Not enough words...

Well, as mentioned elsewhere, it's been QUITE a few months. It all started in early June, when I went to the Biggin Hill Festival of Flight, discovered that the Red Arrows Jets were on the ground, and started taking photos of the guys in the Blue suits, the engineers, going about their work...

Everyone sees the Red Arrows, says "Wow" and thinks they're all about the dashing pilots in their red suits. Well of course that's a percentage of it, but, had you realised that in fact that is only 10% of the overall operation? The "Blues" as they are known outnumber the "Reds" by 10:1 and without them, the whole operation grinds to a rather disappointing halt. What suddenly hit me, as I stood by the fenceline at Biggin Hill, taking my pictures, is that genuinely, only a tiny proportion of people actually DO realise that, and an even smaller proportion of those have actually seen any of that work at first hand! Having finally battled my way free of the traffic in the car park, over the next few days I started posting my pictures on Twitter, and they began to get a positive reaction. Such a reaction, in fact, that I started giving them their own hashtag - "#CircusAtWork" to reflect the "Circus" engineers prominence in them (Circus, in case you don't recall from my earlier post, are the team of engineers who travel with the jets on transits to look after them on the ground). I'd focused in particular on two of the guys for that first batch - Cpl. Jonathan Wilcox, as I'd got to know his Aunt through Twitter and knew the family would appreciate the pics , and Cpl. Ross Harrison, who I'd also been chatting with on Twitter for a while. Meeting both Ross & Coxy that day, as well as a couple of the other guys, and chatting with them about what they did, just strengthened my resolve to really focus on their side of things as much as I could during the rest of the season.

From there, my summer got increasingly surreal and unexpected - firstly with the time on the ground at Bristol Airport which I blogged about HERE - and then with other opportunities for photos at Waddington, Fairford, Families Day at RAF Scampton and finally a full day airside at Blackpool Airport a couple of weeks ago.  I've spent a LOT of the past couple of months pinching myself to convince myself that I wasn't just dreaming it. Lucky doesn't even begin to cover how I feel about it - it goes so far beyond that it's untrue. The best bit by far has been getting to know some fabulous and amazing people, many of whom I've come to count as friends. I've learnt a lot too - and a lot about myself. I discovered that I'm braver than I think - it took me all my nerve to actually go up and talk to Red 8 - Flt. Lt. Martin Pert - at Biggin Hill, but I'm so glad I did as he proved to be absolutely lovely. (It took me a little longer to overcome my complete irrational terror of Red 10 - Sqn. Ldr. Mike Ling, but that's a whole other story, and he ALSO proved to be lovely!) It's true that good things can happen when you say "yes" - even if "yes" opens you up to scary things. I now know that I can largely disregard bitching when it relates to me, but it inflames me beyond belief when it relates to a friend - especially one who's not about to defend themselves. And I learned that I'm a better photographer than I would have given myself credit for at the start of the season - I've produced some shots during the year that I'm seriously proud of - with this one below coming out top of the heap...and clearly the Royal International Air Tattoo agreed as they featured it on their Facebook page a few weeks ago. The Circus At Work project continued right through the season and now looks set to be something that I will continue with in the future, also.

It's a real change for me to be able to put pictures out there and say "I'm proud of this" - even to myself. I've always been inclined to mumble a lot about how things are "alright" or "not as good as X's" and it's a real step forward for me to be able to acknowledge that I've produced some good stuff this year. Something to work on! Above all I've learned that there are a lot of really nice, kind people out there - who will put themselves out to do lovely things for others. Take Bex for example, who on the strength of a friendship formed on Twitter kindly made sure I could get Airside at Blackpool the other week - in exchange I asked for her to be able to spend time out on the line with the jets, which she enjoyed, so all square there! Also Nicky & Olly, who between them sorted out some problems Claire, Di and I had when it came to Families Day at Scampton - confusion over names being put on a list left us standing at the gate, and those guys sorted it out in spite of Olly not having the first IDEA who any of us were!

It seems a long while ago that Claire and I stood together at Scampton and said "Do you know, it would be quite a laugh to see how many displays we could do this season, with it being the Reds 50th year and all that..." - from there a plan was well and truly hatched and Claire has been my Partner In Crime throughout - even the shows we've done separately, the other has essentially been there in spirit, and the only thing which slightly dampened the Blackpool experience was that due to work commitments she couldn't make it. She was utterly thrilled for me though, as she was when I had my chance at Bristol too - and if that's not the mark of a real friend I don't know what is. Someone asked me while I was at Blackpool "So, come on then, there must be some competition between you and Claire - honestly?" but there's not. Photographically her thing and mine are very different - you'd never in a million years mistake our pics for each others,  and we cheerfully re-tweet one another's best shots and enjoy seeing the other get exposure. Being at Scampton together for Families Day was just brilliant - we had SUCH a good day even if we must have turned to each other and said "Wow!" about 50 times in the course of it! Her spare room is now nicknamed "Robyn's room" as I've spent so much time in it in the course of the summer! There are others too, who've turned into pals - Sarah, Di, Anthony, Tom and the lovely Kate who I spent a riotous weekend with for Blackpool and the Southport Airshow. She did her fair share of "Wow"ing that weekend too!

