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July
31 - Up at 7:45am . . walked in a hint of drizzle . . Mum called to touch base and tell me my nephew and his lady have just had a (few weeks premature) baby boy, who's doing ok. :o) . . PCd all day working on the SAR video, desperately trying to trim it down, but try as I did, I just couldn't seem to shorten it much and eventually ended up leaving it very much as filmed on the day - complete with the audio commentary which the camera picked up suprisingly well, and saves having to get creative in some way! . . ate stew with four pieces of bread and butter for a mid afternoon lunch . . napped late without setting the alarm and didn't wake up until around 8pm! . . skipped the evening walk (tired - and bad weather too) and carried on PCing . .lot of frogs in the garden tonight :o) . . BB called briefly . . PCd on and eventually succeeded in roughly hacking the SAR video into YouTube sized pieces and uploading them. . ate the last of the stew and then a couple of buttered hot cross buns around 1am . .TVd/PCd until finally to bed after 4am!!
30 - Back up by around 8:30am. . coffee and cigarettes 'breakfast' at the PC, watching the lifeboat video 'in the cold light of day'. Hardly impressive, but the best I could manage with what I got . . walked. God I'm tired - and hungry! . .sat around in front the TV for a bit, unable to muster the energy for anything else . . did a bit of dish washing chores while cooking up a potato, carrot, onion, peas, garlic, tin of stewed steak in gravy type saucepan of stew. . ate lots with at least half a dozen pieces of bread and butter!! . . napped the afternoon away until around 5:30pm . . PCd. Aha - PayPal have returned my account to normal thank goodness. Also received a YouTube e-mail from the Red Devils camera man asking for a copy of the footage I took. :o) E-mailed a reply suggesting he give me an address to which to send a dvd-r rather than the actual tape. . sat and watched my video and then the source footage all the way through again, to make sure it isn't 'too' embarassing to just send 'as is'. Apart from my voice sounding very stressed at one point threateningly explaining to a small child that he should not (repeatedly) bump into my tripod (as he pushed his way to the front), I think it's ok. lol . . walked . PCd . BB called briefly . . ate corned beef, mayo and lettuce sandwiches with crisps after midnight . .TVd until bed around 2am. s
29 - Woken around 8am by the sound of the rain. . walked in the leggings I scored from a charity shop a little while ago for £5. I think they'll do, although the rain wasn't really heavy enough to give them a proper 'test drive'. . .PCd on the lifeboat ('The Machine') video for hours . . ate ham, lettuce and tomato rolls with crisps . . napped the rest of the afternoon away until around 6:15pm . . walked and (after the appearance of yet another brandy bottle just thrown into the rough grass at the top of the street where all the dogs have to mark their spot) couldn't resist wandering back and forth for just a few minutes collecting all the bottles I found, into a noticeable heap. I had dabbled with the idea of carrying them home to put in the glass recycle bin (which I somehow almost never use because I don't produce glass waste) but ended up just leaving them there because there were too many to easily carry. Around a dozen or so? Just left them there, all 'noticeable' like . . straight back on the PC (which seems to have become increasingly unreliable and prone to crashing!!?) and battled on until the early hours before finally calling a halt. . . ate bowls of muesli around 2am as more wind and rain battered the house. . PCd on until almost 4am uploading the video before finally to bed for a bit.
28 - Woken around 7:45am by a neighbour noisily pouring empty bottles into their recycling bin! There really is an extraordinary amount of drinking that goes on around these parts. Very noticeable, walking past all the overflowing recycling bins out every other week, when walking Sally. Many, MANY households are on a minimum of a bottle of wine per day - never mind the constant appearance of small empty brandy bottles just thrown wherever they are finished by a local alcoholic. Infuriates me that guy, whoever he is, does that. You can actually trace his route by the disgarded bottles and broken glass, all the way along from the top of my street, right down at least as far as the cricket club. Along that route is an area of grass outside some strange little housing estate, which is carefully tended and manicured by the residents on a regular basis. It is quite common to see one of those discarded brandy bottles just thrown into the middle of their lawn, for one of them to have to go and pick up! Grrrrr . .walked . . PCd a bit before having to have a bit of a break from the machine! . . messed around for an hour or so, having a go at starting the polishing of the brass shell. It's SO pitted and scratched that I'm going to have to spend hours and hours rubbing away at it with varying grades of wet and dry paper! That's going to be a 'job for life' from time to time, albeit something of a 'labour of love'! . . sat around/TVd/PCd just a little and fired off an e-mail to PayPal to attempt to sort out the problem with my account. So - what's the bet they don't respond in ANY way to my e-mail? . . got the car started and drove Sally for her walk, before then heading off to TQ to attempt to find the letterbox of the address I'd been e-mailed by a member of the Morph band. Eventually found what I 'think' was the right place (a business premises 'safe address') and just pushed the data disc and DVD through the letterbox. .touched base with BB . .TVd . . ate a pastie with crisps. . TVd until bed around 2am.
