Drink, Preach, Sun.

I awoke before six this morning.  I usually do when totally knackered.  It was not possible to sleep, I had little interest in the 15 minute 'Farming Today' sexist programme.  Edited and presented by females each time yet all the farmers who do the work and male, typical BBC.  This did not interest me, neither did 5Live's giggling girly presenter nor the male who found her hilarious.  Radio 3 offered opera, TalkSport offered mindlessness constantly interrupted by lengthy adverts all in a fake Lahnden accent aimed at white van drivers in the south east.  I rose, knees unhappy, and struggled through to the east wing.  Stirring up the dust on the floor, I really must hoover soon, I found the kettle and attempted to make coffee but unthinkingly made tea anyway.  Here I noticed the French Brandy bottle on the shelf, I was sure it was half full when I came in yesterday.  
The day has been spent unsuccessfully sending mums the pics I took of their darlings.  Unsuccessful in that some have said 'This is not mine!'  Others have not replied and one has sent her pics to my boss, my boss is now under the channel tunnel on her way to a month off!  (She has become 40 and feels old, pah!).  My brain is so tired I am leaving it to congeal until things sort themselves out.  Maybe I ought to just finish the bottle.  I dare not ask how the rest are doing.

Update, by six this evening I think I have sent the photos I took to the appropriate mums. I await complaints... 

A man was arrested for preaching outside St Paul's.  Cathedral staff apparently complained about him reading from the bible.  He has a loud voice and upset the 'peace' of the cathedral.  This is not the first time this has happened and a policeman did indicate it would be ''remiss' to move him on from a place of worship.'  The cathedral now allows him to speak for 30 minutes at a time.  How nice of the.  Possibly they could read, preach and offer the bible themselves rather than be a tourist attraction.
Personally a quick look at most cathedrals shows many to be very far from God and possibly allowing the National Trust to take over those that are failing would be one way of saving the CoE a vast fortune.  Some of course are Christian based but not all and it is easy to tell the difference simply by looking at the bookshelves to see what they sell.  A great many were begun during Norman times less for the glory of God and much more for the indication that the Normans were in charge!  While these are tremendous buildings to visit proper churches are usually small with less than 200 members.  There again how many actually attend Sunday services at such places apart from tourists trying to avoid the entrance fee? 

A cheery face has just informed us that the heat will remain and Friday possibly will reach 36% in East Anglia, which is this region.  I suspect I will not be going anywhere soon.  It may also lead to thunderstorms, lightning and pouring rain, which will run off rather than soak into the ground.  So while being burnt to a crisp we will be cooled down by monsoon like raindrops.  I am looking forward to visiting Tesco....
However the sun has been too hot too long, global warming is a problem the rich money grabbers deny while slapping factor 50 sun cream over their inflated bodies while on their yachts.  We will see much more of these weather changes over the next few years.  While I like some warmth I think 70-75% is good enough and a room touching 88% is not a happy place to be.  The daft folks sitting in the sun will be crowding the doctor and chemists for weeks to come.  The little sun I have seen has left me scratching the itch and possessing a reddening nose.  Not bad maybe but we need a cool breeze now.  There again I did a washing the other day and all was dry by evening.  

  

Old Photos

Stupidity runs in our family.  I fear for my idiot nephew if he has inherited the genes that have caused s much distress in this world.  I mean I sat for some time tonight fretting that I could not get BBC Scotland to work properly on my laptop.  There are two options and neither worked.  It took me some time to realise that what I was looking for was not taking place.  I wanted the Scotland v Hungary match live and I was indeed in the right place for this it is just that this is Monday night and the game takes place on Tuesday!
This is not the first time I have not realised what day it is.  Indeed the clocks went forward on Sunday and as I awoke I heard the man on the radio give the time, I therefore rose and some time later realised all the clocks were an hour behind.  It took about an hour before I realised the clocks had gone forward and I didn't know.
I wonder if matron will keep me in this week...?  

