After deciding to move into the bungalow we inherited from my aunt, we had a list of things we wanted to do to the place before we moved in. The top of that list was a new kitchen. The kitchen renovation was a much bigger job than I was capable …
Having made the decision to move into the bungalow we’ve inherited, it was time for some updates, starting with the bedroom renovation.
As you may know from my life updates entry a few weeks ago, the last twelve months have been pretty busy for us. As a result, I haven’t really had much time to indulge in my photography or archery hobbies. In fact, I have only been out with my bow …
I’ve dabbled with home automation in the past but have been fairly limited in what I could do as we didn’t own our own home. As I mentioned in a previous post, a recent sequence of events means we now own our own home, so now I’m free to get …
If you’re one of the few people who have visited this site on and off over the last couple of years, you will undoubtedly have noticed the lack of new content or updates. As is usually the case, life has gotten in the way of me posting updates to this …
This is now week thirteen for me as working from home continues. Work goes on as normal and things are starting to get busy again as the government east the lockdown restrictions and people start heading back to work. The organisation I work for has no immediate plans to get …
Week six is in the books and its starting to feel quite normal now. This is probably a good thing as we have at least a couple of more weeks of this at least. Now that I have an established routine and I’m making sure I take regular breaks away …
I’ve been using BlackRapid camera straps for almost eight years now, so that will give you some idea of how much of a fan I am. After a brief foray into some upgraded neck straps when I first got back into photography, I decided to give shoulder straps a try. …
Weekend number three of self isolation due to the covid-19 outbreak and having got in to a routine with work it was time to do something to make the weekends feel like a break from work. As the weather is starting to warm up and the rain has eased up, …
The COVID-19 lockdown is continuing and looks like it will for some time. While last week proved difficult, week three of working from home has been much better. I’ve gotten into a routine now and the days are no longer blurring together. Up until this week, work has pretty much …
So I’m in to week two of working from home. We’re not completely locked down yet in the UK but the government did issue some new restrictions on movement this evening to try and comabt the spread of covid-19. As of now, people should only be leaving their homes for …
I haven’t really had too much to say on the subject so far. Other than the over hyped media coverage and misinformation that is being circulated it’s been more of a minor irritation and annoyance than anything else. As has been well publicised, there has been panic buying of certain …
After our trip to Bracklinn Falls in the morning, we grabbed some lunch in Callendar and decided to head to Killin and the Falls of Dochart. The weather still wasn’t particularly great, occasional downpours made it difficult plan anything too far away from shelter. The grey skies did mean it …
We saw the signs for Bracklinn Falls while visiting the small town of Callendar on our last trip to Scotland in 2018. The weather wasn’t particularly great so we didn’t take the time to go and explore the area. On this trip, we had a little more time and after …
Another trip to Scotland for us in 2019, back to the same area around Loch Lomond although to a different cottage and at a different time of year. We decided to make the trip for my birthday this year which meant early July. Fortunately my birthday falls just before the …
When it comes to choosing a camera bag it’s a very subjective exercise and as everyone knows, you’re not a real photographer unless you have at least a handful of them. I have a few different bags that I use in different situations, day bags, shoulder bags, travelling back packs …
The weather was particularly good yesterday and it made a nice change to the rain and wind we’ve had this week. I decided it was a good chance to get some final preparation in for the 3Ds, so I finished work early and headed down to the wood. The weather …
I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t look like that, even if it has blown.
