So I spent an afternoon cleaning it and took some photos. Because I’ve realised my front page takes forever to load with too many photos on it, I’ve only posted one photo here, the rest are available through this link which YOU MUST CLICK IMMEDIATELY!!

Peugeot 205 1.9 GTI

So there.

I tried a different approach to the Audi shoot last year, this time I used long exposures of 30 seconds, and triggered two Vivitar 285HV flashes manually by hand at various points around the car to highlight the areas I wanted.

Corsa VXR

Corsa VXR

I also tried to get a decent shot of the interior but I remain rubbish at this. It’s either something I’m doing wrong in taking the shot, or a shortcoming in my post processing skills (or lack thereof).

In other news, sadly although my new whizzy Mesh PC is sufficiently stable to do a little bit of photo editing, it’s not up to the job of performing more strenuous tasks without displaying a blue screen of death and then crashing and like a miserable little stoat poo.

So I’ve got to send it back to Mesh who will no doubt tell me that there is nothing wrong with it and send it back to me still broken.

Also, my replacement camera that was suppposed to take 7-10 days to be delivered has not arrived, a mere 21 days later. Sigh….

It started before Christmas with our central heating boiler spectacularly failing and costing a scorching £440 to repair. Before the repair man had even visited this was closely followed by our shower, meaning we had no hot water and no shower… Another £80 and a lesson in how to fit an electric shower.

Next up the TV gives up. £88 to repair please. Shortly afterwards Sky+HD is installed but takes three weeks before it’s working properly. In the meantime I drop my new camera breaking it "beyond economical repair". Fortunately in this case after a brief battle with the insurance company a new one is on the way.

So when I lend my laptop to a friend to take on holiday, I should have known it would be my main PC that would break next. Naturally this happened the day after we booked a safari holiday to Kenya for later in the year. A new PC is ordered and on the way at a cost that I’d rather not share here but let’s leave it at "a lot".

The only bright side is that with a new camera and PC arriving by the weekend I’ll have that new gadget smell to enjoy for a few days.

In unrelated news for only the second time that I can remember in the past 22 years, it snowed here yesterday. Obviously it’s pretty much all melted now but it was fun whilst it lasted.

Photographing snow means cranking in 3 or more stops of over-exposure to avoid everything looking very grey!

Aside from being overwhelmingly cute and funky, these Fiats are also absurdly specified as standard with all kinds of bluetooth and mp3 whizbangery taking place.

On to the pictures, because frankly no-one cares what I say.

This rig shot is a mixed bag – I’m happy enough with the composition and processing, but I’m gutted I forgot to put the lights on which would have looked much better.

Following our horrorshow attempt to visit Venice earlier this year, I thought we’d seen the last of our travel woes. I was wrong.

Paddington station, 13:00 Sunday afternoon, our train is on the board showing “on time” to leave at 14:03. Then right before my eyes….

Approximately 20 trains all get cancelled at once, and some station announcer clown mumblingly slurs out an incomprehensible sequence of gibberish of which the only bit I could understand was “wait for furhter information”. What I want to know is, what is so special about Birmingham Snow Hill station? ANSWER ME!

I wont mention the mad as a box of frogs lady who cornered me and talked to me for 10 minutes about the voices in her head. Oh wait I just did.

Eventually a train to Taunton leaves, and we scurry down platform 3 only to find we are joined by three quarters of the entire number of passengers waiting to leave Paddington, so the train is packed to bursting point. Cue an hour spent crushed on the floor of the carriage entrance next to a toilet.

Did I mention Sunday was my birthday? Happy Birthday Ben!

London was great though, pictures to follow when I get my films back.

Bonkers loud and 300BHP ensure it’s quite an event to drive, I was tempted to buy it myself but decided I’d stick with my little Fiesta for now until (if? when?) the fuel prices ever go back to a bearable level.

These were taken for Richard over at Performance Car Dreams.

What?

In the last of the “what I did on my holiday” series, I’m going to break from tradition and actually not say anything bad. We were lucky enough to go to Bristol Zoo on one of the three days this summer where the sun came out. So it was a nice day.

Granted it rained at about four in the afternoon but we were already in the car on the way home then.

Bristol Zoo isn’t a bad day out really, although photo opportunities are limited to shooting through glass or long lens stuff. These are all shot with an 80-400 VR lens.

I’ve run out of stuff to say. Until next time, bye!

The only problem with Longleat is that it’s full of shuffling cretins. Normally this particular species of human can be easily avoided or ignored but at Longleat you are continually smashed in the face by acts of sheer moronity (a new word I invented).

Take for example the drooling gibbon lady who stopped her battered old Peugeot 406 to look at the Tigers. Ahh, pretty stripy tigers. BUT YOU ARE BLOCKING TWO LANES OF TRAFFIC YOU UTTER UTTER GOON. So now something like 30 cars have to sit and wait. And wait…. And wait…….

Until the mouth breather and her brood have crushed their faces up against the car windows for long enough and having had their fill of tigers they move on, only to block the entire two lanes a short distance later, ohhhhh… Look at the Wolfies…. droooooooool…

Still the tigers didn’t seem that bothered.

Acts of stupidity such as stopping in doorways and blocking pathways are the norm at Longleat. Luckily I am a calm and balanced person so I wait until I get home then write sarcastic things on the internet because actually saying something to someone just wouldn’t be the correct behaviour for an Englishman.

The best bit of the Safari driving experience has to be the fallow deer – you buy a cup of food, then you feed them and they eat right out of your hand. Look!

As I was taking this photo of a particularly cute deer eating out of my wife’s hand, another impatient chap had his head right in the car trying to find some delicious deer munchies:

Second highlight of the trip was watching a car who felt that the massive queue waiting to see the monkeys didn’t apply to him. Fortunately one cheeky little chappy had a sense of justice and so ripped a couple of trim pieces off that particular car.

Throughout the safari I attached my Nikkor 80-400VR lens to my camera to see what photos of the animals I could get but there ended up being a number of problems, such as focusing through wet glass or through my front windscreen which has a heating element in it. As a result almost all the photos were consigned to the big delete bin in the sky.

The deer photos were taken with a Sigma 10-20mm, the Tiger photo with a Nikkor 80-400VR.

A special mention to the chap with a back seat full of kids who shouted the “C” word out of his car window at another driver. That kind of high quality parenting gives me hope for the future of our country, I salute you sir.