Everything is in a bit of a rush today because Donna and I are off in Aldershot tonight for the first of the Army's "Military Book of the Year" talks. Tonight it is by the author of a book on the Chindits and their role in Burma in World War Two and there will be a guest appearance and a chance to talk to one of the surviving Chindits. I don't want to miss this opportunity so we will be off up to Aldershot tonight. I will write and tell all tomorrow (and I haven't forgotten that it is the turn of the letters "D" and "Q" either!). See you tomorrow.
![]() Chilly chillies. Click to enlarge I had cause to go into Horsham today to visit one of the High Street banks. Rather than pay for an hour of rip off car parking charges (shortly to be increased once again), I elected to go for the less expensive but more rip off charges for just thirty minutes betting on the fact that I could get in and out and transact my business in that short a time. As it was, I managed to do everything in less than ten minutes so to kill a bit of time I decided to visit the Oxfam charity shop to see if any new books had come in since the weekend. I didn't quite make it across the threshold because I held the door open for a little old lady so that she could exit and I realised that I knew this particular dear old lady. Donna and I had only seen her once since her husband died three years back and the last news we had heard from her was a brief note telling us that she had moved into a care home but she left no forwarding address. Anyway, it was lovely to see her again and we had a chat for a couple of minutes to pass old times before I offered her a lift back to her care home which she gratefully accepted. On the trip back she apologized for not letting us know her whereabouts but she told me a horrific tale of her son-in-law. I had met the chap once before and he seemed like a pleasant enough guy which is what everyone thought. That is until the day when the police turned up on his doorstep with a warrant for his arrest on charges of having unpleasant pictures and videos of young girls on his computer. That is when the bottom dropped out of a lot of people's world. The two sons of the marriage were both OK as they were over the age of majority but the little girl wasn't and was instantly taken into care to protect her from a potentially abusive father. Then the divorce started and then the unpleasantness started and our poor, dear old lady friend was caught up right in the middle of it all, providing moral and financial support. Not the sort of thing that you want to have happen in the Autumn years of your life. We drove slowly back to the home so that she could give me all the details and we parted on the doorstep. Thus are the problems of life but it isn't pleasant when it happens inside your family. That sort of thing happens to others and I feel sorry for the poor dear. I have made a mental note of the address so that we can at least send her a birthday and Christmas card and the occasional postcard too. I feel that it is the least I can do. Now here is something to cheer you up. It is a corking little animation that had me guffawing with laughter in places. "The Jockstrap Raiders" The Jockstrap Raiders from Mark Nelson on Vimeo. ![]() A passing shower. Click to enlarge. Today was one of those days when I almost made mistakes. I almost forgot to tell Donna something of great importance on the way into Horsham first thing this morning. In the end I remembered what it was and told her. It means that we have to talk about something tonight but that's neither here nor there. If I had forgotten then things would have been quite drastic. Then I made a decision that I had been toying with. I thought about taking my expensive zoom lens back to Park Cameras and either selling it back to them or part exchanging it for something else because I just don't use it enough. I mentioned this to Donna in passing and she convinced me not to do it. Bless her cotton socks, she is right as per usual, so I didn't. Of course after these "almost mistakes" there came the real one. That was when I had this brilliant idea for a photograph. It took quite some setting up and because I timed the shot so I had about twenty five seconds to get into the bath, turn the shower on and pose before the shutter opened I rushed it a bit and ended up with a gallon of cold water pouring down the back of my jeans (where I have lost all this weight recently) and straight down the old plumber's cleavage. Do you know just how hard it is to smile when one is soggier in the botty region than one has probably been since one was in nappies? I didn't think so somehow. The afternoon has been one of odds and ends and a nice brisk walk around Nymans for some fresh air and exercise. With all of the cold and grey weather it was particularly uninspiring but I managed to put in a couple of brisk miles in a couple of turns around the garden and gave two old ladies a jolly good laugh with my silly, brightly coloured hat so it wasn't all wasted. Now I just have to wait for Donna to return from her trip up country before we can eat. This video is all about children, name calling and bullying. It is quite harrowing but oh-so-true and I can relate to a lot of it. ![]() Calamity outcome - one dead filter. Bad news, it's Monday again. The good news for the day was that resetting the electrics worked yesterday and this morning there was a strong smell of hot storage heater and a modicum of heat in the sitting room - both to be expected; the smell because the instructions said there would be an aroma for a few days and the modicum of heat because it will take a couple of nights recharging to make sure the bricks inside are warmed through sufficiently and also for the heat to percolate into the walls of the room. I am not expecting snuggly warm temperatures for several days. The calamities began shortly after returning from taking Donna to the