Blip!

I've start posting photo diary entries on my profile @ blip foto, in an attempt to post one photo every day this year. I like blogger, but blipfoto is setup far better for photo diaries, and has a really nice community. So things might get a little quieter around here.

Chinese New Year, Nottingham Uni

Photo Diary : Christmas 2011

Photo Diary : Perfecting the Fedora Fling™

Step 1: First choose a hat. I've gone for the straw fedora because it makes me look proper tourist. Once you've chosen your target take some time to calculate distances, throwing angles, wind resistance and potential for damage to the villa owner's property. Loose fitting clothing is also suggested - as you can see i've gone for the Robot/PJ combo.

Step 2: Adopt the throwing stance and if possible pull a ridiculous horse face. Empty your mind and try to forget that you've already been explicitly told by your mum not to throw hats at the villa owner's creepy possessions.

Step 3: Success! You have hit your target. Celebrate by necking a glass of €3 Cava and run around the room making Zoidberg noises.

Photo Diary : Date Set, Invites Sent

After 8 years of being engaged we've set a date for the wedding. On October 8th 2011 we'll have an intimate (i.e. small) gathering and tie the knot. And I couldn't be happier.

Photo Diary : Geocaching around Blackbrook Reservoir

Geocaching we found another awesome site a few miles away from our house - Blackbrook Reservoir. The reservoir was constructed in 1976 to feed the local Charnwood Forest Canal. It's now a Site of Special Interest as fossils discovered there were the first to be identified as 'macroscopic remains of Precambrian life', what ever that means (GC10GBA).

Photo Diary : Geocaching around Whitwick Quarry

This is a slightly obscured view of Whitwick Quarry, the water more blue than any other lake i've seen in England. It's also only a short walk from the hidden gem that is Mount Saint Bernard Abbey. We're really lucky to live so close to these picturesque views. Photo taken from near cache GC1CJD3.

Photo Diary: Bit of the Old Ultra-violent

Photo Diary : LDN

Visiting Kim and Brother-In-Law (weird saying that) this weekend. Still obsessed with Hipstamatic.

Photo Diary : BBQ in Sepia

I love 'Hipstamatic' for the iPhone. I love the perversity of making a photo taken on a state-of-the-art phone look it was taken on a thirty year old disposable camera. This weekend we had a BBQ, here's the Hipstamatic results:

Photo Diary : Geocaching Shepshed & Grace Dieu Priory

This creepy tunnel is part of the Charnwood Forest Railway (GC10M51)


Viaduct near Grace Dieu Priory. No pictures of the priory itself due to family fun day in and around the ruins ruining the mood. We did manage to score some monk honey though. That is not a euphemism. (GC29VFC)

Photo Diary : Cropped Memories

One of the nice things about my current job is that, despite being on an industrial estate, it's flanked by fields and woods to walk around at lunch.


This photo isn't a true reflection of walking through the field; to the left there's a craggy horizon of warehouses and to the right there's a busy A-road, soundtracking the walk with the constant rumble of lorrys.

I start a new job next week, on an industrial estate in the middle of a busy town. There's a few things I really don't like about my current job, but i'm learning to not let slight negativity burden otherwise good memories. Like the photo above, i'll just crop them out.

Photo Diary : Gloucester Cathedral

On the way back from Cardiff we decided to follow the most exciting brown sign. Gloucester Cathedral won.

Photo Diary : Cardiff

We went to Cardiff, because we could.




An inexplicable memorial to Ianto Jones, a lame character in the lame sci-fi series Torchwood. You have to admire the amount of (presumably ironic) effort put into celebrating mediocrity.

Photo Diary : Mount Saint Bernard Abbey

Today we discovered that a few miles from our house is the astonishing Mount Saint Bernard Abbey, a working Monastary of trappist monks. In the blazing sun and beneath perfect blue skys it felt more like Italy than England.

Photo Diary : Geocaching in White Horse Wood, Shepshed