Tag Archive for: barbados

Kickboxing in paradise

As promised, I want to get back to the photography part of my ramblings, and as luck would have it, I had a golden opportunity last night to stretch both my camera and my brain.

We went kickboxing.

Well, I say we went kickboxing – what I mean is we went to watch kickboxing.  Sian has made some great friends at a training school she goes to when work allows, and every year there is a meeting at the Barbados Community College, where friends and rivals of different schools, ages, skill levels and countries, commune en masse in order to kick the crap out of each other.

I must confess, I am not a huge fan of the sport myself…I find it a tad too hardcore at times.  As such, I am always more than happy to take the role of photographer to keep my mind on other things – like shutter speeds and apertures and ISOs…rather than the two grown adults knocking seven bells out of each other.

Usually.

This year, we started with something a little different:

We started with the juniors and wow, they were JUNIOR!  This was the second match between a couple of teeny tots.  It was suprisingly well natured, and the kids did demonstrate some serious technique.  In all it was a fair fight, despite the massive size difference between the two, and the crowd were really supportive of both corners.

I absolutely love the next shot.  We couldn’t hear what the trainer was saying – but the look in the little guys’ eyes is priceless.  Despite the baying crowd, the bright lights, and the fact he has been beating someone up half his size for two minutes, the youngster is totally focused on what his trainer is telling him.  It is, I am told, what this sport is all about: focus.

After the junior round, we moved onto the first adult bout.  I am terribly sorry to say I don’t know anyone outside of our own camp.  There was no card on the evening, so you either knew who the fighters were or you didn’t.  Luckily Sian was on hand to let me know who was who…

Krystal from ‘The Kore’ was up first.  That’s her in the blue corner – and that’s the guy that runs/owns Sian’s training school on the right. His name is Ian and he is a wonderful bloke.  Hard as nails, but still not too tough to sport a pink towel.  Most of our guys fought from the blue corner last night.

From a complete novice’s perspective, I thought Krystal won technically on the first round.  She had a more solid guard, and her kicks and punches seemed to be a lot more precise and calculated.  But by the end of the second round, she was exhausted.

I am never going to say “I’m tired” again.

If you saw Krystal at the end of the third round, you would understand what I mean.  She had given it everything.

Now please – do not take this as a criticism.  These guys are FIT, and they gave their all in the ring.  I cannot imagine how hard it must be to pace yourself in a fight like this.  When someone clocks you one in the nose, it is only natural to go hell for leather and try and hit them back.  This is (obviously) where the discipline comes in, and the fact that the guys even went three rounds, I think, is amazing.

Even this guy struggled the three rounds.  And when you’re as fit as Brook, what chance have us mere mortals got?

Brook actually fractured the other guys’ nose.  So Chris had his bout delayed 15 minutes whilst the ambulance took the poor injured guy to the hospital, and we awaited its return.  He came out and sat in the ring, only to be told to leave again.  That would surely affect your concentration.  But he put in a great bout, but ultimately also fell to fatigue.

The strangest bout of the evening though, was between Nick and James.  This bout was bizarre because, although in a competition and for their official records, both of the guys train together and are firm friends.

Now that’s got to be a spin out.  I couldn’t smash my mate in the face – gloves or not…but these guys went at it with each other, and put on a really good fight.

As you can (hopefully!) see, I really tried to mix up my shots as much as possible on the evening.  One of the hardest things about shooting something like this, is getting good exposure and sharp photos.  Mercifully, the gym was pretty well lit, so I was able to shoot with quite fast shutter speeds (160th/125th) which just about freezes the action.  I had my ISO cranked to 3200 on both my D700 and D800, so noise (the horrid speckles and dots) has started to creep into some of the photos – fine when small, like this, but when you zoom in and blow the pictures up, you will really notice it.

Were it not a lot of the guy’s first fights, and had I planned it properly, I would have definitely mounted two flashes in the overhang above the ring.   I think I have achieved everything I can with the ambient light, and am keen to try mounting some strobes in the ceiling….maybe I could convince the guys to allow that next year.

