I Had Arranged To Stay In,

all day today,

twice already cards had been left by the Post Office to say they could not deliver a parcel, both days they called I was in, I am almost sure they did not buzz the buzzer, so today I left a note outside with they 'fail to deliver' cards, and guess what? success! parcel delivered, but as I was in all day and Diana was at work I decided to change the photographs I had taken in the 12 photograph frames we have on our living room wall, all of these I took using the infrared camera, and processed them as I normally do, I know infrared photography is not to everyone's taste, but I enjoy playing with them once they are out of the camera, above a lake and skyscraper at Bang San, Thailand,

the 'Walkie-Talkie' building, London,

the carousel at the Eiffel Tower, Paris,

black sand at Santorini, Greece,

Palm House, Kew Gardens, London,

Keston Ponds, Bromley, UK

church, Santorini, Greece,

steps in Coombe Woods, South Croydon, UK

miniature railway, York, UK

stranger on the shore, Orkney, Scotland,

hydro power station, Scotland,

the weir at Bath, UK

and here they are, 

as I mentioned not to everyone's taste, but I like them, if you want to know more about how I process my infrared photographs have a look at this page on our infrared blogsite, this is my infrared camera set up, 

 our daily Lumix G8 now joins its converted infrared brother, which I had converted at Protech Photographic a few years ago, and good they were too, so normal pictures in one and infrared in the other, note the remotes where the flash would normally be, although it does not look it, both cameras and lenses are exactly the same, just that one had a infrared only sensor in it,

the camera on the left is the infrared converted one, on the right the normal camera, the reason for the remotes is if you want to take a long exposure and have two cameras taking pictures of the same scene in a different way, in my case one normal and one infrared, it is difficult not to have the cameras suffer from camera shake when touching and pressing both shutter buttons, so as well as the mounting rail, I use both cameras timers to give a 2 second delay in operating, note the difference in colour in the screens, as one camera 'sees' differently to the other, if you want see my efforts so far from a few years ago, have a look here at our infrared blog, just before I was finished Diana arrived home, so it was a couple of quiz shows before our evening meal, after which a couple from Midsomer Murder on ITVX before Diana had a early night, for myself,

it was Outside the Wire, it got panned my many, but for myself a 'normal' soldier joins a android and takes on the enemy! great special effects, the GUMPS, robot soldiers were really impressive, I should say that I am only making one post today, tomorrow great news! Diana has almost the day off, so we will be up early and leaving for our day out, and with that I was off to bed.

As It Was Sunday,

and Diana was not working,

we planned a trip to Crystal Place, but it rained so much we decided to stay in, on to lunch a read and a sherry,

Diana had bought a bottle of Buck's Fizz,

which was putting up a real fight!

any moment,

now!

carefully does it,

'Cheers!',

for today a lobster bisque soup for our starter,

followed by roast beef with all of the trimmings, with gravy for Diana,

sans gravy for myself,

complete with a Buck's Fizz,

eyes down and tuck!

another 'Cheers!', as our desserts arrived,

cherry pie and custard, we were full to bursting!

in the afternoon as usual a few from Columbo, which we followed with a couple from Midsomer Murder, after which Diana was off to bed, another early shift tomorrow, I stayed up and watched Whiplash, I had watched the film before and commented then: "if you ever thought that playing a set of drums was easy, watch this film as pupil and mentor lock horns, a great performance by Miles Teller and stellar performance by Jonathan Kimble Simmons the film was magic, I may even watch it again! this is a must watch film, well I think so", and I did watch it again! after which I too was off to bed.

I Had Never Heard Of Guillotine Haircuts,

until now, 

apparently in the times of the French Revolution, it was customary for gentlemen to have their hair cut short before the chop, it aided a clean cut for the blade, so it was only a matter of time before ladies too chopped their hair, when attending of all things a beheading ball! writings and records from the era suggest that an unusual subculture of society balls emerged as orphaned aristocrats began to see the return of their confiscated fortunes, 

to enter guests allegedly saluted à la victime, by jerking their heads sharply downwards to imitate the moment of decapitation, as well as jerking their heads to their dance partners instead of bowing, it has been recorded that women wore red chokers around their necks to symbolize where the blade would have severed the heads of their relatives from their body, the balls are also believed to have helped bring about the trend for a new shorter hairstyle, aptly known as a coiffure a la victime, or àla Titus, it became fashionable amongst young women to opt for a drastic chop, baring their necks and mimicking prisoner appearances right before their deaths, for the full story have a look here,

as it happens above is the last public execution by guillotine in France which took place in 1939, France last executed someone by guillotine in 1977 and wasn’t officially abolished by the government until 1981, I will let you ponder the efficiency of the system.

What Do You Do If You Have A Seaplane Too Heavy With Fuel And Cargo To Take Off?

attach it to a bigger seaplane!

the aircraft is used when landing a large normal transport sea plane is to big to land in a small area, say a bay or a lake,

the aircraft was know as the Short-Mayo Composite,

and by all accounts successful in what it was designed for, 

if you have time grab a coffee and watch this video, what a totally mad out of the box idea, but it worked!

Blog Posted And I Was Out,

into a slightly cold but rainy day, 

a walk to the number 54 bus stop,

and I was soon alighting at This 'N' That by the bus stop,

next to the florists, 

over the road Kingfisheries, where I will be helping Graham for today as Carl is on holiday, I left at 5.00 and was kindly given a lift home by Steve who was driving nearby, he and Kai had been to Wing Yip, and knowing that Diana liked these, 

bought her a huge bucket of them, as it happens I like them too!

next time for a read and a sherry,

before our starter of tempura prawns,

'Cheers!',

for our main course, slices of pork loin with all of the trimmings with gravy for Diana, 

sans gravy for myself, eyes down and tuck in! we were so full we did not have a dessert,

so it was feet up for a Midsomer Murder, after which Diana went to bed as she was a tad tired from a week of early shifts, for myself a film, The Portable Door, although poorly received I quite liked it, I guess my taste may be a tad different to many, anyway after the film finished, I too was off to bed.

A Couple Of Days Ago I Made A Post About The Highest Revving Single Cylinder Motorcycle Engine,

so today a look at the highest revving cars, and the winner is?

Gordon Murray, he created his T50 supercar, it had to have a naturally aspirated V12 engine, Cosworth Engineering designed the 3.9-litre motor, it reaches a peak of 12,100rpm.

once you leave internal combustion engines behind the Chrysler Turbine Car almost leads the way, only 55 were built as test beds for the gas turbine engine, and only 10 avoided the crusher, the turbine engine generated a modest 130bhp, but it could also give maximum torque of 425lb ft, 44,600rpm

and the winner is? British of course! the Rover JET1 was a fascinating glimpse of what could have been for the 1950s British motor industry, Rover built the gas turbine-powered JET1 based on a P4, the engine was a twin-shaft turbine that produced 145bhp, more than any Rover had up to that point. It could cover 0-60mph in 11.0 seconds, making it very quick for the period. It could rev all the way to 56,000rpm and inspired Rover to work with BRM on a Le Mans race car with a turbine engine that could hit a peak of 65,000rpm, but no road car ever resulted from all of this development. The prototype is today on display at the Science Museum in London to look at other high revving cars the article and these photographs can be found here.