It's a Blog ! Not a Log !

she’s finally found fame on the silver screen . .  well ok the computer screen

See if you can spot her appearance

The Avenue: ‘Not Just for Wags’ from seal films on Vimeo.

I’m afraid to say though that she was typecast due to her size and looks me thinks . . which is a bit of a shame, as she’s such a princess in real life, so should have at least been given a chance on the catDogwalk.

The advert was done filmed for The Avenue,  Spinningfields,  in Manchester, its an area of designer shops in one of the revamped parts of the city centre.

Well our holiday in Dorset and Cornwall is well and truely over now, been back in Manchester about 3 weeks and I’m only just getting round to posting some of the videos I created with the GoPro and the Camalapse.

First one up is a visit to Lulworth Cove, not my best effort, but its ok for my first attempt

Next up is one of Mullion Cove, the place we stay every year we go to Cornwall, think this is about our 5th year there now and we never grow tired of the view

Final video is from our visit to The Lizard, what spectacular views you get there, it’s quite a thought provoking place to visit

All the video’s were created using either a GoPro HD Hero 2 or with a JVC Camcorder, timelapse setting were between 0.5 seconds and 1 second, the panning timelapse was created using a Camalapse.

I’m hoping to do a few more in the future, thinking maybe of doing a couple in the centre of Manchester in the summer maybe.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the video’s

Well I better start by saying sorry and I’ll try to be here for you more, it’s just life gets so buys sometimes and I just dont have enough time to spending writing about the daily going’s on of Vince, Mel and Blue.

So a few things that have happened since last I posted . .

I blew my car engine up, well to be exact the timing chain broke and the resulting bits of metal associated with the chain obliterated my engine, which resulted in me having to spend in execss of £1900 getting a replacement engine put in, thankfully 6 months down the line the new engine seems to have settled in and alls well with the Beamer.

I’ve been on holiday to Pembrokeshire, where we took my mum along, been years since I’ve had a sort of family holiday and it was so nice spending time with my mum, she really enjoyed herself as well, loved the cottage we stayed in and loved the days out we had, while we were there I got the chance to play about with my new toy the GoPro HD Hero2, did a couple of videos that you’ll see below this post, the first is a time-lapse car journey from Broadhaven to Tenby and then a Panaramic Timelapse of Broadhaven beach, using nothing but the GoPro and a canabalised Egg Timer to get the panoramic view. hope you like.

Broadhaven to Tenby

Broadhaven Beach Panoramic

I was quite happy with the results of the beach and intend to try doing a few more Panoramic shoots of places we visit and seeing how they turn out, will post them up here once i do.

Anyway for now that really about it for this post, except to say I’m back . . .

Decided to treat myself to a new Camera mount for the car on payday, I’ve had a few car mounts and they’ve all worked fairly well, but none of them have been quite strong enough to hold a DSLR, so after a bit of googling and review reading, I settled on a bad boy called the Delkin Fat Gecko.

The Fat Gecko quite a nice bit of kit, it’s a dual suction device that has the ability to hold weights upto 8lb, at this point I’ll let Delkin’s own advertisement spiel take over, as they explain it much better than me

 Adventure-seekers, commercial photographers and amateur filmmakers alike will appreciate the versatility of Delkin Devices’ DIMA 2010 award-winning Fat Gecko Original Suction Cup Camera Mount. A solid steel shaft, powerful vise grip, and rugged construction keep your digital device secure and stationary for hands-free use in the most extreme situations. This sturdy camera mount uses two suction cups and a universal 1/4”-20 tripod mounting screw to attach to any solid surface, ensuring zero damage or slippage at its base.

This universal mount is ideal for SLR, video, compact, and tripod head digital cameras, but is compatible with virtually any device or model up to 8 pounds. With its 360 degree tilt, turn and rotation, the Fat Gecko Gator enables photographers to achieve any shooting angle desired while in motion! Obtain flawless footage from your heavier, more advanced camera while attached to the windshield of a vehicle or aircraft, boat or any other smooth surface. Four adjustable joints and an optional extension shaft allow you to customize the perfect shot. Fully functional and manufactured with superior quality, this device is a must-have for all photography enthusiasts.

I’ve already used the Gecko twice now on the car, the first time was with a Canon PowerShot SX200IS attached to it, I mounted the Gecko and the camera onto the drivers door panel of my BMW and angled the camera backwards and upwards to cover the area of the drivers side rear passenger door window.

