Back to Work & more Photography

After our amazing holiday, visiting all round England, a bit of Wales and round the coast of Scotland it was time to go back to work, but my body had other days.

Bank holiday monday saw me come down with a terrible cold, and Tuesday our first day back at work I was no better. After that I managed to drag myself in, but we had to travel by car, I was not up to riding the motorcycle.

 

In the middle of the month I also did a studio photo shoot, as you can see above, not bad results.

The big thing was the release of iPhone4. Richard has the original iPhone, and has been very pleased with it, now that its three years old it was time for the updated model.

I am sure in the news you have all heard of its problems, but I have found it to be the best phone I have every had. The display, camera and gps are excellent. The reception is certainly better then the previous phone, and I have had no problems with it. If the phone is gripped tightly the signal strength does drop but this causes no issues in actual use.

Holidays and Photography

First of it was the start of the cricket season. Now I have no interest in Cricket but for the local league it was my work team against my village team. Now who to support, a difficult one.

We went along and took the camera’s. Neither of us have done any sports photography for a long time. Its an expensive field of photography needing expensive long lens. The pros tend to use 400 to 600mm lens. We have a 70-200mm f/2.8 and a 180mm f/2.8, so equipped with these we gave it ago.

Both teams played well but the village won through in the end. I have to admit it was a cool May evening and we did leave before the end, taking shelter in the local pub and enjoying a couple of pints beer. Our local always has a good round of guest beers and tonight was no different.

To finish off the evening it was then a walk over the road to the fish and chip shop. Fish and Chips all round, and then a slow walk home.

For the last two weeks of May we had our big holiday. This year it was a motorcycle trip round the whole of the British Isles taking in the furthest East, South, West and Northernly points.

Before we went we had a one quick day out on the bike, a day trip to Whitby.

The weather was, how shall we say; dramatic.

Biking fun

A Bit of Biking

Its the time of year where I start to planing our big bike trip of the year, so most weekends we have been going for a ride, a trip to North Lincolnshire, a trip to the coast, and the other weekend a trip to South Lincolnshire and Cambridge. As most of our journeys have been just the short commute to work, were not really used to full days in the saddle and they were tiring days out, but well worthwhile.

Its been a full month of work and apart from a bit of photography for work and a studio session theres nothing more to tell.

Its Christmas!

December and more steady work. We worked up to Christmas Eve and also collected our goose for Christmas lunch while on our lunch break. We only had to provide cover till 15:30 then it was a quick bike ride home with the goose safely tucked into the top box.

Once home we relaxed and had a selection of nibbles such as Olives, Cheese and biscuits etc, while drinking Champagne.

With all the snow Caroline’s father was not going to risk the long drive to Caroline’s elder sister so he came to us for Christmas lunch. A very pleasant day all in all.

Boxing day saw an improvement in the weather and we all spent the day with Caroline’s dad, and the rest of the family also descended on him. How can small children make so much noise. We also had two more iPhones join the family. They certainly seem to be popular.

The week between Christmas and New Year saw us back at work on cover but we had booked New Year’s Eve off. In the morning Richard used the excuse of going shopping to take a fifty mile blast round the north of the county on the GS Motorbike.

 

New Year’s Eve was spent pretty much like Christmas Eve, with red wine followed by Champagne to welcome in the new decade.

Heres wishing you all a prosperous and happy 2010. Here in the Brown household were certainly looking forward to better times. We spend far too much time in hospitals in 2008/9 and we have some unhappy memories to forget.

Whitby Holiday

Time for another holiday this month, a week in Whitby. A lazy week, which included a visit to Castle Howard, walks along the beach. Enjoyable meals, evenings of good food, good wine and beer

The end of the month was Whitby Goth Weekend. So we jumped on the bikeĀ and went for day out. It was a ‘necessary trip’ according to Richard, in order to scrub in the new tires.

February Snow and a Wedding

And the Snow started!

Snow. Yep we finally got lots of snow. A little late for Christmas. The down side of this was no biking. I hate having to take the car to work. We had it bad for about a week, one of the days it took us nearly three hours to get work! Now thats a 30 minute ride normally on the bike!

Last month it was Sofia’s birthday but this month saw us celebrating Ethan’s birthday. We also had a wedding to attend. Once again I was called open to be official photographer.

Thanks for entrusting us. I think you will be more then pleased with the results.

The middle of the month saw Caroline entering hospital for an operation. It went well but she was not pleased to hear that see now has to take six weeks off work!

The end of the month I had a fashion shoot with Stephanie at a local studio. Roll on next month, I have a big studio shoot planned in Worksop.

Wales Bike Tour

There was only one thing we were focused on for July. Our Biking Holiday. We were going to give the new GS a real workout.

Last year except for a few days out we had not been on a bike tour so it was time to make up for that. Our favourite destinations always involve sea and mountains. Previously we had been on biking tours to Wales, Scotland, France and Spain.

With the bike being new and us very much out of practice of touring we decided to not go to far from home. That left only one destination. Wales!

You may find this hard to believe if you have been in the UK this year but the weather was wonderful all week, not a drop of rain, just hot and sunny, to be honest a little too hot for being in biker leathers!

Farkels for the Bike, School Visit, and Father’s Day

June started with us buying presents for the new bike, first a radiator grill to pretty her up. Then some cylinder head protectors. We also treated ourselves to a new bluetooth intercom system. Its always nice to chat to each other when your on a long journey.

This month was also father’s day, the day before saw us all at Alison and Declan’s house. A family get together and also a trip to Ethan’s school for the school fate. Hannah even got to horse ride. It was so much fun she got to do it twice!

Father’s day saw us all back at Caroline farther’s. Richard had to work Sunday morning looking after one of our works data centres as the power company was shutting down the power for the morning but he joined us in the afternoon for the family get together.

New Motorcycle – BMW R1200GS

Lots of hard work this month, major projects keeping us busy at work. At home we had our first family Barbeque of the year, the weather was much improved. With the nice weather Richard managed to book his QXC test. This was his flying cross country test. Which he passed well.

We also bought a new motorcycle a BMW R1200GS. Selling our 5 year old BMW R1100S, we were both sad to see it go but the R1200GS is really an excellent all rounder,

We had the good luck to take delivery just before the Bank Holiday at the end of the month. It was all the excuse we needed to take the new bike on a North Yorkshire blastĀ around the wolds and moors.

Typically the month ended with heavy rain in the last week, the week Mum Brown had chosen to spend on holiday in Paignton. Friday she came back so of course the weather improved. The last day, Saturday was lovely sunshine, so we had a trip on the new bike to the Lincolnshire Coast for a coffee, minor B roads all the way there, great fun.