Part two of the de fragging my internals fiasco and my pal, Andy Hill is here working on my computer - finally he has managed to sort out one of the major problems and is doing all sorts of weird things to make it run smoother - I have not got the foggiest what he is doing, my limited brain knows very little about the tech stuff other than anything to do with imaging.

I went to a preview at the Holiday Inn in Chessington on Thursday with Chamber president John Hickey. It was to showcase their christmas 'Las Vegas' themed parties and was very good fun. They laid on some amazing food and free drinks and the entertainment was good too. Throughout the evening there were magigians, cartoonists and showgirls wandering around as well as a kookaburra, snake and parrot! As you can see, I had my cartoon done, - not sure about that nose but the ears are about right!

Met up with TonyTijhuis - the manager of the Burford Bridge Hotel, yesterday to talk about Chamber issues and a project I am working on. I have done weddings and such at the hotel in the past and have always liked it there but it has been very nicely refurbished recently and is well worth a visit for lunch or tea, especially as it is in such a lovely location at the foot of box hill.

Tonight I am going to my local to see Thunderclap Newman - my old friend Tony will probably know them....by the way Tony - check out Blue October - especially the album Foiled - you will like it! Hi too to wee Sian, hope you are ok, and Blue up in Scotland - have a good weekend all, ...whats left of it anyway.

secret celeb shoot!!

I had a lovely shoot today, the results of which will hopefully end up in a well known national magazine - I will let you know a bit more about it when I get clearance but it was good fun and involved someone very well known!!
Surrey Life came out today, with a nice two page feature on Leatherhead which I am quite proud of! I am having the rest of the day off with my girlfriend who is currently fast asleep on a chair in the corner of the studio - I have not got the heart to wake her though!
anyway off now to get something to eat and make the most of the sun.

Monday morning again - the weeks seem to be flying past at the moment - at least spring seems to be on its way. I went for a walk along the river Mole in Norbury Park yesterday and noticed the buds about to spring. Life is so much better when the sun is out too.

Sad to hear about Jade Goody yesterday - it is nice that she has seemed to have been accepted finally by people for who she was - a lot of people did not like her as she was brash and not that well educated but in fact she was very shrewd and straight forward and I believe very genuine. Now people have seen that she was actually very courageous and that the reasons for doing things the way she did were actually largely very selfless - she has raised the awareness of cervical cancer by a huge amount and has caused an increase of smear tests of over 20% which is a hell of an achievement. Lets hope that people do not forget and that lives continue to be saved because of her courage.

I myself had a busy time last week, what started off as a quiet one turned into the opposite and I ended up working quite late most nights to keep up with the editing. I did some work for Which? magazine in Banstead and a couple of local conservative councillors came in for their PR shots, thanks mainly I think to my friends David & Sylvia who have been acting as my Public relations officers lately!! On Friday I was up early (not like me) for the Queen Elizabeth Foundation Corporate Golf day at Tyrrells wood - lucky them, the weather was fantastic and it seemed to be a very successful event, I photographed all of the teams as they teed off - Roger Grunsell from Swan Lettings was there with two teammates in dark shades - he looked like he was flanked by minders in his pic. Well done Dave and team for putting on such a good event and I hope you raised plenty of wonga.

Sadly we have another casualty in Leatherhead shop wise as 'Inside' closed on saturday - they are re locating in Walton on Thames leaving an empty gap at the front of the Swan Centre. Not good! lets hope it is filled soon. I noticed that finally the old Dawson Strange studio in Cobham is going to have tenants again - this time as a restaurant - it will be a strange experience (pun intended) eating in what was my old place of employment. Also I believe Pizza Express are moving back into Cobham soon. However if you really want to eat out the place to be is the Vecchia Trattoria or the Tatty Vicc as we locals like to call it here in Leatherhead - they are experimenting with dancing on odd nights now as well as having a quiz night on a thursday - the food is great and remember you will be supporting a local independent business rather than a big chain so go and see Chris and Susan in there and keep trade local!!