station. I returned home to find that one of the cats (undetermined as to which one) had decided to scoff as much of everyone's breakfast as possible and then to bring it all back over the cats room rug. So that was a swift clean up, rug into the washing machine and fresh breakfast all round. The next calamity happened when I was trying to work out a photographic shot. I was in that most expensive of studios, the downstairs bathroom, setting up a scenario and finding out that (as per usual) I hadn't enough hands and that I had forgotten some information about my flashgun settings when my tripod toppled forward and smashed the front of the fitted camera lens hard against a protruding tap. I didn't have to look because the cracking noise gave it away; the filter had been shattered very neatly (see the picture above). I swore vehemently but then this is exactly the reason that I have a filter on the front of my lenses. I know that it can degrade photographic quality a little but it does mean that I only broke twenty four pounds of goods rather than the six hundred pounds worth of lens it was attached to. At least it gave me the shot for the day - as I put the broken filter down and went to order a new one from Amazon, I noticed that the plastic cover on my graphics tablet was showing some nice refracted light (like diesel oil on water). Pausing only to put my polarizing filter onto the now naked lens, I twiddled the dial and the colours fair popped out at me. So out of a calamity I found a suitable photograph for my project. That's about as interesting as it doesn't get, I'm afraid. I trust that your day hasn't been too hectic? Here's a little animation called "Overcast" to brighten your day. Overcast from James Lancett on Vimeo. ![]() Chopped pepper. Click to enlarge Where shall we begin? Oh yes. The new storage heater. You can imagine my horror to find that the new storage heater didn't fire up last night. "What have I done wrong?" sorts of questions went through my mind. I checked over everything and came to the rather nasty thought that there was a deficiency in the supply. So I went and checked the electrics out from the meter inwards. That is when I found what is probably the answer and could possibly have saved us a few hundred pounds in new storage heater. The electrician who did the work for us a month or so ago (when the old heater stopped working) had flicked a switch on an old fusebox but neglected to switch it back. A quick look at the fusebox showed the economy seven cable going in one side and coming out of the other, so I am hoping that where I have flicked the switch and made the system "live" once more that we will have heat in the sitting room tomorrow. I wish I could have found that switch before we laid out money on the new heater and got rid of the old, perfectly working, one. Still, the new heater should be more efficient and it certainly takes up a lot less space. It was a fasting day today and boy have I felt the cold because of it! (less calories equals less energy to burn for body heat). I made up for it by having a brisk walk in Nymans woods - that soon got the blood pumping and the fingers tingling. Thankfully where it hasn't rained for a few days, the ground is starting to dry out a bit. Also, where it was quite frosty over the back of the gardens, in the woods, the ground had hardened somewhat so it made walking easier and a lot less muddy. Coming home again, it was time to answer emails and to try and find a photograph for today. I find that the best recipe for doing this is to have a snooze. With a DVD playing in the background, I dropped off very swiftly and woke about an hour later with absolutely no ideas at all. I have a lot of themes sketched down and ready but some of these are going to take a long time ot set up. Then I remembered the peppers that are going to be part of our meal tonight and decided that one of them would make a good subject. I sliced it in Photoshop to make it look different. So, pork meatballs in a spicy tomato and vegetable sauce with brown rice is what is on the menu tonight and I had better get cracking soon or we are going to be more than peckish! Have a wonderful week. I don't know why this appealed to me but it did. It is called "Fat" Fat from The Fat Team on Vimeo. ![]() It's an 'at rack! Click to enlarge. I know that I shouldn't knock things British but it does make me so cross when something that could be so simple has been made more awkward than it should be. Apart from a trip around town this morning and a fine haul of second hand books, I have been up to my eyeballs in installing the new electric storage heater today. We didn't invest in the cheapest heater out there, we went for a Dimplex - a good British household name. This afternoon, I set to to unpack, read the installation instructions and then get cracking. Yes, it was awkward in that the heater has to rest on a solid floor so I had to cut carpet and underlay plus take away some of the gripper rods but I didn't expect to have to remove some of the skirting boards as well. Never mind, I wanted to do the job as per specification so all of these things had to be done. Finally it was time to actually start attaching the heater to the wall and then to start the building of it. That is when I found the "exacting standards" to which it had been made. slightly mis-drilled holes, bent metal flanges, cheap screws. It was also a designers nightmare. I will give you a small for instance; there were two screws on the base of the unit that had to be loosened "by one or two turns" before putting the heater on its feet. This I did. Later on in the process, the instructions told me to remove these screws fully but where I had loosened them by just the required amount, I was unable to remove them by hand and the screws were now so close to the floor that getting a screwdriver to them was impossible. In the end I got an adjustable wrench on them and