Old friends, older friends, lovely lovely day

Be not inhospitable to strangers unless they be angels in disguise

So this is Mark, in silhouette. To give you more of an idea of what he looks like, here are some more photographs...I really like the background to these ones so it was a tough call of which one to blip, but these got consigned to the blip reject bin, but still too good to miss. So Mark is a bit more chilled out around a camera, as you can probably guess from the other photographs...and also used to having photographers telling him what to do due to quite a lot of photo-shoots done for various bands and promotional material he's been involved in. So, I met Mark four or five years ago, almost to this day (friend of a friend of a friend kind of thing)...and he's been there for me a lot. There was a point last year at university that things had got too stressy for me, and Mark had offered to travel down to Warwick to come and get me home (a good seven hour round trip)...I guess that just shows the kind of friend he is. Luckily I didn't need to call in that favour, but even the offer had reassured me that someone was there for me. It's been a tricky few years for the two of us, and if one of us isn't moaning...it's probably the other! At least we always have excitement in our lives! I don't know what I'd do without him sometimes, and am so glad he's put up with me been there. The more I see my friends from home, the more I realise just how close I am to them. I guess it's the fact I (again) have a deadline of seeing them.

The weather here is, well, cold. You can count the number of degrees on one hand, and it's pretty windy. And we were on the seafront. And to get this photograph in silhouette and how I wanted it...Mark had to do this. A round of applause for a manly man I think!

In case you hadn't guessed it, my day was spent catching up with Mark! After a morning spent entertaining my Mum when she went to get her hair done (Take a Break has some mental stories in it doesn't it?!) I then went and spent the afternoon having lunch/coffee before heading out to Southport Pier for some following the sunset photography.

Resolution: I need to take some long exposures of this carousel with a tripod next time, but again...too good to not at least mention on here!

Amazing evening meeting old family friends for drinks and a meal out. Now Christine and Stuart have known me since I was about five or six years old, and have been a constant influence in my life. They have always included me even when I was a lot younger and probably not that interesting! Originally from Paisley, they haven't lost their Scottish accent, even after being in the North around twenty years...but the Scots accent never seems to be lost! I sometimes worry that I am losing my own Northern accent from spending the majority of my year at university with mainly Southern people, who find the Northern accent hilarious...hopefully I don't.

Anyway, after a few drinks at our house we headed out to The Barking Frog. If you're ever in Southport, I wholeheartedly recommend this restaurant. One of, if not, the best restaurant I have ever been in...they have a lovely set menu that changes every other week, and the service is impeccable. My family and I are regular customers, and I have never had a bad meal or bad service...and you know when a restaurant is good when the owner is still present most evenings talking with the guests!