Tag: blogging

B239 – MY FIRST HOMEWORK CLUB

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Welcome to the fun life of Josh, today I left the flat for no more than about 15 minutes, and the highlight of the day was posting a letter to HMRC. Wow, I really have lived today like its my last, Im now sat at the table with amy while we power through “Homework club” that was we call sitting at the table pretending to do work and complaining at Capital FM’s constant replaying of Rita Oras song or some advert that gets played every 10 minutes. Please capital FM stop replaying the same music and adverts. Also can we all just appreciate the fact that amy is using a 2009 Macbook, Im surprised this thing still turns on.

Anyway Homework club is going well we only have like another 10 minutes maybe and then we can sit  down and watch a film. To day has been pretty productive which is a good thing, Ive managed to get done everything I needed too, the only problem is I haven’t taken any photos, so im going to use a few snaps from a recent trip to Spitalfeilds late at night. if your not too sure where that is, its this market in between Liverpool street and Brick lane, its this kind of quirky / cool or as my mum would say “hip” place where you can buy anything from an antique vase all the way too a vegan beef burger. well at night this market all of a sudden becomes empty apart from the odd drunk city worker trying to find the tube station or a market stall clearing up for the day. What Spitelfeilds market have done is install these massive spot lights in the roof, so every few meters you get this cool circle pattern on the floor, which when people walk past create these cool shadows and the light bounces off in different directions and make a normal pedestrian look like some rock n roll star about to walk on stage.

Anyway here are some photo I took the other day, I hope you like them.

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– my first ever home work club, nice laptop Amy   – 
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– this guy should have this photo has his profile picture –  
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– this was a shop window on Brick lane, kind of has a cool feel to it –

B237 – SPINACH AND CHICKPEA CURRY – WELL WORTH IT.

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Sunday. The plan was to have a proper chilled Sunday and do nothing, just watch TV and eat food. and thats exactly what we did, only this time I decided to test my cooking skills and see what I could make. After searching the app Yummly we came across a spinach and chick pea curry. It has turned out to be one of my favourite dishes, Ive even got left overs for today and trust me I will be eating them!

I really want to learn how to cook more dishes, its something I actually really enjoy and as some one who lives in London, cooking at home saves you a ton of money, we brought all the ingredients but now we have them if we want to make this dish again, we literally only need to buy chick peas and some potatoes, thats literally dinner for under £2 and trust me it is so worth it.

Heres a list of the ingredients I used and the instructions, trust me give this one a cook and let me know what you think.

Oh my top tip is give the potatoes a little boil before you put them in the pan.

1 tablespoon ghee (or sunflower oil)
1 onions (large, finely chopped)
3 large garlic cloves (finely chopped)
1 piece fresh ginger (peeled and finely chopped)
3 teaspoons curry powder
2 teaspoons Garam Masala
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
380 grams chickpeas (drained)
390 grams chopped tomatoes
4 potatoes (medium sized, 300g, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes)
500 milliliters vegetable stock
1/2 teaspoon salt
100 grams fresh spinach
Directions
  1. Heat the ghee/oil in a large pan. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook until softened.
  2. Add all the spices and cook for a further 1 minute.
  3. Add the chopped tomatoes, chickpeas, potatoes, salt and about half of the vegetable stock. Stir well and simmer gently for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked adding more stock as needed.
  4. Add the spinach and cook for a further couple of minutes or until the spinach has wilted.

It literally took about 30 minutes to make. easy.

I got all this information from the Yummly App, it linked me to a different website called http://www.mygoldenpair.com check out that place for even more recipes.

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– it looked a bit bland till you put the spinach in, but trust me this was worth it –
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– got to get the food shot at the end –
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– this dish has really made me want to cook more –

 

 

B235 – 5000 CALORIES IN ONE NIGHT

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Yesterday was the first time in ages that ive had “that friday feeling” and today being saturday morning I have that “horrible hangover feeling” but I cant stop and moan I have a proper ikea mission first.

Any way back to yesterday, it was a bit of a gamble to be honest, I had been stuck at my kitchen table all day working on my laptop, just getting stuff done, even though its a day not at work I try to treat everyday like a work day, other wise ill spend the time watching a Netflix series or something which is never good. my aim is to always be out of bed by 9am and always do something productive and yesterday was no exception apart from the afternoon bath, which by the way was amazing.

