It Is Going To Be A Short Post Today,

and no post until Wednesday, 

as Diana actually has three consecutive days off, back to Saturday, I played with a glass globe, firstly a photograph out of the window,

then one of the same scene, but through a globe, 

which I removed the background from, 

then put it over the original photograph, it took an age getting the globe exactly where I wanted it on the tripod with the camera, and the result? I was totally underwhelmed! after my evening meal I watched,

 Waterloo, a epic movie and no mistake, great story, scenes and with a star studded cast of literally thousands! after which Diana arrived home, so, 

 Enemy of the State, it was, a very enjoyable if somewhat disturbing movie, I am guessing that by now, (the film was released in 1998), many of the surveillance items used are now in fact up and running and also available to those that want them, next as we have an early start tomorrow we were off to bed.

I Dropped Diana Off At Work,

at 04.00AM

another long day for her, later in the morning Harry and Bobby arrived, and as usual, 

mountains of tools, 

and equipment, 

today 2 windows were being refurbished, the large one in the lounge, 

and the normal sized one in the kitchen, 

Harry when using a sander has a great adaptor attached to it, 

the machine sucks up all of the dust, 

whilst doing that Bobby was busy in the kitchen,

Hi! from Bobby!

nearly done!

the windows removed and frames painted, 

boarding cut to fit, 

and it was then time for them to go and start the next stage of their work, the refurbishing of the windows in their workshop, as it happens Diana arrived home just as they were leaving, whilst they had been working I was busy, 

with a couple of photographs from our cruise, 

when we went into the caves in the Rock of Gibraltar, 

I decided to play with this one again, as I was not happy with my first attempt, 

and here she is, in the auditorium of one of the caves, after a few ZZZZZ's Diana was up and about, I did not take a photograph of our meal as the table was so disorganised and we had moved the chairs for access to the dinning room window, we will keep it that way as tomorrow we will be leaving for a 3 day break to the Isle of Wight, so after a delicious chicken curry it was feet up for a film,

 Great Balls of Fire! a biographic film of the early career of Jerry Lee Lewis, from his rise to rock 'n' roll stardom to his controversial marriage to his 13-year-old cousin that led to his downfall, is depicted in the film, until the scandal of the marriage depreciated his image, many had thought Lewis would supplant Elvis Presley as the "King of Rock and Roll" in the 1950s, the part of Jerry being played by Dennis Quaid who gave a stellar performance as the star, we both thought the film was hugely enjoyable, but it was panned by critics and the public, what I thought was some how funny was that his song Whole Lot Of Shaking was banned in several states in the US at the time of it's release in the 1950's, after which we decided to watch, 

 The Madness of King George, (actually King George III), a great costume drama of the true madness of King George III, it is now thought that he had porphyria, which can be acquired or inherited, porphyria is a disorder of the blood where by porphyrins (and their precursors) accumulate to toxic levels in the body leading to various disorders, but back to the film, it is the story of King George III of England's slide into insanity, and the political and royal back stabbing which results from his incapacitation and to the inevitable question as to who is making decisions and ruling the country, a enjoyable if some what sad in places great movie, by the end of the film it was late, then for us we were off to bed.

It Was Diana's Day Off,

so we were out, 

we picked up Kai and made our way to COSTCO, for a shopping fest of household goods, 

all set, then a hiccup, Kai's card did not allow us to enter until after 11.00 in the morning, so plan 'B' it was, reference to plan 'B' here:

 Rare Birds, Dave is down, his wife lives in Washington, D.C.; his restaurant, the Auk, in an out-of-the-way Newfoundland inlet is dying, his neighbour, Phonce, contrives to keep Dave in town by faking and reporting the sighting of a rare bird, I really liked this conversation when a photo was published of the rare duck and Dave was worried some one might blow up the picture and find it was a fake,

Phonce: 'Dave who is going to blow up the picture? the International Bird Police? Interbird?' 

