Day 290 - Jedi Ninja

Nedi Jinja

1986 was a notable year for a number of reasons...

I had a fairly new job in IT, as a Trainee Systems Programmer...I was married, with a car, a house and a cat. 

The cat was a stray my mum had adopted, then become wary of after it bit her.  I took him on, and he was so awesome I didn't even have to name him - he was simply The Cat. 

He behaved like a dog in many ways.  If I walked to the petrol station 100m up the road to buy a pack of cigarettes, he'd walk up with me, and sit outside, waiting patiently for me to walk back home with him.

Whenever I arrived home, I would whistle and within 5 or 10 minutes he'd be home, poking the letterbox in the front door, knowing this would prompt us to let him in.

We lived on a dual carriageway, and for reasons I can't now fathom, I wasn't at all worried that he'd get run over...I think I just thought he was too cool to be anything other than immortal...

Alas, one day (8th June, as I recall), I whistled him upon arriving home, and 5 minutes later there was a (human) knock on the door...I answered it to find a worried looking lady asked me if I had a black and white cat...

He'd been hit crossing the road to come home to my whistle, and his back was broken.  

I carried him home, and within another 5 minutes he died in my arms...I was gutted, and writing this, I realise I still am, to some degree.

How I loved that Cat.

The same year, continuing the practical module of my ongoing education in mortality, a colleague died on my arm at work one day.

He was a Kenyan named Subash, and he'd been overseeing my technical development...these days we'd call it mentoring or some such, I guess.  Despite being African, Subash spoke with a markedly eastern accent, similar to Indian...I liked him a lot.

He was in his mid 40's I suppose, and he'd long been ill with heart issues of some kind.

One day he wasn't feeling well and we decided to take him to hospital...I walked him out of the office and along the corridor towards the exit, when he suddenly grabbed my arm tight and went down on one knee.  I realised he was collapsing, and lowered him to the ground.  

I ran to get my boss, who tried to revive him, but he died there and then, of a heart attack.  I had the strongest sense that he was tired of struggling and suffering with ill health, and he didn't even fight it. 

When Death came calling, Subash just opened up the door and invited him right in. 

It seemed to me then, and still seems now, an entirely reasonable choice under the circumstances.

It was, however, quite a shock to my system - seeing human death so up close and personal. 

Those two dramatic and traumatic experiences left my world somewhat reeling...

Yet unbeknownst to me, a little later that year, a doomed experiment to create a Jedi Ninja was initiated by our Evil Alien Overlords...

It's not clear exactly what went wrong, but rumours suggest that the Jedi mind tricks were simply too powerful a force for his lithe Ninja physique to contain.

Nobody knows whether the mind broke the body, or the body broke the mind...

But in any case, all that remains is the Raving Matt Man, entrapped in an urban cage...unable to go out for fear of the devastation his Jedi mind tricks could cause, and refusing to be photographed for fear of coming to the attention of the Evil Alien Overlords, thus reminding them of the need to terminate their failed experiment.

This evening, we went to visit the Matt Man to collect the latest data samples, exactly 28 years after inception...but as imprisoned as he is, his Jedi Ninja skills still help him evade our every attempt.

Reasoned questions invariably run into the brick wall of the just because argument...

And just try to photograph him...somehow his Ninja speed enables him to blur the light around his hands and face, thus obscuring his visage and rendering his image unidentifiable and untraceable.

Nice moves, Matt...

;-)

Day 288 - BSOD

blue screen of birth

I spent half of today trying to fix one of the oddest PC problems I've come across in 20 years of building and fixing PC's. 

Failed...ho hum...

But I did make some progress.  A few days ago, it just suddenly refused to boot up, giving the old Blue Screen of Death.

blue screen of death

The error message itself is of the something went wrong type...some unknown error occurred.

Windows didn't even know what was wrong with itself... 

All self-repair attempts failed...

Replacing various bit of hardware, and unplugging everything not absolutely necessary failed to reveal any faulty parts... 