The other really annoying thing is those bloody ropes.  I cannot tell you how many times they tripped my focus, or cut off a face as the fighters move around so quickly on their feet.  Next time, I will take a small step ladder so I can be almost eye level with the combatants…but of course, I will need to get permission from the organisers, and more importantly this guy:

Because if he wasn’t too happy about what I was getting up to, I am pretty sure I would end up on the end of this:

Which not even my mighty Nikon could survive.

Thanks to Ian and all the Kore team, the fighters for the great show, and the fans and supporters who kept the whole thing exciting, civil, and fun.

And as always, thanks to you for reading guys – I hope you all have a great week 🙂 x

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The Littlest Groover

Hello Ferg fans!

I shall be a mystery guest blogger today as Ferg has foolishly left his WordPress account open on his computer, and I have decided to write a little blog whilst he is peacefully snoring away.

He is feeling a little under the weather today.  Before you begin to feel too sorry for him I must impart to you, dear reader, that his current state of health is totally self-inflicted after a few too many 10 Saints last night.  I also am guilty of the same crime, but we did have a lot of fun with some friends, and met a rather special young man on the dance floor that I wanted to tell you all about.

When we arrived at the Dover beach party that was our destination of choice yesterday evening, the first person we saw up on the dance floor was rather smaller than we might have expected.  Dominic is an 8 year old boy with a talent for dancing, and after seeing him dancing on his own for a short while, Ferg could not help but have a little chat with him to make sure he was alright.  His parents weren’t obvious in the crowd, and his body language told us that he was not a stranger to holding his own on a dance floor as the only child.  For those of you that know Ferg, you will understand that seeing this child dancing at a party by himself at gone 11 o’clock at night upset him deeply.  So Ferg chatted to Dominic, and after a while the little child opened up and told him all about his love for dancing, and how he is very much looking forward to taking dance classes soon.  They were friends for life after Ferg asked Dominic about his favourite dance move; he took delight in showing off his special move and began to dance around with the free abandon that you would expect from an eight year old, losing the mask of the super cool dude that had previously adorned his little face.

We did discover that his mother was indeed around, as after Leecia had asked him if he would like a Coke, he replied “I’m going to ask my Mummy” and zoomed off in the direction of the bar.  She evidently didn’t mind him having a drink, but rather bizarrely did not deem it necessary to come and check out her son’s new friends.  That he met at a party.  On a beach.  At 11pm.  Now, this poses a bit of a conundrum for me, as I think it is fantastic that here in Barbados the atmosphere is such that kids can hang around at an adult party without great cause for concern regarding their safety.  I also think it is great that little Dominic can mingle with adults in the evenings in the same way that you see in family-oriented societies such as Spain.  However, in my opinion – and it is not, of course, the only opinion – I find it troubling that this little one didn’t have anyone to play with, that he was in an environment that is more suited to adults (dancing around with a bottle of beer in your hand in front of a lone child just seems wrong), and that his parent and/or guardian did not seem to think it was inappropriate for her to remain unseen whilst her child chatted to a bunch of strangers.  The most upsetting thing for Ferg was the fact that Dominic seemed completely used to this scenario, which of course conjures up the image of his mama taking him to bars and living it up whilst he entertains himself.  This assumption could be completely wrong of course…but it might not be.

At around 1am Dominic did head off with his mother, and Ferg did get to have a bit of a party and a boogie.

But this little one has stuck in his mind, and when he woke up this morning the first thing he said to me was “Poor Dominic”.  I absolutely love the fact that whilst everybody else danced round, drink in hand, singing along at the tops of their voices, Ferg was sitting on the floor talking to an eight year old boy about his favourite dance moves because he couldn’t bear to see him alone.  This is despite the fact that this particular dance night only happens once a month, and Ferg has been looking forward to it all week.  That is one of the qualities about Ferg that makes him so special, and one of the (many) reasons that I married him.

