Something that we have decided to keep quite private this year but can no longer hold back is the fact that we have been expecting our first child together. For the past 9 months we have been documenting Helen’s body as it changes and grows. We didn’t start the project until she was about 3 months pregnant by which time there was a little bloat evident, but in comparison to the latter stages looks completely normal!

It’s funny because in those early stages we noticed there was a hard bump there, but 6 months on it’s like a watermelon just sat waiting to drop.The first 4 images were taken when we were living with Helen’s parents in Widnes, we were there for a few months before moving into our new home where the remaining images were taken. All except one which was taken when we were in the Lake District for Dave’s 30th Birthday. Not only is it a visual pregnancy journal it also represents a time of big changes in our lives; moving from Leicester to the North-West, Dave starting a new job, the news of a little one joining us before finally buying our first home together on the edge of the Peak District.

We took the same position for each photograph every Sunday morning from this moment on and decided to wait to share this on our blog until our new arrival came into our lives. When writing this Helen was 39 weeks pregnant (see pic below) and looking likely to go into labour any time soon.

This is a very personal project but we felt that it deserved a space in our very personal blog which has always documented the things we’ve done away from our work-related lives. As you can guess the next few installments of the blog are likely to be baby-fueled.

Helen is looking forward to taking some time out of her professional practice, will she become all homely now? She has been attempting curtain making and other sewing machine projects so who knows. Meanwhile Dave is looking forward to paternity leave, 2 weeks isn’t long enough but its going to be a very special time for us.

Frank Leo Rutter was born on Christmas Day morning at 9.41am weighing 6lbs8oz. More to follow.

I shot this a few weeks ago when preparing for a shoot with a young actress in London. Dave was my model and in this particular photograph I just love the look in his eyes, he’s rarely captured like this. This was shot using 2 portable speed-lights, trying to get used to minimising my load when I am off shooting on location. I bought 2 really compact lighting stands and an even more compact shoot through umbrella from Calumet. This was all triggered using my trusty pocket-wizard system.

After Zoe (good friend and yoga teacher from the UK) mentioned Erich Schiffmann’s name to me when we were originally organising the USA part of our trip, it always stuck with me…’Make sure if we go to LA to do a yoga session with Erich Schiffmann‘. And so I looked into Erich and his goings on in the world and became very impressed. Upon the second time round for us to leave again on our travels I noticed that Erich had a 10 day yoga teacher training course starting on the 12 August and it was very convenient for us that flight prices from the UK drop on the 11th. So I checked to see if Dave would be up for coming out with me and staying in Venice whilst I would do the course and as soon as he said yes I paid my deposit.

In all honesty it was the best decision I have ever made. The group were just lovely and very welcoming and Erich Schiffmann is a truely captivating Yogi with SOOOO much love to give it is unreal. (I think I may have picked up a few Americanisms here!!) I have learned so much from Erich and others taking the course, it’s not only given me further motivation to one day teach Yoga but also to be creative in my approach and personal practice. Erich’s wife Leslie also took us for a few afternoons bringing in her experience in Vini-yoga and how to approach level one classes.

We covered so much in a short space of time my mind is still taking it all in, but I do feel very thankful to the whole experience and to have made such good friends along the way. Erich gives the best hugs going and I will definiltey be returning to this side of the Ocean again and again to work with him and join in with his Freedom Style Yoga.

Below are a few images taken while completing the course at Exhale in Venice, Los Angeles as well as a lovely social gathering towards the end of the course.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM & Olympus PEN EP-1, 17mm f/2.8 & 100mm f/2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

When we left Khoa-Sok our aim was to be on Koh Pha-Ngan for a week with a 5 day yoga retreat at the Yoga Retreat Koh Pha-Ngan. Unfortunately as soon as we arrived and after the mammoth and annoyingly long process of getting there with a combined bus and boat ticket, we had to make plans to come back. We had some sad news of a family emergency.

Where to begin in writing about this!? Our Notworkrelated adventure would have to be put on hold, but we will resume our travels and be in touch soon about when this will be. In the meantime enjoy a wonderful spring and summer, the weather has been pretty good to come back to all things considered and it’s great to see our family and friends again.

We wanted to leave a Spring-like photograph on here in the meantime to remember those we love and have lost.

Thank you for following our Notworkrelated adventure and we’ll be in touch soon with plans for the future journey.

