20 emails, 15 phone calls and the threat of legal action and............voila

I don't like it when people blatantly take this piss. This lot were obviously not going to pay me for the Cream Coloured Courser photos of mine that were published in The Daily Mail and The Sun on-line. Despite repeated promises that the cheque was in the post, for weeks on end, like my twitches of late, there was NO SIGN of any payment being forthcoming.

So about 2 weeks ago when yet again I remembered that no payment had arrived, I decided to send one final email. It went something like this:

You lot are taking the piss - pay me the money you owe me - if I don't get it within 10 days I am going to a) sue u for copy write infringement, b) write to the national newspaper photo editors to tell them how u lot operate and c) write to BBC Watchdog.

Anyway, guess what, I got an email back literally within a few minutes, and coincidentally on day 10, just when I thought they had mugged me off again, this arrived in the post.

Ok so they've probably not paid me as much as they should but it's better than nothing!   

Funny shop name

I was very disappointed to find there were no gimp masks or whips in this shop, only cold drink, sweets and newspapers.....

Surely someone would have said something when the owners thought this was a good name? Obviously not!

More moths

A few pics of a few more moths in the garden. At last I got a big Old Lady to land (on me!) rather than fly past and there was a mini influx of Brimstones, with around 50 visiting the bulb. No hawks, but again the bulb was off before midnight.

     

Moths coming to bulb Saturday night

A few moths from Saturday night's mothing session, in Blackmore,Essex. I am still really strugglimg with moth ID. Some are easy but the vast majority all look the bloody same! Most importantly though I am really enjoying the moths, especially as it is so quiet birdwise. 

Black Arches

Above and below - Lesser Swallow Prominent

Large Orange Underwing

Olympic Marathon

I had forgotten what a great city London is until we ventured into town yesterday to watch the men's Olympic marathon. The atmosphere was amazing with tens of thousands of people lining the streets, cheering on every athlete as they passed three times on the loop route. I think we enjoyed it more than some of the ticketed events we saw. Londoners done the Olympics proud.    



The Ugandan surprised everyone by winning its only medal of the games and it's 1st for 40 years.

Olympics - Canoe Sprints at Eton Dorney

Our last Olympic trip today (unless I can pick up some BMX tickets from somewhere), this time all the way over at Eton Dorney in Buckinghamshire, to see 4 canoe/kayak finals. With a 9.30am competition start our day started early, catching the 6.08am train from Romford. Two and a half hours and 3 trains, a bus and a long walk later, we were there. Team GB had competitors in 2 of the 4 finals we saw, but unfortunately neither could make the podiums. Below are a few photos from the trip.

Olympics - hockey

Today it was Sophie's turn to go to an Olympic event, as she luckily got a ticket to see the men's hockey via her school. She saw Argentina v Australia followed by the Netherlands v New Zealand. As you will see the Olympic park was packed to the rafters as today was the 1st day of athletics in the Olympic stadium.

Olympics - Table Tennis - Gold Medal Match

Another day, another Olympic event. This time Jamie and went to see the bronze medal match of the men's singles table tennis. The Chinese are dominant in this sport and as with the women's final both competitors were Chinese. Before the final we saw the bronze medal match, which was won by a European (German), for the first time in 12 years. The gold medal match was between the current world no 1 and the silver medalist at the 2 previous Olympics. Unfortunately for him it turned out to be a hat-trick of silvers as the current world no 1 ran out (literally - see below) a relatively easy winner, taking it 4 games to 1.
 

More royals in attendance, this time Princes Phillip and Edward, and Sophie Wessex.

I think he was happy to win! As vaulted the wall and ran to the podium to kiss the gold medal step.