Cafe des Amis

So.............

The Greek state, which until the latest bailout wasn't able to pay civil servants because it couldn't borrow any more brass, wants its citizens to vote for tighter fiscal control. Not a bad plan given that they will likely go on strike otherwise and they also seem to have the Euro zone over a barrel - if Greece falls over it could drag down Italy and Spain. At the same time some of our MPs think that this is a good time to ask that we are given preferential treatment by the EU even though we're not chipping in to help maintain the single currency. Funny old world innit? 

And summer's lease hath all too short a date

See the full gallery on Posterous

Pies

Autumn sunshine

See the full gallery on Posterous

Beautiful autumn sunshine on the fields today - and stunning blue skies. Glorious sights.

A bit of Neil Young

Rolling stock

When Chuck Norris was born the angels sang this song

The title is a comment on the YouTube page for this vid. Hard to argue with it really.

Useful, really useful.

In a town which is on its uppers the council are stepping in because a shopkeeper has tried to buck the trend. How on earth does this make sense?

[Image from BBC web site]

Sun and rain

Sevens

Caterham Sevens meeting up at Headcorn airfield - there were seven or eight lined up together.

Wine

Cal

No room

Lots of generous people buy me beer - long may that continue! I've just loaded the fridge and this is the overspill

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:

---

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.

Margate

This is Caz's graduation cake!

This is Caz's graduation cake!, originally uploaded by nogbad the bad.

Caz graduated today and her mum made cakes - how cool is that?

There must be a controlling mind behind all these disasters

Wrong number

So I received a phone call about an hour ago.

"Can I speak to Lizzie please?"
"Sorry - you have the wrong number"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes I'm sure"
"She has three children - are you sure she's not there?"
"Yes I'm sure - sorry"
Call ends

45 minutes later

"Sorry to call you again but my mum rang this number last year and spoke to Lizzie. Have you just moved in"
"No"
"Are you in Boughton Monchelsea?"
"No"
"Well something is wrong because my mum spoke to her on this number last year"
"Not sure how because I've lived here for a few years"
"She left her husband because he was too good for her - was that you?"
"I think we'll leave it there - please don't call again" 


It's not a sales pitch, it's too unscripted. These two women (and there are assorted children providing further background sounds) are really looking for someone who they believe can be contacted on this telephone number but at the point where they revealed why the woman's marriage had failed I had to bail out. Surreal.

Tyland Barn

This is for Phil

I wonder who thought that this combination of colours used in this way might be attractive; particularly when used on attractive buildings such as this one. Whoever it was deserves a stern talking to.

Click on the image to see it more bigger

Sparrow again

Sparrow - At Glasto!

Jungleland

 Clarence Clemons in his pomp

Cal

IMG_2547, originally uploaded by nogbad the bad.

Pulling the chain

IMG_2536, originally uploaded by nogbad the bad.

This guy is pulling the chain which opens the tap which pours water from the water tower into the steam engine's water tank. This was taken at Northiam.

Three engines together

IMG_2590, originally uploaded by nogbad the bad.

Tripleheader

IMG_2529_1, originally uploaded by nogbad the bad.

Blipping

Some of you might have picked up on the Blipfoto stream on the right hand side of this blog. If you've followed the links you'll know that Blipfoto is a photosharing service where users post a photo taken on that day. This weekend I'll hit the 365th entry; a year of daily shots. The discipline of having to take a photo each day and posting it has changed how I look at things and, sadly, some of the best images are only available while I'm driving. I saw a kite flying overhead yesterday while tootling up the motorway, the mist rising in fields next to the M26 some winter mornings is stunning, today I saw a newborn lamb as I was negotiating a roundabout and while I wasn't in the car I couldn't snap the green woodpecker next to the walls of a Cat B prison as the prison service tend to get tense about stuff like that. I've also learnt a good deal about how to use the camera - I've learnt a bit about how light works and something about framing and focus and aperture and focal length (even if I generally forget all this stuff when I'm looking through the viewfinder).

So here's a shot of the most fragrant jasmine and it serves as a reminder that the camera can freeze a moment in time but it can't capture all the other things that make something special. I hope you've enjoyed some of the photos I've posted on here and that you've had a look at Blipfoto.

Bespoke chandelier cleaning

Bespoke chandelier cleaning, originally uploaded by nogbad the bad.

Captured in Eastchurch while enjoying a spot of lunch

Lovely beer!

Beautiful

Beautiful, originally uploaded by nogbad the bad.

Over here

Over here, originally uploaded by nogbad the bad.

This shot is from a handful I took at the 1940s event at the Kent & East Sussex Railway in Tenterden on 15/05/2011

A silver feather

Beware of bees

Beware of bees, originally uploaded by nogbad the bad.

Another maxim we'd all do well to heed!

Cal on the footplate!

Cal on the footplate!, originally uploaded by nogbad the bad.

How cool is this? Cal pulled some strings and got himself invited onto the footplate of "City of Truro" before she went back to the engine sheds for the night. He's the one in the straw hat.

Citronella

Citronella, originally uploaded by nogbad the bad.

Time

IMG_1308, originally uploaded by nogbad the bad.