Kevin Whitworth / Jacurutu

For some unknown reason, Steve decided Easter Sunday is the time for a barbecue. So we wandered over Saturday afternoon, and then headed into York for food and beer. The beer was supplied by Brigantes on Micklegate, with a reasonable selection of draft ales, and decent bottled lagers (ie Czech & Belgian lager, not Heineken), including dark lagers such as Budwar Dark and Regent (yum!). We decided to give their food a go - but probably won't again. It's OK, but nothing special, and my order was delivered wrong, so I had to wait for them to go and cook it properly, and with no appology offered either.)

Sunday morning saw a blanket of snow, I saw too much of the engine bay of my car (the battery dies rather suddenly), and Steve got the chance fire up his new barbecue. Alas most of the snow had already melted, but rest assured the odd flurries that fell Sunday lunch time were never going to settle anywhere nearby.

After lunch I dug the camera out (so now photos of the barbecue and snow), and mostly got lots of photos of Steve and Ally's cat, Charlie. Fortunately (for me) Charlie is more inclined to sit still whilst being photographed, unlike our cats Apple (runs away) and Bo (comes to see what you're up to). As usual, there's a couple posted in a set on Flickr, and even more in the Easter 2008 album on this site.

So, a big thank you to Steve and Ally for putting us up for the night and feeding us well (especially the chocolate cookies)!

We were at a bit of a loss for something to do last week, and the weather was too nice just to sit around home all day, so we knocked together a bit of a picnic, and headed over to the RSPB's Fairburn Ings reserve. There's quite a lot going on this time of year, with plenty of new arrivals turning up for the spring.

Even better, they've enlarged the viewing ports on the fence in front of the feeding station so those of us with large telephoto lenses can get shots through them - which is where this shot of a Long-Tailed Tit came from. I tried to get shots of them in more natural surroundings - but they won't stay still long enough! There's a few more shots in the Fairburn set on Flickr, and the full collection on my own photo albums, including a nice shot of a Goldfinch (also on a feeder) and a shot of a Snipe hiding in the reed beds.

Finally, watch this space, as I'm on holiday this week on my own (I had too much annual leave to use up before the end of the year), so I'm trying to work through both recent (ie last week) photos and the backlog I've built up (yes, the infamous Kenya photos...).

My hosting provider is planning on moving their data centre at the end of the week, so I've been advised that there may be a period of unavailability from Friday March 28 for up to 48 hours, although hopefully (fingers crossed!) it will be less. This will affect my blog, and my own photo albums - basically everything on www.jacurutu.org.uk.

Not that I'm paranoid or anything, but I'm off to back everything up before they move it...

I was down in London on Tuesday with some time to kill, so I decided to take the camera along. I grabbed a few photos at the British Museum, but wasn't feeling very inspired (my mind was elsewhere), and didn't fancy getting more shots from the Egyptian section (which reminds me, I've still got those to edit from our last trip there...). However, I did manage to get a few good shots of the Lloyd's Building, the Aviva Tower and 30 St Mary's Axe (aka The Gherkin or Swiss Re Tower) in the City.

I've got some from a previous trip that I don't think I've processed before, but I was trying to find a new angle on these much photographed buildings. On the way back to the tube I did manage a couple. This is my favourite, which is Lloyd's reflected in the glass of one of the other buildings on Leadenhall Street. It could have done with being taken pointing down slightly more, and the street light is a bit distracting, but overall I'm pleased with it.

The full session is on my photo albums, and the higlights are in the London, March 2008 set on my Flickr account.

The session also gave me a change to play with the new Sigma 18-50 mm f/2.8 that I bought off Mark / Shootin' the breeze. It's not the HSM version, but it still seems to focus quickly and reliably. It's also pretty sharp, and doesn't suffer from the vignetting that the Nikon AF-S 18-70 mm does when wide open (although I hadn't noticed until I did a side by side test). However, one thing I did notice was a lot of purple fringing (chromatic aberration) on the high contrast sections of the Lloyd's photos (eg the cranes againt the sky). Photoshop's Lens Correction filter managed to reduce it slightly, but it's still present. Still, for the money, it's a good lens and gives me a few extra stops over the Nikon kit lens. I'll try and do a more in-depth comparison (inclusing playing with it's macro function) later and post it up here. Meanwhile, I'm still contemplating spending my bonus on a super-wide zoom, but am split between the quality of the Nikon 12-24 mm f/4, the price of the Tokina 12-24 mm f/4 and the even wider angle Sigma 10-20 mm f/4-5.6 (or whether I can justify the Nikon 10.5 mm as well as the Tokina).

I forgot to say, we tried the buzzer system out during the Durham match last Sunday. Despite my last post on the subject, I haven't changed it since the last test, mostly due to lack of time. Although it's audible, it's simply not loud enough during the frenzy of a game, and I don't think adding a second buzzer unit will make enough difference. So, the next plan is to get a cheap but loud car horn, and see if I can mount it in the BDH I'd originally bought to use with the piezo buzzer.

Still, we've got more pressing needs than a buzzer. York University Octopush Club (Yorktopush) are currently pool-less. Fortunately, the committee have the Easter holidays to come up with somewhere new to practice, although watch this space as those of us still in York over Easter may try and get something running before the undergrads return at the end of April.

Last Sunday saw York's last match in the ONE League, with York B were playing host to Durham, and in fact the last session at Bootham School's pool.

Durham got off to a good start, building up an strong lead in the early stages of the match, with York B hardly getting a look in. From my position as referee, I could see York put up a spirited defence, but they seemed unable to take the game back to Durham. However, although it took York a little while to get into the swing of things, towards the end of the first half they started to claw their way back into the game.

The second half saw York take advantage of defending the shallow end, and the game was looking a bit more even. Some hard-fought goals and a few good breaks helped to even the score slightly, but Durham's performance in the first half shone through to give a final score of 11-6 to Durham.

I must of course point out that this was really due to Durham cheating. They stole Ferdinand, York's mascot, which clearly had a psychological effect on the team. Ferdinand was last seen on a train heading north, and a challenge that we'll only secure his safe return by beating Durham (again!).

At long last I've got hold of a copy of the scores and final standings from the 2008 Octopush Student Nationals. The official final standings are as follows: 

They're not quite the same as what was read out at the end of the tournament (eg when the places were read out, Durham were put above York, which was clearly wrong). Also, I'm not sure I agree with them. Although the missing scores (see below) don't make a difference points wise ocerall, I reckon Plymouth should be placed above Hills Road Cambridge. Also note that the final places are not based on overall points, but the overall points within the final group - group X take places 1 to 7, and group Y take places 8 to 13 (Aberdeen actually accumulated more points than Plymouth and Hills Road, but are placed lower because they were in the lower final group). For scores of the individual games, please read on (below).

There were also a number of barbarian matches played at between the end of the round robin stage and the finals. Mostly these were former university players who've got nothing better to do than hang around their former university and keep playing octopush after they've graduated (oh dear, that sounds like me...), but the BOA, who helped out with the tournament, also fielded a team. Their results were as follows:

So, congratulations to Glasgow for winning, and once again, thanks to Warwick being great hosts, organising the tournament and ensuing party and giving us a great weekend. Roll on 2009 in Bangor!

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