Another Blog

Another Blog

I've been writing a blog since the end of May, and struggling a bit. I haven't published one for a few days, and thought I would today, but so far I have written two to the point where they became waffly, and, I felt pointless.

Writing should be easy, but I'm struggling, first to find an interesting subject, secondly to write it in a manner that makes it readable. I'd say, that so far today I failed on both counts.

I obviously need to write more to sharpen myself up, and get in the flow of these things. Anyway, here I go again.

I wrote about a visit to see a play at Eastbourne recently, on Wednesday Anna and I returned to see Noel Coward play: "Volcano", a play "wot he wrote" while living as a tax exile in Jamaica in the 60s, and which was never performed until after his death, oddly. Or perhaps not oddly, as it's a play set on a fictitious tropical island, about the complicated love-lives of a small group of expat colonials living there. Probably very true to life at the time, and no doubt controversial in its day. Pretty tame by today's standards, so I guess that tells you how far we've progressed, or regressed, depending on points of view. They lived on the side of a volcano that erupted, and provided tensions.

We arrived late and had to sneak in at the back, as the journey hadn't improved, with more roadwork’s in more places than last time. I still think it's a mad time to be laying new road surfaces on the seafront's of two resorts, but what would I know? I'm only a road user.

If I'd been told that Eastbourne was the walking stick and crutch capital of England, I wouldn't be surprised. I have never seen so many people using walking sticks, or on crutches, and often one on each arm. Their progress often looked painful, and I felt for them. After all,  like all of us they still have the same youngster at the controls, but their bodies are letting them down. Many of us still have that to come, and we, in our turn, will also have to make the most of our circumstances.

After the show, not having had lunch (travelled late, went without!), we took advantage of one of Eastbourne’s many cafes to grab a sandwich and a coffee, very welcome it was too! We also had time to wander about a little bit, and strolled down the promenade to the Pier, and out on it to the end and back. Eastbourne is well-ordered sort of place, open, comfortable, easy, and well laid out. It has its theatres, which cater for most tastes.

Eastbourne is 55 miles from my house, within that range there are very few places that offer plays on a regular basis. In fact, I'm still looking for others. Now that I have "discovered" an interest in seeing plays, it's likely I will want to continue doing so from time to time, and so like as not, I'll get to know the Eastbourne a bit better.

I don't go away on holiday as a rule, but a day away somewhere like Eastbourne leaves you feeling as though you've been away a week anyway. I guess it's the complete change of scenery and atmosphere.

As ever, I'm still not happy that this blog is interesting, or worth reading. I'm tempted to write a fictional one next, I think it would be more fun to write, and maybe easier on the eye of the reader. Let me know what you think, be honest, I appreciate honesty, you won't upset me.

Thanks for reading, regards Dan

Graphics Tablets and Things

Well, it's a Sunday and I find myself in my den (my office, or computer room as we oft refer to it). I felt it was time to write another blog, as much to keep me progressing with them, as to bore the reader with! So here I go:

Often I think of subjects to write about, but as fast as these thoughts arrive, they seem to dissipate when I'm actually faced with the microphone I dry up, (I dictate, because my typing speed is appalling, a tortoise in boxing gloves could get away from me!).

So what have I been up to recently? Good question, and one I'm keen to know the answer to! Over the last couple of days the missus and I have been de-weeding a couple of flowerbeds next to the house, and then planting them out with some flowers that we bought.

The weeds would have been all right if they had decent flowers, but they were those annoying weeds that are all foliage and vigourous, spreading over any open soil like a disease. So we pulled them out, and hoed them until the soil returned. I'm not a keen gardener, and Anna is even less so.

There are pleasures to be had seeing the difference you make through your own efforts, enjoying the open air, the view, the birdsong, etc. Which is just as well to offset the myriad of aches and pains that seems to result! I have quite hard skin on my palms (time was, in my labouring days when I had what used to be called "horny hands", before it meant something else). Well, that was obviously some time ago, because having hoed enthusiastically, I've worn a hole in the palm of my right hand, and wouldn't you know, everything I grip, or touch seems reliant on this one spot, ouch!

A spot on the palm of your hand is only really a worry if your pirate, and I guess, if it doesn't heal, whereas mine will heal once I stop bashing it (a plaster is no good, I've tried that until I got fed up).