When I’m developing websites, I usually run a test website in a user directory on one of my web servers instead of setting up a new virtual host under the main web server. There are a couple of reasons for this, the main one is I don’t have to change …
If you’ve ever used an iPad or iPhone to connect up to an ipsec vpn endpoint, you’ll be familiar with this screen. I’ve been using these connections for a while now, mainly connecting to Cisco ASA firewalls. I use these VPN tunnels for both personal and business requirements. In the …
My second competitive shoot of 2015 was at one of the courses I’ve come to hate. Before anyone bites my head off, there is nothing wrong with the course. It’s a very tricky, challenging course. I just hate it because a lot of it is out in the open and …
My 2015 archery season got underway properly yesterday at the Castle Bowmen open shoot in Woodhall Spa. I’ve already done a couple of friendly shoots this year but nothing too serious, although I wouldn’t exactly call yesterdays attempt serious. I knew it would be hard work, when l started the …
I’ve been debating whether or not to get a couple of reusable hand warmers for a year or so now. When I’m out shooting in winter I really need to keep my fingers warm. Up until now I’ve been using the disposable type, the particular brand I’ve always used are …
As I start 2015 and try to get my photography organised, I’ve come to the conclusion I have way too many on-line galleries to upload my images to. I currently have around 8 or 9 places I upload images to, including Flickr, 500px, Behance, Nikon Image Space and a few …
I didn’t fancy any of the NFAS shoots that were organised for the first Sunday in August so I decided to give the Artemis EFAA shoot a go. It was another field round, the same as the previous two EFAA shoots at Artemis so I thought it would be good …
It’s taken me a while to get around to writing this, mainly because I’ve been so busy since I got back but also partly because I wanted to let a little time pass so I could give a more balanced account. The picture above is of our accommodation for the …
If you’ve ever configured a VPN on a Cisco PIX or ASA and used pre shared keys or PSKs, you’ll know that once they’ve been entered in the the configuration they simple appear as ‘*****’. If you ever need to make changes or duplicate the VPN configuration on another firewall, …
With the EBHC fast approaching it was time for more EFAA practice and another round at the Artemis wood. I had hoped to shoot a different round this time out but it ended up being another field round. I’m not too disappointed, the field round is a good test of …
I’ve deliberately waited a while after the competition before writing this post. To say I was a little disappointed when the results were announced is an understatement, hopefully now the initial disappointment has passed I can give a more open minded assessment. After my third place in Scotland, I was …
I can never find the bloody instructions for the light on our Biorb fish tank and it’s not the most intuitive piece of equipment I’ve ever used so I thought I’d stick the instructions here so I’d always know where I can find them. The Intelligent Light Manual & …
As I’ve already stated in previous posts, I’m a bit of a paranoid server operator. I’m responsible for several servers that are sat out there on the big bad internet of things and I like to know what’s happening with them. One of the biggest areas of concern is SSH …
As you can see from the picture above, the woodland was looking great for the Long Eaton Field Archers open shoot. Unfortunately, the only camera I had with me was my on my iPhone so the picture really doesn’t do the scene justice. Still, it gave me something to do …
I’ve been using the BackWPup plugin to back up my wordpress sites after a recent mishap. It seem to be one of the best free plugins that will take a full backup of a wordpress site. It not only backs up the backend database but also the entire file system. …
The 2014 Scottish 50/50 Championships were held on the 19th and 20th April in Parton, near Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway. As always, they were hosted by Auld Kirk Bowmen. What was unusual was that this year would be the last year of the competition. I’ve only been shooting …
As part of moving this website to a new server in order to try and speed things up a tad, I had to change some DNS records on several of the domains I own. I’ve mostly been using the free control panel provided by my domain registrar to mange the …
After noticing a considerable slow down on my old blog, I’ve redesigned and re-launched it on a new server. I hope you like the new layout, as you can see there is already some new material here and I’ve also copied over some of the old material. I’m in the …
No, this isn’t a post about music. Although that is a great song. It’s actually a post about “Cloud Storage”. Let’s get one thing straight from the outset. I hate the term “cloud”. It means nothing, cloud storage is simply storage attached to a server or servers somewhere on the …
In case you missed Adobe’s announcement last week, Lightroom has gone mobile. Or more specifically there is now a Lightroom app for the iPad. I’ve been waiting for this announcement for a while. I’ve used photosmith previously but I’ve found the sync process clunky at best, but up until now …
I’ve already entered several NFAS competitions this year with varying results, but so far haven’t completed any EFAA rounds. Given that we’re off to France in June to compete in the European Bow Hunter Championships and the fact that there seems to be some confusion as to whether a classification …
I’m not normally the type of person that makes new year resolutions and I guess these aren’t really resolutions but I figured I needed to make a list of things I wanted to achieve this year. CCNP I’m going to need to recertify my CCDA this year anyway which means …
