I Had To Pop Back Into Town Today,

on the way back I took another photograph of Foxgrove Lodge,

this is it, straight out of the little pocket Lumix DMC-TZ20 I normally carry with me everyday, it was a dull over cast day, arriving home I decided to spruce it up a bit,

I started by adding some colour, the original seemed washed out,

looking better already, well it does to me! but the sky still seemed featureless,

so I tried one or two different skies,

to give the photograph a dramatic look,

but I think the blue sky seemed to look the nicest,

a tad brighter and there it is,

 naturally I had to have a play with a night sky, a little too dark,

but that was soon solved,

many years ago they used to say, 'the camera never lies' which is obviously not true any longer, as this side by side proves! in the evening I watched a Lewis, after which Diana called so off to the bus stop and home in time for the start of a New Tricks, which we followed with one from Silent Witness before we were of to bed.

If You Are Familiar With,

anime series like Dragon Ball or JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure,

you will recognize these plastic figurines of popular anime characters, all available from many outlets, but a mysterious artist, who goes by MA Man on social media, specializes in taking commercially available figurines and turns them into custom works of art, 

Ma Man uses both airbrushing and classic painting techniques to emphasize the figurine’s features, like their muscles or the creases of their clothes to make them look as cool and detailed as possible,

the figurines that MA Man starts out with are not bad to begin with, but compared to how they end up looking when the artist has done with them they have improved so much,

the videos are a tad long, but still fascinating to watch, if you want to see more have a look here.

Scan The World,

is probably the largest platform for 3D-printed objects,

from top left: “Recumbent Lion,” “Bust of Nefertiti,” head of Michaelangelo’s “David,” and “Fourth Gate of Vaubam Fortress“ Scan the World might be one of the only institutions where visitors are encouraged to handle the most-valued sculptures and artefacts from art history. The open-source museum hosts an impressive archive of 18,000 digital scans, searchable by collection, artist, and location, Scan the World recently teamed up with Google Arts and Culture, which partners with more than 2,000 institutions, to add thousands of additional pieces to the platform, Scan the World is part of My Mini Factory, which is the largest platform for 3D-printed objects. If you’re new to the process, check out the site’s wide range of tutorials, including tips for beginners,  how to scan with your phone, and techniques for using drones to capture hard-to-reach works. to capture hard-to-reach works, I have to say once I started looking it was difficult to stop!

Researchers From The Hong Kong University Of Science And Technology,

 have made an amazing break through,

a new prototype lenses can successfully monitor changes in intraocular pressure ( the pressure within the eyeball), photograph BBC the new prototype lens can change in shape to monitor the changes within the eyeball, as the Conversation details:

The continuous monitoring provided by the contact lens could come in handy for people suffering from glaucoma. This lens can monitor changes in intraocular pressure throughout the day, and can responsively release drugs to alleviate the glaucoma. A similar lens, called Sensimed Triggerfish, has received regulatory approval in the United States and Japan.

Thanks to the ubiquity of electronic devices, we are currently living in a world constantly bathed in electromagnetic radiation. Although a clear consensus is absent, studies have pointed out that exposure to electromagnetic radiation could possibly induce some effects in human tissue. Engineers in South Korea have applied a layer of graphene to contact lenses to help shield the eyes from electromagnetic radiation. The thin graphene layer also reduces dehydration, what an amazing invention being able to monitor eyeball pressure changes throughout the day.

We Had An Early Visit,

by both the fox and the crow,

I threw a few peanuts out,

he called back a few times, so a quick video,

the crow was here as well,

after the usual hoovering, watering the plants, etc I was out shopping, no cars today,

pretty much everybody back to work,

the cherry blossom looking so nice,

into Sainsburys, and out again, 

and now the good news, O'Neil's had opened up today, as it was Wednesday, one of my drinking days, I just had to call in for a refreshing larger and lime, the staff I chatted to told me they were all so relived to be able to come back to work again,

what a difference a day makes,

the wisteria on Foxgrove Lodge,

really starting to flower now,

the cherry blossoms still putting on a good show, in the afternoon Steve called round for a coffee and a chat,

in the evening a read and a sherry,

a starter of smoked mackerel and dry toast,

whilst shopping I bought a Indian meal for tonight, onion bhajis, vegetable samosa and pakora, butter chicken and jalfrezi with pilau rice, I read and listened to music until just before 9.00 in the evening when Diana called,

on the way back from the bus stop I took a couple of photographs of the cherry blossoms, both pretty awful, this one using the cameras flash,

this one using the headlamp I wear in the park, as it is pretty dark there with minimal street lights, arriving home we were just in time for New Tricks, which started early this evening at 10.00 next, we watched a murder mystery before we were off to bed.

