Several brave souls (and some presumably that didn’t give it a second thought) took to the waters at Myrtleville on this chilly Christmas Day morning in aid of the Irish Kidney Association. The order of the day appeared to be 1.undress quickly, 2. take a very quick dip and finally 3. dress in warmest clothes possible, guzzle coffee and other hot drinks and sit on hot water bottle. Unaccustomed as I am to hanging around beaches with a telephoto lens, I took only a few shots while my nuts gently froze in the breeze. What better way to start the day?
This time, there are no more on flickr! Shock horror! Ahh ok, there’s one more…
Claire over at gingerpixel has, in a similar fashion, posted some great photos of a Christmas Day swim at the 40 foot in Dun Laoghaire. I can only hope she managed to look a little bit less suspicious than I did with a large camera in the middle of a semi-naked crowd.
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Having a stroll around the lough in Cork city is a bit of a Christmas day institution; it’s the perfect place to work off that ill feeling from the huge pig-out earlier that day. Unsurprisingly, I met a few people I know out there and managed to walk a few laps. Of course, I only went out there to take photos…
Few more on Flickr.
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What else is there to do around Christmas except ponce around and take photos? Specifically, Christmas eve & St. Finbarrs Cathedral in Cork… A few shots from the grounds…
Muchos more on Flickr
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In possibly my last post before Santa Day 2005, I’d like to take the opportunity to wish all my loyal fans a very happy Christmas in the only way I know how; with one or two Christmas tree photos! (woohoo)
Whatever your plans are this silly season, have a good one. Speaking for myself, I’m going to take the time off work to catch up on my lack of photography lately. Might visit a few neighbouring counties. Of course I’ll have the obligatory fun with family & friends and spend a good portion of the festive season feeling either drunk or sick from over-eating. Only thing I know for sure is that on Christmas day I’ll be freezing my balls of at Myrtleville taking a few shots of the brave Christmas day charity swimmers. If you’re attending, see ya there.
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Even though it’s been several days since I last posted, I’m not getting lazy. Ok well I am, but here are a few photos to try and break me free of this procrastinating lull of recent times. All were taken a couple of hours ago on the public walkway in Passage West, Co. Cork.
Why is it you never bring a telephoto lens with you when it turns out it’s the one lens you actually needed? Some more on Flickr.
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This photoset shows detail behind what is my favorite TV ad at the moment; the Sony Bravia advert. Great set of photos from sepiatone.
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So as the trusty old Nokia 6600 has now been passed onto other hands, I spent a few minutes last night whipping all the photos off it that I had gathered in a kind of snap-shot style over the last few years. In not an altogether accurate or interesting way, they document the few changes in my life from around the time I moved out of home in the winter of 2002 to now, the winter of 2005.
If you can’t enjoy them, at least let them burn up some of your hugely valuable time…
That’d be it, you can all go back to watching crappy Christmas TV now. Unless of course you want to see a few more.. Be warned though, some of them require a strong stomach.
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It’s been a while since my trusty Nokia 6600 arrived onto the scene and lately it’s really been starting to show it’s age. Slow menus, dropping dialling attempts, missing the odd call and getting phantom voicemail. With that in mind, I went into Carphone Warehouse this afternoon and bought myself a Sony Ericsson (sp?) W800i. A nice bit of kit by all accounts. Good camera, good music player, an RDS radio (hurrah) and all the other related whatnot.
It’s my second cautious journey away from the shores of Nokia, first time was back with the ill-fated SE P900 with the truly crappy battery. In fairness though, that was a one off fault, not a design flaw. After playing around with the w800i though, it seems all could be rosy when I get to turn it on after it’s maiden charge tomorrow morning.
To sweeten the deal some more, I also managed to get around €50 off it thanks to outwitting some mobile phone shop staff. The first shop I went into were having none of it; I was putting forward the sceal that Meteor shops were selling the phone for €199, whereas carphone warehouse were looking for the unreasonable sum of €229. Of course, Vodafone are demanding €299 for the same package but we all know they are bandits. I should say, meteor shops will be selling this phone for €199 when it is eventually available to them in a few weeks time…
Carphone warehouse make a promise to match any price but the first guy was having none of it. “Only phones that are available now” or some guff like that. Thankfully, the manager of the second branch was not so hard-nosed. Not only did I get it for the reduced soon to be meteor price of €199, I also got a further €20 off for trading in an old phone. Err, an old phone that didn’t even work. Another triumph over rip-off Ireland!
I also moved to Meteor, but that’s a story best kept for another day. Finally away from the cruel beast which is Vodafone.
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We (Sandy & my good self) went to see Des Bishop last night in the Opera House. How glad am I that I booked tickets well in advance? How much credit will herself take for that? Anyway.. Outstanding show, it even justified the wearage of brown pants as I almost soiled myself several times with laughter. The first half of the show revolved alot around taking the piss out of the people in the front couple of rows (there had to be a reason I booked seats at the back of the room) and the second half dealt with his upcoming TV show (or have I missed it already?) “Fitting In”. Hearing the stories from some of the most troubled spots in the country, both north and south of the border, told in an absurdly comic manner was lighthearted yet still managed to drive home an important message…
.. but I’m not going to bother with that now.
If I could change only one thing, I’d have had him sing the rebel song at the karaoke night in the loyalist bar in north Belfast. Not because I secretly want Des to be buried alive by ‘the enemy’, but because it would have been his last brave act as a comic genius. Go out with a bang… or several bangs followed by a thud… and alot of swearing. If anyone hasn’t already seen this show (and if it’s not too late) go see it now. It’s hugely entertaining.
I only wish, given the fact that I’m an obsessive compulsive photographer, that I’d managed to sneak in my camera and a couple of lenses to get a few shots. Ah well…
Instead of the same ol’ beach photos & strolling around looking for something different, today I did something different! We took a spin up to Vernon Mount just outside Douglas to watch the motocross. I’d wanted to try my hand at motocross photography for quite a while but never actually bothered when it came to it.
To coin a well worn phrase, the action was “fast & furious” and I managed to take around 400 shots within an hour of arriving. Yep, I actually managed to pace myself instead of shooting everything that moved.
I’ll definately be going up there again, it’s just a matter of sticking my head out the back door of the house, listening for the drone of the bikes, grabbing my camera and heading up. Until then, Flickr has some more for you to look at.
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