I had to look out a photo for a friend, OK for an acquaintance, and found several somewhat dingy pictures taken at the beach one pink sky night many years ago.  I wonder if I used the 'Zorki 4' but I suspect this was the 'Zenit 'E'' that my brother gave me.  A wonderful camera which was dying long before I got my mitts on it.  However it gave me much fun and sometimes properly exposed pictures, and the results of our time at the seaside was good considering the pinkish twilight.  

Browsing old photos can be a daunting experience.  While many good memories and people appear there are also many faces, some long forgotten, who bring memories not always pleasant back to mind.  Long lost loves, I have hundreds, good people who have moved or passed on, good places now altered for ever and bad places that still haunt the mind.  One unfortunate aspect is the undeniable fact that this shows me forty years have passed and I have wasted much of that time, this is one of the problems of getting old.

 
Another problem is the old albums as they fall apart.  Glue used on pics dies and photos fall out, those plastic covers on some albums, the covers that are supposed to keep the pictures there for ever have faded and come lose and whenever the album is lifted several minutes pass as a search under the furniture for fallen pictures ensues.  Of course once they are all digitalised this will not be a problem, unless the 'delete' button is hit by mistake.
Right, now I have left a morose emotion in your head I will retire to contemplate my naval while seeking sleep.  I need sleep for my mind requires much input from nourishment and sleep these days.  

Irked!!

For years I have used the 'Windows Live Gallery' to sort pictures.  It was simple, straight forward and done the job easily and very well.  Since the problems with the laptop my copy of 'Windows Gallery' has been lost and we now have imposed upon us 'Photos' which is neither easy or good! I am irked.
I found one or two other types to play with but these are far from straightforward and not as good as the Windows Gallery.  
When I try to download pictures Win 10 forces them onto 'Photos' even though I have set it to the new, not easy, gallery.  I may eventually find how to fix that but it does annoy.  Not that I can take many pictures as I am now into Spring cleaning and while the rain falls this is the best option.  The weather may be warm but it still rains, at least the farmers are now happy as the rain up till now has annoyed me but not watered their fields properly so far.  It has done today!
You will also note the spellchecker has disappeared.  I only noticed this when someone commented on a Tweet on that Twitter thing.  Now I have to search how to get one of those, in English not American, back on. Ha!  I have just found is does, it just does not appear to work for me.  Bah!  At least Blogger has one.

President May has announced the Conservative Party's lies for the election.  It is noticeable that it was referred to as 'My Manifesto' and not the 'Conservative' manifesto.  Behind her we see the words in large letters 'Theresa May' and 'Strong and Stable.'  Hmmm.  This reminds me of Eastern Europe 'democratic' nations where the individual is prominent and the party behind him, clearly May has allowed ego to dominate while she sets her party on a differing road to filch from the weak and keep the real money in her own hand.
I am becoming convinced we are under a judgement in the west.  Why else would we find Trump as President of the US and May dominant in a UKIP style Tory Party?  The differing style of Conservative she is offering is no different from what went before, it's just that the 'Toff Boys' have been shoved aside for the middle class girl, no difference for the people however.  What a mess politics has become today.  Sturgeon, for all her faults, represents a politician with some idea of what the nation needs, the English offerings are just not up to the job.
One thing I noted was Mays warning that of Brexit negotiations fail the nation will suffer because of this.  Why is she telling us what we told her?   She opposed Brexit because she knew we needed to remain in the EU but when the chance of glory came she jumped ship and now is taking us into disaster, yet she warns us?  How come missus?  If negotiations fail, and your negotiating style has been abysmal so far Theresa, you will be responsible for this mess, you and Dave, Boris, George, Gove and other self seeking wee boys who have been playing games with the nation.  Somehow I suspect you will manage to be alright, you all keep sufficient Cash in Luxembourg and elsewhere to stay afloat while we sink don't you?

Study Day.

All day Friday we had a study day.  The museum now requires to place all the stock onto digital photos so that we can show them online, cover insurance and just keep a record of the item.  So a group of us were tutored by Sarah an excellent professional at this sort of thing and excellent photographer and a great deal was learned.  Naturally she exposed my lack of understanding of this computer controlled camera, my lack of knowledge and several other faults - then we began.