It got to around 4 / 5pm and I started to think about my plans for that evening, there was talk for Winter wonderland in hyde park, I was adamant that its still to early to celebrate Christmas so it was a No from me, I would just meet charlotte and stay in East London.

After a few beers and a few more phone calls, we are all on our way to Winter wonderland, who would of guessed! and what a great decision that was, I hadn’t seen a lot of the people there in ages and im not really sure what happened after the first hour or so it gets abit blurry. I do know how ever I eat way to much food, 1 hot dog, 1 Calzone Pizza and a Mcdonalds and some Pasta. What was I thinking, this morning I feel like ive put on about 2 stone and eat like 5000 calories in the space of 4 hours.

anyway here are my photos from last night.

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– I think Aaron was happy to see me –
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– just dave drinking from a bird bowl or maybe a water tap, im just not too sure –
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– this is the perfect meeting place for anyone at Winter wonderland –

B232 – GOOD BYE SHANG HAI!

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Today I leave shang hai and head back to london, im looking forward to getting home and looking back at all these photos Ive taken and getting the posts online, I hope you all are still reading these and wont abandon me.

this place is pretty cool and completely different to anywhere Ive been before, its a completely new culture that ive kind of seen, I wish I had more time to see this city. im now on the coach to the airport and looking out the window at the Bullet train tracks. the bullet train is chinas answer to high speed rail way travel. this thing goes like like 200 mph and travels along these futuristic train tracks which use like 1 mile long bends. its literally a thing of the future, I love the idea of the future and people creating inventions to make life easier and more exciting. the next few years I genuinely think china will over take the west and lead the technology race, if you have over 6 billion people in one country how can they not.

this country is a place I still cant work out if I would like to come back and visit on holiday or if I would only come here for work, I just cant decide. china is a massive place and I like to think ill be back to explore but truthfully Im just not sure.  I think ill only know a few weeks down the line when I think back to what its been like and what Ive experienced. right now im pretty hungover from an amazing wrap party 87 stories up at the top of the hotel and all I want todo is eat a mcdonalds and fall asleep on the plane home.

for now heres some photos from my past week in this amazing city!

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– This guy was just happy to be a live –
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– the bullet train tracks, I wish I went on this –
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– as im posting this in the future, hes a photo from the plane –

B231 – JUST A DOG WEARING SHOES

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It’s weird not posting these each day, I’m not really enjoying it. I love following the stats and getting to see what people think of my photos, it’s one of those things if I post each day I really try and set my self a brief for each day, ie something to concentrate on, but at the moment I’m just snapping shots when I can.

Not really sure if that’s a good idea, but at the moment it’s the best I can do.

Today is show day and I can now say that I’m working on Victoria Secrets Fashion show in Shanghai!!!! The rule of posting photos still stands, so if your expecting to see Back stage photos of Super modes wearing underwear and wings. This is the wrong place, instead I can offer a shot of a dog wearing shoes.

One thing has really surprised me is that amount of bikes that are in the city and the comparison to London. A few months back someone introduced this public bike scheme where you can pick up these yellow bikes via an App and then drop it off where ever you want, two days later the bikes had been destroyed, seats stollen and wheels buckled. Not in China, they literally have exactly the same bikes but times a thousand, there are hundreds on every street and not a buckled wheel in sight. China is this country where people stick to rules and one of the coolest things is everyone has a job (apparently). From what I saw which to be fair is very little, the streets are cleanish and there’s this proper hustle and bustle about this place, it feels like a super power city and I suppose that’s exactly what this place is. 10 years time and Shanghai will be this place with hovercrafts and jet packs, I promise you!

 

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– Victoria Secretes fashion show 2017 –
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– one of the weirdest buildings Ive ever seen –
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– just a dog wearing shoes –

 

B229 – THIS FEELS WEIRD!

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i don’t like the fact I cant post everyday, feels weird not sitting down in the evening or morning and posting a blog,  or even having a coffee and thinking about what i can post each day, its a good reason it get up each morning and not just do what everyone else does. its kind of my reason for doing something extra. 

