iguana | December 2013: Photography, power cuts, and fireworks

I had a fairly quiet first part of December, and made the most of the changeable weather to practice my photography, before heading over to Emily's mum's for a few days, then back to my parents' for Christmas and New Year.

Mist

It was massively foggy around sunrise one morning, so I went to Elmstead Woods before work to see if I could get some shots. As soon as I walked into the woods I was greeted by the most amazingly lit scene.

As I was getting my camera out of my bag, a person walked past me into my shot. Usually a massive annoyance, but this time I decided to run with it.

I'm massively pleased with this shot.

Here's my other favourite from the walk:

By the time I left the woods, the mist had mostly evaporated, so I really got lucky with that.

Power cuts

This winter I discovered that there are some places in the UK that still get fairly regular power cuts during the winter. While staying at Emily's mum's in Hampshire, we had one all-evening power cut, and after I'd left to go home on Christmas Eve, they had another one that only came back on a few minutes before midnight.

Still, I had a lovely time there as always. We had a great walk on Broughton Downs one day, and one evening I took my camera out to the garden where there is very little light pollution, and took a few 30-second exposure shots using Emily's tripod.

On the other end of the scale, I got a good action shot of Kilo with a very low exposure time.

We also went to a carol service in a friend-of-a-friend's farm barn, where we sat on haystacks and ate mince pies and chocolates. Nom!

Christmas and Birthday

For Christmas, Emily got me a dance mat and PS2+DDR which is great fun, and my parents got me a bread maker, which works really well.

After Boxing Day, Emily joined us in Bexley and we had a nice walk around Joydens Wood, then a family curry on my birthday.

New Year

Pete and Matt invited everyone over for dinner on New Years Eve. They cooked chili which was delicious, then we all caught the tube to Trafalgar Square where we watched the New Years fireworks from.

Trafalgar Square was busy but not packed, and had a lovely friendly atmosphere, with families with small children and a noticeable but not overbearing police presence around. We saw the fireworks from behind the Big Blue Cock which added a surreal quality to the whole thing.

2014

So, that's it for 2013! Looking back at this journal this year, it's quite a surprise just how much has happened.

* Emily and I went to Paris.
* I went to Elmstead Woods for the first time, and shortly afterwards placed a successful offer on my new house here.
* I did karaoke for the first time.
* We saw the Mariko Mori neutrino installation doing lots of amazing things.
* We went to Kew Gardens lots of times.
* We made our own Easter eggs.
* I got constellations drawn on me.
* We went to York
* I moved house! We're still doing it up, but making excellent progress.
* We had a weekend in Whitstable, and, nearly, Canterbury.
* We saw Stomp.
* We went to Chislehurst Caves.
* I finally finished watching every Doctor Who DVD release.
* We swam in Hampstead Heath ponds.
* I learned cross-stitching at the Make Escape.
* I waved at a SPACE ROBOT.
* We went to an 80s roller disco.
* I helped make a pizza oven.
* I visited a museum inside a TARDIS.
* We did a ten week Yoga course.
* We went Segwaying for my birthday.
* We fed giraffes at London Zoo.
* I visited Asia for the first time.
* We rode elephants.
* We slept overnight in Halong Bay.
* I took lots of pictures!