 
Sarah began by making us use things on the camera some of us had never known about, even the wee cameras were full of tricks.  Naturally I had heard of all these things mentioned years ago but had never used them, white Balance, metering mode, ISO and such things but in the days of twisting lenses and twiddling knobs it was all different and I rarely made use of what little I thought I knew, and it showed.  However computerising everything is easier when you remember what to do and when to do it.  All to often this means hitting the Auto button!  We all had such fun wondering what was going on and attempting to find the items she indicated on the cameras.  As we had several different types of various ages and various makes there was some confused expressions as we pressed buttons and let out exclamations.  The most used one was 'HELP!'  All her info and advice sounded so easy but was not so easy to put into practice especially when you take regard for the motley collection struggling to get the brain in gear.

  
It was an instructive time and after we had cooled down and walked around to clear our heads we did the practical side of things.  When we came to actually photographing different types of items we saw the problems writ large.  This beast here looks OK in this picture, it reveals the shape but the colour is very different from the original.  This would not do for recording purposes.  None of the seven or eight pictures gave proper rendition of the colour.  The white background was worse making the object merely black!  The white balance trick, the spot metering trick and pressing the wrong button trick were all tried and but failed to give satisfaction.  
The coin was a laugh, for the others!  I could not get the Macro to work on my camera, the two girls did with no problems and that is Sarah's effort with the coin.  Their cameras worked well, not mine, bah!  When I did get the Macro to work my hand shook, possibly with rage, and the effort was worthless.  It did however show the difficulties of the simple job of photographing objects for museum purposes.  

We learned a great deal from this and once we find suitable undiscovered space we can start taking the photos.  We ought to have completed the job by 2150!   I spent ages attempting to picture the mirror without any reflections.  Naturally the thing looks blank without a reflection so I had to find one.  I don't think I would spend cash on this myself judging by that photo.  
An enjoyable day even though I felt rotten early on as the bug was bugging me but I managed to stay awake long enough to see out the day.  I have therefore spent today lounging around hiding away from the world and also the sunshine which has shown up again today.  How nice to have nothing that must be done today, not even a blog, er, oops .         

Sunset

As the sun went down in the west, one goes down there each night there must be loads of them lying about there, I wandered abroad attempting to find a photograph.  Why?  I was bored of sitting inside and wanted to be with people. The only difficulty taking pictures this late afternoon?  People, they kept getting in the way!  Bah!  Who needs people after all?  There is something about the sky at twilight.  It is different every night yet almost the same, but not quite. You can take a picture from the same spot 365 days of the year and each would be different, except of course in Edinburgh where it would show rain two days out of three!  

Stained glass windows are quite attractive if seen in the right light.  From outside this one in the old town hall looks attractive but is hard to picture with the lights behind.  From inside with the sun shining on the window it looks magnificent as you ascend the great stairway.  Built in 1926 the old town hall was indeed a prestigious building and much money was thrown at it!  Used for events now and the council are housed elsewhere. 

BBC

It is interesting to see PR in action.  The BBC news appears to be helping Nigella get her life sorted by offering several people who inform us how much she suffered through the recent court case.  The prosecutions tale that she used drugs and allowed the accused PA's to spend £685,000 on themselves with her credit cards to avoid publicity harming her chances in the USA has resulted in the accused being freed and Nigella being seen as , well herself!  So instead of this slapper cook we have instead a woman as false as we all thought she was. How some will be happy with this!  Myself I am just glad we might lose a cook from the screen, there are FAR TOO MANY OF THEM on TV!  I also feel unsurprised that her now ex-husband Satchi, the man famed for advertising Thatcher in the 70's and bad art ever since, turns out to be a bit of a bully and difficult to live with!  I doubt she was any easier myself. Personally I don't wish to hear their private lives, especially as they fall apart, and it is very sad that those with so much have so little to live for.  They appear to have no idea of a happy life.  How do they get together?  Money? Celebrity?  Using the other as a trophy wife/husband?  However the PR has sprung into action claiming the case centered on her drug abuse, not the accusations against the PA's, even though the appearance is that she allowed this fiddling to keep the drugs news quiet. The desperation for the US contract will bring us many stories I feel.  Will it bring happiness to anyone involved in this sad case I wonder?

