...and that was my year

Its been absolutely fantastic photographing a whole year of my life. At times it was easy, at others it was pretty difficult. There are probably few too many photos of food and football than I would have liked but I supposed its understandable to not find overwhelming inspiration every day! I did however take over four thousand photos and had just under five thousand hits on my blog.

One week on since I've stopped taking photos, and I've noticed there were definitely a few habits I got into. The day after my birthday I went out with my Dad and took my camera with for no apparent reason and at least twice in the last week I've seen something to which I thought "That would make a great photo for the day".

I probably picked one of the most eventful years in my life to record with photos. I've been to 8 different countries, spending over half of it outside the UK. I've crossed international borders 14 times and been on 9 flights taking me into the eastern and the western hemisphere, the northern and the southern.

I've made some great friends, said goodbye to others many and hello to more. Most of all, I found the girl of my dreams.

Each time I look through my blog, I pick a new favourite photo or moment. It changes all the times, so for now at least, here's my top 50.

Fulham beating Juve

High Wycombe park

end of my political career

pint with MP

No planes?

ice bar

Beating MK Dons in the 95th minute at MK

Europa Cup semi final

leaving party

europa Cup final

my sister's 30th

the day I left the UK

Bon jovi

Back at Camp

Day I met the lady of my dreams

Day off, south haven

Screaming boys, scaring girls

Day in the life of a Greenwoods swim instructor

Decatur, MI

Brotherhood

My office in Michigan

Amanda's friend

Decatur running

End of the summer

Biuld a 'monkey'

Memphis, beale street

Gracelands

Life is a highway, i'm gonna ride it...

Eastern Idaho State Fair

Seattle Sunset

Vancouver, Canada

Zion

Cycling in the mountains

First Football game

Backtracking

Moab

Halloween

Autumn

Love at the cricket

Australian Sunset

Amanda the backpacker!

Winter

Sledging

Winter flowers

Snowy Cedar

final picture together for the year

home at the cottage

Valentines!

Olde London Town

Chichester

Day Three Hundred and Sixty-five

This is it folks. One whole year of photos, at least one per day, sometimes two, three or even four. I hope you've enjoyed following my blog and viewing my photos as much as I have enjoyed taking them. Its pretty cool to be able to look back and see right through my year, I know I'd never have the motivation to keep a written journal, so ensuring I had a photo taken each day was the next best thing to document my life, aged 27.

The final picture is my mates Dean and Martin. Its Comic Relief night 2011, we're around Martin's house and he's been knocking up some Mojitos for us. Cheers.

Day Three Hundred and Sixty-four

Its St. Patrick's Day, so here's a picture for all you Plastics Paddy's and true Irishmen!

Day Three Hundred and Sixty-three

It would occur to me that if, for example, you wanted to sell cuddly toys you might consider calling the company something like 'sweet soft toys', or if you were selling new sofas you could call your store 'comfy couches'. In that respect you were selling food, maybe naming your restaurant something to define its great taste would be a good idea. 'Fresh Crusty Baguettes' (a sandwich bar) or 'Spice Lounge' (perfect for a curry house). Am I right? I thought so.

But maybe I am wrong. Today I passed a sandwich store called 'Eat Dirt'. Maybe its a successful business and the name has no affect. One thing is for sure though, I didn't stop in.

'Eat Dirt'. Are you kidding me?

Day Three Hundred and Sixty-two

What's missing?

British suburbia. Isn't it nice when its not littered with cars?!

Day Three Hundred and Sixty-one

Where dreams are made? The next Steve Guppy, Mark West or Keith Scott maybe?

Day Three Hundred and Sixty

Inside my church, St Paul's C of E. For some reason I found it really hard to concentrate this morning, its easy to tell because to help I focus on the crucifix up near the roof and am left with a stiff neck for the rest of the day!

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-nine

I'm all set to rock and roll! These came in the post, my starting number in a 10km race around the Olympic Village in East London in a couple of weeks time. By chance I also completed a nice 10km jog this morning, enjoying the beautiful early spring morning.

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-eight

Remember this?! Oooooh, you know you do. I saw in the chippy tonight and couldn't resist it. "Bass Shandy" made with real beer, and holding the unbelievably high alcohol content of ..... 0.5%, for many long years this was the closest many of us ever got to having a beer like Dad!

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-seven

This is Amanda! .....in gingerbread form. Actually it was Amanda, I'd already eaten her legs by the time I took this and the rest of her didn't last much longer!