I Am Sure There Are Many People That Love Their Jobs,

but how far would you take that love?

for one Indonesian man who loves his workplace so much, he has named his son after it, this was agreed with his wife before the birth of the boy nicknamed Dinko, asked if he has given any thought to how his son will feel about his name when he grows up, the Indonesian civil servant said that he is sure the boy will get used to it eventually, Samet Wahyudi told reporters that he got a job as a civil servant in the city of Brebes in 2003, and he has been working there ever since, this place has become like a second home for him, so he wanted it connected to his son, Indonesian media reported on the child’s unusual name earlier this month, after checking the country’s name registration database, all seemed well with no problems with the parents choice of name, 

born on December 23, 2020, now 5 months old, welcome to the world, Statistical Information Communication Office, who I guess will probably have a tough time introducing himself with his full name.

Another Book For My Collection,

British Dragonflies,

published in 1900: L Upcott Gill in London, size: 9" by 6" Pagination: xiv, 356, [4]pp

the work was by William John Lucas FRES

he was a British entomologist, 

and was educated at a grammar school in Oxford and went to the University of London,

He eventually he became a teacher at Tiffin Boys School in Kingston upon Thames and he was appointed lecturer in nature study to the Surrey County Council,

the book itself is illustrated with twenty-seven coloured plates and numerous in-text black and white illustrations,

what a magical book, I have tried taking photographs of dragonflies with no success, so it would be nice to see them illustrated closeup, the book, yours for £295.00 from Rooke Books, if only I had the money!

Every Time The Train We Take,

to go to Victoria,

it passes the new 2,000-home development in the Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station regeneration zone, and from May 19, 2021 we might be able to see this, the Sky Pool, measuring 25 meters in length, the transparent outdoor pool was designed by HAL Architects. It is made out of acrylic and can hold up to 148,000 gallons of water, the impressive sky pool is the centrepiece of Embassy Gardens, apparently the pool was so difficult to make it had to be made in Colorado, USA. and transported to the UK amazingly the Sky Pool can handle the natural movements of the two 10-storey building it connects. According to HAL Architects, it is not rigidly connected at both ends; it can slide from one side to the other, while maintaining water-tight integrity, “The vision for the Sky Pool stemmed from a desire to push the boundaries in the capability of construction and engineering, Ecoworld Ballymore wanted to do something that had never been done before,” the Chairman of Ballymore, developer of Embassy Gardens, said, adding “We like to push the boundaries on all aspects of design, the Sky Pool’s transparent structure is the result of significant advancements in technologies over the last decade. The experience of the pool will be truly unique, it will feel like floating through the air in central London,” we have mentioned Sky Pools before, swimmers will have breath taking views of the House of Parliament, the London Eye and London’s city skyline, and also the thrilling experience of floating in the air, but for myself given my fear of heights, I will stick to a splash in the municipal swimming pools!

I Was A Bit Quicker With The Camera Today,

either that or the crow,

was taking longer to eat,

I had a bit of a tidy up day, changing the water in the flower vase, but the job I had removing the limescale from the draining board took so long, we are blessed with really hardwater, so during the day I repeatedly sprayed the surface with limescale remover, which worked, eventually, the good news was that the external hard dive worked without any problems, so that was a relief,

the fox was having 40 in the late afternoon sun, 

after my evening meal I settled down to The Bad Batch, if you like post apocalyptic movies that feature cannibals with no discernible storyline this is for you, for myself gory in the extreme, but there it is, I should have read the label!

a piece of advice I promptly forgot when I started to watch Stowaway, great special effects and I guess the science was fairly good regarding the space station, but the plot was a tad implausible from the discovery of the stowaway onwards, I mean think about it, a stowaway in a space station, but there it is,

just before 01.00 AM Diana called, so I followed the fox,

on our way back some of the shops, illuminated in readiness for tomorrows trade, arriving home feet up for a chat and a coffee before we were off to bed.

I Am Sure We Have All Seen 'Lucky Cats',

waving one of their paws,

like this one, what I did not know is how or why they were lucky, until now, 

lucky cates at the the Gotokuji Temple, apparently the temple, located in the Setagaya ward of Tokyo, is believed to be the birthplace of the maneki-neko (‘luck inviting cat figurine’) image from Live Japan that has more details: 

Temple legend states that during the early 17th century, Ii Naotaka (then the second lord of the Omi-Hikone Domain) escaped from being caught in a sudden thunderstorm after having been invited inside the temple by a cat that lived there. To show his gratitude to the cat, Naotaka decided to dedicate the temple to the Ii clan. After Naotaka passed away, the temple was renamed to Gotokuji, from his posthumous Buddhist name “Kyushoin-den Gotokuten ei-daikoji.”

