Reggie Thomson’s Diary

I decided it was time for some more photos, so cycled out to Wandlebury. There is now a pay-and-display machine in the car park, with dire warnings about what might happen if you park illegally on the side of the dual carriageway. Well, no, there weren’t, actually, but you have to pay, and can’t park outside. I assumed that a bicycle is allowed in for free. There were only a few cars, and the two runners who arrived ignored the payment machine.

It’s difficult to know what to photograph, there. The circular mound fort doesn’t look very impressive when flat. Perhaps from the air would be best. I returned to fetch the bicycle and proceeded along the Roman road to Linton. Several cyclists whizzed past, while I took the more leisurely pace.

Linton was the lunch break stop - just some chocolate and biscuits, washed down with my orange and grapefruit from the 2L drinks container that someone reckoned looked like a urine collecting bag. (Aside - I thought there was a special word for it, but Google lists lots of entries for urine collection bag. Ah! The catheter seems just to be the tube.)

I liked the village, so parked up and took some snaps of the narrow roads, leaning houses, Tudor wood, and converted mill. From there, I proceeded through the fields to the even smaller village of Hadstock, adding churches, and thatched roofs to the list.

I wanted to take a short-cut avoiding Saffron Waldon, but the track went through some private property with a video camera on the gate. The town is also quite photogenic, but I cycled through. I couldn’t resist taking a few pot shots at Audley End house from the road. Then there was Littlebury High Street.

The drink had run out, so I refuelled at a corner shop in the next village. Passing along Trumpington Street, I took some snaps of the telephone box outside Browns, and then returned home to read the Times.

Reggie.net was offline for most of the day. I didn’t do very much. I was able to use the webmail feature to get some of my junk emails. It eventually came online again late at night.

I sorted out the photos from a few days ago. It takes between 5-10 minutes per photo that I put on the web to do all the adjustments and reduce for the web. That doesn’t include labelling them. It’s very time consuming. Mostly, I am only just adjusting the curves to improve contrasts. Occasionally, I will correct perspective or barrel distortion. The Python script in PaintShop Pro 8 does an edge preserve smooth, before USM and reducing the image for the CD and web. However, it won’t save at full size and 100% quality - so I have to use PSP7.

My emails weren’t working in the morning. When I went to the homepage later on, it had disappeared. Worse, the www.akashik.net site had also vanished. I was worried that the supplier had gone belly up, so started looking for alternative host providers.

I must have gone to Tesco in the afternoon. In the evening, I went down to the Barn. I can’t remember who I met. I think I talked to Vlasta about the homepage.

I found a posting on www.freeforums.com which revealed that there had been a fire at the NAC data center, and Akashik has decided to change the main host provider. It might be up to ten days before I can access my website.

Ouch! My bank account has gone into the red! I’ve put Andrew’s cheque for the Ireland trip into the bank, but it hasn’t yet cleared. So, I am about ten pounds in the red. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been to hasty to pay the Barclaycard bill, which isn’t due until the 5th. That transaction goes out of the bank within two days.

I started reading Moonstone, an interesting novel for it’s several viewpoints and discussions with the reader.

It was a beautiful day. I must have put some money into the bank first. My photographic aim for the day was “bicycles,” and there were plenty of opportunities. The photos are now on the web, but I still need to label them.

On returning home, I met Arnout DeWaal cycling near One-Stop in Carlton Road. He is now teaching dyslexic pupils at the Cambridge Regional College, while John Barnett has taken over the Cambridge Academy of English in Girton.

I put a photo of Ireland onto the www.photopoints.com site, with some questions. There were several useful comments:

Rob Davies (CO) 5/27/2003 4:53:54 PM
A lovely rural scene. so much interest…To be honest…if there needs tilt..then it doesn’t notice too much. It is only slightly noticeable in the ruin of a house..but I guess we train our eye for these things in critiquing! Maybe a slight adjust would make things near perfect…but it doesn’t affect my enjoyment of this image. I don’t see abetter composition than you’ve chosen. Nice scale in the pic from foreground grass….to the trees and hedges in the distance. I like it. Regards Rob.

Carl Main (8152), USA 5/27/2003 2:59:06 PM
A nice scene, colourful and well captured. The DOF is surprisingly limited, with farther objects becoming rather soft. It’s tilted if I can judge by the building, but otherwise I’d never know. Color balance seems fine. Cropping: hard to judge without seeing what is outside the frame; but, given what I see, I might crop down from the top to just below the building.

