a blog for me
I really don’t know what to make of this 2 hour documentary on BBC iPlayer. Is it a spoof – possibly not – but it’s very odd. I don’t think I’d recommend watching it unless you’re curious as to what makes it so weird.
I took my very heavy DSLR camera on my walk today, to see if I could cope with the cumbersomeness of it and to see if the pictures were better than my little Sony. I’m very disappointed with the pictures but these two are OKish. The camera is very cumbersome so I think I’ll stick to my Sony, though I might have a go taking the DSLR out with the telephoto lens to see if I can get something interesting.
I laughed a lot over the past couple of days watching these gems. Click on the links to watch.
It’s 43 years old but still brilliantly funny
The mothers go away for the weekend
Comedians play silly games. I’m a big fan of Greg Davies.
It wasn’t as sunny as I’d hoped on this 8 mile walk to and through Nonsuch Park and along the Hogsmill River in Ewell.
A walk (8.5 miles) through 3 commons was not quite a disaster but wasn’t without problems.
I’ve come to rely on my mobile phone and the OS Maps app for navigation. On long walks I always take a battery pack to recharge the phone if necessary, but today I forget the charging cable. Half way through the walk the battery had dropped to 10% and I risked getting lost in the multitude of paths. So I decided to abort the rest of my planned route and make a hurried return to the start point.
I also dropped the phone and cracked the case – so not the happiest of walks.
A stroll around Dorking brought us across this unlikely town scene. I don’t think the sheep are permanent residents though I have seen them there on previous visits.
At the Oxfam Bookshop I was refused entry as I would have exceeded the ‘maximum of 2 customers’ restriction. They are also only accepting donations on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I have more than 30 books waiting to be donated which have accumulated over the lock-down.
It’s some time since I last walked on Epsom Common so on a fairly sunny day this is where I walked today. On a pleasant enough 5.6 mile walk, mainly through woods, there are a couple of attractive ponds. There’s also a small pond next to The Cricketers Inn (first image).
A selection of books from a couple of charity shops, all for the grand sum of £6.50.
In my twenties (or was it thirties?) I read many of the American crime/ thriller novels of Ross Macdonald and John D MacDonald. Both authors are highly regarded and I remember much enjoying the books.
Decades later, on one of my occasional clear-outs, I disposed of their books and those of other authors. I remember thinking twice about getting rid of the John D MacDonald books because they had such fabulous covers. Interestingly I’ve started following a blog devoted to his book covers, and it was this that’s motivated me to re-read some of the two authors’ books. I’m sure the image on the right is from the range I had once owned but I can’t find images of the other books in that range.
I’ve only managed to find two ebooks by RM or JDM at my local on-line library. RM’s The Dark Tunnel was one of his early novels – and it shows! Absolutely terrible, though it won’t stop me looking out for his later works. However, JDM’s Nightmare in Pink is a superb read.
In these difficult times I’ve been getting my reading material from different sources:
Today I ventured into our local Waterstones and came away with three books. I can’t say that wearing a mask for the length of time it takes me to browse is a pleasant experience, but it was fine. And it’s good to be back in a bookshop again!
As an aside I wasn’t sure whether I should use ‘ebook’ or ‘e-book’ in the text, but after looking up “E-book, ebook, eBook” on Grammarist, I decided to go with ‘ebook’.