The cat that created that opportunity for the temple to grow into a respectable and important place was deified as “Fortune-Inviting Kannon.” The cat was later said to bring good fortune, being called “shou-fuku byou-ji” or “maneki-neko.” Gotokuji Temple has been filled with lucky cat figurines donated by worshippers ever since, 

so now I know what the waving cats are all about.

Many Sinkholes Are Caused By The Collapse Of Long Forgotten Underground Workings,

but some like these in Turkey’s Konya Province are caused by drought,

as cultivators increasingly turn to groundwater to keep their crops alive, the giant caverns drained of water eventually collapse under the weight of the soil above, creating holes tens of meters across and up to 150-meters-deep, professor Fetullah Arik, who heads the Sinkhole Research Centre at the Konya Technical University, says that sinkholes are a fairly recent phenomenon observed over the past 10 to 15 years, but that the cause of the problem can be traced back to the 1970s, that is when uncontrolled groundwater irrigation began in the area, droughts are getting worse every year, and getting water by other means is expensive, so farmers still turn to groundwater, thus making the problem worse,

according to Daily Sabbah, these sinkholes are almost exclusive to the Konya Plain, because of the characteristics of the land, streaming direction of water, combined with the recline of underground waters. Some are shallow, while some are much deeper than the eye can see, and despite farmers efforts to fill them up when the appear, that is apparently never a good idea, “Farmers try to come up with solutions too, in filling the sinkholes but in the end, they cannot be filled properly as the void beneath the land is wider than the one visible to the eye. It is better to mark the area with sinkholes to prevent accidents,” Fetullah Arik said, and it is not only Turkey that has a sinkhole problem, in Petrinja, Sisak, and Glina all in Croatia they have a similar problem having sinkholes, but these appear to have been caused by an earthquake, in any event it must be frightening not knowing where the next sinkhole will appear.

We Both Enjoy Playing Monopoly,

albite with our own set of rules,

which makes the games shorter, also I know many people take the game very seriously, but I had no idea that room sized games were played, and I guess neither did the in-laws of redditor /u/Yamaha234, who tore up the carpet in their home to replace it, imagine their surprise when they found a complete Monopoly game board underneath! he hopes to convince them to just coat it in epoxy so that it can be played in the future, strangely enough other huge game boards have been found, maybe in times past it may have been a trend once upon a time, as other homes have old Monopoly boards too, much as we like the game we I think we will stick with the standard sized board.

As I Was Typing The Blog,

one of the crows called by,

I was a tad slow with the camera,

whilst Diana was at work I had a few things to do, firstly Diana's telephone has been playing up for the past week or more, so we decided to back up all of her photographs on it, I was off to Curry's, a nice start to the day,

I walked to the 352 bus stop passing some nice cherry trees on the way,

arriving at the shopping centre I passed Sainsburys,

into Curry's for a 8TB external hard drive, just the one in stock which was all I wanted, great service from the staff there, on the sales invoice he is named as Catarine, also what I also wanted was a new pair of brogues, I tried a couple of shops here, but no luck, either eye wateringly expensive, or not my style, but I did notice a bus that went to Lewisham, so off I went, the bus took the most roundabout route I could possibly imagine, I went to places in south east London I had never been to before!

after what seemed an age I arrived in Lewisham, where there is a large outdoor market,

selling all manner of goods, 

I tried a few shops like this one on the left,

but still no luck,

as I made my way past the stalls,

it was not to be,

so on to the number 54 bus for the journey home, the speed of the bus and cars dictated by the slowest bicycle rider,

still it was a direct route home, this building as I have mentioned before still in a permanent state of repair,

near Lewisham hospital some nice trees by the bus stop,

past the Catford cat,

and The Ninth Life,

soon arriving at Peter Pans Pool,

where the Homebase is situated,

it seemed strange looking down on the other park entrance, this is the one that cars use to park in Beckenham Place Park, the entrance we normally walk through is blocked to vehicles,

and this is it, although we can drive to where we live, we can not drive through the park to the other entrance, the wisteria here on Foxgrove Lodge starting to open,

in another week or so there will be so many photographs taken,

of the lodge,

as I walked back home the cherry blossom still looking nice,

arriving home I unpacked the Seagate 8TB hub, I will play with that tomorrow,

after my evening meal I watched Dr. Strangelove, I had watched it before but was still enjoyable to watch again, I followed that with a New Tricks,

Diana was on late shift today, so it was not until 00.55 AM Tuesday morning that Diana called, a quick walk to the bus stop and we were home, feet up for a chat before we were off to bed.