Mostly lemon based

Category: Creative

  • Help, the gardens are overun with weeds…

    So, in an attempt to reduce the chaos, prevent potential moping, and generally keep myself occupied I prep’d the bike for it’s MOT. Which went slightly less well than I’d hoped. The front brake light switch has, as usual, stopped working. I should’ve thought of this and ordered one in advance. I’m going to hope he’ll let me promise to replace it. I’ve sprayed it with lots of contact cleaner come lubricant and wiggled it lots, I’m hoping that it might work on the day.

    Also, having checked, mirrors are not part of the MOT test requirements. They are part of construction and use, but really mine were useless anyhow. So I’ve taken ’em both off, because one of them needs helicoiling in place, and I don’t have a helicoiling device. I do want them back on, simply because it’s nice to know what’s behind you, but I’m not desparately concerned. I am a bit peeved by the brake light switch though. I only did that for last year’s MOT. It’s only a couple of quid, but still. Aaanyhow, having pulled the iris(es?) out of the bike I then proceeded to do various dances with cars and bikes; which entailed me nearly running the minor into the Viva – having forgotten that the minor’s handbrake is fairly marginal. That would have made a great insurance claim…. Still, I managed to shuffle ’em round so that the bike should be able to be extracted and ridden on Monday.

    All of this leads up to the gardens. See, I’ve really been a bit unsure as to what to do with the garden(s). My mum, I’d decided, would be set loose on the back one, but she wants some rough idea of what I want. I have very rough ideas, but I’m not sure that they’ll work, as such. Anyhow, so I’ve strimmed the weedygrassland in the front garden down to a more manageable length…

    Now, this has to serve several purposes, ideally. Looking pretty is but one component of the plans for the front garden. I’m thinking that I might need some sort of curvy mud retaining wall, and a raised section; and then slop concrete in the other section. This would allow me to have a mini-bike-driveway on the right, at the front, and retain some garden, and maybe make it tidier…

    My intial thoughts are something like this:

    They grey’s the current drive way, the green with the orangey border is my rough outline of the walled / raised bed. I’m not thinking hugely raised, like 2, maybe three layers of brick? Something like that. The curves didn’t quite come out the way I wanted and the scale’s a bit off I think. Still, that’s my general idea :-)

    The back garden’s more of a problem:

    See, I have kind of resigned myself to the fact that the shed is going to have to face the way it is; and to the fact that I’ll probably have to build my own shed up from parts (incidentally, if anyone knows anywhere round Slough where I can pick up scrap wood, I’ve tried Freecycle and unlike Bristol freecycle it’s a bit like calling to a void, all I ever get back is my own echo) and am kind of envisaging stripping down the shed I’ve got, loosing it’s wood-wormey wood, but salvaging the sheet steel and using that to make up the back and the side that you can’t see; then using wood to make up the side you can see and the front. And then planking (maybe ex-pallet?) for the roof? (And then roof felt!).

    The idea was, you see, to make myself some kind of workshop space in which I could strip down the spare engine, but I’m starting to wonder if I’m really going to ever have time to make that an achieveable objective.  Anyhow, so the general idea was to move the shed back, so that it occupies that dubious little gap at the back, almost flush with the garages behind, and also uses up that corner of the garden which is currently given over to a 1970s front door, a tree and a pile of rubbish. *But*, that photo fails to show what it was meant to which is that the concrete is about 15cm* higher behind the shed than in front which I suspect, being lazy, means I’d have to raise the floor of the shed, and maybe put a dinky little step outside it. I don’t think I can easily remove that concrete, what with it being up against a big garage wall… which doesn’t belong to me (annoyingly).

    Aaaanyhow, so I also need to get rid of that concrete centre path. Now, see, various of my friends offered to help with my house before I moved in – so I may be taking them up on this offer, in a summer-dig-kate’s-garden and remove-the-fracking-ugly-path extravaganza – possibly to include a ‘lay the new path and lay out the flowerbeds, oh, and maybe a bit of decking’d be nice party… Heh.

    At least, that would be *nice*; but I’d settle for some help removing the path :-)

    I may also be bringing friends in for a cupboard mounting party, depending on how the kitchen goes. Still no quote from my builder, although they’ve now finished off the plastering (better’n gimp boy in the lounge, not as good as the really good plasterer though). So maybe soon work can commence on the bathroom. Which’d be nice. Then work can commence on removing the old bathroom and finishing off the kitchen. Which’d be nice. :-)

    • Since the EU have sadly decided to allow Britain to keep being insanely dumb about measurements, I’m instigating a new policy of endeavouring (much more strongly) to use metric measures.