27 - Up around 8:50am headachey. .walked . . dropped Sally off at home and then headed down in the sun and heat to have a look at the lifeboat open day. Actually suprised there weren't more people about. .Looking over the lifeboat actually turned out to be quite a disappointment. One of the main areas I was interested in seeing were the engines, but that 'below decks' area was out of bounds with a crew member citing that nauseating excuse of 'health and safety' blah blah blah. Trying to film anything in the upper cabin was pretty difficult because of the cramped space and bunch of people, so all in all not a particularly successful sortie. . on the walk back home, a strange guy carrying a fishing rod started chatting to me. To be honest, when he told me in his Belfast accent he composed songs but couldn't play any instruments, and some of his songs had been taken up by a film studio, and he'd done one for the Queens jubilee and got appreciative letters from the palace and such, etc, etc etc, I figured I was deep into 'just humor him and get the hell away as soon as possible' territory. That wasn't so easy when it transpired he was actually walking exactly the same way as me and was carrying on up past my house! I had to walk the whole way with him, making difficult-for-me, small talk. To cut a long story short, because he said there was no way of me going on-line and hearing any of his work, he ended up singing some of it to me!!!!!! He sang a bit of something as we walked up the main road - and then when I was forced to pause and be polite at my front gate, he sang a much longer piece! Twilight zone! I was being serenaded by a strange Irishman in the street! What must the neighbours have thought?!!! Having said all of that - it must be said, by the time he'd finished, I was actually wondering if every word he'd said was the truth! What he sang was pretty damn good, and he even had a really bloody good voice! Extraordinary! . . touched base with Mum (because he lived 'near' her) and told her what had happened. Bizarrely she'd had a similar occurence and had been 'trapped' in her front garden while gardening and serenaded by him some time in the past! lololol All very bizarre. .ate cheeseburgers and just hung around, really rather up tight, waiting for it to be time to return to the Breakwater to attempt to film the lifeboat/helicopter search and rescue demonstration whiuch was the culmination of Lifeboat Week. . . walked back down again around 4pm to see the SAR display off the breakwater

-/ helicopter was cancelled! /-

. . back overheating and tired . . walked Sally carrying the last can of beer PS had left in the fridge, and sat in BGdns for ages . . TVd . . ate bowls of muesli. . touched base with BB . . to bed around midnight. ad
26 - Up around 8am . .walked . . PCd . . Mum and Sis2 popped in . . ate pork stuffing rolls and crisps . . napped until around 5:30pm . .PCd right up to the last second before Mum and Sis2 arrived, working on a MORPH DVD. All walked up 'the hill' to let Sis2 experience the view across town and the wider bay. . straight back on the PC as soon as I got home, only to find the big chunk of video I'd compiled before we left, had somehow inexplicably gone 'missing' and was no longer on the hard drive!!!!!????? Worrying! Never had that happen before!!! Luckily able to recompile it, albeit wasting an hour. . PCd the MORPH DVD until around 1am . . watched the dvd on the TV. Not bad - and that band MUST be heading somewhere. They really ARE pretty good. They SO remind me of 'More' from back in the eighties for some reason . . ate bowls of cornflakes . . to bed around 2am.
25 - Up around 8:10am . . Mums birthday today. I've been SO busy and consumed with all this video stuff, I hadn't gotten round to buying a card or anything. I HAD however bagged a small (2" long?) brass german shepherd ornament in a charity shop for £1 the other day. It's strangely unusal to find ANY sort of an ornament that actually looks like a REAL German Shepherd at the best of times, let alone a decent brass one. The big true to life one Mum and Dad found at a boot sale one time, takes pride of place in the centre of my mantle piece and I'll never better it or part with it. The little one however was actually quite similar and not bad at all, and I figured Mum would like it, given her great fondness for Sally (and at least weekly investment in pork pie treats!). . walked in a hint of warm drizzle, with the brass German Shepherd ornament in a pocket, intending to stop in at Mums on the way home and give it to her. . talking with one of the regular dog walkers in BGdns, I mentioned the ornament and showed her and somehow got talking about my small 'brass collection', etc. During the conversation she made some passing comment about how she was going to get rid of a piece of brass she had. I couldn't believe what she was saying. I absolutely JUMPED at the chance. I laboured the point and made it VERY clear to her that what she was talking about was actually potentialy worth a bit of money these days, but she still said I could have it if I wanted it. I DID want it - lots. Don't know why, but I've always wanted one. I've got the small one of some 'sentimental value' which was given to me by my grandmother, but I've always fancied one of the big ones. With her agreement, I followed her straight back to her house and took possession of it. A brass shell casing. A proper BIG one. Around two and a half feet in length of a 4.5" calibre. So the story goes, the seabeds around here used to be littered with them, and in the past the trawlers were always hauling them up and giving them away to people. So - it's a 'sea shell'! lolololol My parting words were that if she changed her mind and regretted parting with it, she knew where it was (although I sincerely hope she doesn't take me up on that!). . .headed back homeward via the most direct route, carrying the heavy shell over first one shoulder and then the next, and then back and forth when it became too painful. Really pretty heavy lump of metal! . along the way of course I got a lot of funny looks from everyone I passed. Some workmen cutting hedges in a garden, humorously shouted out they were going to call the police - because I was a likely terrorist. lolol . . stopped of at Mums (horrified when I suggested I'd bought her some brass for her birthday - before then producing the apparantly much appreciated ornament) and had a couple of buttered hot cross buns with coffee in the garden. .eventually completed the tiring carrying and returned home with my prize. . shortly followed by Sis2 who wanted to use the PC to check her mail etc. . feeling overwhelmed with the amount of PCing I have still to do (with every second these days being precious - going without food, sleep, etc, etc. as a result), I found it infuriating having to just sit around doing nothing while she denied me use of it. .I tried to show willing but when she ended up surfing/ringing shops looking for a CD player Mum may like, my (selfish and bizarre) short temperedness got the better of me and there was a bit of an argument resulting in Sis2 quickly leaving. I didn't actually slam the front door behind her but it was close. . Immediately returned to the machine and PCd on the Red Devils video ALL day . .turned out to be a VERY difficult video to conjour up - despite the actual four or five minute drop sequence being largely unedited! Despite (as usual) initially thinking I'd captured nothing of the event, I once again somehow ended up with another pretty long (20 minute) video, because I just couldn't bring myself to throw away too much of the footage! It was all just so bright and colourful and, frankly beautiful . . briefly stuffed down the couple of pork pies Mum'd let me have for Sally while a process was running and then straight back on with it, non stop until around 8pm . . walked leaving the PC compiling the High Quality version. . PCd yet more and brutaly cut the video in half for the YouTube uploads . . touched base with SH (FINALLY someone answered one of his phones!) in the down time while the PC processed one of the files . . All uploaded, done and dusted (and maybe watched - more than once!! I like that one despite all its faults. ) by around midnight!!!! Boy! That was a hard won battle. Watching that through makes me think back to the time I did my one and only silly little static line jump. It makes me think mostly of 'temperature'. Those Red Devils must have really felt the high altitude cold as they exited the plane, experienced a noticeably warming descent under their chutes on the hot sunny day, and then ended up with a quick plunge back into really cold on 'splash down'.
