I Spent Some Time On The Telephone Again Today,

still trying to chase down the last few final invoices from various utilities companies, 

it seems so strange, here I am or rather the shop trying to pay them money, but at least 2 months after I advised all of them we require a final bill and providing the date we are handing over the keys, still they are reluctant to send it, the real rub, the amount of time spent listening to music before you can actually speak to someone, after I picked Diana up from work, (she was on a early shift today), we had a quick snack for our evening meal, before we were out,

we caught the 354 bus to Bromley and then a short walk to the Churchill Theater, 

we were a tad early, the bar had not yet opened, 

but eventually it was all systems go,

a orange juice for Diana, a white wine for myself, 

a bit blurred but this is one of the theatre goers and his partner dressed for the evenings production,

and here we are, just a few rows back from the stage, 'Cheers!', so what are we going to see? first clue, the gentleman in the flashing coat was wearing a wig, suspenders, fishnet stockings and a red corset, plus quite a bit of makeup, especially red lipstick, 

here is the best clue yet to guess what the stage show was we were going to watch,

a video of the introduction, yes we are going to see,

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 The Rocky Horror Picture Show, stage show, originally it was a campy stage play first shown in the UK in 1973, two years later and the film was shot in the United Kingdom at Bray Studios and on location at an old country estate named Oakley Court, best known for its earlier use by Hammer Film Productions, to say the movie has a cult following is an understatement, the film has achieved the remarkable feat of becoming the longest running film in continuous release in history, in other words, there’s never been a moment when The Rocky Horror Show hasn’t been playing in a cinema somewhere in the world in the last 40 years, as an aside if you click onto the link you will notice this one clip has been viewed over 8 million times! and yes we were going to see the stage show, 

it was way better than both of us expected, as it happen the gentleman whose coat lit up, and was wearing suspenders, fishnet stockings, a red corset and lipstick and his partner was sat next to us! The banter between the audience and the performers was delicious, the crowd joining in at every opportunity to join the storyline, that is so well known, there were notices displayed, no videos or photographs, but Diana took a short video of the closing number, 

we both laughed so much and both of us agreed even though the seats were a tad expensive we would come back to see the show again if it was playing here next year, what a blast! arriving home it was late, the 354 bus was for some reason not running, so the 227 it was with the longer walk home from the bus stop, soon it was feet up for a coffee, a 05.00AM start for Diana tomorrow so she was off to bed, for myself a Bangers & Cash, well two of them before I too was off to bed.

Sunday Has Raced Around Again,

so here we go,

Diana had today off, so a full Sunday lunch it was, firstly a read of the latest Private Eye, and a sherry, 

for our starter some huge New Zealand green mussels, they reminded both of us of the meals we used to have on a Saturday evening outside our home when we lived in Thailand, 

with garlic and sliced toast, 

for our main course a joint of wagyu beef, with lashings of gravy for Diana,

sans gravy for myself, 

'Cheers!', for dessert, 

a sticky toffee pudding,

with cream and ice cream, all delicious, in the afternoon time for a film, as a change from Columbo, we had watched the new release of the Time Machine, now for the original,

The Time Machine, Diana mentioned that she preferred this one to the later one, which I had to agree with, 

 and what better in the early Sunday evening than a James Bond? today You Only Live Twice, dated but still great fun, after which a Midsomer Murder was scheduled so we watched that, rounding off the evening with a Have I Got A Bit More News For You before we were both off to bed.

The Photographic Club I Belong To,

was having a few happenings in the school where we normally meet, 

so out into a not too cold but drizzly day,

a nice show of crocus looking through the wire fence of the cricket club, 

I walked to and through the green,

the church on the right, 

on the ground a few clumps of snowdrops, 

quite a few as it happens, 

at the club I was along with one other member being shown how to mount prints for the home and for displaying at exhibitions, all very useful and helpful, many thanks to Marcia, the club as many regular readers know is the Beckenham Photographic Society, 

I made my way back into the park, passing Foxgrove Lodge, in just a few months it will be a riot of wisteria, 

arriving home I spent that afternoon playing with photographs from our last visit to Thailand, today changing the background of the orchids, waterlilies and Desert Rose, (Adenium obesum), like the ones above,

from as they come out of the camera, 

to a black background, it took an age, but there it is, in the next few weeks/months I can go back to each folder and hopefully make subtle changes to each photograph to make them more appealing, which brought me nicely, 

up to my evening read and sherry, 

for tonight Diana had left me a chicken supper, 'Cheers!', I did not watch the usual weekday programs, there was some sport nonsense on that took over all of the usual channels, so a film it was, I decided on,

The Promised Land, a surprisingly enjoyable film, loosely based on true events, from the blurb:

"The 2023 film The Promised Land (original title: Bastarden) is inspired by a true story, but it is not a direct documentary-style retelling. It is based on Ida Jessen’s novel The Captain and Ann Barbara, which chronicles the 1755 attempt by real-life Danish army captain Ludvig Kahlen to cultivate the harsh Jutland heath. While Kahlen and his rival, Frederik de Schinkel, were real people, the film takes significant creative liberties with the plot and characters to create a dramatic narrative."

the location, sets, costumes all seamlessly put together to make 2 hours pass by so quickly, as it finished Diana arrived home from work, so we settled down for a coffee and a chat as a Midsomer Murder entertained us in the background, after which 2 from Bangers & Cash before we were off to bed.

