What a Day!

The plan was simple, I rise early, around six, breakfast, then find something to take away the taste, do the jogging, push ups and physical exercises, then sit down and write up my dead soldiers.  Dead simple and only one or two small matters otherwise to deal with.  Then as I was fighting my way over Teke Tepe in Gallipoli the news came through of  the changes at the Heart of Midlothian. Now I am in agreement that changes were required, reality must come in but shocked as they say constantly in the media, shocked by the mess made today by the new man Craig Levein.  The more I investigate, the more I listen to those in the know, some even do know, the more worried I become.  It looks bad from here.  The new club required changes and a great push forward, this appears to be more of a cost cutting exercise than anything.  Some glaring spaces can be seen, who will be goalkeeper?  Where are the mature player desperately required? Why is Levein not making clear his part?  How much is he paid in the austerity regime?  Many questions and I do not think the much praised Ann Budge understands the job she is taking on. She certainly does not understand the fans. 

I between bursting into tears over the mess at Tynecastle I managed to finish my report on Serjeant Ambrose, make soup with which to poison myself, and eat badly.  However listening to the reports on the news, reading fawning fans forums, reading despairing fans forums, and wandering the streets attempting to photograph the wonderful display of mixed clouds that passed by today meant that I was unable to start on the next man.  Back to the museum tomorrow, so no writing there as I will be busy with visitors, hopefully!  Ho hum!

Sheila at 'A Postcard a Day' has been kind enough to fix my Google problem. Informing me it happens to be just another Google 'improvement.'  Bah!  Why must these computer geeks change things all the time, improving what need not be improved?  The BBC have done this, Facebook do it, Google also, and Twitter.  Just because it is free, apart from the FBI knowing where I shop and my shirt size, that does not mean it has to be changed unexpectedly and badly, as this has been!  Bah!  At least Sheila's site changes not and is well worth your perusal!  


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Watching Paint Dry.

Yesterday the chill in the air was softened by the blue in the sky.  Daffodils lowered their bright yellow heads in the wind, bright 'cotton wool' clouds scudded by, dogs chased imaginary objects yapping in the park.  I awoke this morning to rain lashing the grubby windows, the huddled masses cowering under hoods, caps and umbrellas as they headed to work and the decision to stay indoors and finish the painting was made for me.  

That was not long after seven of the clock and moving at a fast pace I was up and painting by ten thirty five.  A second coat of cheap white emulsion in the small bathroom, a first coat on the small hall.  The balancing on the three step ladder is improving and I only fell off once.  That wall was getting painted anyway!  The ceiling looks good now even though my sense of direction failed me several times.   Even better it looks good enough not to require a second coat, which is good as there is little paint left.  In the morning all the pictures will be put back on those nails you see sticking out, once the grime is removed from them, and life can return to some sort of normality.  

The normality means returning to building that PC.  Now that most bits are in and connected I have come across yet another problem, the not connected bits, the connected bits that may be connected to wrong bits, and why is there no connector for one or two bits?  All very confusing to my befuddled mind. Now the paint is no longer bespotting my glasses I can spend more time watching how the experts do it.  If they have the same bits I have, naturally.  

      

The clouds returned at several times today.  I ventured out for bread as another dark looming cloud brought spots of rain but it did allow me this shot.  The type of shot we get a lot of at this time of year.  It might yet be a shot of snow tomorrow if my aches allow me out!  

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Tiring Tuesday

Having spent a tiring morning in the museum rushing hither and thither, searching for pictures for one while searching for a card for another, watching the next job(s) piling up on the desk and failing after all this to finish my tea I was glad to escape after lunch for a walk in the sunshine filled park.  Naturally by the time I got there this was the scene.  As I settled in to open the windows and clear the fug that fills the dwelling the rain began teeming down.  The cold attempts to cover my fingers in frostbite, my toes have fallen off inside my socks and the electric people have happily told me they will check my meter, aint that kind of them?

After the day I had, non stop, so busy that I never realised the boiler was off!  Others noticed but I didn't as I was doing all the work.  However.....