So - the team. Alternately known as "The Guys" "The Boys" and Reds & Blues. First mention goes to Ross - Circus 8 2014. Without him I'd not have done the half of it, thank you doesn't even begin to cover it although I think I've said that to him a fair bit! I was lucky enough to meet his parents a couple of times this year and in a heartbeat could see quite why he's such a nice guy, and seeing how proud they are of him, and how pleased they are to have the photos I've taken - well, that's a good reason for having put the time in, right there. I'll say it again Ross - thank you, next time the drinks are on me, OK? (Although I'm pretty sure you still owe me one, now I come to think about it... ;-) )  Ross's Driver for the year - Perty - Red 8, completely cool dude and all round nice guy, and also leaving the team this season having completed his three years. Above all positive comments from this man on photos mean a LOT - he's a keen and bloody good photographer himself. The person who's driven the team's interaction on Twitter forwards in leaps and bounds, and all the better for it. All that remains now is to wish him & the family all the very best for their future, whatever that may hold, and yes, of course, another thank you!

 Lingy - Red 10, lovely chap. What more can I say - sharp as a tack but not half as scary as I thought he was. Still have NO idea why I was terrified of him for at least half the season either - oh well! He's staying on the team for another couple of years too which is brilliant. Mike, Nicky, Stu, and the Kevs...and a lot of others too - had chat, banter and giggles with all of them through the season at the shows - what a laugh it's been. Crossing fingers for various people to get "interesting stuff" to do next year too - if only so they get out and about and we get the chance to catch up!

So, now, all change. There are 4 leaving the team...this year's Red 1, Red 6, 8 & 9. 4 new ones incoming too - the New Boss we've not met yet, but the three newbies to the main body of the team we met at Blackpool...

...(pictured there with Perty getting in on the act too!) and they definitely gained our approval for being willing to stop, chat, and pose for photos. On the Blues, too, it's all change. Nicky will be out and about round the shows again as he'll be looking after the paperwork as Road Documents Controller for the 2015 season. So far he's the only person from those guys to have publicly stated what he's doing next season though so I'll leave it there also. There will be a new group of Circus Engineers to be photographed - and now I know how much the pics mean to them, I'll be continuing with that project for sure. It's a strange mix of sadness and happiness now - the euphoria of the fantastic season we've just had still lingers, yet there is a sadness for those who've just had their most incredible time in their careers to date and now have to adjust to things going "back to normal" again. The phrase that's kept repeating in my mind is "it's all over"...but of course it's not, in some ways, it's just beginning all over again....bring on 2015!

Robyn

Frugal Friday...

Well - don't things slip when you're not keeping your eye on them?!

This has been the most hectic summer I've had in a while. It's not been cheap, for sure, but in some ways it HAS been frugal. I've amassed not a penny of debt and, while I've not added to my savings any, I've not taken away from them either. Above all it's been the MOST fantastic, enjoyable, fun few months I've had in a very long while - indeed possibly ever, and as we've always said, life is for living, first and foremost.  I've a whole other blog post in mind to wrap things up on the "What I did this summer" line, so for now, let's concentrate on getting things back on a frugal footing, shall we?

So, I'll throw my hands up and admit - over the past few months our food spending has increased, meters have not been read, and I've lost track completely of all the usual small bits of money shuffling and maintenance that used to get done on a regular basis. Time to tackle those things one at a time now, I think:

Meters:
The gas needs MrEH to read it - which he will do over the weekend. We know where we stand on that one though and, as expected, in spite of the DD with the new supplier being set at £5 per month (which THEY said was too little, and I said was too much) we're already going to be running in credit with that.
The electric is another matter. I checked the account the other day, and was slightly baffled to find that the account didn't look *quite* right. I couldn't put my finger on why though...the figures for the readings were correct against the app on my phone, so why? It took a few moments of scrutiny before I realised with one of those genuine face/palm moments - the two readings had been transposed, so that the reading which should have been for our day use, was actually showing against the night reading, and vice versa! Doh! Looking back, it appears that somehow this happened when I originally switched to them so has been wrong ever since! Anyway, a quick email gained the remarkably common sense response from them that all I needed to do was send them two photographs of the meter, taken more than three hours apart, so they could ascertain that everything was as it should be, and they will correct it. My part of this bargain is now complete and I hope that they will sort things out nice and swiftly now, so we can find out where we stand.

Food shopping:
The biggest issue here has been shopping without a list, and letting stuff get wasted when it's been bought from habit - two problems which are extremely easy to sort out! This morning's shop was indeed done with list in hand and I've planned through our meals for the week too. One of the things I've struggled with through the summer has been eating badly - when I've been home, in theory it's been fine, but actually what's tended to happen is that I've been tired, not felt like cooking, and a higher than usual number of easy options and takeaways have crept in. Let's face it, we've all been there! Of course getting THAT back under control is easy - and this is the perfect time of year for it too, when the lure of sausage and bean casseroles and potato bakes gets ever stronger. Regular fridge and freezer audits will help to tackle the waste issue too - I'm cross with myself about that above everything else as I HATE wasting food, and while it's not been enough, it's been sufficient to make me feel I've let myself down a bit. Anyway, the aim for the next few weeks is to keep the weekly food spend to under £25 per week - today's supermarket bill came in at £17 although there are a few bits I need to get from elsewhere yet, too.

Personal spending:
Aim for this for the next few weeks is going to simply be to reduce it! Or rather, should I say, to keep it as low as possible. My October personal money in the bank is as yet untouched, and I have £20 in my purse which I intend to stretch as far as I can. How far that is remains to be seen. I've got a few planned spends this month - some travel to book, a trip down to Devon and one or two other small bits, but that's about it - and beyond that into November there will be a few days in Lincolnshire and a few up in Scotland. I've started the month as ever by stashing £50 into my "Fun" account and £100 into savings - and while some of that will have to be withdrawn to cover spends on the credit card when the bill turns up, I'm aiming to cover as much as possible from my regular monthly money.

