Flooers – 21 January 2016

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You can tell when it’s been a really bad day photographically when the POD is flowers, especially cut flowers.  These ones are really quite pretty, but they still tell a tale.  It was a dismal day for taking photos.  Hardly any light from mid morning until night.  It rained all day and it was cold.  Not much to get up for really, but I did.  I made the superhuman effort and got up and went out.

I went to meet Fred who has even more to moan about than me.  He’s had to endure the pain of a failed tooth extraction and then the added misery of oral surgery to remove the root.  I don’t even think he got his tooth back so he could get a shiny new fifty pence piece from the tooth fairy.  He wasn’t complaining too much though as we exchanged comments on each others art works completed or part completed over Christmas.  That and the coffee eased the pain of his gums and my lack of decent light.

I got myself the latest Stuart MacBride book to cheer myself up.  Why is it that this book which has to be printed, bound, have a cover fitted and be carried from the printers to Tesco cost nearly two quid less than its digital equivalent from Amazon?  Amazon say it’s because VAT is added to the purchase price as the government have decided that an ebook is software.  That is a feeble excuse.  It doesn’t take a genius to work out that it isn’t software which is according to Merriam-Webster as “The programs that run on a computer and perform certain functions“.  An ebook has to be read, it does not perform any function and it does not run on a computer.  It’s time the government owned up to this, frankly, ridiculous surcharge.  Anyway, this is the second book I’ve bought this year.  Is it a sign of the times?  We will wait and see with breath suitably bated.

The Bonny (x2) Banks – 25 November 2015

DSC_4429-Edit- blog--329On paper, this looked like the best day of the week. I thought it would be good to go to Lomond Shores which, although it’s really just a collection of expensive tacky touristy shops, does have Loch Lomond as a backdrop. Today it also had, what must have been the slowest workforce in creation apparently laying down a new pedestrian walkway. This must be a new definition of ‘work‘ and ‘force‘. There was very little work being done and with the minimum of force. The shops seemed to be overloaded with Christlefridge tat. I really can’t stand this nonsense. Buy in cheap crap, stack it high, sell it dear and then sell off what’s left as ‘bargain’ items after the celebrations are over. Bah Humbug.

The upside of the visit was the scenery around the loch itself. With clouds scudding across the sky, the constantly changing light on the hills was fascinating. It was also good to see the seaplane landing on the loch. It must have been a beautiful flight today. One lucky day with the light just right.

The evening was spent trying once again to fix the Finder problem on the Mac. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before. If I have, you won’t want to hear about the lack of progress and if I haven’t, I won’t bore you with it. Suffice to say that the search continues.