finished unscrewing them that way. Why, oh why could these screws not have been placed on the sides where they would have been easy to access? Or why could they not have been wing-nuts? The whole job was full of these little niggles but that's OK because in true British fashion, Dimplex have been making these storage heaters for years and they aren't about to change the design for anyone. I like to buy British but there are times when I think that when it comes it engineering, the Japanese and the Germans are laughing up their sleeves at us. Anyway, hopefully by tomorrow the heater will have charged up overnight and things will be warming up again. I have recently come across Igor Presnyakov on YouTube. He's a very competent guitar player and does a lot of cover versions of old but gold hits. ![]() Click to enlarge. Just what do you do when you have a fit of the glums? I just couldn't cheer up today. I couldn't get my mind into photographic mode apart from producing the monstrosity to the left here. I think that it was just tha fact that it is February, the skies are grey, it's cold and it ahs been trying to snow all day. So I just sat around feeling sorry for myself and waiting for the replacement storage heater to be delivered. Well, the old one is twenty plus years old and has done sterling service but it died a short while ago and needed to be replaced. Anyway, for once I didn't have to wait right until the end of the day for it to be delivered so I set about dismantling the old one and taking it to the tip. Talk about a kerfuffle! dozens of tiney screw holding massive amounts of metal together then it was coated in fibreglass / rockwool and then the bricks and heating elements were inside that. I had often wondered what one of the knobs on the front of the device did and once I took the top off the heater I found out. Nothing. It wasn't attached to anything. I know that it has been repaired in the past because most of the screws had no heads left to them, making it difficult to remove them. Still, the job is almost done now, the metal has gone for scrap, the fibreglass / rockwool has gone to landfill and the bricks will form the basis of a path to be built alongside one of our sheds. What with the hard work this afternoon and going shopping for food with Donna, I no longer have a fit of the miseries. I am now feeling very chipper, helped immensely by having one of my photographs put into the "Top Twenty" for this week. Right! It is time for a beer, to have some prawns with ffoulkes and then it is Chinese meal night! See you all tomorrow. Have you ever wondered where a lot of the world's waste plastic items end up? Tonight's video is rather heartbreaking but everyone should see it. It tells a graphic story of the plight of albatrosses on Midway island. Everyone should watch it and pass it on to everyone else. "It's so funny, how we don't talk anymore" warbled the ageing, Christian rock and pop star, Sir Cliff Richard, some years ago. How right he was, and still is, as well. I had the chance to meet up with HH today for a casual stroll around Nymans Gardens (WOW! Was it chilly in that biting breeze) and to have a couple of cups of coffee (WOW! Was it noisy with all of the shrieking half-term holiday children and their nattering mothers in the restaurant) but we managed all the same even if cold weather and lots of coffee (albeit decaffeinated) are a recipe for rapidly filling bladders. As part of the conversation we managed to have in between screaming children and their ineffectual parents trying to keep some control (no madam, I didn't need you to lift your baby and loudly announce "you are a bit damp" whilst a huge wet patch appeared around the side of an ill fitting nappy) HH asked me a very forthright question. "Why don't people telephone and talk any more?" It made me sit and think for a bit and then we discussed options. People email a lot more than they did but this isn't that true... people don't email as much as they used to. Well, they send text messages a lot. This isn't that true either but is getting closer to the nub of the matter. People use Instant Messaging... Hmmm... perhaps. People will always use whatever is the easiest way to impart information in as little time and space as possible. Look at Twitter - "Tweets" should be no more than one hundred and forty characters. Facebook allows people to put out status messages of such import as "had lunch with Freda. Black pudding in chocolate. Yum!" and that is when the real answer hit me straight between the eyes. People don't talk any more because their lives are so incredibly boring that they really don't have anything to say. At least that is my theory and I am going to stick to it. They get up, pick up their mobile phones and have deep meaningful conversations with lots of "Yeah!" and "I was like 'what is that all about?'" along with other trash trivia and utter bollocks (to put not too fine a point on it). The art of conversation is dying. I am not a great proponent of stunning conversation but I like to think that I have something useful to throw into the pot whenever a decent conversation starts. I find it sad that youngsters can use all of their vocabulary in one ten word sentence these days. Alas I think that HH had it right when she said "I suppose that when the telephone came into regular use, people would say 'Why do people not write me letters any more?'". Alas that is where the conversation had to end and not because of a lack of things to say, more because they were shutting up shop in the restaurant. Warble on Sir Cliff, at least we can listen to you and you don't send out text messages saying "We dnt tlk NE more". You are in for a treat here. One of my photographs for the 365project challenge raised a couple of questions as to how I created it so I did a swift video tutorial (after sorting out my software problems of yesterday) and posted it as today's entry to the