 Shorpy

This picture from the Shorpy site features a Friday pre Christmas office party in 1925.  My how they employees are having fun!  There again if we were able to see the happy scene after the illicit booze had been downed we might come across a very differing picture.  Just who would be informing the boss, soon to be ex-boss, of her opinions, which lass would have scratched the eyes out of which lad, and just who's feet are sticking out from under that desk....?

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"Age shall not weary them...."

Well actually....

So I decided to be clever.  Chasing graves I could not find the other day I came up with a cunning plan.  The CWGC have friends who photograph such graves, and there are other means to identify the fallen.  The plan was simple, download the photos, print them out on one sheet of paper (cheaply) and carry this to either of the two cemeteries.  Brilliant!  In the morning I stuffed myself early on with somewhat stale bread, switched off the laptop, and got ready.  Then I realised I had forgotten to download the pictures.  This meant switching the laptop back on, awaiting the interminable time while it set itself up again, and then searching for the desired shots.  This I did.  I switched off and the laptop slowly ended the procedure, and as it did so I realised I had not printed them off!!!  I left anyway, my memory would be good enough I said, now that I had reacquainted myself with them.  I also planned to cycle there through the back paths, thereby avoiding the big hill both ways.  It's a delight going down such hills, but not if the traffic is busy.  Immediately I forgot to go the easy way and joined the early morning traffic on the main roads.

Later, after once again stuffing myself with stale bread, this time with greenish cheese, I decided to finish the first cemetery where two graves were still undiscovered.  This time I had already not only downloaded the two photos, I had printed them off!  Therefore, dressing carefully for the warm sunshine, checking the camera battery, and ensuring I would be back in time for the football, I set off.  It was as I passed the market I realised I had left the pictures at home.  Not only have I yet to find Mr Smoothy, my memory failing here, but later on I discovered a new man is also lying undiscovered by anyone somewhere in the other place!

Tonight, after ignoring all these mishaps, I spent a day with God and the football.  All went well, nothing could possibly go wrong, and it was when I was removing the beans from the microwave, after several minutes of heating, the lid came off and the hot sauce went all over my hand.  I now type with one hand grasping ice cubes, and the other keeping well away from the idiot.  What else can go wrong I ask?

This song is appropriate I feel....

    

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Desperate Abstract

Desperate to find a photo worth taking today.  Weather didn't help, having too much work to do didn't help, having no talent didn't help.  So I gathered together the pencils and produced this!  Long ago in a photo mag I read that pictures are all around you!  Open your eyes and see them.  This is true but it is not always possible to see them.  Coming from Edinburgh, the most beautiful city in the world, I found that for the first few years living in London I could not 'see' any pictures when I returned to Edinburgh.  The problem was the castle, the buildings, the surroundings were all part of growing up and I just took them for granted.  I could not 'see' pictures for a few years.  There again who wishes to see pictures of wet buildings, ancient or not?  


Tomorrow the kitchen!

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Leith Sunrise

Day by Day Photos

I had a fabulous post prepared in my head, where there is much room for thought, and as I was beginning to write I found a link to the Tottenham Hotspur v Chelsea game, so it has to wait....
Instead here is a picture of Leith Sunrise taken by a very good friend and excellent photographer who has masses more such pictures that you really must look at!  You will be as impressed as I, and you have more discernment, so enjoy!   Day by Day Photos


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Old Photos

This is Paris 9111 by Alfred Stieglitz. I like this, especially enlarged.  This is not a great subject but it is real life and I like that sort of thing.  Photographic fashion changes over the years, possibly reflecting society, possibly reflecting the photographer, possibly just folks playing around with the camera.  Stieglitz didn't 'play around,' and produced some interesting pictures in his day. Born in New Jersey in 1864 he was presenting his first pictures by the 1880's. Considering the bulkiness of the cameras and the difficulty of developing and printing in those early days it is amazing how quickly photography caught on. Alfred was a man at the centre of the American photographic world until his death in 1946.