Forward planning: 
If I'm intending to do the airshow season next year to a similar extent to this, then some degree of forward financial planning is most definitely needed! With that in mind, I'll be adding to my "treats tin" with any spare cash from my purse, and I also have a new savings account which will being used for any money left over at the end of the month in my bank account, my saved £2 coins when I count those up at the end of the year, and anything extra I earn. I'm setting no firm targets or aims for this - whatever is there at the start of the season can be used to pay towards tickets, accommodation and travel, where required. Booking show tickets on "earlybird" deals will also feature - some pals and I have a plan to do all three days at the Royal International Air Tattoo for example, and a healthy saving can be made on the tickets for that by buying as soon as they are released, I know. As soon as the Red Arrows release their display dates I'll sit down and make a firm list of which shows I want to go to, as well, as booking accommodation earlier often means a saving too - Claire and I also have some plans for maybe making a trip to Cyprus to see the winter training, and that will take both planning and money.

So, a summary right now would be that we need to stick our heads down a get back into the groove with this, I think. The mortgage stuff is going well - we've heard back from the Financial Ombudsman to say that our complaint against Virgin Money is now being looked into, and we're crossing our fingers that they will come back in our favour. If so that will make a big difference to the figures there, and will bring our Mortgage Free date forward a bit more, as well. If not, well, we'll shrug it off and carry on as we are - and if anything it will make us all the more determined to get it gone the very second we can!

I'm not promising that I'm going to be doing Frugal Friday on a weekly basis from here on - but I'll be aiming to do at least one post a month, maybe more.

Robyn

Frugal Friday...

I know, I KNOW - I've been quite horribly neglectful of my poor blog. I have excuses...a LOT of aviation photography - and feeling quite conscious that not everyone likes it, and that's all I've had to post about recently really. A complete lack of time - in large part thanks to the LOT of aviation photography. I've been "doing" rather than "writing about" which is a good thing, yes? Anyway, I thought that the best post to come back with was a Frugal Friday post...

Of course with all the racing about the country I've been doing, frugality has been a bit hard to come by - I'll freely admit that I've added very little to my personal savings this year - at the moment as fast as money goes in, it promptly comes out again, too! In spite of that though I've still been careful where I can - driving economically means my little Clio has been averaging a healthy 64mpg for example, and when it's come to booking travel for airshows I've been weighing up where it's easier and possible to use public transport, whether that's cheaper than driving. For an upcoming trip from Dartmouth to Bournemouth and on up to Lincoln, for example, I quickly realised it would be easier and cheaper to travel with my friend who's doing the same journey, chipping in towards her fuel, and then get the train back from Lincoln. An kind offer from another friend to drop me part way back on his own journey home has meant an even easier journey and even cheaper travel will be possible - it all helps! Some train travel has been booked using "doubled up" Clubcard vouchers via Red Spotted Hanky too, as always.

In terms of joint spending and savings, things have continued much as usual. Mortgage overpayments have increased a bit - or rather the money being stashed away into our ISA has, as we're unable to make any more actual OP's to the mortgage now until next year. We hit that point in the year when the car insurances, breakdown cover, and home insurance needed renewing too. I always dread this - it comes at an inconvenient time of year for us with a lot going on, but in spite of this I do always set aside the time to deal with it properly. With unusually excellent timing, I got a till-spit from "ThaT SupermarkeT" offering me 250 clubcard points for getting a quotation with them for home insurance. I ran through the usual comparison sites first - going via TopCashBack  to get the small payment they offer. Noted down the best prices from those, then tried T3sco bank, who to my surprise knocked spots off the cheapest I'd got on the comparisons! In theory it would have been possible to get it a little cheaper by going to one of the more expensive ones and relying on Cashback paying out, but our rule with cashback is still to buy for the best price we can, as cashback isn't ever 100% guaranteed to pay out. one down, three to go! Car insurance came next. We'd both had our renewal quotes so knew what our current providers were prepared to offer. Yes, I KNOW that by ringing them up you can invariably reduce these a bit, but this annoys me beyond measure - why not just offer the best price in the first place? Rogues, the lot of them, and I refuse to play that game. So, back to the comparison sites. Interestingly it was only as we were running through that it suddenly occurred to us that the towbar that is fitted to MrEH's current car counted as a "modification" and in fact some insurers actually declined to quote on it, as it turned out. Worth knowing that - it certainly hadn't twigged with us beforehand that this would be the case and I wonder how many folk are cheerfully insuring cars with towbars fitted without every realising they need to declare it. Three comparisions done, and a bit of tweaking, and ironically enough we both ended up with the same company for this year - AXA - and each made a small saving over the cost of last year's policies too which was good. Cashback to come on both too (Yes, MrEH has a TCB account, too!) and that's already tracked so should pay OK.

So, two down, with just the breakdown cover to go. Now we have to be a bit careful with that - thanks to the annual jaunt over to the Hebrides, small-print requires scrutiny to ensure that there is nothing there ruling out "off-shore islands" - and yes, at least one of the major players does indeed have this small-print! Eventually this year we settled for KwikFit, of all people. Their small-print was fine, the cover was what we needed, and their price was £60 cheaper than RAC wanted for us to renew with them! More cashback coming from them too, and again that's tracked already, so all good.

Yes all this fiddling about takes time - most of our Sunday afternoon was taken up with it I guess. However, we've saved around £170 on the amount we would have paid if we'd simply auto-renewed. we've also identified a couple of small changes that needed making - increased mileage on my car and MrEH's wretched towbar, and We've also earned ourselves just over £100 cashback - assuming it pays out. Oh, and 250 clubcard points - mustn't forget those!

Robyn

Frugal Friday...