  • I didn’t know where my life would take me next.

    I forgot to post on Snapshot hunter this week; it was meant to be this image – but I often forget which day I need to post things by. The most annoying thing is the two times I’ve forgotten I’ve had really good shots. Although I wasn’t 100% decided I’d only uploaded this one for ‘wet’. Anyhow.

    In other news, here’s some more new music. Indie pop, for those who’re not wanting to use up clicks.

    Tomorrow is my interview, and thus I should go to bed soon. I’m feeling a little teensy bit tense. Really quite tense. Incredibly tense. No, that’s excessive. I’m quite tense though. I think I’ve got my four H’s and four T’s. I’ve thought of answers to the questions like ‘why do you want to work in A&E’ and ‘what would make you a good A&E nurse’; I’ve got a couple of questions to ask, I know what I’m going to wear. I found my brief/attaché/whatever case and prep’d the folder with a few ‘samples’ of my portfolio. I think that’s it.

    It’s still scary though. Wish me luck; I *want* this job.

  • Abandoned Norfolk

    So, while wandering with my girlfriend we came across pseudo abandonment. It’s odd, because the adjoining buildings are part of an active university faculty, but these buildings, which one presumes are simply completely surplus to requirements are clearly in severe disrepair. There’s a sign up on one for planning permission to convert it into a bar…

    Whilst the fencing wasn’t exactly set up to prevent entry (there was a huge gap in it), the buildings themselves seemed fairly well sealed…

    This is actually the roof of what appears to have at one time been a stable. Further along it’s completely collapsed, big gaping holes allowing water straight into the building, this bit however is fairly much intact.

    A shattered light fitting hangs from the wall; I’m not sure when we stopped using ceramic for light fittings, but I think probably in the 50s…

    Interestingly it shows signs of having been rewired though, so perhaps the building’s been actively maintained until more recently.

    And another shot of that roof.

    On the opposite side of the courtyard there’s a barn-like building; a selection of broken and boarded up windows and doors bar entry; it appears to have some storage use – despite its condition. It’s even got new padlocks on some of the doors – despite the fact they don’t look like they’ve opened for years.

    For some reason that glass in the previous shot was a complete nightmare to focus on. I’ve no idea why. It took about four shots before I got one that was in focus!

    Looking downwards through the missing glass panes, you could see into the barn like building.

    But from another angle you could actually see directly in – and it also appears to have been used as a stable…

    Then there was this pair of round windows… reminds me of “playschool”.

    In between them was this door; freshly padlocked and yet overgrown and with the metalwork the padlock’s attached to showing no signs of having been moved at any point in the recent past. No scrape marks…

    Oddly, near my girlfriend’s house there’s a bit of abandonment, well, several bits, and so just ‘cos I’m too lazy to stick it in another post, here’s the abandoned shopping trolley :-)

    Hope you enjoyed the pics :-)

  • Woozy Coffee Monster

    So, I’ve not been drinking so much coffee recently, but today I ended up having my usual breakfast cup, and a huge mocha in Starbucks (don’t all tell me off at once…), then some ice-tea in a cafe on the Strand and finally another huge mocha from Upper Crust before catching the early morning train back. See, I needed to stay awake ‘cos I’m on nights tomorrow (well, technically today), so I need to sleep late – aiming for 5, 5:30ish heading to bed.

    But all that coffee’s keeping me awake in a woozy ‘are my legs still attached’ / ‘I don’t feel 100% brilliant’ kind of way. I was pretty good…until I got home. But where was I? And what was I doing in the Strand?

    Before I tell you, I have to introduce to what I originally thought might be a myth in my bathroom. But it turned out to be a moth:

    It came in late a couple of nights ago, and lurked there until the morning when I scooped it into a glass and set it free. I also have the urge to share this with you:

    My choice of cheese seems less, well, appealing when described like that.

    So yeah.

    Well, this weekend has been something that’s been approaching and which I’ve been both excited and nervous about. See, this weekend I met Kathryn’s mom. She’s over from the U.S. for a week (I think, my vague memory is vague on details), before heading off on holiday further afield, and so I had a chance to meet her.

