Yeah … so almost 7 months have passed since I last tried doing something with this website.

Since then, I got laser eye surgery, went to Korea, came back from Korea, moved house, and set up a photography site for my piccies. The last bit is what encouraged me to get back in here.

The first bit you can read about in a post. The other stuff … well you’ll just have to wait for that. There *is* a Korea post in the offing, but I’ve been working on it on and off for a considerable amount of time.

You CAN however look at alllll the pretty pictures (there are some of me, so those don’t count as pretty pictures, before anybody sues me for retinal damage) that I took whilst there, plus a whole bunch of others. I’m particularly pleased with the portraits.

Either click the Gallery link above or to the right, or mash your mouse right on THIS FAT ARSE LINK HERE. BOOM.

That’s it for now. More to follow! At … some … point …

Yeah … probably could have been more descriptive, but sometimes stupid simplicity is the best way.

Thesis, the theme that this site runs, has just been updated, and now you can click the images to the right of this post to follow them to larger, better quality versions.

Good eh? Two of them don’t go anywhere, because their large-sized bretheren aren’t on Flickr, but you can’t have everything.

Not a musing (read: rant) this time, you’ll be glad to see

I just scrolled down and saw my post Making a Mark. Posted on June 6th, it was borne out of a desire to do something with my life (a recurring theme of mine that ebbs and flows like a very sporadic tide) and a decision to make that something photography.

Since then I sold my Canon S3 IS, and purchased a Canon EOS 450D. The full bananas. I thought if I was going to do it, I may as well do it properly. Digital Photography, that is. Besides it’s not like I spend my money on having a life or anything (sorry, but it’s pretty much true) so I might as well splurge a bit from time to time (in monetary terms, that is).

It’s an amazing camera, and despite myself I have actually managed to get a few decent pictures here and there. I don’t have a decent macro lens though, and I remembered when I was just trying to take some pictures of a dragonfly that I actually really like macro photography. Something to go on the list I guess.

The money that I’m not spending or putting into a pension ISA (see, I do have sensible grown-up plans other than just buying shiny toys) is being saved for a new car. I like my current car, but it’s rapidly approaching 100,000 miles and is realistically too big for my needs. More often than not it’s just me in the car, so I have absolutely no requirements for a family hatchback …

Originally I was looking at the second-hand market, but the Fiat Grande Punto caught my eye, with Fiat’s 0% 3 Year Finance deal. It’s an attractive looking car, with hints of Maserati in the styling, and over the last few weeks I specified the exact model that I wanted (pretty much the top of the range with all the toys ) and there were only two sticking points.

Firstly, I hadn’t decided what colour I wanted and secondly (and more importantly) I hadn’t actually sat in one, let alone driven one. The reviews spoke of a great little car, but with a cheap interior and loose gearbox.

Now I like quality (which is why I tend to buy the more expensive of any option given) and I like a nice crisp gearchange in a car, or at least something positive. This morning I took a trip to Newport to take a look.

They had a GP model, the one below the model I would want (the Sporting) in the colour I would probably have it in (red), so I took a seat inside and had a look around. I thought that maybe the reviews were being overly harsh and, as a driver of a 10 year old car, I’d find the plastics and trim pretty damn good.

I was mistaken.

The steering wheel (leather stitched) was a joy to hold compared to the one in my car, and the instrument cluster was smart, but the rest of the interior really fell short. All the buttons felt incredibly cheap and almost soft, not in the ’soft touch plastics’ way but in the ‘this might fall apart when you need to use it’ way. The gearbox also felt really loose – I was sitting still, but I don’t imagine it would get much better on the road.

Overall I came away with a fairly negative impression. I could take a test drive and maybe should, but now I’m going back to the second-hand market.

I found that, instead of paying £15,000 over three years, I could get the Punto through Broadspeed.com for about £12,000. This didn’t involve a finance deal, but I can borrow that money at agreeable terms.

So, what can I get for that money on the second-hand market? A BMW 320 diesel coupe, that’s what. OK, so I don’t get any dealer perks, and the car will have mileage, but provided I do my research and buy a good example, I’ll be getting more car and – most importantly – a much higher level of quality for my money.

And in the end, I’m all about maximising my investment if I can maximise my enjoyment at the same time.

It’s a Bank Holiday!
So naturally I spend a Friday evening doing what I could probably do in my spare day off …

I’ve added more photos (some slightly tweaked) to my Flickr page. Pictures from this year’s Bristol Balloon Fiesta and the British Motorshow have been added.

I’ve also updated the Gallery page. It now has a link to my Collections at Flickr instead of just random images. Check ‘em out