Anyway, we went down to the local garden centre, a place that was built in the early 70s, and one I used to enjoy visiting in my younger days. Back then, I'd sometimes pop in, have a wander round the gardens, and grab a coffee, as a pleasant way to spend time.

In more recent years, I've only been there once or twice, but needing a few plants, I thought it would be good to have a look, see how it had changed.

It is now owned by larger group, who seem to own most of the garden centres in our area, and all somewhat similar, at least, in terms of what's on offer. The old garden centre is still there underneath, older, and perhaps a little less cared for, but I guess like many businesses, garden centres are not the goldmines they probably were in the past. These days, customers are price conscious, there’s greater competition, and profit margins are squeezed as a result.

All in all, the experience was good, the cafe was pleasant, great coffee, and I expect we'll go back again from time to time. We were able to buy some bedding plants as part of the half price sale. We were careful to pick "Rabbit proof" (hopefully!) plants.

All the plants looked a bit dry, and worse for wear, so hopefully they'll appreciate a good home and bloom. On the other hand, if they've given up the fight, our efforts we will have been annoyingly wasted! Time will tell, but last night's rain has done them a power of good.

I've mentioned my photography before, probably bored you with it, and therefore won't do so now. Oh, you want to hear about it? Alright then, you twisted my arm!

Looking at Photoshop lessons on disc, and online, it's been obvious for a while that using a graphics tablet has certain advantages, at least at times, and so I decided to have a go. I've had a graphics tablet for some years, but never really used it, so dusted it off, and plugged it in.

It's like starting all over again, a whole new science, and somewhat different to what I'm used to. I reckon I will need to take time to learn this, and so will initially put a little bit of time aside each day to practice. Probably, if I’d been doing so since I bought the tablet sometime back, I’d be ahead of the game instead of just setting out., but what’s done, etc….

I'm still discovering features and experimenting simply to understand what it can do, and how. I'm finding it a bit daunting, and, as ever with Photoshop there are so many variables possible with each aspect. If I knew what I wanted to achieve I'd have some idea about how to get there, but I'm still exploring possibilities.

It's exciting having a lot to learn, I'm still getting to grips with Photoshop, and Lightroom, both of which are likely to be "icebergs" in that you will only ever use a small part of them. So boredom is impossible. Now I have the graphics tablet to master as well.

With a graphics tablet, you can progress into the areas of drawing and painting, as well as use it on photographs and similar. Perhaps some of my problem with a graphics tablet is that I've always been pretty useless at drawing? I suspect it has a lot to do with it, and if so, that's another skill to master, another learning curve.

So for the foreseeable, and beyond, this old dog is going to have to learn a whole lot of new tricks, and he's going to enjoy doing it too! If there's one thing the mind needs, it's something to occupy it, without a bit of load, the machinery whirrs round and shakes itself bits!

This brings me neatly back to graphics tablet practice, which is my next task after writing this. In the meantime, I'll watch our bedding plants take off with all the extra water they're getting, and nurse my aching back.

Hope I haven't bored you too much? Feel free to leave a comment, good or bad, and I'll see you next time.

Thanks for reading this, regards, Dan

A Trip to Canterbury

The road to Canterbury passes our Castle. When I say Castle, I actually mean bungalow, but I was trying to impress! Anyway, from the end of our drive, turning right and following the main road finds you in Canterbury after about 13 miles. Turning left, and then right 500 yards down the road also takes you to Canterbury after about 15 miles or so. Both are scenic rural routes and both pleasant.

One of these routes is via Stone Street, the old Roman road from Lympne (a one-time Roman port, now 1 mile inland), to Canterbury. Throughout much of its length, Stone Street is straight as a die, and passes through the oddly named locale of "Six Mile". Odd, that is until you put two and two together and realise that it was a Roman fort 6 miles from Lympne to protect the road. They say nothing changes, well, maybe change is a little bit slow in some parts of the world!

With Canterbury so close, it is perhaps surprising that I rarely visit it these days. In the past, I was often there, frequently for shopping as it has some of the best shops in the area. These days though I don't shop very often, buying only what I need, as I need it. My days of traipsing round the shops looking for something to buy are long gone.