    Given how much I care about Kathryn, meeting her mom was kinda important – and so I’ve been nervously waiting for it… Kathryn came down yesterday (well, technically the day before, given that it’s technically Sunday) and we uh, well, went to Kwik-Fit. Normally I ring round and find the best price for tyres, but I only decided I wanted new tyres on the way to the station (I was going to get part-worn’s, but at around 1500 miles a month it’s probably a false economy), hence Kwik-Fit was used. Brick now has semi-decent, good tyres. This is better than the cracked sidewall and had-reached-chunks-flaking-off-of-the-tread-10-year-old-remoulds that were on there. Uh, then we headed home and curled up watching Shooting Fish (the DVD edit of which is different to the theatrical release, sadly. I am slightly annoyed by that).

    Aaaanyhow, so, we got up this morning and headed in to London (for those of you wondering how this fits in with my economising; today was my last fling before stopping. The last prescheduled events day) (random aside – can you tell I’m tired? – the nipod is working well, and interesting to have because I put not only music I really like on it, but stuff I thought I should listen to more, which means I’ve just really enjoyed Maria Mena, Mogwai and Metric – all of which I was aware I liked, but I’ve never really listened to enough. Anyhow.). We went to meet Kathryn’s mom at Heathrow. Normally I drive there, but a quick costing of tickets indicated it was cheaper for us to get the train there and then go from Heathrow (after Kathryn patiently pointed out to me that Heathrow has both a train and an Underground station. I’m convinced I was being terribly irritating, unintentionally, because my brain wasn’t working and I kept trying to help but getting things wrong ;-) ).

    Despite British Network Rail’s new time telling system which appears to be based on Hexadecimal we got there on time.

    Or more accurately, we knew her plane was late and we got there before it arrived, which was our aim.

    Meeting Kathryn’s mom turned out to be not nearly as scary as my fears about it – mostly because Kathryn’s mom is really lovely, and very friendly, and also she failed to have any pointy sticks (nor the opinion of my friend Sophie, who’s always said she’d interrogate any lesbian suitors for her daughter far more thoroughly than any heterosexual suitors… because ‘she knows what lesbians are like’). And we went on to have a really nice day in London, munching on incredibly fine food at a cafe near Paddington before Kathryn and I headed off and obtained tickets for Evita… snapping this photo on the way:

    …I’ve not been to a musical for years – and the last one was so long ago and I was so young that I can’t actually remember it – although I have a feeling it might have been a production of Kiss Me, Kate. Anyhow, Evita was just plain enjoyment for me, and it was nice to get dressed up in a posh frock (well, moderately) and go out. :-)

    Afterwards we headed to another cafe where we had, uh, largely the same food – and chatted s’more; before we wandered back to their hotel and eventually I headed home.

    The journey home turned out to be a trifle eventful; first the train I was going to catch was cancelled – not a huge problem, there was another 20 minutes later (which meant 20 more minutes with Kathryn :-) ), everyone seemed to be running to get on to the train which seemed odd, but the reason became apparent once I was there. I got one of the last few seats, and watched as people just kept arriving.

    Eventually, sardine like, the train driver having tried to convince people going to the first three stations to take a different train (leaving 10 minutes later) we pulled out. Not that I cared, I had a nice seat and there was no one who might conceivably be considered a ‘give up your seat for’ person on the train; at least not within my range of vision which granted was limited by asses and rucksacks. However, within my hearing range was an argument which turned into a full-on brawl with some drunk bloke pulling another drunk bloke out of the train, where they proceeded to kick merry hell out of each other until one collapsed onto the station platform.

    I’d just decided that I really ought to check on the bloke who’d lost the fight, given his lying prostrate on the ground and not getting-back-up-ness (given my code of conduct I’m required, actually, to stop and help people who need the aid of a nurse) when the train doors shut and we pulled away. Fortunately his friends appeared to have phones and so on and so forth, but really. Some people should not be allowed alcohol.

    Also disturbing – the bloke I sat down opposite, whilst he was polite to me, he had two tattoos, one of crossed confederate flags with ‘THE [SOUTH?] WILL RISE AGAIN’ and the second tattoo which said ‘[covered by shirt sleeve]… to the blacks’. Which as an ending to a tattoo when combined with a pair of confederate flags, well, somehow left me feeling faintly unnerved.

