At my adopted "local" (who filled our table with food at 1 a.m. on the night of our arrival), for three nights I was addressing the lady bartender in Greek when ordering beers etc but wasn't getting the usual effusive response in return, which made me wonder if she spoke Greek at all.

I learnt from my new waiter buddy 'Leo' (who I thought was Greek but actually hails from Pakistan ) that the bar tender is Brazilian.

So the next time she brought a drink to the table I of course said, "Obrigado" and her face lit up.

Though given that's the extent of my Portuguese, I just speak to her in English otherwise, which conveniently enough is her second language. 

Bonkers Dutch cycling fans with a megaphone.
Plus an American lady who let us watch the cycling we couldn't see between passes on her phone.

The must-do box-tick of a trip to the iconic picture postcard town of Oia ("EE-ya")  - the place with all the blue-domed buildings you usually see as the cover pic on Greece tourist paraphernalia.

The town itself isn't actually the main reason to go - its narrow paths are chock full of aloof Tik-Tok tourists with selfie sticks and self-entitlement complexes.  No, the main reason is the quite staggering scenery, particularly the views out to the caldera, a still technically active volcano that rose out of the sea in 1600 BCE and last erupted in the 1950s.

We took some nice snaps of the sunset too. So all in all, a very memorable day out.



 

Last day in Majorca.. fly back tomorrow.. should be sad.. had a great time but it'll be nice to get home even if the weather still sucks...

Not long ago I started seeing a mobile phone retailer advert (Googe Pixel I think) proudly trumpeting a facility to airbrush out inconveniently-placed people from your photos.  At the time that struck me as a bit sad; I thought I'd never see a requirement to use it, thinking I'd rather take a decently composed shot in the first place and that having to delete elements of a moment captured in time seemed to drain it of its essence and authenticity.

Turns out there is a time and a place for it: last Monday we were taking shots of each other at Oia at a location offering lovely, panoramic views of the sunset.  Randomly, there was a small cannon in the vicinity which piqued the curiosity of the little 'un; in the magic hour light I took a snap of this scene, while accepting that it wasn't "perfect" due to the other tourists in the shot interrupting the skyline.  However, using the facility to make them magically disappear dramatically improved the impact of the shot technically and emotionally, to the extent that it's become one of our favourite pictures of her we've ever taken.

The ad was probably for Photoshop, though most image editors will do that now. I used the GIMP to do something similar for a friend who'd taken a lovely pic of her daughter at the beach with a random bloke in the background.

There are even online services now that will allow you to remove people's clothing from an image, rendering them naked. Just from a technological perspective, as one who studied AI when it was in its infancy in the late '80s, I find that fascinating.

I've retrieved this object from my brother. It was affixed to the front of our house in Hartlepool by the folks who owned it before my parents bought it in 1961.



Although the house was notionally called 'Rosalba', I never heard anyone in our family refer to it by that name. It was always just "the house", or "Number 6", or "Linden Grove".

Despite that, this nameplate remained on the front of the house until 2021 when it was put up for sale. Unfortunately the only photo I've been able to find where there's a clear view of it is this one from 1972-ish, depicting my little brother's first day in the Cub Scouts.




The plate itself is made of brass. I don't know how the letters were applied - some sort of ceramic paint? They were exposed to the cruel North-Eastern weather for over 60 years but they're still immaculate.

White rose. Nice name for a home. Bit of action in my front garden today. Watched a Sparrow Hawk despatching an unfortunate pigeon. A bit of a cruel, slow process, but it's nature and we all have to eat. It feasted for at least thirty minutes. I later discovered the carcass about 150 feet away in my back garden. The hawk flew off as I'd let the dogs out first. It must have managed to fly with it when it had lightened the load and gained some energy from its meal.

Been selling off stuff on Markt3. Basically the Dutch version of eBay with less rules. EBay couldn't dominate the market like they wanted to here so they just bought the competition...
Anyway, photo camera, cassette Walkman, phono pre amp, all gone. Agreement on snare drum and pending some other stuff I should take in some 2K Eur.
Then of course I had to immediately buy a vintage amp I don't need but want. So now I have 4 amps.. Need to sell 2 of them. It never ends but I do it to myself 

Coming back from Glasgow last week, we suffered a train delay of 60 minutes, so I submitted a claim for compensation to Avanti. Now we had travelled on split tickets, the journey was Glasgow to Carlisle, then Carlisle to Derby changing at Crewe.

On the Glasgow-Carlisle section we were only delayed by about 15 minutes, but I got an email today with complete refund for the entire journey. I take back some of what I said about Avanti.

Stayed at a hotel just outside Oxford last night after a Sea Power gig there. On my way out to the car this morning I exchanged a greeting with the guitar player, Noble. If I'd known we were staying at the same hotel I'd have knocked on his door at 3AM and asked to borrow a groupie!

Quote from: Slim on August 23, 2023, 07:49:34 PMIf I'd known we were staying at the same hotel I'd have knocked on his door at 3AM and asked to borrow a groupie!

At best he'd have had to wank you off...

Quote from: Nickslikk2112 on August 23, 2023, 09:45:05 PM

Quote from: Slim on August 23, 2023, 07:49:34 PMIf I'd known we were staying at the same hotel I'd have knocked on his door at 3AM and asked to borrow a groupie!

At best he'd have had to wank you off...

Yes, I know Oxford very well

Very long story very short, my first day of leisure after finishing serving a redundancy notice yesterday.

I was tempted to post in the grumpy thread yesterday as things culminated on a bit of a sour note regarding senior "management" and "leadership" handling of the whole process and handover, but it would have only wound me up more.

Still, the timing of my departure has turned out to be inadvertently impeccable: I accepted in principle a new (and much better paid) position elsewhere on my penultimate day, which gives me all next week effectively on garden leave to enjoy (some of) my settlement (which is a pretty sweet one, in fairness).

As a couple of Brucie bonuses, the kids go back to school next week and the weather forecast looks blummin' glorious. 

Quote from: Matt2112 on September 01, 2023, 11:26:01 AMVery long story very short, my first day of leisure after finishing serving a redundancy notice yesterday.

I was tempted to post in the grumpy thread yesterday as things culminated on a bit of a sour note regarding senior "management" and "leadership" handling of the whole process and handover, but it would have only wound me up more.

Still, the timing of my departure has turned out to be inadvertently impeccable: I accepted in principle a new (and much better paid) position elsewhere on my penultimate day, which gives me all next week effectively on garden leave to enjoy (some of) my settlement (which is a pretty sweet one, in fairness).

As a couple of Brucie bonuses, the kids go back to school next week and the weather forecast looks blummin' glorious. 

Great news reveal, Matt. All the best in your new role.