It’s a little while since I posted and, as I don’t want to get out of the blogging habit, this diary of sorts needs to be updated and so, here goes:
I had a bit of a Christmas shopping phase, buying smaller gifts again this year, bearing in mind that we all have too much “stuff”. Buying the presents is quite straightforward, it’s wrapping them that takes all the time. Now the appropriate parcels have been delivered to geographically more distant family and so it’s on to the next batch.
I’ve sorted out the office at home, too, after a fashion. The photo albums I had all over the place whilst searching for photos of the younger Mr Dancing for his birthday mosaic have now all been found another home and are in chronological order again.
A couple of Sundays ago, I did Part II of the DSLR Photography Course at Lacock. This time was so different – the weather was grim compared to the glorious sunshine earlier in the month when I did the first part. This meant we stayed put in the venue rather than go walkabout. We needed to, because this time the course content was much more technical – shutter speeds, exposures, f-stops, focal point, apertures and all that malarkey. I had quite a headache all day, so I don’t think I absorbed it all. I need to practise more.
We’ve been to North Devon for a couple of days in VERY blustery, wet weather. At the same time, the younger Mr Dancing, L and friends went to spend the weekend on Lundy Island (in the Bristol Channel) – as there were some phone lines down just before they returned, they weren’t sure there would BE a helicopter back to the mainland until it landed. (The above was after take-off on the way back – I needed a North Devon photo here even though it’s not mine!)
I digress. When we were in North Devon, we popped into Braunton Museum just in case anything new and genealogical was to be discovered. Someone was erecting a display of the Americans in Braunton during the war, when thousands of troops were based in North Devon, practising for the D Day Landings. The display was of still photos taken from American archive footage discovered earlier this year. Neil, an enthusiastic history buff who was organising the feature, spent a good half hour telling us all about the Americans locally and showing us a 10 minute film. It’s hard to believe that they used LIVE ammunition on local beaches. It’s hard too to consider that so many of them lost their lives on a Normandy beach.
We met up with family and friends – there never seems to be quite enough time to do it all but we did take Mum out to the Ring O’Bells at Prixford for a pre-birthday lunch on Saturday.
The following day, we were off to Salisbury to meet my sister, niece and family for lunch at Anokaa – and then pootled around the town before coming home.
Last Wednesday we went, with The Willow Lady to see the shouty Welsh comedian, Rhod Gilbert, at Komedia in Bath. We had dinner there (prepared by the River Cottage Canteen) – in fact Mr Dancing and TWL had the hugest portions of pork I’d ever seen served!
I like Rhod Gilbert – his rantings about buying a duvet are absolutely hilarious. On Wednesday, though, I did think that, had he left out all the swearing during his act, it would have been a good 20 minutes shorter and the comedic value would have been improved. I find that excessive swearing just adds “blah” words which really mean zilch and detract from the brilliance of the observations. Perhaps it had something to do with the venue – wonder what he was like at The Apollo in Hammersmith the next day? I guess I’m just getting old but surely the more you use a swear word the less impact it has?
Recently, I ordered some sample Moo Cards at the very reasonable rate of 50 for £3 – really they are free as the postage and packing cost is £3. They come with a black border at the bottom advertising their company. Being a cheapskate, I’ve trimmed this off and used them on greetings cards.
I think that’s mostly it … I’m still doing the dawn-walking from Monday to Friday and have been since the end of August. It’s become harder going since the mornings have become darker and darker and so we are now going for the Winter/Lite version of Dawn Walking which means we now start ten minutes later at 7.10am and only do 20 minutes instead of 30. If you knew how much of a morning person I am (not) then you would be amazed and amused that I am doing this!
and dancing …
