Sunday 29 May 2011

Nearly holiday time.....


In less than a week, we are going on holiday, and this morning was spent sorting out clothes – putting a lot out for charity, and deciding what will be taken with us – we have vowed to travel lighter than usual clothes wise as we never seem to use even half of what we take, but it does partly depend on the weather of course as to what we will need.
The house we are staying at for the first week has a washer-dryer, so we should be able to get ourselves fully sorted for the second week anyway. The camp site does have a laundry room too, so even during the second week we wont be totally without facilities.
I have bought a small DAB radio to take with us – we usually take a Roberts R861 with us – never use the shortwave side of it, just the FM band, and hardly ever tune it away from Radio 4 if i’m honest, but now that we have Radio 4 Extra on DAB, the thought of being without that for two weeks is hardly bearable! So, i think the Pure “Move” DAB radio will be a very much appreciated item in the bag of goodies to take.

Wednesday 25 May 2011

Last swimming lesson

Today was my last swimming lesson. It felt kind of sad, but I also felt proud of what I have achieved in a relatively short time. To think that only a few months ago I sat shaking on the edge of the pool really not wanting to get in, it seems that I have come such a long way.
I can swim lengths of breaststroke like I have been doing it for years now. I am happy and confident in the water, and on the odd occasion that things don't quite go to plan, I can get myself out of trouble quite happily and just giggle about it.
The last two lessons have been mostly spent on working on front crawl, and I have pretty much cracked it now, and with a bit more practice, I should be able to do lengths of that with no problem.
Am still not too happy on my back, but am getting better with each attempt. That will need quite a bit more effort on my part, but with Sallys help when we go swimming, that shouldn't be too big a problem to overcome.
I do need to make sure that I keep up going to the pool as often as I can. I still hope to get a Wednesday daytime swim in as well as the evening ones with Sally. Practice makes perfect, and I need plenty of practice!
So, I have proven myself wrong, and learnt to swim then. Did I get a badge? No. What I did get is a new skill, a new found sense of self belief, a new hobby, and hopefully a lifelong friend.

Tuesday 24 May 2011

Blogsy

Well, here we are again - another day another blogging app for the iPad to try out! It seems that there really isn't the "ideal" blogging app available. They all have their good points and they all have their bad ones.
Just when you think you have found the one that suits you best, you find the down side.......blogpress seemed like it was going to be the best one to use, and then you discover the photos it uploads to the blog turn out with a very low resolution. This seems to be the case even if you set the levels to be as per the original image. Upload the same image using bloggerplus and it is fine, but bloggerplus is not as easy to use.
Blogsy seems to be very powerful and clever, but you cannot add in photos from the iPad itself, only ones that you have already put onto flickr, picassa etc. This is a big negative for it as far as I am concerned. The developers of it claim they will alter this for the next version, but don't say when this will actually be available.
Sally is using the iPad a lot for her blog, and is also a bit frustrated with these things. I am keen to find the ideal solution for me before our holiday to make my task as simple as possible while we are away......
Today's photo is one from flickr from a while back, if only to give this feature within blogsy a try.

Sunday 22 May 2011

Test from iPhone blogger.

This is a test message being written on the iPhone using blogger+ to see what the results are like from within here.

Never let it be said that I'm not romantic. Here are the flowers I bought for Sally just because......

Holiday getting closer!

Well, here we are, another week vanished from my life, but another week closer tour holiday. Two weeks today will be our first full day in Aldeburgh in Suffolk. We should awake to the sounds and smells of the sea, being only 39 steps from the beach. This claim remains to be confirmed, and in my view surely depends on how long your legs are!

Today's photo is another one that I have put through the photo to sketch software on the iPad. It is from the church in Princethorpe. I thought it was quite effective.






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Saturday 7 May 2011

Tired and aching

It may only have been a short working week this week, but it has left me feeling tired and achy. I must be getting old!
Has it really been a week ago that we went to the wedding and photographed it? Time flies. But only when you are having fun of course.
Busy day ahead of me tomorrow, but more about that another time.







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sunday 1 May 2011

Two Weddings and a Disco

There was more than one wedding taking place on Friday 29th April. There was the obvious one at Westminster Abbey in London between William & Kate. That one got a lot more media coverage than the one we went to - Princethorpe in Warwickshire seemed to be a BBC and SkyNews free zone as far as we could see. This was rather handy, as Sally and I were the "official" photographers for this particular wedding, and were very pleased that there weren't any pros there to show us up!

The morning was a bit overcast, and the wind made it definitely chilly if you were not sheltered. The wedding guests mostly seemed less than keen to have their photos taken on their way into church - mind you, my saying they were for security purposes in case anything got nicked from the church may not have helped!

As Lisa, the bride arrived, Sally went inside to join Chris, the groom, and all the other guests while i captured her arrival. Once Lisa, her father and chief bridesmaid were inside, i raced around the edge of the church to get into position to photograph the walk down the aisle and the lighting of the candles.

The evening before, at the rehearsal, the priest, Father Ted (yes, really!) had given us instructions on where and when he was happy for us to take pictures. I was very conscious of not wanting to upset him, and stuck very much to the rules he had given us. I'm told that he later said that he was very pleased with how inconspicuous we had remained throughout.

Being a full blown Catholic ceremony and mass, it lasted quite a while, but i have to say that Father Ted's manner and sense of humour shone through and made the whole thing not only fly by, but also made it fun. He is a truly lovely man, who i would be very happy to get to know better.

As soon as i had captured the signing of the register, Sally and i raced outside to get ready to capture the exit from the church. This turned into a bit of a free for all, and trying to gain control of the guests to get the group photos we wanted turned into a real challenge. In the end, one of the guests took pity on us, and used his loud voice and commanding manner to organise the madding crowd. I never did discover his name, but i owe him a drink! Without him, we may still have been there now trying to get people into the right places.

Chris and Lisa finally left in a Bentley, we packed our gear away and dashed to the reception venue to continue our duties. Ignoring the directions the SatNav suggested, we actually managed to get there before most of the people who had left the church well before us. We also managed to avoid some of the less salubrious areas of Coventry on the way, so got there with car and contents intact!!

I managed to get some nice shots of Chris & Lisa in the grounds of the hotel, and even took on the challenge set me by Chris' dad John to make him look half decent in a photograph. I think i succeeded, but i will let him be the judge. I did remind him of the rather good one i got of him at his daughter Vicki's wedding last year as they went into the church.........

The reception went off without any hitches, we got quite a few photos of the meet and greet as the guests went in, and also during the speeches. While the room was re-arranged for the evening do, we reviewed the photos and got them onto the ipad. inevitably there were some that were not that good, but there were also enough that were either good as they were, or would stand a bit of cropping to turn them into something pretty decent.

We were both surprised and honoured to be mentioned during Chris' speech, and were very grateful for the thank you gifts they gave us. We were doing it as a favour to them, and had said that we would do it as a freebie, so that was really lovely of them. I just hope they are pleased with the photos we took now!!