a great music soundtrack makes this feel good movie even better, and as an aside it is this film that I often quote by saying, 'always have a plan B Dave',

so plan B it was, back into the car to, 

Wing Yip, for coffee and cakes, as well as food shopping, 

I snagged a table, 

as the girls started buying a few cakes, and what a selection, 

a selfie from Diana as I adjusted my cravat, 

Kai brought over a few more, 

the girls Kai and Diana,

coffees and cakes, 

double victory from Kai, 

and a smile from myself, 

I am not sure what it is, but Diana loved it,

pit stop finished back into the car and into COSTCO the place is huge, it took so long looking around for what we wanted, and of course it almost took as long as the actual shopping to check out! we dropped Kai off at her home then back to our flat where we unloaded everything then a coffee before our evening meal, after the usual Outback Opal Hunter Diana decided on a film, as there was not a lot on that we wanted to watch, so,

 Jonah Hex, it was, we both enjoyed it even though we had watched it before, much underrated by many, but great fun if you can call it that and a nice lead up to, 

Discovering Film series this one showcasing John Hurt, what a star actor he really is, for myself his most powerful, compelling performance must be,

 Winston Smith, (photograph © 1984 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.), in,

  1984, a great book by the way, after which as Diana has a 04.00AM start tomorrow she was off to bed, for myself a Have I Got A Bit More News For You, before I too was off to bed.

After I Dropped Diana Off At Work,

I watched a few YouTube videos,

I started by watching another one by Julius Perdana, the one above showing how he built the USS Nimitz and lunched an attack on his 18 foot long battleship Yamato, and totally destroyed it! I also boned up on my new camera and some of the lenses I have for it, one of the few I watched was this one,

'Why I Photograph Birds With the “Wrong” GFX Camera', well I just had to look as he was using 'my' camera and 500mm lens, and informative it was too, which brought me nicely up to my evening meal, 

first a read and a glass of milk!, what happened to the sherry? well tonight is the first of the weekly meetings for the winter season of the Beckenham Photographic Society, so a drive to the meeting and after it pick up Diana from work, so no sherry on a Wednesday until next summer,

 

for my meal this evening bangers and new potatoes with sugar snap peas and broccoli, next a drive to the Harris Primary Academy, Beckenham Green, St George’s Rd., Beckenham, BR3 5JG. For tonight two members gave accounts of what they had been doing regarding their photography in the summer when we do not meet, the first was so interesting as she was a professional photographer, so although the meetings stop she does not stop working, after a tea/coffee interval John started his chat,

 and it was about of all things Namibia! where I am going next month! what a coincidence, 

he had visited many of the places I will be visiting at the end of October, he was there in March this year, next into the car to pick Diana up, arriving home feet up for a coffee and a chat, as we watched a Lewis before we were off to bed.

I Made A Start,

on getting bits and pieces, 

together for my Namibia trip, bits for the camera, batteries, chargers,

 

South African plug adaptors, which had just arrived, and of course a list of suitable clothes, 

here is a map of the route that is planned, all in a 4 wheel drive minibus and open 4 x 4s phew! what a trip, it has all been arranged by master photographer Will Gray, going back to clothes, Namibia experiences extreme weather ranging from scorching inland desert temperatures exceeding 40°C to freezing winter night lows, so from shorts and 'T' shirts to thermal underwear! I had dropped Diana off just before 05.00AM for her early start, and it was now time to pop back and pick her up, in the afternoon she had a few ZZZZZZ's as I watched, a film based on actual events,

Khartoum, after an Egyptian army, commanded by British officers, is destroyed in a battle in the Sudan in the 1880's, the British government is in a quandary, it does not want to commit a British military force to a foreign war but they have a commitment to protect the Egyptians in Khartoum, so the British government sends in General Charles "Chinese" Gordon, a much underrated film both then when it was released and now, just as it finished Diana was up and about, so our evening meal, before watching a two part DVD

Longitude, a real gem, it is two stories in one running in parallel, in the 18th century Harrison builds the marine chronometer for safe navigation at sea, and in the 20th century Gould is obsessed with restoring it, great acting and story, even better so as we saw all 4 of Harrison's clocks when we visited the Royal Observatory in Greenwich in September 2010, back to the film, basically if at sea you did not have accurate time on board a ship there was a good chance that you could be many miles off course as many ships captains found out to their and their crews cost,

the film's main story is that of craftsman John Harrison, he built a clock that would do the job, what we would now call a marine chronometer, told in parallel is the 20th century story of Rupert Gould, for whom the restoration of Harrison's clocks to working order became first a hobby, then an obsession that threatened to wreck his life, for myself a must see factual film, after which we were off to bed.