I Had A Bit Of A Busy Day,

first thing go to the council tip,

I had 6 or so bin liners filled up with empty DVD/Blu-ray cases, also our old hoover to dump, back home to pick up Diana and take her to work, after which I drove to South Norwood Lake, in the hope of taking a few photographs of the birds there, above one of the houses next door to the entrance, 

I bought my pocket camera with me as well as the one with the big lens, 

it was the first time I have ever visited the park,

a nice bright day, as I arrived here one of the local residents said hello and we started chatting about the wildlife here, apparently I had missed the courtship dance of the grebes, but was told that later in the year at the top end of the park some birds of prey are sometimes seen, so a note in my diary for that,

I took a few photographs with the big camera as I walked around the lake, 

these all out of the small camera, 

looking across to one of the Crystal Palace radio masts, 

although it was bright and sunny, 

the wind was fierce, at times it was really making holding the big camera still, in the distance the mast, 

and with the big camera, 

I was lucky a grebe nesting, but this was as near as I could get, arriving home I washed the car, over the past few days it had become coated with a fine red dust, from the Sahara desert if reports are to be believed, 

next the grebe, I cropped it a tad, tomorrow I will play with it some more and maybe print it, if it looks like it could be one to hang on our wall, the problem being the front of the bird has no texture, after that continue cataloguing our DVD/Blu-rays, I hope eventually to have a list as to which titles are in which tub, 

with the table taken over by tubs I used one of them to put the camera on, first a read and a glass of milk, 

'Cheers!', no sherry this evening as I am out to the club, after which I will be picking Diana up, at the club a talk by a documentary film cameraman, he had over 180 documentaries under his belt and had filmed in over 90 counties during his career, that was followed with a talk from one of the club members, Andrew about multiple exposures, reflections and to give action photographs a different but subtle edge, next pick up Diana, 

arriving home it was time to open the box, 

we had a new Dyson in the family, after putting the unit on a charge watched a documentary from Sir David Attenborough before we were off to bed.

We Had A Lazy Day,

Diana did not have to start work until the early afternoon,

the downside was that she was on a very late shift, finishing at 02.00AM tomorrow morning! after I had dropped her off, my busy afternoon/evening started, we were slowly amassing a huge number of DVD's, Blu-rays and 4K discs, they were taking over the fire place and no mistake, I had a cunning plan, I bought 10 of these:

empty DVD plastic cakebox spindle tub cake box cases as they are called,

the discs in their boxes in the fireplace and the ones in the 2 outer drawers of our television cabinet I would place in the spindle tubs and throw away all of the outer packaging, as I had done with the ones in the centre drawer, 

 these in the middle drawer take up so little space,

I started in the afternoon, a quick break for my evening meal and I had done as much as I could by 10.00 in the evening, I had run out of spindle tubs, so I have now ordered another 10, as I was taking them out of their covers I also made a alphabetical list of each disc in each tub, it took an age! I will continue with the rest when the next 10 tubs arrive, I had of course made a new problem for myself, the empty cases took up even stacked neatly in them, 6 bin bags and a huge box, I looked on the council web site, and luckily made an appointment for 09.45 tomorrow morning to dump them all, also as it happens I will dump our now defunct hoover, so at 10.00 in the evening I had finished as much as I could, so I spent a few hours with Sir David Attenborough looking at some of the nature programs he had made over the years, just before 02.00AM Diana called, the shift had finished a tad early so off I went, arriving home, it was feet up for a chat before we were both off to bed.

I Spent The Day,

playing with a few photographs from Kelsey Park, 

I liked these two of the Coot with her fledglings, 

but somehow I just could not make them acceptable, so they went to the A3 bin, the trouble is it took just as long to edit the next two which were acceptable, 

one more of the heron stretching its wings, getting ready for its first flight, 

and this one I thought so cute, the Beckenham Photographic Society that I belong to will stop meeting in a couple of weeks time, to close for the summer months, but when it starts again in the autumn I might enter this one in a competition, I shall call it "I've lost my mummy!",

so after a day of playing, 2 that I think are good enough to go on our wall and 2 in the A3 bin, after my evening meal, it was feet up for the usual Outback Opal Hunters and a Deadliest Catch, I then followed that with one more episode of Pillars of the Earth before Diana came home, then time to break the bad news, the hoover had hovered its last and had bitten the dust, so taking advice from the hoover repair company, (who do not actually sell hovers), Diana decided on a Dyson, which was great for me as I am always stuck for what to buy Diana as a birthday present and here it was, so I mentioned that on her next birthday, she has had her present early! I know I am all heart, after which we were off to bed.

We Were All Out For A Sunday Lunch,

a special one,

 Stan's Belated Birthday Bash, here I am with Steve, we were dining at Papilio in Beckenham,

I had printed up a few cards for everyone, having first checked with the restaurant for our Sunday lunch, 

plus a few more desserts, also inside the card:

not sure that my thoughts aided digestion, but there it is, 

on to the cocktails,

lots here to chose from,

from the left Mick, me, Graham, Neil, Alison, Bob, Debbie, Kai and Diana,

Debbie and Diana raise their glasses, 

Matthew and Wilma were here as well, 

Matthew next to myself, 

and his wife Wilma, 

talking to Kai,

Diana with her soup of the day starter, 

I am not sure why I look so worried, 

our main courses arrived, 

they were huge, 

chicken for Diana, pork for myself, 

and here we all are, 

on to desserts,

lemon sorbet, 

sticky toffee pudding for I believe Diana,

things of course were so jolly, as this video of myself above shows, 

not that the meal did not have its serious moments, all was well, after the ambulance left, 

then time for a stagger back to our home,

when we arrived home, Steve is so good with his mobile telephone, so Neil, was given a new role, 

as was Alison, 

but not regal enough,

so a celebration of his ennoblement, 

Alison was made regal too,  

 and here he is in a video, great fun for all, we chatted the rest of the afternoon and early evening away, I hope that everyone enjoyed the day as much as I did, in the evening for Diana and myself it was feet up for, of course, a Midsomer Murder before we were off to bed.