Bills Posts

I went to Wiltshire today, I had to go for a work related meeting. They gave me a hire car for the trip, a BMW 318i automatic. I’ve never driven a BMW before, it was an interesting experience, it’s also the first time that I’ve driven a petrol car since May, just about 6 months.

The outward journey didn’t really go all that well. It started going wrong when I took the wrong exit out of a reasonably complex junction at Andover (I’d just followed the car’s satnav – personally I’d have gone a different route). I left the A303, was negotiating the junction, and took the exit that brought me back on to the 303.

SatNavs and I don’t really get on that well. For some reason they think I love really narrow country lanes. The stupid thing is I let them lead me that way. I should should just say “No, I’m not going to”. I arrived at the meeting venue thirty minutes late.

On leaving the venue, I decide I am going to take route that I know. A350, M4, A34, M27. A bit longer, but a faster route where unless something goes seriously wrong means you are always moving. I’m wondering if travelling during rush hour counts as something going seriously wrong? From the bottom of the A34 to around the viaduct in Fareham was pretty much a single traffic jam. Seriously frustrating.

I find that when I get in to a car for a longish journey, all I want to do is fall asleep. Not good. It kind of puts me off long car journeys.

This is the Columbian Star Reefer going out this morning. If you embiggen (as Homer would say) the picture it will be just ever so slightly blurred. Sorry about that, slow shutter speed.

Sometimes a pressure builds up. I have four magazines delivered a month, they generally come once a week, it can take me three or four days to read each one. That’s leaving roughly three days per week to read other things like books. I’m now beginning to feel a bit frustrated that I’m not reading books.

The follow on to that is do I stop reading the magazines? The thing is, I vowed that when I took out the subscription for the magazines I would read them from cover to cover. Of course, there is the occasional article that I might miss, mainly because it breaches my boredom barrier. I’ve stuck to that for at least the last two years. Is it time to slack off?

I have a problem with slacking off. I’m going to sign up again next year to do walk1000. I enjoy reading the articles, and the pictures. Then there is black and white photography, I really enjoy reading those articles, I love a good B&W picture, I have an ambition to have a picture published in the magazine. Not impossible if I take the right picture.

I don’t think I am going to give up either of those. RadCom comes as part of my RSGB membership, I must admit I don’t read that cover to cover, and I am not going to give up membership, so that magazine comes as default. The same really applies to the RTCS Observer Magazine. So, it looks like my four weeks of magazines is really nearer two, I just need to manage my time a bit better. I was please to be able to have this analysis. All is well.

I went out for a walk today. I was heading along South Street near the Asda turn heading toward the waterfront. I use happened to look up, the back yard of this particular house had a long brick wall. I reckon there were at least a dozen pigeons on the wall. No only that, there must have been another two dozen on the roof of the adjacent house.

They were clearly waiting for something – I assume the occupants feed the pigeons, because they were mostly perched, being very patient. Well, except they weren’t amongst themselves. There appeared to be a fair bit anti-queue jumping measures in play. I’d see a pigeon move in between two other birds, who after a couple of seconds would each deliver a resounding peck. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many pigeons wait patiently like this. Very interesting. For a brief second, I considered knocking on the door of the house, to ask what they did, and. How they got the pigeons trained.

I bit further along I walked past the cockle ponds. I stayed on the road. If the model yacht club is operating, I stay away at the moment. The only reason is that I am a bit embarrassed about the way I initially engaged with club, almost buying a model yacht, and then realising that I wasn’t prepared to make the commitment and backed off rather abruptly. There is of course, no need for me to feel embarrassed, I just do.

I saw a young lady and her little girl feeding the swans on the cockle ponds. It was a lovely sight, the birds on the water were right up to them, and patiently waiting to be fed. The walk was only my normal morning walk in reverse, but it was in daylight and there were people around which added interest, and made for an interesting hour.

I went to Homebase today. They had a piece of MDF (they had several). It was just the wrong size. I wanted 1.25×0.5 metres – not a big piece. They had these pieces 1.2×0.61. Just slightly too short, and slightly too wide. Now, the width I can cope with. The length is a bit of a problem. I needed it to be more than 1.2 because I need to be able to get it as close to the wall in the office as possible, and that means it has to be able to sit over the radiator, as that is he only place it can go.

I haven’t yet measured to see if 1.2 will fit, but if it does, then that will be fine. Of course, the width is a bit of a problem. But it is a minor one, as with a jigsaw I will be able to cut that easily. I need to be able to cut the base support wood (25x25mm) to the right length and then smooth off the ends with some sandpaper. I have a decision to make here, to make the baseboard free standing sitting on a table. This will make it easier to flip over and work on.the underside, there will be a lot happening there.

I’ll need clamps, glue and either nails or screws to hold the support wood in place. I am suffering from a little bit of a lack of planning, and could not guarantee that I had the correct tools for the job, but at the same time purchasing items that might be a possible duplicate of something we already have. So, before I commit to the wood and the work of building the baseboard, I am undergoing a tool collation exercise.

So, I consider to have been both successful and frustrating. I must admit, I nearly bought the wood today, it was with reluctance that I left Homebase without it. I even sat in the car almost wracked with guilt at not having bought anything. But I have taken things a little bit forward. If you couple today with the almost decision that I am going to go for NCE powercab as the DCC system, then it has been fruitful.

I haven’t been very i,pressed with my photography this week. Plenty of nighttime shots of the water and the cockle ponds, and some buildings, slightly misty a bit rainy, all in all very samey.

