<<Return to My Diary
April
30 - Up around 7:30am . .burned disks . . walked
and handed out discs to the regular dog walkers. .carried on down
through town, via a quick look at the port building site. .caught
out in a heavy shower. Drew out some money and then on to the PC
store and bought another 50 pack of DVDs for a tenner . .bumped
into JK on the way back while I was sat having a smoke near the
slipway building site . .briefly distracted by a small line of
classic cars in the car park, which I had a bit of a go at
videoing on the way home. . a guy passing me asked what I was up
to and then asked if I was the person putting stuff on YouTube.
Might be. :o/ He said he'd seen the fisherman video and he knew
the guy and he had the floating pontoon next to his and such
stuff. Somewhere in the conversation he said something along the
lines of - 'If someone filmed me and put me on Youtube without my
say so, I wouldn't be very happy'. Oh dear. :o( So - I'm in
danger of alienating everyone in town now? I was worried about
that possibility. (Actually - the particular video he referred to
- I have given a DVD to the fisherman - and I rather think it is
one of the outstanding ones I've done (pleasing to the eye), and
rather makes him look pretty cool, at least from a
tourist/outsiders point of view!?) Despite the guys comment, I
think we parted on a relatively even keel when I gave him a copy
of Volume 3 to have a look at . . burned more discs etc. . JK
called to touch base . . walked and carried on to JKs for a
coffee and chats. Actually sat on a seat nearby for a cigarette,
to calm my nerves a bit before calling at his door. It occurs to
me, that must be the first time I've actually 'gone out' to
someones place like that, in several years!
. Wow. WHAT an amazing view from his living room window. Must be
one of THE best in town!! INNnnncredible. . walked back home via
the remarkably peaceful harbour and arrived back by around 10pm.
That walk back was a most bizarre experience for me. To pop over
to someones place for a coffee like that, and then walk home
along a sea shore, marina, harbour, largely deserted town centre,
etc. - and all that without feeling 'particularly' under threat
from possible violence or hassle, like you almost inevitably
WOULD get in Bristol. It seemed positively surreal and 'other
worldy'. Is it REALLY possible to live 'this' (whatever that may
be) sort of life down here? I don't understand - and really have
no experience of knowing what to do with it kinda. Sat in the
back garden with a coffee and chocolate biscuits, trying to get a
handle on things, and just enjoying the feeling of being 'ok' and
the peace and quiet - not wanting to break the spell. . touched
base with BB . . ate bacon sandwiches . .TVd until bed around
1:30am. s
29 - Up
around 9:25am! . . I don't feel so good. I really need to try to
eat a lot today I think. I've really been hardly eating of late.
.PCd a bit of this with morning coffee and cigarettes. . .walked
in the rain.
In a very vulnerable position on the lower
path was a lethargic grass snake, around 12" long! I've seen
a few of those since I've been down here. Felt obliged to
relocate it, off the path and out of harms way. . PCd the day
away, burning discs and sorting out a few packages for the post.
Not sure how it all took so long, but it took until 5pm before I
was ready to head for the post office! . mailed the handful of
disks and did just a little more colour photocopying . . tried
phoning JK to see if I could pop over with his copy of the discs,
but no answer. . put JK discs in a pocket and walked, and carried
on down to the harbour to treat myself to fish and chips. Ouch!
Blimey!! £5 for a cod and chips takeaway!! I've lost touch with
how much things are. That seems like a hell of a lot to me. I
could feed myself for a few days on that much money! Won't be
doing that again in the near future! . . carried my chips along
towards the marina, before finding a seat still bathed in the
warm light of the sinking sun. .as I was just starting to eat my
chips, an attractive young woman walking along stopped to chat,
and ended up sitting down next to me and freely chatting away for
ages. I think it was Sally who kinda caught her attention, but it
was most certainly a rather unusual experience for me! I have
never in my entire life just started talking to someone like
that, and sat down next to them for a chat! It just wouldn't EVER
cross my mind to do so!
lithuanian!
. . tried phoning JK on the mobile
but once again he wasn't in. I was so close, and with the discs
in my pocket, I figured I may as well just walk up and pop them
in his letter box. If I didn't get rid of them soon, the way I'm
going, I'd end up giving them away to someone else before he ever
gets them! . . tried calling again just once more outside his
flat but he was still out. At least I knew I had the right place
- I could hear the phone ringing. lol . . jotted a note on the
discs and just posted them through his letterbox before heading
home . .touched base with BB . . TVd and ate chocolate biscuits
until to bed around midnight, unable to face having to sit in
front of the PC for another second today! I feel as though I've
spent weeks on the damn thing almost non stop. Actually - I
HAVE!! I'm sick of it. And must be utterly crazy to be doing all
this, and spending all my money, just to be able to give it away
to people! s
28 - Up
around 6:45am
. . burned a
couple of discs. . walked (WITHOUT the tripod and absolutely
determine NOT to video anything at all! I happily suceeded. ) .
.yobs had been out in the night. :o( Smashed glass from beer
bottles and debris, littered the streets along the way I go. .a
house down the road on a corner, with a well tended garden, has a
pair of ornamental 'carriage' wheels propped against it's front
house wall. One of those wheels was out in the street, along from
the house a bit, and propped up against a garden wall with the
ornate face inwards!!? Figured I'd better return it to the owner.
Turns out the damn things are actually made of concrete! Very
heavy. THAT's why the yobs responsible hadn't carried it further.
'Lightweight' yobs round here! The woman who answered the door
(to me AND some garage guy who just then turned up to collect her
car for a service or some such?) seemed 'suprised' and
understandably confused by my being there knocking on her door
carrying her waggon wheel, so I briefly explained and just
propped it back in its rightful position, and carried on my way
as she dealt with the garage guy and her car. . carried on down
town (got caught in a shower) and priced up some DVD-Rs in
Woolworths before eventually buying a 50 pack in the computer
store for £10 . . trawled the charity shops and succeeded in
getting hold of a bunch of half decent empty plastic CD cases for
5p each. .enquired in the only place I know of that does them
down here (an estate agent), how much their colour photocopying
would be. Yikes! £1 per A4 copy!?? That makes the cost of
printing them out on the printer look not 'so' bad! :o( . .
treated myself to a jumbo sausage roll breakfast. . started to
head home via the harbourside, only to notice a small dog
apparantly running loose! Asked a couple of people who were
walking along but it wasn't theirs - it WAS running loose! Damn -
if I'd know I COULD have grabbed it when it passed us. Eventually
ended up following in hot pursuit, although it was going our way
anyway. Attracted the attention of a dog walker up ahead and
luckily she managed to grab hold of its collar. No name or
address on the collar (I confess there is never any collar on
Sally at all these days - but then SHE doesn't stray does she),
so now what? Used the invaluable little strap I always carry (for
tying Sally to my belt, and street furniture when I want to go in
a shop etc.) to hook to his collar, and ended up with a makeshift
short lead. Cute little chap, didn't seem to care at all that all
of a sudden he was walking with Sally and I! Sally as usual took
it all in her stride - after all - been there, seen that, done
that, all before - more than once! . headed back into town hoping
I'd see someone all panic striken looking for their dog, but that
wasn't to be. Exchanged a word or two with a couple of people who
wanted to be helpful, but vague comments about having seen
someone with it some time somewhere weren't what I needed. What
to do???? Made our way to the little local part time police
station type counter, and as luck would have it, they were open
Monday mornings. I got the (mistaken?) impression, the officer
behind the counter no longer dealt with such things and he phoned
someone. Whoever he phoned, halted his explanation and suggested
it was one that had been reported as lost from somewhere not
'too' far distant. Phew. Thank goodness for that. Left the dog
with the policeman (who just happened to have a lead handy - and
actually seemed delighted to have the little chap stay for a
visit) and bid him farewell and thanks for unburdoning me. He HAD
said he'd phone me (or the dog owner would) to let me know the
outcome, but he never did. .back home to find an ansaphone
message (number withheld) from a doctor, saying I'd asked her to
call me, and she'd call back. Huh?. when she called back, she
said Terry Jones had called earlier this morning and asked her to
call back on MY number!! I said it was nothing to do with me, but
she seemed insistant at first that it WAS me who'd called! Given
my 'psychiatric' type records, I couldn't help but feel she just
thought I was a nutter and or attention seeker. I assured her I
hadn't gone crazy, and it absolutely WAS NOT ME who'd called. I
did point out that I now was feeling very uneasy and concerned
(understatement!) that someone had provided BOTH my name AND my
number. (Was someone trying to 'mess with me' in some bizarre
manner? All the fear and paranoia I experienced, in those last
days in Bristol, was immediately reignited in me! Horrible
feeling of insecurity. :o( ) . . . Mum called to touch base . .
