Some photographs I’ve been staring at today. Just so you know.
Camera: Samsung G600 Mobile Phone
Camera: Samsung G600 Mobile Phone
Camera: iPhone 3GS
Camera: iPhone 3GS
Camera: iPhone 3GS
Camera: iPhone 3GS
Camera: iPhone 3GS
Camera: iPhone 3GS
Camera: iPhone 3GS
Camera: iPhone 3GS
Camera: iPhone 3GS
Camera: Canon IXUS 750 (portrait mode to force shallow depth of field)
Camera: iPhone 3GS
Camera: Canon IXUS 750
Camera: iPhone 4S
Camera: Canon IXUS 750
Camera: Sony A290 DSLR. (Borrowed.)
A couple of folk have asked, so I’ve just added the details of the cameras used. They’ve all had a bit of post-processing, but mostly just to crop and to boost saturation and contrast (except the Brussels Grande Place scene, which is just as it came out of the camera).
All photographs © Trevor Coultart. All Rights Reserved.
Aren’t people *lovely*? – Part 2
Last week I tweeted this:
Okay, so who's going to lend me a DSLR for a few weeks, then? I'll be your best friend.—
Trevor Coultart (@trevorcoultart) January 11, 2012
Now, I’m not yet going to explain why I wanted to borrow a DSLR for ‘a few weeks’ (it’s a SECRET) but you’ll never guess what happened. Well, on Facebook, a couple of people vaguely said they might have done if they could have, but on Twitter…
Almost straight away, a reply:
I’ve got a couple year old Canon 350d in Stevenage that could do with an outing if you’d like.
From someone I’ve never met in my life before. And yesterday I popped round to his house, and am now in – temporary – possession of a Canon EOS 350D with its optional battery grip and not one but two lenses.
Twitter, you win.
2011 in review
As a rough estimate, I’d guess that approximately one person is interested in the visitor stats to this blog. But seeing as WordPress have so kindly sent me this summary of 2011, it would seem a bit selfish to keep it all to myself.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 20,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 7 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Because turning pages is just too much like hard work.
I had vague thoughts about a post with some actual, you know, content. But you got this instead.
Warning: Eight minute of awesome.
Reading list for 2012?
One of the things I really enjoyed about 2011 was reading more than I have for a while. And I mean reading proper books, not just blogs and the like (although I do read a lot of those, too).
This year I’ve read a few of what I’d call “proper novels”. Although quite how I’m making that ‘proper’ distinction I’m not sure. It started when a nephew lent me The Book Thief. It was extraordinary. I loved it and found myself in awe of the quality of the writing. Seemed to me like nothing I’d ever read before.
Finishing that left me wanting more so I scoured the bookshelves at home to see if there was anything I’d not read, and found a copy of The Kite Runner I didn’t even know we had. Well, that, too, was simply amazing. (You’ll note these aren’t much in the way of book reviews.)
Books read in 2011 (Click covers for Amazon links.)
We also had The Number One Ladies’ Detective Agency and its sequel The Tears of the Giraffe, so they were next to be enjoyed. The first one didn’t grab me as immediately as the ones I’d read before, but I warmed to it and was glad I stuck with it as the story was worth persevering with. I found the second novel even more enjoyable than the first, and hope to continue the series at some point.
And as a new year comes to a start I once again seem to have developed a bit of a book pile by my bed.
The pile from by my bed. Where to start?
I spotted A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian in a £1 basket outside our Oxfam shop last week and couldn’t resist picking it up. I’ve started that so I’m guessing that will be the next one I get through. The Stieg Larsson Millennium Trilogy ones have been lent to me by a friend who thought I might enjoy them. I’ll find out some time this year.
The other two in the pile are theology rather than fiction. Timothy Keller’s The Reason for God was lent to me by my best friend a couple of years ago and I did start it back then but never finished it. I’ve promised him I’ll tackle it agin this year. Honest, Dave. I will. And Tom Wright’s Mark for Everyone has reached me by curious means. Someone I don’t know at all, and I’ve never met, but who is part of a family I do know, has apparently seen some of the stuff I’ve written online and thought it would be a good book for me to read. She apparently saw something I’d said “on Facebook” – but I’m not friends with her on Facebook so I’m guessing it was probably something on here linked to from Facebook via one of her family’s pages. Jane, if you see this, you know your book has reached me!
UPDATE: Just unwrapped some birthday presents and found this among them:
Not a novel, but looks great fun.
Trying to be creative
Need I say more? Only a correction – it was actually more like NINE months ago that my wife bought me the pens. Anyway, I really enjoyed doing that, so the next night I sat down to do another one…
…and after that I thought I’d exhausted my bank of ideas. But a friend suggested I should do a time-lapse of myself doing one. That gave me an idea…
.
It was quite a different discipline doing it like that; for the previous two I’ve moved the pad around constantly and done bits with it on my lap or some on the floor, and there’s no way you could sensibly film a time-lapse like that so I had to rig up a tripod and do the whole thing with the pad in situ. Which made it surprisingly fiddly, as the tripod kept getting in the way, and I had to keep ducking my head under the camera (you’ll see it sometimes focuses on my head instead of the pad).