24 - Up around 8:20am . . .PCd . . walked. VERY stiff breeze. . PCd actually somehow going round and round in circles for hours and hours and coming up with nothing?! I feel burnt out with it all again and frankly sick and tired of spending my life sat at a PC. :o( To cap it all, the PC seemed to degenerate into a series of crashes every time I tried to compile a video, which eventually saw me just turn the damn thing off in total disgust . . ate ham and mayo sandwiches with crisps and then a couple of Mum donated mini cheesecake type things. . napped the rest of the day away until the alarm at 6:30pm (swiftly followed by an ansaphone message from Sis2). .PCd . walked leaving the PC running. Passed the rank of houses on the way, the roofs of which seem to be favoured by breeding seagulls, which has worryingly had a young seagull stranded in the gardens for the last several days. Bizarrly this evening, the seagull was actually trapped inside someones small double glazed porch, and was pacing back and forth trying to get back out through the glass!! Turned out the door had apparantly been left open while the woman and her young kids had popped round the corner for something - and thankfully they soon returned. My offer to assist was accepted so the woman held Sally's lead while I popped into their porch and quickly picked the bird up and then threw it gently up onto the low roof of a neighbouring larger porch. Poor thing felt very skinny and it's heart was absolutely pounding with fear! Actually - I'm pretty pleased to have finally had an excuse to get involved and get that bird up off the floor and back to 'relative' safety! . It was still up there and asleep by the time I was walking back. .PCd and decided to upload a bit of the 'lifeboat dedication service' video, despite the fact it's probably of little interest to anyone at all. .PCd a bit of this . . Uhoh. Received an e-mail from a Paypal 'compliance' department demanding I provide fax copies of documents!?? Either I've recently updated one of their multiple choice boxes wrongly (because of the limited options which didn't fit me), or they've got a problem with the 'donations' I've received!!!! Poked around on line but couldn't find any way of sorting it out so ended up phoning them!!!! Suprisingly on this occasion - swearing and throwing foul mouthed abuse at the automated phone answering system DID actually work, and saw me promptly connected to a real person (albeit in a foreign country with an almost indecypherable accent). Sadly they weren't any use, and the upshot of it all was, I have to now contact them by e-mail to try and sort it out! Why they couldn't have just given me the e-mail address in the e-mail, and saved all that expense of a phone call is beyond me. :o( I HATE computers! Just wasting my life away. Just sick and bloody tired of it/them. . . touched base with BB . . TVd and ate ham, cheese and mayo sandwiches with crisps . . to bed after2am.
23 - Up just after 7:15am. Wow - that's a surprise after yesterday - it's cool and foggy out! A real 'pea souper'. That'll be that 'sea fog' which'll burn off later to reveal a scorching sunny day, as per the forcast. . .walked in the pleasant cool . .surfed looking at PCs and hard drives, etc, etc, waiting for whenever ML was going to arrive. . ML arrived with his wife and baby. Despite him telling me at length all about the knee operation he'd had etc, he was game for going for a walk. All set off complete with pram heading for town via BGdns. What I hadn't banked on was the pace at which ML would be travelling. Slow. Unbelievably SLOW! An absolute crawl. SO frustrating, for both me AND Sally I think. Took forever to just reach BGdns. . briefly sat with the view before helping carry the pushchair down all the steps, and then slowly oh so slowly crawled along into town . . all sat on seats on the harbourside and ate from the chip shop. Treated myself to a savaloy and chips. Much fish and chips left overs from ML and his wife for Sally. . . slowly oh SO slowly sauntered back home via the more gently inclined main road, for eventual goodbyes . .very soon after left Sally at home and quickly returned to the harbour to see the Red Devils parachute display thing. Wow - turned into a BIG crowd all along the harbourside towards the marina. Good job I'd arrived as early as I did, and managed to get a position right on the walkway wall before everyone crowded in. . the wait for the actual drop seemed to go on forever in the blistering hot sun. Hellish trying to see the circling plane - and turned out to be impossible to spot it in the viewfinder of the camcorder. Had to just point it at the sky lots in the general direction of where it was, and hope for the best. . somehow other people nearby managed to spot the plane and suddenly announced they were out. DAMN! Where?!!!!! In the end, I caught up with the action as the smoke trails were already plummeting - and then the damn camera took it upon itself to focus on some low whispy cloud that was drifting through between me and the parachutists, so the action was all out of focus dots in the distance type stuff!! Arrrgghhhh! It's SO hard trying to ctach stuff like that when you haven't a clue what's going to happen and where, and partiularly with this event, when everything is happening SO quickly. On top of all that of course, I was doing contortions with the camera/tripod trying to point it unnaturaly directly upwards. I had no idea those parachutes moved so quickly. I couldn't even follow them with the camera, they were dropping and twisting so quickly. And then there were all the people jostling me, and, and - well - suffice it to say it was a tough thing to film!!! Absolutely DETERMINED to get something of it, it all had me pretty stressed out! . . after the long wait, it was all over in a flash!. . walked along to the lifeboat station just in case there was anything of interest to film, and was rewarded with footage of the Devils showering in all their gear in front of a crowd of onlookers! Bizarre - but very colourful in the strong sunlight and strangely fascinating. lol . . returned to the harbour and had to sit around for a bit in the shade trying to cool off before eventually heading home . .PCd the predictably disappointing footage. Not sure I caught enough to do anything with . . Mum/Sis2 popped in with the hire car they'd ended up with. Nice little newish looking car, but Sis2 explained it appeared to have a problem. Unlike the usual automatics that she's been driving for years, this one will slip backwards on a hill!!?? That didn't seem right at all, and it was probably no coincedence that the rear moulded bumper was cracked and impact damaged. Had a quick sit in it myself and sure enough, even on a gentle slope, the thing would roll backwards until you gave it some gas. Weird. Eventually raced up the back garden and had a word with next door (the mechanic) who confirmed it was quite normal behavior for a semi automatic type car, because they actually have manual gear boxes but with an auto changer fitted to them! Well. I had no idea. That's something to look out for if I ever DO replace my car with an automatic (as I've dreamed of doing for years). Whatever happens - do NOT get one like that! Get a 'proper' one! . . PCd some more looking at possible choices of music for a video. . touched base with BB . . ate cheese and mum donated spring onions and chocolate . . TVd until bed after 1am. s
22 - Up just before 9am!. . .walked and carried on down town to buy some more blank dvds. Walked all the way to the PC store to yet again find it was closed! Grrr. Ended up paying a relatively high price (£6:49) for a pack of 25 (they had no larger packs!) from Woolworths. Popped into one of the local electrical stores and exchanged a word with the guy behind the counter - the guitarist from the 'Rage' group!