with my paranoia getting uncomfortably out of control, I HAD to
call the doctor's surgery back, explain what had occurred to the
receptionist, and try to get to the bottom of the detail of what
may or may not have ACTUALLY occurred. To cut a long story short,
it WAS possible the receptionist had 'filled in' the phone number
FOR whoever had called from their computer system records - and
there WAS more than one Terry Jones on their books. I laboured
the point about how wound up I was (and how in that case there
was probably some poor guy called Terry somewhere who was ill and
still waiting by the phone for the doctor to call!!) so the woman
on the phone promised to look into things and call me back.
Thankfully she was true to her word, and confirmed it seemed that
WAS what had happened and put my mind at ease. Phew. Thank
goodness for that. That REALLY had me all wound up pretty badly
there for a while! . . printed out some pristine copies of all
three volumes of my DVD covers (with ink low warnings showing on
the printer again! I haven't any replacement cartridges as yet!)
and then popped up the local post office to buy some padded bags
and have a look at their photocopier. Wow - turns out it IS a
full colour copier, and does really rather decent copies for
'just' (!!) 50p each. Right on my doorstep - and half the price
of down town. How cool is that. (If I was only doing cheapo black
and white cover copies, it'd be a mere 6p a cover!) Relatively
effortlessly copied a bunch of the covers before returning to PC
for hours, burning discs and making up copies of Volume 3 to mail
to possibly interested people (or maybe not!! lol) . . back up
the post office to mail 'the foreign' DVDs I'm sending and to do
a few more cover photcopies. . . ate a banana . walked. .knocked
on the door of a nearby house that has an interesting looking
skip in the front garden (they appear to be clearing out their
choc-full garage), and asked if I could plunder their throw outs
later . .along the walk, a girl riding past on the opposite side
of the road on a push bike suddenly came to a clattering halt as
her derailleur gear mechanism disappeared into the spokes of the
back wheel! She didn't 'get' what had happened and started trying
to roll the bike backwards looking at the front cog. I urgently
called across to her to stop, and tried to explain what I could
see and that if she continued pushing it backwards it would just
tear the wheel spokes and gears to pieces. Ended up wandering
across and getting oily hands, but it turned out a quarter of one
of the rear gear mechanism nylon sprockets was actually missing,
so there was no easily riding that anywhere anymore. She ended up
carrying it back home. Apparantly she was on her way to work!!!
Good grief. I'd have thought she was more likely on her way back
from her babysitter! I'm getting old. . 
sat in BGdns
watching the clouds as a huge classic 'anvil' shaped storm cloud
hung in the air, changing shape and colour with the sunset.
Actually even videod it for a while, but the results didn't do it
justice. . 
stopped off to look in the skip on the way
home and came home with a mechanics seat on wheels (which I may
actually give to the mechanic next door. Not sure yet.), and just
one or two other small bits and pieces. I get the impression from
what I've seen in passing, that the guy who lives there has
reached an age where he is no longer particularly 'mobile', and
that his poor wife is having to clear out the garage of a
lifetimes collection of working man's stuff. What that seems to
mean is, almost everything (useful/valuable or not) is going
straight in the skip! Hard for me to walk past THAT every day!
(It's the same house that some time last year, I saw a 'trapped
verticle antenna' like I used to have for the amateur HF
frequencies, just thrown away in a skip!). . touched base with BB
. . ate Mum donated pate and lettuce rolls with crisps and
biscuits . .PCd until early before bed. . All in all, today has
reminded me much of being back in Bristol!!!! Unsettling! :o(
27 - Up
around 7:15am for some reason, and then only to find the PC had
'recovered' (yeah right!) from a critical error in the night and
had re-booted itself! Bugger. PCd until gone 9am and managed to
cajole the PC into compiling both disc images to the hard drive,
Yyayyy.. . walked in the warm sunny spells. .stopped at the store
on the way home for a tin of RedBull to help keep me going.
Straight back to the PC to burn the first two DVDs.
proof watched, full screen, the
whole twin disc set, through from beginning to end (disc 1 -
72mins / disc 2 - 70 mins.) , to make sure it was all ok and
nothing leapt out as a problem. Wow - sure is quite a trip when
you do it like that. :o) 
laboured on with paint shop pro and
finished off the DVD cover -/dropped a disc off at Mums . .
walked . . /- . . uploaded the last few videos I'd done to finish
the Volume off. The sea horse survey (YouTube
link) , the silly
'flying machine' one (YouTube
link) , the bluebells
(YouTube
link) and finally, to
be the 'bookend' final video on the volume 3 DVD, the cute
rabbits (YouTube
link) . . I am
UTTERLY exhausted and burned out! No more videos for a while. :o|
ate ham and lettuce rolls with
crisps, a miniature microwave fudge pudding and some chocolate. .
TVd ('How to make a cathedral'!! I watch some weird stuff these
days with so much rubbish on.). hardly able to remain conscious,
I am SO exhausted. . briefest of words with BB before to bed
somewhere around 10pm. . almost or maybe actually asleep already
when Mum called (I HAD asked her to report back) to say she'd
only watched some of it, but it appeared to run ok on her DVD
player.
26 - U. .
.Mum called in before midday.
walked . shouting idiot beating a
fish!
eventually to bed around 3am,
leaving the PC running overnight, compiling a disc image of DVD
Vol 3 disc 1. . saa
25 - Up
around 9:30am!!! . .walked real late. Home via the store and Mums
to drop off the hose pipe attachment . . . PCd all day on the sea
horses . . walked. . straight back on the PC. . ate sandwiches
around 11pm. . 'no seashorses' on the news! lol . . rejigged disc
1 of the next dvd. Strange order to this volume, but I'm
determined to use up every byte of space and not waste any. .
.after hours of work on the 'rabbits', the file went corrupt and
I lost it!! Grrrr. Oh well - at least it wasn't one of the more
'precious' ones (to me).
-//-
24 - Up
around 9:15am! . .walked and on down town. All seemed pretty
quiet thankfully. Scored some bones for Sally in the butcher. .
sat on a seat for a gigarette and was joined by 'J' for a chat.
Interesting guy. Swapped phone numbers! . .headachey. PCd the
whole day away non stop until around 6pm, working on the
'concrete and steel' video from yesterday. Incredibly time
consuming editing down the hour-plus of footage, into mostly
three second clips!! Amazing how a selection of SUCH short pieces
like that can be cobbled together to tell such a long and drawn
out tale. . did dish washing chores during a lengthy test
video-compile. Worked out ok I think. In fact - I think I WILL
push on and try to include some of the releavnt footage from an
earlier date, to give a decent impression of the progression of
things kinda. Almost timelapse in effect. . ate a banana and yet
another annadin tablet and then walked. Damn - missed it! Just
entering BGdns, both the lifeboat and the pilot boat were
returning to harbour. . sat and watched a warship creep into the
bay . . cooked and ate, chips, 3 bacon, 2 eggs, 2 burgers and a
piece of fried bread . . J called to chat and confirm he didn't
think anyone involved would be offended by the 'jamming' video,
as I'd expressed I was worried they may be. Despite what I do
with these videos, I'm absolutely NOT in the business of
deliberately offending anyone in any way. In fact, on occasions,
I have to reluctantly NOT include some brilliant footage (and at
least one entire potential video!), because I deem it may. (Like
the fisherman having a pee off the side of his boat - or a bored
crane driver, on full close-up, picking his nose! lololol) .