I hope my slightly hungover ramblings have kept you entertained, and given you a little to ponder over this evening.  I shall pass the pen back over to Ferg again for the next installment, until then keep smiling 🙂

Love Sian…oops, I mean the mystery writer! x

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Carefree Friday…and a weekend to look forward to :)

I have been reading through my past few posts, and have realised that this blog is becoming less and less about photography, and more just a diary of our goings on of late.  I am also aware that pretty much every post I write starts off with ‘how busy we are at work’, which is very true, but I guess it can’t be much fun for you guys to read!  It is also worrying Sian and me that we are working far, far too much, and not playing nearly enough.

And that’s where last night comes in.

I was rushing back to the hotel for a meeting I had scheduled, only to receive a call to be told it was cancelled.  So I called Sian and we hatched a very last minute plan to catch the end of the football.  Racing back and parking up, we met and ran to the nearest bar .  Ordering a bucket of Carib and perching on ridiculously high stools, we sat down just in time to see Danny Welbeck’s (AMAZING) goal.  And we knew from that moment that we were going to have a good night.

Sian and I do love watching sport here  in Barbados, as it is one of the only countries in the world that supports England in its endeavours…we are normally unsupported by even our closest neighbours like my good Scotch pals and the Welsh, and usually when in a foreign land there is a lot of resentment to us doing well at anything.  But the Bajans love England, and it feels like home when you are stood cheering with 30 odd strangers as Danny Welbeck falls over and somehow manages to back heel the ball in.

We forgot about work, and moving, and all the stresses of the last few weeks…and had an awesome night.  It started with the football, and then a curry, and then some Caprinhas, and then some wine and then some beers and then some dancing, and then some broken flip flops, and then some walking, and then some singing and then some burgers, and then some chips, and then some walking…no, staggering,and then in the very very very early hours, some sleep.

We haven’t done this in years…and it was so, so fun.

And then my brain did that horrible thing.  It woke me up.  It woke me up bang on time for work at 7 am.

Why? 

Why does my body punish me so?  During the week, the prospect of waking up at 7 and dragging myself from bed is an impossibility.  I need at least two snoozes on the alarm and a lengthy discussion with Sian about who’s turn it is to make the tea this morning before even contemplating waking up. But on a Saturday, the first we have had off in months, and when we have gone to bed at 4am, 7 o’clock is clearly the most natural time in the world for my body clock to rise.

But, to be honest, despite the lack of lie in, a pounding head, and my mouth tasting like a tin mine,  I can’t be that cross with myself…because the site that I wake to is simply gorgeous.

I am wide, wide awake, and Sian is fast, fast asleep…

And we acted like teenagers last night.  And we laughed and we danced and we drank and we sang.  And now she lies here and I have to grab  my camera, and I realise that although I take pictures every day, I rarely take pictures of her…and I ask myself why?

And I promise myself I will.  I will take more pictures of my beautiful wife, and I will take more time off work, and I will try and enjoy life here in Barbados a little more over the next year…because that is the whole purpose of us finding each other.

Now, please excuse me, I am off back to bed with my hot date from last night.

Have a great weekend guys 🙂

x

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I’m Cat Man.

There is sooooooo much that has happened over the last few weeks, I don’t know where to begin!  We have finally (nearly) moved offices  which has been a little stressful to say the least, but the new Colorbox HQ is setup down on the South Coast and all (will be) well with the world within a few weeks.   On top of all that, we have been taking pictures of famous footballers, taking photos of famous socialites,  flown home to shoot a wedding, met two AMAZING babies that I have a billion piccies to share with you, experienced a little bit of Blighty during the Jubilee holiday (again – PICTURES TO COME), bought ourselves an immense new camera and the fourth and final lens to complete our incredible arsenal. 

Like I said – pretty busy.

I will go back and fill in all those gaps over the coming days and weeks, but for now, in the present, we are back in Barbados and well.  Our good friend Nicky and her boyfriend Angus have flown back for a bit of good old British Summer and so we stoically said we would look after her house and three cats.  Which is probably the most stupid thing in the world to do ever, because I am crazy allergic.

Seriously.

What was I thinking?

