Given I sold quite a few shots, and won a few competitions with my old Canon G5, I would go with the G10 with no hesitation ;-) An SLR will give better image quality, but can be a pain in the arse to cart about.

Quite fancy a G10 myself… or a new Sigma SD2… or a Ricoh GR Digital…. Something I can throw in a pocket for those moments you just weren’t expecting to catch you unprepared!

bad luck, but surely things can’t get any worse

I said that last year around this time… I couldn’t have been more wrong :-(

Life sometimes throws you one of these curve balls – sometimes it’s best just to shrug your shoulders and try to get on with other things for a bit.

You sir… are a jammy barsteward!

Deeply envious, could use a break like that in life myself – enjoy it (as if you need any encouragement!)

Hrumph.

;-)

Dribble

Though I would try for a Superduke R myself ;-)

Another don’t get an electric shower vote here. Had them in every house thus far and they are always, without a shadow of doubt, pants. The house we are renting now has a hot water tank and truely epic showers – knocks the stuffing out of the highest rated I could find a few years back electric job I installed in my first house!

The place we are moving too, hopefully soon, is all combi boiler fed, so I am hoping for something decent… failing that I have seen where a hot water tank can be installed, and I can add solar heaters, back boiler stoves and god knows what else to make all the hot water in the world ;-)

Oh aye… are you putting a toilet and the like in too…. if so DON’T FIT A SANIFLOW.

Sorry… just had to get that out my system ;-)

Truth is – prices are not going to be where they are even today for the next 2 years… probably. Houses are selling IF they are priced to suit the market.

We sold in November for a mahoosive loss as we needed to move. A house has finally come up (well, couple of weeks ago) that we have had an offer accepted on. It had a LOT of interest as it was priced well (there was another offer already on the table when we saw it, but even bidding higher than the first offer still represented a good buy even in todays market). Other places we have offered what we consider fair market value and the owners have refused it. So they are going to be sitting waiting for another buyer for a very, very long time ;-)

Oh aye – if you get an offer take it and move to rented. No point building chains in the current market!

Hmmm – must get my guitars fettled up sometime…. Having bad thoughts about chopping in my Marshall stack (bit overkill as a practice amp) and Boogie .50cal to fund something like a Laney Lionheart 5w combo or something.

Anyone know any decent guitar technicians in Cumbria/North Lancs? Need to get 3 electric guitars working again. They have all died since they were last gigged in anger 8 years ago or so, think it’s a full rewire job at the least (hoping my Seamour Duncans are all still okay, otherwise it could get very expensive).

I love Triumphs I do…

Don’t know what you mean – more than 600cc… mine’s got 955 and is marvelous!

Get your point on fairing though, but then it just acts as a speed limiter I find. Can’t sit at anything much above 80mph for too long ;-) I managed to hit 98 once, but the wind blast just about took my head off!

Big naked bikes is where it’s at!

Found the Daytona a wee bit too small for me – very narrow bars and all… oddly I did find the Street Triple much, much more comfortable. The Sprint and Tiger keep tempting me too, but I think the next one… probably going to be a Triumph Scrambler, cos they rock!!!!

If you have the serial number in the exif that is a good start – I stick a copyright notice and “taken by” notice in there too.

Stopping people downloading? Not sure – I usually use Adobe Flash galleries and can then set the picture to not be downloadable, not that I bother as I only upload low res versions (max 1000px on the long side).

I hate plastering pictures with watermarks – kind of defeats the point of putting them up in the first place. I may look into the invisible ones sometime though since I have had a fair few images harvested in the past :-( Usually just the threat of taking action does the trick though.

Original file is the only answer I think – which is why I have a HUGE hard disk and gazillions of DVDs of RAW files kicking about the place ;-)

Got to be something cask strength… probably from Islay… Aardbeg is springing to mind here.

If it was a chuffing enormous case – say, something a bit more like a container from a container ship… then I would opt instead for some decent German lager. Don’t drink the stuff normally, more a real ale type see, but in the tropics lager is king.

GrahamS – the mossies shouldn’t be about on a desert island, they like humid climates ;-) Besides, I have malaria already so another bout isn’t going to do me any harm!

Currently buying a house – offer accepted this time last week, so in the early stages of sorting everything through still.

Only me working at the moment, so that is restricting things somewhat, but since the new year I have managed a Triumph Speed Triple and a Canon EOS 5D mk II… plus a trip to Ireland.