Im kind of looking forward to my plane journey home and being able to sit on the plane for 12 hours with no distractions and just getting these posts up today and posted. today is when the work really ramps up and Im looking forward to getting that feeling of a live event. I think everyone who works in TV gets that feeling when a live event is about to start.

Its so fun being out here and just experiencing Shang hai, the people are really nice and if you don’t laugh at the Language barrier then it could be a problem, got a taxi to a bar last night bit of a problem the taxi driver just drove us around the block for 45 minutes before just dropping us back at the hotel reception. 

One thing that is on my list of things to buy is a portable power pack to charge my phone, I need to have a look into them and see what is the best one of buy. its so annoying when your phone dies and you have to plug it into a wall and leave it for 45 minutes. does this mean ive fallen todo the trap of being addicted to my phone?

The other thing that is worrying me is I don’t want to lose motivation to post these photos each day, I really don’t want to lose motivation and stop. Its hard not posting each day because then I fall further and further behind! Stick with it josh! only 130 something days to go!! Bust I suppose if I fly half way around the world to a location like this one below I shouldn’t be able to lose motivation!

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– THIS PLACE IS IN THE MIDDLE OF A CITY! THATS CRAZY –
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– THIS IS A COOL TREE HOUSE –
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– I CHINESSE SKY LIGHT, I WONT IF YOU CAN GET THIS IN BETHNAL GREEN –

B221 – THIS IS BIG NEWS!

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Firstly I just want to say sorry for this post being late, Ive done what everyone needs todo every now and again, have a proper lay in. Not a Jet lag weird sleep thing but a proper lay in, may be it had something todo with the hangover im experiencing at the moment or maybe its just my body enjoying a beautiful Saturday like it deserves.

The big news of today is that Ive done something that Ive wanted todo for a long time but haven’t had the focus to and that gets some prints made of one of my favourite photos. The reason its taken so long is because I didn’t just want to get the prints made straightway, the thing is I know nothing about paper or printing but understand that printing is a massive part of photography so I needed to go and speak with someone to understand more about the paper, geeky I know but who wouldn’t want to spend their lunch hour looking at different types of paper. In the end I went for the Hahnemuhle Pearl paper, which is 285gram per sheet of pure paper magic.

Im not expecting to sell loads of prints and its mainly to keep my parents of moaning at me that I need to get some made so they can put one up in their Living room. its quite exciting though and will be good to know if people actually like my photos I suppose. Ive got three already packaged up and ready to go and another two that might take a bit more time to get out the door, but I promise if you do order one I will get it to you as quick as possible and if you live in London I will personally deliver it to you! and I will also ship anywhere world wide but postage in the UK is free. World wide I’m going to have charge you extra, sorry thats just the way it is.

Heres the link to the print!

https://joshfspear.com/about/prints/

right, any way its now time for a Nandos and kick this hangover.

Get buying people!

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– so happy with how my prints have turned out –
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– me examining paper –
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– this was a good paper, heavy which is better –

 

B218 – BACK TO THE OFFICE

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Back in london now and back to work, but I though it would be a good idea to show some more photos from paris. before I start blabbering on, how good was Amy’s first post yesterday, she got 81 page views in total which for a day is pretty good! we just need to think of a name for her blog now? what are you views on http://www.joshisdabest.com ?

As you read on yesterdays post we spent most of the time walking around just exploring the city and looking for mussels and chips. Paris is on of those cities which Ive been to  fair amount of times but just enjoy going to, I also try and not visit the same place twice until Ive seen enough of the world, but Paris is an exception. I cant go to that city enough, and as its a train ride away from London St. Pancras it literally couldn’t be easier.

But considering im now laying in bed on Wednesday morning trying to think of a good reason to lay here all day, but also knowing that in a few minutes I’ve got to get up and go to work I know that the fun little adventure at the weekend is now well and truly over. Ive decided that todays pictures should be in Black and White because that city looks so good in B&W and also because its no in the past it kind of works quite well for showing off some of the extra sights we saw.

Today Im determined to take my camera to work with me and start showing off some of London on my Lunch Break, see how far away from the office I can on my lunch break or something. Off the top of my head I think I can make it at least 5 miles. wish me luck!