David and Helen.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, processed in Lightroom 3)

The train down to Surat Thani left at 7.30pm and we got in at around 7.30am the next day. There were a load of people making their way down for the full moon party which was going off at the weekend. We were trying to avoid the masses and opted instead to head to somewhere Helen has never visited before whilst travelling through Thailand. Our destination was Khoa Sok National Park and so when we exited the train we headed straight to a restaurant area where we could buy bus and taxi services to any destination in the south. We managed to book onto a mini-van operator who would pick us up at 10.30am, so we sat in a restaurant along with a few other backpackers and enjoyed a fruit shake whilst we waited.

The pick up was early to our surprise and it took around an hour and a half to reach the entrance to Khao Sok. We didn’t have any accommodation booked but as soon as we got there taxi drivers were ready waiting with their pick up trucks to take us to a place to stay. We wanted to go to one place recommended called Art’s River View Lodge in the Lonely Planet which was advertised as being around 300 Baht as their cheapest option but when we got there we were informed that the cheapest room was 600 Baht, so we soon moved on and luckily our taxi driver hung around so that he could earn his commission for wherever we would end up. There was a great place further back down the lane towards the main road called Nungs House that we had spotted on our way past.

They had a great sized bungalow with en-suite and hot water which we bargained at for 2 nights for 500 Baht. The manager there is really friendly and hospitable. We looked around for a few tour options for the next day and then set off to explore the national park for a few hours. When we set off it was very hot and sunny, within 2 hours the weather changed and a monsoon came with it. We’d managed to walk a good distance and stop by at some of the waterfalls in the area (although they didn’t really impress us). It was a good walk but we could tell the weather was going to worsen so we started making tracks back and in doing so got caught in a monstrous downpour which brought to the surface many leaches who decided to attach themselves onto us…not a pleasant experience but getting absolutely drenched was fun!

When we got back we opted to book the one day lake and cave tour through our guesthouse as-well as our travel arrangements to Koh Pha-Ngan. The one day tour cost us 1500 Baht each including lunch, we managed to find a few cheaper alternatives but only by 100 Baht or so and we were happy with the service at the guesthouse so decided to go with them. The joint bus and boat tickets to Koh Pha-Ngan were 600 Baht each.

The following day we woke up early to be picked up at 8.30am for the tour. There were 7 of us in total along with another cheeky chappy Thai tour guide and the drivers. It took around an hour and a half to get to Cheow Lan Lake, an enormous man made lake built for hydro-electricity. As we arrived at the pier there was a long-tail boat waiting to take us on an hour long boat trip to the Tham Nam Thalu cave. The scenery around in and around the lake is stunning, we were reminded once more of the karst peaks we’ve seen time and again in China, Vietnam and Laos but we thought this was the most beautiful of the karst areas we’d yet visited. They jutt out of the water some 950m, with perhaps 100-300m depth below, we just couldn’t believe that the lake was man-made and had taken nearly 20 years to fill.

Along the way we stopped to view monkeys swinging in the trees and a monitor lizard who was unhappily disturbed from its roost by our tour guide who just couldn’t resist getting the creature on public show for us. Be warned, Thai tour guides and those from other South-East Asian countries do like to show off and disturb creatures from their natural habitat to show them off to tourists, but it’s not what we want to see!! Still they’ll do it all the same, like boys playing with ants!

On the south-west shoreline there is a base where many tourists and backpackers stay for the night in bamboo style bungalows over the waters edge. There are also a few restaurants there and we were able to use kayaks as part of our tour cost, we enjoyed a great lunch there too. After a short trip on the kayaks and a very filling lunch we took the boat a little further down the shore-line and got off to start a 2 hour walk through the jungle to the cave. We crossed through big jungle forest trees and leaves, butterfly’s drinking from the water-logged paths and more wildlife which prompted our tour guide to once again act his child-like ways by disturbing them and trying to grab them for us to photograph. We saw massive spiders, lizards, beetles, birds and so on, before eventually arriving at the cave entrance. We didn’t really know what to expect but the cave is massive! We packed away our cameras and valuables into dry-packs and started trekking through the cave. We were in the cave for over an hour making our way from one side to the other, passing by hundreds of bats, more huge spiders, toads, frogs and streams. There were other tourists in there too but most of the time our group was alone, and at one stage we all stripped down to our swim gear and got ready to swim through the deeper streams. Our hero tour guide took all of our dry-packs over his shoulders and didn’t once get them wet, whilst he directed our steps along rocks and through small rivers that he has guided people through time and again. At one point we were head deep in water as we climbed down a waterfall and into a pool, it was scary and exciting all at once. We couldn’t believe the scale and depth of the cave and with all of the wildlife, limestone, rock formations and water passing through, we have to say it was an amazing experience.

