Tag: daily blog

B361 – THIS IS GIVING ME A MINI HEADACHE

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you know how I said yesterday that I had a pretty cool place to go and check out, well, heres a kind of mini story the day. At the start Amy and me headed out for breakfast in Covent Garden, it had just started raining that really heavy and wet rain that gets through even the best gortex jacket. We had just finished our starter at brunch in this really cool little greek restaurant and the conversation came up about how we were going to get to the location and then we realised that trains weren’t stopping near by and the bus was just not really an option. I know what you are thinking, uber? but to be honest, it would just have been a pain getting one there and then getting one back would have been a nightmare. things really wern’t looking up for us and this plan, it was time to make an extreme decision, so…

After our meal we headed across the road to a coffee shop to think of a new game plan, we were both pretty clear that we didn’t want to head back to the flat and spend the rainy day inside watching movies and eating food, we wanted a mini adventure and to see something new. it has been the first time in like 6 weeks, where we literally have the whole day to spend together, one of us didn’t have to work in the morning or disappear in the evening, so we wanted to do something fun and make the most of it, but every idea we had didn’t work out, see a last minute west end musical? not one on at the right time. London Dungeness? Nope, just nope. Then, just as we were about to finish our coffee’s, Amy had the idea about going to the design museum in Kensington and boom we had a plan and somewhere to go!

For yesterdays mini adventure I decided to take the 28mm lens, its something that I think has real potential and one that I want to get to know better. I like to think that I know how to get a lens to focus and can take an OK picture with basically any lens you put on my camera. After all, I have been doing it literally every day for the past 361 days. but for some reason I just cant get the focal length right for really any picture, its so annoying. I cant seem to get it perfect, its giving me a headache. But Im not just going to put this lens on the side and not use it again. it must have been made for a reason, and I’m sure its portraits and street photography, maybe I just need to spend some more time with it and get to the bottom of what it can be used for.

Heres some of my shots from yesterday, I hope you like them and just so you know, I will be using this lens again today and will do my best to figure it out!

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– us sitting across the road trying to make this day work out –
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– we found a big puddle with some water fountains so I decided to jump in it –
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– see I just cant work out the focal length of this length, maybe I need to use the aperture to make these photos sharper, but this is a stair case inside the design museum –

B340 – Happy Friday 

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Yesterday after work it was all abit go go, I had to get from the studio back to my flat and pack ready for a weekend in Norfolk. I did manage to sit on my sofa if a bit while I’ll took my shoes off but was then back up and out the door heading for Liverpool Street station. 
But now we have made it here and really enjoying our Saturday sat surrounded by baby twins and a girlfriend who can’t leave them alone.  

My idea of the photos today was to just have some fun with my iPhone and camera on the way up to Norfolk, however the photos you see below are only from my iPhone as I want to show you my other camera photos later on this week. And I know I’ve said it before but I love the iPhone camera, it is so handy for just capturing moments on the fly. And yes the Samsung camera is amazing but for me the iPhone just does the job perfectly, I suppose in a way it’s like comparing a canon to a Nikon camera. 

In other news, I think the plan for today is just to relax and chill out before heading out later to Cromer and going to my favourite pub, the Welly. I’m even taking a day off from using my Laptop normally I would set up in a corner of the room somewhere and edit / write these posts on my laptop but today I’m just doing this from my phone and not thinking about life too much. My plan each day is always to write at least 300 words and I’m not even sure if this is 300 words but to be honest I’m not even going to check. I think it’s best if you just enjoy my photos and briefly read this. 

Anyway, hope everyone is having a good weekend. And enjoy these photos. 

– arriving in Norwich last night, happy Friday –
– the train on the way up, you know it’s been a busy week when your enjoying a 2 hour train journey –

– I wonder where he got his ballon from? –

B301 – MONDAY NIGHT FOOD

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So yesterday was my first day of work and as a result I did the same thing as everyone else in London. I stopped off at Sainsburys and starred at the oven pizzas thinking that because its Monday I might as well go for it, well that maybe something I would have done in 2017 but its now 2018 and Im determined to cook as much as possible, nothing to crazy each night, not like some weird roast beef with home made horse radish, more like the dish I went for last night which was actually really easy and cheap.

for those of you at Ive talked to about cooking, you probably know that Ive been using the Yummly app, which is basically somewhere I am getting all my recipes from and last night was no exception. The meal I decided to cook was called “Summer In Winter Chicken” I like to call it – Pesto Creamy Chicken. And its actually really straight forward.