 

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– le eiffel tower –
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– not sure what building this is, I just like the way the road line leads your eye up to it –
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– this is a proper french cafe –

 

 

 

B213 – THE FREEMASONS!

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Dad you’ll like this fact, so where I am in Massachusetts is home to the oldest fraternity in the world. The Freemasons, they literally are from where I am right now, they even have a load of Freemason lodges in the area where if you are part of them you can go a stay. thats pretty cool.

Im not sure if they are the same as we have in the UK but from there website it sounds like they are. Here, its a brotherhood for men to make connections work or life related and be part of “something bigger”.For the people who dont know what the Freemasons are the best way I can describe it, the organisation is a bit like an Adult scout’s group meets Social club. its full of traditions and teaches important life skills, but also it’s there for men to look out for one another. Im not saying I completely agree with this idea, but  it is a part of  our history and something that is still relative to us today i suppose, so we should really at least try to understand it.

Heres their website, have a look and see what you think. I mean if anyone can join and they just have a good time, eat good food, socialise, while having the odd secrete handshake, I don’t see a problem with it.

http://massfreemasonry.org/what-is-freemasonry/#!/brotherhood/

Im just kind of happy Ive managed to see another part of the world I probably would never have seen if it wasn’t for this job. Im now 213 days down  on the blog and really feel like my photos are getting better. today on my drive through Palma, Massachusetts, I saw this motor bike parked outside some 1960’s america cafe and as I went to take the photo I completely got the focus wrong, and as I pressed the shutter a red mustang drove past, 6 months ago I would probably have written the photo off as a fail, but today I looked at it and really liked how it turned out. a lot of photography, is purely about being in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing. that was difficult thing I had to understand when I first started this photo challenge thing, going out for 10 minutes once a week to take photos is pointless. but now I feel confident in my photos and seem to always be carrying my camera around with me, I think I’m slowly starting to get some cool photos from places I’ve been.

Here are my photos from today, its my last full day in america before I head back to London from all of 15 hours before I leave for my next trip and it should be a good one, I’ve been excited about this one for a while and cant wait to share the photos with you.

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– the home of the freemasons –
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– this photo, out of focus but I really like the colour in this shot, give its a 35mm feel –
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– the type of place Im in at the moment, surrounded by proper wildness –

 

B212 – MARTIE THE MOOSE

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Now that we are on our last leg of this little tour of america, we are in New England, it really reminds me of the British country side but just with a touch of america, it seems to have the British winter weather and is just cold. a bit different to last weeks 30 degrees Florida.

As we are filming today this is going to be me talking about a local restaurant, and I have to say this is a proper good one. this place is called Burgundy Brooks Cafe and it serves all the good stuff. I had the Burgundy Burger and some Beef soup. the soup was just to get my body temperature back to normal and the burger just because I wanted a burger. out here it kind of feels like america’s version of the country side, there’s trees and green fields for miles and miles and even though I live  in a city I still miss the country side and the fresh air, so coming here is kind of refreshing and reminds me of home.

Back to Burgundy Brooks Cafe, its kind of got that family feel and a place to get some good food at a good price, I think all my food came to like $13 dollars, which is pretty decent. What was nice about this place was how friendly they were, one guy that worked there was keith, he came over to me and handed me an on the house espresso, which after a pack morning was just what I needed before lunch. he basically then just talked me through the local area and all the things I should do while Im here, which is always perfect when you get to a places you’ve never been to before. and the one place that got my attention was the Tree house brewery its been voted on of the best Breweries in the States and also the world!! what more reason do I need to go give it a visit.

what you always need when you come to new places, is a local to give you some good advise and make sure you do all the right things. and if your ever in Ludlow, Springfeild, Palma or just near that area in New England make sure you take the trip to Burgundy Brook Cafe, find Keith, get some good food and all the advise you need about this area. he can also point you in the direction of some world class beer.

Heres a link to their website, and also check out my photos below.

http://www.burgundybrook.com/

 

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– Burgundy Brook Cafe, New England –
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– this is Marti, you cant see it but on the other side of his head is a phone, hes just calling a mate –
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– this is just out the front of the cafe, looks kinda cool –