The Reasons behind this strange positioning was down to wanting to know what everyone else see’s as they pass our car and see our Cane Corso Blue hung out of the window having her face and ears blasted by the wind, after viewing the resultant footage I can now understand why everyone seems to smile when they see Blue, see for yourself

that British Gas are doing work on our road and needed access to the house while we were away to change our gas meter, so where now without gas until Monday/Tuesday, so gonna be a cold couple of days

Anyway heres some photos and videos from our hols

Heres the photos and link

Now here a few time lapse car journeys we did:

Little East Underdown Cottages to Lynmouth – Time-lapse Car

Lynmouth to Barnstaple – Time-lapse journey

Time-lapse car journey from Exmouth to the cottage we are staying at Little East

Cockington to Little East Underdown

Anyway hope you enjoy . .

Yesterday was a long long long day for me, it all started at 6:30am when I got my very weary bones out of bed (foolishly I’d stayed up till 2:00am playing Battlefield 2), the reason for such an early start was to get myself to the Trafford Centre for the Launch of the iPad 2 in the UK.

Foolishly I thought I might actually be the first in the queue, but alas I was not,when I arrived there at 7:00am there were already about 8 people in front of me, apparently 4 of them had spent the night crashing out in there car in the Asda car park opposite the Trafford Centre.

So after getting myself comfy, buying a Starbucks I settled down for the 10hr wait until the 5:00pm launch, first couple of hours just seemed to buzz by, spent the time chatting to others in the queue beside me, there was Terry who was queuing in order to get an iPad for his son’s birthday, Andy who had just the previous day been camped out at the 3D DS launch, Nikki, who’d arrived with her husband Nigel at around 8:00am expecting to pick the iPad 2 up at 10:00am when the store opened, not realising the launch time had been put back, Nigel had meeting to attend so Nikki said she’d stay and brave the 10hr wait with us, she commented that this would be the first time she’d spent that long in the centre and not visited any of the shop’s, it was a sort of living hell for her lol, but she did it, Nigel came back about 4:00pm to rejoin her, first guy in the queue was Neil, he’d arrived about 6:30am and literally got through the doors and in the first place bang on 7:00am.

As you can see from the video, by about lunch time the queue had got upto about 120 people, this soon got a lot bigger, stretching and snaking around the centre until it had got to well over 1000 people, we first few were the lucky one’s the Apple staff came round asking us if we wanted drinks, food etc and were kind enough to bring me a Latte and a lovely piece of cake , but then again they were shortly going to be parting me with a large amount of this months wages

Anyway at 2pm they closed the store in preparation for the launch at 5:00pm, shortly afterwards a number of Apple staff came walking along the queue asking everyone which iPad 2 they wanted and as you told them they gave you a ticket with the Model you wanted on it, it was like finding Willy Wonka’s Golden Ticket, because you knew if yo had one of these you were getting an iPad 2, I ended up with 2 tickets for 1 x White 64G WiFi 3G and 1 x Black 64G WiFi 3G and boy was I happy, it seemed to make the 7 hours I’d already been there worth it.

And then the launch began, first we could here whistling, screaming and voices whoop whooping and then the curtain dropped and the store was awash with lots of Blue t-shirted staff all waiting to get out and greet the devoted, they came running out slapping us all on the hand as they passed, they ran the length of the full queue and then back into the store, the doors closed again and the whistling whooping began once more then suddenly the count down began 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and the doors where open again

And then we were in, grabbed by a Blue Shirted priest of Apple and taken to the back of the store to collect our well earned iPad 2′s, once I’d got them in my sweaty little hands, bought all the accessories I needed i was away home for an unboxing and and a hot bath and then sleep

So was it worth it, yes it was and you’ll see me at the iPhone 5 launch no doubt. . . . now I’m off to play with my shiey new iPad 2

you discover one of you ancestors was a former Ukrainian Vodka Distillary owner….

Well if your Dan Edelstyn, you get the next flight to the Ukraine to learn more about how his great-grandfather’s vodka distillery seized during the  Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, you hunt down the village that is home to this long lost distillery and along the way film the adventure.

But suppose that’s not enough, suppose you find that the distillery is still there but on the verge of closing, thus rendering a large chunk of the villages populace out of work, most people might just get on the next flight home with there curiosity about their family history satisfied, but then again those people aren’t Dan, who decides that maybe just maybe he can turn around the fortune of the village and the family’s former distillery, so how does he do this, he decides to start producing Vodka again, a vodka that resonates with  history Zorokovich 1917 Vodka . . . and so the adventure begins . .

First Dan has to find companies that are willing to believe like he does that there is a market out there for a new vodka, one of the earliest to take an interest is Babelgumwhich has helped finance the film he’s making about the distillery and is hosting it on there website, he also meets with one of the biggest Ad Agency’s Saatchi and Saatchi to discuss ways to market this new Vodka . .

