Surf's up

New camera.....this was taken from the bottom of the street looking North maybe a mile or so....

.....and this one looking South from Marconi Point (on the Whitley Bay/Cullercoats boundary) towards Tynemouth (about 3km as the seagull flies)

So I bought myself a little retirement present, a Fuji Finepix HS10 with an in-built 30x zoom lens (I know my limits, I'd never, ever get around to changing a lens and anyway my camera bag....one of those re-usable Co-op carriers, yep, I'm a class act!.....is always filled with onion skins, semi-sucked sweets and half-done crosswords) But the compact still has a safe place in the broad scheme of things, for one thing it fits in my pocket!

Snapshots....

Not a lot to report, still in holiday mode, getting up late and not doing much......

Onwards and upwards.....

Funny old day on Friday.....last official day at work. I'd really hoped I'd be able to 'leave the building' quietly but it looks like I'm committed to an official 'leaving do' in early September (partly to bail out my boss who I'd instructed, under no circumstances, to arrange anything of that nature under pain of death.....but apparently he'd had no end of grief and dark looks).....not really looking forward to that. It's not that I'm antisocial, I just don't go a bundle on the 'big goodbye' and all it entails.

So anyway.....the next phase....building repairs....lots of 'em......bring it on!!

PS......oh, and an end to getting up when the alarm clock goes off!

Living in the past.....

.....3 more from yesterday because there ain't any from today!

Top 2 from the Winter Garden, the 3rd one is looking down on the shop in The National Glass Centre.
Last official day at work tomorrow........

Into the badlands......

A bit of a daytrip for me and the firstborn today.....yes, we pierced deepest Sunderland, pasty capital of the UK, I truly believe there's no point anywhere in the city centre where you CAN'T see at least one branch of Greggs! This is the glass platform at St Peters Metro station on the way home (minor incident on the journey back when a young girl got her elbow stuck in a metal handle contraption on the top of a seat.....but luckily the firstborn was equipped with a tub of vaseline, she goes prepared for all eventualities, no lives were lost!) One from the before lunch (and no, we DIDN'T do Greggs) trip to the Winter Garden.....

And another one on the way home......

Midgie attack

So I had 2 possible projects today.....finish off the wallpaper stripping (postponed....way too humid for anything physical indoors) and sorting out the shed/hosing down the backyard (postponed....swarms of midgies congregated under the overhanging ivy, I could do without bitey bit) Only thing achieved has been picking up the wallpaper I ordered last week (came home like a damp rag, panting gently) But at least I took some pics on the way.....here's a couple.....

THE LIFEGUARDS MORNING COMMUTE

ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE

It looks like the night shift might have been a tough one...............

(almost) random image

....an afternoon of housework for me (but on the upside it's possibly the last Sunday before a Monday at work.....well, maybe, ever!) Now there's a thought to conjure with........

OTHER STUFF

Martin Wilson says.....

"My pictures are painstakingly created frame by frame on 35mm film. I get the whole film developed, scan it, then piece the final image together on the computer, making a large contact sheet. It's only when the completed film strips are laid out side by side in the contact sheets that the final image appear.

Each work usually takes months to complete, as each frame is obsessively taken in sequence. No pasting together after the event, no cheating in Photoshop! If I make a mistake or take a frame out of place I start the film again from the beginning"

Worth a click to check out his work....it's impressive!

Strip joint

It's a naff picture but I'm making no apologies......that little corner took me 4 hours this afternoon and it's still not finished. Luckily I don't have to strip the rest of the room, after I've re-papered that bit it's just (!!!) a paint job. As you can see I had assistance from the original perpetrators of the damage that necessitated the stripping marathon.....they don't know it yet but they'll be banned when it's finished....guaranteed they won't be best pleased......

Supersaturated Sunday....

