (on a 28-300mm lens which can focus in "super macro" mode to 1*cm* thanks to the revolutionary CCD) plus a digital zoom I'm never going to use, runs off 4xAA cells (hurrah again! This is going to be a *must* have for every single camera I own in the future, hate having to drag the chargers around the world), it can take any combination of XD, compact flash or IBM microdrive (yes, it can carry a mini hard disk!), blah blah blah...oh and the LCD display tilts up and down (like a camcorder, see the pic below) so you can easily shoot over the heads in a crowd (useful for Bug Jam!) or at something right on the floor without putting your head in the mud...

Anyway, enough of all that nonsense, here are some of the pics I took today!



Oh and two *amazing* ones, this one, I shot at full zoom, out the left hand window of the car (us travelling at 30mph (left to right), oncoming traffic at about 70mph) in "anti-shake" mode (never had one of them before!) -

- Now, check out these, taken one second apart (see the black car in the distance) -

- one quick twist of the zoom, and was able to snap this(!) incredible!

- (Flyingpops said "you could be a spy with that camera", she's not wrong!)...anyway, that's just a few shots from the day today, lots of new features to play with, lots to learn, but not bad for my first days play...very happy with it, and feel like I have saved myself a fortune... ;)


Now I have to seriously rest my knee, hobbled as little as possible, but it's still killing me... :(

Just had a quick look, and the (f)ailing Mavica served me faithfully (until the C13's started coming) for just over 8000 shots (during it's time with me - a year and a half, meaning about 15 shots per day over that period)...not sure if that's good or not, really (to virtual camera death), but it *is* still going (just) as long as I use original Sony media...

Oh and thanks to Flyingpops for her (occasional bursts of) patience while I have been making my mind up, and to Vodqueen (she knows why... ;)

Sony Mavica MVC-CD500 C13 Error

I hate to say this, but I think my beloved Mavica might be on the way out... :(

5 times over the weekend, on a succession of 3rd party CD-RW disks, I took a couple of snaps and then the "write" LED on the side of the CD drive just stayed static red for about 5 minutes (leaving the lens exposed) while it tried to recover the data...(sometimes losing a few photos in the process)...

I've dug out my two aged official Sony CD-RWs, dusted them off and formatted them, but haven't really had a chance to try them out in anger yet, I'm hoping (against much hope), that it's the batch of unofficial disks that are at fault (but for 3 disks to fail at the same time does seem a tad unlikely)...

Hey ho though, that camera has been quite literally half way around the world with me in the last year, so I wouldn't be too suprised if I've just worn it out, but I'll let you know how I get on...I might just need to buy some more official Sony disks, but the guy in Jessops (very friendly chap) said that Sony have stopped making them, I have found them online to buy, and it seems he is right, but they are £25 a pop (which isn't funny)...oh, I also asked the guy how much a repair for the camera would be (if it does turn out to be broken) and he told me £175...so I don't think that would really be worth it...(I'll just use this as an excuse to go for an upgrade to a nice Canon EOS or perhaps a Nikon D50)... ;)

Update - it seems to be working okay with the old disks, so, if you are having a similar problem, buy some new, branded Sony Media, format it and have another go (might save you the price of a new camera)...

Update update - Even one of the Sony disks screwed up today, got 31 pics out of 66 at full res (so a lot better than the third party ones), but still, Houston, we have a problem... :(

Brockham Bonfire 2006 - pics and video!

Was forbidden from taking the Mavica (probably wisely, as it can be a bit chaotic at Brockham on these occasions), so took these with Flyingpops' Z1...We drove down to Dorking mainline station and hopped on the bus (£2.50 return), it's a special service put on just for the occasion (X32) on creakingly old London buses which are *always* packed (and late), but it gets there in the end... ;)

Arrived in good time and started the walk up the lane towards Brockham Green (it was a clear night, full moon, and just a little fog coming from the river, perfect for fireworks!)...

- made it in good time (after making our voluntary £2 donation to fund next year) and worked our way almost to the front of the crowd to watch the guy being hoisted into position (video here), then the torchlit procession arrived -

- and proceeded to throw their flaming brands into the bottom six feet of the terrifyingly huge pyre (if you want to get an idea of scale, check out my day-time pic from last year!) -

- it was dry, and cold, so the flames leapt quickly to the top -

- setting off the thousand odd fire-crackers concealed inside the guy (video here), then, the wind changed direction slightly and (as happens every year) -

- covering the crowd in burning embers causing a minor panic from the organisers (video here), after everyone was evacuated from the danger zone they began the ten minute countdown to the firework display -

- which was, (again) as always, *extraordinary* (got a terrible video of some of it, but thankfully a nice pic or two (imho ;)) -




- then wandered back to the bonfire, for one last look (was too hot to stay close for long though -

- and then back home (got on a bus right away!)...

Great night... ;) More pictures here, if you are interested... ;)

Shots from 2005 here...