Henri Cartier - Bresson 1908-2004 came later and was the master of the candid picture. He was not however keen of being photographed himself which is a bit unfair.  Considered one of the greatest of his time he was aided by the invention just before the Great War of the Leica Camera. The compact nature and quiet workings enabled him to pry on people take candid snaps.

Bert Hardy 1913-1995 came to fame as a Picture Post cameraman. This magazine combined news stories with good quality pictures and was popular until the days of television took away the public. Bert's pictures combined gritty reality of life in Britain before and after the Second World War. Whatever the subject Hardy gave realism a human edge, these were real people and readers of the magazine could easily identify with them. He is without doubt one of the great British photographers. 

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What?

Sadly I cannot find where I came across this gem, but gem it is.  One of those early experiments at creating a car that can drive on water, or is it a boat that can sail on land?  This is an American attempt from the twenties or possibly early thirties and I wonder if it worked?  I note that the woman has a chauffeur but she has both hands on the wheel, typical!  You can bet when the tyre requires changing he does that bit!  This idea has proved successful once or twice.  A good car that could be used as a boat did succeed to some extent in the sixties but I doubt many were sold.  Of course you will recall the DUKW from the second world war.  This also came from the States as a vehicle was required to aid transporting troops from ships on to shore quickly.  An American engineer took the base of a lorry and added a boat, this became successful and the DUKW transported many men during the war and can still be seen around the coasts occasionally.   A DUKW was chosen to land Churchill and all the senior officers on the day the PM was allowed to cross over to France in 1944. One was in use at Portobello Beach in Edinburgh during the fifties to give trippers a short ride on the Firth of Forth, for ten shillings I believe.  The price is why we never got on it!  Hmmm I wonder if the lassie in that car/boat ever got onto the lake?  Did it sink perhaps?



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Cameras

As a kid my first experience of photography was the 'Kodak Brownie 127' camera.  The big fat oval shaped beast enabled me to produce my first blurred picture, at the zoo I recall.  The camera was used on many occasions, usually by my dad, but rarely by myself.  I suppose this enabled the black box to survive so long! I did have some sort of rubbish camera around 1970 and attempted to get the thing to work.  This had similar success to my picture in the zoo!  Rude murmurings from those around me distracted my learning process and my interest waned somewhat. Later, far removed from such 'friends,' I did try a 'Lomo LC-A' camera, which was a Russian produced piece of rubbish that has become a cult among some. One day in the late seventies, before most of my readers were born, I purchased a 'Zorki-4,'  from somewhere. This camera began after the war in a factory that had been produced a 'Fed' camera, a poor imitation of a 'Leica' camera. Such copies abounded after Leica introduced their high quality produce during the twenties and thirties.  These Russian cameras worked well enough, and were being produced right up till 1978.  Then one day my brother gave me a 'Zenit-E' of dubious age and condition.  

Lomo

My brother, ten years older and nowhere near as good looking, took to photography in a big way.  So much so that he ended up in the RAF photography section. After his demob his mechanical knowledge saw him repair Leica cameras until his retirement.  At one point I myself considered the RAF but while the nice sergeant informed me of all the good times I could find in the services, good pay, friends, travel and so on, he forgot to mention the millions of armed men standing guard throughout western Europe.  He also forgot to mention the nuclear bombers and fighters high above as we spoke training for nuclear war, although he did say I could learn a trade, death probably!  The photography section was closed at that time so I declined the joy of being told my eyesight was so poor I could not be accepted, and also my habit of screaming "We are all going to die!" would unsettle other crewmen on the aircraft.I dared not inform my brother I had considered this as I felt he may resign!  He still doesn't know.  

