| Relieved |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|10:35 pm] |
Yesterday a friend came over on his bike, and after a lovely day he asked if I'd do some snaps of him with his camera. It's a Canon Eos 400... the main competitor to the Nikon D80 that I bought.
I tried it and hated it. OK, I know I'm used to Nikon now, but I really didn't like it. Mind you, D was happy with his snaps.
But I have never been satisfied with my 11-18mm Tamron wide angled lens. And I'm always considering upgrading my camera to full-frame. To upgrade to a full-frame Nikon D700 at 12mp would be only a couple of hundred pounds less than going to a 24mp Canon Eos 5dMkII, then of course by the time you add lenses and second batteries you're looking at in excess of £4000...!!!
But today a semi-professional snapper that I interviewed for the mag kindly loaned me his wide angled lens (Tokina) to compare. He LOVED his Tokina, and being a landscape snapper that would be his No.1 lens.
I set up some comparison shots with the two lenses. The result?
My lens is the better one. At least for what I
HURRAH!
In other words, no upgrade necessary in the foreseeable future. Hurrah and hurrah again! I'm very relieved. |
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| I did it |
[Jul. 3rd, 2009|08:59 am] |
I'm on Facebook. Like Supermatt41 says, it's not going anywhere. Could even be useful as a business tool in some respects.
As it happens, 90% of my FB friends are from work, so Journaling will continue with LJ as I like the filters and stuff. And LJ is more meaty, FB is fun and frothy.
Despite the fact I have had a caravan test to write up for 2 weeks now and I was ready for bed at 10pm last night, I stayed up on Facebook till 1am and now I'm knackered.
Job done then! |
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| Facebook? |
[Jul. 2nd, 2009|08:59 am] |
Yes or no?
I already waste too much time on 't interweb. |
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| Peterboghorror |
[Jun. 30th, 2009|10:16 pm] |
Not a lot to report this week. I'm on exam week at work, so it's 9-5 Monday to Friday. I'm in the Airstream in Peterborough which is hugely convenient. It's a 20 minute cycle to the station and it's all off-road, then a 53 minute train direct to King's Cross which is 2 seconds from the Training Centre. The weather is amazingly hot. Lots of magazine work to do this coming weekend. Slowly getting back into the swing. |
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| Kitesurfing Greatstone |
[Jun. 24th, 2009|09:41 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | RoWiSque | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  chipper | ] |
Do you like the new avatar? Northiam Gary came over today and we played cameras. I liked this pic of me so much there was no need to artify it.
We went to Greatstone and he took some lovely pix...
( Pix under cut ) |
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| Random |
[Jun. 23rd, 2009|10:19 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | RoWiSque | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
After a morning working and finishing the copy of my Hebrides article, I took a couple of hours off this afternoon to go kitesurfing, although as the wind was NE it meant driving to Greatstone.
As you know, in Scotland I came across nothing but good manners and kind people. Practically the first arshole kitesurfer I encounter in Kent does the kitesurf equivalent of coming at me on the wrong side of the road forcing me to ditch my kite and come off my board, to which he laughs and points at me. I waved back at him, but not with all the fingers. Stupid twat. And the sea was brown, not blue.
But it was warm and the waves were good and I bravely flew my 16m C-kite which is more challenging than my usual bow kites.
This evening was good; Mike and Tracy joined me in the garden around the fire pit and opened a bottle of red.
And a friend is coming over tomorrow to play with cameras. Inspired by AirstreamBully's very arty avatar, I may try and do a new one for myself. I think the irony of the Tesco Value one has worn thin, and it's no longer representative of where I am right now. Looking forward to doing snaps with Gary. |
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| Thank You Tracey |
[Jun. 22nd, 2009|10:10 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | RoWiSque | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | contemplative | ] |
It's always nice to find people who like the things that you do. It's all very well being an individual and being admired for being an individual, but attached to such individuality is often quite a cosmic loneliness. And that is why we as human beings in my humble opinion have friends. Friends who support what we do, what we believe, or simply just face the same direction that we face ourselves, are the very essence of life itself.
So thank you Tracey.
No, I'm not trying to creep because of the cheesy picture of you in the summer issue of Caravan Magazine (tee hee hee!!!)
It's because on the way home I spoke to Tracey on the phone. She and Pete have been on the road for 16 months and have visited many places in the UK. I thought it was just me that had a huge problem leaving Barra. But Tracey confided that during the whole trip, Barra was the first place that she felt a wrench to leave.
On top of that she has written the most succinct ode to the Hebrides ever, summing up in one post what I couldn't do in 20:
http://ukairstreamers.blogspot.com/2009/06/lifes-beach.html
On the phone, Tracey told me not to forget Barra. Not to get caught up in the everyday, get back into the grind, and dismiss the magic of the place. Those words are sticking with me and on my list of jobs this week is to get my favourite Hebrides pictures printed so I can carry them around with me.