Swapping out RAM sticks, as it was increasingly looking like a hardware issue fixed nothing - it's not a memory issue...

Yet it will boot in safe mode...does that add more weight to the hardware fault theory, or to the software error theory?   It's not clear!

I was about settled on the hardware fault theory, and was going to suggest replacing the motherboard, but at the last minute decided to run a test.  I installed a new hard drive, newly formatted, removed the existing one, and installed a fresh copy of windows.

Works perfectly...

So, it's not a hardware issue (unless it's the hard drive itself, which seems unlikely).

It's a software issue, probably driver related, or some odd corruption deep in windows somewhere...but as all diagnostics show no errors, it's going to be pretty much impossible to identify and correct the error.

So I need to reinstall windows, preferably on a new drive...but then I have to work out what needs transferring/reinstalling from the old drive...it's going to be a bit messy, but it'll save buying a new PC, at least...

(By the way Andy, I found a spare 500GB SATA drive if that's any good to you?  Let me know...)

Ah well, back to work tomorrow, where I don't do any of that techy PC stuff any more...actually I've never done a huge amount in a work capacity, although I've always had strongly technical elements to my role...but now I'm 100% management, 0% technical. 

Not sure where that ratio's going at the moment, to be honest...

Finally, the astute amongst you may have noticed that I sneakily squeezed a climbing rope, a guitar, and an electric drum kit into the top photo...

At least the photo's not 100% technical!

;-)

Day 287 - Segway to Go

segway master

Today's adventure was so interesting and unusual that I wish I'd put it on my list of challenges for the year...maybe I'll do that retrospectively....shhh, don't tell!

;-)

I've been intrigued by the Segway for what seems like years and years...I remember there was several years of pre-hype, when this revolutionary product known as IT (or alternatively by the codename ginger) was announced, but no further details.  Speculation was rife, and rumour had it that this thing was going to be bigger than the internet.

When it was finally unveiled in 2001, it was thus a bit of a disappointment, seeming not that different from the Sinclair C5, which had promised so much but delivered so little.

However, ignoring how much use it was, it did look like a much better all round product than the C5...and I've wanted a go on one ever since. 

So when someone at work offered to organize something, I couldn't refuse the chance to participate in a Segway Rally Experience, an organised event at Kingsbury Ski Centre.

three amigos

Of course, being such a litigious society these days, the Health and Safety rules did their best to sap as much of the fun as possible out of it, and ensured that any use of the word adventure was purely metaphorical. 

Mostly, the rules simply mean that we all have to look a bit silly whilst we have fun.

The Segway itself is an interesting beast.

shoal of segways

Here are a dozen or so of them awaiting their riders...of course, such intrepid adventurers wouldn't want to risk the kind of life-threatening danger that can occur at the frankly insane speed of 14mph, so they were all limited to around 8mph. 

I did manage to sneak a go on an unlimited one (the instructor's), and the difference was stark...unlimited is so much more fun!!

We had two hours of training, games and a short sojourn around the lakes (to justify the use of the word rally in the advertising)...the games were essentially relay races, with a variety of random difficulties thrown in (slalom, do a 360 around a cone, that sort of thing).

It didn't always go according to plan, as I think this photo demonstrates...

and that's f#*tkin' teamwork

This is, however, very reminiscent of my experience at work...the boss on her own off to one side looking on (in despair?!)...a few people that almost appear, at a casual glance, to be vaguely working together...and a significant number of outliers who are off doing their own thing, sometimes innocent, sometimes mischievous...

And there's me, taking some time out to grab a photo of the mayhem for my blog. 

But anyway, that aside, I did get a certificate which proudly proclaims that I have Mastered the Segway...

So, you know, that was nice....


B-)

Day 271 - The News

new shoes

There are some illusory elements to this photo...but not related to the relative size of these shoes, which is accurately presented here.

Those diagonal lines on the wooden decking outside really give the impression that the photo is leaning drunkenly to the right...but it isn't!

It's just an illusion (ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, aa-ah).