We've spent the last year getting rid of stuff that I bought needlessly over decades, which simply cluttered the place up, and wasn't really used. As a bachelor, I was a bit of a hoarder, but five years ago Anna and I surprised ourselves by getting married, as both of us had decided that we'd stay single. That was before we met each other!

Anyway, my hoarding bachelor lifestyle ground to a halt as the place now had a new mistress, and nowhere for her stuff (always far less than mine!). Eventually, she called time, and so a year or so ago we began a spring-clean that involved two skips, at least another skip's worth by car to the tip, and several trips to charity shops. At last the place is tidy, (oddly, just how I like it, although nobody will believe me having seen what I had let it become!).

Perhaps surprisingly, the place doesn't echo, but then it still has all we need within it. It's a pleasure to pull open a draw and find it empty instead of stuffed to the gunwales with all sorts of tat.

I have digressed! This was supposed to be about a trip to Canterbury, so I'd better get back on track.

With the need to shop now a distant memory, driving to Canterbury, parking up somewhere (and isn't parking always a problem?), and then wandering the streets and shops seemed like a self-imposed nightmare. Added to which, the thought of choosing a crowded town centre as opposed to open countryside as a place to visit seemed a no-brainer.

Until recently. About three weeks ago Anna wanted to see and show me an Italian cafe in Canterbury that she used to visit in the past, and so (somewhat reluctantly) I drove us over there, and parked up near the shops.

Canterbury is a very historical city, most of it is very old. Some of it was bombed in the Baedeker raids of the Second World War, and in my youth, the bombed parts had been replaced with the sort of lightweight modern buildings that were everywhere in the late 50s and early 60s. The sort building style that epitomised 60s secondary modern schools, and hospitals, brick walls with wood and glass infill.

Many of these buildings have themselves since been replaced with far more substantial buildings close to the original (a great deal of Canterbury is original, most of it, in fact). There is also an up-to-date shopping centre, with architect designed high quality shops, built over the same recent period.

The city has become one of England's most popular tourist attractions. It's within easy reach of Dover and the Channel Tunnel, and a constant stream of continental coaches arrive daily. Many foreign students and schoolchildren visit each day, and columns of them pass you by in the street, almost everywhere, it seems, at times.

It is very easy to see why Canterbury is so popular, always lots going on, and so much history at your fingertips. We enjoyed our visit. So much so, that we intend to go far more in future.

A couple of days ago, we went again, this time to a different part of the city, and then walking in towards the centre from another direction. As previously, lots to see, and as ever I had my camera with me and took a few photographs. At one point, we wandered into the Cathedral precincts. Canterbury Cathedral is an impressive building built on a grand scale, and towering above us mere mortals at its base.

Sometime later, we walked up to the new Marlowe Theatre, a modern architect designed edifice, but Canterbury Cathedral, it isn't. I guess it has "presence", but I'm not sure it has "character". No doubt it's a technical marvel, but I wonder if it's perhaps a bit "cold" rather than "warm, and welcoming"? I really have no idea, having not been inside. We had intended to go in and maybe get a program, but as we approached, a security guard was rapidly locking the doors whilst another put up signs making it clear they were closed.

Naturally, we must reserve judgement until we attend a performance there. Having been to the Devonshire Park Theatre in Eastbourne last week, which is a characterful and friendly place, the Marlowe has some steep competition for our affection. Looking through its acres of glass window, the one thing that struck us was the number of stackable plastic seats, something that didn't really show a lot of promise, but as I say, we will have to wait and see.

As I write this, it's just a few minutes to midnight, and probably time I was looking to turn in, so I'll leave it there. I've gone on far more than I planned, meandered off piste a little, but hopefully there's something worth reading amongst this text.

Thanks for reading, if you've made it all the way to the bottom, you probably deserve a pat on the back! As ever, if you feel like making a comment, I'd be interested, whatever you think. Dan

A Trip to the Matinee

A Trip to the Matinee

Yesterday was a bit of an eye-opener. The mother-in-law is staying for a few days, and so we've been getting out and about a bit more. She lives abroad, and so her visits tend to be condensed into perhaps a week, a couple of times a year.

In the past, she and Anna (my Mrs, the boss!) Have often gone to see a play in Eastbourne together. Usually on those occasions, I was left behind, but not yesterday! Yesterday being Wednesday, was matinee day. A trip to Eastbourne had been rumoured and then rejected the night before, but this was resurrected mid-morning when the sun came out.

