Category: Family

Family related posts; generally only of interest to fellow members of the Brown Clan and relations by Marriage into this mad house.

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Whitby Goth Week

A day out at Whitby.
It’s the start of Whitby Goth Week and I am not sure but the Photographers may just out number the Goths.

As always the outfits are fantastic and whole family’s get involved.

With so many Photographers, Goths, Steam Punks & Emo’s not to mention lots of bikers clad in black leather (not us this time thou), I am not quite sure what the ‘Normal’ holiday makers made of it all!

If you are going to Goth week during March or later on this year in the autumn, remember to treat everyone with respect.

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Ryedale Folk Museum

Today we had a trip across the North Yorkshire Moors and spent several hours at the Ryedale Folk Museum.

William Hayes’s (1871-1940) Photographic Studio has been moved there. It’s the oldest daylight lit studio surviving. His studio still has his large format camera with 7.5 inch portrait lens and his dark room is also there.

The studio was set up in 1902 in Monkgate, York, and moved to Hutton-le-Hole in 1911.

In many ways its not much different todays studios, a selection of cloth backgrounds, props, but instead of flash, a side wall of glass and a glass ceiling.

The Museum opened in 1964, and the original exhibits comprised of the private collections of Wilfred Crossland, Raymond Hayes and Bertram Frank.

 

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Evening Meal

If you are ever near Lastingham, try the Blacksmiths Arms, good beer and fine food.

 

Game terrine starter, belly pork, black pudding and a bottle of fine red wine. Glad I was not having to drive.

 

If you are ever in the area do pop in to the church.  St Mary’s has a wonderful crypt well worth a visit.

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a long weekend of photography

We have decided to have a long weekend of photography.

We will be spending Friday to Monday in North Yorkshire and we will be visiting as many local National Trust and English Heritage properties as we can.

For you gear heads we will be packing just two Digital SLR’s with a Nikkor 12-24mm f/4 DX on one and a 24-70mm f/2.8 on the other.  We will also be packing our Medium Format Kit (Hassleblad) and a good heavy tripod.

I’ll be blogging when I can using WordPress for iOS using the iPhone, but due to the very rural nature of the area’s we will be stopping in, Wi-Fi and even a mobile phone signal for voice, never mind data, will be extremely limited, so i’ll be updating these posts during the following week and uploading more photographs.

Friday consisted of a trip to Nunnington Hall, a rather fine country house, with lots of willing Peacocks all trying to impress.

I had a Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 on the camera but a long lens was fortunately not necessary as the birds were extremely tame. In fact one Peahen walked up so close I thought she was going to peck the lens.

This weekend will also be the time I’ll be testing GPS4Cam. A piece of iOS software for the iPhone which Chris Bennett uses and has reviewed on his site.

I’ll possibly not get round to posting many photographs until Monday so I’ll update these posts then.

Posted using WordPress for iOS

Updated

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Week Over – Feeling much better

Well, I managed a full week at work without being admitted to hospital, yeh!

We are both feeling much better.  Caroline had a hospital appointment this morning and was given the all clear, while I have my MRI Scan next Wednesday, to make sure there is nothing seriously wrong.

I must admit the hospital were amazed that two members of the same family were admitted to hospital within two hours of each other with different medical emergencies.

All of this means its now been three weeks since I rode any of the motorcycles or have even driven the car.  I am not too bothered about the car, but its killing me not to be riding my bike.

Hopefully I’ll be feeling up to it soon.

I was planning a photoshoot this weekend, with a top London Model, we have been trying to make our calendars match now for a couple of years but we both have very busy schedules.

Instead I might have a search round for some spring daffodils and practice my flower photography some more.

As you can see here I still need more practice.

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Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday Ethan

As today was Ethan’s birthday we all had a quick family get together.  Ethan was lucky enough to get lots of lego for his birthday which Uncle Martyn was happy to help him put together.

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AeroPress – a new way of coffee making

For the last few days I have been trying out my Aeropress coffee maker.  Not exactly an expresso but not a french press either.

I have been using the reverse method to make coffee, and I have to admit, it does make wonderful coffee, and it is ideal for an office environment.  Easy and quick to use and very easy to clean afterwards.

I can definitely recommend it. I think I like the coffee from it better then from my home filter coffee machine!

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Customer Service

You generally don’t find out how good a company is until things go wrong.

Marks & Spencer; they always come to mind.  We once made an error and when we tried to correct it, we not only had the problem easily corrected but got an apology and a bunch of flowers for my wife, now bear in mind this was our error not theirs, we got excellent service and their opinion was they should not have allowed us to make such an error.

Warehouse Express; is also a company I have had excellent service from.  On one occasion their courier let me down badly and I was having no satisfaction trying to resolve it with them.  As far as the courier was concerned they could not be wrong so it must all by my fault.  A quick phone to Warehouse Express and what the courier has said was impossible now became posible and I had my goods the next day.

Yesterday I was pleased to experience some more good customer service.  I had placed an order the week before for an AeroPress Coffee maker.  On the Monday I got an email informing me it had been shipped, just the day after the order was placed.  Well by Friday night nothing had arrived, so I dropped them a quick email that evening to chase it up.

Despite it being outside office hours I got a quick email back, apologising and saying they would look into it on Monday. Well, first thing Tuesday morning by 1st Class post I had my order, including some coffee that had been roasted that very Monday morning and a quick note explaining what had happened.

Thanks Sarah for sorting this and i’ll definitely be placing more orders with you at HasBean Coffee.

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The Fine things in Life

As anyone who knows me will testify I love the finer things in Life.

  • Particularly good quality red wine
  • Fine Whiskey
  • Chocolate
  • And of course coffee

We had to pop into the nearest big city today, as I had another hospital appointment to check on how I am doing, and we took the opportunity to indulge. Two large Lattes and two Cinnamon rolls from Starbucks.

Back to the diet soon I think!