(little shout out to any 80's kids there...) ;-)

The point is (yeah, there is one!) that climbing shoe sizes are a nightmare.

These two shoes are from the same manufacturer, Scarpa.  They're built for slightly different purposes - the green for comfort and the blue for speed...otherwise they're in many ways a simple variation on a style.

The green pair are Anna's day to day rock shoes (albeit a brand new pair that haven't been worn yet).  Anna has another pair of these in the same size (Euro 38) that are wearing out after a year's heavy use.  They're a little bit big for Anna, which, whilst making them comfortable, sometimes impacts performance as the foot moves within the shoe.   Anna has another identical pair in one Euro size less - 37 rather than the 38 of the one in the photo, but they're a little tight.

So Anna wanted some slightly smaller ones, and was also interested in stepping up a notch performance wise.  Consequently, in the interests of caution, we ordered the blue pair in size 37.5, figuring same make, very similar model, similar construction and materials...  

Yep, the two shoes in the photo are supposedly only half a size different, 37.5 and 38.

Whilst the 38 is slightly loose, Anna can hardly get the 37.5 on her foot...

Of course it's impossible to ever find a shop with a wide enough size range of a wide enough range of shoes from a variety of manufacturer, and more so if you're a woman...

So we always end up having to take a risk and buying on spec over the net...which usually works out ok, but sometimes, frustratingly it doesn't - and then you have all the hassle of returns to go through.  

Ah well, Font in 32 hours or so...woohoo!

Speaking of new things, I have a new job!

Somewhat momentously, I handed in my notice at work earlier this week...in 8 weeks time, I shall be changing career and going off to work for my bro' (that's my actual bro', not, like, my homes, feel me, brah-bro).  

He owns a successful and growing internet retail business, and has invited me to join him, to help grow it further.

It's a brilliant opportunity that I couldn't possibly overlook!

So these rock shoes aren't the only new things in my life at the moment...

I'm starting a new job and a new career, we're looking for a new house, and we're also itching to find a new dog (or dogs).  We've planted new trees for Jazz, and we both have new rock shoes.

I need a new phone, and this time we're taking our new camera to Font.  I'm newly debt-free, so I might even buy a new car at some point in the next few months.

One way or another, the times, they are a'changin'!

It's liberating!

B-)

Day 270 - Climbing Virgins

motley crew

For some reason this photo makes me inordinately happy (and it's not even anything to do with the brilliant photo-bombing...).

This evening Anna and I took four of my colleagues from work for an introductory climbing session.

Ranj (guess which one he is) has recently completed both the Insanity 60 Day Workout, and the Insanity Asylum 30 Day Nutters Nightmare Painfest (available free to the clinically insane) or whatever it's called, and wanted to go and do something adventurous. 

He knows I'm into climbing (I think everyone knows that by now, eh?), so publicly suggested we could go for climb.

Having polled for interest amongst quite a small team, these four reprobates raised their hands and said they'd be up for it...and this evening, they all proved good to their word!

Lisa

In the upper left of this shot you can see Lisa, high above her comfort zone, yet pushing on brilliantly.  She did really well to finish this fairly long climb, and quite a few others!

Good job, Lisa!!

Ranj

Meanwhile Ranj, desperate to push outside his own comfort zone, pointed at a long, steep climb and said, "I want a go on that!" with that slightly insane look in his eye that he has these days.

The wall he'd picked went vertically for about 8 or 9 metres, before going into a slight overhang for the last couple of metres before the top...steep ground for beginners, but he was game so I happily belayed him. 

Sure enough he found the challenge he'd been looking for, and desperately lunging for the last hold, forearms screaming, he popped off for his first fall...brilliant!   Getting straight back on the wall, even more determined now to reach the top, he soon pulled on and got it finished.

This both inspired and encouraged Aaron up the same route...here he's approaching the bit where it starts to get really steep, and showing some good form along the way...

Aaron

Quite brilliantly for a first climb, Aaron cleanly climbed this hard Grade 5 climb...his forearms are going to be having words with him about it for the next few days!

