Egg hunting

Kim is always keen to start little traditions for Lily, things we can carry on for years and make certain times of the year a bit memorable. As its Easter Weekend it was Easter Egg hunting time. Its always more fun hunting with a friend so we invited Molly (and her family) over for the morning. Before the rain came in the girls, clutching their goody bags heading into the garden to scavenge for chocolaty treats. A big haul was found by them both and they seemed to really enjoy themselves scurrying round.

Great Friday

Its now a Good Friday tradition that we clamber aboard the Camper and drive over to Rushmoor Arena in Aldershot for Wheels Day each year. Now in its 38th running of the event its a massive gathering of American, Classic, British, Japanese, Volkswagon, Hotrod.....in fact anything goes really. We avoided the mistake of last year when we cruised in late with LTV and spent a couple of hours in a hot queue. This time with Malcs and Family in the Spilt, us and Auntie Nette in the Camper and Steve in his 911 we had a Flat 14 convoy from home. Parked by 8:30 we were noshing on bacon rolls by 9am and walking round soon after. There are probably 2000+ vehicles there and I took a few hundred photos so picking just one is very tricky. But this Dodge Monaco was parked along side us all day so this will do.

Can I have a number 6, number 14 and the duck please

After a couple of long weeks it was the start of a long weekend for Easter. A combination of double bonus and lots of overtime meant a treat was due. So instead of slaving away in the kitchen we walked over to the local Chinese. Kei's is brilliant. We went there when Kim was heavily pregnant to celebrate her due date, secretly hoping the spicy food would speed things up. 11 days later we were able to put that myth to bed! Today was Lilys first sit down Chinese and she made the typical school girl error or filling up on prawn crackers and starters. She just about had room for some duck pancakes before admitting defeat!

Let it snow....again!

After a couple of weeks of blue skies and sunshine I was hoping for more as I headed 250 miles north to Leeds for work. Sadly it was drizzling as I left home but worse was to come. As I joined the M1 at Donnington it turned to snow that began to settle. The traffic got heavier and I decided to pull off to grab some supplies and a prepare myself should I get stuck in it for a while. This is the scene that greeted me as I pulled in to the services. Luckily it didn't get any worse and by the time I was heading home to Reading it was back to sunshine again.

The Cube

Todays jaunt was up to Birmingham. I had some survey work to carry out in a building called "The Cube" Heres what the buildings website says.

Inspired by a visually enchanting jewellery box.

Standing tall on the architectural world stage, The Cube, has transformed Birmingham’s skyline, raised its global profile and signifies a new era in the city’s evolution.

Inspired by the vision of award winning architect, Ken Shuttleworth, this most prestigious landmark building animates the canalside offering cutting edge design and breathtaking views in a designer neighbourhood.

Situated in the thriving Westside district of the city centre neighbouring The Mailbox, the intricate glowing tessellations blanket the exterior façade, to be admired from afar. Inside this fascinating ‘jewellery box’, a rich mix of slick residential apartments, exclusive retail, extensive office space, boutique hotel, private spa, a hi-tech automated car park and the city’s first rooftop restaurant reside.

Paying homage to the city’s jewellery heritage, Ken Shuttleworth and his talented team at Make architects visualised a shimmering structure, hovering above a glazed base with bold, geometric form.

The building twists upwards, creating an asymmetrical lightwell central to the public space. Terracing on the upper levels embraces a gem-like courtyard and internal courtyard spaces are lined with glass.

The Cube now sits comfortably in Ken Shuttleworth’s impressive portfolio, alongside prestigious, world famous architecture such as London’s Swiss Re building widely known as ‘The Gherkin’, Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank and 55 Baker Street. A confident statement for a confident city.

Its certainly different.

Off to the Lomo lab

I used the last few shots from my DianaF+ this afternoon and set about getting them processed. After the failed attempts at BOOTS I've opted for the Lomo lab in London. They can cross process to give the vivid colours and contrasts, they can print to the edge of the negative so the sprocket holes will be visible and they can scan them in as well. All for £16. I've applied for the packaging to send them off then its a case of wait and see. The added bonus is they upload them online so I get them quicjer before the prints arrive back.

Edit: The last few shots were round the house. I still need to work on the flash and getting the most from the style of photos the camera should produce. I feel a change of film to something with a higher ISO may help a bit too

Keep on running

For the first time we had somebody to cheer on in the Reading Half Marathon today. Two people in fact. Kims cousin, Jo was running as was Lynette. A work friend. With several thousand people coming past its very difficult to spot anyone you know, eyes flick back and forward like a barcode scanner looking for the right colour number and then checking the faces to confirm. It was tricky and we missed getting a nice shot of Jo as she sped past in a big group. Luckily Nette was in a part of the massive group that had thinned out a tiny bit and with lots of pairs of eyes we saw her with a few seconds to spare. She was smiling as she passed by and with good reason. Her target time was about two and half hours and she completed it in 2hrs 33 mins.