We Had The Night of Our Lives ...

Hello there! Many "Thanks" for all your kind comments on my last post and "Hello" to a new follower. I have certainly enjoyed the Photography Course and would recommend it. It helped me not only to better understand the camera and its capabilities but it also mentally helped me - being so ill last year with Glandular Fever and secondary infections as it made me have a reason to get out of the house.The course was through an Adult Education Centre and cost £120 for 10 two hour sessions. Worth the money, I think.

Anyhow, what did we get up to on Saturday - Do you know where we were from the above photo?

We were at Wembley Arena - not to watch a football game. Oh, no we were here to see Robbie Williams and his support act, Olly Murs.

This photo was taken on Sunday morning as being so excited the day before I had forgotten! KP is a huge Olly Murs fan and I regretted never having seen Robbie or Take That live when I bought the Robbie Live at Knebworth CD many years ago.

I'm not one of these people who can stand in one spot for hours on end so we ended up paying more money but we did have comfy seats! Most of the time we weren't seated though as we danced our way through the evening.

KP was enthralled with Olly and sang along to his hits songs - Troublemaker in particular, was a favourite.

In the bouncy ball there was a camera so that members of the crowd could later see themselves at Wembley when they accessed Olly Murs Twitter Page. I think that's what he said anyways!

And then Olly Murs left the stage and there was a huge silence and then some yellow smoke appeared.

And Robbie emerged down a zip wire singing none other than - Let Me Entertain You!

And boy entertain us he did. Vocally they were both brilliant but Robbie is a showman too and had the audience in the palm of his hand.

The Robbie face turned into a monkey as he sang - Me and My Monkey.

And then the face turned back into Robbie's and he sang his last song - Angels. As he left the stage the crowd were still singing for at least another five minutes. We sang all the way back to our hotel.

If he ever tours again, we will be first in the queue for tickets.

What else has been happening - well, on our way home on Sunday we stopped at B&Q to buy some paint. Last week I had painted our shed which then made the garage side door look grubby, not to mention the back and front door. So we selected a colour - pillar box red and I have been busy painting and received some assistance from Charlie!

As KP commented when she came home from school yesterday and witnessed this new look - "It looks as if Charlie has dip dyed his beard!"

On Monday night as I was asleep I was awoken to a strange noise - half bark, half howl. I initially thought that it was some youths in drink who were trying to get Charlie and George to bark as sometimes happens on the weekend. Charlie and George however remained completely silent which is unlike them. The noise continued for some time so I thought that I would get up to see what it was - I peered through the curtains and couldn't believe my eyes - there in front of me an animal with a pointy face and pointy ears and a long bushy tail - a fox, making that noise at our cat, Poppy who seemed non-plussed by it all.

I tried to wake the OH up but he was in a deep slumber. So, I watched - the cat went and tucked herself underneath the OH's car next to one of the front tyres. Then to my amazement another fox appeared. I was now getting a bit apprehensive about Poppy but didn't know quite what to do. I was just about to make a noise to try and scare them away when both foxes about turned and ran off and into a nearby housing estate.

The first fox that I saw was huge. The second one was smaller but not a cub. We have lived here for over 15 years and I've never seen foxes outside the house before. I hope this does not become a regular occurrence.

I asked the OH the following day why he thought the dogs hadn't whimpered let alone barked. His reply - "They were probably cacking themselves!" There's not a lot you can say to that!

Until next time,

June.

Photography Class ...

Hello there! Many "Thanks" for all your comments on my last post. Some of you asked what happens to the art - it is painted over by another street artist! Sometimes the works are there for quite a long time and others a matter of days only. Artists from all over the world participate - artists frequently travelling thousands of miles to paint on the streets of London. We usually therefore try and go up to Brick Lane three or four times a year and there has always been many different artworks.

On to other things - on Tuesday I attended the last Photography Course lecture. The above photo was taken the week before shortly before I fell flat on my face! I have incorporated photos from the two lessons as a memento. Although I would rather forget the session where I flew in the air and crash landed face first!

We were at a place called The Silent Pool near Guildford. It is called The Silent Pool as the story goes that King John on his horse abducted a woodcutter's daughter who was forced into the deep water and drowned. The Pool has also been linked to  the crime writer Agatha Christie who infamously disappeared in December 1926, it was feared that she had drowned in The Silent Pool after her car was discovered at nearby Newlands Corner.

With me around it didn't stay silent for very long.

This photo was the one I took just before the fall - it's not even a good photo. The water has been blurred through the use of a slow shutter speed.

On Tuesday of last week the class was at the home of one of the class members. The plan was to take photos of plants in her garden and then have some lunch - each member having brought something with them to contribute to the meal.

The bee to the right was very aggressive towards other bees. It would lie dormant and then when another bee landed it would get all vicious. I've never seen bees behaving like that before!

This is a moss rose. I'd never even heard of it before.

The classes have been quoting from "Miranda" - "Such fun" - we all agreed that we should meet up after the Summer Holidays to go and shoot together - photographically speaking! A date has been set for September, I do hope that we stick to it!

This weekend was brilliant - we went up to London to a concert. More on that next time.

Here's hoping that the good weather lasts.

June.

A Trip to London ... We Visit Brick Lane and Shoreditch

Hello there. I'll start with the usual customary "Thanks" for your comments on my last post. I have had a few computer related problems this week - I have tried to leave comments on some of the blogs that I follow but the computer has for whatever reason said "No". On certain blogs this has not been a problem. That's technology for you!

Anyhow, I'd better do a post about our recent trip to London, not that recent any more - it will be two weeks tomorrow! What with my fall and the computer glitches I have been a bit disillusioned with writing a post. I'm well on the mend now - purple bruises are now a yellow colour!

It was strange going up to London on the train without KP. She was away in Cheshire with the school for the weekend - plenty of fun outdoor activities to celebrate the end of the exams. There were tears when the results came back - she'd done really well in all subject apart from Maths. I was the same, Maths was like an alien language. The OH has bought those revision type books that you can get - as she'll need to hone her skills over the Summer holidays. Poor KP!

We arrived in London and as it was early in the morning we found a cafe to have a crepe and coffee - as you do!

We then walked around Brick Lane and Shoreditch looking for some new street art.

I will let the art do the talking!

Near to the above there is a car park and we have always been allowed to walk in and take photos as there are a lot of work on the car park walls. This time we came across an obnoxious car park attendant and some thuggish looking security guards. The car park attendant told us that we couldn't come in, the OH offered to pay the equivalent of parking a car but the guy said really aggressively "This is private property - Get Out!" The OH asked who we could contact to see if we could get permission. He said, "It's me and you can't come in!" The four or so security guards then started getting closer to us so we decided to leave pretty sharpish! A real jobsworth. It left me quite shaken.

There was a lot of new street art to see which took my mind off the nasty incident in the car park.

Did she or didn't she?

I was just about to take the photo when the pigeon marched into the shot!

Caught in the act!

We wandered slightly further than we normally do and came across this artwork.

Someones bed for the night.

As you can see there was a lot of new stuff so it didn't really matter that we weren't allowed in the car park. The OH did pose the question though that if only those with a car could get into the car park how did the street artists get in? We must have walked about four miles in total - and we were peckish, so had to stop in Brick Lane for a curry!

We then caught a taxi to Trafalgar Square, did a bit of people watching in the sun before heading towards Waterloo Bridge to catch the train home from the station at Waterloo.

That was our day in London - thoroughly enjoyable apart from the nasty car park moment!

Sorry - should have warned at the beginning that there were lots and lots of photos. If you've stayed till the end - I hope you liked what you saw!

Until next time,

June.