But despite the sneezing and the itchy eyes and everything else the wretched Feline does to me…they do make me chuckle.   Sian is amazing with them – there are two boys and a girl, so they fight and hiss quite regularly.  Sian won’t tolerate any bad behaviour and they seem to listen to her as she barks orders at them.  We have not been able to spend as much time at Nicky’s as we had hoped (yet) what with the move and the allergicing and everything else, but when we do pop in to see them it really is nice.  Sian was out on the veranda and saw ‘Mink’ (the mum), and called her in.  Mink did a double take at the site of someone being home.  She pelted across the garden to come and find Nicky.  She raced up the stairs and straight into the living room…only to be disappointed to find that her mum was still nowhere to be found, and had apparently been replaced by a rather heavy set man – leaking from every orifice on his face.  A defiant meow was all she gave me before turning her back and walking to Sian for a quick stroke.

But, the most comedy thing about these cats?…They don’t drink from the water bowl…oh no.  They will only drink running, fresh water from the tap. Don’t believe me? Here’s a snap from our spangly new camera.

Unhygenic? Probably.  Spoilt cats? Definitely.  Comedy gold? 100% absolutely yes.

Thanks for reading guys, and looking forward to catching up soon 🙂

 

xxxx

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The end of an era

As you all may (or may not!) have noticed, I have been very quiet lately – this is the first post in three weeks, and I am desperate to get something down before May runs out!

The reason for my complete lack of bloggage is, unfortunately, not due to swanning around the world with my beautiful wife to exotic locations, or because I have been preparing something utterly beautiful to share with you all…far from it.  It is because we have been handling our busiest month of the year on top of the very sad news that our home for the last two years has finally closed 🙁

Sian and I have been privileged enough to live and work at The Almond Beach Village in St Peter, Barbados for the last two and a bit years and now, finally, the rumours of financial strife and concerns have finally come to fruition…the hotel is closed.

 

And it is very sad.

 

I took these photos the day after the resort closed.  It was a bank holiday (National Heroes day) so, naturally, Sian and I were at work.  The resort just felt like a complete ghost town.  The fans were spinning, the lights were on, but not a soul in sight over the whole 23 acre site.  It was very weird.

I had no intentions of taking pictures that day – I was just moving a lot of stuff out of our now redunandant office and studio, but I felt I had to get something.  So I grabbed a work D7000 and pottered around…and it just made me even sadder.

This is the courtyard outside ‘Tommy’s Bar’.  Even when the resort was really, really quiet there would be people sat out enjoying the evening breeze and guzzling a rather foul rum concoction.  But the beer was the coldest on the island here – and always welcome after a long day.

Right at the end of this looooong corridor was where our beautiful photo studio once lived…

And at the end of this one was where we used to live…

And this is the pool where Ryan took his first few strokes into swimming entirely on his own.  We stood in a circle at the (very deep) area just behind the bridge; he took a massive breath and disappeared under the surface as he kicked his way across to a very relieved Uncle, Aunty, Mum or Dad…it was one of the many, many great times we had at ‘home’.

But all is not doom and gloom.  To say it has not been an operational nightmare (moving house is meant to be the most stressful things you can do – try moving offices at the same time!) would be an understatement, but we have moved now. We have a beautiful new apartment down on the South Coast in a new hotel, and our offices are going to probably work out better down on the South side too. I have also been overwhelmed with how well my team have coped with the frustrations and concerns that this whole saga has thrown up.  It could have been very easy for mistakes to be made, people forgotten about, weddings missed; but on the ground the guests have had absolutely no idea just how hard this last month has been.

And I love and thank the guys so much for that.

 

Thanks for reading guys – and hope to hit you with some more cheerful ramblings soon 🙂

x

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Hunte’s Gardens

As you all know, I love shooting weddings.  It’s the best part of the job out here in Barbados.

When I can get away from boring things like staff wages, VAT returns and fixing the never ending tirade of computer malfunctions and machine errors, there is nothing I like more than shooting a happy couple out in the sun.  And the only thing better than that is when we get to go somewhere new.