Not to be outdone, Beki hopped straight on and fought her way up to the hard section at the top...

Beki

Here you can see Beki right in the steepest part of the climb, one or two moves away from the relief of the final hold. 

As soon as the steepness of the wall goes past vertical, it becomes very, very tiring very, very quickly...much of your upper body weight is transferred from your feet (which are no longer directly beneath you) and onto your hands.

Beki found her crux (the hardest part of a climb) right up near the top, but held on determinedly, making it to the top in style.

Then we got to do some bouldering, and I was quite pleased to flash a couple of hard problems (which means to solve the problem on your first attempt).

It was a great fun evening out, lots of friendly banter and mutual support and encouragement...and I think that shows in the genuine smiles in the photo above, which prompts me to match it with a smile of my own each time I look at it...

...and not just because of the brilliant photo-bombing...

:-)

Day 237 - Vole Hoovers

vacancy

Friday night sure rolls around quickly of late...

This evening we found that they've now finished harvesting the fields around us, which frees up the access to the hole side of Barney the barn owl's tree. 

As you can see, it's a lovely shelter, with a solid platform inside a big old tree.  I've seen three young perched in here in the past, but they haven't nested here this year. 

Bizarrely, the tree is actually still alive, albeit much of it is hollow...

entish

We've had glimpses of Barney in several of these holes, and he seemed to be able to move around fairly freely in there. 

It's a very cool old tree, anyway.

In other news, the Killer Queen is on the rampage at the moment...

ritual sacrifice

I found this vole on the rug in the kitchen when I got home.

Within 5 minutes of opening the front door, Loz came in with a live, squeaking juvenile vole...I chased her out and got her to let it go, but within minutes she was back with another one. 

I shut her in for a bit, which she was really offended about...but later in the evening she was back out, and bringing more struggling young voles back, to the extent that we've had to shut her in again.

At the moment she's prowling the window sill, looking out into the night longingly, and miaowing at me in a frustrated tone. 

I presume the harvest has flushed lots of small animals into the hedgerow, and Loz just wants to go out there and sweep them all up, as I'm sure Barney would be if he were around...he's a vole hoover too. 

I've watched him hunt in the meadow (the next field over), and he was getting a kill every few minutes and brining it back to his young in the tree above...he must have killed a couple of dozen a day, at least. 

Hopefully the tidal wave of death and torture will subside in a day or two...

impressive

Speaking of which, my 'boarding injury is now a large, swollen bruise on my forearm...suffice to say, I wore a short sleeved polo shirt today in order to impress everyone with my war wound. 

I'm sure that will have had the desired effect, won't it?

One of my staff asked me what I done, and when I told him he said (as predicted),

"How old are you?!  There's some kids out the front doing loads of tricks on skateboards and bikes, it's crazy...they're about ten years old...".

So I'm fairly sure he's impressed with my youthful energy and enthusiasm.

I think that was his point anyway...

...yeah, that's probably it...

;-)

Day 216 - Ah, Grasshopper

buttocks

It's Friday night once more, so as usual this is going to be a light post...especially as my mission to get a good photo more or less failed today...

Yesterday, I'd noticed these House Martin nests high up on the 3rd floor of the office where I work...they were a hive of activity, with fledglings wanting to be fed and busy parents flitting noisily about.

So today I took my camera to work, and the first chance I got (which was mid afternoon!), I nipped out to get some shots.

Nothing...nada...rien...niente...all was quiet, no sign of activity at all.

Bugger!

Disappointed, I just rattled off a few careless shots and left.  However, when I got home and took a closer look, I found this:

hello hello

Peeking out of the right side of the left nest you can see two youngsters, patiently waiting for their parents to return with food (maybe a nice green grasshopper?).

Ironically, because I thought there was nothing there, I didn't take much care with my shots, and so this is a little blurry and indistinct...so there's a lesson!

As I had my DSLR in the office, I thought I'd take a final opportunity to wind up Portvinder (not his real name!), one of my main men at work.  

