Well as I sit here munching on Jelly Babies until I feel sick – check! – it’s time to do a quick review of 2013:
January
Work took me to Paris a few times. At home I viewed a house in the block I live in, but was unable to move on it until all the financials were sorted, so I had to let it go. Gigging involved James Gillespie.
February
A couple of great photoshoots this month: Elle Black at the place she was living in in London and the London Fashion Weekend and my first proper catwalk shoot.
March
March started with some running to build up my fitness before the proper training for the Berlin Marathon, which I carried on whilst over on holiday in Fuerteventura with the ‘kids’ despite breaking a toe after a day or two there. Amy’s performance for her finals went ahead which was a really produce moment for me.
I also enjoyed afternoon tea and burlesque with GT one weekend! On the work front, there were more seminars and training to give.
April
The highlight for April was GT running the Paris Marathon and a luxury dirty weekend in Paris. My training was going OK-ish with my tricky calf muscle being a problem: I was using Ibuprofen tablets and gel.
May
Lots more running with a few 5km runs as I was beginning to build up my distance running. GT was running the Milton Keynes Marathon – on a very hot and dry weekend… – and I decided to do their Superhero Fun Run. Not so fun in that heat and with my calf muscles playing up badly, but I was still the first superhero home:
There was a lot of fine dining: celebrating a friend’s life with champagne and dinner at Le Pont de la Tour with GT and the Harelquin’s End of Season Dinner at the Hurlingham Club; I decided then I needed a new dinner suit…
Work saw a lot of client training in England and Northern Ireland.
On the photography front, I started shooting again: this time Alexa Star for what I was calling my Polaroid Project:
June
The highlight of June for me was undoubtedly our Eurothrash to the Pyrenees with Yox and Purge. Photos and videos and a write-up are in this blog post.
Other than that, my knee was starting to play up really badly when training…
Oh and I ordered a new motorcycle: a Triumph Sprint GT.
July
So I picked up the Sprint GT: very pleased with it, too.
July saw the start of some physiotherapy on my knee to try to improve – but not fix – it. I’d had to cancel my place in the Berlin Marathon; postponed until 2014 now.
Work-wise, it was Paris, London and Manchester.
August
Still having lots of physiotherapy on the knee which is beyond salvation short of an operation. My Consultant had suggested I stop running and do biathlons instead – cycling and swimming – but “run a marathon” remains on my bucket list so he said I should do the one to get it crossed off and then stop … after a 14 week lay-off. In the meantime, cycling would help: high cadence, low impact/pressure stuff, so that’s what I started doing – 43 miles this month.
Gigging was Iron Maiden at the O2 Arena.
September
Well the Berlin Marathon was September’s highlight: not for me, as I couldn’t run it, but for GT who scored a (well below) sub-4hr marathon PB which gave her a Good For Age entry for London in 2015.
Gig this month was Kings of Leon as part of the iTunes Festival and cycling mileage was 41.
September also saw my photo of the year: walking home from work, I came across the London Air Ambulance landed on Potters Field by Tower Bridge as a cyclist had been squished. I happened to take a quick iPhone shot of the landing site pausing only to try to set it up as best I could and then I uploaded the image to Instagram. That night, a local news site picked up on it and asked if they could use the credited photo on their site, which they did. The next morning it was picked up by ITV News and used on their site with credit (eventually). And the London Air Ambulance themselves picked up on it and asked me if they could use it for their promotional stuff. I was happy to licence it to them and indeed made a bigger version for them as the original would be too small for print:
October
Work-wise, I was here, there and everywhere: London, Manchester and a day trip to Vancouver to do a presentation! That was hard work.
I also arranged another photoshoot with Marlyn Lindsay: this time at my apartment. Very pleased with the results too:
November
Or “Movember” as I grew another hairy slug under my nose for the month.
A big month for me this one: I split up with GT as it just wasn’t working as both of us would have wanted. Better to end it on friendly terms too.
Lots of gigs this month too: Bring Me The Horizon, The Cult, Lacuna Coil, Queens of the Stone Age, The Pixies and Vampire Weekend!
December
December saw another Canadian day trip: this time to Toronto which was fun.
Gigs were London Grammar and Placebo. Both excellent!
I finished my photography off with another shoot with Marlyn Lindsay who never fails to produce the goods: this is why I like shooting seasoned professional models.
And so as we go into 2014, it’s looking really good: work is on the up and up, my personal life is great and on the photography side I’ve already got a lot of shoots in the diary including one with a Hollywood-based International fetish model. Wow!