Zorki

The Zorki was an excellent camera for a simple amateur, or so I was called rather too often by some. However mine had a small problem in that a hole appeared in the screen and if I recall right my brother took it to fix and I never saw it again!  However the Zenit made up for this.  The Zenit was an SLR camera with TTL metering. Certainly the metering was aged and of dubious quality but I took many pictures with that camera and thoroughly enjoyed using it.  In time I added extension tubes, enabling me to take close ups of objects.  I had wished to do this for many years, since one day I had watched a bumble bee happily brushing the pollen from his fur into those pockets on his legs.  He stayed outside my window for ages and I had no means to take his picture, and extension tubes were the answer.  Naturally once I had them no bumble bee has come my way.  The Zenit was a popular camera, cheap, as the Soviets wanted foreign exchange, easy to use, and as it weighted a ton it was marvelous for Irish weddings.  Simply by keeping the beast in its case, grabbing the strap firmly, and then swinging it around the head it became a terror weapon in such circumstances. As the ambulancemen loaded up the guests you would be enabled to take photographs of both the wounded and their broken cameras.  The Zenit was photography's equivalent of the T-34 Tank! 

     Camerapedia

Enjoyable though the Zenit was I had seen enough Irish weddings and spent £125 on a good second hand Minolta X-300.  This was, and is a great camera for such as I. By adding a couple of lenses I was soon able to see great distances and into folks windows got shots of objects far away. The only problem I found was settling down on a south coast beach, with the Isle of Wight in the near distance, yachts making their way up the Solent, hundreds of pictures available, all the lenses, filters, and other things I never understood standing by, and realising I had run out of film! I can see that view still.  I did enjoy taking portraits of people, if I could get them to stand still long enough.  Candid shots I find a but invasive but I have taken thousands of pics of people and now have three good ones to show for it!  Very enjoyable this hobby.  Quite why we enjoy it so much I sometimes wonder, especially when looking at old pictures and wondering who, or what, I am looking at!  However since it arrived on the scene photography has always been popular.  When Kodak enabled the majority to benefit with the 'Box Brownie (and who hasn't got one somewhere in the family even today?) and a wide variety of folding cameras a rich heritage of photographs has been left for us all. I never fail to be amazed at some of the pictures I find on the web, from the 'ordinary' person let alone the one willing to pay a bit more for the camera.  People have such an eye for the unusual, the humerous and the beauty around us.  Looking at pictures takes us out of ourselves in a way that differs from reading prose.  That too can open windows in the mind but a photo makes it easier, and brings us a more factual representation of a situation and can set the mind enquiring about life.

Digital cameras have revolutionised photography in a way unimaginable just twenty years ago!  No fiddling with films, no waiting for developing, and by clever use of the pc it is possible to improve the picture in front of us.  A snap taken now can be uploaded and transported worldwide in minutes!  The pocket size makes it easy to slip in the pocket, and the use of a small screen instead of an even smaller viewer enables more options for picture taking, fantastic I say!  One day, when rich, I will obtain a bigger version, although not a Leica!  I will also find some friends and take a few portraits again as I have not done that for years. Daft I know but this is one of my favourite activities these days, simple and enjoyable, and I still don't comprehend just why it should be so enjoyable, but it is!



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Experimental Night Shot

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I am amazed at how dark it is by 7:30 these days, it's almost like Autumn!  However as I was strolling around looking in folks win taking my constitutional I realised I may get a shot of some bright lights.  Naturally I could not remember, or take the time, to work out how to take night shots on this camera so I just plugged away and pressed the button anyway.  Not bad but too dark for a night shot (what?).  Now, where are those instructions....?

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Photo Blogs

Seeing as how you lot have ignored my Photo Blog for reasons of your own, I am here going to use others Photo Blogs to remind you of my talent their talent and allow you to take your minds far away from the stresses and strains of life! The obvious place to start is with the admirable 'A,' a pretty young lass (she says) with an enormous bank balance talent who makes me jealous every time I look at her pictures. 
She has her own excellent blog at 'A Changing Life' where she offers such 'snaps' as this:-  

Now of course she has added (and not before time) a Photo Blog, found here:- 'Photos From the Indre.'

