EH - Keeping on track. (AKA focus Woman! FOCUS!)

EssexHebridean

Ahhh...the beauty of being self catering is that only one load of dirty stuff comes back with us - we throw washing through each time we have a load while we're up there - works well that way, I've always hated that thing of coming home to several days of the machine having to run daily, we're so limited on drying space, too! I'm generally quite a "get on with it" person with any sort of unpacking though - when we moved into the flat I had all the boxes dealt with within a few days - I hate having things like that lingering about!

EssexHebridean

...and so much for being organised - wanted to get back into the routine of getting the washing machine on every second day, but totally forgot until I got into bed last night...and no, I didn't get up and put the load on then!

We did tackle the financial Ombudsman form for the complaint against Virgin Money last night though - MrEH now has the printed and signed form to add some additional information to and he'll send it off today. Now the finger-crossing starts! It would be grand if we *could* get the account "wound back" to the beginning of last year when they first started changing our contractual payment...and so far as we can see there is nothing in the T's & C's of our product that should allow them to do that, so...

I'm on my last working day this week too....:T...off to RAF Scampton tomorrow as the Reds are doing an In-Season-Practise tomorrow afternoon - staying up there overnight too - lovely pal offered me a bed for the night - so I can see the one they also have planned for Friday! :j VERY exciting, first time I'll have seen the "proper" display with the coloured smoke trails and everything, and hopefully means I can get my eye-in a bit with the camera before the show at Biggin Hill on Saturday - I've actually paid for a ticket to go into that one.

We're looking into another bulk-purchase of meat too - looking at a goat this time, we've always done lamb before. We figure we may as well do it while we've still got spare space in the freezer.

EssexHebridean

Quick heads up for anyone who might be in the right place to see also...Saturday - the Queens Birthday Flypast will be forming up over the Suffolk coast and passing over Ipswich and North Colchester before making a slight adjustment fractionally north to run in to central London - should pass over Chelmsford too. You stand a good chance of seeing them as it's a pretty big formation - eyes to the skies! (Several old Warbirds (Hurri/Spit/Dakota and hopefully the Lancaster if she's fixed in time) modern Typhoons & Tornados, few of the RAF's bigger beasts then the Red Arrows bringing up the rear. Should all be happening 12.30 - 13.00 I believe - the Reds will then be turning back to head across to Biggin Hill where they're landing at 13.28)

Hope that helps someone.

Greying_Pilgrim

Oh, what a shame we won't be near that coastline. DP would love to be able to see that *in the moment* as it were.

Still, I'd be frustrated, as I'd be showing folk a pic, with the commentary, 'and those dots, yes, those there, plus there are three teeny ones at the back too, yes, those are the planes taking part in the Queens birthday flypast....' .................:rotfl:

Hope you have a wonderful time and get some magic shots

Greying

EssexHebridean

Thanks Greying - If the weather up in Lincolnshire is anything like as good as here it should be a great couple of days.

starnac

:rotfl: greying yes my shots would be the same.

This way we can "see" them through EH's superb camera work and pretend we were there

EssexHebridean

Aw shucks - I'm all embarassed now!

Epic couple of days - ended up seeing THREE reds displays plus a flypast last night - all in superb weather. Can't ask for more than that! Also came in VERY budget indeed...£4 for food yesterday, and today has been a NSD - was intending to buy my friend lunch but the Reds threw an extra practise display into the mix so we scrapped the idea of that and went to watch them instead! Certainly not complaining!

Pippilongstocking

*waves*

runs off again waving.

Catch up soon.

EssexHebridean

Oh POOR neglected little diary! The last few weeks have been....well hectic is an understatement!

The sun that had shone for the two Lincolnshire days sadly wasn't coming out to play ball for the first half of the show at Biggin Hill the following Saturday - the Reds landed in what can best be described as a sort of murky gloom, and there were umbrellas galore for a while. Photographing planes against a stark white sky is a bit of a no-no generally speaking, so I wandered off to try to see what else there was which might make a picture...Hmmm...what's that....oh, that's where the Reds jets are...and oh look, they're only about 30' away from that perfectly accessible fenceline...! Cue a quite special sort of project taking shape in my head...I'll explain.

"My" sort of photography is really the detail, candid shots, that sort of thing. Some of you know I think that I shot Pippi & TRG's wedding pretty much entirely in candid shots - that thing of finding the detail in things, that's what makes my heart sing more than anything else when I've a camera in my hands. So, my project was to photograph the groundcrew & engineers working, and indeed the jets themselves, and make THEM the focus, rather than the stunning aerobatic moves that the Reds are so famous for. You rarely see those sort of shots - largely because at airshows the jets are often a long way away, and most people are more set on watching the displays than seeing what's happening on the ground - fair enough! Anyway, I got lucky - not only was I able to get a lot of shots from the two publicly accessible areas during the day, at the end of the show, the car-park exit chaos was such that I decided to hold fire on leaving, and wandered back to the jets. FAR more relaxed by then, I was able to get right up close and chat with several of the "Blues" - the groundcrew - as well, and even get several shots of the jets with the sun setting behind them...I processed those over the first few days last week, banged a number out on Twitter and got ready for the weekend just gone - Weston Super Mare airshow on saturday and a quick trip to Bristol airport (where the Reds were parked overnight) to see the jets depart on Sunday. The shots on twitter and elsewhere meanwhile were causing a bit of a stir...

In the few days leading up to the weekend I was chatting via Twitter with one of the engineers I've got to know - a nice chap and we'd finally got to meet for a face to face natter at Biggin Hill. I mentioned going to the airport and he promptly came back with "Well we'll see if we can get you a bit closer so you can get some more photos" - I thought.."Ooh!" but didn't really dare to hope it would happen, which was why when, at 9am on Sunday morning, I was wearing an unflatteringly large hi-vis jacket and walking across to the line of jets having been cleared through airside - I was wearing a HUGE grin! An absolutely amazing 2 hours followed - permission to wander wherever I liked on the line, photos of the jets from as many angles as I could manage, met half the Pilots and several of the other engineers...just a dream come true really and I still have to keep pinching myself to believe it. Seems those "something different" pictures I took at Biggin Hill have grabbed a few folks attention which is always nice, but I really never expected it might lead to a chance like that! Still just absolutely stunned - Twitter's been going barmy - at one stage last night I was getting about 10 notifications a minute of RT's and favourites by folk...and I've picked up about 50 new followers in the last week!

Apologies, this is far from "moneysaving" related I know, but I'm just soooo excited still - I really need to get my MSE head back on too as things are all going to pot...oh dear! Hopefully a more sensible post later on or tomorrow... Hope you lovely folk are all good? I'll try to catch up at some point!

cazmanian_minx

Oh wow, over the moon for you!!