challenge. Here it is in all of its glory. ![]() "Evolution". Click to enlarge. Apologies for the lack of an entry for Wednesday but I had rather an important piece of software collpase in a snivelling heap on me. I paid quite a bit of money to get the lateest version of this screen recording software and after the last upgrade I found that it didn't work. Naturally, being a premium paying customer, I went straight to their customer support eople who advised me to uninstall and reintall the software. Now those of you who have been given this advice before realise that it is a sop to actually doing the problem solving and is about as useful as emptying the ashtrays and slamming all the doors in your car when it has broken down rather than getting on with the job and fixing it. So I spent quite some time last night uninstalling and re-installing the software and eventually had to give in die to the lack of time for sleeping. I still didn't get it to work either so you dipped out on a blog entry and I dipped out on getting my software back up to scratch and getting extra sleep. Sorry about that folks. I will try to make it up to you sometime. ![]() Salt and Pepper. Click to enlarge There! That fooled you! I moved the picture to the other side of the page. Right! Just so that you know, nothing much has happened today so let me tell you about the other people on my 365project challenge. First of all there are lots of them (they number in their thousands) but I only know about five hundred people of whom I contact to discuss their photographs (and they, mine) on a regular basis. Out of those people I have got to know a lot very well and I know of their families, what they are up to (are they moving house, changing the kids schools etc). There are a lot of very eccentric people out there too. What surprises me is the amount of bad luck and misfortune that befalls a lot of these people. There have already been a number of deaths of relatives, hospitalisations of children, accidents and whatever. This usually is greeted with a wave of sympathy for those involved but it doesn't seem to affect their photography for more than a couple of days. I suppose that this is tempered by the number of births. So it would seem, in conclusion, that photographers are accident prone, creative and tragic eccentrics who are very fertile! I can't lay claim to being anything more than eccentric these days thankfully and that part of me that is creative has been spurred on by what I am currently reading or watching. If any of you have seen Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" then you can imagine what the inside of my brain feels like at two in the morning when another idea bursts out of nowhere, shows itself off and then hides in a corner, hoping that I won't remember it the next day. Right. That's it... another short entry. Here's a video and a half for you. Just how talented is this Hugh Laurie chap? Well, watch, listen and find out. ![]() Day 50. A definite pun. The taxman... do you remember last week that I got a letter from the taxman and I had to phone him up to get some changes made to my tax code for the coming year? Well, once I had explained my predicament to HMRC, I didn't expect the wheels of state taxation to move so quickly but there, in the letter box this morning, was a new letter form the taxman with the change to my tax code. The only problem is that it wasn't the tax code that we had discussed over the phone last week. Granted it is wrong in my favour this time and there is no chance with my pitiful little pension that I will get taxed at all but it is wrong still. What is doubly worse is that they have calculated it on an incorrect starting tax code. Not the 375L code they told me about last week or the 875L code that I had last year but some strange man-in-the-middle 574L code. I didn't have the heart to call them again, nor did I have the fortitude or the sheer stamina to go through the menu system again. What I shall do is leave it until I get another job or whatever and then tell them what has happened and they can calculate it all over again. They will probably get it all wrong even so and I can see me getting a letter later on this year demanding a tax payment which I won't have paid them because I don't earn enough to pay them in the first place. Why does the tax office have to be like this? Why am I responsible for making sure that their calculations are correct? They are the people who set the taxes, all I should have to do is to make sure that I pay it. Shouldn't they get it right in the first place or are the austerity cuts hitting harder than I thought Can't they afford computers, calculators or even good old fashioned bits of paper and a pencil any more? Enough moaning. I am going to go and put dinner in the oven and get myself a beer. I feel that I have deserved it. Have some incredibly cute animals to end the day with. Not a great deal to say today. We took a walk up to Chanctonbury Ring this morning and enjoyed the best weather that we have seen in this neck of the woods for many a month. It was warm enough for me to wander around in rolled up shirt sleeves. We took a brisk walk for a few miles, I took a few photographs and we were thoroughly entranced by a raptor who flew very close to us to snatch up a worm (of all things). On the way down from the Ring we bumped into a lovely lady with her three dogs and we had a nice conversation all the way down. I get the feeling that she was sizing us up for an adoption because she worked for a local dog charity. Following our little sojourn to Chanctonbury, we made our way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Warminghurst, an unused but still consecrated church that we had read of in a local magazine. It was a smashing little place and we were lucky enough to find, and photograph, a mass dial for my father. Apart from that? Not a lot else has happened today. Enjoy your evening.
