28 - Up around 6:45am - woken I think by my badly aching lower back. .walked . . PCd . . JK called to touch base . . ate ham rolls . .left Sally safely at home and headed off across town to climb the hill and get all set up in the hope of grabbing some footage of the memorial flight Lancaster bomber. According to what I'd read on line, it was doing a flypast of Torquay at 17:25 and then doing a display at Dartmouth from 17:30. The hill seemed like the best bet for trying to get a shot, because in theory it would be possible to see it in the distance as it did Torquay but then also as it made its way the short distance over the hills (or even hopefully over Brixham) towards Dartmouth. . got all set up on the hill in plenty of time and sat around in a few sunny spells sipping from my bottle of water just looking at the view. All of a sudden, EXACTLY on time, there were a couple of tiny dots in the sky over Torquay. Sure enough it was the lancaster together with what I think was maybe a hurricane. The pair did a couple of wide circuits over Torquay and the hills beyond but once again, I was SO far away, the camera just couldn't hack it and did that infuriating strobing out of focus thing again. It was just impossible to get any length of decent footage. :o( Suprisingly and disappointingly, as the pair made their way towards Dartmouth, they went way inland at an even greater distance from me. I think they circled once to get their timing right and then they disappeared below the hills down towards Dartmouth to do their display.
Every now and
then I'd get just a tantalising glimpse of a distant silouette
rising above the trees before promplty dropping back down out of
sight again. I raced up the hill I was on in an attempt to get a
better view, but sadly it wasn't to be - and on the rare
occasions they did reappear, the camera consistantly went out of
focus again. What particularly became apparant to me, was how
incredibly slow they appeared to fly, compared to todays modern
aircraft. It was impossible not to imagine the wartime exploits
of the pilots of such aircaft, and what an easy target they must
have been for ground fire!!!!!! Incredible! . eventually both
planes reappeared over the tree line and promptly gained altitude
and headed away inland into the distance - and that was that! SO
disappointing after all the anticipation and effort of getting up
there with the camera - but moving nonetheless to have those rare
glimpses. Must have been a good low level display at Dartmouth! .
returned home . .PCd and reviewed the footage. Blimey - that's
even worse than my attempt at videoing the Red Arrows!! All I got
was some tiny dot like sillouettes in the very far distance, in
between the camera permananently 'strobing' in and out of focus!
In fact, the results were SO poor, all that was worth salvaging
from all that time and effort were a few captured frames (which
if you're a bit of a plane spotter, are sufficient to at least
identify it IS a Lancaster. The other aircraft I'm not so sure
but suspect it WAS a Hurricane because of the round
tipped wings?) Unusually on this occasion, I think I'm going to
actully delete the original footage. There's nothing I can
imagine being able to do with it, and it just isn't worth wasting
so much precious hard drive space. . walked. As I approached
BGdns a carload of youths pulling out up ahead drew my attention
because of the way idiot way they were driving. They pulled up
and parked on the steep slope next to BGdns. Just as I entered
the gardens and was preparing to let Sally off her lead, I heard
a glass bottle hit the road and begin to roll down the steep
slope. I haven't learned my lesson have I! I exited back out of
the gardens, walked down towards where the youths were parked and
asked if it was their bottle which was rolling down the road
behind them. They denied it and said it had 'just fallen out of a
tree'!!!? F***ing idiots. I walked down the hill, picked up their
bottle (noticeably still body temperature warm) and carried it
into the gardens to put it in a bin! Grrrr . . . touched base
with BB. . TVd . . ate fried black pudding and microwaved baked
beans with bread and butter. A suprisingly good feed. . TVd until
bed around 1am.27 - Up around 7:45am. . walked . . quickly cut down the straggly overgrown hedge by the front door before having to return Mums lopper . . Sat down on the front patio seat to cut up some of the mass of foliage into car sized chunks and promptly cut my finger badly with the secateurs!! Really badly so it appeared. Bit of a 'gusher'! Actually ended up with a pool of blood on the patio!!!!
Almost thought I may have to head for the
doctors for a stitch, but eventually it seemed to slow down . .
popped up Mums and returned the lopper and grabbed a couple of
plasters . . carried on gardening trimming the front garden
hedges (with my plaster held in place with a wrap of scellotape!)
. . the car started so I drove it round the front, stuffed it
full of the cut down hedge and did a quick trip to the tip around
2pm . . carried on climbing ladders and cutting hedges . . called
it quits around 4pm. . showered . left Sally at home and walked
to BGdns for the Red Arrows. . filming did NOT go well. Just
after they'd arrived and started their display, my tired aching
arm suddenly developed a case of cramp and insisted on just
curling my camera hand into a useless claw!!!!! On top of that,
the camera just couldn't focus on the aircraft, and I ended up
with almost a whole display of just blurred and out of focus
clouds!! Got almost nothing!! SUCH a disappointment! :o(.
eventually walked all the way back home. SO tired, I tried the
car again. It started so I drove Sally back to the gardens to
walk. Stopped at the store and bought a few supplies (including
tempted by a special deal on cheap black pudding) on the way home
. . did enough of the mountain of dish washing to have something
to eat off, and ate three large salad rolls with crisps and some
chocolate . . touched base with BB . .exhausted and aching. TVd
until bed just after midnight.26 - Up around 7:20am. Wow - feel a lot better for having had a reasonable long sleep for a change. PCd a bit of this. . walked the long walk through the woods and back. . put laundry on and PCd this . .ate ham rolls with crisps . . surfed and TVd the day away, pretty soon feeling as exhausted as usual and too tired to start tackling the badly overgrown gardens again . .walked in a sunny spell via town and carried on out to the breakwater and part way along, before back via BGdns. . TVd . . cooked and ate two cheeseburgers with chips and then some chocolate . . touched base with BB . .TVd until bed around 1:30am.s
25 - Up around 8:45am! . .walked and returned to find an ansaphone message from SH saying he was on his way down. . PCd the end bit (that 'speed of sound' delay, fascinates me) and finished off the fireworks video. Just uploading it to Youtube when SH and his lady arrived around 1:30pm. Coffee and chats and took receipt of and paid for the 30 packs of tobacco he'd managed to get for me at £6 per pack. :o) That's me fully supplied up until early next year I reckon. . . all walked and headed off down to the harbour. I'd forgotten it was a bank holiday. It was busy - and frankly, unpleasant. Swashbuckle were playing to quite a crowd on the harbourside so I was able to quickly hand over a copy of the DVD of their performance earlier in the year, as I'd promised I would do the other night, when I saw them walking down the street. . treated to cod and chips by SH. All sat on a harbourside seat and ate as the noisy crowds bustled by. Eventually ambled back for more sitting in BGdns. . stopped at the local pub on the way back and all sat outside with a half of lager. Eventually back home for a coffee and then goodbyes. . sat around in front of the TV for the rest of the evening, suffering from an increasingly bad headache and feeling a bit sick!??. . touched base with BB. . to bed around 11pm. d
24 - Up around 7:10am for some reason! . . PCd. . walked and got caught out in a shower on the way back. . PCd a bit of this . PCd the fireworks video - at length!! Terribly time consuming trying to sort out some of the best bits and trim out all the rest, tenths of a second by tenths of a second! Actually interesting to advance the footage frame by frame and watch the evolution of each of the airborne explosions, from the initial brief flash of detonation to the rapid expansion of the coloured sphere. . ate mayo, onion, grated cheese and ham rolls with crisps and some chocolate. . napped. . skipped the evening walk and ended up back on the PC almost all evening, labouring over 'playing' the fireworks video to the music as best I could. .touched base with BB . . grabbed a quick banana and a defrosted chicken and mushroom pastry slice in the early hours and then eventually to bed after 3:30am only to be unable to sleep. Tossed and turned for ages and then had to get back up a couple of times to 'assault' the fridge which started making its awful pneumatic drill noise! :o( Eventually to sleep for a few hours somewhere around maybe 4:30am!! s
23 - Up around 8am . . walked. . .PCd. . Mum called in with the paper and food donations. Ended up having to endure having some of the olympics on the TV because Mum was interested in watching the 'local' youngster (Tom Daley?) competing in the diving. .ate a Mum donated pastie and sausage roll and some chocolate for lunch. . . napped only to wake feeling really tired. .the car started so drove in the car to walk. . JK called briefly . . TVd and watched the end of the program theorising what would happen if humans suddenly disappeared from the planet (no bad thing and the sooner the better in my opinion!). . touched base with BB . . ate a sausage roll, crisps, chocolate and bowls of corn flakes . . TVd (despite there being nothing on ANY of the channels worth watching!) until bed around 1:30am. s
22 - Up around 9am! . . walked and carried on down town to draw out some money and do just a little shopping. Burgers, bone for Sally, yet more video cassette tapes - the 'usual'!! . . PCd . . drank three quarters of a mug of red wine and then ate two burgers in buttered rolls and chips. . napped fitfully, dreaming much - probably thanks to the effect of the wine! . .
great
difficulty in deciding to do so, but eventually I walked a little
later than usual and headed off with Sally, cameras, tripod,
freshly charged torch and a can of beer (as found in BGdns), up
onto the hill overlooking the town and the bay. Got Sally safely
past all the horses and headed for my usual vantage point. Got
there 'just' in time to grab a hasty bit of footage of the sun
setting behind the distant hills. Such a shame the orientation of
the place isn't just a little different so that the sun would set
over the bay from up there. As it is, it always sets into the
hills inland, which is in relative terms a pretty featureless and
boring view. . as I had the camera filming on the tripod, the
half a dozen or so horses that were in the field, decided to all
come over and be 'intimidating'! No amount of shouting or
clapping would shoo them off!! Really was pretty disturbing -
even dare I say, scary! Things got completely out of hand when
they all started trying to have a bit of a nuzzle at Sally, who I'd
tied to a broken sappling trunk. One of the horses actually
looked as though it was having a go at biting her back at one
point, and i had to hastily try and intervene. As I did so, the
sappling trunk snapped and Sally was off, chasing across the
field in amongst a herd of horses!!!!!!!!!!!! NIGHTMARE! Shouting
and bellowing I had to set off in pursuit through the nettles and
across the grass. I trust no one saw what was going on up there,
but if they had, it must have looked funny. It wasn't!! It was as
though all parties involved had suddenly returned to their
genetic ancestors. I was the caveman hunter - Sally was
exhibiting classic wolf-like hunting behavior, nipping at ankles
and seeking the weakest - the horses were running in a herd and
defending, by turning their rear ends toward the wolf so their
back legs and lethal hooves would be in a position to lash out.
NIGHTMARE! Somehow at some stage, without anyone getting hurt (except
for a few nettle stings on the caveman), Sally eventually
reluctantly decided to heed my bellowing and return to me. Grrrrr.
It was pretty obvious I wasn't going to be able to carry on
filming as I'd wanted to, and with the sunset filmed, I just
couldn't take any more. Dragging Sally roughly along on a short
leash, and noisily brandishing my fully extended camera tripod, I
was able to make my way back across the field and over the style
without any further 'contact' with the horses, albeit worryingly
followed closely by them, all the way!! They even congregated by
the style after I'd climbed through, and stood there staring
after me snorting and stuff, as I set up the tripod and settled
down on the grass a little way from a hedge, which afforded a
little bit of cover from the rather cold blustery wind which
always seems to be in evidence up there even on a calm day!
Settled down with Sally tied to me and messed around with the
camera, trying to figure out what settings would enable me to
film in the increasing darkness. That camera has a 'night owl'
setting for very dark conditions. It works brilliantly, except
that the trade off is a snail like shutter speed. When simply
filming the static view in the pitch
black, it brightens everything up fantasticly - but if you are
trying to film anything moving (like the fireworks of course) it
is no good at all. It kinda 'strobes' and just doesn't pick up
the actual movement. So - I had to film on 'normal', daylight
type settings - at night!!! . left the camera running for ages
attempting to capture enough footage to do a timelapse of
nightfall. The fireworks were supposed to start at nine o'clock.
They didn't! With it now fully dark, by around ten past nine I
figured I'd got it wrong and they were going to start at nine
thirty, and concerned I was running out of tape and battery (as
ever!!), I decided to turn the camera off for a while. Would you
believe it! The damn fireworks just suddenly started a quarter of
an hour late at around 9:15pm - so I missed the beginning! Grrr.
To be honest, as it turned out, it didn't really make any
difference to my attempt at filming them. I was just SOooo far
away, and the camera was having such a hard time filming the inky
black of the night, it was all a bit of a predictably
disappointing failure. Nevertheless, I tried to get into the
spirit of the experience and supped my beer and smoked my
cigarettes while sat back watching the show. Had another bit of a
crisis with Sally in the middle of the things when a dark shadow,
'just' visible to me went running across the field in front of us,
no more than twenty feet away. It was a fox - and Sally wanted to
chase after it BAD! It skirted back past us a little later, so
much of the time was spent restraining Sally and trying to keep
her away from the camera tripod, as she went frantic on her lead!
All in all, thanks to the horses and Sally (never mind the
general 'unease' and paranoia of being up only a lonely hilltop
in the pitch black), it ended up being 'the filming session from
hell'!! :o( If I ever do anything like that again up there (as I'd
planned to 'maybe' do, later in the week), Sally will NOT be
invited! . eventually called it quits (frozen!! It's always SO
cold up there, no matter how warm a day it may be!) and headed
back across the field and down the lane (with difficulty) by
torch light. Very pleased to get back onto roads under street
lights! . back home by around 10:15pm. . touched base with BB . .
ate ham sandwiches with crisps and a mum-donated small microwave
chocolate pudding thing. . TVd until bed around 2am. dd21 - Woken by Sally barking at the postman at 9am. . . walked . .PCd this . .SOoo tired. Ended up laying back down before midday but somehow couldn't sleep . . ate the last of the farmhouse pate and then some marmalade with toast followed by a little chocolate for lunch. . napped until woken by the phone (no message left) around 5pm! . . walked via town, BGdns and back for a change. . TVd . . ate salad and chicken slice sandwiches. . touched base with BB . .TVd until bed around 1:30am. s
20 - Woken around 7:30am by the sound of a neighbour's bin being wheeled down their steps . . walked . . PCd and finally wound up the lifeboat 'cox' video I'd wanted to do with a bit of the footage from weeks ago. .not sure I have a clue what's been going on with this PayPal nonsense, but suffice it to say, it would appear I am NOT out of pocket! Phew. Thank god for that! What is perplexing about the whole thing is that it appears all the past nonsense I had to go through to link my bank account to my PayPal account was for nothing, and the bank aren't recognising the direct debit instruction!?? As a result, paypal have removed details of that account! Quite frankly, I've lost all faith in paypal (and my bank?) as a result of all this. :o( . .cooked and ate three burgers in buttered bread rolls. . napped late for a couple of hours until around 7:15pm. Woke feeling awful. Skipped the evening walk again . . TVd . . touched base with BB . . ate biscuits and a little chocolate and then a couple of pieces of toast with some Mum donated farmhouse pate in the early hours. . TVd/PCd until almost daylight before eventually to bed (once some of the local 'youths' had finished banging their car doors right outside my house and finally drove away blowing their horn around 4am!! Grrrr). ss
19 - Woke earlier, snoozed on then up around 8:15am . . walked (found 2p) and carried on down town in search of some different, lower wattage, preferably 'energy saver' bulbs for my new living room spotlights. The store who's advert came through the letterbox the other day advertising exactly what I need, predictably didn't have any (grrrr! after having walked all the way there!) but I did manage to find some relatively cheap ordinary ones (35w instead of my current 50w) in Woolworths for £3.78 the pair. . PCd . .pottered around mostly out in the garage and finally sorted through some of my boxes, still largely untouched from when I moved in! Coaxed the car into starting and then loaded it up with a bunch of stuff and almost all the books I own, and then dropped it all off at a local charity shop. There's an awful lot more of that to be done around the house. One of the most space consuming things is my cassette tape collection, which I have now determined IS going to have to go. Trouble is, that is gonna be pretty time consuming because I need to check every single one before I get rid of them, to make sure I have the music saved and safe on the PC. .ate a Mum donated chicken and mushroom pastry slice with crisps, a banana and a little chocolate . . napped in between the phone ringing! . . walked. The guy up the road (who I've given DVDs to and who gave me a nice bedside cabinet) called out as I passed. They'd returned from their holiday to Croatia and as he'd promised he would, he'd got me some duty free tobacco! Yayyyy. Unusually, I actually had some money in my pocket and it was just enough to be able to pay him for it there and then. He suggested rather than have to carry it with me, I could leave it there in his garage and pick it up on the way back from the walk. . Stopped in to pick up the tobacco on the way back. The guy came out and (because of the DVD thing) tried to give me some of my money back!! I refused but didn't resist too much the idea I should have a bottle of red wine. Eventually headed home with tobacco supplies and a bottle of wine in a carrier. :o) . .fitted the new 35w bulbs to the living room spotlights. That's much better for low 'watching TV' lighting. :o) Need to buy energy saver ones when I can. . touched base with JK and then LB for the first time in absolutely ages (rather than have to reply to her recent e-mail) . .touched base with BB . . TVd. Ate a couple of chicken and lettuce rolls, some chocolate and then bowls of corn flakes. .to bed around 1:30am. s
18 - Up around 7:15am . . walked and back via the post office to draw out a bunch of 'duty free tobacco' money for whenever it is I eventually meet up with SH. . .spent most of the day lifting floorboards and tracing wires and drilling holes in joists and working at wiring up the new living room spot lights. 'Just' managed to squeeze the switch cable down inside the existing trunking to the livingg room light switch. Sorted through all my 'awaiting use' electrical stuff, only to find to my amazement I didn't have a new double switch plate all ready and waiting. Damn! Left Sally at home and quickly dashed up the local builders yard and spent the couple of pounds on one. . Got it all hooked up and working in the end, albeit sadly for the time being in a 'spur' arrangement (heavy duty lighting cable so not 'really' an issue) because I've run out of cable! :o( . .vacuumed and reinstated the floors/bedroom furniture, etc. . .ate four small (old) frozen burgers in buttered bread rolls . . napped for around an hour . . the sky seemed to be threatening yet more rain, I was feeling pretty tired and achey, and there was a TV show I wanted to watch in an hour so I persuaded the car to start (eventually!!) and drove Sally to walk. . watched the last in the excellent three part series (I missed the first part!) 'The Genius Of Charles Darwin' presented by Richard Dawkins. Oh what a joy to have a little bit of 'intelligent' TV for a change. Right up my street. One of THE most extraordinary and disturbing bits of the program was an interview with a 'science' teacher from some public school up north, I think it was. A supposedly intelligent and upright member of society, it was his belief (despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary) that 'god made the earth' no more than eight thousand years ago! Nutter! And this man is teaching children? No wonder much of society seems to be racing headlong into a new age of intolerance and ignorance. . . touched base with BB . .ate a whole pack of Mum donated Kipling apple tarts, a banana and some chocolate. . TVd until bed around 2am. s
17 - Up around 7:45am . . coffee and cigarettes while doing my now daily worried-sick check of Paypal to see if my refund has been returned. Not yet again still. :o(. . walked. Returned home via Mums to borrow her 'lopper'. . messed around in the back yard and made pretty short work with the lopper of another large straggly overgrown bush which needed to go. Dug out a small dying fir tree . dug in some stones along a border to replace the rotting woven wicker edging I so dislike. . eventually chopped up the bush and fir tree into car sized chunks and loaded the car up. .The car started so drove to the tip around 1:30pm despite the likelihood of long Sunday queues. Couldn't believe my luck when I got there. There was no long queue out on the street and I was able to drive straight into the driveway - but then it all went wrong. I imagine the council staff were taking advantage of the lull to use their machines to process all the rubbish that had been dumped throughout the earlier part of the day. As a result, the queue I joined was not moving and remained parked up there for at least twenty minutes or more, before the usual slow crawl to the rubbish bays. Frustrating. Big queue all along the road outside by the time I was leaving. . I'd had enough of the garden, and with a hint of drizzle in the air called it quits. . somehow managed to muster the energy to have a go at mounting the recessed downlighters I've had laying around for the last year or more, into the living room ceiling for 'subdued lighting' like I used to have two spotlights in each alcove in Bristol. The paper insert in the lid of a coffee jar turned out to be the ideal sized template to draw around, and then I just cut through the fiberboard type ceiling with a sharp Stanley knife and a hack saw blade. Took a while and made a bit of a mess, but eventually had them in place, and even managed to thread connecting wires to them under the bedroom floor and past the noggins, using an old flexible nylon curtain track as a 'threader'. Actually all went pretty well - considering I've been putting that off for over a year! lol Temporarily hooked up a cable with a fused plug poked through the bedroom floorboards, to enable me to switch them on (later ater dark) to see how they actually look. . . skipped the evening walk yet again. . drank a little red wine and ate three salad and pate bread rolls with crisps . .SH called to confirm he had a bunch of duty free tobacco for me and was thinking of heading down this way some time this week . . touched base with BB . . tried out the new downlighter spotlights. Hum. Actually, I'm not sure I like the effect. Definitely far too bright - and boy do they get hot! :o( I need lower wattage bulbs (and preferably cooller running energy saver ones) for sure. . TVd until bed around 1am. d
16 - Up around 8:45am. . .rain! Hung around SO not wanting to have to go out. Eventually got all dressed up in waterproofs and got Sally in the car, only for the car to then not start! Somehow after almost draining the battery turning it over - over and over, the car did eventually suddenly decide to start. Drove to walk . .ate some mrmalade on toast and TVd . Mum called in with the paper and food donations . .ate Mum donated sausage rolls and pork pies . . napped the afternoon away . .after a break while I'd been sleeping, the heavy rain returned so I skipped the evening walk again. . TVd . . ate ham rolls . .touched base with BB briefly . . . TVd until bed around 1am. s
15 - Up around 7:45am again. A 'bit' achey! . . walked in the sun. . filled the back of the car with foliage and did a trip to the tip. As tip trips go it wasn't 'that' bad and I was only sat in the queue for perhaps fifteen minutes or so. Returned home for a coffee and smoke before loading the car up for another trip. That one small bush is going to take three trips!!! . things didn't go so well on this occasion. The queue of cars was all down the road leading to the tip!!! Much sitting around with the engine turned off. Over half an hour before I was unloaded and heading back out. I don't think I can face doing that again today. . returned home and chopped up 'most' of the rest of the bush into a dustbin. . ate corned beef, mayo and lettuce sandwiches with crisps, followed by a few chocolate raisins . . napped until around 6:45pm . . felt pretty tired and with the grey skies and rain showers drifting through, I couldn't face the evening walk and Sally had to make do with just the garden again. .PCd a bit of this but pretty much soon caved in again. Sick of it. I just can't seem to be able to stomach sitting in front of the damn thing hardly at all at the moment! In fact, as the evening wore on, my bleakly black mood of recent days seemed to return with a vengence!!??. .TVd almost until daylight! s
14 - Up around 7:45am! . .walked in the sun. . mowed the lawns. It has become increasingly apparant to me, that the gardens are hugely labour intensive, and frankly I just don't think I'm up to all that work all the time (not only from a 'laziness'/depression-inactivity point of view, but also because I no longer seem capable of too much hard physical labour, without suffering considerable debilitating pain during and afterwards as a result!!). I think it's high time I started to think about modifying the gardens to be more to MY taste and to be less of a full time job. Sadly, many of the 'mature' plants are simply going to have to go. One of those is definitely going to be the big blob of an overgrown privet part way up the garden. Sally seems to have developed a weird habit of rubbing herself against it and has ruined its shape anyway, so it seemed a good idea to start with that one. Everything in the garden seems to have grown over time and is kinda interfering with whatever is next to it. That privet has pretty much killed off one half of a small fir tree, and grossly deformed a much larger one. It's going to be a shame, but I'm pretty sure both of them are gonna have