    Ah well. At any rate, I had a fantastic day; and am now phenomenally tired.

  • So, a bit of an update

    It’s a bit huge today, lots of photos and all, so rather than inflict them on my entire f-list, the post is under a cut. But for all of you to enjoy, here’s a picyture…

    So, Kathryn ([info]bluwyngz) came down last week, in fact, a week ago today. Having ensconced ourselves in Slough – funds for the journey to Bristol and back (and foodage while there) being somewhat lacking from my bank account (hell, funds for anything are lacking and a certain NHS related staffing are working at that special speed at which the NHS functions – thus preventing me from obtaining bank shifts which is somewhat frustrating). Anyhow. I was a little concerned by this turn of events – Slough being hardly a cultural mecca – and fearing that Kathryn might get somewhat bored with, well, Slough.

    But actually it all turned out fabulously. The weather was kind to us, and we headed out to Windsor Great Park – on the way there encountering this rather nice picture and then…

    The park itself is pretty vast, considering I live all of 20 minutes away and had no idea about it’s existence (I’m sure someone ([info]jordax, probably) has told me about it, but hey, I have a short memory) and yet is bigger than Windsor itself, well, I’m surprised. Anyhow, we wandered in and here in all their (edited) glory are some of the pics.

    It was gorgeously sunny, and the current

    [info]snapshot_hunter comp is ‘dappled’ so I spent ages trying to get ‘dappled’ shots:

    Given that it’s a big old park with lots of big old trees, there’s plenty of storm damaged trees – with their broken jagged points scoring the sun bleached sky.

    I spent ages photographing this tree, but I never did quite get the shot I was after.

    Of course, since it was sunny++, I could actually use the Macro on my camera. I’ve not played with it very much, it needs a lot of light, and obviously, tiny focal distance. People who’ve seen my ladybird (ladybug) shot from the urbex set know I’ve been playing with it, but hey, here’s some tree bark which had a gorgeous texture:

    So, playing with the macro in a park leads to ‘flowers’, obviously. But not being in a great position (I was on the rather steep bank of a little dinky stream) meant that I wasn’t that great at checking the focus on some shots. This was intended to be a shot of the purple flower, but I really love the way it’s come out, actually. The focus is not where you expect, and the grass looks fantastic :-)

    I debated whether that was ‘dappled’ but really, it just doesn’t scream ‘dappled’ at me. It wasn’t the last time I played with the macro function, oh no:

    However, on the dappled front I have to say I felt this next shot achieved dappled quite well; in fact, assuming the competition’s not closed, this’ll be my entry.

    I won’t say as it’s the very definition of dappled, but it’s pretty much dappled as far as I’m concerned. Anyway, we continued our quest (which was, I suspect, to have a very nice walk in the park) and both continued to snap away with our respective cameras…

    And I continued to play a game I’d not even realised I was playing – I think it was called ‘how many macro shots can you take in a day’?

    This was another shot I took in my quest to get dapplement, but I wasn’t quite so keen on this one…

    One of my other hobbies of the day was candid shots of Kathryn. Sadly, quite a lot of these came out with her being small and far away, or alternatively ‘not hugely flattering’. In many ways the next shot went horribly wrong, but I actually really like the result:

    Shortly after this, we decided to rise above it all…by climbing a tree. I love climbing, I used to scale rocks and walls and trees as a kid, and though there was a latent fear of heights lurking in my conciousness I overpowered it by sheer force of will. Apparently, my will isn’t quite so strong these days; that and I’d forgotten about it until I got into the tree.

    And when I say ‘climbing a tree’, Kathryn climbed, with grace – or at least agility, she shot up the tree, perching high up in the branches

    I for my part kinda scrabbled in – intially and rather startlingly dropping to the ground (having first impacted the trunk of the tree as I threw myself to clear the sign which I *really* didn’t want to land on) – it was only a few feet (about 5?) to the bottom branch, but my arms really weren’t that keen on the concept of me going into it. A second attempt lead to me scrabbling and in a terribly undignified way landing up on my desired branch. Happy I was, and then I looked at the teeny tiny drop and my brain said ‘no Kate, you’re scared’. Having beat the fear into a small mushy pulp I then attempted to ascend… a bit of scrabbling later and my fear gland worked it’s magic again, and I decided to stay where I was. Comfortable on the lowest branch. There I sat, happily contemplating ways to screw my subconscious out of ever speaking to me again, and enjoying the rather pleased sensation of having at least made it *into* the tree.