.touched base with BB . . PCd on and finished and uploaded the
concrete and steel vid.(YouTube
link) just before
2am!!!!! That was SO fiddly and time consuming - and one of the
unfinished ones I have yet to return to, is gonna be similar in
the multiple editing! Ugggh! To bed around 3am!! aaa
23 - Up
around 8:15am . .walked and then on down towards the harbour. .
videod around the slipway ALL morning and into the afternoon,
after being tipped off by one of the workmen that the crane would
be lifting some of the reinforcing steels into position on the
end of the slipway later (and because I wanted to try and get a
piece of the divers entering the water, like I'd missed the other
day, to maybe be useable in its place - 'continuity' allowing)! .
. PCd . . ate corned beef, mayo and grated cheese sandwiches,
crisps and a banana . . skipped the evening walk (because we were
out most of the day anyway!), PCd yet more and polished off the
'jamming' video (YouTube
link) at getting on
for 10pm (rather than attending to the two or three I have STILL
half finished from yesterday and some time ago! ). Shame about
that video - it's actually more worthy of a smile if it's watched
in real time, but of course that goes on for far too long! One
thing's for sure (like the fishermen) - those guys sure earn
their wages!!! . .bowls of cornflakes before to bed
22 - Up
around 8:45am . .yayy. Webcams on the 'harbour regeneration work'
site (http://www.brixhamfishmarket.info/). . walked - and walked!
Summery. Ended up videoing coaches in the car park!?!. .footage
for yet another timelapse in the harbour . . back to PC . .
touched base with Mum . . ate corned beef and mayo sandwiches
with crisps . . back out to walk the woods and see what state the
bluebells were in. Bit too early yet - or maybe not a very good
show this year?. . ended up sat in BGdns videoing rabbits ! lol .
. PCd. . touched base with BB . . PCd ever onwards and knocked
off the little 'harbour timelapse' video (YouTube
link) before 1am. (I
look upon such videos as my DVD equivalent of 'postcards' kinda.)
Too many timelapses for comfort on this next 'volume' I suspect.
Oh well. :o| . .I think I want to do two or three more little
videos now (with the footage I've already filmed), and that'll be
a full set of 18 each on the twin discs - same as volume 2.
Exhausting but I'm SO wanting to get it done and 'share' that
storm footage with people, before I maybe have a hard disk crash
or some such, and lose the lot!
21 - Up
around 8:45am . .drove to walk Sally in the rain. I just couldn't
face getting all cold and drenched again . . PCd and knocked up
what will be the DVD menu image and paper cover for Pebbles On
The Beach Volume 3. It's the picture of Sally in front of 'Lone
Wolf' in the harbour. . PCd the rest of the morning and most of
the afternoon away doing the 633 Squadron video. (YouTube
link) Should have
gone for more cuts and trimmed it down 'sharper and punchier'
(too long at the beginning, weak ending, etc), but I'm feeling
pretty fatigued (understatement!) and just couldn't put in the
extra effort to trawl through all the footage and work it all
out. .walked feeling really pretty unwell and wobbly . .cooked
burgers, bacon, egg and chips and ate lots with four pieces of
bread and butter . . PCd sorting out a few of the varying volume
levels on the latest videos, adjusting and recompiling them to
try and make them more even. . BB called . . to bed by around
1am. s
20 - Woken
by the fridge freezer sounding like a pneumatic drill around
7:15am. Sorry neighbours! Gave it a good beating (I actually
don't care if I break it - it would at least then 'force' me into
stumping up the cash to replace it!) and returned to bed . .
woken by insistant Sally around 9:45am . . walked real late,
after having watched a few of my latest videos for breakfast! .
wow, what a different feel to today. So much calmer, and dare I
think a little warmer? Carried on rather aimlessly down to the
harbour. All the concrete the workmen had been laying on the end
of the slipway on the 17th had predictably been 75% scoured away
by the tide! I guess somehow they're gonna have to try to rectify
that, but I can't imagine how now it's such a mess!?? Carried on
out past the multiple arriving coachloads of people, around the
harbour and along past the lifeboat station towards the
breakwater beach. .I thought at first the station was open for
people to look around but on enquiring it turned out it was a
special 'do' for the local Lord mayor and party! . . sat on the
beach for a cigarette. Having been spending hours and hours
working on all that storm footage over the last couple of days,
the breakwater seemed like a strange and quiet, unfamiliar place,
with people wandering up and down it in the 'almost' sun . .
walked back past the layers of oil drifting in rainbows across
the putrid waters of the marina and inner harbour. Sat in BGdns
for a while and watched the relief pilot boat heading out,
perhaps returning to it's usual home port, now that 'Celia T' is
back home? . . .PCd . . drank a tea cup of red wine . . ate
corned beef and mayo sandwiches with crisps, a mini treacle
pudding and some chocolate . . napped. Woken before I'd even
really fallen asleep by a neighbour (I think) returning one of
the sets of DVDs I'd given out . . napped until woken by the
alarm at 7:30pm . . TVd a strangely interesting program on one of
the BBC channels, all about the Guttenburg press with Stephen
Fry! . .skipped the evening walk. Grey and miserable outside. .
spotted another frog in the garden when out encouraging Sally to
do her thing. . touched base with BB . . watched ALL the latest
set of my videos through on the TV with the stop watch running,
to get a feel for where I am in terms of fitting them on disks.
WOW - how tame the footage of the breakwater I took on the bank
holiday looks, which I'd until this week, thought was rough. .
Good grief! I knew some of them were long ones, but I had no idea
I had done enough to fill another TWO, hour long DVDs (and that
with NOT including the nasty seagulls eating a dead bird one)!!!!
This is potentially getting a bit costly and out of hand. . ate a
banana and four Mr Kipling apple tarts before to bed around 2am. d
19 - Up
just after 9am . . PCd a bit before venturing out in the rain.
Shame - it was supposed to be some sort of weekend of 'local
attractions welcoming local people' with a bunch of stuff going
on - and I HAD planned on maybe having a look at some of it.
Think I'll pass. . walked and got soaked. A guy looking over the
cliff at a lot of floating debris told me one of the boats moored
in the outer harbour had slipped its mooring and had been wrecked
on the rocks and lost! . . PCd and did a 'quick and easy' video
of the breakwater waves as filmed early yesterday, when it was
actually still pretty dark. (the footage I took over the best
part of an hour, was broken into two by the camera, automatically
changing exposure as it got lighter at some point, giving two
segments of very different hue! Actually not a bad thing as it
turned out. ) Did scan through the hour long footage looking for
the best bits, but in the end it was all pretty much as
spectacular as the rest, so just used an easy chunk which happily
included the 'Celia T' pilot boat going past the lighthouse as a
dot in the distance (probably not visible on anything other than
the full sized TV version) . (YouTube
link) . . Mum called in with
the paper and food donations, for coffee and chats and inevitably
to watch the latest videos on the TV . . cooked and ate Mum
donated bacon in buttered bread rolls and a little chocolate. .
napped until the alarm at 6:30pm . . walked in what was more like
fog than fine rain. .brought down the new sack of dog food I've
been keeping in the garage to feed Sally. I dished out a measure
of food into her bowl, and - EEewwwwWWW!!! There was a dead mouse
in amongst the food!!! DAMN! I guess it was already in the sack
when I last moved it (up onto a bucket so mice couldn't get to
it), and was trapped and crushed by the food/move. :o( I'm gonna
have to think more carefully about what I store in that garage. .
PCd . . BB called . . PCd the night away until 3am before
uploading the 'In From The Storm' video (YouTube
link)(with the little shakey
hand held footage of the pilot boat 'testing in the rough',
filling up the pointless drum solo which I was originally going
to edit out) . . ate corned beef sandwiches gone 3am! .
