My little trip away!!

Well.. as always I will start with the most commonly used phrase I have been posting so much recently "I know its been awhile" - blah blah blah.. Like a broken record I am!

Anyhow - I went on another England adventure, this time I dragged Rory with me - thankfully he wasn't kicking and screaming.  The first day we met up with Shepy at an abandoned hospital in Scotland, sadly all the doors and windows were boarded up so none of us could shoot there - its a shame as Shepy had travelled all the way up to Scotland from Newcastle. Off we went in our two cars, communicating with walkie talkies incase we got lost or spotted anything interesting on the way back down South.

We kicked things off at an abandoned coal miners bath's/showers which was pretty cool, someone mentioned it looked like the set from the film SAW - which was very accurate :D. It was really rather gritty there so we shot a little shadowy set which turned out funky (decided to do separate blogs with Images).

We then somehow managed to fit through a tiny hole in a fence to get into an old abandoned tile factory which was slightly less interesting but lots of open spaces and scary noises, last location was an old tuberculosis home - We didn't shoot there though but the place looked amazing, built in a valley so accessed via walkways at either side. I did take a couple of images of the outside of the place though.

Stupidly I agreed to going into the metro centre for some food, forgetting I am the worlds worst for eating in unknown places which are full of people.. Needless to say I didn't get past the queues and ended up back in the car in a bit of a cold sweat 5 minutes later. Damn Anxiety, always gets the better of me.

We finally got to our hotel - seeing the "leisure facilities" we got our hopes up expecting a pool and the rest of it, the place was undergoing refurbishment so no pool.. Least we had the internet :D

Sunday we travelled down to York - Went in for a visit to my darling Auntie Shelias and discovered you can buy Krispy Kreme doughnuts - caramel shortcake I can highly recommend!! In the evening I went over to the Marriott Hotel in York for a shoot, we shot some lingerie and nudes!

Night-time came and Rory and I were off to the outskirts of Leeds :D
The following day we went over to Andrew Box's studio in Castleford - I had a lampshade on my head and was covered in clingfilm, who needs to pay for a special spa wrap? Rory then had an hour or so with me in this awesome studio, so many toys to play with.. He was in heaven!

After Castleford we were making our way down to Birmingham and came across a funny village called "Bosover" - We couldn't help but pop in to see what they had to offer, we visited the castle and took some sneaky fashion shots..

Tuesday came and we woke up nice and early to the rain, I was picked up by Dinah for my shoot with her and Tim in the morning. Tim took us to a wonderful garden which had gorgeous bridges and beautiful Autumnal Colours, it was lovely. I had a great morning with them both, I always enjoy working with Tim and it was nice to see Dinah again. They make a fabulous team!

In the afternoon Tim and I went over to Robs studio, I had so much fun dancing about on his bouncy floor with gold isis wings - can't wait to see the pictures of me wearing them. They looked awesome at the back of the camera.

Night time came and I got dropped off at our Hotel for the evening, the rain was coming down hard and Rory was nowhere to be seen. He went out for a shoot with a model from Birmingham, I've seen some of the shots they are looking pretty damn good!

Wednesday arrived and we took a Trip down to see Silverlight in Bournemouth (and visited the sealife centre and the beach). Was fantastic to finally meet him and his stunning wife, what a lovely couple and great company :D

We travelled up to Winchester late in the evening and I think I crashed out instantly, all the travelling really takes it out of me! When packing for this trip I took a book with me, hoping to get in some quality reading time - I managed a grand total of 5 pages.

On Thursday I worked with the awesome Man Kit Wong in Southampton, I have admired his work for years. I remember seeing his shots of Kayt Webster Brown and thought "one day I want to work with this dude" well the day finally came. Our original plan was Autumn Fashion on location, it didn't really go to plan due to the crappy weather so we ended up in a blank studio with cheesy props. We decided to throw on lots of weirdly clashing clothes and strangely they worked together. Really looking forward to seeing how bad my "fashion" actually is!!

From Southampton we travelled up to Newbury, again I maybe managed half a page of my book before I went to the land of zzzzz's...

On Friday we went over to Bracknell to see my good friend Glenn Richardson, we have chatted for years so it was a long time in the making. He took me to this awesome studio, it was massive!! He wanted to get me something different for my portfolio so we shot some beauty which is something I've not had very much experience in doing in the past. After our morning in the studio we went back to Glenns to eat Bacon sandwiches and chat nonsense for a few hours, the sun was out so we popped over to his local park as the sun was setting.. Glenn stood on dog shit then a dog pissed on his jacket - really not a good day for him but it amused me!

On Friday late in the evening we went over to our hotel which was called Eynsham hall, close to Oxford.. It was magical, seriously impressive looking building with so much history (I will go into that in the picture blog I get around to uploading). When we woke in the morning we decided to have a wander round the gardens (and have a bit of a shoot) so we left a little later than we planned so had to dash over to Wales to see Mr Alison..

So we arrived in Wales, it reminded us of Scotland so much - seriously the colours, roads and hills were the same. The only difference is all the Welsh road signs :D Hugh has a mini Zoo at his house & we both love animals so it was heaven for us. Horses, Dogs and Cats <3

On Sunday I was due to work with Ade Kestral but he came down with the flu so had to cancel which I know he really didn't want to do. So next time I'm down I will need to pop over to see him. Hugh took us to a really gorgeous location which was an old Mill then we came across a waterfall on the way home. On Saturday evening Hughs daugher and son in law were over for dinner and we had a lovely meal full of giggles. We were both made to feel so welcome and felt like part of the family! I cannot thank Hugh enough for inviting us over and we had a wonderful time in Wales thanks to him.

Monday was a fun day too - (notice a trend here?). Rory and I had free reign on Hughs land/animals/studio and cars so we experimented and played around until we had to leave in the late afternoon for our hotel in Penrith which was bloody stunning, Lake side views and a grand bed - we woke up this morning and I HAD to pose in the bed, the light was perfect.

So now its Tuesday and we are back home, I missed my cat soo much but being on the road is a pretty good feeling. Part of me never wants to stop moving but the other wants to be in our new home.

I will update when I have some more images to post up

xxx