I was driver, so committed, and we booked three seats for a play called "Rope" at the Devonshire Park Theatre in Eastbourne. I haven't been to a live performance in decades, and wasn't sure if I would survive, but it was a nice day, and it's quite a pleasant journey across the Marsh, past Rye, Hastings, Bexhill, Pevensey etc. The coastal route, a scenic journey, but perhaps an annoying one, if cracking on is your aim.

It was a delightfully sunny day and as we passed through each town, lots of people were out enjoying the sunshine. As we waited traffic lights near the seafront in Hastings, I saw a group of gents gathered round a table drinking ale in the bright sunshine (well, some had lager!). I imagined them as pirates, slapping each other on the back drunkenly, and “Arrrrrh- Arrrrrhing”! (It seemed apt to me, anyway!)

Hastings isn't the town it was, or should be. It's still got a seaside “Kiss me Quick” resort charm, but choosing June to carry out roadwork’s suggested an idiot “at the wheel” to me. Then, as you travel down the seafront you see the naked bones of the burnt-out, and rusting-away Pier. A Wreck, that draws the eye, and brings sadness to what should be a happy place. Far sadder still would be demolition, the shabby way to deal with an eyesore.

Hastings needs it's pier, it's an attraction and a focal point, it should be repaired and back in action, double quick, not lay there like a rotting carcass. The other thing Hastings needs is a good road connection to London, without which it will remain a blighted town with higher unemployment as an unnecessary result.

I suspect that what Hastings needs most are people with “fire in their belly” running the show, making happen.

We pressed on towards genteel Eastbourne. On past theatre trips they'd often stopped at a Little Chef near Pevensey which fitted matinee timing, so we pulled in only to find it boarded up and in a state of advancing decay behind concrete barriers. A real shame, because the Little Chef's always provided useful facilities, reliably, as you knew what to expect. I guess that the Little Chef story is an exercise in how to get it wrong by first getting it right and then standing still whilst the market moves on by. They used to be all over the place, didn’t they.

The Devonshire Park Theatre is a delightfully intimate sort of place that has survived from a previous era. It felt friendly from the outset. Its biggest drawback is parking, made worse this week with preparations for the tennis (which will no doubt be far worse next week when the tennis actually arrives!). It didn't help my temper much that the car park across the park from the theatre had been isolated due to tennis operations, and not even one of the footpath's that criss-cross the park had been left open, which had all the look of arrogant planning. Arrogant, because Joe Public’s needs were simply brushed aside in all of it.

Luckily, to offset my grumblings, the play itself "Rope", a thriller, was very enjoyable, and I'm glad I went. I think that it’s more than likely that my decades of theatrical avoidance have come to an end!

Thanks for reading, hope I haven't gone on too long, Dan

A Fresh Start

I wasn't happy with my first three blogs, which were long-winded, and (dare I say it? All right I will!) Boring, in my opinion. If you've waded through them, I can only apologise. I will aim to do better, and hope I haven't already put too many people off reading my blog page.

A few days ago, me and the missus decided to pop out for lunch to a pub we rarely visit, and, as luck would have it, they'd had a beer festival for the (somewhat wet) Jubilee weekend, and found themselves with an amount of unsold real ale. As soon as I saw the handwritten sign that there were a number of beers available at £1.50 a pint, I realised I'd landed on my feet! These days, I don't drink much alcohol because it's calorific and I don't want to put weight on, but beer for less than the Diet Coke I'd normally have had, was irresistible.

I'm guessing that the last time it cost £1.50 a pint would have been in the early 90s, quite possibly at the Queen's Golden Jubilee? Anyway, they had about 15 different beers available, and I chose one I wasn't familiar with, which was excellent. I stuck to half pints so that I could try another (pint limited by the missus!, Sensibly, I concede!). I followed the first beer with Adnams Ghost Ship, and if that first beer was excellent, the Ghost Ship was even better! It was a pleasant beer and had a strong undertone flavour like a bouquet of summer flowers. Had I been allowed to, I think I could have easily sozzled myself on Ghost Ship that afternoon, and will look for it again in the future.

