It's er...It's been a while....

So....yeah.....it's been about a month. I'd apologise but I've been a busy man. I'll start from where I left off? Yeah let's do that!

Wimbledon! A lot of....unpredictable events went down this year at Wimbledon. Nadal going out in the first round, Sharapova getting knocked out alongside Federer not too soon afterwards. Saw Laura Robson make it further than any British woman since Sam Smith's day. It was a pretty interesting tournament....but that was soon to become a pretty incredible one for Andy Murray. He did it! He went all the way to top and took Novak Djokovic in straight sets! Murray played an incredible match! Possibly the best I've seen him play in a very long time. Djokovic was playing well but not as good as he could have done and that's all Murray needed to take him apart. I must admit the final point was....disappointing. It was a winning point but it was due to an unforced error and wasn't exactly the most impressive point to watch. No epic duel between the two playing various different shots against each other, dragging onto a marathon of a rally. It was a simple serve and failed return, but sometimes that's all it takes. Don't get me wrong though, there were some amazing rallies in the rest of the match! A fantastic display of skill and athleticism of the sport! I'm glad he's done it. His second grand slam title this season, first the US Open and now Wimbledon! Hopefully this is the start of many more to come!

Day one at the site.

With that said I've spent the past couple weeks down at the War and Peace Revival at the Folkestone Racecourse in Kent. Well.....past couple weeks isn't entirely accurate. I had to come home at one point for a few days to see the doctor due to an inner ear infection that was really fucking with my sense of balance. He gave me some tablets that helped and so I went on back down to join the festivities! I rejoined the show on the first night of the actual show. It was amazing to see the transformation of the site in just a few short days. When I left there was hardly anyone on the fields, when I came back there were tents and people everywhere! 

The site on one of the show days.

Being the first show at the new venue didn't seem to have too large an impact on things. The crowds seemed to be enjoying things and the weather being so great might have helped with that. It was incredibly warm for the entire show making working it hard but at least it provided beautiful conditions that seemed to help draw the crowds. Some would say it was too warm (myself included) and lower temperatures might have pulled in more public but from what I heard there were massive queues of people trying to get in pretty much every day of the show. It took some getting used to with the new layout of camps and displays but after so many years spent at The Hop Farm with everything being laid out the same for so long then adjusting to the new site was bound to take sometime. There were some great moments and some less great moments but everything has it's ups and downs. 

Sunset on day one.

As always I ended up playing camp photographer but that meant I got to play with my camera so I'm okay with that! From what I've heard so far I've done a pretty good job, but personally I think I could have done better. Holly was saying I need to get myself a uniform so that I can run around in the battles with everyone and get some really great photos of things. I couldn't agree more, however I can't really afford it at the moment so maybe next year! Hopefully when I'm done sorting the photos out they look okay. I've been trying to merge some HDR images of some beautiful sunsets that I took but they don't seem to be working too well. Going to take some tweaking I guess but hey ho. Anyone who has me on facebook that reads this will be able to see the photos I took eventually when I get around to uploading them. They won't all go up at once but they'll get there eventually. The only reason I haven't put them up yet is simply because I've been busy with other things and they aren't ready to go up yet.

Another great sunset.

I was meant to be going up to Lincoln last weekend to play in a Frisbee tournament but sadly due to my inner ear infection I wasn't able to play. All the running and bouncing about would have played havoc with my head due to the lack of a sense of balance. I hated having to drop out! Haven't played since May and haven't seen some of the people that were there for even longer! I've been dying to get back out on pitch and chuck a disc about but no-one around here seems particularly interested and due to the ear infection I haven't been able to go running or swimming so I've been sat on my ass doing sod all. It's killing me! September can't come soon enough! I'm looking forward to being reunited with my Frisbee Family and the coursemates again. 

I've recently been having trouble with my laptop, the power connector jack was pretty badly mangled and so making it impossible to connect a charger without making scary electrical noises crackling noises. So I decided to replace the part...it seemed like a good idea at the time considering how much it was going to cost to get it repaired in a shop. I ordered the part and began the task of taking her apart. It took a while and I swore and shouted a little bit in the process but I managed it eventually (with a little help from a YouTube guide). I fit the replacement part and then the fun part started...putting her back together again. A wise man once wrote that "Constructing something complicated is a work of art, but any monkey with a big stick can take it apart" or words to that effect...it's been awhile since I read the book that line is in, but in this exercise I found it incredibly accurate! Why the hell does this thing need so many screws? Seriously!? Better yet, why the hell didn't I write down where everything went!? Yeah, I've got two screws leftover and a couple days ago one of the screws I didn't think I'd put back properly fell out the bottom scaring the hell out of me (but proving me right so there's a silver lining in that one). So with my baby back together again and able to connect a charger I thought my troubles were over but alas! She won't charge. My battery works fine and charges fine in Mum's laptop. My charger fits but the power output can't be recognised by my laptop which makes no sense as it used to be before I mangled the jack and replaced it with the new one. Truth be told I don't know what the hell to do now. I don't want taking her apart and putting her back together again to have been a wasted effort....I'm taking her down to PC world tomorrow to see what they can do for me and hopefully they'll manage to figure it out for not too high a cost, if not I guess I'll just have to run her from the mains and save up to replace her. She's done well for a laptop, 3 years old, nearing 4! So by laptop standards she's practically ancient!

I've got another job that really needs doing before I go back. Dissertation research, which by all accounts it a real bitch. I'm kind of looking forward to it though, it's not every day I get to carry out my own research project completely designed and carried out by me. That and hopefully I can turn up something really interesting in the research that I can use to make something really awesome! We'll have to wait and see til I get started! It's my new priority task, photo editing and other stuff can wait til I'm either less busy or need to unwind.

I realise this post isn't out on Monday as usual but I thought I'd better get it out as soon as possible before my fans (if I can call my readers that) begin to lose faith. I'll be back to the weekly Monday schedule this Monday, yeah the post will be out a couple days after  this one and not all that much will be in it but it's principle right?

So yeah that's pretty much it for now, I could write more and probably should since it's been so long but I feel like I'm beginning to ramble (when aren't I, right?) so should probably stop. I'd say any questions/feedback anyone wants to give me would be great but since no-one ever really says much, whats the point?

Catch ya later folks