I was tickled to spot this week's "Money Moral Dilemma" on the Money Saving Expert weekly email. To paraphrase, it involves a shared (student) house, where one of the sharers has a boyfriend staying "every weekend...and longer" and the questioner is asking whether in fact the boyfriend should be contributing to the household (short answer: yes, of course he should, or rather, his girlfriend should be sorting this out!).  the thing that *really* got me though is the line "We've just had to pay £80 extra on our electricity bill..." - now the period of time this was to cover wasn't made clear, but I'll assume because of the amount involved that it's a quarterly bill.


Our current electricity bills are coming in at around £30 a month - we pay £47 a month and that covers the higher use in the winter months pretty nicely, as a rule. that's one flat, two people, of course. If only one of us were there I'd expect that figure to fall a little - an extra person having showers, the extra use of things like computers and that sort of thing is bound to increase the costs, but at the very outside I can't see that changing by more than about £6 - 7 a month, at the most, which means around £20 a quarter. What precisely is this extra person doing to use THAT amount of electricity? It is stated that he works from home, so I presume that's a computer running for 8 hours a day, but that will only account for around 60p a day - and that only on the working days he's there. Frankly, I'm baffled!


We made it our business to know what power the regularly used appliances and equipment in the flat use - partly so we can identify the power-hungry things, partly so we can dispell myths like "It's cheaper to leave your computer turned on than powering it up each time you use it" and partly because it's good common sense to know what power something normally uses - so that if it suddenly starts using more/less, you can identify a potential problem. Our "power guzzlers" are our electric shower, and our immersion heater (around 50p for it to go on for an hour to heat the water if not done on the cheap rate overnight) and of course the storage heaters in the winter. The kettle looks to be - but in fact it's on for such a short time each time it's used it doesn't actually cost that much. The PC costs around 7p an hour at its start-up, but that drops to around 4p an hour after that, so unless you're going to be constantly switching it on and off multiple times in a day, no, it's not cheaper to leave it running, and the same applies to the laptop.


When we first started clamping down on our household costs, the electricity use was one of the first things we targeted - we've always been pretty good about turning lights off when we leave a room, and have used energy saving lightbulbs where we can for years, but it was the focus on our finances that made us REALLY think about it. Now when we go away for more than a single night we turn the immersion off, as if we need hot water on the day we return it's unlikely to be in a large enough quantity that boiling the kettle won't supply enough. When we go away for any period of time we also switch off things like the microwave and clock radio. The PC and printer stay plugged in and switched on at the wall (but off at the appliance itself of course) most of the time, but again when we go away for more than a few days, we flick the switches at the wall too. (The reason for leaving the residual trickle of power going to appliances like this is that they require that trickle to maintain their systems, internal clocks etc, and constantly turning off completely and back on again can in some cases shorten the lifespan of the power unit inside.) We try so far as possible to charge phones etc either in the car, and when I'm charging camera batteries they get put on, and then taken off charge as soon as they're "cooked" too. Little things, but it all helps to ensure that our annual fuel bills are as low as they can be. We're really cranking up the focus on trying to get that mortgage gone, but still trying to live life and get as much from it as we possibly can, and those (what no doubt seem to some) "petty" little savings are just the things that are making that possible. I've said before, we don't sit in the dark, we don't deny ourselves heat, or the TV on when we want it, or a cup of tea if we fancy one - we just try to be sensible, and not give our hard earned to anyone else who hasn't worked *just* as hard for it. And that's just common sense, isn't it?


Robyn

Hard to believe...

...that just a month ago we were in the Hebrides! I've been too busy to really think about it much for the past few weeks, but thought it was about time I took a look at some more of the photos. Here's some of my favourites from the first week...

One thing we did this year was spent a fair bit of time on the beach - in fact our first Sunday, and our final full day were spent on the same beach - the one within walking distance of the cottage. That was one thing we really appreciated this year, that a stroll down the track could get us to this...

That was just a tiny bit of it too - it stretches for miles in each direction! The following day we headed south to South Uist, and visited the beautiful little community garden at Lochboisdale, which was just FULL of chives this year...

...just gorgeous! It's really nicely done, and just such a blaze of colours! Talking of a blaze of colour, there was more of that the next day at RSPB Balranald too...

That's fairly standard for late May on the Machair - just an astonishing carpet of flowers. The daisies appear first, then the yellow of the Birds Foot Trefoil, and the purple of the pansies...a perfect harmonious blend of colours. It doesn't stop there either because as June arrives the orchids appear - their colours from white through to a deep bright purple - just stunning.

The following day was our long awaited boat trip out with Nick on the Lady Anne - we were just so pleased to finally get out on one of these trips - it's felt like a conspiracy these last few years with things stopping us doing it! It must be said that it entirely lived up to expectations, especially seeing this amazing White Tailed Eagle so close up...

Yes, you don't need to be a bird expert to recognise that one, do you!  The weather went a bit grey and gloomy the next day...not though we let that stop us getting out and about. We headed back to South Uist again and climbed a hill....views weren't bad but better was spotting this Golden plover and it's mate...

They head to the hills to have their chicks, no sign of babies yet with these two but they were clearly thinking about it! Absolutely stunning birds in their full breeding plumage - and unmistakable once you've seen them the once, too!

Last shot for now, and it's one from one of our favourite hills on the Islands - Rueval on Benbecula. I don't think there's a year gone by since we first climbed up it that we've not gone back - it's only quite a small one but the views are phenomenal...

...this is the advantage of Benbecula being a quite flat island! I suspect that next time we're there though we'll probably have to give it a miss as the winter isn't the most ideal time for hill climbing - we'll see though!

