The end of another year/torch of the year.

 

 It's new years eve and another year nearly over.  So whats it been like?  Frankly, crap!

 The usual stress should have got better when my mother went into a care home, it hasnt, if anything it's got worse.  Shes now moaning about everything, constantly, the food, the careres (who seem nice enough) the homes going to fall down.  Her room is bugged to listen to her conversations. WTF would they learn?  My mum was a nurse not a spy, and she spends most of her time alone in her room anyway, nothing to hear.

 Sadly thats not all the stress, my cars electrics are playing up again, noting major, just a PITA just before MOT time, as it does every year.

I've got house problems, thats another drama unfolding, thats a bigger job to get sorted, proably months of work, and cheaper to knock it down and start from scratch, sadly thats not an option.

 

Anyway enough of my whinging, and onto TORCH OF THE YEAR!!!  insert drum roll here.

Waynesworldblogs torch of 2022 is.....   Trraaaa  Raaaa!  the Lumintop EDC AA.

 Yes a cheap, small single AA or 14500 battery torch.  Just about small enough-ish to fit on a keyring, or will slip in a pocket no problem.  It has reasonable battery life, loads of light, especially on a 14500, and it comes with a diffuser to make a mini lantern type torch.

 I have to say with all the other torches I've played with and tested this year, this ones grabbed me, it's the one I reach for to use every time I need a quick light, like yesterday looking for bolts to build a bed.  For it's size it's impressive, if this was my only torch I'd not worry being stuck at the top of pen-y-fan at night, it would get me down no worries.

The Lumintop edc and a AA battery

Lumintop GT Nano torch review.

 

 The Lumintop Nano is a courious torch. In truth a tiny copy of it's bigger brothers (the biggest needs seeing to believe)  this one though is tiny, like a toy almost, it would fit inside a christmas cracker no problem.

 That said it's not a toy, it puts out a whopping 450lms on turbo, ok battery life on high (about 350lm) is only about 20 minutes, but this thing is tiny, and with the power set to around 30lm you might get an hour or two.  It uses the tiny 10180 battery thats 80mha. No thats not a mistake, 80mha. It can be used with a longer tube and a 10440 battery though, these are around 300mha, so you'll get a lot longer run times.

 The beam choice like it's big brothers is a thrower, this tiny torch  lights up at least a 100 metres, my test distance and theres enough spill to see where your going.

 This really is a keyring torch, it's a bit longer and the head is fatter than a AA battery.  It's really light too.  And as batteries are cheap and the 10180s are tiny, three spares would take up about the same space as a AA battery near enough.

 The interface is... well simple and complex.  It has a click for on, hold down the single button to ramp up or down, double click for turbo and double click again for strobe. Oh and four clicks for lockout.  Sadly theres more, the torch is configurable, you can choose the power of various setting and light levels, turn off ramping and have steped light levels, chose your strobe mode and frequency, even alter what temp the torch "steps down" to prevent overheating (I'd suggest you leave that one alone)

 If I'm honest I'm baffled whay they used such a complex interface on a torch thats this small.  And thats it's one real flaw, it's so small it's akward to hold in your hand.

 So whats my take on this, well as an everyday carry, it's battery life is painfully short on full and the throw beam not ideal for a walk around torch, yes it'll work and you'll have no trouble seeing where your going, but not for long.  Personally I'm going to buy the longer tube (cheap enough) and a couple of 10440 batteries, these will give a lot longer runtimes as they have about 4 times the capacity, and frankly the longer length will make it easier to hold.  Ok I'll lose the tiny size, but it still wont be big, and a thrower in the pocket is handy for seeing whats off in the distance.

 Shown here with a AA battery for rough scale.

Some famous people who died this year

 

 This is just some of the well known and famous people we have lost this year.  Normally I post this around new years eve, but this year I dont know if I'll have chance to post again before then so I'll do it now.

So many of these have brought pleasure to many of us, and so many big names.  A sad loss.

 
Queen Elizabeth II (1926–2022)

Leslie Phillips

Tom Owen

Robbie Coltrane

Angela Lansbury

Kirsty Alley

Terry Hall

Hilary Mantel

Bill Turnbull

Steve Grimmett

Robert Clary

Darryl Hunt

Bernard Cribbins

David Warner

Stuart Margolin

Paul Ryder

Steve Bronski

Gary Friedkin

Monty Norman

Mona Hammond

Frank Williams

Lester Piggott

Patric Tambay

Andy Fletcher

Alan White

Kay Mellor

Ricky Gardiner

Dennis Waterman

Stuart Margolin

Clarence Gilyard

Luke Perry

Ric Parnell

Stephen Greif

Ann Davies

June Brown

Jason David Frank

Peter Bowles

Lynda Baron

Veronica Carlson

Anna Karen

Ruth Madoc

Gary Brooker

Norma Waterson

Jo Kendall

Barry Cryer

Gary Waldhorn

A very strange Christmas.

 

 

 A very strange Christmas!.   No not the title of a Dickens novel.  Although best remembered for a Christmas Carol, he wrote a lot of books between about 1834 and 1870 when he died.

 No my strange Christmas was because it was very different from the normal Christmas that I've spent for decades.  The norm has been a big family get together at my mothers house, this involves days of food shopping, hours of turkey cooking, and Christmas dinner about 3.30 in the afternoon, usually cold by the time the plating up and arsing about has finished.

 This year was different.  I had the turkey cooked the night before, I had dinner in my own house, piping hot, and dishes washed before 2.00.   And I could have a drink, normally I cant drink at Cristmas before the evening when I get home, this year I sat with a VERY large Mcallans and watched the utter shite that passed fro Christmas day telly.  Seriously who picked this load of tat to watch?  Theres better telly normally FFS.

Merry Christmas everybody. Ho Ho Ho!!!

 

 Yes Merry Christmas everybody.  Many thanks for those of you who have followed or viewed my ramblings over the year.

 Its the time to polish your glittery balls, feed the cat glitter so next doors lawn gets sparkly presents from Tiddles (dont actually do this I like cats) Wrap up lots of presents neatly, Not like my presents which look like the dog packed them, not helped by running out of bloody wrapping paper, and the stuff I had was terrible, thin doesn't come close.

 I put my tree up yesterday, took me about 10 minutes, I threw it up.   I mentioned before my Christmas spirit is lacking, and my body isnt too clever either, my backs knackered, I've had a headache for 4 days, which isn't a good thing.  Mind with the stress this year, thats not really a suprise.

 So onto the photo, it's ME as Santa, mind I look more like evil santa, but I have to work with what I have

May your Christmas be a good one.  Regards and Ho Ho Ho!

Busker 3 black and white picture

 The last of my busker shots, all taken on an old canon 30d with a fixed 35mm lens, this was part of a challenge I was doing.

Busker 2 black and white picture.

 A second busker. Shot on an old Canon 30d and 35mm lens.