Pubs are part of the character of Britain, and are very unique within Europe. It saddens me to see that so many have closed, and continue to do so. Times change, and nearly half a century ago when I left school, pubs were everywhere, and "everybody" used them socially, meeting up after work or at weekends. It wasn't so much the drinking, we weren't all drunks, and (although beer was relatively cheap – possibly more than a gallon for a Pound?) getting plastered wasn't really on the agenda. People liked to talk, with friends, with strangers, often telling jokes, sometimes arguing over politics (or one of the other "best avoided" subjects).

Life was simpler, television had few channels, and no means of recording it to watch later. Pubs used to open at six o'clock in the evening, and close at 10 PM (which became 11 PM during the summer) each with 10 min drinking up time, and that usually strictly enforced. There were one or two pubs whose clocks never seem to work properly, and if you really needed a drink (or thought you did!) After hours, there were, as I say, one or two pubs that might run on a little bit. Such pubs were rare, and in those days the local police kept a presence, which made drinking after hours a risky business.

These days, almost all pubs sell food, most rely on restaurant trade for a large part of their income. Beer is generally an accompaniment rather than the reason for being there, many men take their wives out for a meal, and get a beer as a bonus, (perhaps a little bit for old time's ’ sake?), After all, beer drinking is a rather "male" pastime, in my opinion, with the ladies tending towards Lager (itself a beer, but not “knife and fork” like  a good Bitter), or am I being unfair?

Whenever I visit a pub where a group of people have gathered to chat and or simply to enjoy a drink, I find it a warming experience, because to me, however much I enjoy a meal with the missus (and I definitely do!), to see a pub being used traditionally, is to my mind, a good thing.

Okay, we can all go online and express ourselves whilst listening to others views, but do we, and is it as rewarding? One of the things that kept a sense of proportion throughout society, was the physical interaction that you had with others. Nowadays, with mobile phones and the Internet we have greater interaction possibilities with the whole world, but are we gaining what we should or could, from it?

Makes you think doesn't it?

Thanks for reading, Dan

Photography

Photography

My main hobby is photography, a hobby I began in earnest about 1970 (for those of you not familiar with Ernest, he's a small village near Zeal!). Back in those days, I did a lot of black-and-white photography, in fact, nearly all of it was, since it was the easiest and cheapest. I bought a second-hand enlarger, and enrolled in the photography class at the local adult education centre.

About 1971 (after quite a bit of soul-searching) I spent month's wages on a Praktica SLR camera made in East Germany. It seemed such an extravagant sum, but it was state-of-the-art, and cheaper than Japanese or West German alternatives. It had a decent large aperture lens, and through the lens metering. In those days, building cameras required a great deal of human input, and high precision. Shutter mechanisms for instance, were like a tiny gearbox, but more complex than a watch. It's easy to see where the money went.

Taking pictures involved focusing, and then adjusting the exposure by setting the required shutter speed for the job, and fine tuning by setting the aperture. It could be the other way round; you'd set the aperture and then adjust the speed, and in both cases what you were doing was lining a ring up with the meter needle (both seen through the viewfinder – an advanced feature in those days!).

No prizes for guessing that taking pictures was quite a slow process, there was a lot to do, and that was without framing the shot! I guess the speed that we worked at reflected the subjects that we tended to photograph. When speed was essential, perhaps at a sporting event, or air show, you had to be predictive, focusing and setting up exposures where you expected the action to be. A small aperture gave greater depth of field to offset focusing errors, this meant longer exposures, so you would try to use faster film, or uprate a slower film by developing longer.

Today, you can buy fully automatic digital cameras in a supermarket for £30 or less that take pictures instantly at the press of a button, and that rarely take a bad picture. Not only that, the pictures themselves cost nothing to take, whereas using film, you were reluctant to waste any, so many pictures were never taken.

For me though, the biggest gain in going digital is the ability to process pictures using Photoshop. It is a huge and comprehensive photo-manipulation package, limited only by one's ability, and imagination. Which means that I have tremendous room for improvement! Being somewhat useless when it comes to drawing or painting, using Photoshop, I am at least able to get one or two rungs up the ladder from the bottom in graphic arts!

I'll leave it there for now. No doubt, Photoshop will find itself covered in more depth later on (boringly so?). Hopefully my blog is readable, I worry that it isn't, or that the subject matter I choose maybe of no interest. I feel I need to improve, and would welcome feedback (straight talking suits me, if that helps!).

Thanks for reading this, Dan