Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave.

Just not prepared right this year. The 50D died two days into the season and I've only just heard from the repair company, last years 400D is doing as well as can be expected but that shutter button is not happy....

But I should have had 2 main bodies this year, but didn't. Even an old 40D would be faster and better than the 400D. I'm losing shots with such an old body. Saw the problem last year, planned badly for this year with one body.

What pisses me off is that last year I had 20 batteries for the 400Ds yet I could only find 8 when I left. But I didn't concern myself too much as I thought the 50D would take the bulk of the work - how wrong could I be.

Still though - where the heck are 12 missing batteries?

And today it finally bit me in the arse. On the mountain, 600 shots in and need new batteries. 1 set of charged batteries left that would not see me through the day. So during the mid morning rush I had to get back to the hotel, put 4 batteries on charge (last year I could charge 12 batteries simultaneously - that's how many chargers I brought) and then get back on the pass. When the set in the camera died, it was back to the hotel to pick up the newly charged sets and then back onto the mountain to continue shooting.

What a pain in the arse. Total bad prep. Not enough kit. Hour off the mountain probably cost me 800 shots - which meant _only_ 6,800 for the day. Very frustrated.

But what I think is most getting to me, and will do for the next couple of weeks is being so far from the end of the season and so far from going home. Really not enjoying being away from home this time, but needs must. The mid point for being away from home is in two weeks time. And even then it's not downhill.

I remember last year hitting August 1st and getting in a totally different mood as every day brought me one day closer to home. So far from August 1st right now. By the time I was loading Goat to come home I was practically in party mode. It was carnival time all the way home - even when P&O did rip me off.

Ah well, knuckle down, shoot more. Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave.