Marty

Another great chapter! Seems like Fredde, Jeff and Vee have taken a liking to Simon. They certainly seem willing to invite him into their lives outside college. I'm now wondering whether Niki will be able to fit all four of them in her car to bring them to the Vale Side Junction Group. Especially as it could be that Simon's mum might decide she wants to go and chaperone her baby...

I'm glad Simon is making friends. He seems to have a soft spot for Jeff. Judging by the conversation on the bus, it doesn't look as though Freddie's looking at Simon as potential boyfriend material. But, who knows? Stranger things happen at sea, as my mammy used to say. Maybe it's time to start a Team Jeff or Team Freddie competition...? But then again, perhaps Simon will meet someone at the youth group Niki's trying to get him to attend...

Thanks. My day went well, indeed (apart from having to make a 100+ mile return trip to drop some stuff off that somebody claimed they needed today. I do worry about my carbon footprint at times... ) The exercise stress test at the local cardiology unit went great. I think my lungs were in more danger of giving out than my heart, to be honest. A consultant doctor checked the readouts and sort of suggested that he couldn't understand why I had been referred. He said everything was perfect, and he would be writing to my family doctor (who had referred me) to give him that information. So that's good news, anyway.

Morning, all! Nice sunny day here in the west of Ireland, although there's rain promised for later in the day. Currently 6°C (43°F), with a high expected of 10°C (50°F). Would be a great day for some strimming in the garden, but first I have to have a shower and travel twenty-odd miles for an appointment for an Exercise Stress Test in the Cardiac Investigation Department at my nearest large hospital . Just hoping the rain hasn't arrived by the time I get back...

Nah. He probably shook his head too hard and some of his stuffing came loose...

Oh, I'll still be about...

Hey, Gary. It looks like whilst you were appreciating the beauty of the natural world, I was busy getting myself dirty trying to clean some of the rooms in the old house I was talking about buying a few months or so back. The sale went through last Friday but, as it has been a long public holiday this past weekend, I was only able to pick up the keys today. So much work to do... I hardly know where to start. I'll definitely need to get some sort of a handyman/builder to sort out the damp that's coming though from above. Not sure if it's the flashing around the chimneys, or the blocked eave-runs (gutters), or possibly both, or something else entirely. I'll also have to get the suspended floor in the large living room either replaced or repaired as well, and see about getting some oil for the central heating - although I do intend to replace the oiil fired boiler with a heat exchange unit just as soon as I can afford it. And the garden! I must start up the strimmer and begin clearing the away the weeds, briars and brambles that have taken it over since it went on the market around eighteen months ago... Busy, busy, busy....

Some of the reasoning behind the addition can be found at the following GA link: gayauthors.org/forums/topic/45776-read-it

I'm not too sure myself. In the forums can seem almost as though a comment that someone has made is simply being dismissed. The first time I spotted someone using it for one of my comments in here I did initially feel that way. But then I realised that I had included a link to a newspaper article, so assumed the reaction was meant to indicate that the person was letting me know that they had read the article in the link.

In other news, approximately 940 million (almost a billion) people in the world have no electricity...

So sorry to hear your trip was spoiled, @Albert1434. Did you have any travel insurance?

I don't think I'd even want to....

Hi Page.

And for me... 250 words of chapter 12 (And most, if not all, of those may get chopped before the chapter sees the light of day.)

That can be a problem with landscape photography, as you normally need the background and foreground both in focus, which can lead to the image looking two-dimensional. That's where leading lines can help to give a feeling of depth. In this case the leading lines were meant to be the rocks, fence posts, and broken barbed wire, leading the viewer's eyes into the picture.

Thanks, Gary. I was trying to use two different rules of composition when I took that shot. Leading lines, and the rule of thirds. Not sure how well I managed to get either of them right.

The saying is.... Beggars can't be choosers. Why are you asking, clo?

Well I get out occasionally... Like last Monday evening, when I took Trusty Nikon out on a date... That's Lough Colgagh, in Co Sligo.

(I think that this reply means we now have 30,000 replies in CoTT 2.....)

I think it might be you that needs the glasses...

I see it's pick on bespectacled Marty night tonight...

I have been known to have several pairs in my pocket when I am out for the night, and do something like change from, say, pink framed ones to blue framed ones whilst using the restroom part way through the evening...

I'm lucky in a way... I have needed reading glasses for the past 25 years or so. Every time I needed a new pair my optician would charge me €100 or more (actually Irish Pounds when I first started needing them) for a pair that didn't make me look like Clark Kent. I mentioned to her one day that I could buy reading glasses for £1 a pair in the discount stores in the UK. She told me that normally she would tell her clients not to buy them, as usually a person has one eye significantly stronger (or weaker) than the other, and the ones in the discount shops always had both lenses the same strength. But she suggested I go ahead and buy them, as both my eyes are so similar in strength that it would not matter. She just told me to make I got the correct strength ones. I buy 4 or 5 of the £1 pairs each time I visit relatives in England, so don't have to worry about breaking them any more. So now I only need to visit the optician to have my eyes tested. I even keep a few pairs in the car, just in case. And nowadays they're available in different shapes and colours, so I can even choose a pair for special occasions, if need be.

G'day, Albert