....with lots of leaping.....no, not me, that would be Daizy in the distance.....luckily she has a foghorn voice.
'NOW Grandma', did you get it?' (me....'hmmm, not sure.....do it again, didn't quite catch it')


much later..........(I'll leave you to fill in the gap)
'3,2,1, I'm jumping.....' (me...Diz, can you do it just ONCE more?)
Bigger on Flickr

Waiting for Miss Daizy

Quick pic of the Hebe in the garden....it's feeling thundery out there. Hope it holds off for a couple of hours because I've got the granddaughter coming for a sleepover and I'm on a promise for a trip to the beach later....it could turn out to be a damp business if we time it wrong.......

I suspect I won't get much computer time after she arrives........

EDIT.....The Daizy has landed

Let joy be unconfined.......

.....because I know what I'm going to be watching tonight, seeing as it's just arrived in the post from the kind folks at Amazon! I'd almost given up hope of Tutti Frutti ever coming out on DVD (there's been a copyright battle running for years, it was first aired in 1987...I'm guessing one of the protagonists must have died!) Anyone else remember it with fondness?

Rant alert

Grrrrrrrr......most of the morning wasted on the phone TRYING to speak to the taxman......and then, when I eventually got to speak to a real person rather than hitting random buttons and listening to a crap music loop lasting about 15 seconds (I think it was supposed to be a happy beach 'snapshot' with plinky-plonky guitars and a background buzz of happy sun-worshippers......but it didn't fool me!) only for the phone to go dead after about 10 minutes (presumably when 'they' thought I'd lost the will to live and wouldn't notice) it turned out I needn't have bothered DESPITE what their bleeding website said........dammit, I need a drink, and I don't mean a cuppa!

20 - The Beatles - Anthology 2 CD1 - Taxman

Found at: - FilesTube

Pre-platypus

It was one of those days for going through old books.....I didn't know platypus ducks duck-billed water moles were venomous.....

Not much to report......

Some ivy on the backyard wall.....it's growing.......

Currently watching....'Bonekickers', one of those dodgy downloads that I don't like to talk about, just 1 episode to go.....definitely a mistake, but I've started so I'll finish.......even though an archaeologist friend of the firstborn's said he almost died laughing.....but I'm made of sterner stuff.....kids today huh, no application?

NOT THAT I RIDE A BIKE.........

.....but there's an interactive 'live feed' google map of the Tour de France here if you fancy doing the trip without the puffing and panting........

The deed is done!

This one's from last night, really threatening skies over the North Sea but bright sunshine on the coast....dramatic stuff! I had to go up to town today to hand in my 'acceptance letter' to the HR department (didn't quite trust it to the postal system!) and I nearly melted, it was stifling even though there was a breeze.....one thing I definitely WON'T miss is shopping in town in the summer!

OTHER STUFF

"UNphotographable is a catalog of exceptional mistakes. Photos never taken that weren't meant to be forgotten. Opportunities missed. Simple failures. Occasions when I wished I'd taken the picture, or not forgotten the camera, or had been brave enough to click the shutter."

The Mating Rituals of the Water Shrew.....animated in slo-mo (and very, very funny!)


Link:

Rampant ant

Ants in the garden before breakfast.....I only took a couple of pics today, I was using the 'old' camera, I think I like it better for macro shots somehow.....

Busy old day.....the boy-in-the-attic and I filled a full-sized skip before lunch, the house is now 3 sofas lighter (chopped and diced to take up less space) and there's an almost empty shed in the back yard, not to mention all the other crap we filled all the spaces with. It's still just scratching the surface though.....that skip will be the first of many I'm thinking!

ANT-RELATED TIMEWASTER

"The world of an ant is a scary, dangerous place. All you want to do is get home to the safety of the anthill, but there are a multitude of dangers out there; ravenous predators, impossible chasms, careless humans, and a whole host of other dangers for a single member of the family formicidae who only wants to go home."

Play Hormiga (online point and click)


NOT ANT-RELATED
The National Archives goes to the movies podcast (on the sidebar, just click on the title to play) is an entertaining listen!