Oh woe is me!

I knew today was going to go pear-shaped right from the start… when I woke far too early and just couldn’t get back to sleep, so decided to be up and about.

Shoulda stayed in bed!

It all started in the kitchen.

For years now I’ve had a couple of dripping taps in the kitchen. Knew all that was needed to stop the irritation was a new washer but (believe it or not) never having changed a tap washer before I was a bit reluctant to tackle the task.
However, a month or so ago I had a water meter fitted (see this post) so the dripping taps issue was plaguing my conscience. Consequently, a little while ago I cast aside my timidity and tackled one of them… the worst offender, needless to say.
And guess what? Success! Yep! Within a matter of minutes the fault was sorted, no problems at all. Still the other one to do, but that can wait for another day.

So, with my ridiculously early start today I made the foolish decision to tackle the second tap. And now, courtesy of a nut that simply wouldn’t budge, I’ve got a tap with a broken seating (requiring a complete replacement), and not one but two drips, from the same (now broken) tap, requiring the placement of a bowl beneath the sink to catch the water. Damn!

Shoulda left well alone.

Second task for the day then. This new photo project that a few mates and I thought we’d try our hand at. It entails picking a set theme each month (each of us taking it in turns to choose the theme) then shooting up to five pics that represent our individual interpretations of that theme. All in a very non-competitive way.
A bit of fun, and a chance to maybe try out new techniques and certainly experience a different approach to this whole photography caper.

Well, August was the launch-month for the project and one of the crew had chosen for the month’s theme… “August”!
So I gave it a bit of thought and fairly rapidly came up with an idea for an image that would do me just fine. Only proviso was that I needed a longish spell of really hot weather to capture one particular element of the pic. But hell, its August isn’t it? Shouldn’t be a problem.

Consequently I’ve been waiting most of the month for that longish spell of good weather, and it still hasn’t happened. And if I’m to get my contribution to the photo project done before the month ends, well, basically I’m running out of time.
So, despite the ill-omened start to the day it now seemed like as good a time as any to do the business.
Fortunately I’d had a sort of “Plan B” roughly worked out that now only required a bit of refining… accomplished with just a few moments’ additional thought.

Dive out into the back garden then to do a few test shots of the intended location… mainly to check for lighting, test different exposures, DoF etc. And the sun was starting to shine through! Great! Just needs to get a bit stronger and I’m laughing.

Wait a while then. Have a coupla cups of coffee (damn, I’m running low on milk… and won’t be getting into town ’til tomorrow!). Glare at the broken tap, which drips defiantly back at me. Another coupla cups of coffee (yep, I’m definitely getting dangerously low on milk). And gradually become aware that the day’s clouding over.
Peer out at the sky. Have a bit of a mull. Swear at the tap. Worry about the milk situation. Peer out at the sky again. Have another coffee (maybe I can make the milk last if I ration myself… some hope!). Go and inspect the sky once more and decide that if I’m to get any pics done before it becomes completely overcast then I have to do it now. So I do. But I hate rushing. Hmph!

Spend some time selecting, processing, uploading, and… well… job done. Finally.

On to the next task of the day… getting prepared for a meeting that had been arranged last week. Preparation consisting mainly of having a quick tidy up, and putting away the remnants of my camping gear that still seem to be loitering around in various obscure places… and the not-so-obscure tent still draped all over the lounge, receiving its thorough end-of-camp airing. I hate repacking tents!

Just reach the end of that particular task when I receive a phone call… the meeting’s been postponed!

Shoulda stayed in bed!