Hold on, Liverpool are playing Everton, must dash......

Clouds Intrigue.

I've had my head in the clouds again.  These fluffy clouds racing along several thousand feet high formed an intriguing shape.  Are these Cirrus or Cirrostratus clouds?  The names of clouds are hard enough to pronounce let alone remember!  There were higher clouds which must be Cirrus, so what be these?  A quick read of WikiClouds indicates that the names all have Latin bases, are still difficult to pronounce, and are subdivided into many further classifications.  I am no further forward, but still intrigued.


Source: metoffice.gov.uk

The BBC tell it well I say.  Worth a read. Not that those of you in tropical climes need worry about clouds.


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Typical!

Having watched the sun bringing out the brightness of the Daffodils opposite I left the lair and crossed the park.  Naturally ahead the looming clouds turned deepest black and soon pelted forth the rain.  This led me into several shops to avoid this and as I sauntered back home, behind the passing cloud I was amazed at the formation thereof.  Because of the telephone wires, trees and houses forcing their way into the picture I fail to capture the extent of the range of cloud above.

The world continues as always.  MP's are back to backstabbing, the Boston Bomber is found on several pictures (in which he is different in each), a huge Fertiliser factory explodes in Texas, that of course was the material in many of the IRA bombs, and every day crime, trauma, and half truths fill the media.  Read any newspaper from 50, 100 or any time before this and the stories stay the same, only the style varies.  Life does not change much.  What is has been and what was will be again as they say.

Just like the clouds I suppose....

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August Bank Holiday

Rain!

More Rain

And MORE to come!

Summer?  Bah!

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Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud.

Typical UK summer.  The sun shines brightly, the sky is blue, and a chilly wind blows the big gray clouds in front of the sun and continues right up your trouser leg.  So it was today as I rested from my paperwork trials.  I have three lots of paperwork to deal with.  Each needs info from the other, half the info is not available, none of it is easy for my wee mind to follow.  Financial stuff goes over my head, counting my change is OK, but beyond that I struggle and today my mind has been wearied much.  I managed to get two important, but incomplete, excuses into the post this afternoon, the third one is just beyond me.  Hard work in the morning for me.  

I may put the horrid word verification back on for a while.  This morning I had 19 calls from Mr Anonymous waiting for me as I looked up the email.  Several more came during the day.  His broken English was added to by broken German at one point!  If he keeps this up I might go round to Peking or Vladivostok or wherever and break something he possesses!  I also had an offer from someone attempting to get another $20 million out of their country, probably our Chancellor George Osborne.  I ignored him.

I'm off to look for a calculator.....

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Clouds

Today the sun returned to greet us and pretend it was the month of May.  In spite of the snow falling in the Grampians we found large areas of blue showing between the clouds.   Such a change after days of gray fluff hanging above us and happily drenching the unwary with sudden downpours.  Today I sat and watched the vast clouds in the distance.  As I have said before having spent so many years in concrete London where the sky is seen only by looking straight up I still find pleasure in watching the clouds in a blue sky.  Today their movement was hastened by a brisk wind.  Chasing my cap assured me how brisk this was!  So I sat and watched the cloud formations in the distance and marvelled at the sheer size of the things.  Climbing thousands of feet into the air and often stretching for miles, continent wide on occasion.

When I first came out here I realised why John Constable spent so much time painting clouds.  He  dwelt, in some comfort I should say, about thirty minutes drive for here, well thirty minutes if you drove like my driver did that time.  'Scuse me while I breathe deeply for a moment.  He (Constable) spent much time sketching and painting clouds.  Possibly he wondered what created them and blamed the industrial revolution for polluting the planet and creating global warming, possibly not.  Possibly he just painted and got on with his work.   