-//-

He promised I could have a copy of whatever they eventually end up with on their DVD. I'd like that very much - to see what 'the professionals' do and come up with. . . scorching hot sunny day. Proper summer weather at last . . much sitting in BGdns on the way back just watching the world sailing by out in the bay. . PCd . . mowed the lawn and my hair and beard . . PCd . . walked and sat in BGdns with a can of Redbull . .touched base with BB . . cooked and ate four burgers in buttered bread rolls and the last three kipling tarts. .PCd briefly. Received an e-mail reply from the 'Morph' group saying they WOULD like a copy of the footage I took at the Hap'nin'. YET more work/hassle to try and squeeze in some time!!!! :o( . . TVd until bed after 1am.
21 - Up around 8:30am. . walked. . .pcd 'the Churston/mouse' video . . hastily knocked up a 'Rage' dvd. . looked up some details on the internet and then walked and headed off in the opposite-to-usual direction, toward the park and the Rage guitarists home address on the way, to hand him the unedited source footage and a copy of the lightly edited DVD playable version. Sadly he wasn't in so I just left them with the baby sitter to pass on. . TVd. . . ate cheese mayo, ham and onion sandwiches with crisps and later a trio of Mum donated kipling bakewell tarts . . TVd until bed around 1:30am.s
20 - Up around 8am. . sunny. Walked . . did laundry chores while PCing a bit of this. Still have several pieces of old footage I have to attend to - and ended up starting work on some from back in May!!! . .cooked and ate two burgers in buttered bread rolls . . napped all afternoon until the alarm at 6:30pm . . walked and carried on down to the harbour to see the Torbay lifeboat annual dedication service thingy. Turned out to be very well attended but rather too preachy and 'religion orientated' for me to easily stomach. Couldn't help myself filming a bit 'for the record' anyway. .eventually back home via BGdns by around 10pm . . touched base with BB . . ate ham rolls, spring onions and crisps . . TVd until bed around 2am.
19 - Up around 9am. . .walked. . PCd on the sea gull video. . Mum and Sis2 popped in with food donations for chats and coffee . . ate pate rolls, crisps and some chocolate. . napped until the alarm at 6:30pm . . PCd. . ML called to say he'd be popping in some time soon because he's on holiday down this way for a few days with his wife and new son . . walked with another can of Stella which PS had left behind. .some kids fishing on the rocks asked me if I had a light. Their disposable barbeque had gone out and they couldn't relight it (despite almost emptying the gas from one of my lighters!) . They'd caught some mackerel and offered me some they'd already cooked. Can't actually recall having eaten mackerel before so I had some. Not overly pleasant (but maybe because it wasn't cooked well) and quite boney. Suprisingly 'civil' and decent couple of kids. I keep saying it, but sooner or later I'm going to HAVE to have a go at that 'fishing for your supper' type thing . .sat in BGdns supping the can of lager. Pleasant enough evening but actually ended up feeling pretty cold and wasn't in the mood to drink the whole can. . PCd. . BB called to touch base . . called a halt to the very unsatisfactory Sea gulls video (because of the choice of music - but I was absolutely determined to use THAT track having stumbled upon it) and uploaded it as was. .TVd and ate bowls of cornflakes until bed around 2am. ds
18 - Up around 11:30am!!!?Good grief. Sally has definitely changed (got older) quite rapidly of late. She's never let me sleep on like that before . .walked and carried on down town to buy yet more video tapes, some bread rolls, a bone for Sally and another dozen 50p burgers from the butcher. I'm definitely addicted to those . . PCd . . cooked and ate a couple of burgers and then ended up sleeping the whole day away! . .skipped the evening walk . . PCd until after 2am before back to bed.