He's taken a secondment on another team, doing something completely different for the next year...therefore he fully deserves a little teasing. ;-)  

So I sat at my desk over the other side of the office, taking photo's of him through the PC screens...

portvinder

He was suitably embarrassed, so that worked a treat!  B-)

But seriously though, it's been a pleasure working with him over the last 18 months or so, he's been a great help to me as well as to the rest of his team...not to mention other staff who've fallen on hard times, and would have been in a much worse boat had it not been for Portvinder's generous assistance...I'm not sure exactly what sort of boat, but there would certainly have been a dearth of paddles!

So thanks AP, and good luck in your quest for new challenges and opportunities...I'd love to have you back with us in 12 month's time - but I really don't expect it...

Now go - fly, grasshopper!

:-)

Day 205 - Overuse Injury

'ave it

I suppose it was inevitable that my penchant for tempting fate would eventually come back to bite (or in this case tweak) me.

I do believe that there's a living consciousness that's bigger and more potent than us puny humans.  I won't call it god as that would put all sorts of preconceptions into your mind, all of which would be built on baseless assumptions and your own conditioning.  

One of these preconceptions would be the idea that it might for some unfathomable reason be interested in me, or my life, or any of us humans (or any life on earth)...moreover, that it would wish to interfere, somehow, perhaps rewarding me for behaving in a specific way, or more often punishing me for not behaving in a specific way. 

If god was all powerful, wouldn't he have made us incapable of "sin"?  Wouldn't he have just not created "sin" in the first place?  Wouldn't he have made a perfect world populated with perfect beings, if that's what he wanted of us?

It seems to me that he's either rigged the game against us (in which case he's a bit mean), or he just made a bit of a mess of it (in which case he's not all that omni-anything)...or he doesn't mind what we do, hence bestowing us with free will and all that jazz (in which case he seems kinda cool and creative).

Anyway, maybe this consciousness was involved in putting together the fundamental laws that make up The 'Verse, although the established and emergent laws of physics seem to be on top of that particular little puzzle all on their own.

Perhaps more likely it's just another level of consciousness, an order (orders) of magnitude greater than ours, and virtually inconceivable to our limited capacity brain and mind systems...and no more interested in us that we are in bacteria.

Or (and this is the answer I lean towards) maybe it's simply the sum of all consciousness in the Universe - which self evidently exists (somewhat helpfully, via the laws of logic).  

In any case, why would this consciousness interfere in my life large, obvious ways, and what would be the mechanism of this? 

I like to demonstrate my faith(!) in this model of The 'Verse by flying in its face - daring it to interfere and punish me for my ignorance. 

My team at work hate it when I trip out the Q word, as in, "It all seems nice and quiet today, doesn't it?"...they are convinced that this will invoke an immediate tsunami of support calls - despite the fact that it never does. 

Several times, earlier this year, I mentioned to a variety of climbing friends and partners that the niggly injury phase of my climbing development appeared to be over...I just don't seem to get all the annoying little tweaks and tears, sprains and strains, bumps and bruises that used to be permanently in residence, irritating fingers, feet, shoulders, hips, elbows - pretty much anywhere there's a joint!

Then a few weeks ago (actually a month ago today), fate stopped by to slap me around a bit...

I was on a reasonably easy bouldering problem at the indoor wall, early in the session, when my cold hands popped off a hold...and immediately knew I'd properly hurt something...

Two or three of the main fingers on my right hand have been stiff and sore since...I think I've got some kind of minor soft tissue injury, maybe between the A2 and A3 pulley system on my middle finger. 

Over 4 weeks later, and they're not appreciably any better...it doesn't hurt, most of the time, although it seems a little swollen and it takes a while in the morning before my fingers start to work properly. 

Curiously, I can still play the guitar with no problem (other than that I'm just generally a bit rubbish these days).

I can still climb, too, and therein lies the rub - should I be resting it or working through the injury?