Finally my music tip for the week is Pete Doherty's new album - Grace/Wastelands, which is surprisingly good, not the grungy haphazard stuff you would expect from him but melodic and well written tunes that actually show that he has some talent and it is not all about drugs and Kate Moss, best track is 'Last of the English Roses' - my good friend Tony, will be off to Spotify now to check that one out!

Weekend off!

For the first time in absolutely ages I have had the whole weekend off. On Saturday I went fishing with three pals at Bury Hill near Dorking. The weather was good and I expected a day of ribbing as I had very basic tackle - 2 rods (one from argos), no high tec equipment and just lug worms and sweetcorn on a feeder with a bit of groundbait. The others were using state of the art carp rods with specialist baits and all sorts of stuff, they also had alarms telling them when fish were biting wheras I had a snapped twig balanced on the line on one and a clothes peg on the other. Just goes to show though that the basic way often works best as between us we caught seven fish and five of them were caught by me!! What a victory! I have to say I was a little chuffed! Catch of the day was my nice five pound tench (good size for a tench!) .

Yesterday was spent driving round Surrey making the best of the weather for a bit of landscape photography with my girlfriend. Being a keen photographer herself and having a more creative eye than me it was nice to be challenged and also nice to do it for fun rather than money.
We stopped for a coffee in Cafe Rouge in Reigate and took in the Stepping Stones on the Mole, and Newlands Corner near Guildford before heading back to Fetcham for a chicken dinner and a movie.
All in all it was a very chilled weekend and I have arrived in work today feeling much more able to deal with the stresses I normally face on a monday. maybe I should take weekends off more often.

Sad about Jade Goody, much as many people including me feel she is in the middle of a media circus and that it is painful to watch - you have to admire her courage and my heart goes out to her - lets hope that the good she has done in making people aware of the dangers of not having scans continues as her legacy and that she is allowed some peace from the media over the next few days, I know Max is doing his best to keep it as as well managed as possible.

Lets hope the weather continues like it is, it is very sunny today and about time too - I think we have all had just about enough of the bad weather for one year - heres to a tropical summer!!
time for a visit to Costa me thinks!!

Eyebrow raising in Leatherhead and Bods in Bookham

What a week it has been! Since my last blog I have not stopped. On Saturday evening I went to The Touraid Dinner and Dance which was a charity event to raise money for kids to come over from other countries and build relationships over here using Rugby as the catalyst. (http://www.touraid.org/) Max and Jo were there as were many members of the Harlequins Rugby Club and the auctioneer was John Inverdale. Pics are on my site and a big thank you to Carine and her family who bid for one of my home sittings and raised £500 for the charity.

On Monday I was in London covering a Women's enterprise task force event for Seeda at Canada House in Trafalgar square. and on tuesday, amongst other things I was at The Children's Trust in Tadworth with Louis Mariette and Gladiator, Trojan whio were there producing a promotional film for the London Marathon. We had a great time with the kids who were an inspiration. As always when working with children who are sick or injured, it amazes me how brave they are - they do not moan and winge like we adults often do, they just get on with it.

Tuesday night was an informal networking meeting for the Chamber of Commerce and I have to say that it was the food that stole the show - the evening was a big success with lots of networking going on in a very relaxed and friendly manner but Mary and Keith at the Running Horse did us proud with a magnificent spread. Thank you for a huge effort which was well appreciated by all. The evening continued afterwards with a couple of drinks and an impromptu performance of how not to walk in a straight line by Rocket Ron!

Last night was a little bit different than I am used to. I was booked about a year and a half ago to do a presentation for Bookham Camera Club and it has come around a lot quicker than I expected. Needless to say I have spent a large part of the last week collating images and preparing a powerpoint. I arrived at the venue in Bookham early and I was very nervous - I do not normally suffer from nerves when having to speak but I usually have a camera to hide behind and also this was a 2 hour long presentation to people who were pretty knowledgeable about my field so it was a daunting task. I need not have fretted though, they were a very friendly bunch and I found myself enjoying it, nobody fell asleep or tried to escape and I feel quite honoured to have been invited. I am looking forward to seeing one of their exhibitions soon and maybe doing more of these types of things in the future. It has been good practise for the upcoming Denbies events too. Thanks for having me along guys and thanks too for your donation to Rainbow Trust.