.eventually to bed around 4:30am! a
18 - 
Up with the alarm at 5am! Actually thought
better of it and tried to sleep on but just couldn't. So - I've
moved through the 'addiction' phase of this video making thing,
and ploughed headlong straight into obsession!!! . . set off
after sunrise around 6:15am and drove with Sally in the car to
the vantage point above the breakwater for yet more filming,
'just' after high tide. (Left Sally safely in the car this time -
and no, that ISN'T my car in the picture. I wish!). Pretty much a
repeat of yesterday evening with all the big waves breaking over
it, but without such good light. (The pilot boat 'Celia T'
reappeared inbound while I was filming the breakwater. I've
gathered the impression she's been absent somewhere for a while.
A replacement (much quieter) seems to have been on station for a
few days instead). . had a quick 'prod' at the views near the
open air pool, before calling it a day and driving to BGdns to
give Sally her once round. I'd only just got out of the car and
started walking round when I could hear the distant roar of
engines. Turned out to be 'Celia T' idling across the outer
harbour. Rushed to get to a vantage point and set up the camera
and tripod to get what WOULD have been some neat footage, but
sadly she appeared to be just testing her engines or something
and didn't set off seaward. A quick circuit outside the
breakwater entrance with a good revving (which actually sounded a
bit iffy to me - but I put it down to the heavy swell) and she
headed straight back in. . PCd the whole morning away until mid
afternoon, working on the 'salvage something from the missed
lifeboat footage of yesterday'. Not at all the sort of video I've
always had in mind and wanted to make, but with an unexpected
choice of music, I think it 'works -ish'. There WILL have to be
another some other time, if I EVER manage to be in the right
place at the right time to do it justice in a rough sea - EVER!!
:o/ (YouTube
link) Damn! Turned out to be yet another rather
long one! In fact, incredibly, I ended up with an audio track
three times the size of the original! . . ate ham rolls and
cheese nibbles . . grabbed a couple of hours sleep until woken by
the alarm at 7:30pm . . couldn't face the evening walk (or maybe
couldn't face ending up with even MORE video of interesting stuff
to spend hours editing!) and poor Sally had to make do with just
using the garden. . straight back onto the PC to have a go at
that extraordinary 'breakwater' footage from yesterday, while
drinking a tin of Red Bull to keep me alive! . . touched base
with BB. . called it quits on the breakwater video around
midnight. VERY difficult to cut that down to so few minutes. Hard
to discard the rest of the half an hour or so. Utterly AMAZING
footage I think. (YouTube link) If ever there was a video of mine worth
looking at, I reckon that one has to be up there near the top of
the list. (Bet YouTube recognise the 'third party content' on
that one! Hope they don't insist it's removed! :o( ). .to bed and
then back up to eat bowls of cornflakes around 3am! . TVd a bit
before bed again at getting on for four!
17 - Up at
6am . PCd a bit of this and then got bogged down on the ITV news
website, trying to capture the local ITV news report that was
aired on TV last night. Managed it in the end - and oh my
goodness - just over the shoulder of the guy being interviewd, a
dot in the distance sat on a bench was me! I'm famous now then!
lololol . .spent so long messing around with that, I was later
getting out than I knew I should have been (given the weather
forecast and tide times. They are forecasting a strong Easterly
wind. I've already learned (more than some who've lived here
longer!?) , THAT is what makes for neat waves and rough stuff on
the breakwater and neat film opportunities for boats heading out
directly into the waves. The wind from every other direction (no
matter how strong) mostly just seems to blow the local sea flat
calm. .stationed myself in the shelter of my favourite gun
emplacement and had a bit of a go at videoing whatever was about
. . I don't believe it. In the wrong place at the wrong time all
morning and missed the very footage of the lifeboat heading out
in rough sea which I've been waiting a year to get!! What a
b*****d! :o( I could kick myself!!! . carried on down around the
harbour. Some guy in a car on the harbourside behind me made to
do one of those fast/agressive three point turns, but didn't see
the big metal post behind him, and with a loud crunch, reversed
straight into it!! The whole back of his car, bumper, hatchback,
everything was completely stoved in and wrecked!! . . walked out
to the lifeboat station and asked if they were out on a shout, or
if not, did they know when they'd be back. The guy I spoke to
suggested something along the lines of they were out in the rough
weather doing a photo shoot, referring to the 'eight lives
saved', 'Ice Prince' rescue they'd done in January. . walked out
to the Shoalstone pool and then back to the new vantage point
(dangerously derelict and fenced off, roof covered seats) I'd
discovered just off the road above the end of the breakwater and
lifeboat station. . some difficulty getting Sally up to it, but
with a bit of encouragement, she made a leap, and I was able to
push her back end up! Brilliant dog. she WOULD have made a good
police or military dog. . spotted the lifeboat out in the
distance on its 'jolly' around the bay, but sadly almost all of
the film I got was with it running WITH the waves and not against
them, so wasn't particularly impressive (unlike what I'd missed
earlier! Hmmph! :o( ) . .raced down from our vantage point (not
good for poor Sally's bad front right shoulder, jumping down into
the road from such a height!!!!!) and actually ran clutching the
tripod and camera and took up position near the lifeboat station
to get 'at least' get some shots of it coming home. Eventually
ran out of battery power and headed home via the harbour and
BGdns . . PCd and figured out I 'may' be able to salvage
something of this morning's missed opportunity. .surfed and
checked on the tide times etc. . touched base with Mum and
suggested she should come out with me to see the impressive seas
and waves etc
. .
drove with Mum and Sally to watch
the weather. Started off at Shoalstone and then parked up on the
road above the breakwater. . . . . /Oh MYYyyy GOdddd!!!! There
was a man out there - ON the breakwater as it was being lashed
and pounded by those enormous waves!! . . . treated to cod and
chips by Mum. Sat in the car in the harbourside car park to eat,
watching the waves still breaking over the breakwater opposite. .
. . PCd and transferred all the
footage to the PC. Just incredible!!! How I didn't end up
videoing a dead guy on that breakwater, is utterly beyond me.
It's gonna be SOOoooo hard to try to edit that down shorter.
Maybe I won't? Almost worthy of a TV news item that!. . PCd. I'm
goin' a bit crazy here! I just can't keep up!!!! There's just too
much going on I 'need' to capture!!! I need more hours in the day
- every day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lost count of the number of
videos I have yet to produce, from the footage I've already got -
and then there is tomorrow !
Arrrggghhhhhh!!!!!Arrrggghhhhhh!!!!!Arrrggghhhhhh!!!!! Actually
- this one just seemed so amazing to me, I couldn't bring myself
to cut it down any shorter, or actually do anything to it other
than just share it as it is. Nothing added - a good few minutes
cut off the end. (YouTube
link)
Eventually to bed past 2am, AFTER
having set the alarm for 5am!! The same sort of weather is
forecast for tomorrow, and high tide is around 6am. Can't resist
having another look at it. It was SO late, I actually considered
not going to bed at all, but I was just exhausted after all the
day's running around and HAD to. s
-/unfinished/-
16 - Up at
8:30am . .coffee, cigarettes and annadin tablet for breakfast .
.walked and on down town. Nothing much going on so eventually
headed back along past the crane, only to find an ITV camerman
filming and lots of people milling about?! Turned out divers were
about to do an underwater survey looking for seahorses!? . ended
up hanging around for absolutely ages, filming them 'getting
ready', and then missed the shot of them actually entering the
water because the camera screwed up, just at the vital moment!
"Communication Error" (with the battery!) Would you
believe it! Well - 'some' consolation that the ITV camerman
missed the shot too. He and the woman (presenter?) he was with,
had got tired waiting and had decided to go off and get some
lunch!! lol . . returned home to PC and charge batteries and then
ended up back out around 4pm, heading back down town to draw out
some money and, I have to admit it, to check I wasn't missing
something interesting. I wasn't - well, not 'particularly. Ended
up filming 'interesting' seagulls! lol . .back via the store, the
house that was due to have it's paths 'scrubbed' today, and then
Mums to report on how it looked. I wasn't impressed.
ate ham rolls, crisps a Mum donated Mars bar and a Mars chocolate
milk drink. . SO tired - I just couldn't move from the sofa. . BB
called briefly to touch base. . in bed by 10pm! sa
15 - Woke
earlier, snoozed on then up at 7:45am. Seem to be regularly
(every day?) waking up with a bad back. :o( . . walked and down
to the harbour and town . . sat around near the bus stops . . PCd
. Mum called telling me she'd arranged to have her cavity walls
filled and had also had a guy call at the door trying to sell
some sort of garden stone path washing/sealing thing!!?
