After Arriving Home From Her Early Shift,

Diana popped out for the afternoon/evening to visit Kai, 

who was having a Thai food fest, Kai on the left with one of her friends, 

and another one on the left with Diana on the right,

as usual Kai prepared mountains of food, in the afternoon I played with 2 photographs from Sunday, in sheer happenstance this Wednesday at the Beckenham Photographic Society meeting, there is a open talk about the impact of AI on photography, so I thought I would print these three and bring the prints along as an example of where do we draw the line at AI improved images,

in the middle straight out of Steve's telephone, on the left after a few minutes with Steve's telephone playing with the image, on the right a partial blow up of the image,

out of the telephone, 

and hey presto! I a transformed, after my evening meal it was feet up for a couple of documtearies, firstly,

  Seven Worlds One Planet, this evening's episode, 

Australia, and very interesting it was too, I followed that with another 1 hour long documentary,

  Pompeii: The Mystery of the People Frozen in Time, for the first time 2 skulls were allowed to be scanned, the results firstly transformed into a fully accurate skull, and secondly when using modern forensics mapping by a artist gave a accurate sculpture of the face of the 2 victims, again so informative, for instance Pompeii was hit not by one or two pyroclastic currents as they are called, (I always called them flows), there were actually 6 of them, as an aside they can travel at over 700 km/h (435 mph) and reach temperatures high enough to instantly vaporize organic matter, 

 The Prestige, I had seen it before but for me it is a great film, the plot is that Robert and Alfred are rival magicians, when Alfred performs the ultimate magic trick, Robert tries desperately to find out the secret to the trick, in a small role David Bowie plays Nikola Tesla, who we have much to thank for his discovery of AC electricity, as one person put it "The genius who lit the world" unlike the other electrical guy Edison, who tried to get the world dimly lit with DC current, also of note in the film is that Tesla did in fact stay at Colorado Springs, from 1899 to 1900 where he built a laboratory with a 200 kW transmitter, great film mixing fantasy with fiction and fact, another part to the film that was fact was that, 

Chung Ling Soo who Robert and Alfred went to watch was a real life person, I really enjoyed watching it again, as an aside there were 2 people playing Chung Ling Soo at the same time in London, for a look at how the feud between the 2 men started and how it tragically ended with one of them dying on stage have a look here, tomorrow I am meeting Diana after work at the bus stop and we are out for the afternoon, but for tonight I was off to bed.

We Were Out For Sunday Lunch,

to West Norwood,

going to Lal Baag Indian restaurant at 8, Knights Hill, Norwood, London SE27 0HY. Telephone 0203 7704878, we hired a mini cab and picked up Kai on the way,

and here we are, Diana, Kai, 

and Debbie, 

on the other side of the table, Bob with a bottle of bubbly, Steve and myself, 

easy does it with the bubbly, 

Steve had brought a little present for me which was nice, a glass you can suck the wine from, just like a pipe of Sherlock Holmes, but more of that later, 

the restaurant which is now under the new ownership of Solomon offers a Sunday buffet, and I have to say Solomon made us more than welcome,

on to the buffet with a grand selection,

in the hot pans, 

3 or 4 popular chicken dishes, 

as well as lamb and spinach, 

with lots of vegetables,

and rice, 

Diana and Kai went for the buffet, 

Debbie, Bob, Steve and myself ordered from the menu,

and here we all are, 

the girls,

and the boys, 

one more taken by Diana, now back to before the meal, as I mentioned Steve and bought me a special wine glass, 

which I said was like Sherlock Holmes, no sooner said than done,

using a program called Dola AI I was transformed into Sherlock!

Bob became,

a policeman,

on holiday in Thailand,

Debbie became a princes, 

whilst the girls joined Bob in Thailand, all of this in just a couple of minutes on a mobile telephone, amazing! Bob very kindly picked up the bill, the meal was delicious, I should say the restaurant does not a have a liquor licence, so bring your own wine, beer and sprit's, Solomon happly supplies the glasses, after saying our goodbyes to Solomon, Bob and Debbie,  Steve kindly gave Diana, Kai and myself a lift back to our flat, where it was coffees all-round, after Steve left Kai stay for some time until it was time for her to say goodbye, for us it was feet up for a unexpected Midsomer Murder which normally does not show on a Sunday evening, after which we were off to bed.

