544 - number of miles Darren and I covered from 8:00pm Friday to 1:45am Sunday
9 – number of pounds our Travelodge room cost at the luxurious M6 Lancaster services (I did book it 10 months in advance)
6 – total number of times Darren and I listened and sang to Busted’s ‘Year 3000′ … as you might imagine Nicola left her CDs in the car
9.4 – number of pounds saved by NOT taking the M6 toll road

and some numbers from home:

3.35 – number of kilograms Holly weighed at birth…NOT 3.55 as listed on her notes
7 – number of hours Nicola spent in hospital on Saturday trying to explain someone can’t type after her first weigh in
7 – number of days old Holly is

Enough numbers.  Evan is picking up this baby lark fast.  Last night he helped me change her nappy.  He was keen to wet a cotton ball and wipe her bottom.  Why would anyone WANT to do that?

Her first afternoon home and Evan is dead keen to feed her.  “I will do it” he shouts.  Umm…perhaps not Evan.  Once he witnesses breast feeding he kind of gets the point.  Fast forward 3 hours and Holly starts to cry.  Evan says “its OK Holly…it will be alright”.  In an effort to keep Evan informed and involved I explain “babies feed a lot.  She’s probably hungry”.  Evan yells out to his mum who is in the kitchen “MUMMY!  Holly wants your boobies”.  Cue laughter!

On Saturday I shot a wedding.  We never dreamt that Holly would come so close to the wedding date.  None of the evidence supported it.  To add to the drama the wedding was 270 miles away in a Lancashire village called Whitewell…near enough to Lancaster.  The wedding was booked before Holly was even a factor.  So our plan of going up for a long weekend was quickly dashed.  With Holly arriving on Monday it would seem that plan B needed to be drafted.  So, on Friday evening at 8pm I collected Darren and we set out on a monumental road trip.  I’m going to save a bit of the story for another blog post with pictures and video.  But we did survive and here are the pictures to prove it!

Vanessa and Stuart — The Inn at Whitewell, Lancashire — Saturday 7 February 2009

I’M NOT A LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER…but I sure like to try

Y-M-C-A

River view

Perhaps not so practical in a snow storm

Apparently, Vanessa bought a new dressing gown just for me ..  a fact I omitted during the “so honey, how was your trip” conversation

Talking head

For the record, THIS ISN’T the Groom

And while were at it…NEITHER is this (but he does look like a character from Hawaii-Five-O)

Hands, shoulders, knees and toes (knees and toes) — repeat

This one will probably get me removed from the Christmas card list….but I reckon their friends (at least) will find it amusing (to be fair, we couldn’t seem to get a glass…desperate times call for desperate measures)

Doh!

Taking the ‘awww, bless’ factor to a whole new level

This IS the groom (but you’ve probably already worked that one out) — BTW, I think Stuart looks like Josh Brolin, playing George W Bush in ‘W’ during his uni days

Not a typical church wedding scene TBH

FOGMOB

Sure, I have a dozen or so of them in focus…but I love this accidental gem

After hauling my wellies 270 miles to go for a walk to the stepping stones, Vanessa bails on her plan at the last minute.

It just made me laugh….

When lightening gives you lemons…make Mojitos (ok, I know its made with limes, just roll with it)

Slightly OOF…but money can’t buy that.  Sorry photography purists

Tazered…right in the back!

I also need to say a huge THANK YOU to Darren.  He’s the kind of guy you meet and then realise how lucky you are to know him.  Him came on the road trip at the 11th hour, saving my bacon and helping with the driving.  Apart from forgetting his jimjams he was generally well behaved :)

A Few From Darren

Capturing the essence of Stuart within 5 minutes of arriving

Cover me

He’s tuning in to everything I like these days

Smashing right angle of my shot

Locke talks about his experiences on the Island

This one just made me laugh…look up, look down…you either get it or you don’t

I gave up on the 5D and went with the 5D Mark II .. Darren pressed on and pulled some great shots out of the bag

Case in point!

Got Something to Say? –