. . walked up Mums and removed the
tree and ended up clearing out all her gutters up the ladder! . .
PCd. Unable to copy over a 5GB+ file to the external drive?? . .
walked . . TVd . . ate pork pie, ham rolls, salad, chocolate . .
touched base with BB . . PCd the bus stop footage until bed at
2am. (YouTube
link) Actually
speeded that one up SO much, I'm not sure it's worth bothering
with - but I just couldn't bring myself to set it to the music I
originally had in mind, and end up with yet another long, eight
minute video.
-/unfinished/-
14 - Up at
8:30am . wow - cloudless blue sky. . walked and hung around down
town for a bit, as has become something of a worrying addiction!
Soon clouded over and showered a bit . . eventually back home to
PC for a few hours. Actually finally got round to unwrapping that
new external hard drive and temporarily copying over a few files
to make some room. Works ok, and not 'too' slow for a USB type
connection (although doing an initial full backup type transfer,
will have to be run at length overnight some time I think). .pcd
this mornings video. (YouTube
link). Actually
something of a rehearsal for another attempt in the 'height of
summer' some time. It's actually more difficult than it looks -
to do that for such a long period of time and not have people get
totally 'in the way' and wreck it half way through - which is
precisely what happened on this occasion! I'd been sat on one of
the seats for at least ten minutes with the video camera running,
all perched precariously on the church wall above my head,
slightly propped up on one of my gloves - when a strangely large
woman with a red streak in her hair felt obliged to stand
directly in front of the (unseen) camera and have a very long
conversation with the mentally impaired guy sat next to me! 
Felt obliged
to stop recording her - and then started all over again after
she'd moved away. Just then, two guys stopped in the middle of
the street, in the middle of my shot filling the frame, and just
stood there motionless for around five minutes having a chat!
Arrrrrggghhhh!!! . . walked the woods and back via the nasty
dangerously narrow 'top road', hunting for pheasant! The fields
around here are absolutely full of them! Ridiculous trying to do
wildlife filming with Sally in tow, so got nothing, but saw at
least eight male and female pheasant along the way - one
(brightly coloured male) on the other side of the roadside hedge,
unaware I was peeking through, only ten feet from me (but
impossible to video). .passed groups of 'youths' all walking out
(carrying the obligatory louds of alcohol) on the way back.
Apparantly all heading to the beach! Picked up some of the trail
of litter they'd discarded along the streets on my way to the
store. .drank a tea cup of red wine and then ate four sausages
with melted cheese and onion in bread rolls and a little
chocolate. .TVd struggling to stay awake. . touched base with BB.
. TVd until bed around 11:30pm. d
13 - Up
late getting for 10am I think it was. . walked and carried on
down and back via a VERY quiet town. Popped up to the All Saints
church on the way back (as I often do only to find it closed) and
low and behold - a miracle - it was open! Had a quick look inside
(complete with Sally) for the first time since I've lived here.
Couldn't poke around too much because some sort of church 'review
of accounts' meeting was going on inside, but I saw enough to get
the impression it was, as churches go, pretty bland and
uninspiring. .PCd the whole rest of the
day away non stop, until getting on for 7pm, on the 'busker'
video. Actually, considering how it was cobbled together using
the stills camera to record the audio, and how that presents all
manner of 'syncing' difficulty, etc, etc, etc, I'm pretty damn
pleased with how that worked out in the end. Very bouncy - very
foottappy. lol A worthwhile, hard-won battle methinks - even if
in total it probably cost me £5!!!!!!!! £3 for the CD and then
another handful of change for the 'money in the case' shot!!!!
lol :o) (Jeeze - he should be paying ME (that 'titles' screen is
the closest I'll EVER come to doing an 'advert' for someone!)!!) (YouTube
link). Dropped him an
e-mail and gave 'Andrew' a call to give him the 'heads up' he was
now on youtube doing his thing . .walked. Felt a bit unwell. I've
overdone it this last day or so, and no food yet today. . ate ham
rolls, crisps and a little chocolate. . ended up drinking a
teacup of red wine (almost finished that box already). .struggled
to stay awake feeling utterly exhausted, and then somehow by
pressing the wrong button on the remote, ended up listening to
part of a program on Irish radio!!? (traditional folk songs etc.)
. . BB called . . to bed at 12:30am after having watched a couple
of my own videos again. I do SO like that 'Run to you' one of the
pilot boat (despite the poor videoing). Seems to SO sum it up for
me, always dashing back and forth. And I STILL have to wait when
I see it coming, if I'm done walking Sally and wanting to head
home, because I just can't resist the sound of that engine when
it's revved up and 'on the plane'. Almost a tingle on the back of
the neck - like you get with the sound of the engines with drag
racing or tractor pulling - that sort of thing. d
12 - Up
around 8am . . 
walked the
woods to check on the progress of the bluebells. Almost - quiet a
few out - very soon be time to take photos. :o) . carried on
walking towards the harbour, but by the clifftop roads, to check
out possible new vantage points for future videoing maybe.
.attempted to set up a photo of Sally in front of the 'Lone Wolf'
fishing boat, moored in the harbour. . On the harbourside, a
couple of the memorial seats (one with a seat slat missing!
Vandalised?) were festooned with flowers. Felt uncomfortable
doing so, but felt obliged to take a few photos. I was just
having the nerve to get the camcorder out and set up, when a guy
turned up with more flowers. Exchanged a few words to check it
wasn't too 'frowned upon' for me to video the scene. Turned out
he was the florist. He didn't seem to know anything particularly
specific about the circumstances surrounding the loss of whatever
boat it was the two Marks were on, but he said that every year an
order was placed for flowers to be put on the seats. I did my
videoing. :o( . heading back through town to be in time for Mums
usual saturday visit, I came upon a guy playing a mandoline type
thing, busking in the high street. Just stood and listened for a
bit before inevitably just HAVING to get the video camera out.
Tried filming a bit by just placing the camera on top of a bin,
but pretty soon became obvious all I was going to be picking up
was the conversation of the old deaf people next to me shouting
at each other! In a tuning pause by the performer, I 'bought
favour' by buying his group's CD for £3, and confirmed he had no
objection to me attempting to film him while having a go at
recording the audio with my new stills camera. (Had to suddenly
learn how to record audio on it for the first time, there and
then, on the spot all 'critical it works' like!) Left the stills
camera recording on his abscent wife's open violin case, while I
retreated to a suitable distance and set up the video camera, on
the tripod perched precariously on top of a waste bin!! Recorded
what actually turned into quite a long set - and hopefully
grabbed enough video to make something of it - IF it comes out
ok!! . . rushed home calling Mum on the mobile to apologise for
maybe not being there. I HAD missed her but she got my ansaphone
message as soon as she got home and came straight back down for
coffee, chats and to watch the latest videos . . ate a Mum
donated pastie, cheese, pickled onions and crisps . . napped
until the alarm at 6:30pm. . walked. . PCd and
spent hours and hours desperately attempting to do the seats
footage justice. Should have had the nerve to get more (and more
thoughtful) footage. Nevertheless, I think the result is 'in
appropriate taste' and not in any way offensive to anyone. (YouTube
link) . lots of noise
from next door all night. Much slamming of doors for some
inexplicable reason! The parents are away I think - and the girl
is making up for her quiet Birthday party by having some guys
round! Still banging away (the doors!) at 4am as I type this! . .
ate a Mum donated pastie and susage roll . . Eventually to bed
even later/earlier, despite itching to get on and have a go at
seeing if I can make anything out of the OTHER bit of videoing I
did today, which does look promising!
