Early return

Posted: Wed 21 March, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Travel | 1 Comment »

So yes, as some observant people will have noted, we’re already back in civilisation. Well, Norfolk, anyway.

The break was OK, but did get curtailed early for a couple of reasons. First of those was bloody horrible weather, which shows no real signs of abating. Secondly, the place we’d picked was OK, but just not what we’d expected. By a long way. So rather than coming home more stressed and pissed off than we already were, we elected to leave early, and come home, having a holiday at home instead. Expensive option, but well, better than enduring a week that one or both of us wasn’t enjoying.

So that’s what we did.

More Mobile

Posted: Tue 20 March, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, House Purchase, Photography, Travel, Work-related | 1 Comment »

One of the things that is likely to happen more now I’m among the car-ownng fraternity is that I plan/hope to get out more with the camera. Of course,it’ll probably also mean that I’ll go out more with Hound – which I can’t see her complaining at, except when I yell at her to get out the fucking way, as she’s in the bloody photos again.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’ve been held back from doing this sort of thing while we’ve only had the one car – although for some strange and yet-to-be-analysed reason, I really don’t like leaving Herself carless for periods of time. So if anything I’ve held myself back, and I can’t even satisfactorily explain why – which is never good.
But now I’ve got my own car, I think/hope that’ll change a bit. I know I want to go out more, although of course there’s still the “minor” issue of motivation, as I’ve already written about this week.
Still, it’s certainly part of the current plan, to be able to go out more – particularly in the early mornings and/or late evenings, and get some of the photos and images that are currently floating round in my head. There’s ideas for specific shots, but also (pardon me while I sound like an advertising maven) concepts for sets, series, and themes of shots that’ll make for interesting projects.
Long-term, I hope that some of them can be seen as commercial sets and entities – that’s most certainly the plan – but they’ll all involve a fair dollow of work beforehand. Mind you, they wouldn’t be any fun if they didn’t.

Blackhawk

Posted: Sat 17 March, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: Travel | 4 Comments »

Bizarre sight on the train journey home the other night – a bloody great Sikorsky Blackhawk helicopter, just hovering over the woods.

I know that we go through STANTA, (The Stanford Training Area) as well as having both RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath around – which also goes to explain the number of F15s flitting about the place and flying over the house, as well as Chinook helicopters and the like, but all the same, I think it was still the first time I’d seen a Blackhawk in use.

*shrug* I know, it’s of absolutely no interest to anyone else, but well, I thought it was cool. *grin*

Away

Posted: Fri 16 March, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Travel | Leave a comment »

From today, we’re away for a week.

First of all, though, we get to go and pick up the new (well, new to me/us) car, now it’s also been insured.

Once it’s been collected, come back home, pack up the car, and then leave to go down to Devon. Oh, on the way, we also have to pick up a new supply of happy pills for Hound.

Anyway, while we’re away, D4D™ will still have updates, as I’ve been writing a bundle of posts just for you, my beloved readers. They’re larger/longer than usual, so that should keep up the wordcount too.

Enjoy.

Insured

Posted: Thu 15 March, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: Customer Services, Getting Organised, Travel | 3 Comments »

I have to say, I’m really rather impressed with Tesco’s car insurance.

First of all, because I’ve been a named driver on Herself’s policy, it worked in a way similar to a no-claims bonus (which I don’t have) and meant that my insurance was shedloads cheaper with them than with anyone else I looked at.

Second, I needed to get a copy/confirmation of the policy over to the place I bought the car before I go and collect it, so that they can sort out the six month’s road tax, and all tht guff. And while they initially managed to get the relevant fax number wrong (twice) once they’d got the number right, everything went through fine.

And yesterday all the paperwork came through, after having organised it on Saturday. So I’ll have that with me as well when I go to pick the thing up tomorrow.

Now maybe this is just the norm for insurance companies, I don’t know. But for now, well, I’m impressed.

Crosswords

Posted: Tue 13 March, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Travel, Weirdness | 2 Comments »

When I’m travelling on the train, at least once a week I sit near a person who does various crosswords. They’re nothing heavily brain-straining (Actually, that’s just my estimation of the things – I’m sure other people do find them more difficult) as we’re talking about the crosswords in magazines like ‘Take A Break’, ‘Bella’, or whatever.

Anyway, what makes me think every time is that this person gets out a crossword-solving thing (Kind of like this device) where they type out the letters they’ve got, and it returns a list of possible words. And they do this for a good three-quarters of the crossword.

Now maybe this is just me, but where’s the fun in that? If you’re going to do the crossword, fine, do the crossword. If you’re at the end, and completely stumped, fine, use something that’s supplemental to your own vocabulary, brain and/or literacy level.

But somehow using something like that device to answer all the questions, rather than figuring them out for yourself, well I don’t know, but to me that just seems like cheating. But maybe that’s just me, I don’t know.

Rep-tastic

Posted: Sat 10 March, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Travel | 4 Comments »

Well, there we go. I’m now a car owner.

Talk about practical – it’s a Ford Mondeo, 2 litre turbo diesel, estate. All the standard bells and whistle, 56,000 miles. I know, it’s a pretty standard car, nothing glamourous, but at the end of the day, I want it to be able to get me from A-B repeatedly for the next couple of years. This thing should do that, and then some.

And I got it for the princely sum of £6,950, including 6 month’s road tax, 12 month’s MOT, and two new rear tyres.

I pick it up on Friday, and then we go off on holiday down to Devon in it. That should let us know if there’s anything wrong with it!

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