The business we are in relies heavily on Hotel world, and so we shoot 99.9% of our weddings in the same locations.  Don’t get me wrong – the locations are always gorgeous, and we are spoilt for choice when we shoot.  With gardens, water features, sugar mills and, of course those beaches to choose from, couples are always staggered with the shots and videos they receive.  But when we get a bride enquire about a wedding somewhere new, we all get a bit giddy at the thought of some new locations and the escape from our (idyllic) norm.

So imagine our delight when Sian received an email from an expectant bride asking about us shooting her wedding at the famous Hunte’s Gardens?  It is a well known spot, tucked away in the hilly area of St Joseph and without a doubt the best sign posted attraction in Barbados.  It always tickles me whenever we embark on an adventure like this – as we invariably get lost on the bumpy back roads when signs we have been religiously following for hours suddenly disappear…but fair play to Hunte’s – they are consistently dotted around the island, leading the horticultural-hungry tourists directly to the beautiful wrought iron gates.

A narrow pathway and greeted by a nice young man, and this is the site that awaits you.

It is beautiful.

Of course, being that we are professional photographers, and that we were coming to see the site namely for the sake of research, we picked the absolute worst time to go to the gardens.  As you will see from the ridiculously hard light, we got there at about 1pm – when the sun is at both its highest and hottest in Barbados…so you will have to forgive me with the crazy contrast and reflective palm trees – but it was our day off and we wanted to make the most of it…so I just gave it my best shot.

As we wandered down the narrow, steep path, you could literally feel the trees ‘breathing’ around us.  By the time we got to the bottom of the sink hole the garden lives in, the air was heavy with humidity, and the smells were all encompassing.

Sian’s hair was glad to soak up some of the moisture too, and within five minutes it had expanded a third in volume…which gave me something to chuckle about as the sweat began pouring off my face like a scene from Airplane.

And so for the next half an hour or so, we wandered around the beautiful gardens, nattering away about the endless possibilities, accompanied only by the songs of the nesting birds above, and the wind blowing through the palms.

It really is quite a place.

Despite the crazy-hard light we had given ourselves to work with, I am fairly happy with the shots we got on the day.  But one of the hardest things I found was conveying the sheer size of the gardens.  Although the grounds are not enormous in acreage, the site is so steep, and Mr Hunte has ingeniously used every available inch to maximum effect.  I am not a fan of this shot, but Sian is, and she is my harshest critic – so if it’s good enough for her then, well, it goes up on the blog:

After a while, we started to wander back up to the old plantation house that overlooks the epic gardens, safe in the knowledge that there would be a rum punch for us at the top of the hill.  That was what the literature said, and that was how Sian had convinced me to leave the cosy AC of home to embark on this little adventure in the first place.

Sian spotted this half munched leaf – obviously a hungry caterpillar – but clearly not a Frangipanni, as the leaf has barely been touched! I love how uniform the nibbles are:

As we approached the building, we were met with the most fabulous site – a fully dressed dining table that looked like something straight out of Narnia.  The whole thing was littered with dried flowers and palm leaves – I have never seen anything quite like it.

After a lengthy discussion of just how ever-awesome this venue would be for weddings, we finally got to the top of the hill, and were met by the wonderfully welcoming Anthony Hunte – the man himself.   Comfortably reclined in a huge sofa, Anthony was deep in conversation with two other visitors – Simon and Christine.  He invited us to sit and have a rum punch, and soon we began chewing the fat.  It was a fantastic afternoon.

And just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, Anthony unleashed his jewel in the crown – the cherry on the cake for this wonderful venue.

Flora.

Oh. My. God. This dog is awesome.  So awesome that even Sian: champion of Cats – resenter of the canine and slayer of all that drool, fell for her:

Flora did what all good dogs do for the rest of the afternoon.  She did the rounds and made sure everyone was where they should be – made sure her dad Anthony was being looked after by these strangers in her house, and then when satisfied all was well, would come and demand a cuddle from her master.

I am sure I am not the first visitor, and I certainly won’t be the last to Hunte’s that has thought about kidnapping that wonderful pooch.  She really is a corker.  And my camera loved her.