Expect to see some more shots of RAF fast jets coming up over the next few weeks, as we have several airshow trips planned and a visit to Scampton for an In Season Practise with the Reds. July is looking hectic, and while I do intend to carry on with Frugal Friday posts if I miss another week please do bear with me!

Robyn

Wow!

I'm still struggling to believe this myself...but, on Sunday, I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to spend 2 hours on the ground at Bristol Airport photographing the Red Arrows jets, Pilots, and Engineers at work - honestly, I'm still grinning and there has been a LOT of pinching myself over the last few days, just in case it was all a dream...

I arrived at the airport for 9am and was collected by the chap who'd arranged things for me - the very kind and lovely Ross - also known as "Circus 8". The "Circus" engineers are those who are allocated to work with a particular pilot for the season (in theory with a particular jet too, but that doesn't always quite work out!). Ross's "Driver" is Red 8 -Flt. Lt. Martin Pert - known as "Perty" - and "their" jet is XX311 - this one...

...yes, she really IS that shiny!

Clearance gained from the airport for me, we walked across to the pan where the jets were lined up - another "wow!" moment for sure....I tried to play it cool but almost certainly failed, and suspect that my awestruck grin may have given me away. I had a chat with Ross while he carried on the work of getting the jet ready to go - there's only a limited amount of storage space onboard one of those Hawks so getting everything in place is a precise art, and you certainly must need to master the art of travelling light too!  The jets themselves are just immaculate - spotlessly clean and highly polished to a state of reflectiveness that almost hurts your eyes. The other thing that immediately strikes you is the precision - all 9 were perfectly lined up, flying helmets sitting on the open canopies in each jet. That brings me to my first chosen shot of the day...

...had to be done that one - albeit it took me a couple of attempts because for the first few minutes I was so nervous I was shaking like a leaf and struggling to hold the camera still. I took a few deep breaths - no point in screwing things up now, and settled for just shooting XX311 and what Ross was doing until I'd got more comfortable and was able to get my "work time" head on and just crack on. Once I'd relaxed enough to feel I could wander about a bit I began to work as I always used to with candid shots at speedway, and for the couple of weddings I've done...working methodically through the mental list I already had in my head but at the same time scanning around for other shots that will work. Take a shot - check exposure and framing, if OK, move on, otherwise re-take. Some shots you are sure will work, don't, and others that just jump out at you work brilliantly. Around the jets, anything with reflections is a fairly safe bet...although this was a slightly different take on that thought...

...and then of course there is those stunning "50th Display Season" tails - every time I see them they just look more impressive, and seeing them right up close, and being able to take the time to line up the shots I wanted to accentuate that precision I mentioned earlier was fantastic...

I'd been there 45 minutes or so and had worked my way to the very far end of the line and was just working back, picking out detail as I went, when the Pilots appeared. I put on my best "I'm not here" face and tried to look like I knew what I was doing, fully expecting to be utterly ignored by all apart from maybe Perty who I thought might have remembered we'd spoken at Biggin Hill...but in fact pretty much all of them gave me cheery grins and bright good mornings, or comments about the gorgeous weather...Perty stopped for a chat, and once again my first impressions of what a nice friendly bunch they are were confirmed. I've heard people describing these guys in the past as arrogant, stand-offish, and saying that they'd look right through you, well not in my experience they wouldn't - gentlemen to a....well, man!

I was introduced to another of the Circus engineers - Nicky Cunningham, Circus 4, who's often retweeted some of my photos, and to one of the team's Photographers - SAC Adam Fletcher. Interesting talking to someone about the difficulties faced taking photos air to air, for example as soon as you apply any "G" whatsoever everything gets heavier...so your hands and of course the camera. Now a pro-spec camera like the Canon 5D's these guys are using isn't the lightest thing in the first place, and bearing in mind that some of the Reds display moves pull up to 5G it's mind boggling how they manage to get the amazing shots they do! The view they see through the viewfinder is also distorted as of course there is a visor stopping them getting the camera to their eye, something I'd never have thought of.  I wandered a bit more - by this time I was aware that there was a problem with one of the jets - XX245 had sprung a nasty hydraulic leak and there were several of the Blues desperately trying to fix the problem. Due to mechanical issues over the previous few days they'd arrived at Bristol with only the bare 9 jets - not a situation that anyone is comfortable with, and as they were then due to fly out for a display in Denmark the next day, then on to Estonia - the 56th country that the team have displayed in - the day after, getting it fixed if at all possible was imperative. Perty called out to tell me that there was a half hour delay on departure to try to get things sorted - good for me as it meant I had extra time, but frustrating for everyone else as so much hangs on timings being met.

Time for a lens change. I'd started off with my 100-400mm on the 7D body - great for "papping" people at a distance and also for cropping right in to get detail shots - and the ever reliable 50mm 1.8 on the 40D - this was definitely one of those times when I was hugely glad I had two camera bodies to play with! As I had a gorgeous bright blue sky with some nice clouds as a backdrop though it was time for the 50mm to be replaced by the 24-70mm to enable some wider angle shots...

With repair attempts on XX245 being unsuccessful the decision was taken that she was going to have to stay behind as further work and spare parts were required. This meant that a Pilot & Circus Engineer also had to stay, and Red 10 and Circus 6 were the unlucky individuals. "The Boss" - Red 1 - who I believe had been intending to fly the unserviceable aircraft elected instead to take Perty's XX311, which in turn meant that all their gear, so carefully stowed away by Ross just a short while previously had to be taken out and repacked elsewhere. You'd have expected a mad rush but no, calmly panniers were undone and everything removed. There was a moment of apparent confusion when it seemed that nobody was quite sure how Perty & Ross were getting to Karup, but in the end Ross took the spare seat of the unlucky Circus 6, and Perty got an unaccustomed chauffeur-driven transit with Red 7 who also had an empty backseat. I was assured by Red 6 - Flt Lt James McMillan - that "It's not always this chaotic" but quite honestly it didn't appear chaotic at all, teamwork and people working together as one unit made it all appear quite calm, and anyone watching from over by the fence would have been utterly unaware of the reason for the delay.