17 - Up around 8am. . coffee and cigs 'breakfast', at the PC - again! :o( PCd just a bit of this, which seems to be SO difficult to find time for these days!?!!. . walked . . PCd and knocked off the 'balloon in the wind' video. That one is of some 'technical' interest to me, because of the way I did the fast forward video this time. I actually used the second PC (because it is now temporarily in the PC room) to play the file at speed while recording the video card TV output back onto the main PC via the capture card. A much smoother better quality result without the usual losses from recording it back down to the camcorder as I have been doing. I should have done ALL the 'speeded up' videos I've done like that (ESPECIALLY the awfully jerky trawler race video) - but until now I just couldn't be bothered with all the hassle of setting the second PC up in the cramped PC room. . walked with Sally and met up with Mum and carried on down town to meet up with Sis1/2/K and her kids. . all ate fish and chips while sat on the harbourside. HUGE amounts of left overs from everyone ended up in both me and Sally. . sat here and there chatting and eventually ended up in BGdns for quite a while. . funny it hadn't really occurred to me to do so before, but eventually I pulled the camcorder out and did a bit of proper 'home movie' type random clips - mostly to record the baby. . Sally was BRILLIANT - despite the baby climbing down off a seat almost onto her back at one point, and waving a stick in her face and tapping her on the head and nose with it at another. THAT ended up in a tug of war with the stick, which Sally won and then promptly chewed the stick into pieces, much to the baby's dismay. lololol Fantastic dog. . eventually said our goodbyes and all headed home . . quickly PCd and knocked up a 'no edits/raw footage' DVD . . popped straight up Mums and dropped in the quick DVD of the raw footage I'd taken. . . TVd feeling really exhausted until early and then somehow ended up on the PC watching a couple (actually several!) of the Hap'nin' videos, just for pleasure, before finally to bed long after 4am!!!! s
16 - Up around 7:30am . . walked and found £1 . . stopped in at Mums for a coffee and chats on the way back. I actually did so to sort of apologise for my short tempered attitude on the phone yesterday! . . back home to PC some more, attempting to label up some of the Hap'nin' videos on Youtube to include the song names. Not as easy as it sounds because I haven't a clue what most of them are called, even if they are very familiar! . . Mum and Sis2 popped in to see the videos. Let tham see samples of them all. . ate Mum donated pasties . . couldn't resist videoing a bit from the doorstep as huge flocks of seagulls circled and swooped in the sky, catching insects . .napped for an hour or so . . PCd . . walked and found a lighter. Sat in BGdns and drank one of the tins of Stella, PS had left. . PCd . . JK called to touch base. . touched base with BB. . PCd until midnight. . ate chopped ham and pork, lettuce and mayo sandwiches with crisps and a couple of chocolate biscuits . . TVD until around 2am before to bed. d
15 - Up . .walked . . PCd . Mum called to touch base. Did my best to hold a conversation, but that all fell apart when the PC decided to crash, and very rudely Mum was dismissed!! . . PCd 'chunking' and uploading videos ALL day! . skipped eating and at some point I even dragged the second machine (the one with the faulty DVD drive) into the PC room and set it up in the cramped space next to me and copied files over to it via an external hard drive, so I could have two machines running compiling videos, to try to speed things up a little!!! Even ended up multitasking on the main PC, editing videos into YouTube size chunks, compiling them to small WMV format AND uploading them to YouTube all at the same time!!! No one would EVER imagine the time and effort I put into these things. Reached my self imposed target of all the videos except the last band by around 8pm before walking. . walked and was presented with the sight of a young woman naked from the waste down, stood with a couple of friends behind one of the gun emplacements, really rather in full view of anyone anywhere near! She was part of a group of young people drinking cider on one of the seats. Turned out she was having a pee!! Now THAT would have made a video for YouTube wouldn't it - but WHAT choice of music I wonder?! lololol . . straight back home to set the machine running uploading the last few videos while cooking a couple of burgers and chips . . finally ate, dashing back up to the PC every fifteen minutes or so, to set the next video uploading!! Finally, all uploaded before midnight . . PCd until bed around 2am. s
14 - Up shortly after 8am . .walked . . PCd editing and uploading chunks of the Friday evening performances ALL day - and night!
13 - Up shortly before 9am. .felt fragile and tired. Coffee, cigarettes and annadin tablet for breakfast in the garden, until PS got up. . all walked. Some mayhem in the night with a trail of destruction as we headed towards BGdns. Someones drivers side window had been smashed and further along the way a van windscreen had been smashed!! Tempting to suspect the people responsible may have been connected with an 18th birthday party that had apparantly been held at one of the expensive houses on a little further. :o( . .Carried on down around the harbour to a harbourside pub for a full english breakfast, paid for by PS again. .eventually back home for a coffee and just a bit of the motorbike racing on TV. . the minute PS had left for home around 1:30pm, I just HAD to return to bed!! . .walked . . PCd downloading the rest of the Friday footage to the PC and then starting the long agonising process of cutting it up into chunks for the 10 minute maximum, YouTube uploads. .touched base with BB . . ate luncheon meat and lettuce sandwiches in between compiling/uploading files . . eventually to bed after 4am only to end up tossing and turning unable to sleep until - um - well - pretty much when I got back up!!! :o( saa
12 - Up around 9am. . downloaded a small chunk of video to the PC just to see if I'd actually got anything useable . . all walked (actually without the camcorder - which for me is a very unusual event! Had to leave it at home charging batteries) and headed out to the breakwater for a full English breakfast paid for by PS. Ungrateful of me I know, but I really REALLY did NOT want to be messing around wasting time like that. I wanted to get back up the hap'nin'!! Last night's videos has worked out 'ok', and I'd really fancied trying to get a representative sample of every act that appeared on the main stage throughout the entire weekend. Although I didn't particularly want to see them for my own sake, because of PS, I missed the local schools choirs - which I'm sure would have been appreciated by lots of people if I HAD filmed it!! :o( . . eventually back home for a coffee and to pick up the camera, bottle of water, can of RedBull, tripod, tapes, batteries, etc and then pretty soon left Sally behind and headed back up to the Hap'nin' (despite PS very obviously not being keen). Actually gave him a spare key to the house, just in case I ended up wanting to stay up there for hours! . arrived back up there somewhere shortly after 2:30pm as MIU were doing their performance. Lots of people (parents?) were filming them, and of course I've already 'done them justice' with film of them at the Heritage festival, so there seemed little point in putting in too much effort in filming them again. Just grabbed a bit of footage of a couple of their numbers from near the sound mixing tent, 'for the record'.

