It's been so quiet here.  And that makes me worried.  But in the last 30 minutes before closing up, which I'm about to do, a lovely couple came into Dunstone Design, and they bought 3 Waterfall Stools.  In times gone by I'd have picked up the phone instantly, made a phone call and burst out with 'hurrah, I sold something!!!!' .  I don't do that anymore.  I guess this will have to do instead. Yes, I still feel ridiculously pleased when I sell something.   I did send Evan a text message, because he's tired and stressed and hopefully it will make him feel better. 

I slept badly last night.  Lots of bad dreams.  I hate nights like that.  I have a photoshoot to do for Evan today.  A drinks trolley, and another sort of hall table.  I'm getting tired of doing it without proper lights, and really need to press the button on buying some stands and hood thingies for my flashes (a soft box is I'm sure the technical term).  I'm operating a bit blind, in sizes and brands.  So I"ll have to give it some thought.  I'm hoping a friend might help with some advice too.  But I'm a bit tired of trying to produce good work when I know I'm not set up correctly yet. And now that I'm looking at the Adorama.com site, I have to admit that I'm confused....Is it a bad thing to admit that there are some gaps in my repertoire? I don't think so. I think photography at its finest is like working with horses. There are always new things to learn and new joys to discover.  I hope that the Lovely David from Apple will also...

Oh Joy!!!!!!  I finally feel like I've made some progress this evening, and touch wood, the referring up the line to the Engineering section of Apple won't be necessary.  I was already at 'sitting on the kitchen floor with a cup of tea' stage over my computer, and let's face it, who needs to go there.  But having a problem that was going to drag on even longer was filling me full of dread. I am tentatively saying (hopefully) that Mail doesn't hate me anymore.  And so I am v cautiously calling a truce and saying "I'm sorry Mail, I didn't ever really hate you, but you were being utterly, utterly bloody for a while there" .   The 2nd erase of the hard drive, and 2nd reinstall of the operating system looks to have worked.  I didn't accept the prompts for iCloud yet, or put in my Apple ID, in case this is where the problem lies.  At last Mail started, and didn't crash straight away.  I've added both of my email accounts.  I...

Today started off ok.  But it doesn't feel like it's ending so well, and I'm feeling ever so slightly a misery this afternoon.  I've made a cup of tea, but am at least drinking it at my desk.  First and foremost the computer is worrying me greatly.  It's just refusing to be fixed.  I'm again waiting for Apple to phone back.  I've put in another couple of calls, and I feel like I'm getting nowhere fast. During the last conversation he was all concerned that Mail was still crashing after wiping the hard drive and not doing another migration.  By the way, I still hate you back Mail.  Although I'm wondering whether I should begin apologising and tell it that I actually do really really like it, in the hope that being stupidly nice to it will make it stop being horrible???  But I end up with these little windows of time in which to do something about the problem, and I'm mid-window now, and my window is ticking away because Heath has soccer t...

Today's Daily Telegraph has a story in it, celebrating the 60th anniversary of James Bartholomew (Bart) Cummings' training career.  Sixty (60) years ago today he was granted his trainers' licence.  That's a pretty special achievement.  Most of us grew up with Mr Cummings being part of the Australian racing culture.  We don't see him much on track now.  He's now 85 years old.    There's a lot to like about Bart.  In day's gone by I'd have rushed out to buy a copy of today's newspaper.  I won't, because I'm trying to not collect so many things lately.  But once upon a time I would have.  It's bittersweet, really, for me, when it comes to Mr Cummings and his horses because both of his 2 greatest horses have been tainted with heartbreak.  Saintly with the tendon injury that finished his career.  So You Think, when sold overseas to Coolmore.   Mr Cummings nominated Saintly's Melbourne Cup win in 1996 as his ...