As they made ready to leave it was time for me to retreat to a safe range while they crewed in and the jets fired up, before with that to be expected precision they nosed, one at a time, onto the taxiway and off to the runway. More cheery waves from most of the cockpits..not from Perty though, he was too busy taking pictures on his iPhone...look....

A huge thanks to Ross for sorting it, and for the whole team for just being so absolutely lovely. Possibly the hardest I've worked in the space of two hours photographically for a VERY long time, but well worth the effort! If you want to know more about the life of a Red Arrows Circus Engineer and see some fantastic photos taken from the backseat then follow @RAFCircus8 and @RAFCircus4 on Twitter. For a Pilots eye view follow @RAFRed8 (And for more of my photos, follow @EssexHebridean of course!)

Robyn

Frugal Friday...

Ahhh...I have to admit I'm struggling with this. I'm coming off the back of a week when I've had to buy spare batteries for my camera, an extra memory card, a new external hard-drive, and booking assorted travel arrangements for trips I/we are making later in the year. I don't feel at ALL in a position to be talking about frugality of ANY sort!

Having written that opener, I started adding up/thinking about what I'd spent...and actually, do you know I was surprised - it's not anywhere near as bad as I expected. Why? Well in part at least it's all those years of being used to searching out deals I guess...I'd just not realised how second-nature it had become.

I knew ages ago that we were approaching needing a new backup drive for the computers at home - our existing 320gb & 500gb were both filling up fast, and the new camera with it's 18mb sensor hasn't been helping on that score! I do try to make sure that all the photos I take are backed up - whether initially by leaving them on the cards as well as the download on the PC, or subsequently by backing up from the computer meaning that the cards can then be wiped. At the time, the 1tb drives were retailing for around the £70 mark at the cheapest, but prices did appear to be dropping, and we didn't *quite* need the new one yet, so I decided to hold off for a while. On doing the download of the photos from last weekend I realised that the need had become immediate, so took another look online, and managed to get a 2tb drive, from a brand I trust, for £64.99 - result!

I knew there were camera bits I needed too - and again I've been holding off on buying those while I kept my eye open for a decent deal. While I was processing pics on Sunday an email popped into my inbox with a special offer on Postage from 7Day Shop. Their compatible batteries are excellent - I've used them for years in my cameras and at £12.99 for a pack of two for the ones I need currently they're a fraction of the cost of most others. The only sticking point of late has been that because of their method of despatch the postage charge is now a weighty £5.99 per order! The special offer took the postage cost down to £1.99 though so I wasted no time in placing an order. Better still, I had money in my PayPal account earned from doing surveys, so effectively that one was free!  The remaining PayPal credit was used against the purchase of the memory card too (again buying a brand I know and trust - I have friends who have great results with cheaper makes but I only ever buy Lexar or Sandisk having had a bad experience with a cheap one years ago) cutting the cash cost of that purchase down a little. A friend and I will shortly be photographing all three days of the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford so extra memory cards are a must!

On to the travel...and for train tickets as ever I defaulted to good old Red Spotted Hanky - meaning I could make use of credit I'd gained by converting Clubcard vouchers. First up a single ticket for MrEH for a weekend trip to Norfolk - I'll meet him up there for that so it's only him that needed the travel. £9, and on precisely the train he wanted - that'll do! Next up, I'm planning a trip to Clacton Airshow in August - last year the travel by road for this one turned into a nightmare with long delays and the car getting so hot inside that the iPhone shut itself down in protest - none of that this year though as I'm letting the train take the strain - £8 each way meaning that by the time all is taken into consideration I'll be paying less than the cost of the diesel in the car AND not having to have the hassle of driving! Finally on the train front, a return trip for me from London to Eastbourne in August - on my (part!) day off from the Great British Beer Festival - for the Eastbourne Airshow - at £5 each way it's almost too cheap to turn down, and half of that was covered by the remaining credit in the account too - so cash cost for all that = £5.

Finally - another weekend away - this time combining an airshow (yes, another one - I'm making the most of the Red Arrows 50th Display season to see as much as possible of them with that stunning tailfin design!) with a visit to somewhere I've always been interested to see - Northern Ireland. I debated my options - flying was obviously going to be easiest, with Stansted so close to us, but would it be the most budget-friendly way of making the trip? I was always going to have to fly back due to time constraints, but I added up the cost of using the train, then boat...and quickly realised that it wouldn't work anyway as the timings of the sailings were all wrong. So, back to the tried and trusted MoneysavingExpert Cheap Flight Checker, paired up with Skyscanner to properly explore all the options, and I managed to grab myself a return ticket from Stansted to Belfast for £67 - I'll travel hand luggage only of course, and paid using a debit card to keep the extortionate add-on fees to a minimum too. (Note - a 2 day trip hand luggage only, when also carrying a bag full of camera gear, is a challenge - however, bear in mind it's cheaper to buy a couple of basic tee-shirts at your destination , and either discard them or wear layers on the way back, than it is to pay the charge for a checked bag).

All in all, not bad - and it's nice to feel that the habit of looking for the best prices on things like travel is so firmly ingrained now that I barely even noticed I was doing it. The decision on the external hard-drive could have gone either way, but technology prices generally fall over time and so it was a reasonable bet that I was either going to save some money, or get more capacity, by waiting. With train travel as ever booking ahead is key - 12 weeks ahead is the holy grail but even after that there are often deals to be found.

