Misty pink

Haribo !

Nice cup of tea

And relax - it's the only way

A nice way to spend a day...

With the adults my children have become.

For Schorschi

This is for George's birthday - I know it's late but I've been away. Rob and Lynne shared it on FB but I think it deserves a wider audience.

Shunting

Got to Rolvenden in time to see the shunter moving a flat truck out of the station and across the road. The truck was dropped off there and this shot shows the shunter coming back.

Sending this from my phone as a test.

Love Saturdays

I love Saturdays like this one. Woke at 7 and grabbed a cup of tea. Listened to the radio until it was time for the Australia Vs Ireland game which was tremendous. Then I got up. Tad of pootling and a hearty brunch before heading to Waitrose for some fresh provisions and then collected Cal from Rolvenden and dropping him at his home. Now post-Who with a pizza in the oven and a cold beer to hand.

Another shot of the sparrowhawk

This time looking over her shoulder

Laughter with a bang

Phil suggested that I look up Blaster Bates. I've got a couple of his albums somewhere but I realised that a lot of people won't be familiar with him. Here's the Wikipedia entry about Derek Bates, his style of storytelling is terribly funny and he has a smashing way with language. I've not listened to his stuff in more than two decades but bits stick with me. In one he describes how unstable explosives can set of what is called "sympathetic detonation" which, he suggests, isn't that sympathetic to the poor bugger driving the van. He uses industrial language, but not as rude as some, and he's well worth a listen.

I've been checking my Sense

This is the Sense kit. It's like a grown-up version of Legotechnic which plugs into the PC and interacts with a sweet bit of kit used to create programs for it. The software is based on Scratch from MIT, it's a "drag & drop" way of programming but no less powerful for all that. Anyway my Sense checked out so it's all good so far.

Screenr

Did a brief Screenr vid yesterday to remind myself how it works - might have a use for it soon.

This is a swift bit of Photoshop editing on an image from a set I took yesterday in Maidstone.

Castle Fields

Castle Fields, originally uploaded by nogbad the bad.

For those who might have missed it - I've just had a holiday on the canals with Jemma, Cal and Scott. The lens flare in this shot is genuine - I grabbed some photos very early in the morning and the sun was just peeping over the buildings in the background.

 Other photos on Flickr.

New twist!

I've just received this mail:

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Dear Friend,

GREETINGS FROM THE UK HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT (Respond to this email when you
are done reading - hmar*******@yahoo.com.hk )

This might startle you a little as you might have seen or read about me but
really don't know me in person. Well, I am Rt. Hon Margaret Hodge MP.
A British politician and Lab our Party Member of Parliament for Banking.
I was the first Minister for Children appointed in a newly created post with
the Department for Education and Skills and presently Minister of State in
the Department for culture, Media and Sport under Her Majesty, Queen
Elizabeth of the United Kingdom.

I got your contact info via your country's national directory and
intend introducing a project concerning charity in your country
and maybe neighboring countries around you.

A few months ago, I was compelled to make an over estimation during a budget
and set aside the sum of Six Million Three Hundred Thousand Great Britain
Pounds (6, 300,000.00GBP) with the sole intention of channeling it all into
charity which I am delegating you to executed on my behalf with complete
supervision of my Attorney as
he will also be the one in charge of securing these funds into your custody.

This transaction will result to you being paid a commission of 11% of the
investment capital and the balance, distributed to charity organizations of
your choice or reinvested and the net income, used for rehabilitating
charity organization in and around your country through you your agency
annually for the period of five years or a little more.
The last time I orchestrated this sort of Grant, the individual in Australia
succeeded in successfully setting up three standard orphanage homes in less
than a year. I have never been so proud of such a noble individual.

I hope we would have a re-occurrence in your case. If you are willing to
execute this Humanitarian Project, You must understand that I desire
absolute confidentiality and professionalism on
this issue. For security reasons as regards my reputation, I will not be
able to communicate regularly with you; but my Attorney will take up the
processing on my behalf and get these funds processed and released to you
without any delay.

I don't plan on benefiting anything from this project, but will
be absolutely fulfilled, if and only if you remain sincere to me on the
handling of this project with utmost sincerity and confidentiality; and
eventually utilize the funds for the purpose which I have  explained to you
above. Kindly respond urgently if you are interested as the fund have been
tied down for too long, so I can equip you with the necessary details,
alongside my Attorney's contact information, so as to commence the
transaction properly; on the other hand, if you are not, please let your
intentions be known or better still, Kindly relent from replying this email.

You could get personal info. on me via my official website, but do not try
contacting me via any personal information you may lay your hands upon on
the internet as almost all my contact info are connected to the British
House of Parliament data  base
except the ones I personally sent to you; as I don't want our effort
and my reputation, jeopardized.


Kindly send your response to this E-mail:

hmar********@yahoo.com.hk

Sincerely,

THE RT. HON MARGARET HODGE
DEPARTMENT FOR WORK AND PENSIONS,
RICHMOND HOUSE, 79 WHITEHALL,
HOUSE OF COMMONS, SW1A 0AA
2NSUNITED KINGDOM

---

Now I know that we all get loads of these but this is the first I've ever had which purports to be from the UK. I'm also surprised that Margaret is using a Yahoo address based on a Hong Kong server.