Last week we both went back to school. We decided to enrol on the Spanish for absolute beginniners evening course, which is held about 5 minutes around the corner from us. As we want to go to a few various countries that use Spanish, we figured it was a good idea, plus it gets us out the house one evening a week. We've had 2 lessons so far and it's an 11 week course. Hopefully we can then continue on to the standard beginners course and maybe take it a little further. The Spanish we've learnt so far is quite similar to Italian too (with them both being derived from Latin it's not a surprise) so that's always handy too

Then on Friday we finished work early (well if you can call 5pm early!) and drove over to besides the Mersey as the QE2 Cruiseliner had docked in Liverpool for the day and was then due to do a quick tour of Britain before traveling out to Dubai where it's going to become a hotel and casino. I've never seen the QE2 before so it was literally the last chance to see it. Of course we took a few photos of it during the day, and also returned later on to get some shots in the dark before it left at 10pm. You can see all of the photos I took on Flickr. I've also been trying to finish my Photography blog off, and just need to finish off adding some more photos and content, however that should be finished off soon

So this week was welcomed as we were going away on Wednesday for a few days break plus a visit to a county show that's only on once a year (so not something you could reschedule!). Despite all the bad weather we've suffered in recent weeks, also resulting in the cancellation of another country show we were due to go to 2 weeks ago, on the day of the show the sun was shining and the weather quite warm! Actually it's been the first time in years where I've been to the show and it's not rained! Of course we took our cameras along, just in case there was anything good to snap.

After a bit of wondering around I spotted that the falconry show had started in one of the arenas so made a beeline for that! I managed to get a few good shots of a gorgeous and cute barn owl, one of which was whilst it was in flight. They also brought a Falcon out, which decided that it didn't want to fly, and an Eagle. All my photos from the day can be seen in my Flickr Set.

We've now got 2.5 weeks of solid work and then we're off to Dublin for a short break, which should keep us going then until Christmas

Besides that, I've managed to get through a few more photos and get my photos from our weekend to the Lake District up on Flickr. Whilst we were there they had this WoW Factor event on (WoW – Windermere on Water) which involved some french street artists hoisted up on a crane above the crowds and a fireworks show.

This week I also got my contract renewed with my mobile phone supplier, and got a new phone in the form of the Nokia E65. It's not a new phone (It was out about 15-18 months ago) but the difference between this and my old Nokia N73 is that it has WiFi so I can use it to check email and connect to the web for free when at home or near a free WiFi hotspot. I had wanted to get the N95 but the 'contribution' was going to be £170 which I wasn't prepared to pay. I probably should have argued over it, seeing as new customers get it and a better deal on their minutes etc for free, trouble is I don't need any extra minutes as I don't use the ones I have! Still, the phone does what I need it to do, make calls and check my email. When I was stuck in bed I was also using it to read through a website on jQuery, making my own notes. Obviously I can also go to Google Reader on it, along with other mobile enabled sites.

So not a very eventful week really. I've barely moved much!

However, I've managed to finally get all of my photos from Rome on Flickr at last. I'm quite chuffed with some of them, the beautiful blue sky and weather out there helped!

Also, don't forget you can get a nice code filled post on WordPress coding over at Blogging Tips every Sunday, or keep an eye on my own Blogging Tips Posts page which lists the posts I've written. Anyone who isn't scared of a bit of code and uses WordPress may pick something of interest up here

I managed to find a few interesting shots to take. Unfortunately the better flowers are around the front of the house, but I didn't fancy advertising my camera gear to anyone passing by. Luckily the flowers on the herbs are starting to come out which made for a couple of interesting photos, but my favourite (and sharpest) photo is of the purple flower above. This is off a weed (they seem to make the best flowers!) that I spotted.

The result from this lens however is amazing. I saw a tiny little insect sitting on a strawberry plant leaf and did my best to try and focus in on it and take some shots. I'm not sure if the insect was dead or alive (possibly asleep), as it didn't move, but a slight breeze made the leaf tremor every so often, plus I'm still working on the sharp focusing. However the detail that this little black bug had (as you can see below) is just amazing. Whilst I'm not an insect fan, and hate even looking at spiders, the detail that you can see from this lens is just fantastic. Hopefully we'll have some good weather to go out on the weekend and grab some more shots further afield than the garden!

View all my first macro shots

I've been wanting to buy the Canon 100mm Macro lens since just after Christmas, but couldn't really afford it nor justify the expense, however with this unexpected cash I figured that I now could! So after looking on a price comparison site we found that Jessops had it up for £379 however with the right code (LENS10) you could get 10% off the price, then there's also a Canon cashback of £40 on the lens, so the final price will be £301, including free delivery.