I am getting on with living my life back how I was, but to be honest my heart isn't quite in it any more. Change is afoot. I don't know what, and I know not the timescale.
Or maybe it's just a hitting 40 thing. |
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| Packing up |
[Jun. 16th, 2009|01:09 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Tiree | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sad | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Desireless - Voyage Voyage | ] |
Packing the Airstream ready to take it to the beach ths afternoon while kitesurfing, then on to the ferry at 7pm tonight.
Lots of spontaneous outbursts of blubbing at the thought of leaving... the sign of the most amazing trip.
'Au dessus des capitales,
Des idées fatales
Regardent l'océan...
Voyage, voyage
Plus loin que la nuit et le jour
Voyage
Dans l'espace inouï de l'amour
Voyage, voyage
Sur l'eau sacrée d'un fleuve indien,
Voyage
Et jamais ne revient'
Except that I blooming well AM coming back! |
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| Hebrides Day 18 - Tiree |
[Jun. 16th, 2009|02:12 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Tiree | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | hopeful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | The sound of corncrakes rasping outside | ] |
My last full day in the Hebrides :-(
It was another admin day. July is a bit manic what with trying to juggle manufacturer launches with other work all over the country and working my 2 days a week in London. But I got everything booked up and wrote two articles. It was another gloriously sunny day with hardly any wind. I'm glad I stayed here... despite the fact I worked all day it's such a relaxing environment.
Made a pasta goo for dinner and sat by the fire pit as the sun went down. Graham and Rachel joined me later on and we downed a bottle of pink. After they left I watched the embers die and reflected on what an incredible trip this has been.
Tomorrow I sail back to the mainland. But at least my ferry isn't till 7pm, and the wind is due to kick in tomorrow before I go. Touch wood, I might get a swansong session in. |
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| Hebrides Day 17 - Tiree |
[Jun. 16th, 2009|01:50 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Tiree | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | calm | ] |
A quiet day today, mainly spent in front of the laptop catching up with work. It was a bit slow, but OK. The weather was GLORIOUS. Come tea time I decided to get on my bike and go for a spin just to stretch my legs and get out for an hour or so. I'm so glad I did.
( Read more and pix under cut ) |
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| Hebrides Day 16 - Tiree |
[Jun. 14th, 2009|12:45 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Tiree | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | calm | ] |
A quiet day. I didn't even leave the campsite! Woke up late again and when checking my emails was over the moon to hear from a dear friend I'd not heard from in ages.
Tried to being my ferry crossing forward to Sunday or Monday but they're all full. So I have to wait till Tuesday evening to leave the island. Funnily enough, once that was established, I felt much more relaxed and settled. Except that I'm almost out of gas (LPG) and there is nowhere to fill my tank on the island. Luckily I could move to a pitch with mains hook-up (for heating and hot water and toast and hot drinks) and there's a kitchen here so it's no great shakes. I guess I was expecting the gas to last a lot longer than two weeks, especially as I have not had the heating on that much. But it is a 5kW central heating system so no wonder it eats gas, even if it's only on for an hour a night. I didn't expect the nights to be so cold. Or maybe I'm getting old and soft.
The sun came out and I SAT and READ a photography magazine. April issue that I opened for the first time, but at least I was relaxing.
I've made two new friends! Rachel and Graham. They arrived today. They left London yesterday at 3.30pm, drove to Oban, left the car there, and brought their cycles on the ferry. And they are getting the same ferry back as me on Tuesday. So tonight they came over for a glass of wine around the fire pit as there is of course no wind. It was nice, and they are lovely people.
All in all a nice quiet chilled day. |
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| Hebrides Day 15 - Tiree |
[Jun. 12th, 2009|10:57 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Tiree | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | melancholy | ] |
Tiree is one of a different group of islands to previous. All the islands visited so far have been the Outer Hebrides, whereas Tiree is one of the Inner Hebrides. It's about, and I may be wrong, about 8 miles long and about 1-3 miles wide.
( Read more under cut ) |
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| Hebrides Day 13 - Mingulay |
[Jun. 11th, 2009|11:25 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Tiree | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | contemplative | ] |
At the suggestion of a random local whose daughter wanted to come and stroke the Airstreams, we all trooped off to the uninhabited island of Mingulay for the day.
( Read more ) |
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| Hebrides Day 10 - Eriskay to Barra |
[Jun. 11th, 2009|10:57 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Tiree | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | contemplative | ] |
Sunday got off to a grotty start with the discovery of Daisy McPaisley dead in her cage. As much as it was heart-breaking and upsetting, at least she died at home and hopefully it was quick and distress-free. Of course, it pretty much coloured the rest of the day.
( Read more and pix ) |
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