Prowler spotted

 

 Last night as I was coming home I saw my son dash out of the house, he'd had a prowler around the back of the house, I was a good way off but by the time I got to the house the prowler was gone.... sadly for the prowler my son had seen him go home and got his address.  Also he may not realise he's on several different CCTV cameras too.

 Should he come back he'll get a return visit, and he wont like that as I have big smelly feet and whats known in the trade as an attitude problem.  So mr prowler if you do read this take my advise and prowl somewhere else... somewhere errrr safer?

Bosch Legacy tv series review.

 

 Bosch Legacy takes over from the last series of Bosch staring Titus Welliver, it's really series 8 of Bosch but because of the different format they changed the name. In this Bosch becomes a private eye rather than a cop.

 The original series were based on books my Michael Connelly (and followed them very well) this series is also written by Connelly but isn't a book although in the books Bosch does become a private eye after leaving the Las Angles police and this is the premise of this series.

 Several of the regular series cast appear in various roles which is nice.

 This series plot is Harry Bosch as a private detective is asked to locate the heir to a billionaires fortune by the dying billionaire.  Bosch is also looking into the murder of a doctor. The story also features his daughter Maddy  (Madison Lintz) just after she becomes a rookie police officer in Los Angles on the trail of a rapist killer. 

 Another sub plot features Honey Chandler (mimi Rodgers) a lawyer involved is the case of a murdered doctor and the reason Bosch is involved.

 Set in LA the series has a steady pace, although feels different from the old Bosch series.  Personally I don't find it as good, it's still a good watch but it ain't "Bosch".  The story is complicated... perhaps a bit too complicated, theres so many plots and sub plots it's like Agatha Cristie on acid, theres also very little real action relying on the tension of what may happen, which doesn't work for me.

 I have to admit to being a little puzzled.  Connelly wrote the Bosch books and in those Bosch becomes a private eye and theres books covering that with perfectly good stories.  Why he had to write a new story for this series rather than just follow the books as the other series is courious.

 Waynes rating 6.5/10  it's not bad but it's not as good as the Bosch series.

Tonights sunset

 

 Got these tonight, shot on the Sigma walk around lens on my old Canon camera.

 

 

A blog is a bit like a diary

 

 Many years ago, back in the 1950's in fact, my uncle Bryn who lived four door up the street gave me my first diary.  I used to go to his house a lot, he'd let me play in his garden, look at his medals (which I still have) and even let me look at his stuffed owl (which I wanted but never got) That started my love hate with diaries.

 You see while I still always buy one every year and start off well intentioned the entries peter out by about January the fifth.  Yet this blog in a way is sort of like a diary, but I've kept this up for years. Yes ok there is a difference, theres photos, me having a rant, me having a moan, me having a whinge... but thats a lot like a diary.  January third had row with Blinky Patterson from form three and thumped him because he pinched my sweets, thats the sort of stuff we put in a diary, that and the cats birthday.

 Looking back now I can sort of see why it didn't work, A I never had much spare time as a child/ young adult to "waste" writing and B my hand writing is terrible, that comes from having to write longhand dictation, yes write out longhand at the speed someone talks, try it sometime, your writing will soon be crap, I had four years of it.

 That was probably why even now I hate writing stuff out by hand.  But what I did like about a diary was the ability to look back at a slice of time.  Being able to see and remember the day, once you read it the day comes to life, you remember the weather, where you wrote that page, even how you felt at the time, the good and the bad.  Thats what the blog sort of has in common.

 I can and often do look back at the older entries here.  I read the stuff I wrote ages ago and it brings back that day, what I was thinking when I wrote it, how happy or pissed off I was, that sort of thing. And I like seeing the good times agains, less so seeing the bad times but thats all part of lifes rich tapestry as Arthur Marshall once said.

Why Star trek will always be a dream.

  I saw part of an old Star trek episode the other day and it got me thinking how sad it is it's probably always be just a dream!

