Sheep and dogs and stuff

What a weekend! Mum wins the US Open, Dad loses it (to a 20 year old kid no less), and sheep number 3 wins the annual Sheeplechase at the Pet Personality Awards in Regents Park. I really don't know which result was the most surprising.

From Regents Park

The weekend began with one of those moments, you know the ones, where you're lying in bed half asleep and the radio comes on and tells you something that can't possibly be true, and through the haze of semi consciousness you kind of fill in the gaps yourself. I had this experience a touch over 8 years ago when I woke to September 11, and now on September 12, 2009 I woke to the news that "Kim Clijsters is through to the US Open final after her semi final was stopped early when Serena Williams threatened to KILL A LINE JUDGE". The full story, while still excellent, isn't quite is crazy as I'd imagined it to be. The rest of the day sort of went down hill when I popped into the office to pump out a few hours work which ended up taking all day, and as luck would have it I'm pretty sure that was the last good day we're having in London this year (I walked home in the dark rain tonight FYI).

But Sunday was a new day and I was excited to catch up with Siobhan and Shane, friends I met on a photography course years ago and whom I'd not seen for way too long (you remember Shane, right? He was my 2nd shooter at this wedding). We decided to meet for a picnic in the park if the weather was good or a Sunday roast at a pub if the weather was not good. The weather was not good. After much searching we stumbled upon a great little pub just off Marylebone High Street which served roasts as delicious as they were expensive (at £14.95 you know that these were some tasty roasts). Over the course of our feed the conditions outside improved marginally so we decided to take to the park and see what we could see. I think you can imagine our delight when we found a flyer advertising the Pet Personality Awards.

I'd packed my trusty 40D and 18-200 combo, not my best lens optically but certainly my most versatile with the 11x zoom, I was super pleased I'd taken this option over the 5D and 24-70 when I learned there would be dogs running through courses in a time trial format. We sort of caught the end of this so I didn't get as many shots I would have liked but it was fun to just see something so random up close.



But there was more to come. Oh yes. There was a celebrity afoot. Not the type of celebrity you'd see the paparazzi outside the house of, but a celebrity of sorts. Of course I'd never heard of her, but then again I didn't watch Britain's Got Talent. If you did, or if you're one of the 1.4 million people who's seen her video on youtube you'll recognise her as "that girl that does tricks with her dog", but I prefer the correct terminology - Canine Freestyle.



She's got a few new tricks up her sleeve, including the speccy that Aussie Rules aficionados will appreciate.

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The thing I really liked about this dog though was the respect he gave other performers, I mean just look at the attention he's giving to the Sheeplechase.



So all round a great weekend that was over way too soon. This weekend sees Danny and I re-unite to take on an awesome wedding, I'm getting super pumped about this one, white "black cab" as the wedding car, double decker bus taking guests from wedding to reception, great couple and great reception venue, this is going to be great!