    Clearly tree climbing is something I shall have to re-skill at, because it was great fun – although I don’t bounce *quite* so well as I used to, and we won’t discuss my descent which left me with scrapes and bruises that had my colleagues at work much amused.

    Kathryn went on to climb another tree, me – feeling a little sore – I rested on a bough which had formed a natural hammock shape, lovely it was. The evening light was casting funky shadows and Kathryn was being silly…

    As we headed back we encountered a bird we’d spent some time trying to get pictures of earlier; and this time we both got good shots of it

    We also encountered some terribly irritating black-what-are-they-birds. Irritating because they were quite interesting, cute and had a policy of only flapping their wings or flying about if you were pointing the camera at another bird. To be fair, it was getting a bit less light, and quite a lot of mine – zoomed to maximum zoomage – came out rather blurry.

    But there was one…

    And then of course we did some urbexing (which I ramble about here)

    So that was my days with Kathryn, in a very restrained journal-publishable not nearly as Kathryn-centred as it would be – way.

    Anyhow, so since Kathryn’s been I’ve been trying to be a little more organised in my approach to the house, and my life – mostly because she’s introduced me to Performance Poetry, some other indiefeeds, and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me (which is similar in concept to Radio 4’s ‘The News Quiz’ – why isn’t that podcasted? Grr); and I’ve restarted listening to Coverville. Which means that I need time to listen to these things – but also I need to get on with the house, now I’ve managed to encourage my builder that I asked to quote to maybe send me a quote.

    So, I dug up some enthusiasm and dug great chunks out of the walls in the spare room – and then went around filling them back in – hopefully post sanding (and there’s going to be a lot of sanding) it should look a hell-of-a-lot better. I still need to do more, but I’ve left it two days to try and ensure it’s really dry.

    I also returned Gardenia from the wild rebels to a state of harmonious…well, I’d say democracy, but it’s more of a dictatorship. With the aid of the heavy artillery (namely a 25 quid lawnmower from Homebase, and a similarly cheap and nasty strimmer) the grass has been reduced from ‘field like’ to merely ‘slightly untidy’. The weeds are also an even length now, too. I’m not sure you’re meant to mow beds filled entirely with weeds, but I kinda did. The mower is pretty effective – but the motor attrociously balanced leading to a feeling like riding a motorcycle flat-out down the motorway; vibey. And the strimmer is similarly equipped with the Vibratortron 3000 motor. I struggled to do too much with the strimmer because it actually made my hands hurt to keep in on too long. Still, thankfully the garden’s small enough – and once my mum’s had her way there probably won’t be much in the way of grass. Some, because I like grass, but not that much.

    And finally in my enthusiastic streak, I attacked Brick’s headlamp switch. I’m not sure what made me decide to do that, but I’m incredibly grateful that I did – for whilst my old switch looked in good shape

    That top – which appeared in such good shape hid a nasty, nasty secret.

    For the last few days I’ve had this faint idea that I could smell burning electrics – just occasionally. I’d started to put it down to paranoia – but also started to bump up the list of things to do the need to look at the state of the slightly flakey headlamp switch (it’d made a crunching noise once, and since that day hadn’t quite worked right). I’m really thankful that I did look at it today. The insulation on the connector was black and charred, a big chunk of it missing completely; the headlamp connector as you can see above and below black and charred. The paper’s even clearly started to scorch.

    There could have been an electrical fire – which would probably have been terminal; because it would have been under the dashboard – and just the sort of fire which puts and end to old cars. Anyway, the switch has gone, the connector’s been cleaned, and hopefully things are now sorted. Big thanks to PSL from the Vauxhall Viva Owners Club for the for-the-price-of-postage replacement switch.

    Anyhow, if you made it this far, congratulations. I’ll try and be a bit more regular with my updates :-)

  • Urbexing – Slough Abandoned

    So, I went urbexing with Kathryn (I shall post about my fantastic 4 and a half days later); and this is the result.

    Some dull locationy shots, and then some better shots…

    The carpark entrance is blocked both by some barriers and some attractive concrete blocks. They’re also scattered around the back of the building (or, I guess, the side – since the back is a demolished factory).