Why I wonder are they so flat at the bottom but not in the middle?  Could this be to let planes take off without hitting them, as some of us once loudly told one another while watching planes depart at Gatwick. "It's so the planes don't get scratched," we said, much to the irritation of anoraks listening in to pilots radio messages on their handsets.  Apart from the Daily Mail' who regularly post pictures of clouds that look like the UK, or a giraffe or Jesus, it is possible to become entranced by the shape of clouds.  Wind currents play about with them sometimes making intriguing patterns.  There again, maybe I have just spent far too much time indoors this week....?

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The Early (ish) Bird....

Spotted this pigeon earlier today as the sun was attempting to push through the dank Spring cloud cover.  It shoved its way past the cumulus now and then to the delight of those walking the dogs. Actually this chap was walking the dog, the other two broke away full of high spirits from a chap who daily passes by with seven dogs.  Usually the tails are wagging and the smiles are evident as the beasts thoroughly enjoy their trail, noses twitching, through the park.  He was somewhat loud in his rebuke as these two unwillingly returned, tails between their legs, after him yelling at them to "Stay," "Come here," and "Come back here," each time louder and more gruff than before.  I have never seen them do that before, possibly just high spirits and a female dog in sight.   

Recent days have been a bovver.  The PC smoking has ruined my life.  This laptop is slow, so veeeeerrrrrry slow, and it keeps doing things it ought not do!  Using this daft 'Touch Pad' causes trouble. The curser takes on a mind of its own, it races up and down unbidden, the pages change of their own accord, pictures disappear and the browser separates into differing browsers by itself!  I slammed it shut the other night as it was taking hours to change and I was most indignant with it.  I yelled at the world, got no reply, but yelled anyway.  The yelling began all over again when I went downstairs yesterday morning and discovered ANOTHER puncture in the rear tyre.  It had appeared OK when I got home yet here it was flat as my singing voice. It's a disgrace the way I am treated by technology!  And 'tyre' is spelled 'tyre,' not 'tire.'  Will someone tell this dumb American spellchecker! Don't they have schools in the US?

Sporting Life

Life did improve during lunch time however.  The Heart of Midlothian, Edinburgh's finest and Scotia's Darling's, once more walked, at half pace, all over the wee team from Leith, Hibernian.  This time we merely scored two goals to their nil, but we don't need to do much to prove our superiority over them again do we?  I wish them well in their fight against relegation to the lower division.  Maybe Rangers liquidation will secure their place for another season?   The marvelous Craig Beattie (pictured) scored the first goal from 'Man of the Match' Ian Black's wonderful pass.  Suso Santana rubbed salt into Hibernian's wound (snigger) with an even better goal in the last minute.  What fun!


A few hours later and more good news as the other half of the evil empire called the Old Firm (That's Rangers and Celtic to you) were defeated by Kilmarnock in the League Cup Final by one goal to nil.  A deserved victory for a team supposed to crumble in such an atmosphere.  Sadly the joy felt by Killie was ruined when the father of Laim kelly, a Kilmarnock player, suffered a heart attack at the end of the game. This follows on from the incident at the Tottenham Hotspurs v Bolton Wanderers game yesterday when a Bolton player, Fabrice Muamba, suffered a Heart attack on the pitch during the game.  The shock of his collapse causing  the match to be abandoned.  Both men appear to be in a critical condition. 
 Football knows its place at such times.

The afternoon saw the clearing of the skies later in the day, an end to the rain that had washed the pigeon off the lamppost, and left behind the first decent sunset for some time.  How nice to watch the sun descend slowly and brightly, causing alarms to go off all over the antipodes shortly afterwards, and leave us one of those wonderful skies.  Good morning Australia!

I hope this week brings good things, and no cardiac arrests, to one and all.

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Summer Afternoon Sky

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I noticed these interesting rib like shapes in the clouds as I tramped back from the market with my shop soiled, reduced price bananas this afternoon.  I am not sure if the warmth in the air was because the clouds keep the heat trapped in or because the sun is attempting to break through them and impersonate summer!
I neither knew nor cared. I was really just looking for some sort of picture, for without one snap there is something missing in my life these days. A PC and a digital camera, How did we live before these things were discovered?  Cyrus may have built a large empire, however he could never photograph anything as he did not have the technology, and he was called 'Great!'  Many powerful men have lived on this earth, but we can take pictures and manipulate them on the PC, they couldn't!  Pah!  Who needs an empire anyway?