Do you have times when you feel that you're just struggling with the whole frugal thing, only to realise afterwards that actually you're doing better than you thought? If so, take a pat on the back from me!

Robyn

Neglected...

...oops, poor little blog, I know I've neglected you since we got back from the Hebrides, and I'm sorry...last week got a little hectic though...here's why...

Two days at RAF Scampton in the company of a brilliant pal - photographing three great In Season Practises including the flat display which we'd not actually seen so far this year. Then a full day Saturday (a very full day as it turns out - thanks to the carpark chaos!) at the Biggin Hill Festival of Flight where thanks to the positioning of the Reds jets I was able to get the sort of "behind the scenes" shots that are my favourite subjects to focus on given the chance. Amazing, and to be honest I'm still grinning now.  I also got to meet some absolutely lovely people which was just the icing on the cake.  I've returned with in the region of 2,000 photos to go through and process, which is taking time, but the reaction the shots of the engineers at work, and just the jets themselves, have had on Twitter has helped the process along no end!

I'll pop some more pics up in due course, but in the meantime keep checking the Facebook page and website as there will be updates to both of those over the next few days too.

Right now, I'm off to bed....still grinning!

Robyn

Frugal Friday...

"Don't sweat the small stuff" - there's a phrase. So often this can be really relevant, but sometimes, in money-saving terms, rather less so - it can in fact be the "small stuff" that can make all the difference, and "sweating it" just a bit can make a real boost to your finances.

These chaps are responsible for the late appearance of this post! 

Later this year Scotland will be following Wales and Northern Ireland in introducing a 5p charge for supply of single-use bags. OK, 5p isn't much is it, but let's say your weekly shop uses 5 of them each time - that's 25p per shop, or a whopping £13 a year assuming you shop every week. A Supermarket "Bag for life" meanwhile costs 10p - and takes roughly twice as much as one of those "single use" bags, I reckon. And of course once bought,m when it bursts a handle or springs a leak, you can replace it with a brand new one for absolutely nothing - now that's got to be a bargain hasn't it - the new season's must-have bag for a lifetime one off spend of just 10p? Where do I sign!  If you want something a little more unique, robust and "you" then there are many different designs of shopping bags too - from the big jute tote-bags to the foldable "pouch style" ones available in so many fab colours and designs. I have LOTS, and do try to make sure I always have one or more in my handbag, and a good selection in my car. Mostly when asked if I want a bag I say "No thanks, I've got my own" but yes, sometimes I DO slip up and forget. the new charge being introduced in Scotland is now pretty much certain to transfer over to England in due course, meaning that wherever we are, down south or Oop North, forgetting to pick up a bag to take in with me is going to start costing money, so I'm committing to focus more on this in the future and join Fay in not being a "(Disposable) bag lady" any more!

Of course that's far from the only place where small savings can make a difference. We've been getting things organised for our next trip to the Hebrides - it's some way off yet but things need booking some way in advance - so far we've saved £50 from our budget figure by looking at an area we'd not thought of before for accommodation - and managed to combine actually getting from mainland Scotland to the Hebrides AND doing the flights we've wanted to do for a long while (landing on the beach at Barra) for a bargain price. While we were up there we did a little research on car hire, and have pinned that down to a price we're happy with too. It didn't take long out of our holiday, but will save us around £40 over having just accepted the list prices as advertised. That trip is even being paid for from "small stuff" as well - the odd pennies and pounds being "swept" across from our current accounts, interest earned on savings, and the cashback earned by taking the little extra time to click through from TopCashBack when booking or buying things are all being saved in order to make the trip as "cash neutral" as we can manage. Free holiday? Oh go on then! Just taking a few extra moments to research options and "shop around" can make a big difference to the money in your pocket for tea and cake - and let's face it, I'm not a rocket-scientist or a brain-surgeon whose every waking moment is vital to humanity - it's vital to me, yes, but not so much so that I'm too grand to take a couple of hours out to save myself  a few £'s!

Other "small stuff" - food waste - now here's one that bugs me. I know folk who think nothing of happily buying a big pack of bread rolls or a loaf of bread to have with lunch in the office...a few slices or a couple of rolls get eaten, the rest generally get discarded or left to go stale. How infuriating is that? Never mind the money waste on this one - what about all that precious food being left to rot, and then thrown into landfill? Another tooth-grinding irritation is the office milk - many times I've realised just too late that half of a 4pt bottle has been thrown down the sink...why? Because it's "out of date". Have anyone smelled it to see if it's OK? No, of course not, the bottle says its out of date so it must be off, right? Wrong! Food's clever stuff, mostly it will tell you if it's not OK any more, either by the way it looks or smells. Packaging is NOT clever stuff, and can only repeat to you what someone else has told it. Use your eyes, nose and brain and you can save a packet (or a loaf, or a tub...). Before we went on holiday we meal-planned carefully to use up anything that needed using from the fridge, as well as as much as possible from the freezer, and while we were away we shopped carefully again to ensure that things got used up before we left. What was left over (either because we bought the smallest size we could but there was still too much, or in one case because it was cheaper to buy a larger pack or an item) either got brought back with us or was donated to chums, who were very happy to receive it judging by the cry of "goodies!" when we appeared with the bag!