I have to be honest and say that my writing hasn’t been much better, some of the pieces have been almost token really. I have been as unimpressed with the writing as I have with the photography.

I know that I have several months of night time photos ahead, apart from when I go out midday, which makes a nice change from the morning walk. Perhaps I’ll spend a bit of time over the weekend to try and get a bit of inspiration. I took pictures of several of the old pubs in the town. There is some reasonably interesting architecture, it’s finding the angle and having the light to make an interesting picture. One of the things I wanted to try and do is get in a bit closer.

On the writing front, I started looking at the schedule that I ended up applying during the 366 times. That helps me as at least it forces a focus. I’ve not done very much on the model railway front. The blocker is the wood for the baseboard. 9mm ply or MDF. I’ve had a look at several online services that offer it cut to size, but it seems awfully expensive. I’ve been to the nearest B&Q in Titchfield. They have the wood, but in huge sheets, way bigger that what I want, and they don’t have the facility to cut. Apparently, I can go a bit further afield where I can get it cut, but I still may have to buy the full sized sheet to do so. I still have two places to visit to see if I can get a piece cut to the size I want (0.5×1.25m). I also haven’t asked on Facebook if anybody has, or knows where I can get a piece of the wood. I’m going to see if I can visit a couple of those tomorrow.

On the DCC front, I think I may have narrowed it down to two candidates Digitrax and NCE Powercab. I watched a YouTube clip installing NCE powercab looks very easy, I can get the minimum set up for somewhere between £150 and £180. I have been a bit slow, but the research is good.

OK, sorry, I need to get this out of my system – playing with colour selection in Snapseed, I thought that the sign of the The Star would be a good subject for this. The original is below. Which do you prefer?

We have had a few nights where it has been sufficiently cold that I have wrapped up to almost full winter standard. There were few mornings where there was a little bit of ground frost and some cars were covered in frost.

This morning was an example of a mild morning. I still had a fleece and a coat and my cap. Gloves have been a bit of an issue. Several years ago I bought a pair of touch sensitive gloves where you can operate a phone through them. They are just beginning to wear out, and I am likely to have to get a new pair. I’m thinking that I might get ones with the every tips of the fingers off.

It’s getting to that stage in the year where we can expect cold weather and going out in it is a real pleasure.

OK, I’ve used the two photographs I’m going to include quite recently in blog posts, they are only here for illustration. The brief focus of tonight’s post is the application I used to create these pictures.

That application is Snapseed. It is available on both iphone and Android, and it is completely free and not riven by adverts. The process used to create the header picture, and this one;

Is called Colour Selection. The process is conceptually fairly straight forward, and generally comprises;

• Open the Application
• Open the picture you wish to work on
• Create a monochrome layer on the picture
• Work on erasing that part of the mono layer allowing the underlaying colour to show through.
• Save the picture

I haven’t gone into some of the detail for example that of the fourth step, which also involves error correction (you’ve erased the wrong part, or too much of the mono layer.

The application is absolutely loaded with editing tools, that really allow you to explore photography. I have only, through the use of this one process, begun to explore the capabilities of the app. If you are interested in a free, highly effective editing tool then I strongly recommend SnapSeed.

It appears that the development of the waterfront is progressing. There is no argument that the bus stop is a 1960’s or 70’s eyesore (well, I think it’s 1960’s or 70’s. It definitely needs to be replaced.

The bus stop is going to be moved to where the taxi rank is, busses will pull in and reverse out. I’m slightly concerned about that – I wonder what traffic control measures they will put in place?

As to the building itself, words being used are an iconic gateway with waterfront entertainment. The town definitely needs it. A nice cafe & restaurant near the ferry would I suspect do very well. But, the iconic gateway includes accommodation. I wonder what that means.

It appears that a developer is being selected.

The harbour was surprisingly busy this morning. There were two small fishing vessels heading out with one coming in. The Pilot vessel was behaving unusually. It was loitering and cam to a stop towards the harbour entrance. I can only think this was to allow the Amourique to come in. Once the Brittany Ferry has passed through the pilot cutter resumed its exit.

Whilst we were on lockdown (and we still are, to a more or less self imposed degree – with relaxations) when we started doing some binge watching of boxsets. One of the earliest we worked through was Downton Abbey. I have to say, we were completely addicted and watched barely anything else. This included the inter-season specials. There were 52 episodes including the specials. Actually, it didn’t take us long to get through the 6 seasons. We were devastated when it finished, we had come to love most, and hate some of the characters. It was wrapped up in the film. During the series, we got to learn about both levels of the house, above and below stairs.

Elayne was given a book about Village life in the 19th & 20th centuries. Of course I grabbed it immediately. It was fascinating to read about the life of people during those times. The conditions in which they lived we can’t help comparing to today. The comforts of housing; heating, lighting, clean water, waste disposal, and yes new, recent additions starting with the telephone, progressing to radio, television and today broadband are beyond compare with the house of a hundred years ago.

Of course, we now have the time to wonder how people a hundred or more years from now will be living. I wonder.

We’ve had a busy weekend, doing things around the house. There was an opportunity today when I could have gone for a walk but I decided not to. It’s the first time in quite a long time since I have deliberately avoided going for a walk. But I don’t really feel guilty about it. If I were still trying to achieve walk1000, what I am heading for this year is 1500. Not going to make it, but enjoying trying.

Because I haven’t been out for two days I don’t have any really fresh pictures. I thought I would have another bash with Snapseed. I took the picture of the buoys a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to do the colour separation with it. It’s OK. The editing on the app is excellent. But I think there is probably too much water.

Hopefully, back to normal tomorrow.