Just before the start of my very long weekend off I worked late last night to get the hat video produced ready for the big Friday rush of viewers to the Advertiser site.
Along with most of the other shows I have produced this week it will probably live only on the Sitbonzo pages and the Advertiser video page which dosn’t get quite as many views as the main news pages but we are developing quite a following.

The heating man unfortunately couldn’t finish the replacement of our boiler! Its freezing cold in the house so it is lucky I am/was planning on staying in bed as long as is possible. Todays itinery says otherwise. Including making pankakes, pumpkin carving, driving little Sitbonzo’s to various classes including trampoline, cricket and swimming. Followed by some afternoon house tydying, trip into town to look for an adapter for my new video camera lens thingy followed by a little light trick or treating. My children will NOT be doing unplesant tricks.

So, I’m off until late shift Tuesday with a bit of London to Brighton veteran cars on Sunday morning. cool a rama. bon chance.

Winter fashion. from Sitbonzo on Vimeo.

Photographs by: Danny Fitzpatrick and Kevin Shaw

With the recession deepening the only shops that seem to be doing well are ones like this, the 61st 99p store to open in the UK. Many people waited in the cold for this mornings opening in North End Croydon.

Credit Crunch. 29th October 2008 from Sitbonzo on Vimeo.

The first batch of entries for the competition.

Being a youth in the 80’s my clubbing days were filled with sitting on the floor doing rowing and drinking vast amounts of expensive beer.
skip forward to tonight and it was a far more sophisticated scene. I did’nt sit down once and didnt feel too much of an old boy that was until a very pretty young woman introduced herself as a friend of mines daughter!
Paul and I were of course shooting pics for the Miss Croydon Advertiser competition at HUB nightclub.
A great turnout despite the advert on the Advertiser web front page reading ” Free entry into HUB on Friday night if you enter Miss Croydon Advertiser”

If you had your picture took, thanks very much.

Anyhow, well past my bedtime as I am taking little Sitbonzo *1 swimming at 7-30am!

Croydon Food Festival. 22nd October 2008 from Sitbonzo on Vimeo.

Miss Croydon Advertiser model competition promo. from Sitbonzo on Vimeo.

Office move went well and nice Mr IT supped up the new Mac G5 to a spanking 6 gigs of ram. ( for non computer people that is about as fast as as very fast thing.)

Sunday morning sees me just leaving for a shift. Its been difficult lately to commision good freelance photographers so I have to get things covered somehow.

Talking of getting things covered, Its the naked bike ride this afternoon at queens park. To raise awareness of green issues. Its really pretty chilly today so I’m not entireley sure how much awareness they will be able to raise.
I want to offer moral support, so may just show that by restricting my clothes.

I will just wear a nice warn and toasty fleace, coat socks and warm trousers.
I will NOT wear a nice warm wooly hat and gloves.

By the way. Monday sees us shooting MISS CROYDON portraits at Picture Partnership’s studio’s Peal Road Croydon. If you are or know anybody that fancies coming down please let them know. Its free and may be quite fun. I will also be wearing clothes for that shoot too.

TA parade in central Croydon.
Sunday 12th October 2008
By Fergus Burnett.
2mins06secs

click picture to play

Horseman’s Sunday at Epsom Downs.
By: Fergus Burnett.
2min37sec
Click picture to play

Black history month. Edgar Hamilton. October 2008 from Sitbonzo on Vimeo.

Black history month. Ida Solomon. October 2008 from Sitbonzo on Vimeo.

Black history month. Hawthorn Morgan. October 2008 from Sitbonzo on Vimeo.

Phew. It’s been a while. Packing and throwing so much stuff from our office. The move is on Friday and we are pretty much there. Nice IT man has delivered the Mac G5 but has also put a notice on the Bonzo cave which says ‘multimedia suite’ !
I like to think of myself as less of a ’suite’ kinda guy and more of a 3* backpacking photojournalist so, that is going to have to be ‘modified’ at my earliest opportunity.
I am very seriously thinking of buying a camp bed as poor old mac (laptop) is once again giving me grief crunching three videos and 2 soundslides.
Fergus has shot 2 really strong Soundslides and I am trying to code them so they can go onto the Advertiser video page.

Crunching continues… The Black history month project is coming along slowly with copy and paste from computer to external hard disk. Takes more time but I may have some good news at last.
You may have seen we are due to be moving office soon. A new multimedia suite ( the bonzo cave) is being built and the nice Mr IT director is giving me a spare MacG5 with some grunt. ( insert big smiley)

Off again shortly to the Afro Caribbean Centre for some dominos and have to pick up some rum on the way.

I shot some video at the new office which you can see (here)

Grr. I really do need to get something sorted out for my computer woes. Danny isn’t going to be pleased when he gets to the office today. The hours worth of video he shot yesterday at the AfroCaribean cultural centre is still on the camera!
I told him I would do the edit but unfortunatly, despite me wiping pretty much everything off my machine.. you guessed it.
COMPUTER SAYS NO!

Sorry Dan, you are going to have to crunch it on your machine.

maybe video shot to be crunched on this little mac will only be able to be 15-20mins.

Join me in a stroll through this lovely wood which has been used by man since Neolithic times. Popular with dog walkers, horse riders and families it really is a haven of green just a short way from the centre of Croydon.

Walk in the woods. Croham Hurst. 3rd Octonber 2008. from Sitbonzo on Vimeo.

Amber the counting poodle. 1st October 2008 from Sitbonzo on Vimeo.

Hollywood is calling. I can imagine the phone ringing now. ‘Amber the counting dog” they are SHOUTING…. ” We WANT Amber the magic counting dog!”

I jest but, cute animal videos get big audiences on youtube.
Amber was in fact, a very sweet little poodle and can indeed do magic.
Watch the video to find out how good she really is!

It was an assignment for our sister paper the Surrey Mirror. Their newsdesk, quite rightly, decided that a video shot on a reporters mobile phone really wasn’t quite up to their usual high standards. I grabbed my passport and wellington boots for the long trek deep into the rural idil that is Redhill.