Thinking laterally can work too - we're attending a couple of events later in the summer - a music festival one day followed by an airshow the next. Both are off to the South west of us, so staying overnight is the logical answer - one of the events offers on site camping for a charge which is less than we'd pay elsewhere, so we'll book that when we book the tickets - job done! For another airshow I'm visiting, driving last year took hours as the traffic was terrible. I decided to check the cost of train travel and discovered that tickets are available for £16 return - but as this has been booked via Red Spotted Hanky using credit gained by converting Clubcard Points, it's actually only costing me half, that, which is less than the diesel would cost, and I get to sit back and enjoy the ride rather than getting hot and bothered in the car!

Are you happy to sweat some "small stuff" to make a saving? Or maybe you think that sort of thing is all to much hassle and you're happy to go with the flow regardless of whether it might cost you more?

Robyn

Oops - wrote this, then promptly forgot to add a photo and schedule it to post while I was up in Lincolnshire today - sorry!

All over for another...SIX MONTHS!

Well that's it - we're back, everything is unpacked, the car is breathing a sigh of relief outside, and the washing machine is set ready to run later with the first load of washing. We left the cottage at 10am yesterday - packing up never takes us long these days, we're well practised at it, and by 10 not only was the car fully loaded but the cottage was returned to the spotless state in which we found it. The nice thing about taking the later ferry is that we have a lovely relaxed final day - so we stopped at Baleshare on the way through and look....

...I promised I'd try to show you what all that lovely yellow Iris looks like when it's in bloom - it gets better than this but it didn't quite make it while we were there - still pretty good though no? From there we carried on South down through the islands - arriving at Lochboisdale where the ferry to Oban leaves from in plenty of time. As usual, we ditched the car in the ferry queue (in spite of being VERY early - they're used to that!) and went to grab some lunch - actually warm enough to sit outside too - amazing! Wandered back towards the ferry - still very early, but bumped into a pal who'd just driven down to drop some folk off for the boat so we had a nice chat with him while we waited! The boat arrived bang on time and we were one of the first few on thanks to the extreme earlyness! This has the advantage that on a busy day you are up on deck in time to watch the loading of the final vehicles - which can sometimes be entertaining - they cram cars into the smallest of gaps...

Oddly enough we were further forward in that line, and I commented to MrEH when we got out that I was surprised they'd not put me another couple of inches forward - I bet the driver of that red car wishes they had! Once everyone is on they waste no time in getting away...

...always a little sad seeing the Hebrides slipping away behind us like that, but at least this time we knew it's only a few months, rather than a whole year, until we're back again! Anyway, for the next 5 hours we had a ferry crossing to distract us - and for the first part of it the weather was just lovely - hardly any wind, water like a millpond, and lots of birds to look out for - Razorbills, Guillemots, Black Guillemots, Gannets and puffins can all be seen easily from this crossing, and with a bit more practise Manx Shearwaters and Storm Petrels too. The Petrels are the toughest to spot - tiny birds, a little bigger than a sparrow, and they rarely come in close to the boat either! Our favourite spot from the boat this time round though was a little easier to see...

...a Basking Shark! They're seen in Hebridean waters quite often during the summer, but this was the first time we'd seen one - amazing! There were Dolphins too - always lovely to watch them leaping and diving. A little after that the rain started falling and the decks emptied indoors - us too, and the rest of the crossing was spent reading, dozing, and eating surprisingly good fish & chips. We arrived at Oban on time and with the rain still falling quite heavily drove the 2½ hours to our bed for the might just outside Glasgow.

The rest of the journey today is straightforward enough...as usual we share the driving, stopping for a late breakfast/early lunch, and then again to change drivers as required. As we spotted the sign for Doncaster's Robin Hood airport from the A1 I realised that it was only 20 minutes or so until the UK's sole remaining airworthy Vulcan Bomber - XH558 - was due to leave to fly out for a couple of air displays, so we diverted to there to see her leave...

...well if you're that close it would be rude not to really, wouldn't it! Amazing to see her on the ground - but even better to watch this...

...the local residents clearly agreed too as there was a good crowd there watching. She nearly reduced one old chap to tears - he was saying that he remembered living in the area in the 1950's when they used to scramble three of them at a time - flying out right over his house "My, the windows used to rattle and the whole house shook" he said - still gazing at the departing aircraft, now just a faint speck in the sky. Definitely a complete contrast to the past fortnight, but a nice way of ending the holiday nonetheless!

My camera will now get turned back to aviation matters for a while - with a couple of days at Scampton later this week, and then Biggin Hill Airshow next weekend, to start me off. Lots planned, and lots to look forward to!

Robyn

Last day...

And what an excellent last day it's been. The sun has shone ALL day and we've managed to be out enjoying it for most of the day too.  We started with one of these...

 



You'll have to excuse the utterly rubbish photo - of course it's a Corncrake - secretive little birds and at this time of year you're doing well to see one at all as the vegetation has now grown high enough that they can stay under cover a lot of the time!  At the same place (Balranald) we also saw what seemed like an entire field of those beautiful purple orchids...

 





Fabulous aren't they - they were right across the field!  The we stopped so I could wander up a hill and capture this view...

...that's all four of North Uist's notable hills there - North Lee, South Lee, Burrival and Eaval.

After that and with the weather SO glorious we had the traditional last-day walk on a beach...

...this one was a bit special though as this was the beach that is walking distance from the house we've been staying at - and the whole time we were walking on it there was not another soul on there with us - amazing!

Finally the day ended with the most amazing sunset....

As ever we've had a wonderful time - fabulous to catch up with friends who are lucky enough to live in this fantastic environment all the time. We're very excited to be heading back up in just over 6 months too - and already have this house booked for next year's fortnight too! For this time though, tomorrow morning the car will be packed and we'll drive south down through the Uists, Grimsay and Benbecula to catch the ferry back to Oban...

Robyn