What a year 2012 has been, not only due to the jubilee and London Olympics, but personally I’ve had a great year of holidays, road trips and working on interesting projects, both at home and at work.
The highlight of the year was in February when Jen and I spent two weeks in Costa Rica, I really upped my game surfing (I’m sure warm water and perfect waves helped a lot), we did all the touristy things, saw loads of wildlife ranging from spiders to whales and ate some amazing food!
After a few weekends away in Norfolk and the North West our next holiday was down to Croyde in Devon with some friends, we rented pretty much my dream house and although it rained a lot and the surf was non existent, we had a great week and I can’t wait to go back in 2013. For me the highlight was a road trip to Minehead on the A39 over Exmoor, where I managed to take one of my favourite shots of the year, which I still need to print for Ali! The week ended with meeting Jen’s friend from uni who was back in the UK, from Australia, for a few days, then meeting up with my best friend who had just moved back from Cyprus. From the start of our search in April, we still haven’t managed to find him a new car, certainly a priority for 2013!
Also around the time we went to Croyde was the start of the biggest personal project I’ve been involved in – the 119 project! Jen and I are buying, renovating then moving into her granddad’s house in Coventry. We’re planning on turning this mid terraced house last decorated in the 1970s into our home, we’ve done a lot in 2012, but still haven’t been able to move in, mainly due to my flat in Rugby not selling (if anyone wants to buy a nice 2 bedroom flat in Rugby get in touch with David at Brown and Cockerill). Before our next trip I also managed to fit in visits to the Cholmondeley Pageant of Power with my Dad and the Rally of the Midlands, which was great for photography, after a few years away from motorsports. I also had a business trip to Japan, after an urgent issue cropped up on a project I thought I’d put to bed a few years ago!
The next big trip I went on with Jen was one I had been planning for quite a while – a road trip to the Isle of Lewis, the MX-5 performed brilliantly, we both had a great week and ate way too much nice food! This is where my blogging for the year tailed off, as the rest of the year involved a lot of work on the house/flat with only a couple of Pistonheads Sunday Services at Aston Martin (where I didn’t take any pictures) and the Ferrari Race Day at Silverstone (where I reacquainted myself with photography at Silverstone) and a trip to York (to celebrate the ten year anniversary of Jen starting university there) to break up the DIY, hence the lack of blogging!
The year finished up with a trip to my parents place in Perth for Christmas and as Santa seemed to think I’d been a good boy this year he brought me a GoPro camera, so stand by for my movie debut on the blog next year!
Happy new year!
Lewis