Friday, February 23, 2007

Good Day - 2 More Agents - Statues

First things first. I came second last night at the camera club. So at least I'm moving up. My 'Spiral Staircase' was much admired. The title caused the odd wry chuckle because camera clubs are rather into witty epigramatic titles for images.

"Winding wearily westwards" could have been more acceptable whereas "Screw you" which I contemplated, would have been a joke too far.

You must excuse me leaping about but I'd better explain the pictures. I had a lovely e-mail from Sky saying she had a tricky project at School and needed some 'statue-pictures'. I trawled through the Radiogandy archives and found a few. These Cowboys - aren't they great ? are in the inner courtyard of a motorway service station, somewhere in the West Midlands. But I can't remember the name of it.

Picture 2 is the bust of Charles Dickens at The New Mechanics. I'm sure her Dad will explain that head & shoulder statues are called busts.

I also sent her the Eric Morecombe statue in Morecombe, our own Theatre Square Bronze Lady, a couple from Yorkshire Sculpture Park and a few others. Hope they are what she wants.

We have had another busy day. Another Estate Agent visited us this morning, a local firm called David Hammond and then another one this afternoon.

All three are agreed on the price which gives us confidence that it is the right one. There is no way, being rivals that they have 'had their heads together'. All the people were very nice but we liked the lady from David Hammond best. Although they only have the one office in Eastwood, they are on the nationally run RightMove website. And lets face it, if you are searching for a house in the Eastwood area you go to Eastwood to look, not Coventry. We think that being on the main road leading to the motorway three miles away, is a good thing too, for 'passing trade'. All we can do now is wait and hope we are luckier this time and it isn't all too stressful.

Had a nice chat to Jason at the camera club about right-clicking RAW files and not getting Exif data. He booted up his laptop and had exactly the same result as me. Reassuring, because I was still was tussling with this fairly mild photo problem and had sought advice on the Amateur Photography forum. Wow - there are some bad-tempered, rude people on it. Not all I hasten to add. But I think I have been spoilt on WebUser forums where everybody is so nice, patient, and helpful. The chap who finished up helping me however, was pleasant helpfulness itself.

Y wanted to visit the nail place in Eastwood because she has damaged a nail but the girl in there was so offhand and discourteous that Y left promptly and is going to book an appointment back at the chinese salon. While she was in the place I went into the Hospice book-shop next door, for a browse and came away with a Gerard Manley Hopkin's collection of prose and letters, and a Pam Ayres anthology dated 1976 (must have been about her first). Critics say she isn't really a poet, just a versifier. But anyone who can write "I am a starlin' me darlin' " is a real poet in my book. She sums starlings up, in six words. Total cost for the two books, £1.20p !

....Hope everybody has a good night.....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear you had some camera club success (just think; you might have come first with the blue moon and the magenta stairs). I trust there were more than 3 in the competition?

I don’t think granddaughter Sky could have a better granddad for photos of sculpture. A fine varied selection if I may say so (I hope it included the reclining figure with grass). I’ll bet she gets star results for her project.

Fingers crossed for you that the house sale goes well this time – and that you find something you really like.

Good on Yvonne for not putting up with inferior service (even though I cannot encounter even the suggestion of the words ‘Nail Bar’ without sniggering inside).

I know you’re a Pam Ayres fan, and I like some of her stuff a lot, but I have one of her collections and most of it is really, really bad. Surely she must know that?
I am pretty sure you know that it is really ‘Gerard’ not ‘Gerald’ Manley Hopkins.

Anonymous said...

I think that I may be able to write a few Ayrations, e.g. "I'm a bit out of luck, me duck" or "It ain't really prose, it just seems to goes"! do I qualify as a poet or a versifier? Thank you so much for sky's statue pictures, she really was most impressed. We will of course print them off for school.