Day Three Hundred and fifty-six

Church at night! This evening we held our Ash Wednesday service. The term ash comes from the ash of the palm leaves (from last years palm sunday) which is used as sacramental by the vicar in marking a cross on your forehead.

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-five

Its pancake day! Time to get rid of all your sweets and treats from the kitchen selves. Here's my mum cooking my one for breakfast...

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-four

Not a bad place to work! Just watch out for those swan, they'll break your arms...

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-three

A beautiful early spring day in Wooburn, so I enjoyed a nice sunday afternoon walk down by the river. It wont be long before the vegetation comes out here, from it winter retreat, to once again make this 'England's Green and Pleasant Land'.

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-two

It ain't easy being a football fan, and its even harder being a Wycombe Wanderers fan. No one ever tells you of the pains you'll experience when you're little and becoming a football fan. They never tell you about the days you'll spend standing in the cold and the rain, watching another defeat, quoting once again "I don't know why I bother". Maybe its because when the good times do come they are so much sweeter and it makes all that pain you've gone suddenly worthwhile.

This is "The long and winding path", we take from our lucky parking spot, to Adams Park each week. And yes, too many times we've muttered "I don't know why I bother coming" walking back along here, when the truth is, I know I'll be back next saturday (its Stevenage at home, who could miss that?).

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-one

This is Wooburn Green, a pleasant enough village. But look a little close and you'll see the little Domino's man, in fact there were two, the other just out of shot. In recent weeks they've been everywhere, Wooburn, Bourne End, Loudwater, Hazlemere, High Wycombe. I hope they're not trying to take over! Whatever they're trying to do, I know just one thing for sure....I really fancy pizza for dinner...

Day Three Hundred and Fifty

Is taking a photo of my computer screen cheating? Well, I make the rules, so no. And there was no chance of me taking my camera with my on my run today, it was so cold out!

This is the Nike+ software which records the pace and distance of my runs. Today was a comfortable 3.3 miles.

Day Three Hundred and Forty-nine

I took a walk during my lunch break at work today and came by this country pub. It never ceases to amaze me the variety of pub names you can find in England. This one 'The Boot', I most assume is perhaps full of folks drowning their sorrows, that have been recently given the ....erm, what's the word?

The Boot, Bracknell.

Day Three Hundred and Forty-eight

I've been busy in the kitchen again, this time with some tasty blueberry muffins. Best eaten immediately by all accounts, which was fortunate really, because I wasted no time getting stuck into them!

Day Three Hundred and Forty-seven

One of my favourite dinners to make, tonight I knocked together some rather spicy fajitas...

Day Three Hundred and Forty-six

Not for the first time in the past year (see Day 60), I've taken advantage of the open fire place, down at the Steps in Wooburn, to keep warm. I love an open fire place and this one sure did keep my feet toasty!

Day Three Hundred and Forty-five

For me? Nope, its not my birthday yet. I've spent most of the morning working on my ebay business, these are just a few of the things I'm busy auctioning off. Its amazing what you can make money out of selling on ebay! One man's trash is another's treasure!

Day Three Hundred and Forty-four

Now I can relive my childhood1 ....remembering those rainy half-term days with not my else to do but gather around someone's house and try to complete the latest Sonic game or Golden Axe!

Day Three Hundred and Forty-three

This is the series of books I've been reading at the moment. I've been glued to them for a while now and I'm still about a book and a half from finishing so I'll reserve final judgement until then. In meantime I'll tell you that they are highly political (right up my street), full of good and evil people, lots of war and peace, has insights into different religions (mostly Islam and LDS), and gives a deep (although pessimistic) view on human nature.

Its certainly challenging my political beliefs, fundamentally that people require only minimal governing and when left with out government control or interference are fundamentally good.

Day Three Hundred and Forty-two

Today I had to take Amanda to the airport to catch a flight back to Vegas. By chance we were running late and just a couple of minutes before we eventually left, Amanda's gift to me finally arrived from America! My new 2011 calendar...

Day Three Hundred and Forty-one

After last night's disappointing performance at the Wycombe Swan Theatre, we were hoping for for a much better display at Adam's Park. Though, until today Wycombe had lost three straight games, so I was filled with much optimism. If football has taught me anything though, its never give up hope. Tonight it paid off, a 4-1 thrashing of Burton was just what we wanted!