    The building’s pretty well sealed up – in fact, as we’ll see later it’s insanely well sealed up.

    The little brick garden contains a little gift for rats and mice.

    And so, on to the slightly more urbexy photos:

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    Through a tiny little hole in the shutters you could see inside. It was empty:

    These are the blocks – cylinders – which appeared to be filled with concrete. This partially disintegrated one shows the truth…

    And here’s the excessive security surrounding what appeared to be an old side entrance to the building. I really don’t quite understand what an (ex)sofa supermarket needs with huge barbed wire fences and floodlights, but hey.

    So, round real the back of the building was an almost completely demolished factory(?). Get yourself ready for some more cliches

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    And here’s a bit of the local wildlife:

    Slightly bigger versions are here.

  • Fracking hell

    So, you know when you’re in a fantastic mood, a truly awesome high, you’re running on dreams – and then something really shit happens?

    *sighs*

    The thing was, it wasn’t even really shit – it was just shit and I disagreed with it. Strongly. Vigorously. I suspect I did not impress some people at work today, and others, I think were probably positive about my input. Problem is, to coin a phrase ‘I don’t take no shit from no-one’, and when someone says ‘you’ve got to move that patient’, if I don’t think it’s appropriate, I’ll say so.

    I’ll say so and I’ll do my damnest to stop it happening unless someone can give me a damn good reason why I *should*. And today, no one had a reason. No one with any more knowledge was available, and I started to get frustrated. I bleeped everyone and their dog. I paged people. I left messages. I started doing the irritating bleep every couple of minutes. No fucking answer.

    And I started to feel very unsupported. The nurse in charge today, he is someone who I like, let’s get that straight. But he never fills me with that feeling that when the poo comes flying he’ll be there to prevent it hitting the fan. No, I kinda feel like he’d duck.

    So, there I was saying ‘look, I spoke to the head of this dept and she said keep him there, and that was on saturday, and we’re being asked to do the *same damn thing* we were asked to do on saturday, and it’s no more  appropriate now than it was then; nothing has changed; why should I move him now’.

    And y’know what? I’m proud of myself, because though I was frustrated and felt like crying some of the day; I won out. When I *finally* got a response from someone high enough up to actually make a decision that someone would listen to, then they agreed with me. *sighs*.

    But it really took it out of me.

    And then I discovered a drug error; quite a serious one, as it happened (thankfully one which happened not-on-our-ward). Which meant that Matron had to come down to the ward and deal with it. In the end I just felt like curling up under the desk.

    But, on the plus side of today I did get my shot taken for the LJ Community I’ve just joined; snapshot hunter. This is my take on ‘Candy’:

    Candy Addict

    Yeah, it’s the way my brain works. I’m really pleased with the way it came out though. I want to show it to people and no-one’s awake. Hell, I shouldn’t really be awake, I should be in bed, sleeping. Readying myself for another day of underpaid wage slavery work.

    The worst thing for me about today was the complete and total destruction of my good mood, which is only just starting to seep back in, like the scent of flowers spreading back through a room after you’ve closed the doors. I had the most fantastic time, with the most fantastic girl for the last 2 days. I spent most of the day (when I wasn’t struggling to keep my head above water) whining about the fact I’m not with her at the moment, enjoying Spain. Anyway, it seems she made it there safely (I had that faint worry in the back of my head)… We just need to work on (as she commented) getting our time together at a slightly higher frequency.

    Right. I must head to bed.

  • Weekendly Updatitude.

    So, I actually had a weekend off, which is quite weird, and I’ve spent it doing things which are fun/dubious/entertaining. First up, after a day at work which was less fun than it could’ve been, and actually invoked my ‘pissed off’ state – which I posted about here, James headed round and we went off to see his play.

