Hummingbird….

As we sat on our little deck amongst the trees, sipping a glass of wine, a multitude of hummingbirds were diving, fighting and playing around us.

This guy seemed to be the boss though….

Seemed like a good opportunity to test out the HD video on the little Canon Elph300 we just bought, so I sat patiently just by the feeder, as a number of hummingbirds hovered so close to my face, I could feel the draft caused by their wings.

Expect more of the same, should I remember to have the camera to hand, now I know how to use it….

Still Here….

Er….

Have another go. When’s the next possible endpoint?

And So, We Come to the End….

It is with a heavy heart that I bid one and all, a farewell, for we fast approach the End of the World. That’s it, there’s no more, you’ve had your fill, it’s over…..

Saturday is last day on earth, claims evangelical Christian Harold Camping, 89, wrongly predicted ‘the rapture’ date once before in 1994 God’s chosen few ascend to heaven, sinners left behind to face earthquakes Atheists hold parties to celebrate ‘inevitable embarrassment’ Christian author calls Camping’s prediction ‘flat-out wrong’

I fear I won’t be one of the few, or many, depending on your position, lifted to the heavenly penthouse, to look down on all the fools. I’ve got way too many library cards for any one family to possess. It’s greed, that’s all, pure and simple, I want to borrow everything! A crime for which, now, I must pay the price.

I didn’t bother getting my pet set up for a first class seat either, I’m afraid. That’s my fault, not his. Again, I accept my earthbound punishment.

I don’t feel envy, I wish you all well.

So, now, once you’ve all left, the toys you spent all that time working for, I assume will be left behind, you won’t be needing ‘em. Do us a favour and leave the keys somewhere easy to find, would ya? Ta…. I’ve got my eyes on a nice BMW M3 up the road, a smashing power boat down the road, the RV centre on the highway looks like it’s a got a nice selection and there must be a very homely pad on the lake, that the owners, having moved on to a better place, would be only too pleased for a caring family to take over.

In actual fact…. I’m betting that I’ll be seeing most of you on the other side, of the weekend that is. So, get the beers in, or in the immortal words of the wonderful David Ford, a most criminally ignored songwriter….

This land is your land, this land is mine
So pull up a chair and watch the decline.

Mine’s a Blue Moon with a slice of orange, if you’re in these parts. I’ll provide the burgers and the BBQ…..

Urgent End of the World Update! An Irish Grandad has also found himself concocting a Last Post. He also has a wicked video of an old Rowan Atkinson sketch…..

Camping?….

With a break in the footie schedule, and the weather the right side of pretty good, a camp trip may be in order….

…. especially, now we have the excellent portable BBQ. Or should I put the boat licence to good use and take the old man’s little boat out for a run to the other side of the lake? Decisions, decisions…..

On this particular topic, I recently found myself in conversation with the parents of a students I am tutoring, and their plans for this coming long weekend. They were planning on camping, in their oversized trailer (caravan for my European readers!) at a local site.

There’s nothing to do there, but it’s close enough for us to come home for a shower if we want to, and we have other things to do. But it’ll be nice to get around a campfire for an evening with the kids.

I can’t say I am any the wiser on why they wouldn’t go further, but I think I’m getting a better handle on the Canadian camping mentality.

And they are right. Sitting round a fire as the stars come out, on a clear evening, so that the night sky takes on a bluish tone (which in itself, is something to behold), as opposed to a street lit orange is one of life’s little pleasures. We still remember the night we looked up and saw just how many stars up there you can actually see with the naked eye, when the sky isn’t “polluted” with shopping mall car park illuminations. Breathtaking, you’d be amazed.

So an evening under the stars may very well be in order.

Plus the mutha in lore turns up for her annual visit on Sunday, so we can’t go too far.

So, Apple….

Once, I used Windows computers, as, being a poor new father with cash to fork out for nappies and food and what not, I could ill afford the luxury of “a Mac”, and my missus just not falling for whatever excuses I could come up with…..

But as time went on and money began trickling in, with music and photos to record and edit, I squirreled away enough to take the plunge….

Good days! Everything was so easy. Plug in a camera, a scanner, a printer, the drivers were already there. I’d never before experiences such simplicity with computers! “Apple are wonderful to use”, I told all and sundry…..

Fast forward a few years and I’m now starting to get pissed off, to be blunt…..

For playing music via iTunes, I’m running an old iMac G5 my old man gave me when he upgraded to a brand spanking new iMac and a few months back now, it was a bit of a disappointment when I discovered I could no longer access the iTunes store, as I required the latest version of the iTunes software. Great! Although, not so much, as it wasn’t available for my OS version anymore. Damn! Still, it appeared that I could still do so on the $50 Windows XP machine, I picked up when the missus grabbed it before her work disposed of half a dozen. So, OK, should I want to buy any music, I could do so.

Now, maybe I wouldn’t mind so much, but this messy struggle I now seem to be engaged in, with these once useful pieces of techno wizardry, seems to have reached new levels of absurdity…..

I’ve bought a new camera. My first in 10 years and expecting Apple to do the business, I plugged it into my 5 year old Powerbook, only to find, that the camera isn’t recognized. I have a CD with drivers, but they only work on newer Macs. They do however have drivers for, yep, you guessed it, Windows XP. It seems my 5 year Apple Powerbook is now also of little use, as it now refuses to communicate to the iTunes store as well. Out of date…. the 10 year old Sony VAIO Windows XP laptop I’ve lugged around the world, dropped and kept together with gaffer tape, still does though. Funny that.

So, I have 2 Apple computers, which can’t access the Apple iTunes store, or talk to my new camera, whereas the cheap Windows XP still does.

And today, came the final straw. I tried to subscribe to a new podcast, only to find that on both Macs, when I click the subscribe link via the podcast webpage, the iTunes software, in it’s storefront window, now tells me to get the new version of iTunes, you know, the one I can’t have as their computers are so out of date now, they might as well be stone tablets….. (not iPad tablets! Oh no, they’d work just fine…..)

You’re right Apple, as it says when you tell me to get the new version, “Look at what I’m missing!”. Don’t worry though, I’ll simply listen to the podcast via the website, using my Windows computer and you can stuff your iTunes software.

After much deliberation, my days with Apple are now numbered. It ain’t worth the premium you pay, I’m afraid. They don’t “just work”…..

Danger! Watermelon Warning!….

Look out! There’s a new threat in town!….

Exploding watermelons put spotlight on Chinese farming practices
New food scandal as fields of watermelons are destroyed after farmers mistakenly apply growth accelerator
Read Full Article @ http://tinyurl.com/3t2p2kl

Amazing. Please, I’m all ears, please, someone explain to me the health benefits of a water melon, laden with growth hormones and why an organically grown water melon and when I say, organically, I mean "like wot dey yous 2, innit", wouldn’t be a better method of growing ’em, not to mention, a healthier option, especially for children…..

No really…. I’m all ears…. but not growth hormonally developed ones…..

Tags: Organic, Organic Food, Water Melon, Watermelon, Food, Farming

Idaho….

So, being undefeated, we are taking the boys on a mini road trip, to a footie tournament in the US. Let’s hope the ref’ing is a cut above what we were subjected to in the local one.

Pictures to come and maybe the odd video.

Tags: Nerina Pallot, Idaho