 You see the problem with space travel is the scale.  As Douglas Adams said is his book Hitch Hikers guide to the Galaxy, "space is big, really big, you think popping down to the shops is a long way, thats peanuts to space" At least I think thats what he said in his great book.  Thats certainly true anyway.

 If you got in the space shuttle and went belting off into space at top speed and started when your 30 years old by the time you get to 60 your...  well somewhere near Pluto.  yes you haven't even left our solar system yet.  As Adams said, space is big.!  Indeed if you press on regardles towards our nearest earth like planet Proxima Centauri you will be a bit older when you get there.... Actually quite a bit oulder. About a 166.000 years older to be precise, and you'd be a fair bit dead.

 Thats assuming of course that the shuttle lasted that long and you could carry a lifetimes supply of air food and water.  And more importantly if Proxima Centauri is actually earth like, thats a really just a best guess at the moment.  So massive fuck up to arrive there at the ripe old age of 166.030 years old to find id a barren rock covered in dust.

 Oh the joy of landing and thinking WTF?  it wasn't like this on Star Trek! No pretty green women to "cop-off with", no aliens to fight, no precious stones, bugger all!  Might as well have gone to the beach.

 Oh theres talk of warp drive and wormholes, but it's all just fantasy now, maybe it will become real some time in the future, but then maybe as a species will have died off long before then, maybe there really is never going to be travel outside our few local planets.   Live long and prosper.

Black and white pic and hell of a day.

 I didn't have a great day yesterday, long story but it started stressfull and didn't get a whole better. By early evening I ended up going for a walk to wind down, got this shot on my phone.

 

I feel sorry for James Bond and Superman.

 

 No really, I do feel sorry for James Bond and Superman.   You see while James bond gets to shag a Bond girl supermodel on an iceberge while drinking "very" chilled Dom Perignon champagne, and kill supervillans in a vast well lit underground volcanic lair it's not all sweetness and light.

 Superman has it worse, all he gets is Lois Lane who he married if I remember rightly, and while she wasn't ugly she was no  Ursula Andres, Shirley Eaton or  Daniela Bianchi.  Then theres having to go around with your pants over your trousers, what a wally way to dress.

 But thats not really what I'm getting it.  No I'm getting at the saving the world everyday on call 24/7 every bloody day of the year!  How sodding depressing is that.  I mean every bloody day it's ring ring "Bond it's M, nip over to Warsaw and kill Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and dont shag his cat before you leave, the department doesn't want trouble with the RSPCA"  I mean seriously how boring is this going to get on a daily basis.

 Superman, much the same, he hears screams, jumps out of bed oh dear a roller coaster is crashing in the Chimelong Paradise amusment park in China, 3 second later he's coming back it covered in dust with a candyfloss that he grabbed after saving the people.  Yes great job but how many accidents around thr world every day? how much home life does he get, will he ever see the end of episode 3 of Minder? Will he ever eat a hot dinner?  No he wont, not a hope.

 You see thats the problem with saving the world on a daily basis, there may be job satisfaction but it's shit hours, no days off, no holidays (unless you count shagging a bond girl on an iceberge?) no time to watch a movie or tv show, indeed hardly time to pick your nose.  And thats really bad for your mental health.  Everybody needs time to wind down... even Superman, Bond and well me!

Where eagles... errr don't

No, not the great movie where eagles dare staring Richard Burton, I'm talking my eagles don't... which isn't a film.  In fact it's hardly a photograph.

 It's an idea that come to me the other day, ok this hasn't worked IMHO, but with a right images I think it will work.  The other idea which is better anyway I'll need to go out shooting with a tripod and sarnies, it's going to be a long job!  Still I'll try and get around to it over the next few weeks.

Done with eagle brushes in photoshop.

A sunset but different

 One of my recent sunsets with a filter applied from photoshop.  I actually quite like it... not so sure about the other shot I did, I'll post that tomorrow.