    Yep, his play. James has written loads over the years I’ve known him, and I’ve had the pleasure of reading some of it; I’m a big fan of his writing… But this is the first time I’ve seen a play of his. A short play, one act, but a good one. Yeah, I’m not good at reviewing things, so I shan’t try. Suffice to say I was impressed. It was part of the Windsor Arts Centre short-play competition, which is apparently bi-annual and run with the writer’s group. It was really a thoroughly enjoyable evening – reminding me how much I used to love going to the theatre, and just the act of going *out* – although it did take me about an hour to decide what level of neat I was going for and to find a combination of clothing that I declared suitable. Which was funny, ‘cos I wore the jumper the whole time…
    Unfortunately, by the time the after-party occurred I had reached a stage of phenomenally tired. So, while James socialised I sat on a chair in the corner and endeavoured not to fall asleep. ‘m glad I didn’t drink any alcohol though; there was a distinct alcohol drinking urge, it being a pleasant evening out and the faint urge to have a glass of wine was there, but I resisted, knowing I was going to be asleep if I did. The one pissy bit was some incredibly irritating people behind us laughing, talking and generally being annoying through, well, the whole show – but particularly through James’ play. Mainly, I suspect, because the actor who they’d come to ‘support’ wasn’t in it.

    How do you deal with that? I just wanted to turn round and tell them to shut up, but I didn’t want to make it worse, and nor did I want to make a scene in the middle of James’ play.

    Anyway. So we headed back to mine, the icy temperatures waking me up somewhat, so a long evening of chatting was had and having done battle with the camp-bed, and warmed up the bedroom (cheapskate that I am, James got to sleep on the camp bed at the foot of my bed so I only had to heat one room) I slept like a baby (that phrase is odd, because babies, in general, seem to wake up a lot during the night).

    Saturday came around and having, uh, talked really our way through the morning we decided to do a little bit of urbexing. All of 30 seconds of research and we had a site within walking distance. I need to process some photos, they’re not very good – although there’s a few arty ones; James with his nice zoom managed to get some rather better shots which actually look like we were inside the building (but we weren’t – although there is a way in, it’s not a safe way in, and I value my registration too much. It was very frustrating though, because we could see the inside through the grilles on the windows, but couldn’t really get decent shots of it). At any rate, they need some processing (mine) before they’re let out in the open, so you’ll have to wait for ’em. As a side point, it appears James (and therefore some others of you) may not have seen the Bristol North Pool shots – so here’s the links again: Gallery 1, Gallery 2.

    Anyway, having frozen our peripheries off, we headed back stopping briefly for me to collect a bin – free of charge, of course – which is now my Kitchen bin. Ra.

    We then had Pizza, a quick run to Tesco provided us with both Baileys *and* ice cubes, which combined to make a very chilled out evening. We watched Children of Men, which is a *really bloody good film*, and should have done much better. And actually, people should be made to watch our dystopian future. I also found my copy of Threads, should I ever want to depress myself thoroughly again.

    Another late evening of chatting and gently consuming alcohol was then followed by a rather pleasant night’s sleep which – despite us both waking up early was another day largely spent talking, playing with the eyeToy games, and me hunting for Rez – ‘cos James’s never seen it in action (though I wasn’t planning on showing the accessory to him ;-) ). Sadly I cant’ find it, whilst I’m certain it is in the house, more than that, that I’ve *seen* it, I can’t work out where it landed up. I thought I’d brought it down to be with the other playstation games. But apparently not. I do now, though, need to find it :-)

    At any rate, we chilled out and I fleshed out an idea for a Maker article I’m thinking of writing (yes, really); it’s actually something that *could* be a product – but frankly, it seems like too much effort. But making a one off one, that could be good. Can you copyright a design – but allow people to make it in a not-for-profit way? Only whilst I’m really happy for everyone to make their own, I’d be pissed if some company picked up on it and started making it. Anyone know?

    Anyway, we made curry, sat down and watched Ultraviolet – which I still reckon is an okay film. Not brilliant, but pretty and moderately entertaining – although obviously that is assisted by the presence on screen of our Milla.

    And finally, after James headed home, I did something almost unprecedented. I rang my sister, and just had a chat. I don’t know why, I just felt the urge, and did so. So that’s been my weekend, how’s yours been?

    I’ve promised myself I’ll finish off some work before I get down to editing those images, but I decided to let myself actually enjoy the weekend off.

  • I should be asleep but…

    Couple of quick eclipse shots, before I kip:

    Plain old eclipse shot, unprocessed and raw.

    Mog and Moon

    Hope you all enjoyed the eclipse… Sleep now.

  • Pics (and not just house ones!)

    So, I should be asleep. I will be asleep in a few minutes. First up – when I said it rains in my bathroom I wasn’t kidding…

    And – due to flat batteries, *really* flat batteries I missed taking pictures of the prettyness that was snow, but I did just take some slightly odd nightshots of the snowman. I hate being easily distracted sometimes.