Monthly Archives: April 2006

Stumps

Originally uploaded by rutty.

I’m starting to get a bit addicted to taking photographs. I can’t help myself sometimes. If the sun comes out I seem to want to grab my camera and snap away at any old crap.

Sharing these images is easy with Flickr too. I’ve paid for the pro access so that I can have as many sets as I want and have a very generous monthly upload limit. It’s a great community site too, with loads of groups to join and (yet more) forums to post in.

I’ve joined one group that enjoys images that have been overly-saturated and I’ve decided to have a go at making some of these images myself. I’m only using ifranview at the moment, but the results are interesting even with that simple tool.

I’ll have a go with the GIMP soon too, then I might start making more complex modifications to my photos and see where we go.

And when the sun comes out I can step outside and take photos of every little thing again.

Clumber Park Chapel

Originally uploaded by rutty.

Good Friday also saw us visit Clumber Park. This is an excellently maintained park not far south of Doncaster owned by the National Trust.

The image on the right is of the fabulous chapel there. It’s described as a “Cathedral in miniature” and this is a good way of describing it. It’s quite ornate inside but about 1/10th the size of a proper cathedral. Lovely building.

The rest of the park is quite lovely too. There are loads of paths for woodland walks and a “pleasure area” for throwing frizbees and having picnics. There’s a bike-hire place for those wanting to get run-over by cars or impaled on exposed branches on woodland paths.

There was a conservation centre there too, but it was closed for the bank-holiday. It would have been nice to see in there.

Well worth a day out for the family, or if you just like walking. Free entry for members of the National Trust too.

Rufford Park

Originally uploaded by rutty.

I’ve been busy with the camera again, though it’s taken me a week to get these photos on-line.

Last Good Friday we decided to go and see some of the nicer bits of the local countryside. Thankfully, the weather was really nice (unlike the rest of the extended weekend) and I managed to annoy my girlfriend by stopping to take loads of photgraphs while tramping around Rufford Park in Nottinghamshire.

It’s a lovely park. Loads of open spaces, a nice abbey, somewhere to eat and miles of paths to wander around. There’s an old mill at one side of the lake too, not that I took any pictures of that.

Have a look in my Flickr gallery for more photos if you’re interested.

My local car mechanics eventually came back from their extended Easter Holiday and they’ve fixed my car. It was the Catalytic converter as expected. Apparently it had completely collapsed – no wonder my engine was all choked up.

It cost me £204 and I had a bit of a discussion with the garage owner over Visa transaction charges. He wasn’t there when I initially wanted to pay, so one of the mechanics phoned him up when I offered to pay by Visa. Eventually this guy suggested that they’d have to either charge me an extra 17% to use my card or perhaps I’d prefer to use my debit card or cash. I don’t bloody think so! I said I’d come back and pay later.

It’s too late in the month for me to have £200 laying around in my account, so naturally I have to use Visa for this. The owner was there when I got back so we discussed this transaction charge. He seemed to suggest that he was doing me a favour by offering to allow me to use my credit card rather than cash or debit card. Well, excuse me, but surely it’s an essential service in a garage to have the option of paying by visa? He said he didn’t know how much the transaction charge would be so when his mechanic phoned up he just “guessed”. Well, he went off to find out how much the charge actually was and it turned out to be £4.20. Well, that’s 2% not fucking 17%.

I paid and left. As good service I’ve had from these guys before I can’t honestly say that I’ll be going back again. At the moment cash is tight and I need to be able to pay by Visa without having an argument. There’s another garage closer to work that I’m sure would be pleased to service my car next month.

At the moment I’m car-less.

I was driving down the M1 on Bank Holiday Monday when I started to lose power from the engine. Luckily I was in the left-hand lane and pulled over, whereupon my car conked out and wouldn’t start again.

The AA were summoned and he initially thought that some pipe or other had fallen off as there was a nasty-sounding sucking noise coming from the engine when I turned it over. It seemed that the engine was choked due to excessive exhaust fumes.

After further investigations it turns out that there weren’t enough exhaust fumes exiting the exhaust, so there was a blockage somewhere, most likely in the catalytic converter. He towed me to my local garage (obviously shut on a bank holiday) and we walked home from there (only a minute or two).

Unfortunately it also turns out that my local mechanic is on holiday, as the bugger never opened his garage yesterday and it’s still shut today too. Arse. I can’t drive it to another garage because it’d never make it, so it looks like I’m stuffed for this week. It’s just as well I can walk to work.

I’ve been a bit of a domestic God this evening. I’ve spent it cleaning. Well, it is Spring (ish) after all.

I bought a second-hand Vax from my mate Roger’s mum this week and I’ve been cleaning the carpet in my bedroom. It was pretty disgusting to start with and I’m not entirely sure that I’ve made much difference, but considering the amount of crap that I’ve washed down the bath plughole afterwards I think I’ve succeeded in removing a few beach-worths of crap out of it.

I’ve done half of the room so far so that I can rearrange the room tomorrow to finish the rest of it. It’s a really old carpet, and to be honest it needs a new one in here but I can hardly do that while I’m renting.

I’ve also been visiting the local laundrette to wash my quilt and mattress topper. That place eats 20p pieces and now I’m too skint to go to the Chinese. It’s too far to walk to the cashpoint so I’m cooking too – pasta, pesto and some couscous. Washed down by a nice bottle of Leffe.

Tomorrow evening I’ll get to finish Vaxing my room and dust. This is a once-a-year event, so I’ll be celebrating with a curry tomorrow night, with several cans of some excellent brewed beverage.