I would be lying if I were to tell you Abbey & I were always punctual for things, Abbey is usually the one to blame, realising she hadn’t packed her suitcase just before we set off to Edinburgh last Valentines is a good example. This time, however, I decided we would be very punctual, so very punctual in fact that we got to the airport over 5 hours before our flight was due to leave. I don’t truly believe it’s fashionable to be late for things but in this instance, having done the rounds of every shop at least twice and eaten enough food to feed a small army, I am starting to believe Abbey’s knack of making us late actually has it’s uses.
For those of you stuck in a similar situation to me, here are a few time wasting ideas:
Strike up a conversation with an old man on a bench
Hug a stranger
Buy a pensioner an Ice Cream
Play every song on Guitar Hero in the arcades, bonus points if you draw a crowd!
Give an apple to a bored security guard
Wish an astronaut good luck (Write to: NASA HQ, 300 E St. SW, Washington DC, USA.)
The flight to Tromso in Norway was delayed for 45 minutes, so that gave us a little longer to shop just incase we missed anything in our previous rounds. I’ve never been to Scandinavia before, its always been on my to go list, but more the Heidsinki and Stockholm city breaks rather than a visit to the Arctic Circle. I am, however, very lucky to have won a 4-night holiday to Lapland thanks to the guys over @transun and will soon be enjoying a very relaxing & rather chilly holiday to the remote wilderness of Finland.
I have always been mesmerised by the beauty the Arctic holds, especially during the winter when the Northern Lights can be seen in all its beauty across the snow frosted mountains. From a husky safari to a night in an igloo this was sure to be an incredible experience, with my various pairs of colorful long johns packed and my camera at the ready, it’s now 4am local time and we are climbing the various mountains through southern Norway into Northern Sweden. In 3 hours time we will arrive in the remote wilderness of Karesuvanto in Finland for a few hours sleep at the Davvi Artic Lodge before our adventures begin…
Number 19 on my life’s to-do list has just become a reality! (yes I actually have a list, I will blog about it one day)
Not once in my life have I EVER won anything! Actually, I lie, I won £5 at a horse racing night at my local football club when I was 12.. i was also the bookie - go figure! Read the rest of this entry »
In recent weeks, reading through Photography Monthly and Amateur Photographer I have seen the rise of HDR photography. Having not done it before and reading more about this technique in Bryan Peterson’s Field Guide book, I decided to give it a try on my trip to the Maldives. And here are the results:
Wow! Just wow! No words can explain how perfectly amazing this part of the world really is. There’s something magical about these tiny islands. The isolation… the privacy… wonderful beaches and complete solitude.
In my two weeks on Sun Island, just south of Male in the Maldives, my camera saw plenty of action. Here is just a snippet of the adventures and the beauty. To see the entire gallery, please visit my flickr: www.flickr.com/bekids
Its been quite a week for me and music. I was delighted to learn that Diane Birch was to be playing at Hard Rock Calling this year in Hyde Park, and quickly went about getting my tickets to see her in action after missing her earlier this year! Then last night I randomly ended up in a VIP box at the O2 arena watching the Black Eyed Peas on their Tour – admittedly I am not their biggest fan, I much prefer their old stuff but the production was just incredible – and Tom Cruise popped up on stage at the end to join with the chorus of “I gotta feeling”, an enjoyable night around I think.
Lastly, whilst watching the Final of the Jack Wills unsigned on YouTube I discovered a Mr Jamie Abbott, I don’t know a great deal about him, except he is from London and is working under the same production house as Jason Mraz, which may explain why I hinted at the similarities. Anyways, I have been listening to the guy all morning and can’t get enough of his music. So, without further ado Ill let you enjoy Jamie’s acoustic version of New York, and if you wish to check out more of his stuff you can visit his website or view more of his videos on YouTube. Enjoy
As quickly as my day was going from bad to worse after locking myself out the house, the metro made my Friday with yet another weird & wonderful story. This week its the story of a bear that came back to earth with a bump after it got stuck up a pine tree while foraging for food.
Police used a tranquiliser gun to stun the two-year-old California black bear, which tumbled more than 15ft into the front garden of a house outside Los Angeles.
But the fall was softened by a tarpaulin that caught the bewildered 100lb cub – nicknamed ‘Yogi’ by onlookers – and it was bundled back into the wild before the effects of the knockout drug wore off.
Yogi the Flying Bear
The sedated bear, his urban adventure over, was returned to a more natural habitat in the surrounding mountains and released about 30 minutes later on Wednesday lunchtime. We are happy to report that no bears were injured in the process.. isn’t he cute?
May I start by saying that some of you are not going to like this post and some of you will no doubt sit behind your computer screen and stress your dismay to my opinions only to then share your comments with all your tweeters and facebook “friends” and so on and so forth. I am just having a Wednesday morning rant after my nightmare tube journey and pouring orange juice on my Jordan’s Country Crisp!
A quick note to all those love sick puppies out there, I am afraid this will not work on human females, so please put your slugs away! Moving on, the rather er.. beautiful creature below is in fact a yellow-green ibycus rachelae, otherwise known as a slug! Not just any slug though, oh noooo quite the opposite infact. This little love beast seems to be a bit of a ninja, with the ability to fire ‘love darts’ to potential mates. Sounds like Rohypnol to me, but hey I am not one to judge. He is one of dozens of new species recently discovered in a stretch of ‘irreplaceable’ rain forest in Borneo. Yes, you have heard all of this right, this is a post about a slug, who date rapes other slugs, in a rain-forest, in Borneo…. I’ll get my coat.
Its Friday afternoon, its been a 4 day week and I am very much looking forward to the weekend, my new website is now live and before I sign off I would like to share this video that @Laura_Scott posted on twitter a moment ago. Its a short film by Patrick Jean…. pure genius!
Its goes without saying that social media is a great tool no matter what industry your in, admittedly some are more social media friendly than others but nether the less there is a little piece of social media to suit every kind of company.
However, if your a new company that is still establishing itself, how are you going to build any kind of following & build awareness for the brand? No one is going to search for you so how are you going to get people to “Fan” you?
Here is a quick example of how I used Facebook to build awareness for a new brand in a niche market at ZERO cost, zilch, nada. Enjoy
