Category Archives: Pictures

Err, posts containing pictures!

Fear the Ninja…

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… body clock.

Normally I go to bed between 2 and 3 am, and get up about 10. It’s one of the luxuries of working for myself, and yet, every time I *need* to get up early, and set an alarm to do so, I’ll wake up in plenty of time anyway, generally just before my alarm goes off.

Point in case this morning, planned to go take some early pics with my friend Stu, so I said I’d pick him up at 6:30, alarm is set for 6, I wake up and check my phone.. 05:55. Spooky eh? I was always the same when travelling for work. Always about 5 mins before the alarm.

Isn’t the human body amazing?

Anyway, here’s one I made earlier..

More up on my Flickr

New car GET!

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So, I’ve finally managed to retire my old Vectra. She was a good old girl and an ace car to drive, like being on rails round corners, but with 160k on the clock the maintenance was costing way too much compared to what the car was worth.

tweed_flat_cap.jpg

So, having looked around at various cars, I settled on getting one of the Mk3 TDCi Mondeos. Yes, it’s true what they say about turning 40, I am about to become MONDEO MAN!

Anyway, I fancied one of the top spec models with all the niceties that come with it, which in the Ford range has always been the Ghia. Or on the newer ones, the Ghia X, which gives you everything bar the kitchen sink. Trouble is, I was slightly put off by all the walnut trim which seemed a bit too reminiscent of my dad’s old Rover about 30 years back. Thankfully, good fortune smiled upon my budget which brought the newer special ‘Titanium’ edition within reach. Basically, the Titanium has the same level of refinement as the Ghia, except they replaced all the crappy Walnut with Brished Aluminium, added sports seats and 18″ wheels. i.e. Much more my cup of tea!

Trouble is, although the regular Mondeo is a complete Clitoris Car*, the Titanium X is pretty hard to come by, especially if you want one with sensible mileage and a full service history. We did look at one yesterday in Thornbury and I did enjoy driving it but it was pretty (very) high mileage and didn’t really feel quite right. Having made up my mind I was dead set on the Titanium X I was anticipating a bit of a headache to find one but again, good fortune was smiling on me and I found one in Southampton so we took a drive down today with fingers crossed that it wouldn’t be a crock of shite.

mondeoTX.jpeg

(Not my actual car, but a nice pic of the same model)

It wasn’t :)

So, a deal was struck, they are sorting a couple of minor things I wanted doing on it and I should be able to pick it up next weekend.

Vroom vroom!!

* Every C**t’s got one…

Listening to: Ten Thousand Fists from the album Ten Thousand Fists by Disturbed



Photo nerdery

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The old lighthouse,Burnham-on-Sea

Down in Somerset today for a day of photo nerdery in the form of a days training with landscape photographer Tony Howell.

I went down with my friend Stu and we visited several spots including Burnham, Priddy (near Cheddar) and Weston and though we didn’t actually take a huge number of photos, I picked up some really useful info, and inspiration from Tony which I’m sure are going to benefit my photography a lot.

Side note: I’m still using Flickr as a general dumping ground for pics but thought I should to do something a bit more creative with some of my faves so I’m building a bit of a gallery site at www.richardolpin.co.uk

Oh yeah, side note the second! I’ve added the Lightbox script to my blog site now so clicking on any thumbnail pics should pop up a decent version.