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a (modem) blast from the past

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my lovely wife jane …

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… is amazing.  and totally in charge of our emigration.  which is handy.

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perfect packing

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just as we perfected our ability to load guitars, two amps, numerous effects pedals, stands and music (and camera bag) in to our zafira it’s time to sell it.  we did our last must at church last sunday.  lots of ‘lasts’ now.


my old coat

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here’s my old fake fur coat which i used to wear for everyday activities back in the days when i threw away all my sensible clothes to force myself to wear comedy clothing in an attempt to bring more joy to the world.

instead i probably looked like a cross between a tramp and huggy bear from starsky and hutch.  i think i smelt more like a tramp though.

sadly, even though it’s fake fur, i think the coat won’t pass New Zealand’s biological and fashion quality controls and may become an item in the ‘unlucky dip’ at our house cooling party.

jaffa cakes

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red kites

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you know what, i’m going to really miss the red kites when we leave

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sometimes there are literally over a dozen swooping by around our house

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and if i’m working from home they often swoop lower than our upstairs window meaning we can look down on them

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just the other day one sat on the roof across the road.  i just had time to grab my camera before it whizzed off again.  i hadn’t realised their faces were so blue.  i guess that’s why they call them red kites.

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strange things found and saved

moving house is a funny old business.  here are a few things we’ve found

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a lovely long candle which was up in the loft, melted, went wonky and fused to another lovely candle.

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my old celebrity folder i used at university.  i kept some of my backstage passes on it, like nigel kenedy, frank & walters and some other bands.  And my favourite stickers, like jason donavan from when he grew a rather fancy beard

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inside that folder in blue biro on a blue background was ‘Ed Steward waz here’.  And you know what, it might have been written by your actual Ed ‘stewpot’ Stewart, because i did meet him once.

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And finally, here’s a near tragedy as jane doesn’t like this tremendous barometer depicting Calais in bloom.  So she threw it in the dumpster bag and it went in the back of the car.  She didn’t figure for my cunning though and I carefully extracted it at the dump and saved it from the most horrible end.

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strangely this beautif commemorative barometer caused someone else some anger about 20 years ago when a house mate put it in the freezer to see how low he could get the thermometer to go.  I found it in the freezer all frosted up and the thermometer feature has been busted ever since.

upper loch torridon

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hassock of the week

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bee in a rose

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i knew someone who had a bee in her bonnet  we all laughed as everyone knows bees should travel in your boot (or ‘trunk’ to any american readers).

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do not dare open

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i didn’t

fanastic place sign

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straight forward sign telling you how far stuff is.  great arrow work and a nice bit of rust too.  good.

the funniest bird statue ever ?

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just look at this chap.  brilliant stuff

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rainbow’s end

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This was a real missed opportunity shot.  A few moments before the rainbow was on the other side of the boat and it looked like the boat was sailing in to it.  

unfortunately i was driving, so i stopped the car and grabbed my compact camera which isn’t as easy to control and burnt out the highlights of the white boat. I also note i cropped off the second rainbow just to the right of the frame. 

oh well.  say lavey.  go on.  say it.   thank you.

redacted mannequin

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how do you redact a mannequin ?  easy.  put a bag on it.

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no one loves an ugly mannequin

try our shirt service

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nearly posted this with a typo in the title which would have been rather less family friendly than your usual funkypancake fayre.

i love this sign.  not entirely sure what it means.  but it’s a great.

too wet for boats

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poolewe glass bottom boat

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we had an excellent trip on a glass bottom boat when we were in poolewe

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it’s basically a boat with a window in the bottom and a number of portholes to look down through as you go along.

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fish sighting envy

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the world of fish sighting is obviously quite competitive.

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broken mutoscopes

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