Finally for now, I have to share a little video with you. You will have no doubt seen the great dairy milk advert set in a photographers studio where the two kids wiggle their eyebrows to music - well two pals of mine - Andy and Andras decided to try and replicate it down the pub last week. here is the result -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zW0NZdHVeY .......enjoy!

Defragging my internals!!

Recently my Pc's have been working very slowly and I have been getting more and more frustrated with the lack of speed, so my friend Andy Hill - local computer genius came in this lunch time to have a wee looksee. Hm, apparantly defragging your pc is quite a basic but necessary task...not something I have done for a while, and this seems to be what is causing the hold ups. I have to say I did feel a little ignorant watching him at work, I have been left instructions to de fragg my externals as well - sounds painful! Andy also managed to speed up my photoshops performance which will save me no end of time.
Thanks Andy for doing that for me - you are a top banana!
I have a bit of a fuggy head this morning - I had a few beers with Dick Jones and Andy last night and am suffering a bit today - why cant they invent beer that does not give you a hangover?
happy saturday!

Its the weekend already - seems like this week has flown. Highlights had to be seussical the musical, it was so good that I went to see it again without the camera! It seems to have been a huge success and very good for the theatre too. Ex Chelsea manager Scolari was spotted attending one of the performances as were one or two other bods!

I launched a new Leatherhead image gallery as part of this site today too. There are over 300 images so far in it which will be useful for people wanting stuff for media etc. When you watch it in slideshow form it dont half look like a nice town, I think we are so lucky to live here - I can appreciate it especially after living in some right dumps in the past.

Been addicted to the Scripts recent album this week, I got hold of that and the U2 album and although the U2 one was good, I found myself listening to the Script more. My reccommendation for this week though is to go and see the film Gran Torino featuring Clint Eastwood - absolutely brilliant film with a great soundtrack from Jamie Cullum too. Another of my fave albums at the moment is the soundtrack to the film Once - not a bad film but the soundtrack is what makes it - anyone who was into the Commitments will love it as it features one of the cast and is set in Dublin.

Today I had a steroid injection in my hand to treat a trunkated tendon, hurt like hell and is quite swollen now - think I will be heading off to the pub shortly for some comfort juice. Have a great weekend all and happy birthday Nic at Rainbow Trust who is 40!!! not far off that myself - another 4 months is all - cripes!

My God its sunny!!

There is a definate spring feel today - the sky is blue and apart from the fact I am knackered from working till 2am this morning I am in a reasonably upbeat mood!
Yesterday I was at the American Community School in Cobham photographing the rehearsals of Seussical the musical which they are performing at the Leatherhead Theatre this week. I have to say the whole performance was superb and anyone going to see it this week is in for a treat.
Good luck to everyone involved...costumes are excellent too by the way...well done Marit!

I went fishing at the weekend with my good friend Andras, it was the frst time this year and it was great to get some fresh air and relax for a while. Sadly I did not catch anything this time but I spent most of the time watching about 6 herons arguing/nestbuilding/mating/fighting etc - it was fascinating. I also did not realise how loud woodpeckers were, one was hammering away above my head making some din. That's probably what scared the fish off!

This week is a particularly busy one for me with a couple of interesting jobs in the pipeline, hopefully the weather will stay good! Tonight is a reception at Pennyhill Park with Martin Johnson, which should be fun.
I have to say a big get well soon to my little friend Sian Tolfree who is not well again. Sian was supposed to attend a charity quiz night last night to present a cheque but was too unwell to go, I hope you are feeling better today Shorty!
I suppose I had better get some work done eh!