550 posts and a March

It's been rather a damp week getting a bit soaked Wednesday after removing some excess water from around the drain which came with Sunday and Monday's massive downpour, not that it compares with what we've seen in Tibet and Nepal was and is tragic.

Then and somewhat unexpectedly an anniversary crept up and that some five hundred and fifty posts ago, this blog started entirely from scratch althose the base of was and still retains a photographic element because me photographs are a link to the past.

The most unassuming picture of a street that might today produce a meh response in time carries forward a record of what it was like at the time such as changes in shop fronts, alterations to houses, road layouts and so on. Even street furniture such as bins do change.

This blog tends to look at pasts and the present day as sadly some of things we are going through such as world political tensions, discrimination against groups be they connected to religion, gender and the like for me at least have some parallels with how things were with baseless tales against whole groups spread just as much in the playground in those post "Rivers of blood" days as much as we heard the grown ups around us doing the same.

People are individuals no matter what groups, heritages and so on we have and are not personally responsible for what others who may share any with us and we all should be prepared to call out wrong doing that's to make it plain what's not acceptable.

We personally aren't to blame for what others do.

This is also a week most children either start or return school with all the concerns that can bring, a change of routine, new teachers and pupils, perhaps making your own way into town.

Around here free school buses have been removed rather later in the day - after parents set out their school preferences! - so many of hours face having to walk just under three miles each way along very busy and poorly lit roads in all weathers unless parents can take them by car.

Rather late in the day a bus company has offered to put a bus on with a charge of some £22.50 per child per week or £800 per child per school year which I know a good number simply cannot afford .

It's not as if you have many options: all high schools are within three to five miles away as in the sixties and seventies education authorities rather than building smaller secondary schools serving clear areas went for larger numbers (over 1,200 "numbers on roll") , and big class sizes instead.

Then regular buses are very limited on the estate requiring a walk of a mile to pick one up.

We all know of instances where children are taken any where by car where they could walk themselves - the average Primary aged child could walk a half mile or less - but is bundled in the car which just adds to congestion but there are limits.

Threats and panics

Thundery shower ridden week with a few losses in the world of entertainment such as the great country singer Dolly Parton and actor  Tim Curry who gave us Frank 'N' Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

There has been more serious in differing ways news concerning our national security following Monday's vist to Kiev by our Prime Minister Andy Burnham who in conjuction with President Macron of France the blue print for long range missles was agreed that rather got the ire of President Putin of Russia who saw it and our involvement in long range drone supplies as unwarrented interference in its conflict with Ukraine.

They've threatened unattributable damage to drone making plants, manufacturing capabilities and infrastructure via third paries so the finger prints aren't Russian but clearly carried out to order for them

Thus we see headlines like these which will mean discussion in government of the risks and what measures can be taken to mitigate such actions but don't believe the stuff you may see on social media about imminent attack and stocking up with food in case of war - you'll be given plenty of time IF that's likely.

Catching up

A thankfully damp cool week after the crazy weather even if I haven't been too good across the week.

Living in a more internet connected world is a double edge sword when I'm like that because screen as especially scrolling can make the symptoms worse and yet people are likely to enquire or otherwise note your absence and social media today is less threads just incredabily long streams that require much scrolling to find what you need.

Fortunately the Chromebook just boots up with little more than the odd update is available indicated but you can leave that to later on.

A number of things are due whuch we'll mention such as a vinyl copy of No Jacket Required his 1985 solo lp with a clutch of major singles such as Sussudio and One More Night which originally I had on tape and next week the latest seventies tastic Now Yearbook 1971 which we only have one year based compilation and that's on compact disc only.

Then there's Now Yearbook Vault 1986 in September looking at American hits and lesser UK hits as oddly enough it was some of them I really enjoyed in the age where I taped singles that weren't on the UK Now and Hits albums and I listened to things like the US Chart Show in the afternoon on Radio One which influenced some of those choices as we don't hear everything that's out regardless of merit.

Roadtesting the camera

Week was as forecast really rather hot when I had to get some shopping done having decided it needed be first thing and as it was by early afternoon temperatures had gone to some thirty three degrees celcius (bring back Centigrade!).

Recently I had been testing the Sony DCS-RX 100 compact camera more of which is on the other blog because there are occassions when you don't want something the size of a Dslr and at least on extra lens with you but you do want some creative input into your photography while out.

The general drift with compact camera that after a slump in the last ten years due to people using smartphones more as cameras had been to ever extend the range of the zoom lenses included and add lots of program modes that might take things how it thinks a sports or landscape picture should be.

This camera while having program modes does have settings you can set to take pictures how you want to and given we're talking digital rather than film, you can see how it turned out immediately.

This is The Cobbles in Sandbach, Cheshire, at the old hub of the town which much is from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century with the celebrated Saxon Crosses thankfully restored from the actions of Puritan extremists who smashed them to pieces can be seen on the right hand side.

It aquited itself well with the Zeiss lens quality being quite apparent.

Playin' catch up

This going away thing doesn't half confuse you upon return like I was convinced I'd lost a cd set until checking up it wasn't due out until early next week anyway just there had been gap from when the main set came out and this other bit was due I'd utterly forgotten.

I've put an order in for it as I'd utterly fogotten I hadn't ordered it either!!!

Then there's preparing to go out the morning after you arrived, checking you had bags, payment, maybe a list of things you're looking for and getting up to a time for the bus rather than just staying in bed to past 8 o'clock never mind emptying the bins which these days means checking which bin is being collected when using the online calendar.

On the otherhand getting back to online life on our forum and other spots was more straightforward once you remember the chromebook account password!

 

Back

 

The funny thing about Morecambe Bay is you can watch it day after day but the patterns in the sound vary every time just like a shifting sands picture, familiar bits as you see it from your particular vantage point but other parts different.

The week was largely news free being away for a few days with a massive screen tv that seemed to be locked to Sky News and there's only so many charity and cremation services you can sit through so I just saw a bit on a few days but really the main thing was to just be out letting out my younger side  not unlike a family holiday in the past.

Making things, going on walks, having meals out were really more the thing rather than any "adulting" beyong just looking out for each other.

Retyping the times

All being well there *should* be a issue next week but given I do fully live this life there always will be periods where I am away and they may even be a blog entry short as I need all the spare time I have to actually get everything together to do just that.

I did some secretarial training in the very late 1980's having had various positions which had the benefit of sort of being around youngsters who were having theirs after leaving school ready for the world of work, something it had to be said school really screwed up with me.

So I enjoyed that time as much as it was about real syllabus and examinations for being with people more on my wavelength.

One of the things we did was Typing Skills and Wordprocessing, the latter becoming more and more important for doing personalized letters, and promotional material and back then I was one of the few to be allowed to use the Canon AP850 which was cross between a typewrite with the main functionality set by dedicated buttons on the area near the keys and a cathode ray tube for seeing the text you could alter not just a few lines at a time but whole pages.

The quality of the printing was much better than printers at the time for using traditional ink and characters that were struck.

I got on with this better than a Amstrad Word processsor using Locoscript.