Day Three Hundred and Forty

A night at the Theatre! No photography allowed, so I had to be rather sly taking this picture in the Wycombe Swan tonight. The play Amanda and I went to see was called History Boys, and despite being critically acclaimed, was in our humble opinion, utter tripe.

Day Three Hundred and Thirty-nine

Apparently my cat, Guppy, was in the mood for a romantic bath! I guess it had been a long hard day for him, its a cat's life huh?!

Day Three Hundred and Thirty-eight

Happy Birthday to Amanda! Errr, a couple of days early, but any excuse for some chocolate cake right?

Day Three Hundred and Thirty-seven

Amanda and I are staying with my sister at the moment, in Waterlooville. Today we took a trip along the south coast to Chichester. It rather cold, and somewhat bizarre, shopping trip, which included buying Amanda scarf & gloves, some chilly jam and having lunch in a converted church! This photo is of a small stream we walked by on the edge of town.

Day Three Hundred and Thirty-six

YOU BET I'M HAPPY! I've just had a Krispy Kreme Doughnut!

Day Three Hundred and Thirty-five

Today we actually did go into some shops. Amanda and I took and afternoon trip into London and after exploring the Natural History Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum, I took her on a rather teasing shipping trip to Harrods (probably the most expensive shop in the world). "Amanda", I said, "you can have anything you want in here, but you better run pretty fast". Needless to say, we did a lot of 'browsing'!

Day Three Hundred and Thirty-four

A night shopping trip at M&S? Not likely! Within this glitzy building in the cinema where we went tonight to see the rom-com Just Go With It. And it really was quite funny...at least the parts where I stayed awake were!

Day Three Hundred and Thirty-three

Valentines! After 14 wonderful gifts from my beautiful valentine, one a day over the last two weeks, we enjoyed a romantic dinner in Cookham in a 400 year old inn.

Day Three Hundred and Thirty-two

On a rainy Sunday afternoon where better to keep warm than cuddle up by the open fire enjoying an early dinner in our country pub?

The Chequers, Wooburn Common.

Day Three Hundred and Thirty-one

Today we made a trip into London to check out some of its finest architecture. The first photo here is outside the beautiful Royal Albert Hall.

This one is along the side of the grand Westminster Abbey.

Day Three Hundred and Thirty

Maybe we've found Doctor Who's next sidekick?

We took a walk into Marlow this afternoon, and Amanda couldn't resist the temptation to strike a pose in the a red phone box.

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-nine

This is an advertisement I saw for Patek Philippe watches. It didn't successfully sell the watch to me, but I thought the wording of the commercial could be better applied to planet earth as a gentle reminder to look after our environment.

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-eight

An early finish at work today, and a quick trip to Heathrow airport to pick a certain someone up! After rushing to the airport because her plane landed 30 minutes early, I had a little time to kill whilst her plane sat by the runway waiting for a vacant gate! This is outside T5 at Heathrow

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-seven

A constant hazard of living on an island nation?

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-six

One of Mum's flowers.

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-five

Its a cat's life! My very own neck warmer!

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-four

Wycombe are flying high in the league right now, second in the division and surely surely on a course for promotion this season. Today we hosted Port Vale, another team battling hard for promotion. It was an entertaining game, finishing tied with a goal a piece, but not without drama including a great solo effort goal by Scott Donnelly for Wycombe, an own goal by Leon Johnson and a fabulous penalty save by Nikki Bull.

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-three

They're still coming, four days into February and four Valentine's gift received. I love everyone one of them!

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-two

I love the end of a fresh loaf of bread and I've known to do almost anything to ensure no one else gets it....including starting slicing from both ends....

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-one

A second valentine's gift already! Yesterday I received a CD with 14 love songs on, today 13 hearts. Is this going to carry on for a two weeks? I hope so!

Day Three Hundred and Twenty

I took a trip down to Adams Park to watch high flying Wycombe beat Cheltenham 2-1 tonight.

He's too fast for my camera, this is Matt Bloomfield, a true Wycombe Wanderers legend, taking a corner in the second half.

And yes, referee, that fuel was outside the area, don't you even think about giving a penalty against us!

Day Three Hundred and Nineteen

I got this shopping with my sister yesterday and had it on in my car during the commute to work today. A selection Oasis' singles from 1994 to 2009. Listening to it took me right back to when I was just starting at Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in '95, right through my teenage years, life at Keele University, travelling in America in '05 and '06 and when I lived briefly in Bangkok. A lot of memories and a lot of rocking anthems, needless to say my car stereo got louder and louder and louder....