By the end of the evening, we had drunk far too many rum punches, taken far too many pictures of the dog, and had been eaten alive by the pesky sand flies.  At about 8pm we finally left our wonderful host and two new friends, a quick call for a lift home and the adventure sadly came to an end.

But we WILL return!

 

 

Thanks for reading guys x

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Roberts Factory

The last few weeks have been pretty awesome.  We have made some friends, (Big blog to come!)  have had some great news in the family, and some not so great, but all in all we are very happy.

The other day, we had to visit Virgin HQ, and being Barbados, it was in the back end of nowhere.  As we negotiated the twists and turns of the fabled ‘highway 3’, we stumbled across a massive factory.  And I got a little excited.  As my frequent readers may well know, I have, unfortunately, inhereted my father’s penchant for the industrial tech. Trains, planes, boats – anything man made that can rust slightly and I get a little weak at the knees.  Very sad, I know, but that’s me.

I have a really vivid memory from about age 9.  We were on a family narrow boat holiday and we chugged through the heart of this massive, massive factory.  It was one of the most fascinating and eerie moments of my life.  Being 9, it felt enormous – there was steam and smells and noises, a thick film of foam scudded across the murky green of the canal, but despite all of the activity and bustle – there was not a sole in site.  It reminded me of the cover of Michael Jackson’s Dangerous which I actually had in my discman at the time…I was a very spoilt child…

But I digress.

Desperate to take a snap of this new found wonder in otherwise picturesque Barbados, I waited for dusk, bundled my exhuasted wife into the car, and headed to the factory.

I fired off a few frames, and think this is the best one.  Unfortunately there is a massive fence (obviously) around the factory, so I couldn’t get too close, but I like this wide shot, and it is soooo very different to what we normally see him in Bimshire!

As I was standing there, snapping away, Sian called out from the car that she could see millions of fireflies.  I turned to see what she was talking about, and all I could see was the glow of the car’s headlights:

I crossed the road to see what she was talking about, and was amazed by what I saw.  The entire meadow was alive with fire flies.  It really was a sight to behold.  As we stood and gazed out, the grass flashed and sparked with these amazing little creatures.

Being English, I have never seen Fire flies before, and was shocked at just how much they glow.  I tried my best t get a shot of the scene, but unfortunately I think this is one of those moments that you can see with your eyes, and not your camera.  I think a video of the meadow would have worked brilliantly, but the amazing D700 is a photo camera, nothing else.

As I say, I don’t think the photo does the scene justice, but if you look in the lower third, you will see the little yellow spots dotted between the blades of grass.  We stood and watched the field glow like a massive Christmas tree set, and very quickly, the factory seemed boring and pointless.

We enjoyed nature’s lightshow for a good while, got back into the car and headed home.

And once again, we had experienced yet another natural beauty of our new home land all because of the engineers at Nikon that built our wonderful, wonderful camera.

Thank for reading guys

x

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Wedding Videos

Hi guys,

Just a very quick link to our Youtube account (Colorbox Caribbean- www.youtube.com/colorboxcaribbean) We have had a crazy busy few weeks here, as ever, hence the lack of posts recently.  Anyway, please pop over to the Colorbox Youtube account and see some of the work we are doing out here.  This one is a wedding I shot with Charlie and Bill the other day – lovely couple and a lovely day, hope you all enjoy it 🙂

Thanks for reading – more posts soon, I promise!

Ferg

x

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The Humming Birds

In my last post, I talked about the family of monkeys that are setting up shop here on our resort, and how the baby – affectionately named ‘Monkini’ by my dear wife, is growing up at a rate of knots.  Well, just after that post, we had another family start anew on resort – this time in the form of the beautiful, if not tiny Hummingbird.

Here is mum, precariously perched on the end of a bush, in front of the sugar mill and undoubtedly on the busiest pathway in the resort.  We are all a little bemused as to why she would want to setup here, but it is not an uncommon place for the Hummingbirds to nest, so clearly evolution has a plan…whatever that plan is.

