So I've realised I'm 17(!) weeks behind on posting photos for my Fifty-Two Weeks project. Worked some crazy hours this summer, and with going to Sweden to see my family at the end of July and going to New York at the end of August, the blog post ended up on the back burner a bit (or rather a lot).

To be honest, the weeks just seem to be flying by at the moment, and I can't believe it's getting to mid November already. In five weeks I'll be in Sweden for christmas which seems crazy. 

My aim is to post a few photos a day to catch up, and we'll see how that goes.

I obviously needed the sleep this weekend, as I had 25hrs sleep in 40hrs (18 of them in the first 24hrs).. At the same time as it wasn't the best of weekends to sleep away, since it's the last weekend I've got before I go to New York on Friday, I'm glad I did catch up on the sleep. Have been feeling absolutely shattered this week, to the point of feeling like I was hung over, and was feeling like all I'd want to do on my holiday would be to sleep. Having a moment of geekyness testing out the Logitech keyboard for my iPad, and posting on my blog from my iPad (for the first time), all at the same time :) The keyboard I've had since not long after I got the iPad, I've just not used it. It doubles as a cover for the iPad and you stand the iPad up in it when using it, so it's almost like you've got a little laptop. It's really good, and I'll be taking my iPad and the keyboard on my holiday rather than my laptop. Working on this "travelling light" thing.

I should really get on with sorting some more stuff out that I need to do before Thursday night, and put away my iPhone/iPad/laptop and other distractions. Need to up the pace with regards to productiveness today having slept most of the weekend, especially since I'm back at work tonight.

As I had a rather large back log of weeks not posted, I have posted 6 weeks in quick succession (and will be posting this week's photo in a bit). I have tried to post them on a regular basis, but an already existing back log coupled with some crazy shifts and overtime at work has meant I haven't really had the chance to sit down at my computer for quite a while.Given that I am going over to Sweden for 12 days on Thursday, and then when I get back home I'll have three weeks ish until I go to New York, I figured it best to get rid of the back log in one go.

I guess this qualifies as both random waffling and tired babbling, or a combination of the two. Although it's 9am I have been up since 7pm ish last night. Finished my second week of night shift yesterday, and tonight has been the first of my three nights off this week. I've had about 5-6hrs sleep a day this week, and I think it's starting to get to that point in the week when it's starting to catch up with me. Which means I'll probably go to bed in a few hours. I am actually really enjoying the night shift, despite pretty much everyone saying I'm crazy for doing it and "rather me than them" sort of thing. It's nice to work Monday to Thursday night though and have your weekend start on Friday morning and end Monday night. Obviously there's a rolling rota, so not all weeks will be Mon-Thu. I've just been put on Mon-Thu for the first few weeks so that they can make sure I can hack it or something.

The grand plan is to do night shift (I'm currently on secondment to the night shift) for 5-6 months and scrape together as much money as possible, and then flee the country for 7-10 days going to New York :D However, depending on how things go, and how well the night shift works with my so-called life, I might end up doing it for longer than 5-6 months. The salary uplift for working unsociable hours is never a bad thing ;)

Just had a look at the last post I wrote that wasn't for my Fifty-Two Week project, and I mentioned having an appointment to get a tattoo done when over in Sweden in January and saying I'd post a photo. I'd completely forgotten about that.. not the tattoo, but posting a photo of it on here. I posted one on Instagram when it was newly done, and since I can't seem to find the photo on my phone I'll just have to provide a link to the Instagram photo for now. I'll try and take/find a newer photo of it and post it on here later.

I can't believe we're nearly half-way through April already.. seems crazy.. and I seriously don't know where this year is disappearing off to. With it being April it's my birthday at the end of the month, and I'm thinking of going down to London for the day (shifts and money permitting). If not necessarily on my birthday, as it's a Sunday, then at least somewhere around then. Really want to go up in The Shard and take photos and give my Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC HSM lens "test run". Planning on taking it when going to New York in Aug/Sep, so would be nice to try it out from the Shard and see how it does. You can go up to the top in The Shard, as there's The View from The Shard tourist attraction, although it seems to cost £25-30 (depending on if you book it in advance or not).. maybe I'll make that my birthday present to myself :) I've never been on the London Eye, and to be honest The Shard seems like a better idea for taking photos as it obviously won't be moving. Though you're not allowed tripods or monopods in The View from The Shard apparently. Still I'm sure I'm capable of taking photos by just standing still :)

Anyways, it's time for some breakfast. And time to let my ears have some fresh air after having been in/under a pair of headphones since about 1am.. I have to say I'm so happy I've got my Skullcandy Aviator headphones, because they are the most comfortable ever. And they're getting a lot of use now I'm sticking to staying up all night and sleeping in the day what with the night shift. Don't really feel like having the TV on without headphones in the middle of the night, being considerate of my neighbours who probably don't want to be up all night.

