Fixing things.

Me and the bike that is my current little project.

Serious attempt No. 2 at freeing the stuck seat post.

I love this picture. So like him (and me) to pull silly/happy faces like this.

We've filled the seat tube with ammonia and it's standing to soak for I don't know how long. With any luck this will release enough of the rust to allow us to get the bloody thing out of the frame.

The bottom bracket was in a right state but it's been cleaned up and with some grease it should work again, though probably not particularly well with it being so cheap and rusted.

Sunny Days.

I'm going to make sure I take my camera out with me again tomorrow. Should have gone for a bike ride today but laziness set in. Still might go out for a bit this evening anyway.

The mountain bike I really want to fix up is being incredibly stubborn. The seat post appears to be aluminium and the frame is steel. Science lesson for today: steel and aluminium can rust and bond together. So far no amount of WD40, brute force or encouragement from a blow torch has separated them.

If I can't get the seat post out I may just have to cut it to size (it's way too tall for me right now) and deal with it, but getting that right will be a head ache. If I cut it too short I will be infuriated.

It's been a good week.

It started badly with missing a training day because I was ill but I was well enough to go to the next.

There were a number of very nice people and very nice cameras. Spending a day in Leeds was enough to bring my accent back, very amusing and it's it still sticking around.

I've been very good about not eyeing up newer DSLRs but that day did make it quite obvious that I could really use an upgrade. Of course, in an ideal world I'd be able to shoot lots of film and print everything myself. In reality it's a lot easier for me to shoot digital.

A 3 and a 1/2 hour train ride was made much less boring thanks to a whole season of Desperate Housewives...

The youngest sister had a birthday recently and to celebrate a group of us went to Thorpe Park. I seriously impressed myself by going on a number of the bigger roller coasters. I screamed. A lot.

Obviously no photos from actually ON the rides though that would be a lot of fun to try (can you imagine? I couldn't even open my eyes for most of them!).

I'm very tired.

And it's late. I have many photos to sort through and I imagine many more will be taken tomorrow. I don't know when I'm going to get a chance to sort out posting them but hopefully it will be soon.

I got to play with a 5D MkII and a 1D MkIV with some very nice lenses. Nothing particularly exciting to shoot subject wise but it was a lot of fun all the same.

I'm actually getting used to all the trains and taxis and hotels. Adds a bit of excitement and something out of the ordinary to my week.

365

I'm jumping on the 365 band wagon. I've seen a lot of people trying out these for some time and have often thought about trying it but never actually got around to starting. So, kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing, I just DID.

As I have mentioned at the top of the blog, they're not necessarily going to all be super, duper pieces of creative brilliance, far from it I imagine. I'm just going to see if I can actually do this for a whole year. Now seems like as good a time as any to start, perhaps even the best time.

Two days down. We'll see how consistent I can be with this.

Fun Theory

I like these people. They have very good ideas.

Still on the bike theme...

How cool are these?!

SO much more appealing than the sensible grey ones with rain covers and detachable shoulder straps. Oh dear.

Lower Shaw Farm

Always worth a visit.

Moorhen in HD

I just scanned my cat.

I have a pretty old scanner/printer thing that's soldiering on but really isn't so great any more. I don't think the printer part even works now. I've been meaning to do some playing about with scanning stuff because you can get some really interesting/fun results. I remembered my meaning to do this, Isobel was sat on the floor next to me and so this happened.*

I love how some of her pads are pink.


*No animals were harmed in the making of these images, only mildly irritated. In fact, I think she quite likes sitting on the scanner because it's warm.