Category: Blog

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Howgills, some Sedbergh reminiscing, and an overdue dose of snow

I had a great day out with some soon to be ex-colleagues (and a currently ex colleague) in the Howgills the other day, taking in a 9.5 mile walk in the beautiful Howgill Fells. It enabled me to (fairly) quietly reminisce about my two years living in Sedbergh as a teeneger, especially as we retraced the route of the Sedbergh Ten Mile race on our way back into the town (“Muddy Slide” – a steep gorge – the excitement came rushing back to me).

Look northwestThe snow finally came to the north west for me – our house has had the barest of coverings this winter, much to my disappointment, so to get out in the snow, albeit just a generous dusting, was great.

Piccies on Flickr. Here’s the walk as a google earth (.kmz) path if you’re interested.

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When the cat’s away…

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Katie went to stay for the night with her friend Lucy so I had a lovely 36 hours or so with Lily on my own (ish). We had a busy old weekend in many ways, including a trip into the Manchester Art Gallery and a stay with Matthew and Holly, but it was lovely fun from start to finish, and we’re allowed to eat stinky things like kippers when Katie’s not here.

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Vignette: a mini photoshop tutorial

Manchester MuseumI’ve seen quite a few photos on Flickr lately that took my fancy for one reason or another, and one of the things that crops up from time to time is the Vignette that comes with some photos. It reminds me of older times and when I used to do a bit in the dark rooms (of Blackburn College, Sheffield Hallam University and the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal). It’s something that can make a bland low-light photo into something with more focal punch, but without the cheesiness of soft focus.

I should point out that it works effectively on landscape shots too, but you could go overkill, and it tends to have happened (with older cameras and darkrooms) naturally in lower light conditions. Whaddya reckon? (Here’s a link to the Photoshop tutorial I used – it’s very straightforward, but the ‘feather’ setting it refers to will need to be increased for higher resolution original photos)

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Left Dave, Right Dave, and the normal twisted Dave

Lily took a photo of me on Sunday and it made me realise how uneven my face is! I made copies of my face in Photoshop – Left, Right, and the original are here….

“Normal” meTwo Left MesTwo Right Mes

Scarily enough (apart from the huge difference between my left side and right side), the ‘normal’ photo’s clearly the ugliest. Before anyone leaves any cheeky comments, have a go at it yourself (or better still, send me a photo and I’ll do the same for you!!)

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The world’s tightest jeans

Yowwwwch.My lovely work mate Kim sent me through this image (goodness knows where or how she got it) of someone in some well tailored trousers. It’s such a great image, not least, the cheesy laugh of the woman ‘posing’ for the photo.

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Sunday with the Rowlands’

A lovely trip to see Sally, Simon and Olly, on what appears to be the first weekend of spring.

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Video below of Simon and I being creative with the little ones’ vehicles.

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Shutdown day 2007

He heee… I love this concept (though I naturally would recommend appropriate recycling of computer hardware after it’s had its useful life).


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Peterborough. Something tells me ‘no’.

Over the last year or so, it’s been required of me to visit Peterborough. Of all places.

The most recent journey was yesterday. Journeys over the 113 (as the crow flies) miles between my home and Peterborough have been peppered with disaster or delay each and every time, including broken down trains (on hot summer days with no air conditioning and no breeze), gale force winds that cause overturned lorries and uprooted trees to block the roads (when I’ve simply given up on the idea of a train), and missed train connections.

Yesterday’s was another beauty.
OUT
Cycle to Rawtenstall,
bus to Burnley,
train to Leeds,
train to Peterborough.
Overall journey time, 3 hrs, 45 minutes.
RETURN: (Same in reverse, to Burnley, then)
Missed bus connection from train,
walked three miles in dark,
hitched the other four miles to Rawtenstall,
cycled home
Overall journey time: 4hrs, 15 minutes

That’s a total of eight hours’ travelling for a two hour meeting folks. If you live in the UK, your tax is paying for my time. I really should say “Thank you”, but I’m not sure that any of us should really be grateful for anything.

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Jeans Reunited?


Okay. Long story that I won’t go into here, but if you, or anyone you know, accidentally left a pair of Levis 501s around the altitude of 690 metres within a few hundred metres of Scafell, I saw them and kindly picked them up on 3rd March 2007. They’re size 29 (waist) 32 (leg). They’re in pretty good nick, but they have slight scuffing at the bottom of the heel, as though worn trendily long with boots.

Are these your jeans? Between you and me, I think these jeans being reunited with their rightful owners are fairly slim, but then I wouldn’t be able morally to sell them on eBay in a month or two, unless I knew I’d exhausted every attempt to get them back on the legs from whence they came.

What you need to do to get them back
Simply contact me, using the comment form below, with a specific grid reference or link on Pin in the Map showing where they were last undone and discarded. At that stage, myself and seven other people in the travelling party would like a thorough explanation of how they came to be there (which will be published).

John Shepherd already has his own theory (listen below) so is not really interested in the truth.