Jan's away, Dorktown Plan and snappers on telly

3 July 2013

Well, Jan is off on her way.  She has taken our 10-34mm Tamron wide angle lens to try to get some decent landscape shots.  Hope it works for her; it should, it's a pretty decent lens from reports I've read of it.

At long last the Dorktown Plan is to be made public.  Now we will see what all the secret meetings and all the fuss and arguments have been about.  It's supposed to be a 'consultation' period, but I'm not convinced they will listen to us Dorktowners unless we are saying, "Oh, well done! That's a great plan for the future of both towns."  Nope, I think it is more than likely that they have already made up their minds and will plough on with it anyway.  Of course I will go and have a look and I will make my thoughts known.

Front page of the News this morning is not about the magic plan though; no, it's a story about a local artist who painted very large paintings of the face of one of the judges on The Voice TV show.  I've never seen it and I don't intend to start watching it either!  Anyway, the judge was so impressed with the paintings she has traced the artist through her 12.5 million Facebook friends.  Oh dear; I have a Facebook page too (https://www.facebook.com/ron.clark.50  if you want to have a look); but I don't spend all that much time it.  Ah well, each to their own I suppose.

Jan and I mostly like documentary shows on telly.  Jan is very much into things like 24 Hours in A&E; I do watch them but wouldn't be upset if I missed them.  I do like CI though, Crimes That Shocked Britain is usually good.  One subject that doesn't get covered all that often is photography.  Alan Yentob is currently hosting a series of six shows on photographers with the title Imagine; I sat and watched the first one this morning, the second was recorded last night - late last night!  Hurray for the Virgin box!  The one I watched today was about Vivien Maier, a lady in the States who worked as a nanny but took thousands of photos.  None had them been seen in public before her death four years ago.  She would never allow anyone to see her work, which was such a shame really because the ones shown on that show were superb!  I wish I was half as good as she was.  The show last night was on Don McCullin, perhaps best known for his work photography.  Looking forward to watching that this evening. 

Maier was a street photographer mainly, a genre I enjoy doing too.  Here's one from a few years ago ...  

This old chap was making his way up a steep slope beside the Bullring in Brum city centre.

And today's funny ...

A Kerry senior citizen, 76, drove his brand new BMW convertible out of the dealership.
Taking off down the road, he floored it to 80 mph, enjoying the wind blowing through what little hair he had left.
'Amazing,' he thought as he flew down the Killarney road, pushing the pedal even more.
Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw a Garda car behind him, blue lights flashing and siren blaring.
He floored it to 100 mph, then 110, then 120. Suddenly he thought, 'What am I doing? I'm too old for this,' and pulled over to await the Garda's arrival.
Pulling in behind him, the Garda walked up to the BMW, looked at his watch and said,
'Sir, my shift ends in 30 minutes. Today is Friday. If you can give me a reason for speeding that I've never heard before, I'll let you go.'
The old gentleman paused. Then said, 'Years ago, my wife ran off with a Garda. I thought you were bringing her back.'
'Have a good day, Sir' replied the Garda.