So not too bad then!

Probably won’t go on holiday as such this year, what with moving and all that… but since we now live on the edge of the Lake District… I can live with that! Especially since the Met Office are forecasting a pretty decent summer!

See… I always vote with who I would like to win, not who I think will actually win. I don’t see it as some kind of competition where you have to have voted for the winning party.

If people actually read/listened to manifestos and voted towards the one they liked, rather than either who they thought would win/who their parents voted for/what the paper told them to do then politics may actually change.

Alas that is deeply unlikely.

Either Libs or Greens for me I suspect.

If I remember right… it’s the battle cry that means something like “here come the Gurkhas”.

And I wouldn’t do that Lumly bird… way too old these days ;-)

I spent the first part of this year self medicating, but that was mostly with beer and whisky. Not convinced it was the best thing to do mind….

It’s okay – not a mate doing it, but a guy who basically makes his living from installing the things! He is CORGI (well, whatever has just replaced it) registered to deal with the gas pipe that is there, HETA for the solid fuel side of things… and is a competent builder to sort out all that side of things too ;-) Don’t think he is cheap mind!

Just been looking at the Aarrow Eco thingymajig – 5kW output, looks about ideal.

Aaaah – had forgotten about sofasofa, been directed to them in the past!

£1800 for the fitting… but more than I was expecting to hear that, but we shall see – don’t know if I need a liner or not yet, and I am guessing that is a large part of the work.

The chimney runs up through the middle of the house, so no shared chimney issues there then:

Pics

The wee stove in the dining room is on that brochure – no idea what it is! The living room is directly above, and with the connected study gives me about a 7.25 x 3.1m space to heat. There is central heating, but I like burning wood instead where possible ;-) (It’s going in the room where the fireplace can be seen on the far right of the second row of pictures, that fireplace is – probably – original to the house, so will get shifted up to the bedroom and retained as a “feature” or something!)

The fitting side of things will be all done by a bloke that knows what he is doing, so will take advise from him at that stage ;-) Just getting my head around costs at the moment since we need to get some sofas too… and so it is a budgeting nightmare!

Useful thoughts these though, cheers :-)

The guy I am going to get into fit it will be checking the chimney first – can get it lined if needs be!

It probably will be a wood only fire, although coal can be convinient…

Basically I am looking to get enough output to heat the walls of the house – old houses work well if you use em right, that thermal mass is my friend ;-) Think the Badger was the size up from the Squirrel… but I could be wrong (seem to recall someone making one called a Puffin too, quite where these names come from I don’t know!)

The Sigma 75-300 is supposed to be pretty good, go with that – or if you can afford it the new 150-500 OS (about £800 I think) ;-)

Oh aye, and a 300mm lens is a 300mm lens – the crop factor is just that – it don’t change the physics. So if you can hand hold a 300mm lens on a full frame camera you can on a crop too… I used to use my 400 hand held without any issues (until I dropped it!).

You are benefitting from loosing the soft edges so should be working only on the sharpest bit of glass, so these cheaper lenses should perform better than on a full frame camera.

Shooting wildlife means a 300mm minimum, I would be tempted to go for something longer if I could though.

Yes, I do have a propelling pencil somewhere… and proper technical drawing pens too ;-)

Most architects seem to have bollox all idea about environmental design and at best add a veneer of greenwash to projects. Makes me sooo Maaaaaad so it does!

Living in the Lakes I have grown to hate the bloody things… mainly cos they are always infront of me doing 20mph and NOT PULLING INTO LAYBYS.

Other than that – they do look pretty good ;-)

If you do get one though, make sure it has an engine eh :-)

*I have just had an offer accepted on an utterly fantastic house in the South Lakes that we couldn’t have afforded under normal market conditions!

*Life looks to be finally getting back on track again after several months.

*I have started riding my bike again ;-) Early days yet, but hopefully it is a new start like!

*Just been for an ace Italian meal, and a few ales! We may have wandered past the new house just to make sure it was still there too!

He he he – it is a bit special!

And for the same money (near as damn it) as the house on The Gill were asking for to close the deal. And this is several leagues better!!!

If it had a garage it would have been perfect, but hey… I can get one of them later perhaps!

Not even… I think 30 seconds would see us into the Old Friends ;-)

Rose & Crown… 2 or 3 minutes sounds about right!