It only really bothers me in case it impacts my climbing...but I've climbed several times, including another hard bouldering session, and it's ok once I warm up - it doesn't really hurt when I'm on the wall or rock...

...but then it's stiff the next day, and no better...so should I rest?  Or not rest, given that it's getting neither better nor worse for being climbed on?

I'm fairly sure I know the answer to that one - it essentially boils down to a simple question:

To climb, or not to climb?

Virtually every time I find myself faced with this question, I end up siding with DMM:

Climb now, work later.

A motto for life, if ever there was one!

B-)

Day 179 - Unfulfilled Potential

fish plant, plant fish

There are a lot of animals in today's photo...it's just that you can't see any of them very well.

Mind you, that possibly makes it sound more exciting than it is...it's merely six or ten goldfish, lurking in the muddy depths of the fish pond in the courtyard at work.  If you look closely, you can just about make out one or two of them...the pond is absolutely teeming with them, and some of them are quite big. 

But, erm, yep, that's about all I have to say about fish...ooh no, wait a minute, this is another animal for my collection of animal photo's...so I did have something else to say!

But now, that's all I have to say about fish...wait a sec'...no...no...yep, that's definitely all I have to say. 

Still, that's not the end of the story, fear not!

Continuing a theme of potential photo opportunities wherein I fail to get any decent photo's at all, check out this little ant:

extravag-ant accessory

He's carrying a large section of beetle carapace, which is how I came to spot him as we were walking up the lane...impressive!

Unfortunately, the light wasn't great, and I had completely the wrong lens on, of course...I had the 55-300mm zoom, which won't focus nearer than about 3ft...I couldn't hold the camera steady, crouched down uncomfortably as I was....and I certainly wasn't going to lie down on the road to get to eye level.   

The net effect of all of which is, of course, this fairly pathetic image of a cool little red ant, lugging a lump of beetle. 

Sorry 'bout that, must try harder!

:-/

Day 177 - I Give You...Pigeons

part of a pigeon

Ironically, five minutes after taking a photo of a woodpigeon (whilst expressing my reluctance to use another photo of a woodpigeon), we came across this dismembered leg in the lane, and all of my good intentions went out of the window...

It's a bit of a grisly shot, I grant you, but it's not every day you see a pigeon leg that's been ripped off and discarded!

We often find clusters of pigeon feathers around here...as we did yesterday, strewn across our car park and lawn...coincidence?  

There weren't so many as to indicate a total kill and dismemberment, but certainly enough to suggest that something happened to a pigeon...and then we find a single pigeon leg 50m down the lane, the next day?

I think we can comfortably conclude that something did indeed happen to this woodpigeon - and that something is most likely to have been our local sparrowhawk, who we know frequents this area.

He's the most aggressive and successful raptor around here, and the primary predator of our local bird life.   Fast and agile, he can easily catch a slow, clumsy woodpigeon, if he catches him unawares.

Nature has conveniently provided a large local woodpigeon population, to support a solitary sparrowhawk.  The sparrowhawk takes weak and unhealthy pigeons, improving the general robustness of the local pigeon genepool in the process...and so both species thrive on the deal.

Nature always will bring systems back to balance...a point we should carefully consider, when assessing our interaction with the rest of the Earth's systems and lifeforms...we're not in a position to claim we haven't been warned!

But I digress...here's a solitary woodpigeon that was in the garden just before we found the foot.  The shot has a new melancholy now we realise she is probably missing her mate...

poor pigeon

In other news, when leaving work, through the dingy little corridor behind my desk, I spotted what appeared to be grass or hay up on the wiring looms high and left...

pigeons?!

Closer inspection revealed what appears to be the beginnings of a nest:

pigeon!!

Just at the top middle of this photo, there's a gap right through the wall, to the outside.  Anna is impressively knowledgeable on such things (as always), and thinks it's either pigeon, or starling.   

Now, pigeons are common around where I work, whilst starlings are depressingly scarce of late...so once again, it seems likeliest to be a pigeon...

What is it with all these pigeons today...even the dead and the absent found their way into my awareness...wtf?!