to go too. This whole collection of plants, although giving privacy to the lower part of the garden, obscures any sight of the upper parts from the house. Doesn't make sense to me. I'm gonna have to give some consdierable thought to what may or may not work and do things real slow and bit by bit, but I need to make changes. . .put in the hours with the secateurs and eventually succeeded in cutting down the privet, to just leave the awkward stumps and root to deal with some other time. Yayy. I managed to force myself to 'do' something!! . .exhausting!. . ate corned beef, mayo and lettuce rolls with crisps . . Sally seemed in a funny mood (perhaps because I just choppped down her favourite tree) and unusually she joined me on the bed when I lay down for a much needed nap. . fitfully napped for only an hour or so. Bad back/aching all over! . .walked . . PCd/TVd . . cooked and ate four small burgers (I've had in the freezer for ages) and cheese in buttered rolls followed by a whole bar of Mum donated chocolate. . .TVd until bed around 1:30am.s
13 - Up around 7am! . .walked and did find myself paying more attention than normal to the shoreline, just in case some body had washed up! . . .PCd and sat around doing nothing. Tried real hard to get on with doing something, but somehow I just couldn't muster the energy or see the point. The 'freecycle' lawnmower thing had come to nothing. What I hadn't appreciated is when you ask to have something, I get the impression that you are 'supposed' to trot out some little story about how hard up you are and how it is YOU who should deserve to get the advertised item above all others!! I don't think I can do that. There's something 'distasteful' to me about all that. . drank a splash of wine and cooked sausages, beans, fried bread and chips for lunch . . napped until around 6pm. . walked. .PCd and actually surfed trying to find a decent on-line way of looking up/valueing some of the old stamps I've had laying around in collections since I was a kid. I was quite amazed at the lack of a decent (free, with pictures) site. Went round and round in circles for ages before giving up. . JK called . . TVd . . ate bowls of cornflakes . .TVd until bed around 2:30am. ds
12 - Up around 8am . . PCd over coffee and cigarettes and spotted an advert on the local freecycle site for a lawnmower. . walked mostly between showers. . PCd sat around all day, unable to motivate myself to do anything!! :o( . . walked. Much activity going on out in the bay. A SAR helicopter was doing a search pattern way off in the distance, and a couple of different lifeboats were doing the same back and forth across the wider bay. Extraordinarily large search area I thought. A dog walker suggested he'd heard on the news around 2pm that a forteen year old swimmer was missing from somewhere near Bury Head!!
Apparantly they were gonna do a short
performance as part of the launch of a 'Brixham Arts &
Theatre Society' (which the people concerned seemed to take great
delight in calling 'BATS'). Sat around and eventually watched
their short performance. I couldn't resist and Mum held onto
Sally while I filmed it. So - just another day by the harbourside
then - seagulls, children crab fishing, ice cream, fish and chips,
- and Tibetan Buddhist monks!!!???!!! This place really is
utterly bizarre and as though it's in the twilight zone at times.
Most of the time in fact! lol. .eventually headed off but not far
before ending up all sat for a coffee at tables outside a cafe! .
. eventually back . . .PCd the monk footage. Actually found it
strangely 'moving' watching and listening to it. You can almost
imagine how much of an impact such a thing must have in its
original setting. Also seems 'timely' given all the furore in the
press and on TV at the moment about the Olympic games in China
and all that. Personally, I find it 'distasteful' that the world
is happily mostly ignoring the human rights stuff and having the
games there at all. (Mentally, I haven't moved on from the
Tiananmen Square stuff.) As for the Olympics - it's just people 'playing
games'. Why is that SUCH a big deal to everyone? Like it 'matters'?
Never mind the poor people who were forcibly evicted and made homeless
to build the bloody facilities, never mind all the people dieing
in wars and atrocities everywhere, never mind the starving
millions, climate change, etc, etc - never mind all that - what
is much more important is which of these privileged few can run
faster than the others. I don't get it, and strongly suspect
there is an underlying economic/political/greed based
unpleasantness behind all the positive propaganda. So - nothing
much of interest to me to watch on TV for the next few weeks then.
. touched base with BB. . TVd the evening away until bed after 1am.
s