It's A Royal Party

Grab your royal purple swim trunks and your crown jewels and get ready for a regal party like you’ve never seen before.

Queen Elizabeth is celebrating 60 years on the throne. That’s a long time! I know how much time I’ve languished on the throne during my almost 44 years spent in this world and my butt gets numb just thinking about it.

I’m still waiting for my invite to arrive in the mail but I can just picture the blowout that’s planned at Buckingham Palace for Her Royal Majesty in honour of this rare occasion. Heck, only once in the history of Canada have we had the opportunity to celebrate a previous Diamond Jubilee and I know none of you were invited to that shindig. In 1897, Queen Victoria proved that if you sit on the throne long enough and your legs don’t lose all sensation, you can reach this miraculous milestone.

While the celebrations among the Commonwealth countries will be extensive, the private party for family and close friends is the one I’m more interested in. I can just imagine what might transpire around the backyard palace pool this summer.

The Queen will no doubt have on her smoking hot red two-piece as she spreads out on a chaise lounge chair poolside. Her crown is safely perched on a table nearby as servants continually bring her martini’s and David Beckham rubs suntan lotion on her back while wearing only his signature briefs.

Over at the barbecue Prince Phillip has some mysterious meat on a spit rotating over the heat. With a scotch in one hand and a basting brush in the other as he shares a story with Prince Andrew who feigns interest while watching his daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, as they search for one of the Queen’s missing corgis.

Prince Harry emerges from the pool change room adjusting his swimming trunks and still inside I can see a topless Pippa Middleton attempting to quickly compose herself before her sister arrives. Harry gets a high five from his father Prince Charles as they saunter over to the bar. Charles can be overheard saying, “Well done old boy. Like father like son.”

At the bar, Charles and Harry are greeted by Victoria Beckham and Camilla who have been discussing how beautiful Posh Spice is. Camilla, not realizing that Victoria in fact is Posh Spice, thinks it’s uncanny how much Victoria looks like her.

Suddenly security is called and swiftly two of the Royal Guards pounce on an intruder found lurking in the bushes. In no time at all, Sarah Ferguson is escorted from the palace grounds kicking and screaming something about wanting to be relevant again.

A splash is heard as Pippa finally emerged and cannonballs into the pool with the intent to clean the filth off her body and the guilt from her mind. Her bikini top immediately rips loose on impact with the water. Nobody notices because they’ve all seen it before. Well, actually Princess Anne noticed because she was standing next to the pool and was splashed and doesn’t look happy about it. She angrily storms off and hops on a horse and goes for a ride.

While Elton John plays the piano in close proximity and sings “Kiss the Bride”, he’s interrupted by the sound of a British Navy rescue helicopter as it lands on the helipad in the backyard. Prince William and Kate step out with gifts in hand for the Queen. Kate looks amazing in her bikini. I ask Prince Edward and Sophie if Kate’s lost weight again. They inform me that she is getting thinner which is odd since she’s 4 months pregnant.

William shouts out, “Let’s get this party started, the chosen ones in da house bitches.”  Harry rushes over and whispers something in Will’s ear whose response was, “way to go bro!” Now proclaiming that she’s starving, Kate goes over to the food table, breaks off half a cracker, eats it and then complains about eating too much.

By this point I’ve seen enough. I walk over to the Queen and congratulate her on her Diamond Jubilee one more time, then my date, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and I jump in our limo and head to a local pub to party with real people.

Greatest Super Bowl Performance

Today is Super Bowl XLVI between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots and I couldn't care less about it. That's not to say I'm not a football fan because I am but I'm not a fan of the Giants or Pats. My NFL teams of choice are the Chicago Bears and the Washington Redskins and they didn't even make the playoffs this year.

Now I do plan to watch the game because it's still the biggest game of the year, even if it might not be the best game of the year. But this isn't about football. For me as a music fan, the real spectacle and highlight usually comes at half time when in recent times the entertainment is provided by well known musical acts.

Some years are better than others and this year it's Madonna performing. I don't hate Madonna but I just don't see her as the right choice for the Super Bowl. But I'll watch it and make my assessment later. Maybe she'll surprise me.

To me the great entertainers of past Super Bowls were acts that own stadium shows. Bands like The Who, Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, Prince and Michael Jackson.

