Our New Pocket Camera Has Arrived,

so back to taking photographs without using my mobile telephone, 

I bought it from Reclaimed Treasury, buck718, great service and very reasonable prices, and it works perfectly, the old one is the one with the shutter stuck partially open,

Diana had already left for work as I made my way into town, 

past the green,

alighting at This 'N' That, 

a great antiques shop, 

opposite Kingfisheries, I had to refill with RO water for our Venus fly trap plants, arriving home I spent some time sorting our old photographs, until Diana returned home from work, after our evening meal and a Bangers & Cash it was feet up for the start of,

 series three of the Vikings, it really is an enjoyable series, after a couple of those Diana was off to bed, a early start tomorrow, for myself the latest Have I Got News For You, before I too was off to bed.

Regular Readers Will Remember,

I was reading,

 a book titled The Dragon Behind the Glass, and for myself it was a great read, from my post: 'for myself it is an amazing read, as I have met or know about so many of the 'main' players that are mentioned in the book, (and a couple left out but to be fair they were more African based), the book deals with a murder, which sounds strange in the peaceful, tranquil world of fishkeeping but it does happen', well keeping to a fish book theme I chanced upon this volume, 

The Philosopher Fish : Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography of Desire, the author, Richard Adams Carey takes us from the past, from the review: (the book), "traces the rise of the caviar industry and the concomitant decline of the sturgeon. Caviar dates to at least the 13th century, when a Mogol king dined on the eggs at a monastery, though in medieval Russia caviar was not a luxury—even peasants ate the “blackberry jam of tiny globes", to the present day, it will be arriving hopefully soon, a book I am looking forward to reading.

Whilst Looking For Nothing In Particular,

I found this rather amusing compilation, 

titled Cartoon and Reality, cat lover Tharoth put together a humorous compilation that compares specific scenes from the classic cartoon Tom and Jerry with real cats who find themselves in the same or similar situations, some are just so cute.

I Have Just Received The Photographs,

of yesterdays Sunday lunch,

as it is near Christmas, light the candles, 

for starters Vietnamese spring rolls, 

eyes down and tuck in, 

for our main course roast lamb, sans gravy for myself, and it was delicious!

First Thing Diana Was Out,

and into town, 

where she spotted this vintage 1940 vehicle,

 from the Claude Jessett Collection at Tinkers Park in East Sussex that formerly worked in Brighton and Hove, for more about the bus and its routes have a look here, Diana was going to Bromley, so we are going to have a late lunch, 

to meet with Wilma, who says Hi! 

they had a huge 3 hour breakfast! they had not seen each other for so long, arriving home late in the afternoon we had our Sunday lunch, unfortunately I did not take any photographs, but the lamb was delicious! then feet up for,

The Third Man, filmed in Vienna, I have lost count of the number of times we have watched it, here is what I posted the last time we did,

 

'and I would guess if you have not seen the film, you will recognize the theme tune of it in any event in the recording of it above, and if you have not seen the film here is a description of it, I mentioned that both Diana and myself would like to visit Vienna, and go on a Third Man tour, little did I know but there is such a thing, 

for myself and I guess many others the closing scene is the shot that means so much, after a long, almost two minute shot of her walk along the cemetery road, with Martens waiting for her, Anna ignores him, and the movie ends, this final long walk was apparently shot by uncredited German cameraman Hans Schneeberger, but due to the mindless pettiness and instance of British unions, none of the Viennese cinematographers units were allowed to have credits in the film,

the avenue as it is today, as an aside Orson Welles was the Third Man, apparently a difficult actor, but in this film he made perhaps one of the most well known ad libs, in a speech where he improvised whilst talking to Cotton,

and it was kept in the film, just a 20 second speech and totally off of the cuff, what a great film', why did we watch the film again? apart from the fact that we like it and it is a very enjoyable film to watch, we though we would look at some of the places in the film we hope to visit in a few weeks time when we go to Vienna, after a snack in the evening and a Columbo we went on to watch 2 more episodes of the excellent Vikings, before we were off to bed.