I'm at Tom's house after swimming. We've had a simple dinner. He has a fan dangled audio bluetoothy music system. It's pretty cool. He started playing some Peter Gabriel. I LOVE Peter Gabriel. This is a special edition album set with an orchestra called New Blood. It's amazing. And downloading on my iPhone as I type. And he's copying another one called "Rare Treats". It's just so good. The best version of Games Without Frontiers i have ever heard. It's new light..... Through old windows... It will give Dan and I some great new songs to listen to when we are next chasing ponies.  Nelly..  An idyllic day and weekend.  20 December 2012.  Once Upon a Time..... And ever so gently she checks my cameras are all still ok

I'm trying to become more versatile at Photoshop.  It has to be said that this package doesn't come naturally to me.  Which is a bit of a nonsense because I've been using it for awhile, but using it without using any of the fancy tricks it can do.  I used to sit and watch somebody really good at it with genuine envy.  And ok, I am even envious of those who are just better at it than me, without being really fabulous at it.  I'd watch while someone would show me little tricks, pointing out an area of an image, and saying that this part could use 'a little tickle', for example to lighten it up, or darken it.  And they knew all the tricks to make it look envious.  I'd try to follow what commands they were doing, but the problem with watching someone who's good at it is that you get a bit lost and I can't follow which tools they are using, and which buttons like Option and Command or Control to use to get the other features to happen. Right now I...

I remember watching a tennis match years ago, when a young Anna Kornikova had just won a match.  She was of course gorgeous looking, but perhaps lacked a killer instinct to go with the natural ability.  I remember her speech afterwards.  She said that she thought she had showed people today that she could play tennis, and then she said "and I WILL play tennis" .   My equivalent has been riding horses.  And for much of the past 15 odd years, that's been something I've struggled to keep up, particularly once the kids came along.  There were other factors involved, but horses, and riding, are just so important to me.   I went ahead with my jumping lesson this morning.  The knee was absolutely fine.  And the lesson was great.  I rode a different horse, Snips, and it has to be said that this was a REAL horse, and I absolutely LOVED him.  Again, the difference between Freelance's canter and this horse's canter was profo...

I have my jumping lesson tomorrow morning at 10am. I am also sporting a bruised and sore knee. There is a line of thought that suggests riding may be uncomfortable and iffy. But I feel I really need to go. I need to be back on a horse as it is good for me. There are periods where I rely on my horse "therapy" more heavily than normal. The last couple of weeks has made it feel necessary. So I shall be stubborn and go tomorrow.

It's a natural tendency when you decide that you need to fix the things that aren't working in your life that you want to fix them all up, at once.  Well, that's how my mind wants to tackle things.  Unfortunately this can make the obstacles feel insurmountable, and can lead me to want to put things off.  However, once I snap, and decide something has to be done, I want to fix it, and fix it straight away.  And having to wait for the outcome to take place or be resolved is difficult.  I'm renowned for being low on patience.  I hate waiting.   I currently have a number of important things 'on the burner', but some of them will take a little while to work through. And I'm finding this hard.  Take my bookwork for example.  I'm no accounting genius, and I'm trying to do it myself because accountants are expensive.  I can intepret what I think I need to do, but if I'm doing it incorrectly I'm making a lot of work for myself to fix it all...

Depreciation...   Assets...   Motor Vehicles....  goodness, but these make my head hurt.  The using of them is far more fun than trying to work out the accounting side of it.  And to think, that when I was fresh faced and 18 years of age and trying to work out which university course to enrol in I chose a Commerce Degree!!!!!  What was a thinking!!!!  I think I had no idea that a commerce degree involved accounting.  I didn't ever go, just as well, I'd have been bored stupid and never gotten through it.  I deferred my place and went working instead, and then eventually went back to University as a 25 year old and studied Political Science in a Bachelor of Arts...  See, my Dad did a science and a law degree (probably 2 law degrees actually..), and he probably thought commerce would be a good and sensible degree to do.  I'm sure that's true.  But NOT for this little black duck!!!!!!!  And of course the commerce de...