Dan’s also set up a Vodka club, whereby members invest £50, which helps pay towards the filming costs, this little donation also gets you a credit on the eventual theatrical release of the film he’s making of his adventures, but not only that you also get  a pair of tickets to one of the premiers, and an actual bottle of  vodka from the distillery. . .  might have to see about investing myself come payday

But instead of me telling you how he’s progressing in his adventure why not follow him yourself on Babelgum, to start you off I’ve posted the first part of his adventure

If you enjoyed this episode of his adventure more can be found here http://www.babelgum.com/vodkaempire , a new one is posted every couple of day’s so keep checking back to see how Dan and his Vodka’s getting one, eventually the whole series of episode will be combined as a documentary that will be appearing on More4 later this year, so this is a chance to see the whole thing as its being made.

You can also follow Dan’s adventures via his blog My Vodka Empire & also his Twitter account danedelstyn.

I’ve managed to acquire some of the early samples of this family vodka and I can say its not a bad little number, though I’d recommend chilling it first as this seems to enhance the overall feeling you get from drinking it, which is a smooth sweet taste with a slight burn to the back of the throat, which you’d expect from a vodka, all in all its a very smooth drink and I’ll be watching out for it when it hits the shelves.

Been taking Blue on her new walk over the past couple of weekends, the lovely Tatton Park, lots of grassland for her to run about on, lakes to play in, woods to explore and lots of new smells.

I can highly recommend Tatton Park for a nice day out, lots of nice open space to have a picnic and exercise the dog.

 

There’s also the lovely village of Knutsford nearby to explore with its narrow streets and shops and there’s a Market there the first Saturday of each month selling good country fair to cook for tea

that’s what I am, just not had the energy to post on the blog on a regular basis for quite a while now, think its been the winter blues that have been causing it, all these dark nights when I’ve been getting home from work’s to blame.

I shall attempt to remedy that by telling you about things that I’ve done int the week that’s been and gone . .

Sunday was spent walking Blue and then heading over to electrik bar in Chorlton for a most enjoyable night of Sundays 1 Deck Session where the DJ on the deck that night was the wonderfully moustached Andrew Weatherall . . . and boy what a moustache he has . .

Over the course of the evening he played everything from Rockabilly, the Clash, the specials and just about anything else that took his fancy, thoroughly nice man and thoroughly good entertainment was had by all who attended, these 1 Deck sessions at electrik just get better.

Should also point you towards @undeleted’s Blog were you can find a much better write up of the evening and who is the man responsible for this pioneering new camera interview technique “The Chest and Chin”

Monday through to Wednesday weren’t all that exciting just the usual drudgery of work and wondering if we’d be hit by another white out with the snow, the only highlights were watching the new series of Survivors starting on the BBC, which gave me and no doubt a few other dotted around Manchester the opportunity to play spot the Mancunian location, the most obvious was the exterior of the Midland Hotel, where they took Tom to operate on, didn’t recognise anywhere else, but that’s probably down to the fact the BBC have moved production of the new series to Birmingham, so expect to see local shots around there in the coming episodes.

Also spent some time uploading a few more videos onto YouTube . .  yes and they were of the dog Blue, but do you blame me, she is after all the prettiest dog in the world

First up in her new video adventures is the quilt sucking episode, it seems that when you leave Blue alone in the bedroom she has a habit of bunching up the quilt and grabbing it in her jaws and just  “Sucking”

She treats it like its some sort of security blanket or something, anyway here’s the proof and just check out the so serious face when she clocks the camera filming her

Next up there’s Blue enjoying the summer in Longford Park, filmed this earlier on last year, but just never got around to uploading it

Then came Thursday and today, not much to blog about I’m afraid.

As for tomorrow there might be more to blog about, as I’ve instituted #DogClub on Twitter and will hopefully have a few peeps joining me and Blue on our Saturday morning walk around Ivy Green, though this might change to another location as yet undecided.

Also I must say hello to Adrian or to his friends Eddy Layton, who I’ve recently discovered reads my blog from time to time, so Eddy if your reading this say hello to my mum next time you see her and say hello Mrs L and Paul for me.

Just finsihed work and walked out into the car park to find my car covered in a freshly laid carpet of snow, which means I can have a mad moment with Blue our Cane Corso, she goes mental when its snows (see the video below)

So once I’m finished on here and got changed out of my work clothes me and my best friend are going for a walk round Longford Park and maybe chase some Squirrels in the snow, then after go get a nice Mulled Wine at Electrik Bar in Chorlton.

Back later