Soutergate ;-)

If you have been that way of late you can probably guess which one… I shall give you a clue though – ’tis VERY blue!

Been renting a Barratt Box for the last 5 months, and that is a bit soul destroying.

Just got to run around a bit next week, get all the important stuff like mortgage finalised… and that should be it done!

Good tip on the bath, cheers ;-) May need solar water!

Hora – just got a new Vitara last year, cannae change that for a couple more! It’s very, very slow but actually drives quite nicely and is handy for lugging stuff over fields ;-)

But then I do have the Triumph for when I want to go a bit faster ;-)

I replaced a Forester with a 9-3 hatch.

The Forester was diasrmingly fast… but it was Prodrive one ;-) Brilliant car, bit pants inside though. Parts cost a bloody fortune and it needed quite a few of them. MPG wasn’t too shocking when driven “sensibly” but a tad frightening when “pressing on” (driving through France we were filling up every 2 hours…). Probably the best handling car I have ever had mind!

The 9-3 was also pretty mental fast (2.0 High Output Turbo… or HOT). It had a strong tendancy to torque steer when being driven a bit quickly, but you soon got used to it. The boot was properly large – used to get a Yeti 575 in there, all the camping clobber for 2 of us and a shed load of beer, and the parcel shelf would still be in place! It was by far the most comfortable car I have had – just demolished miles and you arrived in a much better state than from anything else (no aches and pains, not even that tired – did a mental drive from Amsterdam to Britany in an indecently short time and arrived ready to go out for a drink).

Of the two – I would have another Saab, but remain in two minds about the Forester. Given that you are looking at these two I am guessing budget isn’t stretching to new motors, the Subarus of that age have been pretty abused by and large – farm vehicles and the like (usually, not always). Saabs tend to get an easier life ;-) The new diesel Forester is tempting me though… as is the diesel Outback.

I am an engineer… but I do have an MSc in Environmental Architecture as well ;-) Doesn’t really count though!

(Technically it is MSc Architecture: Advanced Environmental and Energy Studies)

(With Merit)

I thought she had some unfortunate mental disorder to be honest – seemed to keep twitching randomly? Odd girl anyway… bit of a waste of effort trying to interview her either, she just seemed to be trying waaaay too hard to be “cool” and “quirky” and just came across as a bit of a numpty IMO.

Bit too horse faced for me too ;-)

I am wondering if it isn’t just that a) my arse is in the air, unlike the motorbike and b) the handlebars are narrower…

And the tyres are a lot skinnier than 190 section rubber of course…

You may be right – I just seem to have lost what little mojo I ever used to have. It usually came back within a short time, just this time… nope.

Superb :-)

Actually… there is both a bike and guitars in that picture…. it bloody is Chipps!

Saturday – sounds grand ;-) What time (guessing the Rose & Crown)?

Don’t have a favourite lens… the 17-40L, 24-105L and 70-200L all remain in the bag all the time. Not quite staggered into Primes again on the Canon, but am toying with some of those Zeiss ones :-)

Oh aye – and it is WAAAAY more expensive than mountain biking ;-)

Teeny keyboard – I missed!

Passive technology and the Solar House concepts do work well, though it aint the answer to everything. I am a firm believer that building design is a pile of cock in the UK though (actually… the Western World). We should be able to build structures that need little or no heating or cooling systems just through construction methods and design. One day I shall build something that both looks nice and works (cos ecohippies building Earthships are so missing the point).

Nuke – not good… at all… so very not carbon neutral, and also with the benefit of what is technically known as shitloads of CFCs released in the processing of ore. Magnificent.

Clean coal would be a better stop gap technology IMO. Solar has a lot of potential (perhaps not so much in solar electric in the UK, but some parts of the globe are ideal for this)

Off shore wind, tidal, wave, small hydro… there are loads of ways to get the electric. We also need to be conserving electricity massivly – we (in the developed world) should be cutting our usage massivly and allowing those in the developing world should be allowed more.

Oh aye – and I live in that marveolous nuclear sandwich location that is South Cumbria – with Sellafield to the North (and another further up than that proposed), one over outside Millom to the West and Hysham just to the south. I entirely agree – if you are going to build em, stick em near where the power demand is. Also – best place in the UK to burry waste is the most stable geological region surely. So under London then ;-)

Peak Imaging were always my first choice – they are on t’interweb somewhere ;-) Very good service off em.