the ingredients were:

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

200 grams cherry tomatoes (pack)

3 tablespoons pesto

3 tablespoons crème fraîche (half fat is fine)

fresh basil (if you have it)

and then you literally just follow these simple steps and your done:

  1. Heat the oil in a frying pan, preferably non-stick. Add the chicken and fry without moving it until it takes on a bit of colour. Turn the chicken and cook on the other side. Continue cooking for 12-15 mins until the chicken is cooked through. Season all over with a little salt and pepper.
  2. Halve the tomatoes and throw them into the pan, stirring them around for a couple of minutes until they start to soften. Reduce the heat and stir in the pesto and crème fraîche until it makes a sauce. Scatter with a few basil leaves if you have them, then serve with rice and salad or mash and broccoli.

I left out the Broccoli, because I forgot and decided that I would have it wish some mash potato, which was just because I had some potatos in the fridge. If you cant be bothered to cook one night, give this dish a try.

Its now Tuesday morning and Im just getting ready for work and about to attack this day, I forgot how hard it is to photograph during the day when your working so maybe Ill just have todo loads more of my favourite food recipes, otherwise we could start to run into some stressful evening chucking fairy lights round Amys check and taking some photos of her.

Heres my photos from yesterday. Enjoy

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– the walk to works isnt that bad really –
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– this is mid cook, pesto and creme freche now involved –
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– doesnt look that good, but it did the job –

B264 – UP AND DOWN THE COUNTRY

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Well… where to start. I just wrote a whole post and then pressed delete by accident, well done josh. 

I’m writing this post as I navigate my way around London with a million bags and just try to get to my cousins in one piece. I don’t really know how to write this post, but I suppose I’ve just got to give it ago and see where we end up. 

Yesterday I had a Christmas meal in Norfolk with all of Amy’s family and friends, as per usual they put out an absolute spread and a good amount of cheese, but by that time I’d had a few beers so forgot to take any photos, but I did get one of the pre dinner snacks. I don’t think I embarrassed myself at all last night and pretty sure I was sensible, so that’s also a pulse. 

As I said I’m now on the train to My cousins on the other side of London, I’m a place called Petts wood to see my family. It’ll be good to see everyone, Christmas is a good time of year to catch up with people you haven’t seen in ages so that’s what I’m most looking forward to and also giving flo all the presents I got her. 

I’m also going to a pub tonight with my mates, so I’ll try and take some photos of that but I’m not sure if they’ll be any good. 

also for some reason WordPress won’t let me add captions to these photos. So the top one is from a dog walk yesterday afternoon along the beach park cliff bit. 

2nd picture is of the pre dinner snacks, Christmas food is the best food. 

3rd photo is from a quick pub drink we had after the dog walk. I love country pubs. 

And also I want to say thanks to Amy Family and co. It was a really good food and an pretty fun evening. 

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 –

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 –

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 –

 

 

 

B209 – IM NOT IN A GOOD WAY

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Its sunday, a day where most people are sitting at home watching a movie and looking forward to a week of work. while I have made the fatal error of accidentally eating Avacado, something I am really really allergic too, it literally brings me to my knees over night and takes me out of the game for a few days. there nothing I can do apart from sleep and rest. Its currently 8pm and im in bed, trying to get this post done.

my plan for todays post has gone completely out of the window, I wanted to talk about this old hill near our location which was were the revolutionary war was basically start and also were the army kept there Gun power. if you want to know more, here some links to the history for anyone who wants to know more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerville,_Massachusetts

http://www.muldermedia.com/prospecthill/history.html

http://www.unionsquareneighbors.com/prospect-hill.html

so really cool stuff, but all that really happened to day was I did some work and moaned the whole day that I felt unwell. I like everyone to know what I am going through and feel my pain, im not really a suffer in silence kind of guy. That doesn’t mean this is just Man flu, this is a medical condition that must be treated with the highest respect. The clocks are also going back tonight so hopefully the extra hours sleep will work in my favour.

back to my photos the plan for today now is to show some photos I took on my Iphone over the last couple of days, I of course have to include the photo from my flight over New York a few days ago and some other cool photos from Massachusetts.

if anyone is allergic to Avacado too and knows any top tips for getting rid of this please please let me know. I’m scared to google it because the webdoctors always make me feel like a limbs going to fall off when I google something.

