We came, we saw, we snapped away:
Month: November 2012
Bikes, Bands and Babes
Well, I couldn’t think of a better ‘b’ word for women without getting more insulting; ‘birds’? ‘Bints’? ‘Bitches’? Etc. Â Anyway, last weekend I had the weekend free to myself so at the last minute I arranged with a friend, Yox, to head up to the NEC at Birmingham for the Motorcycle Live show. Yox said he’d arrange the show tickets and I arranged a couple of First Class rail tickets up there. He then stayed over at Chez Bleu on the Friday night after some pubbage and two massive XXL pizzas (which may have caused some ‘issues’ with air quality:
We couldn’t face breakfast early on Saturday morning so headed straight to Euston and then on to the NEC where we spent most of the day checking out the bikes, buying boots and bags and snapping away at one or two models – see my earlier update on my Blue Rex blog.
Then back to London, parting company at London Bridge.
I went back to Chez Bleu and packed my full camera kit and headed back to London Bridge to pick up some bits and bobs from the office, including another new ring flash adaptor, this one being for my Speedlites. I then picked up a friend, Alex, and off we went to do a bit of an impromptu shoot – again the results are on an earlier update.
A great laugh with us pratting about, but I got a few decent shots before we headed over to Brigade for dinner and fizzy pop for the second time in a week for me!
Sunday then saw me having a nice lay-in before heading over to Covent Garden to meet Amy for a late lunch at Wagamama and shopping. Still no sign of my iPad mini from the online store yet and none in stock at the Apple Store there, sadly. A long day’s shopping before heading home.
Monday evening was a rush: dashed back from the office to change and head back out to the O2 for the Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie “Twins of Evil Tour” gig and a meal with GT. Great entertainment all round!
This week has brought some hectic juggling of my diary: Westminster and Birmingham this week and Westminster and Paris next week before I head off to Fuerteventura again for some well-earned R&R.
Alex
Well I’d just bought another ring flash adaptor for fashion/portraiture stuff which arrived on Saturday, so when I went to collect it, I had an unstructured shoot with an old friend and alternative model, Alexa Star.
Just mucking about really for an hour or so but we got some fun images, which are in the Lifestyle portfolio:
The Trouble With Families…
… is that you miss them when they’re gone, so you have to make the most of them while you can.
When I first separated four years ago, my daughter didn’t speak to me for over a year. It was awful. I’m really glad to say that we made up and are really good again – I met up with her for lunch yesterday at the excellent Brigade on Tooley Street, for instance, and she knows she can talk to me about anything. My son and I see each other regularly and get on really well too.
I love them to bits and can’t imagine what it would be like to be without them. So nothing will come between us.
Which is why I feel so sorry for families torn apart for sometimes bizarre reasons, perhaps with their children thrown out onto the streets, especially (in some cases) when they were the subject of custody battles, or where a child is abducted by a parent living abroad, for instance.
One moment your life can be happy and content with your family around you and everything you could ever want and the next it’s all collapsed around your ears with bitterness and emptiness because of a serious lack of judgment or changed circumstances or maybe blinded by false promises or the grass being greener. What a nightmare!
So I’m happy to count my blessings and know I can talk to my family whenever I want from wherever I happen to be. And that’s A Good Thing.
The Thing About Weekends…
… is that they’re always over too quickly.
Having come back from Venice, we were out a couple of nights later for the Fields of the Nephilim gig at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Great gig it was too plus we had Vietnamese food beforehand at the nearby Westfield shopping centre. And then the weekend.
As it was GT’s birthday a few days afterwards, I popped out to the Apple Store whilst I was up in Norwich seeing Norwich City beat Stoke and bought her a MacBook Pro to replace her ageing laptop, which I set up for her the following weekend … when we weren’t spending Sunday messing around the countryside paintballing!
Epic weekend. Especially singling out the Competitive Dads – what is with Surrey? – for slaughter!
Meanwhile at BlueCo, I was up to Glasgow training a Client which I decided to do with my replacement iPad. That still leaves me with my old iPad at home which Jack suggested I give him. And GT didn’t help by asking why I needed two and pointing out that I could always buy myself another one later.
Another gig the day after – Seether at the Electric Ballroom up at Camden – which was quite different from the Neph one due to the demographic of the audience, shall we say…
Jack led me astray after a great weekend this weekend – Manchester United getting beaten by City! – and gradually wore me down into saying yes he probably could have my old iPad and yes I probably should order myself an iPad mini. So I did. Two weeks’ delivery but somehow that translates in Cupertino to delivery on 10 December. After I go to Fuerteventura, when I was hoping to use it on the flights. Ho hum.
Bit of a weird time at the moment. A colleague and friend at work died the week before last with a heart attack. I’d guess he was early to mid-50s? Scary stuff, especially as he was into mountain-biking and wasn’t unhealthy. And last week an old and dear friend died from MND.
Makes you re-evaluate your life and think about those who mean the most to you.
D-I-V-O-R-C-E
Well it took long enough – nine months, in fact – for the lawyers to sort out our agreed settlement and the paperwork, but I’m now finally divorced, as of 17 October 2012 (a little over 22 years after being married). Young, free and single again! Well, maybe not that young…
And the best thing is that my ex-wife and I remain good friends.
So to celebrate, GT and I went off to Venice for the weekend.
OK, it wasnt the only reason we headed off: GT was taking part in the Venice Marathon, which is why I’d booked the Hotel Bucintoro as it was the nearest luxury hotel to the finish line!
And we weren’t disappointed with our suite there, including our own private rooftop balcony overlooking the lagoon:
We celebrated with a bottle of champagne chilled and ready for our arrival:
We had a quick explore and found a superb restaurant near the hotel: La Nuova Perla. So good, we went back there on the Sunday night too!
On Saturday, we headed off to sign on at the Expo on the mainland at San Giuliano Park. It had started raining the night before and we realised that morning that the water levels were rising and beginning to flood Venice, so after signing on, we bought wellies to keep us dry as we went off to do the touristy bit, including enjoying hideously expensive club sandwiches and drinks in a lovely café in the Piazza San Marco and then dinner in a quaint restaurant down the alleys that weave through Venice.
Sunday morning dawned very cold, wet and very windy: not good conditions for anything, let alone 26.2 miles running (including a 3 mile bridge to really test the mind and body). Our water taxi arrived at 6.15am to take us to one of the collection points where the runners boarded buses to take them to the start point on the mainland. I then walked back to the Piazza Le Roma to get on one of the boats that was running – the high tides were closing many stops – and head back to the hotel for breakfast and to watch the marathon.
Despite the conditions, GT was only 45 seconds slower than her London Marathon time! I grabbed her at the finish line and walked her back to our suite and a hot, deep bath. We then ordered up some lunch before heading out later that evening for more pasta and wine.
Monday was a beautiful day, crisp and bright, so we made the most of it with a gondola ride before lunch and another water taxi back to the airport and home.
Paris Marathon next!
Panoramic View from our Rooftop Balcony
Cheers!
Bloody Tourists!
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