I've just come back from my Honeymoon in Mauritius!

I had a wonderful time - the island is beautiful and the people are very friendly. It's such a shame to back in a cold and wet UK!

I had to tread the fine line between a honeymoon and a photography holiday! I don't think my new wife would have been to impressed if I spent the majority of the time taking photographs :)

I took with me my newly bought Archos Gmini 220 for photo backup. My other kit comprised: EOS 10D, EOS 300 (film camera). Disposable waterproof camera, Sigma 15-30mm EX DG, Canon 28-80mm, Canon 50mm 1.8, Sigma 70-300mm DL Macro Super (mark 1), Velbon monopod and Manfrotto 190pro tripod..........All packed in my trusty Lowepro Mini Trekker (apart from my tripod)......Phew!

I had a few bits of bad luck though!

My lovely new wife managed to drop the Gmini on our first day.........AAAAAAAAAAAARRGH! It landed on one of it's rubber corners and came to a rest on it's back. The floor it landed on was solid tiles :(

I wanted to scream but just about held it together and switched on the Gmini to see whether it was broken. It turned on with no problems and seemed to work OK. For the whole honemoon I was convinced it would pack up on me. It didn't and I backed up around 1500 RAW files.

One of my flash cards disagreed with the Gmini however - it transfered the images 20 slower than the other cards and mage the screen flash and then crashed the device. I decided to keep that card away from the Gmini after that. My other cards were fine with it though.

I've now transfered the images to my PC and to my horror about 100 of the images are corrupted :( Seems that the drop on the floor did have an effect after all. I've since tested it and everytime I back up a card to it some of the images are always corrupted.

On the day we left for the honemoon I also noticed to my horror that my Sigma 15-30 lens was damaged! There is a crack in the body of the lens right on the bit near the lens mount and the AF switch. There is play in the lens mount glass as a result and the resulting images now I'm back are blurry from that lens. I only bought it last month too..... I've never dropped it so it must be a problem with manufacture.

Here's the best bit.....

I checked my tripod onto the plane rather than the security implications of having it attached to my Mini-Trekker carry on luggage. When I arrived at the airport back in the UK after a gruelling 12 hour flight, we were so tired that we forgot to pick up the tripod!

It was London's Heathrow airport and it seems that neither British Airways nor Heathrow have any procedure for items left on the luggage carousel!! I spent 3 hours on the phone to Heathrow and British Airways with each party saying the responsibility is with the other. No-one can tell me where my tripod is - it's as if it's the first time anyone has ever left luggage behind on the carousel - maybe it is?!

Looks like I'll have to write to BA and Heathrow but other than that looks like I've lost it :(

I've got lots of photo processing to do, so here's a taster and hopefully I can get back to PADing again soon!