Hello. Yeah, still here!
Pfff, it's been a while, right? I had sort of promised myself that I'd spend more time here, writing this and that, and a bit of the other. But like most things with me these days, nothing much came of it. Priorities changed, interests wained, and life got in the way. As it often does.
Since the last time I wrote, back in July, I have
been on holiday in Italy. Tuscany, to be exact. It was too hot, but we had rented a nice house with a private pool, which was nice. We went to Lucca (nice wee town, but too hot) and also Florence (nice town, moderately hot. We went to thon museum, the Uffizi, to see that →Botticelli painting of yer wan standing in a seashell. It was quite impressive, more so than the Mona Lisa which is decidely mêh. I couldnt get over the sheer vibrance of the painting, and also the size of Venus' feet, which, had I been the model, I'd have complained about.
gone to Ireland for about four weeks. It was too hot (never thought I'd ever write that sentence about a trip home). It was a magic time, with lots of photos taken, places visited and people seen. And of course, Mayo winning the Sam Maguire cup was a big, no, HUGE thing in Mayo. Luckily →I was there to see the cup come to Ballindine, the nearest village from where we stayed. Oh, and I, uhur, 'worked'a few days inbetween, the benefits of working in IT.
bought two new lenses for my Nikon Z f: a 35mm f/2.2 and a 50mm f/2. I had bought the camera with the 28mm and 40mm options, but neither focal length really took my fancy. The 28 is just tooo wide, and the 40 is just a weird focal length. I've always shot 35 and 50, so thanks to those nice people at SG-Image and Viltrox, I am back to where I started all those years ago.
also bought too many books. I have an enormous backlog of books to get through, so I really must get out from behind this screen and get reading.
I had a post on Threads go viral. I mentioned that I thought the break in Yes' hit, 'Owner of a Lonely Heart', is probably the worst 39 seconds in music. So, 47k views, 146 likes and 394 comments later (all of which I answered cause that's how I was brought up) I stand by my opinion. Just dreadful.
Other than that, it's been business as usual. The football season has restarted, thank the Lord. I had planned on restarting my old Scottish football blog, →Inside Left, here on Bear but there was just too much to update in readiness for the season, and I had little time, so we'll push that out to next season at the latest, or maybe January. Who knows.
I've also got some ideas about writing about music again, and 80s alt.culture, two topics dear to my heart. I just need a kick up the hole to get started really.
Any volunteers?
feel free to drop me a mail