Liverpool fans boo national anthem at FA cup final

 

 Liverpool fans booed the national anthem at the recent FA cup final.  Now theres a few possible reasons, one claim is it's  a symbolic extension of the Tory (Conservative) government.  But royality has always stayed out of politics (mostly)  Another suggestion is the booing was at Prince William who many felt represented inherited wealth as the U.K. suffers a cost of living crisis.

 Maybe theres another reason.  Take a look at the nationalites of liverpools players.  We have  Egyptian. Colombian. Senegalese. Dutch.  Brazilian. Spanish.  Portuguese.  Japenese.  French.  Belgian.  Kenyan.  German.  Cameroonian.  Guinean.  Isish.  Greek.  Scotish and finally British.

 How this jumble of nationalties can claim to be "Liverpools" team is beyond me, surely the clue is in the name liverpool?  Shouldn't the players actually come from liverpool?  It's like saying the British royal family isn't British.... oh wait... Ahhh.     I'll get my coat!

Some sunsets

 

 This is the last of the recent photos, I need to get out again shooting but have a funeral today so when I'll get time next is anybodies guess.

 

Missing item turned up!

 

  I've mentioned a few times on here things going missing and returning in an odd place (all too often) last week it was a flash diffuser, ok I suppose it is just possible that somehow I managed to miss it in my camera bag (more detail in a recent post) but among other things that have gone missing is a video light, that hasn't been seen for a few years now.  The other is a mictophone.

 I've mentioned it seems video related stuff that goes walkabout mostly, the light, a microphone, a video light bracket a long time ago (that turned up in a weird place) the last thing apart from the flash diffuser was a lapel clip on microphone, the sort of thing you see on tv clipped to an announcers shirt.

 That vanished a few months back, I'd searched the house, gone through every camera bag, every place I have camera stuff, and I'd gone through them a few times.  No bloody mikerophone.  Now this wasn't terrible, I do have another on camera mike, and indeed I don't use that a lot these days.

 Anyway fast forward to saturday and looking for something else I went through a survival kit, this isn't the little tin sort but a decent size army belt pouch thing with a mess tin inside and all sort of stuff.... inside was also my missing microphone.  What!  Why , how?  Theres no way I'd put a fairly delicate microphone in a pouch full of metal and torches and all sorts of stuff.  So how it got in there is anybodies guess.  my prime suspect is the poltergeist.

Sky's

 

 Yes a few shots of skys from my walk the other night.

 Got a few sunsets for tomorrow.

 

 

BCB fire dragon stove real world test

 

 Ok I used the BCB fire dragon stove for the first time in "anger" yeasterday.  By that I mean not a test but actually making my first brew out in the wilds.

 So what have I learned?  Well the windshield does help but I suspect it would be better with one each side, I might make a second one myself and test it.

 The dragon blocks really need to burn longer, even in the mild sheltered breeze a lot of the heat is wasted and the block only just boiled 400ml water. In proper windy conditions you'd just warm the water up I suspect... or use a lot of blocks.

 I learned using three year old powered milk (opened three years ago and a year out of date) isn't a great idea, it sank to the bottom of my tea and even vigorous stiring only brought it back to the surface briefly.  Couriously the army whitener floated on the surface when old, which it mostly was.  To be fair the tin does say use within 6 weeks of opening, so I was only 98 weeks late, and yes I did still drink it!

 I learned it really helps to take the cooking pot lid, that helps a pot boil faster, luckly I had some cooking foil in my pack so I used that as a lid.

 So all in all a learning curve, fresh powered milk works fine (yes I did bin the old stuff and opened a new one) and the lid in now in my pack.  yes the stove will boil water but you need a really sheltered spot.

Them bones, them bones, them dry bones...

