i love juice

Alot of people back home in the UK have this things about American cars, they are too big, slow, drink too much fuels and generally don't go round corners. However we have been to the US a few times now and every car we have had or been in has been more than if not better than the cars in the British market. We have mostly been driving around in whats probably the largest SUV's on the American market the Ford Exhibition. this has taken a family of 8 around California and further for the past 4 weeks with no problems at all and sitting right in the very back is just as comfy as the front. However my praise has to go to the Chevy HHR, this stylish station wagon has taken me and Mrs Monkey and plenty of long drives up and down and around California with trips to Vegas to boot and although its not as luxurious as the Ford its sure left a craving impression on me. just hope with the growing market of Chevy's in the UK they decide to bring this beauty over.

The Picture above is of Bridelveil Fall in theYosemite Valley. Mrs Monkey and i took the long drive back to Walnut Creek from our Honeymoon in Malibu, up the through 178 on to the 395 passing by the sierrras and then acrosss west on the 120 through Yosemite. An epic drive it was and even though we only had a couple of hours in yosemite ( no where near enough time to experience the beauty of yosemite) we got to see sights that will stick in our memories forever. This is such a beautiful country and so very large it kind of upsets me knowing that i will never see all of it in my life time but i will do my very best in seeing the most possible.

Wooo whooo its been fun and very hectic but we finally did it and on the 10th of August 2011 Tenbellies became Mrs Monkey and made me the happiest man on the planet. After getting all the family and a few special friends out to Sin City we tied the knot and celebrated in style. As a new major part of my life begins I'm blessed with great family, awesome friends and a beautiful amazing wife.
cheers "clink clink" people.....



That's the champagne glasses not the links on my ball and chain.

A trip to San Francisco today, the weather was really good for the city as it can sometimes be a little nippy. I got a little camera happy as i just love looking at all the side streets and the hills as there is always something to look at. The girls enjoyed the shopping where i just enjoyed looking up at the parts of the city that most people walk by unnoticed every day. A beautiful city even with its tramps. i will be going back a couple more times before we leave.

Im a little slack on the posts since leaving the UK on Monday but then i have been getting use to a little thing called summer sun. yes unlike the UK, California definitely has a real summer with hot weather and sun shine instead of the usual cold damp dark summer back in the UK. Sitting in starbucks having breakfast watching the world go by and driving down to Danville for lunch is enough to keep thoughts of blighty at bay. This weekend my new nephews christening in St Helena what better way to spend a day with great family.....ah American life.

this is only part of a post that i will pick up when i get back from my hols but i had to get this posted as im just pleased as punch with my outcome. im really getting into my photography at late and starting to play a little bit more with film rather than digital, this is time consuming and unpredictable but its also very rewarding and being someone who loves processes i get a buzz out figuring out how things work and having a go. So i built a camera, it is in a sense a pinhole camera but after finding the P90 on the net i have adapted it to take medium format film. at this point i have mostly been testing it with photopaper to get the exposure times and work out the fstop on the camera, once i have this down perfect i will start to put in the film.

8 days left at work, 13 days until we fly off on our holidays and boy am i ready. i cant wait to to wake up and not have anything really to do apart from sit in the sun and relax. all the work over the past year will all be soon worth it and we will both be starting a new chapter in our life (cheeeeese). i just have to get through the next 8 day and ill be rocking.

I’ve had relaxing couple of days and took some time to go and see the Paul Trevor exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery. Those who don’t know who Paul Trevor is, he is a Photographer who in 1975 came to the city to document the deprivation of post war Liverpool instead what he captured was something quite different. There backdrop may be the dereliction of post-war Liverpool. But these images go beyond this bleak cityscape and get close to his real subject: families and children.
His honest street photography shows life as it was lived in a community defiant in the face of poverty, unemployment and the state of their surroundings. He depicts a place where the streets and wastelands became playgrounds, the family was a constant, and where children seem fun-loving and free.
Now we live in a city which has changed dramatically since these times, on the surface it looks rich and affluent but I’m pretty sure underneath its quite different a once safe place for children to play is now a secured monitored playground and high walled back gardens and our streets are silent from the sounds of children playing. If anything these photos are priceless as never again will people let alone a young man take photos of innocent children playing and being. Oh how things have changed, look at how we have evolved.

errrrrr not really, as much as i understand that it’s going to be crap working till I’m 65 having a miserable pension and being paid a not so great wage for the enormous hours we both put in, i am also young enough to make changes in my life to compensate. Too many people look to the past for answers for modern day problems and it’s this that is more often than not the cause of future problems. I opted out of the union a few months ago when i came to my senses; being bullied and scared into joining a union from when I was a student reminds me of films such as goodfellas and protection rackets. Taking money off me each month to keep union bosses in pork pies and flat caps and after attending my very first union meeting and being stuck in room full of people I despise I realized then this was not for me. And it was not something I was brought to believe in especially when our union boss Christine Blower takes a pay rise straight after telling us that our pay will not rise, her pay would pay for 4 new teachers and 4 teaching assistants. Something is not quite right there but hey that’s unions and they come hand in hand with corruption and back hand deals.
Today I will have the day of work and why not, ill put my feet up go out for lunch and enjoy myself with tenbellies but not out of protest more out of my selfish need to take a day off.

After the past three or four weeks I’m more than ready to take a break. The weekends are my relief and coming over the water to spend time in the garden usually on the veggie patch is kind of therapeutic in weeding out the stress of work. The veggies are coming on well and the potatoes as you can see are full and flowering. Thud says we have planted them a little too close together and I’m starting to think he is right, its like one huge potato bush but it promises a fine yield. Getting outside is important to me as I think good English fresh air is good for the soul and mind, although the weather doesn’t bother me as much as others I would like a bit more sun and some of the veggies could do with it too.