Tag Archive for: close up
The last few weeks have been mental.
We have been blessed with visits from my parents, our good friends Jen and Tom, and Sian’s mum Sue over this festive period, and it has been amazing. The bad news is that things at work are very slow right now, so we are crossing everything that it will pick up soon.
So this week, in an unusual twist of events, I am not going to share our recent shenanigans, explorations and adventures; I am going to do something far more boring…I am going to show you the lovely present Sian bought me for my birthday this year.
I am going to show you my spangly new watch…
As well as having an encylcopaedic knowledge of pretty much every lens Nikon has ever made; I am even more boring in the fact that I like to read about watches. I love watches. I remember driving my parents to the brink of insanity in the lead up to my 13th birthday, flicking through the Argos Catalogue dropping very obvious, very loud hints about which watches I liked in particular – and how each different model I picked out had various benefits with regard to size, accuracy and all that nonsense. It is actually one of the only times my dad properly lost his temper with me. During one of my hint dropping sprees, and having pointed out at least 50 watches that would be an ideal gift, my tired and worn down father screamed, “We’ve already got you a watch -you’re getting a watch, can you please now shut up about these bloody watches?!”
It was a Timex Indiglo and I absolutely loved it.
And as I have grown up, I am afraid to say I have not grown out of the catalogue flicking. I am sure that one day, I will own an incredibly expensive watch, but right now it is not a priority. Sian was wonderful and bought me this Ingersoll – it is a beautiful watch, and the reason it is particularly special is down to its movement. Unlike my other watches, this one does not run on a battery with a quartz heart; this is an automatic watch. It is entirely mechanical. So, as I walk around and flick my wrist, it winds itself and keeps time through a million springs and cogs and cleverness…it really is quite amazing and an art, I am happy to say, that is slowly being revived.
I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas, and promise that I will be back on form with less boring subjects and adventures next week.
Thanks for reading guys 🙂
x
As you all now know, Sian and I have been busy getting everything ready to leave Barbados and come back to freezing cold Blighty for some well needed holiday time. We can’t wait.
So when we woke up last Thursday morning, a little groggy from our anniversary drinks the night before, I was finishing up all the boring chores I had to do before we left; one of which was taking the bottles back that we had accumulated over the last few weeks.
Oh.
My.
God.
I am not a patient man at the best of times, but rest assured, after waiting forty minute for the &$*#(@ bellend to turn up to the place, (which I was assured would be open at 9am) I was then told by said delinquent that they were not taking the 84 Banks beer bottles I had bought as they did not have any trays.
After threatening to leave the bottles where the sun doesn’t shine, the guy quickly recognised my ‘Bajan Rage’ and realised this was a battle he wouldn’t win.
I got back to the house at half eleven in a particularly bad mood, and tried to help Sian with the packing. Me trying to help Sian with the packing is like asking an excitable dog to help with the washing up. I make a lot of mess, get easily distracted, and nine times out of ten I end up carrying something in my mouth.
So, imagine Sian’s relief when this guy wandered into our kitchen.
I spotted him walking up the wall, and I asked (an incredibly relieved) Sian if she would mind if I took photos of the cricket rather than pack up. She nodded enthusiastically, and as I popped my macro lens on and primed my flash, I am sure I heard a sigh of relief as the pair of socks I had been carrying around in my gob fell to the floor with a soggy flop.
As I got closer, I was amazed at just how leaf like the crickets look; every vein, every (scale?) screams chlorophyl full, photosynthesis fuelled plant rather than insect murdering, noise making insect. He was awesome.
And also, as all these critters seem to be, a fantastic model.
Thanks for reading guys, lots of tales from Blighty to follow!
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