.as the hours/bands passed, more and more people began to stand in front of the stage and filming from that same position became impossible. Somewhere along the line, I experimented with different positions (trying to remain 'invisible' and not to be in everyones way) and eventually ended up right up against the barrier at the front left of stage with the tripod leg through the barrier, which seemed to give the best position for getting whole bands into the wide shots and not be 'too' much of an obstruction or too much of an obstacle to be bumped into or tripped over. Not quite sure why, but that one particular spot seemed to become a favourite for some of the professional photographers that were taking snaps all over the place, and I frequently had long zoom lenses on expensive cameras poking in over my shoulder - so I guess I intuitively chose the right spot. . . . . -//- . . . . . . .as night fell, the amount of drunkeness and drunken people increased. . . . . -//-. . . . . . . . . it was no good. Being jostled and crashed into by stupid drunken youths all the time was unbearable and made filming 'stressful' to say the least. Half way through the last but one or two songs of the entire event, with only around ten minutes to go, with the camera still recording, and with JUST enough tape and batteries to have finished the job, I just picked up the tripod and fled from where I was - with a relieved PS in hot pursuit!!! Nightmare!!!! Why oh why do people have to act in such a nauseating manner and spoil it for others? What was it BB called where I was stood? The 'mosh pit' or something? I'm not familiar with the term. Suffice it to say, it is NOT the place you want to be stood at a concert, unless you're VERY drunk and ready for a fight!!!!!! SO disappointing not have been able to get that full final performance by 'Rage'. :o( . . stood in a safe quiet spot next to the stage for a much needed cigarette and a breather and attempted to grab just a little footage and a couple of stills of the audience mayhem. Persuaded PS we just HAD to stay for another few minutes, just to hear the last song of the event. As soon as the last chord on the last song had been played, we headed off back home before the mass exodus - and frankly, both VERY glad to be getting the hell out of there!!! So - there we go then - I've seen my first 'Brixham Hap'nin' - and quite probably the last thank you very much! Shame really - watching the bands was ok, but being surrounded by so many people there purely to get totally drunk is not something I can easily consider tolerating again . . felt utterly exhausted and aching all over and really pretty unwell! That was a 'difficult' experience for me. So - was it all worth it? Have I actually got any footage worth the effort? Despite being eager to know, I just couldn't muster the energy to start turning the PC on, and left it for tomorrow. . sat 'quietly' for ages, chatting about the day and kinda 'debriefing' with PS . . ate something or other because I had to, despite not feeling at all hungry, and eventually to bed around 2:30am.s
11 - Up after 9am. . walked . . PCd, vacuumed and cleared up a little around the place . . PS arrived early afternoon, complete with the pair of training shoes he'd said he didn't want. Can't imagine why he didn't wear/want them but I'm not complaining. Perfectly ok and very comfy. Actually ended up wearing them all weekend. . walked a bit early to get that out of the way and then left Sally at home and headed with PS up to St Marys park to have a look at the Friday evening 'Hap'nin'. Despite having said after the Heritage Festival videoing, I'd not take the video camera, I couldn't help myself and went fully equipped with batteries and tripod - just in case. . fairly small crowds meant I eventually couldn't resist and, during the long delay in starting, while the stage hands messed around with the lights, I set the camera up and eventually filmed a bit of the first band - 'Raspberry Fish'. That actually seemed to go pretty well, and that was that. I was trapped by my adiction. I determined to attempt to get at least 'some' representative footage from every one of the bands!!! Poor PS was instructed not to interrupt or speak to me if I was filming, and spent quite a bit of time wandering off on his own, clearly bored. . called it quits early into the '59 Ford' set somewhere around 10pm and headed home (although mostly because I was feeling guilty that PS didn't want to be hanging around there any longer. If not for him, I'd have probably stuck around and filmed some more!). . ate sandwiches and crisps and TVd until after 2am before bed. s
10 - Up around 9am. . PCd briefly unloading pictures etc from cameras. Looked up the 'Picton Castle' ship I'd taken pics of on the 2nd. Blimey - it's Canadian. No wonder I couldn't work out what the flags were, flying on it. What a life those guys are living!! Amazing. . walked and carried on down town to sit around for ages waiting for the pirates to turn up. Eventually gave a few (Paddys Whiskers and Highlights) discs away to the 'balloon pirate' and for him to give to a couple of the others . . PCd spending crazy amounts of time on trying to extend 'Green Onions' music - and failing! . . ate corned beef, mayo and lettuce sandwiches with crisps . . napped until gone 7pm! . . burned 'Heritage Festival Highlights' discs and then walked and carried on down town to watch the town band. Waited until they'd finished their set then gave discs to the mother of the young lad on the drums and the conductor. . on the way back home, a group of girls emerged from some over shops flat or other, presumably heading out 'on the town'. From the way they were behaving and how they were dressed, I assume it was an eighteenth birthday or something similar. The reason I mention it was because of what one of them in particular was wearing. All she had on was a bikini (thong type!) and a multi coloured tutu!!!!!! To say that her ass was 'on show' is an understatement - and she was going out and into pubs etc dressed like that!!! How risky! (Imagine what an accused's defence lawyers would make of that in some assault case or other. She simply wouldn't win - no matter what the circumstances!!) Made me feel all 'uncomfortable'. As a red blooded male, it's impossible not to be drawn to look at such a sight, but I guess I've now reached an age where looking at such things is definitely not appropriate ('dirty old man' territory?) , and one has to struggle to avert ones eyes and definitely NOT be seen to be looking, by ANYONE - no matter HOW in your face her buttocks were! Getting old can be a real bugger - particularly when effectively single-ish kinda. . TVd but mostly with the sound off needing to be quiet and feeling increasingly down!? . . touched base with BB. . cooked and ate two cheeseburgers after midnight. . TVd/PCd until early before bed. s
9 - Woken after only a couple of hours sleep by Sally needing to use the garden with her latest upset stomach. .tried but couldn't get back to sleep!! . . walked feeling absolutely exhausted and not very good at all - and actually pretty hungry. .drank a tea cup of red wine while cooking four cheese burgers in bread rolls. . ate (too much) and then napped the afternoon away as torrential rain poured for most of the day. Something like a month of rain in a day, according to the news. I believe it! . . couldn't face walking in it and skipped the evening walk yet again. . TVd. . finally mustered a little energy and had a look at the camcorder just to see what little unattended bits and pieces I have laying around on tapes which need clearing. Somehow managed to get the 'dodgy' camcorder tape playing back ok, and ended up doing a quick easy video of the beachcombing crow. . to bed around 2am. ad
8 - Up around 8am. . .walked . . PCd doing more maintenance and burning discs etc. . phoned one of the contact numbers on the website for the Heather & Gorse clog dancers and got an adress of one of them to send copies of the DVDs to. . left Sally at home and went to the post office to mail the discs and do a little more photocopying. Very briefly stopped off at Mums on the way back. . JK called to say he was in posession of the duty free tobacco . . walked with Sally down town and met up with JK to have the tobacco supplies. Nine packs at £6:50 per pack. . ate ham rolls, crisps and chocolate. . . napped until around 7pm. . TVd the evening away feeling really very down. Been having a pretty hard time of late, moodwise:o( . ate chocolate biscuits. . TVd/PCd until early/daylight before eventually to bed.
