So this years cards are:

A fairly simply layout for Gizmo & Furby

though making a miniature cracker & getting a character with no hands to hold it are both harder than you first imagine.

A christmas pudding Apple for Bramley Computers

Which after whisky didn’t work as planned, reverted by to schoolboy physics and some deodorant and a lighter. This also lead to a ‘happy accident’ shot of Cooking Apple (click through to see on flickr).  This is a dual layer shot, with the flames captures in one exposure, and the apple & berries in a second exposure and layered up in Photoshop.

Having gone to all the effort of capturing Santas for the BHF santa jog promotion, it also seems daft not to utilise something from these shoots for Christmas

and the final card for this year, is one of the snowy scenes from last December

All that went out of the window yesterday, something was obviously amiss when the car took two attempts to start for work in the morning, but then in the evening dropped down to a local pub to meet up with a Twitter friend, at which point the Audi took three attempts to start, and then down at the pub that was it she wouldn’t start again. I’d already seen very similar symptoms on my dads A6 which has the same 2.6 engine as in my car, so very quickly suspected the camshaft sensor that had given him the same issue. Gratefully my Twitter friend gave me a lift up home so could at least wait for the AA in the warmth, first repair van turned out after 1.5hrs at 6:30, quickly confirmed that the car wasn’t sparking, so it was the camshaft sensor as predicted, or coils. I can’t tow you home though, going to have to send another truck. Luckily they dropped me back off home again as the recovery wagon didn’t arrive for another 3.5hrs at 11pm, can’t really complain too much though as did know I was on the non priority list, only fair those stuck on the M1 at night etc get attended to first.

Undignified Return

Just to prove she’s a female too, at the presence of a recovery truck she started, but decided as got a perfect line up with the truck, better to recover her than to get round the corner & the fault kick in and end up with a more difficult recovery.

Whilst waiting for the recovery truck, spent a bit of time digging around parts & prices, found the camshaft sensor on eBay from about £40 to Euro Car Parts at £150 (at this weeks VAT rate) and no idea of the quality level. Phoned the local VAG trade part services first thing this morning, genuine part with blagged trade discount, £97, and bonus it’s 10 minutes up the road, not 2hr round trip (eBay) or 1hr (ECP). Phoned a friend, can we nab your car? Cheers. Right on our way…

The culprit

Walks out the door, shuts it behind us and realises that moment, when you’ve got keys one side of the door, and you’re the other, it’s Christmas Eve, cold & locked out!

“Fuckety fuckety fuckety fuck” pretty much summed it up as my Twitter/Facebook status.

Nothing to do but to press on, got the bus in to town so could borrow a Focus, detoured via work to borrow some tools & plywood, on to dealers to pick up the car part, then home, & put a hammer through a window, carefully reached through & unlocked the security lock, then climbed in. Times like this lucky I’m still relatively skinny & nimble.

Smashing Christmas

Not sure how but managed to get in without injury or any cuts, then ended up cutting myself against the glass whilst measuring up the wood for the fix, only a nick though.

Hopefully that’s it now, not sure could have taken much more going wrong. Leaving the car for a few days before looking at it, but at least (hopefully) got the part in ready when I do.

Well I’m happy to say it doesn’t get any more sensible this year, because this year we had a huge snow fall in Feb, and, I already had Santa hats for them, and I had a day off to go up into the peaks to find some snow the kids hadn’t, so this years cards will be loosely based around…

Gizmo & Furby in the Show

Also like to make a special mention to Moo Printing at this point, as they’ve been through their printers twice trying to get the colours right on the cards, as I’d managed to select some text (the cards will have Merry Xmas on them) that CMYK printing really doesn’t like.

Fingers crossed the next batch will be bang on, and cards should be landing on some peoples door mats soon.