Anyway, mum is sat here, in front of the sugar mill basking in the shade and fighting the breeze that is coming in from the sea.  It is really difficult for me to portray just how tiny this bird is – I was hoping that the Sugar Mill would help give a little perspective, but as it is so far away, it actually makes her look even bigger!

To give you an idea, she is probably about 9cm long, beak to tail.  (That’s just 3 and a bit inches for our American friends) And her nest is just as slight.  I stood around at a good distance as she flew in and out of her nest, bringing back twigs and fluff to build her abode.

She would only leave for a few moments at a time, and a closer peak revealed why:

These two eggs are TINY!! Barely the size of a mento each, and left unattended for the briefest of moments whilst the nest is added to and mum eats…Why she picked such a busy and open spot for her nest again?  I have no idea…

So we now have (hopefully!) at least two families growing with us here whilst we soak up the sun and shoot our weddings.  I will keep you posted how our Hummingbird family get on, and will snap away at the monkeys as and when we see them.  I have a whole host of blogs to get round to, but wanted to get my David Attenborough bit out of the way first.

Massive thanks as always for reading guys, hit the subscribe button, tell your friends and generally be merry.

Will be back soon

x

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Happy (belated) New Year!

It feels like forever since my last post…I haven’t written anything this year…so let’s get down to the nitty gritty of it – Happy New Year one and all.  I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and all the other shenanigans that year’s end brings. We, as ever, have been completely rammed at work – millions and millions of exciting twists and turns in the wonderful world of Barbados, and we were also lucky enough to have my family-in-law (well, some of them anyway) come and stay with us over the festive period.

From left to right, that’s my mum-in-law, Sue, my step-dad-in-law, Dave, and little Lou, who is nearly thirteen now…I have known Louis since he was a bump in Sue’s tummy, and he is all kinds of awesome.  But, like most teenagers, he hates having his picture taken.

So it’s not the best place for him to come really…what with snap-happy Ferg so close by.

But we had a great time – the guys enjoyed the beach whilst we (enjoyed?!) the office.  We had a few weddings over Christmas, and the staff parties (working and playing) and New Year’s eve (working) and everything in between.  Hence why the blog has suffered somewhat these last few weeks.

And whilst we played with some of our family, our resident monkeys started to build their own.  We have a dominant male on the resort that Sian has affectionately come to name “Morris.” We have seen him for the last two years or so – he once tried to break into the office on the off chance of finding some bananas, although he would be more likely to find coffee and muffins on my desk.   Anyway, he recently hooked up with a lady monkey on resort called “Mummy”, and the two have had a baby Sian has dubbed “Monkini.”  (This is the abridged version – but you get the gist.)

Anyway, baby has been growing at an alarming rate, and it is very, very cute to see them all playing together on the resort.  Being a nipper, “Monkini” has a wonderful curiosity with everything and Morris usually lets her entertain this curiosity as he wanders around in a circle, snarling at anything that gets too close.

But on my birthday (Christmas Eve) during the slowest game of golf ever, we pulled out of a hole to let some people who actually knew what they were doing go by, and we saw Mummy and Monkini in a tree with no sign of Morris.  He had obviously wandered off to find something for his girls, and we were able to get closer than ever before to the pair.  I felt really bad because the sound of my shutter grabbed Monkini’s attention no end – and she kept trying to jump out of the tree to investigate the noise.  Mummy gave me some horrible looks as she kept playing catch with her new baby, but it did make for some amazing photos:

This is just after Monkini jumped down towards me to see what all the noise was about coming from my camera…Mummy was NOT impressed.

We got the hint and left the monkeys to it, failed a bit more at golf, and then went home.  I haven’t yet seen the monkeys in the new year, but when I do I shall post up some more pictures as baby grows up…it really is such a treat to have such a spectacle on your front door step.

So our birthdays and Christmas came and went, we partied and played and worked hard, and now look forward to another busy and sccessful year.  I have LOADS of stuff to share with you over the following weeks, and I promise the blogs will start coming regularly again 🙂

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Thanks for reading guys x

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