As we exited the cave we had a further half hour or so walk back to the boat which was then followed by a tasty snack of fresh fruit and banana rice balls – yum! With another one hour boat journey back we eventually arrived at our accommodation after 8pm, it was a very long day indeed but we really enjoyed it and thought our tour guide was great too. We enjoyed food with our fellow tour buddies and then made our way back to prepare for another departure the next morning.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

A relaxing day in Bangkok exploring the streets and canals on foot, we picked up a few essential items for the wet weather which seemed to be imminent including umbrella’s and a decent dry pack. We also enjoyed a great vegetarian meal consisting of vegetable tempura and a vegetable curry with red rice. Our hard sleeper train heading south from Bangkok station left later in the evening bound for Surat Thani from where we would be discovering lush jungles, tropical islands, beaches and a Yoga Retreat!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, processed in Lightroom 3)

Today was to be our sightseeing day with a half day stint at the Grand Palace. We took the boat again to Tha Chang stop not far from the Palace area and followed some of the Lonely Planet’s walking tour for the area. We followed the first part of the route to the Bangkok’s Fine Art school which is located opposite the front gate of the palace, what a great place to study art and be inspired! Unfortunately there weren’t any exhibitions on so we sat in the courtyard for a while people watching and photographing the area. We crossed over the road to the Palace and as we passed through the gates were told we would both have to queue for longer length clothes to cover arms and legs all the way to our shoes. Helen thought she would need something but Dave’s passed the knee cropped trousers didn’t make the cut either so we both had to queue for half an hour for an assortment of sweaty shirts and skirts that had been worn by other tourists earlier that day. Nice! The annoying thing was that it was so hot, it was difficult wearing simply shorts and a vest let along trousers, a sarong and a shirt!!

Once dressed we continued onto the ticket office and purchased 2 tickets costing 350 Baht each. It is a very impressive sight indeed starting with pagoda’s, temples and shrines that glisten and sparkle in the sun. Vibrant golds, emeralds an ruby’s dominate the area with intricate gold leaf descriptive paintings along walls. You can’t go into the actual Palace or residence but walking around the grounds and visiting museum rooms, enthroning rooms and various formal occasion temples is pleasant enough if you don’t mind queuing with the many tourists who are also there. We watched the changing of the guards and after about 2 hours we decided to move on. It’s on a similar level to the Grand Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in terms of decadence, architectural design and intricate detailing.

There is a market around the corner from the Palace near to the ferry stop which we wandered through and people watched as they bargained for small collectible amulets. We also explored some back alleys where we got a glimpse of old Bangkok, houses on stilts on the river side and children playing in the narrow streets. After the long queue’s and heat of the day we’d had enough of sightseeing already and decided to head back to the hostel for a few hours as we were planning to make tracks on the sky-train later on to check out the night market and get some food.

We got a taxi to take us to the Ratchathewi sky train stop and from there took the sky train to Nana. This is the stop for the Paptong weekend market, perhaps an area that should be described as Bangkok’s red-light district! Although since 2004 Helen has noticed that things have been toned down a little and although there are many ping pong shows available it’s perhaps not thrown in your face as it used to be. We had a little wander through the streets and then got back on the sky-train for one more stop to Asok where we had planned to find a Tapas restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet. We decided this would be our date night and we would spend over budget for our meal. The Tapas restaurant is located next door to Suk II hostel, a place Helen has stayed at many a time when she has been in Bangkok before. So we had a look around after enjoying a buy 2 get one free deal at the restaurant, it didn’t really soften the final bill but we did enjoy some lovely western food for a change. The main reason we didn’t book to stay at Suk is that they’re prices are now quite high starting at 700 Baht for a double with shared bathroom, we were paying 430 Baht a night at our hostel with our own bathroom.