7 - Up around 8am to the sound of a heavy shower. .walked between showers. . . PCd doing some more maintenance moving files and defraging the second drive etc. . walked with Sally down town to shop a little . .ate . . napped . . PS called to touch base and suggest visiting this weekend . .walked and carried on out to JKs for coffee, chats and to hand over a disc etc. . . stopped in the harbour on the way back and watched the last bit of the town band playing. . touched base with BB . .JK called. . ate Mum donated strawberries and cream and then cornflakes. . TVd until bed after 2am. s
6 - Eventually up around 10am!! . .walked in actually a sunny spell or two which is better than was forecast I think. . PCd just a little . . drank a mug of red wine while cooking sausages. Ate four sausages, a tin of baked beans with chopped onion, grated cheese and four pieces of bread and butter while watching some of the British grand prix. . napped the afternoon away until being woken by Sally around 6pm . . walked with Sis2 mostly between light showers . .JK called to touch base . . touched base with BB . . TVd . . ate lettuce sandwiches and kipling tarts. . to bed around 2am. d
5 - Up around 8:40am. .walked in showers and carried on down town, specifically to go into the butcher and buy some 'proper' burgers. Would you believe it - typical - there was a sign in the window saying they wouldn't be open just today! Toured the charity shops and ended up buying a pair of 'as new' 'trainers for £10. Actually wasn't convinced that was a particularly good buy, but bought them nonetheless rather than miss the opportunity through indecision again. . bought just a few groceries before heading home in more showers. . PCd and at last, did a bit of 'housekeeping' and shifted a bunch of stuff around on hard drives to try to make some space on the machine and allow me to actually 'do stuff' again. Risky - but I moved a whole bunch of the big irreplaceable video files over onto JUST the external 500gb drive (which is all but a few megabytes full now!!). I'm definitely gonna end up buying another of those at some point. If the local store hadn't stopped selling that same type, I'd have probably bought one by now already!. .even defragged the C drive for the first time in ages! . .Mum and Sis2 popped in with food donations for drinks and chats, despite the strong gusty wind and torrential rain - which is forecast to stay pretty bad for a couple of days! :o(. . . ate a sausage and ham rolls and some chocolate before napping the rest of the afternoon away despite the battering wind and rain, until the alarm at 6:30pm. . skipped the evening walk . . TVd and bumped into some documentary on the widow of Gary Newlove (the guy kicked to death by yobs outside his house - who I very much identify with!!) and ended up blubbering quite a bit! God, all that stuff is still SO raw with me if I 'let go' a bit! Damaged goods! :o( . . .Mum and Sis2 called to say they'd just watched and enjoyed the final Herifest 'compilation' DVD . .BB called . . PCd a bit of this and actually went on line to see if I could find those trainers I bought today, and see how much they 'really' are. Eventually figured out they are a pair of 'animal carter 'skate' (??) shoes and seem to be available new at anything above around £17 - so my instincts were right. Not a 'particularly' good deal being from a charity shop and all. Also - they aren't worth that anyway! Pay over the odds for the stupid 'animal' branding nonsense. I figure they should actually be pretty cheap because of the way they are obviously going to eventually break - using loops of nylon braid for the lace attachments rather than good old fashioned eyelets. Oh well. .PCd a bit more of this until around 11pm before heading for some TV. 'Easyrider' is on one of the channels again - and damned if I'm not tempted to actually go watch a bit of it - aaagain! 'Barnaby and Wild'. lol . . TVd and ate a few mum donated kipling tarts before eventualy ending up back on the PC just surfing e-bay and shops and the like. Somehow kept that up until almost 4am before finally to bed. Trouble getting to sleep and a restless night. :o( saa
4 - Up around 8am. .walked . . PCd and polished off a cover for the final DVD. Burned discs and printed out the cover 'master' for the final Heritage Festival compilation DVD. .popped up the store to do cover photocpies and spent another small fortune on pretty damn poor quality copies. (50p EACH color copy - and I can only fit one onto each A4 copy!!) Obviously my previous comments to the shopkeeper about having the thing serviced have gone completely ignored. REALLY annoying to put all that time and effort into knocking up a cover only to have the printing/copying then make it look crap! :o( Grrrr. . ate ham rolls, crisps and chocolate. . napped . .the car amazingly started, so drove to walk and then carried on to the Heritage Festival 'chair' persons house to drop off a copy of the final DVDs I'm gonna be doing. .carried on out of town and delivered relevant copies to the guy from the 'Paddy's Whiskers' group. .felt weird being out and about in the car like that (and found it suprisingly difficult to concentrate on driving - after having not, again, for so long!). Like being a 'real person' again for a short while. Decided to treat myself to a KFC meal from the not 'too' far away drivethrough/restarant place. God I miss my old kebabs and occassional Miss Millies chicken takeaways from back in Bristol. :o( . .incredibly, probably only the third time in my entire life that I've actually done a 'drive through' thing like that. Predicatbly I couldn't understand the garbled distorted noise that uttered forth from service speaker thing. I dunno - seems a terribly unsatisfactory way to be trying to get a feed - by shouting out of your car window at some screaching metal box. Could so VERY easily have ended in an argument, the short tempered 'pc user' type mood I've been in for a while since spending so much time working on those videos. I lost count of the embarassing number of times I had to call out I couldn't understand them and could they say that again please. In fact - I think it was a two way thing, because by the time I was eventually directed to drive round to 'the window', the girls still didn't know if I wanted two pices or three! Dunno why they just don't take the order from the window in the first place? It was only maybe three or four car lengths from the metal speaker contraption. I mean - how fast do people have to have their food? All a load of 'seen it in the movies' nonsense. Three pieces of chicken, chips and a pepsi didn't see much change from a fiver! Drove quickly straight home. As I drove