..even though it's technically now the beginning of the year. This is a belated reflection on 2013.It had its ups and downs, stresses, happy moments, less happy moments, some travelling, too much work at some points, learning curves, ruts, changes. And it went by in a flash.. If 2014 goes by as quickly I hope I watch it fly by from a less apathetic state than I did 2013..

Looking forward then on 2014. There's certain things I would want. Change - mainly habits. Not get stuck in the "work, eat, sleep, repeat"-cycle again. Need to get my crap together. Want to do more of the stuff I enjoy rather than being shattered after work and spending the evening and/or weekend on the sofa (and we get back to habits and the need to change them). I did a 30-day photo challenge a few months ago, and I'm thinking of doing something similar this year. There's the 365 project where you take a photo a day. But I think I'll do a weekly one instead to start off with and see if I can stick to that for a year. Make my own little fifty-two weeks project :) Also want to get round the country a bit more. So day-trips with my camera will be on the cards now I've finished the payment plan for the loveliness that is my iMac. Can get cheap coach tickets try and do one a month or so. Finishing off the my website, and making it mobile friendly, is also on the to-do list. Not much left to do on it apart from uploading a lot of photos.

At the moment I'm really looking forward to 10 days of in about a week. Having worked all of xmas (apart from xmas day which we all got off) and new year, I'm going over to Sweden to see my family. It's always nice to go visit them, especially when I've not seen them for 6 months or so. So now I'm counting down the days :) Also got myself an appointment at True Tattoo to add to my tattoo "collection" on 14-Jan :D excited about that :) and I'll obviously post a photo on here once it's been done.

Anyway, I should get to bed (or rather switch the light off as I'm actually posting this from my bed on my iPhone) as it's getting on for 1am and my alarm is set for 6am..

Ok, so I noticed (25 days into my 30-day challenge - great powers of observation huh? ;P) that the photos posted were not links to view the full size photo. Admittedly the "full size" on these are 1280x853 (for the landscape orientation ones, and 853x1280 for the portrait orientation ones) exported from iPhoto. But they're still larger than the initial preview. I have been through all the posts and re-uploaded the photos and updated the posts with the photos as links, as well as making the formatting a bit more uniform (as it would seem that the software I was using for publishing the posts did a bit of its own thing here and there). As much as I'm not keen on the WordPress dashboard for posts, I think I'll still stick with it for future posts until I find something better.

So the re-design of my website, galleries, and blog is finally finished :)

Had a weekend of geekyness, and despite suffering from a work "hangover" and having spent the best part of the weekend in front of my computer I feel refreshed. Most likely because even though the weekend was spent at my computer I was doing something I really enjoy and it was productive at the same time. 

I love my job, but it's sort of wearing me out at the moment. But then I suppose it has to do with how I approach it as well. Also, can't do it all on my own.

Anyway, the re-design is done - and there is now one theme running across my website, galleries and blog. I'm pleased with the look of the site, and the fact I've managed to wrangle a WordPress theme and a ZenPhoto theme into submission and made them look the same. There is a sense of accomplishment certainly, and it has made me realise again how much I enjoy the coding part of web development (not using no WYSIWYG editors here).

An ongoing project will be to upload photos taken with my DSLR (Canon 600D) over the last 9 months. And there's quite a few of them.. As I'll be doing it in my spare time, it might take a while to get it all sorted.

Another project is to make my site to look better on mobile devices, i.e. make it more mobile friendly. The galleries part of it looks ok atm (although not centred on the page), but the website and blog not so much. So I guess I'll have to go digging round in the WordPress files to sort that one out.

Will also try to update this blog more often (and with other things than my ranting/waffling when I'm tired ;P). One thing I've thought of is to do a 30-day challenge type thing and take a photograph a day and post them on here. Since it's October 1st tomorrow it would make sense to start then, and it'll have to be a 31-day challenge (otherwise it'll bug me that it doesn't last the whole month).

Time for some lunch now before going to work for the late shift. Geared up for another week at work - bring it on!