On our last full day in Bangkok we went off in the direction of Siam, the business and shopping district. We directed our attention onto buying a few items for our camera gear, and purchased a tripod and a small camera bag from the MBK shopping mall. We also bargained for the first series of The Wire as well as experiencing their food hall which is a must-do if you’re having a long day shopping in Bangkok!

We had a few galleries earmarked on the map that we were intending to visit, the main problem being that we couldn’t find 2 of them, one was in between exhibitions and one was housing a small photographic exhibition. So Wooden Postcards at the La Lanta Fine Art Gallery was the only one that was open.

After this slightly disappointing search for off-the wall Fine Art we promptly found a taxi and decided to head back. Our taxi driver had only been driving for 2 weeks in Bangkok and didn’t know where we were heading to, but he was determined to get us there so we gave him a chance, he made a few calls and got on the right tracks. It started raining heavily too so we were happy to be out of the down pour. We couldn’t get dropped off at our hostel as their was a problem with a demonstration taking up the top end of the Phitsanulok Rd. We thought we would walk right through it on our way back and were amazed by the amount of demonstrators there were, it seemed to be a peaceful demonstration taking place outside government buildings and the UN building. We managed to pick up on something to do with the release of Thai Nationals, but we couldn’t get this confirmed. As soon as we stepped out from under cover the rain came down hard and we were drenched by the time we’d walked 100m back to the hostel. The rain halted our plans that night so we stayed at the hostel and caught up on the blog.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We started off the day by eating a fairly good breakfast included in our accommodation at the hostel, we’re not sure how 4 mornings of eggs and toast would go down! We spent a short while documenting the hostel downstairs as it really is a lovely space. Following on we took the number 56 bus to the Chatuchak weekend market which took around 45 minutes to get to. It’s a much cheaper option than taxiing or getting a tuk-tuk there and cost 26 baht between us. When we got there we went straight to the information office for a guide of the area, there are more than 8000 market stalls in a 35 acre area of land so we thought it would be good to know where we were going and plan our route.  We wanted to pick up a few items ready for the south and some replacement clothes for one’s we’ve been wearing over and over since we started travelling in October.

We started by exploring the vintage/second hand section which is any stylists and fashion designers dream. It houses anything from vintage tea dresses to leather bags, retro sports wear and re-worked seconds into new garments. It has to be said that the Thai’s on are top of their game when it comes to vintage trading, they know what sells to Westerners and they have a good depth of stock. Helen was very close to picking up some old tea dresses for when we get back home but managed to resist spending the pennies. We crossed through many fashion stalls and picked up sandals, shorts, t-shirts and vests whilst taking a few shots along the way.

The most memorable photo for us from this collection is of the giant tattooed man sleeping next to his market stall, surrounded by badges, paintings, bags and handmade crafts. He was covered all over in tattoos, piercing’s and leather and was disguised by the goods that swamped him…There were certainly many characters around. We walked by the music area and watched young children playing on their violins and we passed through the antiques section too. Seriously though you can buy pretty much anything you want at this market, we’ve read about illegal animal trading going on here too so if you do see anything you’re not happy about you can always report it to the police that patrol the site. We think we got what we wanted though with little fuss and enjoyed some decent street food too.

Later that night we took the ferry south and made our way to the flower market, it’s a 24 hour place with fresh flowers being prepared day in day out. If you get there late or very early in the morning it will be a real hive of activity. We got there at about 6.30pm at night and wandered through the street area and also some back street warehouses where we saw some of the work that goes on behind the scenes. We did want to go to other markets but with only one weekend in Bangkok most of the better markets take place on Saturdays and Sundays and there’s only so many markets you can get to in 2 days!

We ended the evening at a lovely restaurant overlooking the river right next to our ferry stop in Thewet, we had great views but the service was a bit of a mess, good job we weren’t in much of a rush.

We stayed at a great hostel in Bangkok called Hostelling International Bangkok, it’s around half and hour from Khao San road heading up river. It’s a little tricky to find, especially at 5 in the morning but once we got our bearings we thought the location was pretty good. We didn’t want to be in the hustle and bustle of Khao San and we had a ferry stop nearby at Thawet in the Dusit district.

We couldn’t check in until after midday so we decided to take the ferry south and head towards China town so we could get absorbed in some street photography. We always like getting to a big city after ambling through rural areas as there is an energy and buzz that definitely inspires us photographically. Bangkok did just this for us, we weren’t particularly interested in doing too many touristy things as per usual but we were quite happy to get lost in the streets and photograph people, places, food of course!

