Today is a good day for a Hull City supporter!

Absolutely delighted today that Hull City remain a premier league team even though it was by the narrowest of margins! All the worry and uncertainty of the last 2 months is gone. It is a good time for Hull City supporters and the city of Hull! Happy days...........

Thinking abroad and sunset

Apologies for leaving my blog as a desolate wilderness of abandonment for the last month! I have not been up to much since my last post other then playing friends at Scrabble and Chess on Facebook, taking photo's of the 'Hull Hornets' American football team for their website, attending a few nights out and hitting the gym everyday after work, and worrying a little bit about 'Hull City's position in the Premiership.

I have been thinking more and more about going abroad, and since a friend of mine has been posting fantastic pictures of his wonderful adventures backpacking around the far east on Facebook, I have been getting insanely envious and I am making going abroad for the first time, my number one priority. I have the remaining amount to pay for my Hull City season ticket next payday, making me skint next month, but the payday after that I will be applying for my passport and saving for three or four days in Bruges. A town I have wanted to visit since watching the movie 'In Bruges' a film I like very much. I hope this will be the first of many little adventures abroad.

Speaking of films, I went to see Star Trek at the cinema last Monday, very enjoyable and really would recommend it!

I am making good progress at the gym, I have gone from having skinny weak arms, man boobs and a beer belly, to having a flat stomach and actual muscles. Last Monday I started a diet specifically for building muscle and losing fat and in just one week I have lost 1 kilogram in weight. But there is still much to be done...more muscles and an 8 pack on my stomach before I will be happy.

I have a long weekend in Whitby booked with friends in about a month which I am looking forward to, and tonight I am going to a local nightclub to watch my friends band 'The Strands' play a gig! So I'll leave it at that for now, and just share these sunset pictures I took from the landing window a few nights ago!

Trying my hand at sports photography

This morning I went to watch the 'Hull Hornets' American Football team in their final training session before the season starts next week.
I'm a big fan of American Football and watch as much NFL as I can. Later this year I will be going to Wembley, to watch the NFL international game, were I will be supporting the underdogs the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who will be taking on the New England Patriots.
My friend Mark plays for the Hornets (who play in the NFL endorsed 'British American Football League' ) and he asked me if I would become the teams official match photographer.
I have never done any sports photography before, so I though it would be interesting to have a go. So I went to the training session to get some practice before the real games start. It was an interesting experience and I am mostly pleased with the results. I took around 130 photo's and only about 10 of them were blurred and needed deleting when I checked them out on my PC later.

A bird shot for Bazza

It's a poor photo but can you enlighten me?

Scafell Pike - The Lake District

After allowing just one day recovery, from being laid in bed exhausted and full of Cold, I set off for the lake district with my friend and colleague Alex to climb Scafell Pike, which is the largest "mountain" in England at 978m. I was in relatively good company with Alex, he had recently climbed mount Elbrus in Russia which stands at around 5642m. REMEMBER TO CLICK ON THE IMAGES!!!

We set off from Hull at 6am to get an early start, arriving at Wasdale Head at 10am. That gave me a little bit of time to look around for some nice photo's, but I instantly wished I had brought my tripod for som HDR shots.

The photo's have uploaded in a random way, this one is when we finished the climb, back at the 'Wasdale Head Inn' for a pint of the local beer.

The descent is a tiring one, not much in the way of flat solid ground causing a lot of jarring of the knees.

A nice little stream which we followed down the mountain.

We stopped at this big rock during the descent, even though we were tired because it looked cool and fun.

Me at the summit...IT WAS BLOODY WINDY AND VERY VERY COLD, THAT'S WHY I'M SHOUTING!!!

The large 6 ft Cairn at the summit of Scafell Pike.

Me looking knackered about 100m from the summit....yeah I'm OK to carry on...just..give...me..a minute...to catch my breath!

There be snow in these hills!

A view of the 'Wasdale Head Lake' (the deepest lake in England) whilst climbing the hill we didn't need to climb!

Who would think that when we reached the top, we would have to go down the other side and up another valley to get the track we needed!

Alex (and me) having a well earned rest during the ascent, time for some water and a bite to eat.

Alex

Jazz getting me through

Listening to some Jazz on my day off work, I'm full of cold but I have plenty of Jazz to get me through. Miles Davis and John Coltrane to be precise...Bitches Brew, A love Supreme, On The Corner and Interstellar Space! I still have 'Birth of the Cool' and 'A Kind of Blue' to go!

I'll catch up with you lovely peoples soon!

Barbershop Quartet

Purely for self amusement, I have been trying to convince a few of the guys at work to form a Barbershop Quartet with me, and just to show them how dapper we would look, I did a quick mock up of the four of us on Photoshop. From left to right, Grant, Me, Mark and Dean...check me out, looking sublime on that stool! :)