 

 While I type this I'm humming the them bones them bones song.  Dem bones started as a spiritual song and goes back to the 1900's,it was recorded in 1947.  Interestingly it's used in the last episode of the Prisoner tv series.  Hows that for trivia!!

 The pictures are sheep vertebrae, and yes I did line them up like that.  The sheep didn't seem to mind.

A sepia photo

 The old photo or was it I posted recently looked nice enough but I wondered how it would look in sepia... Here's your answer.  Added a white border too.

A few odd pics

 These are a few odd pictures I have that are from St Fagans.

Botanical gardens of Wales (E)

 Yet another batch of pictures from the botanical gardens.

A twangle of harps

 

 Who says you learn nothing from my blog?  I wonder how many of you knew the collective noun for a lot of harps is a twangle ?  Yes I didn't either until I looked it up.  It does sound right though.

 These are recent shots of harps.

A 1960's post card.. or is it?

 

 Yes it looks a lot like a 1960's postcard, but it's not, it was taken yesterday and only resized in photoshop. It's shot using the cameras built in HDR (high dynamic range) setting.

 

 

Problems and more from the poltergeist

 

 Last night all was not well in Waynesworldblog global headquarters... well my house if you must know.   Having been out all day with just a scone and a gingerbread man for food I was bloody starving when I got home.  A fried slice and an egg helped but by 10.00 I was starving again (I'd had a fair bit of exercise) so I though a toasted cheese sandwich would fill the corner of my tummy left empty! 

 On goes the sandwich toaster, now showing it's age a bit, buttered bread a ton of extra mature cheese and a wipe of the now battered non stick plates with cooking oil and on goes the sarnie (buttered on the outside as ell to help stop it sticking)  While this is cooking I make a cuppa, pop the sarnie out go into the fridge for milk and ... hang on the lights off?  Has the bulb gone?  Could be the fridge is old, and the door seals on the way out too.

 I check the plugs to see if I'd unpluged it for the toaster thingy but no all was good.  Anyway I'll sort it after food, into the living room I go and Oh bugger!  The tellys off and so are the lights.  My living room lights work off the sockets, I normally dont use the celing light, I prefere standard lamps.

Ok, now the penny has dropped the powers tripped out. But as the lights in the kitchen are on the lighting circuit they are still on which is why I didn't notice the power going off.  FFS, now I have to go and play silly buggers with the fuse box which I have a job to reach as it's fastened to the bloody celing inside a box with two gravity closing doors.  Afer a few minutes I cant see anything wrong so I call my son, he can reach the box and resets the power.

 Being serious what a stupid place to mount a fuse box, I know you dont want children playing with them but a normal size person should be able to reach it and see it without standing on a chair and needed three arms..  which sadly God forgot when making me (I also need three hands to open the fire escape window)  I'm not a midgit but I can't really reach it and standing on a chair in the dark strikes me as a bit dangerous.

 Anyway onto the poltergeist. Last week I was taking pictures at a wedding, I use flash diffusers, sort of a sock thing that goes over the flash to soften the light.  Now I took three flashguns and three diffusers to the wedding.  After getting home I find I only have two.  Bugger!  I've lost one somewhere, they do fall off sometimes, but as they are cheap it's not the end of the world.

 Fast forward a week and a bit to yesterdays shoot, now I didn't use flash but I normally carry one in case.  The bag had been emptied and gear swapped around, and I've used a different set of gear twice before yesterday since the wedding the bags been emptied at least three times and I had everything out looking for the missing diffuser.

 So I take out the camera to get at the memory card and I pull the flash the same time to ditch the battries (I dont leave them in) while I'm putting the flash back in the bag I move the diffuser... and the other diffuser... Errrr.  Thats not right???   Yes the missing diffuser was there in a bag I've searched and empitied out several times, and it's white in a black bag, not easy to miss unless your Stevie Wonder..

Botanical gardens of Wales (D)

 

 Some more shots from my recent visit.

 

Botanical gardens of Wales (C)

 The third instalment.