down the rear access road, I could see a dog roaming loose up ahead. As I got out of the car it came running over to have a look around, and I managed to get a hold of the collar it was wearing. As I did so, I could hear my neighbour and a friend walking up saying 'there it is'! It WAS out running loose - so - oh no - now I had THAT to deal with!!!!! :o( There was no name or number on the collar - and with my KFC in the car (with Sally) getting cold, and heavier rain starting to fall, it all seemed to get a bit difficult all of a sudden. Got the neighbourt to hold the dogs collar while I got Sally out of the car and allowed her to meet the newcomer. Seemed to go ok so I eventually ushered Sally indoors and carefully lead the new dog into her domain. Sally as usual was SO cool and accepting of the situation, and despite a little barking and obvious 'concern', took it all in her stride as always. The neighbour and his friend said they were going out up the road and roundabout anyway, so would look for anyone looking for a dog. .at some point the stray dog emptied the few scraps remaining in Sally's food bowl! . . ate my going cold KFC meal. I initially thought they'd forgotten to put any chips in the largely empty box, but I eventually discovered the smallest limpest most pathetic little handful of chips (if they could even be called that) in a bag all crushed under the piecs of chicken. My god! WHAT an absolute rip off! Never again. Even the chicken wasn't as nice as Miss Millies. All in all, an expensive BIG disappointment. :o( Tossed a few scraps to both attentive dogs as I ate. Sally seemed to be sitting just a bit closer than usual. lol Weird how in such a short space of time, I'd already started to develop 'some' level of communication with BOTH dogs, about what was expected in the circumstances. Dogs are SO intelligent! . just finished eating and was wrapping up all the dangerously small bones and left overs when Sis2 called to touch base. Half way through the conversation, things got a bit hectic when the neighbour appeared at the front door. Bit of difficulty getting both dogs shut in the living room before I could safely open the front door. He'd not found anyone out looking (it was actually pretty unpleasant wind and rain out by this point) but he figured it'd be a good idea if he knocked on a few doors just up the street. I was thankful for that. I really wasn't looking forward to the idea of having to keep the dog locked in somewhere overnight. . As we hurridly talked there was a strange noise from the front room. Turned out the new dog had taken the KFC box from the tray on the footstool, and was happily eating/had eaten all the bones and scraps!! (Good job I'd finished eating!) Ooops. I hadn't really thought of that. I'm so used to Sally being SO good and knowing, that is absolutely not the done thing. I could have left an entire unprotected meal on that tray and she wouldn't have touched it . .unwound with a cigarette for a bit. Weirdest thing - the new dog grabbed one of Sally's old dry bones which was laying on the carpet, and decided to claim it as hers. She carefully took it in her mouth and sloped off out of the room into the hallway with it! After a while, with a bit of a complaining whine, Sally DID go to investigate but I heard the new dog growling and Sally soon came back into the room without her bone and looking pretty put out! lololol . .it was time to feed Sally so I figured I'd better try and sort out a food and water bowl in the conservatory, which is where I imagined the stray would have to be spending the night. Popped back up to the car to retrieve a spare bowl. As I did so, I could hear the friend of next door talking to someone and saying 'it's your dog then is it' or something similar. Yayyy. Sure enough, it was the dog's owner. With little fuss he came into the garden and encouraged his dog to follow him back out and off home. Turns out he only lived a few doors away down the street! Tremendous relief to not be lumbered with the problem. Dashed out front and told my neighbour, who I think already knew because he'd actually just been knocking on the door of the correct house. . . called Mum and Sis2 back and reported on what had happened. . touched base with BB . . TVd until bed around 2am. s
3 - Up around 7:30am. .walked . . pcd and did chores . . mum and sis2 popped in . . ate sandwiches and napped . . called sis2 and walked with sis 2. Stopped by Mums briefly on the way home . . touched base with BB . . TVd as the PC continued to attempt to compile the LP disc. .JK called to touch base . . eventually to bed around 2am or later. That compilation LP disc took around five or six hours of processing to complete - but it's done, and that's definitely gonna be the last of it all!! s
2 - Woken by Sally around 7:30am, urgently needing to use the garden. . walked . . PCd while doing laundry and dish washing chores ..after hours and hours of working at trying to knock up a LP disc without jitters, once again it turned out to be all to no avail! ARRRgggghhhh!! Why on earth am I bothering? Right - that's it. Enough is enough. I'm gonna just knock up a compilation/highlights disc of the heritage Festival and just do on long play complete with jitters, just to have what has turned into a never ending nightmar, over and bloody well done with. . . ate four sausages, two eggs and chips . . touched base with BB and PCd . . Sis2 called to touch base from Mums. She arrived in the country this morning. . walked. A picturesque sailing ship slowly edged in and moored up right by BGdns. Zoomed in with the camcorder and grabbed a couple of snaps . . TVd . .ate bowls of cornflakes . . TVd/PCd until early. s
1 - Up around 8:20am. .PCd a bit of this over coffee . . walked . . gardened some more . . went on the phone and on-line and eventually bit the bullet and taxed and insured the car. I 'think' my reasoning about keeping it for a bit longer makes sense, but there is of course also a large amount of simply not wanting to be completely transportless for the first time in all these years. The prospect feels kinda 'emasculating'. :o(. . PCd a bit (for hours!) experimenting with how to do a decent LP disc using every dodge I could think of with all of the software I have, in a desperate attempt to get a result that doesn't have that 'jitter' which the Intervideo Creator software always inserts. Waste of time. Round and round and round and always the jitters on Long play. Infuriating. :o( . . .ate ham rolls and crisps . . worked in the front garden trimming hedges. . PCd . . touched base with BB . . ate stew with bread and butter . . TVd until bed around 1:30am. s
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