First Thing,

Diana was off to work,

so for myself time to try out the new camera, at last it was not raining, and what better than a bed of crocuses? the first signs of spring in the park, 

back home I had a busy day. preparing two boards for the next photographic competition at the club, 

the first a number of photographs of The Peanut Seller that we used to see whenever we went to the Thepprasit market when we lived in Thailand,

the second panel as they are called at the club, (you can enter 3 to 9 images of a related subject), a study of Busy Bees at Tulleys Farm in Turners Hill, Sussex, we went there a few times when the sunflowers were flowering, which brought me nicely up to my evening, 

read and sherry, the latest issue of Private Eye arriving yesterday, which I followed with, 

a huge chicken curry that Diana had left for me, in the evening after the usual Outback Opal Hunters I decided on a film, 

A Bridge Too Far, a all star cast to say the least, the film features a massive, star-studded cast portraying real figures like Lt. Gen. Brian Horrocks (Edward Fox), Maj. Gen. Roy Urquhart (Sean Connery), and Lt. Col. John Frost (Anthony Hopkins), often with high physical resemblance, and as might be expected it was pretty true to life, the film was considered highly accurate, remarkably capturing the chaotic, failed nature of Operation Market Garden, based on Cornelius Ryan’s book, it utilized military advisors and was filmed at actual location, it was a long film at nearly 3 hours, luckily it finished before Diana arrived home, so it was feet up for a coffee as we watched Have I Got A Bit More News For You, before we were both off to bed.

I Had A Very Interesting Day,

it is no secret I am struggling with my new camera,

as it happens another club member has a very similar model, and as a ex-professional photographer knows exactly how his one works, Brian agreed to meet me for a one on one session, so out into a wet, cold day, 

no sign of spring in the park yet, 

we meet here for a 101 class on my,

 Fujifilm GFX100s II, photo credit Andy Westlake, Amateur Photographer, I thought we might sit chatting for a hour or so, but time just flew past, well over 2 hours later Brian was still patiently showing me short cuts, and things my camera could do that I did not know about, some so simple, like by clicking inwards either of the two wheels I could seamlessly toggle the same wheel between aperture and shutter speed, amazing! many, many thanks Brian, I am so glad I joined the Beckenham Photographic Society, and indeed meet Brian amongst others in the club,

in the afternoon I was walking past Foxgrove Lodge on my way home, no signs of the springs buds of wisteria so far, arriving home Diana was getting ready for her evening shift, so I dropped her off at work, then spent the rest of the afternoon playing with my new found skills, or lack of them! After my evening meal I watched a couple of programmes that brought back so many worry free childhood memories, that centred on on a elderly gentleman in his shed in the garden,

his name was Jack Hargreaves, I remember from my school days he would start every programme with a talk about country matters, it could be about horses, thatched homes, carts, ferreting, or my favorite, fishing, from the blurb:

"He was the first man to be filmed catching a fish on television in the late 1950s in the programme Gone Fishing and went on to expand the format to all matters rural in the programme's eventual replacement, Out of Town, which started as a fifteen minute local broadcast in the Southern Region but grew eventually to be a truly national phenomenon as it was taken up by all the regional franchises in the 1960s and '70s".

what more can I say? from the opening theme tune to its close each program was a pleasure to watch, if you have time look him up on YouTube, a real national treasure, after which it was a Poirot until it was time to pick up Diana at the end of her night shift, arriving home it was one more from Poirot before we were both off to bed.

I Had A Slightly Busy Day,

a minor problem with a invoice for the shop, 

which will hopefully be sorted out in the next few days took some time, then time to play with the camera, in a couple of weeks time we will be going to Kew Gardens, for the annual orchid exhibition, every year a country is asked to make a display of the plants of their country, this year it is the turn of China, 

the exhibition takes over the Princess of Wales Conservatory from Saturday 7 February to Sunday 8 March 2026, happily as we are members of Kew gardens we can arrive early in the morning where the house is open for members only, we have booked a slot, so I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing with the new camera, the trouble being I forgot I could change the IOS in the main camera menu, not on the dials, D'Oh!, 

this brought me up to my evening read, 

'Cheers!', with a glass of milk, I am driving to the club tonight and then picking up Diana, 

I did actually enter 2 prints in tonight's quarterly competition, neither did well, firstly early morning Venice,  

secondly a view of the inside of the Cao Dai Temple (Tay Ninh): Located about 90km from Ho Chi Minh City, the religion called Caodaism, and has it is estimated 4 million followers, swelling to over 6 million if other branches are added, it takes a number of tenants from other religions and includes in its list of saints figures such as the Buddha, Confucius, Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Pericles, Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, Victor Hugo, and the Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen, these are honoured at Cao Dai temples, along with ancestors, and amongst its hierarchy it has a Pope as well as Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, and further ranks, the church also uses many symbols, I guess most of us have heard of yin and yang, the two forces that balance the universe, this religion is where the symbols come from, we visited there in November 2015, in any event no mentions for either of them, then I was off to pick up Diana, arriving home it was a new one for us, a episode of, 

The New Avengers, it had a short run, 1976 to 1977, it was great fun to see so many actors and actresses as they were all of those years ago, Joanna Lumley looking quite different in Ab Fab for instance, after which we we were off to bed.