11 - Disturbed
sleep (that 'Run to you' song / pilot boat video was going round
my head in my sleep!???) and then eventually up just before
10am!!! Suprised Sally let me sleep on so long, although I'm
pretty sure she doesn't have a proper sleep herself if I'm up
late doing stuff. .walked mostly between showers. Seemed pretty
quiet in town, probably because of the weather. No sign of any
coastguard pickets (although I DID see the union rep driving
past) despite it being another day of industrial action I think.
. PCd this. . ate corned beef, mayo, onion, lettuce and tomato
sandwiches with crisps and then the last of the fudge. That
didn't last long! Delicious stuff. So good - I was even tempted
to dig out an old cookery book to see how it's made. I may have
to give that a go . .napped until the alarm at 6pm . . walked and
stopped in at a local store on the way home to buy a small pot of
cream and some vanilla essence! . . touched base with BB . .bit
the bullet and had a go at making fudge (after having read it up
in an old cookery book and had instructions from BB)!!!! Used one
tea cup of ordinary milk and two of white sugar together with
'some' flora (haven't got any weighing scales any more it would
appear) and stood by the stove for ages giving it my best shot.
(Listening to the classic rock radio station on the satellite
system as I did so, it made me laugh when 'Run To You' came on! )
Suffice it to say, things did NOT go well! For whatever reason,
the sticky goo I ended up with, all over everything everywhere,
did NOT set solid as it should. I blame the weak watery milk you
get these days, and the spreadable Flora I used - rather than
proper milk or cream and butter. I even retreived the box from
the fudge I bought the other day from the recycling bin to read
the ingredients. "Traces of nuts"? AHA! That's what I
need! Traces of nuts!!! lol . That mess is gonnna take some
washing up!! WHAT a waste of sugar! And I was SO convinced it
must be easy to make. :o(. . PCd but ended up just sitting
watching all my latest videos through, trying to be 'just an
audience'. VERY difficult. All I ever see is all the jerking and
faults, rather than whatever anyone else may see (whatever that
may be?). . eventually to bed around 1am. s
10 - Up at
9:30am!!. .boy I'm tired - Sally too I guess, to let me sleep on
so late . . checked my bank account and then walked. Carried on
down around the harbour, and then up to the car acessories store
to buy a small tube of 'Plastic Padding' filler. At some point in
the future, I'm going to have a go at repairing/altering/painting
the front gate, and I'm probably going to 'touch' it with a bit
of weld here and there where it has rusted badly. My poor welding
ability dictates I'll need to run a bit of filler over the repair
(and elsewhere) before smoothing and painting it. IF I actually
get round to doing that at some point, and IF it goes ok, I'm
probably going to have to have a go at Mums as well (a MUCH
bigger job!)! :o( . went into the PC shop and bought the external
hard drive. A 'Freecom Classic' 500GB, 16MB Cache, USB 2 drive
for £75.99. Crazy way to spend my money (what is that equivalent
to which I have/will deny myself? - 50 cups of coffee in a cafe?
20 fish and chip meals? etc etc!!) - but I just HAD to do it.
Getting one had become a matter of some urgency to me, thanks to
the MASSIVE size of the chunks of video I'm playing with. (For
example - the total disc space eventually used up by JUST todays
videoing, and the various processes I use to actually create a
finished 'music video', amounts to around 5.5GB!!!!) I've pretty
well used up ALL my storage/backup capacity, and have actually
already regretably deleted some stuff which I've successfully
managed to keep ('for reference') for the past several years!!
People and events, gone at the click of a mouse, forever to now
remain unremembered/non existant, such is the state of my memory!
:o( . . walked back to the inner harbour, up the steps to 'THE'
seat overlooking it, and sat for an hour videoing, with a
timelapse in mind (although the inner harbour is more about all
the people milling around, which of course doesn't work with a
panorama type view from such a distance - and would be better
done in the height of busy summer. Nevertheless, the movement of
the moored boats as the tide began to recede made the timelapse
worthwhile I figured). . treated myself to a small £1 box of
toffee and fudge on the way home . . drank a tea cup of red wine
while preparing fried bacon, black pudding, potato, onion, bread
and half a tin of baked beans. Ate - much. Not a habit I can
particularly afford to maintain, but getting just a little
blurred and typsy on a tea cup of high % wine, just before eating
a big meal and then sleeping, seems a very acceptable way of
spending a good part of the day. :o). ate some fudge . napped
until the alarm at 7pm . . walked . . PCd todays video and worked
at finishing off the couple I've had half done for the last
couple of days. (Spent a VERY long time trawling through and
listening to lots of my music collection trying with much
difficulty, to find 'appropriate' or 'fitting'(ish) pieces for
the sunset/lights, and the inner harbour tiumelapse ones). .
touched base very briefly with BB in the middle of things,
promising to call her back later . .PCd continuously until almost
4am and eventually finished off and uploaded the Pilot boat
'outbound' video(YouTube
link) . .the
Fisheries Patrol boat video (YouTube
link) . . the
sunset/lights video(YouTube
link) . . the inner
harbour timelapse video(YouTube
link) . . the
rainbows video (the third 'scene/cut' was the REALLY vivid
rainbow the like of which I've never before seen, although I'm
not sure the video (blurred/low-light/rushed-hand-held-shakey)
really does it justice) (YouTube
link) . . ate corned
beef and mayo sandwiches with pickled onions around 4am before
constnatly getting the engaged tone when trying to call BB back .
. eventually gave up and to bed with the birdsong!!!!! d
9 - Broken
sleep and up once around 5:30am and then woken by Sally around
8am . . walked and ended up just sitting around by the inner
harbour for quite a while watching the world go by. Rather fewer
coaches and people milling around today, but still pretty busy.
.popped into a local PC store and enquired about the price of
their 500GB external hard drive. . bought another small 50p bag
of a couple of bones for Sally and some black pudding for me in
the high street butcher before eventually heading home around
midday. .checking the TV paper, I spotted a show (a follow up to
a program years ago about a young autistic guy, with a sevant
ability to draw from memory in acute and accurate detail) I was
sure Mum would want to see, despite it being on 5, a channel she
doesn't currently have. Gave her a call and suggested she pop in
later to watch it. Mentioned the view I'd newly discovered the
other day and eventually somehow persuaded her to come for a walk
and see it for herself. .walked (again!) with Mum up to the
vantage point. . treated by Mum to a large lot of fish and chips,
sat in the sun on one of the harbourside seats. Went down VERY
well - I was starving! Followed that up with a large ice cream!
Like being a proper couple of holiday makers!! lol I'll have to
walk with Mum again!! lolol Actually, it WAS ok. Mum seems to be
having a bit of a hard time, getting older and missing Dad and
stuff right now. I don't 'help' much. :o( . . eventually headed
back along the outer harbourside. The big crane was doing
interestiung things with a large metal structure, which, if I'd
been on my own would have seen me stop and sit there for an hour
or more hoping to maybe catch something interesting with the
camera. Oh well - can't capture everything (but oh, I SO want
to!!??) . . .all sat in BGdns for a bit, admiring the sunny view
before eventually heading home . .napped for just over an hour
before woken by the alarm at 7pm . . did dishwashing chores . .
Mum popped down to watch the TV show. The guy had a fifteen
minute helicopter flight over London, and then spent the next few
days drawing entirely from memory a massive London skyline, in
totally accurate photograph like detail. Utterly amazing. .
walked Mum home before sitting in the garden with a coffee for a
bit (to 'recover' from having so much company in one day!) . .
touched base with BB . . TVd and ate a bar of chocolate. . PCd,
surfing, looking at hard drive/PC prices and the like until
around 2am before bed. Actually, when you take into account the
postage prices and such, the local price of that external hard
drive doesn't seem too bad.
