Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
I finally got the chance to apply my skillset to life in the countryside during my stay in Suffolk.
Nigel’s owner, Lucinda, and her neighbour Jenny have a company that raises pigs for meat. The day after I arrived they were undertaking a hog roast for a meeting of the local chamber of commerce.
Given the higher profile nature of their clients, they had decided to get some business cards designed and made for distribution at the event. This is where I came in!
I created a number of layouts based on their specifications, adding in a few alternatives with different colour options. Given the timing, the chosen design was simply printed out on a photo-quality printer on some very nice card and then hand trimmed with a guillotine.
I must say that I was also impressed with how well they came out, it was really satisfying to see a physical stack of work that I had created – especially as most of my work is purely digital.
I’ve yet to take some nice images of the cards in order to add them to my portfolio, but I will wait until I have completed the other printed items that I’m working on for them (letterhead, price lists etc).
After spending a little too much time in the local pub that evening, I cycled back up to Jenny’s the following afternoon to create another run of cards and also to get copies of the existing documents that were to be re-styled.
Shortly after sorting this, Jenny’s husband Bruce turned up along with George, Lucinda’s son. With them came the revealing of Bruce’s shotgun, a box of clay pigeons and a few boxes of cartridges. My eyes lit up!
After setting up the trap from which to launch the clays, I observed Bruce taking a few shots and obliterating the clays. He then handed me his shotgun.
Shooting is something that has always interested me but has always been something that I had never been able to pursue. A few shots later, managing to hit a number of clays, I was certain that this would not be the first and last time that I fired a shotgun.
Every aspect of it was fantastic! Feeling the weight of the gun in my hands as I tracked the clays’ flight, the impact of firing the shot, seeing the clay explode and then the smell of the spent cartridge, all added up to leave me absolutely certain that this was indeed something that I will continue to do in the future.
Livi had told me that she would get me a shotgun for my 25th, an offer which put a rather large smile on my face!
I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people for me to get to know thorugh Livi! As well as Bruce, Jenny, Lucinda and Nick I also got the chance to have a conversation with Pete a local gamekeeper. I had followed the New Years day hunt with Pete and had discussed the prospects of me getting into shooting at that time, but this was obviously something that couldn’t be followed up due to my commitments with university.
The offer still seems to be there for me to go and help out on a few shoots with him, allowing me to get into that scene from the ground level. It was good to have Pete’s enthusiasm regarding me shooting – seeing it as the much needed young blood to get involved with the sport in order to continue it through the years.
I plan on treating myself to a shooting lesson at the time when I start to have regular money coming in once again. Although I may use some of the money generated from making websites to pursue this endeavour 
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