It Was Diana's Day Off,

so off to London we went, 

Diana took this one from the bus, as we made our way here, 

the London Camera Exchange, one of the memory cards for the new camera was the wrong one, I had ordered one for a Fujifilm GSX 100S, in fact I had the Fujifilm GSX 100S II which takes a different card, D'Oh!, as I mentioned before the new camera is going to be a steep learning curve! the great news was that the card was change and I was given a cash refund with no fuss at all, also a real bonus, the camera takes 2 cards, so I wanted to have one card with normal photographs on it, the other card with RAW or in Fujifilm's case RAF files on it, one of the staff there who has a similar camera in no time had programmed my camera to do exactly that, well done to the London Camera Exchange, as an aside if any one out there needs any help with cameras or lenses I highly recommend this store, I know I could have bought all of this on the net, but I hate doing that, and as shown above going to a reputable store pays real dividends if something goes wrong, all I have to do now is find out how to view the RAF files!

as we were in London we decided on a walkabout, and a look at some of the more unusual shops on our way to Chinatown, so far my sciatica was not too bad, 

a quick pose, 

or two, 

as we passed this strange looking facade, 

and here we were in covent garden, 

we called into Nespresso for a couple of descaling kits, the water in Beckenham is so hard you can almost cut slices of it!

we made our way into Chinatown,

under the lanterns, 

and passing lots of restaurants, 

until we found ourselves outside of our favourite one, the Golden Phoenix,

a quick purse through the menu, 

we ordered pretty much the same as previous visits, 

and it was all delicious, 

Diana has made a short video of out meal is you are ever in Chinatown and not sure which restaurant to choose remember this one near the corner, although one has to say prices have risen sharply in the past couple of years, it was not long ago that this or at least a similar meal here would be in the £80 - £90 bracket, today £130, but as Diana tells me so often, 'nothing stays the same forever', it must be my age, I keep thinking of things as they were, but it was excellent, we then made our way home where it was feet up for a couple of films, 

a favourite of mine, Blow-Up, the film centres on a murder,

committed in this park that we visited in January 2019, if you watch the film these views of the park,

will be familiar, the park is Maryon Park in South East London,

before we leave Blow-Up here are a few stills from the film, 

David Hemmings the main star of the movie, we then followed that with our last film of the evening,

 Murder on the Orient Express, the 2017 version, I have to say I preferred the original 1974 version, but there it is, fun to watch, and with the end of that Diana was off to bed, for myself last week's edition of Have I Got News For You, before I too was off to bed.

It Was Just Like A Sunday,

a read, 

and a sherry before our starters, 

peppered chicken liver pate, 

which was delicious, 

followed by gammon ham, with lashings of gravy for Diana, 

sans gravy for myself, 'Cheers!',

followed by, 

Christmas pudding, with cream and braby,

next feet up for our afternoon film, The Man Who Knew Too Much, we had not watched it before, it was quite enjoyable as it happens, after a evening snack, 

 Battle of the River Plate, or as it sometimes known,

Pursuit of the Graf Spee, a true story that really happened and as far as I can tell it stuck pretty close to what really happened, for the actual story have a look here, it is an interesting read, as an aside look out for Christopher Lee aged 34 when he played Manolo, a Latin American, after which a change of pace as we watched a Mrs. Brown's Boys, which we both thoroughly enjoyed, we rounded off the evening with a Poirot, Death on the Nile, which we had both watched before but a nice way to finish the evening, after which we were off to bed.

First Thing I Dropped Diana Off To Work,

then parked in town,

I had a few things to do, I had requested a repeat prescription from the surgery, they pass it on to Boots the chemist who then texts me when it is ready to be picked up, Boots the chemist had texted me, so I called in to pick up my prescription, but it turned out that I along with many others had been contacted by the computer in error, the computer had gone mustang, no prescriptions were available to be picked up, luckily the pharmacist gave me 1 months supply, so I do not have to call back in a few days, next better luck at Sainsburys where I exchanged our CO2 cylinder for a full one, also I bought a couple of lamb shanks for this evening,

 back home I spent the day playing with my new toy, it is so complicated compared to my Lumix cameras, in the early evening I popped out to pick Diana up from work, after which we had our evening meal,

'Cheers!',

lamb shank, mash and a couple of vegetables, 

we watched a new Midsomer Murder, which brought us nicely up to Jools Holland Hootenanny 2026,

the countdown in the corner of the screen, 

nearly there, 

any second now, 

and pop! it was 2026!

and above is a video Diana made of our welcome to the new year, we watched the rest of the Hootenanny after which we were off to bed.

Although I Am Happy With The Results,

from my Lumix cameras, 

there is no denying, that when I try to print them in A3 size, many do not enlarge as well as I would like, and A3+ is really out of the question, the problem is this:

the size of camera sensors, there are other factors involved as well, but this what I am concentrating on, illustration Dana Davis New York Times, the size of the sensor in my Lumix cameras in scale with the others, is the blue oblong, Four Thirds as that format is known, as it happens the actual size is 17.3mm x 13.0mm I am upgrading to the pink oblong, the new camera a GFX, the sensor size 43.8mm x 32.9mm, a tad larger! the yellow oblong is what the film size was in the pre digital days, known as 35mm which has a sensor size of 36mm x 24mm so with so much more information I can enlarge my photographs well past A3+ size, so I was off,

to the The London Camera Exchange, the slight problem is that the Lumix had only one built in lens, that went from macro to wide angle to telephoto, all in one, so it was not just a case of buying a camera and lens, it was buy a camera with a selection of lens to cover even then just some of the range, I came away ladened down with carrier bags, thankfully my sciatica did not play up until I was nearly home, but I did need a stool in the shop, many thanks guys! the staff could not have been more helpful, I needed advice about updating the new camera amongst other things, 

arriving home this was it, 

so many boxes, it was just like Christmas all over again!

camera plus one lens, a zoom lens a 35 - 70 mm

next a zoom semi telephoto 100 - 200, also have on order a 1.4 converter to increase the range of the lens,

lastly a wide angle zoom, 20 - 35, the macro lens will have to wait, 

a spare battery,

and charger,

2 cards a CFexpress, 

ans a normal SD card,

next open the camera box, 

on top the 35 - 70 lens, 

I started on the camera,

into the packaging, 

and there it was,

 the camera of my dreams, with charging cable, battery, shoulder strap and clip to stop cables from being accidentally pulled out when on the move videoing, 

first thing charge the batteries,

 

I seldom need more than one, but I prefer to play safe and have 2, 

they both had zero charge,

I then decided to print out the owners manual, I hate having to keep looking at a computer screen to learn about things, I much prefer to have a paper copy in front of me, 430 pages later and there it was!

it took quite some time, (and paper) to print it all, 

I then opened the lens box, and found a 150 page booklet about the camera, D'Oh! and one for the lens, by now it was time to pick up Diana from work, but a quick glance at the manual revealed this was going to be heavy going, the camera just has so many buttons and bits and pieces to master,

like this, there are more buttons on the front too!

and this is the information you see through the viewfinder, where is an expert when you need one? anyway, fun times ahead, I fear it is going to be a steep learning curve, back to our evening, we were just in time for a new Midsomer Murder, which was most enjoyable, followed by a repeat that we watched as well before we were off to bed