I then took a look on Warehouse Express and found a nice compact Manfrotto Tripod which is exactly what I want. Although I already have a tripod (a cheapy thing from Amazon), it's quite big and bulky. This new tripod is 44cm when collapsed, weighs about 2lb, and comes in its own little carry bag, much easier to take around when out and about shooting photos. I also bought a lens hood from my new lens from them too.

The tripod's already arrived, but the lens and hood will take a few more days unfortunately. However they should all be here in time for our weekend away next month, up at the Lake District. Expect to see lots of macro shots in the future!

It's been a bit of a lazy week this week (lazy in that we've not really gone out besides shopping). However on Friday my new toy in the shape of a Nintendo Wii arrived. I'd decided just before Christmas that I wanted to get one, not for playing games as such but to get a little bit of exercise with, and something a bit more interactive than jogging on a trampette or following some fitness DVD. I've just got the bare basics of Wii Sports, however the new Wii Fit sounds pretty good too. Of course, it's no replacement for fresh air and outdoors exercise, but it's a fun way to get a little more exercise into our lives! Although after a stint on the tennis and boxing I was worn out on Friday night!

On Thursday I also got taken on as a new author over at Blogging Tips. I'm writing once a week on a Sunday for them, about advanced WordPress such as template tags, coding and plugin creation. My first post has gone live – Understanding the WordPress Template Hierarchy. I've worked out that I need to write a few intermediate type posts, before I can go any more advanced, else I won't have anything to refer people to if they don't understand bits! Anyway, would love any suggestions on advanced topics I could write on. I have about 2 months worth already worked out but knowing what others would find of interest is always handy.

So last weekend we had headed down to my parents on the Saturday. The main reason was because on Tuesday my Mum and I went up to London to see Phantom of the Opera. We had bought her tickets as I'd run out of ideas of what to buy her and knew she'd wanted to always see it. So we spent a couple of hours looking around the shops, picked up a few things, and then headed to Leicester Square for lunch. The theatre was just around the corner so we didn't have far to walk after that. The production was pretty good. Opera isn't really my thing and whilst it wasn't hardcore opera, there were still elements of it in there, singing when they could just talk for example. However I knew a couple of the songs and, despite not being an opera lover, the actors were amazing singers. But, the main point of going was for my Mum and she enjoyed it, so that was good. However Mamma Mia is next on the agenda (more my thing!).

We drove back on Wednesday, but not before I'd grabbed a few photos of their flowers. This made me all the more decided on getting a macro lens for my camera once I can afford it. I want to get the Canon 100mm Macro which is meant to be very good. It'll also give me a 100mm focus range for more of a zoom for non-macro photos too, which will be handy too.

This week also saw the launch of a new site, DIY Covers, which is a partnership with a couple of other online contacts to sell a suite of photoshop actions that allow you to easily create graphical covers for eBooks, software boxes etc. My AIS blog has a more in-depth post on it – announcing DIY Covers. Hopefully we can get a few steady sales in with this which will all start to contribute to the savings for a deposit on buying a house.

Yes, we've decided to seriously think about buying somewhere to live in the summer/autumn of this year. The house we're currently in is damp (equals mould on the walls), the garden isn't in a great state and the landlord isn't overly concerned over other small issues in the house. Plus I've had a look around and a 3 bedroom house around here is quite affordable for us, so come April we'll be finding out our options with an advisor and see what we can do about getting on the property ladder!

On Friday I had a Close up +10 filter delivered to fit my 50mm lens on my camera. Mainly to give me a cheaper macro solution for now and also something that I could potentially hand hold as the lens I want is going to be about the same weight as my camera and will need a tripod. I realise macro work should always be done with a tripod but there are just occasions when you don't have that option so hopefully this will give me an alternatively. It's quite a strange experience going from seeing everything to having such small area of focus. I tried a few shots outside however the light was quite low and so most were too blurred, although I figured the ant shots I got were almost okay, especially as you can see the eye of the ant! Annoying it just didn't stay still. However it's something new to practise with.

I've finally made a start on processing the holiday photos and getting them added to Flickr. I've set up a collection for Rome photos, and I've done the first day so far! As you can see from the photos left and below, the weather was superb. It's been quite a shock coming back to almost freezing and being on the edge of snowfalls.

We're down at my parents at the moment, came down yesterday, as my Mum and I are off to see the Phantom of the Opera on Tuesday in the theatre in London. My brother and I bought her tickets to see it as I knew she'd wanted to see it for years. Figured it made a better christmas present than some dust gathering ornament. So it'll be a morning of wandering the shops, lunch at a nice restaurant and then a couple of hours in the theatre. I'm looking forward to it

Also down here means we can get out into a real garden and get some photos of the winter flowers that they've got growing, such as the snow drops, which are looking very pretty. Next on the shopping list is a macro lense, for now it'll just have to be close ups with the nifty fifty.