This is done to reveal her talent and boast about her travels to places far and wide. Myself I managed to travel to the small industrial estate in the rain today, but I am not one to complain, even when it rained on the way back, thanks very much. This is an example of her 'Must see' work.:-

 

However enough of that woman, there is a man in far off Thailand who has nothing to do but be waited on hand and foot by pretty Thai women, drink cheap booze, and wander the country photographing railways and birds, the other kind of birds I mean. His fine Photo Blog is found here:- 
'My Thai Photo Blog'.

You will notice he has added his name at the bottom. I expect a bill for breaking copyright now! Sorry, I am out at the moment...


If you, like me, are attracted to bright flowers then there is a blog full of such photos in darkest Darlington, at least it was always dark when the train passed through when I was there. Susan has some wonderful shots, of which I am insanely jealous, of the plants growing around her. Fabulous pictures as I know you are bound to agree:- 'Susan's Garden'

Isn't that great?


I came across 'Edinburgh Day By Day' recently and as I like the idea of day by day pictures of places I have kept the link. This appears to be an outsiders view of Edinburgh, always an interesting viewpoint. When you are brought up there you do not see the city as an outsider does. In fact when I first began to return to Edinburgh I could not find anything to photograph! It was after some years away I noticed things around me I had taken for granted before! And of course there is nothing like watching the sunshine outside the window and logging in to watch Edinburgh under that large gray cloud is there! 

If you prefer sunshine a daily photo of Jerusalem shows everyday life in the warmth! The kind of life ignored by the media as just to 'common' for their readers:-' Jerusalem Hills Daily Photo.'  These shots remind me of the time I went there, just before the first Iraq War. Everyday shots including lots of sun and interesting historical buildings. 

The Englishmen among you, and I know you are out there, will be interested in 'Unmitigated England,' a jolly nice wee blog that shows pictures of, well... England of course! Well worth a look! Try the quiz you English folks, I canny do it!

Well what do you expect to find in England?


I love Photo Blogs as they show so much of the world I never see otherwise. Oh by the way, mine is there at 'The Adullamite Photo Blog' just in case you are interested in my snaps!


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Wasted Day

It has been yet another one of those days when all I had planned failed to occur. It started well enough but failed to continue. I was side tracked by that silly 'Block Game' that wasted time I should have spent writing to folk. I also spent too much time raking through a box of photographs that was hidden in the cupboard, and scanning them in. They brought back memories and some of them were quite reasonable, but not all! Ah memories,how sweet - sometimes! There were a great many pictures of children found there. Some our family and some friends brats. The trouble was I could not remember who many of them were! Kids all look the same don't they? These were the pics not good enough for the albums so were not of the greatest quality, and so many now 'stick' in the old albums it is hard to get them out again. Life is hard when you are an idiot. The albums either fall apart and the pics land all over the place or they stick in there. It's British! Wot do you expect?

I was also sidetracked by 'Blogcatalog' again. I looked up my favourites as usual and then went looking for something new. Not much today, but I found myself looking back at the regulars several times a day. Am I the only one that does this? Or is it because I have too much time wasting on my hands? Yep, OK, that's it. That and avoiding doing the things I ought to be doing. It has to be said the folk I frequent are funny mind. Not only that but wise as well as witty. How nice to know them - even from a distance. Most folk prefer to know me at a distance mind.

I was intending to attempt to sell some things on E-Bay and have been following one or two books to see if there is a market for them out there. maybe I can offload one or two things this way. If not I may try Amazon for the books. Trouble is most of my books I want to keep. The ones I don't need I have already dumped into charity shops. If I could work out what sells I may buy books there and aim to profit. Profit? I think I remember that word.....

Must go, Liverpool are about to bore the pants of us with a miserable draw against Marseilles.