The Lord of the Rings Series Of Films,

is continuing,

after six epic films and a spinoff TV series, there is more to come, although if you have watched the others you will guess how this one ends, it will be called, well tentatively titled, Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, and will be directed by Gollum himself, Andy Serkis, at first glance a difficult task, knowing how Gollum meets his maker, but there it is, the film is scheduled to be released in 2026, with other films based on J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings so successful there is no reason to suppose this will not be another box office hit.

Many, Many Years Ago,

I read an article about a RAF flyer who photographed the pyramids from above and found they had 8 sides!

photograph via RN Vooght I mentioned this to a friend who naturally did not believe me, and of course I could not find the article, now much, much later than the RAF flyer, there is a similar aerial photograph, in the original article it stated that the effect could only be seen at certain times where the light and shadow exposes the difference, the Great Pyramid appeared to be merely four-sided when it was completed, due to a covering of casing stones designed to align the sides. But most of those casing stones were lost when a massive earthquake hit in the year 1303, but now A study from Akio Kato at the Kanagawa University in Japan determined that the indentation is 11 degrees, and the anomaly added much-needed stability to the pyramids, it is one of the reasons we still have them today,

the study also mentions the photograph I saw of the 8 sided pyramids above, taken by RAF flyer Brigadier General P. R. C. Groves, British Royal Air Force, almost 100 years ago at sunset during the Autumnal Equinox, the Great Pyramid, almost in the middle of this picture, shows its bright western face together with the southern face divided into two right triangles. This picture was published in the National Geographic, September 1926, 8 sided pyramids, who would have thought it! and to whoever did not believe me so many years ago, “I told you so!”

Whilst Diana Was At Work,

I carried on looking through our photographs, 

in the afternoon I played with a few, putting in black backgrounds, above a mandarin duck in Kelsey park, 

background removed, 

and a black background put in place, 

the same for this mask, 

from when we were in Venice, 

not to everyone's taste, but there it is, 

in the evening a read and a sherry,

followed by a huge Chinese chicken curry that Diana had left for me, 

'Cheers!',

in the evening I watched the latest episode of Wolf Hall, which just keeps getting better and better, after which a black & white movie, Mutiny on the Bounty the 1935 release with Charles Laughton playing the lead, during which Diana arrived home so feet up for a coffee and when the film finished one from Midsomer Murder before we were off to bed.

For Many Christmas Is A Magical Time Of The Year,

and for myself this video is magical indeed, 

on November 26, Sky Elements Drone Shows, teamed up with UVify to stage a Thanksgiving and Christmas display over Mansfield, Texas, and the display earned a Guinness World Record for "largest aerial display of a gingerbread village image displayed by multirotors/drones" with 4,981 drones, I was amazed looking at the display, if just one drone went mustang the result might have been horrendous! video found at Laughing Squid.

Keeping To A Christmas Theme,

Tom BetGeorge puts on Christmas light shows at his home,

and now having moved to a bigger home means he can really pull all of the stops out, for this year he has computerized lights are supplemented by projections, laser lights, and fireworks, too! This Christmas, in a more rural area in Linden, California he can stage his spectacular Halloween and Christmas light shows without annoying the neighbours, he also runs his own light show company, above is the entire 23-minute show, I think I can see why some neighbours might be annoyed!

After Diana Left For Work,

I spent the day looking through more of our old photographs, 

we had taken over the years, sorting them into various groups, like this one, fish, this was in one of our aquariums when we lived in Thailand, and then played with them in the afternoon,

taking out the background, 

and replacing it with a black one,

the same for this owl I photographed in Scotland, 

background removed, 

and black background added, 

a move to Venice for the masked parade, 

background removed, 

and black added, 

back to Thailand to Chatuchak market, I had to crop this photograph, 

and here it is, 

background removed, 

and here is the finished result, eventually I will use these for our photograph wall, when I have 12 of each category, I can then change them every few months, at the moment we have waterlilies on display,

all of which I took in Thailand, 

or Kew gardens, 

great fun playing with the old photographs, 

in the evening time for a read, 

in the morning Diana had made a huge stew, which was delicious, 

'Cheers!', after which I was out to meet Steve in the Moon & Stars, I did not take any photographs, but we had a pleasant evening chatting about our forthcoming trip to Vienna, after saying our farewells we made a move for our homes, I arrived before Diana, then it was feet up for a coffee and a chat before we were both off to bed.