Off to see the Sheriff!

Today we returned our rental car to Nottingham. We faithfully plugged in the address to the GPS and crossed our fingers. It took us about an hour to get there. That is one thing that mystifies me,  everything in the UK looks close and Nottingham is only 26 miles away or 41 kilometres but what we don't count on is the traffic hence the increase in travelling times. Our trip took us past Sherwood Forest but with so much snow on the ground we did not stop. It appears this area has suffered the most from the recent snow falls in the UK and watching the weather forecast tonight looks like they are expecting more snow on Thursday.
Anyhow as the Hertz Rental drop off point took us to the City Centre naturally we went shopping. I found a car park in the Victoria centre which by the way charges to park there..our stay cost six pounds fifty. Our first mission was to get a sim card for Christine as she is currently cut off from the world.... the first store we went to we were told they had no pay as you go cards..they had run out and had no deliveries due to teh snow come back after Wednesday..ah thanks mate but have ever lived with a gen Y who has no phone access? Nooo so in the end the nice lady at the Mobile Carphone Shop told us to get an Orange pay as you go Sim, they offer the best deals. So to the fellow at Three thanks mate you did us a favour...no wonder the UK is going the gurgler..and on that note another experience from today. Christine for some reason got Euros...which very few shops in the UK accept no doubt the recent problems of the Irish and the Euro has reinforced this. Anyway we found a Natwest branch in the shopping centre however it is really a sales centre with a few atms if you want banking services with tellers go down to market square.
So Christine and I trundle on down, stand in line for 15 minutes...can we change Euros to Pounds please...do you have an account with us...no we are from Australia..sorry we can only do that for account holders...you what??? Hmm and British banks are doing it tough, ever heard of charging a higher fee for non bank customers?? Luckily Western Union had no problems in changing Euros to Pounds.
With Christine having pounds in hand it was off to Primark to buy some clothing meanwhile I perused the shelves of Marks and Spencers making my list of what we will have for Christmas Day.   Whilst walking around I was able to snap of a few pictures of Nottingham City Surrounds as well as popping into Jessops a well known camera  chain in the UK. Brits are really paying through the nose for a lot of their camera gear. I have not made a detailed study no doubt a 17.5%  VAT does not help. Tomorrow is Christine's Birthday...more shopping I fear at Meadowhall outside Sheffield...and yes Melanie a shopping tour but given the weather what else is there to do? I would like to go wandering but with the ice and snow around Retford a rather hazardous task at the moment.

Christine in Red Coat Headding to Market Square

Photo Sharing

Okay a couple of things to share today. Firstly I received an email from the people in Retford UK who we are house swapping with. They have had 14 inches of snow and have said to bring your thermals. A pretty picture however not sure I want the inconvenience snow brings with it whilst on holidays. Here are a couple of pics they sent me.

Two websites worthy of following are  Strobox which shows various settings and lighting diagrams from dedicated strobists or those who use flash to enhance their images. Another photographer who I follow is Crash Taylor who resides in the UK in Nottingham. This is about 30 minutes from Retford so I hope I might see him at Starbucks or as he wanders Nottingham. On eof his websites is The Still Image with Crash Taylor a place to Inspire Motivate,Educate and Encourage your creative image-making process.

Of course both Red Bubble and Flickr have an amazing amount of images but they don't always have the data for you to learn how you can take a similar image.

Catch you later.