![]() Click to enlarge. There are a lot of high street shops that are going down the pan at the moment including some of the biggest names. Some of the smaller ones too. So there I was awandering around Horsham when I came across this little dress shop. I don't know how they stay alive because there never seems to be anyone in there and more often than not, it just isn't open - hardly a recipe for good business. I was after a photograph for my 365 day challenge when this opportunity called. I stepped into a small porchway to prepare myself. Ahem... I am not really given to looking at young ladies... chests... but I saw this magnificent pair... of mannequins and liked the colours of the party frocks. This shop in Horsham seems to be perpetually on the verge of going under so I thought "Why not grab a couple of shots?" I was somewhat hampered by the lighting, the fact that there was a bit of glare on the window (which my handy, dandy polarizing filter mostly took care of) and that as soon as I get my camera out these days, the hoi-poloi decide that I need the pleasure of their company with their stinky burger in one hand and their cigarettes in the other, asking asinine questions while I am trying hard to be inconspicuous and trying to concentrate on camera settings. "Yes, I am taking photographs and I am sure that your uncle Fred has got a camera that can do ten times the number of things my camera does..." Still, I managed to squeeze off a couple of shots (ooh - I could have worded that better, couldn't I?) and went on my merry way. I'm not sure that the focus is up to what it should be - that would be the result of a greasy burger being forced into my earhole - most off putting!Hopefully tomorrow won't be quite so bad because I will be shooting indoors. If Donna comes in with a burger (an unlikely occurrence!) then I will make a run for it! Now here's a video that will scare the life out of cat owners. This is how a particular cat announces that it wants to be let in. DO NOT SHOW YOUR CAT THIS! I'm always in a rush these days. Today's picture was taken in Horsham at six o'clock this morning. It was taken in New street and I promise with my hand on my heart that I haven't enhanced the light at all (just the window frame). It really is this blue in real life. I have asked the owner of the business (via email) if there is any reason for it and I don't know if there will be an answer or not. If you click on the link then do check out his apprentices. I think you will find them both charming. Bearing in mind that it is just over two years since one of my favourite guitarists, Gary Moore, died I have dedicated this picture to him and have put up this wonderful song and video once again. I still have the blues for you. ...Fiats are too! Today is St Valentine's Day and I hope that you all got something nice to celebrate the day with. I certainly did. Donna bought me a card and the latest book by Joe Abercrombie, one of my favourite authors of the moment. Apart from all of the slush that surrounds Valentines day and all the marketing hype, shops full of stuff that no-one wants, young ladies hanging onto their boyfriends arm and dragging them past jewellers windows hoping that the sparkly rings and an engagement can be obtained, it has been an unremarkable day. Needless to say many of my photographic colleagues have been pouring out pictures of roses and hearts but one or two haven't. I chose to talk of my love affair with my little red Fiat (picture above). Another chap had a rather nice picture of slices of tomato (love apples as they used to be known) lit from beneath. I think it all depended on how people feel about the day itself. Is it meant for love or is it just another opportunity for gifts? One colleague put it rather nicely "i reckon you should show your love everyday not just on one that usually requires you to spend lotsa money." Her partner treated her to a bow so that they can take up archery together. Now that sounds eminently sensible to me. So, today's is a swift entry. I love you all, not just today. Have a great evening.
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May 2015
AuthorPaul Everest - Shining wit (at least that is what I think they said) |