And now for some dodgy theology but lovely music. 


                           



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Strange Friday

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After I left the dole office today I wandered through the sun drenched streets watching the half naked women and found a park bench on which I could sit and gaze at the clouds above. As you know since coming here I have become fascinated by these clouds and today was no different.  Huge puffy clouds rolled slowly along, reaching thousands of feet into the air one minute and the next stretching for several miles in length, amazing to watch. Higher still were other clouds streaking the sky and while thin stretched for ever casting a thin veil over the blue above. The shade as a large, somewhat mucky, cloud moved in between the sun and the ground led to a drop in temperature that some regard as 'fresh!  I have my own word for this!  Truly I was made to slumber in a Mediterranean white walled town, not Essex! A strange day, my mind still suffers a kind of dreich emptiness, not helped by the lass in the dole yesterday and having to go there again today (another new idea from Ian Duncan Smith for me to try now) but at least the fellow was a good man, like most there are. In spite of sleeping, eating and faffing around I still retain a mind as sharp and active as a member of the 'Tea Party. Now that is sad.

 Had I not been a human being (who sniggered?) I might have had a good time as a cat. What can be better than to be an independent creature, capable of living of the land and indeed everybody else, finding a home to go to anywhere in the world, and yet be mastered by none? Dumb people, usually men, find themselves a big dog and take it for walks in a vain attempt to fool the world into thinking they are strong.  In fact they are as dumb as the dog which considers chasing a stick to be entertaining.  Mind you in comparison to Saturday night television.....

Cats on the other hand live with you, if you behave, if you are a failure they leave and find a better home elsewhere. The dog, like the man, sits there awaiting instruction. (That is why wives were invented) This cat pictured appears to find the company of a posse of horses, in spite of the smell that filled the field that morning, quite appealing. There is nothing to bother the cat, nothing to eat (farmer Jones breakfast probably went down this cats throat about six O' clock that morning, and now he sits dominating the world while the horses live of grass!  I suspect that soon after this he retired for a snooze (male cats require about fourteen hours a day) and then ate someone's lunch! That's the life for me, and no stick chasing either!

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Wednesday

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Bright sunshine, blue sky and warm air forced me outside today. I actually drew back the old sacks that form curtains over the window and opened the window to let some cold air in and discovered it was almost bearable! After visiting the market, collecting fallen veg from behind the stalls, I strolled through town, avoiding those charity collectors, and wandered home via the park. The bright blue sky, the puffy clouds, the greenery all around refresh the mind and made me believe it was summer again. The holes in my shoes indicated different.  

  


Since moving here from London I instantly realised why John Constable was so impressed by clouds. They are everywhere! In such a flat land as this, with its gentle rolling hills (unless you are cycling of course) ahead of you towers the sky and the cloud formations contained therein! Admittedly Constable did not have passing jets heading for Germany or Hong Kong leaving trails in the sky to confuse him, but he was able to study clouds because there are so many around here!  These things fill the eye as I cross the park, and lead me into walking into benches and irate young mum's prams. I find them fascinating, although not as the 'Daily Mail' appears to do. Most days they feature a picture of a cloud that looks like the UK, or Jesus, or a bag of chips! I suppose I like them as having been brought up in Edinburgh I have only ever seen dirty big gray ones until now!


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Saturday

Spring skies bring some opportunities for photographs. The fast flowing cloud cover changed constantly today giving sunshine and what the weather girls always regards as 'showers.' I tend to call it 'heavy rain.' After the 'shower' had passed and people emerged from shelter I wandered across the park and caught this ray of light piercing the cloud. I hesitated in taking the picture and missed it at its best! Isn't that always the way? However I am happy to take any picture these days, I take too few and find others,who shall not be named such as 'A,' and 'A's' picture blog, make me want to rush out and snap away. Mike in Thailand does not help either! Humph!