Razmik was a bit upset. His car had been broken into at night. The thief was unable to get the radio out, but had taken the front part. He thinks it is the local lads, but noticed that several cars in the street had been attacked.

I was up early on a fine morning, so decided to go up to Ely for the day. My tyre is a bit flat, and the bicycle pump is missing. Stuart loaned me his before he left.

The A10 was fairly quiet. I wandered round the cathedral area. It now costs £4.80 to get in - it used to be free when I first arrived in Cambridge, twenty-one years ago. I was expecting about £2.50 that I think I paid when I last came here with the Cambridge Academy. So, I didn’t go in.

The photos are now on the web. I went into the tourist office in the front of Cromwell’s house and picked up a free map. I walked through a golf course, but came off the path at one point. Some golfer pointed me in the right direction, saying I wasn’t insured unless I was on the footpath. Still, I was wearing my cycle helmet!

In Tesco, I bought some Jaffa cakes, jam tarts and chocolate for energy. I had brought my orange and grapefruit drink from home. I sat in the Jubilee park by the river. As I was parking my bicycle, a lady pointed out that I was losing my Jaffa cakes - they were falling out of the packet!

On the return journey, I followed the River Cam. from Stretham. I got a bit lost and had to backtrack at one point. I need a good map of Cambridgeshire. The river path is very overgrown. I had to push the bicycle most of the way, and frequently got stung by the 3-foot high nettles. There were cows to negotiate in a field that also had a meaty bull. There is also a marsh with plenty of birds. The boats were amused to see me pushing a bike through the nettles. From Waterbeach, I cycled on the road again.

I went to Rock, and sat next to a teacher, Vivian, who is about to go off on a holiday. I wonder what the sermon was about. Afterwards, there were lots of people to chat to. Kelly and Harvey are about to adopt a child. The adoption process is quite stringent. I mentioned the problems with the two adopted cousins. It’s not an easy task.

Sounds like I did some more labelling.

I read some Oscar Wilde in the evening - the Ballad of Reading Gaol, and then The Importance of Being Earnest, again. I think it is probably my favourite play.

I usually read the Times on Saturdays - it’s only 75p compared with double that for the Sunday Times.

Andrew wanted me to deliver a car to London, so I cycled over. However, there had been a last minute change of plan. The gentleman was going to come up on the train, and meet us at the station. He also changed the agreement at the last moment - paying £3,000 in cash and the rest by cheque. So, I drove the Rover down to the station to meet him.

He had arrived with his partner. I reckoned they looked OK. After the deal, Andrew wasn’t so sure. It later turned out that he was right - the cheque got cancelled. It seems that looks are deceptive. The guy said that there was a problem with the steering wheel bearings. Andrew had replaced some, so was surprised. He suggested that the garage should send him the bill - but he hasn’t seen anything. I guess the guy was lying to save a few hundred pounds.

I labelled some of the photos of Ireland for the web - or maybe I did that on the 24th. I labelled something.

I’ve discovered an alternative to my besttravelphotos idea. It is www.virtualtourist.com. It isn’t the same, and doesn’t seem to generate the same kind of daily dedication that www.photopoints.com or www.photosig.com do. I suspect that my idea would be better attached to one of those websites.

I browsed some of Stuart’s old Time magazines - from before the start of the Gulf war.

There was an answer on Tim Grey’s Digital Darkroom Questions that sent me hunting the internet for ICM profiles for the Epson 1290. I found some, and tried printing out with the Matte Paper Heavyweight. However, I think there is no discernable difference to Epson’s own profiles.

I transferred the www.haikuphotos.com to point to my reggie.net homepage.

I caught up on the diaries and then, from a comment in digital darkroom questions (see www.timgrey.com), I downloaded some print test photos. I played around with the setting, but didn’t get any improved results.

After a bath, I cycled down to the barn for an evening of games - passing squeezes down a line of people to the top person, who has to grab a bar of chocolate. Vlasta has picked up the dislike of work bug that I seem to exemplify - he wants to have a farm but also to travel, or maybe to buy a house in Czech now before the prices rise with entry into the EU. Maybe he doesn’t see the downside of self-employment, the struggle with motivation and self-worth. It was Tobais’ last day at the Barn. We took some snaps on Vlasta’s camera.