China town is busy at any time of day with no exception at 10am in the morning, we found alleyways with beautiful light, bizarre funeral gifts, food stalls and bizarre crafts. It’s dirty, hectic and a little tacky but all the while we took it in and enjoyed being flies on the wall. We spent a good few hours making our way through the Lonely Planet walking tour before hopping on the ferry back to our stop so we could check in.

The hostel houses some very nice retro 70′s wooden furniture and the retro theme runs throughout. Our room was very Germanesque in style with a nice hint of art deco in the decor, we loved it and thought it would definitely be a good place to hide away from the busy streets of Bangkok. We made a few plans for the next few days and caught up on some sleep before heading out to catch up with some friends on Khao San road. Nicola was Helen’s old neighbour in Leicester so it was lovely to finally catch up with her and Matt on their travels across the globe. We were relieved not to be staying in this area as the streets were packed and it’s really hit and miss for the accommodation around there. However we do know there are some good options if you don’t want to travel too far away from the backpackers hub of Bangkok.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 processed in Lightroom 3)

We booked to do a 1 day course at the Chang Siam Elephant Training Mahout School based on a recommendation from one of our friends so we didn’t have too many hang ups about which one we were going to pick. You’ll soon find that in Chiang Mai there is a lot of choice for this type of excursion. We booked through Panda Tours based at 179 Thapae Rd but the school do have an office in Chiang Mai where  you can also book this trip. There were 6 of us on the trip with one tour leader and the elephant trainers who live at the farm who are either part of the family who own the elephants or hired to train them. This isn’t a case of training an elephant to perform tricks, it’s about communicating with them for the purpose of elephant and human being to be able to live and work alongside each other. There are no wild elephants left in the north of Thailand as they were all captured many years ago by native Thai’s who used the elephants for log moving and transportation. We have found out that one elephant costs 1,000,000 Thai Baht which is around £200,000 so they are worth a hell of a lot of money to their owners.

The elephants at this farm range in age between 1-40 years old with a mixture of 9 male and female elephants. We had heard some horror stories about the way elephants are treated in Thailand by their owners and many of these camps offer elephant riding, shows, performances and the like. What we wanted to do was to spend the day with the elephants, learning how to communicate with them through traditional Thai Mahout training, feed them, learn about the way they live in the north and then go on a bare back ride to the water hole where we could wash and bathe them. So this is what we did, whilst we were there we did see fellow tourists riding the elephants on wooden seats, which we’ve heard isn’t very good for the long term quality of life for the elephant, so we were a little disspointed to see this. However everything else lived up to our expectations and from the start we had a really good laugh too.

We learned about the history of these elephants, where they had come from and why the owners had come to have them in their family. We also learned that in order for the elephants and the locals to live peacefully the elephants needed to be kept in farms and in contained areas as otherwise they eat everything they come across which over the years has led to crops being destroyed and elephant poachers getting what they want.

We learned the commands of going forwards, backwards, left, right and the all important stop which in western voice is completely different from the way the Thai’s pronounce it so we think the elephants went along with their trainers commands over ours! We fed them a good amount of bananas as they need to eat around 300 or so pounds of food per day. We went on an hour walk with the elephants and Dave and I shared ours swapping part way through to direct the elephant through the forest. We had some encounters with bushes, dung and steep inclines but it was really good fun along the way. We finished the trek at the water pool where the elephants got straight in and we washed and bathed them aswell as carrying on with a water fight that the trainers started. This was probably the most rewarding part of the day and we got to try out our new underwater Sony DSC-TX5 camera which we hope is going to provide us with another creative element to our blogs in the future.

We paid 1800 Baht each for the day and this included lunch and transport which took about an hour from Chiang Mai heading north. This was the price for sharing an elephant and it cost 2500 Baht to have one to yourself for the day. We were happy to share though. It was a pretty satisfying day, and if you do have any hang ups about going to one of the elephant camps from Chiang Mai it’s worth looking into what they do on their one day itinerary. There are some companies who only have elephants that have been rescued from poachers or farms where they have been mistreated and The Elephant Nature Park is one of these with good reviews.

(Sony DSC-TX5 waterproof camera, processed in Lightroom 3)