After Diana Left For Work,

I played with a photograph, 

I had played with it before, but for myself it was not quiet as I wanted it, so I spent a few hours changing various parameters, crickey it sounds like I know what I am doing!, anyway at the close of play it looked as it does above, the photograph is of Sanctuary of Truth, we have been there many times before, but this one of those very rare photographs taken of the part of the building you can only see from the sea, you can have the same view from the land, but, you are so close to it, it is impossible to get it all into a photograph unless you use a fish eye lens, playing over, in the afternoon it was feet up for,

 Gunfight at the OK Corral, the 1957 version, if only you could go back in time and tell everyone the good guys always win, but I guess if you did they would not listen, 

time for my evening read and sherry, 

for tonight Diana had left me a meal of bangers & new potatoes and broccoli to heat up, 'Cheers!', next a new release, 

War Machine, a real Gung-Ho movie and no mistake, the star is a one man army, pulling people from certain death so many times, and against all odds taking down a almost impossible to kill alien killing machine, what a hero, so if you like this sort of film this is the one for you, no denying the star of the movie, Alan Ritchson, is super fit, he did his own stunts, but for myself I prefer a bit of a team effort, and something just a tad more believable, moving on, 

when Diana arrived home Amazon had left a parcel for her, which she found to be bit of a mystery, she did have one thing on order, but normally they are delivered in a Jiffy type envelope, 

and here it is, a cover for her camera, you can see how much bigger the box is, 

and seeing how thin it is, 

why these odd phone covers to stop scratches on our telephones are normally sent in a envelope, so a cost to Amazon for a over size box and we have to chop it up to get it into the paper recycle bin, what a waste, as Diana unwrapped that we had a Bangers & Cash on, as usual very entertaining, after which we were off to bed.

First Thing After Posting The Blog,

I was out,

the car needed it's yearly MOT and bi-annual service, I dropped the car off here at the Eden Park Motorist Centre, I was told it would take a few hours, so I popped over the road to,

the Toby Carvery at Eden Park, for breakfast, before going inside I bought today's edition of the Daily Mail, reading through it I came across this advertisement,

"Really Bad Photographer Wanted"

I could not believe my eyes, was it true? well I just had to investigate the add, and guess what? it is true! Not only does the lucky winner receive a 10 day holiday he or she will also receive $50,000 and worldwide fame! So if you or a family member or friend really are a bad photographer have a look here at the Icelandair web site and apply toute de suite! Back to the car, I received a telephone call to say the car was ready, so a intermediate service including a oil and filter change, a top up of AdBlue, checked air-conditioning and anything else that might make the car unroadworthy including the MOT which means a technician will check all aspects of your car to ensure that it’s safe for the road, they will go over the whole car, including seatbelts, brakes, lights, mirrors, steering, suspension, tyres and more, all in all the bill came to £396.46 including all taxes, which all things considered, especially that the car only needs serving every 2 year seems in this day and age quite reasonable, after playing with a couple of photographs it was time for my evening meal, 

first a read and a sherry, 

followed by some onion bhajis, 

yes an Indian meal tonight, a chicken tikka masala, 'Cheers!', after the usual Outback Opal Hunters it was feet up for a couple of films, firstly,

The Big Bus, in a threat to the oil companies, a nuclear powered bus makes its Inaugural journey non stop from New York across the country, and in the same vein as the Airport movies

 all manner of problems befall it, even before it starts out, great fun, I followed that with an old favorite, 

 The Fearless Vampire Killers, a lavishly made and enjoyable film, I have to say I really enjoyed watching this film again, a bit dated now but if you have not seen it give it a try, the film was also known as Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck, the 1967 comedy horror film was directed by Roman Polanski, written by Gérard Brach and Polanski, produced by Gene Gutowski and co-starring Polanski with future wife Sharon Tate, who died so tragically, with the end of that Diana arrived home, just as a Midsomer Murder was starting, so feet up for a coffee and a chat as we watched that before we were off to bed.