-
Being 6 feet (and a whisker) tall
“Six feet”, I say to anyone who asks. This week my height was officially measured as “a whisker over six feet”. I came in at 1.84 metres (=72.4409449 inches) so that whisker is actually 0.4409449 of an inch, or near as dammit half an inch. Am I growing taller rather than shrinking, as would be the norm at my age?I spend a lot of time in bookshops, and being tall means I can reach the books on the top shelf but struggle with the books on the bottom shelf. There’s a small bookshop in Scarborough where not only is the bottom shelf at ground level but the books are at the back of the shelf rather than displayed more to the front. Hopeless – I don’t bother with the bottom shelf in this bookshop.
Being tall, cooker hoods are a hazard. Also, tree branches overhanging the pavement, and beams in old pubs. We don’t have a cooker hood, so I’m not expecting one when we stay in holiday flats or cottages, and inevitably I get another forehead wound. Sadly I don’t get many opportunities to avoid beams in old pubs.
With this extra half an inch I’m going to have to be even more careful!
1 comment on Being 6 feet (and a whisker) tall -
Was my dad innocent?
I don’t have many memories of my childhood but I do remember when the train set disappeared, though my recollection may be a bit dodgy.My dad brought me / us a train set (for Christmas?) and I have fond memories of laying the track to run under the furniture. My guess is that it was a clockwork train, though I don’t really remember. I don’t know how long we had it, I suspect not very long, but when my dad again left the family home for what was to be the last time, the train set disappeared as well.
The explanation I’ve told myself since that time over 50 years ago, is that my dad took the train set with him, but it’s always puzzled me as to why he would have done that.
For no good reason I have recently pondered whether my dad did actually take the train set when he left. The only other explanation for its disappearance is that my mum kept the train set from us. But why? She couldn’t be bothered to get it out? It was a reminder of my dad? She sold it (we were poor)? Although my mum is still alive, her situation doesn’t make it an option to pursue this, and it really isn’t important.
But it’s interesting that even after such a long time it’s possible to look at something in a completely different light!
-
Morning mist
-
Just a short walk, but it took ages to …
It was just a short walk, but it took ages to select and process the images – this us usually the case! I set off intending to capture the fog, but it had disappeared by the time I got to the park. The sky was a useless blanket of white and there was very little sunshine, which is no good for taking pictures .
-
A lovely, lovely sunny day
What a fabulous day for a walk through Bushy Park and then along the Thames at Kingston.
-
And it was the wrong item!
I needed a replacement camera battery. It’s £5 on the high street but just £2.16 online (with free delivery). It’s the size of a 1p coin and I was expecting it to come in a jiffy bag, delivered by the postman, through the letterbox. Instead, it came by courier van in a big box. I can’t see how this can be profitable for the supplier…
And I ordered the wrong battery, so I have re-ordered the right one, in another big box!
-
Battersea Power Station, London
If I’ve somewhat over-Photoshopped the images taken on my first visit to the Battersea Power Station development, my excuse is that it was a dull, grey day and the pictures needed some assistance – an artist’s privilege.
Viewed from a train, the development looks horrible, but once you get on foot onto the site it’s not so bad.
The residential accommodation seems ok and there’s lots of water and shrubs, though it can only been seen through a gated, steel fence. The overwhelming impression of the site is one of size. The former power station is enormous and it will be interesting to see what’s inside once this part of the development is complete. My little camera was ill-equipped for capturing decent close-up images of the huge structures. All images are clickable.
This image is rather busy. A potential jigsaw puzzle? 
-
Diwali fireworks
This strange image came out of my feeble attempts to take a picture of the Diwali fireworks 
And for contrast, on Sunday, a rather nice weeping willow -
Mister 45
There was an excellent interview with the film director Wim Wenders on Thursday’s Channel 4 News. In it he talks about the Polaroid snapshots he has taken throughout his life. He also comments on the part he played in the career of the now disgraced Harvey Weinstein, as well as taking a dig at Trump whom he refuses to call by his name, preferring instead to call him Mr. 45. (Trump is the 45th American president).[Wim Wenders’ best known film is Paris Texas, which I was a huge fan of, though whenever I tried to watch it again I always fell asleep. It’s long and slow-moving.]
Trump is in the news today because it seems that the Renoir painting that he has on display is in fact a fake, the original being in the Art Institute of Chicago! Worse still, he insists it isn’t a fake!! There’s an interesting Vanity Fair article on this by Trump’s biographer Tim O’Brien.
In other news about fakes, Marina Hyde writes in the Guardian about how she may have unwittingly started the false claim, which has fooled social media, that Trump was accompanied on a recent trip by a look-alike wife.Strange times!
-
A healthy appetite
Talking to 3½ year old Chloe about her favourite this, her favourite that, I asked her what she would order if she went to Max’s Italian café. She saida large tomato,
a spaghetti carbonara,
and a margherita pizza!
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
things change 