It feels unavoidable...one way or another, The Universe seems determined that I'm going to feature pigeons in my post today...

I'm a great believer in The Universe, so I can only respond...

as you command...I give you...

Pigeons!

:-)

Day 156 - Busman's Holiday

three come along at once

Today is the first actual holiday day of my...erm...holiday?!

The point is, it's my first day of not working on a day on which I would normally be working...is that any clearer?  If not, it probably won't help when I mention that I was working all day today...

Am I confusing you?  I'm a little fuzzy myself, to be honest!

You see, this is what happens when you work on your holidays...everything goes a smidgeon off-kilter!

The thing is, my bro' has a booming business importing furniture, and I'm using a couple of days of my leave to go and sort a bunch of his PC's out...I usually do a few odds and ends for him now and then.

Of course with his business booming, I'm sure he could afford to pay an actual professional to do the work - but he's a cool brother and he knows I can use the spare cash, so he always gives me the option of doing the work if I want to, and have time.

As Anna and I had just decided that I should stay with Jazz rather than go to Florida, I had a load of time booked off with no plans, so it seemed inevitable...and I was very happy to do it for him, of course...right up until the point where I had to get up on my first Monday morning off from my proper job, and go to work!

Should've thought that one through, planned it a little better! 

Still, Jools is off to Mallorca in a couple of days and it would be useful to get this done before then, so I shall work through the evening tonight and tomorrow and get all these laptops that I brought home with me sorted out. 

As I was sitting here writing this, and working on one of the laptops, and doing a few other bits and bobs (why yes, I can multitask, thank you!), there came an insistent, demanding miaow from behind me.

I turned around to find that Jazz and Loz had joined forces in the hope that their combined psychic nagging powers might be enough to jolt me into action...

Apparently, it worked, as I've now realised that it's feeding time at the zoo, and the menagerie are getting rowdy...

I'd best get on...more exciting tales tomorrow!

I bet you can't wait, eh?

:-/

Day 150 - Dungeon Crawler

the abyss

Is 150 posts a significant milestone?

I can't really see that it is...which is just as well, with today's photo, which harks back to an earlier, coarser period of my photographic journey. 

Oh yes, nowadays I use f-stops and everything, don'tcha know!  ;-)

Anyway, just to demonstrate that my life isn't all glitz, glamour and adventure (nor always green or red), here is a photo of a place I find myself almost daily. 

You'll recall (well, you probably won't but ya know, poetic licence and all that), that I and my team recently moved office.  The new office is newly refurbished, so it's fresh, bright and clean. 

But right behind my desk, there's a little door that leads to this dark, dank service corridor, in the bowels of the County Council Headquarters. 

Every work day, at some point I find myself stooping and creeping along here, ducking my head to avoid the pipes on the low ceiling. 

Somewhere around here are a couple of cells where condemned prisoners were put, back in the day.  40 or 50m away is the dungeon where Quakers were imprisoned, back in another day (a bit later, I think).   

So, you know, mmm, a lovely reminder of our sordid past.

Although it's not really our past, is it?   If there were a centagenarian reading this, all of this particular sordidness happened some 250 years before even he was born.  

Our Past stretches back to the early 20th century at most, and for the majority of us, much less than that.  Anything further back than that is The Past, but it's not Our Past...and to pretend that it is, somehow, Our Past, is just a foolish way of pulling irrelevant, long passed (and should've been forgotten) conflicts, grudges, problems and concerns into our collective Now...for no benefit to anyone, and risking much potential grief to many.

The Past consistently demonstrates the folly of this kind of (un)thinking, and yet we rarely take heed...

Anyway, My Past goes back to the early 60's, a mere 3 weeks after Kennedy's assassination, as it turned out.  

That particular tragedy happened in The Past, but not in My Past, thank you very much.

In the name of, I dunno, Jonny Hendrix, I hereby confess that I had nothing to do with the Kennedy assassination.  

I wasn't even here, m'lud, you can't prove a thing!

B-)