8 - Up at
7:30am. walked in the sun and carried on out along the breakwater
for a play with the camera and whatever events occured. (Ended up
with just pretty mundane/poor shots of the pilot and fisheries
patrol boats heading out to sea). . back through the crowds of
people. LOTS of people! At least six coaches were parked in the
car park. . drank a tea cup of wine while cooking - bacon,
potato, eggs, onions, bread and baked beans. Ate a piled-high
plate full . . napped until the alarm at 6pm. . . walked . . PCd
. . touched base with BB briefly . .PCd on through until around
3am messing with a couple of videos, pretty much completed all
but the 'titles' screens. . touched base with BB briefly . ate a
banana before to bed at getting on for 4am. d
7 - Broken
sleep then up around 7am to wipe off the condensation from all
the windows . .walked in the cold sun and ended up walking out
along the breakwater and back. Detoured a little on the way back
towards town, exploring 'vantage points' a bit. There's a whole
bunch (I think) of really neat places to get some good views I've
yet to 'use'. .
-/unfinished/-
'Mrs B' and a cup of tea - AND
shortbread biscuits, no less!!!!!!!!!!
As she'd said she would, she'd left
her front door open, so when I'd finished drinking I duly popped
the mug just inside on the floor, and then pulled it shut before
I set to leave. Gosh - how oldy worldy trusting (really
nice) - and oh so terribly vulnerable! Tapped on her window and
gave a cheery wave as I left. Remarkable.
just down the road was a flock of
seagulls all milling around at the end of a long trail of what
turned out to be peanuts!!?? I got the impression from some other
debris nearby it'd probably fallen out of the large nylon refuse
sack a couple of bin men were dragging down the road!?? The bin
lorry can't fit down that street, so it appears the refuse
collectors just drag that huge nylon bag along and fill it with
all the houses rubbish before dragging it back to somewhere where
the lorry can pick it up! Nasty for them. The peanuts looked
slightly past their best, but still a damn good feed or birds or
something, and there was so much of the bag left in tact, I
couldn't resist popping it into a poop scoop bag and carrying it
home (which still left a long trail and substantial pile for the
seagulls to clear up).
-/unfinished/-
. . mowed the back lawn while
playing this mornings video onto the PC. .mowed the front lawn
and trimmed a bit of the hedge along the back lane . . PCd . .
touched base with BB . . PCd more and finished off the 'Torbay'
video. (YouTube
link). Not my
original choice of music, but with the video (over an hour!)
speeded up so much, I couldn't fit it to what I had in mind while
filming it. Really is a neat view from up there. What those
little houses must be worth - and WHAT a view they must have from
the upper floors (and houses up higher)!! Incredible! I'm gonna
be spending quite a lot more time up there - I can see it
happening! Imagine sunsets from up there - and night lights -
and, and, and -!!! I haven't even scratched the surface of this
place yet have I! . . dug out the last of the 'found in BGdns'
cans of beer from the fridge and, determined to have a night off
from feeling obliged to try and capture everything on video all
the time, left the tripod at home and headed for BGdns with
Sally, to just sit around for a bit and enjoy the view. . 
well - where to
start? First of all, that'll teach me not to trust my insticts
and take the tripod with me! Out to sea on the far horizon, those
crazy TMS guys were at it again! They were towing a big crane/JCB
type thing across the outer bay (presumably heading back to the
Dart estuary/river). I'll never cease to find such a sight,
utterly bizarre. Tried filming it, but without the tripod, and on
maximum zoom, the footage was too jerky for any use (except to
screen-capture this blurred distant image). On top of THAT, the
sky was doing utterly amazing stuff. Oh boy, HOW I should have
returned to that newly discovered vantage point of earlier! 
First of all there was a storm cell passing
over Torquay in the distance, with visible rain (or maybe even
hail) falling from it in great streaks, as it made its way out to
sea in a kinda south easterly direction. I only suffered a drop
or two from a trailing edge. The sinking sun gave it a 'brooding
definition' and then all of a sudden there were two verticle
'pieces' of rainbows in the distance past the breakwater. The
piece on the right was THE most VIVID rainbow I have EVER seen in
my life! Just stunning. With the sun pretty much set, everything
was constantly changing with astonishing speed and the storm cell
went through all manner of colour changes in no time at all. As
darkness began to fall, there was the breifest magical period of
perhaps no more than sixty seconds, when the edges of the clouds
in the sky turned to absolute raging fire (the picture here was
NOT during those sixty seconds!)! Just incredible. All of it.
Just absolutely incredible. . eventually finished my beer and
rather frozen, headed home. . touched base with BB . . ate ham
rolls, crisps and chocolate. . TVd until bed around midnight. ds
6 - Up
around 8:30am just in time to see it snowing!! Blizzard like for
a while - and then it was gone!!!!. . walked in the sun! What
bizarre weather. Winter and summer, all in the same hour! Sat
around in BGdns for ages hoping the snow would return, but apart
from just a few flakes from the odd small passing cloud, there
was no more - and was actually more sunny than not. Looked as
though inland places to the far East were copping it, from the
look of the clouds. . drank a tea cup of red wine, TVd and PCd a
bit of (with hindsight, really pretty unimpressive) sky video (YouTube
link). .too late for
a nap. Ate ham sandwiches with crisps and then struggled to stay
awake and got increasingly bad tempered as a result. . couldn't
face the evening walk and just ended up TVing nothing all evening
. . ate bowls of cornflakes . . touched base breifly with BB but
SO didn't want to have to be talking on the phone and brutally
and abruptly ended the conversation short . . to bed just after
10pm. d
5 - Woke
earlier, snoozed on then up around 8am. . walked. 
Thought I
remembered reading something somewhere about a possible gathering
this morning, in the woods by the carved tree stumps, to mark the
opening of some sort of 'Heritage Environmental Art Trail'
thingy, so after a bit of a sit and chat with the usual dog
walker crowd, I headed off down to the woods for a look. Actually
ended up walking down the cliffs just in front of a small group
of four people, one carrying a bunch of balloons and giving out
leaflets, who were heading for the carvings. One of the group of
four (a teacher at the local college I think) had actually been
involved in the creation of the carvings when it was first done a
couple of years ago, and I was able to eavesdrop and learn just a
little more about the background of how and what went on when it
was done. One other guy turned up, who was in some organisation
or other, and had also had some hand in the site's creation.
Other than that, no one else turned up! Seemed a bit sad - what
with happy shiney people with balloons and all! . Much of the
conversation seemed to be about how remarkably well it had all
survived, despite the inevitable influence of drunken partying
yobs. (The tree carving of the bearded face (looks a 'bit' like
me doesn't it?), has actually had a couple of bronze coins added
by someone in the eyes!) I guess they are right. Something like
that back in Bristol would have been a smouldering pile of ash
within days. They all pretty soon left and headed off to visit
the other points of interest along their 'art trail' across town.
. 
walked the long, less steep way back through
the woods, stopping here and there to grab a minute or so video
of whatever spring flowers caught my eye. Carried on doing the
same thing at a few peoples gardens on the way - including the
'bedside cabinet' guys garden. Embarassing when he came out and
started wanting to give me something again! He offered a bottle
of wine. I put up a polite token struggle of refusing before
eventually accepting with much thanks. Ended up walking home with
a bottle of 'Altivo, Rioja, Tempranillo' (?) spanish red stuffed
in a pocket. . PCd . . Mum called in for coffee and chats, with
the usual very welcome mountain of food donations . . PCd more
and knocked up the rather colourful little 'flowers' video out of
lots of little snips (actually didn't use lots more). (YouTube
link) . ate Mum
donated pork and stuffing slices in bread rolls with crisps and
some chocolate . . napped until the alarm at 7pm . . as per the
forecast, it feels like back to winter. Walked in several layers,
hat and gloves, in the moderate but very cold breeze . . PCd this
. .touched base with BB . .PCd more trying to get this at least a
'little' up to date-ish. I keep on running out of steam with it
these days, and just make a note to myself it's 'unfinished', and
then forget what the hell it was that happened and never go back
and finish it! . . TVd and ate mum donated kipling slices before
eventually to bed after 1:30am.