When it comes down the worst performances, I can't help but single out the Black Eyed Peas, Christina Aguilera, Toni Braxton, Enrique Iglesias, Patti Labelle, Elvis Presto and the Winter Wonderland salute. Do a Google search for some of those performances if you don't believe me.

For me though, the absolute best and my most favourite performance at the Super Bowl came in 2002 at Super Bowl XXXVI when U2 took to the stage and not only gave a great performance but also an amazing tribute to all of the people who lost their lives during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Watching the seemingly endless list of names scroll up the screen behind the band was unbelievable but at the same time the exceptional playing of "Where the Street's Have No Name" was electric.

If you don't believe me, have a look at the video evidence below. Keep in mind, I'm a huge U2 fan from way back in my youth. I've also included my second favourite performance by Bruce Springsteen and the 1987 show for your enjoyment.

Future Shop is Sneaky

I'm a little irked today thanks to Future Shop.

I called to complain but the woman I talked to obviously didn't have a clue how the issue happened or what to tell me. I sent an email as well but that resulted in a long winded form letter response that attempted to justify the reasons for what happened but I still think it's just plain wrong of Future Shop to just raise their prices on an item for no other reason than supply and demand. The item wasn't on sale and then bumped back to the regular price....they just raised the regular price.



Here's the note I sent which explains what I'm upset about.



"I printed off the page listing for the Acer One 11.6" (AO722-0465) last night with a price of $349.99 and intended to buy it online today. When I went to purchase it Tuesday morning it was listed at $399.99, up $50 in less than 10 hours. It wasn't listed as being on sale so you've jacked up the price. What gives? How can you justify the price increase? How can I get it at the previously listed lower price? Please explain this. I was prepared to buy it but feel like I'm being scammed by your company now."



If nothing else I felt better by venting but this to me seems like sneaky blatant price gouging. The new before taxes price is higher than what it would have been with tax before the price jump. There's no way the laptop suddenly increased in value overnight.



I realize I'm only one person and losing my little sale doesn't mean much to a big company like Future Shop but I have spent a lot of money over the years in their stores and I'm pretty sure I won't be again any time soon. I think I'll give the local small store retailers a look from now on.

Me, Myself & I

Me, Myself & I
Originally uploaded by *Bundy*

I belong to an online photography challenge group where every week a new project is listed. In each project are the guidelines for the challenge. This could be a black and white photo, or landscape or more technical images using our Nikon cameras.

On the most recent challenge the subject was "In My Kitchen" where your photo could be anything, provided it was taken in the kitchen.

Rather than pull out the toaster or find something simple to just point my camera at, I decided to make the challenge even harder by challenging my editing skills as well.

I came up with the idea to photograph myself playing cards. But I didn't want to be playing solitaire so I had to create opponents. Nobody else was around so I decided to play against myself.

I took three separate photos (four actually but that version of me was blocked out by the me in the foreground) of me playing cards. As you can see in the image I even had wardrobe changes.

The hard part came next. I had to get all three images into one photo and make it look right. This was a challenge as I'd never tackled a project this complicated before. I'm sure for those with a lot more skill than me, this is a routine undertaking but I've never done much with layers and masking in Photoshop. It was a learning process.

After two days of trial and error, searching the internet for video tutorials and lots of cursing, I finally managed to complete the project as you can see. You can click on the image to see it larger on my Flickr page if you like.

Having done this once, I now have a feel for how it works and will look forward to trying it again in the future.

New Year's Day Frozen Marsh

Frozen Marsh (B&W)
Originally uploaded by *Bundy*

Happy New Year!!!

I didn't stay up too late last night but did manage to see 2012 arrive. I wasn't long going to bed after though. I rang in the New Year watching CNN of all things. Actually, Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin were quite entertaining.

Once I got organized today I decided to grab my camera and head out to get my first images of 2012. I had good intentions but Mother Nature had other plans. Instead of the usual cold and snowy weather we should be getting this time of year, I ventured out into mild and rainy conditions.

But I couldn't come home without something. I didn't take as many photos last year as I would have liked and even though I don't make resolutions, I am hoping to be a bit more active with the photography hobby.

Just when I thought I'd give up, I pulled my car up to an area near Brighton Bay and spotted a couple of swans napping on the thin ice. They didn't cooperate either but I spotted this scene you see here that I thought would make for an interesting subject. I think it works really well as a black & white image.

So, 2012 is off and running and so is another year of looking through the lens.