Hope you like my photos.

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– someville, Massachusetts on my trip today to find something to sort me out –
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– leaving New York the other day, I love that city –
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– this was the ceiling in the car rental place at Boston Airport, looks pretty cool –

B204 – THE DAY MY CAMERA NEARLY DIED!

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Back in New York and the main thing im going to take away from today is that New York rain seems to be something you cant find anywhere else. its non stop and literally everything just gets soaked through. I went out today not expecting to get that wet, it was just like a little bit of drizzle when I left, well that turned into some thing completely different, but a few years ago I watched that documentary of the New York photographer Bill Cunningham and in that documentary Bill talks about being out in all weathers in New York because thats when you get the best shots, and the guy is completely right, New York seems to go into this completely different mode when it starts raining. My highlight of New York in the rain today was seeing a women walk round with a metal Bin on her head to project her afro, she literally didn’t get a damm what she looked like as long as her hair stayed dry.

if you read yesterdays post you would know my plan for today was to stay around Hunter’s point and take it easy. Well after a quick chat with my parents my dad said I had to have a chill dog from a street vendor, so that became my mission, track down a street vendor and have a chilli dog on the “side walk”. and as soon as I got off the subway at 7th and 59th street, there he was a street vendor with all the goodies apart from Chilli dogs, sorry dad but I just went for a hot dog, I hope that counts. I did plan on not giving up till I got a chilli dog but I was hungry, so that will have todo.

My other plan for today  became getting a good shot of the smoke or stream that comes up from the ground around NYC and after hunting for ages to try and find somewhere, I finally bumped into the perfect location just by 42nd and Grand Central Street. ( im trying to remember the names of the streets, just so I feel like a local). Once I found this spot I only had to wait a few minutes before this guy walked past, it was a pure case of right place right time, but thats how street photography works really, the more hours you spend on the streets, the more places you end up in at the right time.  This is one of my favourite photos Ive taken in a long time, this whole photo feels quite peaceful at a time when everything is starting to get a bit crazy. Im not sure if that makes sense to you, but it does to me.

Here are my photos from today, Ive tried to take it easy today and just get some good rest, now I’m looking forward to laying in bed watching some movies and getting some proper sleep!

I hope you like my photos. oh and if your wondering about my title today, my camera nearly broke because the rain just didn’t stop and I really wasn’t prepared for that. Apart from that I would say its been a pretty successful day.

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– this is one of my favourite photos Ive taken recently –

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– mum is that you?  –

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– the rain today was proper rain, the stuff that no matter watch jacket you had on your T shirt was getting wet –

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– here you go dad, this is where I got my hot dog from –

B203 – I LOVE THIS CITY

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today has been just a day of travel, I woke up this morning in 23 degrees weather at 6am and quickly packed up before leaving florida and catching a plane back to the crazy city that is New York. We are back at the hotel from last time, the Vue something its called near Queens Boro bridge, this hotel literally gives us such a good view of Manhattan, I think ive shown it before when I first got to New York, well anyway Im like two floors above my last room and dead on facing the city, so this time Ive got such a better view. Ill show you it tomorrow maybe.

Its now like mid night and Ive just edited my photos from today and now just thinking of anything to write and all I can think really is how nice Florida was and how happy I am to be back in New York, tomorrow is a pretty chilled out day I think, so my plan is to explore hunters point a bit more, thats basically opposite Manhatten on the queens side of the river. Normally when you head to a city you get drawn to the main tourist spots, but im just going to walk around Hunter point and then Maybe head into town, but the main mission for tomorrow is to take some cool photos of the city and the people that live here.

I would love to write about how I plan on getting up at 5 in the morning to go and take photos of the sun set over the river or people on their rush hour commute, but that would just be a big fat lie, I dont plan on doing anything like that. part of the whole three photos a day thing, is that sometimes its just a down day with no plans and those are the days were I have to get creative with my photos and tomorrow might be one of those days. Im trying not to think about it too much other wise, Ill end up doing something adventurous and not chilled out at all and thats not the point of tomorrow.

heres my photos from today. enjoy.

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– packing up the car at silly O’clock this morning, I already miss this SUV –

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– the last palm tree I saw in florida and look at that sun rise! –

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– back in New York where everyone is constantly moving at 1 million miles an hour –