For anyone interested, I filmed the whole thing on my iPhone using Fingerlab’s brilliant iMotion HD app. (The same app I used to film this.) Here’s the “rig” I used!
Christmas Lights Dilemma: an update.
Since I posted my question about bypassing the multi-function controller on my Christmas Lights the other week, I can see that it’s regularly being found by people Googling things like “bypassing multi-function controller” or “christmas lights on constant” and other such related search terms. It seems I am not alone.
So I thought it was about time I posted an update so you know exactly what I’ve done about it.
Answer: Nothing.
Having got good and useful advice in the comments last time, and also over on Facebook, I had a closer look with a friend and we came across another problem. The transformer drops the voltage to a safe level, but does not appear to convert the current from AC to DC. That must happen in the multi-function controller. As I have very little concept what that actually means, I admitted defeat and left them as they are.
Let’s face it, I clearly don’t know what I’m doing and the last thing I’d want would be to cause a fire.
Oh, and to confuse things even further, some days they do come on still set to “steady on” and some days they don’t.
My only advice: don’t buy multi-function ones in future.
Yes, I know. You don’t remember seeing any if the others in this series. That’s because I haven’t written them. And maybe, just maybe, I don’t actually have exactly twelve other reasons why I’ll not be buying another Renault. But that’s how it feels.
In many ways, it’s been a fine car. Since we’ve had it, it’s never actually let us down or left us stranded. The engine’s never spluttered to a halt, and it feels solid and spacious and all the rest.
But here’s the problem: whenever anything does go wrong, however seemingly minor, it always costs a damn fortune to sort it out. Why?
“Because it’s a Renault” , say the garages.
Here’s a recent example: it failed the MOT last year on a tiny, minor, insignificant little point. A cable was sticking. The garage tried their best to free it up, lubricate it, sort it out by any means they could, but no. It was sticking. That’s it, one little cable. Oh, but hang on, that little cable is part of the parking brake mechanism. The automatic parking brake mechanism. And can the dealer get hold of that cable? Of course they can’t. It’s a “Renault dealer only” part. So will Renault supply just that cable? Of course not. It’s built into the component in such a way that the only way to sort it out is to replace the entire electronic parking brake mechanism. That’s over £400 for the part. And half a day’s labour to fit it. Nearly a grand to get through the MOT. For one sticking cable.
That was the biggest one, but it feels like there have been several things like that: tiny problem; huge solution; disproportionate cost.
And what’s triggered this rant?
Well, this week’s “adventure”, of course. I’d just topped up the tyres Thursday evening, and could hear a little air escaping from the valve. Wiggled it a bit, couldn’t tell exactly where it was coming from, but it wouldn’t stop. Had two children in the car so decided to get home quickly and sort it later. Got home: hiss was louder. Took the dust cap off to look again. Well, I say the dust cap; this time the whole valve sheared in half and all the air came out in one go. Quickly jacked the car up to avoid to much pressure on the tyre. No problem, you say. Pop the spare on and drive to quick-fit. Except… it doesn’t have a spare. No, no, you get a “re-inflation kit” that fills a punctured tyre with sticky gudge and lets you drive to a garage. All very well if you have a puncture, but no valve? No good. No use at all.
I phoned quickfit to ask their advice. “Easy, just bring the wheel in.” (Why didn’t I think of that?) However… they’re not just any old valves, are they? No, they’re electronic sensor valves which are (wait for it) “Renault dealer only” parts. And you know what? Or nearest Renault Dealer’s only gone and closed down since we last had to use them. So this is what I ended up having to do.
- Borrow a friend’s car for the morning.
- Drive to the nearest Renault Dealer, down in Ware, to buy the valve. Over £40.
- Take the wheel – and the valve – to quickfit. About £20.
- Take the wheel back home to refit it to the car.
- Return friend’s car and walk back home.
Well, that’s what I’ve done so far. To finish the job properly, I need to drive back down to Ware to have the sensor mechanism calibrated to recognise the new valve. That will be £45 +VAT.
Not sure I could be bothered. I can put up with seeing this on the dashboard every time I get in the car.
Look, no wheel!
Which means I could have just let Quickfit fit any old valve and saved a few quid.
That’s quite enough of my rant. What I did discover is this: Aren’t people nice.
I’d put this request on Facebook:
Okay, here’s my biggest ever Facebook request… Can anyone lend me a car for a couple of hours tomorrow morning? Or ferry me about to several places, including a trip to Ware? I’m a bit stuck.
First of all, a couple of folk who said the would help if they could. Which is quite lovely, though not completely helpful. In the meantime I phoned a friend, who immediately said yes, and even delivered his car – an Audi A4 – the evening before so I had it for the school run in the morning. Lovely. But by the time the evening was out I’d had three lots of people reply on Facebook offering me the loan of their cars. How lovely. How very lovely.
Thank you, people. If I’d lost my faith in humanity (I hadn’t), you’d have restored it.
My current favourite Christmas Song
Here he is again. Tim Minchin. His beautiful Christmas song, White Wine in the Sun*.
(*He’s Australian, in case that doesn’t make sense.)
You’re welcome.
