important stuff. thoughts and observations of ben hennessy.

Keeping with tradition, Pepper and I are off on holiday. Again. Some people seem to think we go a lot, maybe we do, I don’t know. It’s fun though, can think of worse ways of spending money. We’re off to sunny Portugal which will be rather good considering it is raining and cold and miserable here.

What’s new in my world? Ummmm, not a lot. Busy with work still but looking forward to the  time off, I would take my laptop but I think a certain Miss Pepper would kill me before we got to the airport. 0605 we’re flying, how rubbishly early is that. We’ll get about 4 hours sleep before needing to get up again.

Am still working through more and more Faces of Disco and Liam Collins work and I am getting there slowly. Hopefully there will be a few changes to the Faces site before I go on holiday – if I can find the time. Once back from Portugal, I will start the task of working on Liam’s own Company websites – something I am itching to do, new challenge and all that!

On a sour note, I found out today that £750 = €827. Not good, going on holiday in Europe is just too expensive at the moment.

I probably won’t write on here again before going away but I will do a massive photo upload when we get back.

OK, so I have been crap at posting a random video recently, but this was worth the wait. This is supremo Ken Block back for Gymkhana 2 in his new Impreza. Doesn’t need an introduction or explanation, watch the whole thing though!

As I said in my BGT post, I have been busy. Working on the Faces of Disco website has taken much of my time recently, can’t complain though, it’s been a wicked job to work on. Have also been working on a few other cool projects so work is going well.

Keeping with tradition, myself and Pepper have been away, again! Camping in the New Forest this time and very nice it was too. We both got sun burnt and managed to do 20 miles on the bikes in the stifling heat – I was very impressed with Pepper, she really did do well.

We have a summer holiday booked now as well, 10 days in Portugal – can’t wait. This hot weather has given me a taste for the sun so that should be good. Off to grab some food now – have hardly left the computer for 4 weeks.

Over and out!

Visiting Sachsenhausen was an incredible experience. We all hear and see how bad things were in the war but until you actually visit these places and see what it was like and smell what it was like, you never really know how bad it was. I know Sachsenhausen probably wasn’t one of the worst concentration camps, but it wasn’t a pleasent one.

Here is a selection of photos, I took too many to put them all up, the photos speak louder than words as well…

Pepper and I seem to go away a lot… this time our travels took us to Berlin for what was definitely going to be another fascinating city after visiting Budapest in February. I have a fascination with all things Nazi related and the Second World War, I don’t know where it comes from as I know it was a clearly awful time but, there is something about it that captures my imagination… I was extremely excited about seeing Berlin and visiting places where monumental things happened 60 odd years ago and I wasn’t about to be disappointed, or was I?

My only wish would be to see more signs of what went on, I know Berlin has been massively rebuilt but part of me was a bit miffed to not see more signs of Hitler’s reign. We saw the Brandenburg Gate where Hitler used to address the masses, that was pretty amazing, but at the same time it was in a built up area with shiny ,new buildings and fancy restaurant. I just wanted to see more gritty stuff, like in Budapest. Budapest had such an aura around it, it felt repressed still from the Communist reign, it felt hurt and it felt like it was still finding its way. The buildings reflected this, the people did. I would have liked to have experience this in Berlin and wondered if we would… and then we went to a concentration camp.

Sachsenhausen was the camp we visited. I think both me and Pepper were very moved by it. The entrance gates read ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ which means simply that ‘Work shall set you free’ – a statement that must have given the mostly political prisoners hope, far from it. Many thousands died there either through exhaustion, cold or simply executed for many reasons. Lots of the political prisoners were there simply because the didn’t agree with Hitler, many homosexuals also lost their lives here.

Sachsenhausen moved me so much that I will put a whole gallery up for it. It has also made me want to visit Auschwitz and I am sure I will be dragging Pepper around Poland before too long.

Berlin was a fantastic city, so much to do and see and definitely a city I want to go back to and I would, I would go again this year. We didn’t quite see everything we wanted to, even in 5 days.

OK, so a lot of time has passed since I last submitted anything, but that is because I have been busy. Busy with work, busy going away and generally busy. I will talk separately about each busy thing but this is just a catch up really. I will get back into adding a random image and video each day etc.

I am going to attempt to post a video, a photo, a bit of design, something, every day. It will be something I like, something I love, something I find funny, whatever. You get the idea.

Today see’s one of my favourite ever videos found on the internet, the infamous Techno Viking (made famous from a video by Matthias Fritsch – visit his website) 

Here’s the video, enjoy. I’m sure you’ll find it as entertaining as I do

Well, me and Pepper are back from Budapest and what can I say? I loved it there. The gritty communist architecture and the solemn almost hardened look on the older Budapestians was just like nothing I have seen before. I have been to many different cities but Budapest was for me the best yet.

It was bloody cold but that didn’t ruin our Valentines weekend at all, it made the photos a little dull and stale, some blue skies would have been nice but overall it was amazing. I think both me and Pepper agreed that we would go back, maybe when it is a little warmer though…

And no, Pepper didn’t find me a gypsy wife. Damn!

Below are some photos from our trip, I took over 700 so this really is just a snap-shot. I also decided that I don’t think I want the 24-105 Canon lens, it just doesn’t cut it compared to the 24-70, enough of the geek talk. Here are the photos!

I am currently pondering over a Canon 24-70 lens and the Canon 24-105. The 24-70 is one of the best lenses I have ever used (some sample pics from it below) and I do dearly want one, but since our economy buggered up, prices have shot through the roof meaning its not quite so good baby brother is far more affordable now. So, I am currently hiring a 24-105 to try it out, going to take it to Budapest as well, so photos will appear when I get back.

Both seem like amazing lenses and both have their advantages, the 24-70 is a f2.8 lens whereas the 24-105 is an f4. The flip side is that the 24-105 has wider reach but then it is considerably smaller as well.

Who knows what I will decide. Will see how I get on in Budapest and go from there I guess.

Well, me and Soph are going to Budapest on Friday for Valentines, romantic eh? It was all Pepper’s idea as well which was cool and she’s paying, how great is that.

We are not both anxiously waiting to see which one of us marries a gypsy first, it seems our fancy 4 star hotel is in the rather poorer district of Budapest which has a high gypsy population. Watch this space for news and wedding photos.