4 - Up
around 8:30am . .weird bank of sea mist enveloping some of the
houses in the distance . . walked in sunny spells. Wow - there IS
a sea mist - or is that actually a thick fog? BGdns was all clear
and partially sunlight, as was much of the wider bay in the
distance, but out to sea and across part of the town in a strange
angled line, a thick blanket of fog obscured all else. Very
atmospheric. .sat for a while before eventually setting off to
head down into town. Just setting off down the path and rounding
a sharp corner, Sally suprised a young rabbit, naively out in the
sun eating the grass. There was the breifest of chases before
Sally caught it!! :o( Crunch, crunch, crunch and it was
despatched. Poor little thing. It was at the least, a relatively
quick death I guess. Sally really is amazingly, instinctively
efficient at doing that. Still - it upsets me. Pointless
suffering and death. :o( Dragged Sally away from her prize and
left it for a fox or the crows (or more likely someone elses
dog!) . .walked back via the harbour and town . . PCd as the
temperature noticeably plumetted and the mist closed in all
around, to be more of a thick fog. Extraordinary how it seemed to
have a marked downward effect on my mood as it obscured the sun
and closed in. More than one report on the news later, of the fog
causing real trouble out at sea. . PCd the 'ferry video'. (YouTube
link) Now THAT sort
of effect is more of what I had in mind for the 'walk along the
breakwater' type video which I failed to acheive. A smooth,
zoomed-in, continuous pan, along the length of that shoreline.
Sadly, from the vantage point of the ferry, the last bit becomes
rather pointless because all you can see is the concrete dock
side, rather than a decent view of the town. Oh well. I take what
I can get . . Mum called to touch base on more than one occasion,
initially to inform me she'd arranged to have the big overgrown
fir-tree in her garden chopped down today, and then to give me
progress reports as the work was ongoing! lol (I had offered on
more than one occasion to do the job, but it was always 'not now,
not now' as it always is, no matter what!). . ate ham, lettuce
and mayo sandwiches with crisps and then a bunch of biscuits .
.briefly touched base with Mum one more time to confirm the job
was finished and the tree was gone, and then napped until the
alarm at 7pm . . popped in Mums to see the absent tree. A bit
bare, but definitely right to have it removed. And actually Mum
was quite right - no way could I have easily done that. It was
bigger than I'd thought. The stump which remains, and will have
to be ground away by some specialist some time in the future, is
at least a couple of feet across!! . . walked with Mum and sat in
BGdns, chatting for quite a long while, as darkness fell. As we
sat in the dark, a bunch of 'kids' with torches appeared at the
entrance and then came wandering down the path a short distance
away, irritatingly often shining their torches directly at us,
blinding us. Very much the wrong thing to do I always think -
shine a torch straight into someones eyes like that when you're
out in the dark. That had me all up-tight. Made various
disapproving comments to Mum in conversation that they were
probably on their way to join some drunken gathering or other
(some distant shouting indicated there was one), or were waiting
until we'd gone before setting about vandalising the roof over
the seats some more! When we soon after started back home, we
ended up walking a distance behind them as they made their way
back up to the road. They got back into their police car and
drove off! lolololololol How old have I become - that the police
look like yobbish 'kids'! lololololololol :o) . . back home just
before 10pm! . touched base with BB. . TVd . .ate a microwaved
tin of stewed steak with four pieces of bread and butter . . TVd
until to bed around midnight.
3 - Woke
earlier, snoozed on then up around 7:45am. . .incredible
cloudless blue sky, and already feeling pretty warm in the sun.
walked along the coastal path all
the way to Torquay!!
by the time we were just entering
the outskirts of Torquay walking along the roadside pavements, I
was actually pretty worried about Sally. She looked real tired
and was positively dragging along on the lead behind me!
Returned immediately (it was all about
the journey - not the 'being' there) on the ferry for £3.
sat in the warm sun in Bgdns for a
while on the way back from the harbour for a cigarette or two.
Incredibly warm under the crystal clear blue sky. . stopped off
at the store on the way back and treated myself to some expensive
Kingsmill bread rolls and slices of smoked ham. . . ate ham
rolls, crisps and chocolate. . napped for a couple of hours until
woken by the alarm at 7pm. . wow - I think I actually have a
little bit of sunburn on my head and face!! . .PCd. . touched
base with BB briefly . . PCd until around 4am and did the 'run
rabbits' video (YouTube
link) and the 'train' video (YouTube
link). That train video could be SO much better,
with all the amazing vantagepoints along its length, but I wasn't
going to spend the whole day just hanging around trying to video
that for a couple of seconds each hour!
Maybe I'll get serious with it again in the future!! s
2 - Up
around 8am. . walked. Sunny. Wow - out of the breeze it really
felt like a warm summer day! Walked around the harbour and out to
the breakwater beach for a lounge about and then out along the
breakwater. All along the way I was catching glimpses of seal in
the water. I think there are a lot more of those around here than
anyone realises. . defrosted the remaining bone I had in the
freezer and gave it to Sally out in the garden. . ate sausages in
baked beans, chopped onions, going-very-green cheese, and four
pieces of bread and butter . . napped under just a sheet, and
woke overheating! . . walked. The roof over the seats has been
vandalised again and indelible marker pen graffitti scrawled on
all the roof supports. :o( . .drank a tin of lager and TVd . .
very quiet next door for an 18th birthday party! (I think it was
tonight?) Cool. :o) . .TVd . .touched base with BB briefly . .ate
ham sandwiches, crisps, pickled onions and four kipling tarts . .
eventually to bed around midnight. d
1 - Disturbed
nights sleep then up around 7:15am. Boy have I got a bad, aching
back!! VERY bad! :o( Took a while to actually be able to get
dressed - my socks in particular! :o( . . two paracetamol for
breakfast. PCd a bit of this trying to sit very upright. I didn't
see this coming. I felt ok doing the work yesterday, and didn't
notice putting my back out at all. I'm sure in a bit of trouble
now. . walked - slowly and painfully. Stooping to poop scoop is a
bugger with a bad back! . blimey! The 'bedside cabinet' guy came
out to have a word and enthuse about the latest DVd I'd given him
- and tried putting money (paper money!) into my hand as thanks!
I refused of course. Thanks enough to have such a positive
reaction. :o) . .oh jeeze! One of the dogwalkers who had a small
pack of dogs, told me the other day how one of them had an eye
problem and was going in to the vets for an operation. Apparantly
the operation had gone ok but the dog ('good friend of twelve
years') suffered a heart attack when coming out of the
anaesthetic and had died!! :o( Without a trace of a pause in his
'normal' conversation, he wiped away a tear from his cheek! In MY
life, I cannot conceive of any greater sorrow than that of the
loss of a faithful dog. With people, it's just 'different'. I
can't explain. (Sally
needs to live forever I think - lest she should take me with her
when she goes!!). . 
funny - just
when I can't really be doing much, I get all into the idea of
wanting to do stuff around the garden/house all of a sudden!
Typical. . finally unscrewed it from the broken piece of
ornamental masonary it was attached to, then messed around
polishing the old, five and a half inch diameter, brass sundial
I'd found in the front garden when I removed the bit of hedge
last year. Came up pretty nice. It'll live inside on the living
room window ledge for the time being I think. Funny having it
loose like that. With the sun streaming in through the window
during the morning, it was easy to actually adjust to tell the
correct time (BST of course) lol . . PCd a bit of this. Must have
sat in the chair all upright or moved in a certain way or
something, but thankfully my bad back seemed to ease just a
little. .drank a tea cup of red wine and then ate corned beef,
mayo, lettuce tomato and onion sandwiches with crisps. . napped
until the alarm at 6pm. . walked . . PCd . .ML called to confirm
he'd had a baby boy yesterday! . . Mum called breifly followed by
BB. Sheesh - on the phone for the best part of two hours!! . .
TVd. . ended up after midnight before having another tea cup of
wine while I cooked. Ate two sausages, two burgers and chips
followed by a whole pack of mum donated chocolate fingers! . .
TVd until bed around 1:30am.dd
^Top